Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Theme: The Kingdom of God is like tares in the wheat.

For the foreseeable future, I want to turn our attention to the Parables on Sunday evening — particularly what we call the Kingdom Parables.

It just seems appropriate considering that on Sunday mornings we’re talking about the coming of God’s Kingdom at the end of the age.

The Disciples were constantly asking questions about God’s Kingdom.

“What is the kingdom of heaven?” “Where is it found?”

“Who will get into it, and who won’t?”

And “When will it begin—or, has it already begun?”

Believers in every generation would have asked those questions.

Jesus' parables are seemingly simple and memorable stories, and although these parables seem simple, the messages they convey are deep, and central to the teachings of Jesus — especially his teachings about the Kingdom.

In His stories about the Kingdom of God Jesus speaks of three things: Characteristics of the Kingdom, Characteristics of the King, and Characteristics of the King’s Subjects.

We call them Kingdom Parables, because Jesus begins each by saying: “The Kingdom of God is like ...”

We’re going to begin our meander through the parables of Jesus this evening with a look at one of the Kingdom Parables in Matthew’s Gospel.

It is the story of the Wheat and Tares.

I. THE TALE . . .

Matthew 13:24-30

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 "but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

26 "But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

27 "So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have tares?' 28 "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'

The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' 29 "But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

30 'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'

(Matthew 13:24-30, NASB95)

1. as He does on several other occasions, Jesus uses an agriculture illustration to explain kingdom truths and principles

a. it was a story that made sense to His listeners because Israel was an agrarian society

b. it’s a parable that many Americans no longer understand because we are primarily an industrialized and urbanized society where only 3% of the population lives on farms

2. the story that Jesus tells is simple and straight-forward

Story: A man has taken considerable time and effort to sow his field with good seed with the full expectations of producing a fine and bountiful harvest of grain.

In the night, however, his enemy comes and deliberately over-sows his wheat field with bearded darnel seeds – the tares of the story.

It’s a species of rye-grass that looks like wheat when it first comes up.

As the crop begins to grow it becomes evident that tares have been sown in with the wheat.

The natural tendency of the servants is to go and pull up the weeds, but the owner decides to leave the weeds in order that the crop itself would not be harmed.

When the harvest comes, the reapers will be able to distinguish and separate the wheat from the weeds.

The weeds will be burned and the wheat stored.

A. THE LESSONS OF THE PARABLE

1. Parables — if you’ll remember from the introduction – have one central point

2. from that central point we may develop several kingdom-lessons

3. I’ll share with you the central point in a moment, but let me now introduce the lessons this parable teaches:

a. 1st, There is a real battle between the forces of spiritual good and the forces of spiritual evil in this life

b.

2nd, God sends rain on the just and the unjust — the tares as well as the wheat both get the blessing of sunshine and rain and fertile soil

c. 3rd, The Law of the Harvest bears out the end product

4. let us consider further these lessons and more as we examine the tares and the truth

II.

THE TARES . . .

Matthew 13:38b-42

" . . .

but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.

39 "The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

40 "Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.

41 "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 "and will cast them into the furnace of fire.

There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

(Matthew 13:38b-42, NASB95)

1. how do we know the meaning of this parable?

a. simple!

— Jesus tells us

b.

He doesn’t do so with all of His stories, but He does with this one

c.

so what’s the central point of the story?

1) consider what a tare is and what a tare does

2. a tare is a weed that resembled the wheat

a. but as the crops grow the tare does not develop a head like the wheat does

1) the headless stalk revealed the plant’s true nature

b. these weeds were so despised that the Jews called them bastard weeds

1) it was not uncommon for an enemy to come in under cover of darkness and sow the seeds of tares so as to try and ruin the crop of wheat

2) the goal was to choke out the wheat and thus reduce the amount of harvest

3. after telling the parable the disciples come and ask for an explanation of the story of the tares

a. in doing so they place an emphasis upon the tares themselves and Jesus places the emphasis upon our response to the tares

b. isn’t that interesting

A. THE CENTRAL POINT OF THE PARABLE

1. in verses 36-43 Jesus identifies the tares and the tare-sower and the destiny of both

a. the devil is the sower of the tares

b. the tares are the sons of the devil (unbelievers)

1) there fate is destruction of the tares, and the sower of the tares in eternal punishment

2. the central point: The devil is in the business of "killing, stealing and destroying" (John 0:10) and Satan does this in part by planting and producing "look-a-likes" or counterfeits that strive to hinder the work of God

3. I believe one of the greatest needs in the Body of Christ today is for spiritual discernment

a. discernment is a way of interpreting experiences and of making choices in the light of the revealed Word of God

4. it is something desperately needed in the church today

a. why?

b. because Satan is a master counterfeiter

1) the Devil is now busy at work in the same field in which the Lord sowed the good seed

2) he is seeking to prevent the growth of the wheat by introducing another plant into the field — the tares — which closely resembles the wheat in appearance

3) by a process of imitation and mimicry, he is aiming to neutralize the Work of Christ

4) just as Christ has a Gospel, Satan has a gospel too; the latter being a clever counterfeit of the former

5) anything that adds to the Gospel, or subtracts from the Gospel is a parody of the true gospel, and therefore a false gospel

a) multitudes of the unsaved are deceived by false gospels

c. false prophets and false gospels and false Messiahs abound in our world

1) we need to be able to tell the difference between those things that truly are of God and from God, and those that are not

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.

By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

(1 John 4:1-6 NASB95)

B. THE "LOOK-A-LIKES" . . .

1. there are look-a-like Christians

a. the Bible calls them false brethren

"I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;" (2 Corinthians 11:26, NASB95)

b. the apostle Paul refers to those who talk like Christians; who may even insist that they are Christians, but they simply don’t walk the walk — they’re playing at being Christian