Jesus told a parable of a man finding a treasure in a field. For joy he sold all he had to buy the field and obtain the treasure. This short but profound parable describes the experience of being a true follower of Jesus as we find, and deeply cherish, the gospel. 

<p>Jesus told a parable of a man finding a treasure in a field. For joy he sold all he had to buy the field and obtain the treasure. This short but profound parable describes the experience of being a true follower of Jesus as we find, and deeply cherish, the gospel. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AFG (Adventist Fellowship Geneva)

Daniel Pel

Hidden Treasure

Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you that we can be gathered together here in Geneva.

Thank you for bringing us from so many different places.

Thank you that despite of us being from so many different cultures and nations that we can be united in the 1 person, Jesus Christ.

And we ask that you will be present as we open your word today.

I pray that you will speak through me, that you will remove all distractions, and that your word will not return unto you void but accomplish in that which you are pleased.

Lord may your word find a permanent dwelling place in our hearts and minds.

May it bring transformation Lord and may we discover the treasure that is in Christ Jesus and may we want that treasure may all of our affections be on that treasure so that the things of this world may dim in comparison And so bless us now Lord we ask in Jesus name.

Well I hope you have your Bibles with you and if you do I invite you to turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 13 and we're going to look at verse 44.

This is the single Bible text that we'll be studying this morning.

And we will look at a few other passages that will help us to understand this 1.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 44, the Bible says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

You know, in ancient times, it was common for men to hide their treasure in the earth.

Now, it was quite frequent with robbery and theft, and they had no banks where they could store their possessions or their money, and so the earth became a secure place where they would hide valuable possessions.

Sometimes the place of concealment was forgotten.

Perhaps the person that put that treasure in the earth, perhaps he got exiled or perhaps he died or perhaps he got imprisoned or for some reason he would be separated from his treasure and the treasure would be forgotten.

Now the man in the parable here, he is not owning the land that he is working on, but he is merely hiring the land in order to plow and cultivate it.

And so it was not uncommon in the days of Jesus that as you worked on a neglected land that you would come across some valuable thing, whether some coins or or some costly array or some type of treasure.

So just imagine what this must have been like.

There's a man, according to this parable, that hires a piece of land where he's going to work and he's cultivating the land in order to have a harvest or in order to provide for himself and his family and As he's working away on that land Suddenly he discovers something.

I don't know how it happened perhaps he stubbed his toe or he saw something that was sticking out of the earth or or as he was plowing up the earth that it just came up like that but he sees something of great value.

And so as he stoops down and looks at what he has found he discovers that this is not just anything insignificant this is something very significant this is something of great value he has discovered a treasure and what he has discovered is of more worth than everything that he owns And so the parable tells us that this man he goes back or basically it says first that he covers it up again.

Remember it's not his land in other words he does not own the land and everything that is in the land belongs to the owner, so it's not his, but he has a plan.

He goes home and he sells everything that he has to get the money that is needed to buy that field.

Now I want us to just pause for a moment here, and I want you to think about what this must have looked like for his friends and his neighbors and everyone that knew this man.

They don't know anything about the treasure that he has found.

The only thing that they see with their physical eyes and the only thing that they understand with their minds is that this guy, he is crazy.

I mean, why on earth would you sell everything that you have to buy an empty, neglected field.

And so I can just imagine them looking on, and he's selling 1 thing after the other, he's getting rid of everything that he has, and now he just has this money, and he goes and he buys an empty probably ugly Neglected field.

I mean why on earth would you do something like that?

And I believe here already We can discover the first truth that Jesus is trying to teach us through this parable.

When you follow Jesus you will look crazy.

Those around you will think what on earth are you up to?

Have you had the experience that you came to faith in Jesus and perhaps even your own family or perhaps your co-workers or someone around you, your friends, they just thought, what are you up to?

Why are you giving up all of this for in their minds, in their eyes, they see nothing but an empty field?

They only see the empty field but He sees something else.

Now the beauty, Sometimes we say it like this, the beauty or the value is in the eye of the beholder, amen?

So when you come to Christ, there is a beauty that you see in the cross, there is a beauty that you see in the message, there's a beauty that you see in the gospel.

And so they think that you are making a bad investment.

Why on earth would you give a tenth of your possessions to the church you belong to?

Why on earth would you sacrifice your time and your talents to something such as that?

Why would you use so much of your resources and so much of who you are to give to that?

They see it as a bad investment, but we see it as the best investment ever because we have seen the treasure.

The essence of this parable in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44, 1 verse parable, but the essence of this parable is about seeing and savoring the value of the gospel in the person Jesus Christ, which is our treasure.

The essence of this parable is about seeing and savoring, that is your affections being on the value of the gospel as it is displayed in the person Jesus Christ.

Now when we see Jesus for who he is And when we understand that he is the treasure that is worth beyond everything that we own and everything that we are, we start pursuing that with all of our affections.

We'll come back to Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44, But I want to take you to the book of Psalms.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Psalms and go to chapter 27, Psalm 27.

Psalm 27 and verse 4, when you're there, you can say, praise God.

Psalm 27, verse 4 says, 1 thing, how many things?

1 thing, 1 thing I have desired of the Lord that will I seek.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." To do what?

Well he tells us, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

David, the psalm writer here, he says that there's just 1 single purpose to life.

There's just 1 single purpose and that is to find joy in God, to desire the Lord, to seek after him, to behold his beauty, to behold him as the treasure, and to inquire in his temple, in other words to grow in that knowledge of the treasure, to see more and more value in the cross and in the person Jesus Christ.

Now as I read verse 4 and I contemplated this scripture there were a couple of words that jumped out for me.

The word desired, the word behold, and the word beauty.

Actually the word for beauty here is the Hebrew word Noam which means splendor of grace.

He desires to see the splendor of God that is on display and it's the splendor of his grace.

You see my friends following Jesus is not something that we do out of discipline merely.

Following Jesus is because we desire to see beauty.

You see, Jesus doesn't just want your theoretical decision, He wants your affections.

Jesus is not just after your mind, He's after your heart.

And the parable shows that this man that discovers the treasure, that finds the treasure, his affections are now no longer on his possessions.

He sells them all, he gets rid of them, his affections are now focused on 1 object and that is Jesus Christ.

1 thing have I desired, 1 thing, and that is to behold, to behold what?

The beauty, the splendor of God on display.

Where do we find the splendor of God on display my friends?

Actually the the parable in Matthew chapter 13 verse 44 is a beautiful parable that has so many facets of truth in it and I believe that the field that the man is working in is actually a picture of the Bible because we are to seek the Scriptures We are to in a sense plow the scriptures to dig deep into the scriptures and when we do so we will find the treasure We will find the gospel.

It's everywhere from Genesis to Revelation.

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Hidden Treasure

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