Dear God, we thank you so much for all that you
do for us. We thank you for bringing us to this
place. Lord, we want to pray for the folks down
the hill that they'll have some meaningful conversations
and meaningful contacts. And somebody will get
a book or a Bible study that will help them to
start thinking about you and their relationship
with you. And be with us as we open up your word
today. May you inspire us. May you impact our
life. And may we leave here more in love than
when we came. In your name we pray. Amen. So
Ludivine went out in the morning and didn't return
for a while. Now, Ludivine's a two -year -old
bloodhound, a dog, and they opened the door like
they do every morning, and Ludivine went outside
and didn't return, but people didn't think too
much about it. But when... this dog finally got
back, it had an unexpected treasure. You see
this two -year -old bloodhound as it went out
into the yard and ventured out a little bit further,
it saw people running. And Ludivine decided,
hey, I want to run along too. It turned out it
was the Elkmont Half Marathon was happening,
and Ludivine joined this group of people running.
And they were running 13 .1 miles. And Ludivine
decided, you know what? I want to run 13 .1 miles.
And so as these people were running, this dog
joined in. It ended up actually coming in seventh
in the half marathon. A few people were a little
faster. And the owner did not know this was happening
until people's friends started sending pictures.
Hey, your dog is down here. at the finish line
of the race. And when Ludivine got home, they
had received a little race medal as a finisher
of the race. As I said, an unexpected treasure
as this dog came in seventh place. Now, we love
treasures as humans. We love stories about treasures
and hidden treasures and sunken treasures and
all the different things. And we as humans, we
love stories. Whether you're a child getting
told a story by a parent or grandparent, or whether
you're the one telling the story. We love stories.
Whether you're a pastor telling a story or a
congregation listening to a story, let me just
remind you or inform you, you may or may not
realize this, but the part of the sermon that
you remember is going to be the story that gets
told. You may remember a story about a dog that
ran a half marathon. And you may not remember
much else of what I said, but you're going to
remember the story because human nature, we love
stories. And guess what? Jesus told stories.
Throughout his ministry, one of his ways of getting
important messages across was to tell stories.
And so today is our first of a new sermon series
called Stories of the Kingdom. So over the next...
Several weeks through the summer, when I'm here,
we're going to be exploring some of the different
stories that Jesus told and the truths that are
behind them. So our scripture reading this morning
that Colton did such a good job was in Matthew
chapter 13. And let's go back there and look
at Matthew chapter 13. We'll start in verse 10.
It said, the disciples came and said to him,
why do you speak to them in parables? Why do
you tell stories? And Jesus answered and said
to them, because it has been given to you to
know, and then it says, the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven. But to them it has not been
given. And we recognize that as we look at many
of Jesus' parables, There were times when a certain
group kind of understood or they recognized what
was happening in the story. In a couple weeks,
we'll look at the parable of the sower and the
different soils that were there. And many people
were farmers and understood bits and pieces of
that. Or they understood different concepts.
But there were players to the stories that Jesus
told. So he could tell a story, and whether it
was a young person, They could get a moral from
it, whether it was someone who was wanting to
follow God, they could get a lesson from it.
And even one of the religious leaders who were
maybe opposed to the ministry of Jesus, they
could gain some kind of lesson if they would
listen to it, if they would hear that message
that was there. But Jesus said they could understand
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Now that's
an interesting phrase, kingdom of heaven. Because
only, only the Gospel of Matthew talks about
the kingdom of heaven. There are other Gospels
that talk about the kingdom of God, but only
Matthew talks about the kingdom of heaven. And
that phrase is used about 31 times in the Gospel
of Matthew. Let's look at one of those. Let's
go to Matthew chapter 4. So way back to the very
beginning of the Gospel, to the beginning of
Jesus' ministry. Matthew 4, verse 17, as Jesus
is just starting his ministry, notice what his
message was. John, excuse me, Matthew 4, verse
17. It says, from that time, Jesus began to preach
and to say, this was his message, repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And so as Jesus was beginning
his ministry, he said, this is the message. The
kingdom of heaven is here. As the people of that
day had studied those prophecies from the prophet
Daniel, where it talks about 70 weeks, 490 years,
they could begin to do some math and realize,
hey, we're coming down to a close of that prophetic
time period. Something... must be happening.
There must be this Messiah, and Jesus came, John
the Baptist came, the disciples proclaimed this
message, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. Now, this is a different kind of kingdom
than maybe what the people were anticipating.
This was not a kingdom of armies, not a kingdom
of swords, not a kingdom of victory, of conquering
nations. not a kingdom of castles or anything
like that, but this was a kingdom of grace, a
kingdom of love, a kingdom of acceptance. As
Jesus came, he reached out to various ethnicities,
to various socioeconomic levels, to various,
whether it was a leader or a servant, whether
it was a soldier or a priest, Jesus could reach
out to people across the spectrum. with this
kingdom of grace, with this kingdom of acceptance.
And he says, now the kingdom of heaven is at
hand. Now that was a message, this kingdom of
grace that goes all the way back to the Garden
of Eden. As soon as Adam and Eve fell, there
was a sacrifice that took place. There was a
promise of a Messiah, of a Savior that was to
come. And it was a, throughout the Old Testament,
this idea of a coming. kingdom of grace was there.
Now, it was kind of intertwined sometimes with
this kingdom of glory, which is also talked about.
And that's a kingdom that's not quite here yet.
That's the one we're still anticipating. That's
the one we're looking forward to. That's the
one that the Bible mentions and Jesus also talks
about. But this kingdom of heaven, Jesus could
say, is here. It's at hand. And as Jesus proclaimed,
as he told stories, as he preached messages,
he talked about this kingdom of heaven. For instance,
the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
Those three chapters are almost entirely those
red letters. Those are the words of Jesus, and
we refer to that as the Sermon on the Mount.
And as Jesus begins that Sermon on the Mount
with what we refer to as the Beatitudes, Beautiful
passage, maybe you've memorized it at some point.
The very first one, the very first beatitude,
it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is proclaiming
and talking about this kingdom of heaven. Just
the chapter before that we read, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is... the kingdom
of heaven. And if you were to read through that
Sermon on the Mount, a great Sabbath afternoon
activity, you would find there a description
of what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom
of heaven. It doesn't mean we have to wait until
we're in the clouds of glory, but we can begin
to live out that citizenship in the kingdom of
heaven even now. Because the Bible tells us You
are the salt of the earth. You are the light
of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be
hidden. He goes on and talks about we need to
turn the other cheek. If someone is mean to us,
if someone speaks ill of us, we don't have to
fight back. We can turn the other cheek. He talks
about being a people of prayer. And he shares
the Lord's prayer, which we... shared together
just a few moments ago. That's part of what it
means to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
He talks about the law of God, but in the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus actually expands it. It's
not just 10 things to do or not do, thou shalt
not, but Jesus expands it. So it's not just those
actions, but it's our thoughts and our attitudes.
You've heard it said, Do not kill. But I say
to you, don't be angry with your brother. Don't
be angry with the people around you. So it's
not just an action, but it's a thought, and it's
an attitude, and it's an intent. And he goes
on and says, seek first. Seek ye first the kingdom.
We can live out our lives as citizens of the
kingdom even now. And as we begin to look at
some parables today, we're going to see how Jesus
talks about these parables of the kingdom of
heaven. And we're going to look at two different
ones, very short little parables, but both of
them are about the kingdom of heaven. And we
can understand that as Jesus talks about these
different things, they're not contradictory.
They're not saying different things, but they're
looking at the same object, the same truth from
a different angle. So we can perhaps get a fuller
picture. of what it means to be part of the kingdom
of heaven. So let's turn back to Matthew chapter
13. Matthew chapter 13. And as I said, we're
going to come back to the beginning of Matthew
13 on a future week, but we want to just look
at two short little parables here, starting in
verse 44. Matthew 13, starting in verse 44. Notice
what it says. Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like a 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. That's
it, just one verse. The kingdom of heaven is
like a 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. So
you could imagine perhaps someone who doesn't
own a plot of land, but maybe rents it for a
season. I'm going to pay someone some money.
I'm going to plant some seeds, some wheat or
some barley into this land, and then I'm going
to harvest it, and I'm going to make a little
profit even though I'm paying for the land. And
so as this man is turning the soil, plowing up
the soil, moving rocks out of the way, getting
everything ready, But suddenly, you know, he
hits something, and it doesn't sound like a rock.
Maybe it clinks a little bit. Maybe it sounds
like metal or something. And so maybe he takes
his spade or his shovel, and he digs around,
and was it a chest? Was it an old leather bag
that maybe had some holes rotted out in it? But
he sees something of value, a treasure, as it
says, that had been hidden. A treasure had been...
hidden. Now think about the day and age that
they lived in. They didn't have, you know, an
ATM that they could go get cash from. They didn't
have a credit card to use at the marketplace.
There weren't even banks. You couldn't, you know,
go deposit your check into the bank where it
would be safe. And so people would want to protect
their valuables, their treasure that they had.
And one way that they would do that, they would
bury it. In the ground. And so the way this seems
to be written is this wasn't new. This wasn't
newly placed. Perhaps somehow you could tell
it had been there a long time. So you could imagine
if someone hid some treasure, what happened to
that person? Maybe raiders came and killed them
in some sort of battle that took place. Or maybe
they had gone on a journey and... and died of
sickness or disease or whatever happened. Whatever
happened here, this man recognized that this
money, no one knew about it. It had been there
a long time. And you would think, well, he could
just take it and got some money now. But apparently,
he wanted to make sure that he had an honest
deed, an honest right to this land. And so he
doesn't just take the money, but it says he hides
it again. He buries it again. And then, for the
joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has
so that he has enough money to purchase that
field. Think about it if your spouse came home
tomorrow and started selling everything in your
house. you know, pitting on Facebook Marketplace
or a giant yard sale. Silverware, yeah, we could
sell that silverware, couldn't we? And the couch,
we could sell that. That'd be worth, you know,
50 bucks, 100 bucks. What about the bed? What
about the quilt that your mother gave you? We
don't need that. And the spouse would be like,
have you gone crazy? What are you doing? Why
are you doing this? Well, there was a reason.
There was a purpose. It wasn't just to get rid
of the things that he had, but it was to get
something better. It was to get this treasure.
And it says the kingdom of heaven is like this
treasure that is hidden in the field. This treasure,
this kingdom of heaven is of more value than
anything that we could possibly have, that you
have in your presence, in your existence. That
is what we need to do, even if we have to get
rid of everything else. It was about the 1940s,
and there was somewhere in the vicinity of southern
Israel, there was a young boy who was taking
care of the sheep, and one of the stories says,
well, one of the sheep was missing, and he was
trying to find it, and well, maybe it went up
into that cave up there, and so... Let me throw
a rock up there and see if I can make this sheep,
you know, make a sheep noise. And then I'll know
that that's up there. And so he's throwing rocks
into different caves looking for this lost animal.
And he doesn't hear any sheep noises. He just
hears the rock clanking on other rocks until
he throws it up into one. And it's not the normal
sound, but it's a crash. Something broke. Something
that you wouldn't expect to be in a cave. And
so he scales up into the cave and they find a
broken pot, big clay pot, and in fact there's
many, many of these clay pots. Not just in that
cave, but in many of the caves around this area
of Qumran. And it turns out this was the beginning
of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These
scrolls that had been handwritten by the Essenes
had been... placed into these caves for protection
and had been sealed up into these clay pots.
And in the 1940s, they began to discover these
dead sea scrolls, these handwritten pages of
God's word. They were valuable as historical
artifacts from, you know, BC time, like 100 BC
in that time frame. They were valuable as artifacts,
but they were priceless. Because they showed
the process of copying God's Word, of copying
the Scripture. Because these Dead Sea Scrolls
were a thousand years older than any other manuscripts
that people had. And when they compared them,
this is Isaiah, this is a page from Isaiah, they
found that what they had discovered from a thousand
years previous to what they had, matched almost
completely exactly that as people were copying
these biblical pages by hand that they were doing
such a meticulous job that changes had not taken
place because as they went back and study it
when when the people were writing by hand when
they finished well they would like count how
many words and how many letters they had And
if they had, you know, sometimes, oh, you skip
a word, you write the same word twice, you leave
out a letter. Oh, if they had messed that up,
then that page, guess what they did with it?
They trashed it. They got rid of it because this
was God's word. This was a hidden treasure, and
they wanted to make sure that it was preserved.
And so this Bedouin shepherd boy, he wasn't looking
for a treasure, but when he threw that rock and
broke that jar, this incredible treasure of priceless
value was discovered, was found. These words
that reveal to us this kingdom of heaven, as
we can have this word of God preserved, that
we can examine it, that we can... explore it
that we can seek after that incredible treasure
and so that's one aspect of the kingdom of heaven
it's like a treasure hidden in a field and whatever
we do we need to try to to get that in our life
but notice the next couple verses verse 45 it
says again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
it's not hidden this time but he's seeking he's
looking for something seeking beautiful pearls
who when he had found one pearl of great price
he went and sold all that he had and bought it
so this is a merchant this is his job this is
his his employment he goes to to purchase things
from different places and to bring them back
and to sell them and this particular trip he's
looking for things of value he's looking for
beautiful pearls Where does he go on this journey?
I don't know, but he's seeking something of great
value, and it says that he found one pearl of
great price. Was it bigger? Was it more perfect
in its form and its shape? Whatever it was, this
was the one that he had to have. This was the
one that he needed. And just like the man with
the hidden treasure, as he was seeking for this
beautiful pearl, he found the one pearl. of great
price. And it was of more value than everything
else that he owned. And so again, he went back
and he began to sell all the things that he had.
He began to get rid of everything else so that
he could get this thing, which was of more value
than anything else. And we can understand that
salvation through Jesus Christ is a free gift.
We don't have to money to purchase that free
gift of salvation. But what this understanding
is that we must be willing to surrender all that
we have in order to accept this free gift that
Jesus gives us. We cannot earn salvation, but
we are to seek for it with as much interest and
perseverance as though we would abandon everything
in the world for it. We can't pay for it, but
we have to seek after it. We have to understand
that that is the most important thing in the
world as we seek after that incredible treasure.
Let me tell you one more treasure story. This
was from the 1920s. There was a gentleman named
Howard Carter. He was seeking for something in
a place called the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
And he thought for sure that there was at least
one more tomb. of the ancient pharaohs, which
had not yet been discovered. And he had someone
who was sponsoring his archaeological expeditions
there in the Valley of the Kings, but he'd been
told, you've got one more season. He'd been at
it for about 10 years. You've got one more season,
and then I'm not going to sponsor you anymore.
And so they begin in November, and they had one
more season to hopefully find this. which they
thought was there, but they didn't know where.
And just a couple days after they started this
last season, the story is that there was a young
helper, a young servant who was off at another
part of the camp and stuck something in the ground
and it hit something hard. And when they dug
just a little bit further down, they found a
step. Just one step. But then, well, they started
going a little further. And there was another
step, and they started clearing out the dirt
and debris, and the steps went down. I think
it was 17 or 18 steps that they went down until
they found a wall. This was a tomb. This was
a tomb. And so they call the sponsor, Lord Carveron.
I'm not sure if I'm saying that right or not.
And when he comes, they wait for him to arrive
from England a couple weeks later. And when he
finally gets there, they get to this wall, and
they... they break open the seal and they open
up the room and Howard Carter shines a candle
and he holds it up and his sponsor says, do you
see anything? Do you see anything? And he says,
yes, I see wonderful things. That was the phrase
he used. I see wonderful things because that
flicker of the candlelight was glinting off the
gold and the treasures. of King Tut, King Tutankhamen.
That was the tomb that was discovered in the
20s, and it was full of these treasures, and
this was the one tomb that had never been touched
by grave robbers. And so in all of its wonder,
in all of its glory, they began to pull all of
these things out, and it became one of the most
famous archaeological discoveries in modern time,
because they found this treasure. of a boy king
who had died, and they saw wonderful things through
the glitter of that candlelight. They were seeking
for a treasure, and they found what they were
hoping for. They found what they were looking
for. I want to tell you the story of Joyce. She,
not too long ago, about a year ago, saw an advertisement
on the internet for some Bible studies. And she
sent in, yes, I want to take some Bible lessons.
She lives over in Chickamauga. And I showed up
at her door a couple of weeks later with some
Bible lessons. And she began to do some Bible
lessons and did one set. And do you want the
next set? Yes, I would like to look at some more.
And then she said, hey, where do you go to church?
So I mentioned the Rossville Seventh -day Adventist
Church, which is close to where she lived. And
a few weeks later, she came to church. And about
a month ago, she decided that she wanted to get
baptized. She was seeking after something. Whether
it was a hidden treasure, whether it was a treasure
that she was seeking after, she was able to find
something and begin to have a new connection,
a new walk. a new relationship with Jesus. And
she found this treasure that was hidden that
she was seeking after. Now, so many people in
Jesus's day, even though they had these prophecies,
even though they were anticipating a Messiah,
they missed it. Notice what this says. It says,
the Jews misinterpreted and misapplied the word
of God, and they knew not the time of their visitation.
The years of the ministry of Christ and his apostles,
the precious last years of grace to the chosen
people, they spent in plotting the destruction
of the Lord's messengers. Here's the Son of God,
Jesus Christ himself, and they're planning, how
can we get rid of this guy? Earthly ambitions
absorbed them, and the offer of the spiritual
kingdom came to them in vain. So today, The kingdom
of this world absorbs men's thoughts and they
take no note of the rapidly fulfilling prophecies
and tokens of the swift coming kingdom of God.
Because Jesus came and he said the kingdom of
heaven is at hand and he showed us what it means
to live as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
But as we said, the Bible also talks about another
kingdom and the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.
Matthew 24 and other places, they point to the
fact that I think Jesus is coming very, very
soon. And as it says in Matthew 24, at the end
of Matthew 24, it gives a little description
here, starting in verse 30. It says, then the
sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man coming in the
clouds of heaven. with power and great glory.
And he will send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet, and they will gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the
heaven to the other. That's not here yet, but
that's coming soon. And could it be that we are
so absorbed in the things of this world, in our
daily work, in our daily routine, that we're
missing out on this? pearl of great price on
this hidden treasure we're missing out on the
most important thing and we're surrendering that
for the busyness of life i want to look at one
more verse here in revelation chapter 11 way
back to the very last book of of the bible revelation
chapter 11 and verse 15 and we see what it says
here in revelation 11 15 then the seventh angel
sounded And there were loud voices in heaven
saying, The kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and
he shall reign forever and ever. If you're into
music at all, you may have heard those words
sung probably around Christmas time because that's
a line from the Hallelujah Chorus. If you were
listening to that song, it would go on and say,
Hallelujah! hallelujah the kingdoms of this world
have become the kingdoms of our lord and of his
christ and he shall reign forever and ever and
yes i think we can say hallelujah to that and
so we must make sure that as we are living out
our life as we are seeing how prophecies of this
world are being fulfilled that we are pursuing
that greatest thing that treasure that is hidden
let's be willing to get rid of anything in our
life which is preventing us from grabbing hold
of that hidden treasure. Let's do anything that's
going to prevent us from grabbing hold of that
pearl of great price as we look forward to the
day when Jesus comes again in the clouds of glory.
I hope that as you go through this week, as you
live out your life, that you will say, Lord,
thank you for this precious gift. Help me to
receive it and accept it each and every day.
Let's bow our heads for prayer. Dear God, we
thank you that there's promises that you are
coming again. That there's promises that the
kingdom of heaven is like something, maybe we'll
find it unexpectedly. It'll be brought into our
life. But when we see it, Lord, may it bring
us great joy. Or Lord, maybe some here are seeking
after something different, seeking something
better. And Lord, I just hope that you will show
them that incredible gift of salvation. like
a pearl of great price, that they're going to
be willing to set everything else aside in order
to receive that free gift that you want to give
them. God, thank you for all that you do for
us, and may we live our life for you. In your
name we pray. Amen.