Naylor Community
Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 13:24-30
Matthew
13:24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy
came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted
and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in
your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The
servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot
the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time
I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to
be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
-- I once heard about this young man
who was appointed to his first church not long after he had received his call
to ministry -- he was new to preaching and worked very hard on his first sermon
-- he spent a lot of time on it and that first Sunday, he delivered that
message with great passion from the pulpit -- everyone thanked him for his
words as they left the church that morning, and told him how much they were
looking forward to hearing him again the next Sunday
-- well, for whatever reason, this
pastor’s little church had several of the saints pass away his first week there
and he was called upon to conduct their funerals -- because of that, he didn’t
have time to prepare another sermon, so when Sunday rolled around, this pastor
did the only thing he could do -- he just preached his one sermon to the
congregation again -- the people walked out, shook his hand, and once again told
him what a wonderful job he had done
-- the next week, the same thing
happened -- several more people passed away and he had several in the hospital
and he just couldn’t find time to study and prepare a new message -- so, he got
back up the next Sunday and preached the same sermon again
-- well, this time, the church
leaders got upset -- they went to the District Superintendent and said, “We
don’t know what this young man is doing or where you got him, but all he’s got
is one sermon -- he’s preached the same sermon to us for three weeks in a row.”
-- the DS said, “Well, that’s
concerning. What was his sermon about?”
-- the church leaders looked at each other, and even though they had heard the
same message three times in a row, none of them could remember the main points
-- the DS chuckled and said, “Tell
you what. Let’s let him try it one more
time, and if you hear him and get the point of his message this time, we’ll
have him preach a new message the next week”
-- this morning, we’re finishing up
our sermon series on the Parables of Jesus from Matthew 13 -- and I assume
that, as we have read these parables together in context and seen how they were
given by Jesus and who they were given to and what He is saying here, you have
noticed that all of these parables have the same message -- Jesus is making the
same point over and over again to His disciples -- that on the earth today,
there is the true church -- the true kingdom of heaven -- but it has been
infiltrated by unbelievers and those who seek to harm the message of God
-- Jesus began to teach in parables
in this chapter by giving the parable of the sower, and pointing out to His
disciples that how the people in the crowd listening to His messages heard and
received them differently -- even though the same seed was scattered to
everyone, some didn’t get it because the evil one snatched the word away from
them
-- others received it, but their
soil was shallow, and they quickly faded away -- still others received the
word, but they were surrounded by thorns, which grew up and choked them and
kept them from producing a crop
-- but finally, there were some who
heard the word and received the message and who produced a good crop -- a
hundred or sixty or thirty times what was sown
-- the whole point being that the
kingdom of heaven was being planted in a world filled by a variety of people --
some who were part of the kingdom -- some who were seeking God and who would
become part of the kingdom -- and others who were being led away by the evil
one
-- in the parable of the mustard
seed and the parable of the yeast, Jesus made the same point again that there
were some in the kingdom of heaven -- some in the church -- who were not
believers but who were spreading false teachings and stirring up discord --
they looked like believers and talked like believers, but they were not true
followers of Christ -- He warned His disciples to be on their guard against
them, because they would work their way through the church like yeast works its
way through dough -- and they would make the church into something that God
never intended, allowing Satan and his dirty birds to get a foothold in the
church
-- He then taught the parable of the
hidden treasure and the great pearl -- teaching them the reason why He came --
that in this world there were some who were destined to be true believers --
true followers of Jesus -- those who would put their faith and trust in Him for
salvation and eternal life and who would live in the kingdom of heaven forever
-- these, Jesus said, are the hidden treasure and the great pearl that I have
come to find -- and I will sanctify them and make them holy by saving them from
this world
-- this morning, we finish up our
study of the parables from Matthew 13 by looking at the final two parables in
this chapter -- the parable of the weeds -- also known as the parable of the
wheat and tares -- and the parable of the net
-- both of these parables look ahead
to the end, when the true believers -- the people of God’s kingdom -- are
finally separated from the others -- from those Jesus had warned were in the
church and in the kingdom, but not of God
-- while we are limited in what we
can do at this point to protect the church -- to protect true believers from
false teachings and false information -- at some point in the future, there
will be a great separation, with believers being taken to eternity with Christ
and unbelievers being sent to a place of torment
II. The Parable of the Weeds or The Parable of
the Wheat and Tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
-- let’s look now at the parable of the
weeds -- which is also called the parable of the wheat and tares in some
translations -- this is one of those parables that is easy for us to understand,
because Jesus gracefully gave us the interpretation -- which tells us that He
really wants us to understand what He is giving us in these verses -- He wants
us to know this and believe this and to act on His words here
-- verse 24
Matthew
13:24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy
came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted
and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
-- look over at verse 36
Matthew 13:36 Then he left the crowd and
went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the
parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sowed the
good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed
stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,
39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age,
and the harvesters are angels.
-- so, we know exactly what Jesus is
telling us here -- there are no doubts or questions on this parable -- in this
parable, Jesus is telling us that He has come to sow the good seed in the field
-- that He has come to bring the good news of salvation and eternal life to the
world
-- back to John 3:16 again, right? -- For
God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him shall not perish but have eternal life
-- so, Jesus sows the good seed -- the
good word -- the word of God -- into the world today -- and, just like the
parable of the sower teaches, there are some who receive this word -- who are
planted in good soil -- and who grow up and produce a good crop -- these are
the people of the kingdom of heaven -- these are the hidden treasure -- the
pearl of great price that He came to find
-- but while Jesus is sowing good seed in
the world, someone else is sowing bad seed -- He says that his enemy came and
sowed weeds among the wheat and went away -- the same message that Jesus taught
in the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast
-- Satan has come in and sowed weeds --
false teachings -- misinformation -- fake news -- fake believers -- into the
field that is the kingdom of heaven -- into the church itself
-- let me give you an example of how this
happens
-- everyone in here is aware of what
happened last Saturday evening, when there was an assassination attempt on
former President Trump -- and for the past week, we have been inundated with
news and stories and watercooler conversations about the incident -- what
really happened -- who was really involved -- what this all means
-- and there have been many, many
different stories and conspiracy theories that have popped up over the week --
all the way from the attempt being fake to it was a government conspiracy
against Trump to it being just what we saw -- a lone gunman trying to shoot
Trump for an unknown reason
-- as we discussed the incident this week
and everyone offered up their thoughts and opinions on the event, I was told
that you can’t believe the mainstream media -- that if you want to know the
truth, you need to go to these particular news sources -- that only these
sources had the truth -- and then they gave me the name of several news sources
to look up
-- here’s the thing -- in a lot of cases, the
news sources weren’t real -- the news sources themselves were fake -- I learned
that other countries -- our enemies -- especially Russia -- have created fake
newspapers online and are spreading misinformation and lies and propaganda
designed to fool Americans and mislead us -- it’s happening here and France and
England and other places
-- these newspapers sound real -- they’ve
got names like the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and the Miami
Chronicle -- they look real -- you can go to their websites -- they seem legit
-- but when you start to examine them and look at them more closely, you’ll
find out that most of their articles are filled with dummy text or AI-generated
information1
-- their sole purpose is to spread lies and
misinformation to Americans -- to mislead them -- to fool them
-- that’s what Jesus is warning us about
here in this parable -- not necessarily about fake newspapers or news sources
-- but about people that are fake believers -- people that have been planted in
the kingdom of heaven and the church by our enemy -- by Satan -- and who look
like Christians and talk like Christians but who are spreading false teachings
and false beliefs in the kingdom
-- I want you to notice the moment when
the enemy sowed the weeds into the field -- in verse 25, Jesus says that the
enemy came and sowed the weeds among the wheat “while everyone was sleeping” --
everyone was sleeping -- no one was on guard -- no one was paying attention --
no one was watching the field and protecting it from infiltrators
-- there’s a warning there for us -- we
have to guard our hearts and our souls and our minds from false teachings and
false information and false teachers -- we can’t fall asleep -- we have to be
wary and we have to watch for danger and we have to know what we are looking
for -- that’s the only way that we can protect ourselves from the fake news and
weeds in the world today
-- the weed that Jesus is referring to
here is the darnel wheat -- also called a tare -- T-A-R-E -- in the Bible -- it’s
a type of false wheat -- it looks identical to real grain wheat while it is
growing, before it puts on a head
-- Tares were one of the curses a farmer in
Jesus’ day had to struggle against -- they were poisonous, and if you ate them,
it would cause dizziness and sickness -- so you didn't want them in the field
with your wheat
-- but the problem is, when the tares are
young, they look just like wheat -- it is impossible to tell one from the other
-- it’s only after the head is developed -- when it is mature and compared to a
true mature wheat plant -- that it is easy to tell the difference between the
two
-- verse 27
Matthew
13:27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good
seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The
servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot
the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time
I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to
be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
-- like I said, when the darnel weeds were
growing in the field with the true wheat, it was virtually impossible to tell
them apart -- but the real problem occurs because of how the darnel weeds grow
-- their roots intertwine and tangle up the roots of the wheat -- this means
that you can’t just go out in the field and pull up the tares without hurting
the wheat -- without potentially uprooting the true wheat, as well
-- So, what did the owner of the field do
about the tares growing in the field? -- He told his servants not to pull them
up until it was time for the harvest, because it might damage the good wheat if
they tried to pull up the tares early
-- At harvest time, when the tares were
easily identifiable, the owner of the field instructed his servants to gather
them up and bind them and burn them. -- Only the good wheat was left standing
in the field, and it was to be taken to the barn after the tares were removed
-- this is the separation that will occur
at the end of the age
-- look over at verse 40
Matthew 13:40 “As the weeds are pulled up
and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man
will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that
causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing
furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has
ears, let them hear.
-- this is what we read of in the parable
of the sheep and goats -- this is what we read of at the end of the Book of
Revelation -- at the end of Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom, Satan will be released
from his prison in the abyss and allowed to tempt the world for one last time
-- after which, both he and those people who followed him are going to be
judged and thrown into the lake of fire -- or, as Jesus calls it here, the
blazing furnace -- where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
-- the wheat -- the sheep -- the true
believers -- those who have a personal relationship with Jesus and have put
their faith and trust in Him for salvation and sanctification and eternal life
-- these righteous ones will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God and will
live with God forever
III. The Parable of the Net (Matthew 13:47-50)
-- skip down to verse 47, and we’ll
end our study of the parables by looking at the parable of the net
Matthew
13:47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into
the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen
pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in
baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the
age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and
throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
-- having studied all the rest of
Jesus’ parables in this chapter in context, the parable of the net is an easy
parable to interpret and understand -- it has the same message as the last
parable we looked at -- the parable of the wheat and the tares
-- in this case, a net is lowered
into a lake, which represents the world -- nets are used to harvest fish -- so,
in this case, the net is lowered into the lake to harvest all the fish that are
there
-- but just like Jesus has been
teaching us throughout Chapter 13, when the net is brought to the shore, it
contains both good fish and bad fish -- just like the world contains both true
believers and unbelievers
-- so, the fishermen sort out the
fish -- putting the good fish in baskets to be taken home -- while the bad fish
are thrown away
-- Jesus goes on to tell His
disciples and us that this is a representation of how it will be at the end of
the age -- this is another separation parable -- and at the end of the age,
Jesus will send His angels to harvest the true believers from the world and
will separate the righteous from the wicked
-- the wicked will be thrown into
the blazing furnace -- the lake of fire, as Revelation terms it -- where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
-- the whole point of Jesus’
teaching of the parables here is to make us aware that we are in the world, but
we are not of the world -- that while we are in the world, there are only some
of us who are true believers -- while the rest -- while the majority, it is
fair to say -- are not believers -- but are still kept under the control of the
evil one
-- and if they continue on their
path and do not choose to hear the good news of Christ and repent of their sins
and trust in Jesus for salvation and sanctification and eternal life through
faith and trust -- they will be sorted out in the end as the unrighteous -- as
the weeds and the goats and the bad fish -- and will face judgment and
punishment in the blazing furnace and the lake of fire
IV. Closing
-- so, what do we do with these parables
of Jesus? -- what does Jesus intend for us to do in response to them?
-- the very first thing we need to do is
to examine ourselves to make sure that we are in a right relationship with
Jesus -- that we know Him and He knows us -- that we have repented of our sins
and asked Him to forgive us of our sins and to be our Lord and Savior --
putting all our faith and trust in Him and His atoning death and resurrection
and looking forward to His glorious appearing and eternal life with Him
-- as we talked about earlier in this
series, a lot of people have been misled or have false assurances that they are
saved when they are not -- just praying the sinner’s prayer -- just repeating
words without meaning them won’t save you -- only a true conversion experience
with Jesus saves -- and if you haven’t truly believed in your heart that Jesus
is Lord and put your faith and trust in Him, then you’re not saved
-- like it says in Matthew 7:21, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
-- so, our first response to these
parables should be to examine ourselves and to make sure that we are in a right
relationship with Jesus and that we are not living on cheap grace or false
assurances
-- the next thing we should do is to live
into the knowledge that there are those around us who are not part of the
kingdom of heaven -- there are those around us who have no soil or shallow soil
or who are being choked out by thorns
-- so, our job as the church of Christ on
earth -- as part of the kingdom of heaven -- is to share the good news of Jesus
with everyone we come into contact with -- to tell them about the Savior who
loved them so much that He paid everything in order to find them -- the hidden
treasure and the pearl of great price
-- to tell them that He loves them so much
that He died for them and rose again, overcoming both sin and death -- and that
if they turn from their sins and believe in their hearts that Jesus is Lord and
put their faith and trust in Him -- that they will be saved and will be part of
the kingdom of heaven forever
-- third, we need to also keep in mind
that there are some who are within the church that are not like us -- there are
some within the church who proclaim to be believers but they are not -- and to
know that these people are teaching false doctrines and sharing false teachings
and are misleading many
-- we need to be on guard against them --
to weed them out of our churches before they can damage the wheat -- to keep
them from infiltrating God’s people and sharing false teachings and doctrines
that turn God’s church into something it isn’t supposed to be -- into a place
where Satan’s dirty birds feel at home
-- I’ve told you this before and I’ll tell
you again and again -- Acts 17:11 -- Be a good Berean -- just as the Bereans
fact-checked the Apostle Paul and his teachings, we need to especially
fact-check everything that we hear -- including everything that you hear from
me
-- just because someone is recognized as a
Bible teacher or a pastor or has a radio or TV or internet ministry does not
mean they are teaching the truth of God’s word -- you need to fact-check them
and make sure what they are teaching lines up with the word of God -- and if it
doesn’t, stop listening to them
-- which brings us to our final response
-- we need to be discerning and loving representatives of Christ -- we need to
be discipling each other -- especially those people who are young in the faith
-- to make sure they are growing rightly and are not following the blowing
winds of false doctrines or false teachings
-- that means that we have to be growing
in Christ, too -- that we have to be diligent in studying His word -- in
knowing what it says and in doing what it says -- this means we have to be in
relationship with Him -- praying and listening to Him -- and fellowshipping
with other believers through discipleship and worship
-- we cannot be who God has called us to
be if we don’t do these things -- and we cannot be salt and light in this
world, unless we know His word and live His word and help others come to know
Him as their Lord and Savior
-- so, with that, let us heed the words
and the warnings of Jesus from these parables -- and let us join together as
one body -- one church -- one kingdom -- under Him -- to be and to do what He
has called us to do
-- let us pray
1
Russians are filling America's news shortage, BY JOEL MATHIS, THE WEEK US
PUBLISHED
11 MARCH 2024 IN TALKING POINT, https://theweek.com/politics/russian-america-news-shortage-disinformation-fake-news-sites
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