Show Notes
Matthew 10:40-42
Pastor Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] From God and his word. Let's seek his help once more together in prayer.
[00:00:06] O Jesus, our great God and our King.
[00:00:09] What comfort it brings us to call you our king.
[00:00:15] For we know that you as king, came to save us, your people.
[00:00:22] And you did so as no other king would do.
[00:00:27] For where other kings would lord over their people, would exert power and influence for themselves, you came. And in order to save your people, to defeat their enemies, you went to the cross for us.
[00:00:47] Lord Jesus, our hearts are not just indebted, but warmed with love for you.
[00:00:54] And we find great joy and comfort in considering how it is that you have delivered us.
[00:01:02] We thank you that it is not only the guilt of sin that you have taken away from us, but you have also taken away its power over us.
[00:01:12] You broke that power on the cross, and in the place of the reigning power of sin, you have baptized our hearts with your Holy Spirit, so that now you reign in our hearts, not sin, but you by your spirit.
[00:01:31] And what a comfort and joy that is for us.
[00:01:34] For you are a merciful, loving and gracious king.
[00:01:38] O Lord Jesus, we ask that you would extend and strengthen that reign in our hearts, that you would drive out the sin and the evil desires that yet remain, and that in its place you would make us loyal to you.
[00:01:56] That we would be willing and ready to devote every thought, every desire, every motion of our hearts to you in love, adoration and service.
[00:02:06] Lord Jesus, our King, we come to hear from you in your word, and we ask of that you would meet every one of our needs.
[00:02:14] Our hearts may be anxious.
[00:02:17] We ask that you would pacify them, that you would show us who you are, and that we might find peace in your person.
[00:02:27] We ask that you would bind up our broken wounds.
[00:02:32] You are a loving king.
[00:02:35] You care for us.
[00:02:37] We ask that you would comfort us.
[00:02:40] We are weak. We ask that you would strengthen us.
[00:02:44] And Lord Jesus, we confess that our hearts stray.
[00:02:48] Bring us back to yourself.
[00:02:51] We ask that in all things, working graciously by your spirit, you would bless your word to us this evening.
[00:02:58] Amen.
[00:03:02] Now read once more from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew, chapter 10.
[00:03:08] I'm going to read a few verses from the beginning of the chapter, reading verses 5 through 14.
[00:03:16] And then we'll jump down to the end of the chapter and read our sermon text, verses 40 through 42. So Matthew 10, beginning in verse 5, Hear God's word.
[00:03:29] These 12 Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go Rather, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[00:03:50] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons you received without paying, give without pay, acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff for the laborer deserves his food.
[00:04:14] And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.
[00:04:20] As you enter the house, greet it.
[00:04:22] If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it.
[00:04:26] But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
[00:04:30] And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.
[00:04:41] And then going down to chapter 10, verse 40, this is our sermon text.
[00:04:48] Whoever receives you receives me.
[00:04:52] Whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
[00:04:57] The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
[00:05:04] And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.
[00:05:13] 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.
[00:05:26] As far as God's word. Please be seated.
[00:05:52] There's a repeated word all through our sermon text here. The word receive. Whoever receives you, receives me. If someone receives a prophet, he receives a prophet's reward, receives a righteous man.
[00:06:06] The idea of receiving is at the heart of these verses. Obviously, our English word receive, though, can have a lot of meanings. It can refer to lots of things.
[00:06:21] The idea here is similar to when you receive a person into your home.
[00:06:30] Another way this word could be translated is to welcome someone, to welcome a person into your home.
[00:06:41] Now, if we're going to. We could illustrate this a little.
[00:06:45] You could think of a phrase, an idea that sometimes invoked.
[00:06:51] We sometimes joke about what we would do if we were to have the queen of England over for tea. Now, there's a king, not a queen, so maybe we're going to change that expression. But you get the idea of what you would have to do if you were to entertain, host, welcome the queen or the king into your home to serve tea, and all of the things that might go with that.
[00:07:22] The idea here of receiving the apostles as Jesus sends them out. If people are to receive his messengers, he says they're going to receive him.
[00:07:36] And the idea here is really very much like receiving the ambassador of a king.
[00:07:46] We don't have a King. In America, we have a president, and the president isn't a king.
[00:07:51] In a sense, everybody in America is a king. We're citizen rulers, but we have ambassadors.
[00:07:57] The president appoints ambassadors and he sends them to other countries. And in those other countries, those ambassadors on behalf of the United States, visit other heads of state.
[00:08:10] Our ambassador will visit and make calls, for example, on the king of England.
[00:08:16] Our ambassadors will visit and make calls on other heads of state, presidents of France or nations all around the world.
[00:08:27] When that happens, people receive those ambassadors.
[00:08:33] They'll often have them over for tea or a meal. And over that meal they'll discuss whatever king or president or whoever it is that the ambassador from the United States is visiting that head of state. That king will have a discussion with our ambassador.
[00:08:51] And that ambassador is always on a mission. He has some greetings or message to bring, some purpose for which he's been sent. Perhaps it's to negotiate trade deals, all sorts of things that ambassadors do.
[00:09:07] That's the kind of imagery that Jesus is using here when he talks about people receiving his apostles. When they receive those apostles, they receive Jesus himself.
[00:09:23] And we're going to look at that idea of receiving King Jesus this evening, welcoming King Jesus. First, as we look at how Jesus promises, makes promises to those who receive his messengers, receiving his messengers.
[00:09:40] Secondly, as Jesus talks about receiving not just his messengers, but his people, all of his disciples.
[00:09:48] And thirdly, as Jesus talks about receiving a reward, so receiving King Jesus as we receive his messengers, his people and his reward.
[00:10:02] First verse that we looked at, that we read, verse 40, talks about receiving Jesus messengers, his ambassadors.
[00:10:13] What Jesus is describing here in this verse and all three verses give a series of promises, promises that he, as the king, is attaching to his ambassadors and those who receive them.
[00:10:26] The idea here in this first verse has to do with how Jesus is received. And it that is, if you are going to receive Jesus as your king, this is how you will receive him.
[00:10:41] His promise that I'll give myself to you as your king if you receive my messengers.
[00:10:48] There's a principle here that Jesus, as he's reigning from on high in heaven, Jesus speaks to sinners, to people, through a messenger, a prophet, an ambassador, someone who represents him and speaks in his name.
[00:11:10] That's what this whole chapter, in a way, is about.
[00:11:14] Look back at verse 5 that we read these 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, and then he gives them instructions on the what they're to do. And the heart of what they're to do is to preach the gospel of the kingdom, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that men are to repent, to turn from their sins, and to follow King Jesus.
[00:11:41] That's what this whole chapter is about. All of the instructions, the commands, the promises, the warnings that Jesus has been giving, they're all been given to Jesus messengers who are going to go out and represent him and, and bring men into his kingdom on his behalf.
[00:11:57] Jesus is now in heaven, reigning on his throne in heaven, and he's now working through messengers, ambassadors. And just like if you receive an ambassador, if a foreign head of state, if we send our ambassador, American ambassador, over to France, if the French president receives the American ambassador, it's like he's receiving the the United States.
[00:12:23] If he does a deal with the American ambassador, makes a treaty with him, trade, deal, whatever.
[00:12:31] It's as though he's made that with the United States itself.
[00:12:34] Jesus is working in the same way. He sends his preachers out to speak on his behalf, to deal with men on his behalf.
[00:12:43] And if men will receive his messengers, then they're not just receiving the messenger, they're receiving King Jesus.
[00:12:53] That's the principle Jesus is articulating here.
[00:12:58] So it is that later in the New Testament, as those apostles, those preachers go out, we find that they act that way, they speak that way, and they expect men to treat with them, to deal with them in that manner.
[00:13:12] Paul calls New Testament Gospel preachers Christ's ambassadors.
[00:13:17] I think this is where he's getting the idea this chapter, and especially this verse, this principle that Jesus now deals with men, deals with sinners through his messengers.
[00:13:30] Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 20, Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
[00:13:43] God is speaking through messengers, appealing to them to repent, turn from their sins and come to Christ.
[00:13:52] That's the principle.
[00:13:55] Here's how Jesus applies it to those who hear the message of his ambassadors.
[00:14:01] To receive my ambassadors is to receive me, to receive the messenger, the preacher is to receive King Jesus.
[00:14:12] Now, to receive here in the context of Matthew, chapter 10 isn't just about the message. In fact, it isn't even immediately about the message. It's first referring to the person that Jesus is sending out to welcome him, to welcome him into your home, to feed him, to care for him and to support him.
[00:14:37] You may remember that here In Matthew chapter 10, when Jesus sent the apostles out, he said they weren't to take any food, any extra clothing, any money with them. They had to go out with nothing.
[00:14:49] And as they went preaching the gospel, they were to depend on the support of the people who received them into their homes. We read those verses where Jesus gave instructions that they were to inquire of who was worthy, who would receive the gospel from them, and they were to enter their home of that family. And if the person received them, they were to stay there and depend on the support of that family.
[00:15:15] In context, it has to do with receiving the person and then entertaining, supporting him, offering him hospitality.
[00:15:24] But don't miss the bigger picture, the imagery here as it applies to preachers everywhere. To receive the person, the messenger, is to receive the one who sent him, so that those who receive and support the preachers of the gospel do so because they've come to believe the message of the Gospel.
[00:15:48] To receive the king's messenger is to receive the king.
[00:15:52] But if you receive the king's messenger, you're doing so because you've accepted the king's message.
[00:15:59] You've heard the gospel, you've believed it, and now you're going to obey not the messenger, but the king.
[00:16:07] To think of it this way, to receive an ambassador is to accept and to go along with his embassy is. That is his mission upon which he was sent.
[00:16:19] How does that apply to you?
[00:16:23] That means that when Pastor Kjelpka and I and other faithful Gospel preachers faithfully preach what God's word says, you need to receive it not from me, but because it comes from King Jesus.
[00:16:38] You need to receive me and my message because I was sent by Jesus and because it's his message.
[00:16:47] In other words, don't worry about receiving me, worry about receiving King Jesus.
[00:16:55] In other words, receive Jesus as your king.
[00:17:02] What does that mean?
[00:17:05] The Gospel of Matthew is very clear what it means to receive Jesus as king. He sent his messengers out to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does that mean? In a nutshell? That means the king is here.
[00:17:18] His reign is here because he's here.
[00:17:22] And what does Jesus call you to do? Repent. Turn from your sins, Turn from the kingdom of darkness and come into my kingdom of light.
[00:17:31] I'll save you from your sins, from. From the guilt and from the power. I will forgive you, and I will set you free to live in my light.
[00:17:40] That's what it means. That's the message. And so to accept the message, to believe it, to obey it, is to accept Jesus as your king and to receive his salvation, it means that you become his disciple. You followed after him, you're obeying him, you're submitting your life to his reign.
[00:18:06] This is the whole reason Jesus came To earth.
[00:18:11] Jesus references his own mission, doesn't he, in this verse? To receive me is to receive the One who sent me. The Father sent me. Jesus says to come and reach sinners and to bring them into my kingdom to establish God's reign over their hearts.
[00:18:29] And now I'm sending you preachers as an extension of that mission, to carry that mission out to the ends of the earth.
[00:18:38] So, yes, support his messengers, but more importantly, receive his messengers, receive their message, and by doing so, receive Jesus himself.
[00:18:52] We not only are called to receive the messengers of the king and thereby receive Jesus, but we're called to receive his people.
[00:19:00] If you receive Jesus as king, when you receive his messengers, this means that you've become a part of Jesus kingdom.
[00:19:10] He reigns over you. You're under his reign, you're part of his kingdom. And if you're part of his kingdom, that means you become a part of a bigger body of people.
[00:19:22] Not just you, but all of the other disciples that have come to follow Jesus and who call him King.
[00:19:34] Receiving Jesus means receiving, you might say, the rest of his disciples.
[00:19:45] I think that's. You see that idea expanding as he moves from just receiving the messengers to receiving and receiving the prophets, to where he talks about the one who receives a righteous person will receive the reward of a righteous person. And then in verse 42, he says, whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, he will by no means lose his reward.
[00:20:15] If we've received Jesus messengers, we also receive those who are righteous, that is the godly ones.
[00:20:23] We today would say Christians, people who are part of the church, who love Jesus, who worship him and who seek to serve him. Those are what the Bible calls righteous ones or holy ones, saints, Christians.
[00:20:39] The little ones clearly is a reference to disciples.
[00:20:45] Whoever gives one of these little ones a cup because he is a disciple, we've expanded from just receiving the messenger then to receiving righteous people, that is all of Jesus disciples.
[00:20:58] What started with accepting the preacher of the Gospel and thereby accepting Christ, welcoming him, feeding him, supporting him, showing him hospitality, and most importantly, following his message. Now expands to all of Jesus. Servants, prophets, righteous men, little ones, all of Jesus disciples, everyone in his kingdom. We are called to receive and to serve.
[00:21:27] We're called to do so regardless of their official role. It's not just the messengers that we're called to receive, but all disciples.
[00:21:38] We're called to receive all disciples, not just regardless of their official role, but how far they've progressed in their grace, their maturity is this A great person, you might say, of faith? Or is this one of Christ's little ones? The least of these.
[00:21:58] All of them, Jesus calls us to receive.
[00:22:02] You have here then, a picture of having been brought into Jesus Kingdom by the Gospel message. But now here in Jesus Kingdom, all of his disciples are serving one another, caring for one another, meeting one another's needs. It's not just okay we're paying our pastor.
[00:22:22] This is a whole people of God who have turned their eyes to one another and are seeking to serve and care for one another.
[00:22:31] And it's everyone. It's not just the great Christians who've made great progress in their faith, but the least of these, the lowliest of Christians, are also called to serve. It's not just those with great means, but those who all they have to offer is a cup of cold water.
[00:22:52] Every Christian here is cold, called to serve one another in Jesus Kingdom.
[00:22:58] Think of how Jesus says it in the Gospel of John.
[00:23:03] By this, all men will know that you are my disciples. By this, all men will know that you're in my kingdom. We might say in Matthew's terms, if you love one another, everyone knows that you're a follower of Jesus, that you're in his kingdom because you're loving and serving one another.
[00:23:26] But Jesus specifically points out the reason why he will bless this service, right? He says, if you give a prophet, you serve a prophet, you receive a prophet, or you serve a righteous person, or you serve one of the least of these, a cup of cold water, he says, I'll give you a reward.
[00:23:44] But why?
[00:23:45] There's a particular motive in view.
[00:23:50] Ask yourself, why do I serve my fellow Christian?
[00:23:54] Why do I go out of my way to invite so and so over? Why do I go out of my way to comfort or encourage this brother or sister this week?
[00:24:03] Why do I serve my fellow Christian?
[00:24:07] And to think of it another way, will Christ reward me for that service or not? Well, it gets to the heart of the matter, as Jesus always does, to our motives.
[00:24:17] Why are we receiving and blessing others?
[00:24:22] Jesus promises to reward our service to each other because we're serving those who are prophets, righteous or disciples.
[00:24:35] Other translations say that we've received a prophet in the name of a prophet, received a righteous man in the name of a disciple or a righteous one.
[00:24:47] What does that mean?
[00:24:49] Well, first of all, let's say what it doesn't mean.
[00:24:54] It means that you don't receive me or Pastor Schoupka or anyone else as a preacher, as a messenger. You don't receive us because we're good speakers because we happen to be funny, because you happen to like how you feel when you're around us, make you feel good, maybe because we're good looking. Because, for example, the people love to listen to the prophet Ezekiel because they loved his voice and they loved how he spoke.
[00:25:29] That's why God comes and warns the people that if that's the only reason you're listening to Ezekiel, you're not getting it.
[00:25:39] There are all sorts of reasons. You might listen to a preacher, but Jesus says there's one reason you need to listen to him.
[00:25:48] Because I sent him.
[00:25:50] Because I sent him.
[00:25:52] Therefore you need to listen to him.
[00:25:55] In a similar fashion, we're not to serve one another simply because we're friends, because we like these people, because they're our relatives, because they've done good things for us, maybe because they're popular in the church.
[00:26:17] Those are all sorts of reasons. We often serve others, receive them, but they're not the reasons Jesus gives. He gives one reason.
[00:26:27] The one reason Jesus promises to reward our service to others is because they are his disciples, because they belong to the King, because they're his servants, because they're his little ones.
[00:26:46] He says, receive them, care for them, support them.
[00:26:52] That's the reason, the one reason Jesus gives for us to serve and love one another.
[00:26:57] Because we all belong to the King.
[00:27:02] Think of it this way.
[00:27:05] If you're a parent, you have known this feeling.
[00:27:09] When someone cares for your children and does something kind to them, you have an affection and a thankfulness to that person. There's something similar here.
[00:27:23] Jesus is expressing that I will reward those who care for and love my servants, my disciples, because they're mine.
[00:27:34] You may think fondly of a neighbor who treated your children kindly. There's something similar here. Jesus is saying, you serve my children, my brethren, and therefore I will reward you. If you treat my children well and serve them, I will treat you well.
[00:27:56] We find this expressed very, very clearly in the passage we read in Matthew 25, Jesus the King comes to reward his servants.
[00:28:06] And they say, jesus, we never saw you hungry or thirsty and served you and cared for you.
[00:28:13] You, you weren't here.
[00:28:14] How could we do that? You were in heaven. Jesus.
[00:28:19] And here's Jesus response, then 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.
[00:28:29] Jesus promises to reward our service to one another because we did it for his sake and his sake alone.
[00:28:38] So. So if you've received Jesus as your King, receive his people, your brothers and sisters in Christ. Receive them, love them and care for them.
[00:28:50] Not because of anything they might do for you. That's good.
[00:28:54] Receive them because Jesus loves them.
[00:28:57] They're his brothers and sisters. They're his little ones, his children.
[00:29:01] He died for them. He loves them and so love and serve them accordingly. And he promises that he will reward you. And that is our last point.
[00:29:11] If we receive Jesus, we receive his reward.
[00:29:15] Here Jesus gives the promise of a reward to his messengers and to his disciples and to all who will receive them.
[00:29:25] What is the reward the king promises? Well, if a king promises a reward for service to him, it's usually something really good, right?
[00:29:34] Kings who conquer promise the soldiers who serve under them. Land, treasure, wealth.
[00:29:43] What does Jesus promise us, his servants, if we serve him and serve him by serving one another.
[00:29:51] It's not immediately clear in this passage, is it?
[00:29:54] He just says, I'm going to reward you.
[00:29:57] If you serve my prophets, my preachers, I will give you their reward, whatever that is.
[00:30:03] If you serve a righteous person, receive him. I'll give you his reward.
[00:30:10] We have to look to the context of the Gospel of Matthew. If you remember back in Matthew chapter five, at the very beginning, Jesus as the king, ascends the mountain and he issues a series of blessings to his disciples. Those who've come become a part of his kingdom who followed him.
[00:30:29] And Jesus gives one marvelous blessing to those who would be persecuted and suffer for his sake.
[00:30:37] He says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:30:42] And a few verses later, he says, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
[00:30:49] For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
[00:30:54] So far in the Gospel of Matthew, the primary reward that Jesus has offered to his disciples is that of the kingdom of heaven itself.
[00:31:04] If you look forward to Matthew 25 that we read there, you heard the reward that the king comes to offer his disciples. Very clearly, Matthew 25:34. Jesus says this to his disciples. Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.
[00:31:30] There the reward that the King comes to his faith, gives to his faithful servants for their service to him and to one another is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:31:45] And then he adds to that maybe what's at the heart of the kingdom of heaven he gives us. At the very end of the chapter, verse 46, he says that the righteous will go to eternal life.
[00:31:58] Now he's been preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[00:32:02] So if the reward, the future reward, is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:32:07] Which is it?
[00:32:09] Do I get the kingdom now, or do I get the kingdom later?
[00:32:12] The kingdom that came with Jesus coming, we call the kingdom of grace. You hear that? In the preaching of the Gospel kingdom repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus came bringing a reign of grace and forgiveness, of turning men's hearts back to God, bringing them into fellowship with God again, of delivering them from sin.
[00:32:37] But it's not yet the kingdom in its full glory.
[00:32:41] And you see that in Matthew 25, Jesus says, one day I, the king, am going to come in all of my glory, and I'm going to bring my people into eternal life.
[00:32:55] Fullness of glory, living in the presence of God forever.
[00:32:59] There's a kingdom of grace that's come.
[00:33:02] What he's promising as a reward here for those who turn to him come into his kingdom now, is that he's going to one day bring them into his kingdom of glory. That's the future reward he holds forth for us.
[00:33:18] How does that relate to this context and the preaching of the Gospel here?
[00:33:23] This reward that one day King Jesus is going to come and give us the reward. In several ways of the future kingdom is already pictured in the ministry of the apostles and the preaching of the gospel. Even today.
[00:33:41] There's a picture of it. It's anticipated.
[00:33:43] That future kingdom is a kingdom in which everything is going to be made right.
[00:33:50] All of the wrongs and problems of this world, whether they come because of the curse upon creation due to sin, whether it's because of the wrongs and troubles that we experience because of sin in this life, all of that will be made right and gone.
[00:34:08] It's a perfect kingdom.
[00:34:11] You see that Pictured in verse seven and eight of Matthew, chapter 10, as you proclaim, go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out the demons.
[00:34:33] Everything that's wrong with the world, as it were, as the gospel was preached even in Jesus day, was miraculously made right as Jesus himself went out. But then also, as he sent the apostles out to preach the kingdom, he showed the people a picture of the kingdom that they would one day receive in its fullness.
[00:34:57] A kingdom with no disease.
[00:34:59] A kingdom where even the devils are gone.
[00:35:03] You get a picture of a kingdom in which there's no sin, where God reigns perfectly through Jesus, his Son, in the hearts of his people. There's no more sin, sorrow, suffering. And of course, you get the wonderful picture of that in the book of Revelation, when King Jesus comes and he wipes Away every tear. And there's no more sorrow, and no more suffering, and no more dying, and all is made right.
[00:35:31] It's a kingdom that we will receive one day in which everything is made right. But secondly, it's a kingdom in which nothing is wanting.
[00:35:41] As Jesus sends his preachers out, he tells them, no money, no food, no extra clothing.
[00:35:50] You've got nothing to carry with you.
[00:35:53] Why?
[00:35:54] Because I'm the king and I'm going to provide for all of your needs. And your mission will succeed because you're in my kingdom. I'm going to take care of everything.
[00:36:06] There's a picture there of what Christ will bring for us in the new heavens and the new earth. When he comes in the kingdom of glory, every need will be met fully and perfectly and not mediately, not through means.
[00:36:21] It won't be met because someone's hungry and sick and we bring chicken soup to care for that brother or sister.
[00:36:29] No, what we see in the Book of Revelation is that all our needs are met because the Lamb is there, because King Jesus is there.
[00:36:40] Everything is taken care of and we lack nothing. There's that picture of the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
[00:36:52] And around that river grows the tree of life, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
[00:37:01] Every need of God's people will be met perfectly and completely, body and soul, all of it cared for by Jesus himself.
[00:37:12] Not through ambassadors, not through his servants, but Jesus himself.
[00:37:17] This is the reward he offers you, pictured already in the preaching of the Gospel.
[00:37:29] Finally, this is a kingdom, a kingdom where God receives you directly into his presence forever.
[00:37:38] We've hinted at it several times. The source of all the benefits of the kingdom of glory, of heaven come from God.
[00:37:48] But this messenger, this matter of having to deal with me, the ambassador who preaches too long, who sometimes is boring, who's hard to deal with, sometimes his appearance is unkempt. You don't want to listen to him. All of that's gone, you see? And when you are in heaven and you receive this reward, that reward is that you will receive God himself. You will behold him face to face.
[00:38:17] He will not just have taken away all of your sin, but he will have transformed you to be like His Son. Jesus glorified you so that you can be in the presence of God himself and have communion, fellowship, friendship, love, love, joy with God himself forever.
[00:38:38] Maybe you can think of it this way. What are the best and most wonderful things in this creation that you experience?
[00:38:46] Do you like good food? Do you like seeing the majesty of creation as you go hiking? Do you like seeing and being amazed and overwhelmed by how God has designed the human life, the cells that make up the human body?
[00:39:03] Are you overwhelmed with God's wisdom and his beauty as it's expressed in the abundance of the creatures that swim, that fly, that crawl around?
[00:39:15] Do these things delight you?
[00:39:18] Do they lift your heart up and you say, wow, what a wonderful creator God I have. Guess what?
[00:39:24] You will get to be with that God forever.
[00:39:28] Not mediated by creation and its things, but you'll get to experience the fullness of that joy that you have now in a small way, in this creation, by grace, you will have glory.
[00:39:44] Now there's one last thing that we can say about this reward from this passage, and that is that Jesus promises. He says, truly, I say to you, Amen. I say to you, he's swearing an oath.
[00:40:01] He, the disciple who comes to me, who receives me, who serves me, he will not lose his reward.
[00:40:10] This glorious reward that Jesus, your king, has reserved for you is a reward that cannot be lost.
[00:40:21] You lose good things in this life, don't you? Things that you enjoy.
[00:40:25] You may lose them because you weren't good with your money. You may lose them because they fell apart and broke. You may lose them because you lost a relationship through sin.
[00:40:38] But here you have a reward and inheritance that cannot be lost, one that Jesus Himself has guaranteed by shedding his blood on the cross.
[00:40:50] He sealed the deal for you. It's done. It's finished. He cried, and then he rose from the dead. And now he has reserved and taken possession of that kingdom for you, that reward for you. And he reigns on his throne in heaven.
[00:41:08] And nothing can take that reward away from you because he holds it.
[00:41:14] What a marvelous thing that is.
[00:41:19] You receive a king by receiving his ambassadors, by receiving their message.
[00:41:26] I have to leave you then as his ambassador with this plea.
[00:41:32] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
[00:41:36] God is making his appeal through us.
[00:41:42] I implore you on behalf of Christ.
[00:41:47] If you do not know Jesus yet, He is not your King yet, then I implore you on his behalf, be reconciled to him.
[00:41:58] And being reconciled to Christ, be reconciled to God the Father for the sake of sinners, for our sake.
[00:42:10] God took the Son, the Son who knew no sin and made him to be sin. He took our sins and he put them on the Son, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God, turn to Jesus and be saved.
[00:42:29] Let's pray, O Lord our God, what wonderful things you hold forth for us in Christ Jesus.
[00:42:46] O Lord our God, we confess that it goes beyond what we could think or imagine.
[00:42:53] And we thank you for that.
[00:42:55] We ask, O God, that you would humble our hearts now before you, that whatever it is that keeps us from turning away from this world, away from our sin to you, that you would break its hold over us, that we might kneel and bow before you, heart and soul, submitting ourselves fully and completely to Jesus, the wonderful, gracious King you have given us.
[00:43:25] O Lord Jesus, we beg of you to come and dwell in our hearts.
[00:43:30] You promise that you stand at the door and knock, O Lord Jesus, we fling open the doors of our hearts and we call for you to come in and dwell with us and be with us so that we might be with you.
[00:43:46] And we look forward, Lord Jesus, to that day when you will come.
[00:43:51] And we having received your messengers and received you in this life, you will then come and receive us into those rooms that you have prepared for us in your Father's house.
[00:44:04] You will receive us not to a table here on earth, but to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[00:44:11] You will receive us into your warm embrace, that of our heavenly bridegroom.
[00:44:19] And you will bring us your bride, spotless and without blemish, before the Father, who will himself receive us and give us eternal life.
[00:44:32] O Lord Jesus, we ask that you would come quickly that these things might be so, and until that day, that you would keep us faithful, keep us safe.
[00:44:42] And we ask that you would keep our reward safe and secure.
[00:44:46] Amen.
