SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Dana.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Wonderful to hear your voices singing praise to our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you are visiting with us this morning, or this is your first time here, welcome.
SPEAKER_01: We have been working our way through the gospel according to Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have a Bible or a device, I encourage you to take that and make your way to Matthew chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: We focus on the public reading of the Word of God here, so we read a significant passage other than the passage that we're preaching.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning they just in Providence happened to connect.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll touch on that in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll start in Matthew chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: We are nearing the end of the chapter, getting to a section where the Lord Jesus speaks of some comparisons using the word like.
SPEAKER_01: We have a schedule conflict that none of our staff really processed through.
SPEAKER_01: So that is not going to happen tonight.
SPEAKER_01: It will be next Sunday night.
SPEAKER_01: So pardon the schedule conflict that we just did not recognize, and I'll take responsibility for that one.
SPEAKER_01: One of my hobbies, I don't know if you can really call it that.
SPEAKER_01: Things that I love to read about and to study and to research is the American West.
SPEAKER_01: And according to legend, a gold mine is said to exist somewhere in the superstition mountains of Arizona.
SPEAKER_01: It's said that a family came up from northern Mexico sometime in the 1840s and began to establish a gold mine.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, in 1848, all but one or two family members were ambushed and murdered by Apache Indians.
SPEAKER_01: Twenty or so years later, a German man by the name of Jacob Waltz, who for some reason, even being German, had the nickname of the Dutchman.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe he met Anton, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: The Dutchman had had the fortune to locate the mine again, with some help, apparently with one of the surviving family members.
SPEAKER_01: And he it is said that he worked that mine for a while before retiring to Phoenix, where he passed away in 1891.
SPEAKER_01: No one has been able to discover again, to locate, to find the famed lost Dutchman mined in the superstition mountains ever since.
SPEAKER_01: And just in case you're interested, over the course of the last hundred years or so, several people who have been associated with finding the mine or have sought to find it intently have become the victims of unfortunate circumstances or have died many strange deaths.
SPEAKER_01: So don't put that one on your bucket list, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And the Lost Dutchman's mine is one of several such stories that come out of the history of the American West.
SPEAKER_01: Legends abound of mines, of gold, caches of gold and silver and artifacts scattered throughout the mountains and the deserts.
SPEAKER_01: Let's imagine for a moment that you came across an old family heirloom.
SPEAKER_01: And in that heirloom you found a little tiny piece of paper with some details scratched on it.
SPEAKER_01: That showed the location of some such treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Not a superstition, not a legend, but a real, true to life treasure that could in reality set your family up for life.
SPEAKER_01: But the property was not in your family's possession.
SPEAKER_01: It was in someone else's possession.
SPEAKER_01: But you do a little digging and you find a little bit more information about this treasure and about its location, and you discover that the property is for sale.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
SPEAKER_01: Now it's pretty easy to be skeptical, right?
SPEAKER_01: Stories are stories for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: Legends are legends for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, right?
SPEAKER_01: But what if your skepticism were unfounded?
SPEAKER_01: And the treasure really did exist and you had knowledge of it.
SPEAKER_01: How would you respond?
SPEAKER_01: It's the basis of a series of comparisons that Jesus makes here.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, I'd like to read if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in verse 44.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus is speaking.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.
SPEAKER_01: Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.
SPEAKER_01: When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad.
SPEAKER_01: So it will be at the close of the age.
SPEAKER_01: The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Have you understood all these things?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus asked his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There's an important detail here that we need to grasp as we look at this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout all of chapter 13, Jesus has been alternating, speaking with the crowds of people that gather around him, and then in private explaining what he says to the crowds to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And we see here back in verse 36 that Jesus is now in a time in which he's just speaking to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking to those who are his followers, who have committed their lives to following him.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not directed here towards the seekers, but to those who have come to believe in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says to his disciples, Do you pursue the kingdom of heaven as though it is a valuable treasure?
SPEAKER_01: Now that tells us that we can be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not pursuing him rightly.
SPEAKER_01: Just let that process through your mind a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is speaking to his disciples and indicating to them the kingdom of heaven is a far greater treasure than you understand.
SPEAKER_01: Are you pursuing it correctly?
SPEAKER_01: So let's ask the question: what indeed is the value of a treasure?
SPEAKER_01: What is the value of a treasure?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it depends on how we define the treasure, right?
SPEAKER_01: As a little kid, I remember being excited about finding a penny or a dime on the sidewalk.
SPEAKER_01: That's a treasure.
SPEAKER_01: As an adult, I've found a$5 bill, and that's kind of exciting.
SPEAKER_01: The value of a treasure depends on how we define the treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Is it a$20 bill?
SPEAKER_01: Is it silver or gold or one of the newfangled cryptocurrencies?
SPEAKER_01: Is a treasure a home?
SPEAKER_01: A family?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a top-level job?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a secure retirement?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a bank account?
SPEAKER_01: Is it is it freedom?
SPEAKER_01: Is it independence?
SPEAKER_01: Is it safety?
SPEAKER_01: You see, the makeup of a treasure determines its value.
SPEAKER_01: After receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer in 2010, art collector and former fighter pilot Forrest Fenn hit a treasure chest somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote in his memoir that it was hidden at the place where he imagined lying down to die.
SPEAKER_01: That treasure chest contained items valued somewhere between one and two million dollars.
SPEAKER_01: And he said that it would belong to whomever found it.
SPEAKER_01: Fenn said he hid it because he wanted people to experience the glory of the outdoors, the wilderness in the same way that he had, and find peace in it just as he had.
SPEAKER_01: And since the publication of that memoir, it is estimated that several thousand people have studied the clues to its location found in a cryptic 24-line poem authored by Fenn.
SPEAKER_01: Some people have gone bankrupt searching for that treasure.
SPEAKER_01: There are at least five known people who have lost their lives searching for that treasure.
SPEAKER_01: The value of that treasure was worth their very lives.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, it was found about a year and a half ago.
SPEAKER_01: So don't go looking.
SPEAKER_01: From these parables, from these comparisons of the Lord Jesus, it is right for us to ask, what is the value of the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_01: To know that, we have to define it.
SPEAKER_01: We have to understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And there are a number of ways that we could do that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start by defining the treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says the treasure is a kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's the whole point of these comparisons, right?
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven is like this.
SPEAKER_01: A kingdom is a place where a king rules.
SPEAKER_01: It's a realm where the king exercises his rule and his authority.
SPEAKER_01: It is a location, a place in which the presence of the king dominates.
SPEAKER_01: Of heaven describes or defines the realm of the kingship.
SPEAKER_01: There's a place called heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And in this heaven, a king rules.
SPEAKER_01: Now there are there are different terms used throughout the Bible to refer to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Other gospels refer to it as the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Various ways to describe it, but they all refer to the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven or of Christ, it is the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: There may be some minor emphases intended by various authors, but they refer to the realm over which Christ is king and over which he rules through his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Now that that enlarges our understanding a little bit, but it doesn't go too far in helping us place a value on it.
SPEAKER_01: Because we each have in our own imaginations thoughts and images of this place called heaven, right?
SPEAKER_01: Most of them have been informed by television, which is unfortunate.
SPEAKER_01: Many of our imaginations have no basis in reality, so we we need we need more information.
SPEAKER_01: We need to know more about this heaven, the location of this kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that just in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew refers to heaven 83 times?
SPEAKER_01: 83 times?
SPEAKER_01: Talk about repetitious.
SPEAKER_01: Matt needed to learn some new words to expand his vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01: Or did he?
SPEAKER_01: What if?
SPEAKER_01: What if the value of the kingdom of heaven is so vast, so unimaginable, so incalculable, that God intends to use Matthew's pen to give us a glimpse of it, just a glimpse of it, by referring to it so many times.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we learn from the many references to heaven in Matthew?
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, I'm not going to cover all 83.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you a summary.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 16, we learn that it is the place from which the Spirit of God comes.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the home or the place of residence for God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's the realm of God the Father and the place from which he speaks.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in chapter 23, verse 22, it's called the throne room of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the home of Jesus, the Messiah, God the Son in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: It is the realm that has in some way broken into this world.
SPEAKER_01: It's a realm belonging to the poor in spirit, those who who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, those with childlike spirits.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 5, verse 12, it is a place of great reward.
SPEAKER_01: It is a place in chapter 7 for God's children.
SPEAKER_01: Also in chapter 7, it's identified as a restricted place.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will be granted entrance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a diverse place.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 8, verse 11, Jesus says, Many will come from east and west to sit down and celebrate with God's people.
SPEAKER_01: It's the opposite of Hades.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 11, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: Hades, by the way, is compared there to Sodom and Gomorrah, place that God destroyed with sulfur and brimstone.
SPEAKER_01: It's the opposite of that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 11, it's a place along with earth over which God the Father is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's the residence of holy, righteous angels.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 19, verse 12, it is a place worth place worth sacrificing for.
SPEAKER_01: It is a place of treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 19, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, it's it's a place along with the earth over which Christ has all authority.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we kind of come then full circle to a king who rules, who has authority over a realm.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ is that king.
SPEAKER_01: Someone has authority over the kingdom of heaven, and that someone is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is the king of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And in his coming to earth, his realm and his kingship have come to us.
SPEAKER_01: In his coming, the king has then commanded all people everywhere to repent of their sinful rebellion against God and to trust in Jesus as God's Messiah and King, proven through his death, burial, and resurrection and ascension back to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven, then, is the is the realm of God's presence and rule that is full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: The earthly presence of God's kingdom existed first in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: In a garden full of perfection.
SPEAKER_01: You remember right?
SPEAKER_01: God did several works of creative power, and over and over again he said, This is good.
SPEAKER_01: This is good.
SPEAKER_01: This is very good.
SPEAKER_01: And then in that garden, he established the first human beings with his authority over them as his images.
SPEAKER_01: And he walked with them.
SPEAKER_01: And they experienced the presence of the King of Heaven.
SPEAKER_01: After that, God kicked them out because they sinned, and later a flood destroyed that garden.
SPEAKER_01: And the kingdom of heaven on earth was not found again on this earth until a chosen people wandered in a desert that God would again grant a measure of his kingdom of heaven on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And even then it was found only in a single room, totally inaccessible to anyone on earth except for one person, one out of every 365 days.
SPEAKER_01: And then only with only with some blood to atone for sin.
SPEAKER_01: And later, in a display of judgment, God left even that room.
SPEAKER_01: And there was no sense then of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Until, that is, the kingdom of heaven would invade the devil's territory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, full of grace and glory and truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so Matthew now has been showing us that God, the great king over all the earth, began establishing his kingdom through a descendant of David, that great king of ancient Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And so in chapter 1, all the way through chapter 13, we have seen that son of David, the anointed one, the Messiah who would save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, the only way back into that holy of holies in the temple is through sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: The only way back into that Garden of Eden with the presence of the king is if God's wrath is satisfied through sin, from sin.
SPEAKER_01: But what God begins, he always finishes.
SPEAKER_01: That's why at the end of your Bible, you see those elements that God began with coming back.
SPEAKER_01: In, as it were, a new kind of garden.
SPEAKER_01: A new kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Streets of gold and a tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: And the presence of the king reigning over all of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And outside of that garden is a fiery judgment characterized by weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that is, it doesn't sound pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: But the inbreaking, as it's sometimes called, of the kingdom of this king, began with the divine conception of a young lady.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus the king proclaimed forgiveness through repentance because the kingdom he said is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: And so for everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear that Jesus is this great king, the one from whose presence we have been barred, that all changes now, he says.
SPEAKER_01: And he commands everyone, everywhere, to come.
SPEAKER_01: To him, to take his yoke upon them, to be his disciples, to learn from him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because in his kingdom there is rest for your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now we're beginning to get a little bit of a taste of the value of this kingdom, aren't we?
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where sin is powerless.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where the debt for sin has been paid.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: What a savior.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where Satan is defeated because the king has crushed his head.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where love reigns.
SPEAKER_01: And that all sounds appealing, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's a place with no poisonous weeds as we've seen in Matthew 13.
SPEAKER_01: No sowing of lies, no falsehood, no deceit, no death, no tears, no pain, only perfection as God intended it.
SPEAKER_01: And that sounds incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Incredibly valuable.
SPEAKER_01: A place where I can walk and talk with the King of creation.
SPEAKER_01: With Jesus, the eternal one.
SPEAKER_01: With no sense of guilt, with no sense of shame, because all fear is driven out.
SPEAKER_01: A place where the glory of God reigns, we cannot begin to calculate the value of being in the presence of the glory of God that encompasses everything and everyone reveling in that grace and that mercy of the great and the sovereign King.
SPEAKER_01: And here in the gospel accounts, we read of the inbreaking of that kingdom into a world that wants nothing of that goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, beloved, today we've experienced a bit of that goodness, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah, what a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You've gotten a sense of that value.
SPEAKER_01: As we gather together to worship, to learn, and to grow together, so what is then the value of this treasure?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the value that Jesus places upon the treasure of knowing him, of belonging to him, of being in his presence and following him and being a part of his kingdom is everything.
SPEAKER_01: You heard that right?
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you have.
SPEAKER_01: In these comparisons, Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that you just stumble upon in a field.
SPEAKER_01: And it's so valuable, you instantly recognize that is something I have to have.
SPEAKER_01: And you recognize that it's so valuable that you want to give up everything to have it.
SPEAKER_01: Now understand.
SPEAKER_01: This is for those who are already following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you have yet to come to Jesus, it still applies to you, still has impact for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have yet to come to Jesus, to take him as your Lord and to follow him, do not turn away from the treasure of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourself before him, cry out to him, call out to him in confession of your sin and trust in his grace and his mercy to have you as his child, you who would sin against him in rebellion, and yet he says, I will pay for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: To my brothers and sisters in the kingdom, you who already have had a sense of your sinfulness, and so you come to the king poor in a spirit, grieving over your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Scriptures say to us, lay aside every sin and every weight that so easily entangles us, that trips you up.
SPEAKER_01: And run, run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking where?
SPEAKER_01: To Jesus the King, the author and the perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: We need more men and women and young people who will say, Take the world, but give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I once heard that the it's hard to describe that the book of Hebrews is a sermon that is designed as a back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: Where the the preacher would preach part of Hebrews, anticipating the congregation to respond with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Building and building and building.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is the great king of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look for a few minutes at an example of what Jesus describes here.
SPEAKER_01: Because the value of the kingdom of heaven is found most foundationally in a person, in the king, in the presence of the king.
SPEAKER_01: And remember again, the primary audience here in this section is the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They have obeyed Christ's command to come to him, to take his yoke upon them, and to be his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Lord Jesus says to them in private, in a house, pursue the king and pursue his kingdom like it's your greatest treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Christian, Jesus must be your greatest treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Notice in the second comparison in verse 45, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a person.
SPEAKER_01: Like a person who found one pearl of great value.
SPEAKER_01: Pearls were of much more value in ancient times than they are today.
SPEAKER_01: There are some descriptions that indicate that some pearls existed that would probably be valued around a million dollars today.
SPEAKER_01: A person finding that and saying, I want that one.
SPEAKER_01: Let's consider Abraham for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: There are two moments in Abraham's life in the book of Genesis that are really formative.
SPEAKER_01: The first is in Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: We can tell from Romans chapter 4 and Hebrews chapter 11 that this is the moment in chapter 12 where God drew Abraham to himself, or God gave him the gift of faith and gave him new life, justified him, declared him to be righteous before God.
SPEAKER_01: As Anton read for us from Romans 4, not because of anything that Abraham did, but because of the gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the moment that defined Abraham's eternity as he believed in God.
SPEAKER_01: And so in chapter 12 of Genesis and verse 1, Yahweh says to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: And there begins several I wills here.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, and I will do this, five of them in a row.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told that Abraham went.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks to Abraham, go.
SPEAKER_01: Leave everything that you know, leave everything that you have and leave it behind and go.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even going to tell you where to go.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you the value of the treasure that you're going to have.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you the property that you're going to possess.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, it's only going to be a burial plot.
SPEAKER_01: Just go.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham, go.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham went.
SPEAKER_01: There's the life of faith right there.
SPEAKER_01: The life of faith is hearing the command of the king to go out into his kingdom and respond to him with obedient faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's really a sacrifice of what you have for the pursuit of something better.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's important here is the command, go.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh said to Abraham, go.
SPEAKER_01: Go where?
SPEAKER_01: From your country, from your kindred, from your father's house.
SPEAKER_01: Go to.
SPEAKER_01: Go.
SPEAKER_01: That's a unique phrase in the Hebrew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And it occurs only one other time in the Hebrew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of significant.
SPEAKER_01: The way this is written, it occurs only one other time in the Hebrew Bible, and it occurs also in the life of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And the parallels to this passage here in chapter 12 are really kind of amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Look over at Genesis chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 22.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are already thinking, oh, I know what that chapter is.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 22, beginning in verse 1, after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Here am I.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go.
SPEAKER_01: God, the last time you said that to me, I had to give up a whole lot.
SPEAKER_01: I left everything I knew.
SPEAKER_01: I left my home, I left my family.
SPEAKER_01: And here we have the exact same phrase again.
SPEAKER_01: God speaking to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Abe, go.
SPEAKER_01: You can't help but think in Abraham's mind that what's going through it is, huh?
SPEAKER_01: God, I gave up everything already.
SPEAKER_01: What more do you want?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the rest of this chapter tells us what God wants.
SPEAKER_01: If you're familiar with it, you know that God said, take your son Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain.
SPEAKER_01: And so they go.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 just parallels again chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks, Abraham goes.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks, Abraham goes, and they go up to a mountain, and Abraham puts some rocks together and builds an altar and ties up his son somehow and lays him on the altar and gets ready to offer his son as a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: The angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_01: The angel said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's a provision, verse 13, there's a provision of another substitute.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham takes that substitute and offers the animal as a burnt offering instead of his son, and Abraham calls the name of that place the Lord will provide.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how the account here in chapter 22 displays the test that is set before Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 2, we read, Take your son.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: God, at this point, I have two sons.
SPEAKER_01: I have Ishmael and I have Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God knows that.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, take your only son.
SPEAKER_01: God, I have two?
SPEAKER_01: Did you forget?
SPEAKER_01: Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: In case you still need more clarification, it's the one you love.
SPEAKER_01: See how God leaves no question in Abraham's mind as to what he's to do.
SPEAKER_01: Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go.
SPEAKER_01: The end of the chapter, sorry, in the middle of the chapter in verse 12, after it's all done, we read something similar to that.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Don't do this, because now I know that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
SPEAKER_01: Look carefully.
SPEAKER_01: What changed from verse 2 to verse 12?
SPEAKER_01: Abraham takes his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, and willingly put him out as a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And now, after that all happens, something changed, and it's indicated in our text by an omission.
SPEAKER_01: Something left out in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: There are three words that are no longer repeated.
SPEAKER_01: Whom you love.
SPEAKER_01: Does that mean that Abraham no longer loves Isaac?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what it means at all.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the author's point.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying to Abraham the same kind of thing that Jesus said to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham, do you love me more than you love Isaac?
SPEAKER_01: Is Isaac of greater value to you than I am?
SPEAKER_01: So God tests Abraham's heart and he says, Abraham, do I really mean that much to you?
SPEAKER_01: Am I of greater value?
SPEAKER_01: Is the treasure of knowing me, of having me, greater than the treasure of having your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Matthew 13, the careful look will show a curious shift between those first two elements of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I noted a little bit ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's a shift from an object to a person.
SPEAKER_01: An object to a person.
SPEAKER_01: First, the kingdom is like a treasure that someone wants to obtain.
SPEAKER_01: But the second is like a person who, when presented with the chance for treasure, gives up everything he has to obtain the treasure.
SPEAKER_01: God tested Abraham to see if he truly saw God as the ultimate treasure, even above his beloved son.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham showed, yes, indeed, he loved his son, his only son Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: But the kingdom of heaven was his greatest treasure.
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of Genesis, by the way, the author of Genesis shows that in a literary way, because from Genesis 22 until the time that Isaac, until the time that Abraham dies, Abraham and Isaac are not together ever again.
SPEAKER_01: In the flow of the storyline.
SPEAKER_01: You don't see Isaac with Abraham, his father, again until Abraham dies.
SPEAKER_01: So in a subtle way, the writer of Genesis is telling us this was really true.
SPEAKER_01: What Abraham demonstrated was that his heart treasured God more than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_01: You remember in the New Testament when Peter confronted Jesus and said, No, I will never deny you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Peter, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to deny me three times.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was crushed.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was crushed, and it says he went out and wept bitterly when he realized what he'd done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus at the end of John's gospel comes back to Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee where Peter had taken out his friends out on the boat to go back to fishing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, listen, I denied Christ three times.
SPEAKER_01: What more is left for me but to go back to my job of fishing?
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing more I can do.
SPEAKER_01: And on the shoreline, Jesus is there cooking breakfast for them, and he says to Peter, Peter, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you love me more than these?
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't know exactly.
SPEAKER_01: We can't pinpoint exactly what Jesus was referring to.
SPEAKER_01: What was he talking about the fish that Jesus was cooking for breakfast?
SPEAKER_01: Peter, do you love me more than fish?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it was just a more general thing of fishing.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, you've spent your life, you grew up fishing, you grew up on the boats, you grew up on the water.
SPEAKER_01: This is your life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you love me more than this?
SPEAKER_01: What did Peter say?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Lord, you know that I do.
SPEAKER_01: Do you value Jesus more than anything on this earth?
SPEAKER_01: Can you say with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, take the world but give me Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're sitting there thinking, preacher, you don't you don't know what's going on in the deep dark recesses of my soul.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: And if Jesus can say to Peter, Peter, I forgive your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Go, feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Be a part of my kingdom, then he can do that for your sin too.
SPEAKER_01: See, this gives us an opportunity to be in the place of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us an opportunity to be in the sandals of Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Understanding the guilt and the shame of our sin and hearing the Lord Jesus say, I am the greatest treasure you will ever know.
SPEAKER_01: Do you value me more than these?
SPEAKER_01: I heard this week of some Afghani Christians who are refusing to leave Afghanistan.
SPEAKER_01: Instead to face death because they know that Afghanistan needs the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Would I make that same call?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a third picture that Jesus gives us in our text here in Matthew, beginning in verse 47.
SPEAKER_01: It shows what lies ahead of those who, not having faith in Jesus, cannot see him as their greatest treasure.
SPEAKER_01: It parallels the previous section where Jesus will one day divide the weeds from the true children of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's saying is, listen, there's no middle ground here presented by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's either that we pursue the treasure and we begin to share about it, we have this treasure, we obtain the treasure of Christ and Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: This is our treasure because we belong to the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so we take out of our treasure and we give it to others, we share of it, we speak of it, we lead people to the king, or we're left out of the garden, held back from the presence of the king where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Those who believed that Jesus is the greatest treasure, as we will see coming up in Matthew, took up their cross and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: It's strange to me that those who believed, genuinely believed, that Forrest Fenn hit a box somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, were willing to pursue that treasure even at the greatest of costs.
SPEAKER_01: And yet so few of us who go by the name Christian are willing to be discomfited for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to those who follow him that the King and His kingdom are the greatest of treasures.
SPEAKER_01: Will you establish him as your greatest treasure?
SPEAKER_01: As the greatest of your loves, as the most valuable of all the things that are yours.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may not experience the reward of obtaining that treasure in the way that you think.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 12, God said to Abraham, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham ended his life with one son run off into the desert, one son remaining.
SPEAKER_01: And the only thing that belonged to him was a burial plot.
SPEAKER_01: But he knew that God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew that God would be his prize no matter what.
SPEAKER_01: Can we be a new generation of people who say to Jesus, take the world?
SPEAKER_01: But give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may you be displayed to our hearts and our minds as worth everything.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, forgive us for getting our eyes off of you and onto the things that don't last.
SPEAKER_01: Enable us to establish our treasure in heaven so that our hearts can be there.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we want to see you and to know you.
SPEAKER_01: To walk with you as Adam and Eve did in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: To partake of that fruit of the tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: In your presence, surrounded by your glory.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Grant us faith to trust in you that we might stand before you righteous because of the shed blood of Jesus for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.