What is the kingdom of heaven like?

The kingdom of God is like treasure to those who are in it

Here are the words of Jesus.

Mt 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

Mt 13:45-46 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure of great value.

In Jan 2000, the painting "St. Paul" by the 16 century artist El Greco was sold at Christie’s for ~1.5 million dollars. The person who bought it must have considered it a treasure to pay so much for it.

Over the centuries, men have paid handsomely for paintings, coins, sculptures, ancient artifacts, and other things – all because they esteemed these things so highly.

Someone once said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." For a saint of God, there is but one treasure – the most valuable thing in the universe, the treasure of the kingdom of God. Few have seen its value, and therefore, few have pursued after it. But those that did were more than willing to give everything they had that they might obtain it.

The tragedy in Christianity today is that we have not understood that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure, or have not understood what the treasure of the kingdom of heaven is.

Paul understood this, and that is why he wrote Php 3:7-11.

Php 3:7-11 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Angels have longed for it (1 Pet 1:10-12), but cannot get it. But here and there, and just a few in every generation, are men and women who have got a glimpse of understanding, and have been willing to pay any price for this treasure.

Has the kingdom of God become the pearl of great value to you? If you are not willing to give up everything for the kingdom of God then you have either not understood it correctly, or your heart is not right.

Now consider this: suppose you belonged to a tribe in the Amazon, and someone dropped a suitcase containing a million dollars into your camp? What would you do? You would probably use it as kindling to start a fire, wouldn’t you?

It is the same with us today in the spiritual realm! God has given us treasure of unimaginable value and most of us use it for earthly purposes – riches, power, etc.

But there are a few whose eyes that can see and who understand the value of what God has made available and they sell everything earthly to make certain that they will receive what God has made available.