THE RULE OF GOD IS HEAVEN
Matthew 13: 44-52
INTRODUCTION
The other day I was talking with Jeff and Terri Haines. Jeff and I are
both deer hunters. He and I were exchanging stories related to this past
deer season. Our discussion was animated and exciting and we were both
thoroughly enjoying our nostalgic recollections. It was apparent that
Terri was not sharing our excitement and so I asked her if she had ever
gone deer hunting with Jeff. She chuckled and said no. When I tried to
help her see how much fun she was missing out on, she said something to
the effect, "Why would I want to sit in the freezing cold for hours
on end for no good reason?" Jeff and I stared at each other in disbelief
that she would not share our enthusiasm and she laughed at how foolish
we were to enjoy such a silly thing.
I know a number of women who love to "Scrap". For the uninitiated,
this is the craft of making picture albums where your pictures are not
simply put in a book but you put the pictures on different backgrounds
and use all sorts of artistic techniques and supplies to display your
photos. The women I know spend time in the local Scrapbook stores looking
at hundreds of different kinds of papers and other accessories to make
just the right page. While I admire the finished product of their efforts,
I cannot imagine spending the time they do in putting these pages together.
All of us know people who give large amounts of time and energy to various
pastimes and while we may never say it, we are asking ourselves, "Why
would anyone spend so much time, money and energy on doing that?"
"Why would you forgo the other pleasures in life that I enjoy in
order to spend time doing such a boring or silly thing?"
The answer you will get to your question from every deer hunter is the
same. "I love sitting in the woods. I love the camaraderie of hunting.
I love being successful in the hunt. I love eating venison." The
answer you will get from every "Scrapper" is the same. "I
love expressing myself in this creative way. I love coming up with new
ideas and trying new things. I love the variety and beauty of the materials
I work with. I love the beauty of the books I create."
The reason all of us spend our time, our energy and our money the way
we do is because we believe it will make us happy. Blaise Pascal said
it this way, "All men seek happiness. This is without exception.
Whatever different means they employ, they all aim at this purpose. The
cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire
in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least
step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man,
even of those who hang themselves."
I’m trying to bring out into the open two things that we all intuitively
know. First, everything I do has a cost associated with it. If you are
going to hunt deer, you are not going to get to sleep until 10am. You
will not be able to sit by the warm fire and read a book. If you are going
to "scrap" you can’t watch a movie at the same time. You will
not be able to spend the money you spend on materials on a new outfit.
Second, the reason I do everything I do is that I am living by faith.
I believe that the benefit I receive is greater than the cost I pay. To
say it another way, everything I do, I do because I believe it will make
me happier than not doing it.
The Bible is quite clear that if you plan on going to heaven, if you
are going to be a Christian there is a cost. Listen to a few of the myriad
ways the Bible describes the cost. "If any man would come after me
he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow after me."
"You will be hated by all men because of me." "Do not get
drunk on wine." "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."
"Do not repay evil for evil or insult with insult but with blessing."
"If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
"Sell your possessions and give to the poor." "Be joyful
always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this
is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." "Husbands, love your
wives as Christ loved the church". "Wives submit to your husbands."
"Children, obey your parents."
The Christian life is a life that is full of self-denial, self-restraint
and self-sacrifice. Why would anyone choose to live the life that is described
in the Scriptures? Why would anyone continue to live this life when there
are so many easier ways to live? These are the questions that Jesus addresses
in the four parables we find in Matthew 13: 44-52. These parables are
spoken to his disciples, not the crowds of people. He is seeking to give
them the motive for living the life of self-denial that is required of
all Christians.
MAIN POINT
Christians live lives of chosen, joyful self-denial because…
I. They treasure Christ above all
In vv. 44-46 Jesus tells two simple little stories. In the first story,
a man unexpectedly finds buried treasure in a field that he does not own.
He isn’t looking for it. He suddenly discovers it. He cannot contain his
joy. He gladly chooses to sell all he has to buy the field and get the
treasure. Why is he so joyful? He is joyful because he knows that he is
getting back an infinitely greater amount of money than it is costing
him. It is a joy to deny himself all that he currently possesses so that
he can have the infinitely greater treasure hidden in the field.
What is the treasure? The treasure is Christ himself. It is not what
Christ does for you but who he is for you. When you discover that Jesus
is a treasure chest of holy joy, then you gladly give away your life in
order to have him. This is what faith is. Most of the people I talk to
have the mistaken notion that faith is simply agreeing that they cannot
get to heaven by their own works and then believing that Jesus is a real
person and that he died on the cross to pay for their sins. Now this is
part of what faith is, but it is not the whole. This story shows the whole.
John Piper says it this way, "Saving faith is the confidence that
if you sell all you have, and forsake all sinful pleasures, the hidden
treasure of holy joy will satisfy your deepest desires. Saving faith is
the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable but also that
Christ is desirable. It is the confidence that he will come through with
his promises and that what he promises is more to be desired than all
the world."
Now notice the second story, while making the same basic point, has two
significant differences. First, the merchant does not come upon the pearl
of great value by accident. He was looking for it. He was trying to find
the best pearl that he could find and when he found it, he sold all the
other pearls he owned and every other thing that he owned in order to
buy the one pearl. The second thing that is different is that he paid
full price for the one pearl. The buried treasure was worth far more than
what was paid. The pearl was worth what was paid. So why did the merchant
pay full price? He paid full price because he is convinced that possessing
this one pearl is greater joy than possessing dozens of lesser pearls.
He delights in the pearl and so gladly gives all for it because of its
value to him. Now listen, he cannot possess anything else without selling
the pearl of great value, therefore he will never possess anything but
the pearl. It is the only thing he needs to be happy. He has given up
everything because of the value of this one pearl. Can’t you hear Psalm
27:4 here? "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze
upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." What
the Christian’s heart is looking for is Christ. We are not looking for
what Christ can do for us but we are seeking to know and love and trust
and obey Christ more.
We see that sometimes, God, without our even looking, surprises us with
discoveries of the greatness of his mercy in Christ. We suddenly are impressed
with the surpassing value of knowing Christ and we abandon lesser pleasures
with ease in order to enjoy Christ more. Other times we spend a long time
seeking Christ, pleading with God for tastes of Christ and looking for
the joy that is promised and then, only after seeking, God reveals Christ
to us. We struggle with obedience and with forsaking sin for a long time
but then we discover the greatness of Christ and quickly abandon our sin,
our demands for life to go our way and are happy to simply belong to Christ.
The key point of the two stories is that the reason Christians restrain
themselves and obey God is because of the joy of possessing Christ. The
reason a Christian husband forgives his wife and seeks to love her in
spite of her unwillingness to apologize is because he knows that by doing
this he will join with Christ in his sufferings. The reason the Christian
parent persists in loving and disciplining her children when they ignore
her is because she wants above all things to know Jesus better. The reason
the single Christian man does not have sex is because he yearns to love
Jesus more. He cannot bear the thought of displeasing Jesus because Jesus
is more attractive to him than sex. The reason the Christian worker doesn’t
participate in the daily criticism of the boss is because he wants to
see God. Christians abandon their right to have a satisfying job, a good
marriage, a satisfying sexual life, a fat retirement account, the approval
of their family because they want something more than any of those things.
They want to know the joy of fellowship with Jesus.
Listen carefully to what I’m going to say. If you go to a Christian marriage
conference, what is the reason husbands are told to forgive their wives?
So they can have a good marriage. If you go to a Christian conference
on parenting, what is the reason you are told to persist in loving and
disciplining your children? So you will have obedient children. What is
the reason single men are told by the church to abstain from sexual relations?
So they will not catch a venereal disease. So they will have a better
sex life when they get married. While these are not entirely wrong motives,
these are not the ultimate, bottom line reason for why Christians choose
to live the Christian life. Christians do these things because they want
more of Jesus. They want to please Jesus. You don’t have to be a Christian
to want a good marriage or obedient children or a better sex life. Why
are you in church? Why do you seek to do the right thing? Is it because
you have discovered that Christ is a treasure chest of holy joy or is
it because you want a better marriage, the respect of others, good friends,
a sane and sober life?
Christians live lives of chosen, joyful self-denial because…
- They treasure Christ above all
- And…
II. God treasures them above all
Jesus tells a third parable that is tightly connected to the preceding
two by the first word, "Again". The problem this parable gives
us is that it simply repeats the main point that the parable of the weeds
makes. The point is that God is right now drawing in his net full of both
good and bad fish. Both the evil and the good are enjoying God’s ocean
while inexorably moving towards the final Day of Judgment. When he gets
it pulled in, the angels will remove the unbelieving from the net and
they will be justly punished forever in hell. There is a day towards which
the whole world is moving when God will clearly and publicly reveal his
pleasure with the righteous and his displeasure with the wicked. So why
does Jesus make this point again, when he just made it? The way to answer
that question is to answer another one. How does this third parable relate
to the first two parables in this chain of three?
There are three things to notice about the relationship between the first
two parables and this one. First, the farmer and the merchant represent
Christians. All Christians have discovered that Jesus is a better treasure
than the whole world and so are continually selling all they have in order
to have Christ. In other words, Christians are seen to be the main actors,
the ones making the distinction between the value of the kingdom of heaven
vs. the value of life in this world. But in the parable about the net
and fish, God is the one doing the acting. He is the one who is seeking
and who is distinguishing between the good and bad fish. So Jesus reminds
the disciples and us that this is God’s world and he is bringing the whole
thing to an appointed end according to his timetable. We aren’t in control,
he is. One of the chief reasons that fellowship with Jesus is the greatest
of all joys is because he is the one in control of the destiny of the
world. To know Christ is to know the one who is in charge of all things.
The second thing to note is this. Jesus knows that there are going to
be many days when the cost of being his follower is going to be far greater
than any experience of joy. It is the nature of living as fallen creatures
in a fallen world. So he reminds us that there is a day coming when all
the sacrifice and suffering will be richly rewarded. We should live in
that hope, especially when we are not experiencing the joy of knowing
Christ in the immediate situation. Don’t give up because there is a day
of judgment and reward coming. I have met many people over the years that
have said to me when I have explained the gospel and commanded them to
repent of their sins and trust Christ, "I tried God before and it
didn’t work for me." The knowledge that there is a day coming of
judgment and salvation keeps me obeying when obedience is more painful
than joyful in the present moment.
Finally, the connection between these parables is in giving an answer
to the question, how will God decide who is a good fish and who is a bad
fish? How does he decide who are the wicked and who are the righteous?
The answer is that those who have sold all they have in order to obtain
the kingdom of heaven are the good fish and those who find this life to
be more valuable than Christ are the bad fish. Jesus is issuing a warning
to his disciples that there must be evidence of a preference for him in
the life if God is going to reward the individual with heaven. God treasures
those who treasure him. This is the infallible evidence that you are a
Christian. Just like the person who wears blaze orange, gets up at 4 am
and sits quietly in the woods, in the snow for 4 hours with his gun cradled
in his lap is for sure a deer hunter. You know that here is a person who
believes in the goodness of deer hunting, who finds pleasure in it, who
believes in it. In the same way the person who trusts Christ, who is hoping
in Christ as his only Savior continually denies himself or herself for
the sake of knowing Christ more and enjoying heaven. It’s not a question
of earning God’s favor but of living in a manner that corresponds to what
you believe and love. A true deer hunter cannot be happy sitting next
to the fire and reading a book while the season is on. A Christian cannot
be happy demanding his own way, living in open sin and rebellion while
he knows that God treasures those who treasure him. He loves God and yearns
to be near God and to be like God and so he denies himself in order to
have what he loves.
I have seen this in my wife so many times. It happens when I hurt her,
usually by being insensitive to her needs. I am only concerned with my
life and my problems and I treat her with little compassion and indifferently.
I hurt her and yet she willingly forgives me and then trusts me again.
She doesn’t hold herself aloof in order to protect herself from my indifference
but shares herself with me again. She does this because she believes that
having Christ is better than having a husband who always meets her needs
the way she wants. I have seen this in my daughter who is so quick to
seek my forgiveness when she has been in the least bit belligerent when
I’ve asked her to do things. She is concerned to know and please Christ
and so she seeks to repair whatever damage she may have done to our relationship
quickly. Knowing Christ matters more to her than proving she is right.
I’ve seen this when I’ve been counseling couples who are in a conflicted
state and there doesn’t seem to be any resolution and then one of them,
sometimes both of them will come to see that knowing Jesus is what matters,
not getting their way and so they will relent and apologize and give without
expecting anything in return. They don’t do it to get a good marriage
but to get more of Christ.
There is a day coming when all those who have given away their rights
in order to have Christ will be richly rewarded with eternal fellowship
with the one they love. There is a day coming when all those who have
refused to relinquish their rights and have treated Christ as though he
was a nobody will be treated the same way by God forever.
Christians live lives of chosen, joyful self-denial because…
- They treasure Christ above all
- God treasures them above all
- And…
III. They gladly share the treasure they’ve been given
Now Jesus pauses and looks at these chosen disciples and asks them, "Do
you understand what I have said?" They respond in the affirmative.
Jesus’ use of this word, "understand" should immediately remind
us of the 5 other times he has used this word in this chapter. He asks
them this question not because he’s looking for feedback but because he
is trying to help them to see their privileged position. Look back at
vv. 11-15 and 19 and 23. Understanding is not merely cognition. It is
not merely intellectually grasping some ideas. Rather the point that Jesus
made previously is that people are given amazing, overwhelming evidence
of his existence and goodness and power and yet they refuse to acknowledge
and love him. When these men say they understand they are confessing their
allegiance to Christ. They are declaring that they are among those who
are selling all they have in order to know and love Christ. They see what
is blazing in front of their eyes and repent of their sin and embrace
him as the only pearl worth having. By using this word he is reminding
them and us of v. 11 which makes it clear that the foundational reason
that they understand what Jesus is saying is not because of some native
spirituality in them but because God has been gracious to them.
Then in v. 52 he says, "For this reason". What is the reason
that he is referring to? Because they understand who he is and love him
and are following him he gives another parable. I want you to understand
the comparison Jesus makes here and then come back to how this relates
to the disciples and to us. To begin with I think there is a better way
to translate the first part of v. 52 than how the NIV has it. "For
this reason, every teacher of the law who was made a disciple
of the kingdom of heaven is like…" Jesus identifies a particular
kind of person. First this person is a teacher of the law. Now, throughout
Matthew’s gospel Jesus condemns the scribes, or teachers of the law, for
their wickedness. Here’s just one example, "Woe to you teachers of
the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to
win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much
of a son of hell as you are." What is remarkable in this description
is that Jesus believes that these wicked people can be made into disciples
of the kingdom of heaven. Notice they are made, they don’t make themselves
into disciples, they are made into disciples by God. I think the point
that Jesus is making is that God can save anyone. There is no one beyond
the reach of his grace. If these hardhearted, hypocritical scribes can
be made into disciples then so can anyone else that God chooses. In essence
this clause stands for everyone who is a Christian. If you are a Christian
you are a hypocrite that was made into a disciple of the kingdom of heaven
by the grace of God.
Every disciple is "like the owner of a house who brings out of his
treasure both new things and old things." There are several things
this word picture tells us. First, Christians are wealthy. We are wealthy
with the treasure of heaven, which is Christ himself. Paul says it this
way, "To them (Christians) God has chosen to make known…the glorious
riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Second, we are responsible to share this treasure with others. We are
given this treasure in part to use it for the benefit of those who live
in our house. Now this certainly means that Christian parents are to train
their children in the faith. But it would also imply that there are others
that God brings into the sphere of our influence with whom we are to share
the treasure. However, this is about more than just evangelism and teaching
the truths of the faith. This is a picture of the way Christians live
in all of life. They are generous in their dealings with others because
they are so satisfied and wealthy in Christ. Christians do not go around
demanding others meet their needs. Christians are seeking to meet the
needs of others. We don’t live on the defense, trying to guard ourselves
from being taken advantage of. No one can take anything of value from
us because all we value is Christ and no one can take him from us. We
are quick to forgive and do not hold grudges as we are so amazed at the
love of God for us.
A number of years ago, I had my office in our home. I was working in
my office late one afternoon when I heard a ruckus downstairs. Jared and
Justin were little boys, probably 7 and 5. I heard the door at the bottom
of the stairs open and Jared coming up the stairs crying and stomping
his feet all the way up the stairs. He barged into my office, came, and
sat on my lap. I asked him what was wrong. He told me that Justin had
knocked down the tower he was building and he was so mad at him that he
pushed him. I held him and talked with him about his need to forgive and
love Justin, and to ask Justin to forgive him for pushing him. I affirmed
my love for him and talked with him of his need to love. He stopped crying
and agreed that he would go down and forgive Justin. Right at that moment
Justin yelled up the stairs, "Jared, come down here, "Scoobie
Doo" is on!" Jared jumped off my lap and ran down the stairs
yelling, "Justin I forgive you for knocking down my tower and I’m
sorry for pushing you." Jared was able to ask for forgiveness and
forgive because he was full of my love for him. The love of Jesus is an
infinitely better treasure than the love of a father. We are full of him
and his love for us and so we freely give and forgive.
Third, the new and old treasures refer to the fact that there are many
ways of living that Christians and non-Christians both affirm as wise
and virtuous. Most non-Christian marriage counselors will agree that husbands
and wives should forgive each other. However, the non-believing counselor’s
reason for forgiveness is vastly different. They will tell you to forgive
so you can have a good marriage. The Christian counselor will tell you
to forgive so you can have more of Christ. In addition, the forgiveness
a Christian counselor will encourage is far more radical than the forgiveness
a non-Christian will expect. Both non-Christians and Christians will affirm
the wisdom and goodness of sobriety. Most people know that drunkenness
leads to destruction. However, a Christian will love soberly and admonish
others to avoid drunkenness for far different reasons than a non-Christian
will give. Do not get drunk so that you can know Christ not just so that
you can have a happy life on planet earth. There are many things I believed
were right and wrong before I was a Christian that I still believe are
right and wrong. These are the old things. However, the reasons for doing
what I do and not doing what I don’t do are vastly different. And there
are many things that I now believe are wrong that I never saw as wrong
and many things that I now see as my duty that I didn’t see as my duty
before. These are the new things.
Christians live lives of chosen, joyful self-denial because…
- They treasure Christ above all
- God treasures them above all
- They gladly share the treasure they’ve been given
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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