You can’t take it with you

Matthew 6: 19-21

Introduction.

There’s an old adage that says you can’t take it with you, if your Spanish they have a similar saying which translated says something like, there are no pockets in e funeral shroud. Again, the point is, “you can’t take it with you”. Suppose I told you that’s not true. Suppose I told you that no less than Jesus Christ taught that you could take it with you, you would probably immediately have a number of questions in your head. First thought might be this guy has lost his marbles. But that is what Jesus taught, so let me show you where he taught it, what it how you can take it with you and exactly what it is that you can take with you. It right here in the middle of the sermon in the middle of this passage where Jesus has been talking about righteousness. He has been contrasting the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees which was a just for show external righteousness, contrasted with real righteousness which begins with an internal attitude.

After discussing the precepts of false righteousness in chapter 5 and the practices of false righteousness in chapter 6 at least in the first part of this chapter, he now gives 3 prohibitions, he says. The first of these we will look at today, which is “do not lay up treasure in heaven. But before we look at the verses I’d like the back up for just a second and show you that throughout the sermon on the mount thus far Jesus has referred to the subject of rewards. An earlier for example in Matthew chapter five he said that if you were persecuted that you should rejoice and be glad for “great is your reward in heaven”. Or turn to chapter 6 where he talked about charitable giving and he said if you do that before men, you got what you were after, just the praise of other men and woman, but if you do it in secret before your heavenly father he would reward you openly.

Then he talked about prayer and again he said, don’t be like the hypocrites and pray in public, if that’s what you’re doing you are just doing it to get their attention, but if you pray as unto the Lord he will reward you openly. Then finally in chapter 6 he talks about fasting and he says exactly the same thing if when you’re fast if you’re doing it to be seen by other people then the only reward you will have is the false praise of over people. However, if you do it in secret as under the Lord, he will see what you do and He will reward you openly. My point is simply this if you just read the sermon on the mount the major theme has to do with righteousness, but one of the sub themes in this sermon has to do with the blessings, the rewards you will receive. Jesus has made it very clear that if you follow real righteousness which begins with an internal attitude, great will be your reward in heaven. God will reward you.

Having established all of that he comes now to saying look you can either lay up for yourselves treasures on earth or you can lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. You can’t help but connect this teaching to everything that has gone before. What he has in mind is doing things to be seen of men versus doing things to be seen of God, but at the same time there’s no question but that he’s talking about material things verse spiritual things. The following illustrations tell us about exactly what is involved in all of that so let’s begin with rewards on earth. So, let’s look and see what he has to says, first of all he tells us. 

Don’t Lay Up Treasure on Earth.

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(Matthew 6: 19-21)

Again, Jesus begins to unpack this issue in the usual way we have seen him address thing so far and he says this is what you should not do.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth”.

In the Greek text the word that’s translated lay-up is the verb form of the noun that's translated treasures you could translate this literally don’t treasure treasures, that is earthly treasures. In the Old Testament there was usually only one measure of wealth. By the time the New Testament was written there were three kinds of wealth.

1.      Elaborate and expensive clothing and jewelry (Self-explanatory).

2.      Crops stored in barns. (So that when the famine came you would have plenty of crops eat or even sell and you could get very rich very quickly).

3.      Precious metals (such as gold and silver). 

Furthermore, the Pharisees taught that the ones the Lord loves he makes rich. They connected righteousness and riches, just as some teach today, and since most of them were wealthy their attitude was well it’s rather conspicuous that I’m righteous because I’m rich. That was sort of their attitude and Jesus is addressing here.

Jesus is teaching that you shouldn’t layup material wealth on earth for the simple reason that it is all temporary, it’s not secure, it’s not permanent and all kinds of natural and human causes could destroy that kind of wealth. Rust, or thieves or rot could destroy material wealth. Moths eat up garments, rust destroys jewelry and precious metals, and thieves can break in and steal valuables. Talking about the kinds of wealth that existed in ancient times today we measure wealth by houses cars bank accounts boats stocks and bonds. But the same thing is true because today those kinds of wealth are not secure they are not permanent, they are at risk from fire floods hurricanes and earthquakes. Stocks and bonds are at the mercy of a vacillating stock market and earthly treasures are subject to rust, thieves. A simple reality is you can live for material possessions you can live to gain material wealth but there is nothing secure or is there anything permanent about that.

Let’s pause for a moment and clarify something, Jesus is not teaching that's wrong to be wealthy, the Bible does not support the idea. God created material blessings as a matter of fact in first Timothy chapter 6 Paul addresses rich people and tells them God gave you wealth to richly enjoy and to bless other with. The Bible says there's nothing wrong with having money that's not problem what is the problem money having you. By the way he also said in that same chapter, it's the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. So there's nothing wrong with possessing things the problem is when things possess us. With that in mind let me remind you that Jesus is saying that it's really kind of futile to try to accumulate wealth because there's nothing permanent about its, it all subject to destruction. There is no way on earth you're going to secure it here, if you try and accumulate it and we try to protect it we try to keep it from eroding away it just can’t be done.

I once read once the story of a man who was the official photographer for John F Kennedy (I can’t remember his name). During the time of Kennedy’s presidency, he very meticulously document what he knew was an important time not only in American but world history. He created an archive of over 40,000 negatives of John F Kennedy and his family and his administration. Only approximately 400 of those pictures were ever made public and when that happened he would personally take the print of the negative to get it developed. He was very concerned that he preserved this great treasure of photographs for posterity. Upon his death he arranged to have the put in the safety deposit vault at the JP Morgan Chase bank. I didn't mention the address of the JPMorgan Chase bank it was the branch on the fifth floor of The World Trade Centre. When those planes on September 11th flew into the World Trade Centre the building was levelled. For month teams of engineers operating and special 100 tonne per carry forklifts, 1000’s of dump trucks were brought into clear the site. Some of the large vault boxes were found but when they were open all were simply filled with ashes. The only thing that survived was the twisted metal of the boxes themselves.

Lay Up Treasure in Heaven.

All that stuff you accumulated, and you put it in the bank, and you think it's safe that is a dream, it’s an illusion. Jesus said it can’t be kept safe, there's nothing you can do to make it permanent which is why he says.

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal

Clearly the point is making in this passage is rather simple. Verse 19 says “don't lay-up treasure on earth”, verse 20 say, “lay it up in heaven”, instead.   It's as if he's saying, look instead of accumulating money implied in using it for yourself of hoarding it, if you use it for the Kingdom of God and he will have given you treasure in heaven. That is the point that he's making, not just in these couple of verses but throughout the sermon and throughout the scripture. So he's saying lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven and the things that you do by following the laws of internal righteousness will lay up treasures in heaven because is it being used to build something permanent which is the Kingdom of God.

An early Roman historian told of the situation in the 3rd  century where the Roman army was persecuting the church. In one situation they went into a church, and they demanded that the pastor showed the army where they kept their treasure, where the offering money was stored. The Pastor pointed out the window and outside there were orphans being fed he pointed to the sick who were being nursed nourished and to the poor whose needs were being supplied and he said those are the treasures of the church. He added the church has always believed that what we keep we lose and what we spend we have.

This is what Jesus is talking about here, he's saying if you do that you lay it up in heaven and there moths won’t get at it nothing will corrode it, fire cannot destroy it and thieves cannot steal it. The point is works of grace our permanent , obviously there permanent and they are eternal so that is what we should do. This is exactly that Jesus is saying here, he is telling us to concentrate on things that will last. In other words, you can take those things with you. As someone once wrote, I quote, “In the hour of man's departure neither silver nor gold or precious stones accompany him but only his knowledge of the law and good works”. The only two things that are permanent, there are only two things that are eternal in this life, the word of God, and works of the people of God. Works of love and grace.

If you give yourself to the scripture and to serving people then the more treasure you store up in heaven. But the more you try to accumulate fame and fortune and pleasure on this earth the bigger bonfire you're going to have at the judgement seat of Christ. Because all of it is going to go up in smoke. So wise up and give yourself to the scriptures and to the service of other people. Don’t lay-up treasure on earth give it back to your father in heaven. Don’t hoard where hands might steal, placed it at beyond the reach of human hands. Don’t save money for money sake, invest in saving lives and investing in other. Don’t save for this world, save for the next, “for where your treasure is there your heart will be also”. Exactly backwards from the way we think,  here's the way we think, we think well wherever your heart is that's where your money is going to be.

There's some truth to that but Jesus has just flipped it and said where your treasure is so that's where your hearts going to be. What Jesus is telling us is that we should be starting to begin by putting our treasure where it ought to be, and then your heart will follow. He's getting at the real issue the real issue in this passage, and that is discernment. In these three chapters called The Sermon on the Mount, is all about inner righteousness, that being it’s about where is your heart, because where your treasure it that's is what really point to wher your heart is. This is trying to teach us that where your heart is acts as a pointer to what you value in life. People’s posture of heart tends to follow what they treasure. In other words, he’s saying don’t worry so much about your think you value in this world.

The famous literary figure doctor Johnson, famous for his irony, was shown round a castle once and he looked around at all the material wealth and he said humorously, and I quote, “these are things which make it very difficult to die”, end of quote. 

What Jesus is saying is you put your treasure in the right place your heart’s will follow. Get your priorities straight and you will get rewarded with what really matter, in this life and in heaven. To clarify this last major point Jesus will gives us two illustrations I want us to look at them because this really focuses in on the fact that this is all about your posture of heart.