The Way of Wisdom

Introduction

Good morning. Welcome. We’re happy to see everyone here. If you’re visiting with us, we especially want to welcome you and we’re grateful that you came to join us this morning. We’re here to worship God. And we invite you back anytime you have an opportunity. We’ll meet again this afternoon at five o’clock for a Bible class for all ages. And then Wednesday at 7.30 for Bible class as well. So welcome. Glad to see you all. Let’s start with a word of prayer. Our Holy Father in Heaven, we praise your name, Father. We bow before you in all humility, recognizing our total dependence upon you. And we’re here today to honor and glorify you, Father. We pray that everything we do will accomplish that purpose. Thank you so much for loving us and caring for us and sending Jesus to take away our sins and give us the hope that we have of living with you eternally.

We’re here today to honor Jesus and remember his sacrifice. And we pray again that everything we do brings glory to your name. Help us to set aside the things of the world and focus on you and the things that we do this morning to worship you. Pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Good morning. This time we’ll sing song number ten, the law of the Lord.

Sweeter also might not fear of the Lord.

Yahweh, you are the eternal one and the God most high. You are the Alpha and the Omega, who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty. And yet, in the midst of our wilderness of trial and loneliness, you are the God who sees and the God who hears.

Thank you for seeing our needs and providing a bounty of grace and overflowing mercy. As we gather this morning, we pray that you extend your loving hand upon all those of this family who are struggling with pain or illness, broken hearts or weary spirits. We plead that you will ease the sufferings of those we love. But most importantly, help us to see your grace. Help us accept your will. And help us to find rest in your all-sufficient love. And help us also, Father, to help each other. Thank you for this gathering of disciples here in this place. Thank you for the love that we share. Unified by our identity in Jesus. Teach us the way, your way of mission, of mercy, of rest, of wisdom.

And thank you for Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth, who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests. To him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We have now time to give back from the blessings and prosperity that God has bestowed upon us. We are a visitor here today. Please do not feel obligated to contribute. The offering is primarily for our members. However, we would be grateful if you would complete a visitor’s card so we can have a record of your attendance. For our members, this is a wonderful opportunity to pause and reflect on the many blessings that God has so graciously provided. We often find ourselves burdened by the worries of daily life, the car in the shop, the school fees due. But let us dedicate as much time to reflecting on the good things as we do to our problems. And as we give, let us meditate on the profound truth that we live in the best time and place in human history.

Blessed with abundance far beyond what many who came before us experienced. And we’re called to be grateful stewards of these gifts. Let us pray.

Amen.

Song number six hundred and sixty-five, guide me o thou great Jehovah Guide me, O thou great Jehovah mighty, hold me with thy powerful hands and I know Resolve Counter Withs I Soul Let the fire, leave me on journey and stream Lee String and Sand, Sou. There good. Let me say one thing that song Sons of Grace I will never be.

Our song encouragement after Prince Lesson this morning will be song number five hundred and eighty-three, holy to the Lord. This time, if you please stand, we’ll sing song number two hundred and seventy-seven. Speak, O Lord has become to you to receive your holy word.

Shake us in us in your life.

And my grace will stand upon your promises, and my faith will walk as you walk with us, speak for until your church is built, and the earth is filled with your glory.

In a way that kind of used to see them in ways we’ve seen before rather than with fresh eyes. And so this morning I want to ask you to try to think about these parables, the sayings of Jesus and Matthew 13, with a perspective of how these people would have heard this. And I want to set it up a little bit for you in a way that maybe we’ll help you with that. last time when we were working through Matthew, we looked at chapters 11 and 12, and in those chapters, what we were seeing were responses to Jesus. Jesus is teaching, he’s healing, he’s going throughout towns and villages, and people are reacting in a variety of ways. And in chapters 11 and 12, you have John the Baptist showing at least a certain level of doubt or prompting his disciples to go ask Jesus some things about himself.

There’s various towns that Jesus condemns because they won’t receive him, they won’t hear the message. When we get in chapter 12, the Pharisees are directly opposing him multiple times. They’re standing against him, they’re looking for ways to accuse him. And so if you are a person in Jerusalem, in Galilee, and you’ve heard about this guy Jesus, and he’s going around and he’s teaching things, some of the questions, and we’ll look at some of these in a minute, that may come into your mind are things like, why is there so much to this guy?

And I don’t mean that like I can’t believe they would do that. It’s an honest inquiry. What is it about him that causes people to not want to listen? Or it might be something like if this guy is really the Messiah, if he’s really the one that’s talked about in the Old Testament, then why is his kingdom moving so slowly? Why is it so small? But the first question really is kind of the foundation of all these others I’ve put up here. Why is there so much resistance and opposition? Why is it small? Why is there still so much evil? If he is the answer, if he is the anointed one that’s been talked about throughout the Old Testament, then why is there still all this evil going on around us?

And it is actually going to be worth it. When I count the cost, which Jesus tells us to do as he’s teaching and preaching to people, count the cost of discipleship. And ultimately his message is to take up your cross and follow after him. But if I’m going to count the cost, is it really worth the risk to follow this guy? The Pharisees are against him, the Sadducees are against him, the towns and villages people are doubting. So is it really worth it? And so with that in mind, having thought about some of these stories in chapters 11 and 12 and Jesus encountering them, and of course, Matthew is presenting them in a way in which he is challenged, he overcomes those challenges, and we see that.

But those doubts, if we were there in that time in that place and we’re hearing these stories about Jesus, we may still have doubts about him. And now Jesus is going to take some time in this third discourse. There’s five discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. This is the third one. Coming after this section where we’re looking at the responses to Jesus, and you probably well know the parable of the sower, which follows very nicely with this idea about how people respond to the Messiah. Now he’s going to work it with his disciples and the crowds at different times to try to explain and answer, I believe, some of these questions. Now, maybe the questions are asked in slightly different ways in each person’s mind. I’m just trying to give kind of a general overview of what we might be thinking.

If we were there in that time and place and we’re hearing about Jesus, and we’re hearing about all the mighty works he’s doing and the teaching he’s doing and the reactions people have, these are the kinds of questions that we might bring up and think about. And what I want you to see as we work through these parables, at least to some extent in some way, as he’s telling these stories and he’s relating these things to their life, he is answering, he’s working through these types of questions. I want to take it section by section as I work through this text. So I’m not going to read the whole thing, and I’m not going to read all of chapter 13 anyway. You are likely familiar with the parable of the sower, maybe a little bit less so with the parable of the weeds.

And so I’m not going to read the first part of the parable of the sower. I’m just going to read the explanation here in just a moment, because I think you’re familiar and it covers the basics of that parable anyway when he explains it. But I do want you to see kind of the schematic of what Jesus is doing before we get into this list of parables. Because sometimes as we get into the word and we begin reading, it can seem a bit random. You know, why is he telling this parable about treasure in a field and about a pearl and about net being thrown out and fish being collected? What does this have to do with things going on around him? And so I want you to understand the connection to what’s happening in the text.

Who is this guy? Why are people opposing him? Why is there still evil out there and what is God doing about it? Some of these questions are the same kinds of questions people ask today. And Jesus in his wisdom is now going to deliver some witty and carefully thought out stories to try to help the people around him understand more about who he is. A little bit big picture here. I just want to pull you back to chapter 12. And notice some of what’s happening in this text is what I would call maybe a wisdom dynamic, which we’re flowing into here in chapter 13, and also an authority dynamic, him emphasizing his authority and who he is and his power. And part of the way that is done in chapters 11 and 12 is it keeps telling us that something greater is here.

1. Not Everybody Is Receptive to the Truth

There’s something greater than the temple back in verse 6. There’s something greater than Jonah, a prophet, who prophesied the need for repentance in Nineveh. And then the last one, leading us into chapter 12, is he talks about the wisdom of Solomon, and he says there’s something greater than Solomon. And now what we’re going to witness in these wise stories is something greater and wiser than the wisdom of Solomon. That’s where we are in the text in Matthew. So it says in verse 1, this is chapter 13 and verse 1. I’m going to jump around just a little. I may try to tell you where I’m going, but if I don’t, I’m sorry, you can kind of scan and find it. In chapter 13 and verse 1, it says, the same day, I want to stop and just say all the things we just looked at in chapters 11 and 12 and the encounters that are taking place.

This is just later that day. The connection between 11 and 12 and now 13, as he’s talking to his disciples and others who are around him. The same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things and parable of the sower in verse 18 here in just a minute. His disciples then said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Here then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what is sown along the path. As for what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns. This is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, and another sixty, and in another thirty. What we have to understand when we’re talking about even Jesus who is God in the flesh, who is coming proclaiming this kingdom message to all the world around him, is this reality. This is what Jesus wants us to understand. That is that not everybody is receptive to the truth. It doesn’t matter how truthful your words are, it doesn’t matter how right you are, there’s going to be people who reject the truth. That’s just the reality. And in the story, it’s not that the seed needs to be different, or in this case, the truth of the gospel. This is what he’s focusing on here, but I think this can apply to all sorts of things in life.

It’s not that truth needs to change to get people to accept it. The truth remains the same. The problem here are the condition of people’s hearts. This is the primary reason for the rejection of Jesus. The seed is the same. It’s being scattered in different places. And it’s just a simple illustration that Jesus uses to help them understand the difference in how the ground reacts to the same seed. The disciples asked in this text why he teaches in parables. And there’s a few different answers for that. One of the most basic is it just fulfills Old Testament prophecy. He’s going to mention this twice in the text. Along with that, there is just kind of this reality that what happens with parables is it both they reveal and they conceal.

And that’s an important part of what we’re looking at here in this first point. Parables, they reveal truth, but they also conceal it. But the function through which that works is the willingness of the heart to listen. The message is out there. The information is available, but it’s done in such a way that if you want to hear it, if you want to listen, if you want to take it in, and you want to dig deeper and you want to learn more, you will. But if you’re not interested, or if you want to reject it, if it’s not a message you want to hear, you will find reasons why you don’t like it. This is essentially the message that Jesus is giving here. And there’s some other elements of this that kind of feed into what we’re going to talk about here in the next point.

But if you look down later in verses 10 and following, when they ask this question, he talks about the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given to them, but it’s not been given to others. And this is not the idea that Jesus is withholding it or that God is withholding it, only certain people can understand and other people can’t in some kind of divine destined way that only certain people can get it. No, the point he’s making here is you get what you put into it. And if you want to listen and you want to hear, then you will get something out. And that’s essentially what’s happening here with the seed falling in different places. It’s about the cultivation of these various types of soil.

And before I get too much further, I do want to point out that in all parables and all illustrations, there are limitations to the metaphor. And so we’ll see a little bit of that here and there. He’s he’s trying to emphasize certain points. But there are truths that we know, whether they come from other parts of scripture, that are not denied by what’s happening in this story and in the next. So, for example, when you get into the next parable, the parable of the weeds, where the weeds and the wheat are gonna grow up together, and he’s gonna wait and he’s gonna harvest it at the end of the age. What is not being said in that parable is that nobody can change. That’s not the message.

There’s a different message that’s going on in this parable. There’s something else he’s emphasizing. And so metaphors have their limits. And so we don’t take every little piece of a metaphor in a microcosm and say every single little thing has to fit just right. That’s that’s not how illustration works. That’s not how we use them either. So I do want to point that out as we’re working through this, that not every single little thing means something. That’s not even really how allegory works all the time. So he’s explaining here what this means. The disciples are asking, what is meant in these parables a couple different times, and he’s going to explain them to them. And the birds here represent Satan, and there’s all these different kinds of representations of what’s happening.

And there’s, I think, some great messages we can pull from this. Our willingness to accept truth has to do with both choices, which is the condition of our heart, and in the environment that we are in. Both of these. And they are interconnected. How is it that people can hear the exact same truth? We know it’s true in this case. It is the message of Jesus. How can people hear the same exact message and yet react so differently to it? Well, I know the message is not the problem. You might say, you know, when I get up here and preach and I say things, maybe they’re true, but maybe I don’t say it the right way, right? Maybe the message just isn’t done well. Or maybe someone else is teaching a class, or whatever this maybe we aren’t perfect in how we deliver the message.

The one delivering this seed is doing it right. There’s no problem with how this is being delivered. That is not the issue. The problem is how it’s being received. That is 100% the issue with what’s happening here, at least in this story, as Jesus is telling it. And there’s all kinds of reasons for this. The heart is not disconnected from surrounding influences, which we should take pretty seriously. And so it is a combination of her personal choices, but also sometimes the choices that are made for us. When we are a child and we grow up in a home, there’s all sorts of influences around us. And things that happen to us, some of those things we have to overcome. Sometimes we are filled with bias. And we have to work through those biases to actually see truth and understand it.

Even in Jesus’ illustration of these various soils that the seed falls on, it’s interesting if you think about them a little bit. The path. The path is just kind of that place that’s it’s beaten down. It’s walked all over. And it very well may be that in your life you have been beaten down and walked all over by people around you. But I want you to understand the truth is still the truth, either way. It doesn’t change the truth because evil people did evil things to you. Or they traumatized you in some way, or they made you feel a certain way about the Bible or about Jesus or about other things in life that are true and good. They warped your thinking about that. It doesn’t change the reality of the truth just because somebody did that, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

And it may be that the condition that you’re in right now, a condition which I would say can change over time, which we’ll talk about, is like this path where you are beaten down. You are vulnerable. And it’s very easy for Satan to pick that seed right out of your heart before it’s actually implanted. Maybe there’s a level of indifference or apathy. What is truth? Pilate says, Ah, I just can’t know. You know, why it’s not even worth investigating, right? We sometimes we can have this sort of apathetic kind of attitude. We don’t really want to get into it. After all, these people did these bad things to me when I was at church one time, or whatever it might be. We can get into a state where we begin to allow our experiences to overrule the reality of what is true and right.

That’s a little bit like being on the path. The path is worn through difficulties. Sometimes difficulty is not of our own doing. And yet it’s a reality that we have to face. Are we going to accept the truth? Are we going to get our heart in a place where we can allow that seed to be planted and to grow? The rocky soil is marked through impulse. You know the person, the one who quickly receives all the things they’re told, including the truth of the word. You know, it takes kind of a quick, shallow route, and they’re all in. I think of, don’t be offended, I’ve done some of these things too. I think of like the MLM type things, you know. It’s like everything, oh man, that’s the most amazing thing.

And then now we’re like going full force into it, only to then a year later decide it’s corrupt and evil and all that. This is this is kind of like the rocky soil. Everything seems great at first, kind of these impulsive reactions, but when there’s some difficulties, whether real or perceived, whatever the situation might be, then we kind of fall off. And you know, interestingly, the same thing happens even with truth sometimes. The soil’s just not ready. It’s rocky, it can’t receive this true and real message. It requires too much commitment. And so when the temptations and the trials come, ah, it’s just not worth it anymore. There just hasn’t been proper preparation, which is actually similar to the thorny soil, although manifested in a little bit different way.

That the thorny soil is just too crowded. Maybe we feel this. I feel this frequently in my life. It’s just too crowded to allow good things to be produced. I’ve preached on this in the not too distant past, but we just have a hard time in our society and our culture saying no. We say yes to so much. And so many things seem so important, whether it’s sports or band or school activities or whatever it might be, and we load our life and our schedules up with all kinds of good things. They’re not necessarily bad. But what can eventually happen is those good things and the bad things can grow up and they choke out the most important thing. It’s like Mary and Martha. Remember that story in Luke 10?

It’s not that what Martha’s doing is bad and wrong. It’s just the situation in which she’s doing it. She’s missing what is better for something that is lesser. And then she’s criticizing Mary for making the better choice. Those are thorns. That’s allowing those weeds to grow up around us and to suck all the life out of us. They get all the nutrients and all the things that are important, and then nothing is left for actual production and growth. And so while we may even agree with the truth, we believe it. We espouse it. We may tell other people about the truth. In our life, it may actually not be producing very much. And so this is a strange sort of opposition. It’s one that’s not done in word, but it’s done in deed.

Because the cares of the world and the deceitful things around us pull us in and make us think other things are more important than seeking first the kingdom. The point this morning is not whether or not you should be fully blamed or I should be fully blamed for the condition of my heart or your heart. We could talk in depth about all of that. Who, you know, what influence had on me, and did I make these choices myself and the matrix of all of that? We could talk forever about that. But the goal is not to figure that out. The goal is to actually work on cultivating the heart so that the soil is prepared to receive the truth, the seed, and then is fruitful and produces.

And so whether you’ve suffered trauma at the hands of other people or you face the consequences of your own personal choices that have led to hindering the acceptance of truth, to blocking things that are real or realities in our life and not wanting to hear it. Either way, the only move now is to work on preparing our heart to actually be willing to receive the seed correctly and make the appropriate choices with it. Cultivating is a completely other topic we can’t really get into this morning, but it’s going to be a combination of God’s grace working in our lives and our choice to trust in the power of Jesus and surrounding ourselves with other good people who want to help us in this process of being the kind of person who wants to get rid of bias and accept what is real and true.

And it involves a whole lot of humility. But the result of that is exponential growth, producing a hundredfold or sixty-fold or thirty fold, as the text says. And it’s all done from this small seed.

2. Be Patient: Jesus' Kingdom Works Differently

And so as these parables continue, the next thought here is why, not only why is there just opposition, and why are people rejecting this, but when we look at the kingdom of Jesus, it’s it’s kind of small in the beginning, right? This isn’t how a typical overthrow works. You know, a kingdom becomes strong and powerful, and then it kind of takes out all the other leaders, it comes in with force and power and says, hey, now we’re in control. This is not how Jesus works.

And so when these first century disciples look around and they see what’s happening here, and he’s just kind of going from small village to small village, and there’s a few people here and there who accept him, but there’s all these people who reject him. What’s happening here, Jesus? I thought this was going to be this kingdom that was going to be powerful and strong. And yet evil is still seems to be prospering. You know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all these corrupt leaders are still running the show in Jerusalem. What’s happening? I thought we were going to take all this over. Jesus’ kingdom works differently. And the message of these parables is to be patient. And realize that growth sometimes happens in ways that are fairly invisible.

We don’t recognize them right away.

The sower and the parable of the weeds are both structured in the same way. You see part of it, and then there’s a question about why Jesus teaches in parables, or how he’s fulfilling Old Testament about parables, then it comes back to an explanation. And what I’ll say about that is these two parables, which are the biggest, fit every question we’re talking about this morning. You know, why the resistance? Why is there still evil? Why is the kingdom small? Is it really worth it? These two parables actually dive into all of those questions, and then we get some smaller parables around along the way that kind of maybe go a little deeper or a little bit more precise on specific questions. But when we think about this idea about the kingdom seeming small, it doesn’t seem real powerful.

Why is evil still here? I think this is where Jesus goes into this parable of the weeds. So begin reading with me in verse 24. Matthew 13, 24. He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, An enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them?

But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the 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. He put another parable before them, saying, The king of the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants, and becomes a tree. So that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told them another parable The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower until it was all leavened.

All these things Jesus said to the crowds and parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth and parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. Then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. And he answered, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.

This is the idea he wants us to understand. Spiritual growth has a compounding nature.

That may be how Alexander worked. That may be how Augustus worked, and Julius Caesar and other huge leaders who came in and wanted to dominate the world and take over. That’s not how Jesus works. He works in much more subtle means and methods. His growth is something that’s going to build over time. And so that end of the sower parable where that’s a hundredfold and sixty-fold and thirty-fold. This is the idea of exponential growth. It’s kind of these small steps. They seem little.

That’s the idea. Jesus is talking to the crowds who are following him, his disciples. And it’s, I know, I realize it seems small. It seems like nothing. It seems like it’s not having a big impact. But it’s like that leaven. We’ve got some people here who make sourdough, who make other kinds of bread. You’re familiar with this process, right? You start it, and it starts out like you put the leaven in there and it tells about she’s hiding it in flower. That’s important. The mystery of the kingdom. It’s not out there, it’s not present, it’s not obvious. It’s just this little bit of starter that’s hidden in there. But just from that little start, big things come. Or it’s like that seed that grows into the tree, and now it’s giving protection.

It’s giving a place to live for birds and for other animals. It didn’t seem like that when it was this big, but now it has this huge impact and it’s environment and the world that it’s in, the garden, as it talks about it here in this text.

3. Why Is There Evil? God's Patience and Mercy

And how do we understand evil? Why is there evil in the world? If Jesus is the Messiah and He’s done all these good things and his kingdom is growing, how come we see evil around us? Shouldn’t he have dealt with that? Well, the answer actually relates to the love of God and his patience and his mercy.

The angels, they like to execute the will of God. We’re seeing that in Revelation. That’s fun for them. They like to take God’s word and go out and carry out his wrath on the world and do his bidding. Hey, do you want us to go out and harvest? We’ll get rid of these weeds. But the answer is no, lest in gathering the weeds you also root up the wheat. Sometimes in our efforts to be judges, we destroy what is good. And that’s not what God wants. I understand there are limitations even to this illustration and this metaphor, and sin has to be called out as sin. Scripture talks about that as well, but here the point he’s making is the reason you see evil in the world is because God is not setting out to just deal with all the evil right now.

If he did so, there would be a lot of collateral damage along the way. And if we want to carry this kind of logically to its end, if I’m wanting God to deal with all evil and all problems, what happens when I’m the evil and I’m the problem? We really like it when it’s someone else. But not so much when it’s a matter of my own heart struggling and doing the will of God. Then we want the patience and the mercy and the love. But God operates the way God operates, and he does so in a way that’s above me, that’s above you. He has wisdom that we cannot begin to fathom. And he operates in a way we wonder why does evil happen? Can’t God just take care of all these problems?

Well, he wants to do this in the way as God, as divine, that is best for everyone. He wants to be patient and long suffering. His desire is that everyone will come to repentance, and not in reaping weeping up the weeds that the wheat will get torn up along the way, too. So that may require me to be a little more patient. A little more understanding at the times when I’m not happy with things that are happening, or I think someone’s doing something wrong. Why isn’t something happening about it? Maybe it’s a situation where we don’t want the wheat to be uprooted with the weeds. Certainly that’s the case with what Jesus is talking about here, as his people are certainly wondering you have this kingdom, and you should be growing in power, and why aren’t we uprooting the evil around us?

Be patient. Jesus’ kingdom doesn’t work like other kingdoms. And let me also suggest there’s application, there’s principles here for us even today. Be patient in your home. We need to be patient in this church and in our community. The kingdom, it can be at work in unnoticable ways. In ways we may not even be aware of. Growth can be happening even when it may appear that evil has the upper hand. And we may be wondering how long or when is God going to take care of this, and yet, in the midst of all of that, it may be that the kingdom is setting up exponential growth that we can’t even conceive of. It only takes one person sometimes. One situation. We know the truths of this idea of the seeds within an apple, right?

And the exponential nature of that. You have this apple, it’s got seeds in it, and one seed gets planted, but it doesn’t stop there, does it? That seed produces a tree, which then produces more apples, which produce more seeds, which produce more trees, and over time, it’s it’s not immediate. Right? And so this is what parables do as well. Parables are not necessarily just about the immediate message. Sometimes they are. They’re simple, but they’re also complex. So we get some quick truths from them sometimes, but also parables we can meditate on. We can have deeper meditation, and then we get deeper truths and realities from them. And this is one of those. That while we want to see the results of our work immediately, sometimes the little bits of work that each of us are doing over time produce something bigger than we could ever imagine.

And it may not even be in our lifetime. I love the stories of the Old Testament. We see these very things taking place with people like Ruth and Esther and others who sometimes have no idea what actually came later on down the road from their influence.

And so it could be somebody in this room this morning has a great grandchild who converts thousands of people. We don’t know. And maybe it is that you’re a mother who puts your child on your lap and you sing songs to them at night and you read them Bible stories. And maybe, I’m not suggesting this, but maybe you never convert a single person outside of your home to the gospel. That child in your lap goes on to do things you could have never imagined. Be patient. See that the growth of the kingdom doesn’t happen in ways that we as humans sometimes would like to think. And then realize the value is beyond anything. The value is more than everything else in the world.

4. The Value Is More Than Everything Else

This is how Jesus ends these parables. That the importance of this message, the importance of the gospel, it’s more important than anything else in the world. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown in the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad.

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus’ kingdom is like finding this precious and priceless treasure. Probably as kids, we all imagined that scenario. Digging in our backyard, maybe with or without our parents’ approval. We’re trying to find some amazing treasure back there. Something priceless that’s going to change our life. And we play those kinds of games with our friends when we are children. And we get excited about what we might find or the value of what it could be. And this is the sort of picture and image that Jesus is painting with these parables.

And here maybe even a bigger scale. These are people who are merchants, right? These are people who are interested in property, and they go out and they find these treasures and they realize how valuable this is, and they are willing, this is the important point. They’re willing to sacrifice everything for it. If you would do any kind of investing, you know the risk of that. Jesus doesn’t get into this in the story, but you know, he buries the treasure in the field, and this guy is selling everything. I just wonder, as he’s selling everything, is he worried that property’s not going to be available when he gets done? I mean, there’s risks along the way when you make these kinds of decisions, but he realizes this is so valuable, I’m going to get rid of everything else to get this one thing.

There’s a message in this. Or this guy, he knows fine pearls. He understands the value of pearls, but he finds this one that is of great value and he will get rid. He sold all to get this one pearl of great value. Now, I know when I was growing up, there’s times I read these stories, and I don’t think I read them correctly. I would think, you know, this guy, he’s out on a boat, and he just kind of comes across this pearl, and now he’s got this pearl of great value. No. He has to buy it. It comes at a cost. There’s a sacrifice here. It doesn’t just show up in your lap. Right? There’s things that come along the way. There’s going to be opposition.

There’s going to be rejection. There’s going to be people who don’t receive the truth, who mock you for it, or tell you’re making the wrong choice, and yet what they understand is I don’t care. I don’t care what people say about this pearl. They say, oh, it’s not as worth as much as you think it is. He knows it is. And he doesn’t care what they think. He’s going to give up everything to get this one pearl. Or that property is not as valuable as you think that property is, but he knows what’s in it. And so he doesn’t listen to the voices around him. And he’s going to do what he knows is most needed. And so there is the reward for the righteous.

The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father, he says at the end of the parable of the weeds. But it’s also worth it to avoid the judgment that comes when you don’t receive the message of Jesus. The angels will come and they will gather out of his kingdom. All causes of sin and all lawbreakers. And they will be thrown into the fiery furnace. And there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are sacrifices that come from not accepting truth. It’s not just the sacrifices of doing what’s right. They’re there. That’s part of the story. But another part of the story is there are things we’re giving up. There are sacrifices that come when we reject truth, too. And one of those is mentioned twice in this text, and that is the peace of eternity.

The rest that comes with Jesus Christ, and instead the eternal torment that comes from the fiery furnace, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth, and then the gathering of the nets. There’s all of these fish that are brought in, the good ones are kept, the other ones are thrown into the fiery furnace, again, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is just a reality. And my goal, it’s never really to just scare you or intimidate you to accept the truth, but it is to help us see this is a reality of life. There is the reward, but there’s also the judgment.

Conclusion

Is your heart prepared for that? To say, I will do whatever he wants. And what he calls us to do is to give up our life, to take up our cross and follow him, to be buried in baptism, where the sins are washed away and to be resurrected to a new life, now walking in the joy of our Savior and the salvation that comes through his blood. Can we help you do that this morning? Come now as we stand and be single.

Holy saints and by holy we’re saved and Jesus holy saint and holy races for holy.

Just a moment we’ll sing how deep the Father’s love in preparation for the Lord’s Supper. If you do not have the emblems, please raise your hand, and some of the men will pass that out to you.

Matthew chapter twenty-six contains one of the accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper when Jesus on the night before his death assigned new meaning to the elements of the meal that were that was before him and his disciples. He compared the unleavened bread to his body, which in a few hours would be on a cross, and he compared the cup they drank to his blood, which would be shed in his sacrificial death. And that would be their memorial of him after his death, the memorial that we still participate in today. But I want to look briefly at the event that Matthew records just before that.

And in the upper room, when Jesus says, one of you will betray me, all the disciples begin to ask, Is it I? Am I the one? Jesus. And you can kind of understand why. That these men have been traveling together, they have been working with Jesus for years, in some cases risking their lives together to be with him. The idea that one of them would betray him is shocking. It’s surprising to them. Maybe they even think that it could be unintentional that one of them will accidentally do something that will bring the attention of the authorities to Jesus as he is here in Jerusalem in the midst of those who have been his enemies throughout his ministry. And so eleven of the apostles are wondering could I could I be the one?

How’s this going to work? Will it be me? All that is understandable. But then in verses 24 and 25, Jesus says, The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. And then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? As Jesus pronounces, woe on the betrayer, Judas asks, Rabbi, is it I? And that’s that’s where my eyebrows raise a little bit at this story, right? Because Judas has already made his deal.

Judas knows the answer to that question. The nerve, the audacity of this guy to call him rabbi, and then ask that question, right?

But it’s not going to take any less nerve than that later to say, Hail Rabbi, and kiss him, which is the sign of betrayal that he agrees to give. Jesus’ response, which is piercing and still mild at the same time, is you have said it. Yes, Judas, just as you have said, it’s you. And yet, as audacious as Judas’s question might sound here, that is exactly the question that I want to ask each of us to consider this morning before we do what Jesus and his disciples did. Right after this exchange, Jesus goes on to talk about the memorial of the Lord’s Supper. And when he says, This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins, in verse 28.

As he says that, everyone around the table and everyone who hears his words today should be asking the same question, shed for many? Who do you mean, Lord? Is it I? Am I the one that you mean? And when Jesus later is on the cross in the midst of his own pain, offering his body and shedding his blood, that he said would bring remission of sin, he looked at those who had put him there, and he said, Father, forgive them. Who are you willing to forgive? Lord, is it I? You have said it. Yes, even though my own sin is also responsible for Jesus’ presence on the cross, forgiveness is still for me. And one day when this present age is over, and we hear the words of the previous chapter, when the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

We will look at the glory of our new home, place where God’s children will spend eternity in his presence. You might look around and wonder, who is all this for? Lord, is it I? You’ve said it. Welcome home. So we might shake our heads today at the audacity of Judas and his question here. Rabbi, is it I? But he simply asked the question that was on everyone’s lips. And he got the answer that each of us should hope for when we ask the same question. Who are you doing all this for, Lord? Coming to earth, the pain, the suffering, the sacrifice, putting up with the impatience and stubbornness and unbelief of men. Who are you doing all this for? Is it I? You have said it.

Let’s bow and give thanks for the bread before we proceed. Our Almighty Father, we are thankful to you at this time for the bread, the memorial of the body of Jesus, which you prepared for him so that he could come to earth and do your will and ultimately be the Lamb of our sacrifice. Help us to remember the importance of that sacrifice, its meaning to us as we partake. Pray in his name. Amen.

Reminds us of the blood that Jesus shed that was necessary for the remission of our sins.

I am the one who committed the sin that required the sacrifice. I’m the one who has the hope of eternal life because he was willing to come and die on my behalf. Pray in his name again.

This concludes our observance of the Lord’s succumb.

It’s been a fine day to come and serve the Lord. Probably have the temperatures below one hundred and ten degrees. It’s nice and overcast. But let us continue to remember those who were not able to come out today and those whose trials still continue. One day it’s going to be our turn, so let’s keep Beckett and Linick in your prayers and Don Giles and the others that are there in our bulletin. according to my information, there’s no group meeting tonight.

Lord willing, we’ll have Bible classes tonight at five o’clock. And we’d be delighted for you to join us. And we’ll now be led in a closing song.

Let’s pray together. Our great God, we are supremely grateful this morning for your love for your mercy for your plan of salvation that by choice involved the sacrifice of your son. We’re grateful for the opportunity this morning to remember that sacrifice.

Father, please strengthen us as we depart and go our separate ways for a little while. And that we would be fortified by you when the tempter comes our way, when the things of the world try to choke out the word in us.