The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like… – Part 4
The Root And Destiny All Of Evil
Matthew 13:36-43
We have been working our way through the kingdom parables in Matthew 13 for the past few weeks. My hope is that each of us is gaining a much better understanding of three things: 1) that the depth of compassion of Jesus Christ for the souls of this earth was demonstrated by the profundity of what He shared in His teachings in order for us to understand and love God (by “profundity”, I mean depth, insight, wisdom, perception, understanding, complexity and truth); 2) that those whom He speaks to can grasp what it is He is teaching if their hearts are open to Him – and that applies to any person at any point in time; and, 3) that what He is teaching us is meant to be understood in such a way as to change us and to change our lives.
Along this line, we have been examining the details of Jesus’ parables recorded for us here by Matthew, as well as the few explanations that Jesus Himself has provided.
As we saw last time in our examination of the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven, Jesus wants us to understand that the kingdom of heaven really is not so difficult a thing to grasp and to understand. It is a simple matter if are hearts and minds are open to Him and to His teaching. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus Himself sends, opens the Scripture to us.
In our study a couple of weeks ago, we examined the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. We also took a brief look at the explanation Jesus gave later to His disciples as recorded for us here in Matthew 13:36-43.
Today, I want us to look at this in further detail because, first of all, it is the next section we come to as we progress through the Gospel of Matthew and, second of all, there are truths here that we did not discuss last time and there are questions that I think naturally arise when we read through this section purposefully that need to be addressed.
Let’s read the text then, and allow the Holy Spirit to open the Scriptures to us.
I don’t know about you, but there are two things that strike me right away, two observations I made as I studied this potion of the Scriptures in preparation for our time together today.
My first observation is that Jesus explains the one who sows, the field, the seed, the one who sows the seed of the tares, the harvest, the reapers and the destiny of both the wheat and the tares. The only thing He doesn’t give an explanation of is the fire. We’ll talk about that a little further on.
What I want to discuss first, and I believe it will lead us naturally into our examination of the observation I mentioned about the fire, is the second observation I made as I studied this text.
What I observed was that Jesus provides for us the answer to a question that has long plagued the deepest thoughts of men and women on both sides of the faith issue for as long as men and women have been at odds over it.
The question is: Where does evil come from? Other questions naturally flow from that one, of course. Why does evil exist? Does it serve any useful purpose? The evil of mankind – what makes it so depraved? Why does God tolerate evil and why has He not put an end to it before this? Why does He let it go on?
Jesus tells us straight out in His explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares where evil comes from – it comes from “the evil one” – the enemy the devil.
That means that all evil comes from him. There is no other source. And, just as Jesus sows the Gospel in men’s hearts and they become children of the kingdom of heaven, so, too, the devil sows lies and deceit and greed and envy and the rest of what we have seen on Jesus’ “short-list” (Mark 7:20-23) in the hearts of men and they become children of the evil one.
Once again, we see that there are only two choices on the menu. Over and over and over again, we see the same thing: if we are not actively for Jesus, then we are actively against Him. If we are not actively gathering with Him, then we are actively scattering away from Him. If we are not children of the kingdom of heaven, then we are children of the evil one.
This is not comfortable truth, yet it is essential truth.
Why did Jesus come? “To bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).” And, what is the truth? God’s “Word is truth (John 17:17).”
What does the truth of God’s Word tell us about the mission of Jesus Christ on earth? That He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10); that He came to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45); that He came to fulfill what was spoken of in the Law and the Prophets, both the requirements and the promises (Matthew 5:17); that He came to bring division and to set loved ones against each other over the truth (Matthew 10:34-35; Luke 12:15); that He came to die a torturous death on the cross in our place to pay for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to (John 12:27; Romans 6:23); that He came that we might have abundant life, eternal life and knowledge of the one true God (John 10:10; John 17:1-3).
How about the evil one? He comes only to " steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).” He was a “murderer from the beginning” and he is “a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44).” His mission is to accomplish the exact opposite of what Jesus came to accomplish. And, he has millions of accomplices to help him with his mission. That’s what Jesus tells us in this parable and His explanation of it.
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, in The Gulag Archipelago, writes: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
This is what Jesus means when He tells the workers in the parable not to separate the tares from the wheat. “’Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30)."’”
What are we to do? We are to stand firm, stand fast and wait until the “end of the age” – the day of final judgment. Jesus tells us that God will send His angels and they will sort out the tares from the wheat, sort out those who are offensive and the cause of stumbling for themselves and others, and they will cast them all into the fire. Then the righteous will “SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43 quoting Daniel 12:3).”
This is a confirmation of the promise found at the end of Revelation 22:12: "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
Dare we talk about this fire that Jesus mentions? Is it real? Is it a literal place with literal fire and wailing and gnashing of teeth?
I am convinced that it is. Let me tell you why.
Why would Jesus say something that wasn’t true? Why would He describe something that wasn’t real in the midst of explaining a parable and in the midst of making clear what it is He is talking about? Wouldn’t that make the parable cease to be a parable?
Remember the definition of a biblical parable: a descriptive use of the earthly to explain parallel heavenly truths. It is not symbolic nor is it figurative – it lays one truth beside another for comparison and explanation.
That being the case, Jesus stating, “Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send for His angels and, and they will gather out of His kingdom…those who commit lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:40-42)” means that, yes, Virginia, there is a hell and people are really going there.
Let’s look at the text again, shall we? Matthew 13:36-43: someone please read this for us once more.
Thank you. I want you to look again for a moment at what Jesus explains here. He explains the one who sows, the field, the seed, the one who sows the seed of the tares, the harvest, the reapers and the destiny of both the wheat and the tares. Everything seems to have a parallel, doesn’t it? Oh, wait – all but the fire is explained.
That would seem to indicate that the fire is the fire and that it is not representative of anything but itself. Otherwise, Jesus would have said, “and the fire is such-and-such.” But He does not. He simply says, “in that place (the furnace of fire) there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
I hope this will give you a starting place to turn to the next time you hear an objection to there being a real place called hell. I also hope that if anyone here has been doubtful up to this point about the reality of hell that those doubts are being laid to rest.
John Hannah, Research Professor of Theological Studies and Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary said, “No one who is ever in hell will be able to say to God, ‘You put me here,’ and no one who is in heaven will ever be able to say, ‘I put myself here.’”
Hell is not a subject that people are comfortable talking about or hearing about. In fact, the proponents of today’s “Church Growth Movement” have all but outlawed preaching about sin and hell and eternal damnation because it offends people, because “moderns” today don’t accept the concept of hell and eternal punishment, and because people will be repelled from the church instead of drawn to it.
Well, so be it then.
Ironically, the people who object to preaching on hell or even the concept that there is a hell are most uncomfortable hearing about hell from are those who have authoritative information about it – Christians. And, many Christians are uncomfortable with speaking about sin and the just punishment for it, which is hell.
Perhaps you have had someone say to you that hell is not a real place, or that hell is just a boogey-man that preachers have come up with to scare people, or perhaps you have heard that God doesn’t send anyone to hell but that everyone actually gets saved in the end. Maybe you’ve even heard the complaint that a loving God wouldn’t send people to a place like hell.
Jesus actually spoke more about hell and its realities than He did about heaven, and He was quite specific about who is going to go where. Why do you think that is?
He did so because hell is a real place and it has been spoken of very specifically throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Let’s look at just a few of the passages where hell is mentioned and described, beginning with our passage for today:
(Matthew13:41-42) "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(Matthew 10:28) "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Matthew 18:8) "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.”
(Matthew 25:41) "Then He will also say to those on His left, ’Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
(Matthew 25:46) "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
(Matthew 22:13) "Then the king said to the servants, ’Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
(Luke 12:5) "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
(2 Thessalonians 1:9) “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”
(Jude 7) “ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
(Revelation 14:11) "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
(Revelation 20:12, 15) “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 21:8) "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Even in the Old Testament, God gave many warnings about hell (Sheol):
(Psalm 9:17) The wicked will return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget God.
(Isaiah 66:24) "Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind."
(Isaiah 14:9-15) "Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. They will all respond and say to you, ’Even you have been made weak as we, you have become like us. Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol; maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you and worms are your covering.’ How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.
(Daniel 12:2) "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
And, there are many others.
Perhaps the most concise description we have of hell is in the story Jesus tells in Luke 16:19-31, the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus. We have looked at this story before. As a brief reminder, let me mention that what is described there is an unquenchable fire, that it is a place of torment, that there is no relief from that torment, that there is no hope of ever escaping that torment, and that there is an eternal and active memory of every evil, every missed opportunity and every failure for all those who go there.
I say all of this to establish that what Jesus is saying to His disciples in His explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares that we are looking at today is something that is of major importance to them and to us. It is a truth that must be understood and taught. I would even say it is of greater importance to those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord as well as those who do not believe in a literal place called hell than it is for those of us who do.
When will this happen? When will this all take place? At “the end of the age.” What does that mean? The Greek word aion, which we pronounce today as eon, means a long period of time. It denotes a timeframe that extends further than decades into centuries and beyond.
The “end of the age” is a phrase that Jesus uses quite specifically to speak of the day of final judgment, which we have already seen Him speak of four times in the Gospel of Matthew, and which is reinforced by the writings of Peter and John (2 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 3:7; 1 John 4:17).
When is the end of the age then? Shouldn’t we have some indication of when that is so that we will know how long we have to live with the tares in our lives?
No. That really is not a real need. It may be a want, a desire – and for some, it is an intense, even consuming desire. But Jesus told His disciples and has told us, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone (Matthew 24:36).” Again, at His Ascension He said, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority (Acts 1:7).”
What will that day look like? The last prophet, Malachi, foretold of this day in this way: “’For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1).’"
Also, If we read Revelation 14:15-16; 20:12-15, Jesus Himself tells us through the Apostle John what it will be like. “And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped…And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
If anyone is still in doubt, then they are not heeding the warning of Christ at the end of verse 43: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Remember that we know that means “Listen up! Don’t miss this!”
So, does that mean that there are no tell-tale signs? No – Jesus invested no small amount of time talking to the disciples about what those days would look like. Many of the Old Testament prophets spoke of it, as well as most of the writers of the New Testament.
We, however, are not going to spend any time on that in this study. Why? Two reasons, really.
First, it has nothing really to do with this section of Scripture other than a passing mention, and, second, it would take us off down a trail that we are not prepared to travel as yet. When we get closer to the end of our study of Mathew, we will come across one of those teaching times of Jesus when He spoke very specifically and very clearly about the signs of those times. That will be the appropriate time to study this subject. Are we all okay with that?
Let me draw our study near to a close with an illustration shared by a pastor named Jeff Strite. He tells this story about his Dad.
“My Dad was what was known as ‘a rounder;’ a man’s man. Hard worker, hard fighter, a hard player of baseball and basketball. He was attractive to women and he loved to go out and dance.
Now, it’s not that Dad was a stranger to church (when he first met Mom, he kissed her behind the furnace in a church basement). He wasn’t unfriendly to church; it’s just that God held little interest for him. He didn’t need God to run his life.
After he married Mom, they settled down as married couples did. Mom, a deeply religious woman, never failed to go to church, but Dad always had work to do. And, well – church wasn’t all that important anyway. But, after awhile, Mom’s church going got to bothering him. He accepted the idea that he might go to hell, but the idea of being there without the woman he loved troubled him.
Dad finally decided to force Mom to avoid church. He asked her if she would feel comfortable in heaven if he were in hell.
Now, Mom was the quiet type of Christian who didn’t try to force her faith down Dad’s throat; but now she had the opportunity to address his need. How would she respond?
She thought for a couple of moments and then asked him, ‘Lowell, would you really feel comfortable if I were in hell with you?’
The simplicity of her response led Dad to change his way of thinking and he turned his life over to Jesus. Why? Because hell wasn’t a comfortable concept to him, especially when it came to someone he loved.”
How about those of us here today? Are we comfortable with the idea of hell? Are we comfortable with the idea that someone we love is going to end up there? Are we convinced that hell is a real place and that people are really going to end up there for eternity? Are we saddened and broken over the fact that many have already begun there trip to eternity there?
Jesus abandoned heaven and all that was His due to come and be one of us, to take the torturous punishment that by all that is holy should be borne by each of us on our own, and to grant to us through our faith in His substitutionary sacrifice the eternal reward of intimate fellowship with God that He intended and we broke.
We do a great disservice to our Redeemer and Lord when we deny hell or avoid speaking of its reality because, when we do so, we deny the very reason for His coming. If it were not for hell being the destiny of every sinner whose sins are not paid for, Jesus would not have come – it would not have been necessary.
The fact of the matter is, however, that the hell Jesus spoke of and the hell we have seen described in the Scriptures we have examined today is a very real place and the very real destiny of everyone who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord…period.
Why else would Jesus have made sure that His disciples understood this parable? He only explained one other parable, and that was the first one. Jesus wanted to make sure that His disciples and all who would come after them were very clear about the reality of this aspect of the kingdom of heaven.
Let me end our time today with this:
Do you know what it’s like to be lost? Do you know what it’s like to be found? Do you have an acute appreciation of Jesus Christ for buying you back from hell?
If so, then you should have a passion for sharing the Gospel with anyone and everyone. If not, then might I suggest that you get on your face and beg Jesus to break your heart over those who are perishing, just as His is broken?
Two things on the menu – are we gathering or are we scattering?
Let’s pray.
