The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:8)
Your Eternal Reward
Apr 30, 2018
Over the past few days, we’ve explored four ways your work matters to God. We saw how our work glorifies God by revealing his character to others. We saw that our work is a primary means by which God works in the world. We saw how our work is a means of living out the Great Commission. And yesterday, we saw how our work is a means of advancing the Kingdom of God.
Those four truths ought to give us plenty of purpose and motivation for our work. But God in his great graciousness gives us something else—an explicit incentive to do our work well and in line with his principles. As today’s passage makes clear, there are varying eternal rewards tied to how we work today.
Now, to be clear, our work has zero impact on our status as adopted children of God. Our salvation “is the gift of...
Agents of Redemption
Apr 29, 2018
But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. (Hebrews 2:6-8)
Yesterday, we saw that “the kingdom of God” was at the forefront of Jesus’s preaching. At his resurrection, Jesus proved that he is the prophesied king of that kingdom, thus inaugurating his redeemed creation.
But as we saw a few days ago, Jesus didn’t bring the fullness of his kingdom in one fell swoop. He certainly could have, but he didn’t.
This shouldn’t surprise us. Before his crucifixion, Jesus made clear that his kingdom would come gradually—slowly—like a mustard seed growing into a tree...
Misreading the Great Commission
Apr 28, 2018
Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19)
This might be the most widely known and misunderstood verse in Scripture.
For years, I read this verse and felt guilty that I was working as a tech entrepreneur in suburban America, rather than moving away from home to “go and make disciples” elsewhere.
My mindset transformed when pastor Kennon Vaughan showed me that the Greek word we translate “Go” literally means “having gone.” Dr. Vaughan explains, “‘Go’ is not a command. [Jesus] is not commanding them to go. He is saying, ‘Having gone…turn men into disciples.’ The going is assumed. Jesus didn’t go more than 200 miles away from his hometown, and yet he is the greatest disciple-maker in history. It wasn’t about how far he went. It was about what he did while he was going. The same is true for you and me.”
You don’t need to change your...
How God Feeds the World
Apr 27, 2018
The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. (Joshua 5:11-12)
There was once a man who lived by the river. One day, the man heard a radio broadcast urging him and all residents to evacuate the town as a huge storm was coming and flooding was inevitable. But the man refused to leave claiming that God would protect him. When the flooding started, two neighbors—one in a kayak and another in a rescue helicopter—came and tried to save the man, but he refused their help, assuring them that God would save him. You can probably guess what happened to the man: He drowned.
Is God capable of protecting, feeding, and healing us through miracles? Of course he is. But more often than not, he chooses to do these things through...
What Does “Glorify” Even Mean?
Apr 26, 2018
Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
1 Corinthians 15 is one of the longest expositions on heaven in Scripture. Given the topic, you might expect Paul to conclude this chapter by saying something like, “Now, wait around faithfully until the Lord’s return.” But that’s not what he says. Instead, Paul says, “Therefore…Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
In light of our eternal hope, we are to lean into our work today, knowing that it will somehow not be for naught. Somehow our work matters to God. How? We’re going to explore five answers to that question.
Today, we start with the most fundamental: As Jesus’s words in today’s passage make clear, our work matters because it is a means...
Work Redeemed
Apr 25, 2018
See, I will create new heavens and a new earth….[My people] will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit….They will not labor in vain. (Isaiah 65:17a, 21, 23a)
Yesterday, we saw the climax of Scripture in Revelation 21 in which heaven is finally revealed in its fullness on the New Earth. In today’s passage, Isaiah offers a parallel prophecy, adding one crucial detail. Isaiah says that when Christ returns to “make everything new” (Revelation 21:5), that will include our work.
This is the glorious conclusion to the biblical narrative of work we’ve sketched out over the last ten days. Here’s a quick recap.
God worked and created us to work before the Fall, meaning that the work of Adam and Eve was once perfect worship. But sin made work difficult and ensured that we would idolize work as a means of seeking to save ourselves. Because we couldn’t save ourselves, God sent...
On Earth As It Is In Heaven
Apr 24, 2018
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth…I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people…‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:1a, 2-3a, 4-5a)
As we near the end of our exploration of the biblical narrative of work, we come to the climax of Scripture: the marriage of heaven and earth and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom of God.
Yesterday, we saw that while Jesus inaugurated his kingdom on Easter, he didn’t bring the kingdom to earth all at once. He gave his bride, the Church, the privilege of helping him build his...
Jesus the Gardener
Apr 23, 2018
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying…she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus….Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (John 20:11a, 14, 15b)
You’ve probably read this passage dozens of times. And if you’re like me, you’ve likely always thought of the fact that Mary mistook Jesus as “the gardener” as some odd but insignificant detail of Scripture.
But no word of Scripture is placed there by accident, and as renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has pointed out, this detail is no exception. It appears that John is pointing to something quite remarkable indeed. John is contrasting the first Adam in the Garden of Eden with the last Adam, Jesus Christ, in the Garden of the Tomb.
In the beginning, God created Adam to work the Garden of...
Saved to Work
Apr 22, 2018
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
Yesterday, we read the two verses that precede today’s. Ephesians 2:8-9 shows us how the gospel enables us to rest from our work, as we know that our status as co-heirs with Christ is secure regardless of anything we accomplish. Ephesians 2:10 shows us that our response to that security is to want to be productive on the Lord’s behalf.
Why?
Because working to earn someone’s favor is exhausting. But working in response to unconditional favor is intoxicating.
Furthermore, as Paul makes clear in today’s verse, the very purpose of our lives—the reason we were created and saved—was not to wait around for eternity. Christ made us new creations so that we could “do good works!”
But Jordan, when Paul says “good...
The Verdict You’ve Been Waiting For
Apr 21, 2018
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Over the past five days, we’ve been systematically walking through the biblical narrative of work. Today and tomorrow, we examine the pinnacle of that narrative—Jesus’s death and resurrection—to see how the gospel provides our ultimate source of rest and ambition for our work.
First, let’s see how the gospel enables us to rest.
Just like the Babylonians did in Genesis 11, many of us look to our work for our sense of worth today. It’s why “What do you do?” is often the first question we ask new acquaintances. We all feel a need to impress others with our answer to that question. Why? Because we are all looking for a verdict for our lives—for someone to say that we are worthy and that our very existence is justified.
The beautiful...
