“The Treasure of
the Kingdom” Matthew 13:44-46 November 8, 2009
SI: Matthew 13 is a collection of Jesus’
parables known as his kingdom parables.
They
are parables aimed at believers, to help us see more clearly
what it means to live in the kingdom of God.
The
passage we’re reading this morning brings back some memories,
because the first sermon I preached was on
these verses.
I
went with some college friends to the County Jail in Chattanooga,
and we held a worship service.
When
my sermon was over, a girl who was with us played a hymn
on the violin. When she finished, the prisoners said: More violin!
I remember they didn’t say: More preaching.
It
was the music that moved them.
Before
we read these two short parables, I want to give credit where credit is
due:
Sermon by Robert Rayburn on this passage
very helpful to me.
I’ll be sharing a number of his ideas and
illustrations with you.
INTRO: These parables are about treasure.
Treasure
buried in a field, and treasure in the form of a rare pearl.
In
the Ancient Middle East, if you acquired some wealth,
there was a commonly accepted investment
strategy.
One
third of your wealth you would invest in commerce of some kind.
That’s where you would take risk and hope
for some growth.
One
third of your wealth you would use to purchase jewels and jewelry.
Jewelry then was not so much for adornment
as it was for portable wealth.
If
there was a sudden military catastrophe, if your city walls were broken down
by an enemy army, you could put your jewelry
on yourself, your wife and
children and flee. You could carry a lot of wealth on your
person.
A
pearl of great price would be a highly desirable jewel.
And
one third you would bury—gold coins perhaps.
This was the ultimate security.
Because
while fleeing, your jewels might be stolen,
you might have to use them the ransom your
life, bribe way past enemy.
But
that buried treasure was something you could dig up and start over with.
It
was sometimes the case that a person would die and their buried treasure lost.
Throughout the ages, treasure hoards have
been found in the Holy Land.
In
1998, archaeologists in place called Beth Shan uncovered a clay
jar
with
751
gold coins weighing 110 oz.
The owner had buried it for security, died,
and the treasure lost for centuries.
Just
last December, 2008, a hoard of 264 gold coins was discovered under
a parking lot in Jerusalem.
In
Jesus’ day, people sometimes found buried treasure from earlier centuries.
Treasure
stories were popular in Jesus’ day and they still are today
because everybody dreams about finding
treasure.
We
dream about what it would be like to fall into a fortune.
About landing the perfect job.
About gaining the love of that man or woman
we have admired from afar.
Stories
of someone finding treasure are as popular today as they ever have been.
We
have a modern version of the treasure story in TV reality shows.
They are the secular American version of
finding a treasure in a field,
or a pearl of great price and doing
extravagant things to obtain it.
If
you’ve ever watched a TV reality show—I haven’t but I’ve heard about them—
you know that the appeal is watching people
do outrageous things,
even humiliating things in order to get
something they long for.
Whether
it is getting the dream job with Donald Trump,
or winning a million dollars, or finding
true love by being picked out of a
group of contestants by Mr. Right, or being
made beautiful by plastic surgery—
people
will make fools of themselves to get those things.
We
could talk about how TV reality shows reveal the emptiness of American life.
And
how they glorify greed and self-promotion over humility and contentment.
And all of that is certainly true. But that’s not the point I want to make.
It’s
this: Everybody dreams about finding
treasure.
We
all believe that there are things so wonderful, so captivating,
that they are worth any sacrifice to obtain.
This longing for treasure is a great power
in human life.
And
many people will do all kinds of things
in hopes of finding what they believe will
complete their lives.
This
longing comes from God.
It’s
part of what it means to be created in his image.
We’ve been made in the image of God and so
we’ve been made for a life
that is high and noble and glorious.
We
don’t understand it. Sin has brought us
low and degraded us in so many ways
that we look for it in the wrong
places. We make foolish bargains to get
it.
We justify all sorts of foolishness.
But the longing is there—for something great
that will complete us.
Jesus
knew about that longing and tapped into it with these parables.
He says that what people are looking for,
whether they know it or not,
is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus
says that is a treasure worth longing for.
That is something of such value and
beauty that you should allow nothing
to stand in your way in order to obtain
it. Look at parables under two headings.
1. The value of the treasure.
2. The acquisition of the treasure.
What it’s worth and how you get it.
MP#1 The value of the treasure. What it’s worth.
What’s
the value of being in the kingdom of heaven?
What do you get from knowing God, communing
with him through Christ.
How does it complete you?
It
must be something incredibly valuable if Jesus says that you should give up
everything to get it. And it is.
First, it’s
love.
To
be in the kingdom of heaven is to be in a kingdom of love.
It is to be loved by God, and to know that
you are loved,
and have your self-image shaped by it, and
then for it to flow out to others.
The
rule and reign of God in your life
is the way to true love in your marriage, in
your family, among your friends.
Recently
reading a devotional book by Dr. Paul Kooistra.
He was the president of Covenant Seminary
when I was there—
now he directs our denominations mission
agency,
listen
to what he says about God’s love—little long but worth it.
“We
all have a love-need that can only be met by the steadfast, unchangeable love
of God. Our deepest emotional and
spiritual needs are never met by material things, by prestige or power,
exhilarating experiences, beauty, or human love. All of our human desires and longings are
mere symptoms of our need for Him. Psalm
42:1 expresses this need: ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul
pants for you, O God.’
When
we are gripped by the love of God, He frees us from being emotional and
spiritual cripples. When we realize how
we are loved, then we can stop loving ourselves and start loving others. He enables us to be dispensers of love rather
than consumers of love. We are able to
love others, even our enemies. When old
age, life-threatening illness, or danger threaten us, we can look with
confidence to God’s loving promise of eternal life with Him. When we sin, we come to him for cleansing ,
comfort, and a new start . . .”
So
many people do foolish and destructive and humiliating things
to get what they think is true love—abusive
relationships, promiscuity, infidelity. Love me, cherish me, be there for
me—that’s the cry of the heart.
And they pay a terrible price, and end up
disappointed.
You
can’t put a value on this treasure of the kingdom.
To be loved by God, loved by your heavenly
Father from all eternity,
loved by your elder brother Jesus so much
that he died for you is priceless.
To
be able to get up every morning and look at yourself and your life and know—
I am loved by the only person who really
matters.
You
should be willing to do anything to get that.
So the kingdom
of heaven is love. But it more than
love, it’s also life.
It’s eternal life, it’s abundant life. In other words, it’s life worthy to be called
life.
The
story is told of a Texas rancher who discovered oil on his land.
Overnight he became a millionaire. So he went to town and bought
the biggest hat he could find, and the
shiniest belt buckle,
and the most expensive boots, and a brand
new baby blue Cadillac.
But
as he was driving back to the ranch,
the excitement was too much and his heart
gave out.
His
wife decided he needed a funeral fitting his new wealth.
So
she had a huge hole dug, and then dressed in his new clothes,
sitting behind the wheel of his new
Cadillac, a crane lowered him in the grave.
Two
old ranch hands were watching and one said to the other:
“Man, that’s livin’!”
There’s
a difference between just living and livin’!
When
we say: This is living, we mean that our
horizons have expanded.
We mean open doors, freedom from
limitations, access to what is desirable,
living large, being recognized, acclaimed.
According
to the Bible, what is really living?
Answer is remarkably consistent—knowing God,
fellowship with God.
Jeremiah
9 says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of
his
strength or the rich man boast of his
riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he
understands and knows me.
If
you are smart, strong, or rich that opens doors, doesn’t it?
You are recognized and acclaimed. You live large. Your horizons expand.
But Lord says, those things are nothing compared
to knowing Me.
There
are some fascinating words by Jesus in John 17.
He says:
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”
He
doesn’t say that you get eternal life by knowing God and Jesus Christ—
He
says that knowing God and Christ is eternal life.
This is the life worthy to be called life.
Think
of all the things people do to try to feel alive.
Good things and bad things, functional
things and dysfunctional things—
the price they pay for things that never
quite deliver, always leave empty.
And
the groaning monotony of their days and increasing years.
Jesus says that the treasure of the kingdom
is eternal life.
Heaven
will be one bright and happy morning after another in which
you will always enjoy the friendship of good
people.
You
will know the pleasure of living for the smile and approval of your Creator,
and the satisfaction of an authentic,
worthy, admirable life.
It
will be the joy of a pure heart—to be a truly good person, and good forever.
By knowing Jesus, you can experience little
tastes of that life right now,
and look forward to the fullness of it in
the world to come.
So it’s love,
it’s life—and it’s everything else.
Jesus
says in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you as
well.”
That’s
more than just saying that God will supply your needs.
It’s
a vision of the future that the Bible often sets before believers.
It’s the new creation.
It’s
a world of the greatest wealth, the finest food and drink,
a city so beautiful that it takes the breath
away,
the glory of the nations brought into that
city for the saints to enjoy.
The
anticipation of the Paradise of God enables you to enjoy the good things
God has given you in this life. You can be content with what you have
and enjoy it because you know that the best
is yet to come.
You
don’t have to worry about your stuff, or hoard your stuff,
or idolize your stuff—because God has
wonderful things in store for his children.
The
love of God, life that is really life, and everything else thrown in—
that’s the treasure of the kingdom of
heaven.
That
is value beyond measure. That is a pearl
of such great beauty
that it is worth giving everything to obtain
it.
So
how do you get it? That brings us to the
next point . . .
MP#2 The acquisition of the treasure.
In
both parables Jesus says that the men went and sold all they had
and bought the treasure. What does that mean?
And
how do we translate that into what we should do in our everyday lives?
Selling
everything to buy the treasure of the kingdom of heaven
is Jesus’ way of describing what true faith
in him produces in a person’s life.
True
faith is not superficial, it’s not just an emotional experience.
It produces a person who is willing to
devote his life to serving Christ.
It’s
when the seed of the Word goes in deep and produces a crop—
30, 60 or 100 times what was sown.
Jesus
is saying that people who really understand the gift of grace,
turn around and in faith and love offer
their lives to him in return.
They
say: Jesus you are my Lord and Savior.
I’m yours and I’ll do anything you ask of
me. I’ll give you anything you want.
I’ll give up anything you ask.
Because I know I can’t out give my Savior or
my Heavenly Father.
You’ve
probably never heard the name Lilias Trotter.
I hadn’t till I read about her in Dr.
Rayburn’s sermon.
She
was an Englishwoman who lived from 1853 to 1928.
She was raised in a wealthy Christian home.
Her father was a London stockbroker.
She
became a Christian as a child but her commitment to Christ deepened
through her involvement in the London
crusades of two great evangelists
of the time, Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey.
She also became a part of the Keswick
Movement.
Lilias
had a heart for women in the city.
She opened a restaurant for women only that
served working girls,
and she turned a former nightclub into a
rescue mission for prostitutes.
Those
works eventually became the basis for YWCA in London.
But
Lilias didn’t stay in London, she went to Algeria to do missionary work
among the Muslims. She didn’t know the language or customs when
arrived.
But she worked there for 40 years.
She
wrote books, evangelized men and women, especially women.
And had a remarkable ministry.
There
have been countless Christians like Lilias Trotter who have given up
a
comfortable life at home to take the Gospel to difficult mission fields.
But
there is something unique about what she gave up
to follow God’s calling on her life.
Lilias
was a painter—watercolors mostly.
When
she was still young, and moving in her parents’ wealthy circles,
she met John Ruskin. Ruskin was an art historian and critic
who was the most influential figure in the
English art world of the 19th century.
They
met on a trip to Venice that Lilias was taking with her mother.
Mrs. Trotter wanted to know what Ruskin
thought of her daughter’s paintings.
So she asked him to look at a few of her
watercolors.
She
made it clear to him that Lilias had had no formal training and that
he wouldn’t hurt her feelings if he said her
work was not good.
Years
later when Ruskin was lecturing at Oxford and he told about his first
encounter with Lilias Trotter’s
paintings. He said to his students—you
women
will love this—he said that he always thought
that women could not paint
or draw anything great. They could only do sentimental work.
But
that all changed for him when he was in Venice in 1876, and a mother
asked him to look at her daughter’s
paintings. He said that he reluctantly
agreed.
And he was blown away by her work.
He
came to regard her as one of the great artists of her generation
and he told her that with her talent, she
could become a world figure in painting.
They
became close friends, even though Ruskin was not a Christian,
and at one point he urged her to give up
everything else and pursue this
tremendous gift—but she refused and went to
Algeria and the Muslims instead.
The
greatest judge of artistic talent in her day saw her immense potential,
but she gave herself to the work she
believed the Lord was calling her to do.
Now
that is selling everything you have to buy the field with the buried
treasure.
That is selling everything to buy one
magnificent pearl.
If
you don’t give up what matters to you, what counts to you,
what is valuable and important, then you
have not sold all that you have.
The
joy of your salvation and the joy of knowing Jesus should result in you making
choices that make worldly people scratch
their heads and wonder why.
Decisions that make them, say, I don’t get
it. I would never do that.
None
of you are great artists who will forsake your art
to take the gospel to Muslims in
Algeria.
And
none of you are fishermen who will leave your nets on the seashore
for an uncertain future of following Christ.
But
if you are a Christian, and if you have tasted of Jesus’ kingdom,
then there will be no price too great to pay
to have the treasure found in him.
You
will also be called upon to demonstrate with your life
that you believe Jesus and his kingdom more
precious and more valuable
than the pleasures and satisfactions of the
world.
You
will also have to surrender things in order to be Christ’s disciple.
You
will have to show by your decisions that you believe Christ’s kingdom
is far better than anything the kingdom of
this world has to offer—
And
that you would rather have the future Jesus’ promises for faith in him,
rather than the best and the greatest things
this world can offer right now.
Do
you understand what Jesus is saying?
He’s
saying that a Christian is a person who finds salvation
so wonderful and so priceless—that whatever
the cost of following him—
that cost will be immediately paid.
Tim
Keller has a helpful way of explaining this. In his sermon on these parables
he
referred to something that is a frequent theme of his—
what he calls the solitude test and the
nightmare test.
The
solitude test is this: Where does your
mind go in solitude?
When the busyness of life is hushed, what do
you think about?
What are your fantasies? What are your worries?
financial security, personal relationships,
acceptance by people who matter? Keller says, those things are your heart’s treasure.
The
nightmare test is similar.
What do you dread losing more than anything
else?
Is there anything you would rather die first
than lose?
Your
reputation, professional success, control of your future.
Keller
says again, those things are your heart’s treasure.
These parables teach that in the Christian
life, there has to be a transfer.
You have to give those treasures of your
heart to Christ, to receive
the blessings of the kingdom. That’s what faith is.
And
the way you know that transfer has taken place, is by examining
your motive for following Christ.
Are
you following him because expecting him to fix something in your life?
Because there is something wrong with the
things you really value,
and you hope to obligate Jesus to do
something help you.
Or
do you say: Jesus, you are my Lord—you
know my worries and my needs.
You know how I would like these things to
work out in my life,
I know you are able to do exactly that
But,
my life is in your hands. And I’m going
to follow you, and obey you,
and you do with me as you will because I
trust you.
When
that has happened, when you think like that—then the transfer has happened,
and you have sold everything and gotten the
pearl of great price.
That’s
risky, isn’t it?
In
C.S. Lewis’ autobiography he says that one reason he was such a determined
atheist for so many years was because he
prized more than anything leading a
comfortable life. And he was very careful to make decisions
that led to the
most comfortable path. For him those were most reasonable.
He
had this fear, that if there was a God, he would probably not be reasonable.
He would demand things of me that I would
never choose.
And
when Lewis was finally captured by God, he found that he was right.
The Lord was not reasonable, led him down all
sorts of strange paths—
but at the same time he found the greatest
joy in knowing God.
You
remember how well Lewis expressed it in the Narnia Chronicles.
The
children are asking the talking animals about Aslan—the great lion
who is Lord of Narnia and they ask, Is he
tame?
Animals
laugh and say: No he’s not tame. But he’s good.
Have
you found Jesus Christ? Have you
transferred your treasure?
Maybe
some here, still trying to fill soul with the passing things of this world—
career, success, romance, acceptance. Make the transfer. Give those to Lord.
For
those of you who already have. Know
kingdom of heaven and it’s blessings.
You know this is something never quit doing,
is it?
Even this morning, something else that has
grabbed heart’s affection.
Jesus
is saying—Give it to me. Turn it
over. You won’t be sorry.
Because nothing is more precious than the
treasure of my kingdom.