Parables of the Kingdom Matthew 13:24-52 February 25th, 2018 Intro Last week we considered the question, why do some people seem to show initial excitement in the gospel but fade away over time while others endure and produce fruit in their lives. We saw that Jesus answered that through a parable of four soils representing four different types of people. This week we will examine 3 other common questions: How should those who follow Christ coexist and interact with those who don’t follow Christ in the world? How can the kingdom have any influence if it starts so small? Is the kingdom worth the personal cost to follow Christ? These are the types of questions that Jesus’ disciples were likely wondering about as Jesus continued to teach. These are questions Christians have today. We have them in America but consider also a small house church in rural China meeting secretly in the early morning because their local government has been cracking down on unregistered churches. Consider a gathering in Nigeria that is meeting outside today because their church building was burned by Boko Haram, a Muslim extremist group. Jesus answered them by telling a series of parables about the kingdom. We’re going to wrap our arms around all of them today because they are short and connected to each other. 1. The kingdom is a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment. a. What does a king have? People, place, rule i. The kingdom refers to God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule. b. In one sense, God rules over all the universe as King. i. Psalm 47:2 For the LORD Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth. c. But people have rebelled against His rule. i. Sin is basically trying to get out from underneath God’s rule and placing that crown on our own heads. ii. The result is not a Disney movie where the lead character follows his or her heart and it turns out well in the end with lots of singing and musical numbers in the middle. iii. The result is the world we find ourselves in, a world of abuse, corruption of power, broken homes, and messed up relationships. d. Jesus came to obey God’s rule perfectly and die on behalf of rebels against the King. i. 1 Peter 3:18a For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, e. When people recognize their rebellion, turn from it, and accept God’s forgiveness, they are placed back into this kingdom in a spiritual sense. i. Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. f. One day King Jesus will set up a literal reign on earth in the millennial kingdom i. Luke 21:31 "So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. ii. Acts 1:6b-7 "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” g. Biblical Doctrine, pg 44 by MacArthur and Mayhue i. They argue that the kingdom of God is the grand, overarching theme of Scripture, encompassing all the other major themes in the Bible. ii. The kingdom of God can be explained in this manner: The eternal triune God created a kingdom and two kingdom citizens (Adam and Eve) who were to have dominion over it. But an enemy deceived them, seduced them into breaking allegiance to the King, and causing them to rebel against their sovereign Creator. God intervened with consequential curses that exist to this day. Ever since, he has been redeeming sinful, rebellious people to be restored as qualified kingdom citizens, both now in a spiritual sense and later in a kingdom-on-earth sense. Finally, the enemy will be vanquished forever, as will sin. Thus, Revelation 21-22 describes the final expression of the kingdom of God, where the triune God will restore the kingdom to its original purity with the curse having been removed and the new heaven and the new earth becoming the everlasting abode of God and His people. h. These parables all explain more about the kingdom and address concerns or frustrations that believers may experience as they wait for the full manifestation of the kingdom. 2. How should Christians coexist with non-Christians in the world? The parable of the wheat and the tares (13:24- 30, 34-43) a. As a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment, it is difficult to see who is in the kingdom. b. How should Christians coexist with non-Christians in the world? c. Historical setting i. A strategy among adversaries to sow seeds that would choke out or hinder the crops of their adversary. Common enough that Roman law had a specific prohibition against it. ii. Tares referred to a type of rye grass that looked just like wheat until the very end when it was almost time to harvest. At that point the wheat grew a head but the rye grass did not grow grains that could be harvested. (v. 26) iii. The slaves would have noticed this and asked if they should gather it up. If they did, they would uproot the wheat heads as well. They don’t have the expertise to tell the difference between the two. The better solution is to wait and let the reapers take care of it. d. Explanation (vv. 36-43) i. Referred to it as the parable of the tares, showing that they understood that to be the key issue in the parable. ii. Sower – Son of Man 1. Focused on his humility and humanity in the incarnation, title most used of himself, identified Him as the second Adam, the sinless representative of the human race. iii. Field – the world (not the church) 1. This is a picture of the church in the world not the world in the church, as it has sometimes been interpreted. 2. Some relevance to the gathering of churches in that there will always be those who profess faith in Christ but bear no fruit. iv. Good seed – sons of the kingdom – Christians, believers, followers of Christ, those who are saved 1. Different than the parable of the soils in which the seed was the word of God. 2. We see that God is planting His people in the world on divine assignment with an intent that they would influence the world, as the other parables will make clear. v. Tares – sons of the evil one – 1. 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 2. John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. 3. Ephesians 2:1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 4. Two categories of people – wheat and the tares a. If you say, people don’t seem that different to me! Basically, you’re confirming what Jesus is saying here. The wheat and the tares appear identical on the outside by observation. b. If this sounds narrow minded and judgmental, listen to the next point carefully because it is essential to understanding this parable. 5. We are utterly unqualified and incapable of distinguishing the two. a. MacArthur – Christians are not qualified to infallibly distinguish between true and false believers. Every time the church has presumed to do that it has produced an ungodly bloodbath. b. Brutality committed against Muslims and Jews during various periods of the middle ages – that is wrong. The inquisition, and other efforts to use violence to convert or purify the church are utter folly and utterly wrong. c. Apparently James and John reflected a different attitude when some Samaritans did not want to welcome Jesus in. i. Luke 9:52-56 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village. d. “In the present age, believers are not God’s instruments of judgment and destruction but of truth and grace. Toward unbelievers we are not to have hearts of condemnation but of compassion.” MacArthur e. Enemy is Satan f. Harvest is the end of the age i. The end of this period when wheat and tares grow up together without apparent distinction or judgment ii. But there will be real judgment executed by Jesus, not us, at the end of this period.