Well, take your Bible and turn to Matthew 13. If you’re visiting today, we’re in a series of studies on the parables of Jesus. We’re doing a selective study, we have a few more to go and then we’ll move on to something else. But this morning, we’re going to look at two parables, the parable of the buried treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price. A message I’ve called, The Deal of a Lifetime. Matthew 13:44, “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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
On May the 24th, 1626, Peter Minuit got the deal of a lifetime. Let me fill in the details because Peter Minuit had purchased Manhattan Island for some manufactured goods worth about 60 Dutch Guilders. Now there’s a debate today on the true worth of the goods he exchanged with Native Indians for that piece of property. The debate ranges between $24 and a thousand dollars. But there’s no debate about the fact that indeed this was the deal of a lifetime, the greatest real estate bargain in history. And the Native Indians looked at Manhattan and saw an island that was difficult to access and surplus to their needs, but Peter looked at it and saw a natural harbor that would become a New York City. And recently Manhattan Island was valued at $2 trillion, the deal of a lifetime. Peter Minuit saw what others clearly missed. He valued what others undervalued. He understood the true treasure that Manhattan Island was, and decided to purchase it. And in the two parables we’re coming to look at this morning, the Lord Jesus is urging his followers to properly value the privilege of belonging to the kingdom of God.
He wants them to see the treasure that they have in the king and his kingdom. That’s why we’ve got this phrase in verse 46, “Again, the kingdom of God is like. It’s like a man who finds buried treasure and buys it at all costs. Again, it’s like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. And again, once he has found the pearl of great price, he sells all that he has to have that pearl.” In the words of John Piper, the disciples of Jesus Christ needed to understand that, “The kingdom of God is so valuable that losing everything on earth, but getting the kingdom and the king is a happy trade-off.” Parentheses, whatever your Christian life costs you to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, whatever that price is, it is worth it because He is like a buried treasure, He is like a pearl of great price.
Piper goes on, “Having the omnipotent saving reign of Jesus in our lives is so valuable that if we lose everything in order to have it, it is a joyful sacrifice.” Now, by implication, Jesus is inferring that your Christian life will cost you. If your Christian life costs you nothing, it’s worth nothing. You’re not taking Jesus seriously, you’re not taking the demands of discipleship seriously. One of the great themes of the New Testament is that the glory and worth of Jesus Christ and his rule over the human heart is something worth pursuing. It’s a price worth paying.
You find that in the New Testament biography, and you find it in New Testament books. Think about Acts 5:41, where the disciples are persecuted and beaten and here’s what we read. “So they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing,” notice that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Then concluded that the persecution they had just gone through and the pain that they had just experienced was worth it because He’s worth it. They saw Him as the hidden treasure, they saw Him as the pearl of great price. And you know what? Living for Him and witnessing for Him, if it comes at a cost, it’s worth it.
You get a similar thought in Philippians three, where Paul has given us a page or two out of his spiritual autobiography. And here’s what we read about his relationship with Jesus Christ. “And what things were gained to me, these I counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also counted all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” Similar theme, picking up this idea from the parables we have just read, Jesus Christ is worth it. And so Paul, “It counts everything but loss to know Him, and to make Him known.”
You’ll notice the language in Colossians 2:8-9, notice what we read here. “Beware, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of man, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power.” From what we know in that letter, there was an early form of Gnosticism which sought to strip Jesus of His deity, to devalue Him. And Paul writes to say, no, He’s God in human form. He’s the fullness of God in bodily form. He’s the Redeemer. He bought our redemption through His death on the cross and notice he uses the language of evaluation or value. Let no one cheat you. Don’t sell Jesus short. Make sure that you understand who He is and what He has done for you.
I’m just picking up this idea that in the New Testament, the glory and the worth of Jesus Christ is elevated. You get it in the Book of Hebrews. Some years ago I read an introduction by Warren Wiersbe in the book of Hebrews and it calls it a book of expectation. “In a little while, He who said He will come, will come.” And there’s a theme of the second coming throughout the book of Hebrews. It’s not only a book of expectation, it’s a book of exhortation. In fact, that’s how it’s described in chapter 13:20 I think where it’s called a word of exhortation and throughout the book of Hebrews, they’re exhorted to go on to a greater experience of Jesus Christ.
But it’s also a book of evaluation. Evaluation. You see, there were those who are being tempted having come to faith in Jesus Christ and facing persecution to turn back and Paul is saying, why would you go back to the shadows of the Old Testament when you have the substance of the New Testament, the fulfillment of all of those promises and types in the Old Testament in Jesus Christ. And it’s a book of evaluation because the writer uses words like better, eternal, perfect. The word better is used 13 times in this book as the writer shows the superiority of Jesus Christ. Jesus is better than the angels, chapter one, verse four. He’s a better hope, chapter seven, verse 19. He has established as a mediator, a better covenant according to chapter eight and verse six. Jesus is better and whatever price you pay to follow Him, it is worth it because He is worth it.
Just introducing the parables we’re about to look at. Time Magazine reported at a Christmas in 1950 at a certain department store was selling a manger scene of the baby Jesus packed in straw and a satin crib. It pictured the Bethlehem manger, but for some reason the product didn’t sell and so they decided to slash the price and there was a sign that was put above this product which said this, “Jesus Christ, marked down 50%, get him while you can.” I think you can take that idea and remind yourself this morning that you and I live in a world that seeks to mark Him down, to devalue Him. They don’t see the value in Him that the true believer does. But you and I have got to be careful as the church in the world that we do not devalue Him either. So we want to come and explore that. Salvation is the deal of a lifetime and the man who understands that is a man willing to do anything for it or lose everything to have it.
I want to say that again. Is that the kind of man you are? Is that the kind of disciple you are this morning? You’ve come to discover the beauty of Jesus’ person, the glory of His work and the everlasting nature of His kingdom and you realize that to be of follower of His by the free grace of God is the deal of a lifetime and understanding that you’ll do anything for it and you will lose everything to have it. That’s the point Jesus is making here.
Now let’s put the text in its context quickly. These two parables are part of a series of seven parables in Matthew 13. This is parable five and six. It’s teaching on the kingdom of God, the basic and hidden form of the kingdom as God rules in the human heart. In this series of parables, Jesus has focused on man’s various responses, the coexistence of God’s kingdom against Satan’s kingdom plus the kingdom’s power and influence in the world and the parables that we’re looking at as we had said, are focused on exploring the appropriation of the kingdom and becoming a citizen in Christ’s kingdom and the value that you and I must attach to that.
Three things, the exhortation within the two parables, the examples within the two parables and the exchange within the two parables. The exhortation. What’s quite simple, the main point and evident exhortation of these two parables is the need for a personal all-in appropriation of the kingdom and the joy of its discovery. That’s the point of the parables, that’s the exhortation, the all in and all out appropriation of the kingdom and the joy of discovery. Two things I think stand out in both these parables is the pursuit and the pleasure, the pursuit and the pleasure. We are to seek first the kingdom of God. That’s the pursuit, Matthew 6:33. And in both these stories, both men seek and go after and pursue not which they deem to be of great value and Jesus wants that of his disciples. That’s the parallel reality.
Notice the language of verses 44 and 46, the man who discovers the treasure in the field. Notice what we read of him. He goes, that’s a word of action. He goes and sells all that he has to buy that field. You’ll get the same idea in verse 46, the man who found the pearl of great price went and sold what he had and bought it. Let’s break down the two parables under this thought of the pursuit. The first one, hidden treasure. With no banks and the threat of warfare or robbery, it was not unusual for people to bury items of value, coins, jewelry in the ground. Remember the story Jesus tells of the talents and how the one man buried his talent, Matthew 25:18. That’s the kind of context we’re in. But over time as disasters came or the aftermath of war, you had property changing hands and sometimes the knowledge of the buried treasure was forgotten and lost. And that’s maybe the context here because a man is in the field.
Is he walking through it? Is he working in it? But as he’s in this field, he discovers buried treasure. Now it does raise a question about the ethics of the parable, but there is no real ethical issue here. First of all, it’s obvious that the treasure was not hidden by the present owner because when the man goes to buy the field off him, if it was his treasure and he knew he buried it, he would either go and get the treasure first or he wouldn’t sell the field. So it’s clear that the present owner of the field, this is not his treasure buried. And then secondly, there was a rabbinic law that if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder. Finders keepers, losers weepers. Kennedy. That’s what’s going on here. But don’t miss the point of the parable.
This man stumbles across hidden treasure. He understands its value. He’s excited that no one has discovered it but him and so he immediately goes and sells all that he has to have it because it’s worth more than anything he has or anything he has to give up to have it, point of the parable in the spiritual kingdom. That’s the hidden treasure.
Then you’ve got the pearl of great price. It’s a similar story, just kind of changing the focus on that which is valuable. It’s not hidden treasure, it’s pearls. This is not hidden, it’s out in the open. The first man stumbles across his treasure. The second man searches for his treasure. He’s a merchant. This is his business. He trades in gems and jewels and he’s in a place we’re not told where, but he comes across these beautiful pearls.
Now in the Old Testament pearls were not focused on so much. They really were not a status of wealth among the wealthy, but by the time of the New Testament that was different. Remember what Jesus says, don’t cast your pearls before swine. Don’t take the treasure of the gospel and give it to people who are mocking it. Paul talks about women and the need to dress modestly. In 1 Timothy 2:9, he says, “Not with rated hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.” We know from John the Apostle in Revelation 21:21 that each of the gates of the new Jerusalem is made of a single pearl. So there’s this theme, but the point is that pearls by the New Testament era were items of great value and sought after. They were a mark of wealth and status.
And so this particular merchant seeking beautiful pearls stumbles across one which he calls the Pearl of Great Price. He’s not seen anything like it. It’s incomparable to anything he has come across so far and maybe the person who has it doesn’t understand its value and this man realized he’s got the deal of a lifetime and so he immediately goes and sells everything he has to have it. That’s the pursuit. What’s the implication? These men rightly understood what was at stake. They were given the opportunity to embrace the deal of a lifetime, and so they seized the opportunity, they acted with abandonment. The sting in the tail is this encountering Christ and coming to Him, seeing His glory and the glories of what He has done should elicit the same response.
My friend, as God opens your eyes as the Spirit of God pries open your heart and you come to see what you haven’t seen before about Jesus Christ, the glory of who he is, he’s not a mere man. He’s God in human flesh. He’s not just a teacher of parables and principles and the golden rule. No, He’s a Redeemer who emptied out His life in a sacrificial act on a Roman cross for your sin and my sin that we might know a holy God, when you come to see that there’s only one response, sell all you have and go for Him. That’s the point. You need to accept the gift when it is set before you.
C.T. Studd was born in a wealthy family in England. He was a national sports figure in the game of cricket, but he came to see the glory of Jesus Christ and he famously said, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, there is no sacrifice I can make that’s too great for Him. And when he come back from being on the mission field in China for a furlough with his wife, he was preaching in the evening service and his cousin was there and after the service, they went back to his cousin’s home. A lady who treated him with kind hospitality and she came into the drawing room where C.T. Studd was sitting talking to some other man and she stood before him holding out a cup of cocoa, but he continued to talk and ignore him and at one point she butted into the conversation and said, “C.T., how rude. Here I am offering you a cup of cocoa and you won’t take it.” And he said, “And it’s the same with you and the offer of the gospel.”
God stands before you offering the gift of eternal life and you don’t take it? Not only do you see the pursuit, you see the pleasure. Something in the text, it’s not to be overlooked and it’s the joy of discovery. Look at verse 45 as it relates to the man who finds the treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and he hid, notice this little phrase, “And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has.” Of course, I mean the guy’s looking around him, but he’s cock-a-hoop at realizing that he has found something of such value and it brought a smile to his face and that brought a joy to his heart.
And this man was so carried away with joy at the thought of carrying away the hidden treasure of the field. This man was in a state of delirious excitement and hilarious exultation. Again, he hid it so he couldn’t give the game away, but man, he just wants to laugh out loud. He’s giddy with gladness. And so he happily, according to our text, went on his way and sold all that he had because the trade-off was a no-brainer move.
I don’t know if his friends noticed him liquidating all his assets, maybe putting his house up for mortgage. I don’t know what the context is, but they’re thinking he’s mad and inside he’s going to, if you know what I know you wouldn’t feel sorry for him. This is a no-brainer move. He’s not losing anything. He’s gaining everything. He’s selling everything he has for more than he could dream of, cheerfully and happily. That’s the point of the story. If you and I really understand who Jesus is and the glory of His person and work and that He in grace has offered Himself to us, my friends, we will joyfully, we will happily part with everything, let goods and kindred go, this life also, for the glory of the king and His kingdom.
Is that where you’re at? Is that where I’m at this morning, that we are still living the joy of discovering the king and His kingdom and we happily serve Him and we happily sacrifice for Him? Oh, the joy of discovering, knowing and having Christ in your life, the happiness of ordering your life after the king and the kingdom.
What about the joy of sins forgiven? Amen. What about the joy of a home in heaven and the joy of his everyday presence and companionship that he will never leave us or forsake us? The joy of getting up in the morning and living a life worth living? The joy of comfort in the face of sorrow. The joy of having His strength poured out in us. The joy of the prospect of pleasures forevermore, the joy of dodging hell, an eternal misery.
You know what it says in Romans 14:17, “The kingdom of God’s not eating and drinking. The kingdom of God is righteousness and joy and peace.” Love that. Joachim Jeremias says this, “When the great joy surpassing all measure seizes a man, it carries him away, penetrates his inmost being, subjugates his mind. All else seems valueless compared with the surpassing worth that he has come to discover. No price is too great to pay.” The unreserved surrender of what is most valuable becomes a matter, of course, the decisive thing in the twin parables is not what the two men give up, but the reason for their doing so, the overwhelming experience of the splendor of their discovery. Thus, it is with the kingdom of God. The effect of the joyful news is overpowering. It fills the heart with gladness. It makes life whole in the consummation of the divine community and produces the most wholehearted self-sacrifice.
Why is it that our worship isn’t what it ought to be? Why is it that our giving to the Lord’s work is such a small percentage of what he has given us? We could go on making the analogies. If you and I have come to understand the king and the worth of His kingdom and all that is promised to us that’s been given free of charge to us at the cost of the king, why don’t we just joyfully part with stuff, joyfully serve Him?
I like the story of the prospectors maybe up in northern California. Can’t remember the context. They struck a vein of gold and they were so happy and they knew they needed to take their findings into the bank to get it weighed and cash in on their… But they also realized they couldn’t give the game away, and so they decided on their way into town, let’s try and hide our joy. But they were only about halfway down the street when some people started to follow them to the bank and as they got to the bank, they turned to the people and said, “How did you know?” To which they replied, “It was written all over your smiling faces.” They tried to hide it, but it’s hard to hide it when you’ve discovered of something of such a value.
Let’s move on. That’s the exhortation within the parables, pursue the kingdom and come to embrace the joy of discovery. Then you’ve got the examples within the parables. Another fascinating aspect of our study of these two parables is the way people come to see the value of the kingdom. Did you notice, in fact, I gave the game away in my earlier comments. The first man stumbles across the buried treasure. The second man seeks the pearl of great price. And there’s two paths there. There’s two experiences of discovery there. The one stumbles across the treasure and is surprised the other seeks the treasure as a fulfillment of a search. Greg Bloomberg in his commentary in Matthew says this, “As with the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, Jesus is reaching out to every person in His audience. He calls the spiritual seeker and He calls the apathetic atheist.”
Isn’t that amazing? Some of us will have stumbled into the gospel and others of us have gone seeking it. Let’s just unpack that a little bit. It’s a fascinating study. Examples within the parables. Some stumble into the kingdom and some go searching and find it. One stumbles. It’s an interesting verse in Romans 10:20 as I turn to it about God’s work in the human heart. Romans 10:20 says this, quoting Isaiah, “I was found by those who did not seek me.” That’s God speaking. “And I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me.” Isn’t that amazing? There are people who have found God that didn’t seek Him, but God found them. They stumble into the kingdom. They find Christ when they’re not looking through a chance conversation, a clarifying set of circumstances. God is not invited into their life. He invades their life.
Give you an example, “And there were shepherds watching over their flock in a field by night and then all of a sudden a heavenly host appears and tells them about the Savior.” They weren’t seeking. God found them. What about the woman at the well? The Lord Jesus went out of his way to go through Samaria and met her and said, “I’ve got water that if you take it, you’ll never thirst again.” What about the Philippian jailer? Probably fast asleep. At midnight there’s an earthquake and he goes running out of fear to check of the prisoners were still in their cells. He finds Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you’ll be saved.” That’s the original jailhouse rock by the way. God rocked that jailhouse and woke that man not just out of spiritual slumber or physical slumber, but out of spiritual slumber. In all of those cases, God invaded.
I love the fact… This is a word to a father who’s got a child maybe away from the Lord, showing no spiritual interest, won’t come to church when you ask them. I can tell you this, my friend don’t give up. They may not be seeking, but they can just stumble into the kingdom. Through some conversation from some incidents, God comes barging into their lives. You know the story of John Bunyan walking down the street one day minding his own business and he hears three or four women talking in the doorway about spiritual things, and that’s the hook that reels him into the kingdom. Minding his own business, but he overhears a conversation. He goes stumbling into the kingdom.
The story’s told of Spurgeon when 1857 he had set up several evenings of meetings in the Crystal Palace in London. It would hold 26,000 people and he preached to 26,000 people in that place. But a few days before the meetings, he decided to do a mic check and he goes down and he just speaks into the microphone, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” And up in the rafters, a workman was working and God grabbed them with that text and he was wonderfully saved. Spurgeon didn’t know about it until years later when that man confessed it on his deathbed. He was working away. Spurgeon just, “Yeah, we should go down and check the audio system.” Boom, the worker goes stumbling into the kingdom.
I have a dear friend, he’s preached here many years ago at Kindred, Alan Graham. He ministers in Africa with children and orphans. Alan stumbled out of a pub in Rathcoole where I grew up and noticed a tent meeting and he walked over out of just pure intrigue into the back row. And he heard enough to realize, I’m coming back tomorrow night when I’m sober. And he did. And the Lord saved him and now he’s full-time evangelist in Africa. Stumbled out of a pub into the kingdom of God. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
One man stumbles and then the other man seeks. So the man who finds the hidden treasure stumbled across it, but the guy who got the pearl of great price seeks it. And that’s the second category of people. Others intently seek God, spiritual truth and meaning in life. They’re like Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes who goes searching for the meaning of life in the midst of life’s vanity and weightlessness and emptiness. Nicodemus comes and finds the Savior at night. “You’re the teacher that’s come from God, aren’t you?” The rich young ruler seeks Him out. Zacchaeus climbs a tree to get a look at the Savior. They didn’t stumble into the kingdom. They went searching for it. And ironically, some people’s search is negative. They set out to disprove Christianity only to find it stands the test of investigation.
What about Anna and Simeon who had searched their whole life for the Messiah and then they get to hold Him one day. “My eyes have seen your salvation.” What about the Ethiopian eunuch that came searching their Jerusalem at Passover? He’s on his way home and God says to Philip, you need to go down that road. There’s this coincidental meeting. No. There’s this providential appointment? Yes. And the Ethiopian eunuch is sitting there reading the Isaiah. Philip hops up onto the chariot. “Do you know what you’re reading?” He says, “No. Can you help me?” Oh yeah, and points him to Christ. What about Lydia, the seller of purple? We were just there about three or four days ago in Philippi, in Macedonia, down by the river because in that area there weren’t 10 men, Jewish man to start a synagogue. So she went down to the river to pray and seek God, and Paul comes down and the Lord opens her heart. She gets saved and then she opens her home and the church of Philippi emerges.
One stumbles, one seeks. What’s a good example of that? Wouldn’t that be Lee Strobel? Read his book, Case For Christ, you realize that this man who basically would’ve called himself and cast himself as an atheist finds that his wife is unexpectedly converted to Christ and it moves them towards divorce. He is fearful. In his own words he said, “I had married one Leslie, the fun Leslie, the carefree Leslie and risk-taking Leslie, and now I feared she was going to turn into some sort of sexually repressed prude who would treat our upwardly mobile lifestyle for all-night prayer vigils and volunteer in some grimy soup kitchen.” It bothered him. Although as he wants this with some annoyance, concluding the worst, he notices a radical change in her.
She’s not less of a person, she’s more of a person in Christ. Her love is brighter, her life is more purposeful, and so he says the only thing to do was to investigate Christianity. He was actually for a time an investigative journalist at the Chicago Tribune and he set out to disprove Christianity. But after interviews with some 12 leading biblical theologians, scholars and experts, he concluded that the Christian faith was solid and became a disciple of Jesus Christ himself. Love it. Are you stumbling into God’s kingdom? Are you seeking God’s kingdom? Jesus bids you enter.
Let’s finish with the exchange in both of these parables, the exchange in both of these parables. This thought is at the heart and soul and what will allow us to wrap this up and gather all our thoughts into kind of one bundle. Because in each of the stories, a transaction takes place, an exchange takes place, a purchase is made. And you’ll notice too that in each case the buyer sells all that they have to purchase the stated field and the stated pearl. Look at the end of verse 44, the man who found the hidden treasure, “And for joy over it, he goes,” here’s our words, “and sells all that he has and buys that field.” What about the guy, the merchant who comes across the one in a lifetime pearl? It says, “He went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Let me say this by way of qualification, the point of the parable is not that you can purchase salvation. That’s already been done and the price was the blood of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 50:1-2 tells us to come without money and take of God’s riches and mercy and goodness. Matthew 10:8, “To those who have enjoyed God’s free gift, they freely give.” So you can’t purchase salvation, but the kingdom of joy, sorry, the kingdom of God is a joy and life in the kingdom is worth having. The kingdom is of a matchless value and worth and one should pursue it and possess it at any cost. Everything else in life is worthless in comparison to the kingdom of God and having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is Peter say in 1 Peter 2:7, “Unto those who believe, He is precious.” Remember what the disciples said to Jesus in Matthew 19:27-28, “Lord, we sold everything to follow you.” Remember where we started on the value of Christ, the king and the kingdom and how Paul said, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.” Listen guys, as we close, everything we are and everything we have, it’s worth giving up for Him who is everything and the creator of everything. In Christ, we have a love that can never be fathomed. In Christ, we have a life that can never die. In Christ, we have a peace that can never be understood, an acceptance that can never be overturned, a hope that can never be disappointed, a righteousness that can never be tarnished, wisdom that can never be baffled. Joy that can never be diminished. Glory that can never be clouded. Resources that can never be exhausted.
You cannot compare what you give up to be a follower of Jesus Christ or to serve within His kingdom, you can’t compare that to what you get. You just can’t do that. He’s the hidden treasure. He’s the pearl of great price. The cost of following Jesus is no cost. So stop your complaining, your murmuring, feeling sorry for yourself because you’re the only Christian in the classroom or you’re the brunt of jokes in the workplace or tithing and giving to the Lord’s work given your economic circumstances is a challenge.
The cost is no cost. That’s the point of the parables. Whatever trade you have to make for Him, it’s a happy trade-off given what you get in Him, through Him. With Christ, you will always get more than you give. Peter Minuit got the deal of a lifetime. Maybe for 500 bucks, he bought Manhattan Island, which time has proven to be a priceless piece of property. My friend, time will prove and eternity will show anything you give up for Him is a happy trade-off.
I’ll finish with the life story of David Livingstone, who proves what we’re talking about, makes the point I’m kind of closing on. He was an explorer and an evangelist in Africa and his following for Christ cost him, his hand was bitten and maimed by a lion. His wife died on the mission field. He was often alone on his travels. One house he built and lived in burned. He suffered continually from dysentery and fever. Someone asked him about the sacrifice he had made for the gospel to which he replied, “Sacrifice? The only sacrifice is to live outside the will of God.”
In fact, in the company of a group of students who asked him about the fact that he had lost much in serving Christ, he said this, “For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward and healthy activity? The consciousness of doing good peace of mind and a bright hope of glorious destiny hereafter. Away with the word and such a view and with such a thought, it is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather, it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger, now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”
Now, the man who sold everything he had for the field and bought it and possessed the treasure, do you think he concluded that was a sacrifice? The merchant who got his hands on the pearl of great price, who had to sell everything he had to have it, given its value do you think he concluded that was a sacrifice? No. That’s the point of the parable. The king and the kingdom will last forever, and its joys and its pleasures and its expansion is forevermore. Whatever sacrifice you need to make to enter it, whatever costs, whatever costs comes with the experience, it’s worth it because Jesus Christ is always the deal of a lifetime. Let’s live that. Let’s show that. Let’s pursue that.
Lord, we live in a world where Jesus is marked down more than 50%. Our hearts mourn as we watch the western world implode into nihilism and materialism where our churches are empty and our shopping malls and our sports stadiums are full. The West no longer sees the value of Christianity or Christ. Lord, we can’t control their responses, but we can control our responses and we pray that we, the church would live in such a manner that they would see that we put a value on Christ by our actions, by our words, by our giving that show his worth. Perhaps they take so little interest in us because our valuing of him has been depreciated by prayerlessness, by a lack of sacrificial giving, by not living as radical followers of Jesus Christ who have experienced the joy of discovery.
And so Lord, help us to regain the spirit of your early disciples. Lord, we have sold everything to follow you. Like Paul, we count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Like C.T. Studd, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then there’s no sacrifice too great that I can make for Him. Like David Livingstone who did sacrifice. But in the light of the King and the Kingdom, it was no sacrifice. Lord, may we pick up the mantle of true discipleship as those who value the king and the Kingdom in a manner worthy of him and it. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.