Matthew 13:44-46
Seriously now, can you think of anything, anything at all, for which you would sell everything you already own to have what you found in a field or an oyster? There is probably nothing in this world that is worth that! We already know money can’t buy me love! And if you sell your house and all your food and your car and all your clothes, you will be in no position to go and buy the treasure! You would have to have it sent. But now you have no address. You sold your house! You have no place to put whatever it is you might buy for everything you own. Even if it might have fit in your pocket, you don’t have any pockets anymore!
If you did this thing as literally as Jesus put it, you would be starting over from scratch, like being born naked into the cold cruel world with no parental support system to give you your first clothes. With nothing to your name but the one lonely treasure that you of course refuse to part with now that you have it, how are you going to get any clothes? How are you going to get a job to buy food and clothes and work your way back up to buying a house?
Somebody would have to give you clothes and shelter. These pictures of God’s kingdom are completely outrageous! And they are also absolutely right. The Kingdom of God is the one thing, for which everything else in life is not just a fair trade, but a steal of a bargain! Consider what Paul said about some of his worldly possessions. This is from Phil. 3:5-9, and it’s not exactly possessions, but it is still things he used to value. “Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith is Paul’s definition of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the greatest treasure one could ever have. So do you believe that enough to put everything else on the line? If God asked you to do it, could you literally strip naked and walk away from everything you have ever known or loved before for the love of God and to have the Kingdom of God? Sort of like the Hindu Christians we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
That’s what St. Francis of Assisi did. Francis’ father was a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high spirited life typical of wealth young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging for at St Peter’s Basilica. The experience moved him to live in poverty. At one point he sold some of this father’s silk to help a poor priest do repairs on a broken down, ruined church in which he had been praying.
Father didn’t like the idea and tried to change Francis’ mind about supporting the reconstruction of the church, first with threats, then with beatings and finally had his own son brought up on legal charges in a public hearing in front of the bishop of Assisi. At this point, Francis renounced everything he had ever received form his earthly father. He even took off his clothes and walked out of town naked, determined to depend completely upon his heavenly father. St. Francis did literally live out the parable Jesus told. He exchanged everything he had in the world, to receive the Kingdom of God. And God did use Francis mightily as a preacher of the gospel and an organizer of religious orders of monks who prayed, and lived in poverty, and devoted themselves to acts of loving service as well as preaching.
Now obviously, the church on the whole does not teach that everyone should do exactly the same as Francis did. But we do proclaim that this gospel we preach is worth it. We all should have the same attitude toward all our worldly goods as Paul and Francis. There are others in the Bible who have exemplified this principle. Look again at the poor widow who gave her embarrassingly meager two mites, all the money she had left in the world, and she gave it to the temple treasury as her love offering to the Lord. You remember how Jesus commended her sacrificial act as something of much greater value than the larger sums of money given by those who were so rich that they would not even miss what they gave. All of us need to reconsider whether when we give our offerings to the cause of Christ and the support of the ministries we carry on, are we giving sacrificially in a way that Jesus would appreciate and brag about?
There is also Zaccheus, who was surprised and delighted by Jesus’ desire to have fellowship with him at his house. He stood up and said, “Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay him back four times the amount.” Zach saw the point. Just like Paul, now that he had the kingdom in his salvation, he hardly even needed anything else. In giving away so much he completely gave up the pursuit of wealth and riches. He saw the point of the lesson Jesus gave about the shrewd manager, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
Then we have the counter example of the rich young ruler in Mark 10, of whom Jesus said, “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus asked this man to literally live out the parable we are meditating upon today. But the man refused, all crestfallen, and disappointed to learn that it would cost him so much to follow Jesus. But if so much can be required of that rich man, why would God expect any less from us, doesn’t he treat all people equally? Are we not rich? Don’t we have a lot that we could leave behind, the way Jesus’ first disciples did?
And Peter wondered about that very thing when he spoke up and asked, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” That’s when Jesus promised that giving up everything for him would be worth the effort and sacrifice.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
Jesus went even farther too and said that if we are afraid to give everything to Jesus for the Kingdom then there will be hell to pay! For as he said in Matt. 10:39, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” And again in Matt. 16: 24-27, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”
We are not talking about the prosperity gospel here! This kind of radical giving of everything up for God is to live by faith, faith that in the next life things will be great and all your sacrifices today will have been worth it all. But what will you have done to earn such a reward? There is really only one thing you can do, believe in the lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Salvation is the first and greatest reward. That alone is more than anyone could ever ask or imagine. But then you get to build on that by living a life that shows the world that you don’t care what the world has to offer because God’s offer is far better.
This is also not about earning your salvation! Only saved people will be rewarded for the ways they have spent their earthly lives in service of the Lord who has saved us. Spend your life serving God because you have been saved by his grace and mercy! That’s the meaning of this verse in 1 Cor. 3: 11-15, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”
Salvation is the foundation. Have you ever noticed on the missionary bulletin board in the hall way downstairs the little blurb there that says, “Jesus died for you. What are you doing for him?” Anyone building a life or seeking to earn an eternal reward without laying it all on the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ who alone can save us is in for a rude awakening. There is no salvation without faith in Jesus! But after that, Christians, how much of an effort or sacrifice are you making to build on the foundation Jesus Christ has already laid for your salvation? Are you spending your life in serving the Lord? That is like adding gold, silver and precious gems to the foundation of salvation in Christ. It will be worth your while.
For too many years the western Christian church has enjoyed worldly wealth and prosperity as an entitlement for our hard work. “We call it easy believeism.” While giving thanks to God for all these blessings, we have enjoyed them too much for ourselves and our own personal pursuit of the American dream. We have forgotten God and what he called us to do, not to pursue the American Dream, but to be faithful disciples and to go and make more disciples, giving it all you got for the sake of the lost.
I actually stopped at this point to think about whether I have gone too far in making such claims or putting it so strongly? But that took me back to the way Jesus said it. I am saying nothing beyond the same thing he asked of anyone who believes in him. Discipleship is a call to a life of sacrifice and hardship, to varying degrees but, if your life is easy, you really have to wonder whether you have truly grasped how great is God’s love for you. The kingdom of heaven is like 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. There is joy in our salvation. That joy is a response to the great love of God.
The joy comes from realizing all we have and all we are in Christ is far better than what we could ever hope for without Jesus our Savior. Missionary Jim Elliot put it this way, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." And I recently read this one from another pastor: “If you have everything but Jesus, you have nothing. If you have nothing but Jesus, you have everything.” But if you try to have it both ways, or somewhere in the middle, well, Jesus said something about that too. Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
But think about what it means to be forgiven of sin and live forever in glory. Remember that you can’t get there without Jesus the Savior to make it possible for you. He stopped at nothing to give you a new and eternal life! He stooped down to this earth and went lower than you to death on a cross, only to rise again and lift you up with him on the wings of salvation! And if you really understand all that God offers you in Christ, there is nothing you wouldn’t do for him, nothing you wouldn’t give for him. You could give him everything and yes someone would have to provide you with clothes, and you would be dressed because God himself will wrap you in the robe of His righteousness! Also, Jesus is preparing a place for you in heaven, so you will have a home too, with your heavenly Father!
As Paul wrote in Ephesians, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. We are royalty, heirs of the king of the universe! Let your whole life be lived to give thanks for that and invite other people along. That’s right side up riches! Amen.
Seriously now, can you think of anything, anything at all, for which you would sell everything you already own to have what you found in a field or an oyster? There is probably nothing in this world that is worth that! We already know money can’t buy me love! And if you sell your house and all your food and your car and all your clothes, you will be in no position to go and buy the treasure! You would have to have it sent. But now you have no address. You sold your house! You have no place to put whatever it is you might buy for everything you own. Even if it might have fit in your pocket, you don’t have any pockets anymore!
If you did this thing as literally as Jesus put it, you would be starting over from scratch, like being born naked into the cold cruel world with no parental support system to give you your first clothes. With nothing to your name but the one lonely treasure that you of course refuse to part with now that you have it, how are you going to get any clothes? How are you going to get a job to buy food and clothes and work your way back up to buying a house?
Somebody would have to give you clothes and shelter. These pictures of God’s kingdom are completely outrageous! And they are also absolutely right. The Kingdom of God is the one thing, for which everything else in life is not just a fair trade, but a steal of a bargain! Consider what Paul said about some of his worldly possessions. This is from Phil. 3:5-9, and it’s not exactly possessions, but it is still things he used to value. “Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith is Paul’s definition of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the greatest treasure one could ever have. So do you believe that enough to put everything else on the line? If God asked you to do it, could you literally strip naked and walk away from everything you have ever known or loved before for the love of God and to have the Kingdom of God? Sort of like the Hindu Christians we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
That’s what St. Francis of Assisi did. Francis’ father was a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high spirited life typical of wealth young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging for at St Peter’s Basilica. The experience moved him to live in poverty. At one point he sold some of this father’s silk to help a poor priest do repairs on a broken down, ruined church in which he had been praying.
Father didn’t like the idea and tried to change Francis’ mind about supporting the reconstruction of the church, first with threats, then with beatings and finally had his own son brought up on legal charges in a public hearing in front of the bishop of Assisi. At this point, Francis renounced everything he had ever received form his earthly father. He even took off his clothes and walked out of town naked, determined to depend completely upon his heavenly father. St. Francis did literally live out the parable Jesus told. He exchanged everything he had in the world, to receive the Kingdom of God. And God did use Francis mightily as a preacher of the gospel and an organizer of religious orders of monks who prayed, and lived in poverty, and devoted themselves to acts of loving service as well as preaching.
Now obviously, the church on the whole does not teach that everyone should do exactly the same as Francis did. But we do proclaim that this gospel we preach is worth it. We all should have the same attitude toward all our worldly goods as Paul and Francis. There are others in the Bible who have exemplified this principle. Look again at the poor widow who gave her embarrassingly meager two mites, all the money she had left in the world, and she gave it to the temple treasury as her love offering to the Lord. You remember how Jesus commended her sacrificial act as something of much greater value than the larger sums of money given by those who were so rich that they would not even miss what they gave. All of us need to reconsider whether when we give our offerings to the cause of Christ and the support of the ministries we carry on, are we giving sacrificially in a way that Jesus would appreciate and brag about?
There is also Zaccheus, who was surprised and delighted by Jesus’ desire to have fellowship with him at his house. He stood up and said, “Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay him back four times the amount.” Zach saw the point. Just like Paul, now that he had the kingdom in his salvation, he hardly even needed anything else. In giving away so much he completely gave up the pursuit of wealth and riches. He saw the point of the lesson Jesus gave about the shrewd manager, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
Then we have the counter example of the rich young ruler in Mark 10, of whom Jesus said, “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus asked this man to literally live out the parable we are meditating upon today. But the man refused, all crestfallen, and disappointed to learn that it would cost him so much to follow Jesus. But if so much can be required of that rich man, why would God expect any less from us, doesn’t he treat all people equally? Are we not rich? Don’t we have a lot that we could leave behind, the way Jesus’ first disciples did?
And Peter wondered about that very thing when he spoke up and asked, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” That’s when Jesus promised that giving up everything for him would be worth the effort and sacrifice.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
Jesus went even farther too and said that if we are afraid to give everything to Jesus for the Kingdom then there will be hell to pay! For as he said in Matt. 10:39, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” And again in Matt. 16: 24-27, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”
We are not talking about the prosperity gospel here! This kind of radical giving of everything up for God is to live by faith, faith that in the next life things will be great and all your sacrifices today will have been worth it all. But what will you have done to earn such a reward? There is really only one thing you can do, believe in the lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Salvation is the first and greatest reward. That alone is more than anyone could ever ask or imagine. But then you get to build on that by living a life that shows the world that you don’t care what the world has to offer because God’s offer is far better.
This is also not about earning your salvation! Only saved people will be rewarded for the ways they have spent their earthly lives in service of the Lord who has saved us. Spend your life serving God because you have been saved by his grace and mercy! That’s the meaning of this verse in 1 Cor. 3: 11-15, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”
Salvation is the foundation. Have you ever noticed on the missionary bulletin board in the hall way downstairs the little blurb there that says, “Jesus died for you. What are you doing for him?” Anyone building a life or seeking to earn an eternal reward without laying it all on the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ who alone can save us is in for a rude awakening. There is no salvation without faith in Jesus! But after that, Christians, how much of an effort or sacrifice are you making to build on the foundation Jesus Christ has already laid for your salvation? Are you spending your life in serving the Lord? That is like adding gold, silver and precious gems to the foundation of salvation in Christ. It will be worth your while.
For too many years the western Christian church has enjoyed worldly wealth and prosperity as an entitlement for our hard work. “We call it easy believeism.” While giving thanks to God for all these blessings, we have enjoyed them too much for ourselves and our own personal pursuit of the American dream. We have forgotten God and what he called us to do, not to pursue the American Dream, but to be faithful disciples and to go and make more disciples, giving it all you got for the sake of the lost.
I actually stopped at this point to think about whether I have gone too far in making such claims or putting it so strongly? But that took me back to the way Jesus said it. I am saying nothing beyond the same thing he asked of anyone who believes in him. Discipleship is a call to a life of sacrifice and hardship, to varying degrees but, if your life is easy, you really have to wonder whether you have truly grasped how great is God’s love for you. The kingdom of heaven is like 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. There is joy in our salvation. That joy is a response to the great love of God.
The joy comes from realizing all we have and all we are in Christ is far better than what we could ever hope for without Jesus our Savior. Missionary Jim Elliot put it this way, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." And I recently read this one from another pastor: “If you have everything but Jesus, you have nothing. If you have nothing but Jesus, you have everything.” But if you try to have it both ways, or somewhere in the middle, well, Jesus said something about that too. Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
But think about what it means to be forgiven of sin and live forever in glory. Remember that you can’t get there without Jesus the Savior to make it possible for you. He stopped at nothing to give you a new and eternal life! He stooped down to this earth and went lower than you to death on a cross, only to rise again and lift you up with him on the wings of salvation! And if you really understand all that God offers you in Christ, there is nothing you wouldn’t do for him, nothing you wouldn’t give for him. You could give him everything and yes someone would have to provide you with clothes, and you would be dressed because God himself will wrap you in the robe of His righteousness! Also, Jesus is preparing a place for you in heaven, so you will have a home too, with your heavenly Father!
As Paul wrote in Ephesians, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. We are royalty, heirs of the king of the universe! Let your whole life be lived to give thanks for that and invite other people along. That’s right side up riches! Amen.
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