The Dream Fulfilled
05/20/2007 - Rewards in the Kingdom
This is graduation time and right now we're in the college graduation season. And in a few weeks high school commencements will begin. Graduations are always exciting times. They represent the completion of a lot of hard work and they provide the launching pad for the rest of our lives.
I can remember my high school graduation. What I remember most is that it was postponed three times because of bad weather. You know me and weather! And our class was so big we couldn't have it inside. Hurricane Agnes hit that week. Does anybody here remember Hurricane Agnes? At the time it was the worst hurricane ever recorded in United States history. It caused $11.6 billion worth of damage and of course, it had to hit during my graduation week. Don't plan your vacations or graduation parties around me. I'm a magnet for foul weather!
Of course, at every graduation ceremony there's a speech. I forget who gave the speech at mine, but I know one of the greatest graduation speeches ever given was also one of the shortest as well. It was given by Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, to the graduating class of the Harrow School, his prep school alma mater, in 1941 when he stood at the podium and said, "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never on nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in, except to the convictions of your own honor and good sense."
I love that speech. It inspires me every time I read it because it's so easy to give up and quit whenever we go through tough times. And Churchill knew what tough times were during World War II and the threat of Germany and the bombing of London.
Every graduation ceremony has speeches and every graduation has diplomas. And at every commencement there are those who graduate and then those who graduate with honors and high honors and highest honors. Everyone is excited, of course, to get their diploma, but there are also special rewards for those who graduate with distinction.
Graduation day is coming for every follower of Jesus Christ. And it too will be a day when many of us will celebrate the completion of a lot of hard work as well as the beginning of the rest and the best of our lives. So what are you are doing to get ready for it? The Bible says that there will be tears of joy and tears of regret depending on how well we've invested our lives in Christ and his great kingdom work.
The apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
This morning we continue our series called The Dream Fulfilled: Glimpses of the Kingdom with a teaching I've called"Rewards in the Kingdom."
So far in this series we've discovered that for the believer in Jesus Christ heaven is our next stop. In fact, in that same chapter of 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul writes in verses 6-8, Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
At home with the Lord. That's heaven. That's where God is right now. That's that other dimension that we can't see, but its there. We live by faith, not by sight.
On Friday morning I conducted a funeral for the father of a childhood friend and because he knew Christ it was more like a celebration than a funeral because the family had the confidence that he was with the Lord. He was finally out of his pain and suffering and home with the Lord.
Heaven is the next stop for the believer in Jesus Christ. But what we're learning in this series is that heaven is not the final stop, which is why scholars often call heaven the intermediate heaven. We're going there, but we're not going to stay there forever.
One day heaven, the Bible says, is going to come to this earth and the kingdom of God will appear. But first the children of God must be revealed and that will occur when Jesus returns and we are resurrected from the grave. Then the earth and the entire universe will be made new and the kingdom will come and God's will finally will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Ephesians 1:10 says, God's will … is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
Heaven and earth becoming one under the loving leadership of King Jesus, that's the kingdom of God in all its fullness. That's the kingdom we long for. That's the kingdom we live for. That's the kingdom we pray for. And when the Scriptures describe the kingdom of God they describe it as a place filled with excitement and all kinds of activity.
Jesus talked often of thrones and crowns and nations and cities and feasts and banquets. The prophets in both the Old and New Testaments talk about rivers and trees and gardens and harvests and animals and gates and streets and jewels. There will be a government to administer in the kingdom of God and Jesus will sit on the throne.
That's what he said in Matthew 19:28, I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Thrones. This whole idea of thrones is not a concept we're real familiar with in our culture. Our President, our leader, doesn't sit on a throne in the Oval Office, he sits on a chair behind a desk. Yet all the throughout the Scriptures thrones are mentioned as symbols of power and authority and leadership.
And because of that we would expect Jesus to sit on a throne and have authority over his kingdom. That makes sense. But then he says to his twelve disciples that they will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. They will share in the government of the kingdom. He says it in the context of rewards. He's answering Peter's question, "What's in it for us?"
And then Jesus goes on to say in verse 29, And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
Jesus is talking about graduation day here. And he's saying that some will graduate into his kingdom with distinction, with honors because of the sacrifices they have made for him. They will be rewarded a hundred fold that day. In this case he talks about leaving relationships and vocations and other responsibilities because that's how Peter framed the question, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"
In his comments on this passage Tom Wright says, "The Son of Man sitting on his glorious throne takes us back to chapter seven of the prophetic book of Daniel, where God's kingdom will be established at last with the overthrow of evil and the vindication of God's people. Then those who have given up everything to follow Jesus will find themselves not only rescued from eternal death, but actually ruling with Jesus himself in the new world."
Jesus then goes on to say something very interesting in verse 30, But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
What in the world does he mean by that? I think he means that there will be a whole lot of surprises in God's kingdom. Some of those that we think might have the most prominent places in the kingdom won't. And others that we never heard of or knew anything about will be wearing crowns and sitting on thrones and ruling over ten cities and five cities and enjoying privileged access to the King, just like cabinet members enjoy special access to the president in our government.
I think of these words of Jesus when I take trips to Africa and spend time with dear men and women who are doing their best to serve God in some of the most difficult situations in the world. They will never be Christian celebrities who write books and appear on radio and television and have multi-million dollar ministries. Nobody knows about them, but they are serving Christ with all they've got day in and day out. They just might be some of the last who may end up the first.
This week I re-read a story that I've wanted to tell you for a while now. It's the true story of a 75 year old, African American taxi driver in Washington, D.C. named Carter. He's been driving a taxi for years. And back in 1994, he gave a ride to a man from Malawi, Africa. And because Carter is a taxi driver for the kingdom of God he treated the man with a special degree of kindness and respect. And the man appreciated that so much that he introduced Carter to some of his friends from Malawi who soon invited him to visit their country which he did four years later.
And when he was there he saw poverty like he never imagined and he prayed, "Lord, help me bring some joy to this village." And God answered his simple prayer. First, he realized that there was no road into village, just a narrow, rutted, muddy path. That's something a taxi driver would notice. And so he thought, "With a better road people could get around better, the elderly and the sick could be taken to the hospital."
He had taken some money with him on the trip and so he offered to pay for gas and oil and drivers if the people of the village would do the work. And before he knew it, others inspired by his generous, contagious spirit started to pitch in. Someone provided a grader to use and three days later they had built a road a mile and a quarter long.
A year or so later, he returned to the village. A young man had been falsely accused of stealing and was stuck in jail. And since Carter seeks kingdom values like justice he got involved and soon the young man was set free. On that same visit, he met a boy who needed medical care that was only available in a distant city. So he found a driver and made it possible for the boy to get treatment on a regular basis.
The next year, he went back again and this time helped some families improve their farming by buying them some additional seeds. He also made arrangements and got 26 soccer balls donated to the children of the village, because in the kingdom of God, fun and play are important things. He even helped them get uniforms, because in God's kingdom dignity and pride are also important.
On another trip, his generosity inspired a shopkeeper in the village to donate money to help some sick kids get medical treatment for ringworm. Soon a Bible school was launched that quickly grew from 17 to 85 students because when you see signs of the kingdom of God coming to your village, you want to learn all you can about it!
Roads, rides, seeds, ringworm medicine, soccer balls, uniforms, a Bible school - these are ways that light shines in the darkness, that a little bit of heaven comes to earth. They are ways that the kingdom of God breaks forth right here and now. And Carter says, "I don't do any of this myself. God is doing it through me."
Carter is not a missionary or a pastor. He's not a professional Christian. He's a 75 year old taxi driver from Washington, D. C. who's making a difference in this world. There are thousands of Carters out there, millions like him. There's a bunch right here at Valley View. They're not celebrities. They aren't on television. They aren't on the radio. Nobody has ever heard of them. They don't write books. They don't need to, because everyday they are filling pages in the most important book of all.
But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
On graduation day Jesus is going to reward people like Carter. That's what he says in Matthew 16:27, For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward everyone according to what they have done.
In his book called Heaven, Randy Alcorn tells this story, "I once gave one of my books to a delightful hotel bellman. I discovered he was a committed Christian. He said he'd been praying for our group, which was holding a conference at the hotel. Later, I give him a little gift, a rough wooden cross. He seemed stunned, overwhelmed even. With tears in his eyes he said, 'You don't need to do that. I'm only a bellman.' The moment he said it, I realized that this brother had spent his life serving. It will likely be someone like him that I'll have the privilege of serving under in God's kingdom. He was 'only a bellman' who spoke with warmth and love, who served, who quietly prayed in the background for the success of a conference in his hotel. I saw Jesus in that bellman, and there was no 'only' about him. Who will be the kings of the new earth? I think that bellman will be one of them. And I'll be honored to carry his bags."
God will choose who will reign as kings and queens in his kingdom and there will be some great surprises. Jesus promises rewards for giving to the poor and praying and fasting in secret, for welcoming prophets, for giving a cup of cold water to a child, for loving and serving, for enduring and using our gifts, for being faithful and making sacrifices of family and property and security for him, for longing for his return. He promises great rewards to those who are persecuted for his name's sake.
In Matthew 5:11-12 he says, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus is going to reward those who suffer for his name. I think of these words often when we pray for the persecuted church, our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering for his name all around the world, or when I meet believers who have taken hits because of their stand for Christ. They will be the heroes in God's kingdom. He'll make sure of it.
I certainly don't understand everything about rewards in God's kingdom. I don't know how far to push the imagery of crowns and thrones and ruling and reigning. But as I read the Scriptures I get the distinct impression that nothing will bring us greater joy than the privilege of serving Christ forever and ever. And the more we serve Christ now, the greater our capacity will be to serve him then.
Service is not a punishment. It's a reward. And that may be hard for us to understand especially if we have a job that we really don't like and we're looking forward to heaven being one eternal day off. But that's not the picture that Jesus paints for us.
Instead, serving him will be our greatest thrill. One writer I read this week makes a strong case that rewards in the kingdom will be a greater capacity to enjoy heaven and intimacy with Christ.
He says, "In God's kingdom there will be degrees of happiness in a world of perfect joy."
Whatever these rewards are and whatever form they take Jesus says, Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.
In his book The Weight of Glory C. S. Lewis writes, "Indeed, if we consider the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased … There are different kinds of rewards ….The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation."
All we have been desiring all our lives, all we have been reaching for, working for, sacrificing for, and suffering for in our pursuit of the kingdom of God, will finally and fully come to us.
Graduation's coming. Are you getting ready? Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never give in, especially when it comes to serving Christ and his kingdom.
Revelation 22:12 says, Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what they have done.