The greeting. Greetings in the name of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us in our Bible study series on the parables of Christ. Our intention is to examine between 15 to 20 parables. So, not all of Christ’s parables. We shall see how far we get.
The parable. Today we will look at the parable of the tares among the wheat. Sometimes this parable is also known as the parable of the weeds.
I will begin to read from Matthew chapter thirteen at verse 24, hear the holy word of God – read.
Matthew 13:24. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 “The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”
Now jump down to verse thirty-six please.
Matthew 13:36. Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (see Dan.12:3)
The prayer. Please join me in prayer as we ask the Lord to bless our study of His word – pray.
The genre of God’s word – parabolic language. Let’s get right into our parable.
Verse twenty-four, we are not left guessing as to the genre of this account, the Bible tells us that this lesson is a parable.
Matthew 13:24. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
Beloved, the Bible is filled with different genres of writing.
Some of God’s word is given in historical narrative, like the first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the books of Moses. Many things in the Gospel records are also narrative.
Closely related to this style is the style of the New Testament epistles, written as an ordinary letter but also as Spirit-inspired letters.
Some of the Bible is written in poetic form, such as the Psalms, and the book of the Song of Solomon. These books are classified as wisdom books in the Bible, along with Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
Other parts of the Bible are given in symbolic or prophetic form like the books of Daniel, parts of Ezekiel, and the most symbolical book of the Bible – Revelation, and this genre is usually of a prophetic and even of an apocalyptic nature.
Parables in a way, are similar to the symbolical parts of the Bible. God is inspiring the use of metaphorical speech; one thing stands for another thing. In this case the earthly things stand for the spiritual or the heavenly things.
The terms of the parable – kingly phraseology. Let’s consider some of Christ’s terms and phrases used in this parable.
The identity of the church as the kingdom. Let’s start with the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 13:24. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field
In Matthew chapter thirteen there are six or seven kingdom parables. Of course, this depends on how you delineate and thus count them.
Let me list what I have.
Matthew 13:1-23, the parable of the sower. The message and the receptivity of the kingdom.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-41, the parable of the tares among the wheat. The character of the kingdom, a mixed multitude.
Matthew 13:31-33, the parable of the mustard seed. The growth of the kingdom.
Matthew 13:44, the parable of a treasure hidden in a field. The worth of the kingdom.
Matthew 13:45-46, the parable of the pearl of great price. The worth of the kingdom.
Matthew 13:47-50, the parable of the dragnet containing good and bad fish. The character of the kingdom, and I would add also, the conclusion of the (earthly) kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven indicates the church of Jesus Christ.
- Sometimes the Bible refers to this kingdom as the kingdom of God, Luke is especially fond of using this phrase (Mt.12:28, Lk.23:51).
- The kingdom of Christ (Eph.5:5).
- The kingdom of His Beloved Son (Col.1:13).
- The eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pt.1:11, Rev.11:15).
- The kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod.19:6, I Pt.2:9, Rev.1:6)
The nature of the kingdom-church upon the earth. The church is also called the family of God or the household of God, and the Body of Christ, and the Bride of Christ.
You see the idea; the kingdom refers to the people that belong to the King.
And the church of Christ that is in view obviously is the church on earth. This church consists of all those that profess to believe in Christ, which means they profess to believe in the true gospel of Christ, along with their children. (WCF 25.1-2)
By this we are taught the God of heaven has come down to earth in the person of Christ. Jesus in this way is likened to Jacob’s Ladder. God in Christ comes down to us, and then we ascend up to God, all in Christ, all by Christ. (Jn.1:51)
The tares idea teaches us that the church on earth, is a mixed multitude of true Believers and of false professors. More on this as we go along.
The king over the kingdom-church – King Christ. Now let’s look at the king over the kingdom.
Obviously, Christ Jesus is the king of this kingdom.
Jesus the Promised Messiah is our prophet, priest, and king, both in His estate of humiliation and of exaltation. (WSC 23)
In the Old Testament God promised king David that He would bring another king through David’s loins.
Listen to this Messianic kingly promise.
2 Samuel 7:11. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you.12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (Luke 1:30-32, Lk.2:8-14, Mt.2:1-7, Mt.2:11)
This promised king would be both David’s son, meaning his physical progeny, and David’s Lord, meaning his God.
Christ is fully God. And in the Incarnation, He becomes also fully Man. Immanuel. (Jn.1:1-14)
Pontius Pilate asked Jesus if He were a king. Christ said He was a king, but of a spiritual kingdom. (Jn.18:33-37) And thus Pilate placed a placard over the head of Christ on the Cross, announcing Jesus as the King of the Jews. (Jn.19:21, see WSC 26)
The expression of the Kingship of the King over the kingdom-church – sovereign disclosure. As we saw with the parable of the Sower and the Soils, Jesus here also gets aside in private with His chosen disciples and He explains to them the meaning of the parable. (Mk.4:34)
Matthew 13:36. Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.
Jesus teaches in a selective way. Beloved this is an expression of sovereign salvation.
God discloses Himself to some and not to others. God has vessels of mercy. And God has vessels of wrath. God has His elect. And God has His non-elect. (Rom.9:13-23, Acts 13:48, Phil.1:21, Jn.15:16, I Pt.2:7-10)
Jesus teaches in a clear and dogmatic way. Next, Jesus teaches in what we might call black and white terms. He does not teach in shades of gray, at least not here concerning these sober subjects.
Jesus is quite dogmatic. This is no middle position here. All human beings are either good seed or bad seed, either good wheat or bad weeds, believers or unbelievers.
A person is either on the broad path leading to hell, or on the narrow path leading to heaven. And the main truth is that all people are either in Christ or out of Christ.
The parable then is very simple. And clear. Christ means it to be so, especially given the magnitude of the subject, salvation or damnation.
Jesus explains the nature of His kingdom-church upon the earth. As we said earlier Jesus is explaining the nature of His church upon the earth.
And He teaches His disciple-apostles that there are true Believers in the church and there are false professors in the church.
The church on the earth until the final estate is a mixed multitude of wheat and tares and goats and sheep. There is no perfect pure church upon the earth until Christ returns.
Jesus explains the nature of the kingdom-church in relationship to Himself. Notice how Christo-centric Jesus is here in His teaching. Jesus over and over again repeatedly points to Himself.
V.24. His field, His good seed.
V.25. His men, and His enemy.
V.41. His angels, His kingdom.
We can say that the kingdom parables are about Christ and the people that Christ saves.
In fact, the main message of the Bible is Savior Christ. (Gen.3:15, Lk.24:25-27)
And may I say, all forms of so-called Christianity that are not about Christ are not Christianity at all. But rather the religion of the fallen flesh. (Col.2:18-23)
Jesus explains the growth of the kingdom-church – the sowers of the good seed. Christ now speaks to the growth of His church.
And here in view is how Christ will increase the church with new Believers, with true Believers. These are the elect ones, the wheat.
Matthew 13:24. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field
Matthew 13:37. And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
The sovereign Sower. This is Christ. He refers to Himself as the Son of Man. This is Christ’s favorite way of referring to Himself, He uses it over forty times in the gospels.
By this Christ is implying that He is the Second Man, as it were, the Second Adam. (Rom.5:12-21, Acts 7:56, Dan.7:13)
As we said, Jesus is fully God, and He is also fully Man. He has come to redeem real men. He had to be made like His brothers in every way, but without sin. (WLC 38-40)
Christ as the King over His churchly kingdom is here also depicted as a Landowner who interestingly does His own sowing in His own fields.
The King condescends to sow – to save.
The servant sowers. But the idea is that Jesus so identifies with His people, that it is the Spirit of Jesus in His gospel servants that sow the good seed, the gospel word begetting Believers, in the name of Christ and for the cause of Christ. (I Pt.1:10-12)
And this is confirmed for us as we see in the parable that the Landowner has His own men, His own servants, slaves. Who apparently, Christ leaves to watch over His churchly field and we see that Christ’s servants fall asleep. (Mk.14:37) And the point is not the failure of the servants, but rather the stealth and the enmity of the enemy.
Matthew 13:25. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
The location of the kingdom-church – the field of the world. While Christ’s servants sleep, Christ’s enemy – the devil, goes to work against Christ’s Field, which also is His church.
Matthew 13:24. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
But He actually says the field is the world.
Matthew 13:36. Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world;
The elect of God are right now scattered like seed throughout every corner of the earth. This means that God has His elect among every tribe, tongue, and nation. (Rev.5:9, Gen.12;1-3)
Which is why Christ gives us the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
So, I take this word ‘field-of-the-world’ to mean the gospel-church that is in the world, or the world wide gospel church.
Christ has shed His blood to purchase the Church. Christ prays for the church and not the world.
And so, Christ’s good seed, the elect of God will be gathered out of the world and brought to Christ.
And then because of that or by that we are brought into relationship with Christ’s church. (WCF 26.1)
The elect Believers are sown in the kingdom-field – by the word. In some ways Jesus has changed the meaning of the word ‘seed’ on us from the previous parable.
In the previous parable the seed that was sown was called the word of the Kingdom.
Luke tells us this seed is the word of God, the Bible, and especially the Gospel. (Lk.8:11)
V.38. But here, in this parable the seed that Jesus sows in His field are the SONS of the Kingdom.
This means true Christians, true Believers, the elect of God. Here they are called good seed, and wheat.
But let me point out the connection with the two uses of the word ‘seed’.
These good seed, good wheat, true believers are made Believers by the incorruptible seed of God’s word, even Christ’s Gospel. (see James 1:18, I Pt.1:23)
In and of ourselves, we are evil like the rest. (Rom.3:1-18, Eph.2:1-3) But it is the goodness of God that makes us good seed. All is of grace.
The non-elect unbelievers are sown in the kingdom-field – the evil sower. Then we have the evil sower, Jesus calls him His enemy, the evil one. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness.
The enemy of Christ, The Evil One sows tares among Christ’s wheat. Notice he does his deeds of evil in the darkness, at night.
Satan sows. What Satan is trying to do is corrupt Christ’s field (church), in order to harm Christ’s wheat, meaning true Believers.
The reason he is trying to corrupt is because he cannot curse the people of God, but he can corrupt them.
This is the exact situation with Balaam.
Balaam was unable to curse God’s people, so instead he counseled to corrupt them.
And Balaam’s counsel was for the unbelieving pagan women to entice the Jewish men. Voila professing Believers yoked to unbelievers. And the unbelieving women would raise the children of this forbidden union to be pagans. (Num.31:16, 2 Cor.6:14-18, Dt.7:3, Josh.23:12, Ezra 9:2, Neh.13:25, I Cor.7:39)
We learn that unbelievers harm (the faith of) Believers.
Satan snatches. And if you remember from the last parable, the devil does not just consign himself to one evil activity.
He sows evil seeds. He sows unbelievers among the Believers.
And he also snatches away the good seed of the Gospel from men and women so that they will not believe in Christ so as to be saved. (Mt.13:19, 2 Cor.444:3-4, Lk.8:11)
The non-elect unbelievers sown in the kingdom-field – the identity.
The tare-weeds – false Christians. Now let’s consider what a tare is.
Tares is a word that we do not often use. It means weeds, or some useless and or obnoxious plant.
Obviously, the meaning is not about plants, but about people.
Remember that parables often contrast two different kinds of people. Good people. Versus bad people. Holy people. Versus Evil people. Believers in Jesus Christ versus those that do not believe in Jesus Christ.
The tares here look like wheat (for a time) and dwell among the wheat (in the church for a time).
This is the professing Christian that is not a true Believing Christian living among true Believers in the visible church until the end of the age, when the angels will separate the true from the false.
Christ then offers additional descriptions of these unbeliever-tares.
Verse 41, the unbeliever-tares are stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.
Again, these people are unbelievers, false, pretend believers, people living in their sin.
The non-elect unbelievers sown in the kingdom-field – the discovery by the King’s servants.
Christ’s servants then come to recognize that the tares are not good-wheat.
They come to see that these professing Christians are in fact bad-tares.
They look different than the good wheat. They sound different. They act differently. They believe different. And they have been sown by a different sower.
The non-elect unbelievers sown in the kingdom-field – the inquiry by the King’s servants.
Christ’s servants go to Christ to ask Him to explain this bad situation.
They know that Christ had sown Good Seed, because they know He is a good King and a Good Sower. And that Jesus cannot do anything evil.
I think all ministers, and for that matter all Christians would be a whole lot better off if we took more of our questions to Jesus.
Ask. Seek. And knock. And Christ will grant you wisdom into His word. (Ps.25:8-9, Jas.1:5)
Christ’s servants (here I think, His ministers) are concerned about His churchly field, they are concerned about His good-wheat.
They do not want the tares to grow and choke out the wheat, to over-run the wheat.
So, they make a suggestion to the Lord.
Lord, should we go out right now and pull up the tares?
See, first, their question is born out of concern for Christ and His people. They err. But they are wrong for the right reasons, I might say. (Lk.9:54)
The non-elect unbelievers sown in the kingdom-field – the Kingly response.
Jesus responds. He says, no. Let the tares alone.
Jesus is concerned about the potential of rooting up even one of His good-wheat plants.
In this way, we see that Jesus is not concerned about the tares destroying His wheat.
Christ will keep His own.
But clearly Jesus does refer to a future time when He does have plans to take all of the tares out of His field.
It will be according to His own timing. But the time of separation is left for the future, for the doing of God.
The reapers. The reapers will be the holy angels of God, sent out from Christ to gather in all mankind.
And the angels will separate the true children of God from the true children of the devil. (Mt.24:31, Rev.14:14-20)
And Christ Himself, as The Great Judge will be the one to send out the angels as His bailiffs. (Jn.5:22-27)
The judgment. The two different seeds have assigned to them two different eternal destinies, based on the Judgment of CHRIST.
The evil people cannot be with the Believers in Jesus.
Nor can the Believers in Jesus be with the evil people.
There is an un-crossable divide. (Lk.16:29)
The true from the false will finally and perfectly and eternally be known.
The destiny.
V.30. The tares go into the FIRE. (Heb.6:8, Mk.9:43-48, Jude 6,7, Rev.14:9-11, 20:10, 19:3)
and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
V.30. The wheat are brought into the Landowner’s barn.
Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. (Mt.17:2, Dan.12:3, I Jn.3:2, Isa.52:1, 60:21, Rev.22:14-15, Col.3:4, I Jn.3:2, Rev.3:12)
The purpose. As we close, let’s ask ourselves, what are some lessons that Christ is teaching us?
- There are only two kinds of people, those savingly united to Christ, and those apart from Christ. And Christ knows who and what each person really is.
- God in Christ saves people by the ministry of His word, especially by the message of the cross. Christ builds His churchly kingdom by the ministry of the word of God.
- The mixed multitude idea teaches us that the church does not save, only Christ saves. There are people joined to the church without being joined to Christ. And Christ knows.
- We are in a real spiritual battle; the forces of evil are engaged against Christ and His church. There is a real devil, and real servants of the devil.
- Christ not only purchases His church, He also preserves us. The enemies will not prevail against Christ’s church.
- There is a Judgement Day. Everyone will stand before Judge Christ.
- All men will either go to eternal condemnation or enter into eternal bliss. Those apart from Christ on the earth will be apart from the comfortable presence of Christ in the eternal estate. Those united to Christ on the earth, will be united to Him in the eternal estate.
Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly.
Amen
Study Questions
- What some genres used in the Bible? Give examples. Give examples of metaphorical language in the Bible. What is a parable?
- Who and or what is the kingdom of heaven that Christ is speaking about in the parable of the wheat and the tares? (Mt.13:24-30, 36-41, Lk.23:51, Col.1:13) What lessons do we learn?
- What are some other Biblical descriptions of this kingdom – give Bible proofs. (Eph.2:19, Rev.21:9, I Cor.12:27) What lessons does God have for us?
- Who is the king over the kingdom in our parable? Identify his person and his nature. Give Scripture. How ought this king engender our confidence? How ought this king and kingdom engender our confidence in the Bible? (2 Sam.7:11—13, Luke 1:30-32, Lk.2:8-14, Mt.2:1-7, Mt.2:11)
- In the growth of this kingdom identify the two sowers of good seed. Who is the primary sovereign sower? Who is the secondary servant sower? What do we learn about the Master sower? What do we learn about the servant sowers. (Mt.13:24, 37, I Pt.1:10-12, Mt.16:13-19, I Cor.3:4-9)
- What is meant by the “kingdom is his field” and “the field is the world”? (Mt.13:24, 38, Mt.28:18-20, Acts 1:1-8, Rev.5:9, Gal.3:24-29, Gen.28:10-14)
- Who are the “good seed”? (Mt.13:38) How are they made good seed? (Lk.8:11, Acts 13:48, James 1:18, Rom.10:1-17)
- Who are the bad seed? And who sows the bad seed? Why does the evil sower sow bad seed where he sows them? Give scripture proofs. What lessons do we learn from this? (Mt.13:36-39, Eph.6:10-18, 2 Thess.3:2, Mt.7:13-21)
- Why does the master not want his servants to pluck out the tares? What does this teach us about the nature of the servant and or the task of plucking out tares?
- Will the tares be removed from the wheat? By whom? When? What are some lessons we learn by this? (Mt.13:39-43)
- What is the final estate of the tares? (Heb.6:8, Mk.9:43-48, Jude 6,7, Rev.14:9-11, 20:10, 19:3)
- What is the final estate of the wheat? (Mt.17:2, Dan.12:3, I Jn.3:2, Isa.52:1, 60:21, Rev.22:14-15, Col.3:4, I Jn.3:2, Rev.3:12)
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