Salvation Is Free But It's Not Cheap Series

Salvation is free but it’s not cheap Matthew 13:44-50

The perfect Pastor

The perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes, condemns sin but never hurts anyone’s feelings. The perfect pastor works from 8 a.m. until midnight, is always on call, and ready to fill in for the church janitor, if necessary.

The perfect Pastor makes $500 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $100 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience.

The perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers but spends most of his time with the seniors. He smiles all the time with a straight face to express a serious dedication to the church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in the office when needed.

The perfect Pastor always has time for church meetings and all of its committees and he is always busy evangelizing the unchurched. The perfect Pastor lives a few miles away.

44 “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. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, 50 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

In these passages Jesus is using three illustrations from the physical world to help His disciples understand the workings of the spiritual world. And in these verses He’s using three short parables to demonstrate how each and every one of us must respond to His offer of the kingdom. So, I want to deal with the first two parables to emphasize the value of salvation and then conclude with the third as a summary of God’s dealings with us all.

In verse 34 of this chapter we’re told Jesus had two reasons for using parables and first, He said these were stories or illustrations taken from the physical world to help us realise spiritual truth. And then second, He said they were also used to conceal spiritual truth from those who rejected Him because if they didn’t understand the truth then they’d have less to criticize.

So, many of the non-believers would sit and listen to Jesus and enjoy His stories and the way He expounded spiritual principles from the Old Testament but didn’t have a clue what He was talking about.

Let me give you four reasons why parables help us. First of all, they help us understand the quality of heaven. We may not understand everything but when heaven is compared to lost treasure and valuable pearls we know it’s going to be fantastic and well worth looking forward to. Second, parables make those who understand truth both easy to understand and remember. Third, they make truth interesting and reduce it from theological concepts and bring it down to real pictures of life that both grab both our interest and attention. And then fourth, these parables also help us see how the truth of God’s word can be applied to our lives.

I think the strength of parables is that they tell a story that we can visualize and that makes them easy to remember. Now, if I was to ask you; how many can tell me from the story of The Three Little Pigs what the wolf said when he came to the door? He said, “I’m going to ------------ and -------- and------.

How about in Goldie Locks and The Three Bears? First she tasted their food and the first one was ------ ---- and the second one was ---- ----- and the third one was ----- -----.

Now, how many of you studied those stories before you came? No one, because these stories aren’t made of a list of things we have to memorize but they live in our minds.

And in these parables Jesus was using illustrations from everyday life that everyone could understand because He spoke about landowners, farmers, gardeners, bakers, people who found treasure, jewelers, fishermen, shepherds, students and so much more. It was almost like He was looking at the crowd in front of Him and showing everyone how each and every one of them needed to be saved.