[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. Or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m. If you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, you can find us
[email protected] dot. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: So before we get into class tonight, we do have some things we want to cover. It'll take just a few minutes. First off, I want to again thank everybody for all the encouragement you give to Robert and I both. It's just really fantastic to be able to be in here each week trying to facilitate discussion and hearing so many people just say so many nice things to us. We really do appreciate it. We struggle to feel like we deserve it at all, but we do appreciate it and it energizes us and keeps us wanting to come back every week.
As you guys know, we talked about last week. We've only got, after tonight, we only got three more classes and we're only about halfway through the book of Matthew. And several people had asked us about doing continuing on into next quarter. And Robert and I did start discussing that. And then we realized that summer series starts this summer, so we are not able to do a follow on quarter immediately. But I think I can say this. We asked the education committee if we could delay and do a Matthew part two in the fall. And as of right now, everybody on the education committee, we haven't heard anything negative back. So tentatively right now we're going to say we will do Matthew part two, Robert and I again in the fall, and we will cover the second half of the book. So we certainly welcome everybody that's in here back to that class. And I want to issue a challenge to you guys, and that is you've been very participatory up to now. And between now and the fall, just read the rest of the book, okay? And as you read the book, if you have things that are questions and this is honestly, we'll talk about this some tonight. This is how I prepare for the class. I read it and where I have to go. Wait a second. What does that mean? I'll usually jot something down and then go back and do deeper study.
As you know, our theme for the year has been prayer and Bible study. So I'm asking you to take part in some of that Bible study on your own. So between now and the end or now and the fall quarter, I'd ask, read the rest of the book of Matthew, take some notes and where you have questions or if there's things you want to dig deeper on, send them to Robert and I so that we can prepare for that second half of Matthew that we'll be doing in the fall.
Anything you want to follow up there?
[00:03:14] Speaker C: No, we gave them fair warning.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah, we did. We did. So we will do just a, you know, a bit of review. We are going to finish out chapter 13. We are going to do a little bit of review because as we were talking just before class tonight, we are going to do some point backs to the beginning of the chapter. But chapter 13 was where Jesus started talking in parables, and he started teaching in parables. And I remembered, for those of you that were there last week, I remembered why I said it was interesting that he started with sowing. And we'll get back to that as we close out the chapter tonight.
Parable we looked at was the sower that was in verses one through nine.
We talked about the purposes of the parables, and we talked about how he was speaking in these parables, and the disciples asked him, you know, hey, why are you doing this? And he explained that to them when I.
[00:04:25] Speaker D: Go ahead.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: We talked about the sower. We talked also about what evangelism looks like and how effective that is and how many times you have to.
And let me. Let me stop myself. I was going to say how many times you have to be rejected, but it's not you being rejected, it's the Lord being rejected. If somebody rejects the word, we talk about how many people you have to interact with. We talked about how it's sewing and not gardening. We had the example of how evangelism looks. And we talked to a couple of people in the class about evangelism or about how they came to know the truth.
And then we'll get back to this tonight. I was telling Robert, and this is, again, one of the fun things about teaching this class with Robert is when he started out and he said, we're going back to the Old Testament. I was like, what is he doing? But then he had the wonderful example of Nathan approaching David, and we talked about how to approach people and how to talk to them. And Siegfried shared some additional thoughts there on the way he has to approach people in a very difficult situation there in the prison.
And that's how we got into then the parables. And why parables?
You want to jump in?
[00:05:53] Speaker C: You did a good job. Any questions that lingered from last week?
I think we got through the sower adequately.
So we want to go ahead and pick up with the tears for tonight.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: So we're going to start in verse 24. You want to? Okay.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: And I was going to say, let's talk about just a few things before we read it. I think it's important that we read it so it's crisp on our minds.
This again is a parable similar to the sower, where in verses 24 through 30, we hear the parable, and then a few verses later, it gets explained.
Sometimes this is called wheat and the tares, sometimes wheat and the weeds.
Do we know what tares are?
I think we just mentally make the connection to weeds, and that's our, a lot of times our best understanding, but a little more information.
It's important to realize that the tares here they're talking about are, they're not good. They're actually bitter.
I've read some are intoxicating, can be a hallucinogenic or even a poison type of grain. But the interesting thing about them is, and we need to keep in context as we read, they very closely resemble the wheat at the early phases. In fact, it's not until, and we'll read that, not until they start to produce fruit or grain, that they're. It's easy to tell them apart. So we'll talk through some of the details of that, but just to kind of set the stage and have that in mind as we read the parable.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Okay, we want to read it. Does anybody want to volunteer to read versus 24 through 30, nice and loud.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: So everybody online standing close to you again, I'm not.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Roger's going to read.
[00:08:04] Speaker E: He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then, do you want us to go and gather them. But he said, no, lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until a harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Okay. So kind of like we've been doing. What's, what's this parable mean? What do we take away from that?
[00:09:04] Speaker F: We have to live among the world. I mean, we're.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: We're in the world.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: We are.
[00:09:08] Speaker F: We can't be just completely broken apart and then we don't. Our mission is gone.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Right. What else?
Anybody else have any thoughts there?
[00:09:25] Speaker C: Who said that?
[00:09:26] Speaker B: All the way back there, basically explaining the day of judgment.
Also correct. Any other thoughts?
[00:09:38] Speaker G: He's talking about the kingdom, so he's everything.
Not everybody that appears to be in the kingdom might be. Some of them might be weeds that.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Will be weeded out also. Very, very, very true.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: Very good.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Any other thoughts?
[00:09:56] Speaker D: I think it also kind of tells you that you may be Christian, but you're going to live and have to deal with people that are not christians, that you're going to have to keep your. And keep being the weed and not start looking more like the weeds.
I think one thing I was reading was that this weed and the wheat look very similar. So it's kind of hard to tell just looking at them. So this may be like you may be looking at somebody. You think they're a Christian or follower of God and they're really follower of the devil.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Very true. So let me ask. Let me ask another question, then I'm going to kind of ask some questions and then I'll share with you what my thoughts were. And do you have something you want to jump in there?
[00:10:55] Speaker C: No, I didn't know at what point you would want to read the explanation. You want to get some thoughts out?
[00:11:00] Speaker B: I want to do thoughts. And then we'll. I was planning on just hitting it as we, as we go through the text, if that's. Or do you want to jump down to the. Okay. As you can see, we don't do coordination beforehand. So I told you we do a discussion here. So, as Ed said, so and someone else said it, we're in living among the weeds, right.
The good, the wheat and the weeds are in living amongst each other. Now, the servants. Right. The servants here, what were they able to do?
What were the servants able to do? They were able to. What?
They were able to tell the weeds from. From the wheat. Right. So they were they were able to discern what it was. Now you have something else you want to say?
[00:11:55] Speaker H: Yeah, I'm not sure.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Well, go ahead.
[00:11:59] Speaker H: I'm from Oklahoma. There's a lot of wheat and barley and stuff growing there. And when the wheat comes up, it's just back when it's two or three inches tall, you could think it was someone's yard other than it's in woolly rows, but it all comes up as green. But may, when wheat starts to ripen, it's all brown or golden color. Right. And the weeds are still green.
So it's a meat. It's, it's completely obvious what the weeds are at harvest time because the wheat has turned brown and, and the weeds are still green. Yeah, but before that happens, it's not so easy.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's absolutely applicable. Yeah, absolutely applicable to what we were talking about. About.
So, yeah, so the servants, right. They're able to see the difference in the weeds and the wheat. And do you remember what I was talking about last week? It seemed to me like in the chapter twelve, we had a couple of instances with. Do y'all remember what I said the people were doing? What were they doing in chapter twelve? People were saying, look, look, they're not doing what's right. Hey, Jesus, they're not doing what's right. And we're back to kind of the same thing. Okay, and so I'm going somewhere with this so that, so the servants can tell the difference between the wheat and the wheat and the, I want to say chaff, but the tares or the weeds, they can tell the difference.
But from the rest of the parable, is it the servant's job to separate those out? You got a 50 50 chance on this one.
[00:14:00] Speaker F: Not yet.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Not yet.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Not yet. I would say no.
Whose job is it going to be to separate the wheat from the chaff?
Says it right there in the parable.
The reapers. But under whose authority are they going to be working?
The master. Right. It says, I will say to the reapers, first, gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. And the reason I thought it was interesting that he started last week with the parable of the sowers. And I think we're going to see this continued throughout the different parables. He starts and he tells people, he tells them what? You go sow, you go spread the word. And then I feel like this. Then he gets down to this parable and he's saying, you go so, and, yep, some good is going to happen. There's going to be fruit produced, but they're still going to be bad. And he essentially says, you don't worry about the Bad.
I will take care of that. I will take care of that. That's what I take away from it. If you remember the example that I used last week, I think a lot of times when we as christians are looking at evangelism or trying to evangelize, we get discouraged when we don't see that growth immediately or we don't see the result that we expect to see. And I think this particular parable, he is saying, don't you worry about that. When the harvest comes, I will be the one that takes care of that. Don't you worry about that. Any thoughts there?
[00:15:49] Speaker C: That's good. I've got some other questions in detail. I think that we'll talk after we read through the explanation.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: So the weeds also get watered?
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:02] Speaker D: And cultivated until it's obvious.
Weeds back then, they didn't have commercial agriculture.
Every little grain was precious, trying to go after the bad immediately. When you think it's bad, you can do a lot of harm.
So just wait.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker G: In due time.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: And, Robert, now that I look at the clock, I think we probably should jump to the explanation.
We can cover further next week. We can do another parable next week.
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Okay, so since we're gonna have.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Yeah, since we've got time now, we.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Don'T have to rush.
A couple of thoughts that I found interesting.
And you're gonna see this. This common thing. Most of these parables start with the kingdom of heaven is like. And what did we say a good definition of a parable was in the Greek? It means to lay alongside of for comparison. So here we see him saying that. An interesting thing about the sower when he started the parable. He didn't say that, but he said it in his explanation of what it meant.
Interesting. And then when you get to this one, it's different. He starts the parable off with that. Before we read the explanation.
Did the disciples understand this parable when they heard it?
[00:17:32] Speaker F: No, they go back and they say.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: He explained it because they said, hey, what you said back there, what did you mean? What does that mean? So, no, they did not understand it when they heard it the first time. That's kind of interesting, because he teaches in parables for a real life, relatable experience, to bring it home to the individual person.
Let's go ahead and read, and then we'll catch some of the structure that comes out of that explanation if you're. Yeah, I'll read it. 36 through 43, beginning in 36.
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man.
The field is the world.
I want to come back and touch on that. Got some questions for you guys there.
And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
The weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
The son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
He who has ears, let him hear.
So to set the structure, he lays this out really clear.
So the good seed, who's sowing that? I mean, let's just walk through it. Let's remember who's sowing the good seed here.
Which is who?
Which is Jesus and what. Or who is the field. And I worded that intentionally that way.
The world. He says the world.
What does he mean by the world? Do you think?
Have you thought about that when you read it? It's easy to generalize and think.
Mankind.
[00:20:17] Speaker F: Is it the same word that you said?
[00:20:24] Speaker C: I don't know that. If it's the same root in the Greek. I don't. And this was just a curiosity that I had, because he talks about the world as he goes through this. And let me find a verse that I found interesting.
So the way we are thinking about the world is the world as a whole, right? Is that what we're saying?
Every human that lives in the world, and then somebody read loud verse 41.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: I'll read it. The son of man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom. All stumbling box and those who commit lawlessness.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: So where are the angels doing their gathering according to this verse?
[00:21:18] Speaker F: Out of the kingdom.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Out of his kingdom.
I found that interesting.
Do you see any issues or anybody ever question, what does the world mean there? And I'm asking, is some of the things I studied. People have different opinions.
I agree with that definition of the world. But it's interesting that when they come to do the gathering, they do it out of the kingdom. And notice how that's worded. It's not gather all the evil ones, all the evil people.
The version that I have here with me says, gather out of his kingdom, all causes of sin and all lawbreakers. Does anybody have a different version?
I just thought that was interesting.
You have any thoughts, David? Were you going to answer that?
[00:22:18] Speaker B: No, I missed that. I mean, now that you say it, I'm like, yeah, I don't have a thought there.
[00:22:26] Speaker G: This version says in the christian standard Bible, it says, and gather all calls stand and those guilty of all who.
[00:22:39] Speaker C: Pointing toward individuals or. Yeah, I think we can assuredly it's all those people or souls that are evil, so to speak. And that cause or try to influence or tempt others, I think, is what it's referring to. But the fact that he's talking about the world, and I think we generally assume off the bat that it's everybody in the world. And then he talks about from the kingdom.
And another thought to follow on with that. I'm getting way ahead in my notes, and I'll turn it back over to you after this thought, David. I'll let you all chew on this one.
We talked about the kingdom of heaven.
We talked about gathering out of his kingdom.
And then after the judgment and the separation, what happens to the righteous? In verse 43, somebody read that.
[00:23:40] Speaker F: Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun and the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: And where will they shine?
Kingdom. What?
[00:23:52] Speaker F: Kingdom of their father.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Kingdom of their father.
A little different verbiage there in that reference.
So when we read the word kingdom, our mind may automatically go to one typical definition. And I think we need to think and probably study more. I don't have all the answers, but I just. I found that very interesting. And with all the interaction we've had in here, I thought there might be some good discussion.
[00:24:23] Speaker H: The split is. Appears to be a universal split, though.
And the phrase the wicked being cast where there's weeping and gnashing of tears, used in some other places, in those other. In Matthew, for example. But those places up there, it's talking about all of the wicked and what happens at the final judgment.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: All of the wicked, as opposed to.
[00:24:58] Speaker H: Just the wicked being thrown out of the church, if you will.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Okay. And that's kind of where I was. I think some people relate that and try to explain it as the church in the world. But I think, as you just stated, it's universal either way.
Those that once we get to judgment, once it's harvest time, it's not man that's doing, as you mentioned earlier, not the servants that are doing the judging, because we're actually told not to do that.
And he clearly says that it's going to be his angels that he sends to come do that gathering, that separating.
And it's very clear and I think very representative of what's going to happen to the evil compared to the, the righteous.
So just some interesting things as you read through this that.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yeah, like I said, I did not catch it that way. Now I will say something that Robert pointed out a few weeks ago is something that has been, I keep kind of ruminating on it, and that was the verse that said, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I keep thinking about that. And then, as you guys well know, I've got this thread now where I feel like, as I'm reading it, the thread I'm seeing is people wanting to judge again, saying, hey, see what's going on over there? And I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about that. And I want to start with a question.
Is there a difference between sharing the truth and judging?
Is there a difference between sharing the truth and judging? Anybody got any thoughts there?
[00:27:01] Speaker I: One is just telling the arbitrary, just fact of the matter. One is asserting your opinions about what should happen to you because of that.
It's the difference between stating the law and sentencing somebody.
In your eyes, you are the one that's passing judgment, so to speak, on somebody. You're saying, you deserve this or this thing should happen to you because you did.
[00:27:34] Speaker D: Xyz good.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yep. Any, any other thoughts there?
[00:27:39] Speaker F: I think truth is spoken out of conviction, and judgment is not necessarily, doesn't really have to do with your own conviction or feelings about something. It's just how you expect someone else to be convicted. The truth is your own passion for something. Speaking for us.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: I think that's true. Somebody over here have something to say?
[00:28:04] Speaker I: Hebrews 412 says, the word of God is living in active sharper than any two edged sword pierces even the dividing of soul and spirit joints. A marrow. If judges the faults and the intentions of offer, we cannot do that because we can't discern those. But the word can.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: Thank you for that. Thank you.
So then, so then let me, let me ask.
I think some of y'all know where I'm going. So is this. Is this hard for us today?
Is sharing the truth and not judging, or is judging hard for.
I want to hear some thoughts about that.
Yeah.
[00:28:49] Speaker G: What if you were taught that you got to go yank that weed out, if that's what you assume would be necessary.
I think some comics are made. I didn't hear everything from the front. It could be so disruptive and destroy the roots. And the just, if you go to root out all these things are grown well, planted together and all that, you go pulling off some weeds and you just destroy the plant, you pull them both up.
I think this is a great example of how this parable works. Lay that out there, and anybody who might have been thinking all just got to snatch all the weeds out. This guy's mad. This lady is mad. And if you want to transfer it into people, the master here says, no, just let them grow together.
And obviously, the ones that are nourished well, or somehow they're strong, they survive. And then at some point, you start pulling up the tears, and then everything's pulled up. It's harvest time now, so it doesn't matter anyway. The point would be, that's not the kind of gardening God seems to do.
It just go snatch up weeds.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think where my mind goes with this is. Is, in today's society, if we stand for the truth, sometimes, what's the first thing that somebody will say?
Don't. What?
Don't judge me. Right. They say, don't judge me. But if we're just sharing the truth, are we judging them?
No, we're not. And I thank you, Craig, for sharing that verse, because I think so many times, you know, if we're trying to judge, if we're being that servant that's saying, do you want me to go take care of that? The attitude we should have is if we. If there is a situation that needs to be remedied, rather than us calling somebody out, you present the scripture. You know, it's back to the example that Robert used last week when Nathan confronted David. He didn't get in his face and wag his finger at him. He kind of took him on a journey. And I always remember there was an example that Stan Sherrod used in a class years ago that his father, somebody would come up to him and attempt to bait him into some sort of argument and would say, well, what about this? And Stan said his dad would silently pull out a Bible, flip to a page, and hand it to somebody and say, can you read verses, you know, five through ten there? And they would read it. And he said, without fail, they'd close it back up, hand him back the Bible, and off they'd go. And so, you know, I think. I think we live in a time right now in our world where there's a lot of division. There's a lot of people saying, don't judge me. And there's a lot, you know, and sometimes we don't handle that well. But don't deny the power of the word. We don't have to say anything. We don't. If we can show people the truth that the word will have, it has enough power of its own. It doesn't need us. And that's what I take away from last week through this parable. And I think we need to be, we need to keep that in mind. And we're going to see later when we get into the leaven and the mustard seed, sometimes we get so caught up in the work that we think we need to do, we don't realize that the power comes from somewhere else. Okay? Yes.
[00:32:45] Speaker D: Siegfried John twelve, the context. Jesus said, I did not come to judge.
I came to save, provide the means of salvation, spread.
Verse 48, the word that I have spoken, it's already been said, nothing new. It will judge you in the final and the last day. The woman caught in the very act of adultery, the mob stirred up in their self righteousness. Accused, they judged, because they wanted condemnation.
And then Jesus asked, ultimately, of course, where are your accusers?
Okay, I'm not gonna, just don't do it anymore because it is written. So he didn't judge. He didn't even accuse as such. He said, just don't do it. Judgment ultimately will come. But whenever you go, like out there, out there, if I know that's a brother, I don't really go to him. So I'm in my mind already making a determination. Well, this guy's not living to what the word says, and therefore I'm picking him, not judging. But I know.
And one thing that I emphasize all the time, please don't take my word.
[00:34:08] Speaker I: Don'T listen to me.
[00:34:09] Speaker D: My words will not judge you because the day of judgment will say, hey, Mister Bill Chap said this. No, I show them all the time because they're so quick to either judge, condemn, or whatever, somebody else itself. No, that's not me.
[00:34:25] Speaker I: It's interesting to me that the field here is full and there are two sowers. There is sewing. You know, we had the responsibility from the first parable, even though it is the son of man. I think proxy, it's us as well. But the field is full because there's another so, or the devil. And there are no blind spots in the field. You're either one or the other. And to me, that is a big.
It hits home to me because it says that the result of the. The balance of wheat versus tares is as much up to me as it is anything else. We think about sowing in a field, and the wheat's just come in there. But in this instance, it's an activity by satan that puts them there. And we are responsible for as much as possible balancing that out. And there's not a blank spot. There's not. And so if we. And you talk about judging. Judging doesn't just happen after the word has been presented. We have been guilty of it. Judging. Before planting the word, you notice that in the parable of sower, all the ground was covered, right? Every type of ground. We don't get to pick which.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: That's right.
Thank you all. Thank you all for. You summed up the class perfectly for me. I'm gonna leave you all with one final thought. I wanted to make this fit, and I couldn't make it fit, but this is something from goodness now, probably 40 years ago in my life, and I wanted to make it fit, and I was trying to make it fit with judging. And it's something. I don't remember what I did. I don't remember what I did, but I was a little kid.
A little kid. I was probably a teenager. I don't remember what I did, but I remember my dad saying to me, I love you too much to let you act that way.
And where that has gone from and what I was thinking about as I was preparing tonight and trying to make that fit in here about judging, was my dad knew what was right, and he shared that with me. And his heart was not because he was trying to call me out. His heart was because, in a very real sense, he wanted me to have a better life and to have it now. And I think the scripture says something about that as well. But like I said, I just wanted to take the opportunity. Since I've got a captive audience, I thought I'd share that with you. It doesn't necessarily fit with tonight's lesson. Thank you all very much.
