For teachers of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of Matthew 13 for February 22, 2026, “Judgment Coming. Includes a suggested introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications you can make. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

??? How many of you enjoy gardening??? If you do, share what is your favorite part about gardening, and what is your least favorite/most challenging part about it.

(My wife Cheryl loves to garden, and it’s been a comfort to her after her stroke to be able to continue to garden a little bit. She currently has a whole row of seeds popping up in little pots on our big bedroom window sill. I asked her this question, and she said her favorite part about gardening is seeing the plants pop out of the ground — or the pot! — and the hope of future growth that it brings. When I asked her what’s most challenging, immediately she said the hardest part to her is weeding! If you have some gardeners in your class, I imagine several of them might mention that weeding is one of the most difficult problems they face. 

Which ties right in with our lesson for this week, which comes from what is often called “The Parable of the Weeds,” in Matthew 13! 

CONTEXT:

We’re continuing our study through the Book of Matthew this quarter. Last time we saw how He became embroiled in some controversies about the Sabbath, and how He showed that our love for Him, and for people, should eclipse any legalistic tendencies we might have. Now Matthew 13 says that large crowds came to Jesus, so He got into a boat to teach while the people were standing on the beach. Sounds like a good setup! And in this scenario, Jesus began to teach a series of parables. 

Matthew 13 consists almost entirely of the parables that Jesus taught the crowd that day. A “parable” is a story that is used to make a point. (“Para” = “alongside,” “ballo” = “throw or cast.” So it is a story that is “cast alongside” a truth, to help illuminate it.)  Jesus’ teaching was characterized by His use of parables. (Matthew 13:35 says that Jesus’ use of parables fulfilled Psalm 78:2, “I will open My mouth in parables.”) The parables that Jesus told here in Matthew 13 were about the Kingdom of Heaven;(NOTE: the terms “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” are synonymous. Don’t look for any “hidden differences.”) Each of these parables have some point to make about the Kingdom of God. For example:

— In :18 Jesus said the parable of the sower is about “the word of the Kingdom”

— In our passage for today in :24, Jesus said “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field …”, indicating that this story describes how His Kingdom will be. 

— :31 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed …”

— :33 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven …”

— :44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field …”

— :45 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls …”

— :47 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet …”

So Jesus taught SEVEN Parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13, (EIGHT if you count :51-52, where He says that every scribe who enters the Kingdom is like the head of a house who brings out treasures old and new.)

Some of the parables come with an explanation:

— Jesus interprets the Parable of the Sower in :18-23

— And He interprets the Parable of the Weeds as we’ll see today in :36-43.

Some of the parables Jesus does NOT specifically interpret: they stand on their own, with no “explanation,” like the Mustard Seed (:31-32), and the Leaven (:33-34). 

But the parables are very attractive ways to teach/listen, because they are stories, they capture people’s imagination. (And that’s a good reminder to US as teachers today, isn’t it; to use illustrations and stories to help make our point. Jesus did this, and so should we!)

Our focus passage today is on one of the parables in Matthew 13, what is called the Parable of the Tares or Weeds.

OUTLINE:

I.  “Plants” and “Weeds” grow up together (:24-25)

II.  God’s servants can’t always discern the difference                                                              (:26-29)

III. Their identity will be revealed at the judgment (:30)

IV. Their destinies vary eternally (:36-43)

TEXT:   Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

I. “Plants” and “Weeds” grow up together (:24-25)

:24 “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.”

So :24 begins with Jesus presenting another parable to the crowd. He begins “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to …” so this is another “parable of the Kingdom,” a story that teaches a truth about the Kingdom of God. 

So what’s the story? Jesus said it’s like “a man who sowed good seed in his field” — but in :26 He says “his enemy came and sowed tares …”. The word “tares” in the NASB is the Greek “zizania.” Now that sounds good, doesn’t it? “Zizania”! Sounds like “Azalea,” “Hydrangea” — “Zizania”! But you don’t want any “zizania” — “zizania” in Greek is a “poisonous ryegrass weed, that resembles wheat until it matures and the seed is black, and if eaten can cause drowsiness, sleep, and even death! 

Now, as we have pointed out, this parable is NOT about agriculture! It is about Jesus’ Kingdom. And the point He is making is that in this world, the “wheat” of His true followers is mixed with the “tares/weeds” who are not His. 

Now, like many of you, I have heard quotes from “Billy Graham” suggesting that 80% (or some other number) of Christians in pews on Sunday morning are lost. Please DO NOT share that: I have a pastor friend who searched high and low to find that exact quote, and he could not. In the process a friend of his contacted the Graham organization and they wrote: ““We appreciate your inquiry concerning a quote attributed to Mr. Graham. Unfortunately, though we hear this question from time to time, we do not have any further information confirming that Mr. Graham ever claimed that a high percentage of church members (as much as 85%) are not saved.” (joemckeever.com article, “Pastor, when something doesn’t sound right …”)

SO: don’t inaccurately quote Billy Graham on this! BUT the point is still a valid one: not everyone who sits in a pew on Sunday morning is genuinely saved. We have Jesus’ word for that, don’t we? In Matthew 7 we saw where He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven …”. So Jesus Himself reinforces this idea, that there is always a “mixed multitude” of people: some genuine believers, and some “weeds/goats/false Christians” whatever you want to call them. That is just a fact of spiritual life. No church, no organization, is going to have 100% genuine Christians in it. Think about it: Even Jesus Himself said in John 6:70, “Did I Myself not choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil?” A perfect example! Even among Jesus’ own disciples, there were “plants and weeds growing up together.” And it will certainly be so in our churches, and classes, and Christian organizations too. 

So in :25 Jesus an “enemy” sows the bad seed in with the good. This “enemy” is of course the devil.

???DISCUSSION/APPLICATION???

“Why would Satan want to sow false believers in among God’s genuine people?”

(— They can cause trouble among the church and help divide and weaken it.

— Since their lives won’t likely be holy, it casts aspersions on the genuine believers. “If that’s what a Christian is like …” etc. 

You/your group can think of many. It’s always a good military strategy to weaken an enemy by placing spies/opponents among them. Satan has done this in the church since the beginning.)

So what difference should this make to us? What is the application here? You/your group can think of some, but let me suggest a few:

— For one, this encourages us to keep on sharing the gospel in our meetings. Even if we think it’s “all Christian people here,” we don’t know, do we? So we need to make sure we always share the plan of salvation. For one, all Christians need to be reminded of it regularly, but secondly, we don’t know what lost there might be among us. “The plants and the weeds grow up together.” 

— This could also encourage us to have training opportunities for our people to write out their testimonies. Can they share a genuine testimony of salvation by faith in Christ? I once had an emphasis for our church members to write out their testimonies, and more than one realized through this process that they had never really been saved!

— It should compel us to make sure that our children get adequate counseling before we present them for baptism. How many have come back years later, saying they had been baptized as children, but did not know what they were doing. This feeds right into the “weeds and wheat.” 

— It also explains a lot of the dissension/opposition that many churches have: there are very likely LOST people behind a good deal of it, and they are showing “the deeds of the flesh” instead of “the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) because they are lost.

You can think of other applications here. But the principle is sure: on earth, right now, the weeds and the wheat grow up together. And there is ONE application of this, that Jesus specifically says that we should NOT make:

II. God’s servants can’t always discern the difference (:26-29)

:26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves *said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.”

So the good seed and the “weeds/tares/zizania” grow up in the field together. Should we try, then, to separate them? To “cull” the tares of our churches, etc? Jesus very clearly here says NO, that could be very damaging! 

Verse 26 here corrects something that I have heard preached many times: that there is NO difference in the appearance of the wheat and the tares. I’ve heard pastors and evangelists teach this, saying that so many people in our churches LOOK saved, but they are not, and that we can’t tell the difference at all. According to the text, that is not quite true. What does :26 say? “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.” To bring this point home, you might even ask your group to point out:

??? “What does :26 say is the difference between the wheat and the ‘weeds’?”

(It says the WHEAT “BORE GRAIN” — it bore good fruit! And when it did, “then the tares became evident also.” So we DO see a Biblical difference: the good plant bears good fruit; the bad plant does NOT. And this is just what Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, isn’t it: “You will know them by their fruits.” So it’s not exactly accurate to say there is NO difference in them; that you just can’t tell them apart.)

AND SO, because of this, the workers of the Kingdom ask the Master in :28, “Do you want US to go and gather them up?” Lord, do You want us to “cull” all the unbelievers out of our churches; out of our class; out of our denomination? His answer here is NO! He said in :29, “‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.” Yes, we can often tell the difference by someone’s fruit, but also you may do some damage in the process, so DO NOT attempt to do this.  We may think, in all our “self-confident wisdom and experience,” that we can tell the difference between the wheat and the weeds. But we are not the Lord. We may not be as skilled as we think we are.

ILLUSTRATION

When we were living in Louisiana, Cheryl had planted some corn in a raised bed behind our house. That spring, a pastor friend and his wife we have known since seminary came to visit us. So at one point Cheryl & this pastor’s wife were out back in the garden, and while Cheryl was telling her a story, her friend reached down to pull up some weeds she saw in the raised bed. Cheryl immediately stopped her story and said: “Gail, you’re pulling up my corn plants!” 

This is exactly the problem Jesus warned would arise when we try to start “weeding” out people from God’s kingdom: like Cheryl’s friend, we may “think” we know — but we often get it wrong, and the consequences for people’s lives, and for our churches, can be disastrous! So Jesus says, don’t you try to do this. And in the next point He shows us a more perfect way:

III. Their Identity Will be Revealed at the Judgment (:30) 

“30 “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

The landowner tells his servants to leave them alone for now, and the reapers will separate at the harvest. The “harvest,” of course, is what Jesus calls “the end of the age,” the end of this world, and the judgment before eternity to come. He says, at that time they will be separated. In the mean time, His servants are to allow them both to remain.

This is a good word of instruction for many of us today: can we generally “know them by their fruits” like Jesus said? Yes. But do we need to be making final judgments about people’s salvation? No. Leave that for the Lord, and His angels, later. It is not for us, now. This lines up with several scriptures:

+x I Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” Now to be faithful to the context, Paul is writing there about judging the work of Christian brothers, not the work of salvation. But if we are to withhold judgment about others’ works, how much should we refrain from making judgments about people’s salvation? It definitely applies. The LORD will do that, not us. We don’t know men’s hearts; HE does!

+x I Timothy 5:24 “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after.” A LOT of things will not be made known until the judgment. So again, Paul says, WAIT. Don’t make judgments before the time.

I’ve mentioned before how I refer to “Judge not …” as  “America’s verse,” because it seems to be the only verse many Americans ever use! And it does NOT mean what many use it to mean: that you can never say that what anybody is doing is wrong. NO! The scripture definitely commands us to call blatant right and wrong, sin!  But what it does mean is that we are not to judge things that only God can judge — and one of those things is judging who is wheat and who is weeds in this passage. God says, leave it to the Judgment. We may have an idea, from their fruit, and so on. But ultimately only God knows hearts. So let’s leave that final judgment to Him.

ILLUSTRATION:

Jonathan Edwards is known for his involvement in the Great Awakening of the 1700s, and for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” But he left us a wealth of deep theological work. 

“Only God, says Edwards, can fathom a human soul. Thus he writes that ‘it was never God’s design to give us any rules by which we may certainly know, who of our fellow professors are His, and to make a full and clear separation between sheep and goats: but that on the contrary, it was God’s design to reserve this to Himself, as His prerogative.’”

(Nathan A. Finn and Jeremy Kimble, A Reader’s Guide to the Major Writings of Jonathan Edwards, p. 102)

That’s a great quote from Jonathan Edwards. (You might consider posting it and asking your group what they think of it!) But I believe it conveys the meaning of Jesus parable here in Matthew 13. We can’t judge people’s salvation; leave that to the Lord!

???DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTION???
“If we can’t judge people’s salvation, what CAN we do regarding those whose salvation we might doubt?”

(— PRAY for them;

— WITNESS to them and see what their response is!

— DISCIPLE them in the faith and see if they grow.

— ENCOURAGE them to walk in the faith.

There are numerous things we CAN do; but Jesus says one thing we should NOT, is judge their salvation!)

IV. Their Destinies Vary Eternally (:36-43)

It DOES matter very much whether one is a “weed” or a “plant”! We see the difference spelled out very dramatically in this text:

:36 “Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 

:40 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

So when Jesus’ disciples initially heard this parable, they did not understand it, so :36 says when they went into the house, they asked Him to explain it. (Can you imagine: getting to ask Jesus to personally explain His word to you? Well, in fact we DO have His Holy Spirit in us, Whom we can ask, don’t we? But in glory we will have that amazing privilege directly as well!) So He does explain it in :37-39, the “field” is the world, and the good and bad “seed” are those who are the Lord’s and those who are not. And then in :40-43 Jesus vividly describes the two greatly different ENDS of these two groups:

— Jesus says in :43 that “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” This of course refers to our eternal home, “heaven,” “The New Jerusalem,” where God’s people will live with Him forever. It will be a place of shining glory, as Revelation 21:23 says, “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Jesus will be our light in glory! 

But His saints will likewise be made glorious, as Jesus says here: “the righteous will shine like the sun.” This is what C.S. Lewis was referring to in the quote we recently shared from his sermon, “The Weight of Glory,” that if you could see a Christian person now as they will one day be in heaven, you would be strongly tempted to fall down and worship them. We will all be made so glorious! 

— But that is only for the righteous. In :40-43 Jesus says His angels will gather the “weeds” and “throw them into the fiery furnace.” This of course refers to hell, the eternal destination of those who reject the gospel. NOTICE that “the furnace of fire” in :42 is NOT THE PARABLE: IT IS JESUS’ EXPLANATION OF THE PARABLE! According to Jesus, Hell is a real place of eternal judgment. 

You may want to quote/post our Baptist Faith & Message Article X on Last Things, which reads:

“God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.”

CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION:

There is a very real and current application we can make here. In December of 2025 actor Kirk Cameron, who has for several years been a very outspoken Christian, said on his “Kirk Cameron Show” that he no longer believes in “eternal conscious torment” in hell, rather he believes they are burned up and just cease to exist. This may be comforting to some, but there is no Biblical case for it:

— Later in this Book of Matthew, Jesus says in 25:41, ““Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels”

— Mark 9:47-48 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

— Revelation 20:10 “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (:15) “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

It doesn’t say that the lake of fire will “consume” anyone; it says they will be tormented there forever. That truth is not pleasant, but it’s clearly what the Bible teaches, in these passages and others. 

???DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTION???

“What would you say to someone who said they can’t believe in a God who would send people to eternal hell?”

(Answers could include: the Bible and Jesus Himself clearly teach it;  that God has done everything He could to keep people from going to hell, including coming to earth as Jesus Christ and personally taking the punishment of hell on the cross for us! As numerous Christians have stated, God doesn’t send anyone to hell; they send themselves there by their sin and rejection of Christ.

You/your group can share your answers.)

Let’s do our best to equip our class members with the truth to share with others and deal with contemporary questions and reservations about hell.  And most importantly, let’s pray that this truth will motivate us and our group members all the more to lead people we love to Jesus!

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was at Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth in the 1980s, someone told me a story about one of our professors there. They said he was writing on the chalkboard while students were filing into class, and a young man who was already seated was telling another student a joke about hell. This professor turned around and said: “I never joke about hell, men. People are going there.”

That’s the attitude we ought to have. Hell’s not a joke. Hell is real. And people we know are going there, as the Bible makes very clear. So let’s pray the Lord will use this passage to motivate us and our class members to lead people out of a destiny in hell, to the glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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