“Leave the Weeds”
[Matthew 13:24-30]
March 22, 2020 YouTube
As we continue our journey through
the season of Lent, today we look at the divide between all of humanity: those who are of the Kingdom of Heaven and
those who are of the kingdom of the devil.
Something to remember as we get into
our text:
God, the One Triune God, is
absolutely sovereign over all of Creation.
The devil is a creature – a powerful creature – but a creature. He is not equal to God in power and
authority, and he does not reign over Hell as our comics and movies would have
it. The devil it utterly subject to God
– God reigns over Hell.
We are not considering two equal but
opposing kingdoms. No, God is Sovereign
over all, and the devil is an evil creature who seeks to have us rebel against
God, but the devil can only do what God allows him to do – he cannot do
anything that thwarts God’s Will.
Chapter thirteen of Matthew is a collection
of parables. It begins with the parable
of the sower, Jesus explaining that He speaks in parables so His hearers will
not understand, and then He explains the parable to His disciples.
Then we have this morning’s parable,
the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the leaven, and then an
explanation of the parable of the weeds to the disciples.
The chapter ends with the parable of
the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price, and the parable
of the net, followed by Jesus being rejected in Nazareth.
All these parables have to do with
the Kingdom of God – those who are in it and those who will be kept out of it.
And so, we turn to the parable of
the weeds. And for this parable, we have
the great help of Jesus explaining what the parable means to His disciples.
“Then
[Jesus] left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him,
saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The
one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the
good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age,
and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with
fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. He who has ears, let him hear’” (Matthew 13:36-43, ESV).
First,
the world is divided into those who follow Jesus and those who follow the
devil.
“The
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but
while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and
went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared
also.”
All
human beings come from the lines of our first parents: Adam and Eve.
God directly fashioned Adam and Eve, and all of humanity comes from them
– from the lines of their sons Cain and Seth.
Theologically we talk about this as being the line of the devil and the
line of God, respectively.
We
remember that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and all humanity was affected
by their sin in being both born sinners and in committing actual sin. And we know, “For the wages of sin is death,”
(Romans 6:23a, ESV). Paul also says, “And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once
lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and
the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians
2:1-3, ESV).
So,
the question is never, “where did the followers of the kingdom of the devil
come from?” Every mere human being born
after Adam and Eve is born dead is sin, damned to Hell, a follower after the
kingdom of the devil. Unless…
Paul
explains:
“Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through
Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his
glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he
set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in
him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:3-10, ESV).
Out
of an entirely damned and worthy of Hell people, God chose to save a people for
Himself. You may remember this theme
from when we went through the Gospel of John – and even as we have been going
through the book of Isaiah – God saves a remnant for Himself.
Why? Because He loves us and for the praise of His
glorious grace.
In sum: out of the whole damned humanity, God planted
seeds for His Kingdom – chose a people, and left the rest to be the seeds of
the devil – those of the kingdom of the devil – those who will never believe in
Jesus for salvation. These are the two
groups of people in the world, and we live together in the same world.
The parable continues, and we see:
Second, God has reasons for not
gathering the damned immediately.
“And
the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you
not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them,
‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to
go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up
the wheat along with them.’”
The
Church asks God if He sowed good seed, and if He did, how are there weeds? If God is Good and created everything good,
why is there sin and evil in the world?
And God answers that the enemy did it.
The
Church asks God if He wants them to gather the weeds – throw them into Hell,
and God says not to, because they might uproot believers with them.
So,
three reasons we are given that God does not immediately throw the damned into
Hell:
First,
God wants to make His riches known to believers.
“What
if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured
with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make
known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared
beforehand for glory—" (Romans 9:22-23, ESV).
God
allows those who will never believe to continue to live and reproduce and have
lives, so we will recognize the riches that God has given to us in Christ –
that we would thank Him and be faithful and obedient.
Second,
God wants us to learn patience and to submit to Him.
In
asking Jesus if they could gather up the damned right then and there, we are
reminded that, as Jesus prepared to go to Jerusalem, He asks to stay in a
village of Samaria, but they refuse Him.
“And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you
want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’” (Luke 9:54, ESV).
We
are not the judge – Jesus is. There is a
righteous anger, but this is not it. The
disciples were insulted and wanted revenge, and Jesus rebuked them.
Third,
God warns them that they might uproot believers in the process.
What
is Jesus saying other than the fact that we cannot know the heart of any person
at any given time. Someone who may look
and act and speak as though they are the seed of the devil may, in fact, be
someone the Holy Spirit has not regenerated yet. Many plants look alike when they first sprout. If all those people who now look like they
will never believe in Jesus were thrown into the fire, many people who will
come to faith in the days and years to come would be thrown – against the work
of Christ – into the fire.
People
will come to believe and repent of their sins until that day that Jesus returns
to judge every person throughout time and space. Until that day, we have no right to give up
on someone – we are to continue to bring the Gospel to them and pray that God
the Holy Spirit will cause them to believe.
Finally,
God will send the angels to collect the damned for Hell and the redeemed for
salvation.
“Let
both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the
reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but
gather the wheat into my barn.’”’”
The
redeemed and the damned will exist on earth until Jesus returns. When He does, all the holy angels will come
with Him, and everyone who has every lived will be gathered into one of two
groups: those for the furnace, and those
for the barn.
John
describes the Judgment:
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who
was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was
found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book
of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according
to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and
Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of
them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into
the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's
name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of
fire” (Revelation 20:11-15, ESV).
Jesus
will judge, and all those who never believe in Jesus for salvation will be
gathered by the angels and thrown into the lake of fire where they will suffer
for all of eternity for their sin.
John
the Baptist speaks of Jesus at the shores of the Jordan: “His winnowing fork is
in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into
the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12, ESV).
The
chaff – that papery cover of the wheat that is useless except to be burned – are
the damned. The wheat are the elect of
God – the redeemed – those who will live in the Kingdom of God with Jesus for
all of eternity.
And
so, on that final day, based on the works that Jesus performed to redeem His
people – we will be received into the barn – that is, the Kingdom of God – in
all its fullness, made perfect and glorified, and we will worship for all of eternity
in Jesus’ presence.
So,
we understand that before the foundation of the world, God chose a people for
His Son – all those who will ever believe in Jesus savingly. The rest of the people will receive the just
and eternal punishment for their sins.
For
now – and until Jesus returns – we live together on earth – living, dying,
reproducing – and that is so we who believe will recognize the riches we have
received, be thankful, and obediently and faithfully spread the Gospel to the
whole world – because Jesus said to, and we have no idea who God has chosen to
believe – even at the last moment of their lives.
We
are called to be faithful and obedient.
Jesus will judge the world. We
will receive the free gift of eternal salvation. The rest, the angels will take to eternal
suffering.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, You created to show Your Love and Justice.
Help us to keep before us that You are Love and You are Just – let us
never compromise one for another – making light of sin or being vengeful, when vengeance
is Yours. Help us to be thankful – to
open our mouths to proclaim the Gospel of Your Son. Be pleased to send the Holy Spirit out from
us – “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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