A compelling commitment: 3 stories, 3 views
I once borrowed a tan, leather sports coat from my brother. He was not using it, and I was headed back to college, so he lent it to me for the semester.
I liked it so much that I brought it back next semester, but I didn’t tell him. I hung it in the back of his closet, behind everything else where he would not see it.
The following semester he asked me about it:
You still have that jacket?
No, I brought it back last break. It is in your closet.
No it isn’t.
Sure it is, right here.
Oh.
You mean you haven’t been wearing it?
No.
Well, since you aren’t using it, can I have it?
He gave me the jacket and I wore it till I "outgrew" it. I had found something I liked and wanted and, though it was not mine to claim, I arranged things so that the person who did own it would give it to me.
I followed a similar plan at other times. I find a book in bookstore that I want. I don’t have the money to get it that day, so I purposely misfile it so I know where it is and can come back for it later. I don’t want someone else to walk away with my treasure before I can close the deal.
Jesus tells a similar story.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:44-50 (NIV)
The kingdom is like a treasure
The point here is not the hiding or the maneuvering, it is the valuing and pursuing. It is the aggressive embracing of a thing so treasured, so dear it takes priority over everything.
The man in this story
• worked to hide the treasure
• sold everything he owned
• bought the treasure and all access to it
The kingdom is like the treasure. It is that valuable thing that is worth pursuing and acquiring. It is that thing that is worth more than anything we can imagine.
Think of God and what He did to have this kingdom.
• He created humanity and they pulled away from Him.
• Ever since, He has been exerting Himself to find His people. He has been listening for those who would declare Him their God.
• Among all the nations, He established one that would bear the blessing to the rest
• He chose the fourth tribe in that nation
• He chose not the first King, but the second
• He chose as that king, the youngest son
• He chose a line that was not among those
dedicated to Him by bloodline, but a lineage that was filled with sinners, foreigners and nobodies
• He chose a poor displaced family
• He chose an unwed mother
And in this source, He hid all He had, His only Son, His own identity. Through a route of rejection, abuse and execution, He spilled the blood that was the seed for the kingdom. Jesus’ death became the source of life for all who would follow God and call Him King.
Among the nations and the families of the world, through the founder of the Church, His Son, He hid His people, the followers of God, the believers in Christ and He called them His kingdom.
When God called out "Adam, where are you?" in the garden, He has been waiting ever since to hear an answer. Everyone who answers, "Here am I" in one way or another, is part of His kingdom.
• God sacrificed the power He could have exerted to force what He wanted
• God sacrificed the prerogative to influence people who were inclined away from Him
• God sacrificed His infinite objectivity for intimate involvement
• God sacrificed the life of His own son
• God sacrificed everything. The great God who is all powerful suffered
And He did it to identify and gain His kingdom. It is precious to Him. It is His treasure. If you are inclined to be a part of His kingdom, it is for you He sacrificed.
• You are the kingdom
• You are His treasure
God valued you so much, He gave everything to pursue and obtain you. If you ever caught yourself thinking:
• If there is a God, I want to know Him and love Him
• If Jesus was more than a historical figure, more than a great teacher, I want to learn from Him
• If there is a right thing to be done in any given situation, I want to know what it is
• If there is something out there bigger than myself, of eternal significance, I want to be a part of it
Then you are on the edge. You are on the brink. You are overlooking the frontier of the greatest thing this life has to offer.
You are launching into the Kingdom of God. Reach out to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and acceptance and be a part of the Kingdom.
God sacrificed everything to gain you.
The kingdom is like a merchant
The natural assumption in the second story is that it is the same story told again. The kingdom is a treasure and the kingdom is a pearl. This is not right.
In this story, the kingdom is not the valuable pearl, it is the merchant. In the last story it was something to be pursued. In this one, it is the thing that does the pursuing.
If in the first story, followers of Jesus, lovers of God are established as the kingdom being sought, in this story, we are the kingdom doing the seeking.
What are you seeking?
If in the last story, the kingdom was the treasure, and in this story the kingdom is the treasure hunter, what in this story is the treasure?
I believe this story represents the reciprocal relationship of the kingdom.
• In the first story, God is seeking a treasure that He calls His kingdom
• In the second story, the kingdom is seeking a treasure, a high cost pearl called God
This covers both branches of God’s Magnificent Dream:
I will be their God and they will be my people
• He seeks us out
• We seek Him
This is not a once and done action. Many of us think that because we accepted Christ one day as a child that is all that is necessary to value the kingdom. That is not so. It is not answered by a single decision on a single day of our lives. It is answered every day and in every decision we make.
Notice that the cost for pursuing God is proportionally the same as God’s cost for pursuing you. Everything. This raises all kinds of theological problems. Isn’t salvation free? Isn’t it the gift of God?
Yes, it is, but pursuing God will cost, Jesus also makes that clear. Not because we can hope to pay for our salvation, but because it is such an all consuming commitment that no part of our life is left out.
• Have you given up everything?
• What is on the auction block?
Your home? What if Jesus wants you to go somewhere else and minister, are you willing to go?
Your family? What if Jesus wants your family to go somewhere else and minister, can you let them, with an open heart and a blessing?
Your job? What if your boss wants you to do something immoral, or what if you work around only Christians and God wants you to have more influence among the lost? Can you get on the job search wagon?
Your reputation? Can you make hard moral decisions and choices, can you take stands that will put you in a negative light around the people you like or respect?
And what if God wants you to give up even more?
What if it includes all your possessions - If God wants you on the mission field, can you haul everything you own around the world or give it up if not?
What about your time? Will you invest more time each week in seeing the kingdom of God strengthened in your own life and home or in the ministries of this church?
It isn’t a question of the value of following God, He is the finest, most valuable pearl. You have stumbled upon it. It is waiting for you to take action. Do you value it enough to act? Or is your life too comfortable or safe, or predictable, or secure, or fun, or whatever it is that you value more than the kingdom?
• God is the Pearl of highest value
• How badly do you want Him?
He says it will cost you everything. Are you ready to give everything?
I will admit this is hard. I have been at that place several times in my life. But from time to time I am called back there. My life becomes entangled in other things, some of them bad, some of them good, some of them neutral, but they are entanglements in any case, and God places a call on my life that demands that I choose. What will I follow? Is God the valuable pearl that I am willing to sacrifice everything for? Or have I become too attached to lesser pearls?
The kingdom is like a net
In this triad of stories:
• The kingdom is the treasure
• The kingdom is the treasure hunter
• The kingdom is the place treasure is kept
In the third story, Jesus says the treasure is like a net. Now, the net is not the tasty fish, and it is not the working fisherman. Those are the images in the other two stories. In one the kingdom is the thing being sought, in the other it is the one doing the seeking.
I went fishing one time with my uncle out on the sound in North Carolina. He had a boat and he used to set nets in the morning and go back in the late afternoon to get his fish.
In this particular case, there had been a run of fish that he couldn’t stand, a type of shad. He wanted croakers and blue, but these other fish had filled the nets. Out of hundreds of fish, he only got a dozen or so good fish.
He was hauling the nets up and pulling fish out and throwing them over his shoulder as fast as he could move. Somebody, I think it was me, got slapped upside the head with a fish, because he wasn’t watching, he was just hauling fish.
He was doing what all discriminating fishermen do, keeping what was good and throwing the rest back.
In the picture Jesus paints, the net is the kingdom, a place where fish are gathered. The fishermen, like my uncle, are angels. It is their job to reach into the kingdom and find the fish that are good and the fish that are bad and separate them out.
So what are the fish?
The fish are the individuals in the kingdom.
This story is told a number of times by Jesus
• The wheat and the tares
• The sheep and the goats
• The branch that bears good fruit and the branch that bears bad fruit or no fruit at all
In every case the good are rewarded and the bad are tossed into the fire.
I have had conversations with people who made comments something like this:
I don’t serve God for the rewards, that would be selfish. I’m not looking for a mansion on the hilltop. As long as I make it in, I’ll be ok. The old song goes "build me a cabin in the corner of glory land."
This is not an option. I understand the sentiment. Just being with God is more reward than I deserve. Just going to heaven is an incredible reward in itself.
All this is fine, as far as it goes. But Jesus says it is not the way it works. Either you are doing the work, bearing fruit, either you are whole heartedly giving up everything you have and pursuing God, or
• you are a fruitless branch
• a weed
• a goat
• a bad fish
Jesus says that someday God is going to commission a task force of angels to do the work of separating the fruitful from the barren; the bad from the good.
All my life I have heard people say something like:
I don’t know why the pastor doesn’t put so-and-so out of the church. They don’t belong. They are obviously
• sinful
• or disruptive
• or heretical
or any number of other things that a person does to exhibit what makes them worthy of being tossed out by the pastor.
The pastor does not do that. It is God’s job. He has angels picked out to carry out His wishes when the time comes. It isn’t mine or any other pastor’s. It is my job to try to warn you that if you aren’t actively giving up everything to follow God, you are missing out on the greatest treasure there is. You are not bearing fruit and that is a dangerous place to be.
The flood plain is rising
• You are the treasure sought by God
• Are you seeking Him will all you have?
• If you are, how is it showing up in your life?
While you are diving for pearls or swimming in the net, it is your place to ask what you are seeking. Are you content to be a bad fish in a good place associating with good fish, hoping to be mistaken for one? Are you content to treat God like a pearl of lesser value? He gave everything for you. What are you giving for Him?
As the living water rises, you are being called upon to become a completely selfless disciple. You are being called upon
• to give everything
• to give all
• God doesn’t deal in half measures
• And we are not allowed to either
If this church will launch into the next 50 years hoping to accomplish anything at all for God, our commitment level must rise with the flood.
There are things God requires of us, and those things are becoming clearer all the time. It starts with a commitment:
• I am a treasure sought sacrificed for by God
• I will sacrifice everything for Him
• I will be part of the good catch, a keeper
To see that happen is going to take commitment, time and energy. It is going to take a concentrated pursuit of God in many ways. Here is the essence of the commitment:
God, you gave everything to obtain me. I will not be thrown out like a bad fish with the wicked. I am making a new commitment to give everything in pursuit of You.
Will you commit?
