Sermon Brief
Date Written: July 23, 2008
Date Preached: July 23, 2008
Where Preached: OPBC (Wed PM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Study of the Parables
Sermon Title: The Parable of the Wheat and Tares
Sermon Text: Matt 13:24-30; 36-43
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
The Parable of the Tares Explained
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Introduction:
Jesus uses simile in this parable to get across His teaching point. This particular parable is also what is considered to be a simple 3 point parable, which is made up of one main character or the Master interacting with 2 subordinates. These subordinates are usually denoted as the good vs the bad OR focal and secondary subordinates.
The imagery used is like that of the parable of the soils… that is an agricultural picture or backdrop. Jesus was sensitive to those listening to Him and He knew and understood that using an imagery that they understood would make the message much clearer and they would comprehend it much easier.
And for the most part this parable holds to that form, even though there seem to be more than just the 3 characters. Let’s look at the ‘characters’ of the parable:
The man, sower of good seed…the landowner… Jesus/God
People (background characters)… humanity
His enemy (who’s enemy? The sower of good seed’s enemy) Satan
The plants… the good seed… new believers
The weeds… bad seed… sinful haters of God
The servants of the landowner, caretakers of the field… believers
The reapers, gatherers of the harvest… angels
v.24 & 37 The Master (sower of the seed):
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
Jesus describes this in pretty good detail here as He shares with His disciples that the “Master” in this parable or teaching story represents Him… the sower of good seed, and He refers to this person being the “Son of Man”
The Son of Man was a favorite title that Jesus used for Himself while ministering here in this world. We can see several occasions where Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” In fact, Jesus uses this title a little over 80 different times in the Gospels.
We are very familiar with Mark 10:45 (NKJV) where Jesus says, “…For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many...”
Another verse that we recognize readily when it comes to this title is Luke 19:10 (NKJV) “…for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost…”
So we can know with a great deal of certainty that here in this parable Jesus was referring to Himself as the sower of ‘good seed’…as the Master of the story.
v. 25-26 deviousness of the enemy:
25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
Here we find Jesus detailing the rest of the characters and who they represent. The field is this world, the tares are Satan’s workers, the enemy is Satan himself and the harvest is the end of the world… judgment day. And on judgment day the angels will be used by God to separate the good from the bad.
We find Jesus referring to this ‘gathering’ by the angels in Matt 24:31(NKJV) when He says, “…And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other…”
Here in this parable Jesus describes the enemy as the devil or Satan. We also know that Satan is described as the enemy on many other occasions in Scripture. In Luke 22:31 Jesus warns Peter about his enemy Satan, “…And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat…”
In Rev 12:9 (NKJV) we read about how Satan is the enemy of the world and is a deceiver of all. “…So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The ‘tares’ that are a character of this parable are not demons of Satan, but men who do the bidding and follow the will of Satan, either willingly or by seeking to please themselves they reject God which is what Satan wants us all to do.
v. 27 questions of the servants:
27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
Now if you are like me you may have thought… like I did… ‘what’s the big deal?’ why doesn’t the master simply allow his servants to go out and weed out the garden?
Well in doing some research about what a ‘tare’ is, I found out some really incredible facts. Did you know that a ‘tare’ so closely resembles the wheat plant that it is all but indistinguishable from wheat.
Also, did you know that ‘tares’ were poisonous to humans, thus the dastardliness of this deed! Finally, did you know that it is not until the wheat matures fully and bears its fruit that you can tell the difference…
So you can imagine the concern in the voices of the servants when this dastardly deed is discovered and they go to their master to seek His counsel…
When we look at this it can be just a transitional part of this story or we can also see it as an application for believers toward God. When we face the enemy and the results of the deeds of the enemy, our first response should be that we go to the Master! He is in charge, he knows what is best, we go to Him and ask Him what we need to do.
But this also indicates that God is big enough and patient enough with us that we can come to Him and ask Him the ‘why’ and ‘what for’ questions that cloud our mind and cast a shadow of doubt in our heart.
God does not get angry when we ask Him why or how come… We may not like his response to us, but God wants us to come to Him and ask Him about things that we are dealing with… things we don’t understand and don’t know how to deal with…
In looking at this from a spiritual perspective in today’s culture it is akin to discovering that there are many people in your fellowship who are doing nothing FOR God’s kingdom, but seemingly doing everything they can to poison the fellowship and damage the ‘fruit’ of the labors of those who seek to serve God.
When we discover these people, our human nature wants to ‘weed’ them out immediately, but God is wise and understands that strife within the fellowship will only lead to damaging and hurting young believers and their fragile and tender walk with Him. God is content in allowing these people to stay in the church and one day He will weed them out himself!
But the Master is much wiser than His servants and his answer probably surprised them when He said in v.28-30 (NKJV)
v. 28-30 response of the master:
28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Here the wisdom of the master in this story is relied upon and He responds. He tells them that this is the work of his enemy. When his servants ask Him if they can go and ‘clean up’ the situation, the Master is quick to tell them that He would take care of things… to let the situation stand at this time, but it would be dealt with when the harvest was ready.
I am sure that the servants questioned Him on this strategy or had thoughts of ‘why’ or ‘how come’ but the Master explains that if they go out now and uproot the tares that the good crop would be destroyed as well, so rather than destroying good crop, let them mature together and at harvest time the separation would be made.
Now, I don’t know about you but the spiritual implications of this one set of verses is astounding. Here we see those of us who are serving God saying to Him, “Lord there are these people in our fellowship who are ‘tares’ and need to be uprooted, but God says to us…
“Don’t you worry about judging them and their final judgment… that is my area and I will take care of things when the time comes.” And he goes on to say that when the time comes (harvest) he is going to separate the good crop from the tares and the tares will be bundled together and thrown into the fire…
This represents the separation of the believers and non-believers on the great and terrible day of the Lord and that all who are NOT good crop…all those who have rejected Christ. Jesus explains this in v.40-42
40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,
42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This is a description of the destination of all those who reject Christ and seek their own desires. It is a place we call Hades or Hell… it is a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth which represents great suffering and torment.
However, the Master promises that those who accept Him and follow Him… those who are ‘righteous’ will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father…
43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
This is a promise of eternal life for those who accept Christ as Savior. In Rom 8:9-11 (NKJV) we can see Paul sharing what our acceptance of Jesus Christ does for our lives.
“…9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you….”
Conclusion:
So as we look at this parable or teaching story I believe we should be seeing one major theme… and the theme is God is in control! Sometimes it may seem that the devil has control of things and that he has the upper hand, but ultimately God is going to be victorious.
There are also times when we feel that it is our duty to judge and point out and be the ‘Holy Spirit’ in some people’s lives, but that is NOT our job. Our job is clear and it is to share the love of God, and we must trust that in the end (at the harvest of humanity) Jesus will judge those who according to Him are not worthy because they rejected Him.
