Matthew 13:24-30

This month's Series is The Gospel According to Matthew. In the previous post, we covered Matthew 13:18-23. Here is the summary:

Jesus continued to teach THE SAME message as His Premiere Teaching (Matthew chapters 5 through 7). After Matthew chapter 12, Jesus taught in story form.

Notice, this parable covered many aspects from Jesus' Premiere Teaching...Matthew 5:10-12 is persecution because of Jesus (the Word)...Matthew 6 with various Reward levels...the end of Matthew 6 concerning the cares of this world...Matthew 7:17-20 speaking of fruitful...Matthew 7:24-27 hearing and doing the Word.

This parable was a Reward parable. People ended up with different levels of Reward.

Jesus' message hadn't changed...the WHY hadn't changed.

Jesus' METHOD of delivering the message had changed...the HOW had changed.


MATTHEW 13:24-30
"24 Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field:
25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away."

(Jesus spoke a parable of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven contains good seed (wheat) AND tares. Again, Jesus is teaching to both brains...another farming story to the conscious brain and another spiritual story to the Unaware Brain. The previous story was focused on Reward and was a restatement of His Premiere Teaching from Matthew chapters 5 through 7.)

(While we will see Jesus' explanation of the spiritual story in the next post, I will give some of it here. The man is Jesus. The enemy is the devil. The wheat are good people. The tares are bad people.)

"26 But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also."

(Notice, both good and bad people GROW together in the kingdom of heaven. They BOTH get sun and rain. Was this another way of saying Matthew 5:43-44?)

("43 Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy:
44 but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you;
45 that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." Matthew 5:42-44)

(Notice, the wheat is known by the fruit it brings forth. Good and bad are going to strive against each other for the sun and the rain. Was this another way of saying Matthew 5:10?)

("10 Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10)

"27 And the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares?"

(Notice, the servants of Jesus could ask Jesus questions!)

"28 And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. And the servants say unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?"

(Jesus answered! This was Fellowship. Jesus stated HE did NOT cause people to be bad...the enemy did. Again, this was definitely NOT Calvinistic. The servants asked another question about removing the tares.)

"29 But he saith, Nay; lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with them."

(Some experts state this answer means we can't tell the wheat from the tares...we can't tell the good people from the bad people. In fact, the novella showed the main character of Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christian" made this exact same flawed point! Actually, the wheat and the tares were apparent. They looked different. We saw the wheat brought forth fruit...it was Profitable. The issue was NOT that we couldn't tell them apart. By the way, was this the same as saying Matthew 7:16-20?)

("16 By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matthew 7:16-20)

(The issue was WHEN the tares were uprooted, the wheat may be uprooted with them...the good people may stumble. This would result in Jesus being Unjust to the believers. Remember, Paul wrote the ONLY thing we ought to judge now is a believer putting a stumblingblock in another believer's path.)

"30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."

(Notice, there were no worries about confusing wheat and tares at this point. In fact, the tares WERE gathered up first and burned...which meant they go into the lake of fire. Remember Matthew 7:19? "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.")

(The wheat was gathered and put into God's barn (house). Now, it appeared the main reason the tares weren't pulled up early was NOT that it would cause the wheat to go to the fire (Salvation), but it would stop the wheat's ability to be fruitful (Reward). This last verse showed the reapers could tell a tare from a wheat and even if the wheat was pulled up at the harvest, it didn't matter because it was done growing. We see Jesus would be unjust if He limited a good person's ability to have Reward...which is also definitely NOT Calvinistic.)

(Jesus mentioned "the time of the harvest". There was a right time to end this. Was this the same as saying Matthew 5:18? "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.")

(This parable was a Salvation parable. Notice, there were ONLY two possible results: burned or stored. Every wheat got the same result. Every tare got the same result.)

(Where this parable implied Reward would be the amount of fruit each wheat brought into God's barn...into Heaven? Was this the same as saying Matthew 6:19-21?

("19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." Matthew 6:19-21)


SUMMARY
The first two parables Matthew presented from Jesus covered Reward and Salvation, respectively.

BOTH parables showed:

1. Jesus' message hadn't changed...the WHY hadn't changed.

2. Jesus' METHOD of delivering the message had changed...the HOW had changed.

BOTH parables appeared to be indirect ways of relating the direct principles Jesus taught in His Premiere Teaching (Matthew chapters 5 through 7).

Next Post