Wheat and Tares

Matthew 13:24-30

This year we had the initiative to equip all of you with evangelism, giving the gospel to others, so I thought it would be fitting to teach a parable about some individuals you might run into beyond these doors. These individuals are the most prevalent, the most common type you might encounter. So, let’s take a look.

If you would please turn with me to Matthew chapter 13, The parable of the Tares among Wheat in Matthew 13:24. I’m going to read the parable and then skip down to verse 37 and read Jesus’ explanation of it, then we are going to look at it a little deeper, understand it a little better, and hopefully understand these people it talks about a little better. I am going to have a large introduction to this, but we will get to a lot more verses towards the end, so bear with me through the large intro in explaining this.

Matthew 13:24-30 (Read)

Matthew 13:37-43 (Read)

Jesus is presenting us with another kingdom parable, again the kingdom is a reference to the true followers on earth. The church body.

Matthew 4:17 Jesus says at the start of His ministry, repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, it is now here on earth. Christ is going to start His church and that represents the kingdom of heaven, a piece of it at least, on the earth. And He is saying these parables to describe it.

So, the first comparison is a man who sowed good seed in his field. We know from the explanation below, that the man is Jesus who sows good seed, which in this parable does not represent the gospel message like the parable of the 4 soils above, but now represents the sons of the kingdom or true followers of Christ. So, Christ is electing and planting true followers of Him in the world. He is starting His universal church.

Verse 25 “while they were sleeping”, btw what happens when you sleep? You don’t know, if things do happen, they happen unbeknownst to you. When I was a kid, I slept so hard, that my parents said if a train hit the house, I wouldn’t know it until morning. I was a very hard sleeper. But that’s the point, we sleep, and we don’t know what’s happening when we sleep.

So, this symbolizes something happening behind the scenes, and what is happening behind the scenes is Satan has come and planted tares among the wheat. Tares is just an ancient term for weeds that look like wheat. The enemy has come and planted fake followers of Christ within the mix of True followers of Christ.

This imagery is powerful because if you really wanted to destroy someone’s livelihood during this ancient time, this is what you would do, they already had very little yield from what they planted, so introducing weeds purposefully to someone's field would destroy it.

And Satan knows this, so he thinks this is a good plan. But Jesus already knows this. Jesus is describing Satan’s attempt to try and thwart God’s church.

We know Satan is still alive, he is still the ruler of this world for a time, and he hasn’t been thrown into the lake of fire yet. So now what, now Satan is just trying to do as much damage as he can. He hates God and is always trying to frustrate God and His people, to try and thwart God’s plan even though he can’t. Because God is sovereign, (meaning He is in control of all things), and even Satan is bound to work within God’s sovereignty.

And Jesus explains in this parable, this is exactly what Satan is trying to do. Satan’s next big futile plan, try to destroy the church, Christ’s bride whom He cherishes. But Satan still operates within God’s sovereignty. You can look at Job Chapter 1 for greater guidance there, but our time limits us from going into that.

Back to the parable in verses 27 – 29 (Read)

Christ has allowed the enemy to plant tares among His wheat and the slaves want to immediately go and rip out the tares. But Christ says no, not yet. Let them grow together until the end of time. There are many reasons for this.

Notice at the beginning of verse 27 the slaves. Who are the slaves? The slaves represent the followers of Christ, the wheat. We are mentioned in the bible as slaves to Christ, slaves to righteousness. It’s not the angels, look down at verse 30, the reapers, so we have slaves and reapers in the same parable, now look down at the end of verse 39, the reapers are the angels.

So, imagine the church, us, go to Christ Jesus and say hey, there’s weeds in here, unbelievers mixed in with the church, you want us to kick them out? Get rid of them? And God says no, not yet, and look at God’s reason in verse 29, this is very important. (Read) Why do think Jesus chose tares and wheat as the analogy here? Well, we aren’t 100% certain what a tare is because that’s been long lost in the translation of plants through languages, but we can guess that it is a modern-day darnel. A darnel is a weed that looks almost identical to wheat in the early ages.

(Here is a picture of wheat and darnels in the early ages). Both are green, and both look almost identical to each other. And that is true for the church. There are unsaved, self-deceived individuals mixed in with immature true followers of Christ. I’m not just talking about this church but the whole universal church in general, all over the world. Now there might be unsaved individuals among us here, but the problem is, we all look identical, just like wheat and tares do.

And Christ says not yet, you might uproot some wheat with the tares. You guys’ ever plant flowers and you have them planted, and you water them and then eventually weeds come up by them. You go to pull the weed out and the flower comes with it because their roots are all intertwined? Well, that’s one aspect of what Christ could be referencing.  

What Christ is mainly saying, is that because the weeds look exactly like the wheat, you might pull out the wheat mistaking it for a weed. In the process of excommunicating unsaved people from our church, if we went up and down the pews and started playing salvation police, and if we don’t believe your saved, get out! We might inevitably, accidentally pull a true follower out of the church, because they might look identical to an unbeliever.

And why is that? Well let’s look at the wheat first. We know all true followers are all in different stages of growth, of maturity in the faith. Some of you might have been a Christian for 40 + years and know the Bible front and back, know all the doctrines, know all about theology, and some of you might have been a Christian for to 2 weeks and know nothing yet, an infant in the faith as Paul puts it.

So, if we went around and asked people deep theological questions as our criteria if a person is saved or not, a new Christian isn’t going to know that. And we say get out! Or we do find an unsaved person and we see say get out! But that person is a child of true believers in the church and now they leave because they are hurt, and they just wanted their child to hear the message of Christ. You see how that can get really messy.

So, Christ says no, let them grow together. Another reason is maybe the unsaved person hears the message, sees the peace and actions of true followers, sees the fruits of the Spirit in followers of Christ, and eventually comes to the faith because of that. That’s the whole goal, right? Bring people to Christ? Don’t kick them out, feed them the gospel.

But, what Jesus is saying, is the church in general, not the building, but the people, the body, we don’t go and start our own community and gate it off and kick everyone out who is unsaved, no we are supposed to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, we are supposed to go out into the world and tell people about Christ and Him crucified. And when we gather as a church, there will be unsaved people gathering with us thinking they are saved but are not. Jesus says we don’t go hunting them down and throwing them out. Always talk, always give the gospel, and always give your testimony to every one. Even if they are unsaved, don’t throw them away, feed them the gospel.

Now, if they sin and live in unrepentant sin, that’s different, we use church discipline to try and correct that behavior, if not we do kick them out in the end if they don’t repent., but that is getting rid of sin, not necessarily just because someone is unsaved. But we can’t go down that road this morning either.

What we are also not talking about is false teachers, those individuals that Satan plants to inflict severe damage to the church, who spread false doctrine and heresy. We use church discipline with them also. Unless they repent and turn to Christ. But that’s also a different category.

Now let’s look at who the tares actually are. Who we are talking about is unsaved people who are self-deceived, those who think they are followers of Christ, probably put on a decent show, but are not. Now let’s look at some examples from Scripture of weeds even within the early church.

Hebrews 6:4-6 (Find and read) Let’s walk through this a moment. The writer of Hebrews is talking about people who are partakers of the faith, meaning they participate and interact with the faith, and do the things believers do but are still not saved. These are self-deceived individuals.

· They once were enlightened – they received instruction in biblical truth, and they understood the gospel. Understanding the gospel is not the equivalent of regeneration. Enlightenment on Scripture is not equal to salvation. I once heard a pastor confess that he could read the entire Bible front to back in its original languages, memorized most of it in Hebrew and Greek, and wasn’t saved until several years after that.

· Tasted the heavenly gift – everybody experiences the goodness of God one way or another, unsaved people today can still become millionaires and live 100 years pain-free, that’s God’s mercy even to unbelievers. People back then experienced healing from Jesus and the Holy Spirit through the Apostles but that again does not equal salvation. They were healed by Christ’s mercy but that was it, no commitment. Jesus felt bad for them, even though they would end up in hell one day, Jesus still healed people of their earthly illnesses.

· Partakers of the Holy Spirit – They participate in the relationship that believers have but they don’t actually have a relationship. This doesn’t mean sealed with the Holy Spirit like a believer is, this is just referencing acting like a believer. Acting like they have the Holy Spirit. Like going to church, reading your bible, and helping the poor. You can do all those things but still not have a relationship with Christ.

o Matthew 7:22-23They could perform miracles in Jesus's name, they could prophesy, they could cast out demons. This meant nothing, and Jesus sent them to hell. There was no relationship. I never knew you.

· Vs 5. Tasted the good word and powers – These individuals have seen and heard all that God will show them. They know God’s word and, in this day, have even seen miracles happen, maybe had miracles performed on themselves, but they are still not saved, there is no regeneration.

· Vs. 6 And then have fallen away – all the writer of Hebrews is saying here is that these people are almost impossible to bring to the true faith once they have done and seen all of this, the most knowledge of God they can obtain. If they fall away and reject Christ after all of this, they won’t ever come to the faith.

· The hardest people to evangelize are these people. But also self-deceived people, who think they are Christians, who think they are true followers but are not. These are weeds, the tares, the ones who haven’t rejected the faith but are still around, thinking they are in the faith. But I wanted to show you even unsaved people can do and experience these things, which we are going to look at later.

· BTW, this is not a passage explaining you can lose your salvation. If you think this passage explains losing salvation, you will have to wrestle with verse 6 yourself in that you can never get it back.

Titus 1:15-16, (Find and read) They profess to know God, but they don’t. Examples in Scripture:

Judas Iscariot – followed Jesus, proclaimed Jesus for 3 years (he had to have been one of the disciples sent out two by two), a tare among the wheat, following Jesus just like the other disciples and he must’ve done a decent job because the other disciples didn’t have a clue, until the end. Judas was never converted and unsaved, self-deceived, and went to hell. Judas followed and lived with God incarnate for 3 years, and still wasn’t saved.

The Pharisees – The most religious people to ever exist, arguably. They had the OT memorized. Their entire lives centered around religion and ceremonies and God, or so they thought. They were the ones to profess to know God, they thought they knew God better than anyone. They thought they were doing right with God. But their deeds gave them away. What happened to the Pharisees?

Matthew 23:13 (Find and read)

· 14 – Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites

· 15 – Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites

· 16 – Woe to you blind guides

· 17 – You fools and blind men

· 19, 23, 24, 25, through 32

Then look at Verse 33, still speaking about the Pharisees.

· These Pharisees, besides a couple like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, centered their lives around what they thought was with God and knowing God, and they all went to hell. The most religious people toward God in all of history.

· Scary stuff and I don’t mean to sound like a fire and brimstone preacher, but I’m just quoting Jesus. But the good news is we all have a choice right now, as we are still on this earth today, to turn to Christ, and accept the free gift of salvation that God offers through His Son. Accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

I want to show you these slides because I want to be as clear as possible and show you the difference between unsaved people and saved people.

Unsaved people can:

„ Know Jesus is God, know for a fact God exists. James 2:19, even the demons believe in God and tremble. You believe in God, so what, the demons do also, and they aren’t going to heaven.

„ Profess to know Jesus. Matthew 7:22-23 Many on that day will get to Christ expecting to get into heaven because they did many things in Jesus' name. Sorry doesn’t qualify, depart from Me for eternity.

„ Defend Jesus, I remember in high school I would defend God, and try to give evidence of His existence and attributes, but I wasn’t saved for 10 years after that. The Pharisees who went to hell, if you crossed God in their eyes, boy they would put you to death. They put Jesus to death for what they thought was blasphemy.

„ Read the whole Bible or have read the whole bible. You heard the story of the pastor reading the whole bible in its original languages. Also, the Pharisees again, memorized the OT. Doesn’t mean anything toward salvation. You can know it all, but you can’t know the spiritual meaning behind it, without the Holy Spirit within you.

„ Know the entire Gospel truth, they can know one is saved by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone by the authority of Scripture alone. But you there’s no commitment. They can know the truth and not commit. I have personally seen several people do this. They told me to my face that they knew what the truth was, I explained the gospel to them, and they said they didn’t want to commit to Jesus because they didn’t want to give up their sin. Hebrews 6:4-6 They know the truth but reject it.

„ Go to church every day of their life if they desire. I know some people who do this, and they are not saved. How many people come here on Sunday just to check a box, I did it, that’s my Christian life, see you next Sunday. I hope none of us do that. Pharisees again, would live in the temple performing sacrifices, we already know where they ended up.

„ Do all the “nice church things.” Give to the poor, tithe to the church, and help anyone and everyone. They participate in church ministries. They can be members of the church, and get this, they can even be pastors of a church.

„ Call themselves (truly think) they are followers of Christ, but they are self-deceived. Matthew 7:13-14, 22-23. Many. Jesus isn’t just talking to people in general, he’s talking to people who think they are Christian.

„ Be a really “nice” person. I know some atheists who would put some Christians to shame on how nice they are. At least externally. They can even be extremely humble, externally.

„ Have great feelings and emotions towards God. I remember as an unsaved individual times when I would get on my knees and pray for an hour plus and be weeping and very emotional and thought I had a connection with God. But I was not saved until years later. That meant nothing. Romans 8:8. You can do this too as a believer and that’s okay but so can unsaved people. Don’t be self-deceived.

„ Btw we heard Frank Turek, a speaker at the apologetic conference we just attended, he had a whole presentation on not following your heart. Your heart can have a lot of emotions and feelings that feel right. Don’t trust them. Don’t trust your heart, it is the most wicked part of your body, and the most deceiving. Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 4:23 That’s why even as Christians, we have to take every thought prisoner and bring it before Christ, before His holy word. Our hearts can still trick us. Don’t trust it ever.

„ Many people base their salvation on a time in their life when they felt emotional about God or Christ, but it was short-lived, with no commitment, no life change, and no continual growth. Things you must have if you are truly saved.

People can do all these things and still end up separate from God for eternity. Now saved people can obviously do all these things as well, but this isn’t how you are saved.

A truly saved person

„ One who has a wholehearted dedication to Jesus Christ that is permanent and continuing. (Believing in Christ Jesus) This is what that means, not just knowing He exists. (1 John)

„ One who has given up and devoted their life and authority to Christ alone. (Romans 10:9)

„ One who has been born again (life change) and now mainly focuses on Christ, growing in Christ, wholeheartedly attempts to do everything for the glory of Christ.

„ One who desires God’s word, who loves God more than anything or anybody else, who genuinely loves others. (Now I want to be very clear about something) Even as Christians, we don’t do these things perfectly, but we desire to do so. It burns within us to obey and please Christ above all else, especially when we still as truly saved children of God fall short of these things sometimes.

„ But if you have zero desire, no love, you hate others, you’re disgusted at the thought of reading the bible or maybe you just say, I’ll get to it eventually. You're not saved. And I can say that on behalf of 1 John. John says if you hate, you’re not saved. If there’s no love or desire to love God better, you’re not saved. If you come to church just to check a box, not having a genuine desire to fellowship, worship God, and hear His word, you’re not saved.  If you don’t desire to obey His commandments, to please Christ, you’re not saved. And if you feel convicted over this or feel uncomfortable or offended. Test yourself against Scripture. Go to the Word and see if you are truly saved.

„ Listen, folks, Scripture tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5) You can do this with the letter of 1 John, which is a great case study to see if you are in the faith or not. John says his purpose for writing 1 John is so you will know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13

„ What happens when wheat matures, it turns golden brown. It’s no longer green; the weeds stay green. Then they become very distinguishable. Wheat then produces fruit or grain right, and weeds do not. Christ says you will know them by their fruit.

„ Are the fruits of the Spirit increasing in your life? Test yourself. Gal. 5:22-23

Luke 9:23-25 (Find and Read) You must give up your earthly life, the one you want to control and be in charge of, to gain eternal life. This means devoting your life and authority to Jesus. Giving it up. This is what acknowledging Christ as Lord means.

Galatians 2:20 (Find and Read) Again the idea of giving yourself up, taking yourself out of the driver's seat of your life, and letting Christ in. And as true followers, we know our old life the one that we wanted to control and have authority over is dead. Christ nailed that person to the cross, and we are now a new person, and it is Christ who lives in us, directing us, conforming us, transforming us, daily. That is what a true Christian is. These desires might vary from day to day. Sometimes we have bad days, but it’s a continuous growing desire to know more about our Lord. No desire at all, ever, that’s a weed.

1 John 2:15 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The ladder analogy I did with the kids last week, you choose to go with the world, you lose God. You have to give up your worldly life, to gain eternal life. Again, these are not works to achieve your salvation, this happens by the grace of God. He transforms you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a choice, throw yourself at the mercy of Christ and He will save you if you really desire it. Those who seek will find according to Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:13 Imposters will go from bad to worse. Self-deception is very prevalent today. The more you go out and proclaim the gospel, you are going to realize this. That narrow path that leads to life keeps getting smaller, and smaller and smaller.

I’ve talked to so many people bringing them the gospel and most of them said they were Christians, but talking with them further, I found out that probably 98% of them weren’t even close. They had no idea; they were so lost but they thought they were going to heaven. And that wasn’t a brag or boasting, it is all God working through me, I’m nothing. God commands us to give the gospel, so I do my best to obey Him. I just wanted to give you an idea and an example of how bad it is out there. I’ve seen it personally.

It’s very sad, but that is why more workers need to enter the field, that’s why we are equipping an evangelism team, we hope you would pray about being on that team. Even if you are not on the team, you are still commanded to go out and give the gospel.

And as you go out, you will have to be aware of self-deceived people, people will tell you yea I’m a Christian, but they are not, they are a weed. Now don’t go spraying them with roundup. Don’t run at them with a weedwhacker. That’s the opposite of what Jesus is telling us here. That’s how we can apply this message today.

Even if they say they are Christians, we tend to let our guard down. Keep digging. Ask them questions. They might be self-deceived and unsaved. I think I told you the story of the pastor I met, he was a pastor in Findlay for 30 years, and I thought oh he's good. Then I asked him, how is one saved? And he said that’s a great mystery. A pastor for 30 years means nothing. No offense Pastor Steve. It means nothing if you’re not saved.

Let’s go back and end the parable.

Matthew 13:30 (Find and Read)

Only at the harvest will God separate us. The followers and the unsaved. But for now, we are growing together. For now, our goal is to bring the weeds to become wheat, the goats to become sheep, and the travelers of the wide path to come to the narrow path that leads to life. Satan tries to ruin God’s field, and plant weeds. God says It’s okay, let them grow together, I have the power to change weeds into wheat. And I’m going to let my wheat go a change them.

I pray there are no weeds in here, but if there are, I hope you know the full truth now and you throw yourselves at the mercy of Christ. Pray to Him today, understand you fall so short of the glory of God, and the only way to reach Christ and dwell with Him forever is to give up everything and give it to Christ, accept His sacrifice as the only way to wipe away your sins, your punishment and you will be saved.

And all the wheat will be gathered in God’s barn. God will gather all those who trusted in His Son alone, into heaven, and we will dwell with Him for eternity.

Matthew 13:43 (Read) The true followers of Christ will shine as bright as the sun in heaven, in the kingdom of our Father. How awesome and something to look forward to.