HEAVENLY
TREASURE -EARTHEN VESSELS
Now when Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the
East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the
Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have
come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all
the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the
Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it
is written by the prophet:
‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will govern my people Israel.’”
Then
Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the
star appeared; and he sent them to
Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have
found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” When
they had heard the king they
went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before
them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they
saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and
going into the house they saw the child with Mary his
mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.
Then,
opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and
myrrh.
Matthew 2:1-11
The wise men brought treasure, gold, frankincense, and
myrrh. But they also came seeking treasure, heavenly treasure. They traveled an
awesome distance and at tremendous expense to them, to find this treasure. Now
as they look into the manger, tears streamed down
their ancient faces. For they saw in this infant what almost nobody else could
see.
They saw heavenly
treasure contained in a tiny fragile, earthen vessel.
And as they worshiped this treasure, which was
contained in this ordinary thing, this baby, they saw glory coming from his face,
not with the natural eye, but with another kind of eye. And as they saw this and worshiped, the glory
that was in this baby flowed into their hearts like a river of healing light.
They went on their way rejoicing because in a mystery,
the glory which had been in this child, and is in this child, had come in and
touched and changed their lives. They went back to their homeland to spend the
few remaining years that they had on this earth to prepare the way for the
Messiah in the East.
About 30 years later, this baby, now a man, spoke
these words.
The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a
field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all
that he has and buys the field.
The treasure is always hidden in the field, always
wrapped in an earthen vessel. It’s always found in something so ordinary that
you could walk past it 1000 times and never see it, never notice it, until you
have eyes to see. But when you see that treasure, really see it, how can you
not sell all that you have to buy the field?
That's what the wise men were really doing. Now they
saw the sign of the treasure, this brilliant light in the heavens, but they
didn't worship the light that they saw. They followed the sign. And when they finally
got to the treasure, there it was wrapped in a baby. A baby like every other
baby that needed to be nursed, changed, washed, held, protected. And as they
worshipped this baby, these men sold all they had to buy the field for this
treasure. That's what they were doing.
And we need to learn three lessons from these wise
men. To….
Behold
the treasure in the earthen vessel
Receive the treasure into
the earthen vessel of our own bodies
Give
the treasure to the earthen vessels around us.
Behold the treasure in the earthen vessel
First of all,
we have to learn to behold the treasure in the earthen
vessel, to see it. To see that the heavenly treasure is always contained in an
earthen vessel. And to do this we need to know what we're looking for. Many of
us are still looking for the fireworks and the chills and the thrills. Many of
us are still hoping that we're going to see some kind of blinding light, like
the apostle Paul saw, or at least an Angel like Mary saw. But it wasn't the
blinding light that changed Paul’s life, and it wasn't the Angel that changed Mary’s
life.
It was the glory that
came from the face of this child
This is the thing that changes us. And keeps changing
us when we see it.
2 Corinthian
4:6
When the wise men saw the star, they didn’t just get
their telescopes out and analyze it. But they followed where the star led, where
it pointed. They read the meaning of the sign and pursued it until they finally
could see the glory. They kept going until they saw the glory shining out of
the face of this ordinary child.
And we need to learn to do the same, don't settle for anything
less. Don’t be satisfied until you see the glory. And don't be confused by the
fact that the glory always is contained in the
ordinary. No, they weren't looking for fireworks in heaven. They weren't
looking for spiritual thrills, they weren't looking for lots of bang and boom
and noise and crash. They were looking for glory. And they had enough sense to
know that that glory is always wrapped in something quite earthly. And when
they found it, they worshipped.
Now if that glory made itself known to those Gentile
wise men, it will make itself known to us, if we seek it.
Seek it and you're going to find it. You will see the
glory of God in the face of Christ.
You will see it.
Somehow you will see it.
And when you see it, you will not be able to resist,
joyfully, selling all you have… to buy the field with the treasure.
Receive the treasure into the earthen
vessel of our own bodies
The second thing we need to learn to do is take the
treasure into the earthen vessel of our own body…in an act of faith.
For it is the God who said, “Let light
shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthian 4:6-7
These wise men were not tourists. They didn’t travel
all that distance and then whip out their cameras and take pictures of each other in front of the manger to show
all their friends back home. They were there on business, and their business was
to worship. What they did when they found the treasure was bow down. They took
off their shoes, they became low, so low that the glory in this infant could flow
from the child into them.
Now they gave him gifts of gold, and frankincense, and
myrrh which were prophetic gifts. showing what was lying ahead for this child
who was to become a king in the highest sense of the word. Who was to become a priest in the highest sense
of the word. Who was to become a
sacrificial lamb in the highest sense of the word.
But the gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh
meant something more than that. These gifts meant that these men were selling out.
They were selling all they had to buy the field. They were joyfully making room
for this glory to come into the earthen vessel of their bodies.
And that's what we need
to learn to do.
We need to learn that no matter where we feel we are
on our spiritual journey, to open up wide, and to make
room, so that the glory of the Lord can flow into our aging, dying vessels and
to let the glory of heaven, which is eternal, to come
in. And we need to make room for this to happen. We need to behold it, to receive it, to make
room for it, and push out anything that gets in the way. Don’t let anything
interfere with this.
Behold, I stand at the door, and
knock, says the Lord. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with
me.
“I'm going to make myself
known to you. I'm knocking on the door. If you'll open
the door, I'll come in. If you will give me any kind
of welcome at all I will visit you.
If you will call on my name. I will answer you”.
So
we're talking not about accepting a doctrine, holding a certain doctrinal
position. We're talking about receiving the Living Spirit of the living Yeshua,
into the vessel of our body, into our lives.
Letting him come in.
Letting him take charge.
And even if we don't fully understand what that all
means and say “Lord, please take over. Take over the whole house, every room,
not just the front parlor but the whole thing, every room in this house and
cause ….
Everything that's evil.
Everything that's
deceitful.
Everything that's
dishonest.
Everything that's
shallow.
Everything that's false.
Everything that's of
death
…. to be driven out by
your glory”.
And it will be done. It'll be done afresh today.
Give the treasure to the earthen vessel to
those around us
And then finally we have to
learn to give this glory, which comes into us, to the
earthen vessels around us, to those ready to take it. To give this precious
treasure to the earthen vessels who are hungering for and
thirsting for and seeking it.
And we may not think that there are any such people
around, but they are. They're all over the place.
But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power
belongs to God and not to us.
Always
carrying about in the body, this body, this earthen vessel the dying of the
Lord Jesus, so that this heavenly treasure, the life of Jesus, the glory of
Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthian 4:7-10
We really don't know what happened to the wise men
when they went back to their homeland. But we can be sure of this, that the
heavenly treasure that visited them took control of their lives.
The heavenly treasure always rules the earthen vessel
because the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
So that if I open myself to the Spirit of the Messiah
and he comes in, then my life is no longer mine, but his.
I become his servant. My life
becomes his servant. And now the earthen
vessel, this body, this life has its purpose in taking the heavenly treasure
around, giving it, yielding it to those nearby who are hungering and thirsting,
who are seeking glory, looking for glory.
And there are many such people out there. And all we
need to do is share this and give it.
But to do this it costs us something. Every time it
costs us something.
We are afflicted in every way, says Paul,
but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not
forsaken struck down, but not destroyed.
Every time we are afflicted. Every time we are
perplexed for his sake, persecuted for his sake, struck down for his sake, the
death of Christ is working in us in a way that brings life to somebody around us.
Somebody nearby who's looking for his glory.
Marcus Rodriguez, and Rick Klees, and I went into a bar Saturday passing out these little tracts that we write. We went to the back of El Padrino’s and as this
guy was coming away from the pool table, I offered him a tract and he grunted
and looked at me like he wanted to hit me. “What is that?” he said. I said”
it’s good news about Jesus”. He started to move in my direction and as he
lifted his fist to prepare to hit me when somebody else came up from behind, at
the pool table, and said “let me have one of those”. And we were very grateful
that he came at that moment. Rick said, “I knew it was coming. It was right
there this time”.
And there is no guarantee that it wouldn’t have happened,
that we wouldn’t have gotten struck down, but at least that time we got a
reprieve. Hostility like that is not pleasant. Who likes that? We don’t say
“thank you Lord, I got persecuted”. We may say it later, but not at the time,
not right away.
But whenever hostility like that happens, when persecution
happens, there’s always somebody who receives a blessing out of it. And I truly
believe that this man who stepped in there and kept a fight from breaking out
by diffusing the situation, was blessed. This man was blessed. He was touched
by the glory of God.
We don't have to make them repeat the four spiritual
laws, or the seven steps to salvation, or the sinner’s prayer, or this or that
or lead them into some program, into some track that we have for them to travel.
All we have to
do is be there, be there and then give them whatever we have
to give them.
Sometimes it's a word. Sometimes it's a prayer. Sometimes
it's a touch of healing.
And as we do this, the life of God, the glory of God
flows out of the earthen vessel of our own bodies, into the thirsting, earthen
vessels out there.
May God give us the grace to follow the example of
these wise men, to have the eyes to see the glory that’s always wrapped in the
earthen vessel. And may God help us to
keep seeking and not quit seeking until we see the glory wrapped in the earthen
vessel and help us to keep seeing that glory all the time.
Don't be looking for the fireworks and the thrills and
the chills. Look for the glory in the earthen vessel, and you'll find it hidden in a field.
May God also help us having seen it, to open ourselves
up to receive it.
And May God help us, having received it, to begin to
share it, to give it to the ones around us who are hungering and thirsting for
something real.
For this is the only treasure that will last. This is
the only treasure that will be here when heaven and earth have passed away.
May God give us eyes to see it. And may he give us the
hearts to settle for nothing less.
Richard Bieber 1987, Christmas Eve. Transcribed 2022
by Maranatha Mirror
Audio Recording: Heavenly
Treasures- Earthen Vessels