Gracious Lord, we ask for your blessing today on your the hearing of your word give us your Spirit, oh Lord, to understand the Scriptures, that we, Lord, would see the blessedness that has come upon us to be a people of the word to hear and to understand your word and guide us in the light of these parables, that we might be a people thankful and understand the mysteries of your kingdom. In jesus name we pray. Amen.
May be seated. Well, if you're a visitor this morning, we are working through the Gospel of Matthew, first book of the New Testament. We, last time, looked at the parable of the sower really better titled, the parable of the soils and today we're continuing, now looking at the parable of the weeds, and the mustard seed, and leaven. So I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 13, found on page 930 i'm sorry, 973, 973 and we'll read at verse 24 down to verse 43.
Well, let's give our attention this morning to the Lord's wonderful Word to us. Verse 24: "He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the weed and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?" He said to them, "An enemy has done this." So the servant said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" But he said, "No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
"He told them another parable: the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all 11
"All these parables Jesus said to the crowds and parables. all these things jesus said to the crowds and parables indeed he said nothing to them without a parable this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables i will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world
"Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man the field is the world and the good seed is The sons of the kingdom the weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear
May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word.
Well, we are continuing our study here Matthew, as Jesus is giving to the crowds now. We looked at this shift in the book last time. He's giving to the crowds parables. This was a surprising move, but maybe it shouldn't be so surprising, because there had been so much rejection, and the responses to Jesus had been horrendous in the previous chapter. They had said he has a demon. Remember, his own family thought he was crazy. This kind of response to the ministry is confusing to us, and isn't it something that we see this kind of response to the Son of God Himself in the Gospel ministry as He walked on this earth? Why is there so much rejection to what amounts to be the best news? He is giving to the world: "God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." This has been good news. This has been Jesus going out, healing and helping people, and being merciful and forgiving sins And raising the dead. And these are the responses he's getting. Why so much conflict? Why so much opposition? Why so much turmoil? Hasn't that been the great frustration for us?
I mean, just in the history of the Escondido URC, think of the conflict, think of the turmoil, think of the difficulty that has come, hasn't it? It's happened for every church in this age. We want everyone to hear and to know the forgiveness of sins, but the reality is there is a very serious warfare happening in the kingdom of God. there is a very serious warfare happening in His rule, among His rule in a sin-cursed world that we find ourselves. And and what we have in front of us this morning is Jesus helping us to understand this. That's what these parables are accomplishing for us.
When the disciples came and asked Him, "Why are you doing this? Why are you speaking in parables remember what He said plainly to them: "Because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it's not been given." Parables were meant to do two things: they were meant to reveal and bring greater clarity to those blessed to hear, and they were meant to conceal and bring judgment on those on those who were refusing Him. So so this is what we see here. With these parables, Jesus says something wonderful that we looked at last time, in the midst of these parables: but "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and blessed are your ears for they hear." Jesus was essentially saying, "The mysteries of the kingdom have been given to you as a gift to understand, and your desire to understand you notice the structure of this he tells the parable, the crowds go away, and it's to His own, to His disciples, that He's disclosing the mysteries of the kingdom. And that's just what He's doing for us today. The mysteries of the kingdom are being preached to you if you have ears to hear. Do you hear?" See, that's how He ended it.
Now, as we looked at in the middle of these parables, today I want you to look down in verse 34, where He says very clearly, in chapter 13: "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables i will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world That is um taken from Psalm 78, from Asaph. And the beginning of that Psalm says this: "Give ear, oh people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. This is God. I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings from the from of old, things that have um that we have heard and known that our fathers have taught us and He speaks of the foundation of the world that he would utter from the foundation these mysteries and speak. And here we have fulfillment of this. Here is the Son of God on earth, taking on a human nature, and speaking parables to fulfill that very truth of the prophets. So the very telling of this parable illustrates this truth today, making it clear who the children of God are. And we see that the crowds receive it, walk away, hear it, but then Jesus explains it again. And this is important. Notice the close connection to this to the parable of the soils that we considered last week. Now we come to the parable of the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven.
And the overarching question, I think, as we look at these with some detail here, is: What is Jesus clarifying for us? What is He speaking? What mystery of the kingdom are we intended to understand? And it's simply this: These parables, in the way that Jesus gives them couching in two other parables in between this parable of the weeds help us to understand the challenges and the difficulties we face in the kingdom as the righteous, or His people, and the wicked grow together. The weed and the tares are growing together, and that causes all kinds of challenges for us. And if you don't understand this, you can see the confusion that you'll end up with.
So so let's look at that, with this in mind. What he's clarifying for us: to understand the nature of the kingdom of God, the struggle in the kingdom of God, to understand what's happening in the kingdom of God, so that we would not think this is normal in His kingdom, that He is going to remedy this soon.
And He put another parable before them. Notice He's explaining kingdom life. "It's like a man notice there in 24. "It's like a man." He says: "We can read that the kingdom of heaven may be considered to a man who sowed good seed in his field."
This this good man this this good man this really good man He um he built a beautiful field. he had a wonderful field it was like a garden. You can't help but to think back to Genesis here. All the theology of it's right here. Everything that was made was beautiful. um God took delight in this garden.
But the servant said to the man, "We're we're seeing something terrible that's happened in your in your field in your garden. Next to all this good plant that you planted, next to all this good weed there are weeds popping up everywhere."
Now, you know, there is nothing more offensive in a beautiful garden than weeds. They're ugly. They destroy the beauty of what is there. They affect the good plants. I mean, this is just why we all have children to go have them pull them up. They love it. "I'm not doing it." Is there anything worse than pulling weeds?
The term for tear here is interesting. It's an obnoxious weed. It's called "allolium to melintum a fungus that grows on this kind of weed that if any man or animal eats, they would die because it's poisonous. That's what Jesus is referring to with terrors
Well, the servants say to the master, "How could this be? You sowed only good seed. You sowed good seed in your field." And that the master of the good man says "Listen, something sinister has happened. Something sinister has happened. An enemy has come in and done this."
Remember, our Heidelberg speaks: that when Adam and Eve were in the garden and they fell, what what do we say? Even though it's we understand sin and the and the the the fault of sin one thing the Heidelberg makes very clear is just what this is saying to us: they fell at the instigation of the devil.
The theology is embedded right here. Then, remember in Genesis, uh in the curse, He spoke of two seeds. And these two seeds would develop in the earth. They would have the remember in the in the curse of genesis 3 and the first announcement of the Gospel, He said very clearly. He made a distinction between two kinds of peoples: there's the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman, the seed of Christ. That's why it is a lie when our political leaders say, "We're all children of God." That is just not true. There are two seeds in the earth. There are the children of God, and, as the parable says here, the children of the devil.
So the angels come which is anticipating the explanation you want us to pull them up?" And be really easy for the angels to weed. We come to the let's jump to the sort of heart of the parable here listen to his response no No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Now, I want to jump down to the explanation. It's remarkable. The disciples come to Him. Remember, they're blessed to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. The crowds hear this. They have no interest in this. They want to understand this. Remember, this is evidence of the blessing. The soils that he had just described that aren't interested in God and His kingdom, notice there, these are the soils that have rejected this Word. But the good soil, the good soil, hears and understands the Word and grasps the Word and bears fruit in his life. That's what He just said. So it's the good soil that Jesus is now speaking to, so that they would bear fruit.
We have a strikingly clear presentation of meaning here of this parable. It's just one blow after blow after blow for clarity, isn't it? He just says:
"The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. It's me, says Jesus. I'm the sower. "The field is the world. The good seed being sown are the sons of the kingdom. The bad being sown are the sons of the wicked one."
Now, when we begin to understand the importance of this: imagine not understanding that truth. God is telling us that all throughout history, there has been a development in His kingdom, in His creation, in His general rule over all the world. So we've kind of moved from the hearing of the Word out now, in the second parable to the world, looking at the world and what's happening and how we live in this world, in the great sphere of His kingdom rule. The devil has taken his seed and desperately tried to intermingle the wicked sons of His kingdom, of His influence, with the sons of God so closely that at times it's indistinguishable. You understand the challenge of that?
He says that when he says, "If you uproot the weeds, you might get a wheat." He's telling us this. I think the answer is simple: to help us and encourage us. Think of all the discouragements we see living in this world. How frustrated is it to see wickedness everywhere? Think of what it does to you. And we see it in our own hearts. And we might never stop and think of the real thing that's happening. The real thing that's happening. as if all this is okay. as if all this is normal. As if this is the end for which God made things, that it would just be like this, that this is acceptable. Think of all the problems we see and all the levels of, and just the, you know, you can't even go on social media now and you see live murders and deaths. We're not made to see that, but that's what we see.
Jesus wanted perspective on this for us. He wants to help us. He wants to encourage us. The devil has attempted to rip up everything good. He is like a muddy dog running through your beautiful white living room. Has that ever happened? Tell me about it if it has.
The great question of the parable is this: Why does the Lord keep this going? Why does this seem like it never ends? It's a striking thing. Verse 26: "When he says, but when the grain sprouted, it produced a crop, but then the terrors also appeared In other words, what Jesus is saying is: this obnoxious weed in His kingdom you can't tell the difference in the early stages from the wheat until they mature. They're still in the early stage. They're still a blade. You just can't tell the difference. But at some point, on the wheat, an ear appears, and on the tares, this blade appears. But at some point, the kind of fruit appropriate to what kind of sun it is shows itself. And that's why Jesus said, "You'll know them by the fruit." If God's Word is doing the work to bear fruit in people's lives, that's just what we'll see. And I see it all the time among you.
But notice what Jesus said: this phenomenon doesn't show up until one buds.
Now, you think of yourself. I've used this example, but I think it's helpful because it's my own experience of my own father. People know I was raised in the Reformed church. We went to the Reformed church all of our life. I was baptized in it. And, you know, he was a very well-known basketball coach in the community, at the local public school, a large public school. And every week, every week, my dad was so faithful to have us in church. But he would tell you he would tell you it was all merely routine. There was absolutely no budding in his life until 50. He wasn't regenerate. But he was in church every week.
Now, it's a pretty remarkable thing to think of the Lord's patience, isn't it? We just did it. We stopped by the local store every Sunday and got our Lifesavers. It wasn't mints, it was lifesavers. We did the routine, we did the routine, and yet there was a little prayer in the home. That's not an indictment; that's that the Lord worked in him to bud that life at a certain point when he had not been that way for 50 years. I can tell you that are there any like that here? The Word is absent really from life, but you just are here for the routine, the tradition, the culture.
Well, I love that. It's me too.
I think the next two parables put in the middle of this answer this question: "As to why the Lord keeps all this project going."
And He put forth another parable to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like leavened that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened."
His point is to say: This is the entire way the kingdom of God grows. The seed is so tiny at first. But the end result is: it's fully grown, like a tree. So much so that it gives shade to all the birds. Both parables make the same point. But what Jesus is emphasizing in many ways here, especially in the parable of this seed, the mustard seed, is how slow the kingdom comes.
One day a farmer went out, looks out in his field: "Oh, finally, finally, there's a blade." And then a head. And then grain. I think of the monotony of that. It is not fun to watch grass grow. I don't control germination that's definitely true. Day after day, day after day, day after day, after day, Jesus says, emphasizes: goes to bed, and he rises. This just keeps going on and on and on. Never seems to stop. How many problems with weather? How many problems with crops? And then there's the weeds. And you see, this is what the whole kingdom of God is like. Nothing seems to be happening.
My struggle with Christianity is that at times, because I want to see better results, I want to see things now. I mean, we're addicted to that, you know? Supersize it, right? Don't eat that stuff it's not good for you. Is anything happening? Is there any life in this? And this is the most encouraging parable for us: at some point, mustard the mustard seed in the kingdom shoots are everywhere. And that kingdom, when it comes in fullness on His day, you're going to see it. That's why we pray, "Thy kingdom come, come in fullness." It's the most important parable to understand how the kingdom works, how the kingdom operates.
Every week as a pastor, let's just say I scatter seed. This is the language. I scatter seed. I year after year how many sermons have I preached now, being here since 2012? Probably well over a thousand. I've just scattered. I've I've thrown the seed out I've I've I've continued to to give the word And I give my best to be faithful to that and and you wonder at times, when you have opposition and people leave for dumb reasons: "Is anything happening?" And all of a sudden, something does. It's the same for you and all of your service and work in the kingdom. It may seem insignificant. It may seem that you've done nothing of real value.
Think of the difficulty just raising children. Think of the monotony for our moms. Think of the challenge of that. Every day we rise, we do the same thing. We do the same thing. And they just keep doing the same dumb things. "Is anything going to change?" It affects child rearing, the way we look at it, right? We can feel like we're making no progress in our labors to raise and train our children. All the efforts and prayers. And then one day, the blade comes.
It challenges priorities, of course. What are we sowing in our homes? What would you never miss for your children? We reap what we sow. Are we communicating to these little plants? Are we feeding these little plants with the Word? Not making sure that we have communicated to them everything else is more important.
But here's my point: it's God's work ultimately. When I have a young person walk up to me at a young age and say, "Pastor, I want to profess my faith," I say, "All worth it." That just happened, right? A blade just popped. It's budding. We should never tell them to wait to profess faith if the bud is showing profess faith. You're a child of God. Encourage it. Beautiful. It gives a perspective with that person that you have prayed for, tried to talk to for years, nothing happens, nothing, but a hardened heart. And you just keep working and you pray for that person. Maybe it's a son or a daughter, or maybe it's a mother or a father. And then one day, boom, the blade comes. It could be on deathbed the bud, it buds same with the parable of The leaven the growth is hidden. Did you notice that? "It's like a woman. He... She had hid the measures until it was leavened." This is actually a positive presentation of leaven here. She hid it until it was fully leavened. Nobody saw it in that time, and it was hidden.
See how important this all is? So the question of the angels is important: "Do you want us to go and uproot the tares?" "No, no, no. You might get a weed." That is such an amazing, merciful, Gospel-like statement of God's love for a sheep. I'm not letting my we be pulled up not one of them.
Now, while you're doing that, you might that might happen. And the message there is simple: we have to be patient, don't we? I you know at times i think pastors can be impatient with the flock, and I think at times I've probably done that. You know, I want to see more, right? And then I have to stop and say, "Maybe I should look for more in myself, right? It's God's work. We have to be patient in all the antagonism, the discouragements with people, the hardships that make us want to give up, get weary, and easy to become hyperjudgmental on those people, isn't it?
Amidst the pain that this reality brings, that there is the reality that the devil has weeds planted among us and that's why the Lord uh has hasn't put a stop to this yet for the sake of His wheat. That's what Peter said. "You know why this project hasn't ended yet? It's because the Lord is slow." And not slow in giving us the promise He's not withholding what he promised but he's long-suffering toward us. If you have a son or child that's run: think about that. The ends not come. He's long suffering "Not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance." He's being long suffering toward his weed. All of them will be gathered into the kingdom. There are still a lot of blades out there that are indistinguishable from the tares that have not yet budded.
And you see, Jesus is calling us to patience in this, into investment in this, because the fields are indeed white for the what harvests Some have not come in yet. Once the last of the elect come in, it's over. That's what He says.
So, as we consider the patience here, this is the reason. You have to remember: the kingdom life is hard in the world. Why we experience so much turmoil in the world. This is why Paul said, "I do all things for the sake of the elect," even though I'm constantly attacked by all these weeds.
This one pastor said: "When Christ is preached, where Christ is preached, whenever christ is preached you can be sure the antichrist will raise his voice. Whenever the kingdom of Heaven is showing itself with ears popping up on the wheat you can be sure that Satan will do all he can to match that and trouble that and disturb that." This is why Jesus was saying, "When you cause one of the little ones to stumble, it'd be better if a millstone were put around your neck and you're dropped in the middle of the sea." He's caring for His wheat.
So, as we're in the world, we remember these things.
There's one last thing the parable assures us of this morning that would encourage us, I think, to go and press on. Notice how he ends the parable. In verse 39: "The harvest, the harvest is the end, the harvest is the end of the age."
Um, this is important: that the tares are going to be gathered. Did you notice this? "Let both grow together until the harvest" of (verse 30), "and at the harvest time i will tell the reap of the reapers gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but the wheat gather into my barn
And you'll notice, just as the weeds (verse 40) are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. "So there's no rapture, by the way. There's no pre-tribulational rapture. They both grow together until the end." I just had to say that. It's actually the weeds that are pulled up first.
"The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all that causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Do you hear? The Son of Man is going to come, and He's going to remedy all this soon. He's going to separate this. He's going to make clear. And the tares, who practices lawlessness, will go into a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus says His righteous, His we that's you you're going to shine like the sun in His kingdom of your Father. Did you notice that? "Of your Father." You know Him. You will shine. There will be no more sorrows. There will be no more tears. There'll be no more crying. There'll be no more misery. There'll be no more death. All this is done. All these former things have passed away.
Jesus explained it to them because their eyes and their ears were blessed to have this kind of understanding. So it's given to you too, today. Let it encourage you that, no matter the struggle, to be patient. He is keeping us. He will keep us. He won't lose any of is wheat his kingdom is growing. And the great promise that He made must ring out that He will give later in Matthew: "What did he say? The gates of Hell will not prevail. It will be a kingdom, glorious, full, full of people, full of a kingdom that was, is powerful, a kingdom that gives praise to God for His great work of bringing in through the harvest a multitude no man can number."
Let's praise Him.
Gracious Lord, thank you for this powerful parable, and thank you for encouraging us to be patient in the work, in the ministry, and what's most important. Bless us, oh Lord, and strengthen us. And may all of, Lord, Your wheat bear much fruit on good soil in their life good soil of the heart, through the ministry of the Word, and making that Word central in all that we do.
It's sad that more people will find delight in a football game today than in hearing the Word of God, which is powerful to save them, in the greatest event of history: a Cross where Jesus died and rose again to triumph over sin and death.
Thank you for Your mercies. And if there be any, O Lord, distressed about where they stand, Your message is clear: "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give rest for your soul."
Thank you for such words to us. May we all bear Godly fruit. In jesus name we pray. Amen.