Rejoice!!

Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

As we have just looked at persecution and the hatred against the Christian, we now turn another corner. The Lord tells us to rejoice and be exceeding glad because your sufferings on earth will carry a greater reward in heaven. Please let us understand something here; not all Christians have rewards waiting on them in heaven, only those who have earned them. Some believe (out of ignorance of Gods word) that all believers will be the same in heaven therefore “churches” and “Pastors” have tried to equalize everything involving Christians but it is not theirs to equalize; it is Gods. Jesus Christ will judge every Christian, it is He who will try our works by fire, and it is He who will give the rewards. Christians that have little works and believe little truth will receive little rewards if any at all. Everything a Christian believes and does in their life will account against or for there rewards in heaven. 1 Corinthians 3:15 “If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” Those who do not worry about accomplishing works for God will find little once they are there. But on the other side of this thought are those who have worked for rewards, theirs will be great in heaven. Those that have suffered on earth will buy gain in heaven, and the greater the sacrifice the greater the reward and those that gave their life to the enemy for Gods sake will indeed gain the greatest rewards. God said “be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” The words “be exceeding glad” actually means - properly to jump for joy – because your loss here on earth buys ten fold in heaven. You have rewards that are preserved in heaven for your eternal joy and no one can hurt them, steal them, nor will they corrode before you get to heaven, no they are reserved for you for your day of judgment. Remember what God said about Peter and John after their arrest “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” Acts 5:41 They were “exceeding glad” to be able to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ even though their lives were threatened. Many over the years died; as many as fifty million just in the dark ages alone; but beloved think of what it must have been like when they opened their eye after death, oh how blessed they were to see Jesus Christ the very One they had just died for. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17 - 18 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (18.) While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

“…for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Beloved let us all remember no matter what sufferings we have on this earth not will ever suffer as Jesus Christ did, nor will we ever suffer as much as so many before us, therefore before we cry so much about how hard it is to be a Christian of truth let us reflect on the suffering of so many other believers before us who actually died for the Lords church and the biblical truths. 1 Thessalonians 2:14 – 16 “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (15.) Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: (16.) Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”