In 1848, the western half of the United States was largely unpopulated and desolate, but that all changed when two men, named John Augustus Sutter and James Marshall discovered a bright, glittering substance in a small stream on their land claims in California and realized that they had discovered gold. They tried desperately to keep the discovery a secret, but by the end of the year President Polk found out about it and announced publicly in the east that gold had been discovered in California. His announcement caused such a stir that thousands of people began to leave their homes and make the dangerous cross-country trek across America to California in what became known as the "Gold Rush of '49." Towns sprang up on what had been desolate and barren mountains. California became instantly populated. The "forty-niners," as these new people were called, didn't care about who owned what land, but simply invaded and dug. Mine companies sprang up on the spot. Many people were killed over disputes as to who owned what, and people who had been the "good sort" lost all morals and couth in the hunt for quick treasure. The two men, Sutter and Marshall, who had discovered the gold had their claims taken away by men with more "fire power" by brute force. When they died years later, they both died poor with not an ounce of gold to their name!

History then proves, that treasure has the ability to ignite people's enthusiasm and even cause them to step out of their morals and normal routines in order to obtain it. There's something about "hidden treasure" and the prospect of instant wealth that causes people to become excited and even ruthlessly sacrifice in order to obtain it!

In 1707, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel was the commander of a British fleet of ships that was struck by a horrible storm. The storm winds blew the Admiral's ship into the rocks of the Scilly Islands and Shovel, badly wounded fought his way toward shore on a piece of wreckage. There was a woman there on the coast that had been watching from her home the wreck and had rushed down to the water's edge to see if she could help the survivors. As the Admiral washed into the shallow water, he was grateful to see a helping hand drag him from the water onto the shore. But, as the man lay there just thankful to be alive, the woman noticed a large emerald ring on the admiral's finger. Overcome by greed and the desire to own the treasure, the woman found a large board and killed the man whom she had just saved from the water, all good intentions swept away by her avarice and earthly desire for wealth. Treasure tends to move people beyond their normal limits of reason and to step into another "world" where all means justify the end of owning something that is precious and valuable.

Given people's passion and exuberance for such things, it should then come as no surprise that the Word of God over and over again calls the kingdom of God "treasure." It was no accident that twice in our text, Jesus Christ stated "the kingdom of heaven is like unto" something precious. In my study this week, I found that there are four things that makes something valuable or precious. There are four things that make something a "treasure:"

1. Rarity - how common is it? Common objects are usually not rare in themselves. Gold is expensive and desired because it takes over two tons of South African rock to produce less than an ounce of gold. If you were to take all of the gold that has been discovered and mined in the last 500 years and melt it together, it would make a single cube of less than fifty feet per side. Interestingly, gold is only the sixteenth most rarest metal in the world. Platinum, for instance, is much rarer and even more expensive.

2. Verdict of a competent expert - If a diamond has been certified by someone whose word means something then the price of that diamond goes up. If a painting is certified by experts on paintings as a "master" then the price for that painting doubles and even triples. People are willing to pay more for something which has been pronounced genuine by someone who knows what they are talking about.

3. Durability - A home that is built well is more valuable than a poorly built one that is larger in size. We have been inundated with the slogan "diamonds are forever," because jewelry makers know that if people believe that they are making a life-time investment, they are willing to spend more money on it. Diamonds are nowhere near the rarest gemstone, but they are the hardest which makes them more valuable. What the jewelers don't tell you is that if your house were to catch on fire and reach 1400 degrees Fahrenheit, then your diamonds would melt and go back to being what they basically are: carbon, or "dirt!" Despite their durable properties, diamonds are "not" forever.

4. Usefulness or Relevance - Something is more valuable when it meets a need. When you are at the zoo, and you are sweating and "dying of thirst" you won't hesitate to pay $2.50 for a small bottle of water. It becomes worth more because of the need in your life. If someone is dying from starvation on a deserted island, then all of the diamonds in the world will not save them, and given a chance they would willingly trade anything for food. When someone is dying from cancer, it doesn't matter how much money that they have in the bank, they would be willing to give it all up if there was cure that could be purchased. Diamonds and gold are valuable also because they are useful: diamonds are the hardest substance that we have and are used extensively in drilling and cutting industries; gold is one of the most malleable subjects and can a single ounce can be beaten into a thin sheet that would cover a hundred square feet, or be drawn into a fine wire fifty miles long.

Can I preach to you now? With all of this in mind, it is no accident that the kingdom of heaven is compared to treasure. In preaching to the Corinth church, Paul said in our text:

The treasure is Jesus Christ! The kingdom of heaven is Jesus, and His saving work in your life! The treasure is the work of the light of Christ shining into a sinner's heart and bringing truth and even God's glory into their life! But why? Why is Jesus a treasure?

Because He is rare! There is nobody like Him! He is the only one who loved us enough to come and die for us. He was the only one who was born into a sinful world and yet never sinned. He was the only one who ever perfectly kept the commandments of all of the Word of God. No man ever did miracles like He did before. Even the disciples looked at each other in amazement after just a spoken phrase had calmed a tremendous storm and said "what manner of man is this?" There has never been anybody like Jesus Christ and there never will be!

But wait Jesus much more rarer than just a miracle worker. Paul said in our text that:

In other words, when they looked upon the face of Jesus Christ, they saw the "glory of God." It is He who has brought us to God's glory and revealed God's glory and carried God's glory. Maybe that doesn't sound remarkable to you, but it will when you consider it in light of this scripture:

Did you catch that? God said "I will not give my glory unto another." If that is true, and what Paul said is true that the knowledge of the glory of God is in the "face of Jesus Christ," then that means that Jesus Christ is one, true God come in flesh! He cannot be another, because God would not give His glory to another! Jesus is rare not just because He was a remarkable miracle worker and teacher, but because He is the "image of the invisible God!" He was "God manifest (or made visible) in flesh!" He was the Word and the Word became flesh! Remember what 1 John 3:16 says?:

We serve a God that didn't send someone else to do His work, but became flesh and was born of woman and became a "Son" to die for us Himself! Find me any other "god" in history that was willing to do that? Allah didn't do it. Buddah didn't do it. Money won't do it! You can't even do it for yourself! Jesus Christ is a treasure because He is rare! He is one in a thousand! He is the "fairest of ten thousand!" There just ain't nobody like Him!

2. Jesus is a treasure, because His Word verifies Him! He is the "Word" and the Word of God is a "sure Word of Prophecy!" You can take what this book says beyond the grave! I refuse to believe the word of common man over the word of man's creator! The last time I checked, there was not one man alive at the time of Creation, so I think that I'll take the Word of the One who was there rather than some "big bang" explosion theory that some "yo-yo" agnostic dreamed up! Last time I checked, over and over again the scriptures and the Words of Jesus have been proven time and time again and every prophecy has been fulfilled or will be fulfilled before this thing is over. God said "my word will not return to me void!"

His word said that the "stars were innumerable" (Genesis 15:5) and we are just now through the lens of the Hubble Telescope to realize that the Universe is even bigger than we thought. And no matter how far man goes, the universe will always go further because God's Word will always be able to be deeper and beyond the complete understanding of man! And yet the scriptures also say that God knows the numbers of the stars:

I hate to tell the people at the National Star Registry that are selling the names of stars to people, but they're already named. God named them along time ago and it will be His Word that will stand in the end!

I'm preaching about the treasure of Jesus Christ! Did you know that there hundreds of prophecies of the Messiah by Old Testament prophets and that Jesus fulfilled every one of them!? Even down to the price paid to betray Him, and the exact time of His birth, death, and resurrection! Listen to the words of Isaiah hundred of years before Jesus Christ was born:

Which brings us to the next point of why Jesus is a treasure:

3. Jesus is a treasure because His Word and ways are durable! If He perfectly fulfilled the prophecy concerning His first coming, then I can take Him at His Word that the promises of scripture that are to take place at His second coming are true as well! His Word is durable! If He said that I will be given a glorified body and a better place to live, then it will happen! If He said that if I will Repent, and be Baptized in His name, and filled with His Spirit that He will consider me "justified" or "in right standing with Him" then I can take Him at His Word! Jesus is a treasure because His Word is durable! He said:

Diamonds aren't forever, because one day this earth will burn up and they will all return to dirt, but even when the earth is consumed by the fire of God, His Word will last forever! If you want to put your treasure in something that will never fade away or rot: then make God's Word your treasure!

4. Jesus is a treasure because He is relevant to your need. He is all things and is the answer to every situation! If you are sick, He is a healer. If you are lost, He is the Way. If you are depressed, He is the Prince of Peace. If you are confused, He is the Counselor. If you are lonely, He is the "Friend that sticks closer than a brother." If you are having legal troubles, He is our Advocate. If you are in a storm, He only has to say "peace be still." If you are broke, He can open up the "windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you cannot even contain." If you are bound by sin, He is the Savior! If you are devil possessed, He is the deliverer! He created this world by His very Word and so whatever you might need can be still found in His Word! Hell has not invented a situation that Jesus can't fix, nor will they ever be able to do so! What kind of value do you put on such a help? How do you fix a price for something that is priceless!? Words can't do Him justice, so let's just say that He's a treasure! He's the greatest treasure! All of the gold and silver and diamonds in the world cannot compare with the one who created them! Could it be that God created treasures in this world and things of valuable just to wow us by reminding us that "If I created that treasure, then I am much more valuable?!" Jesus is the greatest treasure! If you gain the whole world, including all of it's treasure, and you don't have Jesus Christ, then you have nothing!

Let me continue preaching to you. Jesus then got even more specific:

The kingdom of heaven is not just like a treasure, but it's like a treasure buried in a field! That field represents the Word of God. There are many people who own fields in which there is treasure but never discover it because they did not look for it! How many people have the very same Word of God that you and I possess but never discover the treasure of who Jesus is? They never discover the treasure of being baptized in His name or the infilling of the Holy Ghost? Why? Because they were not looking, or they were not willing to dig to find it!

The scriptures say:

We are commanded to study to learn to rightly divide the Word of Truth! Isaiah said:

"None shall want her mate!" In other words, Scripture must be interpreted by scripture and they will not contradict each other when you have God's intended meaning! He also said:

Principle must go with principle, each line of scripture harmonizes with every other scripture, and you will find a little of a subject here in the Word of God and some there. But put it all together and you have truth! You may have to dig a little bit, but whatever effort it takes, this treasure is worth! If study of the Word of God and attending services and Bible Studies are not important to you, then you must not be convinced of the value of the treasure!

And notice what happened in the story of Jesus: the man had to purchase the field and to be able to afford it had to sell everything that he had. Under Jewish law, if there was treasure in a field then whoever owned the field got the treasure, not necessarily the discoverer. In this story, the man found the treasure, but had to go and buy the field before the treasure was his!

Just knowing a truth in the Word of God does not mean that you possess the treasure. In fact it means nothing unless you are willing sell everything that you have and purchase the field. What good is it to know that every time someone was baptized in the Bible it was in the name of Jesus and know all of the scriptures why if you don't step out and seize the promise for yourself? What good is it to understand the infilling of the Holy Ghost if you don't receive for yourself!? Somebody needs to be willing to sell out to this thing.

And notice: you must buy the entire field. The true treasure may be found in only one small part, but in order to have it for yourself, you must purchase the entire thing. The true treasure according to Paul in the Word of God is the salvation of our soul. Salvation is the true treasure. But you can't obey just the initial salvation scriptures and ignore the rest of the book! Because for the salvation to be yours, you've got to purchase all of it! You can't ignore a command of scripture just because you've been baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost! Because if you don't purchase the entire field of God's Word, then you don't get the treasure of Salvation either!

It's time to sell out! and sell out like this man in this parable: look back at verse 44 and you will find that it said that the man sold everything he had and bought the field "for joy." He was happy to sell out because he knew that the treasure that he was gaining was worth far more than everything that he had! I'm tired of Christians that are always complaining about what they had to give up. I'm tired of murmurs in the wilderness thinking about Egypt! Get your eyes off what little you had and get a revelation of how great your treasure is. I live the way that I do joyfully! I live the way that I do with pleasure and happiness! Why? Because I haven't really given up anything. The treasure in the field is worth more than everything else I had on my own combined! Jesus is the greatest treasure of all! Stop whining and get a revelation of how great He is!

Jesus then gave us one more analogy:

The kingdom of heaven here is likened to a man who spends his entire life seeking "goodly pearls." Not faulty ones. Not average ones. Not man-made pearls, but pearls that are a step above the normal. Then came the day when he found a pearl unlike any other in the world. It was worth much more than any other pearl so much that the man had to sell every pearl that he had ever bought in order to obtain it! But it was so valuable that he was willing to do so! His search was over! He had found the "pearl of pearls!"

There is a parallel between this verse and our other text of Paul writing the Corinthian church that is not obvious in English. In talking about the truth of Jesus Christ, Paul said:

In the Greek, he used an analogy which the translators correctly translated as "earthen vessels" because that is the idea of the expression. But if you were to translate it literally, the word "earthen" is ostrakinos which comes from ostrkon which means oyster. The word ostrakinos then literally means "frail and fragile like an oyster's shell." In other words, Paul is saying "just as the fragile and brittle oyster shell houses their treasure of pearls, so do our frail, human bodies house this magnificent treasure of Jesus Christ!

Why did Jesus and Paul both use the oyster as a comparison to Jesus Christ!? Jesus had already told us the value of the kingdom of heaven in the first treasure parable. Why was the second one needed?

The answer lies in how a pearl is formed. A pearl begins as an irritant to the oyster, perhaps a piece of sand or a piece of shell that gets lodged inside the shell of the animal. Rather than be continually bothered by the irritant, the oyster begins to coat the intruder with a layer of calcium. Layer after layer goes onto the particle until it is completely and smoothly coated and is no longer hurtful to the oyster. We call these little pieces of coated irritants "pearls."

What's the point preacher? The point is that an oyster only coats the pearl with enough calcium to make it smooth. A larger pearl started out as a larger irritant. A more valuable pearl began life as a greater problem! And Jesus is the pearl of great price! If you want Him in your life, then realize that He comes into your life through adversity. How many people under the sound of my voice would not even have given this wonderful truth of the Apostolic experience a second thought if your life would have been perfect by itself!? But because everything was NOT perfect, then you were searching for an answer to the irritants of your life! You may have tried man's ways of handling things and found that either didn't work or only produced a very small and insignificant pearl.

Maybe you were like the man in the story who came with a lifetime's worth of little pearls, and you were searching for "goodly pearls" when out of your adversity, you discovered Jesus Christ! He is the "pearl of great price." And if you want Him, you've got to be willing to let go of all of your past trials and troubles and failures and sell out to Him! If you do so, you will find that He is the greatest treasure in all of the universe! The larger the trial, the bigger He becomes in your life!

The scriptures describe a magnificent city in which we will be able to live one day, the "New Jerusalem." You've probably heard someone somewhere mention something about it. The scriptures describe it as being formed from precious things:

I don't have time to go into what everything represents, but notice that the gates into the city were "twelve pearls" and every gate was of "one pearl." In other words, the way into the city was made from a pearl that is so huge in description that it goes way beyond anything ever discovered on earth! For a pearl to be so big that a gate could be formed from it so large that a man could walk through it is quite amazing!

If pearls are formed from irritants, and God has pearls that are far beyond anything man can even fathom on earth, then that tells me that no matter how bad or big your situation gets, God is able to turn something good out of it! His problem solving capability goes far beyond the ability of humans to create them! His ability to heal goes far beyond humanities' ability to be sick!

Jesus is the pearl of great price and so is by far the greatest treasure that you can have! Despite what it costs you, despite what obstacles or problems that you have to endure, whatever you've got to do, make Jesus your focus and your treasure and your priority! Buy the field. Sell everything else that you trust in. He is more valuable than anything that this world has to offer. Obtain this "Pearl of great price" and you will have obtained your "doorway" into everlasting life! Jesus truly is the greatest treasure of all!