Matthew: Parables of Jesus 2023

We're going to have another, reading from the Bible now. So, If you would like to turn to Matthew chapter 13, that's in in the new testament.

And, then, then Pete, the pastor of the church is gonna come and preach these words to us and, and for us. But Safran is going to going to come up and read. Now she's gonna read the first few sentences from the start of Matthew 13. Kind of introduces the the topic of the kingdom of god or the stories about the kingdom of god, and then she's gonna read 2 in particular from later on in the chapter, so empty. Great.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 1. That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told the many things in parables saying, a farmer went out to sow his seed, and then over to verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again. And then in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found 1 of great value, He went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Thanks, Safron.

My name is Pete Woodcough and 1 of the pastors of the church. Fantastic to have you with us and all the family of Scarlet. I guess if you're, you're not a Christian and you know Scarlet, I'd be careful if I was you. You probably probably wanna go now, to be honest with you. You know, what a what what what a wonderful story.

And these are these are lovely little verses about the kingdom of heaven that Jesus gives us. Little little sort of cameos, little pictures. And I just wanna open that up for a for a few minutes because I think it does describe what's actually happened. And what Scarlet is experienced and that many of us that, are Christians and have become a Christian have have experienced and, just wanna open those little verses up. We're going through Matthew's, stories or or the parables that Jesus to tells him Matthew on Sunday evening, and we happen to be on this 1, which I think really is a very appropriate for for tonight.

So I'm quite excited that showing you the these these these little truths. Let me just pray. Father help us please help us to have ears to hear. We can hear so many things, but often we don't hear. And I used to see, wonderful truths we pray.

In Jesus' name, arm, m. Now you probably know this and you've probably read this or heard this, but Howard Carter that found, the Tutan Carmen treasure. He called that day, the finding of that treasure. He said it was the It was the day of days, the most wonderful I've ever lived through and certainly 1 who's like I I never hope to see a game. And if you read his diaries and that it it on this, it's worth reading because it's it's it's a fantastic description of the day of days, the most wonderfully they ever lived through.

They dug down, obviously, they'd come to a passageway and they had to clear a passageway and then they came to a door and he realized that the door seal had been broken and he thought, okay, there won't be anything in there. But, you know, they were waiting and they eventually cleared all of Deborah away. He opened enough space to peer into the room beyond the door. He has a candle. It's it's a brilliant description, and it's flickering.

They have to do candle tests because gases are coming out. There may be foul gasses and dangerous gasses. They do the candle tests, and then his eyes are looking, and there's lord carnarvon who's been paying him to to do this dig saying, What can you see? Can you see anything? And suddenly sees all the glint of gold and animals and wild things.

And he's dumbstrucky says. And then Laura can often tap in on his shoulder, with his daughter behind him Can you see anything? Can you see anything? And he says, look, like an eternity went past because he just couldn't speak because it was the day of days that 1 like he's never lived, before. And he's just simply said, yes.

Wonderful things. And that was the discovery of tutankhamun. I don't know whether you ever seen some of that trader. When it came to London, me and my wife went to have a look at it. This phenomenal stuff what a day to remember?

Well, that's the sort of scene I think Jesus is painting before lord carnarvon, obviously, and before, Howard Carter, but he's painting this. There's these 2 men in this story, and they're having the same experience as Howard Carter, and I want to suggest this is the experience of the Christian. It's the day of days, the most wonderful I'd ever lived through. Here are 2 people that Jesus pictures, 1 who finds a treasure in a field, and then 1 who finds a pearl of great price. He's a pearl merchant and he's never seen a pearl like this.

Yeah. And so it's it's an amazing thing. Can you imagine? You're digging in a field and you find a treasure. You're a pearl merchant and you see this whacking pearl.

You never see anything like it. You know, the intake of breath. The eyes bulging. The heart beating. The lips.

You know? Wow. This this is amazing. And then suddenly, the realization, I don't own the field. I don't own the field.

I don't own the pearl. And then the running back to say I've gotta sell everything to buy the field, to buy the treasure, to buy the pearl. That's that's the picture going on. It's a day of days. They found this treasure.

I don't I don't know, excuse me. I don't know if you can imagine being the these blokes neighbors. Yeah. You know, perhaps they're just ordinary blokes, and you're looking out the window as you an hour at your neighbors, you know, peaking. And then you see these 2 neighbors running back.

You know, they're just like 2 little boys that have scored the first goal, in their life at football, and they're running along. And they're running back and saying, what's going on unless you're peeking through the curtains? You know, and you see them, go into their house and you hear a lot of noise. And then suddenly there's a for sale sign outside the house. They haven't been there that long.

Then the garage is opened, and there's a garage sale. And then the car is is brought in and and and and the stuff put in the car boot for the local car boot sale. And they're just selling everything. Even that 48 inch, you know, HD, you know, TV, flat screen TV with surround sound, that you happen to see because you were looking out the window at the same time, go in just last week. That's for sale.

Now from your point of view, they've gone nuts, haven't they? From your point of view, that They're abandoning everything they've worked for. Everything they've lived for. From our point of view, we're looking on them. What is wrong with these people?

But from their point of view, It's a reevaluation. It's this stuff or that treasure it's selling these bits and bobs and pieces for a real treasure, a real pearl. Some it's not sacrifice. It's reevaluation. It's an obvious thing to do.

It's an obvious investment. This stuff for treasure. Now, Jesus is telling these 2 stories like this. To picture the person who finds like Scarlet and like some of us here who find what he calls the kingdom of heaven here. Or the kingdom of god, he says in other places.

See, the Bible tells us that there are 2 kingdoms. Only 2 kingdoms, The Bible says there's a kingdom of this earth and there's a kingdom of heaven. There are 2 kingdoms. The kingdom of this earth and the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of the earth or the realms of the earth is this 1 here.

We're all in it. Every 1 of us. We were born in it. Everyone has a stake in this kingdom. This is the place where we experience our lives.

This is a place where we invest for our dreams and our hopes. It's in this kingdom. This king of this earth, this here now, it's physical. It's in time. It's in space.

It's this reality here and that's a kingdom. That's a realm and we're all in it. And the Bible does say that it's limited. The time you have in this kingdom and the time this earth is gonna last won't be long. And it's material, it's it's stuff, and it's here and then gone 1 minute.

It's just limited. It's beautiful. There's wonderful things here. Great treasures but they don't last very long. They're physical.

They really can't do anything inside you. Make you happy for a moment. That's 1 kingdom, but he talks about this kingdom, and this is what he's saying here. This kingdom of heaven, this realm of heaven. It's as if he's saying that there's a kingdom that's come outside of the material world.

Outside of the universe, something bigger, spiritual, grander, more beautiful that's come from outside He calls it the kingdom of heaven. It's not an earthy kingdom. It's the kingdom, the realm of heaven that's come into this world. And it's not immediately seen. In fact, last week, when we were going through, Matthew, we saw that Jesus described the kingdom of heaven like a tiny little seed.

Yeah. I mean, it looks rubbish. And if you're sort of evaluating it, you got your coconut here and you got this tiny little seed here. What is that's the kingdom of heaven, he said. It's like a weedy little seed.

And he says it's like the smallest of seed that they knew back then. But when it's planted, it grows into a tree. And then birds of the air are flapping along and think, oh, there's a tree there. I think, oh, make a nest. An animal was living it.

It brings life. It brings life. And and it and and it's an amazing thing, isn't it a sea? It's a bit like, I mean, you see those I love I love blowing those, you know, the dandelion things. We've all done it, haven't we?

You know, you pick a dandelion? Did you know, by the way, if you pick a dandelion, you're supposed to wet the bed, but there we go. I don't know whether it happens to it happens to me, but I don't know whether it happens to you. But you you you you pick a dandelion and then you blow and there's this little seed on a little parachute thing. And it whooshes along, doesn't it?

And you think that's just insignificant and you forget it. But then you're driving along and you see there's like a motorway with massive concrete and that seed has gone in it and split it That's the power of the seed because it's got life in it. It may be small, but it's got life in it. And that's what Jesus is to say. The kingdom of heaven at first looks like a silly little seed blowing away.

He's not gonna do anything, but it's got life in it, and birds of the air will come down. And he's saying the kingdom of heaven is like this. It's full of life. It's full of the love of god who's bigger than the universe. Even though it looks small and insignificant, it's the place where you will feel at home because it's the place where you're really designed to be.

It might hurt coming into this kingdom because you have to own up to what you've done wrong. But in the end, it's home. The place where you can let your hair down, the place where you're forgiven, the place where you feel at home and you've got a father that loves you and forgives you. That's the kingdom of heaven. 2 kingdoms.

Yeah? And he's saying, look, verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. I don't know whether it'll come up on the screen, would it?

The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, then in his joy, he went and sold all he had and brought that field Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found 1 of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. There's loads of things to see here, but look, here's the first thing I want you to see. The first thing is that the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is talking about is priceless.

We've already seen these men gave up everything because nothing really was compared. Everything they had wasn't compared when they found this. Some time ago, I I read an article about a South African, a diamond mining company. I know we got some South Africans here. I don't know whether you know about this 1.

But, it specializes in mining sort of coastal areas for very rough diamonds. But the amazing thing is the amount of work they go through to get a diamond. So apparently, they they get these massive diggers and they remove all the topsoil 50 feet of stone and gravel and sand. They remove the topsoil. Then they they put dynamite in the layers of rock and blow the thing up.

Then they've got massive lumps of rock that they then bring to a sort of, hydraulic water pressure thing where they just power water into it and split the rock again Then when they got smaller rocks, they have a big crushing machine that sort of crushes those smaller rocks, then they wash it and sift it and they find possibly a diamond in all of that. But this was the thing that blew me away when I read this. It's estimated that some hundred and 80000000 parts of earth have to be processed to yield 1 part diamond. That's amazing isn't it? A hundred and 80000000 And what does a diamond do?

What does it really do? All the effort to find mine, refine, cut, polish, mount, sell by any precious stone or any precious metal. Can it heal a broken relationship? Can it bring peace to a troubled mind? Can it forgive a guilty person?

It can offer very little for the present and nothing for the future. When you're dying, you don't want a diamond. But the pearl that Jesus is talking about is altogether different. It's the Kingdom of heaven, Pearl. He's actually really talking about himself.

Jesus is this great pearl of great price. And when you look through the Bible, and it's worth doing. And that's why the I mean, it's 1 of the reasons why people wanna mock it and laugh at it and say it's old fashioned. They don't want you looking in it. But when you open it up and start digging, you'll see some treasures here, and you'll see a person of Jesus that's like no other And we we have, in our schools comparative religion where you compare all of the religious leaders and Jesus altogether.

It's nonsense. Genuinely. It's just ridiculous. There is no 1 like Jesus. No 1 claimed unless they've got real serious, mental issues, what Jesus claimed, and no followers of any person claimed about their leader, what the followers of Jesus claimed.

He's like any no other person. It says that he comes into the world from above the world. He's bigger than the world, and that's what that whole virgin birth stuff Christmas is all about. We're told in the Bible that he's the alpha and the omega. That's the a in Greek alphabet and the zed.

He's the a to zed of everything. We're told that he is and was and is to come that he is the almighty The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, the day, today, and forever. He's consistent. And then when you read the Bible and how he loved the outcast and cared for people that no 1 else cared for, he's a consistent lover He loves yesterday today and forever. He's the creator of the world.

The Bible says the sun is the radiance of of god's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. He is god made man. He is heaven, come into this kingdom of death and dying to bring the kingdom of god. There's no other like him hidden in the body of humanity is god, the god man. And more than that, just listen to this verse.

I know you won't get it all because I haven't put it up, but it's just it's just so much. It there there's a verse in the Bible here in New Testament. It says In him, it's talking about Jesus, we have redemption. I'll come back to that word in a minute. We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins.

Imagine your sins forgiven. I mean, 1 of the reasons we're so troubled is that we try to pretend we're not sinners and repress. And when you repress, you have all kinds of issues. But when you know your sins are forgiven, you're forgiven. You can walk tall.

So to hold it, let me go back. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of god's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. This this is Jesus who wants to lavish on us, wisdom and understanding. We were seeing in this morning service, those who who were there. That there's the riches in Christ of wisdom and understanding.

Imagine having all the wisdom and understanding of god. I mean, that would blow your head, wouldn't it? I mean, it's hard making a choice between which cereal I'm gonna eat in the morning. To have a wisdom and understanding of god in my life so that I know what my life is about. But more than that, to have someone who's come out of the kingdom of this earth, who's come from the kingdom of heaven to buy me, redeem me, to shed his blood for me to become a man, the god man, and die on a cross for me to sort out my sin to bring me into the kingdom of god.

That is a lover. And when you know your love like that, it's like finding a pearl. It's like finding a treasure. Is it extremely hard to explain. But all you wanna do is to sell everything for that.

That's what life is about. I love the word lavish. Where do you get that word? Lavish. It's an extraordinarily weird word, isn't it?

I mean, most of the time people are stingy, aren't they? You know, a little stingy bit here. Religion feels very stingy, but this is lavish. This has got lavishing on us. I remember years ago, a couple, from Iran, in, in Cardiff, invited me to come all the way down from London for a meal.

Because their son had been at some meeting and he'd become a Christian and they were so delighted. They said, please, will you come down? And I drove all the way down to Cardiff. For a meal. And then I sat down for a meal, and there was only the family there and the boy and me, But there was about 10 chickens, on, on the, on the table.

And I said, gosh, wow, you know, are they they must be inviting the whole neighbors and then we sat down and said thanks and, they said, oh, we just wanted to say thank you to you. And then the the mother sort of cut started carving the chicken. She cut off a leg and put it on my plate. And I thought, that's that's quite nice. And she cut off the breast of then she went, oh, you have the whole thing.

And there's a whole chicken. And there's another chicken. I said, what? Like this? What?

2 chickens on my plate? And and this was lavish, you know? This was like over the top. This is I can't eat all that. It's more than I can contain.

Here is a god the Bible talks about that so loved the world even though it rejected him that he sent his darling son, the pearl of great price, the lavish on this world, goodness and good things to be able to buy us into this new kingdom. I was thinking this week, I don't know how it goes with you, but, I used to do a lot of traveling around and a lot of traveling around at night on motorways. And, and, you know, a roads and stuff. And, always driving through the night. And I always I this is weird.

I know. But I always thought, what would I do if I'm driving along the, you know, from Wales on the m 4, where they haven't got any lights and someone's built a brick wall across the motorway. What are we gonna do? You know? And I'd often think like this driving along.

And then I'd be thinking, Why would they do this to stupid? And then you start moaning, don't you? Who would do this? Why are they doing this? Why are they building a brick wall?

Of course, it was all a fantasy. But if you think, thankfully, unless you wanna go and do 1 with me later on, but when you think about it, life, all of us start on a motorway. We all start somewhere, and we're all driving, aren't we? Some faster than others? To a brick wall.

Everything you've picked up on the way and put in your car, every treasure you've got, every relationship, you're driving and 1 day you're going to hit the wall. It's called death. That's the kingdom of this world, but the kingdom of heaven is that Jesus has come to deal with death. He died on a cross lavishly gave his life for you, but rose again bashing a hole through death. So now I can drive through death into the eternal kingdom of god.

Do you see that? Jesus is altogether different, an amazing treasure an amazing poll. Here's the poll merchant. Is that a poll? Yes.

What freedom from sin? Yes. Eternal life. Yes. Forgiveness.

Yes. Brought into the kingdom of God. What a pearl? I must have it. 1 of the books I read on, tutankhamun, many years ago and about the tomb and the treasure, the writer said this about Carter and Kanarvan.

It said with 10 years searching behind them and 10 years hard work facing them, and no direct financial reward at the end of it. Carter and Kanavin's triumph, listen. Must have seemed hollow. The day of days, 1 like I never go through again, must have seemed hollow. You can't say that about Jesus.

He's life He brings you to god. He brings you into the family, into the kingdom. So that's the first thing. This kingdom is wonderful, is priceless. But the second thing is, did you notice this kingdom is not necessarily superficially visible.

See, the case of the treasure, it was hidden in a field. I guess hundreds of people walked over that field. They didn't see the treasure. They walked over the field and didn't see the it was only the man who found it. It's not superficially feasible visible.

Some people say, no, you know, you know, I can't see what you're going on about with Christ. Some people even get sort of angry. I I there's nothing in Christ. So and he says, I wonder, have you looked properly? I read a story about a create a create what you call them?

A crew. Curator. That's it. Curator. Not a creator, but a curator of an art gallery.

And, he put up his art and, to put it in his words, he was rather intolerant of the cultural Philistines who came to view the art that he put on. He was very precious. And 1 day he has he's got all the art up and he heard a tourist looking at a piece of work that he'd put up in his, gallery and the tourists said, what a dreadful picture? What who in their right mind would hang an ugly thing like that up? And the curator was there.

He stepped forward tap the visitor on the shoulder. You have to think about this. And he said, sir, the merit of these paintings is not in question. It's those who view them who are on trial. Right?

Think about it. In other words, if you think they're rubbish, it's because you're rubbish. Genuinely, it's very hard for those of us that have followed Christ and seen him as the great Pearl. To hear people just not even looking at Christ. Just walking over, just only seeing earth.

Not seeing the treasure. It's genuinely hard for us. We find it really frustrating because we know this treasure and he's been worth selling everything for. Isn't it worth you just having a look? Digging a little bit?

Getting under the surface. Opening the Bible. Yeah? If if if you wanna learn to open the Bible every day, give all your ring. Give him your number.

Yeah? And he'll be texting you to you. You read the bible. Yeah. Yeah.

Go alright. Alright. Yeah. Oh, read it. Yeah.

Yeah, 1 verse at a time. He was sent. Oh, that'll do. That's read the Bible. Yes, Ollie.

I have read it. Yeah. No, but isn't it worth digging because Scarlet and others are saying we found a treasure. We're we're we're you know, it's been said. We're we're like we're like you know, beggars that have found food.

That's all we are. And we're saying that here's food. His food is this pearl. He offers so much more than the treasures of this world. He's the poll.

Come to him. And did you notice that in thirdly that In both these cases, the the treasures taken by by the person, the men giving up everything. But as I say, in their in their perspective, they haven't given up anything. But that's a picture of what we call repentance. It's a revaluation.

It's saying, Okay. This world has some beautiful things in it, and I've collected quite a lot of treasures, but they don't last. I'm not gonna live for that. I'm gonna live for him. They both gave up all they had in order to receive the treasure.

Why? It's it's reevaluation. It's obvious to do that. And Jesus doesn't want people that look at a pearl, like you go and look at the crown jewels, He wants you to own him. He wants you to own the crown jewels.

He wants you to wear them. He wants you to be part of who he is. The kingdom of heaven is like, treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. Listen to this is my last thing, and then in his joy, in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field.

It's joy. Your Christians get a bad press in in this in this country. It's it's it's tragic, really. There are always hypocrites in every area of life. You see that from the police to the fire brigade, to the nurses, to everything.

And there are hypocrites, in the so called church, of course. But in my experience, Christians are the most joyful people on earth. Even when they're suffering, it's quite extraordinary. It's quite extraordinary. In his joy.

Wouldn't it be good to wake up tomorrow morning in joy? Joy. Where'd you hear that? You only ever hear about depression. Don't you?

Joy. Joy in Jesus. It's extraordinary. The pile of great price your eternity settled, you're in the kingdom of god, with King Jesus, and happy day. He took my sin away.

What a joy. That's what Scarlet That's what's happened to her. That's what's happened to the family. That's what's that's I came to know Jesus at the age of 19. And what a joy it's been?

What a what a road to know the lord Jesus Christ, and I commend the Pearl and the treasure to you. At least come and dig, Tom will finder, they'll tell us how we can find out more about the lord Jesus. In just a minute.