"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." 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 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; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40 So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 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, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
Good Morning my beloved,
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
It has become increasingly difficult distinguish who are genuine Christians and who are not, however, that does not mean we are to become morally paralyzed. Though Jesus tells us that we are not to judge the heart, judging the motives of others, that doesn't mean that we cannot evaluate someone's words and actions. It is not judgmental to confront actions that reveal there is a problem.
Many Christians, as well as unbelievers love to misinterpret Jesus' words in Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, lest you be judged,"as meaning we must never judge another persons actions no matter what. I do not believe this was Jesus' intent. We can and should declare that certain actions are right and others wrong, especially within the church. To be clear, the Lord is not prohibiting us from making moral judgments. We can and should declare that some ideas are true, and others are false. Scripture is replete with warnings of false teachers deceiving the people of God. We must be very careful not to misinterpret Jesus' teaching on the basis of our own opinions or personal preferences, but teach what the Bible tells us that it is wrong. While we are called to love our neighbor, as well as our enemies, that does not mean we are not to confront error with Truth, which is very different from hating them.
John 3:16 teaches "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." With that in mind, we must remember that Jesus Himself never altered His message to please a sinful people. He confronted their sin and called them to repentance. As the people of God, followers of Christ, we must do the same. When the Bible says that a certain practice is sinful,we need to tell the truth to those around us. The
tolerance and acceptance of sin, encouraging a lifestyle leading to
Hell is by far the worst thing we can do in loving our neighbor. We still need to call sin, sin, especially those within the church who are living an immoral lifestyle. I believe anyone should be welcome to attend church, but in order to become a member there must be substantial evidence of being a regenerate follower of Christ before becoming a member of the church. As my grandmother always used to say, "Actions speak louder than words."
As Christians, we need to be very careful that we don't misjudge others because we can't see inside people's hearts, motives matter. We need to understand their reasons for doing something rather than simply judging the act itself. Doing all that we can to help a person become the individual God wants him or her to be. A woman who has beer in her refrigerator may be more godly than a woman who simply throws it out just to irritate her husband. I have heard stories of church members who refused to take part of a Bible study the pastor was leading because his theology was not biblical being told they have an "unteachable spirit." Labeling those who disagree with us about how something should be done in the church is far different than a disagreement over teaching that contradicts the Bible. God has called us here together not to judge each other, but to serve one another. However, we must always stand firm in our convictions over biblical truth as long as they are pure and sincere. Truth is not always comfortable, but it is always essential.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
In Christ's name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: Weeding out Judgment
Open your Bibles with me to the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 13:36-43.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds.
Let us open our hearts for what the Spirit of God has to say to each of
us.
"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." And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 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; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 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. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
As we noted previously, Jesus deliberately adopted the parabolic method of teaching at a
particular point in His ministry for the purpose of withholding further
truth about Himself and the kingdom of heaven from the unbelieving crowds who were not seeking the truth, desiring no further explanation, which He interprets to His disciples privately who asked Him for the meaning. Jesus explained the parables to them because still young in their understanding of spiritual things, they were not able to fully understand them on their own.
Let's look at verse 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." The first observation I'd like you to notice is that "He left the crowds." Why did He do that? We find the answer in verses 10 through 13, "And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." In other words, because they don’t believe in Me." So He left the crowds and went into the house."
I suppose the obvious question would be what house? While Scripture does not give us that information, so we can't be dogmatic, we can assume that Jesus and His disciples returned home to Peter's house in Capernaum. In Mark's account in chapter 4, he says "As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables." We know the only people that receive an explanation are the ones who followed Him, the apostles and believers. They were confused, knowing the story was about the tares that didn't belong in the field with the wheat, they knew there had to be something deeper, something of importance. So in the following verses Jesus answers their question.
Verse 37, "And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man," we know the sower He's talking about is Himself, He's the One sowing the seed. The Son of Man, is the title He often uses for Himself. Why the Son of Man and not the Son of God? First, because Son of Man identifies His incarnation, His humanness. And it's also the messianic title used in Daniel chapter 7, "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is on which will not be destroyed." So they would have known that was a Messianic title.
Notice verse 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;." Since Jesus is King of the earth, the world belongs to Him. We know that in Revelation 6, it says He holds the title deed and will return to claim what's rightfully His. Even though Satan has usurped everything, it still belongs to Christ. The the good seed are the children of the kingdom, that the Lord sows into the world.
I find it amazing that many, in fact most, still try to interpret the field to mean the church, even though Jesus Himself says the field is the world. There's no need to interpret what He meant, because He just said it! If Jesus wanted to use the word church, He easily could have. After all, He created them both. He knows what they are. So Jesus is the farmer, the one sowing the seeds; the field is the world. The good seeds are the believers He puts all around the world. What a comforting thought to know that we are where we are not here by accident, right? It's intentional, that's we’re not to isolate ourselves from the world. We're called to influence it. We are also to be perfected, to be matured by the pressure that it brings to our lives being in the world with the children of the evil one. Evil one is the Greek word "ho poneros," referring to the enemy, Satan. Much the way diamond is formed and perfected by intense pressure over time.
Verse 39, "And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels." The enemy that sowed them is Satan. Anyone who is not a child of God is a child of the wicked one. That's the only two kind of people. You either submit to and obey Christ or you submit to and obey Satan, it's that simple. Satan is the enemy who over sows his children of disobedience in the good field. Satan literally has his people everywhere. We're mingled together. There you’ve got the history of the world, good and evil together, it's going to be that way until the end. Satan is the author of evil, sowing son of disobedience as close to God's people as he can. They're in our neighborhoods, our places of employment, our schools and colleges, seminaries. They're even in the churches and pulpits.
We see that in Matthew 7, "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
By the way, devil here in verse 39, is the word "diabolos," meaning adversary, enemy. In secular Greek it means "backbiter," "slanderer," or "accuser." Playing out his evil nature, he is being used by God for His plans and purposes. It's as Joseph said in Genesis 50:20;
" As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."
Look at verse 40, "So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age." The disciples were ready to put in the sickle and tear 'em out. I can just imagine James and John's reaction here. "Yeah, Burn 'em up! Call down fire from heaven!" Why do I imagine that? Because they've done it before. Luke chapter 9, "When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"
In our impatience, I'm sure we've all felt that way at some point. I don't care what people say about me, but when it comes to my Lord, I've often asked "What are You waiting on Lord? Just get rid of them!" But Jesus tells us let 'em grow, "the harvest is the end of the age." In trying to judge the world, without divine insight, you’re going to wind up condemning the Christians. On August 24, 1527, the Roman Catholic Church under Jesuit influence, trying to get rid of all the ungodly, murdered 70,000 Protestants within the span of two months. We are called to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples not to attack the world. God doesn't want us going around destroying unbelievers, that's not our job! Think about it, how did Christ treat Judas? He was loving, gracious and patient. The same way He treated all sinners. In the end of the age, God is going judge.
Look at verses 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." The angels will gather all the unbelieving, the professing church permeated by false doctrine, all the sinful that offend Him and all those that practice lawlessness, are cast into the furnace of fire. This imagery of eternal hell is the most horrifying death that man could ever imagine, much less experience. That's why their reaction "will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The ungodly will be consumed in "unquenchable fire," a phrase Scripture uses over and over again.
I've often heard people say they'd rather go to hell, that's where their friends will be. It'll be one big party. They think they’ll love it. That's not the imagery here! When the judgment falls, there will be endless shrieking, screaming in horrifying untold agony and pain, inescapable torment for all time and eternity. That doesn't sound like much fun to me, it sounds like pure hell!
That brings us to verse 43, when the anticipated kingdom of great joy and power comes. "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." The righteous will shine forth as the sun, the Father's Shekinah glory lighting the faces of the saints. It's coming as surely as the judgment of the wicked. That’s all part of it. Then, at the end of verse 43, is the application. "He who has ears, let him hear."
In Closing..
Are you listening? We're all here for a purpose, whether for good or for evil. If you're a child of God, oh the glorious future that awaits us! If you're a child of disobedience I pray that you are! While it is still the time of patience, the age of grace. If you'll call out to Him, ask Him to forgive your sin, turn away from that life, Jesus Christ will rescue you from sin and death, judgement and eternal punishment now. You can be born again, transformed, anticipating the coming kingdom of heaven.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen