The Parable of the Wheat and Weeds

0:06 · Well, hello again.

0:08 · Hello again. [laughter] That bumper video sneaks up on me. It's faster than the other one. Um, well, welcome again.

0:14 · I'm Pastor DJ. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.

0:20 · [clears throat] As I catch my breath here, Matthew chap 13, beginning at verse 24.

0:30 · And I want to echo a very happy Father's Day to all of you this morning. Uh I am grateful for all fathers, our our spiritual fathers, physical fathers, and everything in between. Whether or not you have your own children or perhaps you volunteer in kids ministry or nursery or disciple children in any other way, maybe through adoption or foster care. I want you to know from all of us here that you are valued, loved, and appreciated. So, thank you.

0:59 · Fatherhood is a gift from God and it's not to be taken lightly. And I want Cross Church Phoenix to be full of godly men for every child to look up to and say that is a godly man and godly women as well, of course. But may this church be full of men who love God and set the example for all kids here.

1:25 · Well, we come this morning to our third parable in our parables of Jesus series.

1:30 · The parable of the wheat and the weeds or some translations might say the wheat and the tears.

1:38 · And we already know the context because it's the very next parable uh after what we preached last week, the parable of the soils and the swer. And Jesus gave that parable, explained it, and then he will give this one. So, let's get into it. I want to open with prayer. Father, we thank you once more for your word. Help us, God, to have ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix.

2:09 · God, we pray that your word would fall on rich good soil.

2:20 · God, help us in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you'll stand as we read our text together. If you're unable to stand, no worries. Stand with us in spirit as we honor God's word this morning.

2:33 · I'm going to read Matthew 13:24-30 and then skip down to 36-43.

2:40 · And it says this, he presented another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who swed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came. his enemy came, swed weeds among the wheat and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared.

3:03 · The landowner servants came to him and said, "Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?" "An enemy did this," he told them. "So, do you want us to go and pull them up?" The servants asked him. "No," he said. When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.

3:22 · Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time, I'll tell the reapers, "Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn." Verse 36, then he left the crowds and went into the house as his uh his disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

3:43 · He replied, "The one who sws the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world and the good seed. These are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one. And the enemy who swed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels. Got it? Okay, good. Right. Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered 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 gather from his kingdom all who cause sin or some might say a stumbling block.

4:14 · And those guilty of lawlessness, they will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth.

4:24 · Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen. Amen.

4:34 · Thanks. You can be seated.

4:36 · Amen. Amen.

4:42 · Many of the first century Jewish people missed Christ. They missed their Messiah because they were looking for a certain kind of Messiah. They were looking for the conquering king Messiah rather than the suffering servant Messiah of Isaiah 53.

5:09 · And there's legitimate reason why they're looking for the conquering king Messiah, which Jesus of course is. Many Old Testament prophecies spoke about Messiah's coming rule and reign and his authority. And one of the characteristics of Messiah's rule was the destruction of God's enemies, peace for God's people in a kingdom free from evil that will last forever.

5:42 · There are many passages that I could related to this, but I just want to note a few, a couple to set this up. In the book of Micah, for example, our Christmas prophecy, we read, we learn that Christ, the ruler, will be born in Bethlehem, and he will shepherd his people, and his people shall dwell secure. They will dwell in security. They'll be safe, and he will be their peace.

6:12 · That's Micah.

6:16 · the prophecy relating to Christ's coming, his ruling authority and safety he'll provide for his people. There's others like Zachchariah.

6:24 · Zachchariah prophesies Christ's triumphal entry. So, I just picked a couple, one related to his birth, the other his triumphal entry, big stages in in the gospels. And Zachchariah prophesies Christ's triumphal entry and says, "Your king is coming." Does it sound familiar? We just sang it, right?

6:42 · The king is coming. And then he describes the king for you. Zachchariah does. He says, "He's coming humble, riding on a donkey. His rule will be to the ends of the earth. And the Lord of hosts will protect them. The Lord their God will save them, bring salvation to them, and he will be king over all the earth." And that's Zechariah 12-14 in a nutshell. Um, there's a lot more to it than that, but that's a summary.

7:15 · So, you can see why the first century Jewish people believed Messiah would be this king, which he is, but they thought he would be a king who would come overthrow Roman government immediately and establish his reign right then and there. They had it in their minds that when Messiah comes, he's going to wipe out Rome. Remember, they're under Roman occupation and oppression. And they're like, "Come when Messiah comes, he's going to wipe out Rome and restore Israel." Right after Jesus resurrection, this was on the disciples mind.

7:48 · If you remember in Acts chapter 1, Jesus is risen and he's appeared to uh multiple people. He's in the process of, you know, revealing things and getting ready to ascend into heaven. And when the disciples see the risen Christ, they themselves were wonder were wondering if it's time for Jesus to destroy evil and establish his kingdom. Acts 1:6, they're gathered together with the risen Lord.

8:18 · And they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

8:26 · You're risen. You just conquered death. Do you want to deal the death blow to Rome? do you just kind of want to wipe them out and get everything going right now? And Jesus simply says, you're on a need to- know basis, right? And you don't need to know. That's not for you to know. What you are to do and to focus on is to be his witness.

8:50 · Be my witness, he says, to the ends of the earth. So both before Jesus came and after Jesus ascended, there is this longing for Messiah to rule, righteousness and justice to prevail, and evil to be completely done away with. And we join in that, right? One look at your local news or your national news and we long for righteousness and justice to prevail, right? We long for God to make everything right.

9:26 · You may or may not have heard this before, but we live in what theologians often call the now and not yet of God's kingdom. The now and not yet of the kingdom of God. It would be ridiculous to say that God is not reigning right now. That Jesus isn't ruling and reigning now in heaven. He is. He's ascended. He defeated death and sin. He defeated it. Rose, ascended, is seated at the right hand of the Father in charge. God's throne has not been usurped.

10:01 · God is still sovereign and in control. However, we also live in the not yet of the kingdom. What I mean by not yet meaning we wait for Christ's return and for him to establish the new heavens and the new earth where sin and death will be no more.

10:23 · So he's already conquered sin at the cross and his resurrection. And yet yet we wait for him to come back cuz we still live in a wicked, sinful and evil world. We as the children of God are children of his kingdom and yet we live in a wicked and sinful world.

10:50 · Christ is king now and we're still waiting for him to bring in the new heavens and the new earth. So what happens in the meantime?

10:59 · What truths do we [snorts] need to know as we live as children of the kingdom in a world of wickedness and sin? And I believe that is what this parable is communicating.

11:12 · And so that's our main heading this morning. If you have an outline, um this is you'll see this at the top. If not, it'll be up here. Living as children of the kingdom in a sinful world. Number one, what the first thing that we see in the parable? Live knowing that there is real spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God.

11:35 · Knowing that there is real spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God. And I want to emphasize the the real spiritual, right? Often times we the the whole focus of the New Testament is on the spiritual warfare. But what do we often get distracted by as believers?

11:53 · the physical. It's all about the physical problem. We don't see the spiritual as clearly as we would like to. And I want you to know we live knowing that there is real spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God. So like last week, Jesus gives the parable and he provides the interpretation. So a man goes and sews good seed, wheat, in his field. Overnight an enemy sowed bad seed. The weeds among the wheat and then he left.

12:23 · The wheat and the weeds grow together and the landowner's servants take notice. There's weeds out there.

12:33 · Right, master? You sowed good wheat seed. Why are there weeds all over the place? Clearly, you didn't do this. How did they get here?

12:45 · And the master says, "An enemy did this." And the servants, they want to remove the weeds, but the master says, "Hold on, chill. Relax." Right? Rain it in. Let them grow together. The time will come when they'll be separated. Weeds in those days, uh, there's a term for it that we have is called Darnel. D A R N L. Darn. Darnell is a poisonous plant that looks like wheat but is not wheat.

13:20 · Darnel is virtually indistinguishable from wheat until the ears of the wheat form. If you were to Google online like a wheat and tear comparison uh visually wheat and darn of their of their day, they're very similar. They look a lot alike, but the difference is when the wheat forms, when the ears of the wheat form, the darn won't have that. It'll look a lot like it until the end when it is not.

13:56 · And the ones asking, "Master, do you want us to pull up the weeds?" Then who are those?

14:03 · Those are the angels asking that question. I had to think this through because at first it might seem like us, right? Like Christians um these are these are, you know, um hung like Christians ready to do something, right? Christians wanting to pull up the weeds. But if you think about that for a second, that doesn't fit the parable exactly.

14:24 · The seeds, Jesus says, are the children of God in the parable, not the harvesters or the reapers. Wheat itself doesn't pull up the weeds, right?

14:36 · Reapers do.

14:38 · If Christians are the wheat, then we're not the harvesters. The servants asking the son of man if they want to uproot the weeds, I believe, are angels. And Jesus says, "Hold off right until harvest time." Angels we know are not omnisient. That attribute belongs to God alone. They do not omnisient, meaning they're not all knowing. They don't know everything.

15:04 · They do what God tells them to do. Like us, angels are servants of God. They are messengers of God. So when the harvest is full, at God's appointed time, when the wheat and weeds are fully known, however God works that out, he'll send the angels for harvest.

15:25 · Now, if you look down at verse 37, Jesus begins to explain this to the disciples. And so we get what everything represents. The man sewing is Jesus himself, the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are children of the kingdom. That would be believers, right? Christians. The weed, the product of the bad seed are children of the evil one who swed them. None other than Satan himself.

15:53 · The harvest is the end of the age or the end of the world, the end of the eon. And that's what everything represents. But the first principle we see is that there is real spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God. The enemy comes and sews bad seed in Jesus field of good seeds.

16:18 · And what would the purpose be for that?

16:21 · What would the point be? The point is to harm the wheat, right? to reduce the fruitfulness of the wheat to damage what it produces. Weeds would compete for nutrients in the soil with the wheat and reduce how fruitful it could be, reduce the harvest it could have. That's the point of Satan sewing weeds in God's field. Now this illustration would not be unfamiliar to them or foreign to them. This would actually be very familiar.

17:01 · There was actually in the first century a Roman law prohibiting this very act of sewing weeds in someone's wheat field. This was often done as an act of revenge or ill will uh against another person. If if you if someone wronged you or if you wanted to get back at them or if you just wanted to be plain old mean to them, you get up in the middle of the night and throw a bunch of weed seeds in their wheat field. And then as it grew up, you would affect their harvest.

17:32 · You would affect their field. And this is what people did to each other. They would go sew weeds in someone else's wheat field to hurt them. This is actually punishable by Roman law. So if you're found out to be doing this, you would get punished. That's how prevalent this was. It actually this practice had to be outlawed because of its prevalency.

18:00 · And Jesus says that's exactly what Satan does in the world. He opposes the kingdom of God by sewing weeds among God's wheat. And this opposition lasts how long to the end of the age. Opposition to the kingdom of God is going to last until the end. It's very uplifting, right? Very encouraging. This will last until final judgment.

18:40 · It's completely unbiblical to go live in isolation like a as a monk in a monastery trying to avoid all the evil in the world. Nowhere is that found in scripture. In fact, the opposite is true. We are in the world but not of the world. But we are called to be his witnesses in and to a dying sinful world. And how are we supposed to do that if we isolate ourselves?

19:08 · It should not take us by surprise that we experience opposition to God and his kingdom work.

19:20 · Jesus doesn't say that opposition to his kingdom will come to an end. Father's Day 2026. Wouldn't that be nice?

19:28 · No, it will endure until the harvest. Until the end. Peter picks up this principle in 1 Peter 4:es 12 and 13. He says, "Beloved," he's talking to believers. He says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings so that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

20:07 · Notice he says, "Don't be surprised at the fiery trial that comes upon you as though something strange were happening to you." Guess what?

20:17 · Opposition to God and his kingdom work is normal. It shouldn't take us by surprise. And it's not strange. You know what would be strange is not experiencing any fiery trial for your faith in Christ, for kingdom work, for the gospel. That would be weird. What's weird in Peter's mind is a lack of persecution or a lack of suffering for the sake of Christ. That's strange.

20:45 · What is not strange is experiencing that opposition to the kingdom of God. know that suffering and opposition will be there until the end. Which leads me to point number two. Live believing that final judgment awaits opposition to the kingdom of God. Live believing that final judgment awaits opposition to the kingdom of God. One of the things I noticed studying this parable this week is that humanity is secondary to [snorts] the parable.

21:22 · This is about what Jesus and Satan are doing. The son of man swed good seed. The devil swed bad seed. And the son of man will eventually send his angels to separate them in the end. As we talked about last week, all of humanity is divided into two groups of people. And we can add to this morning that carries on into this parable. All of humanity is divided into two groups, the saved and the unsaved.

21:55 · And in this parable, we could say the wheat or the weeds. Every person in the world is either wheat, a child of God, or a weed, a child of the evil one. But as you look into this parable, all humanity, whether wheat or weed, is passive in the parable. Yeah, they they grow up together. I get that. But this is more about what Jesus did, what Satan then did, and then what Jesus will do again.

22:24 · Wheat was swn by Jesus, weeds swn by Satan. They grow up together, yes, but they don't do anything in the parable. This is is about Jesus doing something, Satan doing something, and then Jesus doing the last thing, the final thing.

22:43 · And we see this in verses 40 to 42. It says, "At the end of the age, the son of man, Jesus, will send his angels to gather all the weeds, the ones who cause sin." And some translations might say the the stumbling block, but these are people who oppose God.

23:03 · And Jesus will gather them up along with those guilty of lawlessness, guilty of sin, and apart from Christ. That would be you. If you're not a Christian, if you're not in Christ right now, you stand before God guilty in your sin. And the only way to not stand before God guilty in your sin is to be in Christ the sin. So Jesus is saying, "I'm going to gather these people up.

23:32 · Those who cause sin, those who are guilty of lawlessness, stand guilty in their sin." And Jesus says he's going to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. The bottom line is that final judgment is coming.

23:52 · And if you're a believer this morning, if you say you're here and you're a Christian, if you truly, if we truly reflect on the truth Jesus is sharing, this should break our hearts for lost people.

24:08 · Though the wheat are passive in the parable, I know I said that, but when we reflect on the truth principle that the parable teaches, that should affect how we live. It should cause us to be evangelistic, to go and to share the gospel with others.

24:25 · There are people who visit our church and I think, man, like they probably hate everything I'm saying. That could be true this morning. I don't know, maybe 9:00, maybe also right now, right?

24:37 · man, they hate everything I'm saying. They're definitely not going to stick around, right? And they do. And they get saved and they get baptized and they live a godly life. And you're like, "This is awesome, right? It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens sometimes." We don't know. You and I don't know who the wheat and the weeds are. But we do know this that real [clears throat] permanent eternal judgment is coming.

25:09 · So our final point is this. Live trusting that [snorts] one day there will be no more opposition to the kingdom of God. Trusting that one day there will be no more opposition to the kingdom of God. Bless you. The good news for those who are wheat is that weeds can't change you into weeds. Isn't that great? Weeds can try to harm you. Weeds can reduce try to reduce the amount of wheat or fruit that you produce. But a weed cannot change you into a weed.

25:44 · We are secure in Christ. And one day God will set everything straight. He will set it right. We see this in verse 43. The righteous will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom. Evil will be done away with. There'll be no more crying, no more pain, no more sin, no more sorrow, no more wickedness, no more injustice. just pure joy in the presence of our righteous, just, and holy God.

26:29 · Like the parable of the swer in the soils, this parable is both a a sober warning to those who are outside of Christ and a massive encouragement to those who are in Christ.

26:43 · But I got to tell you pastorally, my conviction this morning is that it would be a complete disservice to this parable if I didn't warn everyone listening to my voice right here or online or in the future if they pull it up. Right? If I don't warn everyone listening that judgment is coming with finality. This isn't a game. Like it's not a joke. It's not like, well, that's whatever. No, no, no, no. Like, this is serious.

27:19 · This is urgent. This parable compels me to alert like think like things need to be going off, right? At least I'm going to tell you, alert, alert. Hello. Hello.

27:31 · Every person will stand before God. Judgment is coming. And the only way to be right with God is in Jesus Christ. And you need to get right with God today, right?

27:44 · Not tomorrow, not next week. You don't know when the end is.

27:50 · Neither do I.

27:52 · I'm not guaranteed tomorrow any more than anyone else is here. That's why the Bible says today is the day for salvation while there is time. And every day or every Sunday that someone hears the gospel and does not respond is another day their eternal soul is in jeopardy. If you don't know Christ, don't go walk away thinking you're all right.

28:23 · Can't.

28:27 · My prayer is that there wouldn't be anyone here this morning. This warning does not originate with me. It's not like me just trying to be hellfire and brimstone. I'm just telling you what Jesus is saying and you can see it in the text for yourself, right? I often encourage way test everything I say from the pulpit with the scriptures. I'm not going to tell you anything he ain't telling you. What is he telling you? It's coming.

28:52 · The day will come when God brings final judgment. And if you're not in Christ, you will experience what Revelation 20 calls the second death. You say there's a second death. I thought there was just one. No, no, no, no. There's two. The first death is just dying apart from Christ, right?

29:09 · Believers who there's a reason in the New Testament that believers who die are not described as dead. They are described as asleep. The first death is dying apart from Christ. The second death is being resurrected unto judgment, which is described in Revelation 20. Read it yourself. But the second death is this. God casting those whose names are not written in the book of life into the lake of fire, aka the blazing furnace of verse 42.

29:44 · Happy Father's Day.

29:49 · But in all seriousness, Father's Day sounds like a great day to come to Christ, right? Every day is, but I mean, right now is right now. So right now is the day. I'm going to end with the final the parabolic truth here. Just simply this. While God permits the existence of opposition to his kingdom temporarily temporarily, we must live in light of the truth that one day final judgment will come. The bottom line is this.

30:28 · When your time comes, you stand before God. You can't say, "No one told me."

30:33 · Because Father's Day 2026, if this is the first time you're hearing this, now you know, right?

30:41 · The only way to be right with God is to be in Christ.

30:51 · You need, we need salvation to be saved from our sin. right?

30:57 · Not to have all the answers of why evil exists in the world. Why does God let this happen and that happen? We can seek out answers and the scriptures I think speak to these things. But there's a bigger need which is forgiveness of sin and that is only found in Christ. That's it. There's no other way.

31:22 · Was talking with someone this morning. I mean, yeah, you want to try the five pillars of Islam, go for it. We are not saved by good works and you can't be good enough, right? There are other world religions that preach and teach all of them. All of them, count it, all of them are worksbased salvation. The scriptures, Christianity is the only belief system that says you can't do it. Go ahead and try. You can't.

31:51 · If you could earn your own way to salvation, then you've nullified the cross, right? You've made the cross null and void because, hey, you can do it and you can't.

32:07 · I want to invite the worship team to come up as I close in prayer, but I don't know how else to put it, but if you want to talk afterwards, I'll be back in the corner. And you say, DJ, aren't you playing drum? Yeah, I'm playing drums this morning, but I'll be back there afterwards if you want to talk. Uh, come find me afterwards, whatever. We also have uh our our snacks, our our goodies, our our cookies, and our hot dogs uh for all for everyone. Like, like I said, you know, we got them for the dads and we celebrate our dads, of course, but if you want if you want a hot dog, grab one.

32:35 · But the worst thing you could do is leave here not knowing Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. That's the worst possible thing you could do ever. We celebrate. We have fun. We fellowship, but that's all secondary to the message of the gospel. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word.

32:57 · I pray, God, that you would soften hearts, that your spirit would convict where people need it or or encourage uh those who need encouragement. God, pray that this word would fall on good soil. this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.