Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl: Matthew 13:44
Good day Beloveds
Growing up I just thought Jesus liked speaking funny when it comes to parables. I truly found them to be tricky but through the teachings of the Holy Spirit, I now understand them and find them to be deep secrets of God's dwelling place and how we can experience it while on earth.
Why did Jesus speak like this?
To help the people of his era understand and relate to what they didn't know.
Why can't we understand Jesus' parables?
It's because we don't live in that era and we are not in farming or agriculture. Also we need the Holy Spirit to grant us the revelation as the bible is encrypted.
How can we then understand?
By using our imagination and taking some of the things and relating it to something from modern days. Submit to God and seeking his kingdom. Allow the Holy Spirit to have us fully so he can teach us.
Remember to always invite the Holy Spirit before you read the Word. He will teach you all things.
[44] “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
Heaven is a kingdom that has a king, subjects and it's an actual place. It is not the blue sky and clouds. Jesus wants us to experience this kingdom while we are on earth so he has brought it near to us. Before this, it was very far from us due to the fall of mankind that took place in the garden of Eden. When Jesus explains this kingdom to us he uses the word "like" meaning you could compare it to something like that. So in Matthew 13:44, Jesus compares it to a treasure.
The kingdom of Heaven as a treasure
Merriam-Webster's definition of "treasure": something of great worth or value
Whatever is defined as treasure is often treasured which means to hold or keep as precious.
So this kingdom has a great worth more than anything on this earth and we need to keep it precious. Is that something you understood or you were just thinking Heaven is experienced when we die. If that is the case why would Jesus make it precious and valuable?
The kingdom of Heaven is hidden
The scripture tells us that this kingdom can't be found by just anybody because it is hidden. It is hidden to the naked eye and it is hidden to the spiritually blinded and it is hidden to those who love to please their flesh. Why did God hide it? Because it's the beginning of experiencing eternity and only those who are willing to pay the price will have exclusive access to it.
The kingdom of Heaven needs to be discovered
If you don't know something is hidden you might not look for it. So Jesus came to tell us that there is a hidden kingdom. This information makes us aware that there is something greater that we need to seek. Think of playing hide and seek with your child. If he/she went to hide without telling you he/she would wait forever for you to find him/her. That's because you are not aware that your is hiding and waiting for you. God is simply playing hide and seek with us, but we need to do the seeking.
Those who know something is hidden will seek it and just like this man in the scripture found the treasure they will also find the kingdom. God made sure that it could be found. See the below scripture. He wouldn't say seek if it couldn't be found. He wouldn't say seek if it wasn't hidden. God didn't say to seek the sun because it's already there. Imagine if you had to look for the sun, that wouldn't make sense right? You look up and it's there.
[33] Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
The kingdom of Heaven and our earthly possessions
Everyone who hears about this hidden kingdom and all that it has to offer might want it; however not many will get it because of what is first required. The man sold everything he owned so he could have enough money to buy the land. What does this mean and how does it relate to you? God wants you to find his kingdom but you need to trade the kingdom that you are in for his.
We need to get rid of everything flesh for us to gain everything spiritual. In the below scripture, the rich man believed he did everything right more like us when we go to church, fast and read the Bible. We think that we are good with God and we would have access to his kingdom. Sadly that is not the case, just like this man couldn't separate with his riches many of us won't be able to separate from certain things in our lives.
Jesus doesn't have an issue with being rich, he is more concerned about what has your heart. It could be your career, your house, your car, your children, your spouse, your past, your traditions even your body. What is the one thing that you love that if Jesus said follow me and leave this behind would you struggle with?
For me, it was my plans I had a certain figure that I wanted as an income, I wanted to own a home and not just any house but a mansion, I wanted the best private schools for my children and to be one of the top businesswomen in SouthAfricaor even the world. I had to forget that I had a degree. That's what Jesus told me to let go of and follow him. What I had to sell to buy the land where the treasure was. You might wonder what happened. I am here writing this teaching to help grow in your relationship with God so yes I got rid of everything that had my heart.
[22] When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
I had to come to terms with the below scripture and understand what it said. I couldn't serve anything but God. I had to forget myself, my goals, my desires and what I wanted for my children. Who was the other master in my life? It wasn't money, it was me. I loved myself more than God because I wanted to give myself all that I wanted. I was enslaved to myself and I didn't even know. Now your turn, to replace the word money with whatever that you value a lot.
[13] “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”
King Solomon was the wealthiest and wisest man ever and God said there would never be another like him. So Albert Einstein had nothing on Solomon. The wealthiest person today Elon Musk has nothing on Solomon both in wealth and wisdom.
However, Solomon made a mistake: he had a second master and that was himself. He didn't deny himself anything.
[10] Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labours.
Sometimes we can have more than two masters. Solomon's third master was his wives, he didn’t deny them even if it meant disobeying God.
[7] On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. [8] Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
The Kingdom of Heaven is invisible
This kingdom isn't visible, it's invisible just like God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are. They dwell in a different realm, a spiritual realm. Where they are is a real place just like the earth is real and they are spiritual beings. So for us to be where they are we need to become like them. Think of it like this: you are a human that walks on two legs. If you desire to be in the ocean you can't walk. You need to learn and adjust to how the ocean works. You need to learn to tread water, float on your back, and perform strokes and breathing techniques.
Basically, know how to swim in the deep even though you are a human and not a fish. So we also need to know how to be spiritual beings even though we are still human. Some people don't believe God exists because they expect to experience him and what he owns through our physical realm and physical body. That can only take us so far. Remember we are the ones who are meant to seek what is hidden.
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The above scripture is telling us that even though we are humans who are meant to walk on land and not swim like fish in the ocean we need to learn how to swim. This will transform us as we can be both on land and water. We have already been born by our mothers who made us flesh/human like them. However, we now need to be born of the Spirit so we can be like the Spirit. Your parents know only physical things and they can only teach you about physical things. The Holy Spirit knows spiritual things so he is the one who can teach us about spiritual things.
How to seek the Kingdom of Heaven?
We can only seek this treasure/kingdom if we become spiritual like it. This means we stop concerning ourselves too much about the physical and focus on the spiritual.
John 3:3 NKJV
[3] Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assured commands to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Step 1. Be born again
Being born again has nothing to do with the type of church you go to, how they dress and if you sing hymns or Maverick City worship songs. If the leader is called a priest or a pastor. If the pastor wears suits, jeans and they have prophets and they pray in tongues. All these are human customs. The only biblical definition of being born again is when we are born of the Spirit meaning we don't focus on the physical things but on things of the Spirit.
The requirements of being born again
To believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah and that he died for our sins. Without this, we can't have the Holy Spirit. To follow Jesus as our Lord and obey his commands or he won't know us as his sheep.
Why stops us from having the Holy Spirit?
1. God created a person, put his word in him and called him Jesus his son, he had to destroy the enemy and pay for the wrongs of humanity. If one doesn't believe this it means that Jesus gave them salvation but they did not claim it.
2. Not believing that Jesus crushed the serpent's work will mean that we still are oppressed by sin. We don't have the power to stand against Satan and resist him. This means we would always feel that we just have to sin and we could never repent and turn away from evil.
3. Not seeing Jesus as the Messiah means we are still responsible for saving ourselves. It means that he hasn't paid the price and saving from the final judgment of eternal death. This was God's Judgement for all of mankind when Adam and Eve disobeyed him.
4. Not submitting to Jesus as Lord. A Lord is someone that rules you and you do what they say. If Jesus is just your Messiah then it means you still rule yourself. You have not counted the cost of being his disciple.
How do you know that you are born again?
1 .You follow the two important commands. Loving God with everything, all of your mind, body and soul and loving your neighbours as yourself.
2. You forgive others because you know that you have been forgiven when you didn't deserve it. Also because you want to be forgiven.
3. You put your treasures in heaven and not on earth.
4. Your mind is transformed and you are no longer conformed to the ways of the world. Tradition, culture, customs, and societal expectations.
5. You treat your body as a living sacrifice and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
6. You turned away from sinful acts and live a life of repentance and living righteously.
7. You show that you believe in Jesus by doing the works he did and that you love him by obeying his commands.
8. You submit and surrender to God's plans no matter how easy and hard they are.
9. You pray more about God's will and spiritual things.
10. Your character is the supernatural fruit of the Spirit.
11. You put on the full armour of God on daily basis. You don't wrestle with flesh and blood.
12. You love according to 1 Corinthians 13.
13. You rely more on the word of God for guidance than anything else.
14. You have discovered your gifts of the Spirit and use them to help other draw near to God.
15. You celebrate when you suffer because of the reward Jesus promised you
16. Your final destination is eternity with God and Jesus and that's what you strive for. Not success on this temporal world
17. And more!
The cost of the kingdom of Heaven
The cost of giving up everything is not only about physical possessions. It's also about how you rely on something. Your income, car, parent, spouse, talents or your body. Jesus told us to calculate this cost before we even think of being one of his disciples. Losing a part of your body, loved ones, possessions or finances can derail us.
Seek first the kingdom of God his righteousness and all will be added
When we have transformed to being spiritual beings while on earth we keep seeking the kingdom above all else. There are so many mysteries that we can't believe that we have found everything in the kingdomdom. We will seek until Jesus returns. The point is to find the kingdom but we won't know about everything in the kingdom.
While we seek the Kingdom we need to seek God's righteousness. Sadly many seek the world's righteousness, government's righteousness, and parent's righteousness, even self-righteousnesses. Through Jesus we have been made righteous with God, that's only the first step. We then need to seek God's righteousness by studying his word and apply it. We can't do what is right according to God if we don't know what he considers right. Studying the Bible often and making it our daily bread helps us with this.
I went to church all my life. I only knew what the priests and pastors chose to speak about. But what about what they didn't speak about. For example I never knew sex before marriage was sinful and that it disqualified me from entering the kingdom of God. I don't blame anyone, I take full accountability for my lack of knowledge. I could have seeked more information but I didn't. I used to make beautiful novelty cakes. I was self-taught, I remember researching, reading, testing until I did it right. I had to continue upskilling myself because there was always room to learn this.
So nothing kept me from doing the same when it came to getting more information about God's ways. I failed to do what was righteous according to God because I didn't know what he defined as righteous and I couldn't know because I didn't study the Word of God. Only the righteous will find the kingdom of God. It is only revealed through the fear of God and obedience.
Introspection:
Do you have another master?
Do you think that you are born again because of the type of church you attend?
Do you push for what you want no matter what?
Do you want more physical things over spiritual things?
Do you read only verses instead of studying the word?
Do you know the Bible but you don't live according to it?
Do you do whatever to please your body because you are an adult?
Confession:
Heavenly Father I am sorry for all my wrongs. Forgive me for having another master.
Forgive me for thinking that I am born again because of the type of church I attend and for saying a prayer.
Forgive me for pushing for what I want no matter what.
Forgive me for wanting more physical things over spiritual things.
Forgive me for reading only verses instead of studying the word.
Forgive me for knowing the Bible but not living according to it.
Forgive me for doing whatever I want to please my body.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for this revelation please help me repent. Teach me how to seek your kingdom, help me let go of everything that has my heart. Teach me how to fear you so I could live righteously. I offer my body and my life as a living sacrifice to do your will and advance your kingdom. Thank you for sending Jesus to help me experience your kingdom. In Jesus Name. Amen
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