Rewards & Recognition in the Kingdom

Transcript

GR 714
6/23/1985
Rewards and Recognition in the Kingdom
Matthew 19:27-20:16
Gil Rugh

In Matthew 19 Jesus had a confrontation with a young man, a wealthy young man who was influential in his local synagogue, evidently a synagogue official as indicated by the other gospels. He came to Jesus seeking how he might have eternal life. In spite of all that he had and his influence and position, this young man had a sense that something was missing in his life. He came to Jesus seeking how he might have the assurance of eternal life; how he might know for sure he would be part of the kingdom that the Messiah would establish.
Jesus told him that he had to abandon everything and become a follower of Christ. The rich young man decided that was too costly which is evidenced by the fact that he turned and went away grieved. Jesus used that to instruct His disciples that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, it is like a camel trying to get through the eye of a needle. It is basically impossible, and the only reason any are saved is because with God all things are possible.
In Matthew 19:26, the thrust of what Jesus said is that to have eternal life you must let go of everything and commit yourself without reservation to Him. You cannot be holding onto possessions and the things of this world and at the same time follow Jesus Christ. That is true in other areas as well, including religious areas. You cannot hold onto your baptism or good works and still have eternal life. You must let go of everything and place your faith in Him.
In the case of this rich young ruler, Jesus asked him to literally let go of these things, but not everyone is asked to literally give away all that he has. However, everyone who is going to be a follower of Jesus Christ must have that same kind of commitment. A follower of Christ must let go of the things of this world and have an unreserved and unfettered faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
This has certain implications and Peter is the one who drew these matters to the surface. You have got to appreciate Peter. He was the person in the group who was not afraid to ask the question that everybody else was thinking. Have you ever been sitting in a group, a Bible study or another kind of group, and you have a question on your mind, but you are too embarrassed to ask it? Peter was the type of person who was never too embarrassed to ask it. He was not afraid that it was going to be dumb or that people were going to think he was out of line. So what would come to your mind after Jesus told the rich young ruler that he could have eternal life if he would get rid of everything and follow Him? Peter was there and wondered, “I am one of those who have given up everything to follow Him. I wonder what I’m going to get.”

Most of us would think it was too unspiritual to ask that; but not Peter. Matthew 19:27, “Then Peter said to him, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?’” Think about it. The rich young ruler decided not to follow Jesus under those conditions, but he was still a rich young ruler. Seemingly he had not lost anything at that point. He still had his riches, his power and his youth. Peter pointed out that he had a prosperous fishing business on the Sea of Galilee. One day Jesus came and said, “Give it up and follow Me.” Peter gave it up and followed Jesus. He wondered what would happen to a poor ex-fisherman who was a follower of Christ.

Do you ever get to that point of exasperation where, even as a believer, you think it’s just not worth it? You see unbelievers doing well and seeming to enjoy themselves, while you have committed yourself to follow Christ and it seems like life is struggle after struggle after struggle until it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. For the wicked, everything is going fine, and for you, a follower of Christ who wants to do your best for Him, everything is difficult. What is there going to be for you?
Note what is involved in Peter’s statement in verse 27, “we have left everything and followed You.” That has been the thrust of what Jesus talked about through the gospel of Matthew. To follow Him a person must let go of anything and everything else. For Peter and the other disciples, they literally abandoned their earthly possessions. For most people, there must be that mentality. You must be willing to give up your family and your friends. You cannot love mother or father, brother or sister or husband or wife more than Him. You cannot be worried about this life’s possessions. You must have faith in Him without reservation. Peter asked, “What then will there be for us?” (v. 27) What will be their reward? I think it is interesting that Jesus answered Peter’s question without rebuke. There were times when Peter was rebuked but this was not one of them.
Jesus answered Peter and accepted his question as an open, honest and valid question. He explained to Peter what was in it for him. It is important to be careful in talking about rewards for those who follow Him. The subject of rewards is fraught with danger; it is not going to be like you may think of it or picture it. Jesus put the matter of rewards in proper perspective, but first He assured them that rewards will be provided for those who follow Him.
Matthew 19:28, “And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’” Jesus said very simply that when he rules over this earth, the twelve disciples are going to sit on twelve thrones ruling over the nation Israel. The context is the kingdom, eternal life.

Jesus referred to the “regeneration.” It is an interesting word. It means rebirth or getting born again. It is only used one other time in the New Testament in the context of individual regeneration referring to a person being regenerated or reborn. Titus 3:4,5, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” The object of the salvation of God is “us.” The foundation for our salvation is not our works but God’s mercy, and as soon as you bring in mercy as the foundation, you rule out any of your efforts or your works because mercy by definition means something that is undeserved or unmerited. Even our best righteous deeds were not the basis of God’s saving us, but His mercy.
The end of Titus 3:5 says, “by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
This word regeneration is used in Matthew 19:28 and Titus 3:5. When you are regenerated or reborn, you are made new by the Holy Spirit of God. The expression “washing of regeneration” leads some people to immediately think of baptism, because to them it seems like any time you talk about water or washing, you must be talking about baptism. But I have a problem with that.
If you tell your children to get washed up for dinner, you would not expect them to go get baptized. Paul did not say “by the baptizing of regeneration” but “by the washing of regeneration.” The washing is the regeneration. The regeneration is the washing. When you are regenerated or reborn, you are washed by God. You are cleansed from your sin. You are made new by the Holy Spirit of God. That is what Paul was talking about.
What happens when you trust Jesus Christ? You are born again. You are cleansed from your sin and you are made a new creature in Christ. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come,” Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17. In Titus 3:5 Paul wrote about a person being cleansed and made new. In Matthew 19:28 when Jesus talked about “in the regeneration,” He was talking about in His kingdom. The emphasis there is on the regeneration that will take place on the earth during the reign of the Son of Man when the effects of the curse and the fall will be removed from the creation.
In passages like Isaiah 11 it says that the lion and the lamb will lie down together. The young child will be able to play with a poisonous snake. There will not be any harm done in Christ’s entire kingdom. Romans 8 describes the whole creation as groaning together in anticipation of the time when you and I as believers will be unveiled as the Sons of God. That will occur when Jesus Christ returns to earth the second time. You and I will return with Him and we will be revealed to be the sons of God. At that point in time, the curse will be removed from the creation so that the desert will blossom as a rose and the earth will be free to realize the potential that it has apart from sin. So the regeneration is talking about the rebirth of the earth, in effect, under the Messiah’s rule.
That is clarified in the next part of Matthew 19:28, “in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne.” Jesus had already begun to talk to His disciples about His coming crucifixion at Jerusalem, but that in no way hindered or changed the plan of the kingdom. The Old Testament prophets prophesied an earthly kingdom over which the Messiah would personally rule and reign. Jesus said that kingdom will not be established at this point. He was going to Jerusalem to be executed but the kingdom was not cancelled. It was delayed, humanly speaking, not from God’s perspective but from ours, but not cancelled. Jesus did not tell the disciples this would be if I sit on the glorious throne but when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne. It is a settled fact; it will occur. Jesus used the phrase, the Son of Man, from Daniel 7 again, referring to the Messiah.
Matthew 19:28 ends with a promise, “you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Just as surely as Jesus Christ is going to sit on the throne and rule and reign, so the apostles are promised the privilege of ruling and reigning also upon twelve thrones over the twelve tribes of the nation Israel. This presents a problem that I do not have an answer to. There were twelve apostles listening, counting Judas Iscariot, who was not a believer and will not be part of the kingdom. I believe Jesus was talking about the twelve apostles. There will be twelve thrones, as there are twelve tribes. Evidently the twelfth throne will be occupied by the one who replaced Judas in the opening chapter of the Book of Acts.
The point being made to Peter was that those who have left everything and followed Him, the twelve as the nucleus, are destined to rule and reign in the kingdom. The idea of judging the twelve tribes carries the idea of governing or ruling, so that they are going to be associated with Christ when He rules over the earth. Peter is going to sit on a throne and he is going to have the responsibility of governing one of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Millennium. Peter had already been promised authority in the Millennium. In Matthew 16:19, Jesus said to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Peter was promised authority. In our earlier study of this passage, it was noted that the keys of the kingdom refers to authority in the Millennium, and that will be authority to forbid certain things and authority to permit certain things. Matthew 19:28 reveals that this authority is not only to reside in Peter but in the twelve apostles or disciples. They will be associated with Christ in ruling and reigning in the Millennium.
What about the rest of those who believe in Jesus Christ, will they be second-class citizens of the kingdom? No. Matthew 19:29 says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” Note that this says “everyone”. Peter’s question was, we have left everything and followed You, what will we get? Jesus’ response was, you will receive many times as much and you will inherit eternal life. The rich young ruler’s question in Matthew 19:16 was, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Jesus’ answer was, forsake everything and follow Me. This means you must trust Him alone and commit your life to Him alone. You are not to trust Him plus your possessions or Him plus family or Him plus power, but Him alone. What is in it for those who do that? You receive many times more and eternal life. Eternal life is the privilege of sharing in the eternal kingdom of Christ. That is what He promised. For believers, that involves sharing in the rule and reign of Christ. The twelve apostles will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. But every person who is a believer in Jesus Christ is going to share with Christ in ruling in the Millennium.

That is indicated in Revelation 20:4, “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” This is the scene at the end of the seven-year tribulation and the beginning of the earthly kingdom of Christ. Revelation 19 describes the return of Christ to earth at His Second Coming for the purpose of establishing His kingdom on the earth. There are thrones and people sitting on the thrones with the authority to govern. The end of Revelation 20:5 calls this the first resurrection. The first resurrection is a quality of resurrection. It includes Old Testament saints, church saints, Tribulation saints and everybody who is a saved person, if you will. They are seen sitting upon thrones governing. They are promised the privilege of reigning with Christ for 1000 years.
This may seem confusing; isn’t Christ going to establish an eternal kingdom? Those who are saved receive eternal life, but these people only reign for 1000 years. What happens then? The 1000 years is also referred to as the Millennium. Millennium is the Latin word for 1000 years. The Millennium is simply the first portion of the eternal kingdom. In that first 1000-year segment, God will complete His program in dealing with sin among humanity. But the kingdom does not cease at the end of the 1000 years, it goes on for eternity. After the Millennium there will be no more sin of any kind in God’s earthly kingdom.
Revelation 21 describes the new home being prepared for us as believers. When someone is going to build a new house, they plan all the details. They can tell you the dimensions of all the rooms and exactly where everything’s going to be and how it’s going to be. We as believers ought to take time to memorize Revelation 21:10-27 because this is where we will live for eternity.
In John 14:2,3, Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Revelation 21 describes the place He is preparing for us: “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel” (vv. 10-12). The new Jerusalem is the dwelling place for you and for me as believers through all eternity. “And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (v. 14).
When you want to measure your house today, you just get a plain, ordinary tape measure. Revelation 20:15 says to measure my new dwelling place they use a golden measuring rod. That tells you something of the splendor of the dwelling. “The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall” (v. 15). This is quite a large place, 1500 cubits going each way. And the materials are special. “The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass” (v. 18). It is so pure it seems to be transparent. “The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone” (v. 19). Then all the kinds of precious stones are listed. If you are going to have a valuable home, you want to have a good foundation.
This is quite a sizable place; it has 12 gates. “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass” (v. 21). If you come to visit me now, you walk up a concrete driveway. In the Millennium, you are going to walk down a street that is gold so pure that it is going to be transparent. “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (vv. 22,23). I do not have all the answers to questions that come up regarding the description. This does not tell the size of the rooms or the types of rooms, but you get some idea of the splendor of the city. Think about the nicest mansion or house you have ever seen and see if there’s any comparison. There’s no comparison.
Is it any wonder that Jesus said to Peter, “You are going to have many times more than anything you gave up and with that eternal life.” And note that what you have many times more of you will enjoy for eternity. You are going to have many times more and eternal life. The best you could hope for if you were born in a splendid mansion, would be 100 years in it and that would be a long time. But in eternity we will have hundreds of millions of years to enjoy all that He is giving us in His glorious kingdom. Does that put things in perspective for Peter? What will we have, Lord, who have given up everything? When I begin to look at just a glimpse of what He has promised, I find I’m almost embarrassed to talk about the trivial, trite things that I have given up. No matter how splendid they seem in this world, they do not really matter or amount to much when you compare it in light of eternity and the glory of what we are going to have in eternity.
That being the case, do you know what the next logical step is? I start to compare myself with you: If I became a believer when I was young and I have already had 32 years to serve the Lord, then I will probably get a bigger reward than some people who become believers when they are older. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus recognized that it is a natural, healthy thing for Peter to have some interest in what is going to be provided for those who have committed themselves to Christ. But He put that in proper perspective lest Peter would sit down and try to compare himself to John, and John would try to compare himself to Matthew. Jesus revealed that this whole matter of rewards is left in the sovereign hands of God. You can be sure God will do what is fair and right.
In Matthew 19:30 Jesus said, “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.” This is a very brief statement and a very important point. He then gave a parable to explain and illustrate it. It is clear that the parable was given to illustrate that point because of Matthew 20:16, “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” These verses say basically the same thing only in reverse order, and there is a parable, a story, told in the middle to illustrate that truth.
The parable is in Matthew 20: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard” (vv. 1,2) The expression “kingdom of heaven” has been used before in Matthew. Jesus was talking about matters related to His earthly kingdom over which He will rule and reign. It is in connection with that kingdom that the rewards are seen, and part of the rewards is sharing the rule and reign in that kingdom. The practice of Jesus’ day was that when a man owned fields and work needed to be done in the fields, he would go down early in the morning and all the laborers would be gathered together and he would hire the workers he would need. At that time he entered into an agreement with the laborers to pay them a denarius to work for the day. A working day was 12 hours from 6:00 to 6:00. A denarius was the standard pay for a laborer for a working day.
After a while, the landowner went out to find more workers. “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went” (Matt. 20:3,4). The third hour would be 9:00 in the morning. Jewish time is calculated from 6:00 in the morning. As the landowner watched the progress of the work, he realized he could use some more workers. So he went out at 9:00 in the morning and checked the labor pool. There were still workers that had not been hired. He told them to go into the vineyard and he would pay whatever is right. And so they went. Only with those that he hired at 6:00 a.m. did he agree to a denarius for the day. The rest he simply told to go to work and he would pay what is right. They leave it in his hands.
As he watched the work progress, he realized he could use more laborers. “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing” (Matt. 20:5). The landowner went out again at noon and again at 3:00 in the afternoon. This was a good use of his resources. There was no sense in hiring too many workers.
Then he went out about the 11th hour, which would be 5:00 in the evening when there would only be an hour of the work day left. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too’”
(Matt. 20:6,7). He hired them for just an hour. There would be an advantage to this in that you would have fresh workers. Those who had already been working 11 hours would probably be winding down and looking forward to the end of the workday. I was at a store the other night and they started announcing way ahead of time that the doors were going to be locked at closing time. Every five minutes they were announcing that the doors were going to be locked. You could tell that the personnel had all quit working and they were running around locking the doors, trying to make sure nobody came in. That last hour was sort of lost. But these hired at the 11th hour would be fresh workers.
The parable continues in Matthew 20:8,9: “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.”
Remember what is being illustrated: The last shall be first and the first shall be last. The landowner says to call them and pay the last first. So the last are to be taken care of first. Those hired at the eleventh hour came. They had started work at 5:00 in the evening and worked until 6:00 in the evening: One hour. He paid them a denarius.
Imagine what you would have been thinking if you had started work at 6:00 in the morning. You had worked 12 hours, and it gets hot in Palestine. You had worked through the heat of the day. If he only worked one hour and got paid a denarius, then since you worked twelve hours, you should get twelve denarii.
That is what they thought: “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’” (Matt. 8:10-12). These laborers had worked hard all day through the beating sun, but those who only worked an hour were paid the same and they came after the sun had cooled off. Those hired first did not think that was fair. They did not think he was a fair master.
The landowner responded in Matthew 8:13-15, “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?’” Note that the last is first: not only in order, he was paid first, but in what he received, he was made equal to the first.
Stop and think about that. If you agree to go to work for someone for a denarius for the day, then when the day is over and he pays you a denarius, is that fair? You contracted with him that you would do a certain amount of work for a certain amount of pay. You did a certain amount of work. He paid you the agreed amount. Why are you all bent out of shape that you worked more than someone else but got paid the same amount? What does that have to do with you? As long as you got paid what was fair and right, the amount that was agreed upon, what business is it of yours if the boss decides to give someone else the same amount of pay for only a fraction of the work? Why should you be upset with what the boss does with his money as long as you were paid what was fair?
The parable states the problem at the end of Matthew 20:15: “Or is your eye envious because I am generous?” It is human nature not to appreciate someone else being the recipient of generosity. If you want to do something nice, do it for me, thank you. The point is that as soon as you start looking at others you become discontent.
Some people allegorize these parables and they claim to find all kinds of hidden meanings. They claim that each laborer means something and a denarius means something and the foreman means something and the scorching heat of the day means something.
What is the point of the parable? Remember that in a parable there is one basic lesson being taught. You do not have to look very hard. Look at the beginning of this parable and the end of this parable and you find the lesson being taught: The first shall be last and the last shall be first. There is an equality brought about under the generosity of the Lord. Even though Christ told Peter something of the rewards he could expect, He also warned Peter not to be too caught up with the rewards, but just to serve the Master and the Master will do what is fair. Is that what happened in the parable? Those who went to work first at 6:00 agreed on a fixed price and they got it. Those who went out and worked as hard as they could and left their pay in the hands of the Master were dealt with very generously. So the reminder is that we ought to be more concerned about serving the Lord than about what is in it for us because the Lord will be generous.
That should be encouraging; it should help put things in perspective. It keeps us from trying to compare our lives. It would be tempting to think that someone who was saved at a young age and serves the Lord for a long time would get more rewards in heaven than someone who got saved later in life. For example, I led a lady to the Lord who was 89 years of age, 3 months from her 90th birthday. She was in an oxygen tent and shortly thereafter she died. I don’t think she ever left that bed after she was saved. We might think she would not get the rewards that someone who served the Lord longer would get. I mean, she sure had a short time and never did get out to do anything significant for the Lord. But who put the laborer in charge of the rewards? It may seem like common sense that because I have served longer I will get more than her. But that is not right.
We tend to compare ourselves with one another. We see somebody guilty of a terrible crime, something terrible enough to make it in the newspaper. We see that a person has committed terrible atrocities and is responsible for the death of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. Is it fair if that man, on his death bed, moments before he died, recognized how wretched a sinner he was and placed his faith without reservation in Jesus Christ as the One who died for Him and that it was all cleansed and washed away? Is it fair that he went to the splendor of the glory of God’s presence to enjoy all God has prepared for those who love Him for all eternity? You would have to say that God is awful generous to do something like that, isn’t He? But isn’t that the point?
Why should I be upset if He chooses to be overwhelmingly generous with you? Am I going to get any less than He promised me? I am promised many times more than I gave up, and I get to enjoy it for all eternity.
Even if I trusted Christ when I was 60 years old and I don’t have very much time to serve the Lord, I can trust Him because He has given me all the time I need because all God is concerned about is that I begin to serve Him from the moment He calls me until He takes me home. That was all the master of this field was concerned about. He did not ask those hired at 5:00 p.m. to give an accounting that they had worked twelve times as hard in that hour as those hired at 6:00 a.m. That would probably be the way we would do it. In this parable, all the laborers had to do was go out and work in the field to the best of their ability and the landowner took care of the rewards.
The fact that the Lord is generous should be a motivation and an encouragement to those of us who are His followers. Is He fair? Yes, but He is merciful and generous and there will be an equality. Does that mean we will all get the same reward so it doesn’t matter what we do? I do not know that that is the case. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “each will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8). But the Bible does not say what it is. The Bible just exhorts us to faithfulness. The handling of those rewards is totally in the sovereign hand of the only One who has any right to dispense those rewards. You know what I am convinced of? The rewards will be more than we ever expected.
The caution is that we ought not to be looking around trying to compare ourselves to others. Jesus confirmed to Peter that he would receive something, many times more than he had left behind, and he was going to rule and reign with Him for eternity. Then Jesus cautioned Peter to leave the handling and distributing of rewards in the hands of His Father.
Do not become occupied with what you are going to get. In the parable, those who were concerned to get a denarius got a denarius, and those who were concerned to serve the master and let him reward them as he saw fit were dealt with very generously.
What a privilege! God is going to save us and bless us beyond that. We will have eternal life and much more to enjoy for all eternity. If you think about that, it ought to put things in proper perspective. I really believe that when we stand in the presence of Christ in glory, we will be overwhelmed with the insignificance of the things in which we invested our lives while on earth.
Things of this world really occupy us or seem to matter so much. The dream home, the dream car, those vacations that I thought I couldn’t live without, and that friendship that I lost because I committed myself to follow Jesus Christ and serve Him. In eternity I will have hundreds of millions of years to enjoy God’s presence. Those things seemed so important on earth. But from the perspective of heaven, I will have the enjoyment of the presence of God, the angels of heaven and the redeemed for eternity.
This parable points out our need to adjust our perspective and put things in the proper light. Nobody has given up anything that amounts to anything. Even if you walk out of this service today and you lose everything because of your testimony for Jesus Christ, remember, you will receive many times over and be privileged to enjoy it for eternity.
There is only one question left: Where are you in this? There are some who are like the rich young ruler who heard Christ but turned and walked away because he was so absorbed with the things of this life. He held onto his things and trusted them and could not bring himself to let go and trust in Jesus Christ. What Christ offers you is the future, eternity, and the glory of His presence if you will but trust Him as the One who loves you and died for you.