In the coming age the overcomers will participate in the feast of the kingdom of the heavens. Matthew 8:11 indicates that the overcoming believers will feast with Old Testament overcomers. In this verse the Lord Jesus says, “I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens.” This refers to the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. It will be in the manifestation of the kingdom that the overcoming believers in Christ will feast with the Old Testament overcomers including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
As the overcomers participate in the feast of the kingdom of the heavens, they will drink the cup of the new covenant anew with their Lord. In Matthew 26:29 the Lord Jesus says, “I will by no means drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.” This word was spoken when the Lord was establishing the table (Matt. 26:26-30). By speaking this word, He made it clear that from the time He established the table He would be physically away from the believers and not drink the fruit of the vine with them until He drinks it anew with them in the Father’s kingdom. After His coming back, the Lord will drink the cup of the new covenant anew with the overcoming believers. Therefore, the Lord’s promise in Matthew 26:29 will be fulfilled with the overcomers in the kingdom of the Father during the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.
The overcomers will enjoy the reward. In Matthew 5:11 and 12 the Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are you when they reproach and persecute you, and say every evil thing against you, lying, for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the heavens; for thus they persecuted the prophets before you.” This reward is great and is in the heavens, a heavenly reward, not an earthly one.
In Matthew 16:27 the Lord Jesus says, “The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each man according to his doings.” The context indicates that the Lord’s rewarding of His followers at His coming back in this verse will be according to whether they lose or save their soul, as mentioned in verses 25 and 26. This means that the reward will be given according to how we have borne the cross. It will depend on whether or not we keep ourselves under the killing of the cross, on whether we save our soul life in this age or lose it. If we bear the cross to follow the Lord by losing the enjoyment of our soul in this age, He will reward us with the enjoyment of the soul in the kingdom.
In 16:27 the Lord says that He will reward “each man according to his doings,” that is, according to whether or not we lose our soul life’s enjoyment in this age. This will have nothing to do with our eternal salvation; however, it will have very much to do with the Lord’s dispensational reward to us. The Lord’s reward will be the entering into the kingdom, which will be at the manifestation of the kingdom. The manifestation of the kingdom in the millennium will be the reward to the followers who remain under the killing of the cross. All the believers who follow Christ in this way will be rewarded with the manifestation of the kingdom.
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