......................................................................................................
Heavenly
Rewards: Longevity
Nathan Jones
Are heavenly rewards
temporal or permanent?
To answer that question, Dr.
David Reagan and I on our television program Christ
in Prophecy invited Glenn Meredith, senior pastor for 30 years
of Brookhaven Church in
McKinney, Texas. Pastor Meredith is a very gifted communicator who is able to
present the depths of God’s Word in simple to understand language. Last fall he
presented a sermon about heavenly rewards that deeply impressed Dr. Reagan, and
so he was invited to share some of what he’s learned about this topic.
Temporal or Permanent
Dr. Reagan: Glenn,
the most fascinating part of your sermon on heavenly rewards was the last
section where you talked about whether or not these rewards would be something
temporary or permanent.
The traditional teaching has
always been that the rewards are very temporary. You receive them, then you put
them back down at the feet of Jesus to honor Him. That’s it.
You walk away and that’s the
end of your rewards. This imagery is based primarily upon one scene in the book
of Revelation, where in chapter four it shows some elders in Heaven who have
some golden crowns and they place them at the feet of Jesus.
Glenn, you shared your view
of eternal rewards not being temporary in nature, and that really got me to
thinking. So, I want you to share with us your thinking about how long our
heavenly rewards last.
Glenn Meredith: That’s
always sort of been my understanding. It was certainly what I was taught, or at
least what I kind of picked up through the years.
That was we would get these
crowns if we’d live faithfully and we’d be given a crown perhaps at the
Judgment Seat, but then very shortly thereafter there would be this great
worship service there in Heaven where we’d take off our crown and we’d casted
it at the feet of Jesus.
Then, from that point on,
everything is just the same for each of us. We got nothing else going forward.
As I was reading the Bible,
one day I’m looking at 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul is exhorting the
Corinthian believers to run this race to win this crown.
Paul
says to them, “That
the runners who runs in the games run to get a crown that is temporary, but we
do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
And so, while it seems a
little strange that his whole point there is not to run for a temporary crown,
if our heavenly crown was temporary, then that takes away some of the
motivation I think of why we should strive for it.
But,
Paul says the opposite. H says, “You
ought to run for this crown that will last forever.”
Get over to 1 Peter
5 where he talks about the Crown of Glory that is given to faithful
pastors and shepherds of the flock.
It
says, “When the Chief
Shepherd shall appear, He will bring with Him a gift to you — an unfading Crown
of Glory.”
That word “unfading” really means “perpetual” or
“forever,” and it’s the same word that is used earlier in 1 Peter where he’s
talking about our inheritance in Heaven which is unfading and imperishable.
And so, I believe that the
rewards are going to be permanent.
I believe as you’ve already
pointed out, Dave, that this authority that we’re given to rule and reign is in
the Millennial Kingdom, but He also says that we will reign with Him forever
and ever in the eternal state. That’s why I believe this authority is
permanent.
Dr. Reagan: What’s
wonderful to me is to think about the fact that we will have as he puts it, “the mind of Christ.”
I’m not sure what all that
means as that’s a mighty big statement, but it says we’re going to have the
mind of Christ.
We’ll be in glorified bodies
and will be in such a state that we will not be the least bit jealous or
envious of any other person’s crown or any glory that is given to them.
Instead,
we would want to go up and hug them and say, “I’m so glad for you. It’s so wonderful that you did all these wonderful
things for the advancement of the kingdom.”
Isn’t that wonderful to think
of having an existence like that?
Glenn Meredith: Exactly!
Think about how you feel when your children or when someone that you love
excels or does something that is honored. You are happy for them.
Well, I think that’s how it’s
going to be in eternity. We are going to love one another there. We are all
part of the same family. We are going to love one another, so I think that’s
exactly right.
I
believe rather than being jealous I think we are going to look and say, “Man, I’m just so blessed by you.”
Dr. Reagan: I
think in our fallen state right now that’s very hard to imagine. We think we’re
just going to be consumed with jealously and envy.
Glenn Meredith: Yes,
that’s correct.
Nathan Jones: There’s
a beautiful scene in the movie The
Chronicles of Narnia. It shows I think C.S. Lewis believed what you
do, Pastor Glenn, that these crowns we’re given we keep. You use them as acts
of worship. You’ll take them off and bow before the Lord, but then you put them
back on.
There’s one scene where the
four children each get a crown and each get an area of the kingdom to rule
over.
They’re beautiful crowns. The
prop designers did such a good job making the crowns for the movie. You watch the
kids put them on again throughout what is the remainder of the movie.
Because of the Bible’s
teaching on crowns, I believe we will continue to keep our crowns, because we
are all living examples of God’s workmanship through us for all of eternity.
We know we don’t get our
rewards only to just give them back to Him, No, forever we are praising God
based on the works that He did through us here on this earth.
That’s a heavy burden to
bear, but it’s also a wonderful burden.
Glenn Meredith: I
really think what it all boils down to, therefore, that really what God says is
that it really matters how we live our life now.
Nathan Jones: Yes,
too true, amen!
Glenn Meredith: Too
many Christians I believe are just sort of passing through this world and not
really intentionally trying to make a difference in the world.
They are not using those
spiritual gifts that God has given them. They are not taking advantage of the
opportunities that God lays before them.
So, it’s really important we
get such a brief time. This life that we live is like a vapor that appears for
a little while and vanishes away, and yet it has eternal ramifications.
Not just where we’re going to
spend eternity, but really what our eternity is going to be like and the
rewards that we will have matter.
I believe the service that
will be performed for Christ in the Millennial Kingdom and Heaven is all
dependent upon how we live right now.
Dr. Reagan: I’m
glad to hear you say that, because I was going to ask you to wrap up this
particular section by saying, “What’s the
message?”
Well, you just gave the
message.
The message basically is that
once you begin to believe in what the Bible really says about rewards and what
it really says about good works, you begin to be motivated even more than ever
before to really get serious about being more than just a back pew Christian
who sits there and absorbs and never does anything for the advancement of God.
Glenn Meredith: That’s
exactly right.
Dr. Reagan: Well,
that’s a tremendous message and I appreciate you sharing it with us, Glenn. I
remember the day that you delivered it. I just got so excited.
I recommend people get a copy
of this particular resource which is entitled Heaven:
Its Nature and Meaning. It contains three programs that we did
about Heaven that people have always been enthralled by, particularly one of
the subject in there, “Will your pet be
in Heaven?”
We go into great detail about
what all the Bible has to say about that, but people just love to watch that
program.
In fact, we have pets on the
program. We even have a cat.
I don’t care for cats too
much, but we had a cat so the cat lovers would be happy as well as the dog
lovers.
Nathan
Jones
As the
Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the
nearly three billion plus people accessible over the Internet with the Good
News of Jesus Christ.
Lamb & Lion Ministries is a
Bible prophecy teaching ministry proclaiming the soon return of Jesus Christ.
We exists to serve the Church in its effort to win souls for Christ and to
disciple those who accept the Lord.
We do
not believe it is possible to know the date when Jesus will return, but we do
believe it is possible to know the season of the Lord’s return, and it is our
conviction that we are living in that season.
We
believe that Jesus is the only hope for the world today.
No comments:
Post a Comment