The extraordinarily ordinary life of a Christian - The Christian seeks spiritual wealth

Matthew 13:44–52 ⁴⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again. In his joy, he goes away and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. ⁴⁶When he found one very valuable pearl, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Do good, be rich in good works, be generous and willing to share. In this way you are storing up for yourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future” (1 Timothy 6:17,18) Amen.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case brought by Calvary Chapel, a rural Nevada church. Calvary Chapel was looking to block enforcement of Nevada’s 50 person attendance limit on all places of worship – a rule which applies regardless of building capacity.

The attendance cap for Nevada churches has drawn righteous indignation from Christians since Nevada businesses, restaurants, movie theaters and casinos are allowed up to 50% capacity.

The Supreme Court denied Calvary Chapel’s request by a 5-4 vote. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in his fiery dissent, “In Nevada, it seems, it is better to be entertainment than religion. The First Amendment prohibits such obvious discrimination against the exercise of religion. The world we inhabit today, with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges. But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.”

What would you do if your state favored slot machines over sacraments?

God’s Word, God’s Sacraments, and God’s Church – all which God uses to create and nurture faith are treasures of immeasurable worth. They are the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great value. Yet, we have seen in recent years that the devil will use any means he can to strip away this treasure, dull the gleam of this treasure or even steal this treasure outright.

Today we will examine what we as finders of Christ’s treasure are going to do when the world tries to rip this treasure away from us.

Jesus tells us two parables about hidden treasure – treasure hidden in a field and then a pearl of great value. The buried treasure and the costly pearl both represent the kingdom of God or Christ our Savior, who established that kingdom in our hearts and who rules over them with his Word and Sacraments.

Though the two stories Jesus told had settings that were very familiar to the audience of His day, they’re not so familiar to us. “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again. In his joy, he goes away and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  In the first story, Jesus tells us about a man who unexpectedly comes upon a treasure hidden while he was strolling through a field one day. He very likely wasn’t even looking for it. When he came upon it, though, he recognized its value. He was filled with joy! Without hesitation, he sold all his possessions so that he could buy the field and the treasure it contained. You see, they adhered to the same kind of binding laws that we do today – “Finders keepers, Losers weepers.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. When he found one very valuable pearl, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” In the second story, the dealer in costly pearls made it his business to search far and wide for the finest possible pearls. When he found a pearl more perfect in size and shape and color than he had ever seen before, he just had to have that pearl. So he also sold all his possessions in order to buy that single perfect pearl.

The point to both parables is that we find great treasure in the wealth of God’s Word. In one case the man found treasure by accident – in the other the merchant sought long and hard for that pearl that would set him up for life. In both cases, however, they realized the value of what they had found, and gave up everything to get it.

A recent Newsweek article commented how religious freedom is under attack like never before. Just this year alone, there have been plenty of cases of hostility toward ordinary American Christians and churches.

·       Gail Blair, a blind woman, was banned from a public park because she offered a free copy of the Gospel of John to those who wanted one.

·       Coach Joe Kennedy took a knee in silent prayer after a high school football game and lost his job.

·       In May, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot launched a police raid on a predominately black church for holding services in defiance of her coronavirus shutdown orders.

·       This week, pro-life teens were arrested for using chalk to write, “black pre-born lives matter” on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood building in Washington D.C., even though they had a permit to do so.

·       Also this week, Grace Community Church and Pastor John MacArthur are being threatened with a daily fine of $1000 or arrest for opening their church in defiance of California Governor Newsome’s state order to cease all indoor worship services. Even though California businesses are open, California churches remain closed.

As Christians, we need to always balance what God tells us in his Word. The Bible portrays the government as an authority established by God. St. Paul writes, “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities. … The authorities that do exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1).

In the Book of Revelation, the Bible also portrays the government as the Beast from the Sea. St. John writes, “I saw a beast rising out of the sea. He had ten horns with ten crowns on his horns, and seven heads with blasphemous names on his heads. … He was also given permission to wage war against the saints and to overcome them, as well as authority over every tribe and people and language and nation” (Revelation 13:1,7).

This is the extraordinarily ordinary life of the Christian. We know from St. Paul and St. Peter in their epistles that we are to treat the government and its authorities with honor and respect because they are God’s earthly representatives. But we also understand that St. John teaches that the Great Dragon of the devil has been hurled down to the earth where he can corrupt governments and earthly authorities. John writes that “the dragon gave authority to the beast [out of the sea] (Revelation 13:4).

As Christians, we participate in our society as responsible citizens. We do so as followers of Jesus Christ. We love and serve our country. But our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus Christ.

Too often we put our allegiance in whomever we can elect to be President, Governor, Mayor or be placed onto the courts. We hope for these positions of political power to stem the tide of moral decay in society and to protect our religious freedoms.

We forget that the devil - the Great Dragon – can easily turn the government against Christians. He has done this in every society in the history of humanity. We may have been spared major persecution in America these past centuries. But that persecution is coming.

When we see individuals or governments behaving like a beast, we must stand with St. Peter and the apostles who defied their authorities and demanded, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Too often we play defense against the devil. We complain about the shows and movies that promote unchristian sexuality … but we still watch Netflix and Disney+. We grumble about the unbiblical social justice that is taking over professional sports, but we aren’t willing to have a reasoned Christian dialogue with anyone about it. We gripe when there are local and state government’s restrictions on worship, but we as individual Christians don’t actively challenge those restrictions.

We just play defense.

I’m hard-pressed to think of anything that can be won by only playing defense.

Little by little, our religious liberties are removed. Our treasure is treated as worthless. Our children, teenagers and college students see us uninterested in God’s Word, lethargic in receiving the Sacrament, indifferent to worship, apathetic to defending our Christian faith and passive when the devil attacks through his earthly agents.

So, what do you think happens to our young people when they see their parents and grandparents uninterested, lethargic, indifferent, apathetic and passive? They become uninterested, lethargic, indifferent, apathetic and passive.

God’s Word and Sacraments are our greatest treasure. That’s because they deliver Jesus to us. Jesus was born to bring peace on earth in the midst of all this coronavirus uncertainty. He defeated the Great Dragon when he crushed the Ancient Serpent’s head on Calvary’s cross. Jesus went to the cross and out of the grave to give you the assurance of eternal life when your earthly life is threatened by governments, diseases or old age. Jesus ascended into heaven to rule all things – even government authorities – for our eternal benefit.

Jesus placed his treasures in your heart when he poured baptismal water over your head, when he places his Word into your ears, and when he places his body and blood into your mouth.

You can give this treasure away … but Jesus promises that no one – not demons, not the Dragon, not the government – can snatch this treasure out of your heart. If you hold onto this treasure, it is yours – now and forever.

So what are you going to do with this treasure? Become interested, excited, active, animated and passionate about this treasure you have found. Go on the offensive. The gates of hell cannot stand against a Christian soldier fitted for battle who goes on the attack, putting God’s treasures to work for him or her.

I told you how Nevada churches were only allowed 50 people in worship. So this week Christians went to the government-approved venue of a Las Vegas casino to worship. One worshiper tweeted, “NV Governor banned church serves but casinos can operate at 50% capacity. So we are praying in a casino.”

In April, Pennsylvania Governor Wolfe urged churchgoers to find different ways to practice their religion other than gathering in churches. So Christians decided to accept the Governor’s advice and gathered for worship at their local Wal-Mart.

Various California churches explained how they complied with state mandates at first. Finally, church leaders justified their civil disobedience in part by explaining that the lockdowns done in the name of public health were causing spiritual damage to their parishioners. They wrote, “The suffering of Christians who are troubled, fearful, distressed, infirm, or otherwise in urgent need of fellowship and encouragement has been magnified beyond anything that could reasonably be considered just or necessary.”

This past week, we had 11 high school and college coaches for our 22 campers at our soccer camp. After camp on Friday, I told the coaches that every one of them has the skills to become a teacher someday. Even if they don't go to WLC or MLC to become a WELS teacher, they have the God-given skills to become future Sunday School teachers, leaders in their congregations, and more.

I also told them if our merger between Epiphany and New Hope happens, then part of my role will be to train them to be coaches to help other WELS churches with their soccer camps in future years. Even though that will mean giving up two weeks of work during the summer, every one of the coaches are excited to take the show on the road! Our soccer camp and someone's else's!

I also told them that if they are actively living and sharing their faith in their high school and college years, then there is no way the devil can steal their faith from them. The best defense against the schemes of Satan is to go on the offense against the old evil foe. Make him play defense for once!

The extraordinarily ordinary life of the Christian is living with our faith under constant attack. That shouldn’t upset us or frighten us or anger us. Jesus and his apostles tell us numerous times throughout the Gospels and Epistles this will happen. The Dragon will use his beasts and demons and unbelievers to try to steal your treasure. Stand up for your treasure. Defend your treasure. Share your treasure. Go on the offense against the devil and his demonic forces. That is the extraordinary life of the Christian that we don’t see much of today. Amen.

“Guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20). Amen.