The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like… – Part 2
The Parable Of The Wheat And The Tares
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Before we begin today, let’s make sure we are all clear about what a parable is and what the difference is between a parable and an allegory. Anyone care to give me their understanding of what a parable is? How about an allegory?
Okay, let’s go over our definitions once more, just to make sure we are all understanding this the same way:
A parable is the placing side by side with or comparing of the earthly truths expressed with the heavenly truths to be understood. The starting point of Christ’s parables is that man is made in the image of God, and that there is a God-ordained and God-created continuity between the human and the divine. The strength of Christ’s parables lies in the very real connection imprinted by the Creator on His creatures, the physical characterizing and demonstrating the higher spiritual and moral world.
An allegory, on the other hand, is figurative and symbolic, not descriptive. An allegory is a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically express a deeper meaning, often spiritual or moral.
This would be a good spot to discuss the phrase the kingdom of heaven. We didn’t focus on it last time because I wanted to make sure that we understood the concept of parable as opposed to allegory. I also wanted to make sure that we got at least a fundamental understanding of the first of the parables of Our Lord, as recorded by Matthew.
At first glance, the phrase the kingdom of heaven might seem to mean the kingdom of God up in Heaven. In fact, this phrase, which is used thirty-one times in Matthew, is interchangeable with the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ. There are many views on what these phrases mean, and all they do is confuse the matter.
We get a solid indicator of what God means in Holy Scripture when He used the phrase kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God or kingdom of Christ, from Paul’s summarizing the reason we don’t let squabbles over food and drink divide the body. If we look very pointedly at Romans 14:17, we read these words: “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
The kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom of glory that reigns in heaven now and that will one day be the kingdom that rules and reigns everywhere and at every time after the return of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven has to do specifically with where the Gospel is preached and accepted and takes root and grows and flourishes, first within the heart of each individual, then within the community of believers that will inevitably follow, which we call the church.
We see this initially in the parable Jesus began with in this section of Scripture, the Parable of the Sower. The three types of soil, the three types of heart where the seed did not take firm root and grow and become fruit-bearing is where the kingdom of heaven does not reign.
That is not to say that the spiritual laws of that kingdom do not apply. On the contrary; Jesus’ parables and their explanations demonstrate clearly that the laws of the kingdom are always in force. What I mean is that only where there is a heart or collection of hearts that have been given over to Jesus Christ and in which the Holy Spirit works intricately and regularly are members of the kingdom of heaven.
In our first parable today, we see another example of this. In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, we again have seed being sown. This time, however, we have a good man and an evil man both sowing seed in the same field. Both types of seed bear fruit; one to righteousness and one to hypocrisy.
Let’s read the parable in Matthew 13:24-30, then read the explanation that Jesus gives and that is recorded in Matthew 13: 37-43. There is a parable in between these two parables, and we will discuss that a little later.
One of the first things that I found interesting was that the workers in this parable identified are the reapers at the time of the harvest and they are the angels. I also found it interesting that they will be so intimately involved in the separation of non-believers from true believers on the Day of Judgment.
What I also noticed is that the workers, the master’s slaves who are there daily tending the field are not identified. Most everyone assumes that those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ and are ministering for Him by using our spiritual gifts in whatever venue He has placed us, but especially within the Body, are the workers since that is one of the two ways that Jesus uses the term when speaking of His kingdom.
Remember back at the end of Matthew 9, when Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." It was immediately after that that He commissioned and sent out the Twelve.
Okay, now let’s look at the meat of the parable. Keeping in mind that we are not to allegorize a parable, let’s look at what the parable tells us.
If we were allegorizing the parable, we would be okay at first, but it wouldn’t be long before we were wandering off down a wrong track and find ourselves guilty of teaching falsehood. This is vitally important groundwork to lay, as you will see when we get into some other parables next time. Let’s look at it.
In the Parable of the Sower, who was it that sowed the seed? Correct – we would still have the one sowing being Jesus Himself (the “Son of Man” as He calls Himself in verse 37). And, what is the field? Right again; the world.
Now, here is where allegory and parable part company. In our parable last time, what was the seed that was sown? Right; the “word of the kingdom”, the Gospel. This time, however, what does Jesus say that the seed is (verse 38)? Ahh – see what happens? This time, the seed sown are those who belong to one kingdom or the other.
If we were allegorizing this parable, we would still have the seed being sown as the gospel and we would go off down a trail about how Satan sows false doctrine in with the true doctrines of the kingdom and how we have to be studious to study the Bible so that we can discern the truth and not allow those things to take root in our churches and all of that.
As solid as that may sound and as true as those principles are, they have nothing to do with this parable. Here is where the danger lies. We are only allowed to teach what the Bible teaches when the Bible teaches it. Otherwise, we are teaching falsehood and getting people to believe something that is not completely true. False doctrine is sown with that kind of seed. We will see this very thing in action next time.
For now, let’s go on with our study of this parable. Somehow, many expositors and Bible teachers today – men I deeply respect and admire and from whom I have learned a great deal – say that what we see in the parable and Jesus’ exposition of it is that the kingdom of heaven now is the church of Jesus Christ on earth. They say that that is what He is talking about here. This is why I am such a firm believer in expositional Bible teaching.
Jesus has already told us that the field is the world – He never mentions the church in these parables – at all! So, allegorizing the parable not only leads us an a tangent away from what Jesus Himself says that He is teaching, it sets us up to get even farther afield when we get to the next two parables.
Even though, as I said, the word picture can be applied to the church, in this parable – by Jesus’ own explanation – He is speaking of believers and unbelievers living side by side in the world.
Let’s go on and look at this process as Jesus describes it.
The wheat and the tares are two plants that look very much alike. We are all familiar with wheat, right? In Palestine, there is a plant called darnel that looks very much like both wheat and rye grass, especially in the early stages of germination.
As soon as the wheat begins to form grains, however, the difference becomes obvious. The fact that tares were so plentiful throughout the field made it obvious that someone had sown them on purpose and that they weren’t there simply because of random seed carried by the wind or the feathers of birds and the like. It was obvious that this was a deliberate act on the part of an enemy because of his hatred for the owner.
The roots of these plants become so closely intertwined that it is extremely difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends.
The slaves wanted to pull the tares out because they sap nutrients, are vulnerable to parasites and the grain that comes from them when they reach maturity is bitter and causes dizziness when eaten. The farmer wisely stays their hand from this. The solution was wait until harvest time and then separate them, storing the wheat and burning the tares.
An interesting note about how wheat and darnel grow is that, as the plants mature and the stalks become longer, the stalks of the wheat bow because of the weight of the mature grain. The tares, on the other hand, grow straight and true and never bow as the time of harvest approaches.
Jesus plants believers together in the world for fellowship, discipleship, ministry and growth. The enemy, on the other hand, has people who look like believers who are not and he plants them in the world, right alongside the children of God.
What a picture of true believers and false believers in the world – and, yes, even in the church. The tares appropriately represented those who live by any and every false religion, whether it be denying God, trying to be God, trying to get to God through human effort, or any place in between. The wheat, of course, represents those who know, understand and live by the truth that it is only through Jesus Christ that one can be saved from the just penalty for our sins, which is eternal separation from God and eternal torment.
Some teach that this parable speaks specifically about true believers and hypocrites within the church. Granted, both do exist and the false followers of Jesus Christ strongly resemble true Christians in their practices and there words and in their activities. In many ways, it is impossible to distinguish them from genuine Christians. They must be allowed to grow right alongside everyone else until the day of separation comes on that final day.
Jesus has been very specific in His exposition of this parable, as we have already seen in verse 38, “for the field is the world.” What this tells us is that we are not to separate and isolate ourselves from unbelievers, but instead we are to live our lives fully and completely devoted to Jesus Christ, bearing the fullness of the fruit that He gives us to yield, and let Him do the separating and punishing on that final day.
We are to be loving, kind and accepting of the people God places in our lives, even though we are to be discerning and unaccepting of their sinful choices. Yet, even in this, we are to do so in love. For we do not know where that person stands with God or where they will stand on that final day.
How many of us can look at even one moment in our lives this week when we would have been ashamed to have our attitude or our words or our actions played on a worldwide screen for all the world to see? How many of us would be embarrassed to have a video of everything we said and did played out in church this morning? How many of us behaved in a manner that belied the fact that we are disciples of Jesus Christ this week? How many believers do you think saw or heard us and thought to themselves, “They’re not a Christian, that’s for sure,”?
Now, as to what the results of that day of separation that day of final judgment will look like, Jesus tells us in His own words. This is not a pretty picture, and it is one that makes many uncomfortable to talk about or think about.
By including it in His teachings so often and by making it a point to ensure that people understood what He meant when He talked about what it would mean to all those who would deny Him, Jesus makes it very clear that this is something we are to know, to understand, to discuss and to teach. It is the; His truth; and we are responsible for knowing and teaching all of the truth. To deny the reality or the importance of this part of Christ’s teaching is, essentially, to deny the heart of the Gospel completely.
Why do I say that? What is the Gospel, anyway? This is something that every believer has to know if they are to be a believer in Jesus Christ. I don’t know what your understanding is of just exactly makes up the Gospel. There are a handful of verses that we need to know and be familiar with and that we should be able to share with anyone within a couple of minutes.
The first verse we need to know is Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Every person who is of age and intelligence to understand right from wrong who has ever lived and is living now has made the conscious and willful choice to do a wrong thing. Those rights that we have broken are God’s eternal laws. That is what sin is – a breach of the laws of God.
The result of this sinning is told us in the next verse we need to know; Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The result of our choices results in eternal separation from God. But God has provided the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 59:2 God says, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
There is only one way to bridge the eternal gap between God and us and to avoid that eternal punishment meant for all of those who reject His gift of salvation, and that is faith in Jesus Christ alone. The key verse for this is Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.” Of course, John 3:16, 1 Peter 3:18a and 1 Timothy 2:5 are also key verses to know and understand and be able to relate to another person.
We need to understand that there is a very severe penalty for being an unredeemed sinner and people need to know what it is they face if they reject Jesus Christ. How is a person to understand and accept the fact that they need the Savior, or that they even need saving, if they do not know what it is they need saving from?
So, we have our problem and God’s solution. Now we have our response. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” In Revelation 3:20, Jesus declares, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” Then we have Romans 10:9, which says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved,” and Romans 10:13, “for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
The simplest to remember is what is known as “The Roman Road”:
• Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin.
We were born under the power of sin’s control.
- Admit that you are a sinner.
• Romans 6:23a: “For the wages of sin is death..."
Sin has an ending. It results in death.
We all face physical death, which is a result of sin.
But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God,
and will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that
there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever.
It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain.
- Understand that you deserve death for your sin.
• Romans 6:23b: “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Salvation is a free gift from God to you!
You can’t earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
- Ask God to forgive you and save you.
• Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.”
When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for your sins.
He paid the price for all sin for all time, and when He took
all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross,
He bought all those who would accept
His gift out of slavery to sin and death!
The only condition is that we believe in Him
and what He has done for us,
understanding that we are now joined with Him,
and that He is our life.
He did all this because He loved us!
- Give your life to God... His wrath poured out on Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of being a slave to sin. His love is what saves you – not religion, not being a “good person, not doing good things, not even church membership. Only faith in Jesus Christ. God loves you that much!
• Romans 10:13, “for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus and He will save you from Hell!
• Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
There is no such thing as a closet-Christian.
Everything in our life is to make it obvious that we belong to Him,
beginning with a public confession that we have given ourselves to Him and accepted Him as our Savior and our Lord.
Tell the people you know what you have done. Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33: "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
• Revelation 3:20a: "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him..."
- Is Jesus knocking on your heart’s door?
Believe in Him.
Ask Him to come in to your heart by faith,
and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.
Thank Him for this gift of eternal life He has
given you and ask Him to help you live your life in
a way that honors and brings glory to Him.
Recently it was announced that George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle, the stars of the upcoming movie, Ocean’s Thirteen, have donated ¾ of a million dollars to ”Not On Our Watch”, part of Oxfam, an organization that provides life-saving humanitarian help and supplies in war-torn Sudan. They said they gave this money in order to draw attention to the genocide in Darfur, capitol of Sudan. Working with producer Jerry Weintraub, they intend to raise funds to help those who have been displaced by the conflict in Sudan.
In addition to the Sudan involvement, Brad Pitt has been involved with other charitable work. His partner, Angelina Jolie, donates one-third of her income to charitable organizations and personally adopted children from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. They have also relocated to New Orleans to help rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation.
We often question the activities and choices of celebrities. In this case, their willingness to see and do something to help those in need is something we should celebrate and thank God for. They do not claim to take action because of any sort of love for God or belief in Jesus Christ. They simply became aware of a need and decided to use their wealth and celebrity to do something about it.
I mention this because it demonstrates the point that Jesus is trying to make in this parable. Let me tell you another one. I will confess to you that I have had great antipathy for the Beatle’s and the men who comprised that group. I hold them personally responsible for the inundation and wide-spread acceptance in American culture of Eastern mysticism and other new age and occult practices.
But, we have to go back to an incident that occurred in Dallas, Texas way back on September 18th, 1964. Back in March of 1964, John Lennon had been quoted in a very long article in a magazine in England as saying that the band was, “more poplar than Jesus.” Even though he said that he wasn’t claiming any superiority to Jesus other than their popularity with the population in general, because the quote was taken out of context when it was published in America, there was swift and vehement reaction.
All across America, huge bonfires were built where Beatles’ albums and memorabilia was burned. One stop on their tour to America in 1964 was Dallas, Texas. A large group of local pastors and youth pastors met with their congregations in a field outside the fence at the airport. They denounced the Beatles using signs and bullhorns. A massive bonfire was built and thousands of Beatles records and other items were destroyed.
Think about that scene as you listen to the lyrics of the song titled Help!, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1965. This song was often described by John Lennon as his favorite Beatles number because it felt so real. He was greatly disappointed that he could not play the song the way he had originally intended it. He wanted to play it in a slow style – kind of in the style of Bob Dylan – but he was pressured to fit it to a more upbeat tune that would fit with the theme of the film of the same name.
The lyrics of Help! were written jointly by Lennon and McCartney in Weybridge, England. The lyrics give a certain depth of insight into John’s mind; at the time, he was drinking heavily, had gained weight and could not cope with the pressures of being a world-wide celebrity with nowhere to escape. Even though the song is very fast-paced and upbeat, the plea for help is all too real.
Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me.
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.
Imagine for a moment what might have been different about the life of John Lennon or the others in his band if even one of those pastors or youth pastors had prayed for the opportunity to share the Gospel with him in a loving and caring way.
Imagine what a completely different path those men and their loyal fans might have followed if John Lennon’s heart had been lifted to God to be prepared to hear and respond to the Gospel? And, just imagine how different America would be today if those men had become followers and disciples of Jesus Christ instead of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Who should you be praying for? Who should you be accepting in a Christ-like, loving way and allowing your life to be something God will use to draw them to Himself? Who are you being critical of and judgmental toward who just needs to see the hand of mercy and grace extended to them to give them hope for the here and now as well as for eternity?
My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will shine a spotlight into all of our hearts and show us where and how we need to be changed. I know that I have some very serious praying to do of my own.
How about you? Where do you stand? Will you gather; or will you scatter?
Let’s pray.
