Who likes treasure hunts? What do you say we have one right now! I have a cooler here in which I’ve hidden a treasure. Can one of you children come up and find it? (Child looks for treasure.) You found it! What is it? Hold it up so everyone can see. It’s a gold nugget – a Hershey’s Gold Nugget that is. Is this a treasure you would like to have? Yes? Well, what are you willing to give me for it? Even though you found the treasure, it was in my cooler so it still belongs to me. Are you willing to give me all of your toys, video games, and piggy bank savings for this? No? Why not? Because it’s not that valuable is it? Is there anything you would give all your toys and money to have? It would have to be something pretty special wouldn’t it?
In our sermon text Jesus tells us that there is something worth giving up all we have to retain. That prized possession is the gospel – the good news that Jesus came to save us from our sins. Because the gospel is our greatest possession, Jesus will teach us this morning to recognize its value and to treasure its worth.
We’re going to learn about our most prized possession from four parables Jesus told. In the first parable a man happened upon hidden treasure buried in a field. In joy he went away, sold all that he had to buy the field so that the treasure would be his. The treasure in the parable represents the riches the gospel brings us. The good news of forgiveness, like a treasure chest, is filled with all kinds of blessings. The gospel brings us things like peace, confidence, and joy. When we realize that Jesus has suffered hell in our place and rose again from the dead, we come to understand that we don’t need to be afraid of dying or standing before God on Judgment Day. On Judgment Day God is not going to broadcast all those sinful things we did in secret, or shame us by reminding us of the times we lost our cool, or reveal what we really thought of the people around us. God should do that but he won’t because his Son’s blood covers all sin. Instead God will say to those who believe in his Son, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).
It’s not that difficult to recognize the value of the gospel when we are well aware of our own sinfulness. But what does this parable teach about how we obtain the riches of salvation? What does it mean that the treasure was buried, and why did the man have to sell everything he owned before obtaining it?
Jesus compares the gospel to a hidden treasure because by nature we don’t know anything about it. Unless someone tells us about the good news of Jesus, or we read about it in the Bible, we would remain clueless about the riches of salvation. We would continue to think that we have to do something to earn God’s favour.
When Jesus says that the gospel message is hidden he’s not implying that it’s hard to get at. Notice where the treasure in the parable was buried, in a field, not high on some mountain or at the bottom of the ocean where only a few people with the right tools can get at it. The treasure of the gospel message is all around us. The Bible still remains a best seller and can be purchased at any bookstore, even had for free at any motel or downloaded from the Internet. Although the gospel is near us all, it’s a treasure that will remain hidden and be of no use to us if we ignore it.
Thankfully this morning that hidden treasure of the gospel has been revealed to you. You are no longer in the dark about salvation. What should you do now to make this treasure your own? What did the man in the parable do? He went away, sold all he had and bought the field so that the treasure could be his. With this picture is Jesus saying that we have to do something to obtain this prize? Not at all! Seven hundred years before Jesus told this parable, God invited his people to enjoy the free gift of salvation with similar words spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:1, 2).
Salvation is a free gift. We cannot do anything to buy it. The price is too high! If we think we can, we don’t understand our own sinfulness. The act of buying the field in the parable, therefore, is not a picture of what we must do to obtain salvation; it’s a portrait of faith. If someone tells you they know about a lake where the fish are so plentiful that they jump into your boat, you might say to that individual, “I don’t buy it.” What you mean is that you don’t believe it. The man in our first parable did “buy” the gospel message. He believed it, so much so, that he was willing to sell everything he had to hold on to the treasure he had found.
The man in the second parable did the same; only he sold all he had so he could hold on to the greatest pearl he had ever found. The difference between these two men is that the first man found the gospel when he wasn’t even looking for it, while the second man found it after much searching. In reality the gospel found both of them for Jesus said, “...no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65).
Which of the two men do you identify with? Are you like the first man? Did you stumble upon the gospel when your parents or spouse brought you to church? Or did you find the gospel after slogging through other religions and philosophies? Whichever way you came to possess the prize of the gospel, realize that it was God who brought you into contact with it.
If you’ve come to recognize the gospel’s value, treasure its worth by being willing to give up everything to hold on to it. For the second man that meant getting rid of all the other “pearls of wisdom” he had obtained in his search for the truth. When he discovered the gospel, he realized that no other religion or philosophy could compare, nor did they have anything in common with the gospel, therefore it was foolish of him to keep clutching at them.
If you think that Christianity has a lot in common with other religions, then you don’t understand it. All other religions teach us that if we do our best God will accept us. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that our best is not good enough. It teaches that we need a Saviour and we have one in the person of Christ Jesus. When we say that Jesus is our Saviour we don’t mean that he saves us by setting an example of self-sacrifice that we need to follow. He saved us by living the perfect life we have not lived and dying a hellish death so that we would not have to. Jesus is not a lifeguard who tries to save us from drowning by giving us quick swimming lessons; he has saved by pulling us to himself and swimming us to shore because we could not do so.
Since Jesus is the only one who can save us, why would we bother holding on to “pearls of wisdom” offered by other religions when they teach that salvation can be had apart from Christ? Friends, don’t think of faith in Christ as another way to hedge your bets. He is the way the truth and the life. Give up every other teaching and philosophy to firmly grasp this truth.
We truly treasure the worth of the gospel when we give up anything that may hinder our hold on that prize. The man in the first parable sold all he had so he could retain the treasure he had found. Are you willing to do the same? Are you willing to give up a job if it comes between you and this treasure? Are you willing to put your hobbies on the back burner so that coming to hear and study the gospel takes precedence over everything else? Are you even willing to move if distance is keeping you from hearing this life-saving truth on a regular basis?
With the third parable in our text, Jesus warns us against saying that the gospel is our most prized possession when it really isn’t. In this parable Jesus described a large catch of fish that was hauled to shore and there sorted. In that net there were worthless fish among the good. The worthless fish were thrown out while the good fish saved.
The gospel is like a big net. It catches a variety of people in its embrace but not all of these people embrace the gospel. Some may act like it just to keep Mom and Dad, or a spouse happy. Others may come to church because this is what they’ve always done, not because this is what they really believe. If this describes you, listen to Jesus’ warning. Repent and truly embrace the message of salvation before the end comes. For at the end of the age God will send his angels to separate the true believers from the false ones.
One way to keep from falling into such hypocrisy is to diligently study God’s Word. Jesus encouraged that in his last parable. Jesus said, “...every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Matthew 13:52).
The last parable is perhaps the most difficult to understand. Jesus was telling his disciples that those who diligently study the Bible will find it to be a gold mine. The deeper you dig the more you’ll find. The Bible describes “old” truths about salvation in “new” ways so that story of salvation is never boring to a student of the Word. The Bible doesn’t just tell us about sin and salvation, it also describes the beginning of the world and the end of the world. It tells us how to live and what we have to live for. Treasure your most prized possession by studying it! We’ll have that opportunity again next week when we start our study of the last book of the Old Testament in our adult Bible class after church. Plan on staying and mining God’s Word with us.
There can be no doubt that the gospel is our greatest possession. Its benefits are more valuable and will last a lot longer than anything else we own. So don’t put the gospel on the mantle of your heart like a trophy from some long forgotten tournament. Treat it like a working mine, and it will never stop yielding its treasurers. Amen.
