"The Rewards of Our Final Review"

Pastor John Salvesen

Bear Creek Bible Church

3/26/00

I Cor. 4:1-5

Everything has a consequence.

A guy arrives at the pearly gates, waiting to be admitted. St. Peter is reading through the Big Book to see if the guy's name is written in it. After several minutes, St. Peter closes the book, furrows his brow, and says, "I'm sorry. I don't see your name written in the Book."

"How current is your copy?" he asks.

"I get a download every ten minutes." St. Peter replies, "Why do you ask?"

"I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I was always the stubborn type. It was not until my death was imminent that I cried out to God, so my name probably hasn't arrived to your copy yet."

"I'm glad to hear that," Peter says, "but while we're waiting for the update to come through, can you tell me about a really good deed that you did in your life?"

The guy thinks for a moment and says, "Hmmm, well there was this one time when I was driving down a road and I saw a group of biker gang members harassing this poor girl. I slowed down, and sure enough, there they were about 20 of them harassing this poor woman. Infuriated, I got out of my car, grabbed a tire iron out of my trunk, and walked up to the leader of the gang. He was a huge guy, 6-foot-4, 260 pounds, with a studded leather jacket and a chain running from his nose to his ears. As I walked up to the leader, the bikers formed a circle around me and told me to get lost or I'd be next."

"So I ripped the leader's chain out of his face and smashed him over the head with the tire iron. Then I turned around and yelled to the rest of them, "Leave this poor innocent girl alone! You're all a bunch of SICK deranged animals! Go home before I really teach you a lesson in PAIN"

St. Peter, duly impressed, says "Wow! When did this happen?"

"About three minutes ago."

Senator John Ashcroft writes: [My father told me], "John, I'd like you to fly this plane for a while."

I was eight years old at the time, blue-jeaned and T-shirted and wide-eyed at the world. My father was an amateur pilot.

I looked around me at the Spartan interior, which was nothing at all like the multitudinous controls, gauges, and computerized equipment in planes today. The control stick loomed like a broom handle and came up between my legs.

"What should I do?" I shouted back to my father, who was seated behind me.

"Just grab the stick and push it straight forward."

"Okay." I took hold of that stick and did as I was told. Immediately the plane went into a straight bombing-raid dive toward a farm on the outskirts of Springfield! My stomach came up to my throat and I lost all sense of time or place as fear gripped my insides. I let go of that control stick in a millisecond, and Dad pulled the plane back up.

He had a good chuckle, and I had a good lesson: actions have consequences. I learned in a particularly vivid--in fact, terrifying--way that my decisions and actions could imperil my future.

In a positive sense, I learned that wherever I was, if I put my hand to something I could make a difference.

Every Action Has A Consequence

The Corinthians were divided because they had a distorted view of the place of their human leaders - Apollos, Paul, Peter

I Corinthians

1-4 Divisions

5-6 Disorder

7-16 Difficulties

They were divided - so they were not doing what they should.

They were following after different people, but they (those followers of Peter & Apollos), were actively against Paul.

They were judging his ministry.

He sought to sober them…

…they were busy critically analyzing Paul

…Paul would counter with

- I am not a celebrity - but a servant

- Realistically I am evaluated

- There is only one Judgment that counts & by the way…

What are you doing?

Do you know that you will be evaluated, as well?

Instead of setting back & being critical - you must be an active worker!

I. The Three Things You Are As A Worker (for Christ)

<1-2> 3 attributes of a Christian worker.

A) hyperetai (servants) "under rowers" - bottom level of rowers on a Roman galley.

Someone who responds to an authority similar to "diaconi" of 3.5

B) oikonomos (stewards) housekeeper or overseer of an estate

- to master he was a slave

- to other slave he was in charge

C) Faithful Luke 12:48

I Peter 4:10

Each worker has a different job - plants, waters,

harvests

- God makes the ministry effective

- Divine activity moves, transforms, develops

As a worker we must be faithful!

You who are critical of Paul - are you faithful? in your ministry?

Some people are committed

"In Kentucky there is a huge rivalry in college basketball between the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky. The story is told that at one of the recent 'Dream Games' between the two schools, an elderly woman was sitting alone with an empty seat next to her. Someone approached her and said, 'Ma'am, I have rarely seen an empty seat in the Arena, let alone at the Dream Game. Whose seat is this?' "The woman responded that she and her late husband had been season ticket holders for twenty-eight years, and the seat had belonged to him. 'Well, couldn't you find a friend or relative to come to the game with you.?' the observer asked.

"Are you kidding?' She replied. 'They're all at my husband's funeral.'"

That's commitment to basketball!

In 1995, Christopher Reeve, the "Superman" actor, fell from a horse in a riding accident that severed his spinal cord and paralyzed him from the shoulders down. In the days that followed, both he and his mother considered pulling the plug on his life support system. In his new memoir, Still Me, which recounts how he battled back from the accident, Reeve said he first shared his thoughts with his wife, Dana.

"I mouthed my first lucid words to her: 'Maybe we should let me go.'" he recalled.

But his wife, through tears, persuaded him to fight back, saying, "I want you to know that I will be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."

God doesn't evaluate on effectiveness/results - He grades on faithfulness.

William Carey in India -> long waits for results

Adoniram Judson in Burma->

Do we dare extend ourselves out of our comfort zones?

Sunday School class

Music,

Flock group,

MOPS,

Bible study,

prayer group,

discipleship of your

children,

evangelism.

God may not evaluate on basis of effectiveness

There are many who will seek to criticize - evaluate

<3-4>

II. The Three Judgments You Face

A) By Others - not final word, can't see my heart, others cannot judge our work. [Judgments of the quality of your WORK] 3:10-15

B) By Ourselves - subjective, partial, too easy on self - not final word. We cannot accurately judge our work. Conscience not a safe guide/hearts are deceitful and wicked. There's nothing I know about that is a burden about myself, but it does not make him innocent - Greeks saw the conscience as final Judge of man (Plato).

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

--Winston Churchill

There is another perfectly accurate Judge.

Conscience is inadequate to evaluate - because it did not clear me & clean me --

But, the same one who cleared me, cleaned me up, washed me in His blood & announced that His righteousness be on me -

That is the One who will judge my works.

<Heb. 9:14>

I am immune to your negative view of me because a Higher Authority judged His own Son in my place.

JUSTIFICATION

Ron Rand writes in For Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven: "Michael usually takes his family out each week to see a movie or sports event. When they come home, they make a fire in the fireplace and pop popcorn.

"During one of these evenings, little Billy made a real pest of himself in the car on the drive home, so he was punished by being sent to sit in his bedroom while the rest of the family had popcorn. After the family had the fire going and the popcorn ready, Michael went back to Billy's room and said, 'You go out with the others. I'll stay here and take your punishment.' Through Michael's action, the entire family experienced a vivid example of what Jesus did for everyone."

I have been justified. dedikaiomai

I don't have to be obsessed with what people think of me - what freedom!

Others cannot accurately judge us or our ministry. God will not judge us because He has already judged His Son in our place - but He alone will evaluate our ministry.

We are justified now!

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

When you want to talk, He'll listen.

He could live anywhere in the universe and He chose your heart.

And that Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem?

Face it friend, He's crazy about you!

III. The Only Judgment That Really Counts (5)

(for believers that is)

<5>

Great White Throne Judgment of Rev. 20:11-15 applies to non-believers.

Bema Seat of 2 Cor. 5:9-10 applies only to believers.

At the Bema Seat Judgment

He uncovers motives and determines if our works are

ągold, silver, precious stones - eternal

ąwood, hay, stubble - temporal

A) Praise - shown effectiveness of effort?

"Well done, good & faithful servant"

B) Crowns

1) Incorruptible crown <I Cor. 9:25-27>

overcome flesh

2) Life <Rev. 2:10>

those who are willing to give their life for Christ.

3) Righteousness <2 Tim. 4:8>

look for His coming

4) Glory <I Peter 5:2-4>

faithful teachers

5) Rejoicing <I Thess. 2:19, 20>

faithful witnesses

What is most fascinating is not what God does, but what we are compelled to do --We return the crowns back to the Lord!

<Rev. 4:9-10>

It shows how much we'll change!

Maybe that is why we are not rewarded in this life, because we would want to keep that which we earned. But having been transformed completely - we realize that all the benefits we received by this grace anyway --

So we return the crowns in worship just like the elders  in Rev. 4:9-11.

We must be faithful!

We must know we've been justified!

We must know that our actions in this life bring results for eternity!

******************

Editor’s note: Some people understand Revelation 4:10 to refer to an ongoing action (see "whenever" in verse 9), and that the action shows that all glory, honor, and power flow from Christ. He is the worthy One. All glory, honor, and power received from Him at the Bema will only be ours because He has chosen to share these things with overcoming believers.