Hidden Treasure Matthew 13:44-46

Transcription

1 Hidden Treasure Matthew 13:44-46 Our reading this morning contains two brief parables one of a man who accidently found treasure hidden in the ground. The second is about a merchant who, in the course of his business dealings, found a pearl of great value. In both cases the men acted the same way they sold everything they owned in order to possess what they had discovered. What have you found? On 3 rd December 1851, young Irish lass Teresa Cole left Plymouth in England with her parents aboard sailing ship Cambodia and sailed for Australia. The potato famine had devastated Ireland and within a few years thousands of people migrated to the USA and to Australia to seek better conditions. Teresa was 21yo when she arrived in Geelong on 31 st March On 5 th July 1852, just four months after her arrival in Victoria, Teresa married a 29yo ex-convict named William Tann. He was my great-great grandfather - William had been freed in 1846 after serving seven years in Port Arthur for larceny. While William had been transported as a 15yo convict lad and had no say in the matter, the Cole family chose to come to Australia from Dublin at a time when thousands were heading for the gold fields of Ballarat and Bendigo. Treasure was in the ground. All you had to do was dig it up or so the story went. Geelong began to prosper as a growing town, as a harbour, and as a place of providores equipping the thousands of people searching for riches in the goldfields. A few years after their marriage, the Tann s set up a leather and boot-making business on corner of Yarra & Malop Streets, in the heart of Geelong, equipping many heading for the Ballarat or Bendigo. Why the Tann family history? In the 1850 s when my family was being formed in Geelong, tens of thousands of people were seeking after riches. They travelled from Ireland, England, Europe, and China to escape poverty, famine, hardship, and brutal social structures. They sought riches by gold-mining or created wealth from business ventures. Those providing goods and equipment for the miners usually made more money than the miners. People sought something better in life than what they had and were prepared to sell everything in their homelands in order to find the treasure that was here. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like treasure; a treasure so valuable that when you find it nothing else seems important. To gain this wealth, this treasure, people will sell everything else. What Jesus meant by that was not so much to go and sell all your

2 possessions but rather that nothing else matters... nothing else compares in any way with the Kingdom of God. In the mini-parables that Jesus told, just three short verses, the two men found the treasure in different ways and yet - it seems - both found it by accident. They were not searching for it, but rather came upon it. How did the man find the treasure in the field? We don t know. Maybe he was a farmhand ploughing with an ox and the plough lifted a long-hidden jar to the surface. Maybe he was just passing by and saw a glint from the corner of his eye. How ever he found it the man knew he had to have it so he sold everything he owned in order to get the required funds to buy the field. The merchant was looking for pearls - that was his trade - but he stumbled on one unique pearl that outshone all the others. He too sold everything to gain the treasure. And that s the key nothing should get in the way of having this treasure. Nothing on earth compares to the Kingdom of God. One commentator said... The Kingdom of God is a priceless treasure that is to be desired above all else, and is to be acquired by giving up everything that would prevent our being a part of it. He went on to say that in the parable, selling all means that we transfer our whole heart from other interests to the one supreme interest; Jesus Christ. Is that how you see the Kingdom of God in your life? The difference between the parable Jesus told and the story of my family is that the men in the parable discovered the treasure and then sold what they had in order to possess it. In Australian gold-field history people sold everything they had and moved across the world simply in the hope of finding treasure in Australia. Most didn t find what they d been looking for. Some ultimately made good lives for themselves, but the majority still lived tough, still faced poverty, and the treasure they sought still eluded them. Rick Warren is the senior and founding pastor of the huge Saddleback Church in the USA a church with well over 20,000 active members. In 2006 they celebrated their 20,000 th baptism and they are averaging over 2000 baptism per year that s forty a week. Even after more than 25 years at Saddleback, Rick Warren says he still experiences a thrill when immersing a new believer. I am addicted to changed lives, he said. It s not about the size of the church. The size means nothing. It s the

3 individual stories - the family that gets back together, the kid that gets off drugs, the life that s turned to Christ. The cool thing is the stories behind the 20,000 lives. While those statistics are exciting, Pastor Rick Warren is probably best known for his world-impacting best selling book, 40 Days of Purpose. He began the first chapter of that book with a now-famous short sentence It s not about you, but he has another well-known quote that describes the focus that any church, any Christian, should have. Rick Warren said, The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. In other words, nothing should get in the way of the Kingdom of God being our focus. As a church whose vision is to be a growing, healthy and influential church in our community; a church that states our mission is to take Christ s love and word to our community, our main thing is the Gospel bringing people to a place where they too can find the treasure offered by God, and then seek to possess it. At Unity Hill our worship life, our outreach activities, our pastoral care ministry, and our fellowship and study groups should all be directed towards the main thing sharing the good news, the gospel, of the Kingdom of God. This week I read in a leadership magazine about one growing church in the US that decided to do the main thing and lay aside everything else. The Kingdom treasure was so important to them that they decided to lay aside their usual Sunday service. Instead of their regular worship a much-loved weekly activity they ran the Alpha course for twelve weeks. The people were encouraged to bring along friends and family the first week, and then they allowed the course to touch people. For three months they had no worship service, no sermon, and no rosters. Instead they had breakfast at 9.00am each Sunday, watched the teaching DVD s at 9.30am, had group discussion at 10.25am, and ended by 11.00am. The result? Ninety new guests explored faith issues and the Kingdom of God. Forty people made first-time commitments to Jesus. Everyone saw new faces. Everyone saw new names nailed on the cross. Everyone got it the main thing again became the main thing. What does the Kingdom mean to you? Is it a pearl of great price? In Romans 12:1 the Apostle Paul says...

4 Therefore I urge you, brothers & sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. In this verse Paul is encouraging the Church to lay everything before God in order that the Kingdom of God becomes their absolute focus. The Message version actually says it in a helpful way for modern people... So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. That s what Jesus meant by selling everything. He meant lay it down... give it up... reach for the treasure of heaven - which is the love and grace of God - and don t let anything stop you gaining it. At the moment we are close to starting the new youth service on Sunday evenings. Its stated aim, its purpose, is to bring many young people to the place where treasure is found. In a similar way, the Unity Op Shop might have bargains for low-income shoppers but the real treasure is there to be discovered through the gentle ministry of the church volunteers. Likewise Linc n Learn each week has a treasure map available for the people through their think spot and the care and support of the church team. Café Agape brings glimpses of heavenly treasure into the lives of people, some of whom may think that life has passed them by. Instead they still have a chance to possess the pearl that God is offering. And every Sunday morning is our major public outreach event. It s a map-reading time as we try and bring people closer to finding that treasure in the field of their lives. We offer a treasure map a way of discovering what God has in store. We display the Gospel; we show them the Kingdom is near. We cannot demand or cajole or insist people act any particular way; our job is to declare that grace abounds and all can receive the treasure of God. How many here today would like to have the treasure that God offers? How many want to receive that heavenly pearl of great price? Those two questions are easier than the next one...

5 How many are prepared to give up all that they have - to lay it all on the altar as Paul wrote - in order to receive what Jesus offers and then rely totally on Him? I am not here to judge what you might already have from God, or what you may be doing with your life. I am not here to suggest that your life is lacking in any way only you can determine those answers. What I am here to do is to tell you about the treasure Jesus has in store for all who believe. The Kingdom of God is near, and those who want it will hold nothing back in order to have it. The Kingdom of God is near and we cannot let anything distract us from what the Lord has put before us. The Kingdom of God is near and His grace abounds despite our weaknesses, our failings, our sins, and our hard hearts. The Kingdom of God is near... Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. 12 th July 09