Passage: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Intro: Global impact of this hunk of ice that broke off of Antarctica.
PP huge iceberg from space
PP further out photo
PP whole of Antarctica
1. we can get very nervous about things when we talk about global scale.
2. but talk about global scale with eternal impact, this parable is the bomb!
3. few stories that carry such a wallop, painted with such a huge brush!
4. but incredibly individually personal at the same time.
5. once again, taking the story and the explanation as one block.
6. we are dealing with universal forces, and who you trust makes all the difference.
I. There is Opposition to God’s Good Plan
1. God has a good plan, the sowing of people into the world.
2. Jesus is the sower, the field is the world, and the seed planted is the children of God’s kingdom.
3. it is “good seed”, (v37) because of who planted it. It is wheat
4. the plan is not just that the seed be planted and then gathered.
5. the purpose of the planting is the multiplication might take place, the seed will produce after its nature. (v30)
6. now an enemy comes in, not with fire or a plow, but with another kind of seed.
7. he plants weed seed in the same field, and it germinates and grows recognizably to God’s servants v27
Il) Carson quote
8. since these servants are later shown to be angels, they are more aware, see the problem
9. but notice that the focus is on the planter,
and the seed is characterized by as good or bad by the planter, the owner of the field or his enemy.
10. the enemy is a spoiler, whose only purpose is interference, who is not looking for a crop.
PP 1 Peter 5:8 “your enemy”
11. let’s not be surprised at the works of unrighteousness in the world.
12. we have an enemy, and he is tireless
13. he will produce works of unrighteousness and seek to call us to share in his wickedness.
14. he has not plan, he only lies and seeks to destroy what God is doing.
II. Time Reveals Character
1. every plant has a life cycle, from germination to fruit
2. so the landowner tells his servants to wait until the plants are fully matured.
3. at harvest, the difference is clear
PP side by side mature wheat and darnel
4. it takes time for this to happen.
5. and ultimately, the harvest at the end of the world will expose the character of the seeds planted.
6. v39, really very clear. Angels are God’s servant at the end, bring judgments and harvest
PP Matthew 24:31
7. now time reveals the character of the plant, because of the fruit that the plants produce.
8. v41 makes it very clear. The discrimination between seed planted by Jesus and that planted by Satan is the their behavior.
9. those who are “weeded out” have committed acts of unrighteousness and have listened to the liar.
10. there will be, at the end, a clear discrimination between people depending on who they are listening to.
11. in the book of Revelation, that discrimination is clearly a very deliberate choice.
12. it is the mark that the Antichrist forces on people who have decided that he can rescue them from God’s judgment.
PP Revelation 14:9-10
13. at the end, when the harvest takes place, the children of Satan will take this mark out of fear, and the children of God will refuse it by faith in God.
14. and both in Revelation and here in this parable, the result of the harvest discrimination is the same. V42
III. Jesus Is Still Planting Good Seed
1. Jesus came to earth to plant good seed.
2. that is why He used the image of birth to explain what must take place.
PP John 3:3
3. God plants new people all the time by giving new life through faith in Jesus Christ.
PP John 3:16
4. this new seed will produce fruit that is consistent with the character of the planter.
5. it will be a life consistently growing in love, in joy, in peace, in patience, in Christlikeness
6. and that new plant has nothing to fear at the harvest, but looks forward to it with joy.
7. but the plants of the enemy will consistently deny the harvest, consistently deny any kind of accountability.
8. and if they believe in some kind of judgment, Satan has convinced them that the fruit they have produced is “good enough”, that their good outweighs their bad, that God grades on a curve.
9. here is what this parable teaches us about that
10. God is looking for the reproduction of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
11. He will discriminate not by intentions or words, but by actions that reveal whose seed weu are.
Conc. And in the end, those who thru faith in Christ were given new life will live eternally like we did on earth.
1. we will live for the glory of God, and enjoy the presence of God.
2. not because we were “good people”, but because we were planted thru faith in Christ, and produced fruit that was consistent with that eternal seed.
