Treasure In Heaven Part 1 - Matthew 6:19-21 Series

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Introduction

Stuff

We begin a new section this morning in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is all about what righteousness looks like in the kingdom of the Messiah. He begins with righteousness with regard to people - how a righteous person interacts with those around him. So that section we titled, “Righteousness and Relationships.” That is chapter 5. Then He moves in chapter 6 to Righteousness and Religion - how a righteous person interacts with God. That is the section on prayer, giving, and fasting. Now, in the second half of chapter 6, we hit a new section. This one we can call Righteousness and Possessions – how a righteous person deals with stuff. So that is the outline so far. If you want all R’s -

Introduction (Beatitudes) - 5:1-12

Righteousness and Relationships - 5:13-48

Righteousness and Religion - 6:1-18

Righteousness and Resources - 6:19-34

That outline is for those who are into alliteration. But if you are into accuracy I think a better title for this section is “Righteousness and Stuff.”

Jesus is concerned to teach us what righteousness looks like when it comes to dealing with all the stuff in our lives, because let’s face it – stuff is a big part of life. We spend most of our money on stuff. We buy pile after pile of stuff - stuff to sit on, stuff to watch while we are sitting, stuff to eat with, stuff to clean the stuff we eat with. We buy stuff to put all our stuff in, stuff to organize our stuff, stuff to store our stuff; the garage is full of stuff we need to fix our broken stuff - or to make new stuff. And so we have to buy stuff to hang up all our stuff we use for fixing our broken stuff - and other stuff to clean up the mess we make when we work on our stuff. Stuff is a huge part of life, so a sermon on what righteousness looks like has to have a major section on stuff.

Selfishness vs Self-interest

And as usual, Jesus is going to make a lot of people really uncomfortable in this section, because Jesus is going to command us to seek treasure for ourselves. If you are one of those people who think seeking reward is a selfish, sub-Christian motive, you are really not going to like this section. If you think seeking a benefit for yourself from God is selfish, then you are going to think today’s text is the most selfish paragraph ever written. It says nothing about giving, nothing about serving, nothing about God receiving anything, nothing about sacrifice, nothing about self-denial – it is just 100% self-interest. It is God commanding us to act in our own self-interest.

This is man’s doing

Another group of people who will be shocked by this passage are those who believe everyone gets the same reward in heaven. Some people teach that no one will have more than anyone else in heaven. Jesus shoots that idea down in this text.

Yet another group of people who run into trouble in this text are those who teach that our reward in heaven has nothing to do with our deeds in this life. They say, “It’s by grace and therefore it can’t be related in any way to our actions or performance.” Jesus is going to show us that yes, it is by grace alone, however it is a terrible misunderstanding of grace to assume that grace somehow excludes human effort. Grace does not exclude human effort; it causes human effort. So where there is no human effort there is no grace. So our eternal reward is very much connected to what we do in this life.

Treasuring up Treasure

This paragraph that we are studying today has a very simple structure – two commands and two reasons for those commands. The two commands:

19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth

20 Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

And the two reasons to obey those commands: 1) Heavenly treasure is a lot better than earthly treasure, and 2) your heart will go wherever your treasure is. That is the message of this passage. So let’s begin by making sure we understand what treasure is, and what it means to store it up.

Treasure

The basic idea behind the word treasure has to do with accumulating and storing up. Treasure is that which is placed in a treasury or a vault. The Greek word can refer to the treasure, or the place it is stored, or the act of storing it. The noun and the verb are both used in this verse – literally it is, Do not treasure up for yourselves treasure on earth … but treasure up for yourselves treasure in heaven. So treasure is something that you pile up and lock away because you regard it as highly valuable.