The Weeds, Mustard Seed and Leaven / Matthew 13:24-43
Introduction to the Kingdom
Welcome to The Well Community Church. It is so good to see everyone tonight. I hope you’re doing well. A special welcome to our guests; we are so glad you’re hanging out with us. Tonight, we’re going to be in the Word of God, specifically in Matthew chapter 13. If you have your Bibles and want to get a head start, we’re going to begin in verse 24.
Just a reminder to those who might be new or checking us out: we are very committed to the Scriptures here. If you don’t have a Bible, we encourage you to get one because every week we gather, we’re going to download a little more of the text. If we can help you with that, we have Bibles at our iHubs located on this campus and at our Fig Garden campus. I will warn you, the fine print is tiny, so bring your “cheaters” if you need them, or you can just Google Matthew 13. My name is Brad, and I’m honored to hang out with you as we continue our series through the parables.
As we’ve discussed, the word “parable” comes from two words: para, which means alongside, and balo, which means to throw. Essentially, a parable is a truth thrown alongside something else. Simply put, Jesus uses something familiar to help explain something unfamiliar. The “unfamiliar” He is explaining in every one of these parables is the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? If you look at chapter 13, you’ll notice a pattern. In verse 11, He speaks of the mysteries of the Kingdom. In verse 19, the message of the Kingdom. In verse 24, the Kingdom is compared to a sower. In verse 31, a mustard seed; in verse 33, leaven; in verse 44, a treasure; in verse 45, a merchant seeking pearls; and in verse 47, a dragnet. Jesus is committed to teaching familiar things so that you might understand the rule and reign of God on earth as it is currently in heaven.
Remember, parables have three movements: the familiar, the unfamiliar, and a “divine sucker punch”—a bit of a shock. Last week, we saw this in the parable of the sower. We talked about the hard soil, the rocky soil, and the thorny soil where life is choked out by the worries and riches of this world. But the fourth soil—the good soil—produces a massive harvest.
I made a statement last week that I want to remind us of today: The only thing worse than being a believer and thinking you’re not, is not being a believer and thinking you are. From a risk-reward standpoint, that is a dangerous place to be. We held up the mirror and asked everyone to evaluate their lives to ensure they are bearing good fruit. If not, take your heart to the Lord and let Him change you.
Romans 10:8-10 (NASB)
But what does it say? ’THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART ’– that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
The Wheat and the Tares
In verse 24, Jesus presents another parable that continues this theme of self-evaluation. It suggests a potential change in what the Kingdom was to what it is becoming as it moves from the Jew to the Gentile.
Matthew 13:24-30 (NASB)
Jesus presented another parable to 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 tares among the wheat, and went away. ’But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. ’The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ’And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ ’But he said, ’No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ’Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.’‘’
We are introduced here to the wheat and the “tare,” or weed. This specific weed is called darnel, and it’s technically known as “false wheat.” It looks exactly like wheat with one exception: it doesn’t bear any fruit. This was a major problem in first-century agriculture. If you got this weed in your field in an agrarian economy, your entire village suffered. Families farmed collectively—some had the wheat, some the grapes, some the figs—and they worked together for the community.
What we see in the parable is agricultural terrorism. An enemy intentionally sowed these weeds to hurt the community. The landowner faces a difficult decision: do you yank them up now? He decides against it because the roots are intertwined; pulling the weeds would destroy the wheat. He says to let them grow together until the harvest, when they can finally be distinguished.
It is easy for us to become “fruit inspectors” of others, but we already have a Fruit Inspector, and it’s not us. It is the Lord. There will come a day when He will judge the crop, both in our lives and in our community.
1 Corinthians 4:5 (NASB)
Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, [but wait] until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of [men’s] hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.
In the meantime, we wait. I often tell young men and women in a dating context to “pump the brakes.” Godliness at a single point in time means very little; anyone can act like a Christian for a few dates. But godliness over a period of time means everything. You can fake it for a little while, but you can’t fake it forever.
1 Timothy 5:24-25 (NASB)
The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their [sins] follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed.
Matthew 7:16-23 (NASB)
’You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? ’So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ’A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ’Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ’So then, you will know them by their fruits. ’Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter]. ’Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
This is one of those passages that sends a chill down your spine. Imagine someone saying, “Lord, didn’t I do all these things for you?” and He replies, “I never knew you.” They performed religiously, but they lacked a relationship. A person who abides in Jesus will bear good fruit because He is the vine and we are the branches. Over time, the authentic is revealed from the inauthentic.
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven
Jesus then throws another truth alongside this one, moving to the parable of the mustard seed.
Matthew 13:31-32 (NASB)
He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all [other] seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.’
We don’t deal much with mustard seeds today, but in that culture, they knew a mustard seed could grow nine to twelve feet in a single season. While there are technically smaller seeds in the world, like the orchid seed, the mustard seed was the smallest one known to Jesus’ audience. His point is simple: something small grows to be something large.
This Kingdom started with Jesus and a ragtag group of disciples, yet it grew rapidly. By the end of that generation, the Gospel had reached Caesar’s house. Eventually, some Puritans hopped a boat across the pond, and the Gospel made it to us. It starts small, but it grows.
Matthew 13:33 (NASB)
He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.’
Leaven, or yeast, permeates the entire dough. You don’t have to cheer it on; that’s just what it does. The Kingdom of Heaven was “viral” before viral was a thing. It starts with one life, infects a home, then a neighborhood, then a country. It is still moving today. Brave men and women are currently translating the Bible for people groups who have never heard the name of Jesus. The leaven is still on the move.
The “shock” here is that God took high school dropout fishermen and used them to start a movement that jumps every ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender boundary. The Bible gives no indication of when this permeation will end, but until it does, we are to be faithful. Whether it ends with the return of Christ—which, looking at the news, I’m ready for—or whether it ends with us going home to Him, we have work to do. There is no greater investment than the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Explanation of the Mystery
In verse 34, we see Jesus moving away from the unresponsive crowds and toward those with responsive hearts. He fulfills the prophecy that He would utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.
Psalms 78:2 (NASB)
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,
After this, Jesus leaves the crowds and goes into a house. I can imagine the disciples nodding along during the public teaching, acting like they understood, then immediately asking for an explanation once they were behind closed doors. Jesus gives them a play-by-play breakdown.
Matthew 13:37-43 (NASB)
And He said, ’The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and [as for] the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil [one]; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. ’So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. ’The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ’Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Jesus is the Sower. The field is the world. The good seeds are believers, and the tares are unbelievers—specifically those who might look like believers but aren’t. The harvest is the judgment at the end of the age, carried out by angels.
Jesus mentions the “furnace of fire,” a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. We call this Hell. It is a place of suffering, pain, despair, and torment. Now, there are a lot of fun things to teach in the Bible, but this is hard. It’s hard because it is awful, and it is hard because it is final. The Bible does not teach purgatory or a “get out of jail free” card. These destinations are eternal.
It becomes even more difficult when we realize that people who end up there have names like “Mom,” “Grandma,” or “Friend.” If the Bible is true—and I believe it is—then Jesus is the only way. Any who die without an abiding relationship with Him will not be in heaven. I sometimes go to funerals and have to cringe when someone says, “He was a salty dog, but he’s in a better place,” even though that person didn’t know Jesus. We cannot give false assurance.
I can’t preach to the dead, but I can preach to the living. As long as you are breathing, you have the opportunity to invite Jesus to be Lord. The consequences of missing this are devastating. People say, “I’ll take care of that later,” but we are all just one drunk driver or one heart attack away from eternity.
The Great White Throne
If you ever look at the news and feel depressed, wondering if God will ever make things right, I encourage you to read Revelation 20. Judgment is coming.
Revelation 20:11-15 (NASB)
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one [of them] according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Do not mistake God’s slowness for unkindness. His patience is His kindness, waiting so that more might be led to repentance. This is not a game; it is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. We owe it to those we care about to admonish them to consider Christ afresh while He may be found.
Jesus finishes with a command: “He who has ears, let him hear.” That is a “double collar grab.” It’s an imperative. As your pastor, I love you enough to challenge you: consider your connection to Christ. We can have full assurance of salvation—Scripture says we can know we have eternal life—but we must make sure our faith is in Christ alone.
If I asked you why God should let you into heaven, and your answer is anything other than, “I am a sinner and Christ is my everything,” you don’t understand the Gospel. If you say, “I’ve been a good person” or “I went to church,” you’re missing it. Anything short of the cross is just religion, and religion will not save you.
I’m not convinced this parable of the wheat and the weeds was just for the people back then. I believe there are people hearing my voice right now who haven’t borne fruit but think they are believers. You might be wheat, or you might be a weed. I can’t judge that, but the Judge is coming. I pray we are found in Him.
Let’s pray.
Father, the Bible speaks of Your incredible mercy, which warms our hearts, but it also speaks of Your righteous judgment, which is terrifying. We are so grateful that Jesus is our propitiation—the satisfaction of Your wrath. You are the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Those of us in Christ stand behind Him as our shield and shelter. For our friends here who have yet to trust in Christ, may this be a sober reminder of the salvation provided through His blood. Help us to examine our hearts and see if our faith is authentic. We need You, Lord. Anything short of the cross will not save. We look to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.