Parable of the Tares - Jason Schrock

Good morning to each one, and greetings in the name of Jesus. Good

to be together again, good to have those who are a Bible school back

with us, certainly glad to see you back again. So this morning we

have a subject before I hope I can make it relevant to the time in

which really appear. I'd like to look at one of the parables of Jesus.

Jesus told many parables in his ministry among the people. Now, a

parable is a story, and this story has a lesson, but often the

deep meaning of that is somewhat obscure unless you have a spiritual vision and understanding.

In the past, I've used many of these parables and messages. I

was thinking back in that it is a number of them that I have preached

on. But the one we'd like to look at this morning is one that

i've far as I know, i've never preached on, and I'm sure i've

referred to it, But one that I've not preached to preached on. A

week ago yesterday, Elsie and I went to a meeting of the Pacific Northwest

Mennonite Historical Society, and we had the privilege of listening to a lecture by

a ninety year old man by the name of doctor Abraham Friesan from Fresno,

California, and the title of his lecture was Mennonite Russian Mennonites and the Recovery

of the Anabaptist Vision. Now, this man was born in nineteen thirty three

in Winnipeg. His parents had come to America from Russia in nineteen twenty six.

Almost I'm getting close to one hundred years ago that his parents came.

So this Abram Friesen, he studied into history. He got his PhD degree

in history, and then he taught at the University of California on Renaissance and

the Reformation history for about thirty seven years. Now, what does this have

to do with a parable? All right? He started. It was kind

of startling to me when he started his lecture, and he said that there

is a certain parable that how that is understood, explains a wide difference between

where the Anabaptist came out and where the Protestants came out in the time of

the Reformation. The understanding of this parable, he said, that is the

difference. So that set my mind in motion. You know, how could

the interpretation of a little story that Jesus told set the stage for such a

wide variation between the Anabaptists and the Reformed Church. Does anybody have any idea

what parable this might be? I would have. So we find this parable

in Matthew thirteen. If you want to turn to Matthew thirteen, and we'd

like to speak this morning on the parable of the terrors. T. A.

R. E S the parable of the tears, And in this chapter,

in chapter thirteen, there's eight different parables that are given, and probably

the most familiar one is a parable of the sower. We know that a

lot about that, how that there was seed that was sown on different types

of soil, and how they responded or did not respond. And so the

word parable comes from the Greek word that means placing beside, and so it's

a comparison. It's an illustration, and we might just use as an example.

I'm sure we all think about the parable of the prodigal Sun. Now.

The parable of the prodigal Son is a story, and it's an interesting

story. It's a story of a son that wanted his inheritance. He wanted

to get on with life, and he asked his father, would you give

me the inheritance that I have coming, and then we know how that he

went and how he spent that, and finally, after some time he became

destitute and he ended up feeding the pigs, and what could he do?

And finally he decided, you know, I'm going to go back to my

father. I'm going to say, Father, I have I don't deserve to

be your son, but could I just come home. I know that that's

a beautiful story, but there's so many spiritual truths in that that portray how

mankind has gone astray from God and how he is restored back by loving Father,

and how that loving Father is just waiting for that renegade to repent and

come home. You know, there's so many things that could be learned there.

That's a parable now here in chapter thirteen. I don't know if I'd

really ever really thought about this so much. You know, we often talk

about the Sermon on the Mount, but have we ever talked about the Sermon

on the sea? Let me let me read these first two verses. The

same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside, and

great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship

and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore. So here we have

Jesus hardly knowing how to control the crowds, and so he just gets on

the boat and goes out a little bit, and then he can sit there

and talk to him. They're not going to press press in upon him.

Found that kind of an interesting side note here, and so we have him

here teaching that. This then goes into the parable of the sower. And

in his teachings Jesus told many parables. I already mentioned that, and so

telling a story was an interesting way of teaching. But it seemed that the

hearers maybe weren't there really to get the depths of the spiritual meaning. They

were there to hear something interesting. They were maybe there to see if there'd

be another miracle that would be performed, or you know, maybe we'll get

a meal out of the out of the deal here if we listen to Jesus.

And so Jesus somewhat obscured the meaning of these parables. Let's read verses

ten to seventeen. He explains a little bit verse ten, the disciples came

and said on him, why speak is now unto them? In parables.

He answered and said, unto them, because it is given unto you to

know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not

given. Now, he says to you, is my disciples, it's given

to you to know. But this crowd is not really given to them to

know. I guess you'd say it this time Verse twelve. For whosoever has

to him shall be given, and he that, and he shall have more

abundans. But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he

hath. Therefore, speak I to them im parables. Because they seeing see

not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in

them is fulfilled the prophecy of isaiahs which saith. By hearing ye shall hear

and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive.

Why, for this people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull

of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest at any time they

should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with

their heart, and should be converted. And I should heal them. But

blessed are your eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear.

For verily, as saying to you, then, many prophets and righteous

men have desired to see these things which you see and have not seen them,

and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them.

So that's the rationale that Jesus gave for teaching imparables. Probably spend the rest

of the morning, maybe then some talking about that, but that's not exactly

the focus that I have here. And so let's go now to the parable

of the tears, and maybe we could just maybe we could just also say

that this is the parable of rye grass. Now I'm jumping ahead, Muster.

I'll get to that a little bit later. But let's read the parable

of the tears, okay, Matthew thirteen, verses twenty four to thirty.

Another parable pity forth under them, saying, the kingdom of Heaven is likened

unto a man which soweth good seed in his field. But while men slept,

his enemy came and sowed tears among the wheat, and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared

the tears. Also. So the servants of the householder came and set an,

and him, sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field?

And from whence? And from whence then hath it tears? He said,

into them are enemies? No, an enemy hath done this. And

the servants said into him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them

up? But he said, nay, lest while ye gather up the tears,

ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until

the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the

reapers, gather ye together first to tears, and bind them in bundles to

burn them. But gather the wheat in my barn. So here we have

the story of a man that went out and sewed seed. Now this is

a little different than the parable of the souler. There this seed was a

word of God. Here if I would understand the seed as the children of

the kingdom, and he sowed them. And here at night there was an

enemy that came in, and so tears among the wheat. And when it

came up, here was the wheat, and here was the terrors. And

so the servants said, well, shall we go out, and shall we

shall we rogue out the terrors. And the Master said, no, if

you do that, you may pull up the good the good wheat. Just

let them grow together until the time of judgment, and then they will be

They will be divided at that time. So now, if we go on

to verse thirty six, Jesus comes out of the boat. He sent the

multitude away, and he went into the house, and his disciples came into

him, saying, declare unto us a parable the terrors of the field.

And he answered, and said of them, he that soweth the good seed

is the son of Man. The field is a world. The good seed

are the children of the kingdom. But the tears are the children of the

wine. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the

end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the

terrors are gathered and burned in the fire, So shall it be in the

end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels,

and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and then

which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There

shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as

a son in the kingdom of their father, who has ears to hear,

let him hear. Found it interesting in what brother Leland read this morning about

the angels. So we have a little bit here the work of angels there,

and let's see what was that. The Hebrews want that they're ministering spirits

sent forth to minister, and here they are going to be sent forth to

divide the righteous from the wicked. And so here we have a man.

And Jesus said that this man was the son of man, and we would

understand that to be Jesus himself. And he had a field, and he

prepared this field, and he was looking forward to sewing it with good seed

and get a good harvest. And so I'm assuming that it was tilled and

it was ready to go. Everything was all smoothed out, everything was ready

to plant. And he went out and he planted the good seed. And

here he likened it to wheat. I don't think it was haphazard and just

hope, hope that something good would come up. But he put effort into

it. He put thought, he put he had, he had a purpose.

But during the night there was an enemy that came and that enemy was

the devil, and that devil decided that he was going to sow bad seed.

He was going to sew tears in that. Now a number of commentators

think that this tear was darnell, and I don't know much about darnell.

I was reading a little bit about it. Eating it. It can be

poisonous, can actually make a person sick. Now we'll get back to the

thought of rye grass. Here the word translated tears. This word is thought

to mean darnell. And it's a rye grass which looks much like wheat in

its early stages of growth. Now there's botanical names of the different grasses,

and I've seen this, I guess for the last fifty years and working in

the grassyed business. That rye grass that we know is known as Lolium multiflorum.

That's rye grass. Here these this darnell is known as Lolium temulentum.

If I have that, so it's a different type of lolium. And so

I had no idea that this weed that Jesus talked about was a type of

rye grass. Found that interesting. So anyhow, this weed, whatever it

was, took root, and it took root into this good soil, this

good soil that had been prepared for a fruitful crop. So now what could

be done? Here we have good wheat and here we have bad darnell growing

together. And the servants said, you know, can we just go out

there and rogue out that the bad grass, get the impurities out. But

the master of the field said no, He said, last you pull out

the As you pull out the bad, you also pull out the good.

Now, I suppose most of us have had that experience, at least if

you're a gardener. I've unfortunately let some grass grow in something I've planted.

Well, don't want that, don't I mean, let weeds grow. You

want to get that out, So pull out and oops, there comes a

peavine, or oops, here goes a cornstock because I pulled out something in

it. But so the Master Jesus said, no, just just let it

go. There's going to be a time where this will uh, this will

be taken care of. He says, let them grow together. At the

harvest time, there will be a separation. Now, I was doing a

little bit of reading in the book that I have on Matters and Customs of

Bible Times. It talks about how they would take a crop and thrash it,

and the winnow it and clean it up. And it says that when

the grain was threshed, it was necessary to remove any darnell out of the

wheat. The wheat had a yellow grain, and the darnell had a black

grain, and that black grain was bitter, and it caused dizziness and sickness

of eaten. This is what the devil sowed. And so in the parable

of the Sower, I mentioned that the seed is a word of God.

But here the good seed are the children of the Kingdom. In the parable

of the sower, the devil snatches away the good seed, but in this

parable he sows wickedness right in with the good seed. And so the field

is a world, and good and evil will grow together until the end of

the world. The world, the field is the world, not the Church.

And that's where we come to the difference that we need to look at.

You know, there are other scriptures that are very clear that there are

the impurities in the Church do need to be removed. That's that's not what

Jesus was saying here. Because if you go several chapters on in Matthew,

there in Matthew eighteen. He lines out how sin is to be taken care

of in the church. Offenses are a big dear of the church, and

they a man that will not respond to the church needs to be considered a

hate the man and a publican, and so on. Corinthians first. Corinthians

five tells Paul tells how to deal with centers and soul. This is not

speaking of the church, it's speaking of the world. So here we have

a story not of how believers should deal with evil in the church, but

a story of how God will deal with evil in the world at the end

of time. Now, I've I don't know that I can verify this for

sure from this, but I believe that I'm correct in this that the sowing

of the good seed by the Son of Man, which is probably not just

a one time event. I think that sowing is still going on today.

Jesus has given his followers the mandate to sow that good seed in the world.

But I believe that the devil is still sowing the terrors, and so

this is an ongoing process, all right. So then how does this parable

speak to the differences between the Anabaptists and the leaders of the various Reformation movements,

and I'm I'm going to just say here that I don't normally I'll look

at commentators, some use them some, but I don't usually try to rely

on them pretty heavy. But in this message here I read a lot of

commentary thoughts and I found that, you know, you go back even to

Augustine, he was considered one of the church leaders back in the earlier days

around three hundred something. A d that that he would have he would have

said that the field was a church, and that would have come on down

like like Calvin would have would have taken up with Augustein's teaching. And I'll

get to a quote here of Calvin here just a little bit later. So

some of these things are are maybe just a little bit hard to put together,

but I'm going to try. I think we're aware aware enough that what

was going on at the time of the Reformation, at the time of the

Anabaptists, that the Reformers, who were actually promoting a church and state together,

they tried to eliminate the Anabaptists. They tried to do away with them,

they tried to root them out. And how they do that, well,

they did it by killing. They did it by by all kinds of

persecution, and so they gave no room for the stand that the Anabaptist took,

claiming claiming that heresy would destroy the current makeup of their society and their

their church and so on. During this time you could read the Anabaptists planed

for toleration. Why can't we have the privilege of following the word of God

and believing as we as we believe, and practicing as we believe. But

no, they need to be destroyed. They need to be rooted out less

the poison that their teachers would permeate the church and permeate the kingdoms with this

world of this earth. Mental Simons would have in some of his writings he

actually refers to this parable one of the first if you have the mental Simons

his complete writings, one of the first articles pretty good size there in that

book is something that he wrote. It's it's the blaspheme of John of Leyden.

And I'm not going to go into all of that, but if you

know church history at all, there was a h there was in the city

of Munster. There were those that believed that the Kingdom of God had now

come, and it was time to destroy the wicked and to get them out

of the way, because the Kingdom of God was now to come. And

there was a man by the name of John of Leyden who proclaimed himself King

of Munster. And so these fanatical Anabaptists took over the city of Munster and

they proclaimed it the city of God. They believed that the time had come

that Jesus was going to come and set up his kingdom. Actually, what

happened there had a deep impression and changed a lot of ways in which Meno

Simons believed and taught. And so he was very opposed to the theology and

the actions of the must Rites. I'm going to read a little bit of

what he wrote in relation to this. He was talking about John of Leyden,

how that he was taking the sword and trying to destroy the enemies of

God and so on. Here's what Meno wrote. This parable some falsely,

well this parable some falsify and say, the enemies of God must be destroyed

before the coming of Christ, and therefore we will be the instruments to do

it. But they must come to shame. For thus saith the Lord God,

the Holy One of Israel. In returning and rest, Shall ye be

saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength? And you would not,

but ye said no, for we will flee upon horses. Therefore shall

ye flee, and we will ride upon the swift. Therefore shall they that

pursue you be swift? Oh, that the advocates of the sword would observe

these words, Yes, also those who would be angels to root up the

terrors. Christ told the parable with a different intent, saying, the good

seed are the children of the kingdom, but the terrors are the children of

the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is a devil. The harvest

is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. Inasmuch as

the Christians are the good seed, how can they be the angels or reapers?

Now? I found that interesting? Menlosimum says, how can the Christians

be the ones to be the reapers? Because Jesus said the reapers are the

angels? All right? Or if they be the reapers, how can they

be the seed? These two things, the seed and the reapers, are

quite different. It's plainness must not be obscured. Yes, it is true

that the Christians are sometimes called angels, but we cannot always when reading of

angels refer to believers. There are also other angels, of which it is

written, who maketh his angel's spirits, his ministers of flaming fire. With

these angels Christ will come, as Paul says, the Lord Jesus shall reveal,

shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking

vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the Gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ. These angels will be the reapers, who, at the

end of the world, that is, in the day of Judgment, will

root up all tears and cast him from the lake, cast him into the

lake of fire. Until that time the tears will be left among the good

seed, and the goats with the sheep. Let none think that we should

now root up the terrors, or that we should now separate the goats from

the sheep. For when the Son of Man shall come in his glory,

and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne

of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he

shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the

goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the

goats on the left. Think I'll quit reading in that section. Then another

section that in the writings of Mental Simons. This here is entitled It's a

section entitled Cross of the Saints. I'm going to just read a couple of

excerpts. We are, with great verity, but without cause, speaking we

the Mennonite people, but without cause, accused by those who persecute us of

being headstrong, self willed, and impossible persons who consistently refuse to be taught

or instructed. Now, if you follow what he's getting out here, he

says, you know, we're blamed for things that really aren't true. We're

blamed for being self headstrong, impossible persons refusing to be taught or instructed.

To this, we reply first that even if this accusation were true and proper,

which it is not, it is still not right for those who persecute

us to exterminate or harmus, since they call themselves Christians, seeing that the

punishment of unbelief will be eternal, as the scriptures testify. Moreover, it

is not the will of the husbandmen that the terrors should be rooted up as

long as the time of harvest has not yet come, As the evangelical parable

shows in great clarity. Now, if our persecutors were Christians as they think,

and if they considered the word of the Lord to be true, why

then do they not hear and follow the word and commandment of Christ? Why

do they pluck out before the time? Why are they not afraid lest they

pluck up the good wheat and not the terrors? Why do they invade the

province of the angels, who then will bind the terrors and bundles and cast

him into the furnace of everlasting fire. So Menosimons kind of complains, and

he says, you know why all this? I mean, these people that

are persecuting us claim to be the servants of God, but they're not even

following the directions of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now, I

would like to read a quote from Believers Church Bible commentary. This is written

from a Mennonite perspective and a Baptist perspective. I'm going to read this quote.

There has been a long standing debate about the nature of the Church.

To some, the parable portrays the church as a mixed community where true believers

and others are found together, like wheat and terrors. Calvin said, so

long as the Church is in pilgrimage in this world, the good and sincere

will be mixed in with the bad and the hypocrites. The Anabaptist disputed this

interpretation, calling attention to the way the text itself defines the field of action.

Meno Simons and others insisted that the mingling of wheat and weeds describes the

world, not church. Jesus's will for the church, they argued, is

defined in Matthew eighteen, which clearly envisions a discipline community of the faithful.

So now the way I would understand it, the reformers would have said,

you Ana Baptist, you're not even You're not even being equal in your interpretations.

You say we should not root you out because of the tears in the

wheat, But what are you doing in your own church? You're rooting people

out in discipline. So in the book Glimpses of Menlight, History and Doctrine,

J. C. Winger has this to say about that. He said,

the reformers ridiculed the Anabaptists for exercising church discipline, claiming that it was

practiced in violation of the teaching not to uproot the tears until harvest. They

also accused a Brethren of considering themselves an assembly of absolute perfect Christians, an

odd charged to bring against the group which insists on dealing with its transgressors.

So, just looking at these different writings, and this is just a small

sample of them, we find that there's there's a wide interpretation. I don't

know how of you are acquainted with the pulpit helps, but it's a large

commentary, a compilation of many writers. I decided to go and see what

it had to say, and I found it interesting that the one writer was

very strong that the field is the church. Another writer was very strong that

the field is the world. I'm going to read a couple of quotes from

that commentary. The field is the world, but it is a parable of

the Kingdom of God. The field is God's He sewed good seed in it.

The world, so far as it has grown over with good seed,

becomes a church. So he just very carefully just slid right from the from

the world of the church. All right, in the visible church, the

evil will be ever mingled with the good earthly power must not be used to

exterminate religious errors. The terrors must go with the wheat, for such is

the Lord's command. It is saddening. Is a saddening thought that the Church,

the bright of Christ, which ought to be a glorious church, not

having spot a wrinkle or any such things, should be so rent asunor by

schisms and heresies, so disfigured with the evil lives of many baptized men.

But the Lord warned us that it would be. So. We must live

in patient hope, purifying ourselves even as he is pure, and seeking by

his gracious help to influence for good all who come within our reach. Do

you get the portent there of what is happening? They're saying, you know,

Okay, so this is the kingdom of God. The Church is the

Kingdom of God, and there's terrors. We don't like it, but we

have to live with it. We have to allow that evil within the church.

Yeah. A Baptists said, no, there needs to be church discipline.

Okay. Then there's another writer in the pulpit helps and he had things

straight, he said. This parable has often been abused by applying to church

disciphen a subject which it has nothing to do seeing that the field is the

world, not the church. What it excludes is a violent uprooting of men

from the world. It is not to be pressed to a literal application.

It may be thought to forbid capital punishment, but as it deals with religious

relations, it is rather aimed at persecution. It is absolutely opposed to such

actions as that of the Spanish Inquisition. Too often persecutions selects the various sons

of the kingdom for its victim. So these are the thoughts of some man

that have looked at this parable. As I thought about this parable, and

I'm not sure just what all you might be thinking of, but that there's

some things that I think about. Even though we have the terrors, the

soil is good. There was nothing wrong with that field that was planted,

and the good seed grew, and the good seed flourished, and the good

seed brings forth fruit, even in the midst of being surrounded with evil.

Can we live that way? Can we be that kind of of wheat that

should grow in the field that Jesus sowed. The terrors also got their nourishment

from the same soil and flourished and bear fruit. But it's bad fruit,

and it's going to be taken up and it's going to be destroyed at the

judgment day. You know, sometimes we just wish that the wickedness in this

world could be taken care of it. Have you ever thought about it?

I've had thought about different times when something is going on, you know,

just wait until the Lord comes again and he will take care of that.

And that's right. But we don't want to wish bad on people, but

we understand that wickedness is going to be is going to be destroyed. And

as we see what's going on in the world today, all the it just

seemed like things are just getting worse and worse as far as the society in

which we live, and we just you know, if God would just destroy

the wicked, then the righteous could have a good place to live. But

no, he says that wickedness and righteousness are going to coexist until the end

of time. So what are we going to do with that? Then shall

the righteous shine forth as a sun? Then shall the righteous show that there

is such a difference between righteousness and wickedness. I think that maybe there's a

couple lessons here that we could learn that even though the devil has sown tears

in this world, the true believer can flourish and can bear fruit. And

that's where we need to come out on this. That's where we need to

be in this parable. Not that we're sitting here just trying to see what

we can do to destroy the wicked person and vote in whoever to combat wickedness.

Know that that's not really, that's not really it. So another lesson,

and I trust that we can see that that it's not in the place

of the child of God to take things into his own hands and destroy the

evil about us. We need. I think that's correct, that we need

to learn to coexist with evil. It's going to be here. We can't

change that, but we don't have to be overcome by it. We don't

have to allow it to to hinder our fruitfulness. And so I trusted this

little discussion on this parable of the terrors will give and encourage to continue on

serving the Lord