In Jason Dohm's sermon, the Kingdom of Heaven is explored through three parables from Matthew 13: the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus uses these parables to illustrate the nature of His Kingdom, which differs from worldly expectations. The parable of the wheat and the tares explains that good and evil coexist until the final judgment, where angels will separate the righteous from the wicked. The mustard seed and leaven parables highlight the Kingdom's growth from small beginnings to a transformative force. Dohm cautions against misinterpreting parables by assigning unwarranted meanings or forming doctrines that contradict clear, didactic scripture passages. The sermon challenges traditional Jewish views by presenting the Kingdom of Heaven as universal, not limited to a geographical or genealogical nation. It underscores the need for disciples to understand and live in accordance with the principles of this divine Kingdom, which advances with unseen power like leaven permeating dough.

Our scripture for today is Matthew 13, verses 24 to 43. Another parable he put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have tares? He said to them, An enemy has done this. The servant said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.

And at the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." Another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in his branches. Another parable he spoke to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened. All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables.

I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but 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, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Father God, may we have ears. Father God, may we be the wheat and not the tares. Will you bless Jason? Will you give him an extra measure of grace as he comes forth to share your word and Lord may it be your word not his in Christ's name amen What is the Kingdom of Heaven like?

This is what Jesus is teaching us in this text. He has many things to teach us about the Kingdom of Heaven. And there are three parables this week and they're all about that. What the kingdom of heaven is like. This is our third week in chapter 13.

In the first week we looked at the first parable in the chapter, there's seven in chapter 13, And it was the parable of the sower. Last week, we went back and looked at verses 9 through 17, where Jesus answers why he's teaching in parables. And at the end of the sermon, I concluded by saying there are four punch lines to the sermon. I just want to review those quickly. The first punch line from last week's text was that there's no encounter with Jesus Christ that leaves us the same.

Either God has supernaturally and sovereignly decided to give us something And he does it as a blessing. And it's a deposit that will be followed by further deposits. So that those who have will be given more, and they'll have an abundance. Or the appearance of having something will be stripped away from you. This is what an encounter with Jesus results in.

Either more and more until you have an abundance, or the appearance of having something that is then stripped away, and you're left with nothing. You can be ambivalent, apathetic, but you cannot be left the same when you encounter Jesus. We learned that from the text. The second thing was this, that for disciples of Jesus Christ, the result of that text should be the most profound thankfulness. Jesus says, blessed are your eyes, for they see.

Blessed are your ears, For they hear. Having ears to hear, as Jesus is exhorting us to, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Having ears to hear is a gift. So if you find yourself seeing and understanding and embracing the gospel, know this, God has done this for you. And you should be, we should be the most thankful people on the planet.

Knowing that we've not done this for ourselves, but we've been blessed. God has given us something. And it's a deposit. It's a down payment that he'll give us more. Thirdly is an exhortation that if you have ears to hear, God is exhorting us in the teaching to actually take the fact that we've been taught as a stewardship.

He who has ears to hear, hear. It's an exhortation to hear, to apply ourselves to the things that Jesus Christ is teaching us And be edified, to be built up in our most holy faith, to be benefited by the things that Jesus is teaching us. To be brought to fruitfulness, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold fruitfulness. It's an exhortation to hear and apply ourselves and to be fruitful from the things that we're being taught by Jesus. And then lastly, there is still a glory to be revealed.

In last week's text, Jesus says that many righteous men and prophets longed to see what the disciples had seen, but they didn't see it. They longed to hear what the disciples had heard, but they didn't hear it. And Matthew Henry in commenting on that is saying, in one way, we're their superiors. We are the dwarf that's on a mountaintop that can see further than the giant down in the valley, because we've come after the time of Christ. We have access to his teaching.

But in another way, we're just like them. There is still a glory to be revealed. And in the same way that they waited patiently, in the same way that they waited in hope, in the same way that these righteous men and prophets waited in faith believing in God, we have that before us. I has not seen what the Lord has prepared for those who love him. We are waiting in hope.

We are waiting in faith, believing that God is true and that there are things that we have glimpses of in his word that are out there for us and we're going to inherit them by faith. Today we're covering three parables, all beginning with the exact same words, the kingdom of heaven is like. Next week we'll finish the chapter and we'll cover three more parables and all three parables will begin with the words, the kingdom of heaven is like. Just like the six consecutive parables all beginning the same way, all beginning with the words, the kingdom of heaven is like. Just like the six consecutive parables, all beginning the same way, all beginning with the words, the kingdom of heaven is like.

And then A few weeks down the road or maybe months will come to Matthew 18 starting in verse 23 and it will be a parable about the unforgiving servant and that will begin, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And then in a couple of more weeks, we'll be in Matthew 20, starting in verse 1. And the verses that follow will be a parable that begins, the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard. And then we'll come to Matthew 22, starting in verse 1. And it begins, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.

And then we'll come to Matthew 25, beginning in verse 1 and following. And it will begin, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Jesus is beginning teaching on the kingdom of heaven, parables teaching us what the kingdom of heaven is like. There are six of them in this chapter and then we'll hit four more places in other chapters following in Matthew that begin the same way that are teaching us about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus wants us to know about his kingdom.

And he's telling us parable after parable after parable after parable, so we'll understand what his kingdom is like. Why is that? Because it's not intuitive. He has a different kind of kingdom, and it requires instruction, instruction that will overthrow our thoughts about how our kingdom would be if we invented one. The kingdom we would invent is not like his kingdom.

He has a different kind of kingdom, so he has all manner of instruction lined up to teach us what his kingdom is like. We read this in Acts 1, verse 3. And it's just spoken of the apostles, the 11 disciples, and it says this in Acts 1-3, to whom he also presented himself alive. This is Jesus after the resurrection, after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Between the resurrection and the ascension there were 40 days where Jesus was with his disciples, the Apostles, and he was speaking to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

I just want us to recognize right up front that this is a very important category to Jesus Christ, so it ought to be an important category to us. He speaks of it over and over again. He wants us to know what his kingdom is like. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is a different kind of kingdom. There's a lot that we need to be taught about this kingdom.

And we're really starting our intensive instruction about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of our king, and he wants us to know what it's like. And here we begin. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you that you have a kingdom and that you have made sinners the subject of that kingdom through adoption, that you have made your enemies your sons and your daughters and your subjects, and that you are a mighty king reigning over this kingdom. I pray that you would teach us about your kingdom, God, that we would think rightly about it because we've been taught by you, because we've sat at your feet to hear your instruction And we've learned these things well as those who've been given a stewardship because we've been taught by you.

And that we would be, we would be faithful to all the things that you're teaching us in Jesus' name, amen. The parable of the wheat and the tares is the first parable that we're covering in today's text. It's a lot like the parable at the beginning of the chapter, which was the parable of the sower. In that, Jesus gave that parable, the parable of the sower, and then later on in private, he explains it. An explanation is needed, so he explains it privately to his disciples.

That's exactly what we see with the parable of the wheat and the tares. He gives the parable to his disciples and the multitudes. Everyone's hearing the parable. And then later on, when he's dismissed the multitudes in verse 36, and he's alone with his disciples, They say, hey, what does that mean? And he's gracious.

He explains to them exactly what it means. This is a parable that only appears here. It's just here in Matthew. These other parables, we can go to Mark, we can see Mark's version, we can see Luke's version, and some of the other parables we'll cover today also have parallel texts. The parable of the wheat and tares, this is it.

If you want to see this parable, this is what you got. The account in Matthew is the only account in the Gospels, and there's no parallel text to compare it to. But it teaches us something very important about the Kingdom of Heaven. John the Baptist, we're thinking about chapters and chapters now, all the way back to chapter three, John the Baptist began preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's right here.

The kingdom of heaven is dawning. The kingdom of heaven is being inaugurated. And then the king himself actually takes up the same cry. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Those are the first words that we hear Jesus preaching in his ministry as well.

And so he's been preaching the kingdom of heaven and now Jesus shifts to begin to teach his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like. So the format for teaching in this first parable will be for me to combine the parable with the explanation. I'm not going to take it in two parts because we've got the explanation. So I'm going to jumble it all up. And hopefully that'll work out OK.

The parable begins this way. A man sowed good seed in his field. This sounds familiar. We were just in a parable where a man sowed seed. And so in that way, it's similar, but it's different.

In the first parable, the seed is the word of God. We learned that from Luke 8. The seed is the word of God. Here, the seed, the good seed, are the sons of the kingdom, and the bad seed are the sons of the wicked one. And so there are some similarities.

But really quickly, we see that the similarities between these two parables end. A man sowed good seed in his field, and then when we jump to the explanation in verse 37, the man is the son of man. It's the God man. It's the Messiah. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who's actually sowing this good seed.

And in verse 38 we learn that the field is the world. So we have Jesus Christ sowing good seed in the world and in the field. Now J.C. Ryle and Matthew Henry and John Calvin and many, many of the reformers all say that the field is the visible church. That's not right.

That's wrong. Now, are there principles that we can take from the parable and apply to the visible church? Of course there are. It's often appropriate to extract principles that we learn from the parables and apply it to other categories. But when Jesus says, the field is the world, here's what Jesus means.

The field is the world. Not the visible church, but the world. He's explained it to us in very plain spoken, clear, explicit ways. And Jesus says the field is the world. And we see here that it is His world.

Look at the beginning of the parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field." The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, has a field. It's his field. In verse 27, he's called the owner. This is the nature of the kingdom, that there is a king and he's the owner and it's his and the world is his.

It's subtle but that is one of the things that is being taught here. The field is his and the field is the world. So the world is his. He's the owner of it. In verse 38, we see the explanation.

The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. Jesus is sowing The sons of the kingdom. Jesus Christ is responsible for the sons of the kingdom. There are no sons of the kingdom that Jesus Christ is responsible for because he's the one who's sowing the seed. He's sowing the sons of the kingdom.

He's completely, 100%, always responsible for sons of the kingdom. If there's a son of the kingdom, it's because Jesus Christ has sown that seed. Now this is a good time to talk about parables and handling them well and handling them not well. You can get in a world of trouble by not handling parables appropriately. Now a parable is a narrative, it's a story, and it uses the stuff of everyday life to teach a single point or maybe a couple of points, but a very limited amount of things, And it drives the point home like nothing else.

That's what a parable does. So it's using the things of everyday life to drive home a point. It's a great way to hammer home an important point. It's a terrible way to teach the complex nuances of the deep doctrines of the faith. That's never what parables are used for.

Parables are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever used to teach the nuances, the nooks and crannies of the deep doctrines of the faith. No. Parables are used to hammer home a point that the teacher really wants to emphasize and teach with clarity. So here's two common ways to get in trouble when you use parables. First is insisting on assigning meaning to everything in the parable.

Insisting on assigning meaning to every single thing in the parable. And then you assign something to it and then you say what the implications are with that and you're drilling down. And the person who was teaching the parable never meant any of that stuff. That's the danger. Now, in this parable, we've got something that meaning is not assigned to.

The servants come to ask a question to Jesus. Now, Jesus tells us who the man is. It's the son of man. He tells us who the good seed are. It's the sons of the kingdom.

He tells us who the bad seeds are. It's the sons of the wicked one. He tells us who the reapers are. It's the angels. He doesn't tell us who the servants are.

So if you go building your doctrine on who the servants are and make a big deal, then you've done something that Jesus wasn't even intending because he gave you the explanation of the parable. So this is just one example of assigning meaning to something that the person who gave the parable never intended to have meaning. So if you see something in a parable, and it's not explained, but you start loading a lot of things into that, This should be a sign for you to take notice and to be warned that you're going to get in trouble with your interpretation of this parable. Here's a second way to get in trouble. Not deferring to didactic texts on things that are only touched on in a parable now that Uses way too technical words, so let's break that down There are texts where the author intended to teach on that topic and says what their intentions are and talks in a plain way on that subject and develops it fully and gives you the nuances.

In other words, If you want to know how salvation works, you go to the book of Romans. Because Paul essentially says, I'm teaching about salvation. And he fully develops it, and he gives you nuances. Now, to take a parable that touches on salvation, like this does, And then to create doctrines out of that parable that overthrow what you see in Romans is madness and insanity. And we all would say, well, of course that's right.

But that's Often what ends up happening with parables, the parable will touch on a topic and will say, wait, this could mean that. But you have to take that, that thing that you think it could mean, and you have to compare it against the texts that are plain spoken, that are fully developed, that have the nuances in it, and see if it matches up. And you also want to know, did the person who's teaching the parable, was he getting at that? Was that one of the one or two main points that come out of that parable? If not, then let the didactic text, let the teaching texts.

And the epistles are perfect examples of that. Most of the epistles have such a clear theme, and they're teaching on a topic, and they develop it and give you the nuances. So that's two ways that we can get in trouble with parables. And we really see it here. The role and the authority of the devil.

If you take this parable and use it to build your doctrine of the role and the authority, the scope of work for the devil, you'll assign to him way more than the scriptures do. That's not the point of this parable. The point of this parable is not to teach us where The devil's authority begins and ends. That's not the point of the parable. It touches on that.

If you want to know about that, go to Job. Go to 10 other places in scripture that aren't speaking figuratively, but address that topic directly, and then you'll know where the proper parameters are. So you can't take this, this text, and say, well, I'm going to develop my doctrine of the role and authority of the devil from this text, because that's not the purpose of this parable. So back to the parable. While men slept, an enemy sowed tears among the wheat.

Verse 39, we learn that the enemy is the devil. And we see how the devil works. He works while men sleep. And this has happened under cover of darkness. This has happened deceptively.

This has happened opportunistically. You have an enemy here sneaking around in the dark, creating havoc. Isn't that what we know about the devil? This is how the devil operates. And this is what we see happening in the parable.

In verse 38, the tares are the sons of the wicked one that's what the tears are they're the sons of the wicked one So the enemy is the devil the devil sows the tears Which are the sons of the wicked one now here's a question that as we think about the implications of this, we have to ask, does that mean that the devil is responsible for the unelect? Does that mean that the devil is responsible for the Antelag? Well, yes and no. To give you a non-answer, yes and no. In 1 John 5.19, John says this, we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

So we get from John what we're getting from Jesus, is that there's only two kinds. There are the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one. And that there are sons of God and then the whole world, the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one. In the Gospel of John, in John 844, Jesus says this. Jesus says, you are of your father the devil.

He's talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. He's making the same point that since they're not sons of the kingdom, that they're sons of the devil. He says, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks, he speaks a lie.

He speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. So as Jesus has been teaching, there are two and only two kingdoms And you're either in one or you're in the other. So in that sense, yes, Satan has sway over those who have not come to faith in Jesus Christ. But in this sense, no. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 9, verse 20 through 23.

Paul in Romans 9, 20 through 23. But indeed, O man, Who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory.

So in this sense, God is the maker of all. The devil is not out there forming the unelect. God forms out of the same lump some vessels for glory and some for dishonor at his pleasure. So these things are complex, but they're not contradictory. The devil does have sway over the whole world, but God is our maker.

The devil is not anyone's maker. Now let's talk about the tares. The ESV actually translates it weeds, and it's a perfectly good translation, but it doesn't help us city folks. Because there are things to know here that is really helpful and important to know. This is a particular weed.

It's called Darnell. And it looks like wheat until it comes to maturity. So if you had wheat and Darnell growing together, This weed, a very special, very specific kind of weed growing together. Until you get close to maturity, you can't tell them apart. They look the same.

It's a weed that looks like wheat until the heads fill in, until it's time when you can judge the fruit. And then wheat looks like wheat, and Darnell has these black seeds that are actually poisonous. Isn't that interesting? So the tares, in time, you'll be able to see that it's not wheat, and the fruit of it is actually poisonous. Look at verse 26.

When the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tears also appeared. So even from the parable you get the same sense, right? These two things are growing together. The wheat is growing, the tears are growing, and you can't tell them apart. But they grow up, and then when they produce a crop, the tares appear.

In other words, the tares become apparent when these things come to maturity. So the servants, and again, we're not given who the servants are, but they're the servants, so we'll just leave it at that. They're servants of the owner and they're distinct from the reapers who are angels. So could they be other angels? I suppose they could be, but they're not the same thing as the reapers.

The servants come and they have a question. Didn't you sow good seed in your field? Didn't you sow good seed in your field? And the question is this, why is the field like this? Explain these tears.

We know you as an owner and it doesn't match up with what we see. There's good, there's bad here too. There's wheat here, but there's also tears. Why is it like this? Explain this.

For a time the servants have observed and not seen a problem, but as these plants approach maturity, they can see. Hey, wait a minute. The fruit of some of these plants is poisonous. Why is it like this and the owner Jesus replies an enemy's done this? Now think back To the book of beginnings think back to Genesis and the first chapters in the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth, and he made everything in it.

And he made man, and he proclaims it all good. And then the serpent starts whispering. And what was made good by God becomes defiled and becomes cursed. And the instrument for that was the serpent. The instrument for that was the devil.

So the servants now follow up with another question. Do you want us to get rid of these tares? So now they understand why the field looks like this. There's wheat and there are tares and it's an anemone that sowed those sons of the wicked one. And so they ask him, do you want us to get rid of these tears?

Now We're getting into things that are incredibly important here. And one of the things we're going to have to do is take off our Gentile glasses and put on our Jewish glasses. To see what the original audience would have seen and hear what the original audience would have heard. Jesus' answer is no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. So I want to ask us to consider two things.

The first is what we've been saying since the very first week in Matthew. Matthew is a Jew writing to Jews about the king of the Jews. Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers who even uses the term kingdom of heaven. Everybody else uses kingdom of God. And I believe Why he uses the Kingdom of Heaven is he wants these Jews to stop thinking about the Kingdom in the same old way.

To stop thinking that the Kingdom is simply geographical, that it's simply national, that it's simply genealogical. It's a family line traced back to Abraham. And Jesus wants people to know, no, the kingdom's not like that anymore. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and it's a different kingdom than that. And this nation that God had designated as the people of God was a type.

It was a type. It was a picture of what the people of God would be in the new covenant. It's not just a type. It is also a family line that God had a covenant with. And he was faithful with that covenant to preserve the seed, to preserve Jesus Christ.

So it's not just a type, but it is a type of what the people of God would be. And so Jesus, in this parable, one of the things that he's doing is teaching that there's a difference between the substance and the shadow. The people of God have been geographical. They have been national. They have been genealogical.

It's been a family line. The people of God aren't going to be that anymore. It's not just going to be that anymore. So if you're looking through your Jewish glasses, if you're Matthew's intended audience and you're looking through your Jewish glasses and you're seeing the world, then the field of wheat is what? Israel.

And the tares, there might be some tares in there, but if you find them, you're supposed to put them out. So The world through Jewish glasses is a world. And there's a field of wheat there, sure is. But man, it's a little field of wheat. And everything else all around it is tares.

It's Jews and Gentiles. It's children and dogs. And that's what the field looks like through Jewish glasses. Jesus is handing them different glasses to say, the field is the world. And there's going to be wheat and tares in the whole world.

There's going to be sons of the kingdom and sons of the wicked one growing side by side in this vast world. It's not just geographical anymore. It's not just national anymore. It's not just genealogical. It's not all in family lines anymore.

And so there's a shift from the people of God being a nation with a few exceptions sprinkled around out there like Nebuchadnezzar, like the queen of Sheba. Those are exceptions that prove the rule. But now, with the coming of the kingdom of God, the coming with the kingdom of heaven, with the coming of the Messiah, the wall of separation is going to be broken down and the sons of the kingdom are going to be in all the world. In many ways, all three of these parables that we're covering today are great commission parables. It's the opening up of the whole world to the sons of the kingdom.

So that was the first thing that I wanted us to consider, was that Matthew is writing to Jews and that the kingdom of heaven is going to be different than everything they've thought. Because they're thinking nationally, they're thinking geographically, they're thinking genealogically that everything's in family lines. The second thing is this. We have two views of wheat and tares. And I want to overlay them on top of each other.

One is the view of the elect and the non-elect. This is the view that God has, and he has it with perfection. He never misses. He never gets it wrong when he looks down and sees a person, whether they have been chosen by him before the foundation of the world or not. Never.

He's always right. And then there's this view of the saved and the unsaved. Now in the final tally, It's the same. But there are snapshots in life when they're not the same, when the elect are not yet saved, when the elect are actually in the kingdom of the wicked one. They're sons of the wicked one.

And so when God sees it's not a problem, he knows who's elect, and they're not saved today, but there's no possibility that they'll die without being saved because he's God and he's chosen them. But they might be elect but not yet saved. In the final tally, the two groups, the overlay will be perfect. But in the meantime, there are discrepancies. None of us were born sons of the kingdom.

Not one person in this room was born a son of the kingdom. But you might have been elect before the foundation of the earth. Here are the instructions from the owner. By the way, Augustine, I wasn't going to quote this, but it's great. Augustine said, commenting on this parable, today's tear might be tomorrow's wheat.

This is why you don't pull them up by the roots, because Today's tear might be tomorrow's wheat. This is why you don't pull them up by the roots, because today's tear might be tomorrow's wheat. Now, there's nothing. I don't want to spend time on that, because that's not the point of this parable. And that's another area where you can get in trouble trying to bring something from outside the parable to impose it on the parable.

Here are the instructions from the owner. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. In verse 39, we get the explanation of this.

The harvest is the end of the age. The harvest is judgment day. And Jesus has been speaking a lot about judgment day in these chapters that have led up to this. Speaking of the great day. In chapter 11, Jesus is pronouncing woes.

Do you remember he's pronouncing woes on whole cities. Woe to you Bethsaida, woe to you Chorazin, woe to you Capernaum. Whole cities are being, Judgment is being pronounced on them. And then what does he say? It'll be more tolerable for Tyre, for Sidon, for Sodom, in the day of judgment.

So he is pronouncing judgment, but it's a future day. And that's so consistent with what we see in this parable. The expectation, back with our Jewish glasses on, the expectation was that when the Messiah came, He would come in power. He would come in judgment. He would rule with an iron scepter.

Why did they think that? Because the Bible says that. The prophets said that again and again and again. And the prophets also talked about a suffering servant, and they didn't know it was the same one. And so Jesus will come like they expected.

He will come in power. He will come in judgment. But first, he comes in the form of a servant. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 5. 1 Corinthians 4, 5.

Paul says, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God. Therefore judge nothing before the time." That's what Paul says. And he's just repeating Jesus. Now in the type, in the shadow, with the national people of God, when they took the promised land, what were they to do to every Canaanite?

Kill everyone, the men, the women, and the children, but the New Kingdom's not like that. In the New Kingdom, the wheat are going to grow right next to the tares. It's different with the New Covenant. In verse 39, we see that the reapers are the angels. Now turn back, just flip back from Matthew 13 to Matthew 3.

The Reapers are the angels. In Matthew 3, we get a sermon by John the Baptist. And he's teaching on the same subject in Matthew 3, starting in verse 8. So in verse 7, the Pharisees and the Sadducees have come to His baptism, and He calls them a brood of vipers. And then He says this in verse 8, Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.

And do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Here's the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting for. The one with the winnowing fan in his hand who will gather the weed into his barn but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And Jesus doesn't want his people to be disturbed that this is not how he came the first time.

All those things will happen as the prophets have foretold. But it's still future. And so John the Baptist says that it's not enough to be a member of the type and shadow. It's not enough to be a son of Abraham. To be able to trace your genealogy back to Father Abraham is not enough.

You must be a member of the fulfillment and the substance, which is through repentance and faith. That's what brings you into the fulfillment of the people of God, not just the shadow. The eternal destinies of every man, woman, and child depend on this. Back to Matthew 13, let's read verses 43, 43 together, the end of this parable. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, So it will be at the end of this age.

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In 1 John 3 10, John says this, In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. So the sons of the kingdom are those who practice righteousness and the sons of the wicked one are those who practice lawlessness. That's right what we have here in Matthew And this is exactly what Jesus was teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, verse 23. It's the Lord, Lord text. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy?

Did we not cast out demons? Did we not do many wonderful works. And then what will the response be? Depart from me you who practice lawlessness, just like what he's teaching here in Matthew 13. But in contrast to that, the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father.

And you can't hear that without thinking about Moses coming down off that mountain. Moses having just seen just a glimpse of God, just the very back part of him. And yet when he comes down off the mountain, he has to veil his face because he's shining and he's terrifying the people. This is the picture, that those who are sons of the kingdom will be in his presence and they will have a glory, a reflected glory, but they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Verses 31 and 32, next parable.

Another parable he put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Here we have the parable of the mustard seed, and again, it's to teach us something very important about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like our God, our King wants us to know what his kingdom is like. Now Matthew will you excuse me Jesus in the gospel of Matthew will use the mustard seed again in chapter 17.

Matthew 17, the second half of verse 20, Jesus says if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain Move from here to there and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you. If you have faith, just like a mustard seed, it's like a speck. The idea is of a teeny weeny beginning. That's the mustard seed.

It's just compared to all the other seeds, it's practically not a seed. It's just a speck. Teeny weeny beginning is the mustard seed. And yet, at full grown, the mustard plants that are native to that part of the world, it's 8 to 12 feet. Teeny smallest seed, Not even comparable to the other seeds, but grows to 10 to 12 feet.

The Messiah was expected to come with apocalyptic power, judging, Just like we heard John the Baptist preaching. So he's supposed to come in glory and power. And then here's Jesus. Putting up with abuse from men, putting up with it. Having taken on the form of a servant.

As the last parable showed, these prophecies of apocalyptic glory and power, apocalyptic just being the end of all things. Those things would be fulfilled, but it's still in the future. Redemptive history is different than the Messiah coming that way the first time. That was never the plan of God. In the meantime, Christ was in the form of a servant.

His disciples are fishermen and tax collectors. Not one of them has the stamp of approval from the kingdom, the national kingdom, the geographic kingdom, the genealogical kingdom. Not One of them rates in that kingdom. Jesus has no political clout. Jesus has no intention of engaging in the political process.

And the core of his mission the first time is to suffer as a criminal and die. It's like a mustard seed. It's nothing. This is your movement? To suffer as a criminal and die?

But something mighty would spring from that teeny tiny despised seed. Something mighty would spring from it. That's what this parable is teaching. And it would grow and grow and grow and grow. The birds in the parable simply give this tree a sense of scale.

It's an 8 to 12 foot tree. Now some create a doctrine of the birds being bad in Scripture. The birds are bad everywhere in Scripture so they're bad here and then they draw implications from that. Hogwash. The birds are not always bad in Scripture.

Jesus has been teaching about sparrows. We recited about sparrows today. There's nothing wrong with those sparrows. Those are not evil sparrows that God is feeding. God's appointing the day of their death.

God is watching over even the sparrows. Isaiah says that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. There's nothing wrong with eagles. That's good.

The people of God are said to be under the shadow of his wing. Even God uses the attributes of birds. This is just another example of how you can get in trouble with a parable by taking things outside of it and trying to put it into the parable and then drawing all sorts of doctrinal things out of it. It's the wrong thing to do with parables. The Psalms, Ezekiel in two different places, Daniel all speak of trees as a dwelling place and a place of refuge.

In fact, when you go to this, the parallel text for this parable in Mark 4 verses 30 and 32, It's shade for the birds. The tree is a blessing. The kingdom is a blessing. So the point of this parable is that from the smallest, from the most humble beginnings, that the kingdom would grow and grow and grow and grow and become the most significant thing in the field. Verse 33 our last parable.

Another parable he spoke to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. The parallel to this is in Luke 13 verses 20 and 21. This is the parable of the leaven. Some create a doctrine out of this parable with leaven being bad in scripture.

Leaven's bad everywhere in scripture. Hogwash, also not true. Another example of getting in trouble by applying the wrong principles to the interpretation of parables. In Leviticus 7, verse 13, there's leavened bread for the peace offering. There's nothing bad about that leaven.

In Leviticus 23, 17, there's leavened bread for the first fruits offering. Doesn't even touch on sin. Leaven, here's why it's in this parable. Not because it's evil, but because it's leaven. It's for the properties, the known properties of leaven, is why it's in here.

And yes, those known properties are also great for illustrating what sin can be like. Sin can be like leaven too. And the known properties of leaven are very helpful in illustrating what can happen with sin. A little sin can work throughout the whole batch too. But in this case, it's just the properties of leaven that has it in this parable.

Leaven works unseen. The verse says that a woman hid it, hid the leaven in three measures of meal. It's hidden. Once you put the leaven in, you lose sight of the leaven. How do you know it's in there?

It transforms everything. Yeast is a kind of leaven. There's more kinds of leaven. Yeast is a particular kind of leaven. Yeast would go crazy.

You put it in there, it transforms the whole batch. You say, where's the yeast? Well, I can't see a yeast particle but I know that it's there. This is the nature of leaven. This is why it's in the parable because it permeates the whole batch.

In this case, three measures is 50 pounds of dough. A little leaven, plenty. It will permeate the whole thing. It will transform the whole thing. That whole 50 pounds will be leavened with just a little leaven.

Listen to Matthew 28. This is the Great Commission. You've seen it a thousand times. You could recite it. But here it is.

Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. The earth is the field. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. You could have easily quoted the Great Commission with the mustard seed, right? Small beginning, explosive growth. That's the Great Commission. These are both definitely great commission parables.

The Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is like leaven in this world. It often advances unseen, but it is permeating. It is transforming. That's what Jesus' kingdom is like. And this kingdom will not stop advancing until it has affected all the nations, until it has infiltrated, permeated into, transformed all the nations.

Back to Acts 1. This is Jesus. These are the last words that he said before he ascended. Acts 1, 8. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Jesus had commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem. Don't go anywhere. Don't do anything until the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Wait in Jerusalem. And he's about to give them power when he sends the Holy Spirit upon them.

And he's turning the leaven loose on this lump. That's what Acts 1 is all about, being transformed into this substance that can permeate and transform the whole lump, the whole three measures. Jesus is turning His people in the power of the Spirit into this agent that can permeate and transform the whole lump. Verses 34 and 35. Finally, all these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables.

And without a parable, He did not speak to them. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world. As Gary mentioned, this is Psalm 78, this is Asaph. It's the second longest Psalm, second Psalm 119.

It's got 72 verses. And it's the best concise history of Israel that you can think of. It wraps up the history of Israel. And it says, even in the first verses of Psalm 78, that it's the things that their fathers had told them. And yet, That's in the same sentence with Asaph saying, I'm uttering dark sayings of old.

I'm uttering things kept secret since the foundation of the world. And then He spends those 72 verses recounting the unfaithfulness of their fathers, and yet the faithfulness of God. All intertwined. Fathers being unfaithful, but God being faithful. And here's why it's a dark saying of old.

Here's why it's a secret kept since before the foundations of the world. Because Asaph actually interprets it for them. He shows what God has been doing in this history of the people. He shows what God has been doing in keeping His covenant and being faithful to a people. And it ends, I'm so happy that Gary took us there, it ends, that chapter ends, with Asaph talking about God choosing Judah and raising up David to shepherd his people.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 78. He is the interpretation of redemptive history. That's why Matthew identifies Jesus as the fulfillment to this. Because Jesus is able to interpret all the things that he's seeing and showing what God is doing. And showing the shift of kingdoms from a geographical kingdom, a national kingdom, a genealogical kingdom that's all about family lines.

That's getting ready to end. And Jesus is the one who's able to unfold these secrets that have been kept since before the foundations of the earth. Verse 72, this is speaking of David but not really. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. This is the end of Psalm 78.

A few concluding remarks. We desperately need to be taught what the kingdom of heaven is like. I am so thankful we have these six parables and then these four other places in Matthew where Jesus just says to us, the kingdom of heaven is like and he teaches us about his kingdom. We need to become such good students of his kingdom. We're the subjects of his kingdom.

He's our king. We need to know what his kingdom is like so we know how to behave ourselves. It's a good question. What do we do with these tares, King? Want us to remove these tares?

No. I don't want you to remove those tares. If you do, you'll pull up wheat with it. But the day's coming when all those things that the prophets had said about the Messiah will be true. He will come with power.

He will come with glory. And at that time there will be a great separation where the sons of the kingdom will be pulled away. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. John 14.

And the tares, the sons of the wicked one, would be thrown into a furnace for everlasting torment. The kingdom of Heaven started with a servant who would suffer as a criminal and die. The most despised little teeny tiny seed. And here we sit in Youngsville, North Carolina. How can this be?

It's because God said it would be this way. And he's not done. Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven. Once you put it in the dough, you don't even see it anymore. Can't see leaven particles in your bread?

You know it's there. It's permeated through the whole lump. It's transformed the whole lump. Oh, God, make it so. Make the Great Commission fulfilled.

Finally, our text today ends this way. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. If you have ears to hear, apply yourselves to the things that God is teaching us. Apply yourselves to them. Be blessed.

Be built up. Be helped. Be rebuked. Be trained. If you have ears to hear, hear what Jesus is teaching us.

Let's pray. Father, may it be so. Oh God, would you give us ears to hear and would you help us to be faithful with all those things that you're teaching us. Oh God, teach us about your kingdom. You are a great and glorious king.

We delight to be your subjects, oh God. Thank you for showing mercy, for purchasing a people, and for training that people to know what it means to be a subject in this kingdom. Help us to think rightly, God. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for watching!