The Treasure of the Heart

Matthew 6:16-24

Immanuel – 2/18/24

The kingdom of heaven: It is all the beauty and majesty and joy and peace and love of heaven, flowing from the heart of God, pouring into our own. Every citizen of this kingdom lives in blessed immortality, feasting forever upon these wonders. Wonders that are not restricted only to heaven, but now through King Jesus they have broken upon the earth.

This reality, this kingdom, is the most precious, most valuable treasure on planet earth; not only because of the wonders it holds, but because of Him who sacrificed everything to make a way for us to enter in, to come to God.

For our wretched selfishness and pervasive pride barred us from the kingdom of God, and we condemned ourselves to be cast forever from God’s presence. So, the Father sent His Son to live as a man, be crucified as a sinner, and raise victorious to life everlasting. All this to give the kingdom of heaven to sinners such as us.

This kingdom is given to the proud turned poor in spirit, the rebellious now meek, the indifferent made merciful, the filthy in heart purified, the lazy now loyal even in the face of persecution, the unworthy transformed and immeasurably blessed. The kingdom is for those who recognize their sinful and broken ways, repent, and see Christ as their supreme treasure. These shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Purpose

Christ must be our greatest treasure!

Fasting

When we treasure something, we have a great desire for that thing. Treasuring something is all about desire. Another way to talk about desire is hunger: as in, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Thus, if we hunger after Christ and His kingdom, it’s about desire. It means we treasure Jesus, and to treasure Jesus is to treasure His kingdom also.

And if indeed we hunger for Christ and His kingdom, then our hearts groan for satisfaction. For Christ is with us in the Spirit, yet physically we cannot see Him. His kingdom is in our midst, and yet it is not fully here. In other words, we have a portion – sometimes it feels like a small portion – and our hearts hunger for the fullness.

Our hearts ache for the day when we see His face, when all sin is eradicated, when hope is realized, and the kingdom of heaven is entirely united to earth.

You see, though by faith we have Christ, and He has given us His great kingdom, how we ache for completion! How we hunger to be with Jesus, face to face. Fasting is a powerful expression of that hunger. We make our bodies to hunger for food, just as our hearts hunger for Christ.

For millennia, fasting has long been considered a spiritual discipline meant to deny the flesh and draw near to God – much like the other two spiritual disciplines of charity and prayer already seen in chapter 6.

Traditionally, fasting is depriving yourself from food for some designated period of time; even as we saw Jesus fast from food for 40 days back in chapter 4. Indeed, 40 days is an extreme length of time to fast. The longest I ever fasted was 6 days, and many more times I’ve fasted for a day, maybe two, or some other shorter amount of time. There is no rule for how long a period of fasting should be.

Fasting is flexible in other ways too. You can fast from screens, from sleep, from sex (Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 7:5). Regardless, fasting is about deprivation, so that you feel in your body what your heart feels. Or perhaps, you know your heart does not hunger for Jesus the way it should. So, you fast, to make your body hunger in the way you know your heart should hunger. Because what you want is more of Jesus.

And often times in the New Testament we see the church fasting in account of important decisions. Again, because what is desired is not wisdom that comes from man, but heaven’s wisdom that leads to more of Jesus.

As you can see, fasting is a good discipline, as ancient as are the people of God, and likely something that would be good to incorporate into your life. And yet, just like anything else, fasting can be corrupted. It had been in Jesus’ day.

Read vs 16-18

Just like charity and prayer, Jesus assumes that His disciples will fast, “When you fast.” But Jesus does not want His disciples to be hypocrites when they fast, citing the way some people – particularly the Pharisees – made a show of their fasting. Such displays go against the very heart of fasting.

Fasting is all about being hungry for God. And yet fasting can be twisted into an exercise of selfishness, pretending to hunger for God when what is truly desired is men’s applause. People see how you suffer for Christ, your remarkable self-control, and how they admire your deep spirituality.

But that applause, that fleeting admiration, is all hypocritical fasting will ever get you; no closer to Jesus, no greater measure of His kingdom, no spiritual reward. Just an empty snack on hollow religiosity.

But Christ’s disciples are to fast in earnest, not morose and all bedraggled, wearing their suffering on their sleeve. Instead, even though they hunger, they put on no displays, fasting only in the sight of God. They don’t care what others think; they want only to express how they hunger for Christ and His kingdom. And they want their whole being to be unified in that hunger. If people notice, let it be incidental, not the goal.

The goal is to fast before your Heavenly Father. The reward you receive is found in Him: deeper relationship, love, joy, peace, clarity, self-control, and so on. Truly, fasting is a discipline worthy of the disciples’ time, as is prayer and charity.

Each one of these disciplines is an expression of where a heart’s treasure lies: on earth or in heaven.

Read vs 19-20

Treasure and Worth

I read a number of comments where the line, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” could be more accurately translated into something like, “Stop laying up treasures for yourself on earth.”

It’s a significant distinction, because without Christ, before Christ, all of us default to storing up earthly treasures: money, investments, clothes, tech, games, the next thrift find, whatever the possession. In our selfishness, every single one of us does it. It’s why Jesus needs to tell us, in this most significant sermon, “Stop laying up treasures for yourself on earth.”

Then Jesus shows why it is so foolish to store up treasures like this: they fade, degrade, and can be taken from you. No earthly treasure can travel beyond the grave. How fleeting are the treasures of the earth? How foolish to obsess over them, to give our lives to their pursuit?

You see, Jesus commands not because He is severe, or some kind of capricious dictator. He is unreservedly caring. His commands flow from a place of supreme love.

He does not want His beloved disciples to chase treasures that fade, ones that only last for the brief breath of this life. He does not want us to enter eternity’s gates entirely bankrupt. No! He wants us only to possess the very best things! There are treasures that move from this life to the next that no one can take, unfading, imperishable.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. -1 Peter 1:3-5

The treasures we have in Christ are part of our salvation. Every heavenly reward was purchased upon that cross. And when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in your heart, that purchase was eternally secured for you, forever guarded, yours by faith everlasting!

It is true that you were bankrupt. But the treasures of heaven are offered to you now. Believe, and take them up. Don’t squander your life in unbelief and be cast into eternity’s debtor’s prison. Today, even today, Christ offers riches beyond measure.

As Paul writes: We are treated…as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. -2 Corinthians 6:8,10

Again, these are not the type of riches that we find on earth, like so many prosperity gospel charlatans are trying to sell. The kingdom of heaven abounds with spiritual treasures: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; and life everlasting to enjoy them all.

Read vs 21

The significance of this verse can hardly be overstated. It’s layered. Layer one is a bit more obvious. You give your heart to whatever you treasure. If you treasure money, you’ve given your heart to money. If you treasure shopping, you’ve given your heart to materialism. If you treasure entertainment, you’ve given yourself to your pleasures. And so on and so on. Whatever you treasure you have made your idol, your god.

You know how to identify if you treasure a false god? You devote your time to it. It’s the thing you think about first thing in the morning. It’s the thing you invest your resources in. It’s what you talk about with your friends. You order your priorities around the thing you worship. The thought of it being taken away from you is deeply unsettling. It is out of this truth that I expressed my frustration last week regarding this church’s commitment to prayer.

Even still, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well I don’t have any one thing like that, no single obsession.” Perhaps. But I bet you take all variety of things and lay them before the all-consuming altar of self. It is all of our temptation. We are all prone to it. For this is what we do with false gods, and the greatest false god we all face is the god of self.

But God – the true and living God – our hearts were made to treasure Him and be satisfied in only Him. He made us that way, and only He can sate the hungers of the heart. We are sick without Him!

Let [us] thank the LORD for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things. -Psalm 107:8-9

The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever! -Psalm 22:26

Oh what great treasure is the Lord our God! Let us give our hearts wholly unto Him!

And now we must see this second layer in verse 21: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Brothers and sisters, what we treasure determines our value. If you value the things that fade and fail, you will fade and fail. As they are worthless, so has your devotion to them made you worthless. And don’t you see this in the world around you: Worthless people chasing worthless things?

But if you treasure Him who is supremely worthy – the Creator and King – then He values you as worthy! If you desire His kingdom, then He deems you worthy to receive that kingdom! And He clothes you in His righteousness. He unites Himself to you. He gives you the Holy Spirit. And you shall live forever and ever!

Your heart will be united to Him for time everlasting! For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!

Then Jesus gives a brief illustration to drive this home.

Read vs 22-23

In this illustration, light is truth – particularly the gospel truth about Jesus. An eye (or a heart) that cannot see this light is entirely disordered. A person cannot function correctly. They stumble around this life completely unable to find their own way.

Floyd Filson writes: “If a man divides his interest and tries to focus on both God and possessions, he has no clear vision, and will live without clear orientation or direction. Life not focused on God’s claim and command is lost in spiritual darkness.”1

And the thing about blindness, both physically and spiritually, is what blind person can make their blindness go away?

But did not Jesus come to give sight to the blind? He once read from Isaiah 42 – a prophesy about Himself.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” -Luke 4:18-21

Jesus is the one who makes the blind to see. Yes, He did it physically while He walked the earth; restoring physical eyes to see. But far more profoundly, every day, all the time – I pray even today – He gives spiritual sight to the eyes of the heart; allowing a whole person to see that which truly matters: Him who is the greatest treasure. Oh, how I pray that everyone in this room has eyes to see and ears to hear!

Read vs 24

In most modern translations (including the ESV from which I read), we see the word serves: No one can serve two masters. But honestly, we can serve two masters. I’ve worked two jobs before. I’ve even worked the same job with different bosses telling me different things so that I had to serve them in different ways. I hated it, but I did it.

The Greek word rendered as “serve” is derived from the word duolos: slave. Unlike a servant, a slave is given wholly unto a single master. Truly, a slave only has one master. This verse would better capture Jesus’ intent if it read, “No one can be the slave of two masters.”

You cannot simultaneously be wholly given unto one master and another master. It is impossible. Jesus is clearly talking about a complete commitment to one master, an undivided heart, a whole life’s obsession.

Do not kid yourself; you cannot pursue possessions and Jesus. You cannot chase applause and Christ. You cannot be a slave to yourself and your pleasures while at the same time serving God. These things are incompatible.

It’s why Paul writes:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. -Philippians 3:7-9,11

Yes, we take those old pursuits, those earthly desires, and we crucify them. Let them die on that shameful cross. For what value do they have except to kill you? Crucify them and count them as loss.

And yet, hear Jesus’ words from next week’s passage.

Read Matthew 6:33

God will give you every earthly thing that you need, so long as it serves your pursuit of His kingdom. Didn’t we see that same principle last week in The Lord’s Prayer?

Brothers and sisters, again I say, the kingdom of heaven is the most precious, most valuable treasure on planet earth; not only because of the wonders it holds, but because of Him who sacrificed everything that we sinners could enter in; that we could be reconciled unto God.

The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure. -Isaiah 66:5-6

Yes, the Lord is our treasure. Let us serve no other gods, for none but Christ can satisfy our hearts! He is the treasure of our hearts, and we ache for the fullness of His kingdom.

And perhaps if you are one of Jesus’ disciples, and you feel dull and indifferent towards all of this, you know you should treasure Jesus but you know your desires are so weak, then perhaps you should consider fasting. I too want my hunger for Jesus to be more acute.

So just like we give offerings (charity) together, just like we pray together, so too can we fast together. This coming Tuesday I am committing to spend the entire day fasting; fasting accompanied with a greater volume of prayer. Not only do I want to sharpen my hunger for Christ, but I want this church to sharpen her hunger for Christ too, I want us to spread that hunger from these walls and into the world around us.

I will be fasting and praying for these 3 things: my own spiritual state, the spiritual state of Immanuel, and that the Spirit would use this church to spread the gospel. In your own private space, consider joining me on Tuesday. If Tuesday doesn’t work, perhaps there is another time. If all day doesn’t work, is there another span of time that might?

1Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel According to Matthew. Pg. 154. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.