A Kingdom Worth Living For: The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and The Pearl of Great Price

Patton Shinall

The Meaning of the Parables • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Kingdom

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Introduction

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Introduction

I want you to think for a moment about the most important things in your life? How much would you be willing to give for them? For most of us, our thoughts immediately go to our husband or wife, children, family, and friends, and maybe even our pets. I know for me it is my wife, my son Owen, and my two dogs Murphy and Jackson. Those are the things that are most important to me in my life. Why is it that when we think about what is most valuable to us, we usually think of people?

Imagine for a moment that you just received a phone call and on the other end of the line you hear what sounds like wind with someone coughing faintly in the background and on the other end of the line someone says, “I’m with the fire department and your house is on fire. We won’t be able to save the house, but if you hurry, you might be able to grab a few items before it is too late.” What do you suppose you would do? Well first you would rush out of here immediately as quickly as you could to get to your home. Then you would rush in and what would you grab? What would you risk your life to keep safe?

For me, I would grab my two dogs, Murphy and Jackson, the hardrive that has all of mine and Jessica’s wedding photos, and the Bible I was given when I was saved. Why would I rush to grab those things? Because they can’t be replaced. The things that we value most in the world are those things that cannot be replaced.

Because they can’t be replaced. The things that we value most in the world are those things were we to lose them, we’d never get to enjoy them again.

In Jesus uses two short parables to make this question even more personal. He is going to say, “You only get one life, are you living for the right thing? How valuable is it to you? How much would you be willing to trade to save it?”

Hear what Jesus says, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

If you remember last week we talked about how most of Jesus parables are trying to communicate one big spiritual truth. In both of these, Jesus is trying to teach his disciples the same lesson, that The Kingdom of God is worth staking your whole life on.

Let’s walk through this passage to see how Jesus shows us that living for his kingdom really is worth everything we have.

The Hidden Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

In the first story, Jesus describes a man in a field.

Presumably this is a poor man who is merely a laborer in this field and he comes upon this treasure by complete accident.

There he was, ploughing a field under the heat of the day. Sweat dripping down his face, the heat of the wind providing little relief when all of a sudden his ploughshare hits something with a deep thud.

The man stoops down and begins casually digging assuming he has hit a large rock that he will have to remove to finish ploughing the field in order to receive his meager wages only to discover the corner of a box. This man digs even faster until he pulls up a large box, opens it, and suddenly a flood of coins and precious jewels overflow to the ground.

Obviously this day laborer was thrilled about this discovery and quickly scoops all the treasure back into the box, slams it into the hole, recovers it with the dirt and digs up a little more to put on top of it for good measure.

Then he leaves that day and has a fire sell. He sells everything and liquidates everything he has to buy the field to have this incredible treasure.

The Pearl of Great Price

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Then in the second story, Jesus reiterates his point by telling a similar story.

This time, Jesus describes a merchant. A merchant would have been a wealthy whole seller of fine goods and we know this one was particularly wealthy because he was in search of fine pearls.

Pearls in the Jesus day were some of the rarest items someone could buy. Back then they didn’t have scuba equipment so pearl divers would tie rocks to their body, take a deep breath, and go to the bottom in search of their treasure.

This day was a fortuitous day for the merchant because not only did he find a pearl as he had hoped, but he found the largest and most beautiful pearl he had ever seen!

Think about it, he was a merchant. He dealt in pearls all the time but this pearl was something different. It was something worth everything to this merchant so he goes and sells absolutely everything he has, every pearl, every fine garment, all to buy this one single pearl.

And Jesus says in both of these stories, “The kingdom of heaven is like that.”

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Jesus’ point in both of these stories is that there is something worth everything we possibly have.

Notice that Jesus says the first man who found the treasure in the field went “in his joy” and sold everything he had. For him, it wasn’t even a consideration to sell everything he owned to buy this field in order to obtain this great treasure.

For him, he knew that the reward far outweighed the cost of anything he could possibly pay. No matter how much it was, it was worth it to him.

Then Jesus goes on to talk about the merchant in order to expand this truth even more.

Look at the amazing juxtaposition of these stories for Jesus to communicate a bigger message.

One question we should ask is why does Jesus tell these two stories, that have the same overall message, back to back.

I think the answer lies in how Jesus describes the second person. He tells the story of a merchant. This was an extremely wealthy person. They were not poor like the day laborer who would scrape by doing manual labor. This person had wealth and resources that the day laborer from the first story could not even dream of.

Its as if Jesus anticipates his audience saying, “Well of course the man working in the field would sell everything! He had barely anything in the first place!” But Jesus uses the merchant to lift up the infinite value of the Kingdom of God by saying, even this extremely wealthy merchant who had everything he could ever want, sold everything.

There is nothing that compares to the treasure of the Kingdom of God. You and I could not even begin to give up so much in comparison to the kingdom of God that we question its value and we regret what it costs.

You and I are called in joy to give up everything in our life and to live in Jesus’ kingdom.

So if Jesus’ point from these stories that the Kingdom of God is something worth staking our whole life on. To give up everything for, we are left with the burning question, “What makes this Kingdom so valuable?”

What is the Kingdom?

To state the obvious, The kingdom of God is where God rules and reigns in perfect blessing and peace. In other words, God’s kingdom is where his creation lives under his reign.

Our God is the Creator of all things. Therefore, he is sovereign over everything that is. In other words he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

opens and closes with these two pictures of God. 1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Showing that God is the Creator of all things and closes in verse 10 saying 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!

1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

2 for he has founded it upon the seas

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

When God first created everything, he reigned over the universe perfectly and there was complete peace and harmony in all of creation. This was God’s original intention for mankind. To live in perfect loving relationship with him and one another and to glorify God for all of his blessings and majesty, and find all of our satisfaction and all of our life in him.

and established it upon the rivers.

However, we sinned against God. In what R. C. Sproul calls cosmic treason, we deigned to say to God, “We do not really believe you are as good or holy as you say you are. You aren’t really as perfect of a king as you say you are. We think there is more out there to satisfy us. We are going to take a shot at this whole king thing and start running our own lives” and Adam and Eve sinned, and every human since has gone on sinning to where the Psalmist says 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Sin is an internal heart attitude that says “I will live life my way” and because of this rebellion our world was cursed and the peace and harmony that characterized God’s creation was torn asunder by sin and death.

We say all the time here how all of the brokenness we experience in this world is a result of sin. All of the pain, the tears, the anxiety, the grief, the death, the sickness, all the horrible evil that happens in our world is because of sin.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

However, because our God is good and gracious did not allow our sin to have the last word. Instead he determined to repair everything that had been broken so he saved for himself a people called the Jews.

And God revealed to them that he was going to send his servant to remedy all that had gone wrong. There would be One who would come and defeat the enemies sin, Satan, and death that held God’s people hostage and lead his people as a King in true worship of God where God would reign over his people for all eternity in the perfect harmony that was lost in the garden. I will reign over you and you will live in peace and you will experience life in me.

And this servant was Jesus Christ, God become a man whose first recorded words were The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This is the hope that Jesus uses these parables to say it is worth your whole life. God’s kingdom is where he is redeeming his creation to bring it out of the death and pain and brokenness that it has known and saying that he will make all things new! and This is the kingdom of God.

With his death and resurrection Jesus ushered in a way for you and I to have peace with God. To live with him as the king of our whole life experiencing all of his blessings of love and grace. Once again finding all of our satisfaction in him as we are moved from our spiritual death and brought into spiritual life. In order words, Jesus made a way for us to live in his Kingdom to experience and participate in his redemption of all creation where he will remove the effects and curse of sin so that we can have joy and fullness of life in him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

This is the paradox of Jesus’ kingdom that we live in on this side of heaven. One day, when Jesus returns he will establish the new Jerusalem in the new heaven and earth and will reign perfectly over all things.

However, Jesus’ kingdom today is not a geo-political reality, but a spiritual one.

Where is the Kingdom?

When Jesus returns it will be in judgement on all those who refuse to repent and acknowledge God as the King of kings and Lord of lords, but because God is gracious he is allowing his kingdom to reign in the tension of “already-but not yet.”

The Bible says that Jesus is right now, today, reigning and ruling over all things, but when he does so fully and perfectly, the time of repentance will be over.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Those that are saved live in this present age while experiencing the reality of the age to come through faith in Jesus Christ.

The culmination of Jesus’ ultimate reign is something that we as Christians look forward to and welcome while in the mean time seek to live in that reality here and now through faith praying 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

And this is what Jesus says is worth the price of your whole life. This redemption. This is what is of supreme worth and value that cause the man and the field and the wealthy merchant to sell everything they had to gain.

The Kingdom of God is worth staking your whole life on. to give your whole life for it. To give up everything in order to live in its blessing.

So if Jesus is calling us to stake our whole living in God’s kingdom, what does it actually look like? How do we actually live for the kingdom.

What does it look like to live for the Kingdom?

Living For the Kingdom

We Must Enter the Kingdom

First, everyone is called to enter into the kingdom. Everyone is called to accept the reality of God’s kingship in their life. But in order to do that everyone must be brought to life from their spiritual death because sin produces spiritual death and Jesus says we must be born again.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Unless one is born again he cannot hope to obtain the kingdom of God because he cannot even see the Kingdom of God because the Kingdom is seen in the gospel.

All people are spiritually dead in their sins and they must be born again through his life death and resurrection in order to be adopted as sons and daughters of God so that we could be transferred from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of the son.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

When looking at the two parables we are studying, one might draw the conclusion that entering the kingdom of God is something that we must accomplish.

After all, both the man and the merchant had to sell everything in order to purchase their desired treasure.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

But Jesus wasn’t trying to say that you have to buy your way into the kingdom of God or that you have to work into the kingdom God. What he was trying to say is that no matter what you give up it is going to pail in comparison to receiving the kingdom. It is going to pail in comparison to receiving salvation.

However, Jesus is not trying to say that we must do something in order to “buy” our way into heaven. Rather, he is making the point that in light of the joy of being a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, in experiencing God’s restoration and renewing of all things, in overcoming the power of sin through faith in Jesus’ life death, and resurrection, every person should consider it a good trade to give up everything in order to receive the kingdom through salvation.

What’s even more amazing is that Jesus’ stories communicate God’s immense grace

The treasure and the pearl pail in comparison to the worth of God’s salvation. There is nothing we could have done to earn the kingdom. All the money in the world could do nothing to earn our entrance into the kingdom of God. All the work in the world could do nothing to get you into God’s kingdom. Because the price that has to be paid to get you into God’s kingdom is infinite.

God is infinitely holy. He is infinitely pure and our sin is infinitely offensive to him. So the chasm is impossible to cross. Yet, Jesus paid the infinite price for us with his blood.

... you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

It is only through faith in Jesus that we are able to enter into God’s kingdom, experience his redemption from our bondage to sin, satan, and death,

Where you find the fullness of life in him who is the fountain of living waters.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Praise God that he has made the way to bring us into his heavenly kingdom to live under his perfect and loving rule because we could have had the opportunity to purchase the field or the pearl because of how sorry our estate was when we were dead in our sin.

17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Seeking the Kingdom

If you are here today and you have not yet put your faith in Jesus in a way that says, “God I don’t want to live life my way anymore, I want you to be my King!” Then Jesus offers you that same grace to bring you into the kingdom by forgiving all of your sins.

This is the grace given as a gift for all those who have been born again. After entering the kingdom by grace, seeking the kingdom is the response of thankful hearts that labor to see the grace of Christ applied to every area of their life.

Living in the Community of the Kingdom

If God’s kingdom is God’s work to redeem all of creation and restore it to the perfect harmony he intended for it, then God’s church is the assembly of those who have been redeemed to live in the newness of life of his kingdom.

The church is central to God’s purposes of bringing his kingdom to bear on the earth because together we proclaim Jesus’ kingdom.

Notice that throughout the gospel Jesus proclaimed the kingdom. He knew that his gospel was the message that would bring the salvation of people and redemption of all things, so he continually preached the gospel of the kingdom.

In the same way, we must proclaim the gospel not only to those who do not yet believe in Jesus that God has sovereignly placed in our lives to bear witness to, but also to each other so that we can ecnourage and spur one another on towards kingdom living together.

In the same way, we must proclaim the gospel not only to those who do not yet believe in Jesus that God has sovereignly placed in our lives to bear witness to, but also to each other so that we can encourage and spur one another on towards kingdom living together.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

The truth that Paul mentions is the very gospel that makes us a part of God’s kingdom.

Growing up or maturing into Christ is simply learning to live in such a way that Jesus progressively reigns over more and more of our life so that he becomes the only king in our life.

Living in the kingdom is not an individual affair. We need one another in order to help carry each other’s burdens, pray for and serve one another to see each other grow to love Jesus more.

We can be such selfish consumers who use the church to satisfy our needs rather than further the work of God’s kingdom in our lives and the lives of others.

Church becomes more about my tastes and preferences instead of worshiping God for the redemption he has given us in Christ.

When we truly live as God’s kingdom people, the world sees a picture of the God we worship. When we love and serve on another, forgive one another, bless and encourage one another, we show exactly what God has done for us. This is why Jesus prayed for us saying 1 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Three things:

We Must Shift our Kingdom Allegiance

You and I are always living for some kingdom whether we realize it or not. We are either serving and living in allegiance to the King of kings celebrating his glory and grace for bring us into his kingdom to experience the fullness of life under his rule, or we anoint ourselves as little kings. We have a coronation ceremony and work to set up our own little kingdom of one where we say, I know how to best live my life and I’m going to do it.

Here’s the kicker, God didn’t give us his grace so that we could just keep living our own little selfish lives with our selfish concerns with the only difference being that we’ve sprinkled in a little Jesus.

God saved us to live for a much better kingdom. We think we know what is best for us. We think we know how to best run and orient our lives but the truth is we don’t.

We set our hearts on things that we think will finally satisfy us and we waste our whole life trying to get them through our sin. you see, sin isn’t just bad things we do. They are ways we try to satisfy the desires of our heart.

Maybe eating those extra 3, or in all honesty, 6 cookies will finally give me the comfort or acceptance I seek because I had a hard day and I deserve it.

Maybe if I lash out at my spouse and say that burn that will finally hurt them like they hurt me my wrath will be satisfied

What’s a little extra glance or a flirtacious conversation with my coworker. There is nothing wrong with being wanted?

No matter how you look at it, your sins are always trying to find a way to satisfy your heart when only Jesus can do that, but we still try to anxiously set up our little kingdoms to give us the desires of our heart when God has already promised the fullness of life to us if we would only live in his kingdom under his loving rule!

The truth is many of us want this life but we simply don’t know how to live a life that is wholly set on the gospel.

Many of us grow in despair in our Christian walk because we want to give our whole heart to God in thankfulness of the gospel and live completely obedient to him, but we find ourselves continually failing to live up to our own expectations.

We want to live for God’s Kingdom in every area of our life, but it always seems to be just out of our reach.

Paul felt this same tension in ; For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate... For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

The great Apostle Paul felt like all of us. No matter how hard he tried, he kept living in the old kingdom of his flesh instead of the kingdom that God had saved him to.

The church is central to God’s purposes of bringing his kingdom to bear on the earth because together we proclaim Jesus’ kingdom.

The call that Jesus gives time and time again throughout the gospels is for all those that follow him to forsake any other king. To let go of anything and everything in our life that would keep us from following him whole heartedly.

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

Jesus is trying to say that there is nothing that can be possibly worth your soul.

And I think, many of you really love Jesus and desperately want this heart. Desperately want a heart that is willing for forsake everything and follow him. To say I’ll give up whatever it takes if it means I’m with Jesus and love him more.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

I lived so much of my life longing for this heart. Crying out to the Lord begging him to give me a heart set wholly on his glory and to free me from my duplicitous ways and besetting sins, but for the life of me I had no idea how to get there. How to make my heart desire nothing else than to live for Jesus’ kingdom.

And if that is your heart today, I have wonderful news for you. God has shown us what it takes to have this heart. To count the cost and forsake everything to live for the kingdom of God.

But I must warn you, when you start praying prayers like “Your Kingdom come, your will be done,” Those are the prayers that God will always answer. And because of the hardness of our heart, God has to do some difficult work in us to give us a heart that is wholly devoted to him.

Let’s go back to Paul in 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Notice what Paul is saying. He is saying, I so desperately want to do God’s will. I want to live in his kingdom and for only him, but I constantly betray myself. I can’t seem to stop sinning. It is ever present. So much so that Paul says it is a law for evil to be close at hand.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

And as Paul goes on you can almost see his desperation spilling off the page. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

I can’t do it. I’m at a loss. What hope do I have? What is happening here is that Paul is coming to an end of himself. He is losing all appearance of self sufficiency or any illusion that he can still reign over his little kingdom because this only leads to sin.

The hard truth I have to tell some of you is that if you want this heart, you must allow God to bring you to an end of yourself where you realize were it not for his grace in Jesus, you will never experience the fullness of life he has in his kingdom.

This is exactly what Paul discovers because he says Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Let me show you what a mean with two examples from my own life. One is a prayer I pray every day and the second is something that God is working in me right now.

Make me a godly man. I don’t even know where to step.

Save me from my anxiety

When God brings us through the pain of seeing our deficiency and limitations he answers it with that balm of faith. God’s aim in bring us to an end of ourselves is not to hurt us or to show us how worthless we are, he merely wants us to know that when he redeems us, when he saves us from that sin, it was all his grace and not our own work.

Some of you are at the end of yourself but instead of saying thanks be to God and throwing all of your hope on his grace to work a miracle in you, you still try to scratch and claw your way to holiness. Experience the rest that God has for you in Jesus.

When Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light because he knew that we can not live for him in our own power. God has to work a miracle in us to let us live in the reality of his kingdom.

But what if God doesn’t do that for me? What if God doesn’t take away that sin or that suffering? What if God doesn’t let me experience the fullness of life that comes when I abandon living for my kingdom to live in his?

We must have faith and take God at his word who said, 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.