Rejoice and be Glad because Great is your Reward in Heaven

Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven Matthew 5:10-12 This morning we end our series on the Beatitudes: Looking for Blessings? by concluding our consideration of the 8th Beatitude, which I think includes verses 10-12. In the sermon notes handout, there is a structural outline of the 8th Beatitude. Last week we focused on the A phrases - the blessing in persecution phrases. Today we will focus on the B phrases - the great is our reward in heaven phrases. Here is the one thing that I hope you remember from this series: Christians, the children of God, are the blessed ones right now and in the future. Before Jesus taught anything else in the Sermon on the Mount, he laid the foundation of constant and overflowing blessings for those who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus wants us to get this deep in our souls: our heavenly Father, in Christ Jesus, has granted to his children every good thing. The apostle Paul puts it this way, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"1 What are the "all things" that are ours in Christ? R.C. Sproul said that in giving up his own Son for us, God is willingly giving us "everything that he has promised and set apart for his Son."2 Grant Osborne said "all things" means God's blessing both present and future that God pours out on his people to meet all of our needs. This granting to us all things is closely related to the Father working all things for our good.3 John Calvin explained it this way, "As [The Father] had nothing dearer, or more precious, or more excellent than his Son, [The Father] will neglect nothing of what he foresees will be profitable to us."4 In summary, God has given us in Christ all good things that will bring us shalom - wellbeing and prosperity in every aspect of our being - now and in the future. I think Jesus would love for us to wake up every morning with these words racing through our mind and running over our lips: The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing!"5 If it is true that all these blessings are ours, why do we sometimes not feel blessed? Not feeling blessed is a common experience for most if not all of us. Often not feeling blessed comes when we face hardships in our lives, especially hardships that seem like they will never go away. When this happens it is natural to cry out to our Lord asking, "Why me? Why this? Why now?" In the past decade, there was a time in my life that started out hard, became worse, and then left me feeling devastated over a period of years. Eventually, I hit such a low point that I had to struggle with the idea that God may have abandoned his love for me. Now, of course, God had not abandoned his love for me - but I was so devastated that to me it felt that way. Let me suggest three reasons why we may not feel blessed. I offer these out of my own struggles. Therefore, they are neither exhaustive nor infallible. My hope in sharing them is to stir curiosity about what may be at work in your own life that gives rise to not feeling blessed. Three Reasons We May Not Feel Blessed 1. We may not feel blessed because we unconsciously make our feelings the ultimate standard of blessing. Our culture has elevated "feelings" to the level of ultimate truth. In his bestselling book, Conversations with God, Neale Walsch, a non-Christian, records his conversations with God as Walsch understands his god to be. One conversation which captures the priority of feelings in our culture's spirituality goes like this: God: I cannot tell you My Truth until you stop telling Me yours. Walsch: But my truth about God comes from You. God: Who said so? Walsch: Others. God: What others? Walsch: Leaders. Ministers. Rabbis. Priests. Books. The Bible, for heaven's sake! God: Those are not authoritative sources. Walsch: They aren't? God: No. Walsch: Then what is? God: Listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any one of these differ from what you've been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words.6 Our culture tells us the words that have taught us what we believe to be true about God are untrustworthy. Instead, the god we can trust is our interior life - our feelings, what we consider our highest thoughts, and how we interpret our experience. Just as we cannot walk in a storm even with rainwear and not get wet. We cannot walk in this world without our culture splashing on us. We may not feel blessed because we unconsciously make our feelings the ultimate standard for figuring out if God's blessing is with us. To the contrary, God's Word should be our ultimate standard of understanding how God blesses us. Then, we align our feelings with the blessings we own in Christ Jesus. This leads us to the second reason. [click] 2. We may not feel blessed because we have come to believe that God or someone owes us something. This one for me is particularly devilish. I sometimes have the vague sense - a feeling that God is just not coming through for me. There is something lacking - God owes me something - something that will finally cause me to feel blessed. Now, if I sense that God cannot make me feel blessed, then it is unlikely anyone else can make me feel blessed. Think about this honestly, is it not true that we become the most upset when other individuals, groups, or organizations do not give us what we believe is due to us? If it is true that in Jesus Christ, God has given to me everything that will be for my well-being in this life and in the next, how could God owe me anything? Beyond this, if God is the ultimate guarantor of my well-being and I depend on Him alone to bless me with what I need when I need it, why would I expect that anyone owes me anything? No one has any good thing they can offer or withhold that God has not already given me. Finally, . . . [click] 3. We may not feel blessed because we are not convinced the blessings Jesus promises us are practical in our daily life. We must defy logic to live this way. In what world would being a child of the God who is totally committed to my well-being, who is completely committed to making sure that everything works out for my good, not be of practical benefit every day? The only answer is that these blessings would only not be practical in a world where God could not or would not keep his promises. We may not feel blessed because at a practical level we are allowing ourselves to think, feel, and act as if God cannot or will not deliver on his promises to us. There is nothing more practical than the ability to walk through this broken world with rock solid confidence that because I am a child of God there is no hardship, no financial loss, no illness, and no heartbreak that can for even a nano-second put space between me and the love of God. The Apostle Paul said it like this, [4 Slides] "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."7 (Romans 8:35-39, NIV) How do we move beyond not "feeling blessed? There is only one way. Focus on the perfect goodness of God. In the beatitudes, Jesus calls us to focus on the perfect goodness of God that is at work in our lives every day. This is because the beatitudes are not achievement goals; they are God's good blessings to His children in Christ Jesus our Lord. The eighth Beatitude gives us a specific way to focus on God's goodness by rejoicing and being glad because of our great reward in heaven. This way of focusing on God's goodness links to hardship. Namely, the hardship of persecution because we belong to Jesus. There are a variety of ways to describe our great reward in heaven. I have chosen a simple way to describe our great reward that stirs my heart and I hope it will stir yours too because they are all linked directly to persevering through trials faithfully to the end. Our great reward in heaven is our Victor's Crown. In the Bible a crown signifies status, honor, significant achievement, and power.8 Jesus tells us in Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown." On that day, we will hear the word's well done my good and faithful servant and the Lord will place on our head our Victor's Crown. Our Victor's Crown is . . . Our Crown of Life "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him."9 At last we will experience life as God created us to experience it! There will never be a day when we will not feel the blood of blessing coursing through our resurrection bodies and feel the refreshing breeze of blessing swirling around us. Our Victor's Crown is . . . Our Crown of Imperishable life [2 Slides] "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown."10 Our crown of life will last forever. It will never fade in its glory, never diminish in its value. Our experience of God's blessing will never be commonplace to us. Every morning, the mercies of the Lord will be new to us! Every day for all of eternity we will say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing!" Our Victor's Crown is . . . Our Crown of Rejoicing Paul wrote to the believers a Thessalonica, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy."11 We will spend eternity rejoicing in the ways God used us to touch the lives of others. We will see how in good times and tough times God was blessing us through it all and in it all causing us to be a blessing in this world. Our Victor's Crown is . . . Our Crown of Righteousness Paul wrote to Timothy, [2 Slides] "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."12 When Christ places the Victor's Crown on our heads, then we will fully experience what it means that " [the Father] chose us in [Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."13 Our great reward in heaven is our glorious Victor's Crown. The application of the 8th beatitude and all the beatitudes is our response to this question. Are these blessings, whether or not I currently feel them, enough? If at a practical level, our answer is "no", then we will spend the rest of our lives chasing people, experiences, and possessions that will make us "feel blessed." We might find things offer temporary relief from the troubles of this world. Nevertheless, eventually we will find that they are not enough because they cannot cure our spiritual poverty, they cannot endlessly comfort us, they cannot satisfy our hunger and thirst for righteousness. The people, experiences, and possessions of this world cannot make us merciful, pure in heart, or bring us real peace. In severely hard circumstances of life, they will fail. At the end of our life, they will evaporate. If our answer at a practical level is "yes", then we will experience these blessings increasing in our lives. We will be children of God who bring his kingdom near. No evil will overwhelm our divine comfort. The righteous life of Jesus flowing through us will satisfy our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Showing mercy will be natural for us because we received mercy. We bring peace that is more than an absence of hostility, because we pursue well-being in every aspect of life for everyone. By focusing on God's goodness and our great reward in heaven we will be faithful in suffering and persecution to the end. Then, we will see God. Jesus will place the Victor's Crown on our head and in meekness we will reign over the new heaven and the new earth with Him forever. Blessed are you for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven! 1 Romans 8:31-32 2 Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (p. 155). Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications. 3 Osborne, G. R. (2017). Romans: Verse by Verse (p. 260). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. 4 Calvin, J., & Owen, J. (2010). Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (p. 322). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. 5 Psalm 23:1 6 https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2004/july/15454.html 7 Romans 8:35-39 8 Myers, Allen C. The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987. 9 James 1:12 10 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, NKJV 11 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, NKJV 12 2 Timothy 4:7-8 13 Ephesians 1:4 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------