july 23 2023
July 23rd 2023
Old Testament: Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm: Psalm 119:57-64
Epistle: Romans 8:18-27
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Sermon
Text: Matthew 13
Sermon Title: “The Kingdom of Heaven”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to (or is like) this or that. Jesus begins most of His parables in this way. Today we heard another parable about sowing seed, but with quite a different problem and meaning than last Sunday. Last week, we heard that the seed sown was the Word of God, but today we hear of an enemy of God sowing weeds (unbelievers) among the wheat.
Before we read the parable again, remember what we heard last week about why Jesus spoke in parables, to strengthen the faith of those who hear the Word in faith and to harden the hearts of those who do not believe, that they will “hear but never understand … see but never perceive, for their heart has grown dull”. (Matthew 13:14b-15a)
In the Gospel this morning, Jesus said, “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 said to him; Master, did you not sow good seed in the field? How then does it have weeds”? (Matthew 13:24b-27)
The servants couldn’t understand. How could something as harmful as these weeds grow up in the good field? They had been very careful only to sow good seed, but the master doesn’t seem overly concerned. “He said to them, an enemy has done this. So, the servants said to him; do you want us to go and gather them (weeds)? But he said; No! Lest is gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat as well”. (Matthew 13:28-29)
Why did he tell them not to remove the weeds? Because the weeds resembled the wheat in their early stages of growth and also likely had deep roots, so that in uprooting the bad, you would destroy the good seed/wheat. “Let them grow up together until the harvest and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers; Gather the weeds first and bind them into bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn”. (Matthew 13:30)
Among other things, this parable shows the biblical truth about the church, that we cannot tell with absolute certainty who is a believer and who is not; just as the farmer could not initially tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat. Again, that is why we talk of a visible, verses an invisible church. Eventually the unbelievers will either separate themselves from the visible church, or God will deal with separating them on the Day of Judgment. We will never know this with certainty on this side of eternity.
Our Confessions speak of this in articles VII and VIII of the Augsburg Confession saying, “It is taught among us that the one holy Christian church will be and remain forever … the Christian Church is properly speaking nothing else than the assembly of all believers and saints; yet because in this life many false Christians and hypocrites and even open sinners remain among the godly, the (Word and) sacraments are efficacious/effective, even if administered by wicked men, for as Christ Himself said, “the scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you”. (Matthew 23:2-3a)
Luther then added these words, “For we hear the words, ‘This is My body’ not as spoken by the person of the pastor … but as coming from Christ’s own mouth; He Himself is present and tells us, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’ … our faith must not rest on the person … it must rest on Christ and His Word, on His office, on His command and institution”. (Luther on “The Calling and Dismissing of Ministers”, cited by Walther, Thesis VI on the Holy Ministry.)
Getting back to our text, Then, “Jesus left the crowds and went into the house and His disciples came to Him saying; explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field”. (Matthew 13:36) Before we go on, notice the difference in meaning from this parable and the previous one. In the parable of the sower, (last week) the seed is the Word of God; but here;
“Jesus answered; the One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world 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 close of the age and the reapers are angels”. (Matthew 13:37-39) So, this parable is a warning about the Day of Judgment.
We see here that the unrepentant and wicked who are part of the visible church are not truly part of Christ’s Kingdom; (invisible church) “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the close 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 law breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”; forever. (Matthew 13:40-42)
Those who trust in Christ alone will not have to worry about that day, for Jesus came down from heaven to bear the punishment of sin that we deserved. He declared, “then, the righteous will shine like the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father”. (Matthew 13:43a) The prophet Daniel also speaks of that day, “many shall awake … to everlasting life … those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever”. (Daniel 12:2b-3) “He who has ears, let him hear”. (Matthew 13:43b)
Of course, we only become righteous by the grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have heard the Apostle Paul speak of this frequently in recent Epistle readings. “For the promise … did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith”. (Romans 4:13) “The free gift of grace by the grace of that one man; Jesus Christ, has abounded for many”. (Romans 5:15b) “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. (Romans 6:23) We just sang of this in our sermon hymn, “Rock of Ages”.
Not the labors of my hands; can fulfill the laws demands.
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.
Foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me Savior, or I die.
So, with regard to our justification, being made/declared righteous for the sake of Christ; it has nothing to do with anything good in us or any works that we perform. It is all a free gift of God as you just heard; “In this hope, we were saved”. (Romans 8:24a) Christ has done all this “for us and for our salvation”. Yet, Paul also declares, “Now that you have been set free from sin … the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and its end, eternal life”. (Romans 6:22) “Sin is no longer to have dominion over you, since you not under the law, but under grace”. (Romans 6:14)
The fact that good works or fruits of the Holy Spirit have nothing to do with our salvation, is clearly taught in Scripture and our Confessions which declare, “the righteousness of faith consists solely in the forgiveness of sins by sheer grace, entirely for the sake of Christ’s merit”. (Solid Declaration, Article II, par. 39) “It is faith alone which apprehends this blessing, without works. And yet at no time is faith ever alone”. (S. D. III, p.41)
Did you hear that? “Faith is never alone”. The Apostle James wrote, “faith without works is useless … dead”. (James 2:20b, 26b) So, the Scriptures exhort Christians to daily die to themselves, repent of their sins and to do good works; which are pleasing to God despite their imperfection. The Confessions (and Scriptures) also teach and warn that someone who is without repentance and good works has a dead faith, for it is not possible that “there could be in a single heart, both a right/true faith and wicked intention to continue in sin”. (Solid Declaration, Article IV, par. 15) This is from our Lutheran Confessions; which also teach;
“Faith does not remain in those who lead a wicked life, lose the Holy Spirit, and reject repentance”. (S. D. IV, p. 33) “God threatens earthly punishment, physical death and eternal damnation … to all who hate Him and break His commandments”. (Small Catechism, Question # 70) “For the Son of God did not redeem us for so great a price, in order that we may live as we choose and sin with impunity”. (Chemnitz, Enchiridion, # 187)
Therefore, we are to continue to preach the Law, even to Christians, which is called the “Third Use of the Law”. (The first two uses are as a curb; to control violent outbursts of sin and to keep order in the world and as a mirror, to show us our sin.) “The third use of the law teaches us Christians what we should and should not do in order to lead a God pleasing life”. (Small Catechism, Question # 74 C) “It is necessary to hold this (law) constantly before believer’s eyes and continually to urge it upon them with all diligence”. (Solid Declaration, Article VI, par. 4) This is from our Lutheran Confessions, which also teach;
“We have been redeemed by the Son of God precisely so that we should exercise ourselves day and night in the law”. (Epitome, Article VI, par. 1) As the Psalmist declared, “Blessed are those who walked in the law of the Lord”. (Psalm 119:1) This is why we teach and uphold the Word and Commandments of God, both in the Catechism and in preaching.
For here “God shows us what His will is and Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit, are eager to do God’s will” (Small Catechism, Question # 44) however imperfectly; knowing that we struggle daily with the sinful nature. (See Romans 7) Even though they are imperfect, the good works of the believer in Jesus are pleasing to the Father for the sake of Christ and are for the good of our neighbor.
In the last few minutes this morning, as part of our ongoing focus on the Catechisms, I will teach briefly on God’s Word/Law/will, specifically from part IV of the Sacrament of the Altar; (hopefully) as a help in preparing to receive Christ’s body and blood next week in the Divine Service. This includes a few of the final question(s) in the Small Catechism on “how to receive the Sacrament worthily”? (# 299-305)
Why is it important to receive the Sacrament of the Altar worthily? (# 299) Because St. Paul clearly teaches, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine themselves then; and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment upon themselves”. (1st Corinthians 11:27-29)
Of course, this raises several questions. First, “when do we receive the sacrament worthily? (# 301) “When we have faith in Christ and His Words, ‘given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins’. “When is a person unworthy and unprepared”? (# 302) ‘when he or she doubts Christ’s words; for the words; for you; require all hearts to believe’.
This is why we are urged to examine ourselves, but how does this work? We are to examine ourselves to see “whether we are sorry for our sins”; for Scripture declares, “Godly grief produces repentance … worldly grief produces death”. (2nd Corinthians 7:10) Also, in order to “see whether we are in the faith” (2nd Corinthians 13:5a); if we believe in Jesus and His Word regarding the sacrament.
The final way we are to examine ourselves is ask ourselves; “do we plan with the help of the Holy Spirit to change our sinful lives”. In other words, to repent and “put off the old self/man/Adam … which is corrupt through deceitful desires … and to put on the new self … in true righteousness and holiness”. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Again, faith is not without works. This is related to the 4th part of Baptism, where we are urged “by daily contrition and repentance” to drown the old sinful nature and “arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever”. (Small Catechism, Baptism IV, explanation)
The next question is, May/should those who are weak in faith partake of this sacrament? By all means, “for Christ instituted this sacrament for the very purpose of strengthening and increasing our faith”. (Question # 304) For Jesus said, “Whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out”. (John 6:37)
Are there those who should not partake of the Sacrament? The Small Catechism lists four types of people who it says “must not be given the sacrament”. (Question # 305) In no particular order, these include, those who are unable to examine themselves such as infants or those who have not received any instruction in this matter.
Those of a different religion, even a different Christian denomination, must not be allowed to partake in the sacrament; for they have a different understanding and the Lord’s Supper, which is a testimony of our unity of faith. Also, those who are openly ungodly and unrepentant; refusing to turn from their sins; including those under church discipline, must not be given the sacrament; lest they eat and drink judgment upon themselves, As God’s Word declares.
The final group of people who are not to be given the sacrament, are those who are unforgiving of others, refusing to be reconciled, holding grudges. For they show by their actions that they do not believe that God has forgiven them either. For Jesus said, “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father (in heaven) forgive your trespasses”. (Matthew 6:15) “Judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy”. (James 2:13) In all these cases, it is the loving thing to do to deny the Lord’s Supper.
But pastor, that’s mean! Why do such a thing that is only going to make people mad? We should give it to them and let God sort it out. NO! We are to deny them the Supper for the purpose that they may be spared from God’s judgment on the unbelievers; so that they may become aware of their need for repentance; come to forgive others and to be restored or reconciled to both God and neighbor. Lord, forgive our arrogance in thinking that we know better than You how to deal with such issues.
Again, the goal of any correction or discipline is to bring the person to repentance and faith in Christ; that their souls would be saved in the Day of Judgment and that they do not end up in the “fiery furnace” that Jesus spoke of in the parable. Therefore, in the church, we are called to do what Christ commands and then leave the results up to Him who died, rose from the dead, and is coming again in glory. May God give us the courage to practice the things that He teaches in His Word. Amen.
The peace of God …