One of the major themes of Jesus teachings was the theme of Eternal Rewards. This topic is seldom taught in churches, but it provides major motivation for holiness, personal transformation and faithful service.
We shall all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ to give account for our stewardship as followers of Christ. At stake are position, honour and reward in the coming Kingdom of Christ. This message is an introduction to the Bible Foundations of Eternal Rewards.
IntroductionWe're looking at our series called Eternal Rewards. Eternal Rewards is the name of the series, and this is Session 2, on: Key Principles Related to Eternal Rewards. We'll find in the series as we go through it, that we'll undoubtedly overlap, and there's no problem overlapping, because what happens is you then you're reminded of them... reminded of them... reminded of them... and then gradually it just gets into your spirit. So here we are, ready to go!
Main MessageFirst, I'm going to give you a number of principles. Here's #1, and this one we've touched before, but we're going to go back to it again.
The first one is: we must all give account of our works to God. All of us must give account of our works. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:10, and here's the first point under that: every believer must stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:10 - “We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so every one may be recompensed for his deeds in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Now this is not the great white throne judgement that takes place at the very end of the millennium. This is a judgement for believers - and it's not a judgement for punishment. It's a judgement for rewarding us for faithful service. As we have served the Lord, and walked with Him, He is looking for the opportunity to acknowledge our love for Him, and acknowledge our walk with Him, and this is a great incentive for us.
It means whatever we do, whatever we put our hand to, God is watching all of it; and He has in mind, has in view, that He can acknowledge it in a much greater way in the coming kingdom. Notice that scripture says: we must all appear - so that's every person; and everyone gives account. There's no one who doesn't give an account.
Sometimes we'll get discouraged. We see people do things, and we see people treat us badly, and it's even more miserable when it's Christians that treat us badly, but we must understand that God is watching every action. He watches their actions against you. He watches your response; and every response, every action that we take, God takes notice of. Jesus will evaluate our life, based upon what we have done.
Notice, He said: He will recompense us for the deeds in the body, whatever he has done, whether good or bad. And the word there for ‘done’ is the word ‘prassa’, meaning to practice, or perform repeatedly, or habitually. It means to practice, continually practice, or perform repeatedly, or make a habit of it. You notice then what He's looking for are the things which become a habit; not just the random: “hey, I blew it this time”. Those kinds of things really are not important. It's the trend of where our life is going, is what counts - whether the trend is moving in a certain direction. The fact there's ups and downs are not a problem to Jesus. It's where the trend of our life is, what we have practiced, or what we have done habitually. If you judge people constantly, then that's something that turns up in your life as someone - you've been a person who's judgemental. That will be considered.
The second thing we saw, as we looked last time, in the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, is that, at the Judgement Seat, all our works are tested - so there's a Fiery Test!
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 - “No man can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, or become manifest, for the day will reveal it, or expose it or uncover it. It shall be revealed by fire, the fire will test the quality, what sort of work each man does. If any man's work is built on remains, he will receive a reward; any man's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss; even though he will be saved, yet so as by fire.”
We touched on this scripture last week. The first thing we see in this again, is that Jesus Christ forms the foundation of what our life is about - what we do. He said it's like building a house. You lay a foundation, and then you build on the foundation. The foundation that's laid... we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have a faith in Him; and the goal of our covenant with Him, is that we would walk with Him in ever increasing unity in life, and outwork His plan. That is, our lives would reflect what He's like, and we'd do what He calls us to do. So therefore, that determines then, how our works are evaluated.