What will be in my report to Jesus?
We have been looking at how God through His son Jesus is restoring all delegated power back to Himself.
We have seen how the exercise of power has been assigned by God to various groups and how in most instances this allotted power has been abused.
But God has a deliberate plan to take back all power and bring it completely under His control, under his dominion. At the end all dispensed power will have been reclaimed.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
24. Then the end will come, when after he has done away with every ruler and every authority and power, the Messiah hands over the kingdom to God the Father.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 28.
18. Then Jesus came up and told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
We looked at one of the major steps in God’s plan, that nanosecond when all those who are trusting in the redemptive work of Jesus will be resurrected to life from the grave or will be physically caught up into the Redeemer’s presence in the clouds and as Scripture goes on to say “so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 4.
17. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Why will this happen. There may well be several reasons, the first no doubt being that all those trusting Jesus for salvation belong to Him. That is what the word redeem means, to buy back.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 6.
20. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 7.
23. God paid a great price for you. So don’t become slaves of anyone else.
He is merely taking possession of what belongs to Him.
Another reason for Jesus snatching us away is so that we will avoid the judgment that will after this be brought upon the earth. There will be more to say on this later.
Speaking to the Church at Philadelphia God said this
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 3.
10. Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth.
I believe that this promise applies to us as well.
You see, we are no longer subject to judgment and condemnation.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 8.
1. If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won’t be punished.
2.The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death.
And this snatching away, or rapture as some people say, will be another reason for us to ascribe dominion and power to God’s Son as Jude says we should. Our resurrection from death or into the presence of our Lord and Master will again be evidence of His absolute power.
PHILIPPIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Note that He is able to subdue all things. While we wait for that day we need to subject ourselves to this ultimate power. We need to recognise that we are the servants of God and gladly submit to His authority and give him His right to receive our complete allegiance.
This reclaiming event is still future but I believe that all the indications, all the signs show that it is imminent, that it is soon to happen.
And so that we do not become confused this event applies only to Christians who have trusted Jesus for their eternal safety, for their salvation. Let us look at the text again.
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 4.
16. The Lord will come from heaven with a command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the dead who believed in Christ will come back to life.
17. Then, together with them, we who are still alive will be taken in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. In this way we will always be with the Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
22. For just as all people die because of their union with Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.
23. But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him.
But you might well be asking, “What about those who died before Jesus was crucified to pay the redemptive price for mankind’s sin?”
God certainly has plans for them but not at this time. Most of them were Jews and God has special plans for their resurrection as well. More about that later.
We are told that in the times just before these events happen that lawlessness will not just increase but, according to some translators, it will abound.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 24.
12. And because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.
Let us pray that because of this lawlessness we will not be among those whose love will grow cold.
But what about what will happen after all God’s children have been removed from earth and are in heaven.
I don’t think I could even begin to imagine what life might be like. I wonder what will happen to all the Bibles, the churches, the biblical literature, Christian symbols like crosses. No doubt initially there will be utter dismay and chaos. There may well be disbelief that people who had been badly treated and scoffed at because of their faith in Jesus have suddenly disappeared. Could what they said about Jesus and the need to be forgiven really be true after all? Reluctantly, perhaps they will have to answer, “Yes!”
With the salt and light of human existence gone and Christ’s ambassadors absent from earth, what will it be like?
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 5.
13. “You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.
With the believers in Christ all gone corruption and decay will proliferate unhindered.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 5.
14. “You are like light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
With the light gone darkness and evil will dominate.
All Christians who act as ambassadors for God will be gone.
2 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 5.
20. Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!
With all those advocating for the things of God now missing, who will speak the truth and offer safety to those left on earth?
Well, God has an answer for that as well but we can’t go into it at present.
Additionally, the Spirit of God was given to the beginning church as the One who would replace the resurrected and ascended Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
16. Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you!
With the church gone, the Spirit’s work, His influence through individual Christians and collectively through the church, may well have finished and He, too, be withdrawn from the earth.
God’s Spirit presently hinders the more rapid development of evil and evil practices. But when the Spirit of God is withdrawn then an absolutely evil world ruler will appear and through his great dominating power will force those remaining on this earth to show allegiance to him and to practice his evil ways.
2 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 2.
6. You already know what is holding this wicked one back until it is time for him to come.
7. His mysterious power is already at work, but someone is holding him back. And the wicked one won’t appear until that someone is out of the way.
And so as usual when a vacuum or a void of any kind is formed something or someone will soon fill it. In this case it will be someone who pretends to be like God. In fact he will proclaim that he is God. For this reason he has the title the Antichrist.
2 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 2.
3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is unveiled, the son of perdition,
4. who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or every object of worship, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
2 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 2.
9. The man of sin will come with the power of Satan. He will use every kind of power, including miraculous and wonderful signs. But they will be lies.
10. He will use everything that God disapproves of to deceive those who are dying, those who refused to love the truth that would save them.
11. That’s why God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe a lie.
12. Then everyone who did not believe the truth, but was delighted with what God disapproves of, will be condemned.
Can you imagine living, on earth, during this time? Yet that will be the fate of all those who are not snatched away because of their trust in Jesus. He will rescue His redeemed ones from all this.
But what about you? Will you be in heaven or on earth? Will you make a deliberate choice to reject the good news of eternal life in Christ and choose rather to go through all that will be happening on earth? And this condemnation is just the beginning. Much more is to come after this. How sad it would be if, while God’s ambassadors are still on earth that you reject or neglect not just the warnings, but also the hope they offer.
I am not an expert and certainly don’t want to get into mostly useless discussions about detailed sequencing of events for these times. But I do believe that those who trust Christ will at this time be safe in heaven.
But it would seem certain that there will be events happening there as well.
In relation to those who are Christ’s followers I want to speak about something which I believe is greatly downplayed in our thinking about end times.
What I wish to speak about in some detail is what is known as the Judgment Seat of Christ. And let us right up front get it straight. It is a judgment. Christ will be sitting on a platform known as a bema. A bema is a special judicial structure from where judges and kings pronounced sentence or made decisions.
But let us also get it clear that the judgment is not against the person of the redeemed but against things they have done while living on earth. The following verse makes that clear.
2 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 5.
10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
No believer in heaven will escape this judgment. We will have to stand before Jesus and account for our actions on earth. As I read Scripture we will have to justify before Jesus how and why we did or did not do certain things for Him.
It will be our account not His
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 14.
12. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
I like this translation as well.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 14.
12. So each of us will have to explain to God about the things we do.
The word used for account is the Greek word logos which just means a word or words. So we will have to give an oral report, a verbal resume of our Christian life and service. And notice it will not be about what others do or have done but what we have done. It won’t be good enough to say that everyone else was doing it or so and so made me do it or persuaded, encouraged and lead me into undertaking certain actions. I will be the one held responsible.
It reminds me of the story in Luke.
LUKE
CHAPTER 16:
1. Jesus said to his followers, “Once there was a rich man. This rich man hired a manager to take care of his business. Later, the rich man learned that his manager was cheating him.
2. So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘I have heard bad things about you. Give me a report of what you have done with my money. You can’t be my manager now!
Or this verse in Matthew.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 12.
36. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
But up front let me also say that this judgment is meant to be a positive experience. It is meant to be a time for rewards. But as we will see later there may well be negative consequences as well.
What rewards will be on offer? These passages are not specific but here are some possibilities.
Crowns get a mention.
Speaking to people in the church at Thessalonica Paul said this.
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 2.
19. After all, when the Lord Jesus appears, who else but you will give us hope and joy and be like a glorious crown for us?
20. You alone are our glory and joy!
And there appear to be different crowns on offer.
2 TIMOTHY.
CHAPTER 4.
8. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved His appearing.
JAMES.
CHAPTER 1.
12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation; because when he is approved, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love Him.
1 PETER.
CHAPTER 5.
4. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Then there could well be commendation directly from the mouth of the Master Himself as in the story in Matthew. What a reward that would be.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 25.
21. His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
There may even be special positions to be filled as this verse we just looked at suggests.
Here are some other things to be considered.
The context of 1 Corinthians 3 is that of a metaphorical building with a foundation on which we build. The prime consideration is that of others building on the sub foundation of the apostles and prophets. That is, the building of sound doctrine and teaching on what the apostles and prophets have taught. But in my view the superstructure added embraces all our labour, our service for God, our walk, our involvement in the Christian race.
The foundation is not in question and will not be tested but even if it were it would completely pass the test. Our salvation is not the issue it is what we have done as stewards of the blessings God has given us.
There are rewards to be had on earth, but often they are the wrong type, of the wrong quality
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 6.
5. When you pray, don’t be like those show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners. They do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their reward.
These rewards involve the praise of men rather than of our Saviour.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 12.
42. Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue.
43. They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.
Such rewards will be experienced on earth and not last beyond this life.
What we need to seek is reward in heaven, a reward that lasts for ever.
Earthy praise is to be shunned but we must never shrink from our reward in heaven. In fact we should actively pursue it. But we can only do that on earth, in the here and now.
A young man who was depending on his wealth for comfort and perhaps to gain praise and positon was tod this.
MARK.
CHAPTER 10.
21. Jesus looked straight at him with love and said, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
And so we, too, should be concerned about what we have already deposited to our account.
PHILLIPIANS.
CHAPTER 4.
17. It is not that I just want to receive gifts; rather, I want to see profit added to your account.
So acts of giving, contributed for the right reasons, can add to our heavenly reward. You see we need to be laying up, depositing treasure or reward in heaven.
Perhaps we are relying too heavily on riches and material possessions here on earth instead of trusting God for our earthly provision. Perhaps we see our possessions as ours rather than us being merely stewards, or managers of them.
Here is a verse very difficult to consider but remember who said it. And look at the end result.
LUKE.
CHAPTER 12.
32. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
And we must always be careful to judge our behaviour, our labour for God by His standards not ours.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 10.
42. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
What has that to do with special gifts that God has given us, to our abilities or even success? The answer of course is, “Nothing at all!” Anyone can do such a simple act of kindness.
The following statement applies to another time but I believe it gives a good indication of the things our Saviour approves of. These things will no doubt receive a reward.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 25.
35. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
When the occurrence of these actions was queried Jesus said this.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 25.
40. And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Do we give value to some things when they have none? Do we undervalue some things that are important to our Saviour?
Our rewards will not be about quantity but quality. The text talks about what sort our works are and may even be referring to whether they are to be categorized as good or bad.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
13. And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.
Note that the real quality of our work will be shown and Jesus will be the judge of that and the metaphorical fire will provide open evidence of His decision.
But as we shall see later quantity cannot be ignored either.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
8. There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done.
Your labour cannot be judged if you have not done anything.
But let us conclude with what we have considered regarding the positive side of this process.
2 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 5.
10. For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.
So assuming that we have something to bring, how will it be judged. The test will be a metaphorical fire and the quality will be judged according to their flammability. Categories labelled as wood, hay and stubble will be destroyed and will bring no reward. Categories labelled gold, silver and precious stones which are not gemstones but excellent building stone like granite and marble will stand the test of the fire and because they remain will bring a reward.
Let me ask us all this morning, “What treasure do we already have laid up in heaven?” After testing before our Saviour and by His standards which of the things we have decided here on earth were good things for God will remain. What is yet to be done to complete our building?
At the end of the testing will we be surprised? Will our surprise be positive or negative? What will be our reward?
And if we are having a hard time because of our witness for Jesus be encouraged by these verses.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 5.
11. “How blessed are you whenever people insult you, persecute you, and say all sorts of evil things against you falsely because of me!
12. Rejoice and be extremely glad, because your reward in heaven is great! That’s how they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”