The Kingdom of Incomparable Value (Matthew 13:44-52)

Aug 25

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: The Kingdom Has Come (Matthew 11-13)

Sermon Title: The Kingdom of Incomparable Value

Passage: Matthew 13:44-52

Preacher: Timothy Wiggins

Big Idea: Since the kingdom of heaven is of incomparable value, we should be prepared to give up everything for it and share its treasure with others.

Three Realities of the Kingdom of Heaven

The kingdom of heaven is of greater value than anything in this world (v44-46).
- What is the kingdom of heaven?
  - The kingdom of heaven is the place where God rules and accomplishes his will.
- Why is the kingdom of heaven so valuable?
  - Because in the kingdom of heaven the tired and weary will have everlasting rest.
  - Because in the kingdom of heaven the law will not be used preferentially to aid the powerful at the expense of the hungry and needy.
  - Because in the kingdom of heaven all people are invited in.
  - Because in the kingdom of heaven every citizen is like privileged family to the king.
The kingdom of heaven is filled with the righteous, who rightly value the kingdom (v47-50).
- How do we rightly value the kingdom of heaven?
  - “[Trying to grow the church without true discipleship] is a particular problem in America, where Christians cannot imagine how being a Christian might put them in tension with the American way of life. This is as true for Christians on the left as it is for Christians on the right. Both mistakenly assume, often in quite similar ways, that freedom is a necessary condition for discipleship. Accordingly, I do not think it a radical suggestion that this parable rightly helps us read the situation of the church in America as Jesus’s judgment on that church. The church in America simply is not a soil capable of growing deep roots. It may seem odd that wealth makes it impossible to grow the word. Wealth, we assume, should create the power necessary to do much good. But wealth stills the imagination because we are not forced, as the disciples of Jesus were forced, to be an alternative to the world that only necessity can create. Possessed by possessions, we desire to act in the world, often on behalf of the poor, without having to lose our possessions” (Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 130).
  - We need to call our greed what it is, learn to deny ourselves, and together work to become the alternative community of Jesus that generously gives so every person has everything they need.
The kingdom of heaven has its treasure shared by disciples of Jesus (v51-53).
- “The 'new' things are the extraordinary, brand-new visions that the kingdom of heaven is bringing. [Whereas] the 'old' things are the wisdom of the centuries, particularly the ancient stories and hopes of Israel. The gospel [Jesus] brings--and the gospel that Matthew is concerned to tell us about--consists in bringing the two together, rooting the new deep within the old, and allowing the old to come to fresh and exciting expression in the new” (N.T. Wright, Matthew For Everyone).