While Men Slept

While Men Slept

PPT 1 Title “While Men Slept”

PPT 2- 8 Text

Matthew 13:24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Matthew 13:25 "But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.

Matthew 13:26 "But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

Matthew 13:27 "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?’

Matthew 13:28 "And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves *said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’

Matthew 13:29 "But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.

Matthew 13:30 ‘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 13:36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."

Matthew 13:37 And He 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.

Matthew 13:40 "So 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 throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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.

He that has ears to hear. Whenever you read that coming from the lips of Jesus, take note because He is telling us that what He is saying is very important, and we should regard it as so.

This passage talks about the enemies’ activities in the life of men, when they are asleep. Sleep in this passage isn’t simply talking about what we do when we go to bed, it is talking about how we are unobserving of what is going on around us.

Is the parable before us there is two benevolent groups, two nefarious entities, and one complicit entity. We see them in verses 37-39.

PPT 9 text

Matthew 13:37 And He 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

So in this section we have the good as Jesus and the sons of the kingdom, the nefarious are the devil, and tares, interestingly called the sons of the evil one. It is important you note from this parable we are talking about people and not ideas. The devil plants people. They become his living message. They are the embodiment of his plans, schemes and ideas. They are so in sync with him, he plants them then leaves, nothing more for him to do. Not all lost men and women could be called the spawns of satan, but some definitely are.

Who then, is the complicit person? BTW complicit means involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing. In this case the complicit are not involved in the sense they are doing it, but in the sense they aren’t doing anything to stop it. These people are described earlier in the passage with these words, “while men slept.” The passage is more indicting to the church than that, it says, “while His men were sleeping.” In other words God’s people were living in blissful ignorance to what was going on. They were asleep on the job!

While Samson slept, Delilah cut his hair, breaking his covenant with God, which allowed the enemy to overpower him. Multiple times Samson failed to learn the lesson of the danger of sleeping while an enemy is around.