The Parable Of Tares Among Wheat

Matthew 13:24-30 ; 36-43

Open your bibles to Matthew 13… we have already read our text for this evening, but we will be looking at the parable of the wheat and the tares and it's explanation in verse 36-40.

Are you ever tempted to despair? I know I am. I am tempted often to despair over the news of Christians falling away from Jesus. Churches caught covering up moral failures in leadership. Stories of children raised in Christian homes denying God and running away from Him. Stories of wayward people dying with no reason for anyone to think that they are a christian at all. Ther are many ways we are tempted to despair: wars, sickness, fights and broken relationships, inflation, injustice, and hateful attitudes. Not only that but even my own sin. Satan tempts me to despair over the guilt of the remaining sin in me and even those sins that have been past paid for by the blood of Christ. There are many ways our enemy tempts us to despair.

Well, like my dear brother in Christ, Martyn Lloyd Jones, often used to say, “we spend too much time listening to ourselves rather than preaching to ourselves.” we give too much ear to the flesh, and the devil, and the world. We give too much air time to our unredeemed thoughts…rather than taking them captive and preaching to ourselves the hope we have in Christ. This parable we will look at tonight could tempt us to despair. It primarily deals with the question of turmoil and evil in the world, especially in the church. However, the hope is that we may see the wisdom and the hope in it for the one true church of Jesus tonight.

Our text, like the last parable we looked at, has a key or a map for the players in the parable. In verse 36 the disciples in private ask their Lord to explain that parable like he did the parable of the soils. So we have his response recorded for us in verse 37-39. The sower is the son of man, that is Jesus. The field he says is the world, the good seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the Satan. The enemy that sowed them is Satan himself, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels.

So as we look back over this parable we must consider what has happened. Jesus went into The world and scattered a bunch of good seed, which are the sons of the kingdom. We could say that what Jesus scattered in this parable was the church. The church meaning people who are believers and thus members of the kingdom of heaven. Which as the author of Hebrews says is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. They are set firm on a foundation. Yet, there is mischievous sowing happening. The devil comes and sows tares.

Tares are a type of weed that look identical to wheat. The only time you can tell the difference is when it's fruit breaks forth. Then you can tell in those later days what is wheat and what is a tare. But what has happened at that point? These plants are matured…and thus the danger of ripping up the tares. If you remove a tare now, you may remove wheat with it.

Now the ones who are asking about removing the tares are the servants of the son of man. He does not explain who this Character is but we know that the angels are the reapers at the end. The servants then, in my best interpretation would be those who are harvesters. Pastors, teachers, evangelists, equippers of the body.

In verse 40 Jesus makes a transition statement to show us the hope in this parable. The sorrow or conflict in this parable is that there are ones who bear bad fruit in the midst of the church bearing good fruit. That is the whole point of this parable. That the devil prepares people, who either in the church or outside of the church, look so much like Christians that the servants of the son can’t tell. Sometimes you can’t tell until it is too late. When the damage is done by these messengers of Satan. The church will try to manage this by enacting church discipline and sometimes having to remove people from the church. But we can’t possibly purify the church… We won’t purify the church from all the instruments of evil on this side of heaven.

Yet, the church of God, including the servants, are not to go around tare sniffing… We aren’t the gatekeepers or the morality police. We are to be the church with them in our midst. TO make disciples, to be a pillar and buttress of truth. The hope is not to have the church purified in the present but at the end of the age. The angels will be able to tell, and they will separate the two at the same time and gather the wheat into the barn or the house of God and gather the tares into hell.

The hope we have in the present is our salvation in Christ… Jesus said that we will always have the poor, we will always have wars and rumors of wars. We will always have sickness and death and divisions in relationships. Until the end. In the end, you dear Christian will gaze upon Jesus’ face forever and all the wrongs and evils in the world will be made right.

Let take three things away from this tonight…

We should be awake and alert to this fact that there are false Christians sprinkled among true Christians.

In the people and in the pulpit… Listen to 1 John 2:18-19

1 John 2:18–19 LSB

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.

Paul told the elders in Ephesus that this was coming. Acts 20 verse 30 he said that when he left them there was be some from among them that would rise up and speak perverse things and lead some folks astray. They are crafty, and deceptive. The devil goes about masquerading as an angel of light. He wasn’t to deceive you. And he wants to destroy the church of Jesus. This is not just true of people, or church members. Which you and I know those members who create big fusses, and split the church. We know those people, where did they come from? Just a few months ago they loved us, we were friends, we have done so much together… Used as an instrument of satan they add another crack to the church of Christ. But this is also true of pastors and those in the pulpit. How many have been given a platform based on their gifting, and these seemly harmlessness and a decade or so there is some sort of allegation or issue that comes up. From the worst cases of Jim jones, to the least obvious of cases of teachers captivating audiences every Sunday and teaching morality rather than the doctrines of the word of God.

The impurity of the Church should not discourage us from pressing on.

The reality that there will be some raised up in our midst that will hurt us should not surprise us. Trust me, every time it happens, it hurts. But Jesus has told us! He gave us this parable. Yet he tells us that the end is coming. He tells us that he is coming back. That the angels will gather and the providence and the justice of God will set everything right. Come with me to Matthew 24:4-14

Matthew 24:4–14 LSB

And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one deceives you. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. “And you are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. “And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. “Many false prophets will arise and will deceive many. “And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Look, times are tough. Life hurts. We face many trials, and temptations, and we fail much. But that is no reason to deny the grace of Christ and sit and sulk. There are souls at stake, even your own. Though there are wars, and lawlessness, and false teachers, and your friends dying, and Christian’s love of Christ growing cold, Jesus says, the one who endures, it is he that will be saved. Enduring does look like sitting around liking our wounds and waiting for Jesus to return either. That’s why the third thing is this…

Our pressing on must including keeping a keen eye on ourselves.

In 2 Peter Peter writes these words.. 2 Peter 1:4-11

2 Peter 1:4–11 LSB

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in whom these things are not present, that one is blind, being nearsighted, having forgotten the purification from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing sure; for in doing these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

My friends, are you indeed a Christian? Are you useful for the kingdom of God or useless? Are you wheat or a tare? Are you blind or seeing clearly? Have your sins been forgiven or do you remain an enemy of God and a persecutor of the Church? If you hear my voice tonight and have not called on the name of the Lord, make no delay. Call on Jesus, in this moment, and beg him to forgive you and change you. Confess your sin and unbelief and receive the Lord Jesus. Without Christ at the center of your life, you can be sure you you are either a tare and will be gathered up at the end of the age and as Jesus says in Matthew 13:42 thrown into the fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Escape the judgment and fly to Christ tonight.

My friends, the only way for others to be saved is for the church to remain dedicated to taking hold of the grace of God and making sure each one is as close to God as can be. Let there be no doubt, let there be no person to question us and wonder if we are in fact Christian or not. How do we do this? Not by sitting down, not by growing weary, but by taking great courage and keeping a keen eye on our own heart. Are you pursuing moral excellence, knowledge of Jesus Christ and the word of God, self control, perseverance, brotherly kindness, and love? Amidst the hurt we must be reminded to press on personally, and press on as a church, though the ship is battered and broken… Thus the writer of the hebrews says, and I will end with this,

Hebrews 12:11–14 LSB

And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, Strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,