WWUTT 2022 The Treasure, the Pearl, the Dragnet (Matthew 13:44-52)

Jesus tells three parables. Well, he told a lot more parables than that, but the three that we're looking at today are the parable of the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price, and the parable of the dragnet, when we understand the text.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've been in Chapter 13 last week and this week, looking at the parables of Jesus.

Let's consider the next three. So I'm going to begin reading here in verse 44 and go through verse 52 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. 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.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind.

And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach, and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad fish they threw away.

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all of these things?

And they said to him, Yes. And he said to them, Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household who brings out of his treasure things new and old.

Once again, the parables of Jesus in this chapter all have to do with revealing something about the kingdom of God.

Jesus intends to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to his disciples, but he speaks to them in parables so that those who are not meant to understand these mysteries won't understand.

And that was the explanation that Jesus gave in Matthew 13 verses 10 through 17 when he explained to his disciples why he taught in parables.

You'll notice that all three of these parables begin with the kingdom of heaven is like.

And Jesus speaking something about the mysteries of the kingdom through these parables that he shared.

The three parables are these. You have the parable of the hidden treasure in verse 44, the parable of the pearl of great price in verses 45 and 46, and then the parable of the dragnet in verse 47.

And that concludes the parables that we read about here in Matthew 13. So let's come to these first two, and you'll notice that the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price both have the same meaning to them.

So in verse 44, we read 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. I remember when

I was a kid hearing this parable in a Bible study group that I was in, and it wasn't an age specific group.

I was with a bunch of adults as well. And one of the adults raised this question. When the teacher read this parable, he said, isn't that kind of dishonest for this man to have found a treasure and then he goes and buys the field, not telling the owner of the field that he found a treasure out there.

So the owner doesn't know that he has this great treasure. This guy buys the field and then he receives the treasure.

Wasn't he kind of being sneaky and deceptive with that? Well, that's not the intention of the parables.

And we need to be careful about dissecting every aspect of the parable that we lose the intended meaning.

There's only one meaning to every parable, and not everything in the parable represents some sort of sign or signification of something, a typology that we then need to find the parallel of in scripture or something like that.

Jesus means to convey one thing with this parable. There are ways in which the parables sometimes will exaggerate things.

When you think of, well, this is a parable that's coming up a little bit later on, but you think of the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Remember the man owed a debt so great that there was no way he could repay it.

It was something like 10 ,000 drachmas. I can't remember the currency exactly.

But if you were to factor that out into modern currency, whatever country you live in and whatever currency you use, it would be just millions and millions and millions of dollars.

It wouldn't even make sense to understand how could he possibly have accumulated a debt that great, and then he has to come to his master and pay it off.

There's no way anybody could pay off that debt. It's unreasonable if the story is true, because you're going, there's no way the guy accumulates that much debt, and his master just lets him get away with it until he accumulates that much debt, and then forgives him of all of that debt, which is what happens in the story.

So that's exaggerated. It's an element of the story that's exaggerated, and it's to show us that we had a debt against God that is so great we couldn't possibly repay it.

Jesus dies for us so that all who believe in him, the debt is paid.

Tetelestai, in the Greek word for it is finished. The debt is paid in full.

We do not owe it anymore. So Jesus tells this parable in this way, if true, doesn't seem rational, but it's meant to convey a particular lesson.

So don't think about it too deeply, that you then accuse Jesus of something. You might be teaching the people deception here,

Jesus. I don't think that that's okay. That's not the intention of the parable. And this really would have been something that the disciples would have been able to relate to.

There were stories among the Jews of somebody buying a field and finding a treasure in that field.

So there's like this dream, this anticipation among treasure hunters that maybe I'll buy a field one day and there's going to be some hidden treasure in it.

There were stories about how Solomon, with all of his wealth, it was so much wealth he couldn't even store it in his own treasure house, so sometimes he would bury it throughout

Judah. So maybe somebody would buy a field and they would come upon some of Solomon's treasure.

I don't really think that he did that, but that was just some of the myths, the stories that would float around among the

Jews. So as Jesus is beginning this story and talking about the kingdom of heaven like a treasure hidden in a field, the disciples are going, ooh, a treasure in a field.

I've always wanted to find one of those. A man found it and he hid it again, and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Now the lesson here is really the same as what we have in the next parable. These two parables are parallelisms in that sense, in that you have the same meaning that is conveyed twice.

It is being willing to sacrifice the lesser treasure for the greater treasure.

We must be willing to give away all that we have to obtain the even greater treasure, which in this case is the treasure that was hidden in the field, which pertains to the kingdom of heaven.

We must be willing to give away everything that we may gain the greater treasure. So we must give all that we are, all that we have, our own bodies, our own lives to obtain

Christ. He is the greatest treasure. He is our access into the kingdom of God.

We are promised his kingdom through Christ. As Jesus said in Luke chapter 9, whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

And we read in Romans 12, 1 that we are to give our bodies unto the

Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and this is our spiritual act of worship, willing to give everything that we are for Christ.

We give the lesser treasure for the greater treasure. This man sells all that he has and he buys that field so that he will obtain the greater treasure.

The next parable is the pearl of great price, verses 45 and 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Now, you might be familiar somewhat with the Mormon canon, the books that the

Mormons consider to be their sacred scripture. They'll say that the Bible is one of those books, but it's really the lesser of the four.

The other three books are the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.

And when you read their statements of faith, it says there that the Bible is only true insofar as it's translated correctly, but those other three scriptures are absolutely true.

So the Mormons elevate those other three books even ahead of the Bible. But again, one of those books in their canon is called the

Pearl of Great Price, and it's taken from this particular parable. It is claiming that these treasures that the man was searching for, searching for fine pearls, it was eventually the wisdom that God would give to Joseph Smith that would become the

Pearl of Great Price, that particular book. That's what the Mormons believe. Of course, it's a false religion.

God never spoke with Joseph Smith, never gave him any such thing. The Pearl of Great Price is

Christ. So upon finding one pearl of great value, he sells all that he has, and he comes and he buys that one great pearl.

And even among the Jews, there were treasure seekers, once again, who would sometimes look for their treasures in marketplaces, just like we've seen on some of the reality shows.

What is it, American Pickers, where they're always going around all these different places, antique shops and stuff like that, looking for that great

American antique treasure and hoping to buy it and then put it in an auction and make a ton of money off of it or something like that.

Have you ever watched those shows? They're the same sort of a thing where it's going on among Jewish merchants. They would browse the marketplaces looking for that one thing of great value, being willing to sell all that they have for the

Pearl of Great Price. And so this merchant gives the lesser treasure for the greater treasure.

And we must be willing to do the same, giving all of ourselves to obtain everything.

The promises that we have in Christ, all that we are given in the Kingdom of Heaven, which we inherit in Christ, these things greater than anything this world has to offer you.

Nothing that this world can give you even compares. Nothing that your flesh has an appetite for in this world.

You would be settling for less than what Christ gives. As Jesus said, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?

You could be given the whole world, it still would not be as good as what we receive in Christ.

The entire Kingdom of God. We are fellow heirs with Christ of His Kingdom.

As we read in Titus 3 .5, He saved us not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We become heirs of the Kingdom of God with Christ. He is the greatest treasure.

As Paul would also say in Colossians chapter 2, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And Paul says, I say this so that no one will delude you with any persuasive argument.

Because if you know that Christ is the greatest, previous chapter Colossians 1 .18, Paul says that Christ is preeminent.

He is above all things. So if you know that Christ is the greatest treasure, then nothing this world has to offer is going to satisfy.

It will be much easier for you to sniff out false teaching even, because these false teachers come along offering you something that is less than what

Christ offers. So if you know that Christ is the greatest thing, and in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, then no one will be able to delude you with persuasive arguments.

Going on to Colossians 2 .8, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him all the fullness of deity, all the fullness of God, dwells bodily.

And in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority.

Why would we settle for anything less than Christ and what

He promises? And so if it is Christ that we have made our greatest treasure, we have these two parables here.

Verse 44, the pearl of the hidden treasure, not pearl, the parable of the hidden treasure, and then in verses 45 to 46 we have the parable of the pearl of great price.

The third parable, a little bit different. But still in this third parable, it is those who have sought out

Christ and found Him to be the greatest treasure that are mentioned among the good fish, here in the parable of the dragnet.

Those that don't seek after Christ are the bad fish that are going to be thrown out and into the fiery furnace.

So here is Matthew 13, beginning in verse 47, again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind.

And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers but the bad they threw away.

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and take out the wicked men from among the righteous and throw them, the wicked men, into the fiery furnace.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now we've already heard the parable of the wheat and the tares.

And in the parable of the wheat and the tares, the wheat is represented by the good seed which is sown by the

Son of Man, by Christ Himself. And the good seed are the sons of the kingdom. And the tares, or the weeds that grow up, they are the sons of the evil one.

The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

This parable of the dragnet is like a parallel of the parable of the wheat and the tares.

So just like we saw a parallel with the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, so now we have a parallel between the wheat and the tares and the parable of the dragnet.

Same sort of a thing, but told just in slightly a different way. So it will be at the end of the age,

Jesus says, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked men from among the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The writers of the Chosen used this particular parable. This was in the first season of the show,

I believe. This was a parable that Jesus was teaching on the beach when the disciples rode up, and then immediately after Jesus teaches this parable is where you have the miraculous catch.

The disciples throwing their nets into the water fills up with fish. They try to haul it in the boats, but the nets are so heavy that they can't do it.

So this is the parable that Jesus is telling, and then when he walks away with his disciples, he said, did you hear the parable that I told you about?

So we're going to gather fish of all kinds, and then

I will sort them out later. And that's what he's—that's what Jesus says is the explanation of this particular parable to his disciples.

So we need to do whatever we possibly can to gather the most number of people into the kingdom, and then

Jesus will sort out later who's real and who's not. And that's not the interpretation of this parable.

That's not what's being said here. It's not some sort of pragmatic thing where we need to say whatever we need to say in order to gather the most number of people into Christianity, and then

Jesus is going to sort out later who belongs to who. This is about the final judgment. This is the last parable, and the last parable tells us of the judgment at the end of the age, when the angels gather up everybody.

They're going to sort out the wicked from among the righteous, and the wicked will be thrown into the fiery furnace.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There will be those who will be so filled with sorrow for all eternity because they knew the truth and did not believe it, and there are those that are going to gnash their teeth and be angry at God for all eternity because how could you do this to me?

I deserve better than this. And Jesus looks at his disciples in verse 51 and says, if you understood all these things, and they said to him, yes.

And Jesus says to them, therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household who brings out of his treasure things new and old.

Jesus pointing back to the treasure parables that he had just given in verses 44 to 46.

So every scribe who has become a disciple, now that's an interesting phrase because the scribes were associated with the

Pharisees. They were false teachers. But those who have left that way and have come to becoming disciples of the kingdom of heaven, they're going to be like a head of a household.

So it's previously thought of like the rabbis and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they're heads of household.

No, if you become a disciple of Christ, you're the head of the household and you bring out of his treasure, the head of the household brings out of his treasure, things new and old.

Now the reference to old treasure, what do you think that's in reference to? That's in reference to the old

Testament, those scriptures that had already been written by the prophets before the apostles. Things new are the new scriptures that are going to be written, which we're reading here.

Things from Matthew on through Revelation. So those who become a disciple interpret those old things in light of the new and bring forth truth that has been revealed in Jesus Christ.

All of this still pointing back to Christ for it is only in Christ Jesus that we are rescued out of the world and into the kingdom.

That we will not be part of those fish that are cast into the fiery furnace, but we will be part of those righteous that will inherit the kingdom of God.

So turn from your wicked ways to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not be enticed or tempted by any of the things in this world.

Do not be jealous of the wicked. Do not long for what they go after. Do not even desire those things that God has called sin.

Cleanse your mind and your heart of all of this. Desire Christ. And if there is any way in you that is short of that desire, ask that God would take it away.

God help me to set Christ as my greatest desire. He is the treasure that I have sought after and have found and am willing to give everything for.

That we may live our lives fully unto the Lord and the promise that we receive is eternal life, life more abundantly in this life and in the life to come.

Let's finish there with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown us in Christ. The great treasure that you've given to us in Christ.

And I pray that we would make him our everything. Be willing to give up the lesser treasure for the greater.

Be willing to sell, give away all that we have that we may obtain. The greatness that is

Christ and the kingdom that he has promised to us. And help us to be like the disciples described there in verse 52.

That we would even go out with the message of the kingdom to those who would hear and believe that they may be one out of this world.

They may be rescued from the fire and they too would become fellow heirs of the kingdom of Christ.

It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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