The sermon opens on Pentecost Sunday not with a treatise on the Holy Spirit but with a hard question: why does a good and powerful God permit evil? The preacher cites a recent Brisbane news story of a doctor charged with dozens of counts of rape and sexual assault as one instance of the "bad news" that fills the world, and notes that atheists routinely use such evidence to argue that a God who is both all-powerful and good cannot coexist with so much suffering — while Christians themselves wrestle with the same question when they encounter illness, tragedy, moral failure among believers, and scandal within the church. Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, with his own explanation in 13:36-43) is presented as Christ's answer, given not merely to inform but to strengthen his disciples: every evil in the world, even evil perpetrated by or against believers, cannot hinder the advance of the gospel, and God sovereignly bends it toward his redemptive purposes.

Working through the parable, the sermon unpacks its main terms as Jesus defines them. The good seed is "the children of the kingdom" — not, as in the earlier parable of the sower, the word of God itself, but genuine believers, born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This becomes the sermon's Pentecost thread: the Spirit's chief work is applying the salvation the Father planned and the Son accomplished, uniting the Trinity's distinct roles in one harmonious work; and — as in Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 — the Spirit never exalts himself but always directs attention to Christ. Being a "child of the kingdom" does not mean sinless perfection; believers remain in the ongoing process of sanctification and can fall into serious sin, illustrated at length through David's adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. What distinguishes David from Judas is that when confronted by Nathan, David repents — producing Psalm 51 — rather than being destroyed by his sin, because nothing, not even grievous sin, can separate a true child of God from Christ's love; the indwelling Spirit will not let a genuine believer rest comfortably in sin forever.

The weeds, by contrast, are "children of the evil one," and the sermon insists this category is not limited to obvious criminals — Jesus applied it to the outwardly devout Pharisees and teachers of the law, telling them the devil was their father and pronouncing the "woes" of Matthew 23 against their hypocrisy. Wheat and weeds (the preacher plays on the near-identical English words "wheat" and "weeds," noting how easily they blur for a non-native speaker) look almost indistinguishable while young, and the field itself is "the world," specifically wherever Christ is proclaimed and his people gathered — meaning even the local church will contain both true believers and unconverted people who resemble them outwardly. This is offered as a caution against spiritual judgmentalism: only God reads the heart, as shown in Samuel's anointing of David, where God rejects the impressive elder brother Eliab and chooses the overlooked youngest son, because man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Believers are called to teach, correct, and pursue church discipline and fellowship, but never to pronounce final verdicts on who is "wheat" and who is "weeds" — that judgment belongs to the harvest.

That harvest brings both warning and comfort. The unrepentant will be cast into the fire, with weeping and gnashing of teeth — language the sermon insists points to conscious, eternal punishment rather than annihilation, since only conscious judgment upholds God's justice against evils on the scale of the Holocaust. The comfort is that this same justice was already satisfied at the cross, where Christ cried "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" as he bore the wrath believers deserved. Until the harvest, the weeds are deliberately left alongside the wheat for the wheat's own good — pulling them prematurely would uproot the wheat too — illustrated by the martyrdom of Jim Elliot and his companions in Ecuador, whose deaths ultimately bore fruit among the Waodani people. Applications follow: Christians should work out their salvation with fear and trembling rather than self-confidence, welcoming criticism and trials — illustrated by Stephen Tong deliberately shaking a ladder so his climbing daughter would grip tighter — as means the Spirit uses to purify faith; history shows that Christianity advanced by the sword or state coercion, as in the Crusades or state-imposed religion, produced only nominal, hollow religion, while genuine growth has always come through love and sacrifice. The mustard seed parable (13:31-33) reinforces that small, seemingly insignificant beginnings — like the preacher's own small congregations in South Melbourne and Springvale relative to greater Melbourne's population — are sustained by God toward a great harvest, echoed in Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah: "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun." A closing Q&A on maintaining a consistent prayer life recommends pairing prayer with daily Bible reading and the ACTS pattern of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, pointing to the church's Wednesday and Saturday prayer meetings and to Moses interceding on the mountain during Israel's battle with the Amalekites as a picture of prayer as the unseen power behind visible ministry.

Bible Verses Used

• Matthew 13:24-30: The parable itself — a landowner's good seed and an enemy's weeds growing together until harvest — frames the whole sermon's answer to the problem of evil.

• Matthew 13:36-43: Jesus' own explanation of the parable supplies every key term the sermon builds on: the field as the world, the good seed as children of the kingdom, the weeds as children of the evil one, and the harvest as the final judgment.

• Matthew 23: Jesus' woes against the Pharisees and teachers of the law show that "weeds" can look outwardly devout and respectable, not merely overtly criminal.

• 1 Samuel 16: Samuel's anointing of David over his more impressive brothers illustrates that only God, not other people, can see the heart and tell true wheat from weeds.

• Psalm 51: Cited as David's psalm of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba, evidence that a true child of God returns to the Lord rather than staying in sin.

• Romans 8: Invoked for the assurance that nothing, including a believer's own sin, can separate a true child of God from the love of Christ.

• Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it" is quoted as the promise that evil cannot ultimately destroy God's people.

• Philippians 2: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" is applied as the posture believers should take toward sanctification rather than self-confidence.

• Matthew 5: The Beatitudes' "blessed are you when persecuted" and its inverse warning against being universally well-spoken of are used to reframe criticism and hardship as spiritually valuable.

• Exodus 17: Moses' raised hands during Israel's battle with the Amalekites illustrates prayer as the hidden power behind all visible Christian labor.

• Matthew 13:31-33: The parable of the mustard seed encourages the congregation that small, insignificant-looking beginnings are sustained by God into something great.