One time Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matt 13:45-46 NAS)
Juan Carlos Ortiz shared a parable to illustrate Jesus’ teaching. It’s a conversation between a merchant wanting to buy the pearl of great value and the seller. Of course, it’s actually a conversation between us and God.
“I want this pearl. How much is it?”
“Well,” the seller says, “it’s very expensive.”
“But, how much?” we ask.
“Well, a very large amount.”
“Do you think I could buy it?”
“Oh, of course, everyone can buy it.”
“But, didn’t you say it was very expensive?”
“Yes.”
“Well, how much is it?”
“Everything you have,” says the seller.
We make up our minds, “All right, I’ll buy it,” we say.
“Well, what do you have?” he want to know. “Let’s write it down.”
“Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank.”
“Good- -ten thousand dollars. What else?”
“That’s all.. That’s all I have.”
“Nothing more?”
“Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket.”
“How much?”
We start digging. “Well, let’s see–thirty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred, a hundred twenty dollars.”
“That’s fine. What else do you have?”
“Well, nothing. That’s all.”
“Where do you live?” He’s still probing.
“In my house. Yes, I have a house.”
“The house, too, then.” He writes that down.
“You mean I have to live in my camper?”
“You have a camper? That, too. What else?”
“I’ll have to sleep in my car!”
“You have a car?”
“Two of them.”
“Both become mine, both cars. What else?”
“Well, you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars. What more do you want?”
“Are you alone in this world?”
“No, I have a wife and two children…..”
“Oh, yes, your wife and children, too. What else?”
“I have nothing left! I am left alone now.”
Suddenly the seller exclaims, “Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine–wife, children, house, money, cars–and you, too.” Then he goes on. “Now listen–I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don’t forget that they are mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them you must give them up, because now I am the owner.” (Disciple: A Handbook for New Believers, p.34-35)
Was Jesus really saying you need to give up everything for the Kingdom? Yes, yes he was. Why? Why does it take giving up ownership of everything you have and everything you are in order to have the Kingdom? Why can’t we just have some religious belief and church activity and receive God’s blessing? I think one of the best answers to that is in Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19.
Remember he was praying about the “inner man” and our “hearts.” He’s praying about what’s going on inside you. The first thing Paul asked in his prayer was “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man” (v16). That you have the power of the Holy Spirit to do what it takes in whatever circumstance or need you have to deal with. The next thing he asked was “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” That the massive love of Christ is be a reality coming into your life, your spirit, your heart, and making a difference within you.
Those two things are enough to make it worth giving up everything we have for what God has for us. But there’s even more. Even better. At the end of verse 19, he prayed “that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
God wants you and me to be “filled up.” This is his plan for us. This is what God is working to make happen in you. God wants you filled up.
“Filled up” means “made whole.” God’s will is your wholeness. He wants your life to be complete. He wants you to reach your full potential – be all you can be. God created humanity in his image. That’s really what wholeness looks like. That’s what it means to be complete, to be filled up.
God wants every area of your life to be whole. Every part of you at its best: your intelligence, your morals, you relationships, your abilities – everything. Every part of you complete and every part working completely in sync with every other part. God wills your wholeness – that you as a person in his image be filled up, be complete.
It doesn’t take long for me to see incompleteness in myself. Broken and missing parts. Gaps. My parts sometimes don’t work together as a whole – desires that contradict and clash with each other.
We divide and categorize ourselves. This part of me is okay, it’s good. We say it’s good mainly because it feels good; it’s a strong impulse or desire and when we act on it, it feels good, so we think it must be good. Then there’s this part of me that’s not so good; it doesn’t feel good; it’s deficient. And it doesn’t seem like I can do anything about it. So I’ll just put all my attention on the parts that feel good; that’s the real me. But eventually the bad part comes out – anger, lust, racism, revenge, dishonesty, etc., or something self-destructive like addiction or self-harm or suicide. We’re not whole, not complete, not filled up.
The truth is there’s something wrong at our core. Something’s broken in our inner man. Something’s missing in our heart.
You remember the story of Adam and Eve. God made them perfect, complete, whole. Along came the Serpent and convinced them that something was missing. They rebelled against God. All of a sudden something WAS missing. Their link to God, their connection to their Maker, was broken. That set off a chain reaction. Sin – coming up short of being God’s image – spread through everything, and everything broke and life drained away.
So here we are, following their example, living lives that are broken, split apart, incomplete.
God wants us to be filled. He loves you and wants you to be whole. He sent Jesus to restore the broken link between you and him so you could be made complete. God’s will is your wholeness. And he has a way to make it happen.
In this prayer, Paul asked “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (v17). That’s how being filled up starts and continues. You live by faith in Christ and he lives in you. In his letter to the Colossian Christians, Paul put it: “For in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete…” (2:9-10) Through faith in Jesus who is the complete God you become a complete human. You can’t be whole without Christ dwelling in your heart through faith.
Paul’s prayer is for us to “be filled up to all the fullness of God.” To all the fullness of God.
Let me give you a grammar lesson. Some of you may have a Bible that says “to” and some say “with” and some say “to the measure of.” That preposition’s basic meaning is “into.” We are filled up into all the fullness of God. God makes you whole by you being into his fullness.
Picture it like a bottle filled with the ocean. How are you going to do that? Not by pouring the ocean into the glass – it won’t fit!
To fill the glass with the ocean, put it into the ocean.
We are filled, completed, made whole when we come into the fullness of God. Through faith in Christ we come into the full strength and love of God. His fullness fills us. His completeness completes us. His wholeness makes us whole.
We reach our highest potential, we come to our wholeness, we become fully human, to the extent that we live in the fullness of God. We live depending on God’s grace and truth, power and wisdom, resources and blessing, purpose and plans. Centered on him in everything.
Jesus has explained: If you keep your life, you will lose it. But if you lose it for me, you’ll find it (Matt 10:39). As you come into the fullness of God, you must become empty – empty of your self-reliance, empty of your self-centeredness, empty of your self. Then God can fill you with his fullness.
Several years ago, 3 missionaries and 2 children were kidnapped in Tanzania, Africa. Fortunately they were released and rescued after a short time. Afterwards they met with fellow workers to celebrate and to deal with the trauma. One of the missionaries, David, experienced God during that retreat. He said, “In my Christian experience, time and again I pray ‘Lord, fill me.’ I prayed that again that night, and it was just like someone had taken a glass and was pouring water into it. It just filled up. I never really felt it that way before. But suddenly I realized – God has got to empty you before he can fill you. I realized what I had prayed in the past was ‘hey, Lord, there’s 2 or 3 inches left at the top that I haven’t stuffed anything into, so why don’t you fill that up.'”
You have to become empty. That’s why Jesus said it’s like a merchant who sold everything he had to buy the one pearl of great value. He emptied himself of everything. That’s why you need to give up everything for the Kingdom. That’s why it takes giving up ownership of everything you have and everything you are in order to have the Kingdom. Because you get the fullness of God to make you complete. You can move from a life that’s broken and incomplete into one that’s whole.
You have to become empty. You have to give up yourself – your own ideas, opinions, motives, and goals; your dependencies and resources; your work to be secure and successful; your insistence on being in control. Then God can fill you. Fill you with himself. Then the link is restored. You will start becoming complete. You’ll begin the life-long process to become whole. We don’t completely empty ourselves in one action, through one prayer, by one experience. We begin where we are – we start letting go of what we know we’re holding onto. We trust in God’s mercy and grace, his patience and kindness, his covenant to stay with us and lead us along. We take it a step at a time. When we see what the Spirit shows what we’re holding, we depend on his love, and we give it up. Sometimes we’ll take it back, but that doesn’t stop the process; still trusting God, we let it go again. Throughout our lifetime, we focus on the Spirit strengthening us (verse 16), Christ dwelling in our hearts (verse 17), and living in divine love (verses 17-19) – being in the fullness of God. And the filling happens.
Do you feel something of your brokenness and incompleteness? The answer is to rush to Jesus Christ and surrender to him. Begin letting go of everything you have so you can receive everything he is.
Excellent!
Thank you, Michael.