The Hidden Treasure and Pearl
In our exploration of the parables of Jesus, we delve into Matthew 13:44-46, where we discover the immeasurable value of the Kingdom of Heaven. We see that the Kingdom brings more joy than anything this world can offer, as illustrated by the man who finds hidden treasure in a field. His overwhelming joy leads him to sell everything he owns to acquire the field, emphasizing that true joy is found in the Kingdom. Similarly, the merchant searching for fine pearls finds one of great worth and sells all he has to possess it. Both characters demonstrate that the Kingdom demands our complete allegiance and devotion, regardless of our status or background.
As we reflect on these parables, we recognize that the Kingdom of Heaven is worth far more than anything this world can provide. The contrast between the joy of the man who finds treasure and the sadness of the rich young ruler serves as a reminder that true fulfillment comes from surrendering everything for the sake of Christ. We are challenged to examine our hearts and consider whether we are fully devoted to the Kingdom or distracted by worldly treasures. Ultimately, we are called to understand that the Kingdom does not negotiate terms based on who we are; it requires complete surrender from all of us, regardless of our circumstances.
Key Takeaways
- The Kingdom of Heaven brings more joy than anything this world can offer, as shown by the man who sells everything to acquire the hidden treasure.
- True fulfillment is found in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is worth far more than any earthly possession or status.
- The parables illustrate that the Kingdom requires complete allegiance and devotion, regardless of one's background or wealth.
- We must examine our hearts to determine if we are prioritizing the Kingdom of Heaven over worldly distractions and treasures.
- The Kingdom of Heaven does not negotiate terms based on who we are; it demands full surrender from everyone.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean to you that the Kingdom of Heaven brings more joy than anything else?
- How can we practically demonstrate our complete allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven in our daily lives?
- In what ways do we find ourselves distracted by worldly treasures instead of focusing on the Kingdom?
- How does the contrast between the joy of the man who finds treasure and the sadness of the rich young ruler challenge your perspective on wealth and fulfillment?
- What steps can we take to ensure that we are prioritizing the Kingdom of Heaven in our lives?
Matthew 13:44-46
Parables of Jesus: The Hidden Treasure and Pearl
Matthew 13:44-46
The Immeasurable Value of the Kingdom of Heaven
The kingdom of heaven brings more joy than anything this world can offer. (V. 44)
The kingdom of heaven is worth far more than anything this world can offer. (V. 45-46)
The kingdom of heaven does not negotiate terms based on who you are. (V. 44- 46)
Parabolic Truth: The immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven demands our complete allegiance and devotion no matter who you are.
Transcript
· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Good. Good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix.
· And if I haven't met you before, uh, welcome in. Come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, meet with you, get to know you more. Um, and like Brian said, you fill out that new card, it just comes back to me, and I'd love to follow up with you. At this time, I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.
· Matthew chapter 13. And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back uh either in front or around you. And you can keep that Bible. It's our gift to you. You can highlight it, mark it up. Uh we ask that you would bring it back, make it your Bible, use it um in your life personally and in the church.
· Well, I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July. I know my neighborhood was insane. Um I don't know about yours, but you don't need to go anywhere for fireworks anymore. I mean, we just sit in our backyard and we had one, no joke, Becky can attest. Um we were sitting in the backyard watching some and unexpectedly one went off in I think either the backyard or like the street right behind me. I thought my the brick wall of the backyard was going to fall down.
· I jumped out of the chair and she's laughing and you could hear the mortar like the thump of the they're the big ones where you drop in the mort and like this thing is exploding right over your head. It's super loud. Scares all the kids, scares the dog, scares the scares everyone. Um so it was fun. Good times.
· Fourth of July.
· Um this week I was uh at Zona youth camp with our students from [snorts] across the collective and I think that we have uh some pictures here on rotation to share with you. Um there was 102 total students from across all of them. So Phoenix and Surprise. Yeah. El Mrage Cornville all over. And um you see that big old all that's everyone students and uh leaders. And so I got to spend uh Monday through Friday with them. It was a really good time. We had two students from the Surprises uh youth group.
· Uh they they knew the Lord. They they were Christians. They said we walked them through the gospel and they they knew Christ as their Lord and Savior. Um but [snorts] were never baptized. So they come up to Pastor Kyle Gallagher, who's a youth pastor out there, and asked him if they can be baptized in the ocean. So Friday is like a beach day. At the end of the day, you wake up, you go have breakfast, and then we head over to the ocean, spend a few hours there, and then drive back. Well, he's like, "I need your parents' permission. Um, let's let's let's see." And calls mom and dad of of both this uh this these students.
· [clears throat] They're like, "Yeah, take videos and pictures, but but baptized them. That'd be great." And so, we baptized two of the kids. I don't have pictures. Um, but we baptized two of them in the ocean. That was cool. And, uh, that was fun.
· And a lot of conversations. That's that's a picture of the leaders. A lot of conversations though about people dealing with sin. students dealing with sin. The the pastor, well, the youth camp speaker was pastor uh Trey Vancamp, who's a pastor in I think Queen Creek, but he did an excellent job, man. He was harping on sin heavy. And I was like, yes. And then like, oh, and repentance and faith in Christ, of course, too.
· He he uh taught the uh this was the last day that this picture is a little distorted, I guess. Um but there is a gospel presentation called the three circles which talks about God's design then sin and sin leads to brokenness and we have the gospel and we are called to repent and believe and he talked about sin repentance and faith in Christ and recovering and re and pursuing God's design again. So I really really appreciated him.
· Uh excellent excellent preacher and I praise God for his uh his confrontation of these students really in their sin but also encouraging them in the gospel. So that was a lot of fun.
· I got to talk to a few students myself struggling with sin. They have some counsel time and I got to sit with uh two one on Wednesday, one on Thursday who just struggling with sin and it was a great time. So, we were blessed with that. Well, now we've come to our fifth week in our parables of Jesus series, and it's our fourth week in Matthew chapter 13. We've been in this chapter uh for like a month now.
· And last week, we focused on the fact that though there will be opposition to the kingdom of heaven and its work in the world, remember Jesus two weeks ago, let the wheat and the weeds grow together. Uh we will live in an evil, wicked, sinful world for a time.
· And last week we saw that although the kingdom of heaven will be opposed in the end the kingdom will prevail and grow to large proportions. You remember he called he said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed grows into this big old tree or a a lump of dough that's been fully and completely leavened and grows. Now we come to another couplet of parables. So we had the mustard seed in leaven. This week we have the hidden treasure and the pearl discussing the kingdom of heaven's worth.
· And that's our main heading this morning. The immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven. If you don't have an outline, there's some in the back if you'd like to take notes and um we'll get into it this morning. Let me uh pray for us. Father, we thank you for this morning.
· I thank you for your word. I thank you for the work that you're doing in the lives of uh our students [clears throat] Lord across all of Cross Church and um [snorts] the other churches that came.
· God, I thank you for your blessings upon all all of them. God, I pray for the hearts of of our junior high and high schoolers across the state. God, that they would remain faithful, steadfast, endure in their faith, stay strong, and worship you.
· God, I pray that you would give us here this morning, eyes to see, ears to hear what your Holy Spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's stand and read the scriptures together. Again, if you cannot stand, that is okay. You can stand with us in spirit as we honor God's word together.
· Short passage this morning will be in Matthew 13 44- 46. Jesus is speaking and he says this, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field that a man found and rearied. Then in his joy, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
· Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless or some some might say precious or pearl of great price, one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it. And all God's people said, "Amen." You can be seated. Thank you. Well, similar to our parables last week, Jesus sets uh two together that say essentially the same thing but in different ways.
· And Jesus first likens the kingdom of heaven to a treasure that was buried in a field. This treasure remains hidden in this field until a man finds it. A man likely working in his master's field finds treasure of immense worth. So he goes and rearies it and we'll talk about that later. But the bottom line right now is that he's so happy he found it. He's overwhelmed with joy.
· He's so overwhelmed with joy that it leads him to do something uh to do something only someone convinced of its worth would do. He goes and he sells everything he has to buy the field the treasures in. This is how we know he must be a worker, some kind of laborer, a day laborer or a servant.
· This is how we know he's he is that in his master's field because he doesn't own the field, right? He has to go he has to sell everything to purchase it, but he is at least some kind of laborer or servant in the field. Once again, Jesus is using circumstances relatable to them in their day. It wasn't uncommon for money or other values valuables to be found in fields.
· Back in those days, you didn't have a bank. The earth [snorts] was your bank. And unfortunately, it didn't give you any interest. Um, it's just the earth, right? You just you get what you put in it. But people would hide their valuables or money in the earth. It's where things were kept safe.
· Families would do this. Dig and put treasure in the earth, especially during times of crisis or war. You would hide what was valuable to keep it hopefully from being taken. At this particular point in history, if you remember the first century, they're under Roman occupation. Rome has come in and taken over. And it's likely that many families would hide their treasures from them in the earth.
· So this is common practice and it wasn't uncommon for these things to be discovered.
· Especially maybe the original owner died or it was the field was passed on or perhaps someone forgot it was there and it was found by someone else. Now there are basically two interpretations of this passage of this parable. I should say number one is that the one who found the treasure in the field and sold everything he had to buy the field is Jesus Christ himself.
· And this comes mainly from the fact that the the man in the parable sells everything and purchases it. And what we know theologically, doctrinally, is that no human being can purchase their entry into the kingdom of heaven. You can't purchase or buy your salvation.
· And so for for many, this means that Jesus is the one is the man in the parable who finds the treasure. And we know from Philippians 2, Jesus emptied himself, right? took on the form of a servant, gave his life for us on the cross. And that is absolutely 100% true.
· I do believe that this passage could be faithfully preached that way. And it it's it's obviously it's not heresy. It would be fine to to see it that way. One of my personal hiccups pastorally, again, um before I preach anything, I have to be convinced in my heart, and I just wasn't sure. But one of my hiccups with that interpretation would be that we'd have to think of Jesus as being surprised um by finding the kingdom.
· Cuz remember it says the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And this man finds it and he's joyful. He's excited. He didn't know it was there. Now he knows it's there. If the man who finds it is Jesus, we'd have to say he didn't know it was there. He found it. Was joyful and excited and then decided he would go. he would give up everything to buy the field.
· I would submit to you obviously Jesus knows the kingdom of heaven very well. Um I don't think it's hidden from him nor that he was surprised at its discovery. But again, I'm not opposed to that interpretation completely, just slightly. The second option is that instead of Jesus being the laborer in the field, it's humanity, it's people, it's us in the world.
· What I believe Jesus is talking about is the immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven from our perspective, from a human vantage point. And I'll explain this more, but our first point, if you have a handout, it'll be up here. The kingdom of heaven brings more joy than anything this world can offer. This person has come across treasure worth his entire life.
· Everything he has amounts to nothing in comparison to this treasure. Kind of like when Paul says, "I count everything I gained. everything, all of my accomplishments, all my pedigree, my background. I'm a of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I have all this status. He says, I count it all as loss or some translations write dung. A pile of garbage. Dung for compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ.
· This man in our parable does something that every financial adviser would advise against doing. He puts all of his assets, everything he owns into one account, so to speak.
· The kingdom of heaven, right? The financial world will tell you what, right? Diversify um your savings or your money. Put your money in different places. If one fails, you have others to back up on. And if all your money is in one account and it fails and you're in trouble, that's what the world says. But this man, this man seems to think otherwise about this treasure. He spares nothing for the sake of this treasure.
· This is everything to him.
· [snorts] It brings him great joy and he has absolutely zero concern about whether or not it's worth putting his life into because he knows it is and then his actions reveal that. His actions prove it. He looks around at everything else he has and he says, "You know what? None of this stuff brings me joy like that treasure does. None of it compares to this. I've never felt joy like this. And I want nothing but this.
· This man is the exact opposite of the rich young ruler. Do you remember the rich young ruler?
· Rich young ruler came to Jesus and he asked him a question. Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Awesome question. Don't we all want to know, right? It's great, perfect, great question. And Jesus, right, says, you know, follow the commandments. And the rich young ruler says, yeah, I know, Lord. I've kept them all from my youth. I'm pretty awesome. And then Jesus says, okay, yeah, you lack one thing, though.
· And Jesus says, "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will what? Have treasure in heaven." Jesus is saying, "Exchange your fleeting, feudal, dung heap treasure on earth, so to speak, for eternal, everlasting treasure that moth and rust can't destroy in heaven. and come follow me.
· Jesus here wasn't teaching that the rich young ruler could buy the kingdom of heaven any more than this man in our parable could. What Jesus was talking about is full complete surrender to him and a willingness to give up everything to follow him. But the rich young ruler couldn't do it. The text says, if you were to pull it up, says, "And he became very sad."
· And I kind of enjoy the contrast with this parable. Guy in our parable has great joy. Rich young ruler has great sadness. And the rich young ruler is not a parable. It's a real interaction. And he is sad when he is told that the kingdom of heaven demands his everything. He's sad because he had great riches.
· [snorts] And I love the story of the rich young ruler. It's one of my favorites because it reminds me as a preacher that the most loving thing I can ever do for anyone who walks through these doors is give them the truth.
· Because in that passage when the rich young ruler walks up to him and asks this question, it says this specifically. Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said, "Go sell everything you have, the truth." But he loved him. Looked at him, loved him, told him the truth. What the king, what eternal life demands, your all. And he couldn't do it. and he walked away. Did Jesus go running after him? Never mind. Never mind. I'm sorry. Sorry.
· Sorry. Sorry. Let's just do 50%. Sell half of what you have. I'll make it a little easier for you to inherit eternal life because I love you and I don't want to hurt your feelings and I want you to come follow me. So, I'll I'll cheapen the deal. He watched him walk away knowing he will not inherit eternal life. And yet the text says he loved him.
· He loved him. Gave him the truth. The rich young ruler rejected it. And Jesus would not capitulate on it. And he watched him walk away. And then he turns to his disciples. And if you remember, he says this, [snorts] how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter what? The kingdom of God.
· The man had riches and yet was sad. His riches didn't bring him joy. Maybe temporary joy, but he had all these riches. And upon hearing Jesus words, he didn't have joy. He had sadness when he heard that the kingdom of God demands his complete allegiance.
· But the man in our parable finds the treasure of the kingdom of heaven to be of immense and indescribable value. And he is willing to sell all he has. Give his all for it. Now, here's what I'm not saying, right? What I'm not saying is that you need to go sell your car or your stuff or your house and write a check to the church for that amount. See you next week. Bring it all. Right? Um, no. That's not what this text is saying.
· Unless God tells you to, right? There are times where God will have someone sell their house and go plant a church or sell everything they have and go be a missionary. There are times and there are stories like that. It could be, but that's between you and the Lord and the Holy Spirit and God's will for your life. What I am saying is what Jesus is saying.
· What is your heart attitude towards the kingdom of heaven? Let me put it this way. Is knowing Christ everything to you, to us? Is being in the kingdom of God worth everything to you?
· Is your treasure in the kingdom of heaven or is it in this fleeting, feudal world?
· Do you cherish the world which will only bring you sadness and leave you empty, hands down, guaranteed?
· or do you cherish Christ who brings more joy than anything this world can offer you?
· We look in so many different places to try to find joy meaning completion that are not Christ. I'm going to tell you right now, spoiler alert, it brings sadness and mess.
· Christ brings joy.
· Now, you might still be thinking, "Okay, DJ, um, but why does he hide it? Um, you still haven't addressed that yet. What's up with that?"
· What you have to remember is that the point of the parable is the kingdom of heaven's value, not the ethical actions of the characters. It's not uncommon for Jesus to use unethical characters in his parables to make a point. Let me give you a quick example. Jesus in Luke chapter 18 uses a awful, ungodly, terrible, unjust judge to make a point about prayer.
· Jesus' own description of the character of this judge is that he does not fear God, nor does he respect men. So he doesn't care about God and he doesn't care about people and he's the judge in the story.
· [snorts] And in the parable it says listen to what the unjust judge says. What had happened in the parable was basically this. The judge doesn't care about God or people. But this widow was coming to him asking him for for something for some support. And he's like, "No, get out of here. I don't care about you."
· and she kept coming back over and over and over and over. She was so persistent that it wore him down. He's literally annoyed at her. He is so annoyed by her that he's like, "Fine, take it. Here's what you need. Go get out of here." And then Jesus says, "Listen to the unjust judge." You say, "I'm supposed to listen to a guy who doesn't care about God or people?" And Jesus says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
· The person we're supposed to listen to and learn something from is an unjust judge. Yes. But the point of that parable wasn't to be like the unjust judge or imitate his character. This is not a character lesson. The point of that was that the widow kept bothering him so much he got so annoyed with her he granted her request.
· And Jesus was saying in Luke 18, look, if an unjust judge will respond and listen to this persistent widow, how much more will God listen to the prayers of those who come to him as persistently as that?
· But still, the person we are to learn from is an unjust judge. But what we're learning is how much God desires us to come to him in prayer, not to be like the unjust judge. So I'm going to bring it back to our parable. Here in our parable, the value of this treasure is so immeasurable that the man gives everything he has for it and is willing to do anything to obtain it. [snorts] This is not about whether or not he should have notified the owner of the field.
· Hey, just so you know, I found treasure in your field. This is not and there's laws and there's a lot of first century context there, historical stuff that I don't have time to get into, but it would be fun to. But Jesus point is its worth. And he sells everything he has to buy the entire field that that treasure is in. It's how valuable it is.
· The next illustration Jesus gives is that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. While searching for pearls, nice pearls, right? Good-looking pearls, he finds one that stands out among them all, above them all, one that is priceless.
· And what does he do?
· He does the same thing the laborer in the field does. He sells everything and buys it. And so this leads me to my second point. Our second point, the kingdom of heaven is worth far more than anything this world can offer you. Worth far more [snorts] than anything this world can offer.
· I must tell you, aside from Judas a Scariot, one of the scariest Bible characters, at least in my opinion, is a man named Deeus. Any of you ever heard of Deeus?
· Judas takes the number one spot for me simply because of how closely he walked with Jesus and yet his heart was so far from him. Watch out. Right. But Deeus is a close second. We have a similar case in him.
· Often times at the end of Paul's letters, he will um send greetings to fellow workers and laborers in the gospel. And in Phileiman, that short little book that uh letter that you should read sometime, he says this in Phileiman 23, Epaperus, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristocus, Deeus, and Luke, my fellow workers.
· We see the same list of men at the end of Colossians in chapter 4. Colossians 4:14 simply says, "Luke, the beloved [snorts] physician, greets you as does Deeus." So Deeus was a fellow worker in the gospel with Paul and his team for a time, for a season. Maybe he made a profession of faith. Maybe he got baptized. Maybe he got involved in serving.
· But later on in 2 Timothy 4, Paul's last one of if not his last letter before he is martyed writes this. For Deeus, 2 Timothy 4:10, Deeus in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
· Now, in context, right before 2 Timothy 4:10 is 2 Timothy 4:8:9. I know you're shocked by that, but right before Paul says that there is a crown of righteousness awaiting not just him, but everyone who loves his appearing. And then he says, "But for Deeus, he fell in love with the present world and he deserted me." There's a contrast there.
· Deus didn't love the appearing of Jesus Christ. He loved the present world. He fell in love with the present world, deserted Paul, and chased the world's treasures. [snorts] Don't be a demus, right?
· Don't be him. Now, obviously, there's debate whether or not he's saved. That's a secondary conversation. The truth remains. Don't be like it. Don't be like Deus deserts Paul and his team for the love of the world. know this that the kingdom of heaven is worth eternally more than anything this world can offer is objectively true.
· Objectively true. What I mean by that is that it's true whether or not you agree with it or believe it. [snorts] The question is whether or not you believe it. But whether or not you believe it doesn't change the fact that the kingdom of heaven's value is eternally far more than anything this world can offer you.
· But I will say this that if you don't believe it and you don't agree with it, the truth is you are tragically wrong. That's how the Bible, that's how the scripture presents the kingdom of heaven is objectively of more value than anything ever throughout all eternity. But it's not like the kingdom of heaven is just waiting for our approval. No, no, no. It is objectively it is worth your whole life.
· And I pray that you see that this morning.
· Notice too that this merchant is searching among fine pearls. Right?
· So this is a priceless pearl among other fine nice pearls. Other items of great value. Pearls were highly valued in those days. Of course they still are today. You can go in a jewelry shop find pearls.
· But though there were competing valuables, competing items of worth, one stood out as priceless, as worth more than all the other items of worth were. He doesn't sell everything he had and buy a handful of pearls. This one priceless one and like a few others that I really like. No, he sells. He gets rid of everything he has to buy this one pearl that is priceless beyond [snorts] the rest. And his response was the exact same.
· This is worth everything to me.
· And he sells everything he has and buys that price as pearl. The question is, is it everything to you?
· It's everything to me to preach to myself, right? Is it everything to us?
· Or on the other hand, are we capitulating to the world? Are we falling prey to the things of this world, setting our eyes and sights on the things of the world rather than the things of Christ? Are we missing the immeasurable worth of knowing Christ because we're distracted by the things of the world that are temporary and gonna guess what? Burn.
· What do we know about God? He ain't going to flood the world again. What do we also know about God? Is going to be destroyed by fire.
· [snorts] It's truth.
· It will not be destroyed by water again, but it will burn.
· Do you want to put all your stock in stuff that's going to be gone?
· I want to address one final point here and that's number three. The kingdom of heaven does not negotiate terms based on who you are of of everything that we talked about.
· This hit me the hardest this week. I was in uh while I was at Zona youth camp in California. Um, I didn't have much time to write, so I I put all my thoughts down into writing on Saturday. But I did a lot of thinking and as I read through it, [snorts] this stood out to me and I was like, "Wow, I yes and amen."
· It might be obvious to you, but I was like, "Dang, that's good." [snorts] The kingdom of heaven does not negotiate terms based on who you are. Here's what I mean by that. If you look closely at this parable, there is what I I believe personally to be a contrast between the status of the two people involved. One's a servant, a a laborer in someone else's field, servant, slave, I don't know, day laborer in someone else's field. The other one is a merchant in search of fine pearls.
· One's rich and can go shopping for pearls. the other one isn't, and he's just working in someone else's field, making a day's wage, minding those his own business. But regardless of who they are, their response was exactly the same. Which is why I believe Jesus is using these two kinds of people to show doesn't matter who you are, whether rich or poor, the kingdom of heaven demands the same.
· We all come from different backgrounds, different struggles, different life experiences. Some have much, some have little, but the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Right? [snorts] We all come to Christ in the exact same way. Whether you have a million dollars in the bank or you're homeless on the street, you come to Christ through full, complete surrender to him. We come to Christ in full complete surrender.
· Our parabolic truth. I've been trying to add this at the end so you have kind of a one or two sentence takeaway each time if you're keeping track of them. The immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven demands our complete allegiance and devotion. No matter who you or who we are, believe that's the heart of this is that is the kingdom of heaven is of immeasurable worth and it's worth everything.
· The disciples what left everything to follow him. This is all throughout the scriptures in the gospels and in the New Testament. This is basically another way of saying you want to follow Christ, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. It's another way of saying the same thing.
· Is the kingdom of heaven everything to you?
· Or do you have competing interests, competing idols in your life?
· Competing things that well, like I'm I'm, you know, I'm half in on Christ and then my the other half is in, you know, like um America winning the World Cup or something. I don't know. I'm just I'm sorry. I'm making it up. I don't know.
· Right. right? Or this other idol, sports or um business success or money or whatever, fame, followers on social media, like what what is your if you have a competing idol, get rid of it. There's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves until they become an idol, right? And then it's a problem.
· Is the kingdom of heaven everything to you?
· I hope so. I hope so.
· At this time, I want to transition into um our communion. [snorts] We uh celebrate this the first Sunday of every month. And so, if you don't have a communion packet, you can grab one in the back. Um I'll give you a second to do that. If you already have it, you can peel back that top, the layer with the bread. [snorts] Um, and as we celebrate communion, come together, um, there's a few admonitions that I want to give. Um, if you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, uh, you are invited to join as we celebrate the Lord's supper.
· This is for, I believe, any and all Christians. You don't have to be like a member of cross church. Like, I haven't I'm visiting or I haven't been to pizza with a pastor. I don't have but I'm a believer. I'm a Christian. I love the Lord. Then you are invited to partake. However, if you are here and you say, "I don't know Christ as my personal Lord and Savior."
· First of all, I'd like to tell you that today can be the last day that that's true. Um, I would love to chat with you after service and introduce you to Christ. But I would also ask that you abstain in watch and observe us, but not to partake because the scriptures take this very seriously and we should too. We need to eat and drink in a manner worthy.
· The scriptures teach that we do this in remembrance of Jesus, looking back to what he's done for us on the cross. It also teaches that we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Looking forward, looking back, looking forward. And then Paul says, "So then let a person examine themselves.
· Examine yourself looking in. And what I mean by examining yourself is, are there sins in your life that need to be confessed to the Lord? Is there anything in your life that you need to turn over to him?
· Reflect on your love for Christ? Is do you love and cherish him? Is he everything to you? Is there any idols that you need to get rid of? I invite you to take a moment now and examine yourself. Just time prayer between you and the Lord. Let's do that now and then we'll I'll I'll read and we'll partake
· I never want to interrupt. So, if you're still praying and communing with the Lord, don't let me interrupt that. I do want to read some scripture as we continue to think through these things.
· Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. [snorts] Do this in remembrance of me." Let's pray. Father, we thank you. I thank you for your body which was broken on the cross.
· Without it, we would be lost still. We only love because you first loved us. And while we were enemies, you reconciled us to yourself. God, I thank you for your body broken for us. Broken for our sin. It was Pastor DJ's sin that held you there. our sin that held you there until it was accomplished. And it is accomplished. It's done. It is finished. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.
· If you would peel back the side with the the juice, Paul continues in 1 Corinthians, excuse me, [snorts] 11:2. In the same way, he Jesus also he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until [snorts] he comes."
· This is a proclamation. That's what I love about communion. Lord's table. This is a proclamation. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. That means he's alive. You have to be alive to come.
· We proclaim his death and resurrection till he comes and takes us home. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world. There is no other way to be saved. We cannot earn our way to heaven. We cannot buy our way into heaven. Lord, you require complete surrender.
· You call us and invite us to turn from sin and to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save us from that sin. And you call us to follow you wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly, wholeheartedly follow you. And I pray that that would be true of every person here at Crossurch Phoenix listening online. God help us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's partake.
· This time I want to invite the worship team to come back up as we close our our last song. [snorts] And uh let me pray for us one last time. Father, we thank you once more for your word. We thank you for the truth that the kingdom of heaven is of immeasurable value.
· It is beyond even valuing. It is so wonderful and awesome and glorious that there is nothing else in this world that we could pour our lives into that would bring us that kind of joy. As Brian said, we I pray God that we would seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and let all these other things, all the other things that we need be given to us in your time.
· Lord, [snorts] may we prioritize and seek the kingdom of God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Part of Series
Parables
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· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Good. Good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix.
· And if I haven't met you before, uh, welcome in. Come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, meet with you, get to know you more. Um, and like Brian said, you fill out that new card, it just comes back to me, and I'd love to follow up with you. At this time, I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.
· Matthew chapter 13. And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back uh either in front or around you. And you can keep that Bible. It's our gift to you. You can highlight it, mark it up. Uh we ask that you would bring it back, make it your Bible, use it um in your life personally and in the church.
· Well, I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July. I know my neighborhood was insane. Um I don't know about yours, but you don't need to go anywhere for fireworks anymore. I mean, we just sit in our backyard and we had one, no joke, Becky can attest. Um we were sitting in the backyard watching some and unexpectedly one went off in I think either the backyard or like the street right behind me. I thought my the brick wall of the backyard was going to fall down.
· I jumped out of the chair and she's laughing and you could hear the mortar like the thump of the they're the big ones where you drop in the mort and like this thing is exploding right over your head. It's super loud. Scares all the kids, scares the dog, scares the scares everyone. Um so it was fun. Good times.
· Fourth of July.
· Um this week I was uh at Zona youth camp with our students from [snorts] across the collective and I think that we have uh some pictures here on rotation to share with you. Um there was 102 total students from across all of them. So Phoenix and Surprise. Yeah. El Mrage Cornville all over. And um you see that big old all that's everyone students and uh leaders. And so I got to spend uh Monday through Friday with them. It was a really good time. We had two students from the Surprises uh youth group.
· Uh they they knew the Lord. They they were Christians. They said we walked them through the gospel and they they knew Christ as their Lord and Savior. Um but [snorts] were never baptized. So they come up to Pastor Kyle Gallagher, who's a youth pastor out there, and asked him if they can be baptized in the ocean. So Friday is like a beach day. At the end of the day, you wake up, you go have breakfast, and then we head over to the ocean, spend a few hours there, and then drive back. Well, he's like, "I need your parents' permission. Um, let's let's let's see." And calls mom and dad of of both this uh this these students.
· [clears throat] They're like, "Yeah, take videos and pictures, but but baptized them. That'd be great." And so, we baptized two of the kids. I don't have pictures. Um, but we baptized two of them in the ocean. That was cool. And, uh, that was fun.
· And a lot of conversations. That's that's a picture of the leaders. A lot of conversations though about people dealing with sin. students dealing with sin. The the pastor, well, the youth camp speaker was pastor uh Trey Vancamp, who's a pastor in I think Queen Creek, but he did an excellent job, man. He was harping on sin heavy. And I was like, yes. And then like, oh, and repentance and faith in Christ, of course, too.
· He he uh taught the uh this was the last day that this picture is a little distorted, I guess. Um but there is a gospel presentation called the three circles which talks about God's design then sin and sin leads to brokenness and we have the gospel and we are called to repent and believe and he talked about sin repentance and faith in Christ and recovering and re and pursuing God's design again. So I really really appreciated him.
· Uh excellent excellent preacher and I praise God for his uh his confrontation of these students really in their sin but also encouraging them in the gospel. So that was a lot of fun.
· I got to talk to a few students myself struggling with sin. They have some counsel time and I got to sit with uh two one on Wednesday, one on Thursday who just struggling with sin and it was a great time. So, we were blessed with that. Well, now we've come to our fifth week in our parables of Jesus series, and it's our fourth week in Matthew chapter 13. We've been in this chapter uh for like a month now.
· And last week, we focused on the fact that though there will be opposition to the kingdom of heaven and its work in the world, remember Jesus two weeks ago, let the wheat and the weeds grow together. Uh we will live in an evil, wicked, sinful world for a time.
· And last week we saw that although the kingdom of heaven will be opposed in the end the kingdom will prevail and grow to large proportions. You remember he called he said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed grows into this big old tree or a a lump of dough that's been fully and completely leavened and grows. Now we come to another couplet of parables. So we had the mustard seed in leaven. This week we have the hidden treasure and the pearl discussing the kingdom of heaven's worth.
· And that's our main heading this morning. The immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven. If you don't have an outline, there's some in the back if you'd like to take notes and um we'll get into it this morning. Let me uh pray for us. Father, we thank you for this morning.
· I thank you for your word. I thank you for the work that you're doing in the lives of uh our students [clears throat] Lord across all of Cross Church and um [snorts] the other churches that came.
· God, I thank you for your blessings upon all all of them. God, I pray for the hearts of of our junior high and high schoolers across the state. God, that they would remain faithful, steadfast, endure in their faith, stay strong, and worship you.
· God, I pray that you would give us here this morning, eyes to see, ears to hear what your Holy Spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's stand and read the scriptures together. Again, if you cannot stand, that is okay. You can stand with us in spirit as we honor God's word together.
· Short passage this morning will be in Matthew 13 44- 46. Jesus is speaking and he says this, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field that a man found and rearied. Then in his joy, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
· Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless or some some might say precious or pearl of great price, one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it. And all God's people said, "Amen." You can be seated. Thank you. Well, similar to our parables last week, Jesus sets uh two together that say essentially the same thing but in different ways.
· And Jesus first likens the kingdom of heaven to a treasure that was buried in a field. This treasure remains hidden in this field until a man finds it. A man likely working in his master's field finds treasure of immense worth. So he goes and rearies it and we'll talk about that later. But the bottom line right now is that he's so happy he found it. He's overwhelmed with joy.
· He's so overwhelmed with joy that it leads him to do something uh to do something only someone convinced of its worth would do. He goes and he sells everything he has to buy the field the treasures in. This is how we know he must be a worker, some kind of laborer, a day laborer or a servant.
· This is how we know he's he is that in his master's field because he doesn't own the field, right? He has to go he has to sell everything to purchase it, but he is at least some kind of laborer or servant in the field. Once again, Jesus is using circumstances relatable to them in their day. It wasn't uncommon for money or other values valuables to be found in fields.
· Back in those days, you didn't have a bank. The earth [snorts] was your bank. And unfortunately, it didn't give you any interest. Um, it's just the earth, right? You just you get what you put in it. But people would hide their valuables or money in the earth. It's where things were kept safe.
· Families would do this. Dig and put treasure in the earth, especially during times of crisis or war. You would hide what was valuable to keep it hopefully from being taken. At this particular point in history, if you remember the first century, they're under Roman occupation. Rome has come in and taken over. And it's likely that many families would hide their treasures from them in the earth.
· So this is common practice and it wasn't uncommon for these things to be discovered.
· Especially maybe the original owner died or it was the field was passed on or perhaps someone forgot it was there and it was found by someone else. Now there are basically two interpretations of this passage of this parable. I should say number one is that the one who found the treasure in the field and sold everything he had to buy the field is Jesus Christ himself.
· And this comes mainly from the fact that the the man in the parable sells everything and purchases it. And what we know theologically, doctrinally, is that no human being can purchase their entry into the kingdom of heaven. You can't purchase or buy your salvation.
· And so for for many, this means that Jesus is the one is the man in the parable who finds the treasure. And we know from Philippians 2, Jesus emptied himself, right? took on the form of a servant, gave his life for us on the cross. And that is absolutely 100% true.
· I do believe that this passage could be faithfully preached that way. And it it's it's obviously it's not heresy. It would be fine to to see it that way. One of my personal hiccups pastorally, again, um before I preach anything, I have to be convinced in my heart, and I just wasn't sure. But one of my hiccups with that interpretation would be that we'd have to think of Jesus as being surprised um by finding the kingdom.
· Cuz remember it says the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And this man finds it and he's joyful. He's excited. He didn't know it was there. Now he knows it's there. If the man who finds it is Jesus, we'd have to say he didn't know it was there. He found it. Was joyful and excited and then decided he would go. he would give up everything to buy the field.
· I would submit to you obviously Jesus knows the kingdom of heaven very well. Um I don't think it's hidden from him nor that he was surprised at its discovery. But again, I'm not opposed to that interpretation completely, just slightly. The second option is that instead of Jesus being the laborer in the field, it's humanity, it's people, it's us in the world.
· What I believe Jesus is talking about is the immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven from our perspective, from a human vantage point. And I'll explain this more, but our first point, if you have a handout, it'll be up here. The kingdom of heaven brings more joy than anything this world can offer. This person has come across treasure worth his entire life.
· Everything he has amounts to nothing in comparison to this treasure. Kind of like when Paul says, "I count everything I gained. everything, all of my accomplishments, all my pedigree, my background. I'm a of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I have all this status. He says, I count it all as loss or some translations write dung. A pile of garbage. Dung for compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ.
· This man in our parable does something that every financial adviser would advise against doing. He puts all of his assets, everything he owns into one account, so to speak.
· The kingdom of heaven, right? The financial world will tell you what, right? Diversify um your savings or your money. Put your money in different places. If one fails, you have others to back up on. And if all your money is in one account and it fails and you're in trouble, that's what the world says. But this man, this man seems to think otherwise about this treasure. He spares nothing for the sake of this treasure.
· This is everything to him.
· [snorts] It brings him great joy and he has absolutely zero concern about whether or not it's worth putting his life into because he knows it is and then his actions reveal that. His actions prove it. He looks around at everything else he has and he says, "You know what? None of this stuff brings me joy like that treasure does. None of it compares to this. I've never felt joy like this. And I want nothing but this.
· This man is the exact opposite of the rich young ruler. Do you remember the rich young ruler?
· Rich young ruler came to Jesus and he asked him a question. Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Awesome question. Don't we all want to know, right? It's great, perfect, great question. And Jesus, right, says, you know, follow the commandments. And the rich young ruler says, yeah, I know, Lord. I've kept them all from my youth. I'm pretty awesome. And then Jesus says, okay, yeah, you lack one thing, though.
· And Jesus says, "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will what? Have treasure in heaven." Jesus is saying, "Exchange your fleeting, feudal, dung heap treasure on earth, so to speak, for eternal, everlasting treasure that moth and rust can't destroy in heaven. and come follow me.
· Jesus here wasn't teaching that the rich young ruler could buy the kingdom of heaven any more than this man in our parable could. What Jesus was talking about is full complete surrender to him and a willingness to give up everything to follow him. But the rich young ruler couldn't do it. The text says, if you were to pull it up, says, "And he became very sad."
· And I kind of enjoy the contrast with this parable. Guy in our parable has great joy. Rich young ruler has great sadness. And the rich young ruler is not a parable. It's a real interaction. And he is sad when he is told that the kingdom of heaven demands his everything. He's sad because he had great riches.
· [snorts] And I love the story of the rich young ruler. It's one of my favorites because it reminds me as a preacher that the most loving thing I can ever do for anyone who walks through these doors is give them the truth.
· Because in that passage when the rich young ruler walks up to him and asks this question, it says this specifically. Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said, "Go sell everything you have, the truth." But he loved him. Looked at him, loved him, told him the truth. What the king, what eternal life demands, your all. And he couldn't do it. and he walked away. Did Jesus go running after him? Never mind. Never mind. I'm sorry. Sorry.
· Sorry. Sorry. Let's just do 50%. Sell half of what you have. I'll make it a little easier for you to inherit eternal life because I love you and I don't want to hurt your feelings and I want you to come follow me. So, I'll I'll cheapen the deal. He watched him walk away knowing he will not inherit eternal life. And yet the text says he loved him.
· He loved him. Gave him the truth. The rich young ruler rejected it. And Jesus would not capitulate on it. And he watched him walk away. And then he turns to his disciples. And if you remember, he says this, [snorts] how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter what? The kingdom of God.
· The man had riches and yet was sad. His riches didn't bring him joy. Maybe temporary joy, but he had all these riches. And upon hearing Jesus words, he didn't have joy. He had sadness when he heard that the kingdom of God demands his complete allegiance.
· But the man in our parable finds the treasure of the kingdom of heaven to be of immense and indescribable value. And he is willing to sell all he has. Give his all for it. Now, here's what I'm not saying, right? What I'm not saying is that you need to go sell your car or your stuff or your house and write a check to the church for that amount. See you next week. Bring it all. Right? Um, no. That's not what this text is saying.
· Unless God tells you to, right? There are times where God will have someone sell their house and go plant a church or sell everything they have and go be a missionary. There are times and there are stories like that. It could be, but that's between you and the Lord and the Holy Spirit and God's will for your life. What I am saying is what Jesus is saying.
· What is your heart attitude towards the kingdom of heaven? Let me put it this way. Is knowing Christ everything to you, to us? Is being in the kingdom of God worth everything to you?
· Is your treasure in the kingdom of heaven or is it in this fleeting, feudal world?
· Do you cherish the world which will only bring you sadness and leave you empty, hands down, guaranteed?
· or do you cherish Christ who brings more joy than anything this world can offer you?
· We look in so many different places to try to find joy meaning completion that are not Christ. I'm going to tell you right now, spoiler alert, it brings sadness and mess.
· Christ brings joy.
· Now, you might still be thinking, "Okay, DJ, um, but why does he hide it? Um, you still haven't addressed that yet. What's up with that?"
· What you have to remember is that the point of the parable is the kingdom of heaven's value, not the ethical actions of the characters. It's not uncommon for Jesus to use unethical characters in his parables to make a point. Let me give you a quick example. Jesus in Luke chapter 18 uses a awful, ungodly, terrible, unjust judge to make a point about prayer.
· Jesus' own description of the character of this judge is that he does not fear God, nor does he respect men. So he doesn't care about God and he doesn't care about people and he's the judge in the story.
· [snorts] And in the parable it says listen to what the unjust judge says. What had happened in the parable was basically this. The judge doesn't care about God or people. But this widow was coming to him asking him for for something for some support. And he's like, "No, get out of here. I don't care about you."
· and she kept coming back over and over and over and over. She was so persistent that it wore him down. He's literally annoyed at her. He is so annoyed by her that he's like, "Fine, take it. Here's what you need. Go get out of here." And then Jesus says, "Listen to the unjust judge." You say, "I'm supposed to listen to a guy who doesn't care about God or people?" And Jesus says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
· The person we're supposed to listen to and learn something from is an unjust judge. Yes. But the point of that parable wasn't to be like the unjust judge or imitate his character. This is not a character lesson. The point of that was that the widow kept bothering him so much he got so annoyed with her he granted her request.
· And Jesus was saying in Luke 18, look, if an unjust judge will respond and listen to this persistent widow, how much more will God listen to the prayers of those who come to him as persistently as that?
· But still, the person we are to learn from is an unjust judge. But what we're learning is how much God desires us to come to him in prayer, not to be like the unjust judge. So I'm going to bring it back to our parable. Here in our parable, the value of this treasure is so immeasurable that the man gives everything he has for it and is willing to do anything to obtain it. [snorts] This is not about whether or not he should have notified the owner of the field.
· Hey, just so you know, I found treasure in your field. This is not and there's laws and there's a lot of first century context there, historical stuff that I don't have time to get into, but it would be fun to. But Jesus point is its worth. And he sells everything he has to buy the entire field that that treasure is in. It's how valuable it is.
· The next illustration Jesus gives is that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. While searching for pearls, nice pearls, right? Good-looking pearls, he finds one that stands out among them all, above them all, one that is priceless.
· And what does he do?
· He does the same thing the laborer in the field does. He sells everything and buys it. And so this leads me to my second point. Our second point, the kingdom of heaven is worth far more than anything this world can offer you. Worth far more [snorts] than anything this world can offer.
· I must tell you, aside from Judas a Scariot, one of the scariest Bible characters, at least in my opinion, is a man named Deeus. Any of you ever heard of Deeus?
· Judas takes the number one spot for me simply because of how closely he walked with Jesus and yet his heart was so far from him. Watch out. Right. But Deeus is a close second. We have a similar case in him.
· Often times at the end of Paul's letters, he will um send greetings to fellow workers and laborers in the gospel. And in Phileiman, that short little book that uh letter that you should read sometime, he says this in Phileiman 23, Epaperus, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristocus, Deeus, and Luke, my fellow workers.
· We see the same list of men at the end of Colossians in chapter 4. Colossians 4:14 simply says, "Luke, the beloved [snorts] physician, greets you as does Deeus." So Deeus was a fellow worker in the gospel with Paul and his team for a time, for a season. Maybe he made a profession of faith. Maybe he got baptized. Maybe he got involved in serving.
· But later on in 2 Timothy 4, Paul's last one of if not his last letter before he is martyed writes this. For Deeus, 2 Timothy 4:10, Deeus in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
· Now, in context, right before 2 Timothy 4:10 is 2 Timothy 4:8:9. I know you're shocked by that, but right before Paul says that there is a crown of righteousness awaiting not just him, but everyone who loves his appearing. And then he says, "But for Deeus, he fell in love with the present world and he deserted me." There's a contrast there.
· Deus didn't love the appearing of Jesus Christ. He loved the present world. He fell in love with the present world, deserted Paul, and chased the world's treasures. [snorts] Don't be a demus, right?
· Don't be him. Now, obviously, there's debate whether or not he's saved. That's a secondary conversation. The truth remains. Don't be like it. Don't be like Deus deserts Paul and his team for the love of the world. know this that the kingdom of heaven is worth eternally more than anything this world can offer is objectively true.
· Objectively true. What I mean by that is that it's true whether or not you agree with it or believe it. [snorts] The question is whether or not you believe it. But whether or not you believe it doesn't change the fact that the kingdom of heaven's value is eternally far more than anything this world can offer you.
· But I will say this that if you don't believe it and you don't agree with it, the truth is you are tragically wrong. That's how the Bible, that's how the scripture presents the kingdom of heaven is objectively of more value than anything ever throughout all eternity. But it's not like the kingdom of heaven is just waiting for our approval. No, no, no. It is objectively it is worth your whole life.
· And I pray that you see that this morning.
· Notice too that this merchant is searching among fine pearls. Right?
· So this is a priceless pearl among other fine nice pearls. Other items of great value. Pearls were highly valued in those days. Of course they still are today. You can go in a jewelry shop find pearls.
· But though there were competing valuables, competing items of worth, one stood out as priceless, as worth more than all the other items of worth were. He doesn't sell everything he had and buy a handful of pearls. This one priceless one and like a few others that I really like. No, he sells. He gets rid of everything he has to buy this one pearl that is priceless beyond [snorts] the rest. And his response was the exact same.
· This is worth everything to me.
· And he sells everything he has and buys that price as pearl. The question is, is it everything to you?
· It's everything to me to preach to myself, right? Is it everything to us?
· Or on the other hand, are we capitulating to the world? Are we falling prey to the things of this world, setting our eyes and sights on the things of the world rather than the things of Christ? Are we missing the immeasurable worth of knowing Christ because we're distracted by the things of the world that are temporary and gonna guess what? Burn.
· What do we know about God? He ain't going to flood the world again. What do we also know about God? Is going to be destroyed by fire.
· [snorts] It's truth.
· It will not be destroyed by water again, but it will burn.
· Do you want to put all your stock in stuff that's going to be gone?
· I want to address one final point here and that's number three. The kingdom of heaven does not negotiate terms based on who you are of of everything that we talked about.
· This hit me the hardest this week. I was in uh while I was at Zona youth camp in California. Um, I didn't have much time to write, so I I put all my thoughts down into writing on Saturday. But I did a lot of thinking and as I read through it, [snorts] this stood out to me and I was like, "Wow, I yes and amen."
· It might be obvious to you, but I was like, "Dang, that's good." [snorts] The kingdom of heaven does not negotiate terms based on who you are. Here's what I mean by that. If you look closely at this parable, there is what I I believe personally to be a contrast between the status of the two people involved. One's a servant, a a laborer in someone else's field, servant, slave, I don't know, day laborer in someone else's field. The other one is a merchant in search of fine pearls.
· One's rich and can go shopping for pearls. the other one isn't, and he's just working in someone else's field, making a day's wage, minding those his own business. But regardless of who they are, their response was exactly the same. Which is why I believe Jesus is using these two kinds of people to show doesn't matter who you are, whether rich or poor, the kingdom of heaven demands the same.
· We all come from different backgrounds, different struggles, different life experiences. Some have much, some have little, but the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Right? [snorts] We all come to Christ in the exact same way. Whether you have a million dollars in the bank or you're homeless on the street, you come to Christ through full, complete surrender to him. We come to Christ in full complete surrender.
· Our parabolic truth. I've been trying to add this at the end so you have kind of a one or two sentence takeaway each time if you're keeping track of them. The immeasurable value of the kingdom of heaven demands our complete allegiance and devotion. No matter who you or who we are, believe that's the heart of this is that is the kingdom of heaven is of immeasurable worth and it's worth everything.
· The disciples what left everything to follow him. This is all throughout the scriptures in the gospels and in the New Testament. This is basically another way of saying you want to follow Christ, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. It's another way of saying the same thing.
· Is the kingdom of heaven everything to you?
· Or do you have competing interests, competing idols in your life?
· Competing things that well, like I'm I'm, you know, I'm half in on Christ and then my the other half is in, you know, like um America winning the World Cup or something. I don't know. I'm just I'm sorry. I'm making it up. I don't know.
· Right. right? Or this other idol, sports or um business success or money or whatever, fame, followers on social media, like what what is your if you have a competing idol, get rid of it. There's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves until they become an idol, right? And then it's a problem.
· Is the kingdom of heaven everything to you?
· I hope so. I hope so.
· At this time, I want to transition into um our communion. [snorts] We uh celebrate this the first Sunday of every month. And so, if you don't have a communion packet, you can grab one in the back. Um I'll give you a second to do that. If you already have it, you can peel back that top, the layer with the bread. [snorts] Um, and as we celebrate communion, come together, um, there's a few admonitions that I want to give. Um, if you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, uh, you are invited to join as we celebrate the Lord's supper.
· This is for, I believe, any and all Christians. You don't have to be like a member of cross church. Like, I haven't I'm visiting or I haven't been to pizza with a pastor. I don't have but I'm a believer. I'm a Christian. I love the Lord. Then you are invited to partake. However, if you are here and you say, "I don't know Christ as my personal Lord and Savior."
· First of all, I'd like to tell you that today can be the last day that that's true. Um, I would love to chat with you after service and introduce you to Christ. But I would also ask that you abstain in watch and observe us, but not to partake because the scriptures take this very seriously and we should too. We need to eat and drink in a manner worthy.
· The scriptures teach that we do this in remembrance of Jesus, looking back to what he's done for us on the cross. It also teaches that we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Looking forward, looking back, looking forward. And then Paul says, "So then let a person examine themselves.
· Examine yourself looking in. And what I mean by examining yourself is, are there sins in your life that need to be confessed to the Lord? Is there anything in your life that you need to turn over to him?
· Reflect on your love for Christ? Is do you love and cherish him? Is he everything to you? Is there any idols that you need to get rid of? I invite you to take a moment now and examine yourself. Just time prayer between you and the Lord. Let's do that now and then we'll I'll I'll read and we'll partake
· I never want to interrupt. So, if you're still praying and communing with the Lord, don't let me interrupt that. I do want to read some scripture as we continue to think through these things.
· Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. [snorts] Do this in remembrance of me." Let's pray. Father, we thank you. I thank you for your body which was broken on the cross.
· Without it, we would be lost still. We only love because you first loved us. And while we were enemies, you reconciled us to yourself. God, I thank you for your body broken for us. Broken for our sin. It was Pastor DJ's sin that held you there. our sin that held you there until it was accomplished. And it is accomplished. It's done. It is finished. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.
· If you would peel back the side with the the juice, Paul continues in 1 Corinthians, excuse me, [snorts] 11:2. In the same way, he Jesus also he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until [snorts] he comes."
· This is a proclamation. That's what I love about communion. Lord's table. This is a proclamation. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. That means he's alive. You have to be alive to come.
· We proclaim his death and resurrection till he comes and takes us home. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world. There is no other way to be saved. We cannot earn our way to heaven. We cannot buy our way into heaven. Lord, you require complete surrender.
· You call us and invite us to turn from sin and to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save us from that sin. And you call us to follow you wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly, wholeheartedly follow you. And I pray that that would be true of every person here at Crossurch Phoenix listening online. God help us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's partake.
· This time I want to invite the worship team to come back up as we close our our last song. [snorts] And uh let me pray for us one last time. Father, we thank you once more for your word. We thank you for the truth that the kingdom of heaven is of immeasurable value.
· It is beyond even valuing. It is so wonderful and awesome and glorious that there is nothing else in this world that we could pour our lives into that would bring us that kind of joy. As Brian said, we I pray God that we would seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and let all these other things, all the other things that we need be given to us in your time.
· Lord, [snorts] may we prioritize and seek the kingdom of God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Parables