Matthew: The Worth of the Kingdom (13:44-58)
This sermon was preached to Grace Church Guildford on 2 April 2023. The audio recording of the sermon can be found below along with the transcript.
Repetition, repetition, repetition. It’s how we learn, isn’t it? Whether a toddler looking at their ABCs, or a teenager revising for their GCSEs, we often find that for information to really sink in, we must go over it again and again. [...] And tonight, we clearly see that repetition was part of Jesus’ teaching style as well. At the beginning of March, we started looking together at this sermon that Jesus taught in Matthew 13, known as The Parables of the Kingdom. This evening, we are looking at the last section of it together, as well as the reaction of the those around Jesus afterwards. And as we read the passage earlier, I hope many of the themes and truths in it seemed familiar to you. For both Jesus and Matthew repeat many of the lessons that we have been learning over the last few months.
Three parts of our text clearly pick up and repeat what has happened before. First, did you notice that the Parable of the Net in 13:47–50 seemed very similar to the Parable of the Weeds earlier in the chapter? It is a story showing us that while all kinds of people will mix with and live alongside each other in this world, at the end of time there will be a great separation, a division into two groups, the wicked and the righteous, that will eternal consequences. The Parable of the Net is really just the parable of the weeds all over again. Second, in 13:51–52, Jesus returns again to the purpose of parables. Back in 13:11, he told his disciples that parables are stories sharing the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Or in 13:35, Matthew explained that parables reveal truths that were previously hidden. Here in 13:52, Jesus repeats the same idea, speaking about teachers who bring something new out of what is old. Finally, the third thing we see repeated, is the reaction to Jesus. If you recall just before the sermon, at the end of Matthew 12, Jesus was condemned by the crowds and forsaken by his family. Now, a chapter later, we see nothing has changed, for in 13:53–58 we see crowds are offended by him and Jesus is dishonoured by his own household.
Three parts of our passage repeat the lessons we have recently been learning together. However, there is a fourth part of our passage that teaches us something new, shows us something we haven’t seen before. And so at the end of this communion Sunday, I want to just focus on that part. In 13:44–46, Jesus tells a pair of parables: the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. If you think back a few weeks, you will remember Jesus has done this before. In 13:31–33, Jesus shared two short stories, of the mustard seed and the yeast, to show we can have confidence in his kingdom. This time, he uses a pair of parables to show we can rejoice in his kingdom. Tonight we will consider both parables together across our two points: (1) Jesus is worth searching for; (2) Jesus is worth sacrificing for.
1. JESUS IS WORTH SEARCHING FOR
In 2009, 55-year old Terry Herbert was taking a walk around a field. A few years previously, he had picked up a metal detector at a car boot sale for £2.50, and was now trying it out on his friend’s farm in Staffordshire. As he approached the corner of one field the device went off, and Terry was delighted when he dug up a few old coins. But over the next 5 days, Terry kept finding things in that same field. So much so, he eventually had to get a specialist team excavate the site for him. When they had finished, they had discovered almost 4,000 Anglo-Saxo artifacts. Not only coins, but swords, shields and helmets and jewellery. It was a true treasure hoard, likely hidden there by a war lord 1500 years before. And Terry went on to sell this treasure to museums in the UK for £3.3m.
That is a modern-day real-life version of the parable that Jesus tells here in 13:44, where we read: [READ]. And the second parable Jesus tells in 13:45-46 is similar, again we read: [READ]. If you remember from a few weeks ago, the six main parables in this sermon all tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like, all begin with that phrase. And here we see Christ’s kingdom compared to a man finding treasure, a merchant discovering a valuable pearl. Both parables focus on the worth and value of the kingdom. They teach us, as we just sung, that Jesus really is our greatest treasure. That his Kingdom is precious. That having Jesus should bring us great joy.
The Bible often talks this way. Think about how Christ’s coming, the arrival of this king and his kingdom, was announced to the shepherds that first Christmas. In Luke 2:10 we read an angel appeared and announced, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” Jesus is good news that causes great joy. What is this good news of great joy? We can understand why Terry was filled with joy when he found all that treasure. But why is discovering Jesus similar? What is so valuable about Jesus?
Christian, if you one of your colleagues, or your classmate/neighbour was to ask you that question this week, what would you say? They know you come along to church, noticed you take your religion seriously. And approaching Easter, they finally pick up the courage to ask, ‘Why is Christianity so important to you?’ How would you answer that question this week? What aspect of Jesus would you talk about to? Part of Christianity would you concentrate on? Of course, there are a range of answers you could give. You could talk about how you’ve experienced God’s help and guidance in your life, or Christ’s nearness and love in a dark and difficult season, or the hope Jesus gives you for the future, or the purpose Christianity provides you with in the present, or the certainty you have that the Bible is true and that we must live in light of it, or the blessing that it has been to be part of God’s people in the local church. Those are all things that are valuable about Christianity, precious about being part of Christ’s kingdom. And yet, underneath all those reasons, behind all the different blessings and benefits there are of being a Christian, is the underlying, central reason why Christianity is good news of great joy. And it is the good news of the Gospel. Why is Christianity so important to us? What is so valuable about Jesus? [The Bible teaches...].
That is the Gospel, the good news of Christians, from which like a seed, all the other blessings and benefits of Christ’s Kingdom bloom. And that good news should bring us great joy. We should cry with David in Psalm 103:1-5, “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” When you start to consider all those benefits of being in Christ’s kingdom, you see why it is a treasure, why Jesus is precious. And so why Jesus is worth searching for.
If you are here tonight and not yet a Christian, not yet in possession of this treasure, do you see what this means for you? It means that if you if you consider Christianity, you will find it to be a pearl of great price. If you start searching for Jesus, you will find him to be a treasure beyond your wildest imagination. If like Terry Herbert that day, your metal detector is going off, your treasure senses are tingling when you hear about all the blessings and benefits of the Gospel, then can I encourage you to pick up your spade and start digging. To explore Christianity for yourself and see just how precious it is. Why don’t you ask a Christian you know to meet up to read the Bible with you, so you can learn more about what it says. Or get together with them to talk over the questions you have about Christianity. Come along to our services here at Grace Church to learn more and more. You might be here this evening because you are doing just that, like the merchant in 13:45 “looking for fine pearls”, you are looking for something of value, of worth, something that really matters in this world. If that is the case, see that Christ’s kingdom is like a treasure hoard just waiting to be dug up and discovered, see that Jesus is worth searching for.
Jesus is worth searching for, whether it is the first time or the five hundredth time. Surely the reason David has to say to his soul in Psalm 103, “forget not all his benefits”, is because that’s exactly what we are so prone to do! As amazing as this treasure of the Gospel is, as valuable as it is to be part of Christ’s kingdom, we become forgetful. Is that where you are tonight, Christian? Have you forgotten the blessings and benefits of the Gospel? Is following Jesus still the greatest treasure of your life? Or has it just become your general way of life? O yes, you go through the motions, keep up appearances, faithfully serve here at Grace Church, but inside the joy is gone, your delight in Jesus has drained away. Christianity is more something you do than it is someone you enjoy. You’ve taken this treasure of the Gospel, and placed it on a forgotten shelf. You’ve taken that pearl of great price, and left it in the jewellery drawer. Brother or sister, if you have forgotten what you first found in Jesus, then see here you should go searching for him again. If Jesus is worth searching for that first time, then surely he is still worth searching for today? For he is still the same Saviour, his Kingdom is still good news of great joy. Jesus is a treasure that does not tarnish, his value has not reduced over time, Jesus is just as precious today as when you first found him.
And so this evening, can I encourage you to go looking for him again, do everything you can to “forget not all his benefits”. Like David, we should be reminding ourselves, speaking to our souls, of all the benefits and blessings of the Gospel. We should do that in our own lives as we read God’s Word, speak to him in prayer, look for him in our everyday lives. And we do that for each other too. That’s part of our purpose here as a church together. In many ways, a church is a treasure hunting society. It is our job to remind each other every week as we gather, and every day as our lives intersect with one another, about the treasure trove we have found in Jesus. And to encourage each other to keep looking for more and more treasure in Jesus. For no matter how familiar we have become with the Gospel over the years, there is always something new to be enjoyed in it. That is what we read there in 13:52. Christ’s kingdom is like a treasure trove out of which we can always draw not only what is old, but also what is new. There is always something new to be enjoyed in the Gospel. We need never run out of reasons to rejoice in Jesus. If you return to that hole in the ground, you will always walk away with something that this precious...
Friends, let’s not be like that Anglo-Saxon warlord in Staffordshire. For some reason, 1500 years ago, he put his treasure in a hole in the ground and forgot about it. He had all that treasure, but missed out on enjoying it. Let’s not do that with Jesus. What is the point in having Jesus and not enjoying him? Why would you make all the sacrifices needed to be a Christian, and forget about all the blessings of being one? And it is to those sacrifices...
2. JESUS IS WORTH SACRIFICING FOR
What is so interesting about these two stories, is that they are not just parables of people who find treasure, but of people who buy treasure. Did you notice that? The merchant doesn’t just find a pearl and take it home with him. No, in 13:46 we read: [READ]. The same is true of the man who finds treasure in the field, for he then hides it and goes off to purchase the field. If what the man does seems a bit strange to you, then its maybe because you are still following that time-tested principle that children often use: ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’. Despite the confidence with which children say it, that isn’t actually the law. Here in the UK, treasure hunters must split their find with the person who owns the ground. And so, while Terry Herbert found treasure worth £3.3m, he ended up having to give half of that to his friend who owned the field. And the Roman world was an even worse place to be a treasure hunter, for at the time of Jesus, if treasure was found and removed from the field, the owner of the field would get it all and the person who found it would get nothing. And so, if this man wants to own this treasure, he has to buy the field. It wasn’t enough to simply to find treasure, this man and the merchant both had to buy it.
And they both bought it for the same price – did you notice that? Both men had to sell all they had to purchase the pearl and buy the field. I think that’s significant, because they would have paid quite different prices for those two things. The pearl merchant would have been a wealthy man, he was the ancient equivalent of a diamond trader today. And so, all he had likely amount to a great deal of wealth. And yet it took every penny to purchase this pearl. On the other hand, it seems the person who found treasure in the field wasn’t well of at all. First, he didn’t own the field, and so he was probably the tenant farmer who rented it, dug up the treasure when planting his crops. However, we also see he wasn’t a rich man because when he sells all he has, it is only enough to purchase a single field. Which really wouldn’t have been that expensive. The merchant had great wealth. The farmer had little. And yet, these treasures both cost them the exact same price: it cost both these men everything they had.
And Jesus tells us this is just like the Kingdom of Heaven. Whether we are rich or poor, have much or little, Jesus says we all must pay the same price. No matter who we are, or what we have, Christianity will cost us everything. This treasure of Christ’s Kingdom not only requires searching, it also requires sacrifice. Now Jesus isn’t saying here that we can somehow buy the Kingdom of Heaven, as we saw this morning in Exodus 35-40 and the story of Zacchaeus, the sacrifices of God’s people are in response to God’s grace, not a way to earn God’s grace. There was an entrance fee for entering the kingdom, but the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus paid this for his people on the cross. However, as we all take up our crosses and follow after Jesus, we will find we need to make sacrifices as well. And these parables represent this by the man and the merchant both having to sell all their possessions.
In our lives, sacrificing for Jesus may mean a whole range of things. It might mean ending or avoiding a romantic relationship with a non-Christian. It could mean disappointing family or friends because of our new faith. It could mean deciding where to live based on how close you are to a healthy local church. Or taking a different career path in order to be able to serve God’s people better. It will mean denying sinful desires that we have. It might even mean selling our houses and possessions to go somewhere else with the Gospel on mission. No matter what specific sacrifices each of us are called to make, the point is the same. If we are to have Jesus as our treasure, then he must be our greatest treasure. More important that friends and family, possessions and pleasures, desires and dreams. Being a citizen of his kingdom must be the central reality of your life, everything else must revolve around your relationship with him. No matter who we are, or what we have, Christianity will cost us everything. For everything must become less important to us than Jesus. We must be willing to let go of it all, in order to get him.
As we have seen throughout Matthew, Christianity comes at great cost. But once again we see that Jesus is worth the price. We see this so beautifully in the parable of the hidden treasure, don’t we? In 13:44 we read, [READ]. What is it that sends this man to sell all he has? What drives his determination to make such a great sacrifice? Its his joy. He has seen the treasure waiting in that field. He knows that this is one purchase that he will never regret. That what many might see as a sacrifice, really isn’t a sacrifice at all. No, it’s just a fantastic investment. O yes, he might have to give up all he has, and yet he knows he is gaining so much more. And so, he makes this sacrifice with joy, sells all he has with a smile on his face, and skips back to the field to take hold of his treasure. Because he knows this treasure is worth sacrificing for, he goes and sells all he has with joy. And the same will be true for each of us. It is our certainty in the value of Jesus that will result in our ability to sacrifice for Jesus. It is only by fixing our eyes fixed on the glory of the Gospel, that our hands will let go of the things of this world. That is what Paul experienced, for he writes in Philippians 3:8, “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...”.
Christian, are you beginning to doubt that Jesus is worth sacrificing for? Maybe the effort and energy of serving God and his people is starting to wear you down? Mabye the drain and discouragement of witnessing to your family is getting too much? Are the temptations of sin and pressures of this world starting to draw you away from Jesus? Maybe you are here this evening, and not yet a Christian. But you are starting to count the cost, starting to see that if you were to become a Christian, then you would have to sacrifice much. If so, see here that no matter what following Jesus may cost you, it is always worth that price. No matter what you have to give up to gain Jesus, you are always the richer, the better off, for having him. For Jesus is worth sacrificing for! Even if like this man and this merchant, you had to go and sell all your possessions, you could do it with joy, for Jesus is a treasure that is worth far more than all the trinkets of this world put together.
That treasure hoard Terry Herbert found that day was truly amazing, and I’m sure the vast amount of money he got for it really did improve his life. And yet, one day all that money will be spent and that treasure will be no more use to Terry. For like the warlord 1500 years before him, he will be buried in the ground just like that treasure was. No matter how amazing the treasures of this world are, they are still treasures limited to this world. But Jesus is a treasure that not only lasts for time, but also for eternity. O yes, following Jesus will cost us our earthly life, but it also gives us eternal life. And so, Jesus is worth sacrificing for. As the missionary Jim Elliot put it, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” O friends, it is not foolish to sacrifice for Jesus. These two men in our parables were not foolish to give up everything else in order to gain this treasure. No, indeed the foolish thing would have been to find that treasure in the field, to see how valuable it is ....
