Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 • The Parables of the King
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
When our choir and musicians lead us in praise that is so magnificent, you say it's only appropriate for a king, a king of an eternal kingdom, and it's so easy for us to join in that praise and identify how wonderful it is. But it may have been difficult at another point in time. In Matthew 13, Jesus is speaking to disciples who may be struggling to understand, "What kind of a kingdom is this? This Jesus has come. The long prophesied Messiah of the line of David, the defitic king is here. The angels announced him. He has said his kingdom has come. But he's just an obscure rabbi with a bunch of ragtag disciples, fishermen, carpenters. What kind of a kingdom is this?" And to answer the question, in Matthew 13, Jesus begins to tell a series of parables that pull back the veil to say, "What kind of a kingdom is this?" We can't look at all of them, but a key one is in verse 24. Matthew 13 and verse 24, Jesus 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 seeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 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 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." What does it mean, this parable of the kingdom? Maybe we get a glimpse in some recent headlines. The first not unfamiliar to you, our national newspapers and news reports declare, Iran's top general says, "Wiping Israel off the map is achievable." Iran, the nation with which we currently have no nuclear treaty, that is raising havoc in the Middle East among many nations, that is wanting to eclipse all American influence. That nation has the commander of its Revolutionary Guard recently say of Israel, "This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer a dream, but it is an achievable goal." And as the rockets are tested by Iran and show that they have adequate range, you know it is an achievable goal. But that's not the last of the headlines. One more recently comes in the form of a question.
What nation has the most rapidly growing church in the world? What nation has the most rapidly growing church in the world? What nation do you imagine it is? It is Iran.
Recently reported by the Frontier Alliance International, the underground church of Iran
is the most rapidly growing church in the world. If God had answered our prayers, our wisdom, our schedule, He would have just wiped it off the map in our wisdom. But what was God doing by preserving the nation of Iran? But preserving a great harvest of souls.
What is the nation that is the greatest long-term threat to the United States in economic as well as military competition? What is our nation's greatest long-term threat in competition? It's not Iran, it is China. What nation in the world has more Christian believers than any other nation in the world? What nation has numerically the most Christians of any nation in the world? What nation is that? That is China. And we, if we were following our wisdom, would say, "God, you just need to fix this. You just need to take care of us. You just need to get this trouble away from us. Just fix it." I mean, we don't just ask the question like when we put to a nation of Iran saying, "Why doesn't the U.S. fix this? Why doesn't Israel fix this? Why just for the sake of worse stability don't Iran's allies, China, Russia, fix this?" Which begs the question that Christians ask, "Why doesn't God fix this? He can do it. He's the king overall. It's achievable. Why doesn't He just fix it?"
And we're not just talking about Iran. We're talking about our hurts and our fears and difficult bosses and economic conditions and the diseases of our children. Why doesn't God, if He's God, if Jesus is the king, if His kingdom rules overall, why doesn't He just fix it on my schedule? And Jesus speaking past all the fears and the tears that make us want Him to fix things immediately says, "Because I am preparing a harvest of souls."
And one of the things that we are being taught in this parable is the kingdom of God is ripening.
It's like the harvest that we see about us all right now. Everything is not ready all at once, but there is a harvest that God is ripening and it takes time for that to be accomplished and it may not be on our schedule. I mean, there are parables that we like to tell, and there are parables that we have to hear. The parable that we probably like the most and tell the most is the parable of the prodigal son because it's Jesus describing the nature of a heavenly Father. And while the prodigal son was still a long way off,
his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him and ran to him and threw his arms around him and kissed him. And the son said, "Father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said, "Put the robe on his shoulders, the ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, kill the fattened calf and lest have a feast. This son of mine was lost and now he's found he was dead and now he's alive again." And they begin to celebrate.
And we love the parable that describes the nature of the heavenly Father. But in this parable, Jesus is not describing the nature of the heavenly Father. He is defending the nature of the heavenly Father. Because our hearts look at our world and our lives and we say, "God, don't you know about Iran? Don't you see what's happening in Syria? Don't you know about my cruel boss or my aching back or my abusive spouse or my rebellious child? Why don't you just fix this now?" And Jesus, by explaining His kingdom as a field that is ripening, says we have to live for the time in this tension between the already and the not yet in the fields all around us in this part of the country. We look at the fields that are ready for harvest. But the experienced eye looks and says it looks ready, but it's not all quite ready yet. I mean, some is ready, some is ripe, some is still ripening. Because some is ready but others not yet, things need to mature until the full harvest. We sing it, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn shall appear."
There's a nubbin, then there's a tassel, then there's the harvest. Things have to mature. But when you're dealing with earth and realities of what that means, it means God is saying, "What I've done in this world, in my harvest fields, I have planted my seed of the gospel truth that will take sin away as people trust in Christ as they believe that there's one who is providing more for them than they could provide for themselves, who will forgive sin, who will cover over shame, will provide eternal hope that He's planted seeds of the gospel in men and women and boys and girls in this nation and nations across the world. And it's growing wonderfully. The harvest is springing up, but not without challenge. Because there are weeds among the wheat that are growing at the same time. An evil one, evil in this world has planted seeds of unbelief. It's sin, it's evil, it's hatred, it's prejudice,
it's cruelty, it's disease, it's disaster that make people say, "If this is the kingdom of God, I don't want anything to do with this." And even believers at times struggle. And so we look at the words of the Master's servants in verse 28 where they are saying to the Master, "Do you want us to pull up the weeds that are ruining everything?" And we know that what they're thinking is what we're thinking. And why'd you let the weeds get there? And
you should pull up the weeds, God. You're in charge, pull up the weeds. And the answer of the Master in verse 29 is, "No, don't pull the weeds up yet. Let's in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat. Let them both grow together until the harvest." God lets things ripen because He knows in this broken and this fallen world the roots of the wheat and the roots of the weeds are intertwined. And to pull up the weeds too soon is actually to destroy the harvest that God intends to grow, that He intends to mature. And so there are the Orans and there are the Chinas and there's the Indians and there's the Indonesians. And we say, "Why not just get rid of them?" And God is saying, "Because there's wheat there. Because my harvest is growing as I intend in my time and my place. And it's already there, but it's not yet mature." And what is happening on the cosmic level with nations
is also happening at the personal level in our lives that we're supposed to understand in this parable of the wheat and the weeds. After all, our hearts cry out, "God, if You can take care of it. My grandmother is struggling so much. Just take her home. You can do that. It's achievable. Just take her home. It's better. It's beyond the suffering. Just take her home." And that can be a truly good and right prayer of faith. But God may know if her roots are intertwined with the roots of a grandchild who is needing to see a saint die well and in faith and in suffering trusting a greater Savior. And if it's not the grandchild, it may be a relative. It may be the way in which the family is ministering to her in a way that medical personnel are witnessing and seeing because their roots by God's design are being intertwined with the roots of belief. And they don't even know how they're being put in the harvest as God is maturing the wheat that is even those who are currently weeds. It's not just older people. We have younger people. I would count myself among them at one point who would say, "God, why do I have to struggle with these people at school who pick on me, who give me such a hard time? I have done nothing to them." And
I hear that sermon about being blessed when others revile you and persecute you. But God, I'm really hurting right now. And it's hard for me even at this time to look back to my adolescence. And as the Lord has brought some of those of my persecutors to faith in their adult years to still say, "God, why did you allow that?" And to as a matter of faith believe that their roots were intertwined with mine and other believers. And we look at the inequities of racism and oppression and ethnic cleansing and refugees. And we say, "God, just fix this."
He says, "You know, I actually need some churches in this world who will unite with other believers across ethnicities and economic boundaries and civic fences and worship Christ together so that the world sees that's not who I am. Those people who are worshiping together, who are praising God for the way that He has worked in lives beyond all their differences, they're the weak that I'm growing up to mature so many more. And the weeds can't be pulled up yet because they need the witness of the wheat. I think it was just coming down to such a personal level when some years ago we as a church were praying for my former student, Kenneth Bae, who was the longest-held American in North Korea because he wanted people to pray in North Korea. And so he was arrested and held in a deprivation camp to change his mind. And he tells in his book about that experience, about at one time there was a guard who's watching over him in this terrible deprivation where his health is deteriorating, he is doing so badly. And the guard says to him, "If your God loves you so much, why are you in this camp?" And Kenneth Bae said, "What if my God put me here so that you would know my God,
and He loves you that much?" As the roots of the wheat and the weeds are intertwined for the purposes of God who is establishing a harvest, is that all proper interpretation? Is that really what the parable means? We don't really have to guess.
Jesus Himself provides the interpretation, making it clear that our troubles, our difficulties are doing something. They're creating need in us. This world doesn't have all my answers. This satisfaction of whether it's my lust or my job or the riches that are being prayed. If that's not really satisfying, if I'm seeing all the awful things that there's this deep sense of need, not only that I'm feeling, but that the people around me are feeling, and until the harvest not only is need growing, but opportunity is remaining. And as need and opportunity work together, God is ripening the harvest. Jesus explains, verse 36, "He left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came 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 seeds 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 the angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will 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.
But then the righteous will shine like the Son in the kingdom of their fathers.
He who has ears, let him hear. There is need and there is opportunity. I'm telling you that God is saying there is provision, and it is eternal, and he's convincing us by the difficulties of this world that this world doesn't have all the answers. And there's opportunity for something better, longer. Eternal Jesus is better than this. And he's teaching us. What do you take away from the parable of the weed, wheat and the weeds? One just easy takeaway is the weeds will not last forever. They are here. That's real. But the weeds will not last forever. Evil may have its day. God will have the final say. He will reap his harvest. Until then, the weeds may threaten to choke, but they will not overcome. The farmer has his harvest, and he will, he will ultimately bring in the sheaves that are the great expression of his own heart. How will that happen? Well, we don't have to guess it yet.
John the Apostle in the book of Revelation talks about the harvest. "I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. As their God, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. There will be no night there,
or pain, or fears, or crying again." And that's the harvest. It's not the full story. We rejoice in what it says, that there is that future for those who have counted on the king. And we need that at times. I think of a friend, a pastor whose job for a lot of years has been like mine, on the road a lot. That means when his children were little, his wife often had the responsibility of taking care of the little ones. And he talks about being on a trip one time, and his wife taking two daughters and a son to a restaurant. The son has Tourette's syndrome, the syndrome that causes a child to have involuntary twitches, and noises, and yells. And as they were waiting for their food, the mom and the kids, Jason, the son, had an episode. His body out of control, his noises out of control. Mom gathered up the kids, took him to the car before the meal. And as they were going out of the restaurant, one of the girls asked her, "Mom, Mommy, will Jason always be this way?" And when my friend Ben got home from his trip, and his wife told him that story, he said, "What did you say?" When she said, "Well, Jason, I'll always be this way. What did you say?" And she said, "I didn't have anything to say." And then I hope with sensitivity and faith, he said to her, "Oh, yes, we have something to say. Jason will not always be this way." No more pain.
No more tears. No fears. No night there. Because we live in the light of the Lamb.
And he says what that means. He who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new. The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his God, and he will be my son."
It's not true of everybody, for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the adulterers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sultry, which is the second death. The weeds don't last forever. But neither does the Alzheimer's, nor the hatred, nor the oppression, nor the wheelchairs, nor the leukemia, or the family tensions, the struggles that we have with one another or with ourselves. The weeds don't last forever. That is the promise. There is a harvest when the world changes, and all things are made new for those who've said, "I need something more than this world. And I'm being given an opportunity to the one who, to turn to the one who makes all things new, including the sin and the wickedness of my own heart. I have the opportunity to turn to him and to know by his precious blood it can be washed away." And not just for the moment, but for eternity. And what that means is not just that the the weeds do not last forever, but that ultimately the best is yet to come. This is not the final chapter. This is not the end of the story, as wonderful as the music was. The best is yet to come. You know, preachers love to tell the story. It's an old story
about the woman who, before her funeral, asks to be buried with a fork in her hand. You know the story. Why do you want to be buried with a fork in your hand? Well, because at all our family meals,
when we've had the great meal, we say, "Hold on to your fork, because the best is yet to come."
And she wanted that witness. But it's a little bit off in some ways, because it's just putting the blessing down the road. It's just the pie in the sky by and by. But they already, as well as the not yet, is part of the promise of the harvest. That already we are enjoying the portions of the field that are already ripe. That God is doing something in and through us by assuring us of what is to come. And if I believe that, if I understand that God is saying, "I want you to know there is an already reality that because of my assurances of what I shall accomplish, you can rejoice already in what will come."
This time of year, a few of us in the room, and Kathy and I, remember a very different harvest time.
When a young woman in our community was doing what a lot of farm kids do, what I did growing up, riding on the fender of the tractor as your dad is involved in the harvest. And she was riding on the fender of the tractor with her dad, and
the crop was high. So we didn't see the ditch.
And when he hit the ditch, he knocked her from the fender, and she was killed.
After the funeral, as in so many rural parts of the country, we had the carrion dinner to the family's home. And we were eating adults in one part of the room, and little kids in another part of the room. And the kids were watching TV, and the adults in their conversation. At some point, it was the era of the "Just Say No to Drugs" ad campaign. And an ad came on the TV.
And it showed a young woman kind of being drawn into drug life through kind of the seedy experience of the streets. And that didn't get our attention. What got our attention
was the young woman that was being portrayed in the ad looked almost exactly like the young woman we had just buried.
And when everyone saw that, there was kind of collective gasp across the room.
And then the woman, the mother of the young woman, seeing the screen and what was being threatened. All this evil of the world that could come upon that young woman, instead recognize what her promise was. And she rose from the table, and she shook her finger at the TV screen, and she said, "But you can't touch my little girl. She is safe with Jesus." And it was the eternal reality, enroding into the present, in the moment of grief and deep pain, saying, "But I will claim the already, even though it's not fully yet my experience." "I'm already," says the Apostle Paul, "seated in heavenly places. I'm already resurrected. I'm already united to Christ."
There is an assurance of what God has said to his people by the work of his Son that you and I could not accomplish, that is so sure, working beyond our limitations and our griefs and our lusts and our sin and our weakness, that nonetheless, we are able to live in the heavenly reality, even though we're not there yet. And because it is so precious and so affecting of this present world with all of its weeds about us, Jesus tries to help us understand it's worth his kingdom. It's worth even the price of sacrifice because it's so good. The Apostle Paul said, "I consider that our afflictions are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us." But Jesus just says it so much more to our experience as he says in verse 44,
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered it up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field."
I don't know what the treasure was. If it was gems or a vein of gold or pirate doubloons, I don't know what a doubloon is, but it must be something good, you know.
And I don't even know about the ethics of covering it up and, you know, selling it.
But I get the point that when you get just a taste, just a glimpse of how precious is the kingdom of God, you know, everything else dims in comparison. You're willing to sacrifice everything for that. You know, the holiday time of year that we're approaching for me growing up, that always meant that we would go to West Tennessee and we would spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents. And we would come the night before, which means when you woke up as a kid in the morning, you know, in those upper bedrooms, the smell from the kitchen would just be rising up, you know, and oh, it's heavenly, you know, but it was also a magnet, you know. You get brought down the stairs to see what's cooking. And, you know, you just got to have some grandma, grandma, can I have some? Can I have some? No, you can't. This is for later. But my grandmother
would take a little twist of the dough off the breakfast rolls and she would say, "You can have this for now." Oh my. The tangy cinnamon sweet heaven. And it was so, just a taste, but it was so good. You would do any, you'd even take a bath if you had to, to be able to be at the meal. You wash behind your ears, you'd put on your, whatever you had to do, you would, you'd want to get the rest. And here we are being told if you get just a taste, just a glimpse of what the heavenly good, it's worth anything. And we get the taste in different ways. We're going to be a little bit obscure here for a reason. A few weeks ago when my back was bothering me and I told you I wasn't going to go to the back, but I was going to be here with the prayer team. Prayed with people. We love doing that. And as the line diminished, there was a man who was just kind of waiting to talk only to me. And sometimes when that happens, I focus on other people because, you know, I need to focus with him. Finally I kind of looked and first I didn't, and then I did recognize. A man I hadn't seen for years. Looked in many ways quite different, but I did recognize him. He was a man earlier in my career had betrayed me and my family terribly.
And I was thinking he sat in this church through an entire worship service and sermon. And now he's waited in this line to the very end to talk to me.
And it was instinctive, I think, that I just kind of threw my arms around him and hugged him. And I'm glad it was instinctive because I thought about a little bit. I might have punched him in the nose, you know.
And I will tell you, as good as it was to embrace someone who has hurt you so bad and to say, "God, what did you do in me that my heart actually rejoices to do this?"
I mean, this is not of me. This is something of the spirit that I'm tasting, that I know is part of the heavenly kingdom that I don't know yet because I will tell you later in the afternoon when I remembered a few more things, I just got mad again. But this is what I know. Jesus will not get mad again. His embrace is eternal. And what was instinctive in me is his nature. And it is eternal promise. As we get taste of that heavenly reality here, we begin to say, "I don't fully understand. I don't fully grasp." But listen, it's better than anything else this world has to offer. And so we want that reality. And that's what's being promised. And ultimately we are being told that means this thing that Jesus is offering, it's more precious than anything. And Jesus just says it so clearly. Verse 45, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it." Jesus' kingdom is ripening. And it's not all right yet. But when we get just a little bit of it, we say, "It's so good. I want more of that. I want to secure that." And the way in which it is being secured is not by the work of our hands, but by the work of the one who seeded the harvest. And we trust him. And we even endure the weeds, knowing that our roots are being so intertwined with theirs, that what God has brought to us by the knowledge of his Son and the beauties of heaven that are not yet but already being experienced to some degree, that what we're experiencing is people's lives intertwined with ours. They get to begin to experience too. So God is not pulling us up too soon or them up too soon so that we grow in the reality of the kingdom of God.
A couple of weeks ago I came home from one of my travels on a Saturday and I had to preach the next morning. And I was kind of buoyed up because I got off the plane and walked down the concourse. And as I came out, there was this huge crowd waiting with signs, "Welcome home," and lights and bands and bagpipes. And it was fantastic. And it wasn't for me at all.
You know, it was one of the honor flights, you know, coming back from Washington, D.C. with veterans. And, you know, I watched the veterans, most of the Vietnam-era vets kind of go through the gauntlet of cheering people, many in wheelchairs, high-fiving people as they were wheeled down. And, you know, I just joined the crowd and this is so good. And when I got home, it was on the news.
And one of the commentators said, "These are veterans receiving the welcome now
that they did not get the first time they came home."
And I thought, may be true for my heart's sake to remember, that I will in the already say, "Oh, it's not all the cheers I want. It's not all the goodness that I want. It's not everything that I want. But there will be a day when 10,000 times 10,000 angels will hail the Savior for the redemption of my soul. And as I'm basking in the glory of the one who has redeemed me and my body and my loved ones forever, something's going to happen. And I'm going to look across the crowd and I'm going to see others are being cheered. I'm going to look down at one coming in the wheelchair and limping on." I said, "That was my neighbor? Look, there's my brother.
There's my sister. There's the boss I was so mad at. There's the people who treat me so bad, but somehow my roots were being tangled up with theirs in such a way that God was not just growing the wheat. He was changing the weeds into wheat in his time and his way and by the witness of people that we had no idea. And the angels were cheered." Let me tell you something you're going to turn around and you're going to cheer too. Praise God that he is working his will and his time in his way. And we praise God that he is the God of the harvest and is achievable because he is the king.
Father, teach us again the truths that give us hope. Fill our vision with what we see through true gospel glasses, fields that are ripening. It's not all done yet. Your work's not finished. But already we can rejoice in the what is even as we take hope and comfort and courage by what we know is not yet.
Teach us of the God who takes sin and shame away and is preparing a place where there is no night
nor fears nor pain nor crying again. That we turning to that Savior may be strengthened and equipped for the great harvest with us and all entwined in our roots. Oh Lord. So teach us your mercy. How vast, how wide, how deep. And we're part of it by Christ's sake. We bless you in Jesus' name. Amen.