The Kingdom of Heaven is like Weeds in a Field - James Thackeray

We're carrying on. We're doing two parts about the kingdom of heaven.

So as we still preached, and this week I'm going to look at the parable of the weeds.

But, Yemi, I think you're going to come and read for us.

So we're in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24 to 30.

Matthew 13:24–30

I wonder if we've got any keen gardeners here.

I'm not saying many nods. if this was in england everyone would have an allotment

and be keen growing their vegetables but yeah i guess sweden is a bit more challenging

isn't it um when i was when i was young,

it was a long long time ago my parents very kindly gave me about one meter of

the border of one of their gardens i was convinced i wanted to be a gardener and i planted,

some seeds, a plant called the monkey flower.

These were many of these really nice orange flowers.

No idea as a 10-year-old what I thought I was going to do with these,

but I really wanted to grow some flowers.

After a few weeks, my dad gave me advice, you need to weed that patch.

You need to take the weeds out, take anything that shouldn't be there,

just so that the flowers you've planted grow really well.

Of course, with childlike enthusiasm and eagerness, I had no real clue what

was a weed and what wasn't.

So I rooted everything in there.

Spring came around, absolutely nothing came up. The patch was completely barren.

It's quite important, isn't it, to get the distinction between good seeds and between the weeds.

I completely failed. And as a result, I had nothing.

Weeds are the things you don't want there. And this parable has a lot to tell us today.

Now, there's over 30 parables in the Bible, but this is one of the quite unique,

there's three parables where Jesus actually gives an explanation.

So that's really helpful when you're preaching through.

People say parables are stories with a hidden meaning.

More accurately, they're a story with a discernible meaning.

But not necessarily to everyone. So the explanation to this parable is actually

found a little bit later.

I'm going to start by reading from verse 36 in the same chapter to verse 43.

So I've already kicked one glass of water over today and I realized I was perilously close.

So let's read Matthew 13, verse 36 to 43.

Matthew 13:36–43

So Jesus told the first parable, then he tells another parable,

parable of the mussel seed, and then he says, 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.

He answered, the one who sowed the good seed is the son of man.

The field is the word and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.

The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who saves them is the devil.

The harvest is the end of the age and harvesters are angels.

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

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.

They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there'll 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.

Before I dive in, I'm just going to pray that the Lord will really open this

to us. Father God, we thank you for these words, Lord.

We thank you for this story recorded all those thousands of years ago,

Lord, that is still relevant to us today.

Father, we just pray for ears to hear this afternoon and that we would see you

more clearly and understand what you'd have of us today.

Father, we pray this in your name. Amen.

Just as a little side note, don't you think it's amazing how well these parables

have stood the test of time?

I was just trying to think of a lot of the more well-known parables,

and they all speak to us in a way that is quite familiar.

Because even without my silly example of me growing flowers,

we're probably all familiar with the idea of growing things,

and that some things grow well, some things don't.

Maybe we've watched Clarkson's Farm, seen a little bit about how things are

growing. Maybe you've grown your own vegetables.

Maybe you've talked to Granny Kate. She's not here today, but she's got an allotment.

She knows everything there is about growing.

And come May, if you're lucky, some produce may come through the door. So watch out for that.

So it's really stood the test of time, this parable. Let's just remind ourselves

of who are the main players. It explains very clearly in those verses we read.

So the person sowing the seed is Jesus, the Son of Man.

The person telling this parable is Jesus.

The field is the world, as in it's everybody in it.

There's not another field where there's some other people from the world.

It's everybody in it. the good

seed is the people of the kingdom those who know Christ as their saviour,

the majority of people here today I expect and then the weeds are the people

not in the kingdom those who don't know Christ as their saviour.

Calls them sons of the evil one and talks about these other sower the bad sower,

the enemy the devil Bye-bye.

This isn't an accidental thing. This is somebody consciously sowing things in opposition to God.

And then the harvest is the end of the age, as it says, the end of the world.

Judgment day to give it another turn.

And Jesus spells these out very, very clear. There's no ambiguity.

He doesn't say, well, yeah, the one who sowed the seed is the son of man,

but it could also be allegorical for times of difficulty.

He says very clearly, who is who?

And we need to stick to that today as we look at how this applies to us.

I think there's three key messages for us today.

Maybe all three will speak to you. Maybe one of them will speak more than the

others, depending on where you are.

But I think there's three key messages the Lord's put on my heart to share today.

The first one is a message of urgency.

A message of urgency.

Maybe today you're feeling a little bit complacent.

Maybe you're not feeling a sense of urgency about a situation you're in,

a situation where others are.

Or perhaps this part is for you. See, Jesus talks about something that will happen.

Again, this isn't hypothetical. Jesus isn't talking about a metaphorical thing

that, yeah, there'll be an end of an age, but it's just sort of, it might not happen.

The harvest will happen.

There will be a harvest. There will be judgment day.

The rest of scripture is full of it. There's a whole book dedicated to it, Revelations.

There will be a time when the Lord will judge And sometimes we can,

We can soften this message, can't we? Because it is a tough message to hear.

But this parable paints a very binary message, doesn't it?

There are those who follow Jesus, and there are those who don't.

There is no in-between here. There aren't the weeds and the good seed and then

the kind of okay seeds or the slightly weedy seeds.

There's the weeds and there's good seeds and the Bible is very clear what is

evil in God's sight is any sin that is not dealt with by Jesus,

the writer of Corinthians Paul describes it as this,

2 Corinthians 5 he says God made him who had no sin be sin for us so that in

him we might become the righteousness of God.

This righteousness that it talks about at the end of this passage,

then the righteous will shine.

That's the righteousness from Christ, the righteousness from knowing him as our Savior.

And if you know him as Savior, then at the harvest, you will shine like the sun.

You'll be in the kingdom of the Father.

But if you don't know him.

Don't ask Jesus into your life. If you haven't repented, asked him for forgiveness,

then I'm sorry, you are a weed.

If you've led a good life, if you've done nice things, but you haven't given

your life to Christ, if you haven't asked him to take your sin, you remain a weed.

And at the harvest, there'll be a fiery furnace.

There'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So this is a message of urgency. None of us know when our time is going to come.

And if you're not right with Christ today, then you face the fiery furnace.

You face weeping and gnashing of teeth.

If you don't know Christ the Savior, there is a sense of urgency for you today.

But if you do know Christ the Savior, if you're the good seed,

then that's fantastic, but there should still be a sense of urgency for you.

Because we all know people who are lost. We all know people who don't know Christ.

We have people who give no thought to these things and as much as we love them

and as much as we wish that wasn't the case the passage is very clear,

there's a blazing furnace there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,

I urge you today tell others if you know Christ as saviour tell others what

Jesus has done in your life persuade them, plead with them beg them to believe in him,

pray for them to know Christ this isn't just so we fill the pews this isn't

just so we have more people giving,

this is we don't want to see people going to their power we need to point people,

what they're in danger from and what can save them.

Maybe this message is for you today. Maybe you don't know Christ.

Maybe this message is the Lord urging you to know him, to ask him for forgiveness.

Or maybe it's urging you to just take a practical step. Pick one of your friends

who doesn't know Christ.

Choose somebody and pray for them.

Pray for them regularly. Pray for them fervently. Thank you.

Pray for them as if they're dying Because according to this parable they are,

And they face an eternal death Pray for them Tell them that you're praying for

them Tell them why you're praying for them,

Have a sense of urgency for the lost,

And if you're one of those lost Have a real sense of urgency to be right with Christ,

So I think that should be our first message A message of urgency.

At the risk of sounding slightly contradictory, I believe that our second message

is a message of patience, a message of patience.

And actually, Steve has touched on this to quite a large extent in the prayer,

because maybe we're frustrated at the state of the world. Maybe we're worried.

Maybe we're concerned. Maybe we are like those servants. We want to go and uproot that evil.

It's a very natural thing, isn't it?

But I think there's a message of patience. In verse 28, the servants ask the

sower, do you want us to go and pull them up?

And the sower says, no, leave them until the harvest.

I think the servants are also us. Jesus doesn't explicitly say who the servants are.

But I think the servants are those who know Christ and we see evil in the world

and we want to take our own judgment.

We want to take it into our own hands.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with being concerned for the cares of the world.

We should be concerned about what's happening. We should be praying for what's

happening and for those affected.

But I think sometimes if we take a step back, we can actually be more evangelistic

about convincing people that somebody is evil or this thing is evil or these people are evil.

We try to convince people they should do their own weeding themselves.

In the parable, the owner says, leaving, judgment belongs to the Lord.

We can look at the world through very frustrated eyes, aren't we?

We went for a walk today. Fiona said an extremely sensible thing.

He said, do you ever think, why can't all world leaders just sit down together

and figure out how to get on?

Wouldn't that be fantastic? It really would be great.

And we look at these global situations all around the world and think,

how hard can it be? Just get on.

It's very frustrating, isn't it? Very frustrating indeed, when we see things

seemingly gradually getting worse.

Social media is full of people fighting, people arguing, the wicked seeming to prosper.

It's very frustrating, can't it?

If you read through the minor prophets, the majority of them are full of complaints along those lines.

Why do the wicked prosper?

And the answer is always the same. Wait for the Lord's hand. It's under his control.

It's not under your control.

Trust in his sovereign grace over everything. There will be a judgment,

but it's not ours to bring.

Maybe this is a message for you, a message of patience, a message of trust in the harvester.

Maybe this is your message today. Now, I'm not just talking about,

obviously, the very upsetting incidents and what's happening in the Middle East.

I wrote a sermon, or most of it, before that started.

But I do think there's a very practical step we can all do. I think we can consume

less divisive social media.

I'm not going to tell everyone to come off Facebook or off Instagram.

That's far beyond my remit.

I would encourage you to come off divisive social media.

You know the ones. You know the ones that do you harm. You know the ones that make you angry.

You know the ones that make you angry with other people.

You know the ones that are always entitled such and such destroys and often

it's two people having a fairly minor disagreement.

I don't know why things are going this way. I don't know if somebody's behind it other than the enemy.

But I would urge you, if this message is for you, if you're struggling with

patience at what's going on in the world, just consume less.

Consume less divisive, argumentative, pointless social media.

Follow things that are wholesome, that are uplifting.

I'm not saying bury your head in the sand and be blissfully unaware.

But I think we get angrier and angrier and angrier about things when we see

people arguing, we see people with very polarized views.

It makes it hard to trust in the rule of this world, doesn't it?

When we're constantly trying to consume content that tells us they have the solution.

So maybe you need to consume a little bit less divisive social

media i urge you along with

steve pray for world leaders pray for these

situations say the lord that it's in his hands and not our hands maybe that's

the message you need today from this passage message of patience message of

trusting the lord but i think there is a third message in here for us as well today,

and that's a message of hope.

Again I wrote this before things kicked off Or maybe today you're feeling scared

Maybe you're feeling freaked out Maybe you're feeling hopeless Probably more

of us feel like that today Than we did 48 hours ago,

But this is a parable full of hope,

It's a parable full of hope The Lord is in control There's a wonderful eternity To look forward to,

the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

It's a church i grew up in i could picture it to this day it's very small church

uh it was a public house before as a church i was lucky when they go that way

rather than the other way uh so i had these simple brick wall at the end and

behind where the pastor preached or where the preacher preached,

there's a simple Bible verse.

Jonah chapter 2, verse 9.

Jonah 2:9

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. See, sometimes a passage like this,

we can overly focus on judgment.

Judgment does indeed belong to the Lord, and so does salvation.

Salvation belongs to the lord she said

in john 3 16 for god so loved the work that

he gave his only son that whoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting

life this is the everlasting life spoken about here an eternity with him a perfect

eternity through jesus christ,

See, without Jesus,

the harvest would be even more simple.

So it wouldn't be bino.

We've all fallen short.

We are all worthy of the furnace. Yet there is a message of hope through Jesus Christ.

We can be saved. Jesus took our sins on the cross.

He took them on him. He suffered the punishment for them.

That we might have this eternal security. We might have this eternal salvation.

That we might have this place with the Father in heaven.

There is a real message of hope in this parable.

I think again, I feel like I'm slightly preaching on this passage and slightly

preaching on what Steve said, but I echo that.

We need to lift our eyes up.

We need to have an eternal perspective.

Perhaps that's the message you need today, this message of hope.

I urge you to pray for that eternal perspective.

It's one thing to look to the eternal perspective, but it's another to pray for it.

Pray the Lord will show you something of his might, something of his sovereign power.

I won't spend any time now, but there are so many amazing stories of how God

works in people's lives.

There are far too many for them to be coincidences. Somebody once said,

I find that the more I pray, the more coincidences happen.

And it's absolutely true, isn't it? God is sovereign. God is powerful.

God is just, I urge you today, pray for more of an eternal perspective.

So before we finish, the last verses or the last words Jesus says when he explains

this parable is, He who has ears, let him hear.

Jesus is saying, think about this. Think on.

Reflect. Take a moment.

I think before we close in worship, before we have those notices which have

been teased, I'd really urge you, just take a moment, think about these messages.

Maybe pray into one of them.

Maybe it's an urgency you need.

Maybe you need to pray right now for forgiveness.

Maybe you need to pray for Christ to take your sins on himself. to repent.

Maybe you need to pray for urgency to share this wonderful news,

to share the gospel with others.

Maybe it's a message of patience you need to take.

A message of trusting our sovereign Lord.

Maybe it's a message of hope. A reminder of this eternal perspective that we have before us.

It's tremendous. It's only, I kind of sometimes wish Jesus expanded a little bit,

but I guess when we get there it's going to seem even more amazing then the

righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father what a message

of hope he who has ears let him hear,

so maybe if I could just ask the the worship group up maybe Dean if you've got

a couple of more few more bars of nice background piano that would be lovely,

but let's take one or two minutes just reflect just pray before the Lord that'll

put one of these messages on your hand today in the weeks of the cold.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you if you'd like to learn more about

us visit us online at gracechurch.se thanks for listening.