At the church where I serve, we
are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Jesus uncut. During this series, we are spending our time together
looking at perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached, which is
referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. During this series, we are going to see
Jesus reveal to the crowds listening to His sermon, and to us here today, the
true nature of what God demands of humanity in order to experience a right
relationship with Him and what it truly means to obey the message and teachings
of the letters that make up the Bible.
And during this series, as we see
Jesus uncut, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the
Holy Spirit in a way that enables us to wrap our heads, hearts, and hands
around the lifestyle that Jesus calls us to live as one who is living in a right
relationship with Him. This week, I
would like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last
week. And as we jump into the next section of this famous sermon that Jesus
preached, called the Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded for us in a section
of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, we are
going to discover another timeless truth from Jesus uncut. So, let’s discover
that timeless truth together, beginning in Matthew 6:19-20:
"Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal.
"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
As Matthew continues to give us a front row seat to
this famous sermon that Jesus preached, we see Jesus focus for a second time in this
sermon on the issue of money. Matthew tells us that Jesus proclaimed to the
crowds that they were not to store up for themselves treasures on earth. Now it
is important to understand that this was not a suggestion; Jesus here was
commanding the crowds listening to His sermon to not store up treasures on
earth. This phrase conveys the sense of storing up so as to accumulate
something.
The point
that Jesus is making here to the crowds was that they were not to be focused on
the accumulation of treasure. Jesus is commanding the crowds listening, and
followers of Jesus throughout history, not to center our lives on money,
possessions and the treasures of this world. Jesus used a play on words that
literally means do not treasure treasure.
Now a
natural question that could arise at this point is “Why not? Why not treasure
treasure?” Jesus gives us the answer to this question in the second part of
verse 19 by painting a word picture of moths and rust destroying and thieves
breaking in and stealing to reveal the reality that when we store up treasure
here on earth, we are storing up what is temporary.
The
timeless reality is that we are only here on earth for a finite period of time
and, when our time on earth is over, all of our stuff stays here on earth. The
timeless reality is that we never really own anything. We only manage God’s
stuff for a period of time and then He gives it to someone else.
Let me
give you an example. For a period of time a woman named Sally Dalling accumulated
money, possessions, and treasure. When she died, all of that money,
possessions, and treasure was transferred to Gary and Sally Arnold. When they die, all of their money,
possessions, and treasure will be transferred; some of that will come to David
Arnold. And when I die, all of my money and stuff will go to someone else.
You see, we
never really own anything. But not only are treasures on earth temporary, Jesus
here also reveals the reality that treasures on earth are easily consumed by
the things of the earth. Just as a moth consumes cloth or rust consumes metal,
or a thief consumes our money, possessions, and treasure by stealing, the
things of this earth are consumed by the things of the earth.
Instead of focusing on the accumulation of money,
possessions, and treasure on earth, Jesus commanded the crowds listening to His
sermon to store up, to accumulate for yourselves treasure in Heaven. Jesus
point to the crowds listening was that instead of focusing on making deposits
in their earthly bank accounts and retirement funds in a way that is focused on
building a kingdom of money, possessions, and treasure here on earth for themselves,
Jesus commands the crowds to make deposits in their heavenly bank accounts.
Jesus then explained to the crowd that when they
accumulated treasures in Heaven; when they made deposits into their heavenly
bank accounts, those investments cannot be consumed by the things on earth. You
see, Jesus wanted the crowds to clearly understand that while treasure on earth
is temporary, treasure in Heaven lasts for eternity.
Now right about now a question might be running
through your mind. And if we were to have a conversation at the courtyard
coffeehouse, that conversation and question would sound something like this:
“Well Dave, didn’t Jesus already talk about money? Why is He bringing up the
issue of money again? Why does Jesus feel the need to come on so strong when it
comes to money? Why does Jesus feel so strongly that He would command us to
store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven?” We find the answer to this question
in verse 21. Let’s look at it together:
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
In this verse, we see Jesus reveal the timeless reason
behind His command to store up treasure in Heaven. Jesus here is revealing the
timeless principle that our true desires are revealed by what we invest in. Now
the reason why this timeless principle is so incredibly important is because of
how Jesus defines spiritual maturity.
You see, in Jesus day, the Jewish religious leaders,
along with the Jewish people, believed and taught that the Lord materially
blessed those whom He loved. By contrast, those who were financially poor were often
viewed as not being loved by God. Thus, a person's money possessions, and
treasure were often viewed as a measure when it came to whether or mat a person
was in a right relationship with God.
Once again, Jesus moved the crowds beyond seeing a
right relationship with God being revealed by how big of a kingdom that that
they were building for themselves here on earth in terms of money, possessions,
and treasure. Once again, Jesus was explaining to the crowds that a right
relationship with God is about one's heart condition when it came to what they
treasured supremely in their lives. Once again, Jesus here is revealing the
reality that a person who is involved in a right relationship with Jesus will
be growing in their love for God and in their love for others.
Now a natural question that arises here is “well Dave,
that sounds great, but how does one define and measure one’s love and devotion
to God and others?” If that question is running through your mind, I want to
let you know that you are asking a great question. It is a great question to
ask because we cannot simply peer into another human beings heart and measure
love, can we? So how do we measure our love for God and others?
Jesus point here is that people will invest in the things
that they are devoted to. Jesus point is that those who are involved in a right
relationship with God and who are growing and maturing in that relationship
will respond to all that God has done for them by investing in God’s kingdom
mission because they treasure God above everything else. You see, the reality
is that we can tell what we love by looking at where our treasure goes. Jesus
point here is that if you want to know what you are truly devoted to, just take
a minute and look at your checkbook and your credit card statement, because
your checkbook and credit card statement communicate the truth about what you
truly love and are devoted to.
Jesus then used a metaphor to hammer His point home in
verses 22-23. Thursday, we will look at that metaphor together…
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