Matthew 13:24- Wheat and Tares: Harvest is Judgment Day
Introduction
A. Hebrews 9:27-28, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”
B. Christians are not the angels of the wrath of God. Our role is to live among the wicked, the "tares." We cannot judge very well the hearts of the men whom God will judge and those who are beyond the hope of redemption. It is our job to preach and persuade everyone with the gospel, that is, those who walk in darkness.
1. But the Final Day of Judgement will come. 2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night..."
2. Knowing how horrible the wrath of God will be, we persuade the lost. 2 Corinthians 5:11 “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
C. The teachings of Jesus contain reference to the Day of Reckoning everywhere.
1. The Parable of the Tares specifically presents that concept.
2. God will send his Holy Angels to separate the wheat from the tares, and then burn the tares.
I. Examples of awful divine judgment.
A. Noah's Flood. Of all the population of the Earth, only eight souls survived. Genesis 6-11.
B. It rained fire and sulfur on Sodom and the cities of the Jordan Plain. Genesis 19
C. Jericho, as well as the people of Canaan, were delivered to complete destruction. Joshua 6
D. Tyre – Ezequiel 26: 14 “I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God.” 2500 years later it is still, “a place for the spreading of nets” for the fishermen. This is living testimony to God's judgment against that arrogant and adulterous city.
E. Babylon – Isaiah 13:19-20 “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. 20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.”
-- Until today, the site is desolate, and the Arab will not pitch his tent there. The city that conquered the world then bears the evidence of God's wrath.
F. Jerusalem -Jesus condemned the city of Jerusalem saying of the temple in Matthew 24:2, “But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
-- Even today, it is difficult to find out exactly where the temple was located in Jerusalem. There's not a single stone on top of another from the old structure. God strongly judged Jerusalem and the unbelieving Jews who remained rebellious after crucifying the Son of God.
II. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us several times of the Sentence of Hell on the last day.
A. Matthew 5:30, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (5:22, 29; 10:28; 11:23; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Luke 12:5; 10:15)
B. Matthew 6:4, 6, 18 Our father “who sees in secret will reward you.”
C. Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” Jesus speaks of “destruction” in the same sense of "hell." There will be judgment for those who ignore the teachings of Jesus.
D. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
-- When Jesus speaks of "that day," he again returns to the subject of God's judgment and the last day when God will judge all men. When he says, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” It is the language of judgment. He judges them as workers of lawlessness because they did not obey the gospel. He says, “depart from me,” meaning that Jesus will be in heaven and others in hell because when one does not obey Christ, he does not know Christ and Christ does not know him.
E. Matthew 7:24-27 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
-- In the proverbs of the Old Testament, the" fool "is more than foolish, he is disobedient and therefore rebellious and perverse. Jesus means that the person who hears the teachings of the Gospel, but doesn't listen, he builds his house without a good foundation and when it falls, great will be its ruin. Again, it is the language of God's righteous judgment.
III. The Angels of God on the day of Reckoning.
A. It does not refer to discipline in the church. Nor does it refer to the correction of false doctrines.
1. Jesus explains the meaning of the parable of the Tares in V. 36.
2. He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, v37.
3. The field is the world, v38. That means, it's not the church or the Kingdom of Christ.
4. The good seed are the sons of the Kingdom, and the tares are the children of the evil one, v38.
B. The Angeles are the reapers. The tares are plucked and burned in the fire "at the end of this century." The end of the age refers to the end of the world, the end that is described in 2 Peter 3.
1. “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:41-42.
2. "Then the righteous would shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father." V. 43
3. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
4. The same conclusion is found in the Parable of the Great Net. “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” V. 49-50
5. Again, Matthew 16:24-27: “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” V 27
6. In the context of the Jerusalem trial, Matthew 24:31, “And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
7. In Revelation 9:14-15, the prophet speaks of a partial judgement. “saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”
8. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, “and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
C. Other texts speak of the Day of judgement
1. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
2. 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
3. Revelation 20:11-15, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
--22:12-15
IV. Parables of the Judgment of God
A. Matthew 18:1-14 He who makes one of the Lord's little ones stumble.
1. V. 8-9 If it causes you to sin and displease the Lord? “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.”
B. Matthew 18:23-35 Two debtors
1. The debt that cannot be paid. Our debt for the sins we've committed is more than we can afford. But the debts that others owe to us, no matter how big, they're not that big by comparison.
2. God will judge without mercy the man who shows no mercy. James 2:13
A. This is also the subject of Matthew 25:41-46
B. Mercy is shown not only in forgiving but in helping the afflicted, the needy and the desperate.
C. Matthew 20:1-16 Many are called, but few are chosen. Choosing implies the judgment of God.
D. Matthew 22:1-14 God invites men to his Son's wedding. Those who ignore the invitation (V6-7) are condemned by the king. God demands that everyone be dressed in the appropriate clothing. They who do not respect the dignity of the wedding are also condemned (V12-13).
1. The world that rejects the Son of God, the Savior of sinners, is doomed.
2. Christians must also be clothed with Christ, Galatians 2:20; 3:27. If they live according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, they will also be condemned. (Romans 8:1, 5-11)
E. Matthew 25:1-13 Parable of the Ten Virgins. Excluded from weddings because they don't have enough oil and light in their lamps. To be excluded from the Great Wedding Feast of God’s Son is to be left outside with those condemned for eternity.
F. Matthew 25:14-30 Parable of the Talents. The one-talent man was convicted of not using what the Master left for him to use. God praises the one who uses what he gives us to prosper his purposes. The negligent is also condemned along with all other sinners in the place of eternal torment.
Conclusion
A. Matthew 25:31-46 God will judge everyone by separating the good from the evil.
B. Men who fail God will join the devil and his angels in eternal fire, eternal punishment.