Hello everyone. Welcome to Sonday Life. Over the past several years, the Lord has been emphasizing the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, in my studies. In the past several months, he’s been directing me toward a deeper understanding of His kingdom. In recent episodes, I’ve talked about the “End Times” and the “Rapture” and their relation to the “Coming of the kingdom of God.” I’m understanding more and more that as believers, everything in scripture, and I mean everything, is about the “Kingdom of Heaven” and its “King” – Jesus Christ.
In chapter 5 of the Gospel of John, Jesus showed the Jewish people and their religious leaders that he has power over illness by healing the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. He showed them he had the authority to judge the world. He showed them he possessed eternal life. And he showed them he has dominion over everything by the miracles he performed. Then he says to them in John 5:39-40.
When we read the Bible, what do we see? What are we looking for? Are we looking for answers to our daily problems? Are we looking for comfort? Are we looking for a quick fix for our sins? What are we not seeing when we read the Bible? Are we like the first-century Jews? Do we go through the Scriptures looking for things that pertain to our own self-interest and overlook the clear focus of all Scripture: Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of heaven? I’m going to give you a key to understanding the Bible; it’s about Jesus and the kingdom his Father has given him. Everything is about Jesus Christ and God’s Great Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation. Genesis means ‘The beginning.’ The Gospel of John starts off, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Revelation means the ‘unveiling’. The unveiling of what? The unveiling of Jesus Christ as the king of everything and the unveiling of his kingdom replacing all earthly and spiritual kingdoms. We think Revelation is about us. That’s how self-centered we are. The Bible, from beginning to end, and everything in between, is about Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. We’re involved as far as whether we believe in Jesus Christ and our place either in or out of His kingdom.
From today forward, in our study of the Bible and in our lives, we need to see Jesus as the all-powerful king of an everlasting kingdom and our place in His kingdom as believers. That’s what the Bible’s about. A great example of this point is a passage usually called The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, but I’m retitling it as Harvesting At The End of The Age.
Let’s read together Matthew 13:24-30 and better understand the king and his kingdom.
We have much to unpack here, but fortunately, Jesus interprets this parable for us in Matthew 13:36-43.
Jesus tells the disciples the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Who’s the ‘Son of Man’? What does the designation ‘Son of Man’ mean? In the New Testament, the title “Son of Man” is used in relation to Jesus 80 times. So, the writers of the New Testament understood Jesus was the ‘Son of Man.’ In the Old Testament, “Son of Man” is used only once, and that’s in the Book of Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14).
I’m going to give you a second key to Scripture. Mark this passage down and remember it because it’s foundational to understanding the timing of the coming of the kingdom of heaven and the end of the age. The Jewish audience listening to Jesus knew this passage from Daniel because it’s about their long-awaited Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom. They knew the ‘Son of Man’ was the promised One, but what they didn’t realize was they were lawbreakers, not lawkeepers.
Continuing with the interpretation given by Jesus in Matthew 13:36-43, So the ‘Son of Man,’ the Messiah, Jesus is the one sowing good seed. The field is the world (Kosmos – meaning all humanity) and the good seed – these are the children of the kingdom (this is the kingdom we saw the Son of Man receive in Daniel 7). The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age (aion – Some translate aion as ‘world’ here and misinterpret this as the ‘end of the world.’ But it means a specific period of time, an age. The harvest isn’t the end of the ‘Kosmos’ but the end of a specific age), and the harvesters are angels. Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness (For the angels to gather all who cause sin and those who are guilty of lawlessness from the kingdom it would mean the kingdom would have been established. When did that happen? Jesus is also saying the children of the kingdom, the good seed, and the children of the evil one, the weeds, are growing together in the kingdom until the end of the age. There’s no removing or ‘rapturing’ believers from this age before it’s concluded). In the end, Jesus continues with the angels will throw the weeds into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The ‘weeds’ that are thrown into the blazing furnace are those who cause sin because they are guilty of lawlessness. You’ll see the term ‘lawlessness’ used repeatedly regarding the harvesting at the end of the age. Lawlessness means to be without law or living with no moral or ethical sense and leading others to do the same. We’ll discuss this more in future episodes, and we’ll see if this ‘lawlessness’ will lead to a great apostasy as the end of the age nears. This ‘lawlessness,’ which will be evangelized by the children of the evil one, will make morality, ethics, reason, decency, faith, God, and the sanctity of life irrelevant to the carnal desires of society. All natural moral sensibilities will be overturned by greedy self-desire and self-promotion. Does any of this ‘lawlessness’ sound familiar? Know this, though: all who are guilty of this sin will be removed forever. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen.
Who would have ears to hear what Jesus is saying to his audience? It would be those who know what the Scripture says about the Kingdom of the Messiah. God gives us the description of the Kingdom and its effect in the world in Daniel 2:34-35.
Now, let me explain the context of this passage. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, has a dream. In his dream, he sees a giant statue. It has a head of gold, which was Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. A chest and arms of silver, which was the Medo-Persian empire, which conquered Babylon. A belly and thighs of bronze, which was Greece, which conquered the Persin empire. Legs of iron, which was Rome, who conquered Greece. And finally, feet and toes of iron mixed with clay. Then a stone cut without a hand touching it smashes the feet, and the entire statue collapses, and it’s turned into dust, but the stone grows into a great mountain and fills the whole earth. The Jews who knew this passage from Daniel knew the stone that grew into a mountain and filled the whole earth was the kingdom of the Messiah.
Jesus was telling his disciples and those listening to him that during the age of the kingdom of heaven, the believers of the Messiah and the lawbreakers, the non-believers, would co-exist in the world. But, at the end of the age, the 2nd Coming of the Messiah, when the stone in Daniel’s vision crushes the kingdoms of the world, his angels will gather all the lawless unbelievers for judgment, leaving only believers and the kingdom of heaven.
Where’s the rapture in this harvest? When does the harvest take place? When will the age of the kingdom of heaven begin? What is the great apostasy? Has it already begun? Are you a child of the kingdom or a weed? Do you have ears to listen to the message of the kingdom of heaven? If you know the answers to these questions, then let me know your thoughts in the comment section about the parable of “Harvesting At The End of The Age.”
A harvest is coming when Jesus Christ will remove all who are guilty of sin from His kingdom. In our next episode, we’ll look at when Jesus told the disciples the kingdom of heaven would come. So until then, let’s all pray for ears to listen to the message of the kingdom of heaven. God Bless you all!
