With this piece, we are going to be concluding the Kingdom Experience Series, and I want us to read the book of Matthew 13, we are going to be considering: The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price. To God be all the glory. God has given us two months to look at this. I am so excited personally, and I know God has been giving you a word in this series. Matthew 13:45-46. The Bible says: “Again…” Again and again, we have seen the Kingdom of heaven in a light over and in different light. But again, the Bible is showing us the kingdom of heaven in another light. It says: “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant, seeking, looking for beautiful pearls. The merchant is a trader, somebody who buys and sells. He doesn't have to be the consumer, but he makes sure that he gets from the suppliers or the producers, and he gives to those who are in need. That's a merchant. So, the Bible says the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to one who is buying and selling, one who is trying to take from a place and give it to another place, take from where it is abundant and supply those who have lack. I'm sure we've read in the Bible where Jesus was saying, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me…”, Isaiah chapter 61, “because the Lord has anointed me to preach…” And then you will you will be noticing that God was determined to use Him to supply something that is lacking to those who are in need of it.
So, He was going to be sourcing it in God and then making it available to others. So, we could see Jesus in that place like the merchant also. Do we understand? And what Jesus is and who Jesus is, is also who we are. The Bible says “as He is, so are we in this world.” So, if Jesus was like a merchant, in that Isaiah chapter 61, I believe our assignment on the earth could be like that of a merchant; one who buys and who sells. You know you cannot just blow the air and buy; we use money to buy. So, there must be something of value that you possess and then you exchange for another thing of value. So, if you come to me now and you say you want to buy my Bible, that means you have understood the value of the Bible, and then you are able to offer me a value that is equal to my own perception or a value that is higher. So, when I see that, then I can give you my Bible and then collect that thing from you. What has taken place by such action is transaction, trading has taken place. We have exchanged. Maybe I have many Bibles and you don’t have, and so, you give me your own valuable, I give you my Bible. An exchange has taken place.
So, Jesus, as we were told him that Isaiah, He said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” I am not supplying of myself. I am supplied. As I have received it. I give to other people: To preach good news to the poor, to open the eyes of the blind and to set the captives free, I am free. Those who are in prison, I open their prison door. So, you are doing transaction also. But now let's go back to that Scripture. It says: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. So, there is one merchant, but there are many pearls. Pearls are precious stones. They are precious objects. So perhaps your own pearl is not a stone, it is an object. But that thing must be very precious, it must be valuable, perhaps it must be scarce. The Bible says “the merchant is seeking it.” Seek the Lord while He may be found. But yet, you can only seek for something that you need but you cannot see. Do we understand?
So, the merchant is seeking. The Bible says the entire kingdom experience can be likened to that merchant who is seeking many beautiful pearls, who when he had found one, his intention is to find many, but the Bible says when he has found one of great price, the price that is put upon it is great premium. He doesn't get discouraged. He doesn't say “this pearl is too expensive.” What does he do? Bible says “went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Please what happens to that merchant who have suddenly found a pearl, but has nothing to sell? He has found a precious pearl, but he himself has nothing to sell so that he can raise resources to buy what he's looking for.
Now, I want us to look at another Scripture in Mark chapter 10, we'll look at a few, just two or three Scriptures around here. Mark chapter 10:17-22. The Bible says: “Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Please, if he knows what to do, will he be asking? So, he is seeking for eternal life, he is seeking for answer, right? But ultimately, the answer for eternal life. He is a man that later, we would know about him. But the Bible says he came to Jesus and knelt down and said “good teacher, what shall I do? What is the value of eternal life that I may pay for it.” That is what he is asking indirectly. What must I do? Because in the long run when we do so much in life, and then we're able to raise so much resources, the goal is that we may use the resources to achieve other goals.
So, we do so much to get resources. I don't want to say money, it can be any kind of resources, but the resources are then used to achieve other goals. He says, “good teacher, what must I do that I may inherit, that I may take possession of eternal life?” And look at what Jesus said to him.
“So, Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” 20 And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
So, you wonder, if those are the things that qualifies, that gives him the opportunity to accumulate resources, to be able to afford eternal life, how come he was lacking it? That is something that I want us to be asking the Holy Spirit, like, what is going on? This is a man who has abstained from all these things from his youth. He has not been tarnished; he has not been tainted. He has kept himself spotless, from his youth, but yet, he is still not able to lay hold on to eternal life. When men come to his life trying to buy eternal life, he still has no eternal life to offer. Do we understand? So, there is a need for us to ask that question. If it is just about abstaining, if it is just about being religious, what has separated this religious man, because he is not a moralist, he is a religious man. For him to have kept himself from all these things from his youth, he has been religious. What has kept this religious man from the kingdom experience?
The man authoritatively says he needs eternal life. Eternal life is about eternity. It is something that comes from eternity, it can come to where you are, but it does not end from where you are, it continues to eternity. It is a kingdom package. Eternal life is not offered by the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Parliament cannot legislate eternal life. It is not of this world. It can impart this world; it doesn't begin from here and it doesn't end here. I have been religious, I have been listening to people preach to me, I have been trying my best to be holy. I've been trying my best not to say bad things. But I know within myself, I am not yet living the kingdom life. That's like what this man created, the impression he gave to Jesus. Now let's look at it.
Then the Bible says: “then Jesus looking at him, loved him.” You know there's a Scripture that also connect with us in that John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…” you know talking about the depth of the love of God, that is the ‘so’. If you can say for God so loved the world sixteen billion ways or times, you know, when you now put the “so”, it is like uncountable times. For God loves the world in an unquantifiable manner, the worth of which cannot be ascertained by the minds of people, He gave His only begotten Son. He loves, He gave. There was an exchange that God was looking at. So, Jesus also loving him, what hen would Jesus do haven loved him? Is He not going to give? Bible says God loves the world and gave His only Son. Bible now says the Son loves someone, what would the Son now gives? Himself!!!!
So now, God loves the world, He gave His Son. Now the Son loves a particular man, He gives Himself, that's all. The whole world requires the Son, but you don’t need more than the Son. So, receive Him as a whole. One thing, Bible says, “And Jesus looking at him loved him and said to him, one thing you lack…” He asked Jesus: What is that one thing that I should do? What is that one thing that I should pay so that I can get eternal life? Because I think I have what it takes. And Jesus still said, haven loved him, there is still one thing that you lack. How many of us can be confronted with that statement from Jesus and not feel insulted by Jesus.
You think you are rich; you think you are okay; you think you are fine; your family is doing fine and Jesus is telling you; “there's one thing you lack.” Jesus said to Him “one thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have…” If he does it actually, what will he become? Will he not become like that merchant who is seeking a pearl of great price? Jesus said “Go your way sell whatever you have…” If Jesus had stopped there, then we can be confused. “Jesus, I should just sell whatever I have, what should I do with the money?” Jesus said: “sell whatever you have.” Please what does that whatever mean? It means everything. If it is a big thing, sell it, if it is small, sell it, sell it, sell everything. “Sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come, take up the cross and follow Me.”
Good teacher! Maybe Jesus was saying, “go and sell everything, then come and be my students. You've called me a good teacher. Let me be good in your life. Let me teach you as a good teacher.” What must I do that I may inherit? Is it possible for somebody to just look at you and they smile, and they inherit all your possessions? You know, anytime I talk to any of the grandmas that God has blessed us with, you know, I have opportunity of talking easily with grandmas and grandpas, some grandpas are very, very, you know, you think twice before you call and the kind of words you say. But when I'm talking to grandma, I can just say as I think it and I'll be thinking like “okay, when they are gone, no matter how many years, the years spent, maybe 30 years, what are they going to leave behind for us?” Because the Bible says a good man leaves inheritance for his children and his children’s children.
So, a good man, and I'm sure a good woman should do it too. If I cannot assess the man, let me assess the woman. And in my mind, what can I inherit? And you don't inherit when the person is around, right? When the person is going or gone, then they hand it over to you. They won't do to a stranger. Inheritance depends or demands relationship. When Elijah was to be taken up, Elisha said to him… Elijah is perhaps younger than Elisha, for those who needs to know that. We don't know how many years, maybe two years or four years. When God wanted to take Elijah, look at what Elisha said. He said: “My father, my father…” He didn’t say; “my neighbour, my neighbour” or “this man, man of God.” He said “My father, my father…” which shows there is a relationship.
So, for things to come like that, for you to possess, for you to inherit eternal life, you must have been willed. The one who owns eternal life must have been either your father or your Master or somebody that you have a relationship with, a working or a close relationship and he is able to pass it on to you. “I have used this thing in the course of my life, I want you to use it.” And I don't know how many of us that have inherited anything. No matter how small, when you use it, don’t you feel proud? Because you will be remembering the person that gave it to you. Every time you use it, you feel good. If it's a cloth, you feel good, if it is a shoe, you feel good, if it is a house, you feel good. You will say “this is my house”, you call it yours. My father willed it to me, my mother willed it to me. So, the eternal life you're supposed to feel good with it, it is supposed to be vivid in your life, that your Master gave it to you. It's not your life.
You know, we've quoted a place in Galatians 2:20, “I've been crucified.” So, your life is gone. “Yet I'm alive” it is a mystery. But this life that I am now living in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself. If He gave, He doesn't have it. So, He has handed over. This is what I had. Now you take it, this is my life, you take it, I don't need it again, I'm transiting. You, use it. Use it not anyhow, use it to fulfill the agenda of God for your life.
So, when you go to places, you go with the authority that you have inherited. This is a power that I've inherited from my Master, from my Father, from my Lord and Savior. He looked at me ‘sotey’ and discovered that I cannot do this will of God, I can't fulfill the agenda of God in the flesh, on my own. The things I inherited from my Father, they are not enough to carry me through. What else does this boy need to fulfill destiny? Take it! It is mine, I give it to you. Have you found it in the Bible? When Jesus said “the Holy Spirit will take of what is mine and then give it to you.” Suddenly you are bold, it is not yours. People in your father's house are not bold, you are bold because it is His, He gave it to you.
He gave you faith. He gave you confidence, He gave you hope. He gave you clarity of vision. He makes your year quickened, you can hear like the learned, your ear is not dull. God gives you ideas you wake up, it looks as if somebody sat you down and talk to you like a student. And then you wake up with knowledge. You just suddenly know what to do. These things are not inherited traits. So, if you are still behaving like your forefathers, perhaps, you inherited those things, and you think the behaviour is limiting your progress, then you must ask yourself, have you really inherited also from Jesus? It's okay that I've inherited the things from my father's house. Have I inherited the ones in Christ Jesus? Is my life limited by the fact that all I have his what my parents gave me. All I have is what my background gave me. Do I have what Jesus has given to me? What is it that Jesus used when He was on earth and He gave it to me?
Jesus said, “You lack one thing…” how can one be so rich, rich in Bible knowledge. They take us to Bible Quiz, we will pass, we are so rich in experiences. We say “I have been here many years”, but the true life of God, when we are really on our own, we know is missing. Let us learn from these. The Bible says “but he was sad at His word.” The word was not given to him so that he can be sad, no! The Bible says “and he went away sorrowful.” That was not the goal. Jesus didn't start the conversation because He wanted him to be sorrowful. Bible says “he loved him.” You can't want somebody you love to go about sorrowing. He loved him. But what was his cause of sorrow? The Bible showed us that he had great possessions. See, this possession, let's turn it to “he’s been through a lot in life.” He has so many baggage.
Maybe as a lady, he has had many boyfriends. As a man, he has had many women in his life. As a businessman, he has actually cheated a lot of people in businesses. So now Jesus is telling him the way to the true life and he is looking like… from where will I begin from? From where will I start from? I have been too corrupt; I have gone through a lot. I have seen a lot. You know, there is a place in the book of Revelation. Jesus was talking about a church. There was a way the people of that generation talk, and Jesus also gave it back to them the same way. Revelation 2:24, the Bible says: “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say…”
It is not Jesus Himself that originated that phrase. It is the people of that generation that always ascribe to the fact that… “me, I've seen the depth of Satan; I have seen it all. My eyes have seen something, if I tell you wetin my eyes don for this world.” Now it says: “I will put on you no other burden.” So that's already a burden. In their minds, they've seen the depths of Satan. They can see this depth of Satan and still hope in Christ. How can Christ see those who have been deep in Satanism and still wants to save them and still love them? What was this man’s challenge? He had great possessions. Something that was holding him to his past was huge. He has been through a lot. He has seen a lot. He has committed too many sins. Yet the Bible says “For God so loved the world”, not the church, “that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever…” Whether you have seen the depth of Satan or the height of Satan, “whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.”
So, what is it that keeps you in your position? What is it that the devil uses to say “don't forget you have committed abortion six times. Don't expect God to use you.” Will God see somebody that has never gotten pregnant and then use that have committed abortion six times?” And you yourself, as if you are the student and Satan is the teacher. Satan is the one asking question and you are responding, no sir. And since you have never sin, stay where you are. Know your levels. Don't hope in God, He has better people to trust. He has better people to use. And really, God said through His apostle. It says: “have you seen your calling, that not many nobles, not many wise, not many rich, not many people that were born engineers, have you seen your calling? It is not according to people who have worked out their own salvation or righteousness.
This calling is the one that comes to you because God loves you. I can imagine Mary Magdalene or the other women that Jesus met, the one that was caught in the very act as if she was alone in the act. She was caught in the very act and they wanted to condemn her. And Jesus still demonstrated the love of God. She became a pillar in the church. She became a pillar. She inherited eternal life. So, it doesn't matter your pasts. It doesn't matter the things you have missed. Those of us that have given birth to children, you cannot tell me your children have sinned against you for 10,000 times or 5000 times or five times, you can't count it because it is uncountable. Have you abandoned them? Have you loved them less? When the devil gives you the impression that you've sinned 16 times today, because it has happened to me before.
There was a phase in my life that I normally count my sin daily. And any day I cannot remember any sin more than, maybe one or two; I always feel good in the evening. Like today it was just two, it was this one that happened and this one. I will then be like “God tomorrow, please, I don't want anything.” But now, I don't even think about that again. I don't know if you understand. You can’t continue to live your life and tell yourself “This one, I have now made four sins today, I think I cannot say I'm sorry, Lord, please forgive me. He can only forgive one not four.” Do we get? When the devil brings you to this point, he wants to keep you with that guilt of sin. And there is nothing that separates you from your father. Your sin is not what really separates you from your father. It is your disposition in the sin, that you will not return back.
Peter sinned. Judas sinned. One chose to come back, the other one chose to go and die. Are you going to be like Judas, or you'll be like Peter? The Bible says in the parable of the pearl of great price, a merchant is seeking beautiful pearls and haven found one, he went back, sowed everything. There's a place I also want us to read in Matthew chapter 16, a Scripture that we love or we love to love, because I don't know whether we really love it because it can be scary to some people. Matthew chapter 16:24-26. See what the Bible says.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world… becomes great on this earth, achieve so much, gets married, give birth to like five or six children, all of them go to universities, either abroad or locally. It says what profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Now I wrote two things about that from two different versions. I think NLT and Amplified. The first one says: “is anything worth more than your soul?” That is from the NLT version. And the last one is from Amplified; it says: “what would you give to get back your soul?” If in the bid to become big and famous, you sold your soul along the way, when you suddenly realize that you now need your soul to have or inherit eternal life, what else would you give to get back your soul? A man is looking for pearl of great price. When he finds it, what will he do? He will go and sell and then comes back to buy it. If he finds it and he have nothing to sell, what does he do? He loses it.
Didn't the Bible say you and I have been bought with a price? When they say people sell their souls to the devil, right? Where did they get the idea from? I'm sure they must have heard that, “Oh, there must be an exchange of soul.” You must handover your ambitions and everything attached to your life on this earth and receive the one that Jesus has for you. There is an exchange already. But what happens to a man, he has gained the whole world. He's looking for eternal life, and he has nothing to exchange for that eternal life. He has already handed it over to someone else. So, the challenge for us is very simple. Nothing that we labour for in this world, is equal to our soul. And something really caught my attention.
A man found a pearl, one pearl and the Bible says he went and sold all that he has, just to buy one. So, I just came to realize that no matter how much I labour, no matter how much I'm able to accumulate, all will just only be able to… so, what's the point?
Theirs is a place in the Bible that says “buy the truth, sell it not.” And Jesus was also talking, giving us a parable or giving us a story to learn from. He says “you should use this unrighteous mammon to purchase eternal value for your soul.” When you labour so hard and you make the money, is it just all about the food or do you use the money to invest into your soul? So, if you have 5000 Naira, how much of it is devoted at growing your soul? How much of it do you invest at growing yourself? Inside your soul is your will, is your mind, is your emotion? Do you develop yourself? Or do you develop only your stomach and you say “once you are able to eat, you are fine?” Are you able to develop your spirit also, your spirit-man
When they tell people “Give and it shall be given to you”, when they tell people, “sow” when they tell people “try to take care of people, poor people around you.” What are they trying to teach? It is a lesson. You must get to a point that the money does no master you. You must have a compassionate heart, you must do this, you must do that. And look at the instruction that Jesus gave that man. He says “go and sell all that you have.” Not that you will bring the money to Jesus. He says “give it to the poor.” He says “you will have treasure in heaven”, Jesus wanted to teach him a lesson.
When you have your money, when you work out to raise your money, do you just keep it for yourself and your family alone or do you use the money to train your soul? Do you use the money to grow your soul? And say “I will use this money to teach myself a lesson. I will use this money to help myself to know the truth. Oh, there is a training they are doing there, let me go and pay them this money so that they will teach me something. Let my soul learn something.” Or all we do is just to have fun. And this is a word that also affect us. What do you do with the unrighteous mammon? Are you going to be like the young man that Jesus gave an advice that left Jesus sorrowfully or are you going to yield and say “I will not be mastered by this unrighteous mammon, I will use the mammon, I will use this money, I will use these resources, I will use my talents, my everything that God has given to me. I will use it to make my spirit-man better, to make my soul better. I will use it to a point that when men hear my words, they will know that this one has been with Jesus.
Like somebody wanting to break the Guinness book of Record, the person that is able to eat the largest number of foods on the same seat would win, how does that one grows your soul? How does it grow your spirit? Because as we talk about the soul, let us also remember the spirit, they must go together. Whatever you do to improve your spirit or your soul is what you are doing to inherit the eternal life. This body will not follow any one of us out of this world. We've met it here; we will live it here. You know, when you bring a seed into the farm, the seed is going to meet the soil. When the seed has grown up to the point that you can harvest whatever you grow, the seed is still going to leave the soil behind. I don't know if you understand. You will uproot that tree or that flower, that vegetable, you will uproot it from the ground, the soil remains. But that seed has been transformed.
So, we met this earth, we met this body. Our spirit, our soul was put in it, we will leave it behind. When we appear before God, we will not appear with this body, we would have taken on another one. What manner of man, what manner of women are we going to be? What will be the state of that soul?
