Getting the Kingdom, 3: The Hidden Treasure & The Pearl of Great Price: "Truly Priceless" Matthew 13:44-46

- We live in a culture that is business focused and media driven.

- We learn more from advertising than we do from our philosophers, theologians, and teachers.

- Let me show you what I mean – play YouTube Master Card ads:

        (1)MacGyver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYryLFfOa8k

        (2)Penelope Fortier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOE7jN4-Ws

        (3)/Changes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oes8jcO8qfU         

        (4)Baseball commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71KAO_bmc2o

        (5)Lost dog all 3 together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mSSaCJWliI

        (6)"TP... bad idea”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_G9WRAhvE4

- These MasterCard ads are very tempting and convincing because they play on our emotions and prey on our hearts.

- While they teach us that money can be used to buy useful everyday items, these ads also teach us that money can be used to buy happiness, comfort, and deeper relationships.

- They teach us that though we are far from home or where we long to be, we can simply just spend our way there or buy our salvation back home to those whom we love.

- In the last ad, MasterCard finally admits that we can spend our way into trouble.

- But they never admit the trouble we get ourselves into through overspending, buying what we don't really need and leaving ourselves deep in credit card debt.

- MasterCard is selling a lie by telling us that we can buy our way into priceless experiences and the truly satisfying joys of life.

- The happiness that money buys is only momentary. It fades away.  It is not as priceless as MasterCard would have us believe.

- In fact, when we're using borrowed money, it's worse because we build up debt we can't pay, becoming slaves to it.

- What I want us to do this morning is take a look at the parables of The Hidden Treasure and The Pearl of Great Price.

- This pair of stories helps us to understand what Jesus has to say about the one thing he sees as truly priceless.

- Matthew 13:44-46

- ⁴⁴ “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.
⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

- Can you hear the voice of Jesus in these parables? Is God speaking to you?

- These two brief parables belong together because they make the same point from a slightly different point of view, as Jesus intended.

- Jesus is giving his disciples two situations that show what the kingdom of the heavens is like.

- What Matthew wanted to teach his readers in these parables of Jesus about God's kingdom is simple: Let the world have "everything else," but God's kingdom: priceless.

- Thinking about the hidden treasure, the one who discovers the treasure hidden in a field seems to have stumbled across it by chance.

- Under ancient Jewish law, a worker who stumbled across a treasure in a field and dug it up had to give it up to the field's owner.

- But this man took extra care not to dig up the treasure until he had bought the field.

- This parable is all about the value of the hidden treasure, a treasure that is worth every sacrifice to get once found.

- In a world without banks or safety deposit boxes, it was common to bury your valuables, your treasures.

- Jesus told this story because it is a story which captures everyone's imaginations.

- Who hasn't imagined what it would be like to find a fortune in buried treasure?

- The odds back then of finding a buried treasure in your backyard or your field are about the same as they are today; one in a million maybe one in a billion.

- Because the man who found the treasure was only a tenant farmer, he had to sell all that he had, all his belongings, everything, in order to buy that field.

- The point Jesus is making in this parable is that God's kingdom is worth infinitely more than any financial, material or physical hardship or earthly wealth.

- The kingdom of heaven is worth more than all the money in the world, more than all the stuff we own or will ever own, and more than any level of comfort we can buy.

- Let the world have "everything else," but God's kingdom: priceless.

- Building on the idea of the first parable, the second story of the pair is of a merchant who finds a pearl of incredible value while searching for beautiful pearls.

- In the first parable, the man stumbles across the treasure entirely by accident, whereas in the second parable the merchant comes across a priceless pearl while seeking beautiful pearls.

- While both characters in these parables find their fortunes in different ways, they both come to the same conclusion.

- The only way to get the priceless treasures they discovered was to sell everything they had.

- The merchant appears to be a collector who is looking for the best most beautiful of all pearls, pearls that would be the greatest of his collection.

- But what he finds is a pearl of such beauty and value that it was worth sacrificing his entire collection to possess.

- While he was an expert in pearls, he considered the sale of all his merchandise and his collection to be a fair trade for this one pearl.

- He had no interest in selling for profit such a great pearl.

- The message of this second parable is a reflection of the first, that God's kingdom is priceless and that no sacrifice is too great to get it.

- Let the world have "everything else," but God's kingdom: priceless.

- In all of history, people have been willing to invest everything they have for goals that don't last.

- Many throw their lives away for momentary pleasures, money, real estate, treasures, education, reputation, and so on.

- But what are any of these compared to knowing God has given you the kingdom of the heavens in Jesus Christ?

- Jesus said, "Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." (Luke 14:33)

- Does he want us homeless and starving? No, he wants us to put his kingdom first.

- We invest ourselves in many things, but rarely does there come along an opportunity that would cause us to forget everything else, sell it all, and risk everything in our lives for that opportunity.

- If one of us found something of infinite worth, something truly priceless, that we could have as our own, then how far would we be willing to go to get it?

- Jesus tells his listeners in these two little parables that the kingdom of the heavens, God's kingdom, is that priceless thing that we are all looking for.

- To a young man who loved his money Jesus said, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”(Mark 10:21)

- Jesus is saying the opposite of MasterCard. "Let me take care of everything else. You go after God's kingdom: it alone is priceless."

- How about VISA? They claim, "VISA is all you need."

- Jesus says, "What you really need is the kingdom of heaven."

- Whether you have found the kingdom of God because you stumbled across it quite by accident or because you have been intentionally seeking it does not matter.

- Jesus expects us to invest all that we are and all that we have in his kingdom. He expects us to hold our possessions, our stuff, loosely, to hold all that we have and all that we are with open hands not closed fists.

- Paul the apostle wrote, "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..." (Philippians 3:8).

- He also wrote: "I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content. In any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)

- Two women met at a cocktail party after a separation of many years.

- After the initial delighted exchange of greetings, the first woman noticed that her friend was wearing an extraordinary diamond.

- She couldn't help commenting, "That's the most beautiful and enormous diamond I have ever seen!"

- "Yes, it's an unusual diamond," was the reply. "It's the Callahan Diamond. And it comes complete with the Callahan curse."

- "What's the Callahan curse?"

- "Why! Mr. Callahan, of course," She said.

- This woman sold herself to her husband for something much less valuable than what Jesus has to offer.

- If we truly understand that nothing in this life lasts and that the only treasures we can count on lasting forever are the investments and deposits we make into his kingdom, then we will want to take full advantage of those opportunities by sacrificing our time, our talents, our treasures, and our testimonies to share our experience of Jesus with others.

- Can you hear the voice of Jesus in the Scriptures today? Will you listen to him and do what he asks?

- Let the world have "everything else," but God's kingdom: priceless.