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Date: November 1, 2026
Sermon Title: Treasures Old and New
Passage: Matthew 13:52
Preacher: Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest - Lead Pastor
Sermon Summary:
Great to be with you this morning. I am so glad you woke up, decided to come to church, and you are ready to listen to what God might be speaking to you this morning. My hope is that you walk away from today inspired to think a little differently about what God might be doing in your life. But more than that, I'm always hopeful that whatever's happening up here makes its way down into your heart and out your hands and your legs so that as you walk through this world, you are a different person. If you've been around here for a while, then you know that we have been talking about transformation for a whole year. Since the very beginning of January, we set our sights on Romans 12, 2. in which we are not to be conformed by the world that is around us, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We've talked at length about what that transformation might look like in your personal life, and we've spent most of our time over this last year thinking about what it means to live a transformed life and how change happens And my hope is here we are in the 11th month of the year that you've been putting some of these things into practice and that maybe, just maybe, some transformation has been happening over the course of these 11 months together. But while I have focused on personal growth and personal maturity and personal sanctification, The message today actually isn't about that kind of change, though it does require that kind of change. The change I want to talk about today has to do with the changes that happen in history and that are happening worldwide right now as we sit here and have this worship service. It goes like this. My son Asher is 10. He was born in 2016. This week, he was invited by my father-in-law, who is a boomer. Asher, I think, is Gen. Alpha. I'm actually not certain about that. And my father-in-law is of the boomer class. And they went to hear a World War II vet talk about his experience in World War II. This man is 101 years old. He was born in 1925. I want you to try to imagine what he has seen over the course of his 101 years of living on this earth. What has changed over that course of time? It's a lot, right? I'm A Gen. Xer, I was born in 1979, and even I've seen enough. My childhood did not really have the internet until I was almost out of it. I didn't get a cell phone until I was out of college, and I didn't get a smartphone for like 10 years after that. And yet in the last 10 years, I feel like the world has just really sped up. I don't know if you feel this way too. I bring some bad news because I don't think it's slowing down. I think it's actually only going to speed up all the more. Which then got me thinking about Asher, whose 2016 birthday. If he were to be so blessed to live to 101 years old, That would mean he is talking to the next generation or generations, many generations later, in 2117. 2117. Can you imagine what the world will be like in 2117? No, you cannot, because I cannot and no one can. At the rapid pace the world is changing, none of us have a clue as to what is going to happen. We know this much. Change is inevitable societally. Change is inevitable. And if I've learned one thing this year through this whole series on change, it's that change is hard. Nobody actually really likes change. Change is often something that just comes at you whether you want it or not. And you can choose to change and you can choose to walk that narrow path, but most don't. It's the hard path for a reason and it's the less traveled path for a reason because it requires something of you. And the change that is on that path is something that leads to life and leads to goodness and leads you to abundant life. And through the grace of Jesus Christ, it leads you to eternal life. But truth be told, most of us don't want to change. And we like that broad path. It's just a whole lot easier over there. And everybody seems to be on it anyway. So this morning we are talking about what happens when the world around us changes. And what does Jesus teach us about how to live into that new kind of world that seems to constantly be opening up? Before we get there, let's begin with some prayer. Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ our Lord, Holy Spirit who lives and dwells within us and who we invite into this sanctuary right now, we come to you asking, pleading for your presence. pleading for your knowledge, for your word to be spoken this morning. Open our minds and our hearts to what it is you're calling us into, that we might walk in that way. Lord, we give you thanks for the work you've already done, for the work that is ongoing, that we know nothing of, and for what you are about to do in our lives, through our lives, and in this world around us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Jesus knew something about changing worlds, did he not? He was living through a time that would be marked by his own birth. There is BC and there is AD. It's the ultimate changing of times, isn't it? Before Christ and Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, we still mark our calendars according to this. And as he lives through this time, he teaches us many things, but one of them is how to live through changing times. And so if you'll open with me to our passage, it's a very short one, but it's actually a passage that is deeply meaningful to me personally. And I'll explain why momentarily. This is from Matthew chapter 13. Toward the end of it all, he has given a few parables to this point. And if we just back up one verse, the one right before this one, Jesus has given some parables and then he looks at his disciples and he says the following, have you understood all the things that I'm trying to teach you? Do you get what I'm saying here? And his disciples so naively say, yes. We all know that that's just wrong. And he's going to tell them as much just a couple chapters later. And then by virtue of the fact that they don't get it all the way to the end until like literally the very end of Matthew's gospel, they finally, things start to click. And then it's really not until the book of Acts that the disciples are in full swing finally. But they say yes, but they're naive. I would submit to you that in the changing of seasons, when we move through a change of historical epochs, that we are all naive. And that if I were to ask you, do you understand what's happening in the world? You might say yes, and you should say maybe. I'm trying to understand. This is certainly how I see the changes that are happening in our world. To the passage itself, Jesus says the following, well then every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. That's the whole passage this morning. Every scribe who's been trained for the kingdom of heaven He's like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. There's A simplicity to it. There's also the really interesting features to this one sentence. I want to dig into a few of them. The first thing I would note is that there's more or less 2 halves to this passage. There's maybe the description, there's the scribe, And the scribe has been trained for the kingdom of heaven. That's the description part. And then there's the analogy or the metaphor. And the metaphor is that this person is a master of a house. And in that person's house lies treasures. And their job is to pull out the old treasures and the new treasures. We'll start with the first half. And maybe, a preliminary question, which is, what exactly is a scribe? Usually, Jesus is going after the scribes. Typically, the scribes are the ones who get things wrong in your New Testament. And Jesus likes to criticize them. And so it's worth asking, well, what is a scribe? And then what would a scribe of the kingdom of heaven be? I would point us to the book of Ezra, chapter 7, verses 6 and 10. They look like this. Ezra is the scribe. Ezra went up from Babylonia and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses. A scribe in this way is a teacher. It's a student also, though. It's somebody who has dedicated his or her life to understanding what is at hand, namely here, the law of Moses. And so Ezra, well, he has the law and he's studying it and he's studying it. And then what does a scribe do? Well, the scribe does what Ezra does. Ezra had set his heart to, again, study He has set his heart to study the law of the Lord, but then also to do it, right? And then thirdly, to finally teach it, to teach the statutes and the rules to all of Israel. So the scribe in this way is somebody who first studies, then learns how to do it, like live out the thing that he's studying And then finally, once there's mastery in that way, then the scribe is ready to teach it to other people. For a scribe to be the scribe of the kingdom of heaven, I take this as a person who has studied the ways of Jesus. This person has looked at Jesus' words over and over again, sat under the feet of the rabbi Jesus, has tried to learn as much as possible about this man who is our Lord and our Savior, who's the second person of the Trinity and is seated on high, ruling over all kingdoms and has all authority. But that's just the study part. There's the doing part. And the scribe is somebody who tries to live out that kind of life that we've been talking about for a long time, how to live a life according to Rabbi Jesus. How do you live that kind of life? You do the things Jesus does and you follow the ways of Jesus. And then finally you get to the teaching part. And so the scribe of the kingdom of heaven teaches the ways of Jesus to other people. I said to you that this is a very personal passage for me. A few years ago, I've always been skeptical of life verses until I met this one and I realized this is my life verse. This is who I want to be in life. I want to be a scribe of the kingdom of heaven. I want to be somebody who studies God's word, but more than God's word actually, somebody who studies the person and the life of Jesus that I might do and become that kind of person so that then I'm able to teach and give it to other people. Professionally speaking, I consider myself a scribe of the kingdom of heaven, which is why this passage is personal to me and I can't wait to get to the second-half of it because that's the part that's challenging. But before we get there, is a few other pieces in here because I think you too are actually called to be a scribe of the kingdom of heaven. Maybe not in like a professional manner, though some of you might be. And I would encourage you, and I don't do this enough, but I would encourage you to be seeking and asking, is God calling me into some kind of life of ministry, professionally speaking? Like is he calling me into a life where I'm actually dedicating every hour of every day to his his way and his teaching and the ministry that he's calling me into. But for most of you, this isn't a profession, but it is still a calling. It's A vocation in this way, that you too are to be learning the ways of Jesus, doing the ways of Jesus, and then teaching others the ways of Jesus. And so every Sunday morning we have Bible study right before this. And so this morning was Jeff was teaching. And as Jeff is teaching, Jeff is a scribe of the kingdom of heaven, whether he realizes it or not. The folks downstairs teaching our kids, they are scribes of the kingdom of heaven, whether they realize it or not, right? And so as the scribes get to work and do the teaching they're supposed to do, they must understand the second-half of all this. that they are masters pulling out old and new things. But again, before we get there, is this one other feature in the first half of the verse. It goes like this. It says, every scribe who has been trained, that's the way the ESV reads anyway. Some of you might have an NIV that gets you actually a little closer. It says you've been discipled, because the word here is disciple. It's the same exact word. And it's something that has happened to you. You have been discipled by someone, preferably, most preferably, Jesus himself. But also likely, maybe it's a minister, maybe it's a dear friend. It's probably a mom or a dad or a grandma or a grandpa. It's somebody in your life has taught you the ways of Jesus, the way to live a good life. And so you have been discipled in this way. But let's get to that second-half. It's the second-half that gets interesting to me. You see here is where there is this master of a house. And this master has treasures stored up in it. I would say to each of you, have a storehouse of treasures within you. inside of you, the life that you have lived. There are treasures in you that are new and there are treasures in you that are old. Here's what I think Jesus is saying. Start with the old treasures. The old treasures are the ones that are these ancient truths that are never changing. They always have been and they always will be. scriptures, they contain a treasure trove of truth. And if you don't pull out the old treasures that are in here, then you are not doing it right. You are not being discipled well, and you are not discipling others well. You must pull out the old treasures and walk by the light that is in these old treasures if you are to lead others rightly and if you are to live the right kind of life. But it's not just the treasures that are in here. I'm a weird Baptist. I'll go ahead and just say it. I think most Baptists, they jump from 33 AD or maybe toward the end of the century, whenever the Bible stops, okay? We'll say 90 AD. And then they jump ahead to, I don't know, they even jump past the Reformation, truly. They probably jump somewhere into the 1900s, 20th century, maybe even just to like what's happening right now. And there's not a deep enough appreciation for the tradition. which is what makes me weird. I actually really, really enjoy the tradition. I like history A lot. I think that the Christian faith is beautiful and vast and big because we have this rich tradition and we have men and women over the course of 2,000 years who have tried to live out this faith faithfully. And it has looked very different in different times and in different places. And I'll say this, in changing times, and if you haven't picked up on it, I think we're in one, in changing times, it really helps to know how have other Christians throughout history dealt with the changing times they found themselves in. Which then gets us maybe to, well, before I put a cap on that, the tradition itself actually is part of the ancient truths. This is the old treasure that we are pulling out of our storehouse. We have access to all this old treasure, whether it's the scriptures themselves or the 2,000 years of history of living out that faith. It just so happens today is indeed All Saints Day. I always forget All Saints Day, but you know who doesn't? It's Clint Hunt. He always reminds me it's All Saints Day. And I appreciate him for this because it's a perfect day for a message like this, where we are reminded of the people who have gone before us. Again, whether they lived 1,700 years ago or 17 years ago, doesn't matter if they in some way bequeathed to us the tradition that is the faith that we have, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. We are standing on their shoulders. And that might be your mom or your dad. It might be your grandpa or your grandma, but it might be somebody who lived in the 3rd century who you've never heard of in your life but died for the faith that you take for granted. There is the new part to all this. Jesus teaches us that if we are to be good stewards, of the household. And if we are to be good scribes of the kingdom of heaven, we must not only pull out the old stuff, we've got to somehow figure out the new treasures that also need to be pulled out of the storehouse. At the bottom of your bulletin, I've tried to start putting quotes and various things. There's a nice one down there. by Yaroslav Pelikan. He's a historian living in the middle of the 20th century. He says, tradition is the living faith of the dead. I love that line. Tradition is the living faith of those who have come before us. It's everything I've said about that old treasure, right? It's allowing the dead voices to still ring out and to have some kind of impact on our lives because they should. They've walked through the faith long before you ever did. But traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And if the only thing you have is the holding onto, well, this is the way we've always done it. This is all there is. And you don't know how to take traditionalism and live it in a 21st century context, well, then that's a dead faith. that still exists back there somewhere, but it needs to be brought into the 21st century, into your lived life, which is the new part. Jesus encourages us. He shows the way that there is a new treasure waiting at just about any moment in history, but the one we're currently in is one that's going to need some new treasures. We are, if you asked me, I'll say it this way, if you asked me a few years ago, is the world coming to an end? Are we in the end times? I would have laughed at you and said, oh, I mean maybe because it's always almost the end times. But who also thought they were in the end times? Luther did, and then centuries before him and centuries before him. And basically every Christian tradition has always thought itself to be in the end times. But a few weeks ago, in the news, there are folks at these AI companies telling us, hey, there's a 10% chance all of this ends the world. Now I don't know if you've heard this. I follow it pretty closely though. Now I don't necessarily believe it all, but when you have not the religious community, but the tech community who's producing the tech, telling us this might end everything, it's probably worth listening to. And so if somebody were to ask me today, Eric, are we in the end times? I would again say, I don't know. We have been for the last 2,000 years. Jesus introduces the end times back then. Are we living in them now? Well, yes, in that sense. Is it going to end in the next year or two or 10 or 20? I don't know the timeline. Jesus didn't seem to either. But I will say this, for the first time in my life, I am thinking about it some, and I'm wondering to myself, and I think you should be too, If we're not in the end, we're living through a great transition of some kind. As a student of history, this has looked different in different times and places. I brought some receipts for you as to what it looks like. In 587 BC, Jerusalem is sacked. The Jews are taken to Babylon in exile. and looks like the world is destroyed in their minds. But something grand comes out of that moment. It's a turning point in history. Our scriptures come out of this moment. It is the first time that they realize we need to gather together the tradition if we're going to preserve it. And so 587 BC as the exile is happening, also simultaneously the scriptures are finally being put together at least the Old Testament part. 70 AD, same thing. This time the Second Temple is destroyed. Out of this tragedy comes the faith that we hold to, Christianity, and a birth of something that could not have been understood prior to it. Fast forward in time to 313 AD, you get Constantine legalizing Christianity And what we get in this period of time is a time of dramatic change, where the creeds are pulled together and the scriptures as a whole, all 66 books are pulled together and they're dispersed in a way that hadn't happened prior. But just about 100 years later, in 410, what happens then is Rome is sacked and it seems again all is lost. that they are living through a period of changing times. And a theologian named Augustine, he writes a book called The City of God in which he calls Christians to faith. That in his changing times, the times he's living through, he's encouraging them to hold fast to the ancient truths, the old treasure, and find new treasures and new ways of living that truth out. You fast forward a few more centuries and you start living through the medieval period. And the medieval period, for the first time ever, we get schools, we get universities, and people are gathering together and they're learning about theology, philosophy, even what will become the sciences. And the world is changing one more time. 1450, the Gutenberg press changes everything. It allows for 1517 to happen when Luther comes and he nails the 95 theses and he changes the Christian order of things. The radical change is, we take this for granted, but you should not. The difference, if you were living in 1517, it would feel like the world is ending. It would feel like you're living through chaos. But Luther held to the ancient truths. He pointed us back to scripture. He pointed us back to the old treasures. And he taught us how to live the new treasures out. But the world kept turning. 1610, Galileo shows us that, well, we need to rethink how we understand our scripture because it turns out we aren't the center of this universe. It's much bigger and broader and vaster than we all thought it was. Or in the 1760s to the 1800s, this is a period of great turmoil. When you have revolutions, you have the wars, but you also have the movement from farming into the factories, and you have the industrial revolution. And this changes how you and I live our lives. Most of you don't know how to grow a single thing. And you're probably thinking, thanks be to God, I just go to Giant and I buy what I need. But the truth is it also required something of us. And the electricity that powers everything 24-7 that used to not exist, well, what that means now is we are these worker bees living in a worker bee world where it seems like we should always be going, going, going. And there's nothing necessarily one-to-one correlative here in your scriptures that says that you shouldn't be a worker, be living 24-7 under the lights and the electricity and going at all times. But it does say this, that we should have a Sabbath rest. And we need to slow down from time to time. And so we learned from the old light how to live in the new lights. The world turns, we drop some atomic bombs, we create the iPhone, we create ChatGPT, and AI seems like it's about to change everything. And so it is incumbent upon us to hold to the old lights to understand the path according to the way scripture teaches us and the old truths of tradition and the people who have gone before us. But we also must learn to walk in new ways. And as the world changes around us, we have to somehow look both forward and also remember backward. And we have to hold both of these things together. If we are to be scribes of the kingdom of heaven, we must be able to pull out both old treasures and new treasures from the storehouse that is our lives. The last example I'll give you is from a guy named John Robinson. He was the pastor to the pilgrims in 1620. At this point, the pilgrims are about to leave and head off to the new world, our world. And as they're leaving, he knows that the journey is not going to be easy and it is going to require something of them. It is going to require change. And he says the following. He says, the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word. This might be the one thing, there's many things, but like of all the things that continues to surprise me as a scribe myself is how often I come to this word, this holy word, and it is able to speak into moments they could never have imagined would come. They cannot imagine flying airplanes. They cannot imagine the technological lives we live, computers in our pockets. They aren't envisioning these things. And yet, God is able to speak through His holy word into our moments, now here. And as Pastor John Robinson says, the Lord has more truth and light yet even for us to break forth out of His holy word into the moments we are living in and that we are about to live through. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, you've watched it all happen. As you sit on your throne in heaven, you have guided most of it. You have not only been a witness to history, but an active participant in it. And for that reason, Lord, we draw comfort that whatever comes in the days and the months and the years and the decades and the centuries ahead, if we are given such time, that Lord, you are in control and you are on the throne. But Lord, as change is no doubt thrust upon us and the world begins to change ever more dramatically around us, God, remind us that you are indeed in control. Show us the way forward. Teach us the new truths or the new treasure that we should be pulling out. But always, Lord, let us stand on the truths that have been forever and always will be true. We thank you for your sacrifice, for your death on the cross, for the resurrection from the dead, for the possibility of salvation and eternal life that is only available through you. Lord, for this we give you thanks. We pray this in Christ Jesus' name, amen.
