Treasures

SERMON ON THE MOUNT
TREASURES
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 6:19-21
OCTOBER 28, 2001

Today, a memorial and prayer service is being held in New York City. It’s being held at the very place where the World Trade Center once stood, the very place where the twin towers came crashing to the ground. It is a memorial and prayer service for the families and the loved ones of those who died. Today they will stand there looking at the rubble, knowing that the person they loved is buried beneath it. Thousands of bodies remain buried beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11.

Human bodies are not all that is buried there. The Comax Metals Trading Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange had twelve tons of gold stored and kept in the lower levels of the World Trade Center. Worth $106 million, all that gold is also buried beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center. Of course, when the Towers came crashing down, the rescue workers were not looking for gold. They were looking for survivors, seeking to save human life. It is true that sometimes in the midst of a great crisis, in the midst of an extreme tragedy, it’s in those situations that we can identify true values and true priorities in life.

In our passage of scripture for today, Jesus is dealing with proper values and priorities. What do you value most? What should you value most? He speaks of treasure. He says, “Do not lay up treasures on earth where moths and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume and no thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Now, the Greek word, the biblical word for treasure is the Greek word “thesauros.” This word thesauros was used in a variety of ways, but normally it referred to that which had supreme value in your life. In this sense, you can only have one treasure, only one treasure because only one thing can have supreme value in your life. Just one treasure. And what is that for you? What is your one treasure? What is it that you value supremely?

Now, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that that one treasure needs to be the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew’s Gospel, the 13th chapter, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a treasure—thesaurus—hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. In his joy, he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.” How much is the kingdom of heaven worth? It’s worth everything you have. Again, Jesus said in Matthew 13, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a merchant in search of fine pearls who, upon finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” You see, the kingdom of heaven is to be the treasure in our life. This is because it’s only in the kingdom of heaven where we find forgiveness of sins. It’s only in the kingdom of heaven that we can find an eternal kingdom to serve. It’s only in the kingdom of heaven that we find access to eternal life. It’s only in the kingdom of heaven that we find Jesus Himself. The one treasure in your life and mine needs to be the kingdom of heaven.

But the tragic truth is there are false treasures in our lives. This morning I want us, very briefly, to examine five of them. The first false treasure is children. This is very hard, but the Bible is clear. Children were not to be your treasure. Now, children are precious. All children are precious. All the children that were up here this morning are precious. All the children who were baptized are precious. Your children are precious. They are not only precious to you, but they are also precious to God. They are so precious to God that Jesus Christ has said that “their angels constantly behold the face of the Father in heaven.” Children are so precious to God that Jesus warned that if we caused one of them to stumble, that “those who cause children to stumble, it would be better for them if a millstone were tied around their neck and they were drowned in the depths of the sea.” Children are precious to God. But they were never meant to be your treasure. They were never meant to be the supreme value in your life. They cannot satisfy your soul because your soul was created for God, created for God alone.

Many of you have heard of a woman named Jane Pierce. Jane Pierce was at one time this nation’s first lady. Jane Pierce was married to Franklin Pierce, who was the 14th President of the United States of America. Franklin Pierce was elected President of the United States in the year 1852. It was early in 1853 that he took the oath of office and Frank and Jane went to live in The White House. They went to live in The White House in the midst of great sorrow because they had just lost their only child whose name was Benjamin and they had called him “Benny.” He was 11 years old.

It was just two months before they moved into the White House. They were on a train, traveling from Boston, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. The train derailed, the cars went off the track, and many died, including their 11-year-old boy, Benny. Well, for Jane, this was too much. She’d already lost her other two children, one in childbirth and one shortly thereafter. When she went into the White House, historians tell us she went up to her room and she did not come out for two years. When she did come out after two years, she only wore black. She only wore black for the rest of her life. She was devoid of purpose the rest of her life. She had no cause in living, no purpose in living. The light had gone out. Her treasure was gone. A thief had broken in and had stolen her treasure, and she was bankrupt in her soul.

Now, we can all feel for Jane Pierce. If we had been there in January of 1853 when she had lost that child… If we could sit by her, we would weep with her. We can feel her pain, and we can feel her sorrow. Some of you have experienced that sorrow and that pain. Some of you have lost children. You know the incomprehensible pain of it all, and yet children cannot be our treasure. They cannot fulfill and satisfy the soul. They were never meant to be our highest purpose. When we make children our highest purpose, we damage our children as well as damage our soul. That’s why Jesus said, “He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

This is a tough teaching, particularly in our culture, but this is absolutely essential. Children are false treasure when it comes to our highest purpose and value.

Now, the second false treasure is our spouse. This also is a tough teaching. Your spouse, who you love perhaps more than any other person in this world, is not meant to be your treasure—not your thesauros, not your highest value, not your highest purpose. Your spouse cannot be the center of your soul.

The Bible does tell us that it is not good for men to be alone. The Bible says that, “Therefore a man leaves his mother and father and cleaves unto his wife and the two become one.” The Bible exhorts us to love and cherish our spouse, and I trust that you do love and cherish your spouse as I do Barbara. But our spouse is not meant to be our treasure.

I know that many of you have heard of Ivan IV. In fact, my guess is that all of you have heard of Ivan IV but you do not know him by that name. Ivan IV was the first Czar of Russia. He was the first Czar of Russia, and he ascended the throne in the year 1547 at the age of 17. His advisors counseled him to take a wife, and he chose his wife literally from a lineup. They brought 2,000 of the most beautiful women in his empire, from the most noble families, from the wealthiest families. From those 2,000 women presented before this 17-year-old boy, he chose his wife. There was one that he thought more beautiful than any of the others. There was one that, when he looked into her face, he saw the kindness and the compassion that he did not see in the others. He chose her and he married her. Her name was Anastasia, and he loved her. Did he ever love her! She was a wonderful person, and she was a Christian. She was devout in her faith. She loved Jesus Christ.

Ivan IV saw all the good that was in her. Because of her, he became a humanitarian and he gave, in compassion, food and clothing and provisions for the poor throughout his kingdom. Because of her, he supported the church of Jesus Christ, and he was a builder of churches. The people called him “wonderful.” But in the year 1560, after they had been married for 13 years, when he was 30 years old, Anastasia died. His wife died. His treasure died. A thief broke in and stole her. She came down with an illness and she did not survive. Suddenly she was gone. Ivan IV had put her at the center of his soul, and now his soul was bankrupt. There was nothing left. The light had gone out. If we had been there with him, we also would have wept with him. That pain would have been incomprehensible.

Some of you, again, have lost your spouse. You’ve lost your wife. You’ve lost your husband. You know the incomprehensible pain. And yet your wife was never meant to be your treasure. When he lost her, he changed. He could not bear it. In his pain, he became twisted, and he changed. He formed a secret police. He began to ravage villages and towns throughout his empire. He built a vast army where he conquered and slaughtered entire people groups. He tortured people. He wanted them to feel his pain. The last 24 years of his life was a reign of terror. Ivan IV is known to history as Ivan the Terrible. That’s how most of you have heard of him. Ivan the Terrible. For the first 30 years of his life, he was wonderful, but he lost his treasure. A thief broke in and stole it. You cannot afford to make your children or your wife your treasure because thieves break in and steal. Only the kingdom of heaven, only Jesus, can be your treasure.

I know this is hard. I mean, this is so hard, particularly in our culture. I know for me personally this is hard. I love Barbara more than any person in this world. I can honestly say I don’t want ever to lose her. If I were to lose Barbara, you’d need to have a spatula to scrape me off the ground. It would be so hard to readjust. She is so much a part of my life. My joy is twice with her. My sorrow is half with her. She makes life wonderful, and yet she can’t be my treasure. She can’t be my treasure, and your spouse can’t be your treasure, can’t be the center of your soul, can’t be your highest purpose, can’t be what you build and center your life around. It’s false treasure.

A third false treasure is career. There are many people in our culture and time who have literally made their career their supreme value, their treasure. It’s through their career that they find their worth. It’s through their career they find their meaning and their purpose in life. That can’t be. Thieves can break in and steal. You may lose your job. Someday you may retire. Where will you be if that’s your treasure?

On September 11 when the Twin Towers were burning, the Associated Press released a photograph of the smoke billowing out of the Twin Towers. In the midst of the smoke, you could see the image of the devil as he is traditionally portrayed. Do you remember that? Did you see that picture? It was in the USA Today. It was covered by newspapers from coast to coast including The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News. In the smoke clouds billowing forth from the Twin Towers, you could see the devil. You could see his eyes. You could see his nose, his ears, his mouth. You could see the horns, the traditional image of the devil. People wanted to know if this photograph had been doctored. Had they altered it in some fashion? Then the Associated Press reported that the photograph was absolutely authentic. It was genuine. He said, however, “People shouldn’t be so amazed.” He said, “You often see faces and images in clouds, whether they are normal clouds in the atmosphere or whether they are smoke clouds. They range in depth; they are constantly changing shape. It’s common for them to form images, and people shouldn’t make too much out of the fact that they could see the face of the devil in this picture.”

Well, we don’t need smoke clouds to tell us that Satan was involved in the action of September 11. We don’t need smoke clouds to tell us that. The hatred in the hearts of the perpetrators of this heinous act was from the devil. Their murderous rage that prompted them to do this despicable thing was from the devil himself. His fingerprints are over everything. I promise you this: Satan was at work in the World Trade Center before September 11. He is and was and will be at work in all the buildings throughout the corporate world. He was at work in the lives of women and men in the Twin Towers before September 11, trying to get them to make their career their treasure. He’s at work in the building where you work, trying to get you to make your career your treasure, to center your life around it, to make it your highest purpose. If you do that, you will bankrupt your soul because your soul was made for God, and the kingdom of God must be your highest cause and your highest purpose.

You know, according to the ILO, the International Labor Organization, they just recently released a 600-page study. According to them, Americans are, if not the hardest working people in the world, at least the longest working people in the world. The average American works 49-1/2 hours a week according to the ILO. The average American works 49-1/2 hours a week. That’s 3-1/2 hours longer than the average person in Japan. That’s 6-1/2 hours longer than the average person in Great Britain. Forty-nine and a half hours a week. And why is that? I’m sure the reasons are multiple, but for many it has to do with the fact that their treasure is their career. Their treasure is their career. Don’t let it be true of you.

A fourth false treasure is health. Maybe some of you have made your health your treasure. Have you ever heard it said, “If you have your health, you have everything?” Have you heard that statement? Could that possibly be true? Is health everything? It is if you’ve made it your treasure.

You’ve all heard of Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven. He died in the year 1827. He was one of the greatest composers of world history, but when he died in 1827, he was only 57 years old. He had spent the last 25 years of his life in ill health with a growing deafness and with constant colds. Finally, at the age of 57, he died of pneumonia. Historians have not really understood the cause of his death. They didn’t understand his ill health, and so just recently—you may have noticed in the newspapers—scientists in the state of Illinois at the Science Research Institute have examined the hair of Ludwig van Beethoven and they have found, as reported by Dr. William Walsh, that there is a hundred times more than the normal amount of lead in Beethoven’s hair. They now believe that he died of lead poisoning over the last 25 years of his life because, in the last 25 years of his life, daily he took baths in mineral pools and he drank the water in the mineral pools, day-after-day, slowly poisoning himself over the last 25 years of his life.

There’s not a person in this room that wants to poison himself or herself. We don’t want to take into our bodies those things that harm us. We want to be good stewards of these shells that God has provided us for a limited period of time. We want to eat right. We want to exercise. We want to get regular checkups with the doctor. It’s all part of good stewardship. We should be concerned about our health, but you can’t make your health your treasure.

More than a decade ago, Barbara and I traveled with some friends to Turkey. We drove all around western Turkey looking for the ruins of what the Bible calls the Seven Churches of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. We came, one day, to the ruins of the biblical city of Pergamum and the ruins were incredible. You could see the stone streets from the Roman era 2,000 years old. You could walk them. You could look up on the Acropolis and you could see where once there stood the altar of Zeus. Then at the base of the Acropolis, we saw the ruins of this incredible building that is called the Asclepieion. The Asclepieion was the hospital of Pergamum. In fact, it was the greatest hospital in Asia Minor and throughout Asia Minor. Throughout many parts of the world, people came to Pergamum to go to the Asclepieion, which was this hospital. You could see the ruins of rooms where people received their herbs and their ointments and their medicines for their maladies.

You could also see some really strange rooms. There was one room where people would lie down flat on the floor if they were sick. They would spend the night in the room, allowing snakes to crawl over their bodies, non-poisonous snakes if their malady was not serious. If their malady was considered to be critical and they were near death, they were put in this other room where they had to spend the night in the darkness, allowing poisonous snakes to crawl over their body. Most of them died in that room during the night from the poison of the snakes.

You might think, “How could this be and why would this be? Why would people in this primitive hospital allow snakes to crawl over their body?” The reason is the Asclepieion, this hospital, was named after Asclepius, whom the Romans called Aesculapius, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Asclepius. This was the god of healing. His symbol was the snake. The symbol of the cult of Asclepius, after which the Asclepieion was named, was a serpentine staff which is today the symbol of modern medicine. Sometimes people confuse the serpentine staff of Asclepius with the serpentine staff of Mercury, but it was the staff of Asclepius that represented the god of healing. His father was Apollo, who was the god of medicine. His daughter was Hygieia, from which we get the word hygiene. She was the goddess of health.

Of course, today we have wonderful hospitals, and today we have wonderful physicians and doctors and we thank God for them. Barbara and I are proud that our son Drew is in medical school and preparing to be a doctor. That’s a wonderful ministry. It’s a wonderful service. It’s a means of serving God and helping people. It’s wonderful and it’s noble.

But you think back to the Asclepieion and you realize there was a time when people worshipped health. They worshipped health and all the things related to health. Are we so different today? Have not many of us made health our treasure, thinking if we have health, we have everything? And yet thieves ultimately break in and steal. As time goes by, “moth and rust consumes.” Is it not true? It is a false treasure.

Finally, there is the false treasure of wealth. Of course, this is the focus of Jesus in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, the false treasure of wealth. “Do not lay up treasures on earth where rust and moth consume and where thieves break in and steal. Lay up treasures in heaven. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Have you made wealth your treasure?

It was our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke, chapter 12, who told the story of the rich man and his barns. Jesus said, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. He said to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my grain and my goods.’ He said, ‘I’ll do this. I’ll tear down my barns. I’ll build larger barns and there I will store my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink and be merry.’ But God will say to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and the things which you have accumulated, whose shall they be?’” Jesus said, “What does it profit a man or a woman if they gained the whole world and forfeit their soul?” Your soul was made for God. God alone can be your treasure. Your soul was made for God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and His eternal kingdom. Christ is meant to be your treasure. Wealth cannot be our treasure. We forfeit our soul.

Many of you have heard of Johann Faust. Johann Faust lived sometime between 1480 and 1540. Little is known about his life. He’s included in most history books, and in encyclopedias you will find him under “F.” His real name was probably Faustus, Johann Faustus, but his life is pretty much a mystery. They know that he was perhaps an astrologer and a magician. He was rumored to have great mystical powers, but his life is a mystery. Martin Luther, the famous Protestant Reformer, believed that Johann Faust was empowered by the devil.

The year was 1587 when the Faust book appeared. It was anonymous. No one knew the author. To this day no one knows the author, but the Faust book claims that Johann Faustus made a pact with the devil, sold his soul in exchange for 24 years of power. Of course, Faustian themes began to influence art and literature. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s great work was called Faust. Christopher Marlowe’s great play was called Faust. Even in the 20th century, Faustian themes continued to influence the world of art and literature. We have Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” We have Hollywood producing movies with Faustian themes, from “Damn Yankees” to “The Devil and Max Devlin.” Even more recently, we have movies like “The Devil’s Advocate” and “Bedazzled.” Hollywood is just fascinated with Faustian themes, the idea that someone might sell their soul to the devil.

In the Faust book and in the Faust legends, the name for the devil is this strange name Mephistopheles. Nobody knows the derivation of that name. Some people think it comes from three Greek words meaning, “to hate the light.” Other etymologists believe it comes from two Hebrew words meaning, “destroyer and liar.” All of these etymologies would be appropriate because the devil is all of these things. He hates the light. He is the destroyer. He is the liar. Jesus Himself tells us so. And he wants your soul and he wants my soul. According to the Barna Research Institute, 70% of non-Christians in America do not believe the devil exists. According to the Barna Research Institute, 70% of men and women in America who are not Christians do not believe in the existence of the devil. They believe that the concept of the devil is the mere personification of evil.

The strange this is, they also found that 70% of non-Christians in America do believe in angels. Is that strange? Seventy percent of non-Christians in America do believe in angels, but they don’t believe in the devil. So, they believe in the supernatural, but they only believe in supernatural good. They don’t believe in supernatural evil. This is naive to the uttermost. It is to deny that there is a spiritual struggle taking place. There is a supernatural dimension to that struggle, and it is a struggle for the souls of women and men the world over. There is a struggle for your soul. Satan is smart. He knows you’re not going to blatantly, willingly and knowingly sell your soul to him. You’re not going to do that, but he’s trying to get you to give your soul over to false treasure. He knows your soul was made for God, and he hates that, and he wants you to give your soul over to false treasure.

He wants you to turn your children into your treasure, your spouse into your treasure, your career into your treasure, your health into your treasure, your wealth into your treasure. He wants you to tum anything but Christ into your treasure. He wants sports to become your treasure. Of course, if sports are your treasure, your mood just rises and falls with the Denver Broncos. It’s all false treasure, but only Christ, only Jesus is meant to be treasure in your life. Jesus is the source of our forgiveness. He is our Savior and Lord. He has given us a kingdom to live for all the days of our lives, a church to serve. He has given us eternal life. He is our highest purpose, and He must be our treasure.

This is a hard message for our culture and time when we have so many false treasures. As we close today, perhaps the Holy Spirit is tugging on your soul, inviting you to make Christ supreme in your life. If Christ is your treasure, it’s going to affect the way you treat your children, the way you raise them. If Christ is your treasure, it’s going to affect the way you treat your spouse, your husband or your wife. It’s going to affect the way you work out your career if Christ is your treasure. It’s going to affect the way you view your health, particularly in these scary and dangerous times. You won’t be paralyzed if Christ is your treasure. If Christ is your treasure, it’s going to affect what you do with your wealth, and you’re going to use it to serve the church of Christ and the kingdom of God one earth. Let’s close with a word of prayer.