Secrets Unsealed

What Jesus Said

Stephen Bohr

1. The Word of God

2. The Unconditional Love of God

3. How Jesus Understood His Self Identity

4. Good and Evil

5. Moses and Jesus

6. Overcoming Life’s Mistakes

7. How to Pray

8. Family Values

9. Relief From Stress

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

12. Life and Death

13. Peace in the Middle East

14. The Rapture of the Saints

15. The Final Judgment

16. The End of Evil

17. The Secrets of Health and Wealth

18. The Return of Elijah

19. Religion and Politics

20. The Abomination of Desolation

21. The Unpardonable Sin

22. Prophets and Psychics

Tonight we're going to talk about what our Lord Jesus had to say about good and evil.

And we're going to begin our study, and in fact our whole study is going to be based on a parable that our Lord Jesus told, which is found in Matthew chapter 13.

So if you'll turn with me to Matthew chapter 13, we're going to study a parable that has most of the aspects that we're going to study tonight about good and evil.

Now this parable is known as the parable of the wheat and the tares.

In other words, it has a whole collection of symbols.

And 1 of the neat things about this parable is that Jesus not only gave the parable, but he also gave the explanation to the parable.

Sometimes Jesus will give a parable and we have to look in other portions of Scripture to try and understand what the symbols of that parable mean.

But this is not the case with the parable of the wheat and the tares.

We have a very clear explanation as to what it means.

Now there are some missing elements in the parable regarding the solution of the problem of evil.

And what we're gonna do tonight, we're gonna study the parable, and we're also going to add some elements which are not addressed directly in this parable so that we can get a complete picture about the origin of evil, why evil exists today, and how evil is going to come to an end.

Now I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 13 and I would like to start reading at verse 24.

We're going to read the parable first and then we're going to try and seek the meaning of what Jesus was trying to teach.

Another parable he put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up?

But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First, gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

Now this is the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The question is, what does this parable want to teach us?

We're going to find, in fact, that the parable has many lessons to teach us regarding the origin of evil, the existence of evil at present, and how evil will finally come to an end.

Now first of all, let's talk about who the good farmer is who plants the good seed.

And we'll come a little bit later on to the interpretation of Jesus, but we want to look, first of all, at who the good farmer is, the good planter is, who planted the good seed.

Go with me to John chapter 1, a text that we've read before.

Here it's speaking about the creation of this world.

And it's speaking about the creator of this world.

And it says the following, in the beginning was the word.

So it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made.

In the beginning God and then a little bit later on in verse 3, it speaks about this word, creating all things.

Now do you see the connection with Genesis 1 verse 1?

Genesis 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

So the word of John chapter 1 and verses 1 to 3 is the same individual which is referred to in Genesis 1 because the order of events or the order of words is the same.

In Genesis 1.1 you have, in the beginning, God created.

In John 1.1-3 you have, in the beginning, was the Word who is God, and He created all things.

So In other words, the Creator was Jesus Christ.

Now the question is, what was the creation of Jesus Christ like?

Well, the fact is that in Genesis chapter 1, 7 times We are told that when Jesus created this world, he saw that it was good.

7 times it tells us that God saw that what he had made and it was good.

And incidentally, in Genesis chapter 1, you find the formula constantly, then God said.

And in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, this individual is called the Word.

In other words, the Creator was Jesus and everything which He created was what?

In fact, it says that after he finished his work the sixth day, God looked upon his work and he saw that it was not only good, but very good.

Now, Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God placed man as the ruler of this planet when he made him good.

Let's notice Genesis chapter 1 and let's read verse 26 and then we'll read also verse 28.

It says there in verse 26, Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and what?

Subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

So Jesus created everything good at the beginning, including Adam and Eve.

And then Jesus put Adam and Eve as the rulers of planet Earth, and particularly Adam, as we'll find in the New Testament.

Now we notice in this story that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 13, that you not only have a person or a farmer who plants good seed, in this case it's Jesus who plants good in this world, including creating Adam and Eve good, but the story tells us that there is also an enemy.

Now Let's go to the explanation that Jesus gives in this parable.

He answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is whom?

So he who plants the good seed is the Son of Man.

And the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom.

We're going to come back to that a little bit later.

But even after sin, God still has good seeds in the world.

And the devil still has bad seeds in the world.

Now let's go and notice who this evil 1 is.

It continues saying in chapter 13 and verse 39, the enemy who sold them, that is the tares, is whom?

Now, let's ask the question, where did the devil come from?

There are several things that are interesting in this parable.

Number 1, the evil 1 exists before evil people.

Because the evil 1 plants the tares, and the tares represent the sons of the wicked 1.

So in order for the wicked 1 to plant sons, he has to have existed before them.

In other words, there is an evil person who existed before evil came into this planet.

Another thing which is very clear in this parable is that God has absolutely nothing to do with the origin of evil.

Series

What Jesus Said

4. Good and Evil

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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