Living in the Kingdom 16
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-24; Proverbs 4:23; Mark 7:20-23
This is a continuation of my series, “Living in the Kingdom.”
This morning we will examine what Jesus says about riches in His Sermon on the Mount. We will look at verses nineteen through twenty-four which says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. 20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be sound, your whole body shall be full of light. 23But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:19-24)
Before we go into the heart of what Jesus said in these few verses, I want you to open your minds up as to the definition of “riches.” When we read this scripture, we often apply the term “riches” to money only, but that is not an accurate depiction of everything included in what Jesus was talking about. As you listen to this message, think about riches as anything that you hold dear; something extremely valuable to you. With that in mind, let’s look at what Jesus said about these riches. The first thing He says is “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. 20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) Jesus says that we should not store up treasures for ourselves here on earth. So what does He mean? Some people assume this means that you should not have a savings account or a 401K for your future retirement and that you should spend what you have to fully enjoy life while you are here on earth. These people do not save nor do they have a plan for how they will live in retirement. They do not understand this is not what Jesus is talking about. The term “treasures” in the Greek means wealth, but Jesus is not talking about the wealth itself, but our attitudes towards it. He is speaking to the greed and the hoarding of the wealth because most people, including Christians, have an unbalanced love for it. To lay up treasures in heaven is to consecrate fully to God and to help all men who have need – something that few will do with what they truly treasure.
As I said at the opening, riches are more than just money. When Jesus spoke this, Eastern treasures consisted of fine clothes, polished armor, weapons of war, gold, and jewels. Moths and rust were as destructive to most of them as thieves. What is important to note is that what one person might value as something to treasure might not be what another person would value. Think about it this way: your treasure is probably not the same as mine. It’s yours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. What Jesus is referencing in these verses is not just “riches” as in money or material things, but what we “treasure” and place a lot of value on. He is talking about whatever each of us thinks is so valuable that we work hard to eagerly attain it and, once we have it, we dread losing it. In other words it is something that is most valuable to us. When we have it we feel blessed and without it we feel discontent. This is the treasure that Jesus is talking about and for some it could be money or material things and for others it could be something totally different, like their physical appearance. What we need to understand is that whatever it is that we “treasure” is a treasure because of what’s going on in the person’s heart that makes it a treasure. Jesus was once again speaking to a heart issue.
You see, He said that we should, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” He was telling us to be heavenly focused versus earthly focused. In heaven, mansions and furnishings are secure from moths and termites; metals are free from rust; precious stones are free from thieves; and all hearts are safe from fear or loss forever. Jesus was commanding that whatever we have here on earth not to be more valuable to us than Him. If we are truly laying up treasures in heaven then those things of value that we have here on earth can be used for His kingdom. We are not hiding it and treasuring it to the point that we cannot freely give it away for the Kingdom of Heaven. Colossians 3:1-4 says, “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.” Because we are risen with Christ, we are to now set our affections (treasures) on things above (heaven) versus here on the earth. Why is this so important? Jesus told us when He said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Jesus says that our hearts will be wherever our treasures are. I want you consider the “heart” from a viewpoint of Scripture versus our everyday understanding of it. When Jesus mentions the heart, He is talking about the totality of the person. Consider what the Bible says about the heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he….” Also Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is a “….discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Finally, Jesus says in Mark 7:20-23, “….That which came out of the man, that defiles the man. 21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders. 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” The Bible makes it clear that the heart is the central reservoir, the central personality, the indivisible unit of the thinking, willing, feeling that makes up a person. So what Jesus says is that where a man’s treasure lies, it is not merely his affections that are tied to it, but his whole self so that whatever happens to his treasure happens to him because they are inseparable. When Jesus writes to the church at Thyatira in Revelations chapter two, I want you to see what he says as part of verse 23 as it relates to the heart: “…and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.” (Revelations 2:23) New light, Jesus searches our hearts because He knows that what we do, our deeds, are based on what we treasure, what we value, what we focus on. And Jesus says we will be rewarded based on what our hearts treasure – what motivates our hearts – to do the things we do. Imagine if our treasures were heavenly focused!
Next Jesus talks about the “eye” of the heart. He says, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be sound, your whole body shall be full of light. 23But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23) The heart or affection is to the soul much the same as the eye is to the body. If we do not set our affections upon spiritual things, the time quickly comes when we cannot see them. First Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” In these verses Jesus represents our affections (the things we look upon to treasure) as if they were an eye. If the eye is single, that is, if it sees nothing with a double or confused vision, then what the man sees through his eye will be clear views of the outside world leading to his inner man being full of light. But if his eye is diseased or blinded, then his inner man is likewise darkened for he cannot see clearly. Applying the metaphor to the spiritual man, if his heart is single in its love toward God and the things of God, then he has clear views as to the relative importance and value of things temporal and eternal, things earthly and things heavenly. But if the heart looks with a double interest upon both earthly and heavenly treasure, it makes the man double-minded. Remember what James says about a double-minded man? He says, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. 8A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6-8) God does not permit a double affection any more than He does a double service – we must choose Him and only Him! Remember Jesus said in Luke 10:27, “…..You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind…..”
Jesus further elaborates on the singleness of the eye in verse twenty-four when He says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus makes it clear that man cannot serve two masters. Jesus is talking about Christians here. He is not talking about those were not born again. And He is drawing a stark contrast between the things God values – souls for the kingdom – and the things the world values – money, wealth. While a person may work or do some service for two masters, he can only truly devote himself to the service of just one. This becomes evident when two masters’ interests oppose one another and the servant must make a choice between the two. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world. When two masters oppose each other, no man can serve them both. The person that embraces the world and loves it must despise God. Likewise, he who loves God must become an enemy of the world.
The human mind cannot exist, at the same moment, in two different states, which further proves what Jesus said. If the human mind cannot exist in two different states at the same moment, then it cannot be heavenly and worldly focused at the same time. Even in the natural we cannot concentrate our mind, which is indivisible, upon more than one object. For example, I read a story about Sir Isaac Newton and how he was so absorbed in his effort to discover the law of gravitation that he lost focus of his surroundings. He was so focused on what he was doing that he could not hear or recognize the voice and calls of his wife. One morning when he was relaxing by the fire he got too warm. He called for his servant to come and move the fire back. The servant said, “Please move back your chair, sir.” Sir. Isaac Newton responded, “Ah, I did not think about that!” A man must have two hearts, two souls, and two selves, before he can give a heart to God and a heart to the world. It is impossible to serve God and “anything” else – money, people, material things, etc. Jesus made the point that the man of the world cannot be truly religious; that is, the man that makes worldly gain supreme, generally speaking, hates religion. Do you recall the parable Jesus told about the rich man in Luke chapter twelve? Let’s read what is recorded in verses fifteen through twenty one.
“And He said unto them, ‘Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.’ 16And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. 17And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have no room to store my crops?’ 18And he said, ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I store all my crops and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’ 20But God said unto him, ‘You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have prepared?’ 21So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21)
In this parable Jesus explains that it is not an issue that the man had a great crop, the issue was what he chose to do with it. It was not just the possessions that he had but how he viewed his possessions. His desire was to keep it all for himself. He had more than he would ever need or use. His barns could not hold everything that his land had produced. But instead of helping someone else in need – instead of sharing out of his abundance, out of his excess – the man decided to tear down his old barns and build bigger ones so that he could keep it all. That was greed and it was motivated by his worship of his wealth. How do we know he was worshipping his wealth? Because he did not want to give any of it away to help someone else! Jesus was stressing in this parable that we should possess nothing that we cannot walk away from on this earth, especially in our service to Him. This rich man had enough food to be able to feed the poor or help others in need; but in his heart, he wanted it all. God looked within his heart and called him a fool because he did not understand that his focus should have been on God and not his possessions. None of what he had would he be able to take with him to the grave and that is the point we often miss. If we are serving or worshipping anything other than Jesus, then when we leave here it stays behind. However, if we are serving Him, when we leave here He will greet us on the other side and our true treasures will be waiting for us.
One final point I want to make from this verse before I close. The key word in this verse is the word “serve.” “No man can serve two masters…”, that is, two masters that command contrary things different from each other, as is the present case of God and the world (or mammon.) The word “serve” makes it known that it is a choice. This verse is not talking about slavery or forced servitude, Jesus is talking about someone who willingly makes the choice to choose one master over another. Jesus says that not only could this servant not do this; but that he will hate the first and love the second, or else he will cleave to the first, and have contempt for the second. While he will appear a true servant to both, in reality he is only truly serving one from his heart while secretly despising the other.
Jesus said that the treasures that we lay up for ourselves here on earth collect dust, they rot or are eaten by moths, or thieves break in and steal them from us. And, for a lot of people, He is not just speaking of those things that we need but also the excess. Because we want what we have more and more, we collect, and collect, and collect. Just because we can afford it does not mean that we really should buy it. I have watched celebrity shows where the celebrity lives in a mansion that could house fifteen families and they own more cars than they could drive in a week. Some of the vehicles were purchase just so that they could look at them and admire them. What does this say about the person who does this? Could this person have taken that money and used it to help someone and thus store up some treasure in heaven? The Bible says that the person who live this way already has his or her reward. Jesus wants us to store up treasure in heaven because we are heaven focused and heavenly bound. And what are those treasures?Jesus treasures people. And I will close with this last verse from Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus says that where our treasures are is where our hearts will be also. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and anything else! Period! Jesus treasures people who are on their way to hell and them having an opportunity to go to heaven. Is that what you treasure? Jesus treasures you – do you treasure Him?
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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