Rewards
There are numerous rewards in the Bible that are given based on the measure we love Jesus. The rewards are real and not symbolic. Jesus taught more on eternal rewards than any other teacher in the Bible. He takes the rewards very seriously. Like any good parent, God uses rewards to motivate us to do the very things that are best for our own future!
The word "reward" is mentioned 29 times in the New Testament. The vast majority of the time it is used by Jesus in the context of teaching and doing the sermon on the mount. The other major teaching in the Bible about rewards is in Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation. Both Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5,6, and 7) are the two passages in the Bible that promise rewards for doing and teaching those things. In Revelation 1:3, John promises a blessing for reading and "keeping" the prophecy. We "keep" it by knowing it and making choices that reflect our belief in it. The Sermon on the Mount is dynamically "tied" to the Book of Revelation. One cannot be fully understood without the other.
In Revelation 2 and 3, John is given a picture of the state of Jesus' Body heading into the events described in Revelation. Revelation is all about a wedding, and Chapters 1 through 4 are like the bulletin, introducing us to the people the wedding is all about. The groom is listed first, with Chapter 1 being the most power-packed description of Jesus in the Bible. 30 different descriptions of Jesus are packed into less than 20 verses! Chapters 2 and 3 describe the Bride to Be, and Chapter 4 describes the Father of both the Bride and the Groom. The Father is also officiating over the wedding!
At the beginning of the Book of Revelation, the Bride isn't quite ready! We know Jesus is supposed to marry a pure and spotless Bride...but in Chapters 2 and 3 we find out she has a little work to do! With the exception of the persecuted churches...Smyrna and Philadelphia...Jesus tells the other 5 parts of His Bride to Be how she needs to get ready...what to hold onto and strengthen and what to change now...before it is too late and she misses the wedding altogether. Not being ready for the wedding, means that you will fall away...quit...in the middle of all the intensity leading up to it. All weddings are tense before the actual ceremony starts...Jesus' wedding is the most intense wedding ever. He said many would not prepare and would run out of steam before it was done:
Matthew 25:3, 8-10 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ...And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘ No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
Matthew 22:11-13 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Overcoming self and the world is how you get ready for the wedding. The tribulation (Revelation 6 to 18) is the process leading up to the wedding (Revelation 19). Jesus gives the intensity of tribulation to His Bride as a gift to help her focus on getting ready!
Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
Each expression of Jesus Bride is promised unique rewards for overcoming the world's ways and living in the fullness of Jesus' narrow way...the Sermon on the Mount holds the answer to each shortcoming the 5 churches are supposed to wrestle out of themselves to get spotless and pure.
The rewards are eternal...they last forever. When Jesus returns to earth, He is bringing eternity with Him. You aren't going "off to heaven"...heaven is coming here. Your future wealth, position, residence, and proximity to Jesus' throne will all be established on the earth...forever...based on how you respond to Jesus now. Following Jesus into His kingdom is a two-stage process. Step 1: citizenship (salvation); Step 2: picking your position in the Kingdom (sanctification). The free gift of salvation is "the gate", or entrance into the kingdom. The narrow "way" is the path we all choose to different degrees to draw closer and closer to the throne and all that comes with it.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
If you study the gifts for overcoming in Revelation, you will quickly see they get progressively closer to Jesus' actual throne. Jesus' disciples wanted to be close to His throne forever...at Jesus' right and left. He said basically "if you want to live where I live, you need to decide to live LIKE I live":
Mark 10:36-40 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”
Jesus doesn't pick who sits closest to Him. He offers the seat freely to anyone who would say yes. All of heaven and earth awaits to see who will say "yes" to drinking Jesus' cup most fully! This is an invitation. As God watches my response to Jesus now, He prepares a place for me to reflect my response...I choose how near I will come by how much of Jesus' cup I drink. This is the cup:
John 18:10-11 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
The cup Jesus drank was setting aside all of His own privilege of power and walking in the meekness of a servant...obedient to the Father by the indwelling Holy Spirit...refusing self promotion, refusing storing up wealth...refusing using His time for His own advantage...refusing holding offense, even at His very murderers...becoming nothing so that those He loved could share in His everything...obedience at the cost of His life. This is the Sermon on the Mount. He showed us the way, then turned around and said "if anyone wants to follow me, I offer you an invitation to come as close as you want."
But you can't drink Jesus' cup and the world's cup at the same time:
I Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
Right now many want one foot in a relationship with Jesus, while drinking the nectar the world is selling. The world wants to pretend there is grace to enjoy Jesus' presence without following Him in His way...that we can Have Him without coming under His leadership. This is the self-centered way of the world...this is the nectar of demons. There is only one way to life...the world would call it death. To the measure I choose it, I will live in that measure of glory...forever.
Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.
The word "reward" is mentioned 29 times in the New Testament. The vast majority of the time it is used by Jesus in the context of teaching and doing the sermon on the mount. The other major teaching in the Bible about rewards is in Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation. Both Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5,6, and 7) are the two passages in the Bible that promise rewards for doing and teaching those things. In Revelation 1:3, John promises a blessing for reading and "keeping" the prophecy. We "keep" it by knowing it and making choices that reflect our belief in it. The Sermon on the Mount is dynamically "tied" to the Book of Revelation. One cannot be fully understood without the other.
In Revelation 2 and 3, John is given a picture of the state of Jesus' Body heading into the events described in Revelation. Revelation is all about a wedding, and Chapters 1 through 4 are like the bulletin, introducing us to the people the wedding is all about. The groom is listed first, with Chapter 1 being the most power-packed description of Jesus in the Bible. 30 different descriptions of Jesus are packed into less than 20 verses! Chapters 2 and 3 describe the Bride to Be, and Chapter 4 describes the Father of both the Bride and the Groom. The Father is also officiating over the wedding!
At the beginning of the Book of Revelation, the Bride isn't quite ready! We know Jesus is supposed to marry a pure and spotless Bride...but in Chapters 2 and 3 we find out she has a little work to do! With the exception of the persecuted churches...Smyrna and Philadelphia...Jesus tells the other 5 parts of His Bride to Be how she needs to get ready...what to hold onto and strengthen and what to change now...before it is too late and she misses the wedding altogether. Not being ready for the wedding, means that you will fall away...quit...in the middle of all the intensity leading up to it. All weddings are tense before the actual ceremony starts...Jesus' wedding is the most intense wedding ever. He said many would not prepare and would run out of steam before it was done:
Matthew 25:3, 8-10 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ...And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘ No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
Matthew 22:11-13 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Overcoming self and the world is how you get ready for the wedding. The tribulation (Revelation 6 to 18) is the process leading up to the wedding (Revelation 19). Jesus gives the intensity of tribulation to His Bride as a gift to help her focus on getting ready!
Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
Each expression of Jesus Bride is promised unique rewards for overcoming the world's ways and living in the fullness of Jesus' narrow way...the Sermon on the Mount holds the answer to each shortcoming the 5 churches are supposed to wrestle out of themselves to get spotless and pure.
The rewards are eternal...they last forever. When Jesus returns to earth, He is bringing eternity with Him. You aren't going "off to heaven"...heaven is coming here. Your future wealth, position, residence, and proximity to Jesus' throne will all be established on the earth...forever...based on how you respond to Jesus now. Following Jesus into His kingdom is a two-stage process. Step 1: citizenship (salvation); Step 2: picking your position in the Kingdom (sanctification). The free gift of salvation is "the gate", or entrance into the kingdom. The narrow "way" is the path we all choose to different degrees to draw closer and closer to the throne and all that comes with it.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
If you study the gifts for overcoming in Revelation, you will quickly see they get progressively closer to Jesus' actual throne. Jesus' disciples wanted to be close to His throne forever...at Jesus' right and left. He said basically "if you want to live where I live, you need to decide to live LIKE I live":
Mark 10:36-40 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”
Jesus doesn't pick who sits closest to Him. He offers the seat freely to anyone who would say yes. All of heaven and earth awaits to see who will say "yes" to drinking Jesus' cup most fully! This is an invitation. As God watches my response to Jesus now, He prepares a place for me to reflect my response...I choose how near I will come by how much of Jesus' cup I drink. This is the cup:
John 18:10-11 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
The cup Jesus drank was setting aside all of His own privilege of power and walking in the meekness of a servant...obedient to the Father by the indwelling Holy Spirit...refusing self promotion, refusing storing up wealth...refusing using His time for His own advantage...refusing holding offense, even at His very murderers...becoming nothing so that those He loved could share in His everything...obedience at the cost of His life. This is the Sermon on the Mount. He showed us the way, then turned around and said "if anyone wants to follow me, I offer you an invitation to come as close as you want."
But you can't drink Jesus' cup and the world's cup at the same time:
I Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
Right now many want one foot in a relationship with Jesus, while drinking the nectar the world is selling. The world wants to pretend there is grace to enjoy Jesus' presence without following Him in His way...that we can Have Him without coming under His leadership. This is the self-centered way of the world...this is the nectar of demons. There is only one way to life...the world would call it death. To the measure I choose it, I will live in that measure of glory...forever.
Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.
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