(54) How Valuable is God’s Kingdom to you?

The Preface:

Jesus is continuing his “introduction” to God’s new kingdom program. He is speaking to the crowds in parables, but in private, explaining each one, and answering the disciples questions about what’s next and what this all means for them.

He has laid out how this new kingdom will grow and expand. He is now going to challenge his disciples with the value of this new program and asking them to embrace it.

As you look at Jesus’s words to His disciples, I encourage you to consider the same questions for yourself.

The Passage: Matt 13:44-53

The Process:

How important is seeking and pursuing God’s kingdom to you? What are you willing to endure in order to be a part of it? What are you will to give up? How much are you willing for it to cost you? (Matt 13:44)
How valuable is seeking God’s kingdom to you? Do you pursue it above everything else? Has it so captivated your heart that you are willing to give up all lesser pursuits to seek after it? (Matt 13:45-46)
Who do you consider worthy of the kingdom (a crucial question for a Jew)? (Matt 13:47)
While there are many that are “in the net,” not all of them are “righteous,” because some are still holding on to the old, while following the new on the outside. Are you willing to fully embraced this new program, and completely set aside the old? (Matt 13:48-50)

The Purpose:

What was God doing? Why did He have this written down?

In Matt 13:51 Jesus asks his disciples, “Have you understood all these things?” “Are you willing to embrace this “new” kingdom? Will you truly give up your life for my kingdom—for me?”

Are your hearts ground that is prepared and ready to receive my Word so that it will produce fruit, 30, 60 or 100 fold. (Parable of the soils)
Are you able to embrace a kingdom that is internal? A kingdom that you do not identify with because you are Jew, or because you are part of “God’s chosen people.” But, a kingdom that will grow through my Word planted in your heart? (Parable of the seed growing on it’s own)
Are you willing to embrace this kingdom, knowing there will be many false teachers and people claiming to be part of this kingdom who are imposters, and it will be hard to tell the difference. (Parable of the tares)
Are you willing to be a part of something that is going to be so small and insignificant to begin with? Are you willing to believe by faith, that this small beginning will have a great impact. (Parable of the mustard seed)
Are you willing to be the ones who have this kingdom hidden in your heart, unknown, misunderstood, but by faith are you willing for me to use you to permeate the whole world? (Parable of the leaven)
Are you willing to embrace the value of this kingdom to the degree that you are willing to endure losses, persecutions and hardships? Are you willing for this kingdom to cost you everything you have? (Parable of the hidden treasure)
Are you willing to embrace this kingdom to the degree that it will control your behavior and occupy your lives? (Parable of the pearl of great value)
Are you willing to embrace a kingdom that includes everyone of every tribe, tongue, people and nation? Are you able to embrace this kingdom fully, without holding on to anything else? (Parable of the net)

Their answer confirmed a carefully considered choice to place their faith in the king and his teaching. They said to him, “Yes.” (Matt 13:51)

In Jesus final parable He instructed them that it was now their responsibility to “bring the treasure out.” They were to open the treasures of both old and new and to share what they had learned with others. (HNTC Mt) (Matt 13:52)

The Plan:

As I ask these questions of myself, I encourage you to ask them too.

What can I learn from this? What is God saying to me and my life from this passage?
Which of these parables most challenges me?
- Are you willing to embrace this kingdom to the degree that it will control your behavior and occupy your lives? (Parable of the pearl of great value)
- Are you able to embrace this kingdom fully, without holding on to anything else? (Parable of the net)

What do I need become more aware of?
- I have given my life to God’s kingdom program, without a doubt. But, there are still times when other “lesser” pursuits control my behavior. I honestly cannot say that God’s kingdom always occupies my heart. There are still times, I know God wants me to do something, but I choose not to.
- While I have fully embraced His kingdom, and do believe I will be considered one of the righteous (because of my identity with Christ), there are still things I am holding on to, sins in my life that I have not completely given up, things that distract me from being fully available for God to use.

How does God want me to engage with this? What does He want me to do because of what He is saying here?
- Identify and confess the sin. (1 John 1:9) Continue to take steps to recognize the temptation and to more quickly choose to set it aside and pursue God’s kingdom (Matt 6:33) instead.
- When God is prompting me to do something, follow through with it. What does this mean practically? I have a schedule that the Lord and I came up with together, in order to help me to be a good steward of my time. Some of the things are easier to do than others, so I tend to spend more time on those things, and avoid, or give less attention to the others, even though I know God wants me doing them. I need to not allow what I prefer distract me from doing what I know God wants.

The Power; Implement and Integrate

The power to change is in the implementation and integration of what God is saying to us. We can talk all we want, make lots of plans, but until we do something about it, and develop habits that integrate those truths, we will never change. What is the one thing I need to do as a result of this study today?

My commitment:

Confess my sin and choose to set it aside more quickly when I am tempted.
Follow my schedule more faithfully, especially when it comes to investing in people (CLA and e2).

Verse by Verse Commentary

After the rejection of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Jesus has been helping his disciples to understand what God has planned next. The plan they knew about was now on hold. The Messianic Kingdom had been rejected by this generation. Therefore it opened up the opportunity for God to do something new, something that had never been revealed before. It is a “secret” (Matt 13:11), a mystery, a new kingdom program.

The eight parables of Matthew 13:24-53 and Mark 4:26-34 describe the outworking of the mystery kingdom in the present age. I have divided these into 2 sections of 4 parables each:

How the kingdom will grow and expand (Mark 4:26-29; Matt 13:24-43)
The impact of the kingdom (Matt 13:44-53)

In the last section (53-God is Going to do Something New) we discussed the 4 parables and Jesus’ explanation of how this new kingdom is going to grow and expand.

The kingdom is internal, it will grow through the Word planted in the hearts of men and nourished by the Holy Spirit.
There will be many false teachers and people claiming to be believers and it will be hard to tell the difference.
The kingdom will start out small, but it will have a great impact.
The kingdom will be hidden in the hearts of men, but those men will impact the whole world.

The second set of parables, I believe Jesus is illustrating the impact this kingdom will have.

Matt 13:44 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.

Jesus had already shown that the kingdom is going to be like a field where wheat and tares are sown together. Not everyone is going to “discover” this kingdom. It’s not an earthly kingdom based on political or geographic lines. It’s something God is doing in people’s hearts. But, for those who “discover it,” for those who find it hidden in the field, they will be filled with joy.

It’s value will be worth everything to them. They will give up everything to follow it. They will be willing to endure losses (sold all he had), persecutions and hardships (he bought the field.. it cost him a great deal) with joy, because they know the value of what they have.

Matt 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Back in Matthew 6:19-24 Jesus talked about treasure. He gave 3 principles that are true about treasure. Paul Tripp laid these out in his book “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands.”

1. Everyone seeks some kind of treasure. (This is Christ’s operating assumption in Matt 6:19.)

2. Your treasure will control your heart. (“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt 6:21)

3. What controls your heart will control your behavior. (“No one can serve two masters.” Matt 6:24))

As Paul Tripp said, everyone seeks some kind of treasure. Before God breaks in, we simply do not know what we are searching for. Most people search in the wrong places. The treasure that controls their hearts are the things John talks about in 1 John 2:15-17; “Do not love this world, nor the things it has to offer. Because, when you love the world, you do not love the Father.The world only offers craving for physical pleasure, craving for what you see, and pride in your achievements and possessions. These things are not from the Father, but from the world, and the world is going to fade away along with everything in it.But those who do what pleases God will last forever.”

The pearl merchant recognized instantly the value of the one pearl, because he had measured the value of many lesser pearls throughout his life. Everyone seeks some kind of treasure. But, earthly treasure will never satisfy. It will keeping us searching for the next thing, something bigger and better. But, when we truly find God, it will end our searching! We will know God’s kingdom is of far greater worth then anything we have seen before. And so, just like the treasure finder, recognizing the value of this one pursuit, he went and sold everything he owned in order to possess the pearl. Once the value of this kingdom is discovered and understood, it should control our heart. And as the kingdom begins to take control of our hearts, it will control our behavior and begin to occupy our lives.

Matt 13:47-50 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This kingdom, is not an earthly kingdom, not a geographic or political kingdom. This kingdom will have “fish of every kind.” There will be people from every tribe, language, people and nation (Rev 5:9). But, similar to what Jesus taught in the parable of the tares, there will be those who think they are part of the kingdom, but when the angels sort the “fish,” they will be discovered as “evil” and not “righteous” and cast into the fire.

These are different than the ones talked about with the tares. The tares were there intentionally to confuse and distract (Matt 13:25). These are ones who are doing all the right things, but whose hearts have not been changed. The kingdom has not become a treasure to them. They are not pursuing like the pearl merchant. It is not controlling their lives.

Either just following the crowd… doing things on the outside as to look good to those who see… whatever the reason, Jesus says these kind are not righteous, and they will be sorted out. God knows the heart, and a heart that is not controlled by and occupied with Christ, will be cast into the fire in the end.

Matthew 13:51-53 ⁵¹“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” ⁵²And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” ⁵³And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there.

For every parable Jesus told, He has taken them aside privately, and explained each one (Mark 4:34). He took time to answer all their questions and to help them understand what He meant and what these things meant for them. As He wraps up this introduction series of lessons for them about the coming kingdom program, Jesus now asks them a question, “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus is asking them more than just whether they have made mental ascent to the things He has told them about this new program. He is asking, whether they are willing for this new program to occupy their lives. The “old” program had occupied their lives. That’s what they lived for. That’s where their hope for the future was. But, now that has all changed. So, Jesus is asking, “Are you willing to embrace this “new” kingdom? Will you truly give up your life for my kingdom—for me?”

Are your hearts ground that is prepared and ready to receive my Word so that it will produce fruit, 30, 60 or 100 fold. (Parable of the soils)
Are you able to embrace a kingdom that is internal? A kingdom that you do not identify with because you are Jew, or because you are part of “God’s chosen people.” But, a kingdom that will grow through my Word planted in your heart? (Parable of the seed growing on it’s own)
Are you willing to embrace this kingdom, knowing there will be many false teachers and people claiming to be part of this kingdom who are imposters, and it will be hard to tell the difference. (Parable of the tares)
Are you willing to be a part of something that is going to be so small and insignificant to begin with? Are you willing to believe by faith, that this small beginning will have a great impact. (Parable of the mustard seed)
Are you willing to be the ones who have this kingdom hidden in your heart, unknown, misunderstood, but by faith are you willing for me to use you to permeate the whole world? (Parable of the leaven)
Are you willing to embrace the value of this kingdom to the degree that you are willing to endure losses, persecutions and hardships? Are you willing for this kingdom to cost you everything you have? (Parable of the hidden treasure)
Are you willing to embrace this kingdom to the degree that it will control your behavior and occupy your lives? (Parable of the pearl of great value)
Are you willing to embrace a kingdom that includes everyone of every tribe, tongue, people and nation? Are you able to embrace this kingdom fully, without holding on to anything else? (Parable of the net)

Their answer confirmed a carefully considered choice to place their faith in the king and his teaching. They said to him, “Yes.”

Jesus then leaves them with one final parable. “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

A scribe was a specialist in the knowledge and teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures. A scribe who “found” the truth about this “new” kingdom and embraced it like the pearl of great value, would bring with him a huge wealth of understanding and truth from the “old.” There is still a lot of “treasure’ in the Old Testament.

When we plant a church in the jungle we spend a lot of time in the beginning laying a firm foundation about who God is, who we are, God’s view of sin, God’s penalty for sin and what He did to provide for us a way to overcome the penalty of sin. Anyone who is going to be proclaiming the value and truth of this new kingdom is going to need to understand the treasures that are in the old. Even Jesus himself did that later before he left this earth. (Luke 24:27) At the same time, as a disciple of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, a scribe would be able to see and acknowledge the treasure in this “new” kingdom program. He would be able to embrace the “new” while still appreciating the value of the “old.”

Jesus final challenge as he closes this series of parables about the kingdom is to tell his disciples it was now their responsibility to “bring the treasure out.” They were to open the treasures of both old and new and to share what they had learned with others. (HNTC Mt)