Sermon Tone Analysis

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.