Jesus said in Mark 10:29-30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.
Jesus was encouraging his disciples, in this passage, with the rewards of discipleship. At other times he made it clear in his teachings that there is a huge cost to follow Him. Jesus has paid the price for us, but there is also a price to pay to follow Him. Here in this passage, He is encouraging His disciples with the thought; that this cost, this willingness to give up homes, possessions and family to follow Him is a seed.
When Jesus refers to ‘a hundred times as much’, he is referring to the potential resident within that seed, to produce a great harvest. After the seed is sown into the ground and watered, it begins to germinate and grow into a plant or a tree which eventually produces fruit and more seed.
Just recently my two brothers joined me at Church to support me as I ministered. Years earlier, I remember forsaking all to follow God’s call on my life and at the time they were not living for the Lord. They were both living party lifestyles, destructive lifestyles. I remember saying to the Lord, “I can’t go back to help them, I just trust that if I follow you, you will get ahold of their lives.”
There are times we need to be willing to give up everything including family members to follow Jesus. Now I can say my two brothers are both walking in relationship with Jesus and have wonderful family lives. I give God all the credit, this was the operation of God’s wonderful grace and mercy in their lives, but I also believe to some extent this is a precious harvest of the seed I had sown into God’s Kingdom.
God may have spoken to you to forsake something to follow Him. I want to encourage you today, nothing you give up for Jesus sake is wasted. It becomes a wonderful, power packed seed, filled with harvest potential! Not only will there be a harvest for you in this life, there will be a harvest of blessing in eternity.
When I was just starting out in ministry, as an Evangelist, I became good friends with a couple studying for the ministry at Rhema Bible College. They had sold their businesses, property, everything to follow the call of God on their life. Recently I found out that the husband just passed into glory and I was struck with the wonderful thought ‘what an incredible reward must be waiting in heaven for this man who gave up everything to follow Jesus.’
My feeling is, that Jesus is not only referring to a harvest in relationships and God’s provision, but also a spiritual harvest. When Jesus went to the Cross, and suffered and laid his life down. His life was a wonderful seed resulting in a harvest of a mighty outpouring of the fire of the Holy Spirit! The harvest from this seed began on the day of Pentecost and continues to the present day as the fire of the Holy Spirit continues to be poured out around the world!
Every time we invest our lives to following Jesus in different ways, that seed produces a harvest of indescribable joy, peace that passes understanding, love that is without limits. There is a spiritual harvest that nothing in this world can match. There is a harvest of spiritual wealth that no amount of money can buy. The wealth of a wonderful relationship with Jesus.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:2b about Jesus that “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew that what he was doing was a seed for a great harvest of souls!
The fact that you and I are Christians today and children of God is the harvest of the seed of Jesus’ life. Jesus was thinking of how you and I would have relationship with God. That thought put a wonderful smile on his face, and gave him the strength to endure all he went through.
Jesus also says that with all this harvest there will be persecutions. When the Children of Israel entering the promised land there were giants to battle, and so with any harvest there is opposition, but there is also great joy, blessing and breakthrough! Our focus needs to be like Jesus’ focus – on the joy set before us!
Finally Jesus is saying, ‘remember, there will be rewards in eternity as well.’ I think when we get to eternity we are more likely to be thinking ‘I wish I had invested more into the Kingdom of God, not less.’ This life is merely the blink of an eye compared with eternity and Jesus is saying, there are wonderful eternal rewards, there will be a harvest for you, for all eternity.
What an incredible thought, that as we sow our time, talent, treasure and even our very lives into God’s Kingdom, there is a multiplied effect that impacts not only this life but the next. Today you may be feeling a little discouraged about the price you have paid to follow Jesus. I want to encourage you, that that price is a good seed, and as you keep believing, trusting God, that seed, in due season, will produce a mighty harvest!
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