The Life of Christ

Mt. 13:27-30 “And 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?’” 28 And he said to them, “An enemy has done this!” And the slaves said to him, “Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?” 29 But he said, “No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 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.’”

This parable shows how the enemy infiltrates the church, both universal and local.

• In many congregations, there are those who create stumbling blocks for others and continue to commit lawlessness (Mt. 13:41).

• In Nehemiah's day, Judah’s enemy, Tobiah, actually managed to set up an apartment right in the midst of the Temple. • Absalom became a tare during the days of David, who poisoned the hearts of many. In the beginning stages it is nearly impossible to know the difference between a stock of wheat and a tare. • However, when both grow to full maturity, there is a most noticeable difference.

• Wheat bows with the blowing of the wind; tares remain continually upright, demonstrating an appearance of pride and arrogance.

At the end of the age, most likely at the first judgment, the tares will be taken from the wheat and cast into hell (Mt. 13:42).

• Their eventuality proves they were never even saved, or saved at one time, but later went astray such as Judas.

• During the final days, many tares will surface by attempting to persuade true believers to take the mark of the beast (Rev. 14:9-13).

Before being quick to label people as tares, we need to remember that believers are sometimes land sincere stalks of wheat with an abundance of chaff that hasn’t fallen off yet.

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Mt. 13:31-32 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; 32 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.”

Technically, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed known to science, but in the minds of His listeners it was regarded as the smallest.

• The smallest seed known to man today is the Epiphytic orchid seed, which weighs 1/35,000,000 of an ounce.

• It’s a mere speck of dust and cannot be seen with the naked eye.

• The reason Jesus was not perfectly accurate was because His intent was to communicate to the mindset of that day in order to make His simple point.

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