Treasure & Pearl

Matthew 13:44-46

Matthew 13:44-46, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

There is nothing in all the universe to match the priceless value of the kingdom. Our Lord has been teaching about the Kingdom in Parables in Matthew 13th Chapter.

• God rules over the entire universe and God rules the earth because it is in the universe over this earth.
• God may be mediating His rule on earth through patriarchs.
• God may be mediating His rule on earth through prophets, or priests, or kings.

• God may be mediating His rule on earth through the presence of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ.
• God may be mediating His rule on earth through the apostles.
• God is meditating through the living church today.

But it all points in the earth’s history, God is ruling. We are now living in a form of the kingdom of God on the earth. The Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13. The first two parables are about the nature of the mystery form of the kingdom.

The kingdom being hidden from those generations past and now revealed to us. The parable of the soils: In this kingdom there will be those who believe and there will be those who do not. So, this part of the kingdom has believers and non-believers.

The parable of the wheat and the tares: The believers and the nonbelievers will grow together until the harvest that comes in the end. The second two parables about the power of the kingdom.

In spite of the good and evil are growing together, the good will triumph in the end. The parable of the Mustard seed: The small mustard seed planted in the field, which ultimately grows to massive proportions so that though the kingdom began very small with just the Apostles, when Jesus comes to establish His kingdom, it will fill the whole earth.

The parable of the leaven: The leaven represents the kingdom, buried as it were in the dough of the world which, ultimately, will penetrate, permeate, and influence the whole earth. The parable of the leaven shows the internal permeating influence of the kingdom which touches every dimension of human life.

First 2: The nature of the Kingdom. Second 2: The Power of the Kingdom. In these four parables, we are looking at the kingdom in general. We see how the Kingdom operates and how it functions. Nothing said about how you can enter into this kingdom at all!

The question arising at this point then, if the kingdom covers the earth and permeates the earth and influences the earth, do we just get born into the kingdom? Do you just been born into the covenant people? Do you just been born into the kingdom by Christian parents?

The third 2 parables about the appropriation or entering of the kingdom. First 2: The nature of the Kingdom. Second 2: The Power of the Kingdom. Third 2: Entering the Kingdom. The parables. V 44, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

This is very common manner of speaking to the people in our Lord’s time and not so common to us.

• We put our money in the savings and loan,
• We put our money in the bank,
• We put our money in stocks and bonds or securities,
• We put our money in real estate or whatever.

We have many options to put our money to put anywhere. But in those days, they had no banks as such for common people. It was usual that men took whatever they considered of great value, and they buried it in the earth. Particularly was this the case in Palestine because Palestine was a place of war. It was a battleground. Its history is literally filled with the record of one battle after another.

There were inevitably conquering peoples and those who came in to steal and to loot and to plunder. So very often when a battle was on the horizon, the people would take the valuable and they would bury them in the earth. Very commonly done.

Here is a man who is in the field working. The field which belongs to another man, perhaps employed by the man who owns the field. As he is working in that field, maybe he was ploughing he comes across a treasure buried in the ground.

Immediately he puts it back where he found it and sells every single thing he possesses in the world, liquidates all that he has and buys that field in order that he may gain that treasure. It is very common for him to find something in the field.

Matthew chapter 25, our Lord tells a story about a man who gave talents to his servants. The first two servants took the five talents and the two talents and multiplied them, and the third one, who was very, very timid in his investment approach, buried it in the ground.

Matthew 25:18, But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.

This tells us something about a man who was not wise. He should have invested it and gained interest, the Lord said. But it also tells us that that was commonly done by people who didn’t want to invest their money but wanted to hang on to it.

We see this man coming through the field. He finds a treasure, he puts it right back in the ground, goes and buys the field. This was very common. Now the parable introduces an ethical situation. People have said that this person didn’t do right.

How can you have Jesus telling a story in which there is an unethical activity? The person uncovers a treasure, and then he hides it without telling the man who owns the field, and he goes to buy the field. What he should have done in discovering the treasure was pick it up and take it and say, ‘Here is a treasure I found in your field.’ Some people have been struck by what appears to be unethical.

Although that isn’t the main point. 1. Rabbinical law. Jewish Rabbinic law said, “If a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder.” If you find lost fruit or money, it belongs to the finder. So, the man is within the permission of the Jewish Rabbinic law.

The Jews listening to Jesus would not have perceived this man as unethical. 2. Treasure doesn’t belong to the owner.

The treasure which was hidden in the field did not belong to the man who owned the field. If it was his, he wouldn’t be selling his field without digging it up. He didn’t know it was there. He had not gone to the effort to uncover it and dig it out.

No doubt it belonged to a previous owner of that same field who had buried it there, died in battle, or died by accident, unable to recover it. So, it was no more the number one’s owner than it was the number two’s owner. He had no prior right to it.

3. The finder was fair. If this man was not an honest man when he found the treasure what would he have done? He would have packed up his treasure and been long gone and put it in his own field. Why go to all the trouble of buying the entire field when you have got the treasure in your hand?

Maybe his conscience bothered him?

He could take the treasure and go liquidate a portion of it, and with the money you gained from the treasure then buy the field. He didn’t do that. He took that treasure that he had found. He knew it belonged to him by Jewish law.

He knew he had more or at least equal right to it with the man who owned the land. He put it right back in the ground, never even used any of it for the purchase, liquidated every single thing he had on the face of the earth in his possession and went and bought the entire field just so that he could do what was right to get that treasure.

No lack of ethics here. No one was defrauded. The point of the parable is here is a man who found something so valuable that he sold everything that he had to get it. He was so overjoyed. He was so ecstatic that he was willing to do anything to get that treasure.

The parable of the Pearl.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Merchant” Greek word ‘Emporos’ meaning a wholesale merchant. A wholesale man who would go around and buy things on a wholesale basis and then sell them to somebody who would retail them. So, this wholesaler’s searching around, seeking fine pearls.

This is very common in those days for a man to do who was a sort of entrepreneur. He would be in the pearl wholesaling business, and he would find that there would be a diligent search on his part to gain the pearls that he was desiring to gain.

Many people, in diversifying their investments, put their investments in pearls. Pearls would be the equivalent of diamonds today. Pearls were the most valuable gem available at that time in the world. If you had pearls, then you had a fortune.

It was incredible the extent to which people went in those days in pearl hunting. In the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean there were pearls to be found there but they

fetch great price and many people died gaining them. They were unable to use any modern equipment’s for the pearl diving. Basically, what they did was tie rocks to their body and then jump off the side of the little boat and go to the bottom amidst all the monsters of the deep. They would scour the bottom in the mud trying to come up with those oysters, holding one long deep-drawn breath, and fearing lest they go too deep and burst and die. They would come up with these treasures.

Once they discover a pearl that was of perfection and beauty would be worth literally an unnamed price, and incredibly valuable. Talmud says, “Pearls are beyond price.” So valuable were they that the Egyptians worshiped the pearl, and this came over into Roman life.

So valuable were they that when women wanted to show their wealth.

1 Timothy 2:9, in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,

The wife of the Roman emperor Caligula, she had $36 million worth of pearls all over her. The historian says she had pearls on her head, hair, ears, neck, and fingers. This is how pearls were perceived in those days. Pliny, the historian says that Cleopatra had two pearls, each worth a 500,000 when money was 20 times greater in its buying power than it is today.

When the Roman emperors wanted to demonstrate their incredible wealth and show how filthy rich, they were, they dissolved pearls in vinegar and drank them in their wine. So, pearls were very valuable.

Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. Jesus was trying to compare the worst with the most priceless.

The pearls were really perceived like we perceive diamonds today, very valuable. the merchant found “one pearl”. In the original language, the word “one” is placed in an emphatic way. It is a remarkable pearl. It is “the one.”

This merchant who went around seeking fine pearls. He would market them because they were good investment.

Either you could put some of your money in the ground, or in pearls. Both cases that’s exactly what these two did. The first man sold everything and bought the one field. The second man sold everything and bought the one pearl.

Principle of the Parables. 1. Kingdom is priceless. The kingdom is priceless in value. Both parables are designed to teach us the incomparable value of the kingdom of the Lord. When we talk about the kingdom of the Lord about salvation.

Christ and the gift of salvation that He gives. The knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

• The preciousness of what it is to be in His kingdom.
• The preciousness of fellowshipping with the King.
• The preciousness of being a subject of the sovereign.

The blessedness of the kingdom is so valuable that it is the most valuable commodity that can ever be found, and only a fool is not willing to sell everything he must gain it. Nothing comes close in value. In Christ and in His kingdom, there is a treasure.

• The treasure is rich beyond comparison.
• There is a treasure that is rich beyond conception.
• There is a treasure that is incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, eternal.

There is a heavenly treasure lying in the field of this poverty- stricken, bankrupt, accursed world, a treasure sufficient to eternally enrich everyone of earth’s poor, miserable, blind, and naked inhabitants. Salvation, forgiveness, love, joy, peace, virtue, goodness, glory, heaven, and eternal life, all are in that treasure.

The treasure is that salvation and the pearl is that salvation that is equivalent to being in the kingdom. Of all the excellent pearls in the world, of all the things that might be in a field, salvation outstrips all of them in its eternal value.

2. Kingdom is invisible. The kingdom is not superficially visible.

• The treasure was hidden.
• The pearl had to be sought.

It isn’t just lying around on the surface. The treasure is not obvious to men. The value and the preciousness of the kingdom of heaven, the value and the preciousness of salvation is not viewed by men, they don’t see it although it stands there and looks them in the eye.

The world looks at us and they don’t understand why we are 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 grain of our deepest lusts and drives.
• They don’t understand why we price this so highly when it means so little to them.

No, the kingdom is not superficially visible.

1 Corinthians 2:14, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

2 Corinthians 4:4, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Even though the message is here, and the Word is here, they don’t see it. They are blind. It is not superficially manifest. In both cases, one, there is a seeking.

There was a discovery and a pursuit of that which was discovered. Some people never bother to look beyond the surface. They are so busy fiddling around everything. We have given the description of the treasure and the pearl to people who have turned their backs and walked away.

• They do not care.
• They do not want that.
• They do not understand its inestimable value.
• It is not superficially perceived.

Matthew 7:14, Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 11:12, And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter in at the narrow gate for many I say will seek to enter in and shall not be able.” Even the pearl gives this same idea.

The pearl, while it is not hidden in the sense that the man doesn’t have to dig it out of someplace, it still, originally, had to be gained at the most incredible kind of circumstance, where the person dives into the sea, digs it out of the bottom, opens the shell, finds it there. And now the man pursues it all over the world till he finds it.

We see the hiddenness of the message. The world doesn’t see it.

John 5:39-40, You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

John 1:10-11, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

There must be that desire at some point to respond. The man who found the treasure, he had to pursue what it was that he originally found. 3. Kingdom appropriated/entered personally. The kingdom is personally appropriated, and this is the crux of the parables.

The second 2 parables teach us that the kingdom is just influential. It doesn’t say anything about the personal appropriation. We have a man in verse 44. We have another man in verse 45.

• The man who works in the field is poor.
• The merchant who seeks pearl is rich.

Here we are dealing with individuals. Each of them finds something specifically for himself and appropriates it unto himself. Very important.

This is to show us that you can be sort of in the kingdom, under the dominion of God and not be a member of the kingdom. If you are alive in the earth, if you live in the universe, you are under God’s rule. Because God is the sovereign of the universe.

But you are not a subject of the King. You are not a personal member of the kingdom. Lot of people in the church who aren’t Christians. The wide world is under the rule of Jesus Christ, but not a part of His true kingdom.

Matthew 8:11-12, And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There are some Jews who, although they are Jewish and under the covenant of God with Israel, are going to forfeit all that that means because they have never personally come to know God.

Romans 2:28-29, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the

heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Romans 9:6, “All Israel is not Israel.”

They could be a Jew, under that monarchy, or theocracy, and never be a true member of the kingdom. There are people in the earth who are here but have never appropriated the kingdom. Personally, one must decide to come into the kingdom.

• It is not enough to be under the influence of the kingdom.
• It is not enough to just be under the influence of the church, or the influence of Christianity.
• It is not enough to just lodge in the branches or be touched by its permeating influence.

There must be personal appropriation. At some point in time, in order to do that, men and women must come to the point where they realize the value of it. People spend their time looking for what is not valuable. It was pearls in those days, but today its diamonds.

In our world diamonds are the epitome of value.

How Consolidated Diamond Mines finds diamonds? One of the most and difficult process to get diamonds. I had the privilege of visiting the Cullinan mining in South Africa near Johannesburg.

Job 28:1-4, “Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place where gold is refined. 2 Iron is taken from the earth, And copper is smelted from ore. 3 Man puts an end to darkness, And searches every recess For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. 4 He breaks open a shaft away from people; In places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; They swing to and fro.

Job 28:12-18 “But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? 13 Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living. 14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ 15 It cannot be purchased for gold, Nor can silver be weighed for its price. 16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire. 17 Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for jewellery of fine gold. 18 No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies. 19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold.

Job 28:28 And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’

When you have a diamond, you have a diamond nothing more than that. It can’t do anything for you.

• Can’t make you feel better.
• Can’t give you peace.
• Can’t solve your problems.

You just have a diamond. Duplicate diamonds are available for a throw away price. No one could tell the difference. That even makes diamonds worth less. They are not worth anything. Incredible the extremes they go to find what is worthless in the end.

4. Kingdom is the source of joy. V 44, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. it was for the joy that made the man sold everything to buy it.

It doesn’t have to say that in there. But it does and it’s very important. The basic desire of all human beings on the face of the earth is to be happy. That’s it. The world is seeking for happiness, for joy. People want to feel good. The Lord knows that. Joy.

John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 16:24, Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

1 John 1:4, And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

Romans 14:17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. People want to be joyful and be happy. True joy comes in the discovery of the kingdom of heaven and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the joy of it, this man sold everything he had to take that treasure for his own. For joy’s sake. Nothing wrong with that. The Lord wants us to rejoice. Philippian 4:4, “Rejoice always and again I say, Rejoice.” We should be the most rejoicing of all people, for we have found the treasure.

5. Kingdom entered differently. The kingdom may be entered from different circumstances. There are some similarities.

• Both cases you have a man,
• Both cases they find something of great value,
• Both cases they understand its value, and
• Both cases they are willing to pay any price for it.

So, they are very similar! But there is one big difference.

• In the first one, the man just comes across the treasure.

• In the second one, the man knows exactly what he was looking for.

Treasure hunter didn’t know what he was looking for. Merchant was seeking the pearl. The man in the field, most likely, was not looking for treasure. He was going through whatever routine he went through, working, or ploughing a field, or building something, or preparing some of the soil for whatever.

He was in the field, and he was going along seeking sustenance for his life, doing what he did, and he stumbled across a fortune. There are people who enter the kingdom like that! The Apostle Paul thought he was in the Kingdom. He was on his way to Damascus to kill Christians. The next thing he knew, he landed in the dirt, and he was redeemed. He was just doing his thing.

He was just ploughing his field and he stumbled into a fortune.

What about the Samaritan woman? She was thirsty. She came down to a well to get a drink of water, went home redeemed.

What about the Blind man? All he really wanted out of life was to be able to see and he went away redeemed also. There are some people who come to church to mock the preacher. There they get saved. There are people who aren’t particularly seeking that, but they stumble into the treasure.

Charles H Spurgeon, when he was young, sort of resolutely attended church because it was the thing to do. But he didn’t know Christ, and he wasn’t seeking Christ. He was content with his religiosity. He was only 15 years old one morning, when he decided to attend a New Year’s morning. There was a blizzard of snow that he was not able to reach the church he was in the habit of attending.

“When I could go no farther, I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist church. The preacher who was to have conducted the service never got there because he was held up by the weather. Quickly one of the officers had to be brought forward to conduct the service with a congregation of perhaps 15 people. The man was stupid. His text was, Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. And he

just kept repeating it because he didn’t have anything else to say.” Spurgeon caught the preacher’s eye. “Young man, you look very miserable. Miserable in life and miserable in death, you will be if you don’t obey my text.” And suddenly he literally shouted, “Young man, look to Jesus, look, look, look.”

Spurgeon, “I looked. And then and there the cloud was gone, and the darkness rolled away and that moment I saw the Son.” He wasn’t searching for anything, but it got him anyway. He stumbled into a fortune. Few people who have ever lived have affected so many souls as Charles H Spurgeon.

We don’t know who that stupid guy was that just kept repeating the text, but it was of God. The merchant who looked for the pearls. He knew what he was looking for. He wasn’t content with the secular or the mildly religious. He was really seeking something of genuine value.

He is the true seeker. Like the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8. Like the Cornelius of Acts 10.

Likes the Lydia of Acts 16. Likes the Philippian jailer of Acts 16. Like the Berean of Acts 17. This is the one who is seeking God and seeking virtue and seeking that which is of true value. But what he doesn’t understand in his seeking of religion, which always comes through the works of men, is that all of it is wrapped up in just one pearl, just one.

He was looking for pearls, but he was looking for things that one which was valuable. Everything he needed was in one. There are people who come into the kingdom, almost by accident, only not from God’s side.

• There are people who search.
• There are people who stumble into it.

There are combinations of both. The kingdom can be entered from different circumstances.

Conclusion

Kingdom transaction.

In both cases, the word buying or bought is involved. Now some people just really get nervous here and they say, “You are not telling us you buy your salvation.”

Matthew 19:24, And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Bible says you can’t buy your salvation with money. Bible tells us that salvation is God’s free gift.

Romans 3:24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

But it is bought, nonetheless. Old Testament passage always relate to salvation by grace.

Isaiah 55:1, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.

Yes, without price, and you don’t need any money. But they forget that it says come and buy, come and buy. Come and buy. You buy it. You just don’t buy it with money. There is a purchase transaction in salvation.

What is it? It isn’t money. It isn’t human works. You give up all you have for all He has. I give up all I have, and God gives me all He has.

Luke 9:57-62, Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

You don’t get saved by money and you don’t get saved by all these other elements. Are you willing to make the transaction of salvation? Is there anything stands between willingness to give up self to receive Christ?

Matthew 10:37-39, He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. If you are not willing to give up your family, then you are not going to enter the kingdom. You give up all you are, and you receive all He is.

Matthew 16:24-25, Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Salvation is an act where I exchange me for Him as ruler of my life. A rich young ruler came to Jesus in Matthew 19. He said, “What do I have to do to get into Your kingdom? What do I have to do to have eternal life?” Jesus said. “If you want to be in My kingdom, then go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven.”

You want My treasure, just like the treasure in the field, then give away all of yours. Do you get saved by giving your money to the poor? No. You come to Christ, and you are saved when you are willing to abandon everything to affirm that He is the Lord of your life.

That’s the transaction. We exchange ourselves, our sin, our will, our control of our lives for Christ’s leadership. True salvation is marked by a willingness to do that as that understanding unfolds. I exchange all my own will and my own strength and my own resources, I strip myself bare and I receive Your strength and Your power. That’s the transaction.

The willingness to abandon everything, everything under Christ’s lordship. Paul’s testimony in Philippians. Luke 14, “A man builds a tower. If he does, he counts the cost, whether he is sufficient to finish it. If a king makes war, he counts the cost, consults whether he’s able with ten thousand to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand.”

Nobody goes in blind. You count the cost. There is cost, but it’s worth the cost. The pearl is so valuable, and the treasure is so valuable that it’s worth any cost. If you are willing to die you can be born again as a Christian.

Think of Christ. He took His life and threw it for a world redeemed.