SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning and welcome to Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't met you before, my name is Mike, and I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning I'd like to invite you to turn your Bibles once again to Matthew chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, please don't hesitate to hop up and grab one from the stack in the back.
SPEAKER_00: You can find Matthew 13 on page 768 in the church Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Our text this morning, the parable of the weeds, echoes our text last week, the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: Follows the same rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: We've got crowds, a parable, and then later the disciples get the explanation of the parable.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive in, let me say this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves your questions.
SPEAKER_00: He's not intimidated by them.
SPEAKER_00: He's not threatened by them.
SPEAKER_00: He's not annoyed by them.
SPEAKER_00: We see this time and time again in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: The people who press in to relationship with Jesus, the ones who are curious, who ask the follow-up question, who bring their confusion, their doubts, their uncertainties to him and say, Jesus, will you explain this to me?
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who get the answers.
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who are let in on the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Often the ones who see the miracles.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say, don't hear me wrong, that God always answers.
SPEAKER_00: And he certainly doesn't always answer the way that we would expect or prefer.
SPEAKER_00: After all, God works on his own terms, his own timelines, but as it says in James, you have not because you ask not.
SPEAKER_00: So ask God and others your questions.
SPEAKER_00: Not in a cynical way, but in a way that's open and curious.
SPEAKER_00: Be vulnerable like that, and I can almost guarantee you it will lead to spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let's turn our attention more directly to the text.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who'd like to know where we're going, here's the plan for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We'll walk through the text, and as we go, I'll make a few observations, and then we'll wrap it up with two big observations about God and the world before answering the so what question at the end.
SPEAKER_00: But first, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, thank you for this day, for the chance to gather, to worship, to pray, to learn from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the sound of children in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: What a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, I pray now that as my words line up with your words, that they would fall on ears and hearts ready to receive them and respond.
SPEAKER_00: And gracious God, if I say anything that isn't from you, I pray that those words would quickly be forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray all these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 13, starting at verse 24, Jesus put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
SPEAKER_00: But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I can use that excuse in my garden.
SPEAKER_00: So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weird weeds appeared too.
SPEAKER_00: The master, the servants of the master of the house came.
SPEAKER_00: They said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
SPEAKER_00: How then does it have weed?
SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, master, like good seed, why are there weeds?
SPEAKER_00: We saw this last week.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like Jesus expects that there will be good weed, good seed, and weeds.
SPEAKER_00: You notice here we've got good seed bearing good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Right alongside it, we've got weeds, and it's all mixed in.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but that feels an awful lot like my life sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Master said to them, An enemy has done this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all rosy in this garden.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that excuse works in my garden.
SPEAKER_00: So the servant said to him, Then do what you want.
SPEAKER_00: Uh then do you want us to go and gather everything up?
SPEAKER_00: Servant said, What do you want us to do?
SPEAKER_00: Should we just go do our best to harvest the wheat?
SPEAKER_00: But he said, No, less than gathering the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: You root up the wheat along with them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pause here.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is a very real thing that happens in my yard every spring and every summer.
SPEAKER_00: I must confess, I don't have a much much of a green thumb.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm trying, really.
SPEAKER_00: I am because garden turns gardening turns up so much in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm convinced, like, if I could just spend a little bit of time in a garden, do some gardening, I think that there would be a lot that the Lord could teach me about being a pastor and about the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: But I just I have trouble keeping things alive.
SPEAKER_00: Heck, uh, Liz, our worship leader, is probably out right now with Jack.
SPEAKER_00: When she and I worked together at Truro before she'd moved away and married Pastor Matt, she gave me a snake plant.
SPEAKER_00: Have any of you ever had a snake plant?
SPEAKER_00: I killed a snake plant.
SPEAKER_00: And Liz, like, I don't know, a year later, too, she came into my office and she's like, Mike, how did you kill this plant?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really need sun, it needs water, like three times a year, and that's it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, somehow, I still manage to kill the plant that is supposed to be among the hardest plants to kill.
SPEAKER_00: We used to joke, it was a really good thing I got all of the killing of plants out of my system before we planted a church.
SPEAKER_00: That was like a running joke.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime I'm at Turtle, someone would walk into my office.
SPEAKER_00: He'd be like, Mike, you're killing all the plants now.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully getting it out of your system.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, my nine-year-old has a room full of plants.
SPEAKER_00: He's got grow lights on timers.
SPEAKER_00: He grows tomatoes.
SPEAKER_00: He's got like little viny things and succulents and flowers and cacti.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how he does it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we're not yet to the place where he's doing that in our yard.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of my prayers that we would get there.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, it's just his room and the tomato plants outside.
SPEAKER_00: But the previous owners of our house, which is like two streets that way, loved to garden.
SPEAKER_00: The other neighbors have all told me.
SPEAKER_00: And my next door neighbor loves to garden.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this bed between our houses.
SPEAKER_00: Next time you're at my house, take a look.
SPEAKER_00: There's this mulch bed between our houses that is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: At least on one side.
SPEAKER_00: And there's remnants of it on my side.
SPEAKER_00: There's all sorts of flowers, plants, butterfly plants, all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
SPEAKER_00: But each year we've lived there, the weeds encroach on our half just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: And I have no idea what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure one of you here will tell me after the service, which is very kind of you, but to be honest, I don't really care that much.
SPEAKER_00: Neither does my boy.
SPEAKER_00: And so what ends up happening is that like halfway through the summer, we're like, this looks terrible.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just end up going and ripping almost everything out.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know how to get the weeds out without pulling up the good plants.
SPEAKER_00: And so our neighbors who weed every week have this beautiful half, and ours is just bear.
SPEAKER_00: But bear looks better than weedy, so it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the way the world works, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's the way our neighborhoods work, it's the way our families work, it's the way the church works.
SPEAKER_00: You've got good fruit and weeds, all up together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not patient enough to deal with both the weeds and the flowers.
SPEAKER_00: And so I forcefully intervene and I end up ripping up all sorts of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the servants are in the parable.
SPEAKER_00: They're impatient.
SPEAKER_00: They're wondering if some sort of forceful intervention is necessary when it comes to the problem of the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: But the master says in verse 30, let both grow.
SPEAKER_00: Just take a deep breath.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Wait until the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: I wish my neighbors were like this.
SPEAKER_00: And at harvest time, I'll tell the reapers: gather the weeds first, find them in bundles to be burned, gather the wheat into the barn.
SPEAKER_00: The master's solution, he'll just wait until the end.
SPEAKER_00: Until it's time to harvest.
SPEAKER_00: All the plants have matured, and then he'll take care of the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have your Bible open, you might notice that there's an aside then, verse 35, about a mustard seed, or 31 about a mustard seed.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that next week before we come to verse 34, which we've got this week.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this with me.
SPEAKER_00: All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.
SPEAKER_00: This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: I will open my mouth in parables, and I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's from Psalm, I think, 78.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this last week too.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: He's repeating himself, and so we ought to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps life, or at least what I think maybe he could be saying to us this morning, perhaps life and life with God is not always meant to be easy or straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always meant to have clear, easy answers.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps there is something formational that the Lord wants to do in us by speaking in parables.
SPEAKER_00: Something he wants to develop in us, to form in us.
SPEAKER_00: Just because we don't understand what God is doing in any given moment, or what he's saying or not saying, doesn't mean he's not doing something.
SPEAKER_00: So could it be that sometimes his words or his actions or his silence isn't straightforward to us on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something in that that he wants to do in us.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus leaves at verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: He left the crowds, he went into the house.
SPEAKER_00: And his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
SPEAKER_00: You notice not everyone gets the explanation.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone gets the answer.
SPEAKER_00: The ones that are led in on the secret are the ones who pursue and ask.
SPEAKER_00: I think that this is one of the impulses that Jesus wants to form in us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the reasons he doesn't always make his word to us or for us super straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: Because he wants to form in us a particular practice.
SPEAKER_00: One of running towards him when we don't understand, when we can't see, when we're uncertain.
SPEAKER_00: And because he wants to form in us a particular posture.
SPEAKER_00: One that turns towards him in humility and vulnerability and trust when we're uncertain about what he's saying or doing or where he's leading.
SPEAKER_00: Now in Matthew 13, here the disciples do that.
SPEAKER_00: They have no idea what Jesus is getting at with this parable.
SPEAKER_00: But rather than just leaving it there and wondering, or turning to each other and going, I wonder what he's up to.
SPEAKER_00: That didn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: Or just pretending they get it and going on with their day.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they follow him back into the house.
SPEAKER_00: And they admit, they have no idea what Jesus is actually trying to say, and so they ask.
SPEAKER_00: What do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answers.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: He answered, The one who sows the seed is the good seed is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the sower here.
SPEAKER_00: The field is the world.
SPEAKER_00: The good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that makes sense, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The weeds are the sons of the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
SPEAKER_00: We've got good and evil all twisted up, mixed in.
SPEAKER_00: Bad with the good, faithful and the unfaithful, and we've got a very real enemy doing his best to sow bad seeds, and doing his best to sow them amongst the good seed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 39, the harvest is the end of the age, the reapers are the angels.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're getting into it.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to do about the weeds?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus seems to be saying, wait and tread cautiously and leave the final judgment to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because he, verse 41, 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.
SPEAKER_00: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Surely this is a warning about hell.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves a good sermon about hell, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: It's easy and tempting for a preacher to avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see Jesus explaining here is the very real consequence of a life spent trusting the worldly promises and deadly deceits of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than repenting of sin and trusting in the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It would be foolish, and I would be neglecting my responsibility as a pastor if I didn't use this opportunity, this warning from Jesus himself, to warn you of the consequences of sin, to urge you to repent and turn to Jesus in faith.
SPEAKER_00: To come to him, whether for the first time or the thousandth time, with open hands and an open heart, because this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you can trust him with your stuff, with your sin and your shame, your faults, your misdeeds, your suffering, your heartache.
SPEAKER_00: That stuff that you hide and hope nobody sees, that you're most embarrassed of, that you hope nobody ever finds out about.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And he loves you all the same.
SPEAKER_00: So don't turn from him in hiding and don't remain indifferent because that stuff will kill you.
SPEAKER_00: Lead you right to death.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: Vulnerability.
SPEAKER_00: Open hands and an open heart.
SPEAKER_00: It would also be foolish for me not to emphasize the other thing Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: There will come a day when he will deal definitively and decisively with all sin and evil.
SPEAKER_00: When all the pernicious, destructive seed sown throughout this world by the enemy will be dealt with once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And God will dwell with us, and we with him.
SPEAKER_00: And he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any longer, for the former things will have all passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And we've got both of these promises right here in this warning.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, a life spent trusting in the ways of the world will lead to sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: It's the enemy leading you right to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And on the other hand, there's a promise that all of that will be dealt with one day, definitively, decisively, once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: On that day, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
SPEAKER_00: Who are the righteous?
SPEAKER_00: Sons and daughters of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Those who put their trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who, day after day, week after week, bring their stuff back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: It's why we do it every Sunday here.
SPEAKER_00: We confess our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We come back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: We open our hearts, our hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's why we come to the communion table each and every week, empty-handed, like this, on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We come forward to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I got nothing to bring you except myself.
SPEAKER_00: So here I am.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to feed me.
SPEAKER_00: That's why every week we're reminded the mystery of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has died for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has risen and in that has defeated sin and death, and Christ will come again.
SPEAKER_00: And on that day, all of that will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Those who put their trust in Jesus, who walk in faith, will see the Lord face to face for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ends again.
SPEAKER_00: Hear.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, are you listening to what Jesus by his spirit has to say to you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we head towards the finish line of this text, I'd like to make two big observations.
SPEAKER_00: First, the enemy is real.
SPEAKER_00: And walking in opposition to God, actively or passively, leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is actively sowing seeds.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to undermine the health of the garden, to disrupt the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, actually, he's not just trying to disrupt the fruit, he's trying to destroy the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So, as 1 Peter 5 says, be on your guard.
SPEAKER_00: Stay vigilant, for the enemy is prowling about like a lion, looking for someone to devour.
SPEAKER_00: Second big observation.
SPEAKER_00: God is working on a different timeline than we are.
SPEAKER_00: He's working on a different timeline than we are.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: In the parable, the servants wanted to jump right in.
SPEAKER_00: To act right away, to just solve the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: We do this with God all the time.
SPEAKER_00: God, can you just jump in and solve my problem right now, real quick?
SPEAKER_00: But God works.
SPEAKER_00: God works at God's speed.
SPEAKER_00: His own timeline, his own pace.
SPEAKER_00: And he says here, it's not time yet.
SPEAKER_00: There's some work I still have to do.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to tend the fruit a bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I am such a Short-sighted person.
SPEAKER_00: That's why my garden looks like it does.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to be so short-sighted, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We're terrible.
SPEAKER_00: A delayed gratification, a patience, seems to go against our very nature to play the long game.
SPEAKER_00: I think the enemy wants this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder for us that God works at God's speed.
SPEAKER_00: He's working on his own timeline and he's moving at his own pace.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what does this mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'd like to invite you to do this morning, or to think about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Consider this morning in response to the text this week.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even today.
SPEAKER_00: First, examine your life in light of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Examine your life in light of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_00: You are not mere flesh and bone.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not all there is.
SPEAKER_00: Are you familiar with the book Screwtape Letters by C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis?
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful book.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't read it before, you should.
SPEAKER_00: The book is an imaginary series of letters from a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, a junior demon, rather new to the work of the enemy, the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how Screwtape puts it.
SPEAKER_00: The humans live in time, but our enemy, his enemy screw tapes, is God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Destines them to eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things.
SPEAKER_00: To eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the present.
SPEAKER_00: For the present is the point at which time touches eternity.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, examining your life in light of eternity means doing two things.
SPEAKER_00: One, living with the end in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Living with the end in mind.
SPEAKER_00: When you're making a decision, do so in light of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, how much will this matter?
SPEAKER_00: What does God have to say about it?
SPEAKER_00: Just like when one is, say, training for a marathon, you ought to train in light of that goal.
SPEAKER_00: So we ought to live our lives with the goal of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing God face to face in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Are you living with the end in mind?
SPEAKER_00: Second, we've got to pay attention to what's growing in us.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to pay attention to what's growing in us.
SPEAKER_00: Screw tape refers to this as paying attention to the present.
SPEAKER_00: But given the context of this parable, I think it's appropriate to think about it in terms of fruit and weeds.
SPEAKER_00: So pay attention to your life.
SPEAKER_00: Are you growing in love for God and others?
SPEAKER_00: Are you growing in the fruit of the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening to the word of God and then doing what it says?
SPEAKER_00: Are you serving others?
SPEAKER_00: The posture of humility?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you caught up in the weeds?
SPEAKER_00: Looking just like those who don't say they follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you quick to anger?
SPEAKER_00: Prone to lust, envy, greed, gluttony, self-seeking.
SPEAKER_00: This matters.
SPEAKER_00: So pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: In my life, those tend to all be twisted up.
SPEAKER_00: So every day I need to pause and I need to listen and I need to examine my life.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, would you do the work of tilling the soil of my heart?
SPEAKER_00: That I might live with the end in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And that I might bear fruit today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here this morning and your life has been looking pretty weedy.
SPEAKER_00: Or you don't even ever really consider eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, I've got good news.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is open.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is open to come to him, to turn from your old self, to bring him your junk, your sin.
SPEAKER_00: To trust him with it, to ask him to make you new.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I'm not sure it matters where you are in your spiritual journey today.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is the same.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to your life.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Turn from sin.
SPEAKER_00: Live a life with eternity in mind.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is we don't have to do it alone, but we're invited to do this together.
SPEAKER_00: We're meant to do it together.
SPEAKER_00: May God form us to be this sort of family, living with the end in mind, paying attention to our lives together, and entrusting it all to the steadfast love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to close this morning with one of my favorite quotes.
SPEAKER_00: It's from author Frederick Beakner.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he wrote.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Listen to your life.
SPEAKER_00: See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
SPEAKER_00: In the boredom and the pain of it, no less than the excitement and gladness.
SPEAKER_00: Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.