Welcome, we're on Eternal Rewards #7, and tonight we're going to cover the issue of: Honour, Treasure in Heaven, and Vindication (3 areas of different rewards).
Matthew 16:27 – “The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father, with His angels, and He will reward each according to his works”.
Constantly, Jesus taught about Eternal Rewards. He taught it directly, through parables, the reality of eternal rewards; and then He also taught about the need to prepare for a coming kingdom. He talked about the kingdom coming now, within us; and then a kingdom coming, which would be a manifestation of His second coming into the earth. He taught that within this whole realm of the Kingdom, we enter the Kingdom by faith. When we receive Jesus Christ, our Saviour, the Spirit of God becomes joined to us. We become a new creation; and then we must grow, and mature, and develop, so that the character of Christ is formed in us.
We looked at the different rewards, and there were three main categories of the rewards. I shared how in the Bible, especially the Book of Revelation, there's a whole list of different kinds of rewards; but you can actually summarise them, or bring them all together, into 3 principle categories; and these 3 categories relate very closely to God's design for us as sons, His eternal purpose for us as sons.
1) Eternal Intimacy - rewards that signify a much greater intimacy, connection and experiential knowledge of God. There are realms of intimacy in the coming kingdom, just as Jesus had realms of intimacy with His disciples on the earth.
2) Eternal Authority - rewards that signify a greater level of partnership, responsibility, and authority, in partnering with Jesus to establish His kingdom. Throughout the Bible, you see manifestations of that sonship authority. Moses was able to upheave a whole nation and bring about the change and deliverance of his own people, by demonstrating or bringing the power of God to bear in that situation.
3) Eternal Glory. These are rewards which signify special honour, and special distinction, that God puts on us; acknowledging, or placing honour on us, for how we've followed Him and served Him in our journey through life here.
So those 3 categories, 3 areas of rewards - each of those things are eternal, in that once the decision's been made what you qualify for, it's irreversible. That goes on not just for the kingdom age, it goes on into eternity. We have privileged access, privileged roles and privileged honour, and it's just; this is the justice of God. It makes sense that God's justice would show this way - that someone who lives a casual, non-committed life, a compromised life, would definitely spend eternity living in a different realm, and a different degree of eternal life, than someone who has sacrificially given, sacrificially served, and lived their life to bring honour to Jesus - allowed the Lord to change their heart, and their motivations, so the character of Christ forms. It just makes sense.
Before I go on into those three rewards, I want to just touch on an area which I will call ‘Sonship Design’. If you have a look at how we're designed for sonship, the 3 dimensions of reward correspond exactly to the 3 dimensions we are to pursue, in the way God has designed us to be sons. God's eternal purpose is to have a family of sons, in the image of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus will have the pre-eminence, and those sons who are ‘overcoming’ sons will partner with Him, in changing the whole world.
John 17:3-4&6 is called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, and in each of these three verses He identifies one sonship design.
John 17:3 – “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You've sent”.
John 17:4 – “I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work You gave Me to do.”
John 17:6 – “I have manifested Your name to the men You've given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and I have kept Your word”.