If we're going to serve the Lord, we must also commit to walking with Him, and letting Him bring transformation to our life and heart. It's not enough just to serve Him; we must embrace the promise of being transformed. Notice the two rewards that He makes there. He said: “you'll be with Me, where I am”. What does that mean? They're already with Him? When He says: “where I am”, He's referring to a place of intimacy, with His Father.
John 1:18 – “No man has ever seen the Father, but the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (intimate relationship with the Father), and He has made Him known”.
He's saying: I'm living in a deep, intimate, personal relationship with My Father; and that love and unity that I walk in with Him - that's what you're going to have. You're going to have that same dimension of love. He even referred to it later, in His Priestly Prayer in John 17, where He says: “the same love that's in Me, will be in them”. The key there is that we've got to serve Him and follow Him. Same place of relational intimacy!
The second thing He says: “him will My Father honour”. He promises that if we serve, and in our serving the Lord, we let Him transform our heart and character, He promises then deep intimacy with the Father; and He also promises then, that our Father will honour us. It means God, the Father, will compensate us for all the suffering, all the loss, all the hardship, all the difficulties we've walked through, in serving Jesus.
It says that God sees every part of that, and He will recognise that we've lived a life seeking to honour Jesus, and in return He will confer on us great honour, far more than anything we've ever suffered or lost. Jesus has got a price. People misunderstand you; people reject you, people can be very hostile, and sometimes we suffer quite deep hardship. We walk through spiritual warfare, and trials, and difficulties. There are some real deep challenges in following Jesus; and Jesus said: “if they persecuted Me, they'll persecute those who follow Me, because the servant is not greater than the master”. If we fully follow Jesus Christ, hardships come; difficulties come.
He's saying in this scripture, that if you walk through that, and let the process of all of that pain and difficulty that you go through transform you, He said: “My Father will honour you”. He sees it all, and He's planning to honour you so greatly, that the troubles will seem so little. Imagine, for example, an Olympic runner, and they've spent three years training, up every day, training hard, discipline; then finally, that final moment on the dais, and they get the gold medal. They forget all the training - it was all about that moment of honour. If they do that for just something so temporary, how much more should we do this for the eternal?
1 Peter 1:6-7 – “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have grieved by various trials…”. This is talking about a difficult life following Jesus. “…so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to the praise and honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.
He's saying: yes, for the moment, it may well be that we're in grief, and we have trials; but those trials are proving and developing our faith, and this is precious to God. When the time comes for His coming, then there will be honour and glory and praise. He will publicly acknowledge us. So, we must choose then between the honour of God, and the honour of men, and that's a challenge for every person.
Some cultures are very centred around honour, and the culture of Jesus' day was a culture of honour and shame; so that meant honour was the main commodity to be desired, and it still is, in the Middle East to today. About 70 per cent of all cultures in the world are driven by the pursuit of honour, and the fear of losing face or being shamed; these are the cultures of Asia, Pacific, Africa and Hispanic - many cultures in the world. Honour was the level of approval the community put on you. People either honoured you, or they shamed you; and the honour that was given to you depended on your family of origin, where you came from; it depended on your courage in the battle, whether you fought or whether you ran, showed cowardice. It's on your generosity to the poor; and on your position or rank, so they were very, very conscious of position, ranks, titles; and particularly, your family of origin, and your wealth status. The whole culture system of Jesus' day – social, religious and political - was built around status, and honour, and positions, and ranks. That's what people sought, as they still do today. Many cultures, that's exactly how they operate, and they shame anyone who won't comply, or flow and agree, and come under that system. Jesus totally rejected the honour system of His culture.