SUFFER NOW GLORY LATER (ETERNAL WEALTH)
Notes
Transcript
HOOK
Razon - ICTS (International Container Terminal Services)
Lucio Tan PAL
Andrew TAN Megaworld
Lucio Co Puregold
Do you want to be rich? What is the object of the riches?
BOOK
Let’s open our bibles to:
13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
LOOK
Last week, we studied our eternal significance in terms of the inheritance we get if we suffer and work for Christ here on earth.
ETERNAL SIGNIF. (Heirs & Co-Heirs)
Normal inheritance:
Heirs; child of God (by grace)
Object: property rights in the NH NE
ETERNAL SIGNIF. (Heirs & Co-Heirs)
First born inheritance:
Jesus Christ (by His work on the cross)
Object: full ownership of the NH NE, & reign in the Kingdom
ETERNAL SIGNIF. (Heirs & Co-Heirs)
Joint inheritance:
Co-heirs w/ Christ (by works)
Object: reign w/ Christ in the Kingdom; double portion
Now, we’ll study our eternal significance in terms of our possessions in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
RICHES IN THE OT
No one can get rich at the other’s expense
A man of Israel can become prosperous through obedience to God
8 And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today.
9 The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers,
10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
22 “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.
23 And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
RICHES IN THE OT
Israel tithed to receive a blessing
Missing to tithe robs God and Israel’s potential blessing
RICHES IN THE NT
Kingdom delayed, church scattered on earth
As with Israel, obedience / work produces reward, but in the Kingdom
Jesus’ focus for NT believers in terms of wealth is where is our heart giving our attention to.
Our goal for this morning is this:
What is your heart looking at? Material riches, or the Kingdom of God?
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life Introduction
If his heart is in the kingdom, he will actively use the God-directed means to relocate his wealth there, and this will produce what the Bible calls eternal riches.
OUTLINE
Faithfulness in the “least of things”
Transfer of wealth in the Kingdom
Possible loss of eternal wealth
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
God’s stewards
Epitropos: “manager, foreman, guardian” (BDAG)
2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
Are we faithful in stewarding what God had entrusted to you?
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Dangers of wealth:
NT wealth is not a blessing, but a danger
Riches and pursuit of it only brings short-lived comfort
24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life The Dangers of Wealth
There will be no divine consolation for such people, for they have already received their consolation in the form of what money can give to them.… There attitude suggest that they have been satisfied with their wealth and so felt no need to secure for themselves treasure in heaven by giving to the needy
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Dangers of wealth:
The corrupting power
Can choke the word of God making us unfruitful
Can prevent us from serving God
22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
It is difficult to serve both God and the pursuit of money. “Hate” here means least in priority.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life The Dangers of Wealth
The words apply to all whose aims are controlled by a passion to increase material possessions.
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
It may affect our eternal significance because we would focus on our own pursuit and not serve and suffer for Christ.
Earthly riches are temporal.
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Potentials of wealth:
“Inadequacy” is subjective
You can choose to reduce desires during adequacy
Put your treasure in the Kingdom
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Potentials of wealth:
“Inadequacy” is subjective
Jesus motivated the disciples to self-denial by offering Kingdom rewards
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
“The generosity and magnanimity of God are so great that He accepts nothing from us without rewarding it beyond compensation.”
(R. C. H. Lenski)
12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Potentials of wealth:
“Inadequacy” is subjective
How about in inadequacy?
God is pleased w/ giving what we have
43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;
44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
The Wise Steward:
What we can handle
Parable of the Minas
How do we handle what God blessed us with?
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life Proof of What One Can Handle
God gives believers the least of things—material wealth, or as Jesus terms it, “unrighteous mammon”—and evaluates if they use what belongs to another (God) faithfully to help others as He would desire. If they prove faithful in this type of stewardship, God entrusts them with eternal wealth, whatever stands for wealth in the kingdom.
God allows us to receive material things (few or abundant), to know if we can be entrusted with wealth in the Kingdom and in the New Earth
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
The Wise Steward:
Mercenary motives
The right motive = Love for God and others
Faith / trust God as our rewarder
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
The Wise Steward:
Mercenary motives
Jesus, our example
Suffered => reward (the Throne)
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life Mercenary Motives
It therefore cannot be wrong for a believer to desire similar kingdom joys at the right hand of God, received because we follow Him in laying down our possessions or our lives for the sake of others.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
10 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.
Part of Paul’s motivation to please God is his expectation of the rewards he may receive after his works are judged in the Judgement seat of Christ.
Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life Mercenary Motives
He wants to please God—make God happy with him—because he knows that he will one day stand before Him and give an account of what he had done, and that God’s pleasure or displeasure at that moment will have an eternal impact on him in the form of some “recompense”.
Desiring eternal rewards is not wrong as scripture encourages us.
Our reasons for pleasing God:
50% = Jesus’ work on the cross
50% = eternal rewards (paraphrased)
(Dr. David Anderson)
We can’t expect the poor to pay us back. So Jesus’ motivation is that we will be repaid in the future Kingdom.
FAITHFULNESS: “LEAST OF THINGS”
Section summary:
Be faithful stewards of what God entrusted now
Mindset: please God, He rewards
Sacrifice and self-denial = eternal recompense
OUTLINE
Faithfulness in the “least of things”
Transfer of wealth in the Kingdom
Possible loss of eternal wealth
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
Kingdom economy:
No work to earn, no sale of property
God will supply everything
Restore to the pre-sin earth (Garden of Eden)
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
God will supply our needs in the New Heavens and New Earth. The fountain is our source of life in eternity
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
Earthly vs Kingdom wealth
Earthly: loaned / entrusted to us - God may get it back
Kingdom: eternal - God will supply based on our works
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
Purpose of Kingdom wealth
Visible demonstration of the faithful’s status
The unfaithful will still receive something but not be wealthy
The treasures will reveal who was faithful on earth and who wasn’t
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
The OT heroes of faith knows that there is a reward when they die. If they didn’t know of a heavenly city waiting for them, they could have just returned to their homeland, even not leaving in the first place. Abraham left his homeland.
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
Examples:
Crown of life (Rev. 2:10)
Hidden manna (2:17)
White stone w/ a name (2:17)
Mansions (Jn 14:1-3)
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
How to earn them?
Secret charitable deeds (Mtt. 6:2-4)
Giving to the poor (10:42)
Inviting the poor to dinner (Lk. 14:12-14)
Generosity (1 Tim. 6:18-19)
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
TRANSFER OF KINGDOM WEALTH
How to earn them?
Sow => reap (Gal. 6:7-10)
Sacrifices in discipleship (Mtt. 19:21)
Faith / trust that God rewards our work (Heb. 11:1-40)
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
OUTLINE
Faithfulness in the “least of things”
Transfer of wealth in the Kingdom
Possible loss of eternal wealth
POSSIBLE WEALTH LOSS
“No work, no pay!”
“Nothing sowed, nothing reaped”
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
10 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.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
God gives the treasures of the Kingdom only to those who honored God by the way they have lived for Him. The possessions they receive are both their own and eternal.
(Kenneth Quick)
TOOK
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
End
