Bob Josey - The Road to Rewards Part 3- Aug 3, 2025

SLIDES

The Road to Rewards

(Part 3)

Introduction

Picture a child eagerly awaiting their birthday gifts. They have been good all year, doing chores, helping around the house, and being obedient to their parents. When the day comes, their family showers them with presents as a reward for obedience. The Judgement Seat of Christ is much like this! God delights in rewarding His children for their faithfulness and obedience. The eternal rewards that will be received at the Judgement Seat of Christ for a believer’s faithfulness on the earth will certainly be greater than any birthday or Christmas gift ever received.

But at the same time imagine you are running in an Olympic race, and you've trained hard for it. As you cross the finish line, you feel ecstatic. But then the judges tell you that you've disqualified yourself because you broke one of the rules. Your metal slips through your fingers. This is much like our journey of faith; we can store up heavenly rewards for obedience, but some or all of them could be removed because of disobedience and you would miss out on receiving heavenly rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Today we are going to discuss how Paul described the Judgement Seat of Christ that all believers who lived during the church age will participate in. As we begin to discuss the Judgement Seat of Christ, please keep in mind several things that we discussed in our last two lessons:

1. The Judgement Seat of Christ will occur in the heavenly places.

2. The Judgement Seat of Christ will occur sometime between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to set up His’ Messianic Kingdom.

3. Only believers who were part of the church, the Body of Christ, will participate in the Judgement Seat of Christ.

4. The purpose of Judgement Seat of Christ is to distribute rewards for a believer’s faithfulness while living on the earth.

5. Sin will not be judged at the Judgement Seat of Christ because for the believer in Christ, sin was judged at the cross.

6. Jesus the Messiah will be the presiding Judged at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

There are two very important concepts that we should keep in mind during each lesson as we continue this series on the judgements.

1.      All men are going to die and there will be a judgement for each person sometime in the future in relation to how they lived their life on the earth. We see this in seen in Hebrews 9:27.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die after this comes judgment…

2.     God will reward the faithful and the unfaithful for deeds done while upon the earth. This is seen in Hebrews 11:6 and Revelation 22:12.

6. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

12. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Before we begin discussing the Judgement Seat of Christ, I want us to look to talk about one more thing from the Scripture concerning the Judgement Seat of Christ. I want to discuss the Greek word translated Judgment Seat.

Bema is a Greek term that is translated judgment seat. The Bema is where official judicial decisions were made in the courts of law. It was a raised platform found in many synagogues and churches throughout history. It was also a place in which political orations were made. In the New Testament, reference is also made to the bema as a seat of judgment (Matt 27:19; John 19:13; Acts 25:10; Rom 14:10). Excavations in the city of Corinth have revealed a large, elaborately decorated bema located in the center of the marketplace. In the NT, Jesus was questioned before the judgment seat of Pilate (Mt 27:19; Jn 19:13). Herod Agrippa I judged the people of Tyre and Sidon from a bema (Acts 12:21). The apostle Paul was brought before the tribunal in Corinth (Acts18:12–17) and again before Festus’ tribunal in Caesarea Maritima (Acts 25:6, 10, 17).

3. Illustration of a Building (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

During our last meeting, I pointed out that Paul used four illustrations to describe the Judgement Seat of Christ. We discussed three of three of these - a steward, a race, and a boxer. Today we will discuss Paul’s fourth illustration about the Judgement Seat of Christ which is a building.

For context in 1 Corinthians 3:1-10 Paul addressed the spiritual immaturity among believers in the church at Corinth. He discussed the divisions and jealousy among some believers and that they were signs of fleshly behavior. He emphasized that leaders like he and Apollos were merely servants of Jesus. Though Paul and Apollos had distinct ministry callings, they did not have separate ministries. Their ministries of planting and watering were “one” (3:8). Preaching and teaching, evangelism and discipleship, gospel proclamation and spiritual formation, were simply different aspects of a unified ministry to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19). Paul emphasized his essential unity with Apollos by describing the two of them as “God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9).

Though united under the common umbrella ministry of evangelism and disciple-making, each individual servant is still personally responsible in ministry before the Lord from whom “each will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (3:8). Paul never rejects the idea of our individual responsibility to be the best servant each of us can be. Yet neither does Paul forget the vital truth that these individual sowers are not independent of each other, but interdependent on each other and mutually dependent on God Himself, who alone can produce healthy fruit in the gospel ministry.

In verse 10 Paul changes from the metaphor of a field to a building to describe the church in Corinth. As we shall see, Paul is going to stress the different stages of building the church from laying the foundation, which verse 11 says is Jesus, to putting up the spiritual structure. During the process of building on the solid foundation, Paul urges them to carefully build upon it. The final stage Paul will discuss is the inspection of this spiritual building by stressing the material used to the building of it.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

In verse 11 Paul again points out that the basis of the judgment is the works of the believer. This is portrayed as building on a foundation that has already been laid. In Corinth, Paul laid the foundation. The foundation is, of course, Jesus whose sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection made the foundation possible and secure. He alone is the foundation, the basis of salvation (Acts 4:12

Apollos and others, on the other hand, built upon the foundation that Paul laid through evangelism. Apollos built upon it with sound doctrine and teaching. Paul lists different types of materials men used to build upon that solid foundation. Even though the quality of a foundation was the best and could not be improved, the condition of a building also depended on what others built on top of the foundation. In Paul’s day contractors built buildings of durable and or combustible materials, as they do today.

The materials used in the building may be interpreted in the following manner. The gold, silver, costly stones refer to the enduring quality of the builder’s works of their ministry to the Lord. In the building of the Corinthian church, durable materials (“gold, silver, precious stones”) were those activities that sprang from reliance on Christ and His resurrected power: the Foundation. These works contributed to the permanent spiritual strengthening of the church. Examples of the materials of gold, silver, precious stones. pertain to God’s wisdom, and include instruction in the Word of God, training in evangelism, and the refutation of error. The combustible materials (“wood, hay, or straw”) were activities that arose out of merely human wisdom and working by means of the flesh and not the Holy Spirit These made no lasting contribution.

The ministry works of other men included wood, hay, or straw which suggest works that are temporary and valueless in the long run. The three expensive materials suggest teaching that is of sound doctrine which the builder “builds” into people’s lives, and the three valueless materials are false doctrines taught by men. Illustrations of the latter materials (“wood, hay, or straw”) would be the teaching of popular ideas not rooted in Scripture, social work that excluded any Christian witness which is called the social gospel, and the use of time and money for simply selfish temporal purposes.

The first three materials refer to the worker’s worthy motives and meet with God’s approval and the other three point to his unworthy motives and do not meet with God’s approval.

In verses 13 and 14 Paul calls one’s activities work. Paul’s main point is to encourage building with quality materials that will meet with God’s approval and receive eternal rewards. The works that lead to Jesus being pleased and pure motives, and character in Christian service to the Lord.  

In verse 13 the day of judgment is when Christ will judge the quality of His servants’ work (2 Cor. 5:10). That day refers to the day when the believer will stand before God and give an account of the stewardship of his or her life at Christ’s judgment seat. On that future day, after the Rapture of the church, the question of a believer’s salvation, which is a gift, and anything to do with sin that was judged at the cross, will not be on the agenda. The works judged will be based on quality and motive behind the works not quantity.

The fire of God’s judgment will test the quality of each person’s work and his workmanship—but not his person. This is the fire of judgment to determine rewards, not the fire of the Lake of Fire. The durability or impermanence of those works will then become evident.

Considerable apparent success can be had by a small amount of human effort and wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 2:4), and accomplished in the flesh. Unless works are empowered by the Spirit of God in accordance with His plan it cannot last because it is wood, hey, or straw.(Ps. 127:1).

Michael Eaton in his’ book, No Condemnation, p. 37, said this:

“As I see it, the Christian position is one of invincible assurance of salvation combined with awesome warnings concerning forfeiture of blessing (but not of salvation itself).”

The context identifies those who suffer loss as being Christians who seek to build the church with materials that fail to withstand God’s assessment. As we have already discussed, motive plays a big part to determine if a work, activity, or deed is worthy of a reward. Also, it’s not the quantity that makes the difference, but the quality of a work, deed, or activity.

In verse 13, the means of testing is said to be fire. When fire is applied to wood, hay, or stubble, it is burned up and only ashes remain. But if fire is applied to gold, silver, or precious stones, these elements are refined and become purer.  Again, the means of testing shows that it is a matter of quality and not quantity. Regardless of how little or how much wood, hay, or stubble there may be, fire will burn it all up. Regardless of how much gold, silver, or precious stones there may be, fire refines them all. So some believers will find all their works burned up, and others will merely see them refined. Finally, in verse 14–15, the results of the judgment are given. In verse 14, those who build with gold, silver, and precious stones will find their works remaining, but purified after the fire has been applied. Thus, these will receive a reward. In verse 15, Paul states the result of those who have built with wood, hay, and stubble. They will all be burned up. Hence, he shall suffer loss. But the loss is merely one of rewards and authority, nothing more. He will not be punished for his sins any more than a runner in a terms states, but he himself shall be saved. The phrase “yet so as through fire” is an idiom that means one barely escaped. It is like the idioms “by the skin of your teeth, a close call, a narrow escape, cutting it close. It is also similar t the idiom in Jude 23, “save others, “by” snatching them out of the fire.” One’s works do not determine one’s salvation. One’s salvation is assured because they trusted the Messiah, and salvation is by grace through faith apart from works. But he will spend the Kingdom period and eternity with nothing to show for his spiritual life.

APPLICATION

Are we building up with quality indestructible materials or are we or burning down with combustible materials? Clearly, God takes His spiritual building project—the church—very seriously. But what about us? Do we care enough about the growth of fellow believers in our local churches to seriously evaluate our own contributions to its ministry? I’m not talking about financial contributions (though that’s certainly important). I’m talking about the things Paul was writing about under the power of the Holy Spirit: building up the body of Christ through quality character and service toward our brothers and sisters in Christ with the right motive. Our building projects will one day be inspected by eyes that can see into every nook and cranny, crack and crevice, closet and attic of our lives.

Surely, 1 Corinthians 3 should cause us to ask practical questions related to the quality of the materials we’re using in the spiritual construction of the Body of Christ.  Are we building up … or burning down? To help us ponder this, let’s ask ourselves a few probing questions. Don’t rush through them. Ask them seriously and answer them honestly.

·      Am I building up my fellow believers in the Body of Christ with quality bricks of humility, contentment, patience, perseverance, love, and integrity?

·      Or am contributing poor-quality works in the Body of Christ like pride, ambition, impatience, weakness, bitterness, or disharmony?

·      Am I neglecting ministry opportunities that could be building the Body of Christ? What are they? How soon can I get involved?

·      Have I failed to see the Body of Christ with the same love and priority that God sees it, as his “temple” (3:16)?  

·      What things in my life have I been consistently placing ahead of the Body of Christ, God’s church?

·      Am I truly giving my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength to the Lord’s service?

·      On what things am I focusing my greatest affections and attention?

·      Lastly, in the International Olympic Games, there is a daily Olympic medal count and report of what countries have the most medals. How does your reward count look currently?

 SELAH