The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parables of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The "Lady Blunt" is one of the finest violins ever crafted by the renowned Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari. It was made in 1721 and is considered one of the best-preserved Stradivarius violins in existence. In 1940, the violin was sold at auction for £2,000 to the virtuoso violinist Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (ZHAHN-bah-TEEST Vwee-YHOM).
The violin then passed through the hands of several collectors and musicians until it was acquired by an anonymous British owner in the mid-20th century. This owner kept the violin stored under his bed for around 50 years, unaware of its true value.
In 2008, this owner decided to sell the violin to raise funds for disaster relief efforts in Japan and China. The instrument was sold at auction by Tarisio Auctions for a record-breaking price of over $15 million, with all proceeds going to charity. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Blunt_Stradivarius)
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
In 2006, a Filipino fisherman named Palawan discovered an enormous pearl while fishing off the coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines. The pearl was found inside a giant clam that got caught in his fishing net. The fisherman, unaware of the pearl's value, kept it as a good luck charm under his bed for ten years.
In 2016, after a fire forced the fisherman to relocate, he brought the pearl to his new home. Eventually, his family decided to seek advice on the pearl's value. They contacted gemologists who verified its authenticity and assessed its value at approximately $100 million, making it one of the largest natural pearls ever found.
https://nypost.com/2016/08/23/a-fisherman-kept-this-100m-pearl-under-his-bed-for-10-years/
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
For many years, John and Mary took daily walks along a trail on a section of their property they nicknamed Saddle Ridge. But in 2013, as they were walking their dog, they noticed an old can sticking out of the dirt. Curious, they brushed away some moss, used a stick to dig it out and carried the heavy container home.
The couple living in California’s gold country discovered a cache of 19th-century U.S. gold coins that rare coin experts say is the greatest buried treasure ever unearthed in the United States. The coins, dating from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, were worth over $10 million.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The “Saddle Ridge Treasure” includes the 1866-S No Motto Double Eagle valued at around $1 million. The couple had no idea about the treasure hidden on their land until they made the remarkable discovery.
“I thought any second an old miner with a mule was going to appear,” John said in an interview.
“It was like finding a wonderful hot potato,” Mary added. “I never would have thought we would have found something like this; however, in a weird way I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for it… The answer to our difficulties was right there under our feet for years.”
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gold-coins-california-backyard-20140225-story.html
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
I love these kind of stories. These are ordinary people who stumble upon priceless treasure in unsuspecting ways that change their lives. What is even more inspiring about these stories is that the treasure was, as Mary said, right under their feet. These type of stories also are real-life illustrations of Jesus’ Parable of the Hidden Treasure found in Matthew 13:44
44 “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.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
As we have learned, parables are short stories or visual illustrations Jesus used to reveal to us the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God. As I've said before, parables were not used in the same way Aesop’s Fables were used to teach morals, rather they were meant to provide spiritual understanding two truths about the Kingdom of God that we cannot know on her own.
Here in the parable of the hidden treasure, Jesus is revealing to us five important principles for us to understand the Kingdom. 1. Priceless Value, 2. Shrouded Visibility, 3. Personal Sacrifice, 4. Personal Commitment, and 5. Profound Procurement. Let’s go over each one in detail.
Priceless Value
Priceless Value
Notice first that Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven like a treasure. The word "treasure" in the Greek sounds like our word "thesaurus." The idea behind a thesaurus is to explore every possible way of stating an idea. In the same way, everything that really needs to be known or said is rooted in Christ. (Credit: Sermon Central)
The Scottish writer and theologian Thomas Guthrie said it this way, “In the blood of Christ to wash out sin’s darkest stains, in the grace of God to purify the foulest heart, in peace [of God] to calm life’s roughest storms, in hopes to cheer guilt’s darkest hour, in a courage that defies death and descends calmly into the tomb, in that which makes the poorest rich, and without which the richest are poor indeed, the Gospel has treasure far greater than east or west unfold and its rewards more precious are than all the stores of gold.”
4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Priceless Value
Priceless Value
There is nothing in all the universe to match the incomprehensible value of the Kingdom of God. We are heirs of God. The vastness of the Universe, every galaxy and star -every atom that exists are His. He created them and they are nothing compared to His glory and what is contain in His heaven. God says that it is the fool that pursues the treasures of the earth and in doing so abandons his inheritance in heaven.
The rewards are far greater. The joys are far more lasting. The hope is far reaching. The eternity is far longer than any temporary than any morsel we can find in this world.The very knowledge of God through Jesus Christ and the understanding of what we will behold to be in his Kingdom and to fellowship with the king is beyond comprehension nothing comes close to value. In fact, the very least and poorest in the Kingdom of heaven, if there is such a thing, we'll have in their possession a value far greater than any riches of this world could ever provide. The treasure is beyond our ability to understand.
Priceless Value
Priceless Value
And so Jesus likens this treasure and our relationship to it as a vast treasure hidden in a field. And he compares us to a man that only by chance discovers it. And when he discovers it he covers the treasure back up and sells all that he has to be able to go and purchased the field. Now at this point we find ourselves with an ethical situation. Because somebody might say, “wait, doesn't this guy have an obligation to go and tell the man who owns the field about the treasure?” Isn't there some kind of deception that's happening here?
Well, that is not the point of the parable. There is, however Rabbinic law that said if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it always belongs to the finder. “Finders Keepers” So under Jewish law the man is within the permission of the ability to find and keep the treasure. Secondly, He could have just uncovered the treasure and taking it at that point. But instead he pays the man who owns the field for the value of the land. In reality, these arguments get beyond the purpose and scope of why Jesus was teaching this parable.
Shrouded Visibility
Shrouded Visibility
The second point of this parable Jesus teaching is the shrouded visibility of the Kingdom. The treasure of the kingdom of heaven is not obvious to the world. The world is blinded to it. And there may be a number of reasons why, by the very nature, the world is blind to it.
2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
Shrouded Visibility
Shrouded Visibility
1. Sin is probably one of the main obscures of the Kingdom of heaven to us. When you’re spiritually blind you can’t see Christ because you hardened your heart and won’t come to the knowledge of the truth. “One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character.” Andrew Murray
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Shrouded Visibility
Shrouded Visibility
2. Spiritual deception of this world is probably another top reason why most people will not see the Kingdom of heaven. The world looks at us and they don’t understand why we’re all about this business of worshiping God. They don’t understand why we want to give our lives to Jesus Christ. They don’t understand why we want to live and obey a code of ethics and rules that goes against the desires of our flesh.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
Shrouded Visibility
Shrouded Visibility
3. Our carnal understanding of the nature of God and his ways are another reason why most of us would not be able to easily see the value of the Kingdom of Heaven
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Shrouded Visibility
Shrouded Visibility
4. Perhaps one of the most mysterious aspects of the kingdom's hidden nature is that God himself does not allow carnal man to see the Kingdom of heaven on their own
7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
Personal Sacrifice
Personal Sacrifice
Jesus tells the crowd that when the treasure is discovered, with great joy he goes and sells all that he owned. The point is the treasure is unattainable without first abandoning the things of this world. This is the point of many of Jesus’ parables. You have a man here in this parable and you have another man in verse 45 in the Parable of the Pearl. We’re dealing with individuals and each o them finds something and must himself appropriate the treasure.
Personal Sacrifice
Personal Sacrifice
This is to show us that we are not brought into the Kingdom through group association. We’re not riding into the gates of heaven on the coat tales of another person, organization, denomination, or any other means. Our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven is through personal appropriation. Now you may say, isn’t personal sacrifice a works based entry. The answer to that is no, because the sacrifice by which we enter is through the substitutionary shedding of Jesus’s blood. The only way that transaction happens is when we lay down our own abilities, righteousness, and strengths.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Personal Sacrifice
Personal Sacrifice
But also notice that there is a joy behind the man who is going and giving up everything he owns for this treasure. The realization of the Kingdom of God is so magnanimous that no man can stand to even hold on to anything because he'd rather have all that God can give him then hold on to the treasures of this world. Yes, the Kingdom of God is attained through personal sacrifice, but it is a joyful sacrifice, because through Christ we become rich in God and we have a realization that by surrendering the treasures of this world we are really laying aside a burden.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Personal Commitment
Personal Commitment
The parable highlights the personal commitment required to obtain the kingdom of heaven. It emphasizes the necessity of prioritizing and pursuing the kingdom above all else, even if it means sacrificing worldly possessions or comforts. This Parable taught by Jesus underscores the all-encompassing nature of commitment.
21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Personal Commitment
Personal Commitment
The man in the parable had to take action to receive what he discovered as valuable. Friends you also have to take action. The treasure of heaven is right before you. With joy you can lay down the promises of this world for the promises of eternity with God. But you can’t have it both ways. The true Christian is committed to pursuing the Kingdom above all else, even if it means giving up world’s comforts.
Profound Procurement
Profound Procurement
In the case of this parable, and in the case of the parable after this Jesus says that the treasure is bought. Now some people will squirm a little at this. “Wait, you can't buy your salvation.” And yes, you just can't buy your salvation with money. But listen, there is still a transaction that must take place for your salvation. There is profound procurement for your eternity.
And you know what that transaction is and what it means. I'm talking about the cross of Christ I'm talking about the redemption of your soul that took place at the cost of his suffering. But don't miss the point here. Because I think too many people come to church, and they think it's just about saying a quick prayer and wha-la you're in the club. That's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls, “cheap grace period” that's not salvation.
The transaction that purchased your pardon and your eternity was through Christ and by Christ alone. But look what he demands of us. That we leave everything behind, take up our cross, and follow him.
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Profound Procurement
Profound Procurement
That is what Jesus meant when he said that the man, after finding the treasure in the field, sold all that he had and bought the field.” Salvation by grace alone through faith alone is so much more than simply mouthing the words “Jesus is Lord.” We are not saved by a profession of faith. We are not saved by praying the Sinner’s Prayer. We are not saved by signing a card or walking an aisle. We are saved by a living and active faith (James 2:14-26), a faith that manifests itself in repentance, obedience and love of God and our neighbor. Salvation is not a transaction; it’s a transformation. Paul says it best when he says we are “new creations” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). There is nothing “cheap” about grace! (Got Questions)
ABCs of Salvation
ABCs of Salvation