Last year, a California couple discovered a trove of gold coins in their backyard while walking their dog. Burried in eight buried cans were 1,427 rare mint-condition coins dating from 1847 to 1894. Don Kagin, an expert in rare coins who represents the finders, appraised the U.S. coins at $11 million!
The couple, who want to remain anonymous, held onto a few of the coins and donated some of them to local charities before selling it on Amazon. Today, you can find some of the coins offered for sale by Kagin's on the internet. What would you do if you had stumbled on a treasure like that? $11,000,000.00...what a treasure just to stumble on. Would you ever give up a treasure like that? Probably not entirely and yet, Jesus is sharing two powerful parables, in two short sentences, that describe giving something up to acquire something even more valuable. Jesus portrays faith like a man finding buried treasure in a field who is so excited about what he has found that he hides it again until he can sell everything he owns to buy the field and secure this treasure. He then illustrates the discovery of salvation through him like a jewelry buyer who searches and finds a single pearl that is so precious to him that he sells everything he has to buy it. Apostle Paul relates his experience in finding this great Treasure in Philippians 3:8 when he says "8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ...) Let's say you are an art dealer and you found a Rembrandt worth tens of millions of dollars that is up for sale by someone for a thousand dollars...you might sell whatever you need to do to buy the painting. This is what the Christian does when they find Jesus. What does it take to realize how important our salvation and relationship with Jesus is? Sacrifice? Discipline? The responsibility a person has to feel you have to give or the "Christian" obligation to give it all up? We really do not need the willpower to sell everything you own to come and have Jesus. People think they have to work at this and then attempt it...just so you know...this is impossible! What we need is the joy that only God can give to to sell everything you own to come and have Jesus. When joy is involved, the sacrifice involved in leaving oneself is manageable, and the reward is indescribable. Ephesians 3:20-21 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. READING: Matthew 13:44-46New American Standard Bible (NASB) 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.45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
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AuthorThe Pastors of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church Archives
July 2017
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