Counting the Cost of the Kingdom

02/05/12

Scripture:

At this time I'm going to invite you to join with me in our reading from the sacred scriptures.  We are in the Gospel of Matthew, the 13^th chapter.  This is the great parable chapter where Jesus shares a lot about the kingdom of God through word pictures and illustrations.  And so today we turn again to the 13^th chapter.  We were here last week and we looked at Jesus’ parable on the field where the wheat and the weeds grew together and how the kingdom is the field and how at this time God allows good and evil to grow together in the world.  But in the new age, the age to come, the kingdom in its fullness, God will bring judgment and will rescue the righteous and punish those who are disobedient.  So Jesus was telling that to his disciples and so today beginning in verse 44 he continues his instructions in the house to those who were following him, and he says this.  You may read on the screen or read in your Bible.

Matthew 13:44-52   ⁴⁴ "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  ⁴⁵ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,  ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.  ⁴⁷ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  ⁴⁸ When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.  ⁴⁹ So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  ⁵¹ "Have you understood all these things?" They said to him, "Yes."  ⁵² And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."  

May God bless the reading from the Scriptures and give us understanding as we study them this morning. 

I want to begin our message today with a brief review of where we are.  We’re in a sermon series that started January 8 called Finding Your Way into the Kingdom of God and we’ve been studying this idea of the kingdom of God, and we found as we began that Jesus made this the centerpiece of his teaching.  To understand Jesus and his mission, we must understand the kingdom for which he taught.  He began his ministry with these words, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  And we began to see that the kingdom, as Jesus painted pictures of it, is both a present reality...he says it’s at hand...but it’s a future, an event of great proportion, that all of us will experience in the future.  Jesus went on and in the next message we looked at how we compared it to a banquet of the gathering of people together from the east and the west to join Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the table.  And we saw that it’s an idea of a banquet, a celebration, a future celebration of all God's people gathered together to experience the joy of God's triumph over death and sin.  Now in that word picture Jesus told us about the tension here in the kingdom of God that it is an inclusiveness and it’s open for all people but there is an exclusiveness to it.  Some are cast out and are separated from God's kingdom because of their rebellion and unbelief.  Pastor Mike looked at the parable of the sower in his sermon and he showed us that Jesus used the parables not so much to illustrate things to us but to hide things from us and to cause people that weren't really wanting to know more to say well this doesn’t make sense to me and give up.  But it’s for you and me who are students to come and to see that there are some answers for us.  And we saw that the kingdom is tied to the proclamation of the word of God, something that I'm doing right now.  And we saw that many resist this message but some find it--they find it true, they respond and they’re fruitful.  Last week we saw where Jesus painted a picture of a field, and he said that the weeds and the wheat grow together and at harvest time the wheat is gathered into the barn and the weeds are gathered to be burned, and he says that’s the way it is now, the kingdom.  God allows good and evil to exist together.  There’s no judgment at this point but at the end of the age a judgment will come and God will rescue the righteous and destroy his enemies.    

So today we have more pictures, not of a field, but of transactions and finances of fishing.  As we look today to this particular group of parables, I want to begin by asking you, how many of you have ever seen The Price is Right?  Most of you, some of you...much better when Bob Barker was there... nothing against Drew Carey.  I watched that show when I would miss school if I was sick or when I’d be at my grandparents’ house.  My grandmother always had The Price is Right on and I learned about that show.  You know the principle is if you’re good at guessing the value of things then you can win and make a lot of money.  So what I want to do is present something to you and see how good of a contestant you would be on The Price is Right.  I'm holding in my hand a collar, a small collar for a dog or cat that’s adjustable from 8-14 inches.  I bought it last night for my cat who needs it, but I brought it today to see how many of you might know value.  If I told you I paid five dollars for this, how many of you would believe that?  Raise your hand.  Okay.  I'm not taking you to The Price is Right because you’re wrong.  It wasn't five dollars.  How many of you think I paid a $1.50 for it?  A couple hands...you’re not going either.  It’s higher than $1.50 and it’s less than $5.  So let me throw out a couple prices and let’s see how many here feel courageous enough to pick the right one.  If I told you I paid $3.29 for it, raise your hand.  Oh, quite a few of you.  Okay, you can put your hands down.  If I told you I paid $3.99 for it, raise your hand.  Quite a few of you.  What if I told you I paid $2.58, any of you?  Okay.  Question from congregation:  Where’d you buy it?  Wal-Mart, $2.58.  That’s good to know isn’t it because everybody prices it different.  The price was $2.58.  Patty, was your hand up for this?  Okay, so you’re going to go with me to California for The Price is Right.  

Alright, so why do that?  Because we can have a little fun, but we all understand the idea of value and exchange.  For this collar I said to myself this collar is worth more to me than $2.58 plus tax so I purchased it.  And Wal-Mart said that collar is worth less than $2.58 plus tax, so they sold it to me for that exchange value.  Every transaction you ever make has to do with value and exchange.  We put a value on something and we exchange goods for it.  That’s something we do every day whether we’re shopping at Wal-Mart, we go to purchase a car, we’re at Best Buy looking at a new computer.  Whatever you want to say, whatever you’re doing, value and exchange is the way the market runs, and it’s true today and it was true in the time of Jesus.  Now they didn’t have debit cards back then or checkbooks.  They had actual money they carried around, but it’s the same concept--value and exchange.  And Jesus used two parables about value and exchange to teach you and me something about the kingdom of God.  And what I want you to see in the parables today, the two about purchasing things and then the one about the net is that Jesus is giving us a two-sided coin of how the kingdom works.  In one sense we must take hold of the kingdom of God.  We have to respond to it.  But on the other side the kingdom of God will take hold of us, and I want us to look at these parables and to consider these concepts more fully.  So let’s turn our attention to the screen.

We Must Take Hold of the Kingdom 

There are two parables that Jesus tells.  The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Now that might seem odd to you, but you have to remember in Jesus’ day they didn’t have banks and you hid your money in your mattress, so to speak.  You kept money to yourself.  And because it was a land where foreign armies would march through and one of the things they would do is they’d look for treasure for their rulers, you wouldn't want to have your money lying around where everybody could see it because if a soldier came in he could take it.  So you would go out and bury it in the yard, out in the field where it’s safe and secure.  That’s the picture we have here.  The next picture is of a merchant out looking for a valuable item.  The item is a pearl, fine pearls, and who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.   So Jesus tells those back to back to us to help us understand that we must take hold of the kingdom of God. 

Now the stories have differences.  One person stumbles upon a valuable treasure.  They want it for themselves so they go and sell everything they have to purchase the field and to gain the treasure.  The other person is a wealthy merchant out shopping for goods, and he finds something of exquisite value and he sells all that he has to obtain the pearl.  So there are differences there.  One discovers the treasure, one is searching for the treasure, but there are similarities.  Each person must enter a transaction to obtain their valued treasure.  Each one was required to sell all that they had to purchase what they wanted.  What’s interesting here is in the story of the man who found the treasure hidden in a field notice how he felt when he sold all his goods.  In his joy he goes and sells all that he has...in his joy.  Why would he have joy in parting with his property, in parting with his goods, in parting with his wealth?  Because he understood that the treasure he was going to purchase was worth more than he was going to lose, and he was happy to let it go.  Now I want you to realize in these two parables the similarity is that each person must enter a transaction to obtain their valued treasure, and so it is with us.  

When we make a decision to want the kingdom of God, it costs us as it costs the men who made their purchases that day.  This is something that Jesus elaborates on very clearly.  It’s what the children sang for us when they sang from the Gospel of Luke that we must deny our self and take up our cross and follow Jesus.  It’s a concept that is all throughout the teachings of Christ and his disciples knew it well.  That’s why his disciples said Lord, “We have left everything and followed you.  What then will we have?” (Matthew 19:27).    We’ve left everything to follow you.   The reality is, the key there is that the only way we can follow Jesus is if we lose or give up everything.  This is the concept that is communicated in these two parables.  It’s a concept that is clear that there’s great value in the kingdom of God and it’s freely ours, but to obtain it we must let go of all that we have.  

The great Bible commentary Matthew Henry says, “Those who discern this treasure in the field and value it aright will never be at ease until they’ve made it their own on any terms.”  Notice that quote, “Value it aright.”  He’s talking about value.  What’s important, what’s truly valuable to you and me?  Speaking about the kingdom of God and when we see the kingdom of God is a treasure, when we see it’s worth more than anything we have, we’ll do whatever we can to make it our own.  Value.  What is truly valuable to you?  It depends I'm sure.  I'm sure if I went around the room and asked you about what your values were I would hear family, relationships, your health, the money that you have, the acceptance of others in your circle of friends, your social standing.  Perhaps it’s security.  Perhaps you value pleasure.  But there are times when our values shift and change.  For example, if you came up to me and said John, I want to give you a check today for a thousand dollars, I would say great.   I’d hug you and say that’s wonderful because a thousand dollars is something that I esteem at a lot of value right now.  But what if I just found out my kidneys were failing me and you said John, I'm going to give you an option.  I’ll give you a thousand dollars cash or I'm going to give you a new kidney.  Which one would you rather have?  How would you answer?  The kidney, because your values change because what you see is truly important.  When we see the kingdom of God is truly important, we’re willing to lose everything for it because we know it’s the most important thing we could obtain.  What happens when a person believes that?  

I want to tell you about a young man, a man named Jim Elliot.  It’s interesting.  Last week we commissioned our missionaries to go to Ecuador.  We have four church members in Ecuador right now to serve and to build a house for Habitat for Humanity.  Well, this guy, Jim Elliot, went to Ecuador.  He went to preach of Jesus Christ to the people there and he wrote this before he left:  He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.  I want you to realize he went there and at 29 years of age he was killed by the people for whom he wanted to share Jesus with.  He was 29.  He had a wife of three years named Elizabeth and a daughter of one year named Valerie.  Now we might think how tragic to be cut down in his prime, but look at what Jim Elliot says about the kingdom.  “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  What are the things that you cannot keep?  Your figure, your health, your beauty, your clear thinking, your family, your life—you can’t keep any of this stuff.  It’s all transient.  It’s all temporary.  What is it that you can’t lose?  You can’t lose eternal life.  You can’t lose a place in God's kingdom.  When Jim Elliot died he really began to live because he went to be with the Lord Jesus.  This is the idea friends.  This is the teaching of Jesus that we must value the kingdom of God more than anything or we’ll never pursue it.  So my question is is the kingdom of God truly valuable to you and have you laid hold of the kingdom of God?  

It’s time to evaluate yourself and to look into your heart, into your life.  Do you want God's kingdom more than anything?  If the answer’s no, a good place to start is to say God help me to want to be like Jim Elliot, to want to have the kingdom more than anything, because when you’re there you’ll find it.  It will be yours.  

The Kingdom Will Take Hold of Us

The second thing these parables teach us is not only that you must take hold of the kingdom of God but that the kingdom of God in some sense is going to take hold of you whether you like it or not.  Jesus shifted to a fishing metaphor, a picture his disciples as fisherman would clearly understand.  He said:  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.  So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  So here, the kingdom of God...we’re the fish. We’re the passive ones, and the net is drawing us in all of us, good and bad.  And this is the other side of the coin.  We lay hold of Christ, we accept his kingdom.  We surrender our life to him to follow him, but we look and we realize ultimately he’s laying hold of us.  When I became a Christian I made the decision in my life...okay, I need to surrender myself to Jesus Christ and serve him.  But as I studied the scriptures and as I looked at myself I began to wonder why was my heart wanting Jesus Christ when others don’t.  And the more I read the Bible and the more I look at myself, the more I see when we come to Jesus Christ it’s because he drew us first and the good fish come because he gathers us in the net.  But the scripture says also that others reject him, and have you ever thought about that?  For every person that says yes to Jesus Christ, every Jim Elliot that wants to lay down their life to serve the Lord, others reject him.  I'm mindful of the rich young ruler who did this, and this parable of the net reminds us that he too, as all who either reject Christ or rebel against him, will face him in a time of judgment at the close of the age when the kingdom completes its work in the world.   So my challenge to you today is to take hold of the kingdom of God and to understand the kingdom of God is taking hold of you and the world in which we live.  God is ruling this world and will ultimately have his way.  

The Kingdom is Meant to be Shared

The third thing I want you to see about this is that the kingdom is meant to be shared.  Jesus asked his followers at the conclusion of the third parable, “Have you understood all these things?” and their answer to him was yes.   Now in all fairness they didn’t fully understand because they made a lot of mistakes.  They didn’t quite get a lot of things, but they were on their way and Jesus told them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."   He’s using a word picture here of a scribe and the scribes were the teachers of the law.  They were the people who were to give the treasure of the Torah, the law, to the Jewish people.  And Jesus says when you’ve been trained in the kingdom of God you can be the real teacher who has real treasures, old and new, to share with other people.  And friends, that’s why we’re doing this study.  It’s not just so we can understand the kingdom of God so that we all can make sure we’re a part of the kingdom of God, but it’s so we can get equipped to share the kingdom of God with our neighbors, with our coworkers, with our friends and even our enemies.  The kingdom of God is meant to be shared. 

Again, I want you to consider these parables for this is the word of truth for you and me.  My hope and prayer is that you value the kingdom for what it really is, that you lay hold of it at the cost of everything and that you find the joy of knowing and being a part of the kingdom of God.  Let’s pray together. 

Heavenly Father, I thank you for these words, these pictures of searching merchants, men of joy selling all they have for a great treasure.  Lord God, speak to us throughout this week and help us to see the great treasure of the kingdom of God that we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Lord, the Bible says that in him are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Help us to know the treasures of Christ and to share what we know with others, young and old, that we might partake in the kingdom and its blessings in our world.  Lord, we ask this in Jesus’ name.  Amen.