You're listening to audio from Faith Church located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindi.com. Now, here's the teaching. Well, welcome all of you. I am Jeff, one of lead pastors here at Faith, and glad to have you join us as we continue in this series we've been going through in the season of Lent leading up to Easter, looking at some of the parables of Jesus.

These stories that are meant to sort of give us a picture of what the kingdom of God is like, to help us reflect on whether we're reflecting the values of that kingdom, offer us a doorway, an opening into the life that God intends for us. They're meant to sort of cause us to pause and to slow down and reflect, maybe reassess what we understand about God and what he's doing in this world and what it means to know and follow him. Parable that we're looking at today, I remembered, realized that I learned pretty early in life, the difference between expectation and reality. And I learned it from the back of comic books. Comic books when you were kids, I don't know if they're still this way.

Okay. Not many. So this worked a lot better in first hour. But in the back of comic books when I was a kid, they had all kinds of little offers and promotions, and you would send off $3.99 and get x-ray specs that could let you see through the bones in your hand. All kinds of things.

The one I remember most though was the Seamonks. It was this picture in the back of the comic book of this happy little family of aquatic animals, and they had crowns on their head. There was like a little castle in the background, and the kids were like standing around looking at them and playing with them. And so I'm like, man, that looks amazing. It's probably not gonna be that, but it's probably gonna be pretty cool.

So I sent off my $4.99 or whatever, and I waited six to eight weeks. It's brine shrimp, people. It's literally a clear plastic thing of brine shrimp, and that's it, and they smell terrible. Expectation and reality are two different How do we reconcile that reality as we experience it? The disconnect between leader says he's going to do and what he actually ends up doing, between our dreams and hopes, and life is it, and life is it, and between our own goals and aspirations and our actual and what we actually experience.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds helps us find answers to the questions raised by the disappointments of this world. If Jesus is savior and Lord, why does it not look like he's ruling this world? Why is there still so much evil? Why doesn't everyone worship him and acknowledge him? Why do churches and ministries and missions struggle?

What helps us tolerate that Both gives us hope and explains our disappointment. Already, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 13 in your Bibles. If you're using that black Bible in the, seat underneath in front of you, it's on page nine seventy three. And we're looking at this parable that starts in verse 24. And as you're turning there, just a quick orientation to the story itself.

There's kind of three main elements or features to this story. First, a farmer sows good seed, and a crop begins to grow. The second element though is the work of an enemy. The enemy comes in and sows weeds that are probably what's known as darnel. Darnel is a crop that looks a lot like wheat as it's growing up, But when it comes to maturity, there's no edible grain.

It grows alongside the wheat. It competes with the wheat for soil and nutrients and and sunlight. And so between the sowing and the harvest, not only does the crop of the farmer grow, but the crop of the enemy grows. And then the third feature, the third element is what we could call both the the patience and the justice of the farmer. Verses, twenty nine and thirty.

The workers come and ask, do you want us to go gather up the weeds? And he says, no, because while you're gathering up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with it. Let them both grow together until the harvest, and then I will send out the reapers to gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but then gather the wheat into my barn. In other words, the farmers' reaction to the work of the enemy is, make sense of things, but there will be a reckoning. There will be a judgment.

The weeds will be taken up and burned. The wheat will be gathered to me. For now, trust and wait. And keep playing in good seed. So those are the features of the parable.

A sowing, a time between the sowing and the harvest, in which two crops compete with each other, and then at the end, everything will eventually be made right. But what is it about? Jesus tells us, starting in verse 37, the one who sows the seed is the son of man. This field is the world and the good seed is the sons or the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil.

And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is at the end of the age when the son of man will send out his angels to gather up the weeds at the end of the age when the son of man will send out his angels to gather up the weeds at the end, and all that causes sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into a fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the righteous will shine like sun in the kingdom of the father. I want to focus as we spend a little time in this parable on two, I think, two principles, two big ideas that help us make sense of the dissonance, the disconnect between our experience in this world and the promise of the reality of Jesus kingdom.

One, that there are two kingdoms at work in this world. Two realities side by side. And second, the most important thing that we can possibly know is recognizing the difference between these kingdoms and knowing which one you belong to, knowing which one you're reflecting. So, first, the reality of two competing kingdoms. Now, we don't think in terms of kingdom very much, but it was common language and understanding for people in Jesus' day.

So dream of the day? In Jesus' day, the people of God Israel had in the long past been free and independent and powerful and wealthy and secure, but all that was gone. And now they were living under the yoke of foreign oppression. And so the people were praying and hoping based on God's promises that he would send a deliverer. He would send another king to restore the nation.

And Jesus starts out His ministry saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. And He goes around doing miracles, healing people, providing, bringing about wholeness and and health and and goodness. And he he is a riveting speaker, drawing crowds to himself. I mean, you can imagine the excitement, the anticipation. And that's why Jesus has to say, listen, I am not the kind of king you're thinking of.

Expected a revolution that was going to start immediately and throw out the Romans and make everything great. And Jesus says, listen, my kingdom is more radical, more comprehensive than that. And it's coming gradually, not immediately. In other words, he completely contradicts the expectations of these people. And I think it's important for us to see that he completely contradicts our expectations as well, of what God's rescue is like, what we want God to be like, what we want him to do.

You know, this is Palm Sunday, Right? The the Sunday where we remember and celebrate Jesus entering into Jerusalem to crowd shouting, Hosanna, which is a way of saying, save us, deliver us. And they go on and say, Son of David. In other words, Jesus, you're the guy. You're gonna sit on the throne.

You're you're gonna bring the victory and drive out the bad guys. They're they're looking for a powerful king to deliver them, to bring in the good old days. I kind of relate to this on a smaller scale being a Dallas Cowboys fan. It's not been easy in recent years. I remember the good old days of Staubach and and Tom Landry and and the glory of Super Bowl victories, and now it's just mediocrity and disappointment.

A much more significant way, obviously, Jesus is saying, look, you're thinking too small. Your problems are far deeper than politics, or culture, or economics. Broken. And I'm bringing to earth a rescue that will go to the heart of the evils and the brokenness in this world. JESUS says, think bigger.

Think beyond a world where the government is off your back and you don't have to pay taxes to some foreign power. But it's a world instead, a world without sorrow, a world without poverty or sickness or injury. Imagine a world without strife or violence or racial bigotry or loneliness, a world without shame or bitterness or guilt or relational break down. Imagine a world where everything that opposes God's love and justice and goodness is gone. That's what I've come to start, and to start in you, not from the top down, but The reason we need that is because we are born into and we live in another kingdom.

The kingdom, as the Bible says, of this world. Kingdoms that are looks like greed and selfishness and violence and oppression and abuse. It looks like injustice, and uncaring, and cynicism, and dishonesty. It's a kingdom of cruelty, and selfishness, and shamelessness. Jesus said, I've come to transform all of it, all of existence, spiritual, emotional, social, psychological, physical, political, economic, all of it, and bring all of it under God's power.

And I'm gonna make you into people who will reflect that kind of kingdom. That's where I'm starting. That's where the kingdom begins. Everything is going to be restored, but it starts with you. It starts in your heart, in your lives, in your relationships.

I'm gonna launch a revolution that's gonna start in here and spread out to all those places. But it's not gonna happen all at once. Form. Now I'm not a farmer. I know a couple of farmers, but I don't know any farmers who ever plant a crop in one day and harvest it in the same day.

And the of the old kingdom, the enemy kingdom is still at work and still working against God's kingdom. There are counter revolutions, kingdom of violence and pride and hatred. And at times, it looks like the kingdom of God is having setbacks. And in the short run and in certain places, it might be easier to see a whole lot of loss and brokenness than any healing in life and And that's exactly what's happening. Jesus.

And this isn't going to take place overnight. That the kingdom of God is here now. But at the same time, as a child of that kingdom, you live in a world that also has another competing kingdom working against you and working against my good purposes in your own heart. And in the world around you, There's pain and sorrow and loss, Jesus says, but take heart because the day is coming when all the confusion, all the hurt, all the injustice, all the wrong, all the dishonesty will be gone. I will bring in the harvest, Jesus says.

His kingdom is inevitable. And there's both a promise and a warning here and an invitation. If you oppose Jesus and his kingdom, you're opposing life, and you will find yourself on the outside forever. But if you belong to Jesus' kingdom, he will he will come to live inside you here and now, and he will bring you to himself in glory ultimately. That's not what people wanted to hear then.

And it's mostly not what people want to hear today. Christianity, when we're first maybe even considering coming to Christ, maybe even as we walk with Christ, we can be as one dimensional as these people. Maybe you look really good on the outside, but inside there's a there's a emptiness and a longing or you've got some problem that you thought you could handle, but you it could be some threat or danger that you're facing, some guilt or anxiety. Maybe you want Jesus to get on your side against those people. Tell them they're wrong, Jesus.

Maybe you want to find support or validation by drafting Jesus into your political agenda. Not going to be anywhere as simple or as quick as you think. Reflecting? Look in verse 26, again. When the plants came up and bore grain, the weeds appeared also, and the servants came up and said, Master, didn't you sow good seed?

How did these weeds get here? An enemy has done this. He said, Then do you want us to go out and gather him? But he said, No. Less than gathering them, you root up the wheat along with them.

To me, and I think reasonably that the crops look The workers don't notice right away that there are weeds in the field, which you think you would notice from a plant growing up. Similar. It's only when the grain matures that it's obvious that some of them produce edible seeds, some of them produce something good and useful, and some of them are just weeds. And the master says to uproot the two would potentially dane endanger the good wheat. They're closely intertwined.

It's it's not always immediately obvious which is weed and which is weeds, but there is a difference, an important one. In verse 38, the field is the world, the good seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. First of all, Jesus talks about a kingdom, his kingdom. That means to be a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is your King. It's not all that he is, but it has to be there.

Cross is what makes me right with God. I'm your and anything your word directs me to do, anything I understand to be your will, whether it seems practical, whether it's something I want to do or not, whether I find it enjoyable. You've rescued me from death. I was dead in sins and you gave me life. My life belongs to you.

You are my life. King. But I think secondly, we can read in here that being in God's kingdom means avoiding two opposite errors, avoiding zealotry on one hand and passivity on the other. To help the growth of God's kingdom, you see some want to go in with sickles and get rid of the weeds, get rid of all the bad people doing bad things. It's a story.

We sometimes struggle because we want the harvest to happen right away. Divorce. Yeah. And so it makes sense that the things that we pray for don't happen. We don't understand why when we've faithfully served and led and given that the fruit is never quite what we want.

And facing those disappointments, there's a temptation to look outward and say it's the problem of those bad people doing bad things, and if you just give me a sword, Jesus, I can solve this problem right now. And if you just give me a sword, Jesus, I can solve this problem right now. And if you just give me a sword, Jesus, I can solve this problem right now. Jesus never gives us a sword to pick up, to grab power, to make God's kingdom happen. Servants to wait until the end when he will send out the harvesters and he will judge.

Because the kingdom of God doesn't come through a sword. But it doesn't also come off of a sofa either. We can go to the opposite extreme. You know, it's tempting and understandable as Christians to say, man, this world is a mess. I'm a mess.

It seems like there's hardly ever any progress. What's the point? I've given up praying for those people. I've given up hoping about that thing. Enough to do just looking out for me and my own.

Jesus, hurry up and get here and make everything right. If you're pessimistic, if you're bitter, if you're resigned, You're forgetting about the harvest and the work that Jesus has for us to do in the meantime. The difference between the wheat and the weeds is the wheat actually produce fruit. They produce something useful. It's not just sitting there taking up soil and nutrients.

We don't take up swords to to get rid of the weeds and bring in God's kingdom. We don't sit back on our sofas and wait for Jesus to bring about the kingdom. We take the seeds that Jesus has given us, and we try to reproduce the fruit, the crop that he's planted in us. You can see it, for example, in a Christian man who sees, fatherless boys in his neighborhood and sees that they're up to no good. They're the kind who, you know, throw rocks at dogs and windows.

And so he invites them into his house, into his workshop. He shows them how to learn a skill, how to stick with something, how to be productive, how to respect others, how to protect people who are weaker than you. You see it when a woman notices a friend who is hurting or struggling, and she comes alongside her friend and maybe puts her arm around her and reminds her, Jesus knows. Jesus loves you. It's good seed bringing God's life, God's fruit into the world.

Swords, sofas, or seeds? One of the most startling images in the parables and enemies sowing seeds, sowing weeds that that end up looking like wheat. And I think it's a picture of maybe people who outwardly look like Christians. They're they're moral. They're decent.

They they try to live by Christian principles. Maybe even religious, but in the end, it turns out they're not actually part of Jesus' kingdom. How do you know? Jesus is not telling us this, and I'm not telling us this to to cause anxiety or or doubt about him or his work in us. But I think it raises a couple of questions, a couple of things for us to consider.

First, Christians are children of the kingdom. And what that means is that Christians recognize that our lives are a miracle, literally. Jesus talks about being born again. He uses the image of of a crop being planted. Babies don't give birth to themselves.

Crops don't plant themselves. You may have struggled and searched and, you know, and wrestled in the process of becoming a Christian, and and yet at some point you realize someone has opened your eyes to see Jesus, something that you didn't see about him before, something you didn't understand about God's word before. Suddenly, now it makes sense and the blinders have come off. Someone's been working in you from the outside. And it doesn't have to be some dramatic crisis experience, but every Christian knows I didn't do this.

My life is a result of God's gracious work in me. God's power from the outside is changing me. But second, what's the difference between the wheat and the weeds? There's fruit. Life.

A Christian is someone who, not perfectly, not completely, maybe two steps forward, one step back, three steps sideways, maybe I'm circling here in an eddy for a while, But I'm at least intending and and working with God towards growing to look more like Jesus in the likeness of Christ and love for Christ. Counterfeits don't grow that way. The presence of Christ produces the evidence of Christ, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. You're not just attracted to these things, but but you want these things, and and you're working with Jesus to bring more and more of you to look more and more like that. Maybe you grow quicker to confess, to apologize, you grow more amazed at God's grace and kindness and patience with you.

And I think as Christians, we we also grow more delighted with God and more content with God as the years go by. You know, some people are content with God and health, God and prosperity, God and and recognition. But when those ands are taken away, there's no contentment, because what really gave them contentment was all the other stuff that God was giving them. For a child of God, there's contentment in Jesus himself, because Jesus is my life. And I know that this is only the prelude to the life that I'm going to have eternally when he gathers me to himself and I will shine in the Father's glory forever.

There's stability in the Christian's life when all the other things are pulled away. Is there fruit of that? Is there growth like that in your life as a child of the King? Some of you are maybe realizing you're not sure whether you're wheat or weeds. And, listen, there's nothing difficult about it.

Out to you. Jesus, you're the only savior. You're my savior. You died for my sins. You rose to give me new life.

I can only be accepted because of what you've done, not by anything I've done. I give you my life. I give you all my life. You're my king. I trust in you.

That's, that's the door into life, into Jesus' kingdom, that he wants anyone, everyone to walk through by faith in him. So that you can know. Jesus is the sower. He's scattering good seed and truth throughout the world. And in the meantime, there's the work of the enemy and evil that's constantly ongoing.

And the challenge is not to try and go around and decide who's a weed and who's a wheat, but which kingdom am I in and which kingdom am I reflecting? We're the light of the world, Jesus says, and one day, one day nothing will stop that light from shining. The temptations and the flaws and the things that we struggle with will melt away when we see him. Until then, Jesus tells us to be patient, to pick up the seeds that he's planted in us and and let it reproduce. Trust God for all the dissonance and the difference in life between the kingdom that's promised and life as we experience it, His gospel is still spreading.

People are still maturing, but Jesus will return and that transforms our perspective on the darkness of life and gives us hope. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word from Jesus that encourages us, that speaks into the deep issues of life and and the dissonance that we often experience between the kingdom that you've inaugurated and promised and how we actually experience reality. So father, strengthen our faith in you and our hope in Jesus. And may we reflect more of what your gracious kingdom looks like.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.