Introduction:
A number of years ago, there was a geologist by the name of Dr. Williamson who was doing some work in the country of Tanzania. One day, he found himself driving in a deserted area, slipping and sliding along a rain-soaked road. Suddenly his four-wheel drive vehicle sank up to its axles in the mud and got stuck.
Pulling out his shovel, Dr. Wlliamson began the unpleasant task of digging out of a mud hole. He had been at it for a while when his shovel uncovered something strange. It was a pink-like stone of some sort. Being a geologist and naturally curious about rock formations, he picked it up and wiped away the mud. The more mud he removed, the more excited he became, and could hardly believe what he saw. When the stone was finally clean, Dr. Williamson was beside himself with joy. He had discovered a diamond.
Now, any diamond at all would be a surprise in that situation. But Dr. Williamson found what became known as the famous pink diamond of Tanzania. That stone today sits in the royal scepter of Great Britain, and Dr. Williamson is famous around the world for his find -- as accidental as it may have been.
Well, in the two parables that we’re going to take a look at this morning, Jesus tells of two other men who made some amazing discoveries. I understand that the children studied these two parables last Sunday evening. How many of you children can raise your hand if you found a hidden treasure last week? Great! We’re going to look at a couple of other people who found treasures, also.
I. The Parable of the Treasure
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." (Matthew 13:44).
Burying your valuables in the ground sounds strange to us, but it was a very common practice in the first century. Today we usually put our money in a savings and loan company or a bank. We keep our valuables in a safe deposit box. But, back in those days, there were no banks for the common people. Only wealthy folks had access to banks, which in those days were not very safe places to keep your money anyway. Have you ever heard of wealthy old men who don’t trust the banks, so they stuff all their money in their mattress or they hide it all around the house? Well, that’s what the people of the first century did, only they didn’t have mattresses, so they buried it.
This was especially true in Palestine because it was a place of frequent warfare. Burying their valuables protected them against any enemies who might raid their homes and try to steal everything.
Remember in Matthew 25, Jesus told a story about a master who gave some talents to his servants. A talent was a measure of money. The first servant was given five talents, and the second was given two talents. They invested those amounts and multiplied their master’s money. But the third servant was worried. He didn’t want anything to happen to that money. He wanted to keep it safe, so what did he do? He buried it in the ground.
Over the years, the ground of Palestine became a veritable treasure house. When the owner of a buried treasure died or was forcefully driven from the land (like during the Babylonian exile), his treasure would be lost forever unless someone discovered it. So, in those days, it wasn’t uncommon at all for a person who was plowing or digging in a field to accidentally come across a treasure. So, Jesus’ parable described a very feasible situation.
Now, there is a concern that people sometimes have about this parable. At first glance, the man in the parable seems to be dishonest. Honest behavior would demand that this man tell the owner of the field about the treasure, since it was on his property and rightfully belonged to him. Right? Not necessarily.
Jewish rabbinic law said that "if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder." So the people listening to the parable would not have perceived the man’s actions as unethical at all. In fact, the man had a right to what he found. If a man came across money or valuables that were obviously lost and whose owner was dead or unknown, the finder had a right to keep what was found -- even if was found on someone else’s property!
It’s obvious that the treasure didn’t belong to the man who owned the field. If it did, then he would have dug up the treasure before he sold the piece of ground. But he didn’t know it was there. Apparently it had belonged to a previous owner, who had probably died in battle or by accident, which prevented him from recovering it.
So, really, the man who found the treasure was extremely honest. He didn’t have to buy the field. He could have just taken the treasure. But he doesn’t. He buys the field. In fact, he didn’t even use the treasure to provide him enough money to make the purchase. Instead, he liquidated everything he owned to come up with the money. So the man didn’t do anything unethical.
But we need to be careful not to lose sight of the main point of the parable which is this: A man found something so valuable that he sold everything he had to get it. He was so excited about finding the treasure that he was willing to do whatever he had to do in order to purchase it.
II. The Parable of the Pearl
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:45).
Here’s a man who was a merchant. The Greek word is "emporos", from which we get the English word "emporium". The merchant was a man who would buy things wholesale and sell them to a retailer. In the parable, he is looking specifically for beautiful pearls. It was common for entrepreneurs in that day to look for pearls to sell and at the same time look for high-quality pearls for themselves. In those days, people would invest in pearls. Pearls were perceived in the first century in much the same way we view diamonds today. They were the most valuable gem in the world at that time. If you owned a pearl, you owned a fortune.
And there was a good reason for it. Pearl hunting involved immense danger. The fine quality pearls are obtained from the pearl oyster. Since that oyster thrives at an average depth of 40 feet, a pearl isn’t a treasure you just stumble across as you walk along a beach.
Pearls aren’t found like that. In biblical times they were obtained at great cost in human terms -- many people died while pearl hunting. They didn’t have the equipment that’s available today. I have a friend who used to enjoy going scuba diving (end he may still enjoy it). But I know he’s mentioned to me in the past that his equipment is now out of date.
But, in those days, your equipment didn’t go out of date because your equipment consisted of a rope and a rock. A pearl diver would tie a large rock to his body and jump over the side of a little boat, allowing the weight of the rock to carry him down to the oyster beds. He risked danger from sharks, moray eels and other creatures to scour the mud below for oysters. An average of only one oyster in a thousand contain a pearl. All the while, he had to hold his breath and hope he wouldn’t drown.
You can see why pearls were so precious. The Jewish Talmud said, "pearls are beyond price." The Egyptians actually worshipped the pearl, and the Romans copied that practice. When women wanted to show their wealth, they put pearls in their hair. When a Roman emperor wanted to show how rich he was, he would dissolve pearls in vinegar and then drink them in his wine, in much the same way that a millionaire might light his cigar using a hundred-dollar bill.
The Bible also stresses the value of pearls. Jesus said in Matthew 7:6 that we’re not to cast our pearls before swine. In other words, "Don’t give something of such great value to a pig; it’s a foolish thing to do!" In Revelation 21, when John described heaven using earthly figures of speech, he mentioned the streets of gold and the gates of pearl. Tremendously valuable!
So this parable describes a man who goes around looking for beautiful pearls and then sells them to retailers for a profit. But when he finds the most beautiful pearl he has ever seen, he sells everything that he has to obtain it for himself.
III. Lessons From These Parables
A. The Value of the Kingdom
Both of these parables teach us about the incomparable value of the Lord’s kingdom, the church. The pearl is an especially appropriate figure for the kingdom because it is the only gem that cannot be improved by man. Think about it! All other jewels have to be cut and polished by skilled craftsmen before they have value as gemstones. But a pearl is perfect when it is found and it can’t be improved by cutting and polishing. In fact, one cut from a human hand and a pearl is worthless.
That makes the pearl an especially appropriate symbol for the kingdom of God because the kingdom is a divine institution, designed by a perfect God from the beginning of eternity. And any attempts on the part of man to change or to try to improve the kingdom robs it of its perfection.
Remember in Daniel 2 when King Nebuchadnezzar had his dream and Daniel was called in it to interpret? The dream was about a huge image, and each part of the image represented a different human kingdom -- the Babylonian kingdom followed by the Persian kingdom, followed by the Greek kingdom, followed by the Roman kingdom. "And in the days of these kings [the Roman kingdom] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." (Daniel 2:44). He’s not talking here about a human kingdom; he’s talking about the kingdom of God, the church. Notice what it was in this dream that represented God’s kingdom -- it was "a stone...cut out without hands" (Daniel 2:34). What is the significance of that? It wasn’t shaped by human hands. It’s the kingdom of God.
It’s not the church of some man. Christ is the builder of the church, Christ is the head of the church, and therein lies its value.
When you think about how much it means to us to be a part of the church, to know that Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross so that we might live, to know that we can approach the throne of Almighty God and call him "Father", how much is that worth to you? Indeed, how do you begin to compare those riches with the material things that we’re familiar with? How can you compare the blessing of prayer with a brand new car? How can you even begin to calculate the value of the death on the cross as compared to a two-story house?
In Matthew 16:26, Jesus used the image of a pair of scales when he asked the question, "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Pile up everything in this world on one side and put salvation on the other side and it still comes out lopsided. The salvation of our souls is worth so much more. That’s what Jesus wants you to understand in these two parables about the kingdom. Imagine how excited you would be if you were digging out in your garden and you found a diamond bigger than the Hope Diamond. Christ and his kingdom are treasures beyond comparison.
B. The Kingdom Involves a Sacrifice
Have you ever seen something that you just had to have, something that you were willing to make any sacrifice to get? Maybe when you were a kid it was a special bicycle that you saved up for months to get, giving up candy bars and going to the movies so you would have enough money to get that bicycle. Or maybe, as you got older, it was a car or something for the house, something that was so special that you were willing to give up going out to eat twice a week, willing to give up any new clothes, willing to give up any "extras" in life so you could get that something special.
Both of these parables involve men who bought things of great value. But, they had to make sacrifices, selling everything that they had to obtain their treasures. Someone may say, "Wait a minute, are these parables saying that a person has to buy his salvation?" In a sense. Both the treasure and the pearl were bought with money. But the Bible says you can’t buy your salvation with money.
Nevertheless there is a cost of salvation. It is the price of commitment. "Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said unto him, ’Lord, I will follow you wherever you go." (Luke 9:57). Here was a man who wanted to be a follower of Jesus. And Jesus responded by saying, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Luke 9:58). Jesus said, in essence, "Here’s the price for following me. You give up your comfort and I’ll give you my kingdom."
There is a cost involved in being a follower of Christ, and Jesus wants us to understand that. I realize that I’ve grown up in a generation that doesn’t know much about sacrifice. To people my age, the Great Depression is just a boring story about how terrible things were in the ancient long, long ago. We’re used to having things easy. And sometimes that attitude carries over into the church. And so we want to enjoy all the blessings of the kingdom, but we don’t want to do anything, we don’t want to give anything, and we certainly don’t want to sacrifice anything.
But just as the two men in the parables had to sacrifice to gain their treasures, we must also make sacrifices to gain our treasure. In Luke 14, Jesus said we need to count that cost. To fail to do so is like starting a building without checking your funds first, or going to war without counting your men. There is a cost involved in being a Christian, and we need to determine from the start whether we are willing to pay the price.
I like this quote from John Calvin: “The natural meaning of the words is, that the Gospel does not receive from us the respect which it deserves, unless we prefer it to all the riches, pleasures, honours, and advantages of the world, and to such an extent, that we are satisfied with the spiritual blessings which it promises, and throw aside every thing that would keep us from enjoying them.” Obtaining the kingdom requires sacrifice.
C. The Kingdom is a Source of Joy
Notice, Jesus said that the man who finds the treasure "for joy over it goes and sells all that he has." This man doesn’t just sell everything he has, but he does so with joy. He doesn’t regret it. He doesn’t complain about the sacrifice he has to make. In fact, he probably doesn’t even consider it to be a sacrifice. He gives a lot for the field, but he gets so much more in return.
When I perform a wedding ceremony, I often include these words on sacrifice: "Whatever sacrifice you will be required to make to preserve this common life, always make it generously. Sacrifice is usually difficult. Only love can make it easy; and perfect love can make it a joy."
I think the same thing holds true in our sacrifice for Christ. Paul said, "What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:7-8). Did Paul make sacrifices to follow Christ? Certainly he did, but he did so with joy knowing what he gained.
I heard a story once about two wealthy Christians, a lawyer and a merchant, who traveled with a group that was going around the world. As they were visiting in Korea, they saw by the side of the road, a field in which a boy was pulling a crude plow and an old man held the plow handles and guided it. The lawyer was amused and took a snapshot of the scene.
He turned to the missionary, who served as their interpreter and guide, and he said, "That’s a curious picture. I suppose they are very poor." The guide replied, "Yes, that is the family of Chi Noue. When the place of worship was being built, they were eager to give something to it, but they had no money, so they sold their only ox and gave the money to the church. This spring, they are pulling the plow themselves."
The men were silent for several moments, then the businessman replied, "That must have been a real sacrifice." The guide said, "They do not call it that. They thought it was fortunate that they had an ox to sell."
Perhaps the real test of our commitment is not so much whether we are willing to make sacrifices for our Lord, but whether we are able to make those sacrifices with joy. There are people who would say that you have to give up a lot to be a Christian, and in a sense that’s true. But if I asked you to give up $500,000 in Monopoly money to buy a 1999 Ford Explorer, I think you would make the "sacrifice" with joy. In the same way, if I asked you to give up everything that this world has to offer and accept all that Christ has to offer that will last eternally, the term "sacrifice" takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?
The kingdom is a source of great joy.
D. The Kingdom is Entered Under Different Circumstances
The two parables we’ve looked at are very similar. Each parable has a man. Both men found something of great value. In both cases, they recognized that great value and were willing to pay any price to obtain what they had found. Their sacrifice was made joyfully. But there’s one big difference, though. In the parable of the treasure, the man made his find by accident, he stumbled across his treasure. In the parable of the pearl, the man was searching for pearls when he found one.
The man in the field wasn’t looking for treasure. He was working in the field, possibly plowing it or building something. In the routine of doing that, he stumbled across a fortune.
There are some people who enter the kingdom like that. Saul of Tarsus wasn’t seeking to enter the kingdom -- he thought he was in it. He was on his way to Damascus to kill Christians when Jesus spoke to him. Three days later, he was baptized into the kingdom. The Samaritan woman in John 4 went to the well to get a drink of water and went home with the living water. A man who was born blind and just wanted to see in John 9 was not only healed, but forgiven of his sins as well. There are some people who aren’t looking for the treasure, yet they stumble across it.
On the other hand, the merchant man knew what he was searching for. He wanted something of genuine value, and day by day he searched diligently for it. He was like the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, Lydia, and the Philippian jailer, and others in the New Testament who honestly searched out what they needed to do to be saved. The important thing is not how we find the treasure of God’s kingdom; the important thing is simply that we do find it.
Conclusion:
There are really two things that stand out in these parables: (1) What you need to give up, and (2) what you stand to gain. This morning, for you to know the joy of God’s kingdom, you must give up everything. "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Luke 9:23-24).
The world says that’s foolish. The world says, "Take what you can get and enjoy it!" But I can promise you that if you’ll make the sacrifice, you’ll gain in return something far greater that you could ever imagine. For, "we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (II Corinthians 4:18). The kingdom of God truly is a hidden treasure, a precious pearl.
In Hebrews 11, we read about some great men of the Bible who searched for that pearl of great price. They were looking for something of far greater value than were most people of their times. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived as strangers in a country far from their homeland, living in tents because they were looking for a kingdom. They were looking for "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10). The men in that chapter were willing to sacrifice to achieve their goal. Like the ancient pearl divers, they were willing to risk even their very lives. "They were stoned, they were sawn in two....were slain with the sword." (Hebrews 11:37).
The Hebrew writer holds them up as an example to us. Are we willing to live a life of faith? Are we willing to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom today? It involves sacrifice, but for those of us who are Christians it is a sacrifice made with joy.
