What's It Worth to You?

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This is the third sermon in a series of messages on the Kingdom of God. This message speaks about the infinite value of God's Kingdom and about the sacrifice we must make in order to enter the Kingdom.

Written Excerpts:

Matthew 13:44-46 ^(NKJV) "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Introduction:  If any of you are consumers of reality TV you may be familiar with American Pickers, which is an American reality television series on the History channel. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz travel the back roads of America looking to buy “rusty gold.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this show, but I assume by the descriptions I’ve read that these men hope to discover and acquire some rare hidden treasure in someone’s pile of junk that will end up being worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

I had a friend over in Ohio named Larry that liked to dabble in antiques or anything he thought could be turned into a profit. One of his areas of interest was antique postcards. He told me one time about stopping at a roadside antique shop in a small town where he was able to buy a shoe box of postcards for only $5. That shoe box of several hundred postcards contained 50 old postcards with Coca Cola advertisements on the front of them. Larry was offered $500 for those 50 postcards. He did not sell, and later discovered in an appraisal catalog that the cards had a potential value of $50 each or $2500!

These stories highlight the fact that it is not unusual for people to discover they have a valuable treasure which they acquired quite by accident and with very little investment.

Our Scripture lesson for today’s message is about two cases in which a person finds a rare treasure of inestimable value and proceeds to sell off all his possessions in order to acquire the invaluable treasure. Jesus tells the stories to describe what the Kingdom of God is like for the person who truly understands its value.

Transition: Today I want to discuss these two very brief parables told by Jesus in order to learn more about the Kingdom of God, which we had started exploring a few weeks ago.

I.    Parable background settings

Lenski New Testament Commentary - The practice of hiding great treasure, such as gold and jewels, was far more frequent in ancient days, especially in the East, due to war, changes of rulers, and the like. Trench reports that men of wealth often divided their wealth into three parts: one for doing business, another part converted into precious stones with which to flee, if necessary, a third part to be buried in a safe place. Thus it could happen that someone died, and with that all trace of the buried hoard was lost until by accident another stumbled upon it. That is the situation in this parable.

Tyndale Commentaries - Valuables such as coins or jewels were often hidden in a jar in the earth (cf. 25:25, the parable of the talents), and discoveries of such treasure trove were a favorite theme of popular stories.

The man who found the treasure was probably a laborer working the field for the owner, who probably would not have known of the buried treasure. He re-hides the treasure with the anticipation of doing whatever is necessary to acquire it. In order to acquire the field with the treasure he must sell everything he owns. But he does so with JOY!

The next parable…(v.45-46)

Lenski New Testament Commentary - "Again" introduces this as a second comparison.… the likeness consists in the actions: what is done by the man regarding the treasure, and what the merchant does regarding the pearl. There was evidently a difference between "a man" mentioned in v. 44, a mere ordinary peasant or laborer, of whom the world has a large number, and this rich merchant, whose profession it was to inspect and to buy pearls in foreign cities, a man such as the world has but few.

Tyndale Commentaries - Pearls were highly valued in the ancient world (see Jeremias, PJ, p. 199 for the fantastic prices they could fetch). The action of the merchant (a substantial trader, not a local retailer), while more economically improbable than that of the finder of the treasure, immediately catches the imagination.

Lenski New Testament Commentary - In order to appreciate this point one must know the esteem in which pearls were held by the ancients, sums almost incredible being paid for a single pearl when it was a perfect specimen of its kind. Great skill was required to gauge the value of a pearl, noting its defects in shape, tint, smoothness, etc.

When he finds “ONE” pearl of great price, he does exactly like the man in the first story – he sells everything (implies all the pearls he has already bought), and purchases the valuable pearl.

II.  Lessons to learn

A.  The value of the kingdom.

“treasure;” “one pearl” – words that convey great worth that is greater than what can be imagined.

Lenski New Testament Commentary - The term "treasure" is comprehensive, so that we may think of all the precious things in the kingdom: righteousness, pardon, peace, etc., all that is spiritually priceless.

Romans 14:15-17 ^(NKJV) Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The treasure is an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that produces salvation from sin (righteousness), peace with God and joy in the Holy Spirit. Nothing else compares with this!

B.  The discovery that is made.

One writer suggests that the men in these two parables represent the seed that fell on good soil back in the parable of the sower that was mentioned earlier in the chapter. In both stories, the farmer and the merchant make their awesome discoveries quite by accident in the ordinary course of their daily routine. Both the farmer and the merchant immediately recognized the value of their discovery and did not delay in seeking the means to acquire it.

Some believe it is noteworthy that the “treasure” and the “pearl” were not blatantly obvious (i.e. they were “hidden” in some degree), yet they were not impossible to find. This coincides with Jesus’ words, (Matthew 13:13 ^NKJV) “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Parables were nothing more than neat stories to the people who had no desire to search for meaning and truth, but to the ones seeking truth, God provides revelation.

Lenski New Testament Commentary - As regards the reality the field brings out the thought that God did not hide his treasure far off in the heavens where no human being could even come near it but in a common, lowly place, where it could, indeed, be found, but certainly not by the earthly wise, proud, and self-sufficient. (see 1 Corinthians 1:27 ^(NKJV) But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty)

 “God hides himself from intellectual [dabblers], but reveals himself in Christ to those who humbly seek him.” ― John R.W. Stott, Why I Am a Christian

C.  The sacrifice joyfully made.

Lenski New Testament Commentary - Scriptures know of two extraordinary ways of buying: one is, without money or price, (e.g. Isaiah 55:1 ^(NKJV) "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.); the other is to give up … all that would prevent our possessing them.

The kingdom cannot be bought in the same sense that the pearl was bought, but the point of the story is the amount of sacrifice and commitment the merchant was willing to make in order to acquire it. To both of these men, it really wasn’t considered a sacrifice because they realized that what they were getting was so much more valuable than all they gave up!

This is exactly the opposite attitude from the man who came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” When Jesus told him he lacked one thing, “Sell what you have and give to the poor,” the man went away full of sorrow because he had “great possessions.” He was unwilling to separate his life from his heart’s treasure – his possessions.

Conclusion:

We’ve been talking about two stories told by Jesus that illustrate the great value of the kingdom of God/heaven. However, the value is only known to those who have the capacity to recognize it.

What is it worth to you to have righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit?

What is it worth to you to have eternal life with Jesus rather than eternal suffering separated from God?

Are you more like the farmer and the merchant, or are you more like the rich young ruler?

What’s the kingdom of God worth to you?

What’s a relationship with the King of kings worth to you?

I hope you feel the same as I do this morning. I know “I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today!”

I know this morning that I want to know more, more about Jesus!

Let’s sing the closing song:   More About Jesus