The Most MISUNDERSTOOD Jesus Parable REVEALED! | Pastor Reacts

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Some of you are like, no, no way, he's crazy. Just stick with me on this. How many times have we heard this taunt the other way, right?

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Well, you're the sower, right? Go sow. Let God deal with what bears fruit. I propose to you that this parable is not about a sower.

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How do I know this? Well, watch what Jesus says to the disciples as he explains the story. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his soil.

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Okay, there's one of your clues. Let's get into this.

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First, open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 13. I'll go ahead and...

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there we go. Yeah, Matthew chapter 13, especially if you're driving in a car and listening to this show, open your

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Bibles with me. It's totally fine. The cars essentially drive themselves these days. Am I right, guys? Am I right?

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I'm not. Don't do that. I'm just kidding. But for those of you that can, please open your

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Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 13. I want you to see something. I want to show you something in this parable that maybe you've never heard before.

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You know, maybe you've had an idea about this parable, but maybe a lot of it's incorrect.

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You know, it's wrongheaded. Let's find out. Take a look at the parable with me. I'm going to read the verses and I'll just stop and talk, okay?

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So, Matthew chapter 13, this is what it says in verse 1. 1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down.

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2 And the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow.

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3 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 4 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil.

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5 And immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched.

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7 And since they had no root, they withered away. 8 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

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9 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

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10 He who has ears, let him hear. I actually preached with some of my co -pastors at the church that I was at in Las Vegas.

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Um, we preached through a whole parable series. I think I taught through the

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Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. That's still on YouTube somewhere, I'm sure. So, if you want to, you know, go and find it, you're more than welcome to.

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But I'll just start talking. A couple things about the parables. First, a parable is a story where the situation and the important characters illustrate a relevant lesson, all right?

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Very often in the parables of Jesus, the characters are the one to pay attention to, you know, in order to understand the lesson.

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And for Jesus, those lessons largely entailed how God deals with people and what

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God's kingdom is like. The force of a good parable is felt through its comparison to a particular situation.

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As a matter of fact, you know, ancient Jewish parables would almost always start off with the you know, a parable to what may it be compared.

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It is like, and then they would go on and tell the story. If you pay close attention to the

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Gospels, Jesus literally does this in Matthew 11, 16. He says, to what shall

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I compare this generation? It is like, and then he goes on and gives a parable.

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So, a parable is a story that illustrates a relevant lesson.

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But then the question arises, well, you know, why tell parables to illustrate a lesson? Why not just say the lesson, you know?

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Why not just be very straightforward and get to the point? And that is very, you know, Western of us, that is very

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American, very Greek of us to do that kind of thing. Well, there is actually a reason. Scottish minister,

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T .F. Torrance, he explains it like this. The kingdom of God comes into the midst and throws a man into the crisis of decision.

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And yet by its veiled form, the word of the kingdom holds a man at arm's length away in order to give him room and time for personal decision.

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In other words, the function of a parable is to invite the listener to step inside the story, to find out where they fit into it so that they can do something about it, okay?

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They're supposed to recognize themselves somehow in the parable's particular situation.

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Now, I'm speaking generally here. These are general principles. Is this a formula to figure out every single parable?

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No. There are lots of different kinds of parables. Again, these are just sort of general principles right now to understand parables on a deeper level.

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Not only so that, you know, we can understand the parable of the sower, but also so you can go on your own after this live stream is over, and you can look at other parables, and you can get something out of it that goes deeper.

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So, people are supposed to recognize themselves in the parable's particular situation, and once they do, they are faced with a crisis of decision, as Torrance calls it, you know?

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Do they adopt the parable's lesson? Do they adopt the main idea, right? Or not?

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A lot of times in the Gospels, the answer from the crowds was, no, we will not, okay?

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This explains a conversation that Jesus had with his disciples directly after this parable.

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So, take a look at this. Verse 10. Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables,

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Jesus? You know? And he answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

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For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

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So, right here, Jesus is already explaining the parable. So, I don't know if you can see that or not, but he's already starting to do it, okay?

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But let's just keep going. Verse 13. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

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Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. It says, you will indeed hear, but never understand.

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You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull. Listen to that. Their heart has grown dull.

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This is going to become important later, okay? And with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed.

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Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart. Understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

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So, again, you know, Jesus quoting from Isaiah 6 there. I would argue, it's not that the crowds did not understand the language or the logic of the stories, or even some of its symbolism.

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Sometimes Jesus' audience absolutely understood what was going on. You know, there's this one time in Mark chapter 12 where Jesus told a parable, and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders tried to seize him because they knew exactly what the parable was about.

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It was about them. You know, actually, that's what the text says, right? They totally understood it, but they refused to hear it.

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See, in the Hebrew, the word hear, it doesn't simply refer to, you know, the process of auditory stimuli vibrating the eardrum.

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It also includes the action of obeying. To hear, for a Hebrew, and I've talked about this in previous videos, it meant to hear and to obey, and that's not what the crowds wanted to do very often, right?

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In hearing, they did not want to hear. Here's another way to think about it. The parable is not only meant to be interpreted by the listener, but the listener is also interpreted by the parable.

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They are supposed to identify themselves within the story and then align to its message, and so we get to the parable of the sower, right?

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I propose to you that this parable is not about a sower. Okay, let me let that sit for a moment, okay?

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And stay with me here. Some of you are like, no, no way, he's crazy. Just stick with me on this. In terms of everything that I've just laid out to you, specifically, you know, like what we should be taking note of as the hearers of the parable, the parable is not about the sower, okay?

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The question you need to be asking yourself is, who are we in this story? Who are we supposed to identify with?

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Maybe the question is, what are we, right? We, the audience, are faced with multiple types of things, and we are faced with that because we are forced to ask the question, which one of these things am

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I, you know? This happens in the parable of the Good Samaritan, okay?

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Very famous, probably the most famous parable, I don't know about that, but I'm thinking, Good Samaritan.

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We are confronted, so here's the story in a nutshell. We are confronted with a story about a man. He's traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

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He gets beaten by robbers and left for dead, okay? There's the setup. But are you supposed to think, well, am

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I the broken man? No, right? Why? Because the rest of the story is about three different types of men who come across the beaten man, and in those three men, we are supposed to identify ourselves, okay?

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Similarly, in the parable of the sower. The sower is the setup. But we are confronted by multiple types of what?

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Soils. This must mean that we are represented by a certain type of soil.

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As a matter of fact, I think the parable is probably more appropriately titled the parable of the four soils.

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If you believe in what God is doing here at this channel, I want you to join me. Wise Disciple is now live on Patreon accepting membership.

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So go ahead and go over to Patreon and look up Wise Disciple here.

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What I'm praying for is that Wise Disciple becomes a community where we can start making a difference in our homes, in our churches, and neighborhoods for the kingdom of God.

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We are in the beginning. We're going to start out like a mustard seed. It's going to start very small. This can get as big as you want it.

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With our own conventions, our own events, perhaps a debate community, but it all starts with you. This is exciting.

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I'm excited, and I'll see you all on Patreon. You with me so far? Then the question we all must face after hearing this parable is, what type of soil am

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I? How do I know this? Well, watch what Jesus says to the disciples as he explains the story.

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Now, we've been through this. A lot of you are good Bible readers, and I praise God for that. So we've been over this material, but I want you to try to see this very, very closely.

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Read with me verse 18. So Jesus explained. This is his explanation. Hear then the parable of the sower.

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When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it—here's an important word right there, we're going to come back to that—does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

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Okay, there's one of your clues. Here's a situation where the seed is sown where? In the soil.

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In the story, it's sown in the soil. But what is that? It's a person's heart.

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So the person is the soil. Well, I mean, a certain kind of person is the first soil, okay?

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And then you're supposed to ask the question, am I that kind of soil? Am I that kind of person? Right? Here's the next part.

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Stick with me. Verse 20. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

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And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

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Okay, this person is also a problem, right? This is a problematic person.

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This is someone who has no root where? In the soil.

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So again, look at the story. Look at the story. He sowed some seeds, fell along the path, right?

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Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. That's where the seed is going. Now, Jesus explains he has no root in the soil, but Jesus says that's actually in himself.

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So what is the soil? It is the person. This is literally what

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Jesus is saying. And so now we see the second type of person, the second type of soil.

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Okay, here's the next part. Verse 22. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

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Okay, here's another problematic person. This is the person you do not want to be, okay? This is someone who hears the word.

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By the way, what is the word? Anybody see that, right? What is the thing? It's the seed. The seed is the word.

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You see that, right? And the seed gets implanted into people like soil.

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But in this particular soil, the soil, you know, it gets choked out, right?

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Or the potential for fruit to come up, it gets choked out. Why? Because of the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches choke it out.

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That's literally what Jesus says. But finally, verse 23, here's what it says. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.

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There's the word again. This person indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another 60, and in another 30.

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This is the right kind of person. This is the person that Jesus is looking for.

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This is the one who has good soil. He actually is good soil, or she, right?

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This is the person who receives the seed of God's word and understands it.

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Now, Jesus keeps hitting this note, understands, understands, understands. Most, if not everything that Jesus says has some connection to the

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Old Testament. And when you see these words get hit over and over again, right? The visual pictures, but also this word understands.

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You're supposed to go, wait, where in the Bible do we keep hearing about understanding? Proverbs chapter two.

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Listen to Proverbs chapter two. I'm going to read the first five verses, although this is all over the place, right? Watch the word understanding in Proverbs chapter two.

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My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to, here it is, understanding.

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Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding. If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the

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Lord and find the knowledge of God. Okay, understanding, did you see it?

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It comes from inclining your heart towards it. You got to remember, guys,

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Jesus was asked a specific question. Why do you speak to them in parables,

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Jesus? Why are you confusing people, Jesus? And the answer is because Jesus is looking for a certain kind of person, a person that has a certain kind of soil, right?

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Who, you know, when they hear something that doesn't quite make sense, because let's face it, a number of things that Jesus taught was confusing to the people.

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You know, there's another moment in the scripture where somebody says, this is very difficult for us to hear, you know? But isn't that God's way very often too, right?

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You know, his kingdom is, it very often doesn't make sense to people. It very often is counterintuitive to our preconceptions about God and what we think that God should do, right?

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We know this as Christians because there is literally a saying that's been floating around the church for I don't know how long, don't put

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God in a box, right? So we know we do this as human beings, okay?

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And when we are faced with something that we don't immediately understand, what does

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Jesus want? He wants us to incline our hearts toward understanding until we actually understand.

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That's why Jesus tells this parable. Jesus is looking for a certain kind of person. He's looking for certain kinds of people who will be patient in the face of confusion, who will wait on God, they will incline their hearts towards God, because guess what?

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While you don't know the immediate answer to the question that you're asking God in the moment, right? You incline your heart to him.

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You spend time with him in the waiting. That's the kind of person Jesus is looking for.

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You see how you're not the sower? Do you see that? Do you agree with me on that? Maybe this is too fresh.

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Maybe this has to sit for a little bit. But let me propose something to you, ladies and gentlemen. How many times have we heard this taught the other way, right?

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Well, you're the sower, right? Go sow. Let God deal with what bears fruit. And you know what?

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Like, honestly, listen to me, guys. Don't hear what I'm not saying. I think there's nothing wrong with that idea.

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I think it's totally great. I think we should, right? We should be sowing the seeds of God's word everywhere, just like the

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Lord does. I just don't think that's what Jesus was teaching his disciples with this particular parable, okay?

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So, let's be very precise Bible readers, right? Because when we understand the rules of a parable as I've laid them out, right?

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Then we understand the hearers of this particular parable, we are left with a choice, ultimately.

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What kind of soil are we going to be? How can we tend to our own soil in our heart?

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That's what Jesus wants you to wrestle with, ladies and gentlemen. And guess what? The answer connects back to Proverbs 2, right?

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Incline your heart towards understanding. Make your ear attentive to wisdom.

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This takes patience, and it takes time. But if we can do that, the abundance of fruit that is produced within us, a hundredfold, some 60, some 30, it's going to be so great.