Sermon Tone Analysis

Instructed For the Kingdom Of Heaven—Matthew 13:44-52

 

/“51//Have you understood all this?” //They said to him, “Yes.”

52 And he said to them,/

/“Therefore every scribe who has been instructed for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder/

/ who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

*Verses 51-52*/

 

/6//God raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,/

/7 //that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace/

/in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

*Ephesians 2:6-7*/

 

We Are Instructed To

 

Ú Find The *[TREASURES]* Of The Kingdom Of Heaven in The Scriptures.

 

/“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

*Verse 44*/

 

/1 //For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, of Christ, 3 in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

*Colossians 2:1-3*/

 

/16 //Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

*Colossians 3:16-17*/

 

Ú Find The Pearl That *[MATTERS MOST]* In The Kingdom Of Heaven In the Scriptures.

/45 //“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

*Verse 45*/

 

/8 //More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

*Philippians 3:8-9*/

 

Ú Find Yourself *[SEPARATED]* From Evil In The Kingdom Of Heaven In the Scriptures.

/47 //“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad.

49 So it will be at the close of the age.

The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.

*Verses 47-50*/

 

/16 //What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17 Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

*2 Corinthians 6:16-18*/

\\ I am so glad you are here this morning, because it is a joy to be with you.

To me you are very special group of folks.

To begin our lesson we must understand what Jesus meant by the term Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew’s gospel is the only New Testament book to record Jesus references to God’s kingdom as the kingdom of Heaven.

In Matthew Jesus uses the term Kingdom of Heaven 32 times in 31 verses and the term Kingdom of God five times in 5 verses.

Compare that to the other Gospels: where Jesus; in Mark uses the expression Kingdom of God 14 times in 14 verses; in the Gospel of Luke 32 times in 31 verses; and finally in the Gospel of John twice.

The idea of the kingdom is central to the mission and message of Jesus.

We cannot travel through Gospels without being acutely aware of its importance to the understanding of God’s purpose and plan for us.

In the Gospels both expressions, Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven, are used interchangeably throughout Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom.

They are exactly the same thing.

The Greek word kingdom means the authority, power, and influence of the king.

It is the realm or the state in which he exercises his royal prerogatives.

The church is his kingdom in that Jesus has all authority and exercises his will in the hearts of believers.

But you can also say that all the nations are his kingdom because again Jesus is the king of all kings and dominates and controls all of history.

Even his enemies can be placed within this understanding because they are under his feet, and all of them are or will be subject to his royal will.

The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is the invisible eternal power of God expressed in the lives of his people, of his physical world, and of the his invisible spiritual realm of eternity.

The Kingdom of Heaven’s influence is in both the visible realm and the invisible.

So that no one escapes its blessing or its curses, because there is no place, no era, and no one more powerful than Jesus the Christ.

When Jesus taught the people about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew thirteen he uses eight parables to explain about it.

Today we will look at only three of them in depth.

In verses 51 through 52 at the end of his discussion he asks this question, /“//51 //“Have you understood all this?” //They said to him, “Yes.”

52 And he said to them, //“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”/

When they responded with yes Jesus tells them the last parable about what a scribe is like who is instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The word scribe is used to refer to one who was a learner and educated in the word of God.

He was able to write and read the Holy Scripture to others.

That is why many of the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin are referred to as scribes.

Scribes that are instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven are compared to a householder who has a treasure house in which there are old and new items.

In those days a wealthy man got that way because he knew how to salvage and save the old as well as being able to buy and store what was new.

Of course the old would be used first before the new.

For example garments that were still useful would be stored until they were needed again.

Everybody got hand me downs, but sooner or later things wear out.

So the wise householder had purchased and stored new garments to replace the worn out ones.

Scribes in the Kingdom of Heaven are like that.

They have stored in the treasure house of God all they need to live with God in his kingdom.

Paul says, /“//6 //God raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”/

When Paul speaks of the heavenly places he is referring to the Kingdom of Heaven.

God graciously raises us from spiritual death to life with Christ, and we sit with Jesus in His ever new realm of heavenly influence and power.

The reason is to exhibit to us the riches or treasures of his grace, and what is remarkable is that God continues to display his treasures to his scribes in the coming ages of time.

God’s store house is eternal and it is the Kingdom of God.

It exists in both heaven and earth, and it exists in that place in you that you learn about God.

The question is how to do we receive instruction in the Kingdom of Heaven?

The answer is that we need to read the Bible.

It contains both old and new in its store house of God’s grace.

Both the old and new covenants are meant to be searched, explored, and used.

Let me encourage you to understand that N.T. cannot exist without the O.T.

And the O.T. is incomplete without the N.T.

These two covenants work together like two peddles on a bicycle.

When you push one peddle down the other comes up ready to supply power to ride the bike.

They power each other and us as we learn about God’s rule in our lives.

The three parables we will study this morning help us to prioritize what is important in the Bible.

And if you understand you are instructed to do three things through these parables.

You need to find the treasures in Scripture, the pearl of Scripture, and yourself separated from evil through Scripture in the Kingdom of Heaven.

*To begin: we are instructed to find the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture.*

Jesus explains, /“//The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”/

We have all seen people walking around with metal detectors looking for hidden treasure in the ground.

One might find a coin or a ring, but it is unlikely that he would find a treasure trove.

Today we have banks and other financial institutions, so that saving and spending money is a lot different than 2000 years ago.

Today we deposit a check from our employer, and then write checks from our personal accounts to purchase what we want.

Most of us don’t carry large amounts of metal coins around with us.

We’ve develop a more efficient system of money.

However, this has not always been the case.

Often in ancient times people buried their money in the ground especially during times of war.

And if things went badly as often it did in Palestine their treasure was lost until some other generation stumbled upon it.

In 1948 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered one of the documents that was found was a treasure map.

During the apocalyptic destruction of Israel in 70 ad someone hid treasure.

And right now somebody in Israel is out looking for it.

People sometimes in the first Century were very fortunate and found some old treasure that made them wealthy.