Matthew 13:36-58 Parable Problems

New Living Translation Chapter 13

Parable of the Wheat and Weeds Explained

36 Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

37 Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. 39 The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

40 “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

We talked about this verse a couple weeks ago so you can easily hop onto our church group on Faithlife.com and listen to the sermon. If you are listening to this sermon right now and you have no idea what I am talking about with the sermons than email me directly at:

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I shared last week how I have wrestled with not being able to meet because elbow bumping in a house church is not the way we avoid germs. Heck we are elbow bumping every week because we’re in a home and in closer spaces. I prayerfully made the decisions that we will reevaluate meeting in person in our home church at the beginning of April. Right now the most loving thing we can do for each other and for our community is to...

Intentionally flatten the curve.

This verse show us that there will be greater justice than we can imagine.

God’s justice is greater than our own.

You might have experienced injustice at the hands people in the church aka field. You might even have seen them prosper and the anger and bitterness rises up in your heart because they did not receive the due justice.

Let the anger and bitterness go.

Trust that God has this. He sees every person and knows their heart. His justice is so much greater than our own.

If the field is the church community than know that there will be good and bad people. You can sit in a garage and that does not make you a Christ-follower. You can go to a church and that doesn’t make you godly. Jesus aka the Farmer knows that there are bad seeds in his field and He is confident that the angels aka the harvesters will do their job to separate the good and the bad.

The “furnace of fire” is not a allusion to the image of hell. it was used to reference to the imagery of the incineration of unwanted vegetation, just as the rubbish dumps of Jerusalem.

I am confident in God’s justice.

I have confidence in Christ knowing the hearts of every person.

Now we enter into three short parables between verses 44 to 50.

These parables are only found in the book of Matthew.

New Living Translation Chapter 13

Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. 46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

Parable of the Fishing Net

47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. 48 When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. 49 That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, 50 throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Do you understand all these things?”

“Yes,” they said, “we do.”

Before banks, people would bury money as a way to protect their investments. Remember how we talked about how Jesus was so good at using illustrations that the people would understand. Of course, they understood about burying treasure in the field!

Can I just say that it would suck for us as Christians to forget how to use language and illustrations that made sense in our context?

If we cannot share the Gospel without confusing “Christianese” than I would compare it to going into a knife fight with a dull blade. Some work will get done but it just won’t be as an effective and require more effort. Let’s be sharp knives to the knife fight.

The treasure that we discover is worth selling everything to own.

The Good News is the treasure and it is worth giving up our entire life for.

But Anh…is it really?

Yes. Experiencing the presence of God is like eating McDonalds your entire life thinking it as absolutely the best thing in the world UNTIL you have the absolute best thing in world. (Think about what your favorite food is). You can’t go back and say that mcdonalds in the best food in the world after that experience. People don’t experience God and go back to saying that their life of sin is better than their spirit and soul being awaken to the Creator.

Will you give up everything to follow Christ?

The language of “then” and “again” (look up) feels like Jesus is leading them on this journey though a story of examples. He’s trying to drive home a point. He has spoken to the people who understood farming so now he is going to use an example for the fisherman.

Throwing a net in the sea means you don’t get to choose which fish you are catching. The key is catch fish. I am here to cast nets to catch fish. I am not going to pre-select the fish before I commit to doing the work.

He is closing on the idea that it is the tasks of the angels to sort through the good and the bad.

He is setting them up to understand Kingdom eschatology. It is the promise that God’s justice reigns. It is important that we know this. Even in in the midst of this crazy, God is in control. It might not make sense right now and it might not make sense in 5 years but it might in the end.

Why is it so important for us to know this NOW?

New Living Translation Chapter 13

52 Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.”

The teacher of religious law were the upper echelon of religious culture. The rabbi were leaders of culture. Jesus is clear that becoming a disciple of the Kingdom. Becoming a disciple of Jesus would take you from the top fo the bottom. To take you from a place of cultural recognition to a place of persecution. To go from a place of being served to serving. But even the beauty of the religious teacher becoming a disciple is the wealth of knowledge they bring from the history of God moving. They brings and stories of old. They bring something to the table even at the bottom.

New Living Translation Chapter 13

53 When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. 54 He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” 55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57 And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58 And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

Before we got into the parables we had the miracles stories. What stood out in the miracle stories? How people did not believe even when they in the midst of the miracle.

People did not believe Jesus when He walked among them so sometimes I wonder why we get so offended and hurt when people don’t believe us?

We will be rejected. We will be persecuted. We will face hardship. That is a part of following Christ. We only get disappointed when we forget that.