Treasure Hunt

The Lord's Prayer states, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Did you get that? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The familiar words contained in the Lord's Prayer. For those who are following Jesus, it's not our will but His will. It's not our desires but His desires.

It's not our goals but His goals. It's not our personal kingdoms but His kingdom, the very kingdom of God. That, for the follower of Jesus, is to be our top priority.

It is to be our all-consuming passion, not one of several priorities but the priority in our life. Today, we're looking at four little stories, four parables told by Jesus. And these parables are all about the kingdom of heaven. And these parables will help us to understand the importance of the kingdom of heaven and its implications for you and for me. Now, before we think of the particulars of these four little stories, I want us to quickly look back, as it were, and remind ourselves of what we've already learned about the kingdom of God as has been presented by Matthew in his gospel. If you have your Bible there, turn to Matthew chapter 13.

That's where we're going to be looking. And I want to remind you that the kingdom of heaven, this is important, has already come in Jesus but it has not yet come in its fullness. It has come, that is true, in Jesus the kingdom of heaven comes, but it has not yet come in its fullness. The kingdom of heaven comes into time and space with the coming of Jesus the King. Down through the centuries, the prophets had prophesied, the promises had been made regarding a coming kingdom. And these prophecies and these promises in the Old Testament now find their fulfillment in Jesus the King. The kingdom of heaven is coming to earth.

The age to come is invading the present age in Jesus. He is the King. The wise men say, where is the King of the Jews? But He's more than the King of the Jews.

He's the King of Kings and He's the Lord of Lords. And now God Himself, yes, the Son of God, Jesus, who is God, comes into time and space. And the kingdom of heaven is coming in Jesus. So we're not surprised, as Matthew records, when Jesus begins His public ministry, He begins by saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That was the same message as His forerunner, John the Baptist, who was preparing people for the Messiah. Repent. Get ready. Why? Confess your sins.

Why? The King is coming. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The age to come is invading the present age. And with the coming of the King, what happens? As prophesied in the Old Testament, miracles take place. The King, our Lord Jesus Christ, He performs miracles. He gives sight to the blind. He heals the leper. He even raises the dead. He casts out demons.

He walks on water. He feeds the thousands with five loaves and two fishes. What is happening? The kingdom of heaven is come and is being demonstrated by the power and the glory of the King, who is doing what no one else has ever done.

But there's a problem. You may find it strange, but perhaps not as strange as you reflect on it. With all that is going on, with the healing and the miracles of Jesus, with His teaching, which we are reflecting on in our study of Matthew, something strange happens. There are multitudes who see, but don't really see. There are multitudes who hear, but don't really hear. That is the kingdom of God has now come in Jesus, but it's largely hidden to the multitudes. Over and over again, Jesus is saying, He who is here shall hear, let him hear.

But they hear, but do not understand. So, the kingdom of heaven is hidden to those who do not see with spiritual eyes. The kingdom of heaven is hidden to those who do not hear with spiritual ears. So, there is a present aspect of the kingdom of God which is largely hidden. If you have your Bible there, look for example, we saw this last week in Matthew 13, verse 33. It's a little parable. The kingdom of heaven is like heaven leaven that a woman took and hid, not as hid, in three measures of flour till it was all leavened.

Verse 44, which we'll look at in a minute. The kingdom of heaven, what is it like? It's like treasure hidden in a field. The crowds see the miracles. The crowds participate in the healing. The crowds take the bread and the fish that are Lord has performed a miracle. But they don't see.

They don't understand. But there are those who have eyes to see. There are those who have ears to hear, and they will know and enter the kingdom of heaven. For example, verse 10 and 11 of Matthew 13 that we saw a couple of weeks ago. As Jesus gives the story of the sword, the disciples come and said to him, why do you speak to them the crowds and parables? And the Lord gives this rather cryptic answer. He answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. They hear, but they do not understand. Verse 16, but blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears for they hear. There are those who don't see. There are those who don't hear and who don't understand the parables.

Oh, they understand the story, but they don't understand the spiritual impact of it. But you, my disciples, are blessed, for your eyes they see and your ears they hear. And then at the end of verse 43, how does Jesus, what does Jesus say? He who has ears, let him hear. Can I say to you this morning, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. You see, that's an odd saying. Why does Jesus say that over and over again?

Well, if you haven't done any teaching, if you haven't done any communication at all, you understand it's possible to speak, but the message not to be received. And that's true with the kingdom of heaven. That's true perhaps of some of you sitting here. That's true of some of you listening by the live stream, listening on Facebook. There is something about the kingdom of heaven that seems to attract you. You enjoyed the singing. You enjoy coming, but you have not yet entered the kingdom of heaven.

Wouldn't that be sad? To have eyes, but not to see. To have ears who do not hear. The teaching of Jesus. There's a little chorus that we sometimes sing, open my eyes, Lord. I want to see Jesus.

That's a good prayer, isn't it? As I come, as I read the Word of God. Open my eyes, I want to see Jesus.

Open my ears and help me to listen. A recognition that our eyes are sometimes blind and our ears are sometimes deaf to the truth of God. Today listen and receive and hear the kingdom of heaven. So the kingdom of heaven comes into time and space with the coming of Jesus the King. But when Jesus returns, the kingdom of God will be manifested in glory.

Here is Jesus. He's despised. He is beaten. He's crucified. He's put to death in the most humiliating way, in the most cruel way imaginable. And it seems that his kingdom has come to a tragic end.

Ah, but it hasn't. Because on that magnificent day, we call it the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, Sunday, Easter Sunday, our Lord Jesus Christ triumphantly rose over death and he stands and says that I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of hell. Yes, he's alive, conquering. The King is coming back.

He's coming back to establish his kingdom openly on earth. At the moment, does it seem that Jesus is King? Does it seem that Jesus is King in the United States?

You watched the recent events in our Senate, in our Congress. Does it seem that Jesus Christ is King there? Do you see much of the principles of equity and righteousness and justice manifested even in the highest governments of our land? Not only in the governments, but throughout our land and indeed in our own hearts. Is Jesus really King?

It doesn't seem he is. It seems that the devil is King. It seems that evil is prospering. But we're reminded, we've seen that the King is coming back. And when he comes back, he will defeat the enemies of the world. And as we will see in a moment, unbelievers will be judged, not by you, not by me, but by the King himself. And he will establish his kingdom so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He's coming back. I ask you, what kingdom are you in? There's only two kingdoms. There's the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and there's the kingdom of darkness. There's the kingdom of selfishness.

There's the kingdom of sin. There's the kingdom of I will do my own will rather than your will. Instead of saying your kingdom come, your will be done, I'm saying no, I want to build up my little kingdom. I want to live my own life.

I want to do my own will. Well, if you stay like that, we're going to learn you'll be judged for all of eternity. But entrance into this kingdom, you say, how do I get into the kingdom of heaven? Entrance into this kingdom of heaven is by repentance and faith in Jesus. That's what Jesus says. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mark records him as saying repent and believe the gospel. That is, here is the King. You must acknowledge that you are sinful, that you cannot save yourself, that you can't enter the kingdom of God by your own efforts.

I know you're good. I know you've embraced some cultural Christianity, but that's not going to get you into the kingdom. You say, well, I come from a good family. I come from a good heritage. I've gone to church all of my life and I've always believed in God.

My dear friend, that isn't the question. The question is what is your relationship with Jesus Christ? I meet with people, speaking with people all the time about spiritual things, and they usually say, I meet a few atheists, but most people say, well, I believe in God. I even pray to God. God got me out of a difficult circumstance. But I'm saying to you, what about Jesus Christ?

He's central. That's the gospel. Jesus Christ died for sins, was buried and rose again. There must be repentance and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to Christ spiritually empty. We sang about it, that God so loved the world, and that Jesus Christ invites us, as Tim read from Matthew 11, invites us to come to Him, yes, with our failures, with our addictions, with our sins. He is the sin bearer.

He'll forgive you. He'll transform your life as you come to Him and turn from your own selfishness and say, Lord, come and save me and cleanse me. And in that way, a miracle takes place. We call it the new birth, and you enter the kingdom of heaven. Now let's think of these four parables with that reminder of the overarching view of the kingdom of heaven. We're going to learn from the first two parables that the kingdom of heaven is of supreme value. You say, well, John, I don't know if I quite understand the kingdom of heaven.

Let me help you. Verse 44, Matthew 13, the kingdom of heaven is like, here it is, 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. You know, these parables are quite cryptic sometimes, aren't they? Some of them, as we saw, the Lord gives the interpretation. Other ones, they don't. And they're designed to make us think.

They're designed to make us reflect on them. What is being said? What is the Lord saying here?

This is the parable of the hidden treasure. Here's a man, he's going for a walk in a field. He's taking his dog for a walk, as it were. He's just a routine thing in life. He's crossing over the field and he finds a treasure in the field.

He's overjoyed. You know, burying a treasure in the ground might seem strange to us, although I've known people who've done that, who dug in their backyard and hid some gold nuggets and silver and so on. Not the wisest thing to do, but if you don't like banks, if you're a fearful kind of person, you may do that.

But in the first century, it was quite often done. What are you going to do with your treasure? Where are you going to hide it?

I'm going to dig it and hide it in a field. And this man comes across this treasure. He's overjoyed. What does he do?

He goes and he buys the field, sells everything he has to buy the field. You say, well, that seems a bit odd, isn't it? Is this man doing something moral?

Is this illegal? No, not really. That's not the point of the story. The finder is not stealing the treasure.

It was there. He buys the field, quite legitimate. Also, Jesus doesn't say what the man did with the treasure once he had bought the field. That's not the point either, right?

It's a little story. What's the point? Although the kingdom of heaven is hidden to some people, it is of supreme value.

That's the point. Many people don't get it. They don't understand that their treasure is actually there. But this man is overjoyed, sells everything he has to buy that field. You know, he kind of stumbles as it were across the treasure.

And then sells everything he has. He's not out looking for treasure. He's not on a treasure hunt. He's just stumbling and says, oh, there's treasure in this field. You know, some people almost stumble over the treasure of the gospel. Wasn't that they were looking for salvation? Perhaps you're like that. Wasn't it you had a deep desire, woke up one day and say I'm going to search for God and I'm going to find the meaning of life?

No, but rather in the ordinary course of life, you stumbled as it were over the kingdom of heaven. You say, what do you mean? You're at work. You've got no thought of God.

You're just living life like everyone else. And a colleague starts telling you about Jesus. Someone told me this morning that they were doing a little transaction and the man said to him, do you believe in God?

Good question. Some of you perhaps were given a gospel tract. You weren't looking for anything spiritual.

Perhaps someone invited you to Calvary Church to come to a Christmas Eve service or a Christmas concert or just to come because it's Valentine's Day. It's not that you have some deep spiritual desire. It's not that you're on a spiritual journey, as far as you're concerned, but you just kind of stumble on this treasure. Perhaps seemingly by chance you hear a preacher on television.

You're in your car and you hear a preacher on the radio. It seems that you just stumbled upon the kingdom of heaven, but then you realize as you stumbled on it, this is the most important thing in life. There is nothing comparable to its value, and so in the parable to show the importance, the supreme value of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says this man sells everything he has to buy the field with the treasure. The kingdom of heaven is of supreme value. Then there's the second parable.

I love this one. The parable of the pearl of great price, verse 45. Again the kingdom of God is like, you still want to know about the kingdom of heaven? Jesus is telling us. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who in finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it.

I love this one. What's the kingdom of heaven like? Well, it's like a merchant who buys and sells pearls.

This man doesn't stumble on the kingdom of heaven, rather he's searching for it is the point. Here's a man, he's a merchant, he's a dealer in pearls. In that culture, pearls were of great value.

In our currency, they may cost millions of dollars. He's a merchant. And he's searching for the perfect pearl as it were. And in his search for fine pearls, he comes across one pearl, Jesus says, it is of great value. This is no ordinary pearl. This is the most precious, most valuable pearl this merchant has ever seen. And he knows about pearls, he's a dealer in pearls. This is what he's searching for, a magnificent pearl.

But it's a huge problem, isn't there? The pearl is so costly that he can't buy it in the normal trading. What does he do? He wants that one pearl. What does he do?

He does something which I would never advise someone to do. He sells everything he has, all of his pearls, all of his assets, and goes and buys that one pearl. Now, I'm not a financial advisor, but if someone came to me and presented this to me, I would say no. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. I don't know much about pearls, but the price of pearls might drop.

Who knows? I mean, if you want to buy one or two pearls, that's good. But you need to diversify your investments. Some pearls, some gold, some silver. And I know you want that pearl, and it does look magnificent. You showed me it, you put it on Instagram, I see it, it is a magnificent pearl. But don't be so crazy to sell everything you've got and buy that one pearl.

What's the point? Why is Jesus saying the kingdom of heaven is like that kind of man? The kingdom of heaven is of supreme value. Nothing else can compare to or compete with the kingdom of heaven. The parable of the pearl illustrates the incomparable value of the kingdom of heaven. It's priceless.

Are you getting this? Do you understand this? Let me ask you, how do you regard God's kingdom?

Is it of supreme value to you, or is it just one interest out of many? You enjoy going to your little Bible study. You enjoy some of the worship here. You've got some Christian friends. It's kind of nice.

They're respectable, nice people, most of them. But your relationship with Christ, it's just one of many things. It's not your passion. When it really comes to it, it's not number one. Jesus is not number one in your life.

He's there, but He's not number one. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no. The kingdom of heaven is like this merchant who's searching for pearls, who having found one pearl of great value, sells all that he has and buys it.

That's what the kingdom of heaven is like. Well, that stops us in the tracks. It stops me in my tracks, doesn't it?

Is it number one? A few years ago, Goodney and I were on a cruise, and we beat this couple from England. And in spite of them being English, we had dinner with them.

We're told we're to love our enemies, right? So, there they were, and we had some conversation. But very, very quickly, the guy's asking me what soccer team I support in the Premier League. And I tell him, Manchester United. He went crazy because, talk about an avid supporter. And I could see his wife sort of rolling her eyes. Does this guy know about Manchester United?

He did. And we talked about Manchester United. And he went to every home game, and he didn't manage, he wasn't able to go to the away games. And he talked and talked about Manchester United, and his wife was obviously bored about it.

My wife certainly was. She couldn't care less about Manchester United. She wouldn't know the difference between Manchester United and Manchester City.

I mean, that's pretty bad. And the guy went on. Now, Manchester United played this morning. I don't know what the score is. Don't tell me. I'm interested in Manchester United, right?

But I'm not that interested. If they lose, they lose, right? His life, his wife told us, really in pain, that his whole life revolved around Manchester United. And if they lost, he was in a foul mood. That was his religion.

That was number one in his life. You say, how sad. Manchester United is a great history, but sometimes they play terrible. Is that really your hope? We sang, no.

Our hope is Christ and life and death. Nothing wrong in being interested in Manchester United. Nothing wrong, sir, in your golf game. Nothing wrong in your business and doing well.

Nothing wrong in your education students. That's good. Certainly nothing wrong with your family, but nothing and no one can compete with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is of supreme value.

He has to be number one. That's the first commandment. You'll have no other gods before me. Everything else is idolatry. My, that's hard for us, isn't it?

Hard for us. Let me ask you, if Jesus Christ asked you to sell everything you had and to follow him somewhere, would you do it? You say, well, I don't think that'll happen.

No, I don't think it will happen either, but if he did, what do you think he did? I want you to sell everything you have. He said that to a young man in the Gospel, and I want you to follow me. Is your love for Christ so great that you would sell everything you have to follow Christ? Now, the kingdom of God, of course, is entered as a gift. We don't buy our way into the kingdom of heaven. I don't sell everything I have and then say, OK, I've done that, Jesus, and now I'm part of the kingdom of heaven.

No, no, it's not like that. You begin with humility, with repentance and believing in Jesus Christ, but now as a follower of Christ, I'm to keep my eyes on him. He's the author. He's the perfecter of my faith. He's to be number one above everything else, my business, my interest, my family, my own career, and certainly my own ego. I'm to follow him wholeheartedly.

Jesus says you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. On Valentine's Day, some of you guys are celebrating it. Where Goody comes from, they don't have Valentine's Day, so that's OK.

But some of you guys are celebrating it. And you're saying to your wife, I love you with all of my heart. That's great, isn't it? I can say that to my wife. There's no other human being that I love more than my wife. That's marriage, isn't it, where we commit ourselves to that. We love you. These couples are coming today and they love Christ and they love one another. That is, she is number one.

You understand that in the human level? Now in the kingdom of heaven. More important than my love for my wife, great as it is, my family and my grandchildren.

I love my grandchildren. I'm to love God because the kingdom of heaven is of supreme value. Now there's another parable which tells us that the kingdom of heaven has eternal consequences. Verse 47, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that is 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 and 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. My, that sets us back, doesn't it?

This is serious. The kingdom of God has eternal consequences. It's like a net thrown into the sea. There are different kinds of nets for catching different fish. And this net mentioned in the parable, a kind of dragnet, catches fish indiscriminately.

Jesus says, where is it? Yes, verse 47, this net gathered fish of every kind. Just catches the fish. I've been on some Scottish fishing boats. A friend of mine had them, very successful skipper.

I went out with him a few nights, rough in the North Sea, went over to Norway and back one time. And they were catching herring. And they used what's called a purse net. These are beautiful ships. And the skipper is there. And he's shown me, he's watching the sonar, which is beaming out.

And they will see, he says, there are marks. And he's looking for the shoal of herring. Herring come in big shoals.

It can be thousands of them. And he sees on his sonar the herring. The problem is the herring are moving, and then there's the current and there's the wind. And he's got to shoot his net out and calculate where the fish will be. Because once the net is out, he can't retrieve it.

It's going to go right out. And so he shoots his net, gets the crew. They shoot the net out. And he gets the ship in a circle. Gets the net back.

He's able to get the bottom of the net up with the winch, with all the hydraulics. And the fish are trapped. And the huge net, the net is tightened and tightened and tightened, until finally you look over, and there's all of these hundreds and hundreds of beautiful herring, silver darlings.

There they are. How are you going to get them into the ship? They have a big pump. They put the pump among the fish, and the fish come into the boat. So when you're eating a herring, just think of how it was caught, or a kippur. The problem is, however, among the herring, there's other fish. There's some bad — they don't want that. They can't sell them. They're going to get the herring, and all the other fish are thrown out. They're bad fish. There's no market for them. They don't want to eat them. They're bad fish.

That's the point. This way, it's a primitive purse net. They throw out the dragnet, and then they haul it ashore. All the fish in the net are caught. And the fishermen look at them, and there's good fish, and there's bad fish. There's fish we're going to eat, and there's fish that's going to be thrown away.

Says Jesus, that's what's going to happen at the end of the age. See, not all who profess to be in the Kingdom of Heaven are, in fact, true believers. We saw that last week with the wheat and the tares.

There are wheat and there are tares. There's good fish and bad fish. There are, verse 49, there are evil people and there are righteous people. Those who are truly saved by the grace of God demonstrate the reality of their salvation by living righteous lives. No, our righteousness doesn't get us into the Kingdom of God.

It's not the condition of our salvation, but it is the consequence of our salvation. We saw that with the sower. How do you know it's good soil?

Because it brings forth fruit. There's rocky soil. There's hard soil. There's soil which is very, very thin. There's no roots, and there's thorny soil, but there's good soil.

And from the good soil, there grows fruit. Who does the separation? Remember we saw last week? You want to separate the evil by violence? You want to be a rebel?

No. We saw last week it was the angels who separate the wheat and the tares. And then it's the angels. God sends His angels.

It's amazing, isn't it? Verse 49, 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.

We've seen this before, haven't we? These are the words of Jesus, not John Monroe. The time of judgment is coming. Because God's judgment has not yet come on our evil world, people think they can continue to live as they like. They go into certain conduct. They know it's wrong. They've got a conscience, but they continue to do it.

And they think, well, it's not so bad. Nothing has happened. Life is still going pretty well. I've not been struck by lightning. Things are fine.

No, it's not fine. Judgment is coming. And when the judgment is coming, it's made by God's angels, not by me. We don't decide who goes to hell and who goes to heaven. But the Lord Jesus is saying with this parable, this very solemn parable, that the unbelievers, the bad fish, the tares, will go to, he says, the fiery furnace. That's hell itself. To the kingdom of God.

Because the terrible consequences. This book, God isn't marked what we sow, we reap. Do you believe this? Christ, our hope in life and death. If Christ is not your hope, you'll end in the fiery furnace.

The final one, the kingdom of heaven, his rich treasure, verse 51. Have you understood all these things? They answered, yes. I wonder if they had understood all things.

I kind of now did. But they answered, yes. Have you understood everything I've said today?

Total silence. Have I understood everything here? No.

Someone has in the front row. Praise God. Have you understood all these things?

They said to him, yes. And 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. Interesting little parable, isn't it? Old and new truths come from the treasure of the kingdom of heaven.

There are followers of Jesus Christ who are trained for the kingdom of heaven. Like the master of a house who brings out the treasure. Here's an owner of a house and he brings out the treasure. There are some old items, perhaps he's inherited them.

Perhaps he got them as a boy. There are old treasures, old things, and then there's new. He brings out the old and the new.

You say, what's the point? Kingdom of heaven is wonderful. There are truths about the kingdom of heaven which are in the Old Testament.

And these mustn't be ignored. Jesus himself said that he came not to abolish the law or the prophets. There are people who throw away the Old Testament. I'm not going to preach from the Old Testament. They say, I'm a minister of the new covenant. This is all God's word.

Old Testament and New Testament. But, there are fresh truths. In Jesus Christ, there's a progress of revelation.

He's teaching new valuable truths. You remember in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said over and over again in chapter 5, you have said, the scribes and the Pharisees said this, but I say to you. They have said, but I say to you. No, the treasures of the old treasures of the kingdom of heaven are not inconsistent with the new. But in Jesus, there is the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures and he is the interpreter of the Old Testament scriptures. So there are those in the kingdom of heaven, like scribes. There are teachers. There are pastors now.

And what do they do? We are to teach the whole counsel of God. We're to bring out of the treasure old and new.

Not just our little pet subject. Not just someone says to me, well, why do you preach the different books of the Bible? Well, my goal is to preach through all of this, old and new. It's all the Word of God. Some of it is much more difficult, let me tell you.

Remember we preached right through Revelation? Pretty tough going sometimes, wasn't there? You say, yeah, really tougher for us than you.

I understand. Sometimes the teaching is tough. Sometimes it's difficult to understand.

Dealing with some of these truths. What's the goal? The goal is to present the whole counsel of God.

In our children's ministry, in our youth ministry, in our discipleship ministry, our goal at Calvary Church is to teach the Bible the Word of God. Not just our pet subjects. There are some subjects I like. I could preach them easily.

There are other very difficult subjects. Who wants to preach about hell? I don't.

But it was there today. If you reject Christ, if you're not in the kingdom of heaven, you will end in the fiery furnace. That's an awesome, awesome truth.

To think that there are people sitting here in Calvary Church that may end in eternal judgment. That's the reality. I have to, I have to warn people. That's a hard truth. But there are other truths. There are fresh truths.

What do we do? Notice what the man does. The end of verse 52. He brings out of his treasure. We're not the treasure. We don't speculate. We don't bring our imagination.

We don't bring our own ideas. We bring out what is already there from the Word of God. Old truth and new truth. Beware of people who claim they have some secret to interpret the Bible. They've got some code. From time to time, people will say to me, John, I want you to read this book and it's kind of a secret. Whenever I see secrets, whenever I see keys, whenever I see hidden codes, I'm not going to waste my time reading them so don't give them to me.

No. You know what the key is in Scripture? Old Testament, New Testament. You know what the key is? Jesus.

Right? He's explaining the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It's not that now someone is going to get some new mystery, some code, that now they can unlock the treasure of the kingdom of heaven.

Absolutely not. We bring out what is already there. Our Lord Jesus said. Or Luke records Jesus in Luke 24, He interpreted to them, the disciples, in all the Scripture, the things concerning Himself.

Luke 24, 44, everything written about me, says Jesus, in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, must be fulfilled. All of Scripture points to Christ. You read the Old Testament, it's pointing to Christ. We read the gospels, it's about Christ. We read the apostles, they are teaching the teaching of Jesus Christ.

He's coming back. Whether you look back in biblical history, whether you look forward, it's all about our Lord Jesus Christ. But in the magnificent treasure of the kingdom of heaven, there are these old truths and there are these new truths that is taught by Jesus Christ that we have the privilege of explaining. Now, notice as I conclude in verses 53 through 58, there are different reactions to Jesus.

I'm asking, what's yours? Verse 53, when Jesus had finished these parables, He went away from there and coming to His hometown, He taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Astonished.

You may be astonished. Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are not all his sisters with us?

Where then did this man get all these things? They're confused. We seem to know him. Isn't his mother Mary? Notice this, verse 57, then they took offense at him.

Think of that. As the truth of God is being presented through the king, people are offended and people are still offended. There's a little boy who wrote that said some people don't like your preaching. Praise God for that.

Right? There's something wrong if unbelievers like the preaching of the Word of God and don't respond. It must be that they're getting some kind of milk, some kind of be kind, be nice person, and you'll get to heaven. No, there is an offense in the Gospel. People are offended by the teaching of Jesus. They're offended when He talks about the fiery furnace, no doubt. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household, and he did not do mighty works there because of their unbelief. They missed the blessing of God because of their unbelief, and you can be in that category. To miss the power of God's forgiveness, to miss the power of God in your marriage, in your home, in your life, in your business, in your work because of your unbelief.

But God can do mighty works in saving your soul and restoring the lost and reconciling marriages and putting the broken pieces together so that you can experience the mighty works of God. Different reactions to the teaching of Jesus. What's your reaction?

What's your reaction to the kingdom of heaven? I want this pearl. How much is it? Well, the seller says it's very expensive. But how much, you ask?

Well, a very large amount. Do you think I could buy it? Yes, you could buy it. Anyone can buy it. But didn't you say it was very expensive?

Yes. Well, how much is it? Everything you have, says the seller.

You make up your mind, right? All right, I'll buy it, you say. Well, what do you have?

He wants to know. Let's write it down. How much do you have? Well, I have $10,000 in the bank.

Good. $10,000. What else? That's all, that's all I have.

Nothing more? Well, I've got a few dollars here in my pocket. Well, how much?

You start digging. $10, $20, $40, $60, $100, $120. Here I sit down, $120. That's fine. What else do you have? Well, nothing.

That's all. Where do you live? In my house. You have a house? Well, yes, I have a house.

He writes that down too, the house. You mean I've got to live in my camper? You have a camper?

That too. What else? I love to sleep in my car. You've got a car? Two of them.

He writes them both down. Both are mine, both cars. What else? Well, you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars. What more do you want?

Are you alone in this world? Well, no. I have a wife and two children. Oh, yes, your wife and two children. What else? Nothing. I'm nothing. I'm left alone. Suddenly the seller explains, oh, and you yourself. Everything becomes mine. Wife, money, children, house, cars, family. Everything is mine. And you, you're mine.

Then he goes, Nelson, I'll allow you to use all of these things for the time being, but don't forget they're mine, just as you are. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great value, sells all that he has and went and bought it. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

Will you do that? Seek first, first the kingdom of God. Father, help us to do that. We confess we often seek our own little kingdoms, but we thank you for this mighty kingdom. And in your grace, we can be born again into that kingdom. I pray for every person here, Father. I pray for their salvation. Today, today, right now, they'll come to the cross and cry out to Jesus for salvation and be part of this kingdom, this glorious kingdom which shall never end. We thank you and your grace will be part of that, that kingdom which will stand forever. Help us, meantime, Father, to seek first that kingdom, to continue to pray, not my will, but yours be done in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that in our Savior's name. Amen.