The Kingdom of God is Like...A Treasure Chest

Today we are continuing our series called The Kingdom of God is Like. It’s a series all about parables. Parables are short earthly stories that teaching about the eternal kingdom of God. Last week, so far, we have heard that the kingdom of God is like a sower, a growing seed, a mustard seed, a homeless fox, an abandoned burial plot and a plow.

Today’s parable is well timed, because it fits in perfectly with a certain holiday.

I don’t know about you, but this past Wednesday, there seemed to be an extreme increase in the number of pirates that live in Raleigh.

Over at the new school, we have a security system with a key fob and you’d think it would lock out pirates, but these pirates were tricky and made their way into the school -- little 3-foot-tall pirates. With eye patches and stuffed parrots.

Pirates love treasure: gold necklaces, silver artifacts, coins, jewelry, bottles of rum. They loved treasure so much that they’d run ashore near a local port, approach someone’s front step and force them to give them treasure.

Not at all unlike what some little 3-foot-tall pirates did around my house on Wednesday!
 
And then, pirates take the treasure, sail to some deserted isle and bury it.
Deep under the ground.
With a few pieces of wood lain across the top:
“X” marks the spot.

Jesus’ parable today says this: “The kingdom of God is like a hidden treasure.” Before we look at it, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. A Hidden Treasure

Jesus’ parable is from Matthew 13. Take a look: The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. (v.44) In his parable, the treasure is found by a man at work in a field.
 
It’s the middle of the hot day.
He’s sweating.
He’s using a fence post digger to dig a hole for the fence post he’s installing around the back of his owner’s property.

He’s slams and digs.
He slams and digs.
He slams and digs.

All day long.

Until…
Sometime around quitting time….
 
He slams and…
CLANK!

That’s strange.

He slams and…
CLANK!

At first, he thinks it’s a rock. He looks around to see if he can adjust the post hole so he doesn’t have to go through the trouble of moving the rock. But right as he’s about to adjust the hole to the right and he’s thinking of his company’s slogan: “THE RIGHT HOLE IN THE RIGHT SPOT ALL THE TIME,” the glint of the evening sun shines off of something in the middle of the ground.

What is it?
He reaches down.
He brushes the dirt off the top to reveal – a metal crest on the top of an ancient chest.

His heart starts pounding.

He digs.
To the front.
To the back.
To the side.

Until he gets enough of the dirt out of the way to pull the chest out of the hole and look inside.

TREASURE:
Gold.
Silver.
Diamonds.
Jewels.
It must be worth millions of dollars.
 
The man looks around.

The thing is – this isn’t his land. It isn’t his property. And the chest isn’t his property.
If he lets anyone know that he found it on this land, then the treasure will no longer be his. It’ll belong to the guy who’s fence he’s digging.

So…
He puts the chest back into the hole.
He covers it with dirt.
He takes two twigs and aligns them in an “x”.

He heads up to his employer, wishes him a good evening and leaves for the day.

But his work isn’t done.

Later that night, he gets onto his bank account and empties his 401k into his checking account.
He goes on Facebook marketplace and begins placing anything he owns on sale:
His car.
His motorcycle.
His bass fishing boat. 
His Mickey Mantle Rookie Card.
Even his Xbox!

The next morning, he heads to the bank and he puts his house on mortgage!
He takes all of this money.
He heads to work.
He slams a check worth 3 times the amount of the property onto his client’s desk:

I’ll buy this property.
I just think it’s nice.
I figure if I put fence post holes into it; it might as well be mine.

At 3 times the price, his client can’t say no.

The man buys the property.
The property is his.
Everything on the property is his.

But he doesn’t care about most of it.
He only wants THE TREASURE.

II. A Priceless Treasure

Jesus says this: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.” (v.44)
 
Because here is the truth:
God’s kingdom is eternally priceless.

There is nothing as valuable.
… nothing as precious.
…nothing as eternally priceless as the kingdom of God.

It lasts forever.
Brings enduring peace.
And connects you to your heavenly father.
 
If you’ve ever searched for kingdom of God, then, you understand the digging for treasure scenario.
 
Because the religious landscape can be a lot like the Sahara Desert.
Places to dig everywhere. Where is the treasure…?

And so you start digging near a very peaceful looking pile of dirt.
A lotus flower is growing nearby.

“Oh! This must be the Sand of Spirituality. I’ve heard of that. Maybe this is where I’ll find the treasure of God’s kingdom.”
And you dig
And you learn breathing practices.
And you fold your body into a pretzel.
And you listen to Yanni.

And you think that you are closer to God…
Because you stopped feeling stress…
And started feeling nothingness.
Oh, the wonderful nothingness.
Suddenly – you think of that jerk Bob from work.
He should be slapped.

 And you realize…
You are the same.
You still sin.
You still feel guilty.
Now you just own a bunch of Yanni CDs.

This is not a treasure worth keeping.

You walk a bit farther and you find a big old pile of rocks.
It’d be tough work to dig over there. But then again – that’d make it the perfect place to put the treasure – under the stones of Self-Righteousness.
And you dig and work hard because you figure if you work harder than anyone else, God will be impressed!

You work hard at being nicer to your family.
You work hard at never saying a mean thing.
You work hard to give extra money to charity.
You work hard at never taking a second glance a member of the opposite sex.
You work hard at being self-righteous.
 
Until you’re scrolling through Facebook after a day of finding self-righteousness and…
An ad pops up for a TRIAL offer of something…with a scantily clad lady telling you to buy it.
 
And you look her a bit longer than you should.
And you think about using some of the money penned for God to buy that thing to make the pretty lady happy.
And your spouse walks in and sees what you’re looking at, so you say something mean in response.
And then you want to get rid of the guilty your feeling, so you tell her about all the bad things she has done.

And…
Suddenly…
Those stones of self-righteousness come tumbling in on top of you.

This isn’t the treasure.
 
And you dig other places.
You dig in the mine of Material Wealth. No treasure.
You dig under the sands of self-allegation. No treasure.
You dig in the pile of filth known as Facebook. No treasure.
No connection with God.
No peace.

In fact, you start to notice a pattern – all these attempts at getting closer to God are the same:

Do Mormon things and God will like you.
Do Islamic things and God will like you.
Do Jewish things and God will like you.
Do Hindu things and God will like you.
Do Tom Cruise things and…well…Tom Cruise will get richer.
 
It’s all the same! It’s all worthless! It’s all meaningless!

And then....
When you’re about to give up.
When you’re tired.
When you’re exhausted.
When you say: “I’m through! I’m done with this religious stuff. God hates me and that’s that. I might as well give up. I might as well put down my shovel and…”

CLANK!

What was that?
CLANK!

There appears to be something here.
CLANK!

There appears to be something different here.

This is the Gospel.
It’s the message of sins forgiven.
It’s the message of the true God.
It’s the message that Jesus lived for you.
It’s the message that Jesus died for you.
It’s the message that Jesus rose for you.
It’s the message that Jesus has removed every last one of your sins.
It’s the message that you are his child, you are forgiven, and you will be in heaven with Him.

It’s this message:
You know it is was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
 
Think about it!
That’s the value of Jesus’ blood.
It’s more valuable than gold.
It’s more valuable than silver.
It’s more valuable than a treasure chest of jewels, a treasure chest of rubies or even a treasure chest of those golden foil wrapped coins with chocolate inside.

It’s more valuable than good works.
It’s more valuable than good feelings.
It’s more valuable than any halfhearted, sin-tainted attempts at being holy.

It’s the blood of Jesus.
Our sacrificial lamb.
The perfect Son of God.

His blood has infinite value.
And friends – it pays for your sins.
It pays for your guilt.
It means forgiveness – full forgiveness – free forgiveness – absolute forgiveness --
For you.

III. WHAT NOW?

(1) Give up Untreasures
 
That’s what the man who found the buried treasure did. He sold everything he had. He made room for the real treasure.
He made certain the REAL treasure would be his.

Do the same with God’s kingdom.

Because here’s the truth:
The devil will do everything possible to make you think that something that’s NOT the treasure…IS the REAL treasure.

Don’t get rid of that addiction; it’s too valuable to feeling good.
Don’t get rid of that priority; it’s too valuable to being cool.
Don’t get rid of that self- righteousness; that’s the secret treasure that truly connects you to God.

It’s all lies.
Lies that will prevent you from keeping the true treasure buried within your heart.

And if you listen to the devil, instead of burying the Gospel deep in your heart, you cling to something utterly worthless.
It’s like someone trying to offer you a check for a hundred, billion dollars!
But you really like the piece of mushed banana that you have in your left hand right now so…I’ll pass.

Don’t be foolish!
Don’t fall for the devil’s lies.

The Gospel is eternally priceless!
Get rid of the fake treasure that’s taking up the spot where you’re the REAL treasure of Jesus needs to be.
 
And bury the treasure of the Gospel deep in your heart.
 
(2) Bury the Treasure
 
That doesn’t mean: “Hide the Gospel and tell no one about Jesus.” Nope.
That’s entirely contradictory to Jesus’ own directive to “Go and make disciples of all nations…by teaching them.” (Matthew 28)

Rather it means to hide the Gospel deep within your own heart.
To bury it deep within your soul.
To place it into the very core of your being and who you are.

How do you do that? Get a surgery with one of the fine doctors at Duke and have him implant one of those little Bibles from the Gideons?
Nope.

You spend time in God’s Word.
You read The Gospel message.
You study the Gospel message.
You gather for worship.
You gather for Bible study.
You spend time with Jesus, because in doing so – his message – the message of the Gospel – moves…

From the pages of Scripture
To your eyes.
To your brain.
To your heart.

It’s like a beautiful diamond. You go down to the Jeweler’s and look at it in the light --
And if it’s cut well – no matter how you look at it – you see something magnificent.

It’s the same with the Gospel message.
Here’s I see God’s incredible compassion.
Here I look at God’s amazing power.
Here I look at the value of Christ’s redemption.
Here I enjoy the view of my atonement.
Here I see the mesmerizing perspective of peace with God.
And here I see the glories of heaven itself.

Bury it. 
Bury God’s kingdom deep in your heart.

** The audio has an extra story in it. You can find it here **
 
Conclusion:

I said the parable of the treasure fits well into a recent holiday.
But I wasn’t referring to Halloween.
Wednesday was also the 501st Anniversary of the Reformation. It’s the anniversary of a time when the treasure of Gospel was rediscovered.
Because the religious climate at that time – in the Christian church – was such that there was no treasure.

If you wanted to get God’s’ forgiveness, you needed to…

Do good things.
Say prayers to Mary.
Cross yourself in the right way.
Give money to charity.
And buy pieces of paper that said: “You are forgiven.”

And it was in that climate – in that treasure-less church that God re-revealed the TRUE treasure of the Gospel.
That Jesus is your Savior.
That in Him you are forgiven.
That by faith you are saved.

Friends, it’s 500 years later.
That treasure is at our fingertips again.
Don’t lose it.
Bury it deep within.

Amen.