Parables - Treasure
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
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Story of finding treasure.
Place yourself into the place of a field worker struggling to survive in the midst of the dust bowl and the great depression.
Lost everything here at home so you pack up what little belongings you have and you head out west in search for agricultural work, just hoping to make enough to feed your family.
We are wrapping up our series on the parables of Jesus this morning by looking at
Which read simply
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.
And if you are like me, you have likely heard this parable explained through some narrative or story like the one I just told you.
Where a man who has nothing discovers a buried treasure by chance during his labor in a field and seeing the value of it joyously sells all that he owns so that he could buy the field and be assured that the treasure would become his.
and in the same manner the merchant in search of fine pearls finds one of great value and sells off all that he has in order to make it his own.
For as long as I can remember when I’ve heard teaching regarding these two parables, we always make them about us don’t we?
We are the man laboring in the field, we are the merchant searching for pearls, and when we come across the kingdom of God we hopefully identify it for the treasure that it is and we leave everything behind us in order to ensure that we make it ours, that we embrace it, that we understand that no price is too high to obtain it.
This is obviously true.
After all: is salvation not a gift of unmeasurable worth?
Did Jesus not teach that every sacrifice that we might make in this world to obtain entrance into the kingdom would be worth it?
Did he not teach that we must be willing to sacrifice of our time
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Did he not teach that we must be willing to sacrifice of our wealth
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven, and come follow me?
Did he not teach that we must be willing to sacrifice our relationships
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
Matt 12:46-
And did he not teach that we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves when he said:
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.
Paul would write in
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Paul
So yes, without a doubt this concept of self sacrifice, of trading everything for the treasure of belonging to the kingdom of God is absolutely scriptural, and true and absolutely correct.
But my question is this morning, and the question I hope that you will ask with me this morning, is that what this parable, in this context, really teaching? Or is it revealing to us some other scriptural truth regarding the kingdom of God?
Contextual Considerations
Contextual Considerations
As we’ve said throughout our study on the parables of Jesus. We want to hear them as if we are hearing them for the first time as if we were sitting at the feet of Christ in the intended audience, doing our best to place ourselves in the cultural and historical context in which Jesus spoke these truths that had been hidden since the foundation of the world.
So as we look at , we see that we are once again as we were last week, sitting there by the sea of Galilee, where he will tell his parables of the seeds, how they grow, how the mustard seed goes from something small to something great, all of which we have talked about. And he’ll tell the parable of the weeds in 24-30 which is important because he’s going to explain it to his disciples immediately before our text in v36-43 and he’s going to retell a very similar parable after our scriptures this morning in v. 47-50.
These two surrounding parables tell a story of what the kingdom of God is like.
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like
These two surrounding parables tell a story of what the kingdom of Heaven is like.
Now it’s important to know that these parables are to be taken as a whole to relay what the kingdom of God is like. We shouldn’t read the parable as though one aspect of the parable is the kingdom and some other aspect as another, the kingdom of God is like the entirety of the parable, we shouldn’t stop at the first comma of any given parable and identify that with the kingdom of heaven.
[Summarize parables before and after]
In both of these parables, what is of value is the same thing that would be of value to us, the harvest of wheat, the catch of fish.
Those things have value and speak to us as valuable, and within the parable, it is God who deems them valuable the same as we do.
So then here’s my question, why do we think the items of value in the parables between these two parables have suddenly changed?
Why do we immediately assume that the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price is the kingdom of God?
Well I think that we might do that naturally because those of us who are christians and read the scriptures know the amazing and incalculable value of the kingdom of God, and because we recognize that we place it there.
But who is speaking here? And what has he been speaking about? What message is he trying to relay here?
Jesus is speaking!
So what if the topic hasn’t changed. What if the things of value in 44-46 are the same things of value in the parables before and after?
What if Jesus is the man, and we are the treasure? What if Jesus is the merchant, and we are the pearl of great value?
Does that make you uncomfortable? Well it shouldn’t, it should make you realize how incredibly valuable you are to our God.
And let me tell you, is that not a message that everyone in the world needs to hear today?
We live in a world in desparate need of hope, in need of goodness, in need of hearing that they are loved and cared for as though they are treasure, that they have worth!
That the babies that are murdered in the womb are treasured, that the drug addict down the street is more valuable than anything in your life, that the person you despise is like gold, and silver, and precious jewels in God’s eyes.
Listen, if I have to tell you why it matters that we start seeing the kingdom of God like this, you are not paying attention!
Church, scripture tells us that God so loved the world, that he gave his only son. We know that, most of the world knows that verse, but do we know that he didn’t do it begrudgingly? That he didn’t do it the way that I remember doing my chores as a kid?
He didn’t do it, thinking “Well I’ll do it, but I don’t like it!”
No, he saw a treasure that he would do anything to possess!
Can we even imagine what he left in order to become flesh? I mean he had it all!
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
And yet like the man in the parable, he went and he sold all of that by emptying himself by becoming like us.
Listen that might make us bitter, but he did it with Joy
turn with me to
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
The price that Jesus paid for us, he paid it with Joy.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Jesus sold it all to buy us back from the mess we got ourselves into and couldn’t hope to get ourselves out of.
Jesus said in
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
You know, he said of the Israelites in
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
and he says of us in
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Church, we are treasured, we are loved, and that knowledge ought to drive us with enthusiasm toward living for him.
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Notes
Notes
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.
Matt 13:44-45
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Newton, Doug. Fresh Eyes on Jesus' Parables: Discovering New Insights in Familiar Passages (pp. 31-41). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.