NO SLEEPING ON THE JOB 

Matthew 13:24-30

          In the natural there are many reasons why one might find himself sleeping on the job.  Maybe you stayed up too late or woke up too early and did not get enough sleep.  Maybe you find your work boring or feel that the job you do is just not that important.  Maybe you are just lazy and the thing that you enjoy doing most in life is sleeping.  In fact Proverbs 19:15 says “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger” or laziness will put you into a deep sleep which will result in your going hungry.  Whatever the reason, sleeping on the job is not acceptable behavior. 

          Sleeping on the job can have serious consequences.  You never know when your boss is going to show up at you desk or station and find you sleeping.  When he does he could send you home without pay.  He could issue you a warning, and if you continue to sleep on the job he could dismiss you.  None of these are good consequences.  As in the natural, so it is in the spiritual.

Mark 13:32-37 – Just as we do not know in the natural when our boss is going to show up, likewise we do not know in the spiritual when our Lord, the master of the house is going to return.  If we are not watchful, praying and alert we may be found sleeping, taking care of our own physical needs and not attentive to the master’s business.

MATT. 14:24-30

          Throughout this entire chapter Jesus uses parables to illustrate the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Just as a point of interest, let me mention here that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are not synonymous.   When you read through the various references on these two terms you will find that the Kingdom of God never includes unsaved people, but the kingdom of Heaven includes both saved, those who profess to be saved and are not and those who are unsaved.  The Kingdom of Heaven is an earthly kingdom headed by Jesus for the purpose of re-establishing the Kingdom of God over this rebellious part of God’s realm.  After His temptation, in Matt. 4:17, Jesus began to teach that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  Why, because the King was there, beginning those actions that would one-day usher in His kingdom?  What does Jesus say about His kingdom?  In answering this question we can see application for the general church as well as for our own individual lives.

1.     The master of the field has sown good seed in the field.  Though we look across American and see many church buildings, there is but one true church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Only the righteous are a part of this true church.  They are the good seed in the earthly church.  On an individual level, as Christians we have been provided with the Word of God.  I Peter 1:23 says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”  Life would be just great if all we had to be concerned with in the church and in our own personal lives was the good seed.  But the parable did not stop there.

Verse 25

In this verse it said while men slept, the enemy came, sowed bad seed and left.  There are several things that can be pointed out from this verse.

2.     These are not just ordinary men. These were the keepers of the fields; the slaves and hired hands whose job it was to watch over the field and see that it produced a good crop.  But they were asleep, not alert and inattentive to the task given to them.  This is not the first time that man has fallen down on the job assigned to him by God.

Gen. 2:15 – Adam was to dress the garden and keep it.  He was to cultivate and protect the garden.  Adam being captivated by Eve and not being attentive to the ministry given to him, stood right there and watched the enemy come in and plant sin in God’s beautiful plan.  Adam was not physically asleep, but the results were the same.  He was not alert, watchful and attentive to the task God had given him.  When we are not alert, not watchful and are inattentive to God’s plan for His church and our lives, bad consequences result.  The importance of the war we are fighting and the shrewdness of our enemy means that we can not afford to be sleeping on the job.

3.  In the parable, while the workers were asleep, the enemy came in and sowed tares in the field.  Tares are poisonous weeds, a kind of rye grass known as darnel.  We will talk more about them as we proceed.  Tares in the church represent the unsaved and also the religious masses that do not follow after Christ but profess to be Christians.  These masses often seek to take over the earthly church much like weeds take over a garden.  In many cases these masses govern the operations and teachings of a church.  Weeds are a big problem in a new garden or yard, where the plants and grass are very young and of shallow root.  Weeds grow faster and soak up more of the available nourishment from the soil, never producing a desirable fruit.  A new garden is very fragile and completely dependent on the workers to protect it from invasion by weeds.    We must be watchful of the religious masses that profess to be Christians but know not Christ.  In our efforts to draw people to Christ we must be careful to make known the standard set by God through His Word.  We can not yield any ground to the religious masses, lest they try to take over the whole garden.

          Tares in our personal lives represent sins of the flesh that attempt to choke the Word of God and thus life itself out of us.  Proverbs 4:23 warns us to guard our heart or spirit because out of it flows life.  The lust of the flesh and the cares of this world seek to choke the life out of us.  How?  By causing us not to direct our attention to the Word of God or the plan of God and thus by starving our spirit man.  Any thing that draws our attention away from the Word of God or the Will of God for our lives is a personal tare. 

4.      Notice that the enemy sowed tares and then went away.  So prone is fallen man to sin that when the enemy sows tares, he may go his way.  They will spring up with little effort and do great harm.

James 1:13-15 – When left alone mankind will sin with very little motivation.  The poisonous seeds of sins that are sown in our flesh draw us and entice us to sin.  When we give in to that enticement, death in some form occurs.  So the enemy can go his way after he plants tares.  But good seed, when it is sown, must be nurtured, fed, watered and sometimes even protected.  In the church we must continue to preach the truth of God’s Word even though it is often not what the masses want to hear. When God plants seeds in our personal life through His Word, whether written or spoken, it is our responsibility to nurture and care for that word.  We must continue to read and study the Word that we might grow and maintain control over the weeds of sin that seek to overthrow our lives.

Matt. 13:26-30

5.     The workers noticing that the tares were growing in the field wanted to go and pull them up.  The Lord of the field would not allow this for two reasons.  First the fields were normally weeded before the seeds were planted.  If weeds were discovered after the seeds were planted, uprooting the weeds would increase the risk of destroying the wheat.  At this stage, to remove the tares the workers would have to pull them up from the root.  The weed, having stronger roots, would disturb the soil around the wheat.  The master did not want to risk his wheat.  Second, in the early stages, tares look like wheat and the two could be distinguished only when the ears of wheat appeared.  So the master thought it better to allow them to grow together until they were fully-grown.  Then the harvesters would go through the garden and cut the wheat just below the head.  Leaving all else in the field to be gathered and burned.

In the earthly church, there are many that come to church who look and behave like wheat, but are really tares.  There are also those who by our standard we might think to be tares who really are wheat.  There are those who might appear to be tares simply because they are immature baby Christians and those who might appear to be tares because they have had little or no teaching.  In many cases we may not be able to tell the wheat from the tares.  But if we do not go to sleep on the job, but rather continue to care for the field, making provision so that all can grow, in His own time God will separate the wheat from the tares.  Likewise in our personal lives, if we do not become slothful and inattentive to our spiritual lives, God will by His Spirit cut away the tares of sin that seek to destroy us.  It says in 2 Cor. 3:18

    “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

          It is our duty as Christians to be watchful and alert in our own personal lives as well as collectively as the Church of Jesus Christ.  We can not be slothful and sleep on the job.  If we do, Eccl. 10:18 warns that the building will decay and the house will fall in.  Our spiritual lives will decay, and the ministry that God has called us to will go unattended.   If we sleep on the job when we should be working, Prov. 6:11 warns that poverty will come upon us.  We will find ourselves depleted of all the resources necessary to be successful in this Christian walk. 

          We can not afford to be asleep on the job because the Lord of the fields is counting on us to keep watch over the garden.  In Isaiah 56:10, God describes the watchmen of the enemy as blind, ignorant, dumb dogs, sleeping, laying down and loving to sleep.  We are God’s watchmen.  Let us not be sleeping on the job.  But rather let us follow the command of I Peter 4:7, “be ye sober (alert) and watch with prayer.