"TREASURED TREASURE"
Look Up:
Matthew 13:44-46; Philippians 3:7-9
INTRODUCTION: Apparently
Rick [from the sketch] has found something so special that he believes he
can’t do without it. What is it that would make you act like that?
What is so special or such a treasure that you would do anything to have it?
Treasure
for me—what I thought I couldn’t do without—has changed over the years.
I imagine yours has too. I can still remember how I treasured my first
dog. I got to pick him out and name him. He was a full-blooded
Boston Bull pup. He was my friend. If you had asked me when I was
six if I could do without him, I would have said “no.” I cried my eyes out
when he got killed in the road in front of our house. He was a little
treasure.
Later, I
thought I had to have a bike or just die. I knew that it was something
that I just couldn’t do without. It was my request one Christmas, and if
I had not gotten it, my world would have come to an end. But I got one and
it was so special. Then the kind of wheels needed changed when I became
16. A car was something that I thought I just couldn’t do without.
I lost sleep thinking about having one. I thought my daddy was moving too
slowly to get me one. When I got that 5-speed I washed and polished it
more than any car I’ve every had. It was a treasure.
Then
somewhere along the way I realized that not everything of worth can be reduced
to money. I discovered the treasure of people. A wife that loved me,
children that blessed my life [as a dad I discovered that a treasure could be a
little ragged blanket that your child just could not do without—and no one was
going to get any sleep or be happy until it was found], the children’s mates,
and a little grandson that I could just eat. Absolute treasures.
Nothing monetary could ever compare with these treasures. You could tell what
you treasure if the house caught fire. Wouldn’t you go for the people
you love [if they are inside] and the pictures that have captured scenes and
moments with those that you love?
As I said,
treasure has change for me over the years, and I imagine it has for you too.
But of all your treasure, do you know what is the greatest? What is the
supreme treasure? What is the treasure above all treasure? What is
that one thing that we have to have and you must do everything you can to have?
Jesus tells us. Here it is in Matthew 13. Don’t miss this!
He tells us in the form of a parable—a story thrown alongside of truth to get
the message across. I am partial to parables. It was a story thrown
alongside of truth that God used to bring me to my public profession of faith in
Christ. The preacher was a guest that day at my church and told the story
of how an older brother took the beating for his younger brother, who had
disobeyed his father. God used that story that day to hit me between the
eyes with the message of the cross. He was all over me with conviction.
Jesus used a
story to tell what is the supreme treasure of all treasures. He wants
everybody to get it and for the conviction of it to get all over us.
Listen to the story in Matthew 13:44-46.
The kingdom of heaven is
like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again,
and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of
heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of
great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
In that day people would hide treasure in a field. With no banks and
secure place, in the face of invasions, revolutions and natural catastrophes,
people would hide their treasure in a field. If the hider died before he
could retrieve it, someone else working the field could discover it later.
In that day
pearls were like diamonds today. They were the precious gems of that day.
So with this story, Jesus got the attention of His listeners. He told them
that the find in the field was so great and the pearl was worth so much that the
field worker and the merchant, with joy and excitement, acted, and did all they
could do to have the thing of value. Who wouldn’t want to be the guy in
the field or the merchant?
Then Jesus
said the
Why is this treasure like no other treasure? Why is the
1. Because
we can’t do without it. Because if we do, we are hopelessly lost and
hell-bound.
2. Because
it is the only cure for sin.
3. Because
it is the only thing that matters when we breathe our last.
4. Because
it is the ultimate purpose of God—to have a people for Himself that He rules
over.
5. Because
it is the only thing that fills the God-shaped void in your life. It is
the answer to life’s deepest longings—to be forgiven, loved and live.
6.
Because it involves abundant life, the gift of eternal life, the means of peace
with God.
7. Because
it cost the ultimate price—the death of God’s own Son.
It is the find that would send
a sin-weary soul running into the street like Archimedes, when he found how he
could prove that the king’s crown was not pure gold, saying “I’ve found
it.”
When Jesus
said--
Let the
dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the
If anyone
comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his
brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple [Lk.
14:26]
He was speaking about the
supreme treasure and our response to it.
The Kingdom is the supreme treasure. Because that is the case, I must do
everything to have it.
Here is the
key issue. Do we see the
There is a
phrase I thought of as I considered this parable. BORN AGAIN UNCONVINCED.
The “born again unconvinced” are believers, people who have entered the
kingdom, who say that the Kingdom is the greatest treasure, but whose actions do
not say that it is the greatest treasure of all. Betrayed by check stubs
and calendar—which give a different story. Let me ask all of us who get
the message of the parable—
Does our devotional life say that it is the supreme treasure?
Do we worship as if we have the greatest treasure?
Does your stewardship say that you have found the greatest treasure?
Are we ready to sacrifice for the Kingdom or whine and complain about it?
Are you one of the born again unconvinced?
Why do people who have the
treasure of a family disregard that treasure in unfaithfulness? Or
disregard that treasure for potential financial gain? Because, for the
moment, they believe they have found a greater treasure. The sad tragedy
of not realizing the value of something.
If we
have the greatest treasure, why do we choose sin? For the moment, we think
we have a found a greater treasure—something that we just have to have.
Sin is like fools’ gold. We are left holding fake pearls. We are
unconvinced.
Why
do we act faithlessly, disobey, relegate the Kingdom to a lower place in our
lives—we are unconvinced that it is the greatest treasure.
What would it look like if we
all really believed that the kingdom of heaven is the greatest treasure? I
think we know! I know what it would look like.
1.
I know what the response of believer’s would look like.
2.
I know what the response of unbelievers would look like.
a. That
is true for the one looking
b. That is true for the surprised finder
Paul was convinced—
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him….[Phil.
3:8].
Jesus
made the truth very plain. But the truth of the matter is that regardless
of the clarity of His message, it takes the Holy Spirit to convince us of that
truth. It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to the see the Kingdom in its
worth. Until then we will see but not see and hear but not hear.
Maybe He will convince us today.
We have heard the
story of Jesus. So what’s your story going to be? If you are
convinced that the Kingdom is the greatest treasure of all, nothing will keep
you from the Lord. If you truly believe that the Kingdom is the greatest
treasure, nothing will keep you from putting the Kingdom first.