Jesus Explains How the Harvest Works

Matthew 13:1-53

 Matthew chapter nine ended with these words:

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

With those words, Matthew introduced a substantial section of his gospel having to do with the disciples and the harvest. Four chapters:

I. Disciples and the Harvest Field – Chapters 10-13 

a. Sent to be Laborers - 10

b. Sent from the Messiah - 11

c. Sent to World - 12

d. ????? - 13

What does that leave for chapter 13? A lot of unanswered questions! If you’d been sent out to preach the gospel and perform miracles and you did just that, you wouldn’t return feeling like an expert. You’d want Jesus to answer a few questions:

1. We preached to a lot of people. Did we accomplish anything?

2. What do we do about the people who rejected you?

3. What about the people who received you?

Let’s look for the answers in Matthew chapter 13 and then we’ll look at some Harvest principles. This chapter explains the analogy between people and the harvest.

Matthew 13:1-53. Page 1150.

 1 That same day Jesus left the house and went to the lakeside, where he sat down to teach. 2 The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the crowd stood on the shore. 3 He used parables to tell them many things. “Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. 4 As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. 7 Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty.” 9 And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!” 

10 Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” 

11 Jesus answered, “The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  12 For the person who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he has.  13 The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand.  14 So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them: “This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see,  15 because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them. 

16 “As for you, how fortunate you are! Your eyes see and your ears hear. 17 I assure you that many prophets and many of God’s people wanted very much to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not. 

18 “Listen, then, and learn what the parable of the sower means. 19 Those who hear the message about the Kingdom but do not understand it are like the seeds that fell along the path. The Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in them. 20 The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they hear it. 21 But it does not sink deep into them, and they don’t last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once. 22 The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don’t bear fruit. 23 And the seeds sown in the good soil stand for those who hear the message and understand it: they bear fruit, some as much as one hundred, others sixty, and others thirty.” 

 That’s a lot of information but the question we’re trying to answer is: When we tell people about Jesus, when we repeat God’s word to people, what happens?  Does it do any good?

 Jesus’ answer is rather surprising. He doesn’t congratulate the disciples. He doesn’t tell them whether they were successful or not. Instead he explains what’s being going on in the hearts of the people they’ve talked to. [Graphic]

 In some hearts there has been little to no understanding. People heard the good news, but in some cases the devil snatched the message before it could take root. Some people heard the good news, and thought it sounded pretty good but when following the word brought difficulties, they said, “Forget this. I’m out of here.” A third group started to pay attention to the word of God but then it got drowned out by busyness and worries and they got sucked in the wrong direction by money.

 There’s a fourth group. They hear the word of God, understand it and bear fruit. So basically in the harvest field there are two kinds of people. The first group takes in the word but loses it and doesn’t bear fruit. The second group hears the word, sees God in it, understands the truth and bears fruit.  The harvest is about disseminating the word of the kingdom and the fruitful growth that takes place in those who hear and understand.

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. 25 One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. 

27 The man’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?’ 

28 ‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him.

 29 ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. 30 Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.’” 

* * * * *

34 Jesus used parables to tell all these things to the crowds; he would not say a thing to them without using a parable. 35 He did this to make come true what the prophet had said, “I will use parables when I speak to them; I will tell them things unknown since the creation of the world.”

36 When Jesus had left the crowd and gone indoors, his disciples came to him and said, “Tell us what the parable about the weeds in the field means.” 

37 Jesus answered, “The man who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man;  38 the field is the world; the good seed is the people who belong to the Kingdom; the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One; 39 and the enemy who sowed the weeds is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvest workers are angels. 

40 Just as the weeds are gathered up and burned in the fire, so the same thing will happen at the end of the age:  41 the Son of Man will send out his angels to gather up out of his Kingdom all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things,  42 and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and gnash their teeth. 43 Then God’s people will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Listen, then, if you have ears! 

In the first parable the seed is the word of the. In this one the seed are kingdom people. If the disciples wondered what to do about the people who rejected their message and in doing so rejected Jesus, this parable answered their question.

In essence Jesus told them not to do anything. If the rejectors are in the church, don’t kick them out of their pews. In the end, at harvest time, the rejectors will be burned and the receivers barned.  [Graphic]

In the meantime what happens to those who did receive the word, who did receive Jesus? [Graphic]

31 Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches.”  

33 Jesus told them still another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with a bushel of flour until the whole batch of dough rises.” 

  Jesus’ expectation is that the word of God, when planted in a person heart, has unlimited growth potential. It can multiply 30, 60 or even a hundredfold. It can grow from a spec hidden somewhere in a persons life until it is visible in every aspect of their lives. It can grow from a private awareness to a public ministry. It must grow in a person and not be dormant. It must permeate a person’s life and not be restrained. The word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).

Before we look at the rest of the parables in this chapter let’s pause to see what principles emerge to teach us about the harvest. [Graphic]

 The first is that the harvest is about abundance. When understanding hearts hear the word of God with understanding God has put everything in place for them to produce an abundance of fruit. Jesus said that more of the kingdom of heaven will be given to disciples and that they will have an abundance. The kingdom grows and grows and grows in each person’s heart and in the world. The harvest is about people being transformed.

 And like creation, reproduction is the norm.  

 Genesis 1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

  Genesis 1:28  God blessed Adam and Eve. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

 Jesus is motivated to fill the earth with his disciples. Along with the idea of abundance is the principle of quality. Jesus was righteous and his fruit (his people!) are to be righteous. Just like each peach tree is like the tree from which its seed came. Each of us is to be like Jesus. The harvest reproduces Christlike disciples – in an abundance. In the kingdom, Quality and Quantity are the norm.

44 “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field. 

45 “Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man is looking for fine pearls,  46 and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl. 

  Even though Jesus has switched to the word kingdom, the principle applies to the harvest. The treasures of the kingdom and the fruit of the harvest are of great value. They are of more value than all that we have. If the disciples were wondering if their labor was worth the trouble, here was the answer.  Even if some of their words were planted in bad soil, Jesus was giving his life for the fruit that was produced.  Time spent in the harvest field is invaluable.

47 “Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. 48 When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish: the good ones go into the buckets, the worthless ones are thrown away. 49 It will be like this at the end of the age: the angels will go out and gather up the evil people from among the good 50 and will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and gnash their teeth.

 If the disciples had any remaining doubt about the importance of their labors, this should have cleared them up once and for all. The consequences of what they were doing had eternal implications, life and death implications. The righteous would be saved. The worthless ones would be thrown into the fiery furnace. The judgment would be based on how people responded to the word of the kingdom.

51 “Do you understand these things?” Jesus asked them. “Yes,” they answered. 

52 So he replied, “This means, then, that every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who takes new and old things out of his storage room.” 

53 When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place.

 Jesus issues a challenge to each of us. The master of the house has a treasure. It’s his nest egg, his savings account, his fund for operating expenses. If it stays the same, it will be depleted and eventually disapper. He has to keep adding to it. That’s why he can bring out new and old things. His treasure keeps growing.

 That’s our challenge to keep growing. To keep learning truth. To keep reproducing ourselves in the lives of others. 

 We have to be on guard against those things that will stunt our growth. These parables highlight a few of them.

1. When there’s something we don’t understand in God’s word, we shouldn’t just shrug it off. We should dig in and search for answers. 

2. We should be doubly alert when we go through any kind of tribulation or persecution. They can easily discourage us from pursing Christlikeness.

3. We should guard against getting entangled in the cares of the world and do everything in our power to see through the deceitfulness of riches.

4. We should search ceaselessly for treasure.

  Jesus had a passion for the harvest – for its people and process. Blessed are you eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (16).

Youth Message

How God’s Word Works

Last week we talked about reading God’s word. Today I want to talk about how important it is to read God’s word. And I think the best way to do that is to show you how reading God’s word works.

 Here are two glasses. This one filled with red liquid is Jesus. This one filled with clear liquid is you and me. The best thing that can happen to anyone is to become like Jesus.

 That’s where the Bible comes in. When we understand it and follow it, we become more like Jesus.

 This red stuff here stands for the Bible. And if we put just one drop of God’s word into our hearts, look what happens. We already start to look more like Jesus. The more we put in the redder we get.

 Notice God’s word is so powerful it doesn’t take a lot to change us. It affects every part of us – from top to bottom. But also notice what happens if we go back to doing things our own way. Jesus fades. And if we try to substitute something for God’s word, our lives get murky.

 So let’s try to get some of God’s word into our lives everyday and let’s pay close attention in Sunday School.