Harvesting Eternal Rewards - Part 2 — Josef Tson

The Risen Christ Opens the Scriptures

And while they were telling these things, Jesus himself stood in their midst. But they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

See my hands and my feet, that it is myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Let's bow our heads and pray.

Our risen Lord, you are in our midst because we gathered in your name. And you promised that wherever two or three will gather in your name, you will be there. So in the hush of this moment, we greet you here, our Lord.

Like Thomas, we say, My Lord. Lord, touch us and open our minds to understand the scriptures. As you did at that time. Open our minds to understand the scriptures. Let's summarize what we did this morning.

The Three Harvests in Scripture

We mentioned that there are three harvests that the scripture talks about. There is a harvest of souls. There's a huge multitude of people all over the world that have to be saved. And they will be saved if you care.

And if you take pains to go and tell them about Jesus. As you heard this morning John Riley telling you that 50 of the people in this country would respond positively if you go straight to them and say, Would you accept Jesus Christ?

It's a tremendous statement that there are so many people open to accept Christ. But there are so few people to dare go and say, Let me give you Jesus. So there is a harvest of souls. And God, the Lord of the harvest, is waiting for you to go into the harvest.

The second is the harvest of people at the end of the age. Will you be part of that harvest when the angels will come to select God's people from the people who will go to hell? There will be a final harvest.

You have to be on the good side at that time. Then there is a third harvest. And the third harvest is after we get to the kingdom of heaven. What treasure will we have there? What will be our inheritance there?

Are we going to get anything there or will just be saved, period, but have nothing? This is the strangest thing. This is a teaching which is not taught in this country almost at all. And this is what I am going to explore in further depth starting tonight.

The Law of Sowing and Reaping

But let me remind you of the law of the harvest. Galatians 6, 7. Whatever you sow, that is what you are going to reap. Where do you sow? Are you ever thinking of the harvest? Are you diligent in sowing today so that one day you will go into that great harvest?

I am talking about the third type of harvest. Now, just to sort of complete the introduction to the subject, I want to tell you that there are four ways in which the Bible teaches us to look at our lives.

How do you see yourself in this world? What's the picture of yourself in this life? That's tremendously important, that you have a good view, a correct overall view of your situation in this world. Now, there are four ways in which the Bible teaches us to look at ourselves and to see ourselves in this world.

The Soldier, Athlete, and Farmer

The first three of them are in just one place in the Scripture, 2 Timothy 2, 3 -7. Paul tells Timothy to look at himself in three ways. Think of yourself as a soldier. Think of yourself as an athlete.

And think of yourself as a farmer. If you have this perspective of your life, soldier, athlete, farmer, then you have a right perspective. Now, what do these three have in common? A soldier, an athlete, and a farmer.

They all have in common a few things. One of them is that, at the moment, they don't have great things. They invest your present in order to get something glorious in the future. That is the first thing they have in common.

The soldier looks to that glorious victory when he comes after the conquest in triumph to be greeted by the king. In triumph, in the glorious triumph of the victorious soldier. The athlete looks at that day at the Olympics when he will have the gold medal.

The farmer looks at that glorious day when he will gather the harvest in. All these three have that in common. They have a future goal. And another thing in common, in order to achieve that future goal, at the moment, they have to do a lot of renunciation and to go through a lot of hardship.

The soldier has to renounce this world to go into the boot camp. The athlete has to do a lot of renunciations. You know how they train themselves for years in that very, very strict regime. And the farmer has to give up a lot of other things to go and work in the field.

And they have in common that they have to go through a lot of hardship. In the training, and in this work, in rain, and in all this bad weather, he has to go there to be in the field to take care of the crops.

So that's how we have to look at ourselves. We invest our present time, present life, for something glorious in the future. And we have to learn to give up a lot. And we have to learn to go into hardship, disciplined living.

Strangers and Exiles Seeking a Better Country

The fourth perspective that Bible gives us is in Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13 to verse 16. You know, Hebrews 11 is the chapter of the heroes of the Bible. All the great heroes of God are collected in that chapter.

And in these verses, verse 13 to 16, we are told what they have in common. All of them. Now, each one of them excelled in an area or another, but they had one thing in common. Here is what they had in common.

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. And verse 16.

But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. All these people consider themselves strangers and exiles here, and travelers to another country. They saw it from afar, and they invested all their life in that country.

That is why God is not ashamed to say, I am their God. A soldier, an athlete, a farmer, an exile, or a traveler to a distant country. This is the perspective that the Bible gives us for our life. If you learn to see yourself in this light, then you have a right perspective of your life.

Now, what do they all four have in common? They all four have in common the fact that they don't live for the now. They all live for the future. The soldier, the athlete, the farmer, and the traveler.

Paul and Demas: Present World or Future Reward

Now, the world dismisses this view of life. The world doesn't like it and ridicules it. And they almost ridicule us out of existence by a very shrewd saying. That is pie in the sky, by and by. And you are so shy about that, and you are so intimidated by it, and you just say, oh no, I don't put too much weight on heaven.

I believe that my life with Jesus here is enough, so I don't do much about that. You were ridiculed out of God's perspective of things with that shrewd saying. Now, let me show you how Paul was thinking.

Would you open with me at 2 Timothy chapter 4? 2 Timothy chapter 4. I will compare two persons. One is Paul himself, the other is Demas. Paul defines himself in verse 7, and then he defines Demas in verse 10.

Here is the contrast. I, Paul, have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future, verse 8, in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me. You see the contrast? For me, everything is in the future. I fought the good fight.

I discharged my duty to the king. Now, everything is for me there in that future, in that day, when he will give me the crown. Demas got the world's view. I want it all now. He wanted the present world.

I want the future world. Now, Timothy, you choose between two perspectives. My perspective or Demas' perspective. This world wants the now. Quick. At the moment. Squeeze life of all that it can give you now.

Hurry up. Enjoy it. The other one is, I have a fight. I have a job to do. I am going with this, and I invest everything for that future. Well, it was the Lord Jesus Christ that taught Paul that he should accumulate all his treasures in heaven.

Laying Up Treasures in Heaven

And you have that command of Jesus in many places in the scripture. But I just want to quote to you the key one, which is in the Sermon of the Mount, in Matthew 6, verse 19. Here is what the king says.

This is a command. Lay up treasures for yourself in heaven. Start now accumulating treasures up there. This is a command of the king. Let's see what Paul advises us. First, I want you to have this reference for the whole thing, which is in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.

Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. We were enthralled with the beauty of this morning, didn't we?

The beauty of the mountains, and with the beauty of the flowers, and with the beauty of the blue sky and that bright sun of the morning. This is nothing with that beauty that God has prepared for us in that kingdom of heaven.

There are things that our imagination cannot conceive. That's how are those things that God prepared for us. And here is the command of God given to us through Paul in Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 to 3.

If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Does this sound like Jesus? Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Seek the things that are above, set your mind on the things above, do not on the things that are on the earth.

That's a command of God. Are you obeying this command these days? Have you listened to this command? Now you understand why I quoted Luke 24? That Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures?

I am going through a lot of scriptures tonight. Lord willing, tomorrow and Thursday. Just open the scriptures. And my prayer is that the Lord opens our minds that we understand the scriptures. Now, if this is such a clear command, given by Jesus, emphasized by Paul, why are we so reluctant to obey it?

Why Christians Lose Sight of Heaven

Why didn't we even see it so far? Well, I think that there are two reasons why we are not obedient to this command. As I try to understand the thinking in the evangelical world, I see two reasons why we are blocked to understand these scriptures.

One, we have an inadequate view of heaven. We don't have the right view of heaven. You see, our image of heaven is sitting under a tree, staying idle, maybe playing a harp, or singing in a choir all our lives, all eternity.

It's not very appealing. It's not a very attractive picture. It seems rather boring. Is that the biblical view of heaven? No, it's not. That's what I am going to show you immediately. Now, the second reason for not obeying the command to think more about what we are going to get when we go to heaven is the lack of clarity about the final purpose of God with our lives.

Why did God create us? And why does God keep us in this world? What's he doing with us these days? Does he have a final, final purpose with us that we can comprehend and put it in intelligent words? You see, because we don't have a clear understanding of the final plan of God, we cannot understand the misery of the present existence.

I was counseling with a lady who is in a very high position. She is in a top Christian college in this country, a professor there. She was going through very, very harsh times recently and became very rebellious, murmuring all the time, why does God allow her to go through all these miseries?

And as I tried to make sense of life for her, counseling her, I asked her this question, can you tell me what's the purpose of present life and of present history? She immediately said, well, redemption.

I smiled and said, now I know why she doesn't understand what's going on in the world, because she doesn't have a right understanding of God's final purpose with her life. So in order to make her understand what was wrong with her answer, here is two illustrations which I use.

Suppose that you are a mother and you have a son, say 25 years old. He was foolish enough to make a trip to Lebanon. He was kidnapped there. And now you just heard that if you can collect a million dollars, you can ransom your boy.

And you do just that. You beg for that money, you get the money, and you ransom your boy. Then I come to you and I ask you, can you tell me why did you make that boy in the first place? And you tell me, well, I made him in order to ransom him from Lebanon.

No mother would tell me that. Of course, because you love him, you will collect not only a million, you would even give your life to ransom him. But that's not the purpose of making him. You have some other future purposes with that boy, don't you?

Or to put it with another more simple illustration, let's suppose that one day you see your little boy has just splashed, fell flat in that mud. And you quickly go there, lift that poor boy, take him to the bathtub, give him a good wash, wipe him clean, and put new clothes on him.

And then you say now, from now on, you just sit near this tab. This is where I washed you clean. And this is why I made you. I made you to wash you from the mud you will get when you fall in that pond.

You see what I want to say? Washing us clean, it's not God's final purpose now. That washing clean is so important that I will dedicate a whole hour to that aspect of God's dealings with us. If we don't understand the place of the cross, of Christ's cross, in God's purposes with us, in God's dealings with us, we have not understood anything.

So that is very important. I don't diminish in any way the place of the cross of Christ in God's economy. The fact of redemption, the fact of the blood of Christ washing us clean of our sins, that's central, that's basic, that's fundamental to our thinking.

But that is not the final purpose of God. That is a rescue operation. When we went wrong, he started on this rescue operation to bring us back on the track towards the final purpose of God with us. You understand what I mean?

The New Creation and God's Final Purpose

So what is that final purpose of God with us? Well, the final purpose of God with us is tied up with the view of heaven. I told you that we have a deficient view of heaven. Would you open with me the last two chapters of the Bible?

Let's just start with the end. Then we go to Genesis chapter 1. But it's good sometimes to start with the end. Revelation chapter 21. Here is the final goal. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them.

What a picture. What a beauty. Now listen, verse 7. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. A new heaven and a new earth. A new universe. Without corruption, without any decomposition, with any process of degradation.

And he who overcomes, he who meets the target, he who achieves it, will own all that universe. That is why God made you. That is his final goal with you. Now let's go to chapter 22. Two further things.

Verse 3. And there shall no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bondservants shall serve him. The bondservants are his children. They shall serve him. Now that is not serving him on a plate like serving in a restaurant.

Don't understand that way. Serving God means having jobs in that world, in that universe. He will have specific jobs for each one of us. We'll see them in a minute. At the moment, just see the final description of our position in verse 7.

Or verse 5. And there shall be no longer any night, and there shall not have need of light and of lamp, nor of light of the sun, because the Lord shall illuminate them, and they shall reign forever and ever.

They shall inherit all things. They shall serve God, that is, have jobs given by God, and they will reign. That's part of the serving God, reigning. But you see, we will reign by being bondslaves even there.

We'll be sons of the living God, but still servants of God. We shall reign, but being bondslaves who serve the King of kings. That's the picture. Now, it's breathtaking. And I'll go now through the whole Scripture to show you the consistency of the Scripture in this teaching of the final goal of God with us.

Humanity Made in God's Image to Rule

Let's go to Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Then God said, Let's make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the whole nature. It is God the Father speaking to His Son. My Son, it's not my desire that we stay alone here.

Let's make other beings just like us, and let them rule over the creation we have just made. Let them have dominion or authority over the creation. Here are the two purposes of God in creating man. Let's create him in our image and likeness.

Let's create beings like us, like ourselves. And the second, let's give them dominion or rulership. Now, with that in view, let's go to the development in Psalm 8. You see, David read Genesis 1, 26, and he developed it in this poem, verse 3 to 6.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, then I ask the question, What is man that thou hast taken thought of him, and the Son of Man that thou dost care of him?

Thou hast made him a little lower than God, and dost crown him with glory and majesty. Thou dost make him to rule over the works of thy hands. You created him just only that little lower than yourself, subordinated to you.

Now watch out of that little lower. It has to stay like that all the time. And the trouble with man was man said, I want to be what he is, like him, independent of him. When man didn't decide to stay under, that's a trouble.

So a little bit lower, but your purpose was that he be ruler over all your creation. With that in mind, we turn to Hebrews chapter 2. In Hebrews chapter 2, it starts that discussion with verse 5. And here is how it starts.

For he did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. The world to come is not subject to angels. Now our concern, says the author of the epistle, is that world that is going to come.

And that world that is to come was made for man. And it starts to quote Psalm 8 and says, What is man? You made him for a little while lower than angels. For a little while man is lower than angels, but you want him to be above angels.

You want him to have dominion of authority over all the things. But, verse 8, the second to the last part, but now we do not see yet all things subjected to him. Not yet. We are speaking of the world to come.

What we see is that we see Jesus who came down. He was up there. He was ruler. He came down and he accepted to rescue us by dying for us. And because of that, he was taken back there and he was put in charge of all cosmos.

And he is not ashamed to say, Brothers, I want you to be where I am. That's my purpose with you. I came down to rescue you because, according to John 14, I want you to be where I am. Now, in order to have the complete picture, let me also add two or three glorious verses.

Conformity to Christ and Glorification

One is Romans chapter 8, verse 28 and 29. All things work for our good. What does that mean? Verse 29 of Romans 8 explains,. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined. Predestined for what? Predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

My son, let's make man in our image. You see the predestination? He predestined them to become like Jesus Christ so that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren. Wow! That's God's final purpose with you and me.

To put it in John's words, 1 John 3, verse 1 and 2. Beloved, see what an immense love God has shown to us to make us his sons and daughters. And we are! Now, wait a minute. What we shall be is not yet revealed.

But what do we know? We know that we shall be him. Or let's see the perspective in Paul's words in Philippians chapter 3, verse 20 and 21. Our citizenship is not down here. We are only travelers here.

Our citizenship is in heaven. And we expect Christ to come. And when he will come, he will change our body of humiliation and make it like his body of glory. You know the body he went to heaven with? He is going to give us that kind of bodies.

Bodies of glory. Spiritual bodies. But bodies, that's God's purpose with us. To make us like Jesus. And to rule with Jesus over all God's creation. Now, the best way to put it, again, is in Jesus' words.

The Faithful Steward and the Coming Kingdom

I come back again and again to Jesus because, you know, everything starts there and all the rest is just explanation of what Jesus meant. And here is how Jesus put it in Matthew 24, verse 45 to 47. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave, whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that slave whom his master finds him doing so when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. The king of kings. The creator and ruler of the universe.

Truly I say to you, he will take this man or this woman and put him or her in charge over all his universe. That's what Christ covenants to do. And I use that word because that is the word used by Jesus at the Lord's Supper in Luke 22, verse 27 to 29.

He says, you are the ones who are with me in all my tribulations. Because of that, I covenant to you a kingdom as my father covenanted to me a kingdom. Now it's translated in many ways, but that is the actual word used there by Jesus.

I covenant. I make a contract with you that I will give you the kingdom as my father gave me the kingdom. The promise of Jesus is that we are going to rule with him as he gave him, as father gave him to rule.

So here is how Paul elaborates on that. First to Timothy, in Timothy chapter 2, verse 12, he says to Timothy, we shall rule with him if we endure with him. We shall rule with Christ. And that is God's final purpose, that we rule or reign with Christ.

And you want to put it to hear in John's words in Revelation chapter 3. It's again actually the promise of Christ, Revelation 3, verse 21. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

I covenant that I will do to you as my father did to me. You know what he told the disciples after the resurrection? All authority was given to me in heaven and on earth. I covenant with you that I will do to you what my father did to me.

Degrees of Authority in the Kingdom

Now, let's see a few of those scriptures quickly. In Matthew chapter 19, verse 27 and 28, Peter asks the Lord, Lord, we have just left everything and follow you. Would you tell me what will be the ultimate outcome of our sacrifice for you?

And Jesus takes that very seriously and he says, Peter, because you left everything for me, you twelve, you will sit on twelve thrones and you will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, all the commentators agree that judge there is to be taken in the sense of the judges in the Old Testament.

A judge was a ruler of Israel. So when Jesus says you will judge the twelve tribes of Israel, he says you will be rulers over the twelve tribes of Israel. You will be the kings. Then look 19, verse 16 and 17 and 18.

Because you are faithful that much, I put you in charge over ten cities in my kingdom. And to another one, I put you in charge over five cities. Here is Christ telling us that there will be division of labor in the kingdom.

Not everybody will be judges over the tribes of Israel. Some will have authority over ten cities, some over five cities. Let's go to another scripture that will illuminate us. First Corinthians, chapter 6.

It's there where Paul gets angry with the Corinthians that they cannot judge. And verse 2. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Judging means here again ruling over. That becomes clear in verse 3 where it says do you not know that we shall judge the angels?

Now that's not judging them, taking them to task, what they did. Angels are obedient to God so there's no reason to judge them over, like that, in that sense. Judge there means ruling over. You are made little lower than angels for a little while.

But you will be rulers over angels. So some of us will rule over the world, some will rule over the angels. And now look in Revelation, chapter 2, verse 26 and 27. And he who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.

Here is another type of authority. I will give him authority over the nations, jump at the end of 27, as I also received authority from my father. Some will have authority over the nations in the kingdom of heaven.

Now you get the picture. You will judge the tribes of Israel. You will have authority over ten cities. You will have authority over five cities. You will have authority over angels. You will have authority over nations.

Diversity of positions, diversity of jobs, diversity of rulership, and degrees of authority. Not everybody will be at the top. Paul says it so aptly in 1 Corinthians 9 at the end. Not everybody will get the prize.

But you should aim to get the prize. Not everybody will be up, up, up. You see, Jesus went out of his way to tell us again and again that some will be great in the kingdom and some will be small in the kingdom.

Look, for example, in Matthew 5, 19. That is where this teaching starts. And it goes again and again where he comments about John the Baptist. The smallest in the kingdom of heaven will be greater than him.

And he tells Peter in Matthew 19, the last verse, but some will be the first there and some will be the last. Some will be great, some will be small. Now, my time is gone. I plan to do much more tonight than what I've done.

It's only three minutes left. And I just try to see where I can conclude and wrap up so that we don't go too disturbed because we didn't get the whole picture. We got the picture that there will be degrees of authority.

There will be degrees of positions in the kingdom of heaven. Let me just quickly introduce another notion. When Jesus says, truly I say to you, God will put you in charge over all his possessions. You are a son of his who one day will be put in charge of all that God has.

What's the name of that person who is now a son who is going to have everything that his father has? An heir. And what he gets there is the inheritance. Now, that teaching is best summarized in Romans chapter 8, verse 16 and 17.

Now we are children of God. If children of God, then all that God has is ours. We are heirs of God and together heirs with Christ. And you know that is God's final purpose with us. That's why he created us.

That's why we were born in his family. Look for that in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 to 5. Blessed be the God, our Father, because through the resurrection of Jesus Christ he brought us to a new life. He has born us anew.

Why? So that we inherit that inheritance that is kept for us in heaven. That's God's purpose. That we become his glorified children who will be put in charge over all that he has. That's the inheritance.

Salvation and Inheritance

Now that is the greatest news you could have ever received. As you go out under the stars and you see that huge expanse of heaven and you have in mind the book of astronomy that tells you all those miraculous galaxies and constellations, you just gasp and say all that was made by my daddy for me.

And he is training me to put me in charge over all that in that day. The greatest news you could have ever heard. There cannot be anything greater than that. If you can conceive something greater, please come tomorrow morning and tell me.

Now this is the good news. And I don't want you to go without the bad news. The bad news is that you may not get it. You may not receive that inheritance. Because the inheritance is given to you on the basis of the job done here.

It's conditioned by the way you discharged your stewardship over the things entrusted to you. For that let's go to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 and 24. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.

Or you will receive the inheritance as a reward for the good works. Let me make this very clear to you. Make a distinction please between two basic notions that you should have from now on in your spiritual thinking.

One is salvation and the other is inheritance. What is salvation? Salvation is the fact that when I was a sinner condemned to go to hell, the Son of God came down here, took my sins over himself, made them his responsibility and died with them on a cross.