He's the Pearl of Great Price

We cannot let what takes place in our day override what Jesus has done for us. I have walked in here with my whole day still sitting on me, and I have let a bad afternoon decide how I would lay my head down that night. So let me ask you plainly: what happened to you this week that you have let take your joy? Whatever it was, it did not undo Calvary. He's the pearl of great price, and He was that before your day went sideways.

A merchant, and one pearl

Jesus told it short. In Matthew 13:45-46 He said, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."

Everything. The man had a business. He had goods. He had a life that was probably fine. He looked at one pearl, understood what it was worth, and let go of all of it.

Most preaching puts you in that story as the merchant, and there is truth in seeking Christ. But look at it another way. We were the ones lost in sin with no value in us — rebels, and I know what I was. Jesus saw something in you worth redeeming, and He gave everything He had to buy it. Not silver, not gold. His own blood. Acts 20:28 says God purchased the church with His own blood. Matthew 16:26 asks what it profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, and He answered that question by giving up the world to get you.

A pearl is formed through suffering

Here is what makes a pearl different. Gold gets mined. Diamonds get cut out of rock. A pearl is not carved and it is not made with fire — it is formed through suffering. Something unwanted works its way inside an oyster: a grain of sand, a parasite, something it never asked for. And instead of dying from it, that oyster covers the wound, layer after layer, until a pearl comes out of the pain.

Does that remind you of anybody?

Isaiah 53:5 says, "But he was wounded for our transgressions." Peter said in 1 Peter 2:24 that He "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." Every scar He carried became part of your redemption. The crown of thorns, the nails through His hands and feet, His side — His suffering became our salvation. Without suffering, there is no pearl. Without Calvary, there is no church.

Nobody can manufacture a pearl

Diamonds can be cut. Gold can be refined. Rubies can be polished. No man alive can create a true pearl.

Salvation is the same. Man cannot manufacture it. Religion cannot save you, tradition cannot save you, and good works cannot save you — and that is not a soft opinion, that is error when it gets preached, because Acts 4:12 says there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. One name. Jesus.

Twelve gates, and every one of them a pearl

Revelation 21:21 says the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every gate one pearl. John could have written gates of gold or gates of diamond. God chose pearl, because every person who walks in there comes in through the suffering of Jesus Christ.

One pearl. One entrance. One sacrifice. One Savior.

In John 10:9 Jesus said, "I am the door." In John 14:6 He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He did not say He knew the way. He said He is the way. You cannot sneak in on church attendance, and you cannot come in because you preach. I want to live right, and I want to have my act together, but that is not what gets me through that gate. What He did gets me through that gate.

When you see a pearl, remember Jesus

So this Sunday, if you have got pearls in your jewelry box, get them out and wear them. When you pick them up you are going to think about the suffering that made them. And men, if your wife is standing there holding hers, do not ask her what she is doing. You know what she is doing.

He's the pearl of great price. The question was never how much Jesus is worth, because His worth cannot be measured.

The question is this: what is keeping you from fully surrendering to the pearl of great price?