Perfect
Matthew 13:45, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one gpearl of great price, went and esold all that he had, and fbought it.” [1]
I. Seller
A. Market
B. Merchant
II. Seeking
A. More
B. Most
III. Sold
A. Merchandise
B. Mine
Introduction: Last week we heard about a man who found a great treasure in a field. He wasn’t looking for the treasure. He wasn’t the one who buried the hidden treasure. It doesn’t say that the man was looking for anything. It simply says that the man found the thing.
When the man found the precious thing in that certain field, he purposely gave up everything that he had ever worked for. Nothing else mattered to him as much as that which he found hidden in that one field. The scripture says that he sold what he had and bought the whole field where the treasure had been hidden by someone else.
He kept the find hidden in his heart until he was fully prepared to purchase the entire field for himself. He didn’t go and tell everyone that he knew what he was going to do. It says that when he found the precious thing, he hid it and bought the field. He could not hide the treasure again that was already hidden. What did he hide? He hid the fact that he was going to do all that he must do to get the field where the treasure was. Where is your treasure? What are you willing to give up holding onto to know that special place as yours?
This place is special. Merry Oaks is special but that is another message for another time. There are so many messages in each verse of Jesus’ words that we could search for His treasure from now until we are with Him in heaven, and we will still not have all the treasure that He planned for us.
People are so willing to leave church now. There is no place on earth like the place where we congregate as Christians with our church families and people have left. Most are not coming back. Many who are coming are only at church to receive earthly rewards and are missing the true purpose that Jesus intended for His bride. Again, that is another message for another time.
The point is, the man who found the treasure in the certain field wanted so much to have where he found that treasure that he gave up everything he had to keep the field where he found the treasure. I pray that there are people like that today who are willing to keep the sanctuary safe for worship.
Today we will move along with another illustration from Jesus as He described for us what heaven is like. The main theme in the focal verse today seems to be the same thing as last week. Jesus was not in the habit of repeating Himself like many people. We will examine what the differences are between these two verses and the similarities.
I mentioned to someone this past week that preachers’ messages are sort of like parents’ children. God gave children us who are parents, and they are all precious. They are all precious. It has been said many times that parents should not have favorite children. It is said so often and so strongly that one might believe that favoritism of siblings in a family is an actual sin.
Messages that preachers receive from God are precious too. Maybe we are not supposed to have favorite messages either. Relationships between people are different. Not that some are more precious than others, or that we have favorites. They are different from each other. Jesus had the twelve disciples who became apostles. Yet the dynamics of those relationships were different for each one.
Last week’s message was different for me. For me to say that it was my favorite is wrong because though it was given to me and meant for me, and God used me to deliver it, my prayer is that it hit many marks beyond me. It hit me very hard. So much that it has changed my faith. I pray without ceasing that God speaks through me, and I pray as David did in Psalms 19:14 when he said, “Let the words of my mouth, And the ymeditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, †my strength, and my zredeemer.” [2]
Scripture: The scripture for this message is Matthew 13:45-46. Please Stand Under the reading of God’s word.
Prayer: Please be seated.
Message: Like a merchant man… I went into a store that had a sign which read something to the effect, “If you don’t see it, you don’t need it. If you need it and we don’t have it, we’ll get it.” A merchant man is all about acquiring things that people will buy from him so that he can make a profit. That is how the man is driven and that is how he survives.
People know how to do things so that they can survive and prosper by doing those things that God has given to them as natural talents. That is how society keeps going. We sell to others what skills we have. That is how people survive in this world.
Merchants have a talent for seeing what others will buy. Other people know how to provide services to others who will buy their services. There is nothing wrong with either of those things. We survive by using that talent which God has given us and other people value us by what we provide.
There is nothing that any of us have that was not given to us by God. When we undervalue that which God has given to someone else by believing that we don’t need them and can do everything for ourselves, we will fall on our face and God will let us. We are here on this planet in this time to value each other and give and take from each other.
Last week the dishwasher broke. It wasn’t washing the dishes in the upper basket. The people who made the thing used plastic where they should have used metal, and the rollers broke from years of contraction and expansion. I took the basket out and was going to carry it for repair. I learned that the repair shop had gone out of business and there was not another shop to be found. The manufacturer sends someone out to your home whether you want them to or not. It is a way more expensive idea for the consumer. We have moved into the stay-at-home era.
Gary Horner sold appliances. He doesn’t anymore. His advice is valuable. I took his advice. After taking a picture of the model number and doing a search, the parts were readily available. They were bought on-line and received the next day. There was even a video to show how to do the repair. The dishwasher is working fine now and will probably not break that way again before it wears out. The dishwasher would not have been repaired unless I valued the abilities of others to guide me.
Is the new way of this new economy worse or better than before? That is not what this message is about. The message is about finding something that is perfect. The generation is different now than the generation of the 1960s. Not worse or better, different. People once worked towards the goal of retirement. If a person could acquire the right thing and make the right deals, after the right or perfect time, that person could live comfortably doing that which they knew God had for them to do.
Retirement should not mean doing nothing. Retirement should mean doing that which you heard inside you all the years you were working towards that goal. The merchant man was a seller. He didn’t buy things to keep that would make him comfortable. His business was buying and selling what the market demanded even sometimes when the market didn’t know they needed what he had for sale. Merchants have an eye for what others will buy or they will go out of business.
Could be that this man was a jeweler. He recognized what pearls were valuable and he searched for goodly pearls to sell to others. He didn’t acquire more pearls to keep for himself but to sell to others.
Notice the subtopic most in the outline. Most people who buy pearls now buy what are called cultured pearls. According to one source, cultured pearls make up 95% of the pearls in existence today. Most pearls today are not natural pearls. Most pearls today are nearly perfect. If they are not perfectly round, they are scrapped.
Jesus was speaking of natural pearls in this parable because cultured pearls were not invented until nearly one thousand years after Jesus left this planet. Most pearls were not perfect. Human intervention has changed the number of perfect pearls.
In that day if a perfect pearl was found that had been formed naturally it was a rarity. That sets the stage for Jesus’ parable. Today there are so many pearls that jewelers make chains out of them to sell as necklaces. Not so back then.
This merchant man found goodly pearls to sell to others, but he had never found the perfect pearl. Finding and selling good pearls was his business and he survived well doing that. When he found that one perfect pearl he was changed. He could not use that pearl for personal financial profit.
Notice that the merchant man was not the one who discovered that pearl. People don’t buy pearls from shellfish. People buy pearls from other people. Somebody who might not have known pearls so well discovered the pearl originally. The text says that when the man found that perfect pearl, he bought it.
He turned or repented from being a seller to a keeper. He knew pearls and he had to have that perfect one. He could only afford to buy that pearl by purposely selling all that he had acquired.
Many years ago, my accountant was doing our business taxes and we got to the question of tangible business tax. He asked if our company had any property that was “not for sale.” And then he told me to answer no. We were a service company but occasionally did sell things. If a corporation owns business that it uses and is not for sale, then tangible tax must be paid. Merchandise is not tangible if it is for sale.
That merchant man sold all his merchandise. He went out of business to purchase that one perfect pearl. He gave up on what he had done and depended on for all his business life and now he was satisfied with that one perfect pearl. What is that one perfect pearl in your life? Who is that one perfect pearl? His name is Jesus.
Prayer:
Invitation: Heaven is where Jesus is. That is what heaven is like. Heaven is like searching for something your whole life, not even knowing what it is that you are searching for. When you find yourself there in that place and you know it, nothing will ever be the same again. All will be changed, and you will be satisfied to say this which I have searched for is finally mine.
If you are still working to do all things for yourself, you are not there. If you feel that you cannot depend on anyone other than those who you have always known, they will be taken from you. If you are looking for that one that you can absolutely depend on, Jesus has always been there.
Jesus is the only perfect one and He is watching as you work and do without the perfect one that you could have. You must be willing to sell what you have. This is the theme of these last two messages. Sell to someone else and stop trying to hold on to that which is of lesser value than perfection. Sell to someone else who needs to make their own decision. Otherwise you will leave it behind one day.
Are you ready to make Jesus yours or are you still searching? Searching is good until you have found perfect. When you have found perfect, be satisfied. Come to Jesus.
g So Job 28:18. Comp. Prov. 3:15. & 8:11.
e ver. 46. Comp. Phil. 3:7, 8.
f ver. 46. So Isai. 55:1. Rev. 3:18.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mt 13:45–46). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
y Ps. 9:16 [marg.].
† Heb. my rock. Ps. 18:1.
z Isai. 47:4. See Job 19:25.
[2] Ibid., Ps 19:14). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
