A Treasure, An Eye, and a Master

Title: A Treasure, an Eye, and a Master pt. ii
Scripture: Matthew 6:19–24

Pre-Sermon Introduction

Last week we returned to the gospel of Matthew.

And as we returned, we observed that in this section of the sermon on the mount, Jesus is implicitly answering a question that every religious person should ask:

Who belongs to the Kingdom of heaven?

It’s not the one with the most toys?
It’s not the one who has attended church month after month, year after year, decade after decade?

It’s not the one who hedges his bets on Christ, but is willing to take a lot of risks in this life for self-promotion?

Who belongs to the Kingdom?

Jesus answers that question by exposing the heart. He speaks of a treasure, an eye, and a master. And in doing so, He shows us that Kingdom citizenship is ultimately revealed not by external performance, but by internal allegiance.

In this passage, Jesus teaches that unless we see him rightly, we will never serve him as master, we will never lay-up treasures in heaven.

The Christian life is lived gazing upon Jesus! Looking at his worth, power, authority, and might. Always bearing in mind his promises.

Let us read and see who it is that truly belongs to the Kingdom of heaven.

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Introduction

As we begin to look at this passage again, I want us to look at something that is often overlooked in our understanding of the Christian life.

When we look at the Bible, what we often believe is that the primary motivation for pursuing the Kingdom of heaven should be love and gratitude for God’s grace. And while that is certainly true, when we examine the Scriptures more closely, we discover something else that is present from the very beginning: the language of reward.

The Bible repeatedly teaches that God’s people are moved by the promise of what will be gained. We are motivated by what we will attain. That principle is true not only in the spiritual life, but also in our ordinary day-to-day lives.

If we cannot see the end result—if we cannot see the goal—we will not move toward it. We will not chase the prize, pursue the dream, or endure the struggle unless we believe there is something worth attaining at the end.

This is precisely why, when the writer of Hebrews addresses a weary and beleaguered congregation, he seeks to persuade them to continue moving forward by reminding them how the saints of old conquered.

When you read Hebrews 11, what you see is faith operating in this way: God makes a promise, they believe it by faith, and they move toward it. Faith sees something future and acts in the present because of it.

That is why Hebrews 11:6 says:

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

Notice the two elements of faith in that verse:

1. You must believe that God exists.
2. You must believe that God rewards those who seek Him.

If you do not believe that God will reward you, you will never move out in faith.

And I am convinced that one of the reasons we so often fail to move forward in faith for God and His purposes is because, deep down, we do not truly believe that He rewards those who seek Him.

But the writer of Hebrews says something striking: without believing that God blesses those who seek Him, faith itself becomes impossible.

So, Jesus is saying…

Be careful with your treasure.

Be careful with your eye.

Be careful with your master.

Again, we must notice that this section is formatted in an ABA structure—what is known as a chiasm.

Verses 19–21 speak about treasure.
Verse 24 speaks about money and wealth.
And between those two ideas is a discussion about the eye.

That structure is crucial. The treasure and the master correspond to one another, and at the center stands the eye. That suggests that the issue of sight—what we see and how we see—is central to what Jesus is saying.

Last week we saw the danger of laying up treasures in the wrong place…

Be Careful with Your Treasure, Because Your Heart Is Tied to It

Verse 19 begins with a strong prohibition: do not ever store up treasures for yourselves on earth. The force of the command is sharp—stop doing this. And Jesus gives the reason why: it is ultimately futile.

Do not store them on earth. – Earthly treasures are always subject to circumstances. Jesus says they are vulnerable to moth, to corrosion, and to thieves. They decay. They disappear. They are stolen.

Then, in verse 20, Jesus tells His disciples where they should invest. Like a spiritual financial consultant, He instructs the citizens of the Kingdom to store up treasures in heaven. Here we must observe something significant: Jesus grants His disciples the dignity of engaging in works that will be rewarded in heaven. They are called to participate in activities that carry eternal repercussions for their good.

And why invest in heaven? Because heavenly treasures are not liable to moth, corrosion, or thieves. They are secure. Not “if,” but “when.” Their durability is guaranteed.

Heavenly Treasure is by faith

Earthly Accumulation is by sight

So, two people can do the same action, and one is store up heavenly treasures, and the other is accumulating earthly praise.

Then Jesus comes to the crux of the matter: where you lay up your treasure exposes your heart. It reveals where you stand in relation to the Kingdom of heaven. Where you invest your time, your energy, your gifts, your resources—that is where your heart resides.

Our treasures expose us. They are either heavenly or earthly, spiritual or carnal.

We must bear in mind that treasures is not confined to finances, it is an umbrella term for your life’s ambition…

So the question before us is simple:

• Where are we investing the most?
• Where are we throwing ourselves the hardest?
• What does our spiritual portfolio look like?
• Are you more in tune with your earthly portfolio than your heavenly one?

One example: When you are invited to pray together with the brothers and sisters of Immanuel, you are being invited to invest into heaven.

Be Careful with Your Treasure, Because Your Heart Is Tied to It

When you total up the stocks and dividends of your heavenly investments, what do they reveal? When you sit down with your “heavenly financial planner,” the Lord Jesus Christ, and assess your spiritual assets, are they substantial?

And that brings us to the question this morning:

Are you investing—laying up treasures—in God’s promises?
Or are you investing primarily for your own consumption?

Does what you are investing in have eternal ramifications?

Be Careful with Your Master, Because You Can Only Serve One

In verse 24, Jesus plainly states a reality that is easy to grasp: you cannot serve two masters. There is an impossibility in pledging ultimate allegiance to two lords.

You might object, “But I can work two jobs for two different employers.” That is not what Jesus means. He is teaching that it is impossible to love God and love this world with the same enthusiasm. Either heaven or earth will take precedence. Either heaven or this world will set the agenda of your life.

The word for serve is slave.

What we do, what we pursue, what we engage in—these things will be dictated either by Jesus or by money. One of those two will be the greater influence in our lives.

Jesus gives the reason: either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral territory between heaven and hell.

If you live for heaven, you will necessarily hate the things of earth.
If you live for the earth, you will necessarily hate the things of heaven.

That is the reality.

The reason Jesus makes this point so profound with this is because he wants to underscore and contrast the amount of time we devote to entertaining money and how much we invest into heaven.

Just think about how many hours you work this week merely to make a paycheck, and he is saying that: do you have that same enthusiasm, that same creativity, that same disposition when it comes to spiritual realities?

It’s amazing how we can be so diversified in our investments, but we have one—or no—diversification in our spiritual investments.

Are we playing the “do the least that I can do” game, knowing I am getting into heaven already?

But why isn’t that true for money?
Why isn’t that true for attaining wealth?

That’s what Jesus is trying to get to.

Kingdom citizens either devote themselves to Jesus or devote themselves to mammon—to the temporary pleasures of this world.

Here Jesus presses the decisive question: Is Jesus Lord?

Does He dictate, or does He merely offer suggestions?
Does He command, or does He simply provide advice?
Is He Governor, or just a consultant?

Is Jesus truly our Master, or are the things of this world our master?

When Jesus commands, do we treat His words lightly? It is not the council speaking. It is not the pastor speaking. It is Jesus. And if we refuse His lordship, we are operating under another lord—the lordship of the temporary.

Make no mistake: you serve a lord. The question is which one—heaven or this world. You cannot serve both.

The Myth of Multitasking

Be Careful with Your Master, Because You Can Only Serve One

This reality reminds me of the church in Laodicea. They had everything. They were wealthy, prosperous, lacking nothing. Their bank accounts were full. They had the resources to fund any project that came to mind. They were positioned in the right city, with the right infrastructure, and yet they attempted to serve two masters. They tried to be hot and cold at the same time.

Because of this, God warned them that He would spit them out of His mouth. In Book of Revelation 3:17, Jesus says: “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.”

And this exposes why it is impossible to serve both Jesus and money. One requires faith; the other does not. The reason we often fail to serve Jesus is because we are trying to construct lives that do not require faith.

Last Friday, I spoke with a Christian brother from Cuba. With the recent developments in Venezuela and the instability in our world, I asked him how the Cuban people were doing. His response was sobering: Cuba is a disaster. It is a tragedy.

And yet, he said, the church is experiencing revival.

Why? Because the people are hungry. Because they do not have material abundance to numb them to eternity. They are not so weighed down by comfort and consumerism that they cannot look up and see God for who He is—powerful, sovereign, and worthy of trust.

Notice both laying up treasures and serving are actions, are a way of life.

That leads us to the final point:

Be careful with your eye.

Be Careful with Your Eye, Because If It’s Bad, There Is No Remedy for Your Soul

Here in verses 22 and 23, Jesus makes one of the most profound statements in the Gospels. It is profound because it speaks about seeing.

We are deeply influenced by the world around us largely because it is what we see. Jesus touches on a major theological theme that runs throughout Scripture: what we look at, what we behold, what we fix our eyes upon—this will ultimately dictate what we pursue.

In the garden of Eden, it was no accident that Eve saw that the fruit was a delight to the eyes. When Jesus later confronts the Pharisees in this same Gospel, their refusal to accept His lordship is described as blindness—the blindness of the eyes of their heart. When the apostle Paul speaks of the gospel advancing in power, he says that the light of the gospel has shone in our hearts.

Seeing matters.

In verses 22–23, Jesus uses a physical reality to explain a spiritual one. Just as a bad eye produces a lack of light—just as it is impossible to see clearly if the eye is diseased—so spiritually, if you cannot see Jesus for who He truly is, you will never understand the wisdom of laying up treasures in heaven or serving Him as Master. It will seem foolish to you.

“The eye is the lamp of the body.” It gives direction. Just as a lamp guides the feet of a traveler, so the eye directs the body—and even the soul.

Jesus says:
If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

And then comes the warning: If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.

If all that guides your path is darkness—if all that illuminates your decisions is what is temporary and earthly—how deep that darkness must be. How imposing. How total.

What you see will determine what you do.

How’s your eye doing?

Many times we think we are doing okay because we mostly choose spiritual things—especially on Sundays.

It’s like making me choose between chicken and seafood. I love chicken, and I do not like seafood, so the choice is easy.

But if the decision is between chicken and Phil’s Pizza, now there is a real choice.

So, here’s a test for our spiritual eye:

When you are able to do something that you enjoy, brings you pleasure, or brings you income—and doing something for God’s kingdom—what wins?

If pleasure and making money win, then we must reassess our eye.

When Jesus addresses the church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation, He gives them a remedy. He says, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire”—invest in heaven. “White garments, so that you may clothe yourself.” And then He adds, “salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

The issue is sight.

Be Careful with Your Eye, Because If It’s Bad, There Is No Remedy for Your Soul

Brothers and sisters, if we are going to live lives of ultimate allegiance to God, the solution is this: we must see Jesus for who He is.

If He is not mighty, powerful, and glorious—if He is not worthy of our deepest affections and strongest desires—we will never be persuaded to invest in heaven. We will never gladly submit to Him as Master.

You remember that Harold read about Moses earlier—how in his moment of decision-making he left Egypt. The writer of Hebrews seems to have noticed this very thing, and he describes Moses’s actions in an interesting way. He says:

Hebrews 11:24–26

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. Why did he do this? For he was looking to the reward.

Are you looking to the reward?

Who is that reward?

What does it mean to lay up treasures in heaven?

It is to look to Jesus.

In the next chapter the writer of Hebrews says this:

Hebrews 12:1–2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses—because Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Moses, and all those in the hall of faith have borne witness to pursuing the reward—let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

How are we going to do this?

Verse 2 tells us:

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus Himself was motivated by the reward.

Therefore, we must look to the reward—who is Christ, the One who not only finishes our faith but also begins it.

As the Puritans said:

“Until Christ is sweet, sin will never be bitter.”

If we are going to lay up treasures in heaven and follow Christ as Master, He must be seen as Lord.

So this morning—see Him.

As the hymn says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Will you ask for eyes to see—eyes of faith—to behold Him as Lord?

Main Point: In this passage, Jesus teaches that unless we see him rightly, we will never serve him as master, we will never lay-up treasures in heaven.

Application

Repent for laying up earthly treasures that cause you to serve tyrant masters.

Gaze upon Jesus afresh—see Him as worthy of your treasure, and as a Master to obey.

Invest into heaven (Romans 12):

• 1–2 – Not Conformed but Transformed
  • Our minds have to be renewed with an eye of spiritual discernment
• 3–8 – Serving with Your Whole Self
  • We have different gifts
• 9–21 – Living Out Your Faith in Love – THIS IS FOR EVERYONE
  • Pray
  • Hospitality

If you are not a Christian – place your hope in Jesus.

Conclusion

This morning we have been challenged about where to invest and whom to serve. The question is not whether you are investing or serving. You are. The question is who you are serving and what you are investing in.

Will you invest in heaven, where your rewards are eternal?
Or on earth, where your rewards are here today and gone tomorrow?

Will you serve Jesus—the One who gave Himself up for your sake and your salvation?
Or will you serve the temporary pleasures of this world?

Do not make the mistake of Ronald Wayne. Seek instead to imitate Moses, who was willing to lose in this life in order to gain in the next.

Look to Jesus. Stand in awe of who He is. And when you see Him rightly, the things of this world will grow strangely dim.

As the hymn says: (Sing with me)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.