Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

This past Sunday in the series the Parables of Jesus, I shared with you about the parable of the sower. The book of Mark conveyed to us the importance of the parable of the sower. In Mark 4:13, “And He (Jesus) said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”

The primary understanding of the parable of the sower was this. The condition of the heart matters more than anything else. In the parable, the seed was the word of God or the word of the kingdom. The four soil types represented four types of hearts. Three of the four produced nothing, and the fourth had varying levels of fruitfulness based on the degree of commitment of the individual to the Lord.

The great lesson of the parable of the sower is that the seed of God’s word carries with it the divine power to save your soul and produce great spiritual fruit. The measure to which it produces is entirely up to you.

As we look today at the parable of the Wheat and Tares, we will see Jesus revealing the present state of the Kingdom of God. Showing the mixture of good and evil in the world that will prevail until the time of His coming in the end. At which time, there will be a great separation of the wicked and the righteous, and both to their everlasting destinies, which are settled forever. The determination of these everlasting destinies rests in the condition of the soil and its ability to receive the seed of the kingdom, which produces a harvest of righteousness.

Open your bibles with me to the book of Matthew 13:24-30. In this parable, like the parable of the sower, Jesus follows up with the disciples by clearly explaining what the parable means in Matthew 13:36-43.

We will first read the parable of the wheat and tares, and then we will look at Jesus's explanation.

• The sower is Jesus, who is often in the Gospels called the Son of Man.
• The field is the world.
• The good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
• The tares are the sons of the wicked one.
• The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
• The harvest is the end of the age.
• The reapers are the angels.
• The tares are gathered and burned, so will it also be in the end. Those who practice lawlessness will be gathered out of the earth and cast into hell.
• The righteous will be gathered to the kingdom of God.

This parable shows the battle between light and darkness and the outcome of both. Jesus, the Son of Man, first sowed the word of the kingdom in hearts. Those that received the word became sons of the kingdom. Those who rejected the word became sons of the devil. The two will grow together until the time of His coming in the end, at which time the angels of God will gather those who are of the devil and cast them into hell. The righteous will be in the kingdom of God, who is their father.

*Something interesting to note here is that in the first parable of the sower, the seed is the word. In the second parable, we become the seed sown into the world. Before we can sown into the world, the word of the kingdom must first be sown in us. We can’t give away what we don’t have. The wicked in the earth need Jesus. He sows us into the world to preach the good news so that if they will hear the word of the kingdom and receive it. They, too can become sons of God! This is the assignment of the believer.

God is good, but he is also just. He will bring into account transgression and sin at the time of the end for those who have rejected the gift of salvation.

Now in this parable, we see that an enemy came in by night and sowed tares among the wheat.
What are tares?
• Although they look like wheat, tares are degenerate seed that is poisonous.
• Something interesting about tares is that when they are fully ripe, they stand straight up while the wheat loaded with grain bows down.
• This picture gives evidence of the surrendered life. Those who sit on the throne of their lives stand erect in pride and will ultimately receive the end result of pride which is destruction. Those who are of the kingdom bow down to the king. They are filled with fruit and humility.
The tares the enemy sows are seen in Galatians 5:19-21. They are what we call the works of the flesh.

The nature of the flesh is readily seen in the world. If we choose to set our minds on those things, we will be corrupted by them.

The ones who do the works of the kingdom will enter it. They are the ones who are pleasing to the Lord. As believers, we must choose to wage war against the flesh so that we might live righteously in the earth.

The word of the kingdom leads us to life. It crucifies the flesh and its lust so that we can live alive toward God. Presenting ourselves as instruments of righteousness to be sown into the world.