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Living For An Eternal Kingdom
Peter Vanderwal; 3rd April 2011
Peter Christensen mentioned ‘to be a son correctly positioned’ - a brief point in one of his messages last week. But it triggered things that I had been pondering myself recently.
We love to plan life - school, apprenticeships, university, career, business, etc. We want to be a mechanic, a lawyer, a mother, small business owner, etc. We value preparation and planning.
Birth - school - training/university – career – family – buy house –save - holidays - invest – retire - relax/enjoy fruit of hard labour - die
But we can be short sighted in our plans. There is something beyond our time on earth. Something beyond our 80 or 90 years. Do we really know what our future looks like?
There is a preparation for this age and the age to come.
Spiritually Dead – salvation/new creation –growth in God/training in calling - son of the kingdom of God –gospel to the nations – Christ returns - eternal kingdom – sons that are co-heirs with Christ - our eternal calling/ministry
There is an evaluation/reward of our life’s work.
Reward is an undeniable truth of our life in God.
1 Cor 3:12-15 “If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
Matt 5:12 ‘rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.’
Matt 6:5 ‘and when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.’
Matt 16:27 ‘for the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.’
Matt 25 Parable of the Talents –reward “Well done, good and faithful servant...I will put you in charge of many things”
Luke 19 Parable of the Ten Minas –reward “well done, my good servant, because you have been trustworthy, take charge of five cities...take charge of ten cities”
Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
Our life will be weighed, tested as by fire. We all stand before Jesus.
We will be rewarded for the fruit of our labours. Or we will face that ‘Day’ with dread, wishing we had lived differently.
We must think and plan for that Day, and the ramifications for the next age. We cannot live with short sighted plans for the future.
Plan your life for this age and the age to come.
That ‘Day’, sets the course for your future.
Secular versus Biblical Thinking on future
Secular –there is no conviction on anything past this life/age. The future is unclear and uncertain. Since we cannot grasp the future, we should plan for this life alone, and give ourselves completely to this life alone. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Dreams and plans are rooted in this thinking. We focus on today and have as much fun as possible. Our culture is setup for this life alone.
Two different operating systems/value systems. Two different lifestyles.
A.World and it culture and its value system. Kingdom of the world. We can try to live in this world, live largely by its operating system, by its values, but also attempting to live by kingdom of God principles. Attempting to apply God to a world system. Attempting to bring the kingdom of God to the world.
B. Or we can live in the kingdom of God, live in the world but not of the world. Living by kingdom values (sowing, sacrifice, suffering, humility, meekness, self denial), live according to its operating system, and bring heaven to earth-bring the two together under the rulership of Christ. Live as sons of the kingdom of God, and be positioned correctly.
This western culture has an obsession with happiness, fulfilment and safety. But these are not a criteria for walking in obedience to God. Do we have an idol of fulfilment? Sometimes where God wants us seems hard, unfulfilling, risky, and maybe even like our time is not being well spent.
Luke 12:16-21 “And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
We probably haven’t pondered eternity very much and how it impacts today. We have disconnected the natural from the supernatural; heaven from earth. Our priorities can be misguided, and largely shaped by our secular culture.
We need a shift in our thinking and values. Shifting from storing up for ourselves to becoming rich toward God, from living for the temporal to living for the eternal.
The Coming King and Kingdom
Eph 1:10 ‘which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
Our future is intertwined with Christ, with heaven and earth. Our future is in heaven and earth coming together.
The Lord speaking to David, 2 Samuel 7:16 “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” There is a covenant of a coming king, a throne established forever.
Isaiah 2:1-3 “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many people will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ ” Jesus government will be established, nations will come to the king, and He will teach them His ways.
Daniel 7:13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all people, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” A coming king, with an everlasting dominion, a global kingdom.
Luke 1:32,33 “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
We need an expectation. Jesus the coming king. A kingdom that endures forever. That all people and nations will come to. The king Jesus will establish righteousness on the earth.
This is our future. We are learning and training in this lifetime, to rule and reign with Christ, not just in part in this current age, but in fullness in the age to come, and for eternity.
We must want to participate in the coming kingdom. To be part of it.
We must plan for it. To live with regard for the coming kingdom. To live with wisdom and preparation-looking unto that Day. The judgement seat of Christ - one of loss or reward, has massive ramifications for the age to come.
We must think with an eternal perspective when we plan our future. We are preparing for an eternal purpose/calling.
Plan for Greatness
Matt 5:19 “ anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
We should ‘plan’ for greatness in the kingdom. This is woven in with seeking reward at the judgement seat.
Matthew 5 -7, the foundational teachings of Jesus on the kingdom, teaches the values of the kingdom of God. These are the values by which God operates, by which Jesus will govern in His kingdom, and by which Jesus will establish His kingdom.
Whoever lives by these values and teachings, will receive great reward from the Lord, they will be great in the kingdom.
Conversely, whoever does not live by the values of the kingdom, in other words they live by the values of the world, the values of western culture, they will be called least. Western culture is about advancing yourself through hard work, innovation, ingenuity, with a lust for ‘you can have it all’. But Jesus said, lose your life, give to those who steal from you...He said give up everything for the pearl of great price-Christ and His kingdom.
Go after the values of the kingdom. Embrace holiness, humility, mercy, faith, hiddenness, suffering, perseverance,...
Get our identity rooted in the right place, not in the temporal, not in self, not in others opinions.
An eternal perspective to our life gives you freedom-you’re living for something else now; something beyond your current circumstances. There’s more at stake here than your current comfort level. You are wanting to live out the values of the kingdom, live out the teachings of the Jesus.. You are not trapped in the temporal things. Even in your ministry to God.
Be diligent and faithful in your calling and purpose.
Effective and powerful ministry is not your reward. Matt 7:21 -23 clarifies that. Jesus is after people who will align their hearts and life with Him, with His teachings.
Our reward from obedience to Jesus is participation in the kingdom of God, in this age and the age to come.
Posture and position your life - looking for the coming King, the coming kingdom. Jesus wants like minded leaders-to rule and reign alongside Him, in His kingdom. Hence we must pursue these values of heart and mind. He desires servant leaders, who will follow His ways, who will lead in His ways. People who are humble, meek, kind, merciful, etc. People who work with Him to establish His kingdom, to establish His righteousness, who will govern in wisdom and love.
Do not focus only on this age. Live also for the next age. Store up treasure for the age to come.
Life on earth in this age is like a 70 year internship, which prepares us for our life on earth in the age to come. Our next stage of life in the age to come starts with the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth, which is when our main ministry calling begins. Our primary ministry assignment lasts for a 1000 years, then eternity.
The choices we make and our lifestyle in our 70 year internship determines where and how we will function in the millennial kingdom and eternity.
Take seriously this short life.
Take seriously the teachings of Jesus. Allow them to go deep within us, and allow the circumstances of life, good or bad, to ingrain the life of Christ within us. This life is training, it is preparation for reigning with Christ. Allow the Spirit to build foundations that nothing can rock. Live your life before Christ, with a view to eternity.
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