It Starts Small

Jesus promises to reward everyone who honors Him until the end. In this verse, the Greek word for conquering is nikōn and means overcoming. He is going to grant overcomers a position of authority over nations.

In Psalm 2, we read that someday the nations will rise up together in an effort to dethrone God, but He will defeat them in HIs wrath and fury. After He defeats the rebels, He will place Jesus on the throne and proclaim Him kong over the earth. Matthew captures this scene:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵ “‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’

⁴⁰ “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink;

Matthew 25:31-42

Jesus will come to earth in glory and all nations will assemble before Him for judgement. His earthly kingdom will be glorious with peace, prosperity, and holiness.

⁶ For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

During Jesus’ reign he will grant believers the privledge of sharing in His rule.

if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;

2 Timothy 2:12

Jesus continues, to the one who over comes by faithfully enduring He will give the conqueror the authority to rule over nations with a rod of iron.

⁹ You will break them with an iron scepter;
you will shatter them like pottery.”

Psalms 2:9

Jesus will rule all nations with an iron rod and dash them into pieces like a potters vessel. This word rod refers to a shepherd’s staff. Jesus is not only King, but also their Shepherd. This would indicate to us that not everyone in the kingdom will voluntarily submit to Jesus’ rule. Those who unwillingly will rebel against Him. They will marshal themselves against Jesus but fall dead when when He strikes them with a sharp sword that proceeds from His mouth (Revelation 19:15-21)This authority we are promised follows an order. The Father grants it to Jesus and Jesus grants it to His faithful followers.

Then Jesus continues His encouragement to the overcomers – those whom withstand and endure persecution and hardship to give them the morning star. The faithful were surrounded by moral and spiritual darkness, but a time would come when they would experience the glorious rays of Christ, the morning star.

Many commentators believe this is in reference to the rapture event. This is when all true believers are taken off the earth into the presence of Jesus.

¹³ We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

At this time, believers in Christ will be free from trials and persecutions. Our bodies will be like the body of Christ.

²⁰ Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21

All our aches and pains will be in the past and spiritually we will be like Jesus, free of sin.

² Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

At the very end of the Old Testament, we learn that Israel’s hope of the coming Messiah was to establish His kingdom. It was to be buoyed by the promise that the sun of righteousness shall rise.

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.

Malachi 4:2

At Jesus’ second coming, He will appear in glory as the sun of righteousness, but He will first come for all His believers, first. This is what is called the Blessed Hope. Before the sun appears, the morning star appears. So Jesus will appear first for His own and after the seven years of tribulation, He will establish His earthly kingdom to fulfill Israel’s hope.

Jesus is inviting us to be an overcomer. To set ourselves apart from all the world has to grasp onto all He has for us. He encourages us to endure and hold fast to Him. His promise is that we will one day be given authority to rule with Him. He is coming back for His people and our reward for holding fast to Him is to rule with Him over the earth.