JESUS, PRICELESS TREASURE!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Epistle Lesson;
Colossians 3:1-11
Old Testament Lesson;
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26
Sermon Text;
Luke 12:13-21
I have, here in my hands, a Last Will and Testament. One of our members stopped by the office this past week, and handed me his Last Will and Testament. He said, "Pastor, I would like you to have a copy of this. This tells where all of my earthly possessions will go. I want Holy Cross to have a copy of it, because some of my possessions are going to go to Holy Cross."
His Last Will and Testament tells where all of his tangible possessions will go. Who is going to get the chairs, the tables, and the artwork. Then, it tells how the rest of his estate, his stocks, his bonds, the money from the sale of property, how that is all going to be divided up.
Some day, his life will come to a close. And the lawyer will call up the people who are listed in this document. All of those people will gather together, around a table in the lawyer’s office, and with anticipation, they will listen how his earthly estate was all divided.
I want you to hear what they are going to hear. This is how this Last Will and Testament begins:
I want all who read this to know that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that upon death, I will enter Heaven, not by my own worthiness, but only through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Savior, who paid the price for my soul’s redemption, through His death on the cross. For me to live, was Christ, and to die is to gain.
I ask my children, whom I love; never to forget the instructions that Christ has given us. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation. Share God’s Word with everyone at home and abroad.
May God grant you peace, love, and strength, as He guides you through this life. Then, at the end of time, we will be reunited in Heaven, as a happy family.
Wow! What an awesome way to start out the distribution of your earthly goods to those that are left behind. That really puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it? We have a treasure. We have a treasure that is far greater than any earthly possession. That treasure is Jesus Christ, our Savior, and what He has earned for us. And it is only in perspective of Christ, our Savior, that we then go forward and look at our earthly possessions.
That is what today’s scripture reading is all about. It is all about a proper view of the earthly possessions and money that God has given to you and me. Today’s scripture reading starts out in a very interesting way. Apparently, as Jesus was teaching, there were two brothers who were in the crowd. They were listening to Jesus. These two brothers apparently had been having a good deal of strife between one another. It was all over an earthly inheritance from their father. (Did you know that one of the main reasons why grown, adult siblings do not get along with one another, is because of what happened with the inheritance?) That was what was going on in the crowd. One of the men said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
There was strife going on between those two. Maybe the older brother (or the one who got the inheritance) was thinking to himself, "I took care of dad. He stayed at my house. I paid all of his expenses. It is only right, for me, that I got the inheritance. I am going to keep it for myself."
The other one was perhaps thinking, "I didn’t get anything. Here I am one of the sons. Don’t I deserve a little bit?"
There was resentment, apparently. He was resentful that his brother would not share the inheritance with him. One brother not willing to share, and the other wanting what the other had. Struggling over earthly possessions, they came to Jesus to settle the dispute.
In the midst of that, Jesus said, "Watch out!" "Watch out!"
Now, He is talking, not just to those two, but also to all of us. "Watch out!"
We have a sinful nature, just like those two men did.
There was a man, who one day was carrying his two, little boys down the sidewalk. The two little boys were screaming, at the top of their lungs, and carrying on. And, they just kept carrying on. As he walked by the house of one of his friend’s, his friend asked, "What is wrong with your two boys?"
The dad replied, "Well, I have three walnuts, and they both want two. The same thing that is wrong with everybody in the world." Our hearts, by nature, want more. They want more than somebody else has. They want more than we have. That is our sinful nature. Jesus says, "Watch out!"
Then He says, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." There, Jesus tells us that there is more than one kind of greed. In fact the Greek word that is used there is a word that we can’t even translate into English, because it is so packed with meaning. It is a Greek word that starts with the root more. It is a desire, an insatiable desire to have more than we already have. Sometimes it is translated as greed and other times it is translated as covetousness. But, they are both the desire for more.
Greed is the whole concept, "I already have a lot, but I am not happy with that. I need a little bit more." That is an insatiable desire for more, even though I already have a lot. We might find that in a miser, who stores up all of his money and doesn’t want anybody to touch it, but is not satisfied with it. He would like to have a little more. Or, we may find it in somebody who spends all of his money and has many, many possessions. He is trying to find his happiness in those possessions, but is never quite happy and would like just a little bit more, to make him happy.
Jesus says, "Watch out" for that kind of greed.
On the other hand, there is covetousness. That is somebody who does not have. They do not have. They would like something, and think, "If only I would have that, then that would make me happy." Jesus says, "Be on guard against all kinds of greed".
Then He says, "a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
No matter how many possessions we have,
our life will never feel complete,
there will always be a void,
there will always be an emptiness,
and there will there always be a desire.
"If only I could just have a little more." Our possessions can’t give us total happiness. Oh, we may think, "If I only had this or that," or "now that I do have this or that, now I am happy. Now people look up to me. Now I am satisfied with myself. Now I can go out and be secure. Now things are going to be well with me." And yet, deep in our hearts, we know, "I am not totally satisfied. There is still a void. There is something missing, something empty."
Jesus said, "a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions". And, even if my possessions could make me happy in this life, Jesus goes on and tells that parable. And, you know how the parable goes. Let me read it for you one more time.
"The ground of certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’"
By that parable, Jesus is telling us that earthly possessions, whether they are houses, cars, toys, money, or other things, cannot provide us absolute security. One day, one day they will be gone. How true it is that we cannot take those things with us, on the day we die. When we die, we won’t be able to take our money with us, and stand before God with our money. We won’t be able to take our house, our cars, or any of our possessions. They are all going to be left behind. Someone else is going to get those, and they won’t be ours, anymore.
What a tragedy it would be to stand before God, on the Day of Judgment, and have absolutely nothing to show Him. You see, when we stand before God on the Day of Judgment, God is going to judge our souls. He is going to judge whether our souls are clean or not clean.
We need something that money cannot buy.
You cannot go to Wal-Mart, and there on one of the shelves, find a shelf that sells the forgiveness of sins.
You cannot go to the GAP and buy a clean conscience before God.
You cannot get on E-bay and out bid everybody for a ticket into heaven.
You cannot open a catalogue, a religious catalogue, and page through and find where you can purchase the forgiveness of even one sin.
All the gold and silver in the world cannot make us right with God.
We need something that money cannot purchase.
What we need is the blood of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Jesus has done something that no possession could ever do. And, the Bible tells us how Jesus did that. It is awesome to think of the passage in Galatians, where the Bible says, "You know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor so that you, through His poverty, might become rich."
That is an awesome description of what our Savior did for us, so that we could have riches that nothing in this world could ever purchase for us.
Our Savior was rich, but for our sakes, He became poor. Our Savior, the Son of God, was enthroned in Heaven from eternity, with all wealth that belonged to Him, in all power and authority. But out of love for you and me, out of love for our lost sinful souls, knowing that on the Day of Judgment we don’t have any ability to stand before God and find our way into Heaven, Jesus, in His mercy, came to this earth and He became poor.
Jesus became poor. Jesus was wrapped in little rags, so that you and I could become rich, so that we could be dressed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness, washed in His blood.
Jesus became poor. He was born in a manger, in a barn, in a feed trough for animals. That was His first home, so that you and I could become rich and have a home in Heaven, which no money on earth could ever begin to purchase.
Jesus became poor, so that we could become rich. Jesus was crowned with a crown of thorns, in mockery, so that we can gain a crown of righteousness, which cannot be taken from us. Jesus gives to us a crown of righteousness.
Jesus became poor,
so that through His poverty,
we might become rich.
What did Jesus do for us? There in His poverty, on the cross, He had laid on Himself, on Himself, my sins, all of my sins. There, Jesus did something that no money could ever do, no possession could ever do. He took away the wrath of God. He had all of God’s wrath against my sin poured out on Him. And there, by His death on the cross, He took away God’s anger for my sin, and made God happy with me and pleased with me. Because of what Jesus Christ has done, our sins are cleansed. We are purchased at a great price. Not with gold silver, but with the holy, precious blood of Jesus Christ, Himself.
Now we have riches that nothing on earth could ever begin to touch. We have, first of all, something that no earthly riches could ever give us. Oh, we may have the tendency to think, "You know, if I had this or that, I would really be some thing. Then I would really be something." But those earthly riches can really ultimately give me no value, no value before God. The poor person is no less valuable to God than the person who has everything. God doesn’t look at our possessions. As followers of Christ, we know that though I am a wretched sinner, I am of such value to God that He paid the highest price for me.
He gave up His life,
to pay for my sins!
And nothing on earth can give us that kind of value. We have riches that no money could ever purchase. We have a contentment that no possession in this world could ever give us. Possessions always leave us empty. We have contentment. Paul said,
"I have learned the secret of being content.
Whether well fed or hungry,
whether rich or poor,
I can do everything through Jesus Christ,
who gives me strength."
When we have Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor. It doesn’t matter what kind of house we live in. It doesn’t matter what kind of a car we drive. None of that matters. We have Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven. God loves us. He will get us through anything in this life.
Ultimately, we have a treasure that nothing, nothing can take away from us, not even death. It is the one thing that we will be able to hold onto, when we close our eyes for the last time and appear before God. Jesus said,
"Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth
where moth and rust corrupt
and thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasure in Heaven
where moth and rust cannot corrupt
and thieves cannot break in and steal."
We have a treasure, with the forgiveness of our sins. On the last day of our life, we will stand before God, holding onto the holy life of Jesus as our very own, holding onto the forgiveness of sins, as a free gift. All of those riches have come to us, free of charge. We didn’t have to earn them. We didn’t have to deserve them. God, in His mercy and grace, has given them to us! What a wonderful treasure we have in Jesus Christ, our Savior!
Our scripture Epistle Lesson says,
"Set your hearts on things above,
not on earthly things."
That is where our treasure ultimately lies. All depends on our possessing God’s free grace, and abundant blessings.
What Christ has done for us causes us to look at our earthly possessions in a totally new light. Let’s use our earthly possessions in service to our Savior.
Amen.
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