Exposition of Matthew (Matthew 13:44-46)

May 19, 2021 

(The Kingdom Work)

Questions to be answered in this study

1. Why is it important to read and study the Bible each day?
2. What was Jesus’ purpose for training His disciples concerning the kingdom?
3. What was the difference between the kingdom Jesus offered Israel and the kingdom program taught to the disciples?
4. What is the difference between Jesus’ public and private ministry?
5. How old was Jesus when He began His public ministry?
6. What occasion marked the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry?
7. Why did Jesus teach in parables?
8. What does the tare represent in the second parable of Jesus?
9. What is the difference between the man in Jesus’ second parable and the person in the third parable?
10. What is the difference between worldly treasure and heavenly treasure?
11. What should be a Christian’s #1 Priority in life?
12. In Jesus’ fourth parable, what does the pearl of great value represent?

Introduction

At this point, the disciples are probably overwhelmed with all the information Jesus has given them in four of the seven parables in chapter 13, and perhaps you are also. We have covered a lot of information in the past two studies. The disciples had only a couple of hours to digest it all. Bible expositors have now had nearly 2,000 years to work them out. It takes time to understand the teachings of the Bible. That is why we need to continue to read and study the Bible each day.

Jesus teaches His disciple concerning the kingdom, and each parable has something to do with it. There has been a significant shift in the realm that Jesus offered Israel and the future kingdom. Israel could have had the kingdom domain while Jesus was on earth, but they rejected it. Now Jesus has turned His attention to the future kingdom at His second coming. In the meantime, it is essential to build the citizenship of God’s kingdom so that when He returns, He can set up His worldwide kingdom, which will go through the 1,000 years referred to as the millennial. 

So, Jesus is taking the time to teach His disciples the method for building the kingdom. The ministry of Jesus had two parts, the public ministry and the private ministry. This present period is not His official, personal ministry. Nevertheless, He is privately teaching His disciples as He continues His public ministry. Officially, when Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room, shortly before His arrest and trial, is counted as His private ministry. Jesus waited until He was about four months away from His 30th birthday to begin His ministry. Why was this? Everything Jesus did was on God the Father’s schedule, just as His baptism was the starting point for His Galilean ministry.

I think it is essential to briefly review the interpretation of the first four parables before going into the next one. Here are the four parables: The Sower & the Seed, the Wheat & the Tares, the Mustard Seed, and the Leaven & Dough. Why did Jesus teach in parables? He did not direct his teaching to the multitudes any longer since they rejected Him as their Messiah; instead, Jesus taught His disciples using a parable, which the masses did not understand.

The first parable, the Sower and the seed reveal how the world’s people will receive the good news of God’s kingdom. The majority will not receive it as indicated in the first two categories. In the first category of the first parable, the seed falls on the hardened ground, which symbolizes the hard heart of man; the heart generally becomes callused after rejecting the gospel over time. The second category, the grain, falls on stony ground where there is little soil; this symbolizes that in time the tribulations of life take over, and the good news no longer is relevant. Then in the third category, the seed takes root, but in stony soil where the thorns choke out the good word, and then the worries and riches and pleasures of this life will keep these believers from bearing any spiritual fruit. They are nominal Christians and Christians in name only. The fourth category, the gospel is sown in fertile soil and grows and bears a fruitful harvest. This category represents a believer who is committed to God and is involved in the kingdom’s work.

Those mentioned in categories #1 & #2 are dead spiritually. Those in categories #3 and #4 receive life and are born again through their faith in Jesus. The first two categories are dead in their sins, and the last two are alive in Christ. The second parable is of the wheat and the tares, which reveals the spiritual warfare in the life of each believer that renders some unfaithful who bear only limited fruit. The tares represent unbelievers who influence the growth of true believers, sometimes drawing them away into falsehood and deception. Their misdirection often controls the direction of the church and renders it ineffective. Nevertheless, it is good to know the gates of hell cannot prevail against God’s people and will not thwart the kingdom, as we see in the following parable of the mustard seed. Even though some individuals and churches may become ineffective, God’s kingdom will continue to grow. The kingdom of God will eventually reach the entire world and ultimately fill the world at the return of Christ. The fourth parable is the leaven and the dough, which indicates how the gospel may seem inadequate when first given, the final results can be exponential. Just a little leaven leavens the whole loaf just as the gospel delivered to just one person can grow to reach millions as was the case with Billy Graham.

D.L Moody gave his account of how he came to know Christ through the witness of his Sunday School teacher, Edward Kimball: “I recollect that my teacher came around behind the counter of the shop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till then. I said to myself: ‘this is a very strange thing. Here is a man who never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never shed a tear for them.’ But I understand it now, and know what it is to have a passion for men’s souls and weep over their sins. I don’t remember what he said, but I can feel the power of that man’s hand on my shoulder tonight. It was not long after that I was brought into the Kingdom of God,” (A Passion for Souls, Lyle Dorsett, pg. 47). However, the story does not end there; D. L. Moody became one of the greatest preachers of the gospel of the nineteenth century. We are just responsible for sowing the seeds and then leaving the rest up to God. It may take another world to tell how effective our witness was.

So, here is a summary of the four parables:

Sower & Seed: It is by the sowing of the seed of the gospel that The Kingdom Program builds a spiritual community. The Great Commission’s directive was given to the church just before Jesus ascended into heaven that believers are to serve the Kingdom Program by producing fruit, particularly the sharing of the gospel as they go through life.

Wheat & Tares: Satan has learned that the most effective way to hinder our Kingdom’s work is by planting unbelievers in the church to choke off believers’ fruit. Nevertheless, we will endure until the time when Jesus separates the groups, the unbelievers, from the believers at His second coming.

Mustard Seed: Satan and evil forces cannot keep the church from growing and reaching the world to some degree. However, he cannot stop God; he often plants nests of unbelievers within the church to gain a foothold and cause division within the church., but ultimately the church shall win the battle with Satan.

Yeast & Dough: It may seem we are insignificant and hidden in the world, but as we produce the fruit of the gospel, we help the church to move outward—our primary responsibility to the Kingdom Program is bearing fruit. To be obedient to God’s Word, we must bear Spiritual fruit and Spiritual or good works in service to our Lord. This is God’s method for growing the church and building His kingdom.

This brings us to the final sequence of the Kingdom parables:

Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy, over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” 

In this verse, Jesus centers in on the first parable of the last three before continuing with the next two. The following two parables are more challenging to understand and have often been interpreted to mean that personal works obtain the kingdom. In other words, a person works for their salvation. However, we know that is not what it means because the Bible is clear that salvation is only by God’s grace and received by faith in Jesus. With that lain aside, we need to see how this parable is related to the kingdom. First, not every detail of a parable is taken literally. It is the point Jesus is making within the parable that needs our attention.

First of all, a man finds a treasure buried in a field that belongs to someone else. Jesus does not give any details here. Perhaps the man was working for someone and was digging in the field as part of his daily chores; it was not because he had gone there in search of treasure. The kind of treasure Jesus talks about has nothing to do with what the world generally counts as treasure. It is a hidden treasure and can only be discovered by a certain person, a believer in Christ. Unbelievers consider the gospel foolish and cannot know what great glory it brings until they have experienced it personally. Eternal life is a great treasure but what Jesus is talking about here goes beyond that. He is talking about rewards in heaven that we can’t have until later on. The rewards are given based on the work we have performed in the kingdom. Jesus stresses that the treasure of rewards is worth far more than everything we have or will ever have as for as material things. Therefore, our #1 priority in life should be our work in God’s kingdom. Its rewards are far greater than any rewards on earth.

Satan would have us to be in category #3; Christian but seeking after the world’s treasure and forgoing the kingdom work. But Jesus loves us and does not want us to miss out on the greatest treasure of all. Therefore, we are much better to make sacrifices now to obtain a much better reward later. As Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 (KJV), “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Paul is clear here that our number one goal in life is to please God, to whom we will one day stand before and give an account of how we lived on earth. So, what does this parable teach us? Jesus set down an incentive for us. The hidden treasure reveals that we are to make the appropriate sacrifices for the kingdom and receive a treasure or great rewards for our efforts.

We come now to the final parable for today. In this parable, Jesus teaches what a disciple does when they learn this truth:

Matt. 13:45-46, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

This parable is similar to the one we just covered, except for one significant difference. The parable of the man who found a treasure buried in a field was not looking for a treasure, and once he discovered it, he redirected his entire life to gain it; in this present parable, the man is searching for a treasure. His whole life’s purpose is set on gaining new treasure, which represents the Christian completely surrendered to the kingdom of God. He is experienced in treasures and knows their worth. He is searching for that unique pearl. Jesus says when he finds it, he recognizes it because he has trained himself for it.

The pearl is a picture of a believer who knows the value of eternal rewards and eternal truths. This parable complements the last one in that it represents the person who is constantly searching for a better way to serve Jesus and please Him in the kingdom work. When the opportunity comes our way to enter a more excellent way of pleasing and serving our Lord, we need to be trained in His Word to recognize it and cease upon it.

We should be ready to walk away from everything we have to please our heavenly Father and earn His rewards. Nothing else in this life comes close compared to what the Lord has laid up for HIs faithful servants. God’s primary claim on our life is to participate in His kingdom; everything else pales in comparison. So, the bottom line is, what are you willing to do now that you have discovered this treasure? Will you seek it, or will you continue in the way of the world?