When Jesus said to the rich young man in (Matt 19:21, Mk 10:21 and Lk 12:33): “If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me”, He was saying that perfection cannot be attained by amassing silver and gold, land and houses on earth. The Lord made a clear distinction between worldly treasures and heavenly treasures. Treasures in heaven are not as fragile or vulnerable than worldly treasures because Jesus also said in Matt 6:19:
“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 moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Another feature of heavenly treasures is that it is not always obvious; it is not always showy, as it may be hidden. In Prov 2:4, it is written: “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
This means that you have to seek and search for the knowledge of God, and this takes effort and time and patience on your behalf. Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field.” That man was looking for something when he found the hidden treasure, he was someone who was on the lookout. But let me ask you this: Once the man found that hidden treasure in the field and after he bought the field so that it legitimately belonged to him, do you think that he was satisfied and stopped searching? Or do you think he continued seeking on every square inch of that field, hoping to find more treasure because there is proof that it exists?
What is this treasure of the kingdom of heaven the Lord speaks of? In Is 33:6: “The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”
“This treasure” as Isaiah prophesies about is the “rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge”, it is a treasure from heaven given to us on earth as a foundation of our times. It is what the Lord was speaking of in Matt 16:17 after Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, and He said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
And what was the rock which Jesus has built his church on but this truth that was revealed to Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. It is the truth, because wisdom is the understanding and knowledge of truth, and is where salvation is based upon. Therefore the rich store of salvation, knowledge and wisdom is this treasure. And this treasure is truth.
Prov 2:4 says: “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God”, Again, what we are to look for is wisdom, insight and understanding, and what you find is the knowledge of God. What you find is the hidden treasure, that is truth, and the knowledge of God is Truth.
Going back to the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. If the man in the parable continued seeking once he owned the land, he would have found more treasure. Just as once we are in the kingdom, we continue seeking wisdom, insight and understanding, we will found more of this treasure. It is so because the Lord says in Jn 16:12: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will only speak what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.” The fact that Jesus said “all truth” tells us that truth is a progressive state and the Holy Spirit reveals to us more words of Jesus, which is more truth, until we know the all truth.
Therefore there is a quantifying degree to the truth that we possess. There is no truth, some truth and all truth. It is as Paul writes in Col 2:3: “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they have the full riches of the complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He speaks of a complete understanding of the mystery of God, a treasure of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ.
It is only hidden because you have to listen with your ears, and not see with your eyes. You have to hear with your ears and understand with your heart. It is not the miraculous signs you see, but the message of the kingdom of God that you hear with your ears and sown into your heart. Otherwise, you will be like Pilate and ask Jesus, “What is truth?” When he was looking at Truth in the face and was in fact the one speaking with him.
Jesus is the Truth, the Word of God which became flesh. He gave for the life of the world His flesh as bread for us to eat. We eat the Word of God, and His flesh is Truth. But we not only eat the Truth, we also breathe the Truth. After the resurrection of Jesus, He visited His disciples. The Lord breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Make no mistake, the Holy Spirit is a precious gift from Jesus and the Father. As He - “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
When we are baptised with the Holy Spirit, we breathe into us the Spirit of Truth that goes out from the Father, so our flesh and our spirit is born again, and what is born again lives. Just as the Spirit of Truth lives with us and is in us, so too is truth living with us and is alive in us.
In truth, there is power and that power is the resurrection and the life.
This is why Paul writes in 2 Cor 4:7: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
The jars of clay Paul speaks of is our body because we are the clay and the Lord is the potter. This treasure we have in clay jars, that is our bodies, is Truth. Paul writes further 2 Cor 4:10: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”. How is the life of Jesus revealed in our bodies? It is through our testimony in regards to the truth.
Jesus says in John 15:26 “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth that goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
The truth that we carry around in our body is purposed not only for our personal relationship with Jesus but also for us to testify about Him. The Holy Spirit supports our testimony about Jesus because He is also one who testifies about Jesus. The Holy Spirit is also a witness of Jesus. We receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us; and we are the Lord’s witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the world. (Acts 1:7)
And what it is first and foremost that we are to testify? That Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, The Christ who suffered and rose from the dead on the third day, in whom repentance and forgiveness of sins is preached in his name to all nations(Lk 22:46). Jesus, whom God has sent to complete the work He gave Him to do, which is to preach the gospel, be condemned to death and crucified, but on the third day be raised him back to life and is now sitting at the right hand of God. This is the all-surpassing power is from God and not from men because No one takes life from Jesus, but He lays it down of His own accord. He has authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command He receives from His Father.
This is the treasure that we carry around in our body as a testimony of Jesus. This treasure, this truth, we testify about Jesus that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, and this is eternal life: that they may now know the only true God, and Jesus Christ. This truth is the treasure that is whispered in our ears and we proclaim from the roof tops.
The truth is a treasure and is meant to be treasured because Jesus paid for it with His blood and His life, and His blood is the most precious thing to ever touch this earth.
(Exo 16:33) So as God commanded Moses to take an omer of manna and keep it in a jar for the generations to come, so that it is a testimony for the Israelites to see the bread that He gave them to eat in the desert, so too are we the jars of clay put in front as a testimony of the true bread, the living bread, the bread of life, the consecrated bread from heaven that God gave men to eat.
As the Lord says in Matt 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”, so if to you, truth is your treasure, then there your heart will be also. And since out of the overflow of your heart, your mouth speaks, then the good things stored up in your heart is the truth that is Jesus Christ and your testimony about Him, and the Holy Spirit who searches the heart and examines the mind (Jer 17:10), will back you up with power to testify that the all-surpassing power to raise God’s Son from the dead is from God, and not from men. And since God’s Son is lifted up from the earth, he is drawing all men to himself. So put your hope in Jesus and His unfailing love, and in this way lay up treasure for yourselves a firm foundation for the coming age, so that you may take hold of the life that is truly life.
As surely as the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own and Israel to be his treasured possession (Ps 135:4), and as surely as Jesus chosen you to be His own and to be His treasured possession, I ask you this today: Is Jesus your most treasured possession?
Amen Holy Spirit.
