Introduction
Welcome to the study. We're looking at the series, Eternal Rewards. In the last session, I did an overview of what the eternal rewards are. This is Part 2 of that, so I'll just touch on and review where we went last time, and then we're going to get into the new teaching today.
What you believe about the future will greatly affect how you prepare, and how you live, your life. One of the things that Jesus taught a lot about was eternal rewards. He taught about Eternity, He taught about a coming kingdom. His message was on The Kingdom. The Kingdom is here now. It's available now, but it's also a coming kingdom as well. So there's a measure available now; and by faith we can stretch into the kingdom age, and pull some of what God has prepared in the ages to come, into the age we live in now.
The dilemma you have, when people get some of these end time teachings, is they put everything off until the future, and do nothing now. But throughout the Bible you find people, God showed them what was to come, and their life showed they stretched into that age, and pulled it into where they lived; and you see it in many different people that ministered.
When we look at this teaching on Eternal Rewards, Jesus talked about us coming into relationship; and then He talked about our life, in other words, what we live, our stewardship.
Matthew 16:27: “now the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father and His angels, He will reward each man according to their works”.
Jesus is talking about Eternal Rewards, and He associates the rewards we receive with the works that we do - in other words, our activities, as a steward for Jesus. Secondly, we saw there are many different types of rewards; and in almost every situation, the rewards were for overcoming some particular challenge or difficulty. We saw in Revelations 2 and 3, how there are many, many different rewards that are mentioned by Jesus, and they all relate to overcoming something. At some stage we may look at the Churches of Revelation, and in every one of them, Jesus reveals Himself in a certain way. He reveals an aspect of Himself. He commends them for what they've done; and then He begins to talk about where there's a lack, or what He wants them to do; and then gives a reward associated with it.
We need to be aware, or familiar with, what is at stake. If nothing is at stake, then you don't get interested in this - it doesn't mean anything to you; but if there's a lot at stake, then that changes the way you look at it. I used the illustration last time: would you rather have $10 now, or $1000 at the end of the week? The issue is: can you delay gratification now, in order for the bigger thing. You can imagine, if the end of it all is a massive prize, then you're motivated then to lay your life down.
The third thing we saw was: rewards are not given automatically - it requires that we meet specific conditions. For example...
Revelations 3:21 - “to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down My Father on His throne”
Jesus is saying: I have modelled the life of overcoming, and as a result of overcoming, I've been elevated to this particular realm, as a man. He had the realm of glory, had a realm of rulership, before He came into the earth. Now He's been elevated, as a man, into that; and He says: if you overcome, likewise you will be lifted up, and share the throne with Me. That means to share a position of honour, to share a position of authority and to be a friend of Him, in advancing His kingdom, in the ages to come.
John 12:26 - “If any man serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also, for if anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour.
Notice, He then talks about God, the Father, honouring people who meet certain conditions; and the two conditions are: #1, serving Jesus; and #2, following Him.
Serving has to do with: performing activities on His behalf, as His representative. Following Him means: letting His word transform our life. To follow Jesus, or to follow a rabbi, meant you walked with them, and learnt how they lived their life, and applied the word of God to their life; so it's a life-transformation process. Notice He says: “Whoever serves Me...” - that means you're involved in the work of ministry of some kind.
The second thing is, then He says: “...let him follow Me”, which seems weird. You would think that if you're following Jesus, then you'll serve Him. He's saying: no, “if you're serving me”, in other words you're already in-relationship, and you're serving, He then goes on to say: “then you must follow Me”. In other words, you must commit to letting Me teach you how to do life, and how to apply kingdom principles to the way you do your life in ministry. Notice then, in both of those scriptures, receiving the reward is conditional on our response. Him who overcomes, gets the reward; he who follows Me and serves Me, gets the reward.