John saw it in End Times, in the Book of Revelation. In Revelations 11:15-16, he talks about the seventh angel sounding... “and there were loud voices in heaven, saying: the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ - He shall reign forever.”
It says... “We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty, the One who was, and is, and is to come - you've taken Your great power, and reigned. The nations were angry. Your wrath has come, the time of the dead, they should be judged. And that You should reward Your servants, the prophets, the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great.”
Notice, he connects: the seventh angel sounding, the coming of the Lord, and then... reward for the servants of the Lord. So those who have served the Lord faithfully will be rewarded. That brings us then to the next heading…
All our works will be Judged. God will evaluate the works of every believer!
The first thing is: everyone gives account of their works to the Lord - everyone! There's one appointment we will all keep, and it doesn't matter who we are. Our position is irrelevant; our title is irrelevant; our wealth is irrelevant. Every one of us must give an account of oneself to the Lord.
Romans 14:12 - “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:9 - “We make it our aim, or our goal, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”
This is motivating!
“I want to bring pleasure to Him, for we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the Body, according to what he's done - good or bad. Knowing the Fear of the Lord, we persuade men.”
Again, there are not only two Resurrections; there are also two Judgements. The final judgement is the Great White Throne Judgement, found in Revelations 20:11-15; but this judgement, referred to here, is called the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:9). The Judgement Seat of Christ comes at the beginning of Christ's reign on the earth, and it is where believers are evaluated as to whether they qualify to enter that kingdom, that realm, and to be rewarded.
The second thing then is that all our works will be evaluated by Jesus. He's interested in our stewardship. After we got saved... What did you do with what was entrusted to you? In 1 Corinthians 3:10, and Paul is writing. He said:
“According to the grace of God, which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation, and another builds on it.”
Here's the warning: “Let everyone take heed how he builds on it. No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, or manifest, for the Day - that's the Day of the Lord - will declare it or it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test everyone's work (what sort it is).”
That's a whole passage for me to go into more detail, but if I can pick up some key things in it…
The first is, his warning: everyone should take heed how you build - what you do. ‘Take heed’ means to carefully think about what you're doing, how your life is progressing, how you're building. He says: take heed how you build - in other words, the motivation, the principles that you're using to build your life - what lies in behind it.
He warns people; you can build on wood, hay, stubble. These are temporary things. The response of people, the claim of people, temporary reward - things that are just short term; and he says: these are things which are consumed by the fire, because they're all about what I can get. Gold, silver, precious stones... these will survive the fire - they are eternal.
For example, if I serve you in order to get something back - that is wood, hay, stubble; but if I serve you with no agenda but to bless you, and to honour Jesus in doing so - that is gold, silver, precious stones. You understand? The same work may have been done, but the motivation was different.