You Are the Pearl: Jesus Is the Merchant Who Sold Everything

Sermon outline

In the parable of the pearl, Jesus is the merchant and the church is the pearl of great price: He gave up everything to buy you, so you are special to God and still under construction.

1. The common explanations do not fit

   Many say that Jesus is the pearl of great price. But the merchant was looking for many fine pearls and found one, so if that one were Jesus the others would have to be saviours too, and there is only one Lord. Others say the merchant is the Jew, but Jesus came to His own and His own did not receive Him. He admits he used to read it as though we are the merchant who finds Jesus, yet the merchant sold all and bought the pearl, and we cannot buy Jesus.

   “Can we buy Jesus? No, we can't.”

   • Matthew 13:45-46
   • Ephesians 4:5
   • John 1:11
   • Matthew 23:27
   • John 8:44

2. Who is the man? The merchant man is Jesus

   In every other parable the man is Jesus Christ, and so it is here. A merchant travels from city to city and nation to nation, and he is a specialist who deals in one thing only. Since Pentecost, for two thousand years, Jesus has been going by His Spirit from house to house and nation to nation looking for pearls. He is not seeking aimlessly: a merchant wants a profit, and the Lord is finding men and women the devil has stolen, to save them and bring them in as crown jewels.

   Illustration: If a merchant deals in gold, that is all he deals in; if he deals in pearls, razor blades or a soft drink, that is all he deals in.

   “The Lord Jesus Christ is an expert merchant man looking for crown jewels.”

   • Acts 1:4
   • Joel 2:28
   • Acts 2:41
   • 2 Corinthians 4:7

3. You are a pearl under construction

   The pearl is a saved man or woman: Jesus finds you unsaved, saves you, and you become a pearl in the kingdom. Your neighbour may be rough, but God is still in the business of getting people right. Nobody is made perfect the moment he is born again. As we mature in the Word, sin starts to leave and the things we held dear are shed. Only the Pharisees write people off; Jesus has grace and mercy, and the very person you despise may be the one God saves and uses.

   Illustration: He warns those who run their husbands down that God may save the man, make him a preacher and let him overtake them.

   “You might be rough, but God's still in the business of getting you right.”

4. Who is the pearl? The pearl is the church

   The pearl of great price is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, His embassy on the earth. The Holy Spirit is its architect: He builds it, calls the pastor and the fivefold ministry, brings the people and gives the gifts. So be careful how you speak about the church and the men of God in it, because you are attacking its architect. When colleagues laugh at you for being a Christian they are laughing at the church, and God will defend those He has bought with a price. The church is drawn out of every nation, culture and tribe and made one: rich and poor, black and white, male and female.

   Illustration: Gamaliel wisely said that if this is of God it will stand, and if it is not it will fall away. In a side trail he tells of a wedding where he was warned about a preacher whose church forbade make-up and perfume. He says Scripture does not forbid outward adornment but tells us to attend to the heart first.

   “You can't fight God and win.”

   • Ephesians 4:11
   • Matthew 12:32
   • Acts 5:38-39
   • 1 Corinthians 6:20
   • 1 Peter 2:9-10
   • Galatians 3:28
   • 1 Peter 3:3-4

5. How a pearl is formed: by wounding, not by a mechanical process

   A pearl is not a mineral stone like other gems. It is a product of life, formed inside the oyster when something from outside gets in and irritates it, and the oyster covers it with layer on layer of secretion. The oyster must die a lingering death before the shell is opened. In the same way Jesus was wounded and died an agonising death, and while He did, the church was being formed in the world. The more the church was attacked, the more it grew. A church is therefore never formed mechanically: the Holy Spirit must institute it. And not everyone who goes to church is going to heaven, so make sure you are born again and running lawfully.

   Illustration: He draws an oyster for the church, having seen them in a tank at the hypermarket. A runner who finishes the Comrades Marathon without the prescribed number, or off the prescribed route, is disqualified however well he ran. He adds that a believer who drinks and dances at a party so that no one can tell the difference has done the same.

   “So the pearl is not formed mechanically but vitally.”

   • Isaiah 53:5
   • 2 Timothy 2:5
   • Romans 1:16

6. The sea is the world, and the net brings in every kind of fish

   The oyster comes from the sea, and the sea is a type of the world and its nations. He reads Revelation 15:4 on all nations coming to worship. Jesus casts His net into the sea and brings every kind of fish into one harvest, so nobody in church should expect the others to look like him. This is not an Indian church, a white church or an African church. While you were in the sea you were hidden; now that God has brought you into the church you are visible and in the light.

   Illustration: Sardines in the front row, sharks in the back row, whales in the third row and an octopus in the fourth. The sardine says to the shark, 'why don't you look like me?'

   “Racism is a spirit.”

   • Revelation 15:4
   • Matthew 13:47

7. He went and sold all that he had

   What did the merchant sell? Jesus gave up His splendour on the throne in heaven and traded His everything for nothing, to buy you. He reads 1 Peter 2:9-10 in the first person: once not a people, a child of darkness alienated from God, but now purchased, washed in the blood, given an inheritance and made a chosen generation and a royal priesthood. You were not bought with silver and gold. Growth takes years, but God is still working with you.

   Illustration: A baby does not grow up in one night; it takes many Diwalis for the baby to grow.

   “He traded his everything for nothing just to buy you.”

   • 1 Peter 2:9-10
   • 1 Peter 1:18-19
   • 1 Peter 1:23