PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM – THE SECOND – THE WHEAT AND THE TARES – Part 2 of 2
In this Part 2 of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, we will concentrate on the prophetic side of the Parable and take a look at the church at Smyrna. Let us revise the scripture again –
FROM MATTHEW – {{Matthew 13:24-30 He presented another parable to them saying, “THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN may be compared with A MAN who sowed good seed in his field but WHILE MEN WERE SLEEPING, HIS ENEMY CAME AND SOWED TARES also among the wheat and went away, but when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ and he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ and the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
OUR MAIN PART FOR TODAY:- {{Matthew 13:29-30 {{He said, ‘No, lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. ‘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.”}}
At face value this Parable is saying –
*** Wheat and tares grow together
*** They are sorted at the time of harvest
*** The tares are gathered first and bound up to burn
*** The wheat is gathered into the barn
There is much more to this Parable and the disciples desired to know more. Here is that account –
[A]. THIS IS THE START OF THE EXPLANATION – {{Matthew 13:36 “Then He left the multitudes and went into the house and His disciples came to Him saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”}}
It is good when God’s people want clarity and they asked for an explanation. Later on in the house the Lord told them the meaning.
[B]. ALL THE KEY FIGURES REVEALED – {{Matthew 13:37 He answered and said, “THE ONE WHO SOWS THE GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN,
Matthew 13:38 and THE FIELD IS THE WORLD and as for THE GOOD SEED, THESE ARE THE SONS OF THE KINGDOM, and THE TARES ARE THE SONS OF THE EVIL ONE,
Matthew 13:39 and THE ENEMY WHO SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL, and THE HARVEST IS THE END OF THE AGE, and THE REAPERS ARE ANGELS.”}}
What could be clearer? All the “players” and terms are explained. One thing I will say, and I know some would want to disagree, but wait until the end before you do that – “the sons of the Kingdom” are the Jewish saints of the Tribulation. Matthew is a specific gospel with the Jews as the focus.
Of course in a general sense the sown word went to all the world and believers come from the Gentile nations also. We know that from the first Parable, but Matthew is confining his message to the Jews here. We are talking about the Kindgom to be set up in Jerusalem at the Second Coming. When the Lord returns (Matthew 24) all the redeemed of the Gentile nations will also enter that Kingdom. More on that later.
In Verse 39, the time of the harvest is given and this is the end of the age. More on that shortly. It is a critical verse.
[C]. THE FATE OF THE TARES, THE UNRIGHTEOUS ONES OF THE WORLD – {{Matthew 13:40 “Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, SO SHALL IT BE AT THE END OF THE AGE.
Matthew 13:41 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,
Matthew 13:42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”}}
In the harvest at the Second Coming, the unrighteous tares are removed first, gathered by the angels, and thrown into hell. This is hell, not the lake of fire of Revelation 20, because that does not come into play until the great white throne. {{Revelation 20:14 “and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”}}
[D]. THE BLESSING OF THE RIGHTEOUS – {{Matthew 13:43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”}}
At the Second Coming the LORD’S kingdom is set up on earth, the Millennial Kingdom, and Christ the Messiah shall reign over the whole earth (Zechariah 14:4, Zechariah 14:9). The Jewish saints are in the Kingdom but the righteous nations live on earth under the Lord’s rule. (Zechariah 14:16-17)
NOW WE GET TO THE SPECIFICS
[1]. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE END OF THE AGE? Matthew 13:39.
“The end of the age” is most specific in Matthew and the best explanation of it is in Matthew 24 and 25. At the start of chapter 24 the disciples asked about this – {{Matthew 24:3 “As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming AND OF THE END OF THE AGE?”}}
Jesus answered the disciples in the remainder of Chapter 24 so none of what is found in Chapter 24 relates to us because we are not “in the period of the end of the age”. The AV misuses the translation as “end of the world” but it means the end of the age. Nearly all of Matthew 24 is taken up by the Tribulation period.
I know some of you might think this is strange because you have not heard it before. An age normally has a beginning and an end. The age of Nebuchadnezzar was when he began ruling until his death or his abdication. The bible knows certain ages but I will confine it to these in the New Testament –
(a). THE JEWISH AGE – The Jewish age began with Abraham and works right through the Old and New Testaments but comes into its own at the Second Coming when Messiah comes back to His own people. Jehovah as the wife of Israel will never end.
(b). THE CHURCH AGE - This began at Pentecost (I know some say at the cross, even at the first advent) and will end at the Rapture when the Church is the Bride of Christ. It already is that but it all comes to vital reality.
(m). THE AGE OF THE KINGDOM – We are talking about the Kingdom for the Jews/Israel, not the Kingdom of God for the world. This began with the preaching of Jesus especially in the “document” for the Kingdom in Matthew 5-7 but has lain in dormancy through rejection. Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom which was rejected by a stubborn nation, but in the Tribulation it will be preached – {{Matthew 24:14 “This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.”}} That end answers the disciples’ question about the end of the age. Jesus began by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, as did John the Baptist. The Kingdom for Israel takes on a whole new perspective at the Second Coming.
(d). THE ETERNAL AGE – In its truest sense the eternal age begins with {{Revelation 21:1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea,”}}. I know the saints of the Church age now have eternal life but it is the eternal age of which I speak.
[2]. THE HARVEST AT THE END OF THE AGE. Matthew 13:39
The angels are the reapers and the gatherers who will pluck out all unrighteousness from the world. THIS END OF THE AGE IS THE SECOND COMING. Matthew 24 sheds a lot of light on this. We look at an important passage –
{{Matthew 24:37-42 “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah for as in those days which were BEFORE THE FLOOD they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came AND TOOK THEM ALL AWAY - SO SHALL THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE. Then there shall be two men in the field - ONE WILL BE TAKEN and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill - ONE WILL BE TAKEN, and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming”}}
*** We could write so much on those verses but I must be restrained. The days of Noah was impending judgement, and the flood carried away THE UNRIGHTEOUS! The Son of Man comes in a similar fashion at the Second Coming. He will take away THE UNRIGHTEOUS (tares) as the flood did. It is then the harvest of the tares will happen.
Two examples of what happens in that harvest are given. One in the field is taken away and one at the mill is taken also. This is the harvest, the reaping of the angels. This is the removal of the tares. IT IS SO WRONG to apply those two verses to the Rapture to say those taken are raptured. Very wrong! Those taken are reaped away in the harvest of the tares by the angels.
*** The second aspect of the removal of the tares is in these verses set just after the Second Coming – {{Matthew 25:31-34 “WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES IN HIS GLORY, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne and ALL THE NATIONS will be gathered before Him, and HE WILL SEPARATE THEM FROM ONE ANOTHER as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM prepared for you from the foundation of the world”}}
The separation of the sheep and goat nations is the same separation as of the wheat and the tares. The sheep nations are those who help and supported the Jews in the Tribulation (Matthew 25:35-40) and the goats opposed and persecuted them. The sheep nations will inherit that Millennial Kingdom the Messiah sets up, while the goat nations suffer this fate – {{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.”}} They are consigned to hell.
That covers the harvest at the end of the age, the reaping to eliminate all unrighteousness from Messiah’s Kingdom so we will then have {{Isaiah 11:9 “They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”}}. In prophecy, a mountain means kingdom.
[3]. THE REMARKABLE CORRELATION OF THE PARABLE WITH THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA
In the Parable of the Sower we saw how that Parable matched the church at Ephesus, one of the 7 churches of Asia Minor. Well, all 7 Parables match the corresponding church of Revelation 2 and 3. The Parable of the Tares correlates with Smyrna.
SMYRNA still exists as the third largest city in Turkey (I think) and was a centre of great idolatry (Cybele, Dionysus, Bacchus) and compulsory Emperor worship. Its name means “SUFFERING”, from myrrh which was a spice associated with suffering and death (Offered by the Magi). The whole Christian church there at Smyrna was the focus of suffering and death.
THE BRIEFEST LOOK AT THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA
[AA]. {{Revelation 2:8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:
Revelation 2:9 “I KNOW YOUR TRIBULATION and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”}}
This church was suffering because of severe persecution and they had to contend with the tares, for false teaching was spreading like wildfire. Verse 8 reminds them of the resurrected Lord, because the martyrs among them will be resurrected. It is their hope and the Lord’s encouragement. Not all is in vain.
[Just inserting something from later – this church represents the period of Church History of the great persecutions up to A.D. 312]
[BB]. {{Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you ARE ABOUT TO SUFFER. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have TRIBULATION TEN DAYS. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”}}
The letter reveals the poverty of the saints, yet their riches; the false Jews and faithfulness unto death. They would endure this suffering for 10 days. Emperor Diocletian was the last of the 10 persecuting emperors. This gives the picture of the persecuted church that multiplied martyrs possibly to the million over that time in the world. It stretched from roughly 100 AD to 312 AD and was the time of awful suffering and death for the whole church, all characterised by this Smyrnan church. So much suffering.
The Smyrnans also readily accepted the Caesar worship and built a temple to Tiberius Caesar. The worship of the emperor was compulsory and each year a Roman citizen had to burn a pinch of incense on the altar to acknowledge publicly that Caesar was the supreme lord, but this act of worship presented a vital test for the Christians, and many who refused perished at the stake or by wild beasts in the arena.
Smyrna was famous for another reason - the wine it produced, which has been suggested, played a significant part in the orgiastic rites of Cybele and Bacchus (Dionysus). Followers of Bacchus drank the wine and tore apart the flesh of a slain bull (offered to the god) and devoured it still dripping with blood. They partook of the life of the god. That was paganism.
The letter to the Christians of Smyrna is full of the suggestion of suffering as they faced very severe persecution. This church represents the period of church history of the deepest persecutions, and they were to have persecution 10 days. This covered approximately the 320 years of the worst persecutions under the 10 emperors who issued severe persecution edicts against Christians. 10 days = 10 Emperors (See, God even knew that!!!!). They were -
Nero A.D. 54
Domitian A.D. 81
Trajan A.D. 98
Antoninus A.D. 117
Severus A.D. 195
Maximim A.D. 235
Decius A.D. 249
Valerian A.D. 254
Aurelian A.D. 270
(and maybe the worst), Diocletian A.D. 284
Every possible means of cruelty and sadism and torture was used against the Christians (I have accounts of these in quite graphic description from Eusebius (about 325 AD). The “10 days” indicates that there is a limit beyond which the wrath of man and the bitterness of Satan are not allowed to go. We are never tried beyond the strength God gives us at the time! The wind is tempered to the shorn lamb.
[3]. THE REMARKABLE CORRELATION OF THE PARABLE WITH THE CHURCH IN CHURCH HISTORY
Smyrna matches the second of the Kingdom parables - The Tares. There the good and counterfeit grow up together and are allowed to do so. The growth of false teaching in the church was taking hold. Many doctrines were coming in that denied Christ and His person and work. Gnosticism was spreading. The tares were taking hold just as Jesus said. However they were allowed to grow and so they have, and some have seeded such terrible discord, and they are truly thriving today!
This church represents the second period of Church History, a horrible time that called for faithfulness to death. It covers the end of the first century until the time of Constantine, the years of bitter suffering and death for all who would be faithful to Christ.
The next parable to be done is the mustard seed, a parable grossly misunderstood.
