Well, good morning. I thought today I would provide a— what I suppose is a sermon or a Bible study through a text that has been on my mind over the past few weeks, and that is found in Matthew 13:44-46. After speaking with Dove, who was scheduled to preach this Sunday on the beatitude, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, We determined that we should just push that back a week, and perhaps that I could pull something together this morning to provide those of you who are interested in what I hope is a relatively brief message. And again, the text that came to mind as I thought about what I might share was this passage in Matthew chapter 13.
Now the text that we're most concerned with this morning is found in verses 44 through 46. Let me read that to you. 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. 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.
Now, in order to understand what's happening in this parable or these parables, we have to grasp that Jesus is offering these parables as an explanation for something he shared earlier. Really, everything happening in chapter 13 flows out of the parable he shared in verses 1 through 9, which is, I think, probably one of his most famous parables, that being the parable of the sower and the different kinds of soil. So let me read that to you first of all, and this is in Matthew 13, verse 1. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying, 'A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up. Since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some 100, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear.
Now Just to maybe help you understand the physicality of the environment in which Matthew 13 is taking place, Jesus appears to be doing something that was probably somewhat common in the day at two levels. First of all, taking advantage of the acoustics of water, and he is on a boat speaking across the water to the people standing on the beach. I have a feeling that that was something that was known and something that was done elsewhere. Maybe it was an innovation of Jesus, but not sure. But I think the most important thing as it relates to the physical circumstances of this chapter is just to remember that the disciples are with him in the boat, and he essentially goes into teaching publicly and then turns and explains things privately to the disciples who are with him. That seems to definitely be a classical approach, and it's specifically in the rabbinical tradition where the teacher would say things publicly and then turn to his immediate disciples and explain in more detail.
The closest association I can think of for us in this particular world is to think of the disciple-making process in Jesus's time following the rabbinical tradition was something like a teaching hospital. Where you would perhaps— and maybe you've been in an unfortunate situation where you've been in a hospital bed and the, the lead doctor comes in but he's got, you know, a, a clan of residents with him. And so the doctor's doing two things: he's treating you and he's also teaching these residents how to treat you or to treat people like you. And one of the things that might be helpful just to think about real quickly, just as an aside, is that The church really kind of has to, in its leadership development, do those— follow that model. Essentially, we have to have a model where we're teaching people how to teach, and we're pastoring people how to pastor, and so on and so forth. And so that should help you, I think, perhaps understand the context a bit of what's happening in this chapter. Jesus is speaking to a crowd, but he's also speaking, uh, in certain sections in this chapter to his disciples that are closer to him physically.
Okay, so what we see in— like I said before, what we see in this chapter is that Jesus is really explaining key ideas contained in this first parable that he shares in verses 1 through 9. And in verses 10 through 17, immediately following this parable, he explains why he speaks in parables. And then in verses 18 through 23, he explains the parable of the sower to the disciples.
6 · The pastor transitions to the second half of Matthew 13, identifying it as Jesus's further explanation of three major ideas from the parable of the sower
Now, in verses 24 through 50, so basically the rest of the chapter, he goes on to explain what I suppose are the three most controversial, but certainly the three most meaningful ideas contained in this parable.
7 · The pastor identifies the first major idea from the parable of the sower: the seed-like nature of the kingdom
The first idea contained in this parable of the sower is just the seed-like nature of the kingdom. That's a central idea here. And he goes on to explain that idea in verses 31 through 33, where he talks about small things— mustard seeds, even invisible things, leaven— expanding and unfolding into big things. So that's one idea that Jesus explains further that's contained in the parable of the sowers.
8 · The pastor identifies the second major idea from the parable of the sower: the reality of false conversion
And then he goes on also to deal with the reality of false conversion. That's a big idea in the parable of the sower. The problem of false conversion, I suppose you might say. The seed falls on all sorts of ground. Some of it never does anything because the birds of the air, which Jesus later explains as Satan, immediately snatches up those seeds. But other seeds appear to be on their way to expanding into full-blown life, but then fail for one reason or another. And the truth is, is that This is one of the most troubling and difficult phenomenon experienced in church life. Jesus devotes a lot of his teaching in this particular chapter to the existence of this phenomenon, the phenomenon of false conversion.
9 · The pastor explains that Jesus uses additional parables (parables within parables) to explain false conversion
To explain it, he actually tells more parables. That's one of the tricky things about this chapter, is that Jesus tells a parable, explains the parable, first in just kind of overt explanation, but then he actually goes and tells additional parables to explain the first parable. So we're like Russian nesting dolls of parables here. Now, as he's trying to explain to the disciples the reality of false conversion, he doesn't offer that much explanation as to the cause, at least at one level. One thing he just wants them to see is that people will fall away. And this is going to be something that is ministry, of course, but it's also something that we see within the visible church itself. And so one of the things he's concerned to do is to just help the disciples understand that there is such a thing as false conversion. One of the parables he uses to explain This idea is the parable of the weeds, and that's found in verses 24 through 30. I'll read that to you. He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let us grow together, let I will let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
10 · The pastor reads the parable of the nets (verses 47-50), which reinforces the teaching on false conversion: both regenerate and unregenerate people will be gathered together until final separation at judgment
Well, we could talk a lot about that, but we really want to try to stay focused here on our little parables of buying the land and the pearl. So he explains it essentially with another parable as well, this false conversion issue. In verses 47 through 50, he uses another parable called the parable of the nets. And he— in there he says this: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
11 · The pastor signals that he will not develop the idea of false conversion extensively, noting that Jesus himself provides limited explanation
Again, we're not going to go too far into this idea. Jesus himself doesn't offer much explanation.
12 · The pastor offers a theological explanation for why false conversion exists: because exemplary moral behavior is a primary strategy of kingdom advancement, false conversion—people wearing the name Christian without acting like Christians—is a counter-strategy of the enemy that undermines gospel witness
Maybe one of the things we could say— try to do this quickly— is that a primary strategy of gospel proclamation No, no, a primary strategy of the kingdom advancement is the exemplary moral behavior of the disciples. This is something we see throughout the New Testament, and this is actually something we see in the section following the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount— this idea of let your good deeds shine before men so that they may glorify God at his appearing. So one of the fundamental strategies of the advancement of the kingdom is the exemplary moral behavior of the disciples. And so you can see why false conversion would be a strategy of the enemy, because if, if we can get— as, as the enemy of God, if I can get people to wear the name Christian who don't act like Christians, then that whole strategy of commending and adorning the gospel with the lives of of the believers, like that, that whole strategy is to some extent harmed.
13 · The pastor asserts that Jesus permits false conversion to exist and that the gathering of both regenerate and unregenerate people is a sign that gospel proclamation is occurring as God intends—not a good thing in itself, but evidence that the sowers and fishermen are doing their work
Jesus allows this. I don't think that we can get into why that is now, but he essentially allows the enemy the freedom to do that. And what Jesus is essentially doing with all of these parables— the parable of the sower, one of the things he's doing there, the parable of the weeds The parable of the nets is simply just to explain that this is just a part of the Christian experience. This is simply the consequence, or a consequence, of the gospel going forth. Both regenerate and unregenerate people will be gathered together. And no, this isn't necessarily a good thing, at least initially, but it is in some respects a sign that things are going according to plan. Because what it means is that sowers are going forth, and what it means is that fishermen are casting their nets, and so on and so forth.
14 · The pastor uses the analogy of a factory with a fixed error rate to illustrate that increased gospel productivity necessarily produces increased false conversion in absolute numbers—the more productive the ministry, the larger the number of false conversions
So you could say that an unfortunate byproduct of productivity is errors, right? So let's say that there's an error rate of a factory of 1%. The factory is making cogs, and 1% of their cogs, for all sorts of reasons that seem to be relatively unfixable, 1% of their cogs are going to be defective. Well, how productive is the factory? The more productive the factory, the bigger the number of bad cogs it produces. Even though it would still be at 1%— don't ask me to do math on the fly here, but you can see what I mean— if a factory only produces 1,000 cogs a day, then 1% is not that big of a deal. But if a factory gets super productive and it produces 1 million cogs a day, Well, then that 1% number increases dramatically.
15 · The pastor draws a broad theological principle from the pattern of Cain and Abel, Christ and Antichrist: it has always been God's will to allow the false to exist alongside the true
And here we have to be wise and understand that when we're looking and assessing the productivity of a ministry, the effectiveness of the church itself, and so on and so forth, we just have to bear this in mind that false conversion is actually just a part of gospel proclamation. Now, this is something we could go far deeper into, maybe in a different conversation. But it has always seemed to be God's will to have a Cain along with an Abel, and it's always seemed to be God's will to allow an Antichrist to exist alongside of Christ, and so on and so forth. And so this just seems to be one of the choices God has made. And again, there are probably really good theological reasons we could talk about with that, but here Jesus is just saying, yeah, that's a thing. False conversion is a thing. Not every single seed that emerges winds up being legitimate.
16 · The pastor transitions to the third major idea from the parable of the sower
Okay, the third idea is somewhat related.
17 · The pastor identifies the third major idea from the parable of the sower: how individuals can avoid being seeds that fail
So we could say that generally, you know, like kind of a macro perspective, we just have to acknowledge that this phenomenon of false conversion is a thing. There's not a lot we can do about the phenomenon itself. But we certainly see in the way that he explains it that as individuals we can look to our our own salvation. We can look to our own situation and, as Paul says, examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith. And that's sort of the third thing Jesus is doing. He's explaining, I suppose you might say, how to avoid being one of these seeds that fails. Now remember, in his explanation of the parable in verses 20 through 22, Jesus says this: As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. That idea right there seems to be what Jesus is elaborating on with our little section in verses 44 through 46.
18 · The pastor re-reads the primary text (verses 44-46) to bring the congregation's attention back to the parables of the treasure and pearl now that the interpretive framework has been established
So again, we started this by looking at verses 44 through 46. Let me read that to you. 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. 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.
19 · The pastor asserts that the parables teach the necessity of total commitment to the kingdom—hedging your bets on salvation results in condemnation
So the idea here seems to be to encourage those who hear the word to go all in. The idea seems to be that the kingdom of God is not the kind of thing you can hedge, hedge your bets on. When it, when it comes— another way of saying this, like, when it comes to salvation and eternity, all those with diversified portfolios will be cast into outer darkness.
20 · The pastor contrasts cultural training in diversification and risk management with the biblical teaching of all-in commitment
Now, this is an important idea for us in our culture in this time, because we've been trained in our culture to hedge our bets and to diversify our portfolios. And to distribute risk across access or across assets. But what we see in Matthew 13 is that that approach is the very approach that produces the phenomenon of false conversion. The treasure which the man finds hidden in a field, he can only buy that treasure, the text says, if he sells all he has. The pearl of great price It's so expensive, the merchant can only buy that pearl if he sells all he has. And so the principle is something like this: the only safe approach to the Christian life is the one that risks everything on Christ. The only safe approach to the Christian life is the approach that risks everything on Jesus.
21 · The pastor asserts that the main purpose of the New Testament epistles is to keep new converts from returning to their former slavery—that going all-in is so difficult that the apostolic letters exist primarily to prevent backsliding
Now If that were easy, everybody would be doing it. No, if that were easy, we would not have, um, we would not really have any of the New Testament epistles. It seems to me that the main purpose of the New Testament epistles— there are multiple secondary purposes, but almost for every single New Testament book besides the Gospels and Acts, and perhaps is to keep new converts from doing what the Israelites often long to do in the desert, namely to return to the yoke of their slavery.
22 · The pastor names specific epistles (Galatians, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Corinthians) where this purpose is obvious and asserts that the tendency to hedge commitment is the main pastoral problem in the Christian life
That might be the basic reason all of these New Testament epistles exist. Some of them are obvious. That's obviously why Galatians exists. That's obviously why Hebrews exists. That's obviously why 1 and 2 Corinthians exist to a large extent. But the truth is, is that this is the main pastoral problem. And the fact that it's the main pastoral problem tells us that this is an issue in the Christian life— this, this tendency to want to go back, this tendency to want to diversify our risk across various salvific assets.
23 · The pastor offers a biblical-theological reading of Acts through 3 John as the ongoing pastoral work of keeping new converts from becoming the seeds that fail—the apostles are writing to prevent the very phenomenon Jesus describes in the parable of the sower
In some sense, you could take everything in the New Testament from Acts all the way to 3 John, so almost all of it and you could tell it in the terms of the sower parable. So you've got the apostles, the sowers, they go out, they scatter seeds. Many of those seeds are plucked off the ground almost immediately by the devil, and we never hear any more about those people. But then there are other seeds that seem to come to life. And yet what seemed to be immediate, almost seemed to be obvious almost immediately to like Paul and Peter and James and Jude and John and the writer of Hebrews, whoever that was, What seems to be obvious to them is that some of the seeds that come to life might be the kind that Jesus described in the original parable of the sower, the kind who initially look like they're going to take root but fail to do so because they were being choked out by the cares of this world, by persecution, and so on. So essentially what you've got with most of the New Testament is sort of this ongoing pastoral work, and that is to encourage those in the faith to be in the faith wholeheartedly.
24 · The pastor restates the thesis: all-in Christianity appears risky but is actually the only safe approach for the soul, and this is the main point of the parables of the treasure and pearl
The idea again is something like all-in Christianity, all-in Christianity, which it appears very risky to the, to the family perhaps. But all-in Christianity is the only safe way for the soul. And that seems to be what Jesus is mainly talking about in our little section with the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price.
25 · The pastor introduces the Facebook 'mark yourself safe' feature as a cultural reference to set up a question about spiritual safety
I don't know how many years ago it was, but, you know, Facebook introduced a feature where you could mark yourself safe. And so after the storms we just had, for instance, I suppose some folks marked themselves safe. And the purpose of that is to signal to family that don't live in the area and friends that don't live in the area, hey, I'm okay. Yeah, there was just a tornado that came through, or yes, there was just a terrorist attack, or yes, this or that thing happened, but I'm safe, I'm okay, and I'm letting you know I'm marking myself safe.
26 · The pastor applies the 'mark yourself safe' illustration to the theological question: how do we know we are safe from false conversion—from being choked out by tribulation, persecution, or the cares of this world?
So the question is, with this phenomenon of false conversion that is introduced emphatically in Matthew 13. How do we mark ourselves safe? How do we know that we're safe? How do we know that we're safe from being choked to death by tribulation or persecution or the cares of this world?
27 · The pastor identifies the two most important words in the parables of the treasure and pearl: 'all' and 'joy
And our little text shows us that, and it basically is something like a joyful all-in attitude. Within our little section in scripture, you could say that the most important word that appears in that section. They sell all they have, no hedging, all in. And there's actually no other way to get what they want except to go all in, which of course is— involves a massive amount of risk. So I suppose that the most important word in that little section— but the second word that seems to be very important is the word joy. Verse 44, I think it says Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has.
28 · The pastor emphasizes that the people in the parables felt no reluctance or anxiety—they were eager to complete the transaction
Here's the— here's, here's a really important thing to think about. The people in these parables thought they were getting away with something. This wasn't a trembling, fraught with anxiousness kind of exchange. These people couldn't do the transactions fast enough. There's a phrase that's emerged over the past few years: take my money. Take my money, meaning I am eager to make this particular transaction. And that's what we see happening in this little section. Not only are they giving everything to get this thing that they desire, the field or the pearl, but they are giving everything with joy. They're giving everything with joy.
29 · The pastor applies the principle personally: joy in giving, loving, trading sin for holiness, and prayer is the greatest subjective evidence that one is truly safe in Christ
This is exactly why I have learned over time that that humanly speaking, insofar as my own subjective human experience is reliable, which it isn't always, joy is the greatest evidence that I am safe. Joy is the greatest evidence that I— when I am experiencing joy in giving and joy in loving and joy in trading the flesh for the spirit, not reluctantly giving up sin, but joyfully trading sin for holiness. When I'm experiencing joy in prayer, I am safe. I know I'm safe. I can tell I'm safe. But when that is lacking, I need to find out because I'm not so obviously, and so far as I can see, safe. If we went back through Jesus's explanation of the sower parable, we would see that there are lots of people who don't endure who receive the word with joy initially. But we would also see, as we dove deeper into Jesus's explanations, that in addition to receiving the word with joy, day by day we should seek to keep the word with joy as well. That joy is, again, insofar as human experience is reliable— and it isn't always reliable— but that joy is the best signal that I am seeing things clearly, because the truth is I am getting away with the deal of a lifetime. The Christian life is the deal of a lifetime. As Jim Elliott says, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
30 · The pastor inverts Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 15: if there is a resurrection, Christians are to be most envied, not pitied
You know, in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says, you know, if there's no resurrection of the dead, we are to be amongst all people most pitied. But here's the truth: if there is a resurrection of the dead, we are to be amongst all people most envied. We are getting away with the deal of a lifetime. We should be joyfully giving all that we have to get what Jesus offers us. And you know, that's something that is true in significant ways because of the resurrection of the dead, because my life will continue forever in Christ where he will lavish his goodness upon me for all of eternity. There's an eschatological element to this, but it isn't only future-looking.
31 · The pastor cites Jesus's promise in Mark 10:29-31 that those who give up everything for the gospel will receive 100 times as much in this lifetime
Jesus promises in Mark 10:29-31, listen to my words, Jesus said. Anyone who leaves his home behind and chooses me over children, parents, family, and possessions for the sake of the gospel, it will come back to him 100 times as much in this lifetime—homes, family, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, possessions—along with persecutions. I'm not going to go back and read the version of that that is the better version. I just realized I put, I put a not great version in, but the promise is absolutely rock solid, not only for the life to come but in this lifetime as well. I am getting away with the deal of a lifetime.
32 · The pastor quotes the hymn 'I Am Resolved' as an illustration of joyful all-in commitment—renouncing the world's delights to hasten gladly to Jesus, recognizing that all one has is a cheap price for such a glorious reward
There's an old hymn we used to sing in the Baptist church, had kind of a marchy tune, and it was often requested on hymn nights, and the hymn's called I Am Resolved. I am resolved no longer to linger charmed by the world's delights. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I will hasten to him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to thee. I will come to thee with joy giving all I have to be a part of your kingdom, because all I have is a cheap, cheap price to pay for such a glorious reward.
33 · The pastor quotes the ancient hymn 'Be Thou My Vision' in full as an illustration of all-in commitment to Christ—renouncing riches and earthly praise to make Jesus the sole treasure and vision of the heart
And then of course another hymn, one that we sing fairly often, one of the oldest in Christendom: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art. Be thou my best thought in the day and the night, both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light. Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word, be thou with me, be thou ever with me, and I with thee, Lord. Be thou my great father, and I thy true son. Be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one. Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight. Be thou my whole armor, and thou my true might. Be thou my shelter, be thou my strong tower. Oh, raise thou me heavenward, great power of my power. Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. Be thou mine inheritance, now and always. Be thou and thou only the first in my heart. Oh, High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art. High King of Heaven, thou heaven's bright sun, oh, grant me its joys after victory is won. Great heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be thou my vision, oh ruler.
34 · The pastor shares a personal story about meeting his future wife Angela in college, describing the joy and confidence he felt at getting away with the deal of a lifetime even when she was still ambivalent
Oh, humanly speaking, let me ask you, what What was the best deal you ever got on something? When did you feel like you were getting away with something? When did you feel most like, take my money, that the vibe there? For me, it happened when I was 18 years old and I found this girl named Angela early on in my college experience, and I couldn't believe that she was going to be mine. Now, I knew for quite some time that she was going to be mine before she knew it. So that whole experience of joy was a bit awkward and stifled. I had all this joy and confidence, but she was a bit ambivalent. So I, you know, I had to act like I wasn't as confident as my friends.
35 · The pastor draws the theological point from the personal illustration: unlike his ambivalent future wife, Jesus has known before the foundation of the world that you are his, so rejoice without reservation
One of the beautiful things about this exchange that is offered where we give all we have and gain Jesus is— Jesus is yours, and he has known that before the foundation of the world. So rejoice. Again I say, rejoice. No price is too high, no ask is too big. All I have for all he is, that's a no-brainer. That's a deal of a lifetime. So rejoice. The word all, it's not so big, not in exchange for all he is. Rejoice. Again I say,