Matthew 13: 45-46

Matt Deaville

I want to ask you to pray that God will give you revelation over this weeks scripture i.e that God will open up what He wants to reveal to you today. I also want to ask you to read Ephesians 1: 17-18 before studying scripture generally.

Matthew 13: 45-46 is a short, simple and profound parable that gives us basic truth about what it is to live & know God.

My understanding of parables is that they are revelation hidden for us, not from us. God desires to reveal the meaning of His written word and when we search diligently we find truth and revelation.

At the beginning of Matthew 13 Jesus even explains the purpose of parables and in verse 17 says that.. "many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."
verse 16 says, "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear."

We forget the privilege that we have of Gods written word in our hands - His letter of instruction for sound living, designed to bless us - lets make sure we're blessed by getting into it!

So what about this parable. Inevitably we're reading about something incredibly valuable, so much so that it was worth selling every other kind of pearl so that the merchant could attain the great pearl.

Here's my understanding.

- We are the merchant
- Jesus is the pearl of Great price
- the other pearls are things in this world, anything we put value on, other than Christ.

Those that want to find the Kingdom of Heaven are those that find the pearl of great price and sell everything else to attain Him. We are called to know Jesus and to put down anything that is not of Him.

Question - how much of our lives are filled with things that are not of God and how much value do we put on those other pearls?

The apostle Paul said:-

" I count all things as loss compared to the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Phillipians 3: 8)

When you find that Great pearl it's worth selling every other pearl for it - in comparison they are rubbish.

Do you have this pearl?

- get Christ
- get rid of things not of God