This is the manuscript of the second sermon in the series, “The Master Speaks to the Present through the Parables". It is a series based on Jesus’ parables that describe the nature of the kingdom of God. The parable that we are going to look at today is the first of seven parables delivered “back-to-back,”. All the parables deal with the same subject, the kingdom of heaven, but each one approaches it from a different angle.
Last week I started the series “The Master Speaks to the Present through the Parables,” The series is based on the seven back-to-back parables that Jesus gave recorded in Matthew, that describe the nature of the kingdom of God. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. The first parable, the one we talked about last week, is known as the parable of the sower and the title of that sermon was “How well do You Hear".
Today we are going to explore the lesson in the parable of the wheat and the tares. Wheat and tares look nearly identical. Even the wheatiest of wheat may fall for the deception of a tare or weed.
As we learn from the parable, we wait until the harvest time for God to serve as the ultimate judge of the wheat and the tares. So we wait for the Lord of the harvest to make the ultimate decision as to the imposters and the believers.
Listen to an audio recording of the sermon by clicking on the YouTube link at the end of the manuscript.
You can also watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/orIhzUk497A
Scripture Reading:
Matthew 13:24-30 NKJV Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Matthew 13:36-43 NKJV Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Introduction
Last week I started the series “The Master Speaks to the Present through the Parables,” The series is based on the seven back-to-back parables that Jesus gave recorded in Matthew, that describe the nature of the kingdom of God. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. The first parable, the one we talked about last week, is known as the parable of the sower and the title of that sermon was “How well do You Hear".
The text was;
Matthew 13:9 NIV Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
That parable underscored one of the most important parts of understanding God’s will—hearing the Savior’s message correctly. In His parable Jesus described four types of soil, all,of which symbolized the four ways that people receive God’s Word
The don’t bother me; I’ busy crowd
The “hip-hip-hurrah for Jesus” crowd.
The “I love Jesus but love the world more” crowd.
The “I’m willing to grow” crowd.
Remember a parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Today we are going to explore the lesson in the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jean read the parable in Matthew 13:24-30.
Here’s the text we are going to emphasize in today’s sermon from that passage.
Matthew 13:30 NKJV Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
As after the first parable, the parable of the sower, the disciples needed Jesus to explain the meaning. Here’s Jesus's explanation.
Matthew 13:36-43 NKJV Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Just as with the explanation of the first parable Jesus ended by saying "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
The story that Jesus tells is simple and straight-forward. A man has taken considerable time and effort to sow his field with good seed with the full expectations of producing a fine and bountiful harvest of wheat. In the night, however, his enemy comes and deliberately over-sows his wheat field with what most believe was bearded darnel seeds which are the tares of the story.
Bearded darnel is a species of ryegrass that looks like wheat when it first comes up. As the crop begins to grow it becomes evident that tares have been sown in with the wheat. The natural tendency of the servants is to go and pull up the weeds, but the owner decides to leave the weeds in order that the crop itself would not be harmed.
The sower, the farmer has two options. Let the weeds continue with the wheat or pull up the weeds which are now intermingled with the wheat. He understands that with a lack of wisdom or good judgment the good crop will be lost, so the weeds, or tares must be left alone to coexist with the wheat. What this means though is that the care of the good crop by the fieldworkers will profit the weeds too. Not only the attention, but the resources. Sunlight, good soil, and water are all things that make for a good crop, and the weed enjoys these things too. Since the wheat and weed are intertwined, their immediate circumstances are as well. If the wheat receives “blessing” such as consistent rain or sunshine, then the weed receives the same blessing. This reminds us of Jesus’s earlier statement in Matthew.
Matthew 5:43-45 NKJV “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
The farmer's care is equal for the wheat and tares as both continue to receive blessing and grow.
When the harvest comes, the reapers will be able to distinguish and separate the wheat from the weeds. The weeds will be burned, and the wheat stored.
This parable is filled with spiritual significance and truth. But, in spite of what I believe is a clear explanation of the parable it is very often misinterpreted. Many commentaries and sermons have attempted to use this story as an illustration of the condition of the church, noting that there are both true believers (the wheat) and false or fake believers (the weeds) in both the church at large and individual local churches. While this is true, the field that Jesus is talking about, is not the church; it is the world.
Matthew 13:38 NKJV The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
Even if He hadn’t specifically told us the world is the setting of the story, it would still be obvious. The landowner tells the servants not to pull up the weeds in the field, until the harvest, and Jesus in His explanation says that the harvest is the end of the age.
Matthew 13:39 NKJV The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
If the field were the church, this command would directly contradict Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18, which tells us how to deal with unrepentant sinners, or counterfeits, in the church.
Matthew 18:15-17 NKJV “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
They are to be put out of fellowship and treated as unbelievers. Jesus never instructed us to let unrepentant sinners remain in our midst until the end of the age.
In the agricultural society of Christ’s time, many farmers depended on the quality of their crops. An enemy sowing weeds would have sabotaged a business. The tares in the parable matured until they looked like wheat and since unlike today there were no weed killers, a wise farmer, instead of tearing out the wheat with the tares, would wait until the harvest. After harvesting the whole field, the tares could be separated and burned. The wheat would be saved in the barn.
In the explanation of the parable, Christ declares that He Himself is the sower.
Matthew 13:37 NKJV He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
He spreads His redeemed seed, true believers, in the field of the world. Through His grace, these Christians bear the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-24 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The presence of believers is the reason the “kingdom of heaven” is like the field of the world.
Take a look at
Matthew 4:17 NKJV From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”, He meant the spiritual kingdom which exists on earth, is, for the time being, side by side with the kingdom of the devil.
I John 5:19 NKJV We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
But Jesus said His followers while in the world are not of the world.
John 17:15-16 NKJV I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
When the kingdom of heaven comes to its fruition, there will be no “weeds” among the “wheat.” But for now, both good and bad seeds mature in the world.
The enemy in the parable is Satan.
Matthew 13:39 NKJV The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
In opposition to Jesus Christ, the devil tries to destroy Christ’s work by placing false believers and teachers in the world who lead many astray.
We have seen scandal after scandal of big-time televangelists, pastors of megachurches, pastors of small churches, or Christian organizations. So we know the world is filled with professing “Christians” whose ungodly actions bring reproach on the name of Christ. But if we follow the moral of the parable, we are not to pursue these people in an effort to destroy them.
For one thing, we don’t know if immature and innocent believers might be injured by our efforts of destruction. We only must look at the history of the Spanish Inquisition, and the Crusades, to see the results of men taking upon themselves the responsibility of separating true believers from false. That is something reserved for God alone. Instead of requiring these false believers to be rooted out of the world, and hurting immature believers in the process, Christ allows them to remain until His return. At that time, angels will separate the true from false believers.
Matthew 13:39-40 NKJV The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.
We are not to take it upon ourselves to uproot unbelievers because the difference between true and false believers isn’t always obvious. Tares, especially in the early stages of growth, resemble wheat. Likewise, a false believer may resemble a true believer.
Jesus warned that many profess faith but do not know Him.
Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
We all need to examine ourselves and our relationship with Christ.
II Corinthians 13:5 NKJV Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
One way to examine yourself is to check for evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”.
John 15:1-2 NKJV “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Jesus confirmed that true prophets of God are recognized by their fruit.
Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
We want to make sure that we are wheat, real believers, and not tares, counterfeit Christians. I preached a sermon 'Counterfeit Christian' a couple of years ago. One on the Scriptures in that sermon was.
1 John 2:15-17 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
This Scripture describes some of the characteristics of Counterfeit Christian; "the lust of the flesh", "the lust of the eyes", and the "pride of life".
First is the desire to have things— “The lust of the flesh.” “Flesh” here refers here to the depraved human nature that governs a person’s will, reason, and emotions. As desperately as unbelievers may try to please God, they cannot.
"The lust of the eyes.” may express itself in an extreme desire for material things like, fine clothes, a new car, a larger home, or power to control everything that you see.
1 Timothy 6:10 NIV For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Then there’s “the pride of life.” The word translated “pride” is the same word used in James 4:16 and translated as “boasting.”
James 4:16 NKJV But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Boasting is the arrogant, proud dependence on your own achievements, intelligence, resources, or wealth.
Conclusion
This doesn’t mean we should assume that if someone in the church messes up that they’re clearly an imposter. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:21-26 NKJV But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
But we do have pseudo-Christians in our midst. And we need to weigh anything any Christian tells us against what Scripture says, or they may serve as a stumbling block.
We cannot truly weigh a man’s heart. Only God knows everyone’s true intentions. In the same way, we may try to oust anyone who we deem to be a weed in church. But we may make a misjudgment and can cause the wheat in the field a great deal of hurt and spiritual detriment. Wheat and tares look nearly identical. Even the wheatiest of wheat may fall for the deception of a tare or weed.
So as we learn from the parable, we wait until the harvest time for God to serve as the ultimate judge of the wheat and the tares. So, we wait for the Lord of the harvest to make the ultimate decision as to the imposters and the believers.
We also need to be ready for the divisive effects of the tares. Satan plants weeds in churches to serve as obstacles. He trys to cut short any kingdom work of God by distracting the wheat from being as fruitful as possible.
As always, we should exercise extreme discernment. We should always turn to Scripture and to prayer, especially when something a member of the church says or does appears to run contrary to Scripture.
We also need to stop idolizing other Christians. Although God does give a bigger platform to some such as Christian comedians, athletes, and actors, we should know that weeds exist in the popular Christians circles just as much as they do in ordinary ones.
We must never pretend there is no difference between wheat and tares, but we must be careful about taking it upon ourselves to distinguish between them. The sorting out belongs to the Lord!
Let’s Pray,
Merciful God, you plant each of us like seeds in the same field and together we are nourished and nurtured by the sun. We sway in the wind and are refreshed by the rain. We are blessed by the knowledge that you want us to grow towards what you call us to be.
When we deprive others of that same opportunity, forgive us.
When we want to uproot those whom we believe do not belong in our part of the field, forgive us. When we label others as good or bad rather than accept them for who they are, forgive us. When we are reluctant to acknowledge that we ourselves are a mixture of weed and wheat, forgive us. When we are afraid to investigate the fields of our own lives to see what is growing there, forgive us.
Father, you know us inside and out, through and through. You search us out and lay your hand upon us. You know what we are going to say even before we speak. So, we pray that you will help us to reach out to the uprooted and rejected, the lonely and the outcast, and to develop and grow the good in ourselves, in others, and in the world. This we pray in Jesus’s name.
Amen.
Sermon Audio
