Heavenly Treasures in Earthly Vessels Christmaseve Day 1987

I'd like to begin by reading one more scripture here to get us into this, which kind of lies on top of all the other ones that have already been read, from Matthew chapter 2, starting at verse 1. 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 when the Christ was to be born.

They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written by the prophets, And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for you shall have a ruler come from you 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. At 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. And 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 fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The wise men brought treasure, gold, frankincense, 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 looked 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 worshipped this treasure, which was contained in this ordinary, ordinary thing, this baby. Babies are born all the time.

But they saw glory coming from its face, not with the natural eye, but with another kind of eye. And as they saw this and worshipped, 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, in something so ordinary that you can walk past it a thousand times and never see it again. Never see it, never notice it, until you have eyes to see it. 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 until they finally got to the treasure, and when they saw the treasure, here it was, wrapped in a baby. A baby like every other baby that needed to be nursed, changed, watched, held, protected.

But as they worshipped this, these men sold all they had to buy the field with this treasure. That's what they were doing. And we need to learn three lessons from these wise men.

We need to learn, first of all, to behold the treasure in the earthen vessel, to see it. And secondly, we need to learn to receive that heavenly treasure into the earthen vessel of our own bodies. And third, we need to learn to give the heavenly treasure forth to the earthen vessels around us that are ready to take it.

First of all, we have to learn to see the heavenly treasure always contained in the earthen vessel. And to do this, we need to know what we're looking for. 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.

Reading from 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When the wise men saw the star, they didn't get their telescopes out and analyze it. 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.

You know, they weren't looking for fireworks in heaven. They weren't looking for spiritual thrills. They weren't looking for lots of bang, boom, and noise, and crash.

They were looking for glory. And they had enough sense to know that that glory was always wrapped in something quite earthly. And when they found it, they were healed.

Now, if that glory made itself known to those Gentile wise men, it'll 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. When you see it, you will not be able to resist joyfully selling all you've got to buy the field with the treasure.

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.

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. And show to all their friends back home.

I mean, 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, and a priest in the highest sense of the word, a sacrificial lamb in the highest sense of the word. But these gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh meant something more than that.

Also, this 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 body.

And that's what we need to learn to do. Even tonight, Christmas Eve, we need to learn, no matter where we feel we are on our spiritual journey, to open up wide and make room so that the glory of the Lord can flow into the aging, dying vessel. It doesn't matter if you're 16 years old.

Your body is aging. It's dying. It's on its way.

And let the glory of heaven, which is eternal, come in to make room for this to happen, to behold it and to receive, to make room 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 in to 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 life, letting Him come in, letting Him take charge. And if we will, even if we don't fully understand what that all means, 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 tonight. And then finally, we have to learn to give this glory which comes into us to the earthen vessels around us that are hungering and thirsting and seeking for 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. 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, always carrying about in the body, this body, this earthen vessel, the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be made manifest, the glory, the heavenly treasure, through our mortal flesh.

We don't know, really, 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, and my life becomes His servant.

And now the earthen vessel, this body, and 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 such people out there, and there are such people in here, right now. And all we need to do is share this, and give it.

Every time, and to do this, it costs us something. And in this passage we read from Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4, every time I'm afflicted, every time I'm perplexed, for His sake, persecuted for His sake, struck down for His sake, the death of Christ, working in me in that way, brings life to somebody around me, somebody nearby who's looking for glory. Marcus and Rick Leeds and I went into a bar Saturday, and passing out these little tracts that we write, and we went to the back of El Padrino's, and this guy was coming away from the pool table, and I offered him a tract, and he went, like this, and he looked at me like he was ready to hit me.

He said, what is that? I said, it's good news about Jesus. And he was starting to move in my direction, 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.

Rick said, I knew it was coming, it was right there this time. And Dave Sutherland said, there's no guarantee that that wouldn't happen, that we wouldn't get struck down, but at least that time we got by. But the interesting thing was, even that evidence of hostility, and it's not pleasant to have that happen.

Who likes that? You don't say, thank you Lord, I got persecuted. You say that later, but you don't say that right away. But whenever that happens, there's always somebody who receives a blessing out of that.

And I truly believe that this man, who stepped in there and said, let me have one of those, and he's quite sincere, but I'm sure he was also trying to keep a fight from breaking out. Whatever he was trying to do, this man was blessed. And he was touched by the glory of God.

See, and 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 program them 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.

But as we do this, the life of God, the glory of God flows out of the earthen vessel of our own body into the thirsting earthen vessel out there. And so tonight, as we worship God, and it's just glorious to hear some of these carols being sung in worship, as we do this, and thank Him for the gift of all gifts coming to us, glory wrapped in an infant body. May God give us the grace to follow the example of these wise men, to have the eyes to see the glory always wrapped in the earthen vessel, and to keep seeking and not quit seeking until we see that, and keep seeing it all the time.

Don't be looking for the fireworks and the thrills and the chills. Look for the glory, and you'll find it hidden in the 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, even to the ones around us who are hungering and thirsting for something real. But this is the only treasure that will last. 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. Let's take a moment of silence, and then I'm going to ask Mike Martin to lead us in a prayer.