Portraits of the Kingdom: Parables of the Treasure, Pearls, and Net. Matthew 13:44-50

Notes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewyr1jl9jko

“Man finds wife's lost wedding rings after searching through landfill”

Blood Diamond

The Man from Snowy River

Finding a treasurer:

Garage Sales

Story of my mom finding a painting: Eye of the Harbor

Bose headphones

Antique Road Show

The Shawshank Redemption

Count of Monte Christo

The Man from Snowy River

Further Kingdom Secrets

“How do people find the Kingdom?” Michael Green

Parable of the Hidden Treasurer: Abandoned Joy

Jesus doesn’t go into details, but there’s something scandalous here…

Found by a poor man?

Kingdom of Heaven is “hidden”: In this case, the man doesn’t seek the treasurer. He just happens to bump into it, but “instantly recognizes its value.” Michael Wilkins

By selling everything, he gains much, much more!

Willingness to give up everything to purchase that which was hidden.

Produces Joy, regardless of sacrifice

Stumbled into it.

Found and covered

Sacrificed and purchased

Wasn’t a burden! Gladly sacrificed.

So many details missing here…

Who owned the field? Was it dishonest not to tell anyone? Getting into the weeds. Jesus doesn’t go there.

Leon Morris: “In any case Jesus is not dealing with the morality or the legality of the man’s action, but making the point that there can be treasure such that it is worth selling everything in order to possess it. So with membership in the kingdom.

Leon Morris: “The selling of all he has is rather a way of bringing out the truth that one should count all well lost for the sake of the kingdom.”

What is he doing? Crazy nut!

Ended up wealthy!

“Joyful abandon” versus sacrifice.

Like Jacob working for 7 years for Laban.

Parable of the Pearl of Great Price: Obsessive Sacrifice

Found by a rich man?

“There are other pearls in the market.” Michael Green

Focused on the one thing he wanted.

Story of Keith Green

Willingness to give up everything to purchase that which was found.

Actively searches for it!

Morris: “that no cost is too great when it is a matter of gaining the kingdom.”

Morris: “In the second parable there is the further point that, whereas the man with the treasurer could sell part of it and still be wealthy, the man with the pearl must retain it; his delight was in possessing it, not in the profit he could make from it.”

Ended up poor!

Not really… He ends up with the one thing that is of massive value.

Nothing is more important. Nothing.

“People find the kingdom in many ways. Some come upon it by accident, some after a long and patient search. But it is immensely worthwhile, however we come on it. It is treasurer. It is a beautiful pearl. It is worth any sacrifice.”

Both:

Value of the Kingdom: “incomparable quality of the kingdom of God.” Michael Wilkins

“Not on buying one’s way into the kingdom but on recognizing its supreme value.” Michael Wilkins

“Both stress the value of the kingdom, and the third the finality of the separation that will take place at the end of the age. All three are found only in this Gospel.” Leon Morris

Joy, desire, sacrifice, dedication, undivided attention.

The Net: What will be your response then? (Michael Green)

The Kingdom of God separates: Doom and Gloom!

Michael Wilkins: “The net is the large seine or dragnet (sagene), the oldest type of net used on the lake and until recently the most important fishing method. It was shaped like a long 750 to 1,000 foot wall, upwards of 25 feet high at the center, and 5 feet high at the ends.”

Leviticus 11:9–10 “9 “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. 10 But anything in the seas or the rivers that does not have fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you.”

Experience of chicken catching

Small birds weren’t worth catching. Tossed them aside.

We had to dispose of them… Throw them onto a trailer, where they’d be transported to Rausay, to an animal treatment plant.

Interesting reference to angels:

Angels will come and separate “the evil from the righteous.”

Are we saved by our searching salvation?

Are we saved by our saving up for our salvation?

Are we saved by our righteousness?

v. 50 same as verse 42: and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.