Let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians 5:9–11. In a Protestant church service like this, this is the high point of the service. The Bible talks about how God has exalted His Word above His name. And so, if we worship Him, we want to exalt His name. The proper handling and reception and obedience towards God’s Word is the best way to do that. So, understand that we’re at a high and holy moment in the service.
We’re going to come back to a sermon we started last week. If you’re new today, we hope we see you back soon. We’re in a series called Things to Come. We’re charting the future prophetically. We have looked at several things already. Last time we did the rapture, and now we’re into the judgment seat of Christ. Following the rapture of the church from earth, there will be the review of the church in heaven, where our lives will be looked into and our eternal reward will be apportioned. And this is what’s called the doctrine of the judgment seat of Christ. It’s a message I’ve entitled “Held to Account.” We started it last week. We’ll finish it this morning.
And then, next Sunday morning, we’re going to look at the Great Tribulation. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when you think of some of the most horrible moments in history—from two world wars to Stalin in Russia and Ukraine, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, Isis, just the horror of North Korea—the worst is yet to come. Jesus talks about a time at the end of history that will be unparalleled within history in terms of horror, war, devastation. I’m going to look at that next week. It gets worse before it gets better. So, come and be sobered by it. It’ll drive us to evangelism. It’ll drive us to appreciate what we have in Christ. But that’s next week.
This morning: “Held to Account.” 2 Corinthians 5:9: “Therefore we make it our aim . . .” That could be translated “ambition.” “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” And Paul goes on here to answer the “why.” Why do you want to be found well pleasing to Him? “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.”
In his book What’s Your Spiritual Quotient?, Pastor Mark Brewer tells a story of a Canadian called Henry. After a series of seizures, the doctors discover that Henry has a tumor growing in his brain. They decide that if the tumor is not addressed, he will die. This is 1960s. We have advanced greatly in terms of brain surgery in today’s world, but in the 1960s, brain surgery was cutting edge. It was dangerous. There were no sure outcomes. They laid that all before Henry, but they said, “Look, we’re out of options.” And so, they decided to go for the removal of the tumor.
And they successfully removed the tumor, but they had to cut some of his brain tissue where the tumor had joined itself to his brain. They soon realized—and they anticipated the possibility of this—that Henry came out of it with a loss of long-term memory. What that meant was that he forgot all about his upbringing and childhood. He had no memory of his upbringing in Toronto. He forgot his time in the military. He forgot his career. There was much of his life he forgot. He was kind of living in what he could just immediately remember. In fact, he had to keep being reintroduced to family and friends. After the surgery, when he went to post-surgery appointments with the very men that did the operation, he had to be told who they were and what they did. It proved to be a real challenge. For example, he had a favorite uncle who had just died in recent history, and he had lost memory of that. And so, every time he learned that, he kind of mourned again and again and again for that uncle who had passed.
What comes out of this story is this. Mark Brewer says this: “And Henry became a slave to the moment.” He became a slave to the moment he was living because he had no memory or consciousness of a bigger picture. As I read that story, and as I bring it to your attention this morning, I want to tell you that Henry’s not alone in being a slave to the moment. Many people around us and maybe among us are tied to the immediate. They’re slaves to the moment. They’re trapped in the here and now. You see, our culture has spawned a generation of people who have lost an ability to connect to their past or to think beyond the moment into the future. They are worshipers and devotees of the contemporary culture. What do they want? Everything. When do they want it? Now. They’re living for the here and the now. They are prisoners of this present time. They are slaves to this contemporary moment.
What I want to remind you as the church this morning is that that perspective is spiritual disaster. A disciple of Jesus Christ lives this day for that day. We live this present moment for the age to come. The Christian is someone who has a forever focus. They are not slaves to the moment. Think about 1 John 2:15–17, where John says, look, don’t love the things of this world, because you can’t love the things of this world and be a lover of the Father. And he reminds us as Christians that all that is in this world is passing, but he who does the will of God will endure forever. What’s the implication? Live forever. Have that as your focus. We got that, didn’t we, in 2 Peter 3:10–13? The day of the Lord will come when all that we see and smell and touch and taste will be burned up and the works therein. And, if that’s true, that life has an expiration date and history has a determined end, what manner of people ought we to be in all holy conduct? The Christian can’t be a slave to the moment.
I was rereading some of the writings of Paul Tripp this week. In his book on theology, he has a chapter on eternity. And he talks about the danger of what he calls eternity amnesia, forgetting the eternal, getting caught up in the moment, momentary emotions, momentary pleasures, momentary goals. He says this: “It is so easy and it feels so natural to live for the present. It is so easy to fall into a shrunken-world existence.” Love that image, where everything kind of shrinks down to you and yours and how you’re feeling and what you’re going through and what makes you happy. Are you living “a shrunken-world existence where everything is dominated by the needs, wants, opportunities, or fears of the moment. I am afraid,” says Paul Tripp, “that in the busyness and intensity of daily life, many of us completely lose sight of the future.”
He says this: “The inescapable reality of eternity as a significant part of our culture’s worldview has been stolen away. You will hear no reference to eternity on cable news. You won’t see forever references in culturally significant social media sites. There are no courses at your local university on the impact of eternity on philosophy, politics, and the sciences. There are no books in the self-help section on Amazon on the topic of the family and eternity. . . . There are almost no cultural voices coming from influential cultural institutions that will reinforce your belief in eternity or help you to understand what it means to live in light of it.” It’s true.
The culture we live in will steal a biblical worldview centered on eternity. So, we need to guard our hearts. We need to remind ourselves to have a forever focus. We need to remind ourselves that the life we live today will determine the life we live in the hereafter. We need to remind ourselves day in and day out that we are deciding our next life each day of this life. That’s why we’ve got to seize the moment. We’ve got to redeem the time. That is, we’ve got to buy back from the world, the flesh, and the devil the moment we’re living in and invest it for the sake of our eternal joy.
The person I’m becoming today is preparing me for the person I shall be forever. That’s a profound thought. That’s why Jonathan Edwards resolved this as a young man: “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor . . . I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.” Are you obtaining today for yourself—in what you do and the decisions you make and the things you pursue—as much happiness in the other world that’s possible to grasp? I hope so. And the judgment seat of Christ helps us to that end.
So, let’s come back to 2 Corinthians 5:9, 10, and 11. We said last week this is one of several judgments. We do not believe here at Kindred Community Church in a general resurrection and a general judgment. There are several judgments with different audiences, different perspectives, and different outcomes. And this is the first, the judgment seat of Christ, which we believe will take place after the rapture. Doesn’t Peter tell us that judgment begins in the house of God? Don’t we see Jesus judging the church in Revelation 2 and 3 before He judges the world? And so, the judgment of the people of God in heaven after the rapture is the first part of eternal business.
Now, we started to look at this doctrine under the participants: Jesus and Christians. We looked at the place: heaven. We looked at the period: after the rapture. And we started to look at the purpose. What’s the purpose?
Now, we outlined four things regarding the purpose. We looked at only one of them. We outlined the purpose under four headings: the exposure, the examination, the exaltation, and the embarrassment. The exposure: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” That word means “made manifest.” Our lives will be revealed, turned inside out—that is, our life in Christ and the service we rendered to Him or didn’t. Remember, the judgment is focused not on our sins but on our service. There’s a past judgment as sinners. There’s a present judgment as sons. And there’s a future judgment as servants. And that’s the purpose of the judgment seat of Christ. Our sins will not be judged. They’ve been judged in the blood of Jesus Christ. But our service will. The focus of this judgment is your life after Christ and the service you did or didn’t render for the purpose of determining the weight of your glory or the extent of your reward.
Now, we looked at the exposure, but what we’re doing now is looking at what I call the examination. The exposure: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” The examination: “that each one may receive the things”—notice—“done in the body, according to what he has done.” What’s going to be judged? The things we did for Jesus or should have done for Jesus. That’s what’s going to be examined: “the things done in the body.” Now, remember, the body is the instrument through which we live our lives, and it is the instrument we dedicate to serving the Lord. That’s Romans 12:1–2: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice . . . which is your reasonable service [and worship].” Romans 6:13 tells us that before we came to Christ, we dedicated our body as an instrument of sin. But, having come to Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in obedience to the law of God revealed in the Word of God, we now dedicate our bodies as “instruments of righteousness.”
So, the examination will be about what we did as Christians in the body for the time that God allotted. That’s the parable of the talents, isn’t it? Matthew 25:14–30. The focus is our post-Christian life and the dedication we showed as a disciple of Christ. Let me repeat because it bears repeating that works don’t merit heaven. This judgment seat is not to determine who gets into heaven. It will determine what we do in heaven. Our works don’t contribute to us getting into heaven, but they do contribute to what we will do in heaven. Titus 3:5 would remind us it’s “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” You’ve got a similar thought in 2 Timothy 1:9. You and I can’t do more than Christ has already done.
We don’t need to add to anything He has done because on the cross, in John 19:30, He accomplished the work of redemption. He made atonement. He poured out His soul unto death so that you and I might have life. He said, “It is finished!” Complete, accomplished, paid for. When it comes to your sin, Calvary covers it all. Amen? Eternal life is a gift. In the words of the old hymn, when you get to the gates of heaven:
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross [and the work of Christ] I cling;
. . .
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears [of repentance and penance] forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
And He does. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). And He’ll give it to you this morning, my friend, if you’ll acknowledge your sin. Confess that you’ve fallen short of God’s glory and you’re unable to meet the holy demands of a just God. But you’ve come to see a Savior and a substitute in Jesus Christ who bore the demands of God’s law and absorbed the wrath that was due you. If you’ll embrace those truths with your heart today, you’ll be saved. And God will give you the gift of eternal life.
When it comes to the religions in this world, there are only two kinds. There are only two columns. Christianity is in one by itself, and all the other religions are in the other column. If you look at the column that has Judaism and Buddhism and Islam and all the religions of the world in there, it can be described in one word: do. Two letters: D-O. Those religions are all about human accomplishment, rules and rituals and requirements. You’re left wondering, do you match up? But over in the other column is Christianity by itself. And there’s one word that describes it: done. Jesus did it. Jesus accomplished it. Jesus completed the work of redemption. My friend, if you die and go to hell, it’ll be because of two letters in the alphabet: N-E. If you want to be saved, you’ve got to recognize it was done: D-O-N-E. You’ve got to add the N-E to the D-O and put your faith where God put your sin. Spurgeon said, “Human nature’s way of salvation is, ‘Do, do, do.’ But God’s way of salvation is, ‘Done, done, it is all done.’ You have but to rely by faith on the atonement that Christ accomplished on the cross.”
Now, with that qualification made, I want to move on. We are not saved by works. But, hold on, grab your seat. We are saved unto good works. This is important because good works are important, and their importance lies in where you place them. Now, don’t be placing them before you’re a Christian, but do place them after you’re a Christian. Calvin said, “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” Let’s go to Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10: “For by grace [God’s unmerited favor in Christ] you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.” No doing; it’s done. “. . . that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” But notice, we are His masterpiece. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” which He has planned for us to do. We’re not saved by good works, but once we’re saved, we are saved unto good works.
Read the book of Titus and see how many times Titus uses the word “good works.” While works do not merit the gift of eternal life, they do prove the existence of eternal life. In Matthew 7:15–20, Jesus said a good tree produces good fruit. If your life and my life is rooted in Jesus Christ, the fruit will be love and patience and kindness and goodness and fruitfulness. In James 2:14–19, James says, “Hey, I hear you say you’ve got faith. I hear you say you’ve got trust in God. Now show me it.” It’s not like you can put your hand in your pocket and pull faith out and set it on the table. No, faith must be seen in works. Faith produces works. Union with Christ produces a changed life. So, we’re not saved by works, because eternal life is a gift, but the possession of eternal life is proven by works because the Spirit of God will change the person He has come to dwell within.
Here’s the point I’m getting to. Good works will be the ground of our eternal reward. That’s where we’re at in 2 Corinthians 5:9, 10, and 11. When we get to the judgment seat of Christ, the things we did in the body will be looked at, and we will receive—we’ll be paid back—that which we’re due. And so, good works are important. Revelation 14:13: They will follow us. Speaking of tribulation saints, there’s an interesting little phrase: “and their works follow them.” Where to? To heaven, to be judged and rewarded. Your works will follow you. I love Revelation 22:12. We’ve quoted it a few times now, where Jesus says, “I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
As Protestants, we believe that works are meritorious post-conversion. They’re meritorious in that they don’t win heaven, but they win rewards. They can obtain for us, in the words of Jonathan Edwards, great happiness in the life to come.
Listen to Melanchthon, Luther’s confidant and a Reformation theologian: “We [that is, Protestants] teach that good works are meritorious, not for the remission [forgiveness] of sins, for grace or justification (for these we obtain only by faith), but for other rewards, bodily and spiritual, in this life and after this life, because Paul says, 1 Cor. 3:8: Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor. There will, therefore be different rewards according to different labors.” There will be distinctions of glory among the saints. Let that settle in. Protestant theology teaches that works are meritorious post-conversion. They don’t win eternal life, but they do win eternal rewards.
So, we are going to be judged. Our lives are going to be looked at. What will be considered? Let me just throw some things your way for consideration. What we did with what we had in the time given. We’re given gifts, spiritual gifts, to be discovered and employed. We’ve got natural abilities. God sets before us, in His providence, doors of opportunity and avenues of service. And that’s all going to be looked into. Did you use your gifts? Did you employ your talents? Did you go through those doors of opportunity? What we did with what we had in the time given.
I think, too, what we didn’t do through lost opportunity. Is that not the implication of the parable of the talents? We have got that third servant who sat on his one talent. He didn’t lose it, but he didn’t develop it. He didn’t do anything. And Jesus says, “You’re a wicked and lazy servant.” What struck me—and we looked at that a few weeks ago at our men’s breakfast—is the sin of passivity, that our lives are not just about what we do but what we fail to do. And I think that’s going to play into this—not in terms of sin because we don’t get judged concerning our sin. But, if we’re going to suffer loss, if we’re going to lose reward, the losing of the reward can happen because we could have been more than we were. But, through passivity, we didn’t become what we could have been and achieve what was within reach of our hand to do.
What we did with what we had and the time given. What we didn’t do through lost opportunity. And then, finally, how we did what we did in terms of motive. If you go to 1 Corinthians 3:13, Paul says that our works will be judged concerning their quality or the sort of work it was—because you and I can do the right thing the wrong way. It’s tough, I get it. You say, “Pastor, I’ve got to avoid doing the wrong thing.” Yeah, you do. “And I’ve got to do the right thing.” Yeah, but you got to make sure you do it the right way.
Yes, sanctification is tough, challenging. But you know what? That’s what’s going to be judged—not just what you did or what you didn’t do but how you did what you did. Did you do it for the glory of God? Whether you eat or you drink, you do it for the glory of God. Did you do it out of love for others?
In fact, talking about the quality of our works, go back to our text: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body”—notice this—“according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Now, you immediately are going to say, “Pastor, you’ve told us that our sins are not going to be judged, and yet the text seemed to say we’re going to be judged on whether we were good or bad.” The word “bad” there in the Greek means “unworthy” or “useless” or “less than good.” Paul could have used another Greek word that meant “evil,” “morally wrong.” That’s not the word he uses. So, He’s going to look at what we did, as to whether it was worthy or unworthy, useful or useless, good or less than good, not what it could have been. We’re dealing with quality of work here, and that’s challenging.
In his book Are These the Last Days?, Robert Gromacki kind of illustrates the difference. He uses an analogy which I enjoyed, which was a golf analogy. He says, I want you to imagine two players are playing; they’re on the 16th hole. Both of them plop their balls in a bunker right off the green. The first player gets into the bunker, and he takes a beautiful swing. He knocks the ball out of the bunker. It’s a clean shot to within twelve inches of the pen. The other guy, not so good. He skulls it, and it goes out of the one bunker, across the green, through a second bunker, hits a tree, comes back through the second bunker, back onto the green within twelve inches of the pen. Now, the outcome is the same. Both are left twelve inches from the pen. But one was a good shot, and the other was a bad shot in terms of quality.
The result was the same, but when you get down to quality, one was worthy of the game of golf, and the other one was not. And that’s his point. I’ll quote him, he says, “Both men accomplished the same purpose. They put the ball close to the hole. All would agree, however, that one was a good shot and the other was a poor or a bad shot. So it is in the spiritual realm. The end does not justify the means. God wants to evaluate the shots of our life as well as the end result.” How you did what you did and why you did it. Folks, it’s challenging. It is challenging.
Let’s move on to what I call the exaltation. The exposure: we must all appear. The examination: things done in the body—the things we did, the things we didn’t do, could have done, and why we did what we did. Now, the exaltation, the reward. This judgment seat is what we call the Bema. It’s a Greek word. We looked at this last week. It talked about an elevated platform from which, in the Greek games¬—which is a forerunner to the Olympic Games—the judges adjudicated the athletes as they competed, that they compete according to the rules, and then who won. And whoever won was given a stephanos, a crown, which was typically a wreath, a garland, that was perishable. And that’s why, in 1 Corinthians 9:25, Paul takes that sporting analogy, and he says, hey, they run to win a corruptible crown, a fading honor. We run to win an incorruptible crown of lasting value.
And so, my friend, you and I are running for future reward and for eternal honor, and the Bible’s unashamed about that. In fact, our text is very open about it: “That each one may receive the things done in the body.” The Greek word for “receive” there means “to be received back what is due.” So Jesus is going to look at what we did in the body or didn’t do in the body and why we did what we did in the body, and then that will determine what we receive back from Him, what He gives us, the awards we receive.
I don’t have time to go through all the verses I have in my notes, but I’ll do a couple of verses in the Old Testament and then a couple of verses in the New Testament. The Bible is unafraid and unashamed to motivate you to discipleship and evangelism by future reward. It’s the carrot on the end of the stick. It’s the accelerant to be a better Christian and to do more for God. Psalm 58:11; listen to what the psalmist says:
So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”
Proverbs 11:12 picks up a similar theme and reminds us again that God rewards the righteous. Aren’t you glad He does? He’s not unmindful to forget your works (Heb. 6:10). But Proverbs 11:12, “He who is devoid of wisdom . . .” Hold on a minute, let me see. That is not the verse. Okay, skip that. Let’s go back to Psalm 62:12, and you’ve got a similar thought. I wanted to just go to another book; I’ll get that right later on. But Psalm 62:12:
Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You render to each one according to his work.
If you go over into the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Jesus talks about those who persecute you and those who malign you and mock you and despise who you are. Jesus says, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Will you endure the public scrutiny and the public scorn knowing that your reward will be great in heaven?
And then, if you go to Ephesians 6, which we looked at, and the whole thought of you and I using our career as a means of kingdom advancement, dedicating what we do on a daily basis to the Lord—what does Paul say? He says this: “Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord.”
Now, I want to pause. I want you to rethink the idea of self-denial. It’s a biblical idea. Jesus said, “You know what? Take up your cross and deny yourself.” Paul talks about how “I have suffered the loss of all things” (Phil. 3). So, the Bible calls us to suffer and sacrifice and deny our pleasures, our momentary gain, for the purpose of God’s kingdom and the advancement of God’s glory among the nations. But I do want to remind you that self-denial is not an end in itself. We are not monastical, and we are certainly not masochistic. We deny ourselves, one, because Jesus taught us to do it. Jesus modeled it in the incarnation, and it’s a means by which the gospel prospers. But we also do it because we gain from the denial; we benefit from the sacrifice. And the Bible doesn’t seem to be ashamed or afraid to drive us in that direction. The Christian’s self-denial is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end, which is greater happiness in the life to come.
Let me give you an example of this. I could give you many, but time doesn’t allow me. Let’s listen to what motivated Moses when he made decisions that cost him in the immediate while he was living as a son of Pharaoh. Listen to this. Hebrews 11:24: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused . . .” There’s self-denial; there’s sacrifice. Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin . . .” But here’s what motivated that. Here’s what drove that. It wasn’t self-denial as an end in itself. It was to a more glorious end, to a greater happiness, because he says in verse 26, “. . . esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”
The self-denial was not an end in itself. It was a means to an end: reward, greater riches. We are not fools. The Christian’s not a fool. See, the world would look at us and say, “Hey, you tithe? You’re a fool. Now you’ve got limited income. You pray and you fast? You guys are fools. So much good food to enjoy. You’re forgoing a good time.” I could go on making the analogies. They look at us, and they see denial. They see dedication, and they see us giving things up and sacrificing. And they go, “You fool.” But we’re not fools. Why? For he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose. Who said that? Jim Elliot, who was martyred for the cause of Christ. His life was snuffed out in the bloom of life, but he was no fool, was he, as his body laid bleeding from the arrows he absorbed from a people he tried to reach with the gospel? He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose. Friends, just remember that when you’re thinking about self-denial.
Now, when it comes to these rewards, I’ve got a question: what are they? What will be the recompense? What will be the payback? Now, this is a study in itself, and I’m going to run through these quickly. I’ll probably leave more questions than answers. But there are several good books on this doctrine: Heavenly Rewards by Mark Hitchcock, Facing Your Final Job Review by Woodrow Kroll, Your Eternal Reward by Erwin Lutzer, The Judgment Seat of Christ by Samuel Hoyt. You can get any of those books and delve into this.
As I scanned those books and studied the Scriptures, I came up with several avenues of reward. Let me just make a start in answering the question “What are the shape and size of our rewards?” Number one, it’ll be the Lord Himself. Just start there—and, you could say, finish there. It’s the Lord Himself—just to be with Him, be in His presence, see His glory, enjoy His pleasure forevermore. That in itself is pleasure, reward number one. That would be Genesis 15:1, where God says to Abraham, “I am . . . your exceedingly great reward.”
What about Philippians 1? Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That’s a word that means it’s profitable for me to die. Paul, what’s the profit? Well, in that context, can I tell you what the profit is? It’s Christ and more of Christ. For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Now, I’m caught between staying here and ministering to you or going to be with Christ, which is what? Far better. See, he wants to be with Christ. He knows Christ now through the Spirit, but when he’s glorified in the presence of God, he’ll know Christ more. And he wants more of Christ. Read Philippians 3:8: that I might know the excellency, the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, for which I am willing to suffer the loss of all things that I might gain Him. I think that’s reward number one: the Lord Himself, more of Christ.
Number two, increased joy. We’ll all enjoy heaven, don’t get me wrong, but for some there will be increased joy because they will have reason for increased joy. There’ll be a greater capacity to enjoy heaven because you’ll be surrounded, perhaps, by people you led to Christ. You say, “Pastor, where do you get that idea?” Well, 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20, where Paul anticipates, one of the things I’m looking forward to is you in the presence of God with me. That will be my joy and crown.
Vindication: Matthew 25:21, where we read in the parable of Jesus that when our life is looked into and God rewards us for what we’ve done for Him, you’ll hear that “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Isn’t it a wonderful thing to be vindicated? Have you ever been proven right, where people charge you with wrong, or they overlooked you, or there was an injustice done, and there comes a day when you’re vindicated? Vindication’s a beautiful thing, and we—the Master’s minority who are victimized and maligned and mocked and overlooked and persecuted by the church—will someday have our vindication. I think it’s in Thessalonians where Paul talked about how “He comes . . . to be glorified in His saints” (2 Thess. 1:10). I wish that for the persecuted brothers all around the world. I hope they hang on. I hope they keep going, because the vindication’s coming. The mockery will stop. The “well done” will be heard.
Kingdom authority, over in Revelation 2:26–27. In fact, it’s talking about rewards and motivation. Jesus, in all of His letters to the churches, lays before them the hope of eternal reward as an incentive to faithfulness. In chapter 2:26, this is to the church at Thyatira:
“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father.”
I think that’s a reference to the millennial kingdom. And it would seem that some more than others will enjoy places of authority and seats of honor in that kingdom. If we endure, we shall reign with Him. Mark Hitchcock talks about today is “training time for reigning time.”
Remember how David was anointed by Samuel to be king during the administration of Saul? Saul didn’t like that, so he hunted David with jealousy. David had to escape, and over time, he picked up a bunch of guys, the mighty men of David. They were all outcasts and outliers, and they spent many years in exile, with little food, dodging bullets. In fact, David had two opportunities to kill Saul and take the throne, and he didn’t. He was waiting for God’s time, for the kingdom to come in God’s way. And then, it did come, and all those outcasts and outliers became generals in David’s administration. They were within his government and exercising rule.
Doug McIntosh, in his book on the Christian pilgrim, said that’s a metaphor. Our King is in exile, and in this world, we are the outcasts and the outliers. But the kingdom is coming. If we prove faithful to the King, He’ll prove loyal to us, and we’ll have seats in His administration. What are you doing in exile? Are you down in the mouth? Don’t become down in the mouth. You’re not going to get the acclaim from this old world. You’re going to get it from the Master.
What about an ability to manifest God’s glory? Daniel 12:3 talks about how those who win people to Christ will shine like the stars. First Corinthians 15:41 talks about how the different stars have different capacities to shine and radiate. That’s used in the context of resurrected bodies, so it has led several prophetic theologians to speculate about perhaps one of the rewards will be in our glorified body. We will have an ability to radiate the glory of God. I can’t go any further than that other than that seems to be an implication of those texts. Old Dwight Pentecost at Dallas Theological Seminary said, look, we’re all going to be part of this wonderful chandelier, so to speak. We’re all going to radiate God’s glory. We’re all going to, in a perfected state, reflect His workmanship. But, as in a chandelier, you might have 20 watt bulbs and 30 watt bulbs and 40 watt bulbs and 50 watt bulbs¬—just saying.
And then, finally, the Bible talks about crowns, five of them: the incorruptible crown for self-control, the crown of glory for the faithful pastor, the crown of life for the person who endures trial and the martyr, so on, so forth. Whatever that means, stephanos just says the runner would receive the crown which was of fading value. We are after these incorruptible honors that last forever.
And here’s what I like. Maybe one of the awards will be a crown which we will be able to use to worship Christ. Don’t you want to worship Him in a way that shows His worth? David talks about, I don’t want to give anything to the Lord that costs me nothing. What about Revelation 4:10, where it says the elders before the throne of God cast their crowns. That’s where you get the group Casting Crowns. They cast their crowns before the throne. If there’s some merit to that, don’t you want to win a crown? Enjoy that honor. But, in a moment of realization, it’s not like you’re going to plop it on your head and walk down the streets of gold going . . .
No, it’s not about you. It’s about Him. And so, what you’ll want to do is, “Lord, thank You for the honor, but it’s all grace. So, I’m going to take that honor, and I want to honor You by casting it before You.” I want to be able to do that, don’t you? The worshiping of a way worthy of that. I like that idea.
Queen Victoria had a chaplain who was an evangelical minister and who often preached on the Second Coming. One day, she said to him, “Dr. Farah, I hope that Jesus comes in my lifetime because I want to cast my crown at His feet.”
There are degrees of reward. That’s the implication of this. If we’re going to be judged according to our work and some of us can suffer loss, then there’s going to be degrees of reward. Some Christians have done more than other Christians. Some Christians have done less than most. There’s going to be degrees of reward. Second Corinthians 9:6 talks about sowing bountifully and reaping bountifully. Jesus said, “I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Rev. 22:12). Our text talks about the things done in the body, and we will receive according to the things which we have done. I hope it doesn’t bother you to think about degrees of reward in heaven. We’re not going to be the same in heaven. We’re not going to enjoy the same in heaven.
Jonathan Edwards, who many claim to be the greatest American theologian, talked about the hierarchy of heaven, that heaven will be hierarchical—that there will be some who will have greater seats of honor, a greater capacity to reflect the glory of God, a greater capacity to enjoy God in the light of His work through them.
Here’s what Edward says on another occasion: “There are many mansions in God’s house because heaven is intended for various degrees of honor and blessedness. Some are designed to sit in higher places there than others; some are designed to be advanced to higher degrees of honor and glory than others are.” And he goes on. I want you to think about that.
Here’s the implication then: run so as to win. How much of heaven do you want? How much of heaven do you want? “Oh, pastor, I’ll just be happy to get there.” That’s a fallacy. That’s not what the Bible teaches you to say. “I’ll just be happy to get there.” Well, of course we’ll be happy to get there. We’ll all be happy when we’re there. But, if there are degrees of glory, don’t you want to win them? I’m amazed that on earth Christians are capitalists, but in heaven they’re socialists. Don’t do that. Don’t be that. That’s why Edward said, “I seek to obtain for myself all the happiness that my effort can produce by God’s grace” (paraphrased).
Run so as to win. Have you got a godly drivenness? We just saw Moses; he looked to the reward. John says in 2 John 1:8, don’t lose your full reward. Don’t be, in the words of C. S. Lewis, easily pleased. You know that quote? I’m paraphrasing it. Lewis says, if you read the Gospels and the promises that God gives us about eternal reward and growing happiness in the life to come, then God finds us “far too easily pleased.” We’re like kids jumping about in a muddy puddle in a slum when the ocean beckons us. Let’s not be capitalists on earth and socialists in heaven. Have a holy ambition. Be passionate. Go for it.
The runner that competes competes to win. The playoffs are happening today. I would assume that the players on each of the teams want to win. If not, why are you suiting up? Get your head bashed in for nothing? No, you want to win. You want the Lombardi trophy. Paul’s saying the same thing to us. Don’t you want to win? So, don’t beat the air like a boxer missing his punches. Don’t be like a runner who doesn’t discipline himself and get in shape so he can win.
Just recently, a package arrived at our KTT offices. They weren’t sure what to do with it, but I immediately understood what it was. Somebody had sent me a beautiful hoodie. On the front of the hoodie were these words: “Because I couldn’t go for three.” I understood it. It was a fellow Buckeye who listens to us in Ohio who sent me the hoodie. The story behind that statement is that once, Ohio State was playing Michigan, and they were slaughtering them. In the last minute of the game, the Ohio State got down and scored a touchdown, which was running up the score. And Woody Hayes went for two points. Then, he was asked why he went for two points when they were already like 20 or 30 points ahead. He said, “Because I couldn’t go for three.” Love it. I have that hoodie. It’s a prized possession. “Because I couldn’t go for three.” Is that the attitude? No, for most Christians, we settle for the minimum, mediocrity. God finds us far too easily pleased.
In the light of all that, by the way too, we want to maybe rethink . . . Time’s going to beat me this morning, but I don’t want a part three; neither do you. So, here’s a little thing just to mull over, and we’ll try and wrap this up in the next five minutes. Romans 8:18: Remember that your present suffering is not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed. Now, we can’t eradicate the word “sacrifice” from our language, but we should certainly reinvent it a little bit. Do we really sacrifice for the Lord, in the light of what’s coming, in the light of our sacrifices?
Listen to David Livingstone, who ministered for Christ in Africa: “For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?” Well, is it? No, it’s not a sacrifice. Or, back to that idea: it’s not really self-denial when you consider what you’re going to get from your self-denial.
Now, this doesn’t mean that heaven will be divided into the haves and the have nots. That’s a question I’ve got to answer quickly. “Pastor, if there’s degrees of glory in heaven, then there’s the haves and the have nots. And will that not lead to comparison and competition, and maybe even sadness, as one Christian looks at another Christian who is at a better place, so to speak, than they are in the eternal world and the life to come?” No, because it’s a place of perfection. So, there’ll be no jealousy. And it’s a place of happiness, for every man will receive praise from God (1 Cor. 4:5). And it’s a place in a culture of love. And what is love at its heart? You seek the good of another.
And so, actually, when you see another brother, and you see the good that they’re enjoying, you’re not going to be jealous. You’re going to love the fact that they’re loving all that God has given them, and it’s not going to bother you. First Corinthians 12:26: We sorrow with those who sorrow, and we rejoice with those who rejoice. If that’s what we’re called to do on earth in our fallen state, it’s something we’ll be able to do in our perfected state.
And I think this is a good little analogy. None of us are going to come out of the judgment seat empty-handed. We’re all going to receive our praise from God. Some of what we did will be burned up, and we’ll suffer loss. Hold that thought for one minute. But there’s much that awaits us. And while there will be different capacities to enjoy God, have intimacy with God, and serve God, whatever our capacity is, it will be a fullness of satisfaction. One writer, I think it was Norman Geisler said this: “Everyone in heaven will be fully blessed, but not everyone will be equally blessed. Every believer’s cup will be full and running over, but not everyone’s cup will be the same size. We determine in time what our capacity for appreciating God will be in eternity.” So, that’s a simple little analogy. If you go home today and open a cupboard, there are different sizes of cups. Now, if you decide to take a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in one of those cups and you fill it to the top, the cup is full. But there are different cups with different capacities. But they can all be full. And so, I think that’s a good analogy, a good answer. Well, there’ll be different capacities and differences of glory. Our joy will be full.
I don’t have time to get into the embarrassment. We’ve kind of touched on that. The exposure, the examination, the exaltation, the embarrassment. We’ve touched on this along the way, but there will be loss and lament for Christians in heaven. It’s real, and it’s sobering that we’ve only got a short time to win these awards, to win this glory, and all of eternity to enjoy it. If that’s true, what’s it going to be like when you get to the judgment seat and your life is looked into—just you and the Lord—and opportunities are revisited that you missed or things that you did with the wrong attitude or things you could have done more? First Corinthians 3:15 says, we’ll “suffer loss.” That’s the loss of reward. It’s not so much that we’re going to lose what we have. We can’t lose our salvation, and we can’t lose the rewards we have won. But what we’re going to lose is the rewards we could have won.
So, the loss, in a sense, is this. The loss is you could have been this, and you didn’t become this. And you could have done that, but you didn’t do that. Therefore, there’s no reward. So, the loss of reward is not so much in terms of possession; it’s in terms of potential. That’s why you need holy ambition. We don’t want to be ashamed when He comes (1 John 2:28).
I’ll give you one quote and wrap up. Dr. Graham Scroggie said, “I would rather go through the Great Tribulation than endure what I believe some Christians will go through at the Judgment Seat of Christ.” That’s a sobering thought.
The last one is preparation, which isn’t really a whole thought that I need to develop. So, now we’ve looked at the participants: Christ and Christians. We’ve looked at the place: heaven. We’ve looked at the period: after the rapture. We’ve looked at the purpose: the judgment of our works for the apportionment of our rewards. And those rewards will differ from saint to saint, depending on their aim and ambition in life.
What’s the preparation? When I was at The Master’s Seminary, sometimes on a Thursday . . . We typically didn’t have Friday classes. It was usually Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Sometimes on a Thursday, the professor would say, “Hey, we’ve got a quiz next Tuesday, and here are the questions for the quiz.” He’d give you general areas to study up on, and then you’d face the test.
We’re going to be tested. But, if you read your Bible, the Bible gives you the questions that are going to be on the test. I’m just going to read down them, and we’re done. How did you handle mistreatment (Matt. 5:11–12)? That will determine reward. How did you witness and evangelize for Christ (Daniel 12:3)? That will determine reward. How did you manage your money (1 Tim. 6:17–19)? That will determine your reward.
How did you endure your trials, handle your suffering (James 1:12)? That will determine your reward. How did you exercise self-control in a world that’s out of control (1 Cor. 9:25–27)? That will determine your reward. How did you live in the light of eternity? Did you love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8)? That will determine your reward. How did you act at work? Were you punctual? Did you produce quality work? Were you a team player (Col. 3:22–24)? That will determine your reward. How you served the saints (Heb. 6:10), that will determine your reward. How you used your time (1 Pet. 1:17), that will determine your reward. How you sought God secretly in prayer will determine your reward (Matt. 6:6). How you employed your talents will determine your reward (Matt. 25:14–29). Last couple. How you treated strangers and the poor (Luke 14:12–14), that will determine your reward. How you handled your enemies (Luke 6:27–35), that will determine your reward. And how you lived God’s plan for your life (1 Cor. 9:26), that will determine your reward.
Go back over those later on. Read every one of those verses, and you will find the word “reward” in every one of them. These are the areas, these are the questions, on the test. And you want to get ready for the test, don’t you? Because the life you live forever, you are deciding each and every day of this life. Let’s not live for the moment. Let’s not be tied to the immediate. Let’s not be a prisoner to the present time. Let’s look for the reward. Let’s live this day for that day.
Father, we thank You for our time in the Word. Thank You for this patient congregation. We pray that there’s much to reflect on. May we meditate on this word day and night for a few days so that we might indeed suck the sweetness from it and remind us that the Lord is good and that all that we do for Him, we will be rewarded for. In the scheme of things, when it’s all settled, there really wasn’t any sacrifice we made that won’t be repaid tenfold or a hundredfold or a thousandfold.
So, Lord, given the bigness of the offer, given the glory of the prospect, help us not to be so easily pleased. Help us not to spend our lives accumulating the trinkets of this world. Help us not to tinker around eternal life. Help us not to live a shrunken worldview, but give us an expansive view of the world to come and the glory that awaits the believer. As we see the sun setting, and we see the storm clouds gathering, and we see biblical prophecy unfolding, help us to get radical and real. It’s only a short time to win these awards and a long time to enjoy them. Help us to repent. Help us to reevaluate. Help us to resolve to obtain for ourselves as much happiness in the life to come as our efforts can bring about, united to Christ and empowered by the Spirit. And we pray and ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.