ESV "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.

·         Of the apostles of Jesus Christ, there is good evidence that they were all martyred in some way.

·         James was killed by King Agrippa’s orders with a sword, Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was beheaded, James the lesser was probably thrown from the top of the temple, while other apostles were run through with spears, crucified, beaten to death or hanged.

·         We know from the book of Acts, just how Stephen was killed.

Acts 7:54-60   Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.  ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  ⁵⁶ And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.  ⁵⁸ Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.  ⁵⁹ And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

·         Stephen looked up and saw heaven and was full of hope, even though they were going to stone him. He knew he would be with Jesus

·         Throughout the ages, from Stephen, to Ignatius and onward, there have been countless martyrs who have given their lives holding onto their hope in Jesus Christ. 

·         They were willing to die, because the joy of having the kingdom of heaven in Jesus Christ, was greater than anything else.

·         They knew that giving up everything was worth it, for the joy of having the kingdom.

·         And that is what Jesus was trying to get his disciples to see and understand in two parables we read at the beginning.

·         Parables normally have one central meaning, and Jesus’ meaning in these two parables is clear. The main idea of these parables is that,

Main Idea: Giving up everything is worth it, for the joy of having the kingdom.

·         Shortly before this parable, Jesus had told the parable of the sower and the seeds and he explained the three types of soils.

·         The seed that fell in the rocky soil springs up quickly but then dies when the sun comes out because it has no root. The seed that fell on thorny soil was choked out by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.  And the third soil is the one who understands the word, bears fruit and yields a bountiful crop.

·         When we get to our parable, Jesus is explaining the kind of response that those who are like the good soil will have.

·         Those who are like the good soil, are willing to give everything up for the joy of being in the kingdom.

·         In other words, there is an expected response for those who find the kingdom of heaven. There is a normal, joyful response to those who find the kingdom because the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure.

·         The main idea in both of these parables is that Giving up everything is worth it, for the joy of having the kingdom

 

1.       The kingdom is worth giving everything up for it.

·         People spend money on all kinds of things.

·         I read last month abut a record-breaking art sale of a painting done by Gerhard Richter. It was owned by Eric Clapton who bought it at $2.6 million and sold it for $34 million. It is currently the most expensive painting ever sold while the artist is still living. At the same auction, they sold a pair of Marie Antoinette’s shoes for $76,000 and an Egyptian sculpture of the god Isis sold for $5.9 million. The 29-inch sculpture set an all time record for Egyptian art.

·         I appreciate art and beauty. But if you ask me, none of those things is really worth it. None of those things is worth giving up that much money for. I can’t imagine working my whole life only to get a 29” sculpture of a false god. How meaningless. How empty. And things like this don’t get you much besides bragging rights and even that is pretty empty.

·         We may not spend our lives and fortunes on things so grossly empty but we can give up our lives to lesser things.

·         However, the kingdom of heaven is worth giving up everything for it.

·         You job or your title is not worth giving everything up for it. Worldly fame is not worth giving everything up for it. Money and even great wealth is not worth giving everything up for it.

·          Jesus said in Matthew 6:19 that no earthly treasure will last when He told them:

·       Matthew 6:19-20  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

·         No earthly treasure will last but if we have the kingdom, we have a treasure that will last forever.

·         In our first parable, the man who found the treasure hidden in the field goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He holds nothing back, he spares no expense. The treasure he has found is so valuable that he is willing to give up everything that he has.

·         Then, in the second parable, the one who finds the one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

·         They both sold all that they had – they completely sold themselves out, in order to get the treasure and the pearl of great price.

·         Jesus is saying that the kingdom is worth selling everything we have to get it. The kingdom of heaven is worth giving all we have and all we are up to get it.

·         It is worth us giving up our career if need be. It is worth us giving up any other dream if need be. It is worth us giving up any relationship.

·         The kingdom of heaven is worth giving up our reputation too. Let me be counted as a fool for believing in Jesus but I don’t want to be more concerned about what people think of me, than being found in Jesus, having a righteousness that is not my own.

·         The kingdom of heaven is worth giving up an easy life to gain the life that is eternal. It is worth giving up convenience and being accepted by men to gain all the rewards of heaven.

·         If heaven is like a treasure to us, we will be willing to give everything up for it. But if we don’t see that heaven is our true treasure and that Jesus is our great reward, then we will be deceived into trusting in other things.

 

·         Luke 12:16-21  "The land of a rich man produced plentifully,  ¹⁷ and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'  ¹⁸ And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'  ²⁰ But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'  ²¹ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

·         The man in this parable in Luke thought that this life was all that there was and he was hoping to just eat drink and be merry. But he was a fool because he chose all of those things instead of choosing God and in the end, he lost it all.

·         This life is not all that there is though. Jesus promises us an eternal inheritance, which is kept in heaven for we who have placed our trust in Him.

·         If you see Christ for who He is, you will value Him. If you value Him, you will want to follow Him. And following Jesus means being willing to give everything up for Him because He is more than worth the trade-off.

·         But sometimes we forget that don’t we? We forget that Jesus is worth more because we forget who He is, we forget what he has done, we forget His promises and we forget the great treasure we’ve found in Christ Jesus.

·         The whole reason that we wanted to interrupt our series on Hebrews this morning was to take a step back and remind ourselves of what we’ve learned so far – to see what we’ve learned so far about Jesus and to let it affect us.

·         The point of the book of Hebrews that we’ve been emphasizing in our regular series on Sunday mornings is that seeing Jesus gives us hope in His promises. So far, we’ve been privileged to see who Jesus is in so many different ways. It is our hope that Jesus is becoming even more beautiful, even more precious, even more valuable to you, because He is worth giving everything up for. And it is our desire that as you see Jesus, it will produce a change in you and me.

·         I am hoping that as a church, we will begin to see just how valuable Jesus is – just how valuable the kingdom of heaven is, that we will want to live for Jesus and live for the kingdom in our lives in an ever-increasing way.

·         Remember our mission as a church? The first part of our mission is to be disciples of Jesus. My hope is that we will really understand just who Jesus is - just who it is that we are following. And if we truly understand how valuable, how priceless He is and what a treasure we have in the kingdom of heaven that we possess though Him, it is my hope that it will have a profound effect on the way we live and what we live for.

·         So often, we become dull and weary and tired and lack passion in our lives, because we don’t really see Jesus. Instead we see problems and duty and chores and the cares of this world and all of these things weigh us down and make us weary.

·         Do you ever lack passion for God? Do you ever lack passion for giving, for serving, for sharing the gospel? I think that sometimes the reason why we lack passion for these things is that we don’t see the value of Jesus Christ and the value of the kingdom of heaven and we are more aware of what we are giving up than the great treasure we have in Jesus.

·         But if we see who Jesus really is and understand and treasure Him and His kingdom, it will have a profound and deep effect on our lives. We will want to live for Jesus, to love Jesus, to serve Jesus and His body the church. We will want to give everything that we have for His kingdom and be willing to give it all up because of His great value.

·         So, how do we get the kingdom of heaven?  Do we buy it, as the two men in the parables did? Do we literally give up everything that we have? The point of the parable isn’t that we buy the kingdom with money or our own goods or worth but the kingdom is bought nonetheless. Listen to the prophecy of Isaiah about the kind of buying we are talking about:

·         Isaiah 55:1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

·         Salvation is by grace through faith and not of any works lest you should boast, but there is a transaction involved. The exchange that takes place is that we must be willing to give up everything to get the kingdom of heaven. We don’t earn it by our desiring but we do receive it through faith as we are willing to leave everything and follow Jesus.

·         That is what Jesus meant when He said earlier in Matthew:

Matthew 10:37-39   Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

·         The kingdom of heaven is more valuable than anything in this world and it is more than worth giving everything up to get it. The alternative is to seek the things of this world and lose our lives.

·         Jesus said later in Matthew  16:

Matthew 16:26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?

·         In fact, this whole theme of being willing to give everything up to follow Jesus is throughout the book of Matthew. Later, when Jesus is talking to the rich young ruler who was living for this world, he says,

Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

·         Instead of giving everything up, the man went away sad and he kept his earthly wealth but lost his life in the end.

·         But Jesus promises us that the kingdom is worth giving everything up for it in Matthew 19:29 when he said,

Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

·         The kingdom of Jesus Christ is like a great treasure and it is worth giving up everything in this life for Him.

·         How about you? What do you find valuable? What are you giving yourself for? Are you willing to give up everything for Him? Or is there something you are still hanging onto that you think will give you life and joy?

·         The problem with clinging to anyone or anything other than Jesus for our hope or joy is that it actually robs us of true hope and true joy. But there is great joy in having the kingdom.

·         Look at our first parable again. There is one key phrase, one key word in the parable that is very important. It says, “in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”.

·         “In his joy.” Joy was the motivation because there is great joy in having the kingdom and that is the second point we are going to look at from this parable,

 

2.       There is great joy in having the kingdom

·         When this parable is talking about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the lord, it is talking about salvation. It’s about salvation in Jesus Christ Himself. It is about the great gift of the kingdom that Jesus gives to us in salvation.

·         The treasure we have in the kingdom of heaven is knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him. The treasure we have is having fellowship with the eternal Holy God of all.  The treasure of the kingdom is having our Sovereign God love us as adopted children.  The treasure we have is that God is for us and not against you now.  The treasure of the kingdom is that we can do all things through Christ Jesus our Lord, even if those things mean suffering. He will sustain us and keep us in His loving arms.

·         We have a treasure that is beyond comparison and all the blessings of God are ours in Christ Jesus. We have a treasure in mercy unending, when we deserve only wrath. We have complete and total forgiveness. We have a God who will redeem us from even the worst past, make all things new and give us life everlasting. We have Jesus who will never leave us nor forsake us, even if everyone else does.

·         What great joy we have in the Kingdom, what great joy we have in Jesus Christ! This is an important point. Because the basic desire of every human being on the planet is to have joy, true joy and lasting joy.

·         The problem is true joy, lasting joy isn’t found anywhere else and so many people never find the treasure of the kingdom of heaven; never find the hope we have in Christ Jesus. Everyone wants to be joyful. But true joy comes in discovering and buying, in making the kingdom of Christ Jesus our own possession. And the kingdom of Jesus Christ is to be pursued for the sake of joy.

·         There is nothing wrong with us wanting to find true joy in Christ –in fact the Bible tells us to rejoice in the Lord and be glad. Jesus told His disciples in John 16:22

John 16:22-24  So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.  ²³ In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

·         Jesus desires that our joy might be made full in Him.

·         He told us in John 17:13

John 17:13  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

·         Paul reiterates that the kingdom of God isn’t about earthly pleasures and he says,

Romans 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

·         In fact, the whole idea of the Christian life is that we are meant to have joy. That was Paul’s prayer at the end of Romans, when he said,

Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

·         Peter too knew that having the kingdom of Christ brought true joy and he said in 1 Peter 1:8

1 Peter 1:8-9  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,  obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

·         Jude, the brother of Jesus, prayed that we would be presented before God with great joy:

Jude 1:24-25  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. 

·         The kingdom of heaven is the rule and reign of Christ Jesus. And the rule and reign of Jesus brings us joy in our lives. We can have joy knowing that He is in control and that He is working all things together for our good, even when life is hard and even when we are suffering.

·         So, the question is - do we have great joy? If not, you can have great joy. You can know peace that will never be taken away, no matter what comes.

·         We will find joy when Christ rules our desires and feelings. We find joy when Christ rules our thinking. We find joy when Christ rules our lives.

·         When we live for the things of this world though, it robs us of joy. When we are more aware of the sacrifice we make or what we give up, it robs us of joy.

·         But when we see the great value of the kingdom, we will see that giving up everything; giving up our whole life is worth it for the joy of having the kingdom of Christ Jesus.

·         So what are we living for? What are we giving ourselves to? Are we living for that which truly matters? Are we giving ourselves up for the kingdom or for other things? Are we completely sold out for the kingdom of heaven?

·         Now, in the parable, there are two kinds of people: the man who stumbles across it and wasn’t looking and there was the man who was looking hard.  The kingdom of heaven is hidden. Not all people find the kingdom. Not all people are looking – but all people need to find the kingdom of heaven.

·         So, how do people find the kingdom of heaven? They find it through you and me. But we aren’t meant to tell other people about Jesus Christ because of duty alone. We are meant to tell other people about Jesus Christ because of the joy we have and because we want them to know that joy too.

·         We are meant to desire to give everything we can for the joy of having the kingdom. This is meant to affect how we live. And this sold-out joy for the kingdom is meant to affect what we do and what we spend our time and our money and our energy on. Nothing else is worth giving our lives to.

·         But, Giving up everything is worth it, for the joy of having the kingdom

·         May we be the kind of church that gives up everything for the joy of having the kingdom. May we be known as a sacrificial people who love and serve and care and give because we have a kingdom mindset and we are full of joy in having Christ Jesus.

·         Amen

Potential Application Questions:

1. Are there any areas that tend to distract you in your life from seeing the worth of the kingdom of heaven? (suffering, chronic pain, hardship, employment problems, etc.)?

2. Take some time to think about all of the benefits of the kingdom of heaven. (starting with salvation, justification, freedom from sin, no condemnation, adoption in Christ, purpose in life, etc.)  Do you believe each of them is true? If not, why not and how would God have you respond?

3. What are you treasuring in your life the most? What would you be most concerned about if you didn’t have or if it was taken away from you? Would you be willing to give it up for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ?

4. What does a willingness to give up everything for Christ look like in your life personally? How can you tell you are willing to live this way?

5. If living as a disciple of Jesus is how we define ourselves, what should this look like in our lives?

6. Sometimes we can lack passion because

7. Are we normally more aware of what we are giving up than of what we have in the kingdom of Jesus Christ? If so, how can we change?

8. We are meant to have joy in finding and having the kingdom of heaven but sometimes we must fight for this joy. What are some ways we can fight to have joy in Jesus Christ? What should we put off and put on?

9. Share some testimonies about how God has given you joy with your small group.

10. How can you help each other keep a kingdom mindset and relish the joy we have in Christ continually?