What Do You Value Most?
Matthew 13:44-52
What do you value most? If you’re not sure how to answer that question, then maybe you should try looking at those things you spend the most time and effort in, because it is a well-known fact that you spend the most time pursuing that which you desire the most.
Today we are going to be looking at some parables that describe the physical treasure a couple of men valued so highly that they sold everything they owned in order to acquire it. But before I go any further, let me ask you this question. Do you have something, or do you desire to have something so much that you’d give up everything you own to get it? Think about it. Is there anything you want so much that you’d give up everything for it?
Well, Jesus used these illustrations today to teach us that there truly is something that is so immensely valuable that its purchase will require all that you have. Folks, there is nothing on this planet that is more valuable than His kingdom and being allowed to enter it.
Now, the Jews had always believed that the kingdom of heaven was theirs by birthright. They would get in simply by virtue of the fact that they were the offspring of Abraham. However, the apostle Paul tells us that Rom 9:6-7 …they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; (7) nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants,
The kingdom isn’t gained through birthright, and you can’t earn it through good deeds or works of the law. The kingdom is received by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And Rom 11:6 …if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Now, the context of the parables we’ve been looking at in chapter 13 is that the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders had grown to the point of them accusing Him of breaking the law and doing His great works through the power of the devil. Jesus rebuked them and showed that everything He had done could only have been possible through the power and the authority of God. Nothing He did was in line with the works or the nature of the devil. And as a matter of fact, accusing His work of God as the work of the devil was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is a sin that is unforgiveable.
So, as a judgment against the hardened hearts of the religious leaders, from that point on, Jesus taught in parables so that He might reveal heavenly truths to those who followed Him while at the same time concealing those same truths from His enemies.
In the first 4 of the 8 kingdom parables in Matthew 13, Jesus focused on men’s various responses to God’s kingdom, it’s present coexistence with the devil’s kingdom, and on its power and influence in the world. In our parable today, Jesus teaches about the need to personally appropriate salvation, becoming a citizen of the kingdom, and a member of His family.
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Mat 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Now, anytime we read the Bible, we need to be careful not to read the conditions of our own times and lives into theirs. What I mean is that even though the word of God is timeless and applicable to human life and spirituality without regard to the times, seasons, and ages of life, we must not read our modern world into the ancient world.
For example, the practice of hiding valuables in the ground sounds to us today like a “pirate” sort of thing to do—“Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum” kind of thing. But when we consider the historical context, we realize that they didn’t have banking systems back then as we do today. To the average person in the ancient world, and it doesn’t matter if you’re looking at ancient Palestine or Great Britain, the securing of family valuables was completely up to the individual or the family, and the vast majority of time they would hide it or bury it somewhere.
Remember now, for all of its history, Israel was subject to roving marauders and neighboring enemies who would just invade, kill, steal, rape, and pillage whenever the urge hit them. So, the best and easiest way to protect valuables, which also included clothing and food, would be to hide it somewhere. Jewish historian, Josephus wrote that, “The gold and silver and the rest of that most precious furniture which the Jews had and which the owners treasured underground was done to withstand the fortunes of war.”
So, over the years, Palestine had become a veritable treasure house. When the owners were forced to bury their wealth, and then were killed, driven from the land, or carried off into captivity by Assyria or Babylon, the treasure would be forever lost unless someone accidentally happened across it. No doubt that was the fate of the treasure that we just read about in this parable. Somehow the man discovered it, and because the field didn’t belong to him, he went out and sold everything he had to buy that field.
Now, some Christians have thought that what he did was unethical. They thought that the man should have told the current owners of the field, but you see, the point of this parable isn’t modern ethics or sensibilities—the point is that the man was willing to sacrifice everything he owned to possess that treasure! What he did wasn’t illegal or unethical. For one thing, if the current owner knew about the treasure he would have simply gone to dig it up before finalizing the sale of the land.
Now another thing is that rabbinic law, believe it or not, provided for “finders keepers.” It specifically stated that if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder. So, if a man came across valuables and the owner was dead or just unknown, the finder had the right to keep what he found. But another point to consider is that the basic honesty of the man is evident in that he didn’t just take the money and run. He went to a lot of trouble to sell everything he had in order to pay an honest price for the land, and he didn’t use any of the treasure to meet the cost of that purchase.
This situation is not unlike our own history during the gold rush. When prospectors went out and found sites that showed promise of gold, they would go back into town and place a claim on that portion of land so they would be able to legally keep anything they found, dug up, or sluiced out of the creek or river.
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Mat 13:45-46 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, (46) and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Now this one is similar to the other with the exception that in the Hidden Treasure parable, the treasure was found by accident, while in this parable of the Pearl of Great Price, the man who found the pearl was a merchant, a wholesale dealer who was specifically looking for high quality pearls, and when he found one that was exceedingly extraordinary, he sold everything he had in order to buy it.
Pearls were the most highly valued gems of the ancient world and were often bought as investments. They were so expensive because they were difficult to find, and diving for pearls was a hazardous job. It wasn’t uncommon for divers to lose their lives or ruin their health searching for oysters that contained pearls, and the fact that they were scarce—not every oyster had a pearl in it, well, their scarcity also drove up their value. The rich would flaunt their wealth by dressing their wives in pearls. Cleopatra is said to have owned two pearls that would have been worth several million dollars today.
So, from these two parables we learn some lessons, beginning with…
1. The kingdom is personally appropriated.
Now, the point of these two parables is the same—the kingdom of heaven is something that must be personally appropriated to receive its benefits. You’re not going to be part of it because of your genealogy. You’re not going to slide in on the coattails of your family or your parents. You know, for the longest time before I truly believed in Jesus—back when I was doing drugs and all sorts of things that corrupted my thinking, I truly felt that since dad was a preacher then I was ok. I’d get into heaven by default.
But it doesn’t work that way. Every person must come to the Lord on their own, being drawn by the Father to the Son and when they believe in the Son and surrender their will to His, they will be saved and become a part of the kingdom of God.
An unbeliever who associates with believers can receive many benefits of the kingdom simply because of that association. But it doesn’t matter if that unbeliever attends a good church somewhere, or if they enjoy biblical preaching, or if they even had an emotional moment and made a profession of faith and got baptized—if they are still an unbeliever, then they are not part of the kingdom of God even though they outwardly appear to be a part of it.
Now the second lesson is that…
2. The kingdom may be entered under various circumstances.
What I mean is that there are no preconditions to be met prior to turning to Jesus in faith. Some folks, like in the first parable, might just stumble onto the treasure of the gospel completely by accident. They weren’t looking for anything, but they found it nonetheless.
This is what happened with the apostle Paul. He had no idea that his journey to Damascus would end in any other way than his arresting Christians and bringing them back to Jerusalem for judgment. He wasn’t searching for Christ, he was looking for Christians to arrest, but while on that road he had an encounter with the risen Lord, and his life and mission changed forever.
This is what happened to me. I was alone and in a jail cell when my father came to visit me and with tears in his eyes, he said, “Terry, God still loves you.” Though I was in great sorrow and repentant for what I had done, I wasn’t searching for Christ, but He found me through my father and ever since my life has never been the same.
Other people might have spent years searching for the truth before they find Jesus. The pearl merchant had spent years searching for pearls. The Ethiopian eunuch was seeking and studying when the Holy Spirit led Philip to him. The centurion, Cornelius was a god-fearing Gentile who gave many alms to the Jews and prayed to God continually. God honored his sincere seeking by sending Peter to him and he and his whole family found what they had been looking for.
Then the third lesson is that…
3. The kingdom of God will cost everything.
God uses a variety of circumstances to bring the treasure of the kingdom of God to an individual, but there is only one way that the individual can partake of what is being offered. In both parables, the man and the merchant recognized the immense value of the treasure they found, and without hesitation they “sold all they had.” They didn’t hold back like Ananias and his wife Sapphira did—they sold all and gave it all, in order to attain something of far greater worth.
Back in the 1950’s, a group of missionaries led by Jim Elliott were murdered by the very people they had gone into Ecuador to find. Their story was put on film and titled “End of the Spear” and you can probably find that movie, and others, on several websites. But in Jim’s journal, dated Oct 28, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” (Luk 16:9)
Friends, there is absolutely no way that you can keep your life. Unless the Lord Jesus returns first, none of us will escape death. There is only one thing that will save you from the coming judgment of God against sin, and that is giving your life, your all, to Jesus Christ. He is the pearl of great price. He is the hidden treasure that you must appropriate for yourself. The Scriptures are clear that the purchase price is beyond us and has been paid for us by Jesus Christ. We cannot earn it. We cannot buy it with anything other than faith.
The prophet Isaiah wrote about this precious treasure in Isa 55:1-3,6-7 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (2) Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. (3) Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David. … (6) Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. (7) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
This treasure is so costly that it cannot be bought with money or any other earthly possessions, but there is a transaction to be made. It is clear that the sinner who gives up all the worthless things he has will freely receive all the priceless things God has to give in Christ! You must give up what you cannot keep in order to receive what you cannot lose!
Folks, I’m talking about surrender. Salvation costs nothing in the sense of payment, but everything in the sense of surrender. Jesus said Mat 10:37-38 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (38) And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Jesus could not have made it clearer; that the person who will not surrender his old life will never have the new life. You must exchange your bad for God’s good! This is why I have said so often that when a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, there is a change that comes over them. They become the new creature that Paul wrote about. They are born again like Jesus said, which means that they’ve been given new life, not old life, new life!
Friend, what do you value most in life? How much do you value life in Christ? If you haven’t believed in Jesus yet, then what is holding you back? What are you counting as worth more than life with Him? What could possibly have more value than living for Jesus?
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Mat 13:47-50 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, (48) which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. (49) So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, (50) and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
A drag net is a net that is dragged through the water to encircle schools of fish so they can be captured and then dragged up on the shore to sort. Fish that were good for selling at the market were put in containers of water so they could be delivered fresh and alive. Garbage fish that were inedible would be thrown away and destroyed because they wouldn’t want to put them back in the water where they might multiply and outgrow the good fish.
This parable has the same point as the parable of the Tares of the Field except that the emphasis isn’t on the good and bad living alongside each other, but rather that when judgment comes, there will be a separation that happens. A sorting where the God’s people enter the kingdom while the devil’s people will be cast into the fire.
Beloved, God is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish, but that all should repent. This is why He appears to be so tolerant of sin in this present time. But the day is coming when this period of patient longsuffering will end, and judgment will come. That judgment will seem very quick when it comes, but the truth is that it’s been coming for a long time, but men have refused to see the signs.
When the net is thrown out into the sea, the fish that are swimming around and being slowly encircled by the net don’t have a clue what’s going on. They give no thought to the net until they bump into it, and then they swim away, the opposite direction. But there’s nowhere else to go because the net is closing in on them. The fish are happy just swimming around inside that net until it starts closing and drawing them up and out of the water and then thrashing around trying to escape begins—but it’s too late.
Beloved, the scripture talks about storing up wrath for the day of wrath. That is what’s happening now during this time of God’s longsuffering and patience. The net is slowly encircling and closing in. In Romans we read that Rom 1:18 …the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men… Those displays are only warning signs of things much worse that are on their way. I am firmly convinced that the earthquakes, typhoons, tornados, hurricanes, volcanos, extreme fires, floods, storms, medical epidemics, wars and rumors of war; that all of these things are the beginnings of the birth pangs that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:8 and it’s only going to get worse as lawlessness increases and the love of many grows cold (Mat 24:12).
Hearts will become increasingly darkened. Men will become futile in their speculations and their minds become depraved as they enter deeper and deeper into immorality, perversion, and sin. There’s no worldly cure for any of this because the world doesn’t see any of it as wicked or wrong. The world doesn’t discourage this kind of godless behavior, it encourages it.
There is no earthly cure, and those who remain on this path will find themselves separated out and cast into the fire, just like Jesus said. Mat 13:49-50 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, (50) and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
Oh friends, do not be deceived. Hell is real. This is probably one of the hardest of all doctrines to accept emotionally, but it is spoken of so much in the Scripture that you can’t deny it or ignore it without committing some sort of intellectual suicide.
Did you know that Jesus spoke of hell more than any of the prophets or apostles did? And you know, this doctrine is so horrible that it would be practically impossible to accept had it not been for the fact that Jesus Himself spoke of it so frequently. He believed, or better said, being the Son of God, He knew that it existed. As a matter of fact, He spoke of hell more often than He spoke of love. More than all the teachers in the Bible combined, He warned men of hell and promised no escape for those who refused His gracious and loving offer of salvation.
Beloved, I started this sermon today with the same question that I’m going to end it with. What do you value most? Do you value your sin so much that you’d be willing to risk the agonies of hell just to be able to practice that sin for a few more days on this earth?
Does that make any sense to you? Mat 13:51 …"Have you understood all these things?" If you have understood, are you willing now to make some changes? Are you willing today to surrendered your life and your all the Jesus?
Invitation
