PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND THE WEEDS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 13:24-30, MATTHEW 12:37-43
AUGUST 2, 1998
In the year 1912, outside the offices of the White Star Shipping Line in Liverpool, England, two lists were posted. One was a list of the living and the other was a list of the dead. One was a list of the saved and the other was a list of the lost. The Titanic had gone down at sea. In a sense, those posted lists represent the close of the age, because at the close of the age, the Bible tells us, there will only be two kinds of people. There will be the saved and there will be the lost. This is what our parable is really all about today. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds It is a parable of the saved and the lost. It is a parable that describes the two destinies of people.
This morning we will examine these two destinies. The first destiny in this parable is called “the furnace of fire.” Of course, this represents hell, a place where our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, “Men will weep and gnash their teeth.” I must say to you, and I told Barb this last night, this is a really tough subject. I told Barb, “I don’t want to speak on this tomorrow.” And yet if I would be faithful to the word of God, I must speak of this. If you would be faithful to the word of God, you must hear this. Hell is real.
I know that many of you have heard of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards has been called the greatest theologian in American history. He was, indeed, a brilliant man. He mastered Latin at the age of 6 when he was 12, almost 13, he entered Yale. He graduated with honors from Yale shortly after his 15th birthday. He also went to Harvard, and he received a Bachelor and Master’s degree from Harvard in the same day. He was ordained to the gospel ministry at the age of nineteen and he became a professor at Yale at the age of 20. Of course, ultimately Jonathan Edwards became President of Princeton University. You can go to Princeton today in New Jersey—you can go to Nassau Hall as Barb, and I did a few years ago—Nassau Hall where the Continental Congress once met… You can go in there and you can see very prominently displayed a picture of Jonathan Edwards who attained fame at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. But Jonathan Edwards is most famous for a sermon he gave, considered by many to be the greatest sermon in America’s history. It was a sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was delivered on July 8, 1741, in the region of Connecticut.
If you have read anything of Jonathan Edwards, you know that that sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a very unusual sermon for him because Jonathan Edwards was a loving and compassionate man. We have more than a thousand of his sermons in print today and there are very few that are fire and brimstone sermons but this sermon that Jonathan Edwards delivered that day, July 8, 1741, was prompted by the Holy Spirit. Jonathan Edwards stood in front of a crowd, and he told them about the wrath and the fury of the Lord God Almighty. He took them through biblical history. He took them through earth history, and he recited examples of the outpourings of God’s wrath. He told his audience that the wrath of God was upon that assembly that day. He warned them to repent and to flee from Sodom. The Holy Spirit descended upon that crowd. People began to shake. People began to roll on the floor. Some people began to scream, and they fled the assembly and out into the streets. Five hundred people accepted Christ as Lord and Savior that day. It was the beginning of a revival in America, a revival that historians today call “The Great Awakening,” the great awakening that led thousands and thousands and thousands of people to Jesus Christ and it all began with this sermon by Jonathan Edwards.
Well, we are in need of a great awakening in this nation today. We are in need of a great awakening, but it is not likely to happen. It is not likely to happen because, you see, there is no longer a substantial fear of hell. Not in our culture. Not in our hearts. There is no longer a substantial fear of hell. In the 18th century, the fear of a fiery perdition and eternal damnation was very real to most Americans. It is not very real today. In fact, most Americans have no fear of hell, or if they do, it is deeply buried in the subconscious. The enlightened politically correct intellectuals of our day tell us that the whole concept of hell is mythological, the primitive imagination of primitive minds. Hell has virtually disappeared from the pulpit rhetoric of American churches. Even the editor of Christianity Today acknowledges, and it is an evangelical publication, it’s been three decades since he’s preached a sermon on hell. Billy Graham has said that in his entire life he has never heard a pastor give a sermon on hell. That is hard to believe since Billy Graham is a Baptist but, you see, hell is rarely mentioned today. When it is, it is kind of trivialized.
I remember 30 years ago I was watching an episode of Twilight Zone on television, 1968. It portrayed a man walking down the street of an eastern city in the wintertime. He slipped on the ice and fell into a laundry chute on the side of a building. Above the laundry chute there was a sign that said, “Abandon all hope those who enter here.” Here this guy was just flying down this laundry chute. He lands and finally comes into this family room type of atmosphere. It looked pretty comfortable. There was an elderly couple there. They both had Hawaiian shirts on. Bing Crosby was singing in the background, singing Hawaiian songs.
This elderly couple had a slide projector and a screen on the wall. They were about to watch their slides of their trip to Hawaii. There were literally thousands of boxes of slides. The first slide came on the screen. It was an airplane. It was a picture of their flight to Hawaii. The elderly couple began to debate whether they were looking at the engine on the left wing or the right wing. This kind of went on for a few minutes until the next slide came up. The guy who went down the laundry chute began to go crazy. He wanted to get out of there. He started looking for windows and doors and there were none. At the end of the episode, you came to understand this guy was going to be there forever just watching this elderly couple’s slides. For Rod Sterling, you see, this was his image of hell. But it is kind of a trivialization of hell.
What does the Bible have to say about hell? What does the Bible tell us about hell? The Bible gives many images of hell. The Bible tells us that hell is a furnace of fire, “kaminos tofuros.” These are the words Jesus chose in our parable for today, the parable of the wheat and the weeds, the furnace of fire. In Matthew 25, hell is called eternal punishment. In 2 Thessalonians 1:9, hell is called eternal destruction. In Revelation 19, 20 and 21, hell is called the lake of fire. Of course, in the book of 2 Peter and in the little book of Jude, hell is called the blackness of darkness, “hoskophos tozophos,” sometimes called the nether gloom of darkness. The word Jesus often used of hell was the word “gehenna” which literally means “the valley of Hinnom” which was near Jerusalem, and it was the great garbage dump of the city where the garbage of the city was thrown, and the fires were constantly burning. There are all of these images of hell.
I read recently some examples of a test that 11-year-old children were taking in a science classroom. These 11-year-old children were asked questions on this science exam, and they were kind of creative in their answers although many of their answers were wrong. A lot of these answers are given here. I just want to read one of them. This young 11-year-old child wrote, “The body consists of three parts, the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity.” The brainium contains the brain. The borax contains the heart and lung, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels of which there are five, a, e, i, o, and u.” Pretty creative. Of course, there is no abominable cavity, but biblically the description of hell is kind of like that. It is kind of like an abominable cavity. Of course, the imagery of hell varies throughout the Bible, but it also describes a place of suffering. It always describes a place of misery.
Christian theologians are diverse in their understanding of hell. Some Christian theologians have a theology of annihilationism. This is true of John Scott who is the President of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity. For two decades John Scott has been an outstanding evangelical leader. This is true of Chuck Pennock, the famous Doctor of Theology in Canada. They are annihilationist. They believe that hell is a place where nonbelievers will be annihilated. They point out that the Greek word that is used to describe hell is the word “apollumi.” When it is said that hell is eternal destruction or hell is eternal ruin, the Greek word for destruction or ruin is the word “apollumi.”
They say that this word, in the Greek, can refer to “existing in pain” or “existing in suffering” but they say the word can also describe cessation of existence, ceasing to exist, annihilation. They say that this latter meaning should be the understanding of hell. Hell is a place where people are literally annihilated, and they cease to exist. They say this is why, in the Bible, in the book of Revelation, the second chapter and in the 21st chapter, hell is called the second death, “ho deuteros thanatos,” the second death, because the first death is physical when the body ceases to exist and the second death, they argue, is spiritual where the soul ceases to exist. This is why, they claim, in the book of Ezekiel God says, “the soul that sins shall die.” This is why our Lord Jesus Christ warned us to fear God who is capable of destroying both body and soul in hell. So, they are annihilationist’s, and they believe that when the unbelieving die, they are sent to hell for annihilation, not for eternal suffering but for annihilation. They argue that there will be some suffering there, some weeping and gnashing of teeth, but it is temporal rather than eternal and it leads of annihilation and the cessation of the soul, the cessation of being. Okay?
There is another view of hell amongst Christian theologians, and it is universalism. Universalism has been espoused by many of the German theologians. This was certainly true of Karl Barth and Bultmann. It has been true of many Roman Catholic theologians, particularly since Vatican II. Many of these universalists argue that hell exists but that it is remedial. Hell exists but it is remedial and eventually everyone will come out of hell into heaven. They argue that hell is remedial and people who have rejected the atonement of Christ will have to go to hell to atone for their own sins since they have rejected the atonement of Christ but after a period of time, be it ten thousand years, be it a billion years, eventually they will atone and perhaps experience some measure of sanctification as well and be ready for heaven. Eventually all will be saved.
They point out passages of scripture such as 1 John, chapter one, and the beginning of chapter two where the Apostle writes, “Beloved, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. He is the expiation for our sin and not for our sins only but also for the sin of the entire world. They also point out passages such as the statement of Peter, that God is not willing or wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.
Through passages like this and a little bit of wishful thinking, they come up with universalism. Of course, some Christian theologians who are universalists argue that no Christians will ever go to hell. They argue that hell was created for the devil and for his angels. They acknowledge that there is a theoretical possibility that human beings might have to go to hell, but they say it is only theoretical and practically speaking they say it is possible that no human beings would ever have to go to hell. But, of course, none of this really fits with the teachings of scripture. The Bible does not teach that hell is remedial. The Bible makes it very clear that many people are going to go to hell. Jesus himself said, “Wide is the gate and easy is the path that leads of destruction, and many there are who find it, but narrow is the gate and hard is the path that leads to eternal life, and few there are who find it.”
Certainly, annihilationism is a possibility. Universalism is not. But there is another view of hell and I think this is probably biblically the most accurate view although it is a difficult one. This is the view of an eternally punitive hell. This is the traditional view of hell, that the church of Christ has held for the greater part of two thousand years, that hell is eternally punitive.
Of course, this is the view of most of the great evangelical Christian theologians including C.S. Lewis, but Lewis would argue that we need to understand what it means to say that hell is punitive. Lewis would tell us that the punishment of hell is self-chosen and even self-afflicted. Lewis reminds us that we should not think of God as just tormenting people in hell forever and ever and ever. In fact, the Bible tells us God is not even going to be in hell. That is the whole point. Hell is a place where God is not. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians, chapter one, that “hell is exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might” so those who find themselves in hell will be excluded from the “presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” God is not there. He is not there punishing them. He is not there.
Lewis reminds us that heaven is a kingdom. That is why in the parable of the weeds and the wheat, those who are going to heaven are called “children of the kingdom,” “sons of the kingdom,” because heaven is a kingdom. It is a place where Christ reigns. All of those who go to heaven are those who embrace the reign of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those who go to heaven are those who want to serve God, those who want to live for God. But what about those people who want to serve themselves? What about those people who want to live for themselves? What’s God going to do with them? Is He just going to force them into heaven? Then it would not be heaven because heaven is a place where God reigns. And so, God has prepared a place for them, a place for those who want to serve themselves, a place for those who want to live for themselves, and the Bible calls it hell. Jesus calls it “gehenna.”
C.S. Lewis believes that the suffering of hell is self-chosen and self-afflicted. The darkness is a darkness of the soul. The burning is the suffering of the soul. Indeed, Lewis believes that those who are going to find themselves in hell would not even want to be in heaven. We don’t know this because the Bible doesn’t make this clear, but Lewis believes that those who are in hell would not really want to be in heaven.
Dwight L. Moody loved to tell the story of a crane that lived in a miry swamp and who wallowed around in this very ugly place and lived on snails. Suddenly this swan descended from heaven down into this miry swamp. The crane sees this beautiful swan descend. The crane says, “Who are you?” The swan says, “I am a swan.” The crane says, “Where do you come from?” The swan says, “Well, I come from heaven.” The crane says, “Well, what’s that like?” The swan begins to describe heaven and all the glories of it, the majesty and the awe of it, the beauty of it. The crane says, “Well, are there snails there?” The swan says, “No!” The crane says, “Well, if there aren’t any snails there, I don’t want to go there.”
Dwight L. Moody believed that there were people like that, people who preferred snails to heaven. C.S. Lewis believed that too. That is why he wrote that book, that great book called “The Great Divorce” where he describes the difference between heaven and hell and this imaginary journey from hell to heaven and how those who are of hell do not want to go into heaven. In his book, “The Problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis wrote that hell was a place where God gives people the horrible freedom they have demanded. But, you see, God is love and He will not be in hell so hell will be a place of hate. God is hope and He’ll not be in hell, so hell is a place of despair. God is light and He’ll not be in hell, so hell will be a place of darkness.
The Bible says, “In God’s presence is fullness of joy,” but God will not be in hell so there will be no joy there. Only sorrow. The Bible says, “In God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore” but God will not be in hell so there will be suffering there. We have this reality in holy scripture that hell exists, and it is real. There is this constant warning given in scripture that there are two destinies for men and women, a destiny called hell and a destiny called heaven.
I want us to conclude by taking a brief glimpse of heaven and, of course, in our little parable of the wheat and the weeds, heaven is the place for the children of the kingdom, and it is called the “Kingdom of Their Father.” Most Americans believe in heaven. Gallup polls show that. Barna polls show that. Seventy-one to eighty percent of Americans believe in the reality of heaven. Virtually all of those who believe in heaven believe they are going there. Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe in hell but only three percent of Americans believe they have any chance of going there.
Heaven, I think, is something that most Americans are not that excited about. I read this little quote from a 7-year-old in a Sunday School class. He was asked what he thought heaven was like. His name was David. He said, “Heaven is kind of big and they sit around playing harps. I don’t know how to play a harp, but I suppose I should learn how to play that dumb thing pretty soon!”
I think that’s probably how a lot of people feel about heaven. A place where you float on clouds and play a harp and maybe sing in the choir. But these are not biblical images of heaven, and they really don’t define what heaven…Heaven is so exciting; you can’t imagine it. There are, in the Bible, a few glimpses of heaven. In the Bible, heaven is called “ten polin ten hagain,” which means “the holy city.” This is one of the descriptions of heaven in the Bible, the holy city, sometimes called the heavenly city, sometimes called the new Jerusalem. The Bible refers to the heavenly city in Hebrews, chapter 11 and in Hebrews 12 and in Revelation 21 and 22. There is a lot of allegorical language so it’s difficult to understand exactly what the heavenly city is going to be like, but we’re told that the heavenly city is 12,000 stadia in length which is 1400 miles. We are told that its width and height are the same, and this is a massive city. It is said, of course, that it has streets of gold and gates of pearl.
I am reminded of a story, a true story, that Johnny Cash tells. Of course, Johnny Cash has committed his life to Christ after a very difficult life of wandering. Johnny Cash tells his story in a book called “Man in Black.” This, of course, is to be distinguished from the movie “Men in Black.” Of course, Johnny Cash was reared in a Christian home. His mother loved Christ. Johnny’s older brother whose name was Jack also loved Christ, but Jack died when Johnny was young.
Johnny had always looked up to his brother. Jack died while working at the factory. He had a tragic accident on a table saw. He was horribly cut up. He died one week later in the hospital. Johnny was there when Jack died as was Johnny Cash’s mother. Johnny Cash says he’11 never forget his brother’s final words. His brother’s final words were these: “Mom, I see the heavenly city and Mom you can’t believe how beautiful it is.” Those were his final words. And, you know, I believe that. I believe there is a heavenly city and I believe it is beautiful.
Perhaps Jesus is referring to that city when he says, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also. Perhaps that place is, indeed, that dwelling place, is in that heavenly city.
There is a story that Peter Marshall told. Peter Marshall, I think most of you are familiar with him. His wife Kathryn told his story in that book, “A Man Called Peter.” Peter Marshall was that well known, renowned pastor in the nation’s capital. He told the story of a boy named Kenneth in his church. Kenneth had just entered his teenaged years when he died of leukemia. Kenneth was a little guy who loved Christ and his family loved Christ. He, in his latter months, would lay in his bed and he would hear the sound of children playing outside. It was very hard for him. His mother would often times come by the bed and read him stories.
On one occasion just a few weeks before Kenneth died, she read him a story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In that story there was a death or two and that prompted Kenneth to talk about death. He asked his mother, “Mom, what’s it like to die?” She knew it was a really critical moment and she asked the Lord to give her words to say. It was like the Lord just gave her the perfect example. She said, “Well, you know, Kenneth, when you were younger, after dinner sometimes you would go, and you would play outside, and you would just run until you were exhausted. You would come back in, and you would fall asleep on the sofa right by Dad and me. You would just fall asleep there on the sofa. Remember how in the morning you would wake up in your own room, in your own bed? That was because your father usually carried you there. Your father who loves you very much. That is what death is like for Christians. That is what death is going to be like for you. You’re just going to wake up in the morning and you’re going to be in your own room because someone who loves you very much has taken you there.” And isn’t that true? That is true for each and every one of us who belong to Christ and love Christ.
Heaven is not only called the holy city, but heaven is also called paradise in the Bible. “To paradiso, to theon,” the paradise of God… In the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, in Genesis, chapter two, verse seven, it is the word paradise that was used to describe Eden, but in the New Testament it is the word paradise, this Persian word paradiso which was first used by Xenophon, the Greek soldier and philosopher. It was borrowed from the Persians, and it literally referred to a royal park. God wants us to understand that there is a sense in which heaven is like a park, a royal park. This was the word Jesus used on the cross when he said to the thief, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” This is the word it uses in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, where the Apostle Paul says, “He was taken up into paradise.” It is the word used in Revelation, chapter 2, where the Bible tell us that all of us who belong to Christ will one day go to paradise. We are to understand that heaven is not only described through the imagery of a great city, but it is described through the imagery of a beautiful royal park.
I don’t know how many of you love parks. I do not know how many of you have ever been up to Victoria, up on Vancouver Island, and you’ve gone to Butchart Gardens and seen how beautiful they are. Barb and I and my brothers and their wives and all of our kids were fortunate enough to go up there years ago. I remember walking through those gardens. I could not believe the colors of the flowers and the beauty of the grass and the trees. It was so beautiful, but I promise you this. Whatever is the most beautiful park you have ever seen on this earth—it will pale, its beauty pales when compared with the beauty of heaven.
Of course, heaven is also called the third heaven in the Bible. What does it mean when the Apostle Paul says that he was taken up into paradise and then he calls it the third heaven? We are to understand that the word “ouranoi” which is the Greek word for heaven was used to describe the atmosphere of the earth which was the first heaven. Then it was used to describe the cosmos which is the second heaven. But the dwelling place of God is the third heaven, distinct from the atmosphere of the earth, distinct from the cosmos. The dwelling place of God is the third heaven. We do not know where it is right now or what it’s like right now. We just know it’s awesome and we know it’s great.
Now, there is a quote from Billy Graham. He says, “Where is heaven?” This is in his book on heaven. “What is heaven going to be like? Just as there is a mystery to hell, so there is a mystery to heaven, yet I believe the Bible teaches that heaven is a literal place. Is it one of the stars? I do not know. I cannot speculate. The Bible does not inform us. I believe that out there in space where there are one thousand million galaxies, each a hundred thousand light years or more in diameter, God can find some place to put us in heaven. Well, I understand what Dr. Graham is saying but I doubt very much whether the third heaven is in the second heaven. I mean I do not believe that heaven is in the cosmos, not now, but I do believe this. I do believe there will come a day when heaven will encompass all things. It will encompass the first and second heaven. The Bible makes that very clear. And so, the Bible tells us again and again that God will create a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. God says, “You will be excited and rejoice in that which I create.”
I really believe that heaven will one day encompass all things, all the works of God’s hands and the first and the second and the third heaven will all be one. Perhaps we will dwell in that heavenly city and on occasion leave it and go forth throughout the creation, serving the Creator. It is going to be an exciting future. I do not know the details of it. No one can know the details of it. Perhaps we are not meant to know the details of it. Maybe we would not be of any earthly good. Maybe we would just want to leave this world too much if we knew exactly what heaven was like, but heaven is wonderful.
As we conclude, I want to just share a little report that I read. It came out in Omni Magazine describing a book by a man named Maurice Rollins. Maurice Rollins is a Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. Maurice Rollins has conducted an extensive survey of near-death experiences. I think most of you have heard… There are many stories about near-death experiences. I think many of you have read books regarding near-death experiences. I think most of those books are kind of bogus. If you read any of those books on near-death experiences, you know that they always describe somebody entering a tunnel with a light at the end of it and then coming out into the light and seeing green meadows and rows and rows of smiling relatives and an eternal peace.
Maurice Rollins decided to do an extensive survey of three hundred people in the midst of those near-death experiences, in the context of the hospital, interviewing them right after their resuscitation. There had never been a study like that. It is revealed in his book called “Beyond Death’s Door.” Maurice Rollins describes that when he talked with people immediately after the resuscitation, at least 50% of the people describe hell-like experiences complete with demons and darkness. Most of them changed their stories because they were embarrassed by them. In the day or two that followed, they told their relatives different stories.
Maurice Rollins said that he was so convicted by all of this that it changed his life. He said that there is life after death, and it is real. If I do not know where I am going, it is not safe to die. That led him to commitment to Christ. God wants you to know today that heaven is real, and hell is real and there is a choice to make. Do you really want to live for yourself, or do you want to live for Christ? Do you want to serve yourself or do you want to serve Christ? If you would come to Christ and you would receive Him as Savior and as Lord, this promise is given. You will be forever with Him, and it is going to be wonderful. Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer.