Valuable and Costly

This morning, we're gonna be looking at the kingdom of heaven. We're gonna be hearing from the king, who is coming to be very clear, he is freeing you from certain oppression. Death, the devil's lies, your own sinful destruction, and the coming judgment.

See, there's a truth that all of those declarations of being freed from something, you're being freed into something. From feminism to not having men, from society to being just drawn to your own animal instincts, from God to idols, from the family unit and sexual ethics to lust, pornography, prostitution, and STDs.

Jesus is more honest than others. He's saying what he's freeing you from and how he will rule you. The hard thing we don't actually like to really acknowledge, as human beings, we were designed to be ruled. We were designed to be under a rule, and we were designed to be under God's good rule. He is the king. We have options, we could seek to have self-rule and that leads to our own self-destruction. We could try to be ruled by others, a government, a society, that's going to lead us into their own problems. Or we can be under God's rule, the one who has all authority and all goodness.

What I wanna press in this morning, what I believe Jesus is pressing in this morning is see how valuable and worthy and good God's rule is. Christ the King has come to rule us.

There's three things I hope we see from this text. It's worthy and costly, it's necessary, and it is to be proclaimed.

The kingdom is worthy and costly

First, the kingdom is worthy and costly. This comes from our first two parables there, verses 44 to 46.

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. 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.

Remember, if you're with us, new, well, you don't need to remember this. You need to understand we're at Matthew. We're walking through the book of Matthew, and this is the third major discourse. This discourse is mainly made up of parables, and it has two parts. The first part is to the public, where Jesus has explicitly said he's saying things in parables to hide truths, but now we're in a house with just disciples, and he is explaining so that they are understood.

That where we are is important because Jesus is making these things known so that they would be understood to these disciples. The public teaching was hiding with parables. Now we're in this private teaching where he's explaining the parables and giving other parables. These things are meant to be understood. That's why it's very important at the end of this teaching, verse 51,

do you understand these things?

So here we have, there's repetition. That's just good Hebrew pedagogy. 44 through 47 really are a unit because we've got again and again, 44 and 45 represent two parables that are saying the same thing. The kingdom of heaven is like. And that's what we've spoken of the kingdom throughout this teaching and the parables in chapter 13. What is the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom heaven like? Here it's a great treasure. It's like a pearl of great price. There's incredible value to the kingdom of heaven.

Let's go down and maybe just do a big backdrop of what the kingdom of heaven has been thus far, because he's telling us it's like something worthy. It is worthy, it's valuable, but what is it? Well, Jesus is the king. We can go back to Matthew 1.1. The clear allusion here, the last genealogy, he's the son of Abraham, he's the son of David. The son of David is the king who rules forever. It's from 2 Samuel 7. Psalm 89, Psalm 110. Already we see Matthew is setting this whole gospel up, that Jesus is the true king who will rule forever, and that's why we have the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 2.2, getting us ready for Advent and Christmas, the Magi come from the east. And they tell Herod, the ruler of Israel,

where is the king of the Jews that we might worship him?

The nations are coming to worship a child born who is to be the forever perfect king. We can go to Matthew 4.17, the beginning of his earthly ministry. The words of Jesus,

repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Turn away from every other ruler, every other oppression, every other sinful way of trying to live this life and be fulfilled, and turn to me, the King, Jesus says. Repent. There's a whole change of direction. Come out of sin, come out of death, come out of darkness, and come to God himself, who's come to rule you again.

Repentance, it's a change in direction. It's a clear aspect of faith. It doesn't mean you clean yourself up. It means you come to Jesus, who washes you and cleanses you. Repentance is necessary for the kingdom.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

How is the kingdom of God here? The king is speaking, that's how. The king has come down from heaven to rule his people with his kindness and grace and truth. He leads us away from idolatry and destruction. He leads us into true worship.

You can then go to the first great discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, where you see what it means to be a citizen, the blessings of the kingdom. What an incredible life that the kingdom presents for the citizens. To not be anxious because you know your heavenly father is good and generous. To know that your heavenly father already knows what you need before you ask, but he invites you to ask for anything. To know that you can be built upon the rock, the steadiness of God himself and the king's promises so that all the trials and troubles of this world, they will not blow you over and destroy you. The kingdom that teaches you what it means that you're forgiven so that you can forgive others, that is a wonderful kingdom.

We go back to the beginning of chapter 13. The kingdom is like those words that go out generously, everywhere, and they land on all kinds of soil, but the soil that's good, prepared by God, softened by God, those seeds grow up to a great fruitful tree, to a great harvest. The kingdom is also like seeds that are thrown, and those are the sons of the kingdom who are going to coexist with the evil ones until the end of ages. Those sons are kept.

The kingdom of heaven is here because as God promised in the Old Testament, he himself would come and rule us. He himself would come and teach his people. He himself would come and exercise his dominion over humanity. To come to the kingdom of heaven means we turn away from our own self-rule. It means we turn away from being ruled by sin, ruled by lies. The most important description of all humanity is that we're image bearers. We're made in the image of God. And the only way we can practice imaging him is by once again being under him, near him, and with him. That is why Jesus has come to be the king.

So here's a definition for the kingdom of heaven as we're thinking about what it is like. God's righteous rule exercised for God's people and his people submitting to his rule in full obedience to enjoy his rule. The kingdom of heaven has two parts. God's righteous rule being exercised for his people and his people submitting to his rule in full obedience to enjoy his rule. That is the kingdom of heaven.

You cannot enjoy the kingdom of heaven while remaining stubbornly in sin. You cannot enjoy the kingdom of heaven while being committed to your own self-rule and your way. The book of Judges teaches the most simple problem of humanity. When there was no king, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and it has led to destruction and destruction and destruction. Without a king, we're left to our own devices, and in our sin, we will Destroy ourselves.

This is an important backdrop for today's message because the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that you're willing to sell everything for. The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great price that you see as great value and you long to have it. The kingdom of heaven is being ruled by God. Does that sound appealing to you as a treasure to desire? to be under His good law because of His great grace, living for His glory. Do we long to be ruled by God, to delight in His law, to delight in Him?

Let's look at these texts now in light of the kingdom of heaven exercise being God's good rule being submitted to by us. It's like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy of finding the kingdom of heaven, he goes and sells everything so that he might buy that field and then possess the treasure. There's a man who finds it. It's not clear if he's looking for it. The next guy, he's looking for pearls and finds a great pearl, a pearl of great price, but it's not clear if this man just stumbles upon it. He's in a field. He then covers it back up to make sure no one else finds it and then gets into a bidding war for the field. That's just wisdom. He hides it, sells everything because he realized everything he has in this world is nothing compared to the treasure he just found. He purchases it.

Now, the emphasis in the parable is how great this treasure is. The kingdom of heaven is the greatest possible thing you could ever discover, find, or be given. The kingdom of God has a value to it that is worth losing everything else for, giving up anything else. The value and the costliness, you see the value and you have great joy and you're willing to give up anything for it.

Verse 45, the second parable, which parallels.

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

The one clear distinction here is that it's someone who's now on a mission. He's looking for something very specific.

Who, on finding one pearl of great value,

in the search of something great, he finds the great one. In finding something that's valuable, he finds something great.

He went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again, the parallel is obvious, I hope. There's a greatness of value and worth. There's a willingness to sell everything in order to have it. It costs him everything, but he gains what is more valuable and worthy.

What Jesus' teaching is for us to understand. He has come down from heaven to teach us what life is, to show us what is truly worthy, the king who has all authority and is perfectly good and has come down for our good, he is worthy. There is nothing greater to have other than Jesus himself and his good rule. Worth more than anything else. There's nothing in this world that's more worthy.

We need to make sure we understand that no matter the cost, There's multiple people who come to Jesus and will ask, what do I need to follow you? And they'll count the cost and they'll go away sad, ashamed. Jesus will up the bar as to what it means to be a disciple and people will go away not willing to pay the cost. To be in the kingdom is costly. There's a cost, you have to buy in. We can't get away from this. In order to receive the kingdom, there's something purchased.

Now, here's the good news this morning. You do not have to buy your way in the kingdom. In fact, you can't. It is impossible. Your earthly currency has no heavenly good. There is no way that you could possibly come up with enough. If we pulled all of our resources together in this room, there's nothing that would be of any value that could get you what the purchasing price is for what the kingdom is.

So what do we do with that buy it? Because that's repeated. What do we do with the buy it aspect? Well, we must first see how valuable it is. We must first see how important it is that we would get it, then to feel the burden that we need somehow to receive it, to get it, and realize we have no purchasing power.

He purchased our access

Well, this is where the good news Jesus Christ comes in in a significant way, and we see how his rule is so good. The king came to purchase it for us. The king came to buy us with his own precious blood. You see, the whole reason we're not in the kingdom to begin with is sin. The garden was the kingdom. Adam and Eve, under God's good rule, with one prohibition, don't eat of that tree. I don't know how long that lasted, but they couldn't uphold that one prohibition. That was the kingdom. It's God's good rule over man, and Adam and Eve submitting joyfully until they destroyed that good garden, were removed from God's presence, under guilt. And God then started making promises. will send a son. I will send a king.

Christian, the king has come to give us what's most valuable and he paid the cost to let us in. Our sin is what keeps us from God. Our guilt is what keeps us from God's good blessing. Christ came to die on the cross. His holy and great and worthy blood is the only access we have to coming into the kingdom. He purchased our access. This is what makes Christianity truly unique. And if you wanna have doubt about Christianity, this should be it. How is it that the God we're rebelling against would be so loving and merciful that he would come and save us from our own rebellion against him?

That's what's wild about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hate him in our sin. And he loves us so much while we hate him, he comes to die for us so that we can be renewed in our relationship with him. That's the wildest part about the gospel. That's the most challenging aspect of the gospel. Is God that merciful? Is God that gracious? Is God that loving? If you look to the cross, the answer is obviously yes. The answer is yes. He's purchased us with his own blood so that we can once again be renewed in Christ in obedience, faithfulness, and worship.

This is why when we come across God's word and there's a rule in which we do not want, we have to remember that rule is good and what Christ purchased us for. We cannot question God's goodness when we look at the cross. His prohibitions are only telling us this is not good for us. His commands are always telling us what is good for us. But we do have to remember it is going to be costly for us. Because repentance means we're going to leave behind all the sins Christ died to save us from. Repentance means we recognize he paid the penalty, he paid the sin debt, and then he gives us the grace to turn away from those sins and turn to him.

You don't come into the kingdom pulling behind you your u-haul of sin. You're eager to let it loose, to turn away from the simple practices that took you away from God so that you might put on the righteous practices of God.

Matthew had a special place for me. I was reading Matthew my freshman year of college when I was converted. I became interested in reading the Bible for a variety of odd reasons, so I picked it up like I would have any other book if I read another book at that time, but I started at the beginning, and in God's kindness, My drinking buddies were all pastors' kids, so as I was asking them questions about Leviticus, they said,

why are you reading Leviticus?

They said,

read a proverb a day in Matthew.

And what was incredibly kind of God is that every time a fool is described in Proverbs and Matthew, it was like a mirror. And every time Jesus spoke, it was rich, clear wisdom of what life is. the designer of life, what was showing how off my life was, and he was showing me what true life is, what true flourishing is, what true goodness is.

It became more and more obvious how the sinful life I had been following and chasing was so far off from the good design of God, and how Jesus knew exactly what life was supposed to look like. I now recognize that is just me recognizing his righteous rule. See, I believe the lies of the sexual revolution, that we really need to be freed from all the oppression. We need to be free to just pursue whatever your heart's desire is. And that leads to destruction. Following those things that they say oppress, putting off the good norms and the good rules of God, that only brings destruction.

Let's just ask a historical cultural question here. Sigmund Freud did promise that if we set off, set apart all the sexual norms that are oppressing us, we will be happier and more liberated. How's that working out? We just have a bunch of guys in their mom's basements looking at pornography, hating women right now. We have women being told the lie that your power is in your sexuality. The lies. We have to know the truth so we can see how clear the lies are. Those things that they say are oppression. Oh, when they come from God, we have to understand they're good.

Yeah, people mess these up. People misunderstand. I thought it was just a bunch of don'ts of things I really wanted to do. But then I saw the goodness of God the designer. And we came to reach reform us and transform us. Christian, we have to realize God's goodness is revealed in his word. He's told us what the good life is, and that it's worth the cost of everything we leave behind.

The next parable is that it's necessary. It's valuable and costly. And let's be very clear, it'll cost you the sin that's destroying you. It'll cost you the things that are keeping you from God. You're repenting from those. That's worth the cost.

How necessary the kingdom is

Now let's see how it's necessary. Verse 47, again, it's still following. It's a different kind of parable, but he's still following the same trajectory here.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown to 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, but 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'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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This third parable is continuing, but it's a different angle, right? He's repeated the same thing, and now he's got a different angle. And he's not really saying anything new that he hasn't said in previous parables. There's two kinds, good, righteous, wicked, evil. At the end, there'll be a judgment. There'll be weeping, fire, gnashing of teeth. He's already said this. It's important when something's repeated, it's for emphasis. It's really helped us understand, and really we have a bookend here, because the previous parable said this in the explanation of the weeds and the wheat. Now we've got two parables that are repeated telling us how valuable and costly it is, and worthy of the cost.

And now the last parable of this section is focused on how necessary the kingdom is. Jesus come, and there's time stamps. He speaks of the end of the age. in verse 49. All right, Jesus has come and he's put an end to the old covenant. He's fulfilled. We've seen that word over and over again in Matthew. Fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled. There is a new age to come. We're still waiting on him. Christ will return and there's a time when we will no longer have sin even present. We'll be like the sun, shining like the sun. This time will end.

And the parable emphasizes With the imagery, it's like a net thrown, and all kinds of fish, they're all gathered. But the bad fish are sorted. They're thrown away, and the good are put into containers. Now, again, this isn't new. We've already seen this kind of sorting with the weed and the wheat. Jesus even gives his own explanation of this parable in the parable without being asked, verse 49.

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out, and they'll separate the evil and the righteous. And the evil will be thrown into the fiery furnace, and they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is meant to be a warning. God will come. There is a time where we will all face God, and there will be a judgment. And all who are still in their sin because they have not repented will face God, and there will be justice and wrath.

Let's make some important clarifications as we think about this. God is perfectly just. If he does not punish sin, he is not a good God. Just in principle. If he doesn't punish any sin, he's not a good God. If he doesn't punish all sin, he's not a good God. We want a God who is just and right and true. We just don't want him to punish our sin. But God is perfectly just. He's not mean and angry looking for sin. He's actually incredibly patient and gracious because he sees sin constantly and doesn't judge it immediately.

Second, God is incredibly patient and gracious. He sees it all the time. He's merciful waiting for those who would come to him.

Third, we are all by nature wicked. We're like the bad fish, we're like the weeds, Whatever word picture you want, we're all by nature rebelling against God. We're all by nature in Adam's sin, suppressing God and His truth, rejecting God and rebelling against Him. No one is good. There's no such thing as a good person on their own. You were a wicked fish, you were a weed, and God, in His grace, by the power of the blood, transforms you into a righteous one that he has restored.

The only way to not be the wicked fish that's thrown away, the wicked person who was put in the fiery furnace where there's gnashing of teeth, is to believe in Jesus Christ, who purchased you, who forgives you only by the death he suffered on the cross. The only way to avoid this fiery furnace and this punishment and the wrath of God is to believe in Jesus, who God himself sent to bring us forgiveness.

We say it's necessary because the only way to avoid this is to believe in Jesus. The gospel, the kingdom of heaven has a necessity to it. You must believe in Jesus because the kingdom of heaven incorporates all and there will be some who are judged and some who are brought into the kingdom, you must believe in Jesus.

Before we move to the next point, it's important we understand that there's a worthiness of the kingdom, a cost of the kingdom, a necessity of the kingdom. As Ben prayed earlier, as many of you are following along and actively praying about, We are considering and hoping we will be sending beloved members to a church down the street. It's gonna be costly. Let's be very clear, it's gonna be costly for us who are staying and sending, and it's gonna be costly for those who are going. Why would we do this? Because we think the kingdom is worthy. We think the king is worthy. We recognize a church that's in need and has asked for it, and we've been able to do this a little bit, just like Josh is at the Chinese church right now and preaching, and others have gone out and provided a pulpit supply.

This is more. It's gonna be costly for those sending and those going. Let's be very clear, it's costly for all who are seeking to participate in this. It's because the king is worthy. We don't have to, it's not necessary. But what a good thing it is to go out and help spread the kingdom of Christ. That is our hope and goal here. Not just that we would send to another church, but send across the nations. To send up pastors, missionaries, faithful gospel believers. We love that so many UVA students are coming who will not stay here, you should. but you're gonna go out somewhere else, and we pray we can send you out to be a gospel witness.

The kingdom must be understood and proclaimed

The ending of this particular discourse, verse 51, our last point, the kingdom must be understood and proclaimed. Jesus ends this discourse with a question.

Have you understood all these things?

Now this is just fun. Remember, there's two parts. In Jesus' pretty full, robust teaching in that first part, he intentionally says, I'm saying these things in parables so they cannot understand. Understand is kind of the key word of the whole principle of the parables. Let's look at Matthew 13, 13.

I've given them eyes they cannot see and ears they don't hear and they will not perceive and understand.

The whole point is who can understand and how important it is to understand. And he's now been showing what was hidden. He's disclosed what was hidden. And he asked them,

do you understand all these things?

There's a way in which Jesus is revealing new aspects of the kingdom. There's a newness because the king is there. And he's been explaining the parables, and then, this is kind of a fun thing you wrestle with, he is explaining it in a way that they will understand, and he asks them,

have you understood all these things?

And of course, they said yes. This is kind of where I pause in scripture and say, is that true? I don't ask questions like, did it really happen? When I ask that question, I ask, is it true? So when Satan says something, you know it's not true, it's a lie. I think they think they understood, but did they understand? The disciples at this stage of their life seem to be a little overconfident. If it's Peter speaking, you know he doesn't understand, but it says that. They understand more than they did before. they're not gonna understand it really until Christ dies. And even then, they're gonna be terrified and they're gonna hide, and they're not really gonna understand it until Christ comes and reveals himself.

And they're not really gonna understand it until Christ himself, as he promised, would send the Holy Spirit, and they will see the greatness of the kingdom, and they will see what is worth losing, and they will all die for that gospel. So that understanding we can appreciate, and I want you to appreciate, is somewhat a gradual, constant growth of understanding. So yeah, I think they understood something, but they didn't really understand it. You see that? There's kind of levels of understanding. Like I can hear somebody say something, I'm like, I think I understand that, and if you ask me the next day to repeat it, I don't have a clue, I don't remember. We have a lot of teachers here. When you have to understand something and to teach it, you understand it in a whole different level. Right, there's layers of understanding and so they will get it to an understanding that will be much more significant as the Holy Spirit himself will come and remind them of all these things. So in their affirmation of yes, which is true but I'm suspicious, Jesus said to them, therefore, based upon their understanding,

every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven as like a master of a house.

Every scribe, the scribes were the folks who would transcribe scripture. They would be responsible for making copies of a book of the Bible. And those who were making copies of the book of the Bible would also know those books. They would be understood to have an authority of interpretation and understanding. They would be setting aside time to not just transcribe, to meditate and to understand and to give explanation and teach.

Every scribe, well, it's important to understand, we're a book religion. We're a book religion. We're all supposed to be scribes. God has revealed himself most faithfully, fully, clearly in words. Not so that we can look down upon it and try to master it, but that we might sit under him who has spoken so clearly and authoritatively that we can all come underneath his words and know him. We are a book religion. God has given us words. Your other option is to be a religion of feelings, opinions, something else, intuition. But praise God, he speaks and it's written for us. And when trained, we're all called to be scribes. We're all called to be able to read and to understand and to hear what God has said.

Scribe is not some New Testament office like pastor, deacon. If you're a citizen of heaven, you're a scribe. You're meant to be mastered by the word of God. You're meant to know the word of God. You're meant to appreciate in every way what God's word has said. You need to be trained.

Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven,

What we're doing right now is training. Might not feel like it, but that's what we're seeking to do. Every time we come together and hear God's word read, we sing God's word, we pray God's word, we proclaim God's word. Every time we come together, we're opening God's word and we're getting more scribe-y. We're being conformed by the very word of Christ to be like Christ.

The goal of everything we do, the goal of every sermon, the goal of every Bible study, the goal of every fellowship, and fellowship is coming together to rejoice and repeat what God has said, that it transforms our minds and our hearts. The hope is that it's changing your posture towards God's word to see it as good and right and holy. It actually changes the way you think, desire, behave. We're all called to be a people of the book, and the goal here is that we all learn how to speak God's truth and love, which is what we're all commanded to be, so that we all help each other grow up to maturity in Christ.

Every time we gather is an intentional training. There's other intentional trainings we do with classes, but this is what we do with the hope that we are able to go out and proclaim him out there as well.

The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house. That's someone who's very wealthy. They have an abundance of possessions. They bring out of this treasure what is new and what is old. The new and old, this is the only place in the script that the other gospels don't record this particular saying, but we want to make sure we understand from the text itself what he might be referring to. Remember, Matthew, before going to the house, said, this is Jesus when he's opening up what was once hidden. Well, the newness is what he is teaching new in the kingdom. The newness, I believe, of what Jesus is teaching, we should just call the New Testament, and the old is the Old Testament. The newness is what now Jesus is saying was once hidden, but is now made known. The scribes are teaching the old and the new, the things that have been revealed afresh and anew

And the things that are true and everlasting, we're to take up God's whole word and teach it to one another, insist upon it to one another, encourage each other with it so that we might be made complete. Our hope is that we would come to see from God's word how destructive our own ways are. how good his ways are, how worthy he is as a king, so we might worship him.

He's taught us about the kingdom. It is the most valuable and it's costly. It's necessary to believe in him in order to escape judgment and to be brought in and to the new life in heaven. And every citizen comes into his kingdom, repenting of sin, seeking to delight in his law,

Disciples of Jesus Christ, we're to reverberate what Christ is saying here among ourselves and as we go out into the world.

Will you pray with me?

Father, we thank you. You do not leave us alone in our anarchy. are hating and being hated, are seeking our own way and delighting in destruction. We praise you as a God who has been patient, watching us in our folly. We thank you, God, that you have spoken actively, words of wisdom, truth, words of promise, words that make our way straight, words that even correct our crooked hearts.

We thank you for Jesus Christ, our King. May you help us all see how good he is. First, in that he has died for us. And then may we see every command and prohibition and expectation of his citizenship as good as the king who's come to die for us and give us life. May we see his rule as life-giving. May we long to be under his rule together. May we see his rule spread throughout the city, our state, our nation, and the world.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.