It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 1 What Price Eternity? Program No. 1370 SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW JB: In 2011 a man named Josh Ferrin was exploring the home in Utah he and his family had just moved into. Well, he found an old ammo box in a sort of attic space. He opened it up and he said he freaked out. There was $45,000 in there. So what did he do? Well, he contacted the children of the man who had owned the house. That man was no longer living. And he gave them the money--$45,000.00. Now, some people thought he was crazy, but he said it was a great opportunity to teach his children to do the right thing. Now, he did think of car payments and house payments- -who wouldn't? But he said, "I feel so lucky that I was the guy that found the treasure." And he gave it back. Now, there's a story in the Bible, told by Jesus, where somebody finds treasure. And he does something just a little different. It's a short story; it's found in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44. "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." Now, there's a second, similar parable that follows right after this one. We'll get to that in just a moment. Parables are interesting things. Jesus used them to teach lessons and to get people to think. Jesus used illustrations or object lessons from the natural world to teach spiritual realities. People were familiar with seed sowing or flowers or lost sheep. And so by using the known and the understood, Jesus could open up minds and hearts to understand deep and important spiritual truths. And they were lessons that would stick. When Jesus said, consider the lilies, every time somebody saw a beautiful flower, that lesson could be remembered. A sower went forth to sow. Now, in that agrarian society, people saw farmers sowing seed all the time, so this lesson would come to mind again and again. And instead of just telling people everything plainly, Jesus taught in such a way as to engage a person's thought processes, to get a person to really, to really ask questions and to look for answers. Parables were an effective way of teaching. And Jesus could say in parables, teaching things that He wasn't able to say and teach openly. The Bible tells us there were spies sent out to follow Jesus and to try to trap Him in His words--to find something incriminating in what He said so that the authorities could find an excuse to get Jesus in deep trouble. Parables gave Jesus the opportunity to say a lot without saying too much. Those who wanted to know more would be drawn to ask more. Those who didn't want to shrugged their shoulders and moved on, and that's what they wanted to do.
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 2 Now today we start an occasional series of programs based on some of the parables Jesus taught. I'm calling this series "Lessons for All Time." Now, let's look at Matthew 13 verse 44 again. "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." Now, we might wrestle with the ethics of some of that, but in Jesus' day there really wasn't any moral dilemma involved. There weren't banks then, like there are today, and if common people wanted to keep their valuables safe, they'd do something like somebody did in this case. They might take their treasure and hide it where it wasn't likely to be found. Now, by the time this treasure was found, it could have been hundreds of years later, after it had been hidden. Not even the owner of the field knew about it. But we do know it wasn't illegal or, at that time, unethical for a person to do what the man in this story did. A field worker, maybe he was a hired servant. He's out in the field plowing when the plow strikes something hard in the ground. He investigates. He realizes what he's found. And life's about to get interesting for the man. So let's consider this parable. First, two thoughts. Two thoughts we'll look at right away. To begin with, someone had a field that contained something incredibly valuable and didn't know. Now, that's how it can be with a lot of people, and the Bible, this book, this book is life itself. The Bible contains the only accurate picture of who God really is. It tells the story of how God created a perfect world, how sin entered the world, how God has done everything He can to save us, after we've fallen into sin. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God created us, and everything else. And then when we went off the rails, God went to extreme measures to win us back to Himself. Now, it's true, you get people--many people, tragically--who dismiss the Bible. And that's their right. People are free to do with the Bible whatever they want. But I think people like that are like the man who sold the field--presuming it was a man. They don't know the value of what they have, and maybe that's simply because they've never really checked it out. If you've never really checked out the Bible, if you've never read the Bible for yourself, I encourage you to do so. A man in Italy bought a couple of paintings in 1975 from a police auction. He and another man both bid on the paintings until he bought them for the grand sum of right around $32. He took them home and hung them on his kitchen wall, where these two paintings hung for almost 40 years, until his son--who was taking an art appreciation class in school--noticed something about the paintings. The boy discovered that one of them was by a painter named Pierre Bonnard and the other was by Paul Gaugin. They were both originals, worth $50 million. They'd been stolen in London years before, and because the original owners had claimed insurance money for them, the paintings now belonged to the Italian man. He had $50 million hanging on his wall for almost four decades. Didn't have a clue what he had. Often it's like that with the Bible. A lot of people have the Bible within their reach, and they don't have a clue about the treasure that's really theirs.
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 3 Now, there's another thought I'd like to consider with you in this short parable, and that is this: When the man found out that there was treasure in the field, he sold all that he had and bought the field. We'll look at that more in just a moment. EVERY WORD JB: A red Ferrari recently sold at auction for 27 and a half million dollars. A car. Not an aircraft, not an ocean liner, a car. Can any car be worth that much? Careful how you answer. You could say no, no car is worth almost 30 million dollars. But if someone's willing to pay that much, then that's what that car is worth, at least to that person. Long ago, God allowed His Son to come to this earth to redeem a planet of lost sinners. And what did He pay? First Peter 1, 18 and 19: "For as much as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ." Jesus gave His life for that criminal, for the drunk in the gutter. For you. Too much? In God's eyes, that's how much you're worth. Don't forget, you are valuable. Especially to God. I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written. Let's live today by every word. RETURN TO PROGRAM JB: Today, two parables taught by Jesus that ask a searching question: How much are you willing to give for eternal life? Now, something to remember about a parable is that not every part of the parable is always used by Jesus to make a spiritual point. They're stories, after all. Some parts of the parables are just a part of the story. The key points are the ones you want to look for. Jesus shared a parable about a man working a field when he found treasure hidden there. He sold everything he had, bought the field, and got the treasure. And here's a key point in the story: The man perceived that the field had value. So he gave all that he had in order to get it. And that's a strong reference to the value a person ought to place on salvation. Jesus is simply saying to His listeners, if you found a treasure hidden in a field, you'd do everything in your power to get that field and obtain the treasure. Are you willing to do the same for God's kingdom of eternal glory? You could only imagine what it might have been like for someone experiencing what Jesus was talking about in this story. Here you have a poor laborer, plowing the field for a wealthy landowner. Suddenly the plow strikes a rock buried beneath the soil. He stops the oxen, reaches down to dig up the rock. And his life is about to change. It had to have been like when the archeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamen. He said out loud, "Gold. Everywhere, the glint of gold." Very few archeologists ever find anything remotely like what Carter found, even after years of searching. What Jesus described in this parable of the hidden treasure was something which probably didn't happen to ordinary people in that day very often. So the laborer in Jesus' day finds the hidden treasure, then he hides it again. Jesus doesn't give many details, but we can imagine the man seeking out the owner of the field, asking if he could buy the field or at least that portion of the field where the treasure was found. The owner gives him a price, evidently quite high. Because after all, Jesus said the man had to sell
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 4 everything that he had in order to buy it. No doubt the man kept secret the fact that he'd found the valuable treasure. Now, he starts selling his possessions. Jesus said, everything. He doesn't tell his family and his friends any details but that he plans to buy the field. They think he's crazy. But he knows what he's doing, and he won't let anything stop him. Eventually he gathers enough funds to buy the field, and when he does he walks away a very rich man. He says it was worth it. In our world today, there aren't many who understand the real value of the gospel treasure. It's amazing when you stop and think about it. We'll work hard to get stuff--not necessarily bad stuff--houses and cars and whatever else, without realizing what is truly important. Jesus asked this question, in Mathew chapter 16 and verse 26: "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" In other words, what's truly valuable? Nothing wrong with stuff, but you've got to have the right stuff for life to really be worth anything. Now, the second story Jesus told, about the sacrifice of all in exchange for His kingdom, is found right after the story of the hidden treasure. Again, the kingdom is like a merchant man seeking beautiful pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. That's Matthew 13, verses 45 and 46. Ocean pearls were considered a great treasure in the days of Jesus. Here's one interesting story about pearls. It's from the general time frame in which Jesus lived. It comes from the life of Julius Caesar. Now, in his youth Caesar was captured by pirates in the Aegean Sea, and he was forced to spend a number of months with them before the Roman Senate could raise enough money for his ransom. After the ransom was paid, Caesar was set free, and he returned some months later and took the pirates and all their treasure into his custody. But then, in a gesture similar to what we find in the story from the life of Abraham in the Bible, Caesar gave nearly all the captured treasure to those city-states and others in their vicinity whose wealth the pirates had originally stolen. For himself, Caesar only kept a few choice pearls, some of which were the color of strawberries. It is said that those pearls were priceless, and in the coming years Caesar even gave those to certain of his close friends. It's easy to imagine that the pearl of great price in the story told by Jesus was pretty comparable to one of those pearls chosen by Caesar. The lesson in both of these short stories is the same. God's kingdom is worth everything. The gospel and its promise embrace eternal realities. What we have on this earth passes with our days, and when we die, we can't take it with us. Now, think about this: This parable about the pearl is interesting. Now, we know that salvation is a free gift. You can't earn it, you'll never deserve it. It can only be received one way--that's as a gift. But in this story the man buys the pearl. It isn't given to him. Now why is that? It's true, salvation is free. But at the same time, salvation costs you everything. Everything. And not simply in the sense of everything that you have, but in the sense of everything that you are. For someone to truly come to Jesus, that person comes to Christ and lays his or her entire life down at His feet. And that's where a lot of people stumble. They want to be a
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 5 follower of Jesus, but they don't want to surrender their whole life to Him necessarily. They'll take the benefits of Christianity--eternal life, mansions in heaven, streets of gold, even being thought of as a good person in society--but they don't want to let God be God of their entire life. Now, you cannot really come to God in half measures. You might have heard it said, God isn't God at all unless He's God of all. Now, when Jesus enters your life, He becomes Savior and Lord. And that is an indescribable blessing. The sacrifice of self--that is the sacrifice of our wants, or our habits of self-indulgence, even sometimes the sacrifice of practical necessities when they clash with the greater good. It's almost entirely unheard of in our pleasure-driven, self-focused world. Now, think of how much men and women in past ages have given for faith in Jesus and the joy of total surrender to Jesus. Think of martyrs who gave their lives for Christ because continuing to live meant giving up their spiritual integrity. Now, it's true today, Jesus isn't really calling very many to die for Him. But it's very true that Jesus is calling everyone to live for Him. And do we truly understand what it means to surrender everything for Christ's sake. A lot of people can't imagine what it would be like to give up a secret glass of alcohol. Some refuse to turn away from videos on the computer, which press all the wrong buttons. You know, there are a thousand things people do knowing that when they do those things God is dishonored. But the question has to be asked: How important is heaven to you? Or, to put it another way, how important is it to you for God to come first in your life? It probably pays to remember that if sin is so precious that the claims of Christ are turned aside, when times come which demand total sacrifice we won't have a chance. We'll give in so fast the sin and temptation will surprise even ourselves. And when we do give in, everything will be lost, including eternal life. You see, it's right now that we have to prepare for the great trials, the future is going to bring. Small tests, small trials in our walk with God, are designed by God to prepare us for the ultimate surrender of everything. It's like, well, school coursework. Or Olympic athletes, training. Or somebody training to be a Navy SEAL. The small challenges get us ready for the bigger challenges. When someone works out at the gym they don't try bench-pressing 300-pounds right from the word go. You work up to something like that a little bit at a time, lifting more and more until you've got enough strength and muscle tone to get the 300 pounds lifted successfully. That's how God leads us in the development of a real Christian, surrendered Christian, character. It's one step at a time. At each step the heart is tested and tried just a little more closely. And as we learn to cooperate with God and surrender to God, we'll be prepared for the final test of the last days and we'll become then part of that glorious company who surround God's throne for eternity. The principal of total sacrifice is what Jesus was talking about in these parables when He spoke about the need to give up everything in exchange for salvation.
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 6 Now, let me head something off. I've learned that when you start to talk about living a really committed life for God, that someone is ready to talk about legalism. No! As long as I have faith in God, that's all that matters. Well, you can't really argue with that, because that's a true statement. But here's what faith in God does: Faith in God looks at Jesus hanging on the cross. Faith in God remembers that God is love and gave everything in the gift of Jesus for this world. Faith in God realizes that God is truly good, and that what He offers to us is the best possible way in life. Faith in God does not ask how much do I have to give; it asks how much may I give. The Bible says we love God because He first loved us. Faith in God rejoices in being committed to God. It chooses to do things God's way, and doesn't fight against the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Bible shows that we give ourselves to Christ to live our lives connected to Him. And when you're connected to Christ, you're going to want the will of God worked out in your life. Heaven's power produces obedience in your life, and you'll love to obey. The man who bought the pearl, he was happy to give everything because he knew what he was getting. When you give everything for Jesus, when you lay down your life totally for Him, now that will bring you joy. Jesus emphasized this when He told the story of the Good Samaritan to a lawyer one day. The lawyer asked Jesus, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And here's what Jesus said when he responded. "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" Now the lawyer answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And He, Christ, said to him: "You have answered rightly. Do this, and you will live." That's Luke 10, verses 25 to 28. Now, really, this is just too radical for a lot of people. The people in Jesus' day wanted to wear the crown, but the cross was too heavy for almost all of them. Everything we have. Our talents, our material resources, our intelligence, our physical and mental energy, everything should be consecrated to God's service. When give ourselves totally to Jesus, Jesus gives Himself totally to us. And it's then that we obtain the pearl of great price. How much are you prepared to give in exchange for eternal life with Jesus? How much are you prepared to surrender for eternal joy in God's presence? The glitter, the luster, the pleasure of this world may satisfy for a while, but it won't last. Eventually, like Solomon says, the evil days come and we have pleasure no longer. But God's kingdom of selfless love and service for others will bring joy forever. And that's worth the price of everything. OFFER Now, there's something I'd like to offer you today. I've got a special, free offer that I really hope you will get. It's a brand-new resource from It Is Written. It's this study called "As Good As It Gets." And I'd like to send it to you free. Here's all you do in order to get "As Good As It Gets." Call us now at (800) 253-3000. That's 1 (800) 253-3000. If you're not successful in getting through the first time you call, please do call again. (800) 253-3000. Or, write to It Is Written, Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401, and I'll be sure to send you a brand-new resource, "As Good As It Gets" right away. This resource will show you
It Is Written Script: 1370 What Price Eternity Page 7 the value of the pearl of great price. It'll discuss really that hidden treasure, and you'll want to get it, and this study guide will encourage you in that way. So do call (800) 253-3000 or write to It Is Written, Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401 PRAYER Before we go I'd like to pray with you. Let's pray together now. Our Father in heaven, I thank You today for that treasure, Jesus, for the Pearl of Great Price, our Savior and our Lord. And we realize together that in order to have a successful relationship with Jesus, we must give our entire lives to you. Please take our lives, and allow us to live in a truly committed way. Right now there's somebody who realizes now is the time to surrender to You. Come close to that one. Give that person the assurance of eternal life and the experience of surrender to You. We thank You today, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It Is Written PO Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401 USA Tel: 423-362-5800 Fax: 1-877-507-3239 www.itiswritten.com