Trust Jesus on the Kingdom of Heaven

“The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like…”

(Matthew 13:44-50, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 7, 2007)

Matthew 13:44-50 ⁴⁴ "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. ⁴⁵ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. ⁴⁷ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸ When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Introduction – Explaining the stories of a distant land…

In 1719 Daniel Defoe wrote what some people refer to as the first novel in English. It was the story of a man named Robinson Crusoe who spent 28 years on a remote island before being rescued. Of course, there was no real Robinson Crusoe. It was just a story, but the inspiration for the story seems to have come from the true account of a real castaway named Alexander Selkirk who was abandoned on an island off the coast of Chile for four years and was rescued in 1709.

It is said that when Selkirk was rescued that he was completely incoherent with joy. How could he explain to people far away in Scotland and England the adventures that he had been through over those last four years? Explaining the stories of a distant land to people who know nothing of the place that you describe is always a difficult task. I recently read the account of a church member attempting to describe life in Ethiopia to her congregation back in the United States. More than once she used the words, “You cannot possibly understand…” Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Jesus spoke in parables when He described the Kingdom of heaven. How can you and I understand the truth about Immanuel’s land when we have never been there? It would be much easier for us to understand the life of an 18^th century Scottish sailor lost on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, than to have much of an understanding about the life that someone lives in heaven.

Jesus was aware of this difficulty. When He spoke to Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews about the need for spiritual rebirth in order to see the kingdom of God, he said this: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12) In a similar way, it was exceedingly difficult for people that grew up under the Old Testament system of approaching God through animal sacrifice and the laws of clean and unclean, to think that that a new way of life had been given through the Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven is not make-believe. It begins now in the life of the church… but it gets much, much better.

Like treasure hidden in a field (44)

The kingdom that the Lord speaks of in Matthew 13 is of the greatest value. He gives two brief illustrations of this in our passage this morning and then presses the importance upon us of our inclusion in this kingdom by speaking of eternal judgment. First Jesus speaks of a man who found treasure in a field. Apparently he was aware of the great worth of this treasure because he it for safe-keeping, and with a joy that might have seemed incomprehensible to someone who did not know the wonder of this treasure, the man sold everything that he had in order to gladly buy the field where he had hidden the treasure.

Like a merchant in search of fine pearls (45-46)

Have you ever stumbled upon something so great that you would gladly give up everything else just to have that one thing? Yet not everything that looks like a diamond is real. What if the man in the first parable just has not traveled very much and is unaware that all that glitters is not gold?

Enter the merchant of verses 45-46. Here we have someone in our second story who is an expert on the matter of treasure. As a merchant he has seen a lot of pearls, but this one is far beyond anything else. That is his expert judgment, and he knows pearls. When he finds the one pearl of great value, he sells everything and buys that pearl.

Both of these stories point to the great worth of the kingdom. It is truly worth everything that you have. The additional insight that comes to mind from the story of the merchant is that there is one person who is able to tell us of the great worth of the Kingdom, and He is the one who is telling us the story. He knows heaven like the best merchant of jewels knows pearls.

What is most unique about the Lord is that He is an expert concerning both heaven and earth. He came from heaven and knows heaven as God knows heaven, and then he became man and lived on earth. He knows earth not only as the one through whom all things were made, but also as the one who dwelt among us in order to save us. Here we have someone speaking to us of a distant country, but also one who has come so near to us in order to teach us of the worth of His homeland as only He could do.

Like a net that gathered fish of every kind… Sorted at the close of the age (47-49)

It is of the greatest importance that His homeland be your homeland. It is of the greatest importance that you buy that field, that you get that pearl, that you not walk away from the moment of a lifetime having passed by the one thing that matters most. Truly Jesus is not only the merchant who knows the pearls of heaven; He is also the pearl of great price Himself. To lose Him and gain the world is to lose heaven and therefore to lose everything.

Why is the kingdom of heaven worth everything that you have? He tells us in the remaining story. There is a net, and that net has in it fish of every kind. One day men will sort out the good fish from the bad fish. And one day the angels of God will come and separate the evil from the righteous. The evil will be in something called a fiery furnace. They will not be happy there. They will not be in a better place. They will not be at peace or rest... In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus speaks with complete authority here of both heaven and hell.

How can anyone know what the kingdom of heaven will be like?

You can’t just go around and say things like that. It would be wrong for Jesus to warn people like this about hell unless He really knew what He was saying. But of all the people who ever walked the face of this earth, He alone was uniquely qualified to speak to us about these matters. As the pre-existent Son of God, before Jesus became men, He was eternally God.

So what does He have to say about heaven and hell? He says that to be outside of heaven for eternity is unspeakable torment. Whatever speculation we might engage in about the nature of hell, we can be sure of this; it is not heaven. It is a place of horrible mourning and loss and death.

My desire for you this morning is that you would be motivated not only by the avoidance of hell. I pray that you will hear the message that comes from a man who knows a better distant land. Jesus comes to us as the leading resident of heaven. He says it is a great treasure. In addition to being the most knowledgeable person on the details of heaven, He is also the judge of heavenly citizenship. If you want to be in heaven, you need to know that your participation in heaven is a matter of His judgment. He calls you to be a part of His church on earth now. That church is an expression of heaven in the midst of a world of pain. You need to have an eye for the treasure of heaven, and your view into that far country comes nearer to you in His Word today.

The one who gave to us the words of the kingdom is not only an expert on heavenly matters, and the leading citizen of heaven, and even the judge of heavenly citizenship, He is especially the savior of the children of the kingdom. This is another important way to rightly view the worth of heaven. Look at the cost of winning your citizenship there. The eternal Son of God became man to do this for you through the giving of His perfect life. That’s what it took to win heaven for you. Sometimes you can get a sense of the value of a gift from the cost of getting it. This was the most costly gift. I don’t suppose we can understand heaven much, but you can appreciate the cost to some degree and be assured that what God has for His children is very wonderful.

It is interesting that New Testament church life is said to be a participation in heavenly worship, and also that there seems to be interest in heaven concerning our worship here today (Eph 3:10, Heb 12:23, 1 Pet 1:12). That is amazing, but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Heaven is not just church here forever. We lisp along here in this world of pain. We are poor preachers, distracted listeners, grudging givers, and off-key singers. Yet we actually have the deposit of the Holy Spirit, and we do give our lives away, at least to some extent, even in this world of sin. And even now we can experience inexpressible joy because of the certainty of the promises of God.

Church on earth is to be esteemed as great because heaven and heaven’s Lord is the greatest treasure, and He has determined to use the weakness of the church to bring the message of heaven to millions. Do not look around at the weakness of the church to determine the worth of heaven. Listen to the word of our King, and catch a glimpse of the land He came from and knew better than you know your home town, and then value what we have in the church now. Do not allow our weakness or sin to cause you to walk away from the most wonderful treasure that your eyes could ever behold. Do not throw away the pearl of great price.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the kingdom of heaven?

2. What details within these three parables seem to be extraneous?

3. What is the point of the first two parables? How does the second one add more meaning to what the Lord is saying?

4. How does the parable of the net compare to the earlier parable of the wheat and the weeds?