Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Let’s read that twice.

So… we are going to be looking at this one verse and I hope I can do it justice.

I told Sarah on Friday when I was reviewing and just kept reading the verse.

I love this verse.

I imagine a man finding a treasure.... and then being so excited about it that he hides it again, sells everything he has and buys the field.

I will admit this is weird and some additional story material would’ve helped.

Was the man searching for this treasure?

And let me get this straight....if he was journeying to find it he simply found it and hid it again AND sold everything he had prior to finding the treasure, and bought the field that the treasure was found it.... and then what?

Most commentaries just guess at things… some have turned this parable into a huge metaphor.

They say the treasure hidden is the church of God and the field represents the world..and the man is Jesus.

I’m not convinced by this and I tend to side against one-to-one metaphor readings of Scripture by this I mean that some like to over symbolize everything Jesus says.

Now… I think its super important to delve into the context of Scripture and to put ourselves in the mind of Christ’s audience.

The Scripture talks a fair amount deal about ‘treasure’:

We use this word to mean the treasure the wisemen brought Jesus

when it talks about storing up treasures for yourself in heaven vs on this earth

as well… where your heart is there your treasure will be

Luke 12:33

Colossians

So…when the Bible says treasure, it means treasure.

I think of pirates always looking for lost treasure and for the infamous “X” that marks the spot on the map.

Whenever we read these pirate stories we know that these men bought into this idea about a hidden treasure and the air of mystery that surrounded it.

Most of Jesus’ parables deal with the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God.

It is important for us as believers to not limit the Kingdom as just a place but a reality.

The Kingdom of God can be experienced here and now, but it will be experienced at a newer level of reality when Christ returns.

The Kingdom pushes further into this world when demons, unbelief, and unrighteousness are defeated by the power of salvation , righteousness, peace, and joy (all of which are found in and through Jesus Christ).

So, the Kingdom of God means:

The Kingdom pushes further into this world when demons, unbelief, and unrighteousness are defeated by the power of salvation , righteousness, peace, and joy (all of which are found in and through Jesus Christ).

The reign of God

Salvation through Jesus

Partly present, partly futuristic reality

Present and ongoing saving grace of Christ

What is the bottom line point of ?

The Kingdom of God is so valuable that you losing everything that this world has to offer and only remaining with the Kingdom of God is a happy trade off.

Losing everything but still having Jesus is a joyful sacrifice.

There was a book written by Tullian Tchividjian was about Colossians but the name of the book was “Jesus + Nothing= Everything” and this is the point of this verse.

You could either willing give everything away or....through life circumstances lose everything and Jesus would still be enough.

The real question is…do you and I actually believe this?

I think we can take the treasure being found as the moment of our salvation.

We came to this point where we believed Jesus to be enough.

We had come to the end of ourselves and that is where we met Jesus…or where he met us.

You ‘found’ this treasure when you were reconciled with Christ Jesus through his work on the cross for you and your ‘accepting’ of this gift of grace.

Now…as we continue through this passage we see that the man stumbles upon this treasure and then hides it and sells everything he has to buy the field.

Let’s not get lost in the weeds here.

The point isn’t necessarily ‘how much did the field cost?’ as much as the emphasis is on the fact that it cost you everything you had and that it was worth it....

We see this reality in

So… here comes the most important nuance here.

You and I never bought the field nor the Kingdom.

Christ paid for this thing with his life… you and I are the beggars that are offered the finest bread in the world.

We receive the Kingdom and now the question becomes: where is your heart?

You have the Kingdom but where is your heart…?

Matthew

You lose everything but gain Jesus… and note the use of the word joy in

“In his joy” he goes and sells.... it isn’t a sad occasion when you trade everything for Jesus.

John Piper says the following in the context of this verse:

“If we treasure him, and if we love them, we will pray and give and labor to reach more and more and more and more people.

Will we not?

That’s one burden we carry as leaders.

How shall we fulfill our mission—to spread a passion for the supremacy of God? Spread.

Spread.

Spread.

That’s why Jesus came.

That’s what he sent us to do.

Go make disciples.

Draw more and more people into the everlastingly all-satisfying experience of knowing and treasuring Christ.

Share your joy.

Don’t keep it to yourself.

Horded joy rots.

Shared joy increases.

That’s our mission as a church.

And one of our great burdens as leaders is find God’s strategy for how we should do that.

Everything we do is part of that strategy.”

So what does this parable mean for us sitting in this living room?

Horded joy rots.

At one point in our walks we sold it all for Jesus and, perhaps, you, like myself, felt on fire for Jesus.

Then life happens… or it doesn’t happen.

We lose the fervor we once had… we have the field, but not the joy.

I really struggled in this area about a year ago.

We had moved up here and I was working at the post office.

Our finances were super tight…the honeymoon period of leaving a super dysfunctional church setting to then church planting and working at the post office was starting to wear away.

I started to quietly question our move here:

Shoot, I told myself I was making a good deal of money as a admin pastor.

I, arguably, was doing what the Lord wanted me to do… we weren’t paying as much rent as we were paying in MA.

We had Sarah’s parents closer.

Sarah had a great job and a fantastic schedule.

So why the heck did we move up here?

You see my friends I had “purchased” the field… but wasn’t joyful about selling everything I had to do it.

This last year I’ve been stretched.

God has been calling on my half heartedness towards him and his Kingdom.

I now have words to describe what was going on: I confused my doing with being (with God) and my horded joy was rotting.

It was rotting to the point that I had little joy left…

And my friends....everyone in this room knows this reality: you can run on empty.

You can trick yourself into one more mile…one last hurrah.

Am I all better?

Am I skipping down main south whistling the message of the Kingdom of God?

This is a hard question to answer.

The bottomline is that I should be.

And i’ll be the first one to tell you that yes, this pastor, struggles with joy.

Some of you might find this hard to believe… this world and this profession have a way of squeezing you.

I always tell Sarah that as humans we amass this metaphorical filing cabinet.