The Birds of The Air& the Lilies of the Field Pg.1
Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30
Another parable he put before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?' 28 He said to them, `An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he said, `No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Why study this parable? We know that Satan exists and is busy hunting souls to steal away. We are just not aware of how he may do that other than with deception. God knows the state of our relationships and he does not desire that we seek to destroy those whom Satan has corrupted,. There is no need to risk the souls that are prospering in his word, to remove the evil that exists. He will have the accounting of it at the Day of Judgment. We just need to know. Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Meditation: The image Jesus uses here is a common everyday example of planting, harvesting, and sorting the good fruit from the bad. Weeds can spoil and even kill a good harvest if they are not separated and destroyed at the proper time. Uprooting them too early, though, can destroy the good plants in the process. Just as nature teaches us patience, so God's patience also teaches us to guard the word he has planted in our hearts and to beware of the destructive force of sin and evil which can destroy it. God's word brings life, but Satan seeks to destroy the good seed which has been planted in the hearts of those who have heard God's word. God's judgment is not hasty, but it does come. And in the end, God will reward each according to what they have sown and reaped in this life. In that day God will separate the evil from the good. Deu 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." This parable represents the present and future state of the gospel church; Christ's care of it, the devil's enmity against it, the mixture there is in it of good and bad in this world, and the separation between them in the other world.
Martin Luther preached a sermon on the parable in which he affirmed that only God can separate false from true believers and noted that killing heretics or unbelievers ends any opportunity for their salvation
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Verse by Verse study+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Matt. 13:24 The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field;
It is the desire of God that all his creation be subject to man’s use and enjoyment. God gave man a perfect world. Compare this to ones own life. We started with perfect innocence, what happened?
1. “A man”. Who is this man _This man is Jesus who started it all.
2. His field” Is representative of what?_Jesus’ field is all the world. And in particular, the Church.
3. And what is the good seed? All the people of his Kingdom, those who set about to do his will.
4. When the seed is sown, remember how it is done, scattered, and plowed into the soil. Why?
Pg.2
Jesus explains the Parable to his disciples Pg.4
25 but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
God’s investment in good grain is his people. We are able to make our own choices. Some are poor choices which allow the tares to flourish. False professors, nominal Christians, men of degenerate principles and practices. The desire of man to enjoy his own world, without the bother of God.
1. And while “men were sleeping” means what?_ While taking thought of ourselves and not of God.
2. Who is the Enemy of God?__Satan, who exhibited to Jesus in the wilderness, what he wanted.
3. And what would we consider the seeds of evil? The teachings of Satan, manifested in mankind
4. What of the wheat, is it harmed? The word of God is infallible, but it may be diverted in the mind
5. How desperate is Satan to destroy God’s work? He knows Gods wrath, & how it is done
6. And where did he go, when he went away? Where do you suppose he goes?
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26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the tares appeared also.
Discernible both by their unfruitfulness in their lives and conversations, and by their bad principles, which they endeavor to spread, to the hurt of the churches and hurtful to the good seed, both by temptation and persecution: they are weeds in the garden, have the same rain, and sunshine, and soil, with the good plants, but are good for nothing:
1.Wherever goodness is, does evil present itself ?_Yes, as it did with Adam And Eve, the need to know
and as it did to Jesus in the wilderness.
2.Does it do harm to the good seed_It does no damage to the word of God, only to the hearers of it.
3. What then is God’s instruction?_Leave it alone, as do not even consider it, avoid it any way possible.
4. How are we to know what to do?_Study the word of God, meditate on it, recite it, dwell in it. Then do as it says
27 And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it tares?' Christ is the "householder"; the house of which he is master is the church, called the household of God, the household of faith, By "the servants" that came to him, are meant, the ministers of the Gospel, the servants of Christ came to him, and spread the case before him in prayer; said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? The rise of errors, the breaking out of scandals, and the growth of profaneness, are matter of great grief to all the servants of Christ; especially to his faithful ministers, who are directed to complain of it to him whose the field is. It is sad to see such tares, such weeds, in the garden of the Lord; to see the good soil wasted, the good seed choked, and such a reflection cast on the name and honor of Christ
1. Who are the servants? Does that include any one of us? Any who are Disciples of Christ, Who else?
2. Have you ever questioned God’s work? Very likely on a regular basis. Why?
3. What has happened? Satan has been given the opportunity to distribute his evil throughout. Why?
4. When is he given opportunity? When we make poor choices in life decisions. When we are hasty in our treatment of others. When we allow the progression of immorality.
5. What else? Look at the entertainment industry, It is rife with immorality and promiscuity
Pg.3
28 He said to them, `An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather them? The ministers of Christ, that are faithful and diligent, do wonder how to respond, but shall not be judged for it and should not be reproached by men, for the mixtures of bad with good, hypocrites with the sincere, in the field of the church. It must needs be that such offences will come; and they shall not be laid to our charge, if we do our duty, though it have not the desired success.
1. Who is “an enemy”_ Ever since he became a wicked spirit himself he has made it his sworn duty to promote wickedness, and has made it his business, aiming therein to counterwork Christ.
2. Again, to whom is the Son of Man speaking?_ To all Christian believers, God’s servants
3. And we responded with a question? What do you want us to do? What do we normally do?
4. Isn’t it the Christian’s job to try to make the world a better place? If we see it breaking down, fix it.
5. So when something or someone is 'troublesome' Don’t we tend to seek a resolution?_________
6. And what does the householder say? Rom 12:19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.
29 But he said, `No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
It is not possible to distinguish between tares and wheat, that we may be mistaken; and therefore such is the wisdom and grace of Christ, that he will rather permit the tares, than any way endanger the wheat. It is certain, scandalous offenders are to be censured, and we are to withdraw from them. Those who are openly evil are not to be admitted to special ordinances. Yet it is possible there may be a discipline, either so mistaken in its rules, or so overcorrect in the application of them, as may prove vexing to many that are truly Godly.
1. Must we then tolerate evil?_Indeed not! But we are to seek God’s will, not ours, in all that we do,
2. Did God tolerate it in Noah’s day?_ Yes he did, But there were consequences, and finally Noah did as God willed. Then God acted, as only he can. He eliminated all of it.
3. How is it that we might damage the good? Good and evil exist together but as oil and water do not blend together, so must evil not be allowed to contaminate the good. What can one do?
4. Any vengeful act is contrary to what God says is his job. Define the difference between vigilance and vengeance?
30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my bar n.
God is, has always been, and will forever be the Great I Am. Evil exists. Because God’s created perfect beings failed and evil began, It will not always be, God will be in charge with His Son Jesus and the angels will bind evil and destroy it. The Good will be gathered into God’s barn. Deu 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.
1. Let evil and good both grow together. How will we know which is which? Who does know?
2. And who will be the reapers? God’s Angels will execute his commands at the Day Of Judgment
3. Gather the tares first. What does that tell us?
4. Would you call this a good time to be first? Who is it that will not be first?
5. Bind them in bundles, what does that imply? There is no escaping God’s Judgement.
6. What does it mean to be bound? There is the cessation of ones right to be free to choose.
The sentence is set, time has expired, it is too late now.
Mat 13:37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
Mat 13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
Mat 13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Mat 13:40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.
Mat 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
Mat 13:42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
But a day is coming when God will still be and evil will be gone forever. God will have the final word, and when he does, the evil in our midst and the evil within us will be gone forever.
Questions:
1.Who is “the man” Jesus is speaking of? Is it Jesus the first to sow the seeds of the kingdom of God? Since He is now at the right hand of God, Who does the sowing in our time?
2. Would the seed have been the first man and woman Adam and Eve? And while God was away the serpent sowed the bad seed?
3. Is this an instructive principle being illustrated in a simple analogy for the disciples, Or is it relative to what God has placed in the world, His word?
4. God has put into the world the perfect seed, will it flourish? Are there good friends who help? Or are there enemies who try to confuse and destroy what God has done?
5.“While men were sleeping”, what does that imply? God does not rest, or does he? What is happening? Even as God was with Adam, the serpent crept into the garden, Why? What is there in Gods world that so attracts evil to work at destroying it?
6. We have a society which says we have the freedom of religion, does that include freedom of non religion?
7. Satan is the enemy, has he sown his evil in this world? Does it come up among us even as we work in God’s kingdom? What does the sower say to his servants? Let them grow, why?
8. Is the matter of Paul in the various letters to the churches, an example of the seed being spread?
9. How do we get the weeds out? We are not murderers, Do we have power over the tares in our world? If they are removed, what chance do they have of being ministered to? Or are they to be removed in other ways?
10. What does Jesus say about that? What did Jesus do with Paul, the persecutor of Christians ?
"Lord, may your word take deep root in our hearts, that we may bear good fruit for your glory. May we hunger for your righteousness now so we may look forward to the Day of Judgment with joy rather than with dread." Happy in the knowledge that at harvest time through Your Son Jesus we are righteous in your sight. In the name of Jesus we pray, AMEN
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