Parable of the Hidden Treasure

Introduction

We have spent the last month unpacking some of the stories that Jesus told.

Jesus was an amazing story teller - so much of his teaching was done in the form of a story.

But as entertaining as some of those stories are for the people back then like some of us today, they weren’t always clear as to what Jesus meant.

In fact there were times when he pulled his disciples aside and said, now listen, I know you didn’t understand everything I just said so I’m going to give it to you again and tell you what I meant.

So if you are here today and you get frustrated reading your Bible and you say, I’m not going to get a degree in this, I don’t see what they see, I’m just not going to get it so whey bother.

Listen I get it, I don’t always understand, and they didn’t always understand - it is okay, to not understand sometimes.

Don’t give up

What’s not great-is to give up all together. The longer you walk with God the more you will understand.

When my kids were really little and they walked for the first time, I didn’t yell at them and ask why they didn’t run. No, I celebrated their first steps and I knew that those first steps would lead to running and so on.

God isn’t embarrassed by you because you don’t get it immediately, He knows that it might take some time. That’s okay and that’s why we are here. So that we can help you understand it a little more and hopefully help you open the door a little bit so that you will want to go back into the bible and learn a little more about what it has to say about your life.

So don’t get frustrated, write down your questions, find someone you can trust to ask, ask a pastor, that is what we are here for, to help unpack how the scriptures can speak to us today.

Context

These two short paragraphs are no different. Some people have wondered for a long time about what these passages mean and let me tell you this. I am going to offer up a suggestion as to what jesus is saying to us in these two short examples but I encourage you, go look them up and ask God to show you what they have to say about your life as well.

So I’m going to give you some background, take that background, go back into the text and read it with new insight.

So let’s give a bit of background and then we are going to talk about a couple of things that these examples have to say to us today.

In Matthew Jesus has set up how we read the Gospel through the lens of something called the Kingdom of God or the the Kingdom of Heaven.

We have said this before but the Kingdom of Heaven as mentioned in Matthew is not a place we go when we die. It is about God’s rule and God’s authority being lived out through His people on this earth, right here and right now. It is why for so many of us who grew up in the church we pray the Lord’s prayer which says “Thy Kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Now Jesus, in this part of scripture tells one story right after another. We mentioned one of them at the beginning of our series it was the parable of the sower. Pastor Joseph talked about that as we opened the series.

So he does this Story time and tells all of these stories trying to give examples of what the Kingdom of God is like, what different attributes about the Kingdom of God is like. Some of them he explains and some of them he lets just hang there.

Then in chapter 13 he gets to our little examples.

Now let me help you as you read the bible. One of the things that we look for is to what is he comparing the Kingdom of God?

In our first example and let’s put it up there.

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:44 NIV84

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

The Kingdom of God is like a Treasure hidden in a field.

Okay so the Kingdom of God is like a treasure. Now it would be easy to get bogged down in all of the small details but Jesus is telling a story, and we just want to break down, what he is getting at.

So the image is that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure- and this treasure is so valuable that the person who found it was willing to uproot his life.

What do I mean - look at what it says - they sold everything they had, their property, their possessions, everything they had just to but the property that contained the treasure they found.

Think about that, let’s say you are walking by a field and you notice something in the field that no else sees and it is worth so much that you are willing to put your entire life on the line just to get access to that field.

This person was willing to put everything on the line just to gain access to the field.

That is (according to Jesus) what the Kingdom of God is worth.

1. The Kingdom of God is Worth Everything.

For many of us we view the Kingdom of God as going to Heaven, but for Jesus it was way more than that. It was be a part of the way things are supposed to be.

When we look at our lives, as great as they are, there is a sense that each one of us has that asks, “Is this all there is?” No, there is something out there that is better. We are all searching for it, we will spend much of our Christmas season trying to give or receive it, and for many people they will come up short.

Rich Young Ruler

This isn’t a new situation we see this in the ministry of Jesus. And it sounds very similar to our situation here and I don’t think that is an accident.

A very respected and very wealthy young man comes up to Jesus and says what do I need to do to gain eternal life, again he’s not talking about going to heaven he’s talking about living in the Kingdom of God forever - there’s not enough time to unpack this but Jesus says - Don’t go against the ten commandments at least most of them(that’s paraphrased but that is what he says)

Now this cat thinks pretty highly of himself and says, Okay done.

Matthew 19:20 NIV84

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

I’ve done that - he’s a good dude, I’ve done that, I’ve been a good Jew and have treated everyone around me well. But there’s something missing. What do I still lack? He’s probably wanting Jesus to say, nothing your good, you’re amazing, way to go. But instead jesus says

Matthew 19:21 NIV84

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Jesus is saying go be like the guy in the story go sell it all, because there is something greater that you aren’t seeing.

Just like a lot of people who didn’t see the treasure in the field, this man didn’t see the treasure in front of him.

In fact the next verse said,

Matthew 19:22 NIV84

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

This story is a living example of the parable that Jesus told. The treasure in the field wasn’t giving everything away. The treasure is Jesus, it’s walking with Him, it’s being a part of His Kingdom.

You see the young man thought Jesus was asking him to give up everything for nothing

When in reality Jesus was asking him to give up virtually nothing for absolutely everything.

And this is the challenge for many of us. For us believing in Jesus, is a way to get the other stuff - he’s the secret sauce for getting the best life you want. But Jesus doesn’t want to be the miracle grow additive that you put on your life, he wants to be the center of it.

In our story - Jesus is the treasure, His Kingdom is the treasure.

Are we willing to put everything else aside Just to have Jesus is he that important to us?

Jesus says in

Matthew 10:37–39 NIV84

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

So here is my first question for you.

What are you willing to leave behind?

There is some stuff in each of our lives that are distracting us from seeing the real treasure. What do we need to leave behind?

Are we willing to leave materialism, selfish goals, are we willing to leave behind our shame, our guilt, our sin.

Are we willing to lose those things so that we can actually find true life or are we like the rich young ruler that can’t see the treasure right in front of us.

Are we willing to live differently than the world, to be generous, to be selfless, to be the image of God rather than the image we are trying to portray to the world around us?

Because He was willing to give it all for you.

And that leads us to the second example or the second story.

Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

Jesus says

Matthew 13:45–46 NIV84

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

So now we have the Kingdom of Heaven but it isn’t a treasure it is a person. It’s a merchant looking for fine pearls and finds one so precious that He gives up everything he had to buy it.

For some people this parable is the same as the one before and while maybe that is true - we have already established that our treasure (Jesus and His Kingdom) is the greatest treasure for us.

But there is another way to interpret this story and it doesn’t contradict but rather compliments what we have already talked about. And I want to use this part of the story to shine a light on another truth that can be found in this passage.

While the first story shows what we should be willing to do to grab ahold of Jesus this part of the story, I think, shows what Jesus was willing to do to grab hold of us.

You see in this second example the merchant searching all around for fine pearls and he finds one that is worth so much that he was willing to give up everything so that he could buy that one pearl.

So in comparison the value of that pearl was worth Him giving up everything.

So when I look at this example of What God’s Kingdom is like I see two things.

2. God Wants You

We see this in the parable of the lost things

The coin was lost - and the person went to find it

The sheep was lost and the shepherd left the rest of the sheep to go get the lost one.

You didn’t just stumble across God, you aren’t here by accident. God wants you in his family, he is drawing you in, He chooses you. He wants you.

3. You Worth Everything to Jesus

This is such a beautiful picture of Jesus did for us. Jesus did have everything. We believe that the Bible says that He is eternal, that Jesus was privileged with everything heaven had to offer. He was all powerful, all-knowing, all-present, glorified, worshipped, in constant unity with the Father and yet he was willing to leave all that behind because He found value in us, he found value in you.

The Bible says In Romans 5 and we have talked about this passage a lot

Romans 5:8 NIV84

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It also says in John 3:16

John 3:16 NIV84

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:10 NIV84

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Even in the Old Testament we see it.

Psalm 117–118:1 NIV84

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Over and Over again we are reminded of God’s love for us.

In fact Paul says in Philippians that Jesus left all of His glory, all of His privilege and humbled Himself and became a person, to experience all that we experience and to give us an example of what it means to be a Kingdom person.

He was willing to give it all up for you.

3. You are Worth Everything to Jesus

Here is my second question for you.

How Much is He Worth to You?

Challenge

We call this parable the Pearl of Great Price. The Pearl was priceless to the merchant. Nothing that He had was worth as much to Him as the Pearl.

And for each one of you that are here - you are priceless to God. He was will to pay everything so you could be with Him.

That is how much you are worth.

There are some of you here today who have lived your life convinced that you are worthless, that you are a mistake, that you are forgotten, But God is chasing you down, he wants you to turn toward Him not because of what you can do for Him - that is the way the world does it.

It’s because of what he has already done for you. He loves you and wants what is best for you.

Salvation

Feeling worthless

Haven’t left it all behind