In Matthew 6.19-24, Jesus presents three benefits of fully investing your life in God's kingdom: (1) eternal security; (2) clear vision; and (3) simple service. This sermon is part 7 of "Messiah's Reward," Bryan Craddock's expository preaching series on Matthew 6 & 7.
You have probably heard the old proverb that says, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Financial advisors say to diversify your holdings to minimize the risk. The wisdom of that idea seems obvious, doesn’t it? If something happens to that one basket, all your eggs are gone. So, dividing them up is safer. But did you know that Jesus contradicted that idea?
He told a story about a man who discovered a great treasure hidden in a field. Isn’t that what we all dream of? When I was young, I would dig holes in my grandparent’s backyard hoping to find something of value. In his joy, this man goes and sells everything he has to buy that field. A lot of people would have called it a foolish gamble. But he knew that it was the ultimate investment. So, he went all in, because there was no risk.
Why did Jesus tell that story? What was he getting at? Take a look at how he introduced it. Matthew 13:44 tells us that he said,
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 that field.
Having a place in God’s kingdom is the greatest treasure imaginable. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus opened the way for us to enter. He paid the full price. But the only way for us to receive that gift is to go all in. You must invest your whole life with him.
On another occasion, Jesus made that point explicit. Luke 9:23-25 tells us,
And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Have you placed your life in his hands? That is the ultimate investment. Some people call it a foolish gamble, and there are some risks. As Jesus hinted there, he knew that he was heading toward the cross. He was warning his followers that they could face rejection and persecution too. But the benefits far outweigh that risk.
Jesus also talks about this ultimate investment in his Sermon on the Mount. The passage is found in Matthew 6. In the first part of the chapter, he exposes the hypocrisy of doing religious activities to impress people. But in the second part of the chapter, he pivots to the material side of life. A lot of people operate as if God only cares about their religious activity. They follow their own plans and desires for everything else. But in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus presents three benefits of fully investing your life in God’s kingdom: eternal security, clear vision, and simple service.
So, if you haven’t done so, my hope is that you will make that investment today as we examine Jesus’ words. If you have already placed your life in his hands, then let his teaching lead you to better appreciate and enjoy these benefits.
Eternal Security
The tale has been told countless times. A notorious pirate sails the seven seas with his bloodthirsty crew. They amass a fortune in gold and jewels by attacking merchant ships and trading ports. To keep the treasure secure, they bury it on a deserted island. But something always goes wrong in those stories. They get into a fight, they get shipwrecked, or they get caught. They end up taking the secret location of the treasure to their graves. But then someone discovers a map.
What would you do if a map like that came into your possession? Would you invest time and money in the search for wealth? Or have you charted a different course? Do you play the lottery, invest in the stock market, or just work hard and save up? As different as those approaches are from each other, they all have one fatal flaw. They are ultimately guaranteed to fail, because they are not eternally secure. Wealth will lose value, possessions can get destroyed, and you can’t take any of it with you when you die.
Jesus gives us the real treasure map in Matthew 6:19-21. He says,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What does he mean? How can we lay up treasure in heaven? We must start by securing our place there, because our sins keep us out. Back in verse 12, Jesus spoke of the debt that we incur when we sin. But the good news is that he paid our debt through his death on the cross and offers to clothe all who believe in him in his perfect righteousness, so that we can enjoy eternal life in his kingdom.
That is the ultimate treasure, and since Jesus is the one who saves us, he keeps us eternally secure. John 10:28 tells us that he said,
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
But in Matthew 6 Jesus calls us to continue laying up treasure in heaven. In other words, believers can keep investing in eternity by how we live now. Earlier in the chapter, he said that God will reward us when we genuinely practice righteousness, sincerely pray in private, and secretly fast. His Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30) suggests that these rewards will include God’s commendation for our efforts and the privileges of serving in his kingdom.
Those investments are all spiritual activities, but Jesus also said that God rewards us when we anonymously give to help people in need. So, that practice moves beyond religious life to the material world. Paul expands upon it in 1 Timothy 6:18-19. He speaks about those who are rich and says,
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
When we look at the world’s billionaires, we may not consider ourselves to be rich. But in Paul’s thinking, anything beyond basic food and clothing is surplus that we can use for the Lord (1 Tim 6:8). So, we should manage all our resources as heavenly investments, not just our money but also our time and our labor. In Colossians 3:23-24, Paul says,
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Are you serving the Lord in your work? Is your heart set on eternity? Are you investing your time, money, and effort in things that matter to him? That’s how we store up treasure in heaven. We must keep our heart focused there, because that’s the only eternally secure investment. But as Jesus continues in Matthew 6, he presents another benefit to show that living for eternity helps us here and now.
Clear Vision
How’s your eyesight? When was the last time you had it tested? You may not realize how bad your vision has become. You get used to squinting and holding things closer and closer or farther and farther away. But when an optometrist starts clicking through those lenses, that’s when the light comes on, and you think, “How did I live that way?”
The same thing can happen spiritually. We all get accustomed to living in spiritual darkness. But when you entrust your life to Jesus and start living for eternity, you begin to experience the benefit of clear vision. Matthew 6:22-23 tells us that he said,
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
At first glance, these verses seem to stand alone. They read like a proverb. But we need to interpret them as part of Jesus’ argument. He has just spoken about laying up treasure in heaven. So, healthy spiritual eyesight sees life from a heavenly eternal perspective. That outlook gives light. It enables you to recognize what truly matters.
Those who live without that perspective are filled with darkness, but they don’t realize it. They are oblivious to spiritual realities. In fact, some passages in the New Testament liken it to blindness. In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, for instance, Paul says,
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The god of this world is Paul’s way of referring to Satan. Ever since Satan enticed Adam and Eve to disobey God in the garden of Eden, he has been able to maintain some degree of control over the earth. He actively deceives people to keep them enslaved to sin. We are all aware that God exists, and our conscience convicts us of sin (Rom 1:19-20; 2:14-15). But Satan works to obscure those thoughts with philosophies that justify sin and false religion that excuses it.
So, how can our vision become clear? How can we come to see the light? It takes a miracle! The Gospels record several occasions when Jesus healed people who were physically blind. In John 9, he did so after calling himself the light of the world. He gave sight to the blind to demonstrate what he is able to do in people’s lives spiritually. Paul describes that saving work in 2 Corinthians 4:6 by saying,
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul was referring to God’s work in creation. Genesis 1:3 tells us that God called light into existence and separated it from the darkness. To see his truth clearly, we need his creative power to open the eyes of our hearts to the gospel. He must cause us to be born again as new creations in Christ. Part of that process on our side is coming to the recognition that we are blind and that we need to be saved.
But even when we experience the miracle of salvation and the spiritual enlightenment that accompanies it, Satan does not stop trying to deceive us. His lies are still out there. Sometimes they even make their way into the church. He will do anything he can to divert us from living for the Lord and proclaiming the eye-opening truth of the gospel.
One of the immediate benefits of living for eternity, however, is that it helps us see through Satan’s diversions and deceptions. It enables us to resist the momentary pleasures of sin, knowing that God’s eternal rewards will be far more satisfying. It reminds us that non-Christian people are not enemies for us to fight and overcome physically or politically. They are lost souls blinded by Satan that Jesus came to save.
So, how’s your vision? These passages are testing it. Have you acknowledged your spiritual blindness? Have you come to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ? If so, are you living in the light of an eternal outlook? There’s another immediate benefit of living this way.
Simple Service
Getting into a small boat can be tricky. If it’s not firmly tied to the dock, it can begin to drift away. Then you find yourself in that awkward position of having one foot on the dock and one foot in the boat as they get farther and farther apart. You have to choose one side or the other. But the longer you delay, the more likely it becomes that you’ll be going for a swim.
We wind up in a similar situation when we try to stand for the Lord while also pursuing wealth. Those goals might seem parallel, but they inevitably drift apart. Stradling that divide becomes complicated, awkward, and even painful. But living for eternity makes serving God simple and straightforward. Matthew 6:24 tells us that Jesus explained this benefit by saying,
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Instead of money, the King James Version uses the word “mammon” which is also the original Greek term. It is only found here and in a similar passage of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16. So, it seems that the translators could not come up with a satisfactory English translation. The word “money” seems too neutral for this alternative master. Some would call it unrighteous wealth. But that suggests that all wealth is inherently evil, and that is not accurate either.
Paul helps understand the real problem with money in 1 Timothy 6:9-10. He says,
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Money is not evil. As we saw earlier, it can and should be used in serving God. But when we love wealth, it ensnares us, and you don’t have to be rich for that to happen. We start taking pride in ourselves and whatever possessions we have. At the same time, we also become discontented and covetous. We always want more, and that relentless desire drives us to do whatever will accomplish that, even if it means taking advantage of other people.
So, money can become your master even if you’re poor. Life becomes all about the here and now rather than the hereafter. Faith begins to seem pointless. You look to money as the answer for everything. It begins to take God’s place in your life. You may feel pangs of guilt about that, but rather than turning back to the Lord, you begin to despise him just like Jesus said.
How do we escape that downward spiral? We find freedom in serving the Lord alone. There is a simplicity to life when we trust him as our master who cares for us and provides for us now and for eternity. Jesus has more to say about that in Matthew 6:25-34, and we will focus on that passage next time. For now, we can look to Paul’s instruction in 1 Timothy 6:17. He says,
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
What is your hope set on? Is it all about your financial situation? Do you feel confident if you have a lot and worried if you don’t? Riches are uncertain. We need a hope that goes beyond this life to eternity. That’s the hope that flows from the death and resurrection of Jesus. When we believe in him, he adopts us and gives us an inheritance in his kingdom.
How does that help us here and now? Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt 6:11). When we serve him rather than money, we can trust him to provide. When he does, whether it’s a little or a lot, then we can enjoy it in a spirit of gratitude giving all the praise and glory to him.
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These are the benefits of fully investing your life in God’s kingdom. You receive eternal security of your salvation and of the rewards that God will graciously give us for all the ways that we honor and serve him. You experience clear vision. You will grow in his truth to discern right and wrong and to perceive what truly matters for eternity. Finally, you can enjoy the simplicity and freedom of wholeheartedly serving God. You don’t have to be caught in the middle.
So, what is your next step in response to these truths? Do you need to place your hope & faith in Jesus? Acknowledge your blindness and sin. Trust in the saving work that he accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection. That is the ultimate investment. If you want to keep learning more about life in Christ, you might want to spend some time in 1 Timothy 6.
If you are trusting in Christ, do you need to renew your focus on eternity? Are you laying up treasure there? Does that eternal outlook shape the way that you work and manage money? Does it influence how you relate to people? Are you sharing the hope of salvation to encourage the saved and evangelize the lost?
May we hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful!
Reflect
How are you “laying up treasure”? Are you more focused on heaven or on earth?
How has eternity factored into your outlook on life? How do you need to change your outlook moving forward?
How could you better reflect and share the hope of eternal life in Christ?