He declared it in great messages like the Sermon on the Mount. When he found it, what did he do? But, nevertheless, the Scriptures tell us that the secret is hidden from men until it be revealed through Israel. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here: We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. They have not yet grasped again the lost secret of their nation -- that the nation which walks in right relationship to him, God will heal. Just as in the first parable, the valuable pearl was a symbol of the kingdom of God. Therefore, we will not spend any more time on that misinterpretation, but will come right to the heart of what the story of the treasure hidden in the field really means. It is having His peace, His joy, His love, and His power. Even the Jewish people themselves misunderstand it to a large degree. We have nothing to offer him, nothing that we can give in return. But then the parable says, "Then in his joy the man went and gave all that he had and bought the field." (Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9, John 12:13). If you want to put that treasure into one word, as revealed by the Scriptures, that word is Israel, the nation of Israel. iii. The oyster opens its shell to let water and food in. The treasure was too great to forget about! Thus, the field from which the treasure is gathered would be the world just as the sea from which fish are gathered is the world, and this also just as the wheat and weeds are gathered from the field, which is the world. The rocky places stood for the people who like hearing Gods word at first, but they dont let it take root in their hearts. (You see, congressmen don't spend all their time smoking cigars and kissing babies.) It represents the experience, not of a careless or a profane man, who stumbles suddenly upon the Gospel when he was in in search of other things, but of one who is awakened, and has begun to seek the true religion, endeavouring to add attainment to attainment sincerely, according to his light. He entered into all of that. And as we go through life we are the people who some day discover him. Though they are surrounded and ringed by enemies armed to the teeth who are vowing to wipe every Jew off the face of the earth, Nevertheless, as is obvious, they do not understand the secret of their own life and are trying to produce peace and stability by democratic methods and consensus and compromise. It was a partial demonstration, never complete, never full. But thats not what he did. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who was looking for fine pearls. He probably laid awake each night thinking about the treasure until it was his. And he was telling me how divided among themselves the Israelis are and how they are separating into squabbling bickering groups, fighting each other, and into many political parties vying for power. goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the field: which is not to be interpreted literally and properly; though a man that knows the worth and value of the Bible, rather than be without one, would part with all his worldly substance for one; but figuratively, and denotes the willingness of such souls, who are led into the glory, fulness, and excellency of the word of God, the scriptures of truth, and of the immense treasure of the Gospel therein, to part with all that has been, or is dear unto them; with their sins, and self-righteousness; with their good names and characters; their worldly substance, and life itself, for the sake of the Gospel, and their profession of it: and may also design the use of all means, to gain a larger degree of light and knowledge in the Gospel. This parable powerfully teaches that it is Gods job to divide in judgment. The passage for this lection offers a counter-image to this destructive force. It recognizes the allure and the mystery which always gathers around the notion of hidden treasure. So it will be at the end of the age. He had been in Washington,D.C., spending some time with a young congressman who is a mutual friend of ours. i. 36-43 This parable represents the present and future state of the gospel church; Christ's care of it, the devil's enmity against it, the mixture there is in it of good and bad in this world, and the separation between them in the other world. John 6:42). (France), ii. The gospel is more valuable than such a treasure, Psalm 19:10; Proverbs 3:13-15. III. I don't know what that may evoke in your mind. Then he went and gave all that he had and bought that field of humanity. He is saying that NOTHING compares in value to the new life that the King wants to give you. There Paul too tells us that God is not through with Israel. But we need to recognize that the parable of the treasure hidden in the field is the first of a series of three which our Lord gave in connection with the other four and on the same day, but, as Matthew is careful to tell us, he gave these to the disciples alone after they had gone back into the house. Teacher Note: These parables are not a plea for us to sell all we have in order to obtain the kingdom - for we truly have nothing to offer God (Ephesians 2:5-9). He has but hidden them away again. I hope you never open your Bibles without the sense that here is a book which gives you vital, inside information which you can get from no other source and which will help you to understand yourself, and life, and the mystery of history, more than you possibly could in any other way. He knew the aching loneliness, the heartache, the misery, the rejection, the sense of despair, of self-loathing, of emptiness and worthlessness and meaninglessness, and the awful hostility that sin engenders. goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that fieldin which case, by Jewish law, the treasure would become his own. The point of the parables is completely different; the parable of the soils shows how men receive and respond to the Word of God, and the parable of the tares of the field shows how God will divide His true people from false believers at the end of this age. We never can understand anything until we see it demonstrated before us. We pray, Lord Jesus, that we may all apply this to our lives, and that we may understand that you desire to heal us and bring us right now into an experience of joy and glory and gladness and fruitfulness. So the secret of world peace is wrapped up, bound up, in this strange nation, Israel. We are not sure what this man was doing in someone elses field. For permission to use this content, please review But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Yet the point is clear, both in the world and in the kingdom community. 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. Every scribe: Jesus used the term here simply to describe a teacher. They speak skeptically and will refer to Him only as this Man.. And he bought that field. The man was so excited to know that he could possibly own that treasure. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'" That is Israel's purpose and there was a time in their developing history when it was partially fulfilled. Message transcript and recording 1971 by Ray Stedman Ministries, owner of sole copyright by assignment from the author. They will come and study this little nation of Israel in which the secret of world peace has always been hidden, the strange, chosen nation for which our Lord gave his life. But the exciting thing about Scripture is that in it we are always dealing with fact, not fancy. With a view of obtaining this, Jesus says that a man would go and sell his property and buy the field. Two weeks ago, we read as Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. A small degree of knowledge is not sufficient for a preacher of the Gospel. Every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom: Jesus said that everyone who really knows Gods Word both will know the old and learn the new of the kingdom. In the great series of parables in Matthew13 our Lord gave us, as he said, "The secrets of the kingdom of heaven." THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls" (v. 45). The United Nations exists for this very purpose. God wants ALL people to believe in Jesus and enter into His kingdom (1 Peter 2:9). b. This motto is a result of the work of the early Christian missionaries who came from New England in the 19th century. All rights reserved. To the ancient peoples, as we have just seen, a pearl was the loveliest of all possessions; that means that the Kingdom of Heaven is the loveliest thing in the world. (Barclay). In the parable of the soils, the seed represented the Word of God; here it represents true believers. God has gathered this nation together again, brought in the people from the outlying countries of the world, gathered his dispersed from the four corners of the earth, and brought them back into the land. Jesus announced Gods kingdom, and this would lead many of his hearers to expect a cataclysmic disruption of society, an immediate and absolute division between the sons of light and the sons of darknessIt was to this impatience that the parable was primarily directed. (France). 13:49). Place your hands together like an oyster shell. Of greater importance in the history of the church has been the view that this actually means that the field is the church. And you and I are making a great mistake if, as Americans, we think that this country is being held together by the Constitution of the United States or by the Declaration of Independence. After you have been instructed by me, you have the knowledge, not only of the things you used to know, but of things you never knew before, and even the knowledge which you had before is illuminated by what I have told to you. (Barclay), iv. Or we can see Gods kingdom, full of peace, love, forgiveness, freedom, and joy, and want that more than anything else. Something is hidden in the world. He hideth - That is, he conceals the fact that he has found it; he does not tell of it. That is what keeps a nation strong. a. Then he covered it over again when it was rejected by the people. And in that we can see revealed the heart of God who looks at this broken and fragmented world, with all its injustice, heartache, sorrow, violence, and slaughter, and yet has not forgotten his purposes and has preserved the secret of world peace in a treasure hidden among the nations which he shall someday bring forth again. So prone is fallen man to sin, that if the enemy sow the tares, he may . Julian the apostate, as he is called, once asked a certain Christian, What do you think the carpenters son is doing now? Making coffins for you and for all his enemies, was the prompt reply. (Spurgeon). Yesterday I spent a few hours with Dr.Billy Graham. Matthew 12. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. When I peel it, you cant smell it like I can smell it. It is right that you should pursue it. God has not forgotten Israel. Parables are stories about everyday people and things that help us understand spiritual truths. There would be a partial failure of the seed of the Word because of the conditions of some of the hearts into which it fell. It always reminds me immediately of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, of Long John Silver, and doubloons and pieces-of-eight, pegleg pirates, and all the exciting things usually associated with the idea of buried treasure. He chose them to be a representative nation, to be a working model of what a nation ought to be, in order that other nations might share that knowledge. . I want to read these twin parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price because they link so closely together, although we will look only at the first one this morning. There is additional significance in saying, The field is the world instead of The field is Israel. This brief statement presupposes a mission beyond Israel. (Carson). Instantly, the man knew that the treasure was incredibly valuable. He would never have called it that. It is knowing the Father, the King. What does Matthew 13:44 mean? In this we see that the parable of the tares changes the figures slightly from the parable of the soils (Matthew 13:3-9; 13:18-23). As time goes on, the sand is coated with more and more layers of this coating. And like the first parable, the man gladly gave up everything he owned to get the pearl. This is a dream and a vision that men have long held. The treasure was so important to him, that he joyfully gave up everything else in the world to gain that treasure. That treasure is the lost secret of how to get along with other nations, how to discover peace and prosperity and happiness and all the many results of peace that men have been seeking after for centuries. A great misinterpretation of these parables has developed, quite without any basis in the systematic interpretation of symbols in Scripture, which has hidden their true meaning. When a person sees it and hears it, it is his duty to sacrifice all that hinders his obtaining it, and to seek it with the earnestness with which other people seek for gold. This is why this nation is here. Finally, there was the parable of the woman who took leaven and introduced it into the three measures of meal, by which Jesus made clear that something would destroy the precious fellowship of the people of God and that it would be allowed into the church by the very people who were appointed to keep it out. Thank God for those documents, but they have no power to hold us together as a people, to preserve our national liberties or our national life. She was no inconsiderable monarch herself. She was a great queen in her own right. law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes him free from the law of sin and death, , ut pleno jure thesaurum possideret omnemque litium occasionem praecideret, , Three other parables: the Treasure, the Pearl, the Net. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. c. He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief: It is truly remarkable that Jesus was, in some manner, limited by their unbelief. [That is, Israel had obviously stumbled at that time, but have they fallen completely?] Is this not the carpenters son? The person who finds the treasure joyfully "sells all" to buy the field (13:44). And His sisters, are they not all with us? Take off the glasses and bandana and allow the volunteer to eat the fruit. He was full of joy over this discovery. No! Why is it that for all our professed ideals, our hopes, and our skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective seen only dimly through the storms and turmoils of our present difficulties?". Western democracies say that they have found it. But was not that an honest occupation? (Trapp), iii. It is: Ua mau ke ea o ka aina ika pono, which I am sure you understand means, "The life of the land is preserved by righteousness." I have never forgotten something I learned years ago when in Hawaii. The person has a change of heart, and he or she truly wants to do Gods will. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Treasure seekers searched the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean to find oysters with pearls inside. Learning Context: Sunday School Target Time Frame: 45 minutes Memory Verse: Matthew 13:44 "The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Two weeks ago, we read as Jesus compared the kingdom of.. 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