5. You may expect Christ's personal involvement in all you do. (10:37-42)

It's all about Jesus—loving Him supremely, serving Him steadfastly, doing all that we do for Him.

What does it mean to "take up your cross and follow after me"? (See a restatement of this in Matt. 16:24.) Entire books have been written on this. The short answer is it's whatever specific assignment, work, burden or difficulties the Lord asks you to bear for His purposes.

We are to "lose our lives for His sake" (v. 39). It's all for Jesus. I think about Baker James Cauthen. In 1939, he pastored an exciting church in Fort Worth and was being acclaimed as a young David Platt (smiley-face here; Southern Baptists will get the allusion) with a glorious future. But when he and wife Eloise resigned to go to China as missionaries, people said they were throwing it all away. Literally, "losing their lives." 

After all, such a vast country and they are just one couple. What could they do? Answer: In 1954, the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board asked Dr. Cauthen to head up the entire worldwide ministry, a work he carried on with great distinction for 25 years. I had the privilege of serving as a board member for three of his last years and count it a wonderful honor.

"He who receives you receives me" (v.40). Stop and reflect on that. Similarly, in Luke 10:16, Jesus said, "The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me...."

How heavy is that? However people treat the Lord's servant, He takes personally and enters it on the record as though they were doing the same thing to Him. That is both wonderful and scary at the same time. Those who bless their preacher and love and pray for him are doing the same for Jesus. Those who attack and undermine the servant of the Lord are being penciled in on the Lord's appointment calendar, and on Judgment Day you do not want to be standing anywhere near them.

In Heb. 6:10, we read: "God is not unjust so as to forget the work which you have done and the love you have shown to His name in having ministered to the saints and in still ministering."  What you do for His servants–preachers or missionaries or the lowliest believer, Jesus takes personally and promises to reward.

6. You may expect to be rewarded in surprising ways (10:41-42). When we participate in the work of a prophet, we will receive a share of the same reward given him, whatever that turns out to be. Even if our participation is as small as "a cup of cold water to drink" (v.42), it still counts. So, let none say their gift is too small and insignificant.

Reward is a huge incentive to everyone and figures large in the teaching of our Lord. (To be sure, some insist that if we are ministering for personal reward, our service is in vain and unworthy. They are dead wrong and such teaching is unscriptural.) See Luke 14:14.

Let us give to assist people who are doing the work of the Lord. Help to send future missionaries and pastors to Bible college and to seminary. Buy a sack of groceries or a suit of clothes for the struggling minister. Give an automobile to the faithful servant of the Lord who needs one.

In so doing, you are sending Jesus to school, feeding Him, buying Him a suit of clothes, giving Him a car.

I'm dead serious. We have His word on it.

There is so much more to this chapter, but this is enough as an introduction.  I pray you will learn to love this passage and will live in it for the rest of your earthly days.

Dr. Joe McKeever writes from the vantage point of more than 60 years as a disciple of Jesus, more than 50 years preaching His gospel, and more than 40 years of cartooning for every imaginable Christian publication.

For the original article, visit joemckeever.com.

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