The Time of Harvest — Jim Flanigan

Now shall we read him the gospel by Matthew, please, and chapter 13, the gospel by Matthew, chapter 13. And we'll commence to read at verse 1, please, verse 1 of Matthew, chapter 13. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.

Further down at verse 24. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which 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 blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came, and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field, from whence then hath it tares?

He saith unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.

Verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house. And his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth a good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world.

The good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, the end of the age. The reapers are the angels.

As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word.

The Theme of the Harvest in the Whole Discourse

Now, it is hardly possible just to isolate the little expression that we have as the theme of the ministry. To understand the title, we must of course look at the whole of that parable. And to understand that parable, I think we must look at the whole discourse.

And to understand the whole discourse, we must certainly understand the setting and the timing of the discourse. I want to look at it then in an introductory, general kind of way first of all, and to see something of the timing of the discourse, and then of the unique and peculiar setting of the discourse.

We want then to look at the style of it, because the Lord Jesus now is ministering in a different kind of way. And then we want to consider the substance of the discourse, and then having used that as a background, to see just what exactly is meant by the time of the harvest.

The Seven Biblical Sevens and the Kingdom Parables

Now, the parable that we are looking at today is one of a series of seven. And it has often been pointed out to us that there are three series of seven things that I suppose every young believer ought to consider at a very, very early stage of study.

If you want to seriously begin studying the Word of God, these are three series of seven things that need to be looked at very early. There are the seven feasts of Jehovah in Leviticus chapter 23. There are the seven letters to the little assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3.

And then there are the seven parables of Matthew 13, which we usually refer to as the parables of the kingdom. Now, the feasts, as again has been suggested, they give us, generally speaking, the story of Israel.

And you'll find that there is lovely prophetic ministry in those feasts with regard to Israel's future yet. Some of those have already been literally fulfilled and some of them wait for a coming day. We are living in the gap at the present time.

And then the seven letters to the churches, well, they of course have got to do with the testimony, church testimony, in this present age. And the parables that we are looking at, they've got to do with the kingdom.

Now, I know that we can't put these into watertight compactments, that there is a certain amount of overlapping. But having said that, it is very definitely, we must distinguish between Israel and the church and the kingdom.

And if we don't distinguish between these three, then I think that very soon we'll find our prophecy in a jumble. We'll start putting things into one chapter that don't belong there. And then we'll begin looking for things in other chapters that are not to be found there.

And we'll be in a real tangle if we don't distinguish between Israel and the church and the kingdom. Israel is not the church. The church is not Israel. Not Israel in any sense, neither modified nor converted, nor in any way is the church Israel.

And while the church might be in the kingdom, the church is not the kingdom. And the kingdom is not the church. And Israel is not the kingdom. And the kingdom is not Israel. And while, as we have said, there is a certain amount of overlapping, nevertheless, we must distinguish between the ways, the purposes of God in these three different spheres.

Now, we are looking then at seven parables which have to do with the kingdom. And we'll see in a moment or two why it is very, very necessary that we use this expression, the kingdom, and not the expression, the church.

If we talk about the church, we shall finish at the rapture. If we see that this is the kingdom, then, of course, we'll have to project our thoughts beyond the rapture. And we shall look rather to the revolution and to the coming back again of the king.

The Timing of Jesus’ Rejection and the Enacted Parable

Now, the timing of this discourse is very, very beautiful. And it seems to me that the Lord Jesus is actually enacting a parable before he begins to tell his parables. There is a parable in action before we have the parables in words.

And the Lord Jesus very definitely enacts that parable at the beginning of the chapter. Now, it is the same day. Now, there is something very important here. It is, of course, that there are no superfluous words in Holy Scripture.

I speak to those that are younger because those that are older, they know these things for a long time. But this is a very important thing, a very important matter, that there are no superfluous words in Holy Scripture.

If these words are all inspired, if they are, as another epistle says, words which the Holy Ghost teaches, then every word is very important. And we've got to stop then immediately at the beginning of the chapter and say, what day, the same day he went out of the house?

Now, what is special and what is peculiar about this particular day? Well, now, it was, of course, a very sad day. It was a Sabbath day, but it was a very sad day. It was the day that they held counsel, it says, not just to destroy him, but they held counsel how to destroy him.

It seems to me that the Pharisees had already made up their minds and that the destruction of Jesus was already in their minds an accomplished fact. They had made up their minds that they would destroy him.

Now they had arrived at the moment that they must consider how to destroy him. And on the day that they held counsel to destroy him, on that day he went out of the house. Now, that is most instructive and very symbolic.

It was the day that the leaders had decided that there was no room for this stone in their building, no room for Jesus of Nazareth in their plans. And if he had offered himself and presented himself as king, then, of course, they would not have him.

And they had decided on that day that he must be destroyed and they held counsel how to destroy him. Now, on that day, the same day, Jesus went out of the house. Not only was it the day that they had held counsel, but it was also the day that he had announced himself in all his greatness in a threefold way.

You will discover that in chapter 12 he had presented himself as being greater than Jonah. We love that expression and we use it in the preaching of the gospel. Not only was he greater than Jonah, but he had also presented himself as being greater than Solomon.

And at the beginning of the chapter, he had presented himself as being greater than the temple. Now, when you put those three things together, of course, we have the Lord Jesus very obviously as the prophet, the priest, and the king.

He was greater than Jonah the prophet. He was greater than the temple of the priests. And he was greater than Solomon the king. And as prophet, priest, and king, he had offered himself, presented himself to the people.

And in all his threefold greatness, they had rejected him. Now, it was on that same day that he went out of the house. Now, you'll see then how very important is that expression. Not only that, but it was the day that these men had committed the unpardonable.

You remember that they had attributed the works of the Lord Jesus wrought in the power of the Spirit. They had attributed those to Beelzebub, to the devil. The Lord Jesus said that there were many things that would be forgiven to a man, but not this.

This was blasphemy against the Spirit. The Lord Jesus declared that they had committed a sin unpardonable. And it was on that day, that same day, that he went out of the house. And then again, when you come to the end of the chapter, a very sad, a very touching, and yet a very beautiful little portion at the end of chapter 12.

And you remember that they came to him. Apparently, the crowds were thronging the building where he was, and they came with the message that his mother and his brethren were outside, and they were looking for him.

He said, My mother and my brethren? He said, Who are my mother and my brethren? And then, it seems to me that he sort of beckoned with his hand around this great crowd. And he said, Whoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.

Now, you see what the Lord Jesus is doing. He is actually severing the old relationships. The relationships of the days of his flesh are being severed now. And not only are they being severed, but in fact, he is announcing a new relationship.

And it was on that same day, that he went out of the house. Now, all that is parabolic, and it is most important, and that is the timing of the discourse. It was that same day of his rejection of their committing the unpardonable, and of the Lord Jesus severing the old relationships.

On that day, he went out of the house. Now, the fact of his going out of the house is very important. And this brings us to the setting of the discourse, that he not only went out of the house, but he went down by the seaside.

And then he went into a ship. And then from the ship, across a little stretch of water, he spoke to the multitudes that were standing on the shore. Sometime, by the way, have a little look through the Gospels, and find how many, many times it is said of the Lord Jesus that he sat down.

It is a very beautiful study, and you will find that in many, many different circumstances of his life and ministry, it is said of him that he sat down. The Pharisees did not like that. It was the attitude of a teacher.

And they did not like this carpenter rabbi that had come from Nazareth. His sitting down, and the people standing, they did not like that. But the Lord Jesus constantly sat down and taught the people.

Now, in this particular occasion, he is sitting as a teacher, but he is not just sitting in the synagogue like he did at the beginning of his ministry. He is sitting in a ship now, and he has pushed out a little bit, I take it, from the land.

And in fact, you might say that he is actually out of reach. He cannot be touched by the multitude. In the previous chapters of Matthew, he was moving in the midst of the multitudes, and they were able to touch him as well as hear him.

But now he is out of reach, and he is out of touch. And there is something very parabolic about that. Nevertheless, they can hear his word. They can hear his voice. And this, of course, is exactly where the Lord Jesus is today.

He has gone out of reach. He has gone out of physical touch. He is not the Messiah in the midst of the nation anymore. He is a king rejected and gone out of reach. Yet in wondrous grace, we still are permitted to hear his word and to hear his voice.

The Sea, the Nations, and the Rejected Messiah

So, he is out of the house. He is by the sea. I hope you agree that consistently, where the sea is used in a symbolic way, it is always a symbol of the restlessness of nations. It is the masses of nations.

It is the Gentile restlessness of the world. And particularly in the book of Daniel and in the book of Revelation, we find the sea used like that. And it is a very, very fitting symbol. We think of the rolling sea, the billows, the restlessness, the troubled waters, and how very picturesque they are of the Gentile nations never at rest.

Now, the Lord Jesus, the rejected Messiah, in wondrous grace, he goes down by the seaside. And here we find him now, out of the house, but sitting by the sea, typical of the Gentile nations, and out of reach of the multitude.

And the Christ who has been rejected is now out of touch, but still his word is being heard. Now, I take it that all of that is a parabolic introduction to a series of parables, which must be all considered together.

And so, that is the timing, and that is the setting of this lovely discourse. Now, we come to the style of the discourse, which is different to our Lord's previous ministry in the gospel by Matthew. And we find that now, for the first time, the Lord is teaching by parables.

The Meaning and Purpose of Jesus’ Parables

Now, we've got to ask the question again, why is he teaching by parables? And there are perhaps questions to be asked in relation to this, and it might well be that a question will come up later with regard to this, as to why exactly are Lord Jesus taught in parables?

Now, before we answer that question, we've got to ask what exactly is a parable? Now, that P-A-R-A at the beginning, that little prefix para, is of course a preposition, and it means alongside of. And when the Lord Jesus told a parable, what he was doing was, he was actually taking one set of things, and setting them alongside another set of things.

He was taking truth, and he was taking some doctrine, some revelation, and he was putting it alongside a very human, and a very physical, earthly story that people could understand. And when the Lord Jesus did that, put divine truth alongside of earthly circumstances, this is what we mean by parable.

You'll find that there are parables in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke, but there are no parables in John, none at all. That's an interesting question. If it was not outside the scope of our theme today, it would be an interesting question as to why there are no parables in John.

But anyway, there are parables here in the other three, the synoptic Gospels, and in this particular chapter, we have seven parables. Now, why did the Lord Jesus decide now to teach in parable? I put it to you, though it may be discussed later, that there were three basic reasons for the Lord using parables.

Now, one reason was this, that parables made men listen. Now, every minister of the Word knows that sometimes when you're trying to expound truth in a very direct way, sometimes you look down not at this hour of the morning, of course, but sometimes in an evening meeting, well, you find people drowsy a little bit and dozing here and there, and you can see people not paying the best of attention.

But once you begin to tell a story, you know, everybody listens, you can see the eyes opening, you see the heads lifting, and everybody listens when you begin to tell a story. I'm quite sure that the Lord Jesus used parables to make men listen.

And perhaps on many an occasion, when people were maybe ready to walk away from his simple exposition of truth, and then he began to tell a parable, well, you know, they would stop and they would listen and they would hear the story.

I'm sure that the Lord Jesus used the parable, firstly, to make men listen. Now, not only to make men listen, but I think that he used the parable to help men to understand. Now, I'm sure the question will come up, and I hope that the insinuation in the question will be rejected, because I think, personally, that it is a pernicious and a very sad interpretation of a little passage in Matthew 13, that the Lord Jesus taught by parable to be cloud the minds of men so that they would not understand.

I think that's a very sad interpretation, and that rather the reverse is true, that the Lord Jesus, by illustration, is giving revelation. Here was a multitude that would not understand, and they had blinded their own eyes and closed their minds, and the Lord Jesus will use the parable to teach them, to help them to understand, and yet even then we know that in spite of this most gracious of ministry, there were some that still would not listen.

Well, now, a third reason was this, that he used the parable to make men think. Now, you see, this is what he means when he says that to the man who has it will be given, to the man who doesn't have, well, from him is liable to be taken away even that which he has, because the men who listen to the parables, if they're going to understand, they will have to think.

Here is truth for hearts that are exercised, and when the Lord Jesus gave it in parabolic fashion, then men really did have to think, and to exercise hearts there was a bonus and a blessing, because they got the truth from the parable.

But many a man and woman must have left these companies, left these meetings when the Lord was teaching, and as they walked their way home from the seaside, they would have simply said, wasn't that a lovely story?

But that was the end of it. They had no revelation, no truth, and no understanding. These parables were for exercised hearts. Now, we come to look very briefly at the substance of this discourse, and we know, of course, that there are seven parables, and like many of the other sevens in scripture, they are divided into four and three.

The Four Seed Parables and the Three Parables of the Kingdom’s Genuine Treasure

We find that there are many, many similarities in the first four parables, and then the other three, at the end, again, there is something peculiar and something unique about them. We know, of course, that the first four, they were given in the house, or out of the house, and the last three were given in the house.

The first four have all got to do with seed, or with grain, or flour, or something of that nature, and the Lord Jesus, now, in fact, in this chapter, he is becoming the sower, and yet we know from other scriptures that he was the Lord of the vineyard.

You say, what has happened to the vineyard? That the Lord of the vineyard has become a sower of seed. It almost looks as if he is beginning all over again, and you know, in a sense, this is exactly what is happening.

The Lord of the vineyard is becoming a sower, and he is leaving the vineyard, and he is going out into the field which is the world. He is going out wider, and, of course, we know from Old Testament scriptures that Israel was the old vine and the vineyard, and that vineyard was disappointing, and for three years the Lord Jesus came looking for fruit, and he found none, and we know, of course, that the vine has been replaced by himself, who was the true vine, but the Lord of the vineyard has become a sower in the field which is the world, and this is how the discourse begins with the parable of the sower.

Now, you notice a little change that needs to be made, I think, in our authorized version, that it is not a sower that went forth to sow, it is the sower, and the sower, I take it, is the Lord Jesus himself, and that is distinctly stated so in the matter of the second parable that the sower is the Son of Man.

Now, I take it that in the first parable also the Lord Jesus is the sower, and that this begins with the days of his ministry and the days in which he was rejected. Now, what about this being the kingdom that is being outlined?

Well, now, this is what we have got to see. The Lord Jesus is rejected now as the king. He is going away. He is very soon to leave in a very violent way. Men will exclude him and reject him, and then six weeks after his death he will leave the world altogether, and he will go back again into the glory rejected as a king on earth.

Now, he will be a king exalted, he will be a king sharing his father's throne in this meantime, but I take it that what we are reading now is actually an outline of the course of the kingdom in its mystery form while the king is absent.

Now, if that be a true, if that be a right and proper way of approaching the chapter that it is the course of the kingdom during the absence of the king, then we must definitely go beyond the rapture, and we look away to the coming back of the king to the day of the revelation, and if you look at it that way, then of course you will find that everything falls into order and comes into place.

But once you try to put the rapture here into this chapter and into scriptures that have got to do with the kingdom, then of course you are in endless trouble. I suggest to you indeed that there are only three passages in our New Testament that expound the rapture.

I know there are more allusions to it than that, but there are only three passages that expound the rapture of the church. That is 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 and of course the little portion at the end of Philippians chapter 3.

There may be other allusions to the rapture, but there is no exposition of the rapture in the epistles of Peter or of John or of James. There are references to the coming of the Lord which may embrace and include the rapture, but there is no exposition of the rapture, and these are broader references which mean of course that these scriptures will be invaluable to a remnant after the rapture who wait for the king coming.

Now this is what we have here then, and the sower, the sower, he goes forth to sow. Now somebody says that is very disappointing because you see I preach the gospel, some brother says, and I have used this time and time again in gospel preaching that we sow the good seed and there are these four kinds of soil.

Well I am sure that you are quite entitled to keep doing that because you see the sower, there is a principle here, and while it primarily applies to the Lord Jesus and to his ministry, there is no doubt that his servants afterwards who sow the seed, they take character from the Lord himself.

It is a little bit like that other scripture you know which in Isaiah 52 is quoted directly of the Lord Jesus and it says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that preaches the gospel, him, and it is of course the Messiah, the servant himself.

But when you come to Romans 10 it is fairly well known that that scripture is quoted and it says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the gospel. So what is happening is that scriptures that are primarily relating to the Messiah himself have now been widened out to include his servants.

So I suggest that you keep on preaching the gospel from this passage provided that you remember that it primarily applies to the great sower himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then is the parable of the tares and we come back to that in a moment or two that is followed by the parable of the mustard seed.

And it has again long before now been pointed out that in the parable of the sower we have a threefold opposition to the work, we have the opposition of the world and the flesh and the devil. We have no time to look at that more specifically but that threefold opposition is definitely there in the first parable.

When we come to the third parable there is a kind of a perversion of the work of the sower and of the work of the gospel. And when you come to the parable of the mustard seed it is this terrible perversion where a tiny little beginning reaches a way out into this massive mustard tree that we have in that parable.

Christendom’s Abnormal Growth and the Corruption of the Kingdom

Now I have no doubt that Christendom of the present time and if we can see exactly the abnormal thing that Christendom has become it helps us I think to walk a narrow path through it and to decide our attitudes toward it in a very gentle way.

Nevertheless we must find that there is a faithful narrow path to be walked through the course of things in the present time. A small beginning. You have seen mustard seed I suppose. I had some from Israel until recently and folks kept asking me for a little of it and just recently I gave the last of it away.

And I still remember the look on the face of the dear brother who came to me last of all and asked me for a little bit of mustard seed. And I put it on a sheet of white paper and I handed it to him. He said, where is it?

I said that is it there. You know it is smaller than a grain of sugar. It is as fine as pepper. As fine as fine sand. A tiny little seed. It says the Lord Jesus the tiniest of all the seeds. And yet here it is grown into a great tree what an apparently abnormal development from a tiny beginning.

What is this tiny beginning brethren? Can you have anything more tiny than a stone manger in an outbuilding of Bethlehem? Can you have anything smaller than a carpenter teacher? Can you have any more tiny beginning than an upper room and a table and a handful of fishermen and a cross and a tomb?

Anything more tiny and more apparently insignificant than that? And from that has sprung the abnormalities of Christendom of this present time. A far cry from the upper room to the Vatican. A far cry from tiny beginnings of this little handful of fishermen to the ornateness and to all the grandeur and pomp and ritual that we have in Christendom today.

There has become a great abnormality from these tiny beginnings and yet as we shall see there is something genuine nevertheless and precious intrinsically precious within the kingdom. So the Lord Jesus then tells the story of the woman who corrupts the work and puts into this meal, the three measures of meal, are they reminiscent of the meal offering with its beautiful pictures of the Lord Jesus in all his loveliness, his moral glory and all these lovely truths related to the person of the Lord Jesus.

They have been corrupted in Christendom today in so many many different ways and now the Lord Jesus sends the multitude away. He has talked about the sower, the tares, the mustard seed, the leaven and now he sends the multitude away.

He dismisses them says Mr. Darby's version. He dismissed the multitude and having dismissed the multitude he went into the house and into the privacy of the house he takes his disciples who ask him now tell us about the parable of the tares and the Lord Jesus explains the parable of the tares and then he gives the other three parables.

I take it that the other three are symbolic of the genuineness that there is within the kingdom. There is a reference to Israel in the treasure and this is of course not the nation generally but this is Israel as realized in the remnant.

It is the treasure as will be seen in the remnant in a coming day and that remnant in a coming day will be the Israel of the millennial day and why you say does the Lord Jesus give all that to these men and if someone assumes we are now going to see that the parable of the pearl is a parable that is referenced to the church and perhaps the parable of the dragnet has got a relationship to the nations and to the great multitude that no man could number in Revelation chapter 7 someone might well ask why does the Lord give all this to these men these men that were gathered around him and I think a very important thing to remember is this to me it is most important that we keep this in mind.

If you had stopped someone away back in those days and you'd said to them look I'm a stranger here these these 12 men that are always with Jesus of Nazareth you say tell me who are these men. Well you know someone with intelligence would have said to you well you know they are of course all Jews.

They're all Israelites. They're all Galileans indeed except one but that's that's by the way they're all Jews they're Israelites Hebrews. And you see you could really say an intelligent onlooker would say you could really say that these men were just a little remnant out of the nation of Israel that believe in the messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth.

But you say what about the nation. For the nation doesn't believe that the nation has rejected him. The nation has refused him and rejected his claims to be the messiah. The nation of Israel doesn't believe that.

But these men do so they are a kind of a little remnant from out of the nation of Israel. Well now you say that's interesting that explains a good deal. But then you go to someone else and you say tell me these 12 men who are always with Jesus of Nazareth who are they.

And someone who had been listening very closely and carefully to the ministry of the Lord. They would have said well now so far as we can gather Jesus of Nazareth has announced he has predicted that he's going to build a church an ecclesia a company called out a new thing a new company a new church a new assembly.

Well now you see these 12 men. Well they're actually the nucleus of that new thing. Well now you say someone has just told me that they're the remnant of the old thing. Now you tell me they're the nucleus of the new thing.

And of course there is no discrepancy. These men were both at the one and the same time they were the remnant of the old thing about to be set aside for a little while and they were the nucleus of the new thing about to come into being.

Now what we have got to do brethren is to carefully decide with the gracious help of the spirit as we read the gospels is the Lord addressing them as the remnant of the old thing or as the nucleus of the new thing.

There is no doubt in Matthew 24. There is no doubt in John 14 in Matthew 24 here's the remnant listening to him. In John 14 here's the nucleus listening to him. But you say why should the Lord address them as the remnant of an old nation.

For this reason that the remnant of a coming day after the rapture is going to need ministry instruction help and guidance. And the Lord Jesus gives that in Matthew 13. In Matthew 24. In Luke 21 the Lord Jesus is addressing a remnant then present and giving to them instruction which will be invaluable to a remnant yet to come.

But then they are also the nucleus of the new church. Oh says the Lord Jesus there is a real genuine thing within the kingdom. Sometimes God will see it as the remnant of Israel a treasure. Indeed sometimes he will see it as a pearl of great price.

The church itself within the kingdom. And if the kingdom is a bigger thing with much in it that is false and disappointing. Nevertheless there is intrinsic value because the church is there within the kingdom.

And the pearl would you know the pearl is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Someone says I thought that I read about the pearl in the book of Job. Well you may indeed in your authorized version. But it's not the same word as our usual word for pearl.

I think you may take it as a fact that the pearl is never mentioned in the Old Testament. It is a New Testament revelation. It is the beauty and the luster and the grandeur and the glory of a new thing that has come into being.

And how often it has been pointed out to us that every pearl is the product of a wounded side. And this pearl is no different. This lovely thing this new thing this church this ecclesia this assembly is the product of a wounded side.