Kingdom Priorities
- David Fairchild
- Aug 3, 2008
- Series: Encountering Jesus
TEXT
Matthew 13:44-46: "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."
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever been willing to give up everything you have, everything you considered valuable, for the sake of something that becomes ultimately valuable to you? Have you ever been willing to walk away from your family, your job, your friends, your home town so that you can go and pursue what has become your ultimate treasure?
We see lovers willing to give up everything to pursue their love. Christopher Reeve in the movie Somewhere in Time, was willing to give up his health and everything he had to go back in time and find a woman he had never met, of whom he only had a silhouette.
We hear of the prince who was willing to leave his kingdom so that he can find his one true love in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.
We love Olympic stories that tell how a young man or woman was willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of pursuing the gold medal.
We even see it in movies where pirates are willing to endanger themselves at great risk to their lives to find the buried treasure.
Each of these stories tells us about a heart being captured by something-something so compelling that it's like gravity and all our energy and efforts ultimately end up at that one great love.
Have you ever had such a love? Have you ever had your heart fixed upon a treasure like this? Ever been in love in this way? Ever pursued a job in this way? How about some great hobby or sport you love? Something that grips you and you find yourself thinking of ways to get what your heart is set upon? What were you willing to give up in order to get it? What temporary pain were you willing to go through so that you could have it?
Obviously this doesn't have to be something good for you. It can be a pursuit of sex, or a bad relationship, or even some stimulant, some drug that you're willing to sell all you have to get.
It really does come down to priorities doesn't it? It's a pursuit of your greatest priority in your life and sometimes the only way you're able to tell is by looking at what you're willing to give up for it.
Let's read the passage:
Matthew 13:44-46: "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."
STUDY
This is a very short passage that contains two parables. These parables quickly sum up the priorities of the Kingdom. In other words, these parables teach us what it means to value what God deems the most important, most beautiful, and the most costly treasure in all of creation.
Let's get the context of these stories.
The first parable speaks of someone who finds a treasure hidden in a field and they find and sell all they have to buy the field.
In these times, you didn't put your money in a bank to gain interest. If you had something of great value-money or a family heirloom or some other thing of great value to you-you would hide it so that others couldn't come and take what was yours. Often you would hide it in your home or in your field.
However, because of war or death or some other tragedy, the one who buried the treasure may have kept this to himself and therefore when he died or was taken away, the treasure was left and forgotten.
Jesus tells this story about a man who may have worked the field and as he was tilling the ground found a treasure, maybe all of it, maybe only some of it, but this man buries it back into the ground, sells all he has, and buys the field.
This man was obviously a man who didn't have incredible wealth because we're told in the story that he had to sell all he had in order to get it. In his joy he had to turn over every cushion and look under every rock in his home to get all that he had together to go and buy it. He became essentially impoverished for a period of time so that he could get this great treasure.
The second parable is also easily understandable.
Pearls at this time of history were far more valuable than they are today. We know Cleopatra owned a pearl that was worth 25 million denarius. A denarius was a day's wage, so the value in today's economy would be 4 billion dollars. Needless to say, there is no gem worth 4 billion dollars that could rival the cost of her pearl.
When Jesus teaches us that this man was a pearl merchant and spent his whole life searching for the best pearls, and he finally finds it, he sells everything he has and buys it. He realizes the enormity of the value of this pearl and is willing to liquidate his assets to get what he treasures most. To him, what he's getting is worth far more than what he has so he's willing to give it all up to get it. Like the man in the field, I'm sure he did this with joy.
If you finally find what you've spent years looking for, your overwhelming joy is difficult to contain, even if you give everything up to acquire what you've found.
What both of these parables have in common is the realization that each of these men come to. They find something, they see something that no one else sees. They perceive the true value and beauty that others have missed.
They also realize that there is no way to half-heartedly get what they treasure. It is all or nothing. They're going sell everything they have just to get it. Even selling the things that they prize for this something they have found and now cherish more than all the others. They're more than willing to do it.
Don't you see that in their mind, the sacrifice made, the giving up of all they had was far less than the value of what they've found. To them, it's more than worth it because what they now have is far more important to them than what they had. Of course they did this in joy.
The parable doesn't say that they sold what they had, were incredibly saddened to do so, then once they begrudgingly gave up what they owned to buy this treasure they were happy. No, with joy they sold what they had. They already had the joy and it is in the disposition of this joy that they were willing to give up everything. They got joy, then they sacrificed. They sacrificed with joy in the knowledge of what was coming.
The found something of ultimate value, they were overwhelmed with joy and willingly gave up everything to have this treasure as their own. That's the gist of the parable.
What is all of this about? The Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says at the beginning of this parable: The Kingdom of Heaven is like...
This is how the Kingdom breaks into our lives. This is how we experience the power of the Kingdom of God. It's not that we sell everything that we have and from that great sacrifice we now merit the Kingdom of God. It's that the Kingdom of Heaven is discovered and the way we receive it is by a trusting faith that is willing to give up everything that we once deemed valuable as our new treasure becomes the most valuable to us.
This parable is about how we receive the Kingdom of God, not how we merit it.
When you turn a light switch on what happens? The light comes on. It seems as if the light switch is the source of power doesn't it? But the light switch has no power in and of itself. It isn't the source. The reason the light comes on is because of the power of electricity. The light switch is nothing more than a channel to the power, not the source of it. The switch receives the power but has no power of its own.
Jesus is teaching us what it means to receive the Kingdom of Heaven, but He isn't teaching what you do to earn it. This is an incredible difference and they're two different religions altogether. To receive the Kingdom means that you don't own it by rights, but receive what's given to you. To merit the Kingdom means that you own in by rights because of your work.
To receive the Kingdom is to repent and trust. Isn't this what we learned in the story of the Prodigal son? He came to his senses, went back to his father and said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you!" He didn't merit the father's forgiveness; he was receiving it with the right disposition. He came back because he trusted that his father was merciful and would forgive him. He gave himself up in utter commitment to his father, but that wasn't what brought him back in, that was only the right disposition to receive the father's welcome home.
This utter commitment to have the Kingdom of heaven isn't what earns it, it's the only right disposition to receive it. That's the parable. That's what it's all about.
What insights does this give us about the Kingdom? What does this mean for us?
First, this parable shows us how weak our passions and desires really are. So often we have such meager ambitions for the things of God.
C.S. Lewis powerfully puts it this way in The Weight of Glory:
If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
That's it! Our ambitions are too weak. Our desires for joy are too shriveled. We've come to settle for a home we can own, a spouse we can love, children we can cherish, friends, a job, a vacation, nights out for dinner and a movie. We've made ourselves accustomed to this good but small pleasures and our capacity for joy, our ambition for something more has diminished. Because of this, our worship and joy in God has shriveled. And so have our admissions.
Tim Keller says that our admissions and our ambitions are far too weak. We expect so little from the Gospel and we admit so little about ourselves. We've shriveled in our spirituality and have become emaciated and malnourished because we drink from such small cups.
This is what happens when we lose our awe of the Gospel. When we forget or lose how awful and wonderful the Gospel is. This is how most of us have come to learn the Gospel. And this is why so many of us yawn when it's mentioned.
When you first come to consider spiritual things, you come with a willingness to admit a little bit about yourself and therefore you only hope to get a little bit out of it. If we've come to church, or come to Jesus, we know when we hear the Gospel that we need something. We feel like there is something we need and because we have some spiritual weakness we're willing to admit a certain amount of spiritual need.
But the Gospel doesn't just teach us that we're only a little sick and suffering and need some help. It teaches us that we need more than a little help because of suffering; we need a Savior because of our sin. When the true power of the Gospel comes in, it pushes you out to the edge of both admission and ambition. You may only be willing to admit a little bit and the Gospel wants you to admit it all: full disclosure, full admission, full awareness of our true and desperate need.
But the Gospel also challenges our ambitions. When we first come to the Gospel we come expecting a little spiritual power, some nice jolt, like a spiritual Monster drink to give us a Holy Spirit rush as we power through our daily grind. But the Gospel calls us to give up these tiny little ambitions.
Look, if you give yourself up to the King of Heaven (which is what it means to enter the Kingdom of Heaven), He won't just help give you a little more umph! where you're lacking, He wants to make you into something new. He promises to come in and dwell in you and make you into a new creature. He promises you a future glory that is so incredible that if you saw a glimpse of your future state you'd be tempted to fall down and worship it. He's looking for a total renovation, not just coloring the walls or adding wood blinds.
Your admissions and your ambitions are too small. The Gospel is far more terrible and incredible that we realize. It doesn't just want you to admit a little bit and get a little bit.
This parable is teaching us that it's going to cost everything. The value of all that you have has to be reassessed and shown to be worth nothing in comparison. God desires that the disposition of your heart is to give everything up and be willing to count it nothing. This is the radical bad news that everything you've come to treasure and give yourself to, everything you've come to treasure as your ultimate prize is nothing more than an idol and has to go. Full liquidation of your assets.
However, the radical good news of the Gospel is that, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).
Lewis puts another way in Mere Christianity:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
But after a while he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought [when you first came to him] you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
When we started, we wanted God to show up and give us a little bit extra of what our life was lacking, to help us here and there. So we went to church, read a few passages to warm our hearts, and looked for a little inspiration. Instead, God is saying to us this morning, "I want everything. I want it all. Give up your small admissions and open up to Me. Give up your small ambitions and I'll make you into a palace."
The Gospel is far more terrible and far more incredible than we've come to realize.
What is the parable teaching us? A few things:
1-Christianity is a change of values and priorities (a new administration)
2-For the change to occur, we have to be willing to liquidate everything we once placed our hope in.
3-What He gives in response is far more valuable than we could have ever hoped for.
That's what the parables about.
First, what Jesus is teaching us is that to become a Christian is to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. In John 3:3, a famous passage, we're told that "unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
To be a Christian is to be transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of his beloved Son (Col 1:13). This means that we now have a new King who brings in a new administration into our lives. When the votes are counted, and a new president is sworn in, he'll bring with him a new administration with new cabinet members so that his agenda will be fulfilled.
What this parable is teaching us is that either God is your King or you'll be your own King. Either He is of supreme value and is your treasure, or He's not and your emotions, your opinion of yourself and others and this world will be your ultimate authority. It is either His administration in your life or your own. There's nothing in the middle.
Q-What are some ways in which Jesus' administration in your life are manifested?
Second, we have to be willing to say, "nothing is more important in my life than Jesus." If faced with a choice between this or Jesus, or that or Jesus, you'll be willing to suffer whatever loss will come because of the great Treasure that He is to you.
But this is done in joy! In this parable the man sold all his possessions in joy! It wasn't a begrudging sacrifice. It was willing and joyful. If the incredible worth of Jesus is not real to us, then every sacrifice you make will be done with a tinge of dissatisfaction and grumbling, perhaps even outright frustration at God because of your loss. That wasn't the disposition of these men. They were willing to sell it all.
Q-What are some sacrifices and loss that you might be called on to make for the name and fame and Treasure of Jesus?
Third, since these men give everything joy, the value of what they will possess allows them to be willing to give it all up. In other words, the surpassing joy of what's promised causes them to live with joy now in the midst of loss.
This is how Paul can say:
Romans 8:18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
That's so incredibly profound and deep. Paul counted everything up and realized that once he weighed it all out, it was no comparison. The worth of what's coming is far beyond whatever we experience today.
There is a great line in the movie I mentioned earlier called Somewhere in Time. Elise McKenna, one of the characters says this about this longing in her heart for the love or her life:
The man of my dreams has almost faded now. The one I have created in my mind. The sort of man each woman dreams of, in the deepest and most secret reaches of her heart. I can almost see him now before me. What would I say to him if he were really here? "Forgive me. I have never known this feeling. I have lived without it all my life. Is it any wonder, then, I failed to recognize you? You, who brought it to me for the first time. Is there any way that I can tell you how my life has changed? Any way at all to let you know what sweetness you have given me? There is so much to say. I cannot find the words. Except for these: "I love you". Such would I say to him if he were really here.
Do you know something of this love? The promise is that He's really here. He's not just a hope. Though you can't see Him, by His Spirit, Christ is here and he's everything you've ever longed for and more. Are you willing to sum up all that you feel towards him by simply saying "I love you?"
Who was ultimately inconvenienced? Who made the ultimate sacrifice? Who was willing to give up everything? Who was the true worker in the field? Who was the true merchant looking for a pearl? Jesus was.
Luke 19:10: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
Hebrews 12:2: "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
John Donne says this in one of his poems:
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Do you hear that? Unless Jesus ravishes us, we'll never be free!
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