Andy illustrates how believing in God’s eternal and present-day promises fills our hearts with hope that overflows in buoyant joy and courageous living for Christ.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? And we believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections, knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now in today’s podcast, we’re going to be zeroing in on faith, and specifically we’re going to talk about assurance of things hoped for. So, we are advocating in this podcast that Christians can and should be growing to spiritual maturity, conformity to Christ. This is a lifetime journey, an infinite journey of growth and holiness. And what we seek to do in this podcast is give details to what that journey looks like. And so, we’re zeroing in on faith and we believe that Christians already have faith. They have justifying faith. If they didn’t have faith, they wouldn’t be Christians. We also believe that faith can be developed, faith must be developed, that the more and more you mature in Christ, the stronger and stronger your faith will get.
Faith can grow. Jesus said to his disciples, oh, you of little faith. And so, faith can grow, it can develop. And so, what we’re looking for are the ways that faith can develop. And we’re going to zero in today on a key definition of faith in the Bible. Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now we’re going to talk about the second part of that definition next week, next week’s podcast. But today we want to talk about the first half- assurance of things hoped for. And as we do, we want to understand what hope is, and how a very powerful element of faith is forward looking or looking forward. We use that expression a lot in life. I’m looking forward to Christmas or I’m looking forward to my wedding day, or I’m looking forward to the birth of my first child.
hope is a feeling in the heart that the future is bright. So that would be true of secular hope, it would be true of Christian hope.
Looking forward to things. It means you’re anticipating; you’re looking ahead. Now, hope essentially has to do with the future. We’re looking forward to things. So, if I would give this definition of hope, I would say that hope is a feeling in the heart that the future is bright. So that would be true of secular hope, it would be true of Christian hope. So, in secular hope, people can look forward to the future and they’re looking forward to it positively. They’re thinking about it. So, hope always has to do with future things and things that we want to happen, positive things in the future. But the difference between Christian hope and secular hope is that our hope is based on the promises of God. And we believe in a God who knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. He’s a timeless being.
He’s gone ahead of us, and he’s made certain promises. He’s told us what is going to happen in the future, and he’s told us that in scripture. And so, we have a sense that the future is bright based on the promises of God. And so, what we want to say is Christian maturity has to do with a sense that the future is bright because it’s covered in the promises of God. Now, what I want to do is I want to give you a sense of that future in three categories. We could say it that way. Eternal hope, long-range hope, and short-term hope. So eternal hope has to do with what happens after you die and for all eternity. And for us, we believe we have a feeling, a sense in the heart that our eternal future is bright. That’s the best hope that there is.
It’s our eternal hope in Christ that we’re going to go to heaven when we die. That heaven’s going to be a marvelous place, that we’re looking forward to it. So based on the resurrection of Christ, we’re going to be in resurrection bodies for all eternity. We’ll talk about that. But that’s eternal hope. Long-range hope has to do with from this moment right now until the day you die, or Christ returns, until the end of your existence in this present world. So, we believe that Christ will come back. And there’ll be a generation of Christians that will be alive at that time, and we may well be one of among that final generation. But if we’re not, we’re most certainly going to die. And what long-range hope, Christian hope says is that we believe based on the promises of God, that the rest of our lives are worth living. And we’re actually filled with joy about that.
We’re looking forward to the rest of our lives. And then short-term hope is we’re looking forward to the immediate future. We’re looking forward to what’s happening tonight. We’re looking forward to the rest of the week. We’re looking forward to going to church, looking forward to the things that we anticipate. Now here’s the thing. non-Christians, the Bible says in Ephesians are, “Without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). So, I think fundamentally, Paul, if we were to take the threefold description of hope that I just gave, Paul would say yes, they don’t have eternal hope. They have no hope beyond the grave. We also notice that just life being what it is, so often non-Christians don’t have long-range hope. Either they don’t look forward to the rest of their lives, or if they do, they’re based on uncertainties. They’re based on a faulty view of their life in this world.
They’re based on hopes that they’re going to get rich, they’re confident in their careers, their education, things like that. But most non-Christians, if they have any hope at all, it’s really a short-term hope. They’re looking forward to the weekend, they’re looking forward to a vacation they’re about to take, things like that. Alright, so what I want to say is that we Christians, we need to be vibrant in hope. We need to be evidently filled with hope. We need to be so filled with hope that people will ask us as one Peter 3:15 says, to give us a reason for the hope that we have. If we are evidently filled with hope, then we can be powerful witnesses in this hopeless world that we’re living in. On the other hand, if we’re acting like non-Christians, like we have no eternal hope or long-range hope or even immediate hope, if we’re depressed and discouraged, et cetera, people will not ask us to give a reason for the hope that we have because they don’t know that we have any hope.
And so that’s what we’re talking about today, assurance of things hoped for. We are looking forward to the future, and we believe that the future is bright. So, let’s reverse the order and let’s talk about things that are hoped for, that we hope for in this present age. For the rest of our lives, there are certain certainties that we have, promises that are going to be true, that will cover us. We’re covered from now until the day we die or until Christ returns. One of them I think is so beautiful. In Hebrews 13:5, “Jesus has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.'” And that’s a promise. We know that Christ will never leave us or forsake us. Or as in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) it says, “Surely, I will be with you always,” even to the present, even to the eternal age, or surely, I will be with you even to the end of the age.
We also know and we’re promised that if we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, that food, clothing, and shelter and the basic necessities of our lives will surely be added to us. And so, we know that God is going to provide for our basic physical needs. We also know by faith that God will filter our temptations and our trials, and “he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. But with the temptation, we’ll make a way of escape” (Corinthians 10:13).So, God is going to be our rear guard. He’s going to protect us. He’s not going to bring us into waters that are going to go over our heads. But all of our afflictions and trials and even the way he allows Satan to tempt us, all of those things are going to be carefully metered and protected. We know that because it, it’s promised by God.
Jesus is at the right hand of God, is interceding for us. He’s praying that our faith will not fail, and therefore, if we’re genuinely born again, our faith will not fail no matter what we go through.
We know that when it comes to our salvation work, the work that’s been done in us, the work of God’s grace, that “he who began a good work in us will most certainly carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). And therefore, we know that we cannot finally be lost. We know that we’re going to go to heaven when we die, but we’re going to be protected day by day. Everything that it takes from now until the end of our lives. We know that Jesus is at the right hand of God, is interceding for us. He’s praying that our faith will not fail, and therefore, if we’re genuinely born again, our faith will not fail no matter what we go through. So those are earthly certainties based on the promises of God, and we should be filled with hope from now until the day we die concerning those things.
Let’s talk also about some general promises of the Christian life. There are some things, some circumstances we get in where we have no certain promise, but we know that we can bring to God our circumstances. We know that the prayer offered in faith concerning sick people will make the sick person well, James 5. We don’t know for certain that every sick person we pray for will certainly be healed. But we’re able to take that promise, that statement in James 5, and we can go to the Lord in prayer. And we know that if we pray according to his will, he’ll hear us. And that he’ll give us whatever we ask if it lines up with his will. So, we can take that promise to God and we are filled with hope. We also know that the Lord will provide for all of our needs day by day, and we’re able to take that and extend it to others.
Think about George Mueller, who was caring for orphans, cared for over 10,000 orphans in 19th century England. Amazing man over the course of his 50 years of caring, of orphan care. And his life verse that he took to God again and again in prayer, almost like a blank check that the Lord would fill in and cash for him: this is it, Psalm 81:10, “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, open wide your mouth and I’ll fill it.” So, he took that promise to God in prayer. And again and again, he would show God effectively his writing, show God his promise. We also know that with the Lord sustaining us, I remember Elizabeth Elliot had a radio program, and she always ended with the scripture, “and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). So, we have a sense of God with us and protecting us and caring for us even when we go through great suffering.
So, we think about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 that were able to go through all kinds of terrible sufferings. The first part of the list of the heroes of faith. They are triumphant and victorious and overcome and win great victories in battle. But in Hebrews 11:35, there’s a remarkable turn where it says, “Women receive back their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection.” And so, through their hope in eternal life and their hope in a better resurrection, they were enabled to go through great suffering with tremendous joy and tremendous confidence.
So, we think about all of the promises of God that sustained William Wilberforce as he was going through suffering. William Wilberforce was an English Christian who was a member of parliament and who led a 27-year fight against slavery. And it was said of him by his enemies, he is possessed of such an enthusiastic spirit that though beaten again and again, he only comes back even stronger. He’s like a buoyant cork. I would say it did not matter the level of defeat or reversal, he never gave up in the cause that he was fighting for. He was buoyant in suffering. And so, this kind of cork-like buoyancy in suffering has enabled great heroes of the faith in church history again and again to endure.
Think about Adoniram Judson in his very difficult, challenging ministry in Burma that eventually resulted in the salvation of thousands of Burmese. Or we think about George Whitfield who preached again and again to hostile crowds, people who were opposed to him, who were against him, who berated him, who reviled him in the newspapers, and yet he led thousands and thousands to Christ.
I think about others that had opposition like John Bunion who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress from prison. He was buoyant in suffering. He had that sense of confidence. And so that’s when I think about assurance of things hoped for, we’ve got a sense of the daily protection and provision of God even in the midst of great suffering that enables us to be very fruitful.
But what about eternity? What about assurance of things hoped for in the world to come? These are the greatest promises of all. Far sweeter than contemplating the way the Lord’s going to care for us in this world of suffering and sorrow and affliction and death is to think about the world to come. To set our hearts on things above and on things to come like Colossians 3 says. And to know that as Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2), and so we’re going there.
a sense of the daily protection and provision of God even in the midst of great suffering that enables us to be very fruitful.
Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us. And so that we are definitely going to be included in the redeemed that are listed in Revelation 7 from every tribe and language and people and nation, surrounded in heaven, in the new heaven, new earth. We’re going to be there with the redeemed. And we’re going to be in our resurrection bodies. And those resurrection bodies are going to shine like the sun. We’re going to be free from death, mourning, crying and pain. There’ll be none of that in heaven.
We are going to be confident also in heavenly rewards. That the life that we live in this world, that God will reward it. That the sacrifices that we make to serve him, the money that we give to support missionaries, the efforts and the time that we put in to serving the Lord, even if we’re not repaid, especially if we’re not repaid in this world, that we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous, Jesus said plainly in Luke 14. And so, we are confident, and we believe as Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21 that we can, “Store up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves, do not break in and steal.”
So, by our good works day after day, we are confident, we are filled with hope, that we are storing up treasure that will shine for all eternity. And so those rewards, those heavenly rewards are things we should desire. We actually need to believe based on Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, we need to believe that God will reward those who earnestly seek him. And so, we have to believe in rewards, and we yearn for them. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about it. We should say we want the reward, and we need to understand what the reward is. Fundamentally, the reward is praise from God as 1 Corinthians 4:6 says, praise from God that God says, well done, good and faithful servant.
The rewards, the essence of the reward is that God will express his fatherly pleasure to us as his sons and daughters in the thing that we did. In money that we gave when we didn’t let the left hand know what the right hand was doing so that we would not lose our reward. In times that we went into our room and closed the door and prayed to our Father who is unseen. And the Father who is unseen rewarded us. In times we fasted, and no one knew about it. We’re fasting for the advance of the gospel in a certain country, and no one ever knew about it. But the Lord saw it and he rewards. And Jesus said, store up treasure like that. Live a life rich with good works. And then as you are, he says, where your treasure is there, your heart will be.
That’s hope language. We are looking forward to the heavenly reward, and the reward is essentially relational with our Father. He is for all eternity expressing how pleased he is with the life that we lived on earth. And so, what that does, that life of faith, which is a life of hope, it’s forward-looking, we’re looking forward to the heavenly reward is a life that’s far richer in good works, far better lived because we’re buoyant and filled with hope. We’re looking forward to those rewards. Now I believe that when we get to heaven fundamentally apart from all of the things, we’re going to be happy just to be there. Some Christians are going to be rewarded more than others. I believe that with all my heart. Some Christians made greater sacrifices. Some Christians suffered more than others. Some Christians were more effective and were holier and more committed to the Lord and took bigger faith steps.
And we’re going to celebrate our brothers and sisters that are honored more than we are. There’ll be no jealousy in heaven. We won’t feel any feelings of jealousy. We’ll perfectly love them. Because when one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, we’ll be delighted in that. But lemme tell you fundamentally, we are just going to be glad to be there. We’re going to be grateful. We’re not in hell. We’re going to be so thankful that we’re in resurrection bodies. We’re going to know that the Lord did not treat us as our sins deserved. But we’re going to look around at this radiant city, the new Jerusalem. And we’re going to see the beauty of the place, the streets of gold that are in some mysterious way, transparent so the glory of God shines through the city.
We’re told in Revelation that the light of the sun, the light of the moon, the light of a lamp doesn’t need to shine there because the glory of God will give it light and the Lamb. Jesus will be the Lamb. We’re going to see gates made of a single pearl. I can even imagine what that would look like. Radiant stones of different hues, different colors that are foundational and that are linked in some way to the people of God, to the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles with the Lamb described in Revelation 21-22. It’s a radiantly beautiful city. Not only that, but we’ll also live in the new earth. I believe in a resurrected earth. It’s going to be marvelous to look at. I believe it’s this earth freed from all the decay of sin. Resurrected is the way I look at it just like our bodies are resurrected.
There’s a link of continuity, but there’s also a significant difference. So, it’ll be a beautiful, perfect world with no decay, no sin. I believe that heaven will descend like the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven. I believe that the throne of God will be in center or in our midst. So basically, heaven and earth will be one. And we will see the face of God, and it will be glorious. And we will feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and other heroes, the brothers and sisters. A multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation, radiant, shining like the sun. We’ll sit at table and feast with them, and we’ll have fellowship with Chris. And we’ll look on him in the face and have conversations with him. I believe that we’ll look back at history and see all the mighty works of God throughout history, and God will show it to us so that we can glorify him.
So, the more we meditate on these things, the more hope-filled we should be. So, this is a brief time to look at sanctification. Our desire is that as you continue to grow throughout this week, that you’ll often meditate on your future, that you’ll realize the rest of this day is worth living. The rest of the week is worth living. The rest of your life is worth living. And more than anything, eternity will be better than anything you could possibly imagine or better than anything you’ve ever experienced. So, as you go into your week, know that God has gone ahead of you and will be using everything you experienced this week to sanctify you and to bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? And we believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections, knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now in today’s podcast, we’re going to be zeroing in on faith, and specifically we’re going to talk about assurance of things hoped for. So, we are advocating in this podcast that Christians can and should be growing to spiritual maturity, conformity to Christ. This is a lifetime journey, an infinite journey of growth and holiness. And what we seek to do in this podcast is give details to what that journey looks like. And so, we’re zeroing in on faith and we believe that Christians already have faith. They have justifying faith. If they didn’t have faith, they wouldn’t be Christians. We also believe that faith can be developed, faith must be developed, that the more and more you mature in Christ, the stronger and stronger your faith will get.
Faith can grow. Jesus said to his disciples, oh, you of little faith. And so, faith can grow, it can develop. And so, what we’re looking for are the ways that faith can develop. And we’re going to zero in today on a key definition of faith in the Bible. Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now we’re going to talk about the second part of that definition next week, next week’s podcast. But today we want to talk about the first half- assurance of things hoped for. And as we do, we want to understand what hope is, and how a very powerful element of faith is forward looking or looking forward. We use that expression a lot in life. I’m looking forward to Christmas or I’m looking forward to my wedding day, or I’m looking forward to the birth of my first child.
hope is a feeling in the heart that the future is bright. So that would be true of secular hope, it would be true of Christian hope.
Looking forward to things. It means you’re anticipating; you’re looking ahead. Now, hope essentially has to do with the future. We’re looking forward to things. So, if I would give this definition of hope, I would say that hope is a feeling in the heart that the future is bright. So that would be true of secular hope, it would be true of Christian hope. So, in secular hope, people can look forward to the future and they’re looking forward to it positively. They’re thinking about it. So, hope always has to do with future things and things that we want to happen, positive things in the future. But the difference between Christian hope and secular hope is that our hope is based on the promises of God. And we believe in a God who knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. He’s a timeless being.
He’s gone ahead of us, and he’s made certain promises. He’s told us what is going to happen in the future, and he’s told us that in scripture. And so, we have a sense that the future is bright based on the promises of God. And so, what we want to say is Christian maturity has to do with a sense that the future is bright because it’s covered in the promises of God. Now, what I want to do is I want to give you a sense of that future in three categories. We could say it that way. Eternal hope, long-range hope, and short-term hope. So eternal hope has to do with what happens after you die and for all eternity. And for us, we believe we have a feeling, a sense in the heart that our eternal future is bright. That’s the best hope that there is.
It’s our eternal hope in Christ that we’re going to go to heaven when we die. That heaven’s going to be a marvelous place, that we’re looking forward to it. So based on the resurrection of Christ, we’re going to be in resurrection bodies for all eternity. We’ll talk about that. But that’s eternal hope. Long-range hope has to do with from this moment right now until the day you die, or Christ returns, until the end of your existence in this present world. So, we believe that Christ will come back. And there’ll be a generation of Christians that will be alive at that time, and we may well be one of among that final generation. But if we’re not, we’re most certainly going to die. And what long-range hope, Christian hope says is that we believe based on the promises of God, that the rest of our lives are worth living. And we’re actually filled with joy about that.
We’re looking forward to the rest of our lives. And then short-term hope is we’re looking forward to the immediate future. We’re looking forward to what’s happening tonight. We’re looking forward to the rest of the week. We’re looking forward to going to church, looking forward to the things that we anticipate. Now here’s the thing. non-Christians, the Bible says in Ephesians are, “Without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). So, I think fundamentally, Paul, if we were to take the threefold description of hope that I just gave, Paul would say yes, they don’t have eternal hope. They have no hope beyond the grave. We also notice that just life being what it is, so often non-Christians don’t have long-range hope. Either they don’t look forward to the rest of their lives, or if they do, they’re based on uncertainties. They’re based on a faulty view of their life in this world.
They’re based on hopes that they’re going to get rich, they’re confident in their careers, their education, things like that. But most non-Christians, if they have any hope at all, it’s really a short-term hope. They’re looking forward to the weekend, they’re looking forward to a vacation they’re about to take, things like that. Alright, so what I want to say is that we Christians, we need to be vibrant in hope. We need to be evidently filled with hope. We need to be so filled with hope that people will ask us as one Peter 3:15 says, to give us a reason for the hope that we have. If we are evidently filled with hope, then we can be powerful witnesses in this hopeless world that we’re living in. On the other hand, if we’re acting like non-Christians, like we have no eternal hope or long-range hope or even immediate hope, if we’re depressed and discouraged, et cetera, people will not ask us to give a reason for the hope that we have because they don’t know that we have any hope.
And so that’s what we’re talking about today, assurance of things hoped for. We are looking forward to the future, and we believe that the future is bright. So, let’s reverse the order and let’s talk about things that are hoped for, that we hope for in this present age. For the rest of our lives, there are certain certainties that we have, promises that are going to be true, that will cover us. We’re covered from now until the day we die or until Christ returns. One of them I think is so beautiful. In Hebrews 13:5, “Jesus has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.'” And that’s a promise. We know that Christ will never leave us or forsake us. Or as in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) it says, “Surely, I will be with you always,” even to the present, even to the eternal age, or surely, I will be with you even to the end of the age.
We also know and we’re promised that if we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, that food, clothing, and shelter and the basic necessities of our lives will surely be added to us. And so, we know that God is going to provide for our basic physical needs. We also know by faith that God will filter our temptations and our trials, and “he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. But with the temptation, we’ll make a way of escape” (Corinthians 10:13).So, God is going to be our rear guard. He’s going to protect us. He’s not going to bring us into waters that are going to go over our heads. But all of our afflictions and trials and even the way he allows Satan to tempt us, all of those things are going to be carefully metered and protected. We know that because it, it’s promised by God.
Jesus is at the right hand of God, is interceding for us. He’s praying that our faith will not fail, and therefore, if we’re genuinely born again, our faith will not fail no matter what we go through.
We know that when it comes to our salvation work, the work that’s been done in us, the work of God’s grace, that “he who began a good work in us will most certainly carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). And therefore, we know that we cannot finally be lost. We know that we’re going to go to heaven when we die, but we’re going to be protected day by day. Everything that it takes from now until the end of our lives. We know that Jesus is at the right hand of God, is interceding for us. He’s praying that our faith will not fail, and therefore, if we’re genuinely born again, our faith will not fail no matter what we go through. So those are earthly certainties based on the promises of God, and we should be filled with hope from now until the day we die concerning those things.
Let’s talk also about some general promises of the Christian life. There are some things, some circumstances we get in where we have no certain promise, but we know that we can bring to God our circumstances. We know that the prayer offered in faith concerning sick people will make the sick person well, James 5. We don’t know for certain that every sick person we pray for will certainly be healed. But we’re able to take that promise, that statement in James 5, and we can go to the Lord in prayer. And we know that if we pray according to his will, he’ll hear us. And that he’ll give us whatever we ask if it lines up with his will. So, we can take that promise to God and we are filled with hope. We also know that the Lord will provide for all of our needs day by day, and we’re able to take that and extend it to others.
Think about George Mueller, who was caring for orphans, cared for over 10,000 orphans in 19th century England. Amazing man over the course of his 50 years of caring, of orphan care. And his life verse that he took to God again and again in prayer, almost like a blank check that the Lord would fill in and cash for him: this is it, Psalm 81:10, “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, open wide your mouth and I’ll fill it.” So, he took that promise to God in prayer. And again and again, he would show God effectively his writing, show God his promise. We also know that with the Lord sustaining us, I remember Elizabeth Elliot had a radio program, and she always ended with the scripture, “and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). So, we have a sense of God with us and protecting us and caring for us even when we go through great suffering.
So, we think about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 that were able to go through all kinds of terrible sufferings. The first part of the list of the heroes of faith. They are triumphant and victorious and overcome and win great victories in battle. But in Hebrews 11:35, there’s a remarkable turn where it says, “Women receive back their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection.” And so, through their hope in eternal life and their hope in a better resurrection, they were enabled to go through great suffering with tremendous joy and tremendous confidence.
So, we think about all of the promises of God that sustained William Wilberforce as he was going through suffering. William Wilberforce was an English Christian who was a member of parliament and who led a 27-year fight against slavery. And it was said of him by his enemies, he is possessed of such an enthusiastic spirit that though beaten again and again, he only comes back even stronger. He’s like a buoyant cork. I would say it did not matter the level of defeat or reversal, he never gave up in the cause that he was fighting for. He was buoyant in suffering. And so, this kind of cork-like buoyancy in suffering has enabled great heroes of the faith in church history again and again to endure.
Think about Adoniram Judson in his very difficult, challenging ministry in Burma that eventually resulted in the salvation of thousands of Burmese. Or we think about George Whitfield who preached again and again to hostile crowds, people who were opposed to him, who were against him, who berated him, who reviled him in the newspapers, and yet he led thousands and thousands to Christ.
I think about others that had opposition like John Bunion who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress from prison. He was buoyant in suffering. He had that sense of confidence. And so that’s when I think about assurance of things hoped for, we’ve got a sense of the daily protection and provision of God even in the midst of great suffering that enables us to be very fruitful.
But what about eternity? What about assurance of things hoped for in the world to come? These are the greatest promises of all. Far sweeter than contemplating the way the Lord’s going to care for us in this world of suffering and sorrow and affliction and death is to think about the world to come. To set our hearts on things above and on things to come like Colossians 3 says. And to know that as Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2), and so we’re going there.
a sense of the daily protection and provision of God even in the midst of great suffering that enables us to be very fruitful.
Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us. And so that we are definitely going to be included in the redeemed that are listed in Revelation 7 from every tribe and language and people and nation, surrounded in heaven, in the new heaven, new earth. We’re going to be there with the redeemed. And we’re going to be in our resurrection bodies. And those resurrection bodies are going to shine like the sun. We’re going to be free from death, mourning, crying and pain. There’ll be none of that in heaven.
We are going to be confident also in heavenly rewards. That the life that we live in this world, that God will reward it. That the sacrifices that we make to serve him, the money that we give to support missionaries, the efforts and the time that we put in to serving the Lord, even if we’re not repaid, especially if we’re not repaid in this world, that we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous, Jesus said plainly in Luke 14. And so, we are confident, and we believe as Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21 that we can, “Store up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves, do not break in and steal.”
So, by our good works day after day, we are confident, we are filled with hope, that we are storing up treasure that will shine for all eternity. And so those rewards, those heavenly rewards are things we should desire. We actually need to believe based on Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, we need to believe that God will reward those who earnestly seek him. And so, we have to believe in rewards, and we yearn for them. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about it. We should say we want the reward, and we need to understand what the reward is. Fundamentally, the reward is praise from God as 1 Corinthians 4:6 says, praise from God that God says, well done, good and faithful servant.
The rewards, the essence of the reward is that God will express his fatherly pleasure to us as his sons and daughters in the thing that we did. In money that we gave when we didn’t let the left hand know what the right hand was doing so that we would not lose our reward. In times that we went into our room and closed the door and prayed to our Father who is unseen. And the Father who is unseen rewarded us. In times we fasted, and no one knew about it. We’re fasting for the advance of the gospel in a certain country, and no one ever knew about it. But the Lord saw it and he rewards. And Jesus said, store up treasure like that. Live a life rich with good works. And then as you are, he says, where your treasure is there, your heart will be.
That’s hope language. We are looking forward to the heavenly reward, and the reward is essentially relational with our Father. He is for all eternity expressing how pleased he is with the life that we lived on earth. And so, what that does, that life of faith, which is a life of hope, it’s forward-looking, we’re looking forward to the heavenly reward is a life that’s far richer in good works, far better lived because we’re buoyant and filled with hope. We’re looking forward to those rewards. Now I believe that when we get to heaven fundamentally apart from all of the things, we’re going to be happy just to be there. Some Christians are going to be rewarded more than others. I believe that with all my heart. Some Christians made greater sacrifices. Some Christians suffered more than others. Some Christians were more effective and were holier and more committed to the Lord and took bigger faith steps.
And we’re going to celebrate our brothers and sisters that are honored more than we are. There’ll be no jealousy in heaven. We won’t feel any feelings of jealousy. We’ll perfectly love them. Because when one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, we’ll be delighted in that. But lemme tell you fundamentally, we are just going to be glad to be there. We’re going to be grateful. We’re not in hell. We’re going to be so thankful that we’re in resurrection bodies. We’re going to know that the Lord did not treat us as our sins deserved. But we’re going to look around at this radiant city, the new Jerusalem. And we’re going to see the beauty of the place, the streets of gold that are in some mysterious way, transparent so the glory of God shines through the city.
We’re told in Revelation that the light of the sun, the light of the moon, the light of a lamp doesn’t need to shine there because the glory of God will give it light and the Lamb. Jesus will be the Lamb. We’re going to see gates made of a single pearl. I can even imagine what that would look like. Radiant stones of different hues, different colors that are foundational and that are linked in some way to the people of God, to the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles with the Lamb described in Revelation 21-22. It’s a radiantly beautiful city. Not only that, but we’ll also live in the new earth. I believe in a resurrected earth. It’s going to be marvelous to look at. I believe it’s this earth freed from all the decay of sin. Resurrected is the way I look at it just like our bodies are resurrected.
There’s a link of continuity, but there’s also a significant difference. So, it’ll be a beautiful, perfect world with no decay, no sin. I believe that heaven will descend like the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven. I believe that the throne of God will be in center or in our midst. So basically, heaven and earth will be one. And we will see the face of God, and it will be glorious. And we will feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and other heroes, the brothers and sisters. A multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation, radiant, shining like the sun. We’ll sit at table and feast with them, and we’ll have fellowship with Chris. And we’ll look on him in the face and have conversations with him. I believe that we’ll look back at history and see all the mighty works of God throughout history, and God will show it to us so that we can glorify him.
So, the more we meditate on these things, the more hope-filled we should be. So, this is a brief time to look at sanctification. Our desire is that as you continue to grow throughout this week, that you’ll often meditate on your future, that you’ll realize the rest of this day is worth living. The rest of the week is worth living. The rest of your life is worth living. And more than anything, eternity will be better than anything you could possibly imagine or better than anything you’ve ever experienced. So, as you go into your week, know that God has gone ahead of you and will be using everything you experienced this week to sanctify you and to bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
