This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. I want to welcome you to day five together of Matthew chapter 13, this great chapter about how you and I enjoy the truth of God in our lives. Truth made simple. We've looked together at growth made simple and God's Kingdom made simple. Today we're going to look at how in one sense Jesus makes a very complicated question, simple. Not simplistic but simple, helps us to understand the truth about good and evil. When I think about the experiences that you and I have with good and evil in life, I got this picture a while back when I was playing, maybe you played frisbee golf where you take a frisbee, a disc and you throw it and try to hit a little metal basket. I played it with some friends but they played it in a forest and I found out it's very difficult to play this game in a forest because you focus on the goal, you focus on the basket and you rear back and you throw it and then bonk, the disc hits a tree like three feet in front of you and falls to the ground. I played like two or three holes of this and realized I am not going to win this game so I thought at least I could get a message illustration out of it and the picture I got is this is what life is like many times. We see the goodness of God, we're driving towards heaven, what God wants to do in our lives but then bonk, we run smack dab into some trouble, some problem, some evil and we feel like we just fall into the ground. Why does that happen? Why do we have to deal with that in this world? Because there is evil in this world. That brings some big questions in life and we're going to look at what Jesus simply said about this but there's some big questions behind this. If God is truly all good and all powerful, how can evil exist in our world? Why doesn't he just do away with it, cut down all the evil trees? Or when you think about this more personally, why do I so often slip into the wrong that I don't want to do? Why do I see this happening in my life? Let's not just think about the world around us. How about me? Why do I see this happen in my life? Well Jesus told a simple story, a story to help to make this whole thing clear. Justice and injustice made clear, trouble and problems made simple, good and evil made simple. He says in verses 24 down to verse 30, Jesus told another parable, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while everyone was sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in the field? Where did the weeds come from? ' An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up? ' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you're pulling the weeds you may root up the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned and then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn. '" Now when Jesus talks about trouble or good and evil in these verses, he makes it simple for us. He helps us to understand it and maybe the best way to approach this is by looking at the three questions that are asked in this parable. This parable by the way ends in assurance. It ends in the assurance of God's love and God's strength in our lives. But that assurance comes through some questions. If you've got questions about good and evil, ask God those questions. Don't be afraid to ask God your deepest questions. That's where the assurance comes from in our lives. So the three questions that are asked in this parable. First question is, "Didn't you sow good seed in the field? " Now later Jesus actually explains this parable just like he explained the parable of the sower. I'm glad because this one we need to understand. So in verse 36-38 when he explains this part of the parable, the Bible says, "Then he left the crowd and he went into the house and his disciples came to him and said, 'Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. ' He answered, 'The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man and the field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. '" So didn't you sow good seed? Jesus says the good seed stands for those who know Christ, the sons of the kingdom. And Jesus is saying, "I'm the one who sows the good seed. " So didn't you sow good seed in the field? There's a question behind this. Is this the fault of the sower somehow? I mean, did you sow bad seed somehow? Is that why there's weeds growing? The answer is God made a good and perfect world. We talked about this verse yesterday, Genesis 1-31. God saw all that he'd made and it was very good. God made a perfect world. And by the way, God guarantees a perfect eternity, perfect heaven and earth in the end. But in between, we live in a fallen world. Some people look at this fallen world and think, "Is this the best that God can do? Is he really all that powerful? Is he worthy of my trust and belief? " We forget that we're living in this in-between time. When doubt creeps into our lives concerning creation, how God made it, maybe he made it wrong so that this could happen, depression sneaks right behind that doubt. You feel alone in this impossible battle. And Jesus in essence is here saying to us, "Don't blame the sower. " That's the simple truth in this parable. You don't blame the sower. You don't let the trouble in this world chase you away from the only one who can offer you hope. There are three ways that we make evil worse than it actually is. And it is actually very bad. But you can make it worse in these three ways by ignoring God, blaming God, and underestimating God. You make evil worse by ignoring God. Well, there must be no God if there's evil in this world. Well, then why is there good in this world? Why is there beauty in this world? It would be all chaos if there was no God. Someone created the beauty. Or we blame God. We blame the only one with a solution. We think in our minds, "If I was God, I would have done it like this. " Well, if you were God, you would have done it like God did because God is perfect. That's not minimizing your thinking. That's having reverence. It's having worship towards God, respecting him for who he really is. And the third way we make it worse is we underestimate God. We act like the story is over. This is the way it's always going to be. No, we're just in this brief in-between time. All of eternity is going to be a place of perfection. Revelation 21 says this new heaven and new earth is going to come about. He's going to wipe away every tear from our eyes. No more death or mourning or crying or pain or any such thing. That's where we're headed. So you begin by realizing there's a good God. God is good. And the fact that there is evil in this world does not take away from the fact that God is good. So the second question that's asked in this parable is obvious. Then where did the weeds come from? And Jesus tells us at the end of verse 38 and verse 39, "The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. " Very simple answer, Jesus says. There is an enemy who sowed evil in this world, and his name is the devil. His name is Satan. Why is there evil in this world? Theologians, philosophers, they have battled this one for thousands of years. And many times when you read books about this, it seems so complicated. I like the way Jesus approached it. Why are there weeds? An enemy sowed them. God has his own good reasons for allowing that enemy entrance into this world. And I don't understand those reasons. I'm not God, and I've got to understand that this one is beyond my understanding. But God had his own good reasons for doing this. And Satan is that enemy. And the simple truth that Jesus is declaring is that evil is present in this world because of Satan's influence. It's not man against God. It's bigger than that. It's Satan against God. And in one sense, mankind, we are the battleground. And when Jesus says an enemy sowed it, he's reminding us that evil, good and evil, they're not a philosophical issue. This is a personal issue. Evil comes into my life, into your life, in the very beginning, by personal invitation. That's why it comes into this world. This is personal. You know that old phrase, "The devil made you do it"? Well, the truth of the matter is, no, you made you do it. But the devil invited you to do it, and you accepted that invitation. It goes back to the Garden of Eden, what happened with Eve and then with Adam. Satan said, "Why don't you take a bite of that fruit? " He made the invitation, but they made the decision. Now I know some people, they're uncomfortable with the idea of Satan at all. They would rather make evil like a moral issue or a sociological issue. Satan is so personal. And that's the point, Jesus says. This is a personal issue. Evil is not just breaking some code of ethics. When you realize that this issue of evil, good and evil, is personal, on the positive side of it, you realize that evil is not breaking some code of ethics. It's breaking God's heart. Genesis 6, 5, and 6, the Lord saw the extent of human wickedness, and that the trend and direction of men's lives were only towards evil, and he was sorry he had made them. It broke his heart. When you begin to look at good and evil in that way, you begin to see what it means for your life. And you begin, in a sense, to be released, to be freed of the hold that sin has on you. Because you realize, I don't want to follow Satan. I mean, let's make this personal. I want to follow God. There's a third question that was asked in this parable, and that is, do you want us to pull out the weeds? And when Jesus describes this part of the parable, end of verse 39 down to verse 43, here's what he says, "The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will shine like the Son in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. " And Jesus, as he's teaching about good and evil here, in one sense he's saying to you and I, what do we do about the wrong that's in the world? Well, there's a couple of questions you have to ask yourself based on what Jesus is saying here. First question is, am I wheat or am I weed? Jesus says, "Wheat, that's the sons of the kingdom, weed, that's the sons of the devil. " And obviously they're going in very different directions here. Jesus is going to weed out of his kingdom everyone who causes sin. How could heaven be perfect if he allowed sin to be in heaven? It could not be perfect, so it will be weeded out. You either wheat or you're weed depending on the decisions you've made about the relationship that you have with God. You become a son of the kingdom when you recognize that God is king. Jesus is Lord, you're the subject. There's one or the other direction that you go in life. And Jesus' invitation is for you to be a son of the kingdom, a daughter of the kingdom, to be one who is trusting in him. So that's one question you have to ask as you look at this passage. And the second question you have to ask is, am I harvest or harvester? It's important to remember we're wheat. We're not the reapers, we're the wheat. So you leave the eternal judgment to God. In fact, that might be the most important single word of advice in this simple parable. How do you handle evil in this world? You leave the eternal judgment to God. We're supposed to overcome evil by doing good while we live in this world. That's how we act when evil comes upon us. But when it comes to the judgment that we have of evil, you leave that to God. Because Jesus is being honest with us here. He says you can't tell one from the other sometimes. You can't tell good from evil. You don't know when God is changing a human heart. And even if you could, you're not good enough to get the weed out without taking up some of the wheat as well. That's God's job. Now, one question people have is, well, then why doesn't God do the job? Why doesn't he remove the weeds right now? And there's two answers. Patience and sovereignty. One is God's patience. He's giving more people the opportunity to be saved. He's giving more wheat, more opportunity for weeds to become wheat. That actually can happen in God's kingdom. Those who are sons of the devil can become sons and daughters of the kingdom. So he's giving the opportunity for the most to be saved. But also sovereignty. Sometimes we just have to admit that God is bigger than us. He understands the breadth of human history and what he is doing. And so in his sovereignty, he waits for the right time. The truth is, when I look at my life and the way I've seen evil happen in my life through trouble, through difficulty, through struggles, there's trouble, there's evil that's happened that I cannot explain with some pat answer. That kind of trouble, that kind of evil that I've encountered, it actually doesn't diminish my trust in God. The truth of the matter is, it helps me to realize he is a sovereign God that I can trust that even when I don't understand it, he is trustworthy. He cares about me. He loves me. Because I know I'm the wheat. I don't have to be the harvester. I don't have to figure it all out. In this moment, I've got to be his son. You've got to be his daughter. You've got to trust in him. What do you do about the truth in this parable? Well, first, you recognize the personal nature of evil in this world. It's personal. This is not about philosophy. Second, you focus on the fact that God is your perfect creator. You trust in him. Third, you admit, you may need to admit that you've been accepting Satan's personal invitations in your life. They're called temptations. You've been accepting them and see what they've been doing to your life. And fourth, you choose to stop acting like a judge and start living like a servant as a follower of Jesus. This passage of parables ends with a picture of those who struggle with the truth. In verses 52 to 58, Jesus said to them, "Therefore, every teacher of the law who's been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. " And when Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Going to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom, these miraculous powers, they asked? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, only in his hometown, in his own house as a prophet without honor. And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. So in one sense, as we read this passage, we're going back to the beginning of this week. Familiarity. They were so familiar with Jesus, he'd grown up in this town, they couldn't accept the truth that he was teaching them. I want to remind you that being familiar with the truth, having lived with it a long time in your life, it doesn't have to keep you from believing. You get a glimpse in these verses into Jesus' family life. We notice here there were at least seven children in Jesus' family. This talks about four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. Two sisters at least. Aren't all his sisters with us? Seven children. And without going into a study of Jesus' early life, let's take a look at their faith. The faith of these brothers and sisters of Jesus. We know that some of them struggled with Jesus while he was alive. Jesus, why won't you talk to us? Jesus, why are you away from our mother? Why are you not interacting with us? But we also know that later some of them came to faith. Certainly we know about two of them because they wrote two of the books in the New Testament. James and Judas, the book of Jude, those books were written by brothers of Jesus. Actually half brothers because they had the same mother in Mary, but they had a different father. Some had the father of Joseph. Jesus' father was obviously God. Without the theology of it and getting caught up in that, let me get to the practicality of it. Maybe you've grown up with the things of God all your life. It doesn't mean you have to fall away from those things that they've become so familiar. It could mean that you fall in love with him in an even deeper way because you know who he is. You know what he wants to do in your life. As we come to the end of this week looking at these parables, let's pray that that would happen. I pray, Father, we pray together that you'd help us to fall in love with you even more. As we look at these truths about our growth, about your kingdom, about your goodness and what you want to do in our lives, I pray that your truth would make its way into our lives in a way that we could act on it today. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Next week we'll look together at Matthew 14 and we turn from parables to miracles. We're going to look next week at the feeding of the 5,000, at Jesus walking on the water.