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Matthew 13:44, Romans 9:30-33

A Buried Treasure

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 24, 2025

We used to do a lot of metal detecting. It was fun and we have the memories of some pretty remarkable finds. We found an 1880 Indian Head penny, a 1922 Mercury dime, a 1921 flying eagle quarter and a 1953 Benjamin Franklin half dollar. We also found many buffalo nickels and too many wheatback pennies to count. We were also always excited when we found any silver coins minted before 1963 when they changed to a cheap alloy. But the best find we’ve ever made was when Kathy took our grandson, TJ, metal detecting in the sand under the swing sets in a neighborhood park. They found an 1891 silver dollar in fairly good condition. The excitement of that find made the experience for TJ. Of course, he got to keep the treasure, and it’s been something special for him ever since.

Among metal detectors there are numerous stories of old people in past generations who did not trust banks and felt the safest place to put their money was in the ground. It’s the dream of every metal detector to find that tin coffee can filled with cash and coins of the days of yore. They say that during the Civil War, because of national confusion, many people would bury their money to keep from having it stolen. Those who grew up the era of the great stock-market crash and the depression had distrust for banks and would bury their money also. The tendency goes all the way back to the Bible. Jesus told the parable of the talents where the man who was given one talent was so afraid of losing it that he buried it in the ground. Further, one of the Dead Sea scrolls found in Cave 3 near Qumran was a copper scroll and it contains a list of buried treasures that were hidden in and around the temple before it was destroyed by Antiochus in 167 BC. Burying valuables was a common practice. Experts say there are many buried treasures yet to be discovered. But there’s one that’s more important than them all.

Jesus taught us that “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field” (See Matthew 13:44). One commentator (Luther Besser) boldly asserts that the field represents the law. The Jews had it. They studied it. They quoted it, and more importantly they attempted to find righteousness before God by keeping it. Frequently in his ministry Jesus was confronted by legalists expecting to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven by keeping the law. Jesus consistently said “good luck with that.” The treasure that is hidden in the field, is Christ Himself. That which the Jews searched hardest for, they could not find because Jesus was a stumbling stone. It was the stone that was rejected. On the other hand, the Gentiles found the great prize in the field of the law and they found a righteousness not based on their own merit. This is exactly what Paul said in Romans 9:30-33. He says that the “Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

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Matthew 13:45-46

The Pearl

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 23, 2025

Jesus uses another parable to teach us something about the Kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 13:45-46 he says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.” A popular interpretation of this parable suggests that the pearl of great value represents heaven and the only way we can obtain it is by selling everything we own. Others get a similar interpretation but suggest that Jesus is the Pearl of Great price, and we can’t have him and his salvation unless we sell all we own or give everything we have to obtain it. One commentator says that the Pearl is our salvation, which is similar to saying the Pearl is heaven. He writes, “The complete surrender of all possessions is the essence of salvation. It is, ‘I give up everything. I deny myself. I offer my life, both in terms of death, if need be, and in terms of obedience in life.’” He goes on to say that we can claim this great prize as our own “…by denying ourselves, picking up our cross daily, and following Him.” In my humble opinion, this puts Christianity in the same camp as every other religion in which salvation is matter of our own efforts and our own works. I have no good news (Gospel) to share if I have to share that message.

But, according to J. Vernon McGee, you and I are the Pearl! He writes, “The correct interpretation of this parable reveals Christ as the merchantman. He left His heavenly home and came to this earth to find a pearl of great price. He found lost sinners and died for them by shedding His precious blood. He sold all that He had to buy us and redeem us to God.” McGee quotes 2 Corinthians 8:9 here about how Jesus was “…rich, yet for your sakes became poor…” to explain Paul’s view of the Gospel as presented to the Corinthians. I think of Jesus’ own words about his mission to “seek and to save the lost.” He is the “seeker” of the souls of men who are precious in His sight. McGee then looks at the development of the pearl itself inside the sea creature. It’s a speck of dirt or sand. But the host accretes a substance that surrounds the speck over and over until it’s of great value. Jesus saw our sinful lives, an intrusion into his perfection, took them to the cross of Calvary where he accretes us with His love and coats us with His righteousness. See: McGee, J. V. (1991). Vol. 34: Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed.) (194–196). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

McGee looks then at the gates of heaven as described in the book of Revelation and says, “Notice the emblem on the outside of the city—the gates are made of pearls! That is no accident, friend; it is planned that way by Christ’s design. He is the merchantman “Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Thankfully, Jesus did not see us as the speck of sinful sand that we were, but as the precious pearl we would become. This is good news that can be shared and received with great joy! This great truth transforms believers through a lifelong process of spiritual growth into the perfect character of Jesus which will one day be fully realized in the Kingdom of Heaven where we will finally see Him and become like Him.

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1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, Matthew 6:19-20

A Crown of Rejoicing

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 22, 2025

The Persian King Cyrus, who conquered Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and set the Jewish prisoners free, spent much energy beautifying Persia. According to the famous Baptist preacher of the 19th Century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a visitor once commented on the beauty of his gardens. He said that just visiting Cyrus and seeing his wonderful garden gave him much pleasure. Cyrus is said to have responded, “Ah, but you haven’t near the pleasure in this garden that I have, sir. You see, I’ve planted every tree in it myself. I’ve cared for it. I’ve invested much effort and work in this garden and it’s a true joy for me to glory in the results.”

As he was well known to do, Spurgeon then commented, “One reason some saints will have a greater fullness of heaven than others will be that they did more for heaven than others. By God’s grace they were enabled to bring more souls there.” Commenting on this quote, R.W. DeHaan, said, “Those words should cause all of us who know the Lord to do some serious thinking. How many people will be in heaven because of us? Our desire should be that when we reach our eternal home, some will say to us, “I’m so thankful for you. It was your testimony, your life, your invitation to accept Christ that accounts for my being here today.”

When Paul talked of the rewards he expected to receive when the Lord returned, he expressly addressed a “crown of rejoicing.” He writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” As Cyrus found greater pleasure in the garden because of what was there because of his own efforts, so too did Paul expect to find greater Joy at the Lord’s return simply because the Thessalonians were going to be there because of his missionary work in that city. R.W. DeHaan concludes his comments by saying, “Yes, heaven’s joys will be the fullest for those who have helped lead others to Christ.” When you’ve planted, watered, fertilized or nurtured others in their spiritual development, coming to Christ or growing in Christ, you’ve invested in heaven. Jesus once said, (Matthew 6:19-20) “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.” Investing in the spiritual lives of others is truly the best way to lay up treasures in heaven and will result in the “crown of rejoicing.”

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Psalm 16:11

Heavenly Pleasures!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 21, 2025

There have been many discussions regarding the nature of the joys that await us in heaven. Both the Old Testament (Isaiah) and the New Testament (1 Corinthians) tell us that “…no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” According to the Jewish Publication Society’s Guide to Jewish Traditions, “Maimonides wisely stated that we mortals can have no real knowledge about its nature. Even if we did have some information concerning the afterlife, we would be incapable of comprehending it since the world to come would have a different dimension of existence beyond time or space, and thus, it would be beyond our ability to describe it or even conceive of it.” But the JPS Guide doesn’t totally agree with Maimonides. It goes on to say, “Nevertheless, the Jewish tradition assures us that, even in this life, one can experience a sample of the world to come. As the Talmud states, “three things give us a foretaste of the world to come—the Sabbath, a sunny day, and sexual intercourse” (Ber. 57b). If you do a search on “heavenly pleasures,” you’ll get some very graphic images (I don’t recommend it!). There are two things that are prominent in the search: chocolates and sex!

Looking at the quote from the Talmud, as far as the Sabbath is concerned, I think we can see some aspect of the heavenly sphere when we share in the communion elements. Jesus speaks of the wonderful nature of true communion with true believers and tells his apostles that he will not eat this feast again until he eats and drinks it with them in heaven (See Matthew 26:29). The pleasures of eating and drinking seem to be part of the heavenly agenda. Further, worship is a significant part of a heavenly experience. In the book of Revelation, we see the glories of God being praised by every living thing (Revelation 5:13) along with “many people” or “great multitudes.” Robert Webber, the Guru of Christian Music, says, “People enter a different dimension as they worship together. It is to be hoped that music may lift us to a new realm where we are better able to apprehend God’s presence with us.” The idea of “sunny days” being a foretaste of heaven seems plausible also because God’s natural revelation explodes with the Glory of God (Romans 1) and calls for worship and praise.

The use of sexual intercourse as a “foretaste of the world to come” seems foreign to Christians, although prominent in the lives of many other religions. Yet, Jesus uses the marriage imagery to speak of his intimate relationship with us, His Bride. I like what Philip Ryken wrote about our joys in heaven. He says that when we receive our pleasures in heaven, “we will realize that we first experienced them here on earth. Every earthly joy is the foretaste of a better life to come, in the Paradise where God has promised us pleasures forevermore.” He was referring to Psalm 16:11, which reads, “…in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11).

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Hebrews 12:1

Great Cloud of Witnesses

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 20, 2025

Hebrews 12:1 has been interpreted in two ways. It says that we have a “great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us as encouragements to finish our race of the Christian life. Some argue that the encouragement is the example they set for us as recorded in the Old Testament. Others argue that they are invisible spectators of our race, cheering us on to victory. The Greek word, as well as the English translation, for “witness” could refer to either one. The writers of the United Bible Societies Handbook for Bible Translators seem to take the latter position. They write, “The thought is that the Old Testament heroes are watching how the writer of Hebrews and his readers “run their race” in the Christian life.” The writers (Ellingworth & Nida) look back at Hebrews 11:40 for support. It tells us that we, too, are intimately linked with the lives of the Old Testament saints in so far as that, as this passage says, “…apart from us they should not be made perfect.” They conclude their discussion, “We have this large crowd of witnesses around us may be expressed as ‘this large crowd of those who have witnessed to their faith are around us’ or ‘… are, as it were, close by around us.’”

This interpretation best fits the image of the Olympic races that all were familiar with in the New Testament days. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, which takes this position, says, “Having described the great examples of faith in Hebrews 11, the author now depicts them as an amphitheater crowd of witnesses observing a later generation of faithful ones.” The witnesses, however, are not mere spectators. They are those who ran the race before us and won! They are not armchair quarterbacks telling you how to do something they could not do or have not done. They ran the race even though the odds were stacked against them, and they had great obstacles to hurtle on their way. According to this interpretation, they are cheering us on.

Jim Wilson also takes this view of Hebrews 12:1. He ends his discussion with serious words of encouragement for us runners. He writes, “When you think you are giving up too much to follow God and that it isn’t worth the sacrifice. Other men and women of faith will rise from the great cloud of witnesses and tell you that they died for their faith, and it was worth it. They’ll tell you how God shut the mouths of the lions in some cases, others will tell you that they lost everything to follow Him and gave everything, even their own lives, but that it was worth it. Listen, my friends, listen, and open your spiritual ears. You think you are alone, you’re not. There is a great crowd of witnesses surrounding us, and they are telling you that you can make it. Keep your eyes on the finish line, and listen for encouragement as you run the race.”

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Hebrews 12:1, Matthew 28:20

Heaven is all around You

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 19, 2025

In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, we’re told that “…we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” Courson thinks that we might be looking at “clouds in the wrong way.” He writes, “Who are these witnesses? Hebrews 11 identifies them as Abraham, Moses, Samson, Gideon, and Jephthah—the heroes of faith. So perhaps when Jesus comes, it won’t be in a nimbus or a cumulus cloud. It will be, as Jude says, with ten thousand saints, in a cloud of witnesses.” He goes on to ask, “Where are these witnesses right now?” His conclusion is, “They’re not ‘out there.’ They’re right here. Ask Gehazi.” He then refers to Elisha’s prayer, which opened Gehazi’s eyes to see the great cloud of angelic soldiers that had surrounded the enemy armies. According to Courson, the “… Angels were there all along. It’s just that Gehazi was allowed to see a different dimension.”

This commentator goes on to refer to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 11, where Paul says, “When you come together in worship meetings where gifts are flowing, where the body is interacting, be careful about certain issues because angels are present in the midst of the congregation.” Courson asks, “Why don’t we see them?” He answers his own question, “Because they’re in a different dimension. The cloud of witnesses, heroes of faith, and loved ones who have gone ahead of us are not way out there. They’re surrounding us.” This leads him to ask another very profound question, “Could it be, then, that when we die… we don’t go somewhere way out there? Could it be that we simply step into the next dimension?” He further argues that Jesus gave Peter, James, and John a preview of coming “dimensions.” It was at the Transfiguration. When they saw Elijah and Moses, Courson writes, “Like Gehazi before them, they were allowed to see into a different dimension and thereby made aware of the fact that Elijah and Moses were present, although unseen previously.”

If this is true, we cannot miss the powerful implications for us today. Heaven is right here! Jesus promised when he left us in Matthew 28:20, “…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Therefore, when we are praying, we are not reaching out into the time-space continuum to find God. We’re speaking to God (omnipresent) right here with us. Courson concludes, “No, the Lord is not somewhere way beyond the blue. He is with us always. The kingdom of heaven is among us. The great cloud of witnesses is presently around us. Ministering spirits are in the midst of us. Jesus Himself is in the midst of the congregation. And all of a sudden, I realize that heaven isn’t that far away—not only because we’ll be there soon chronologically, but also because the kingdom surrounds us presently.” We don’t see the other dimension because we see through “a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

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Hebrews 12:22-23, Luke 24:31

Where is Heaven?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 18, 2025

Heaven is currently populated by God the Father, Jesus at His right hand, the un-fallen angels, and the righteous human souls of those who have lived in the past. Some argue that those who died before Jesus are currently in a place called Abraham’s bosom, which has all the positive characteristics of heaven but are separated from the believers in the church age who have died. I’d rather see Abraham’s bosom being absorbed into the larger context of heaven. Thus, Abraham’s bosom and paradise are just two other names for the place where God’s chosen abide with him. Hebrews 12:22-23 says, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…”

This place called heaven could be either a physical place or another dimension. The Bible Scholars are divided on this subject. Those who argue in favor of a physical place beyond the first two heavens would refer to Paul’s argument about having visited the third heaven. In Scripture, the sky and the clouds are referred to as heaven. When Jesus ascended, he ascended into clouds and into heaven. The blue skies, the white clouds, or our atmosphere is called the first heaven. The Bible also tells us that Jesus will return in the same manner and the same place from which he left. The second heaven is the night skies. When God created the world, he put the sun, moon, planets, and stars in the heavens. Thus, the galactic night skies would be the 2nd heaven. The third heaven that Paul refers to is, as Geisler writes, “… maybe somewhere in a far corner of the space-time world, shrouded from human view behind a cloud of God’s glory…”

Others believe that heaven is an entirely different physical dimension. There were several times that Jesus seemed to materialize out of nothing as if he had stepped from one dimension into our own. In John 20, when the Apostles were locked away in a private room, Jesus miraculously appeared in their midst. Also, Jesus seems to have disappeared in a similar way when the travelers on the road to Emmaus recognized who he was when he broke the bread (see Luke 24:31). Another passage in favor of an invisible dimension all around us is the story in 2 Kings Chapter 6. Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, was not able to see what was actually present. Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes, and Gehazi saw that the attacking army was completely surrounded by the Angels of God. The idea of heaven being an invisible dimension carries incredible implications.

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Matthew 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

Treasures in Heaven

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 17, 2025

Will we all receive the same blessings in heaven? Norm Geisler, in his systematic theology, makes an interesting distinction between being “fully blessed” and being “equally blessed.” He explains, “‎Every believer’s cup will be full and running over, but not everyone’s cup will be the same size. We determine in time what our capacity for appreciating God will be in eternity. Different persons can listen to the same musical performance and have varying degrees of appreciation because they have developed different capacities for enjoying it; similarly, different people can be in the same heaven and yet have different degrees of enjoyment due to developing different abilities for enjoying God here on earth.”

Although we are saved by grace through faith alone, our rewards in heaven will be determined by our works on earth. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3. The foundation of our salvation is Christ Jesus and his work alone, but our obedience in this life results in the nature of our rewards in the next life. He says in verses 11-15, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” For other verses that seem to teach about the various degrees of rewards in heaven, see the following verses: Luke 19:17–19; John 14:2; 1 Cor. 15:41; Rev. 22:12.

Some investments bring greater returns than others. Jesus said, “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” (See Matthew 6:19-20). This point is that a man who has a layover at an airport does not go into the bathroom, frown at its decor, and start redecorating! Why? Because he doesn’t live there. He has a home in another place. While he is away he will get by with only what he absolutely needs, to have more money with which to furnish his permanent home. Why do we Christians work hard at trying to make our life in this world more comfortable? This is just the airport, and we are in transit. We should spend our energy on enhancing our eternal reward and not worry so much about the bare walls in the airport restrooms.

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