July 22-24, 2023 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 13:24-30. 36-43 (EHV) “WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THE WEEDS?”

 

PENECOST 8

July 22-24, 2023

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 13:24-30. 36-43 (EHV)

 

“WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THE WEEDS?”

1.     Live with them.

2.     Live differently than them.

3.     Live without them.    

 

          It’s a familiar problem for Wisconsinites. Weeds. You know how it goes. You plant your garden or put your flowers in after Mother’s Day so you are safe from frost. Everything is nice and neat. You tend the garden early on and then get the chance go on vacation. You come back. Weeds! Everywhere. You didn’t plant them. You do want them gone. Options. Pull them by hand. A lot of work. Spray Roundup or use a homemade flamethrower. Effective but collateral damage. What do you do with the weeds? Jesus uses that all too common picture to teach us some lessons we need for our spiritual life. We are in a section of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus tells 7 parables to teach about life as a believer. Three deal with the growth of God’s kingdom in a believer’s heart. Four deal with how God’s kingdom works in the world. This is one of those.

 

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (EHV) “He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. ²⁷The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?’ ²⁹‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn….³⁶Then Jesus sent the people away and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” ³⁷He answered them, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. ³⁹The enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. ⁴²The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

          This parable is not hard to understand since Jesus plainly explains it to us. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has sprinkled this world with believers, the sons of the kingdom. His enemy and ours, the Devil, has worked very hard to fill this world with unbelievers. It is important to take note that if you are not a believer in Jesus then you are a son of the Evil one for the worst form of evil is to reject the kindness and love of God in punishing His Son for sins instead of the sinners. There is no middle ground. There are weeds and wheat. At the same time it is not always easy to tell a believer apart from an unbeliever. Here is a picture of what Jesus’ disciples thought of listening to the parable. Very hard to tell apart until they start bearing fruit. Sometimes weeds can look like wheat. And sometimes wheat can look like weeds. Sometimes believers can look and act like unbelievers and unbelievers can look and act like believers. Weeds and wheat. What do you do with all the weeds?

          Three things Jesus’ parable teaches us. One. Live with them. Jesus’ parable exposes the idolatry that lives in our hearts. We really have a hard time letting God be God. We inwardly give our approval when He does things the way we want and when He doesn’t? We chafe. We question. We feel disappointment. Specifically this parable exposes how our impatience with God’s timing is idolatry. “God, didn’t you want a perfect world, or at least just one with all believers in it? Look at all the weeds. Why do you put up with them? They make our life more difficult. When are you going to do something about them? Or maybe we should.” At least the angel harvesters had the divine decency to ask permission of God. Should we go pull them up? Should we get rid of all the unbelievers? But why does God want us living with the unbelievers? Why does He let them remain? Why is He so patient with them? He doesn’t want to lose anyone who will be saved. Some people are weeds and will remain weeds. They have confirmed themselves in their evil rejection of God. Some people who look like weeds now, maybe choosing lifestyles that are detestable to God, will repent and be saved. God doesn’t want to lose them. Not too long ago I was having a conversation with someone you connected me to by handing out one of my pastor trading cards. This person asked a question that has really had me thinking. “When we get to heaven do you think we will be more surprised about who is there that we thought would not be or who isn’t there that we thought would be?” At Jesus’ time everyone thought the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would be in heaven but they are not. They thought the tax collectors and ‘sinners” were beyond redemption but they weren’t. Some believed and were saved. Makes you think. What do we do with the weeds? Live with them. It is the Father’s will.

          Live differently from them. That too is our Father’s will. After all we are wheat and not weeds. When a man sows good seed he does so with the expectation there will be a harvest. When God grants the gift of faith He expects there will be fruits of faith. While on the outside you may not be able to tell a believer and an unbeliever apart just by looking at them they are different. Faith in Christ brings repentance along with it. Repentance is a change of heart on the inside that brings changes on the outside. Believers want what Jesus wants. Believers want to please Him in their thoughts words and actions. So as we continue to live with the weeds we can’t just be upset by them and complain about what they are doing. We have to check ourselves. Are we living differently than the weeds? God has us right where He wants us so that by actions and then words we can draw unbelievers to Him. For that to happen our way of talking, handling problems, dealing with people needs to be markedly different than the unbelievers. What do you do with all the weeds? Live differently than them.

          And then finally live without them. Listen again to the end of Jesus’ explanation. ⁴⁰Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. ⁴²The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” Despite the way that many Americans like to try to create God in their own image and so paint God as some smiling senile doting grandfather who never gets upset or punishes anyone God is a God of justice as well as grace and mercy. He has decreed that those who reject Him as the one true God and specifically these days, those who reject His Son Jesus as Savior, there is one eternal fate. Hell. Described here as a fiery furnace where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is Good News! Why? It’s there to help us with our impatience. It’s there to keep us from vengeful thoughts. It’s there to stop us from trying to step into God’s shoes. Let the weeds be weeds until God says it’s time to take care of them. And He will take care of them.

          A world without weeds! Can you imagine coming home from a vacation and finding no weeds in your gardens? Nothing messing up your pretty rows? Nothing choking out your pretty flowers? That day is coming. There are no weeds of any kind in heaven. Until that time it is best for the wheat to be more concerned about how we are doing our job, than how God is doing His. Amen.

 

July 8-10, 2023 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 11:25-30 (EHV) “JESUS MAKES IT EASY!”

 

PENTECOST 6

July 8-10, 2023

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 11:25-30 (EHV)

 

“JESUS MAKES IT EASY!”

1.     To know the truth.

2.     To bear life’s burdens.

 

          Some people make it look easy. Like taking off from the top of the key to dunk a basketball. Giannis makes it look easy, but it is not easy. I’ve tried it. Doesn’t work. Not easy. Or accomplished musicians. Watch an accomplished pianist work the ivories, hand over hand, so fast you get lost in the motion, beautiful music. They make it look easy. But it’s not easy. Then there are some folks who actually make it easy. Try to do a home or auto fix. You try what makes sense. Impossible. But ask a DIYer or auto mechanic who knows the tricks, go to youtube and watch someone do the fix the right way and hey, that was easy. Our Lord Jesus comes to us today in His word and makes some difficult things easy for us.

          Like knowing the truth. People struggle with that. At this time in history when so much information can easily be spread so quickly and so far whether it is true or not, that’s a problem. There’s news, fake news, real news with a spin. Everybody seems to have an agenda. How do you know what’s true? It spills over into what’s really important, God’s truth. So many different world religions, how do you know your religion is the right one? So many different Christian churches, how do you know your church’s teaching are correct? This is not new. At Jesus’ time there were all kinds of religions. At Jesus’ time the Jewish pastors were teaching many different things. So Jesus made it easy.

          “At that time, Jesus continued, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from clever and learned people and have revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, because this was pleasing to you. ²⁷ Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him.” Did you hear that? Jesus makes it easy to know the truth. Refuse to act like clever and learned people and be like a child. He’s talking about what God has revealed in the Bible. Specifically the truth that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one, no one comes to the Father except through Him. The clever and learned Pharisees read their Bibles and got so full of their own smarts that they could not see the simple message of sinners in need of a Savior . They didn’t know that truth when they were staring at Him! But Simeon, Anna, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha and Lazarus did know they truth. They were childlike in their faith and to them God reveals the truth. Not to the wise and learned.

          Nothing new under the sun, friends. The Devil can’t undo what Jesus has done for all so he tries to confuse people on the truth. He works through people. So many mainline Christian denominations have their wise and learned pastors reading their Bibles and saying Jesus is one of many ways to heaven, not the only way, despite what the Bible plainly says. And I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stand no more of the fake Lutheran church body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. I am not saying this is true of all their people but the church body is not Lutheran. It is fake Lutheran. It does not hold to the Lutheran pillars of grace alone, faith alone and Scripture alone. Don’t do this before you eat or after you eat or you will lose your appetite or your lunch but look up the Sparkle Creed used in a fake Lutheran church in Minnesota, you will see what I mean. So clever and learned and blasphemous. Be on your guard when you hear people say, “We have better scholarship now, the words don’t mean what they say. Marriage isn’t just between a man and a woman. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not same sex sex but a lack of hospitality toward strangers. Abortion is not specifically prohibited so it is permitted. We are wiser, more clever and more learned, let us tell you what God meant to say or should have said.” Blasphemy. Arrogance. As though only 21^st century Americans are the  ones smart enough to really know what God has revealed and all the rest of the people for the past 2000 years our holy loving God let down. Brothers and sisters, you must reject every inroad of that kind of thinking. It is Satan trying to obscure Bible truth so he can hide the Truth of Jesus as only Savior. You young people here today, be strong. I know you are getting bombarded by social media and pressured by your peers but you are the ones people in our country need. You will keep proclaiming God’s truth so that people can be saved and so you can continue to do that Jesus has made it easy for you. Don’t listen to all the wise and clever Bible twisting arguments. Be a child when you read and listen to Scripture. God says what He means and means what He says. That’s easy. Jesus did that for you.

          Jesus also makes it easy to bear life’s burdens. And life has burdens. There are the burdens of sickness, disease and body parts wearing down. The burdens of broken family relationships. The burdens of deaths of our loved ones, especially when they are too young by our standards. The burdens of hopes unfulfilled. The burdens of disappointments that may last a lifetime. The burdens of real or perceived economic or workplace unfairness. Everyone has those.  And for those who know the truth there come more burdens. For followers of Christ who take His words seriously and want to live, talk, breathe in a way that honors Him there are the burdens of sin, the frustrating inability to get it right no matter how hard you try that Paul verbalized, the guilt, the shame. For followers of Christ who know God is all powerful and in control there is the burden of impatience and perceived unfairness from the hand of God. How long O Lord until you make things right? How long until evil is revealed for what it is? How long until the desire of my heart is fulfilled? Why do you let the wicked thrive and your people languish? Burdens! Our Lord Jesus knows, cares and makes our burden bearing easy.

 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Now, don’t misunderstand me. The burdens we carry in a sinful world are burdens. And Jesus makes no promise to take them away. He promises to make bearing them easy by giving us His strength to carry them. “Come to me,” says your Lord Jesus. This is an invitation to bear burdens His way. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” For all of us non ranchers, the yoke is a device that connects two animals. Normally one strong and experienced with a younger weaker animal. By yoking them together the younger, smaller learns from the older stronger and is often carried along by the older’s strength. “Be yoked with me,” offers Jesus. “You don’t have to fix these burdens, I will. You rest. I know you can’t get it right. I did that for you. You have my righteousness and I’ve already taken your sin. You have the Father’s unconditional love.” Look at me!” says Jesus. “There were times the Father let me struggle, there were times, He made me wait, there was that time at the end when He said No to what I asked. But everything had a plan and a good purpose. And in the end the Father makes it right. So rest and wait, you’ll see. Yes, I know your body hurts right now. I know it does not work right. Just wait until you have your resurrection body! Come to me daily with those problems and my strength will carry you. Let go of having it your way and trust mine and those burdens will feel lighter and lighter until they are gone.

And they will be gone. All of them. Jesus’ words not only provide needed hope for this life but also have us looking forward to that day when we will have perfect rest from every burden and every struggle. Sin will be gone for good. We will not chafe because we don’t understand God’s wise whys of dealing with us or others. Jesus will make everything new! He keeps our eyes on our heavenly goal. And there again Jesus makes something that is so difficult, it is impossible for people, easy. For when it comes to getting to heaven it all depends on Him. His life, His death, His resurrection, for you. Amen.