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Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:44-46
I. The basic thought in Matthew 13 and 1 Corinthians 3 is the basic thought of the entire Bible — life and building:
А. In both chapters we have God’s farm and God’s building — Matt. 13:3, 24, 37-38a, 44-46; 1 Cor. 3:9b-12.
B. The parables in Matthew 13 reveal the matters of life and building:
1. The first four parables are related to God’s farm for growing Christ into the kingdom — vv. 1-33.
2. The fifth and sixth parables are related to transformation for producing precious material for God’s building — vv. 44-46.
3. In today’s Christendom the Lord can find a great deal of wheat and a small amount of meal, but He cannot find much of the pearl and the treasure.
4. In the Lord’s recovery it is not adequate simply to be wheat or meal; we must also be the pearl and the precious stones.
II. The Lord Jesus is continually seeking two things — the kingdom as the treasure and the church as the pearl — vv. 44-46:
А. If we would apply the parables of the treasure and the pearl in a practical way, we need to see that during the period of the existence of Christendom, the Lord is working to gain the treasure and the pearl.
B. In order to understand the treasure and the pearl in 13:44-46, we need to consider the kingdom and the church in 16:18-19; the treasure is the kingdom, and the pearl is the church.
C. On the cross the Lord Jesus sacrificed everything to buy both the pearl and the field in which the treasure was hidden; this reveals how much He desires the kingdom and the church — 13:44-46.
III. The treasure hidden in the field signifies the kingdom hidden in the God-created earth — v. 44:
А. The treasure signifies the kingdom with the true Israel, God’s peculiar treasure — Exo. 19:5; Psa. 135:4.
B. The treasure hidden in the field must consist of gold or precious stones, the materials for the building of the church and the New Jerusalem — 1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-20.
C. Christ went to the cross and sacrificed all that He had to redeem the God-created earth because within the earth there was the kingdom, the treasure — Matt. 13:44:
1. In the Bible the earth signifies the world created by God, and the sea signifies the world corrupted by Satan — Gen. 1:26-28 Isa 57:20:
a. God’s kingdom cannot be established in the sea, and God’s will cannot be done in the Satan-corrupted world.
b. God’s will must be done on the God-created earth, and God’s kingdom must be established on the Christ-redeemed earth — Matt. 6:10.
2. In order to have the kingdom on earth, the Lord had to redeem the earth because it had been polluted by Satan’s fall and man’s sin.
3. The kingdom is realized in the church life, but its manifestation is related to the redeemed nation of Israel — Rom. 14:17; Acts 1:3, 6; 3:21; Matt. 19:28.
IV. Because the pearl comes out of the sea, which signifies the world corrupted by Satan (Rev. 17:15), it must refer to the church, which is constituted mainly of regenerated believers from the Gentile world and which is of great value — Matt. 13:45-46:
А. The merchant in verse 45 is Christ, who was seeking the church for His kingdom; after finding it in 16:18 and 18:17, He went to the cross and sold all that He had and bought it for the kingdom — Acts 20:28.
B. Ephesians 5:27 says that Christ will present to Himself a glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing; this is the church as the beautiful pearl produced out of the Gentile world.
C. The parable of the pearl in Matthew 13:45-46 reveals that the Lord’s desire is to have this pearl of great value — the church as the consummation of His complete salvation — Rom. 5:10:
1. The desire of Christ in accomplishing His judicial redemption and carrying out His organic salvation is that He would gain not merely individuals but the church, which is His Body — Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23.
2. The Lord desires to gain this pearl of great value by His ministry in three stages — incarnation, inclusion, and intensification:
a. First, Christ worked to gain His desire by the judicial redemption accomplished by Him in His incarnation — John 1:14, 29.
b. Christ carries out His organic salvation by Himself as the life-giving Spirit in His stage of inclusion — 1 Cor. 15:45b.
c. The intensified work of Christ’s organic salvation is carried out by Him as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in His stage of intensification — Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6.
D. The parables in Matthew 13 reveal that the Lord Jesus came as the Sower to sow the seed and that eventually He gained the pearl:
1. The seed is Christ, and the pearl is the church; the pearl comes out of the seed.
2. The Sower Himself is the seed, and the multiplication of the seed is the multiplication of the Sower; hence, the kingdom is the multiplication of Christ as the seed sown into us.
V. The parables of the treasure and the pearl refer to the overcomers throughout the centuries — Rev. 2:7b, 11b, 17b, 26; 3:5, 12, 21:
А. In the first four parables the Lord covers Christendom in a general way, and in the next two parables He covers the overcomers in a particular way.
B. In the eyes of God, the overcomers are more solid, precious, and valuable than the wheat; He likens them to the treasure hidden in the field and to the pearl out of the sea.
