Well last week I couldn’t talk, which was kind of awkward. I guess I caught some sort of virus and ended up with laryngitis and have been trying to nurse my vocal cords back to wanting to work correctly. But we’re back to it and hopefully I can make it through this one.
Anyways, we got to hear a great reminder last week from the book of Mark about this new family of the church that Jesus has come to build. We had already talked about this on our way through Matthew, but I felt like it was important enough to just be reminded of again as we continue to develop the foundations of this church. This church is built on Jesus and Jesus said He’s making us into a new family. That should in some way change our worldview, it should change our outlook on things. Yes, we come from these biological families, and yes family is important, but there is a bigger thing happening here with Jesus gathering all sorts of people into this spiritual family.
There is literally no way to overstate the importance and the gravity of what it means to be part of Jesus’ family. What it means to be God’s people. What it means to be saved. What it means for our future. What it means for our present. It completely redefines every aspect our life.
Peter in 1 Peter 1:9-10 says:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Peter says that at one time, we weren’t even a people. We were people by definition, but we weren’t gathered into a people for a point and for purpose. But in Christ that changes, and Peter says that we are a chosen people, a special people, the people of God, Jesus’ family, called out of darkness into His marvelous light.
From death to life, dark to light, nothing to purpose. Everything changes and Jesus did that.
But why? Why did He do that? Why did He do and go through everything that He did to make this happen?
I want to pick back up in our study of Matthew to answer this question.
Read Matthew 13:44-52
We’ve got three parables again in front of us this morning. The parable of the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price, and the parable of the dragnet. Let’s see what we can learn from these.
The first two parables here are pretty similar and ultimately make the same point, but it’s a really incredible point. We’re going to work our way to this point, and I think it will help us understand the answer to our question from a minute ago. Again, why did Jesus do all that He did?
What Jesus went through was crazy, there was a moment in the garden of Gethsemane, in Luke 22 or Matthew 26, before He was arrested, where He was calling out to God the Father and basically said that if there is any other way for this all to happen then “take this cup from me” or take this responsibility away from Me. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. As God, He knew the pain, the suffering, the abandonment of friends, the treatment, the shame, the death, everything that He was going to have to go through. He knew those things as God, but as man, He also had to deal with the reality of how all of that was going to feel to actually go through these things, just like it would be for us.
Jesus did request, to take this cup or this responsibility from Me, because no person could look at these steps and want them, but then He followed that up with, not My will, but Your will be done Father. What we see in that, is that He had a greater desire to see His Father’s will accomplished, then His desire to avoid the suffering. But I think there’s even more to it than that.
And I think we can discover that in these parables, let’s just look at the first one for a moment.
Read Matthew 13:44
We find here, a man, who is apparently wandering through a field. In this field, He happens across a hidden treasure. I mean, I don’t know how well hidden it was to just stumble across it, but that’s the case none the less. We were watching National Treasure with the kids and that would lead you to believe that this treasure hunting thing is quite a bit more difficult and complicated than this. But this guy, as luck would have it, walks through a field and finds a treasure. He then makes sure that the treasure is hidden again, and He leaves, and He goes, and He sells EVERYTHING that He has to buy the field that the treasure is in.
He does this for the parable’s sake, because under the law, the treasure would be the property of the owner of the field and not just the guy that wandered through and found it.
But what we see here, is that apparently, this treasure was so valuable to the Man, that it was worth selling everything that He has, to make the purchase of this field, so that He could own this treasure.
And we maybe this leads us to general questions, like, who is this guy?, does this guy even have much to begin with?, what would I have to find in a field that would be worth me liquidating all of my worldly possessions to try to get it?, and probably a lot more questions.
But let’s start with, Who is this Guy?
I think sometimes people think about this parable and come to the conclusion that this must be us. Like maybe we have come to see how great Jesus is, maybe we’ve stumbled across Him in the field of life, maybe all of this has sunk in enough for us to know that He is worth everything that I have. And while that is a wonderful sentiment, a very true sentiment, that’s not the picture here. The man isn’t us. And it not being us, makes this way more impactful.
The Man in this parable is in fact Jesus.
And if the man is Jesus, then what is the treasure that Jesus is finding? What could Jesus possibly find that would be so valuable? What in the world would be worth, God the Son, giving up everything for, so that He could get this treasure? I mean, this is God, He lives in heaven, He made all things, He is worshipped constantly, He is glorious, He is awesome, we can’t even wrap our minds around all that He has and all that He is. And He’s like, I will give it all up, for this treasure. I hope the picture is coming into view, maybe you have realized what the treasure is. But if not, please understand, that the treasure … IS US. The treasure is the people that will be saved by Jesus.
Jesus wanted to build that family, He wanted to save people, He wanted to do the will of His Father. In His humanity He asked His Father if there was any other way for this to happen, but He knew the answer to that.
So why did He go through everything that He had to go through?
Because He valued us enough, to give up everything, and to go through everything, that He did, to purchase us, with His blood.
It’s the same thing in the next parable, let me read that one too.
Read Matthew 13:45
Jesus is the merchant, He’s out looking for beautiful pearls, and He finds a pearl that’s incredible, but it has a great price. So once again, this pearl was worth Him going and selling everything to get it. It’s the same picture. It’s an incredible picture of how much Jesus values each and every one of His people.
Like I talked about a minute ago, think about what He gave up, think about leaving Heaven to come down to Earth and all of its problems, think about leaving a place where you are worshiped by angels to come down and be mocked by people, understand that this is a place with no sickness, pain, or death, to come down here and willingly face pain at the highest degrees and die. To be God and yet walk in our shoes as a man. There’s no way that we really understand what He gave up to come for us. To come for you and to come for me.
You know maybe we’ve gone through life without much esteem, maybe we didn’t come from much, maybe we see ourselves in some kind of negative way, maybe life hasn’t gone the way that we expected or hoped for so far, maybe we’ve been torn down by other people in all kinds of ways, maybe we’ve messed up pretty bad, we all have, maybe we just don’t know what to think about ourselves and about our lives.
Well, I’ll tell you what, and please listen and understand, that every single one of those things needs to take a back seat to this understanding of Jesus’ value of you. He saw that one pearl, He saw that one person, He saw you, He saw me, and He was like, that’s beautiful…the price is crazy, but I got it, and I’ll give all of this up and buy it. He bought us, because He valued us that much.
For myself, some of you know my story. I was born to twelve year old girl who was kidnapped and raped and held hostage for weeks, this man tried to have me aborted, there was another attempt to murder us while I was still in the womb that was interrupted by the border patrol, I was supposed to be put up for adoption, I ended up living in shelters and on the streets with my mother for a couple years, my mother helped sell drugs to pay for us to eat, and then we finally ended up in foster care together.
There’s been a temptation at times in life, to be like, man, look where I came from. Nobody actually wanted me here. I was born of a rapist. What sort of lineage, what sort of origin story is that?
And that’s why the truth of a passage like this means so much. I wasn’t anybody, I’m still nobody special, but Jesus completely and radically changes the perspective. There are no criteria on Earth, of pedigree, of family lineage, of high personal self-esteem, of accomplishment, of education, of status, of literally anything. There is nothing that even matters compared to the fact that Jesus saw enough value in me to come save me.
But please don’t let that make us prideful. It’s not because, oh we’re so great, it’s because of the greatness of His love. But this change of perspective should cause us to get out of our own head, to stop worrying about everyone else’s opinions, and concern ourselves with the only opinion that really matters. And of course, that is Jesus’ opinion. These parables contain such a wonderful truth shared through this incredible picture of these very short stories.
But after that incredible picture, Jesus loves to make a hard turn straight into a reality check once again.
Read Matthew 13:47-50
This is the same thing that we talked about with the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. Just like the harvest time in that parable, we see the nets pulled in for this parable. Just like how the wheat was gathered into the barn in that parable, we see the good catch gathered into the vessels. Just like the tares or the corrupted plants were burned in that parable, the bad catch will be burned in this parable.
Jesus is so clear, time and time again, even when speaking parables, that His people will be gathered safely to where they need to be. But those that are corrupted, those that are wicked, really those that ignore or deny Him. Those that never turn to Jesus, will end up in the fire. And we know from scripture that Jesus is clearly talking about Hell.
Jesus said in the wheat and the Tares parable, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear!”, but at the end of this parable, Jesus looks right at the disciples in verse 51 and asks:
“Have you understood all these things?”
And they responded and said “Yes, Lord”
So, the same question should be asked of us this morning? Have we understood all these things? Jesus wants us to know how He feels, Jesus wants us to understand His perspective of things, Jesus wants us to know the seriousness of the situation. Just like He wanted His disciples to know.
He gave up everything to come for us, He doesn’t want us to just be stuck in confusion about it. Like we heard last week, we’re the church, we’re His family, we’re all at different places in life and in our walk with Jesus. I believe there’s enough love in this place that there would be no judgement for someone that has questions, or for someone that is struggling with sin, or for someone that doesn’t know Jesus yet as Savior. But my hope is that the love in this place is rooted in an incredible love for God, that would cause us to love each other, like He loves us.
But then also to take this truth and this love outside of this place to others that need, this light, in their darkness as well.
And that’s what verse 52 is all about.
Read Matthew 13:52
Jesus basically says that those now instructed in the truth of the Kingdom bear the responsibility to spread the wealth or the treasure of the Kingdom truth. We’re supposed to be Broadcasting Jesus. That’s why it’s in the mission statement of this church.
Everything in this passage makes me think again of a passage that I mentioned a few weeks ago, but I want to go there together this morning.
Hebrews 12:1-2
This starts with this picture of this cloud witnesses that really has the idea of like all of Jesus’ people that gone before, that are like in the bleachers or in the stands of heaven, looking on as this current generation of Jesus’ people are running the race of life. The writer of Hebrews is like we have been wearing this sin like a weighted vest, holding us back from our potential on the race, it’s time to lay down the sin so we can actually get into the race. And while we’re running, we keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And then it says that “for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despised the shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of Gods.”
Jesus understood all of the pain and the suffering that was coming on the cross, but there was a specific joy that was in front of Him that compelled Him to move forward towards the cross, the shame, and everything that entailed.
That joy was the treasure in the field, it was the super expensive pearl, it was the people that He was going to save, and so He gave up everything to get His treasure and that’s the only reason why we sit here today talking about it and actually have the opportunity to have a real fixed relationship with the almighty God. It’s the only reason why when the harvest comes or the nets are dragged in, that we can be gathered into His barn or into His vessels rather than being tossed in the fire.
I’m really glad that He valued us enough to do that for us. So don’t let anyone else or even your own mind ever devalue what Christ has made valuable.
1 Peter 1:18-19a
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ
There’s no room for pride, but let us find our worth, our purpose, our everything, in Him.