Great Expectations (6)

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19.29

The promise of happiness
Conceptions of happiness differ from age to age. There are, of course, similarities: most societies and peoples include some concept of wealth and family as part of their vision of happiness. Happiness involves enjoying the things one loves and desires most, free from threat of harm, together with the people one loves the most.

This is what Jesus promises to those who have left everything to follow Him. This is what we may expect as we take up full-faith pursuit of Christ and His Kingdom and righteousness. Jesus told Peter and all His followers that whatever regret or sorrow or sense of loss they may experience by leaving all behind to follow Him will be more than replaced to overflowing in the here and now, as well as then and there forever.

But we need to make sure we understand this aspect of Jesus’ promises and our great expectations according to two historical settings.

Expectations in Israel
The first of these is that of ancient Israel. Jesus’ words in this text were a kind of summary of what God promised the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 28.1-14. The people of Israel had left everything they’d known in Egypt to follow Moses into the promised land of Canaan. There God held out for them great expectations of abundance – family, lands, harvests, safety, fullness of joy. Jesus is tapping into this setting in order to say to His followers, “Everything you could ever need or want in the way of provisions, possessions, friends, and family – all the covenant blessings of God – you will have when you follow Me.”

The essence of God’s covenant promises to Israel is that He would be their God and would bless them and make them a blessing to the world. The material, cultural, and social blessings they would know in the land of Canaan were strictly indicators or tokens of the presence and favor of God, Whom to know is true, full, and joyous life. Jesus answered Peter’s question by saying that everything God promised His people in His covenant would be theirs by following Jesus, for in Jesus and only in Jesus all the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen.” (cf. 2 Cor. 1.20). He would meet all their needs out of His riches and glory (Phil. 19). He would strengthen them to do all His will (Phil. 2.13, 4.13). He would be with them, and never fail nor forsake them (Matt. 28.20; Heb. 13.5). He would give them fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, merely by bringing them into His presence, day after day after day (Ps. 16.11).

This promise of blessing must be understood within a second historical context, that of the first Christian community in Jerusalem. These were the first people to enter into the age of regeneration and to ascend the throne with Jesus, from there to serve one another according to the good works of His Word. They were the first to show us what true happiness together looks like in the Lord. How did they do this?

The first Christians
They did this by immersing themselves in Jesus and His Word, so that, loving and caring for one another, they freely gave of their possessions to meet the needs of their fellow believers and reach out to others with the Gospel.

We read of this in Acts 2, Acts 4, Acts 8, and Acts 11. So powerfully was the love of Christ at work among those first Christians, that they freely and readily sacrificed their own interests and needs to make sure that others’ needs were met day by day. There was not “anyone among them who lacked” anything they needed each day, Luke tells us (Acts 4.34). Their love was palpable – a grace you could “see” (Acts 11.23). They had their struggles, to be sure – “fightings and fears within” (Acts 5, 6) and “without” (Acts 3, 5, 7, 8, 12). Yet so outside the norm was the love they demonstrated for one another that it attracted the attention of their neighbors, leading many to follow their example by forsaking their old lives and pursuing Jesus in this new community of covenant blessing (cf. Acts 6.1-6).

All those who leave everything to follow Jesus can know the fullness of God’s covenant blessing by knowing and living in Jesus Christ,and they are called to share that blessing with the people to whom God sends them each day. Our happiness is not in things, but in Jesus. Our peace is not in secure circumstances but in Jesus. Our provision is from Jesus. Our strength is in Jesus. Our joy, and the love we need for serving and judging others, is from Jesus.

But is this what we see in the churches of our day? Do those who profess Jesus really find Him to be their all in all, or do they merely regard Him as the convenient Supplier of every good thing they might want or need? And if so, are they not rather idolaters than practitioners of full faith in the Lord?

What Jesus extends to Peter and all who follow Jesus with him is fullness of joy, satisfaction of their every need, abundant life here and now, and assurance of everlasting life then and there, in Him, and in Him alone.

And all who look to Jesus in full faith know that He is able to promise such blessings and fulfill such great expectations because He Himself is their substance and their delight.

For reflection
1.  Meditate on Psalm 16.11. How do you experience this? When? Is this enough for you? Explain.

2.  Paul says that Jesus is filling all things in all things (Eph. 1.23, 4.10). How do you experience that in your own life? How would you like to experience more of that?

3.  What does it mean to say that Jesus is your “substance and delight”?

Next steps: What could your church do to show more of the reality of Jesus’ love in its community? Talk with some of your fellow church members about this question.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Great Expectations, is Part 2 of a 10-part series, Full Faith. You can download Great Expectations by clicking here. Your gifts to The Fellowship of Ailbe make this ministry possible. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Dr., Essex Junction, VT 05452.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.