Secrets & Treasure
- 5 days ago
- 16 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
The title of the message the Lord has given me is this: Secrets and treasure. Secrets and treasure. I want to read to you these two verses: Matthew 13:34 and 35. "All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Lord, one more time, I ask you, Lord Jesus, that as we study your word, as we look into your words, Lord Jesus, that to each and every single one of our hearts, you may teach us secrets, Lord God, that were kept from the foundation of the world. But Jesus, you came into this world to make them known, Lord God, to those that believe in God, those that want to turn to God, those that are not happy with living a sinful life. Lord Jesus, you came to show us what had been hidden from the beginning, and I pray that you continue that ministry in our hearts and in our minds today, Lord, as we listen to your words. In your name we pray. Amen.
Let’s get into the word today. Secrets and treasure. Secrets and treasure. Jesus, giving us that word: “I will utter things. I will speak things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” He says, “I’m going to do it through parables.” In other words, he says, “I’m going to tell stories that are going to help people understand things that used to be secret.” Even though there were many a person that feared God and believed in God, Jesus himself explains to us that even though people feared God, loved God, and even sought after God, tried to worship him, tried to serve him and honor him, Jesus says, “From the beginning, things were kept secret, and I’m going to tell stories in the form of parables. I’m going to tell stories that are going to begin to explain to people the things that have been secret all along—things that they couldn’t understand, things that they misunderstood, things that were hidden from their heart and from their sight—as much from the Jew who had a fear of God and believed in God as from the Gentile.” He says, “I’m coming, and I’m going to begin to tell stories.” And these stories have a purpose. They are supposed to reveal the things that no one knew, that were kept secret from the beginning of time.
I want to read to you the parable that we’re really going to look at today—one of the shortest ones in the word, just one verse. Matthew 13:44. Jesus speaking, and he says 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 he has and buys that field.” Remember, Jesus says, “I’m going to begin to share these parables. I’m going to tell these stories because there are so many things that were kept secret from the beginning of the world. But these stories are going to help you begin to know these things that were secret for so long, and they are now revealed. They are not coming to light, so to speak, any other way but through Jesus bringing them into our lives.”
Short parable. I want to ask you a question: What is the kingdom like that you are a part of?
Very clearly, Jesus cares very much about the way that we view the kingdom, because it’s parable after parable—time after time—that he starts off a story with, “The kingdom of heaven is like this.” Now, he was talking to people—these were the people that knew the stuff about the kingdom—and we see him bring story after story where he says, “Now the kingdom of heaven is like this,” and then he gives one of those example stories that is supposed to reveal a secret that no one knew about the kingdom, no one understood about the kingdom.
But I want you to think of that for just a second. In your heart’s view, when you, with your heart, think on God’s kingdom, or when, with the eyes of your heart, you look toward God’s kingdom, what is that kingdom like? That kingdom you’re a part of. Jesus cares about the way that you see the kingdom. And I’ve seen many a time people talk about parables like this, talking about that treasure hidden in the field—that treasure being the kingdom—and us traveling through the journey of life and, as it were, almost like stumbling upon this treasure that may have just been sticking out of the ground a tiny bit, and then getting on our knees and opening the ground up a little bit, realizing what we found, what we are looking at. And the word says, covering it back up, and then pulling a quick one and going to buy the land of the guy that didn’t know there was a treasure in it, and then getting that land for a good price, coming back, digging up that treasure—and now I’ve got that treasure—and drawing that parallel to our lives, where at some point in our lives we’re going to all of a sudden begin to see something we couldn’t see before and uncover something that we hadn’t fully understood before. And it is going to captivate our hearts. It’s going to give us enough reason to leave and go and sell all that we had and give to the poor, as we read in the book of Acts, and lay down our life and surrender our life for the kingdom of God, because we have finally found this incredible treasure—this incredible value—even to be understood and measured in this life.
The problem with looking at a story that Jesus shares like this is tremendous, because this is the way that the Jews would have been looking at that story. That is a kingdom of work—a kingdom where, when I do find this incredible value that is worth me laying down my life, worth me wholeheartedly responding to God maybe, now I go and I sell, I lay down, I do all of these things to finally gain this one important treasure in life, far more important than anything else. It’s a kingdom of condemnation, because so many of us look at that story and at that field and say, “I’ve seen some people do that. I haven’t. But one day, maybe I’ll uncover that incredible value, and laying down my life, turning from my sins, and following Jesus, believing him wholeheartedly, is going to make sense.” It’s a kingdom of expectation, where now I am walking through this field, and I know there’s a hidden treasure somewhere, and I try to go to church.
I may have even gone to Sunday school growing up, and I know others are seeing it—they’re so in love with the Lord—but I can’t see that hidden treasure, and I can’t really find it. But maybe one day. And we can walk and stumble through that field, and through the field of our life, until we hopefully stumble upon something that is hidden. And you can begin to feel like that, as if this has to happen to you—stumbling through that field, one day, hitting yourself on something that is sticking out of the ground, finally finding that treasure like my grandfather did, or like someone else that you look up to maybe did. And this is the way that people at Jesus’s time were looking at the kingdom. This is the way they were looking at the Lord. This is the way they were looking at the scriptures. And when a person struggles with that—when they still look at the word and at the scriptures, at the Lord, at his kingdom like that—it can show up in the life of the believer in many ways. It’s the man or the woman that feels not quite good enough today, but they believe that Jesus is so awesome that it is possible even for them, one day, to fall in love with Jesus like that—for one day to find that hidden treasure, one day to uncover it, one day to finally lay everything down and gain that one incredible treasure.
Feeling like it’s absolutely possible that one day I’ll be so touched in a sermon, I’ll be so touched in a time of worship, I’ll be so touched in a time of reading my word at home or prayer—I’ll be so touched by what I found that one day I’ll finally see, I’ll finally follow, I’ll finally lay down my life, I’ll finally give it all to the Lord. Jesus is sharing parables to reveal a secret that people couldn’t see yet. Secrets and treasure. Now, here is the situation. Here’s the setting of what Jesus is combating in the lives of the people that he speaks to. Sin had come into the world, affected humanity. Humanity had fallen, had been kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And ever since that time, people had been looking to get back to God. There was an understanding in the heart, even before the law was given—before Abraham, before Isaac, Jacob, David, all these great names—there was something in the heart of people that made them want to look for God. They were trying to get back to God. And we see this desire to erase wrong. We see this desire to pay off a debt, to work off a debt that people sensed they had built up toward God.
We see people lament in the scriptures over their sins—how they pile up and they increase and they become more and more. They sense them. They feel them. And there’s this heart that says there’s a desire to get back to God. It is a little tough, but whatever I’ve got to do, I’m willing to do whatever it takes—but I’m not quite sure if I can do it. I’m willing. And that’s what Jesus comes right into: a people that were faithful to go to their house of worship, a people that were faithful to try and figure out what they could lay down from their life, a people that had a reverence for God and wanted to somehow honor him. And Jesus says, “I came to share stories, but those stories have a purpose. They are to reveal secrets that were hidden from the beginning.” And he begins to talk to these people that believed they were so much a part of the kingdom. He begins to tell them, time and time again, stories about that kingdom—stories that are supposed to reveal secrets, things they did not know. And Jesus builds toward that parable of the treasure hidden in the field. He gives them story, puzzle piece after puzzle piece after puzzle piece, to then finally give them that one-verse parable of the treasure hidden in the field.
Let’s look at the parables that Jesus builds the anticipation up with. First, the parable of the wheat and the tares, Matthew 13:24–33. We’re going to look at the parables. "Another parable he put forth to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Jesus then explains to the disciples this parable—how there are those that are growing in righteousness and those that are being workers of the enemy, willing to do evil time and time again. And Jesus is saying, “I’m not going to judge and deal with them right here and right now, but in the end the angels of my Father will be sent out, and the wicked will be gathered up, and they will be cast out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will spring forth—now you will see them clearly.” He goes into the next parable of the mustard seed. Another parable he put forth to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Again, a parable about a man that sows, and he says it can look like small beginnings. It can look somewhat insignificant. But in the kingdom, the insignificant never stays insignificant. In the kingdom, the small never stays small. In the kingdom, whatever small you give—whatever small God has in your life—he can truly cause it to become something that becomes a blessing to many. And he shares this parable. And then he goes into another parable. Another parable he spoke to them. He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” And that would have been a shocker to the people listening, because Jesus shares these three parables before he gives them that short parable of the treasure. But the last one in particular really would have stood out, because that’s the one that really deals with the work. I’ll read it again. Another parable he spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
See, yeast—you don’t have to put yeast in dough and knead it forever until that yeast has touched every single part of the flour, every single part of the meal. You don’t have to do that. You simply put it in, fold it over a couple of times, and that yeast migrates itself right through the dough. You don’t have to work to make that happen. And he explains to them, in this one short story, this is not a kingdom of you working to make something happen. He says the kingdom is like leaven. In other words, this kingdom doesn’t demand your work. This kingdom does the work that those who are hungry for the bread of life need it to do. This is a kingdom that works on your behalf. It’s not a kingdom that demands you to do the work. And that would have blown their mind. And so we see Jesus share these three parables, time after time. He talks about a field. Verse 24: “Another parable he put forth to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.’” Verse 31: “Another parable he put forth to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.’”
Then he deals with the work, and then he’s ready to bring this parable of the treasure—that next parable. He’s done all this building, all this anticipation, setting the stage for this really short parable, as he is revealing secrets of the kingdom. I’ll read it to you 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 he has and buys that field.” The word tells us he bought the field. It’s his field. Jesus says, “I’ve been telling you these stories about a field, and here comes the great secret in this short parable of the treasure hidden in the field.” He says, “I just bought the field. It’s been my field all along. It’s my field, and I show up and I sow in that field. It’s my field, and I planted in that field.” And then he begins to tell the origin story of this field. “Here’s how I got the field. Here’s why I purchased the field. Here’s how I ended up with the field that I’ve been talking to you about in all these parables.”
Jesus making it so clear, before this short parable, that he is the one coming to the field—not you. “It’s my field. And you, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done—you are the treasure. You’re the reason that I purchased the field. You’re the reason that I ended up with the field. You’re the reason that I bought it.” And still today, when God’s word is preached, when it’s read at home, it begins to carry secrets into your heart. And it begins to reveal those secrets like yeast. It takes those secrets, and they just begin to fill your heart, and it begins to make sense, and the Spirit begins to explain to your mind and to your heart what God actually has in store for those that love him. “I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Deuteronomy 7:6: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
He treasures you. You’re a treasure to him, church. You are the treasure of God’s kingdom. That’s what he’s teaching us. All of these parables stacked up to build the stage for this one parable that is explaining to you and I that you are the treasure of God’s kingdom. Every kingdom has always been measured by its treasure. Today, we measure it by the economy. What country is doing better? What nation is doing better? Every kingdom was always measured by its treasure. You’re the treasure of God’s kingdom. You’re the very person that makes God’s kingdom as valuable as it is. That’s what he’s trying to explain to you and I.
“Oh, pastor, but I feel so dirty. All I can see is dirt on me. I’m stuck right here in that field of dirt—that field with stones, that field that is hard to plow. That field all I see is the dust and the dirt. I’m covered in it. I’m stuck in my sin. I’m stuck with my wrongs. I’m stuck not wanting to read. I’m stuck not wanting to pray. I don’t show up as much to church. All I see is all the stuff I do wrong, all the ways that I fall short.” The next verse in Deuteronomy reads this: “The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples.”
Yet he sees treasure, and he purchases all the dirt with it. He purchases the whole land with it.
I was saved just days when I was praying in my office, just talking to Jesus, and the Lord gave me a vision. I’d barely started reading the Bible. I knew nothing of the Bible. I had just started probably reading in the book of John. And I was sitting on my knees, just talking to the Lord, and all of a sudden he gave a vision so clear. I was stuck in the muck. I was stuck in the mud, and it had covered me completely. I was so dirty, and everything I did couldn’t make a change. I couldn’t get anything off myself. Everything was dirty, and I was sinking in it. And the harder I worked to clean it off of me, the deeper I was sinking—getting desperate. And I was standing like this, looking down at all of it and trying to get it off, and nothing helped. Nothing worked. But I really felt that I had to get clean, and it looked so dirty. Until, in the vision, completely covered in the dirt, I looked up, and I could see the Father’s face—the expression on his face. And he didn’t look at me like I was dirty. He looked at me like he had just found a treasure. And he never looked away from me in disgust.
Church, Jesus saw you before the foundation of the world. He saw you on your worst day, stuck in all the dirt, as stuck as any man can get. He knew your name before the foundation of the world. And when he saw you, he said, “I’m going to purchase the whole field. I’m going to pay for the sins of all the world so that you can come to me anytime, so that you can be mine anytime you’re ready to come.” John 3:15: “That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Church, you are the treasure of God’s kingdom. You’re the treasure that God has. And when he saw you, the price didn’t matter. What it would cost him didn’t matter. He had to have you. He’s going to take you out of the dirt. He’s going to bring you into his house. He’s going to cherish you as treasure. He’ll clean you up. He’ll give you a proper place in the house. He will bring you home. Remember that he said, “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” See, God’s heart goes out to you.
You’re his treasure. His heart goes out to you. He loves you with an everlasting love. And so often, when we look at the kingdom a little crooked, we get the view of the kingdom a little wrong. All we see is the wrongs I’ve done this week. All we see is the shortcomings I still have, the things that I really thought would be gone by now and would be cleaned up by now. And we begin to look at the scripture and at the Lord and at life as if we can’t see the secret—that all along, despite everything, you are the treasure of the kingdom of God. You are what makes the kingdom of God so valuable. That’s what Jesus was explaining in that short, short parable. If you say today in your heart, “Lord, the leaven is working. The kingdom is like leaven. The leaven is working. It’s moving the secrets of the kingdom into my heart, and I’m beginning to see that I am the treasure of God’s kingdom. I am the treasure of the kingdom of God. It’s so hard for me to accept. It’s hard for me to believe, but I’m beginning to see that.”
“It’s so hard for me, though, because I see so much dirt. I’m very aware that this treasure is stuck in a field—and dirty.” Maybe you have believed in God a long time in your life, and you say, “The Lord is showing me this. I’m willing to believe it, but this treasure is still stuck in the field. It’s still dirty.” In that case, you’re in such a battle, such a tug of war. How to believe? Can I believe this? Is this true? How do I trust? How do I know that this is for me? Here’s the call to response this morning: “God, I’m going to let you treat me like treasure. God, I’m going to let you dig me out. I’m going to let you pay. I’m going to let you clean me up. I’m going to let you bring me into the house. I’m going to believe what Jesus is showing to my heart, and I’m going to let you, Father, treat me like treasure.” If you want to say that to him—whether it’s the first time in your life or again—“Lord, I’m believing what Jesus is showing, the secret that he’s showing, and Father, I’m going to let you treat me like the treasure of the kingdom of God.”
If you’re willing to say yes to that, would you come, and would you pray with me right here at this altar at this time? Hallelujah.
-Pastor Stan Mons
