How Do We Obtain The Crown Of Righteousness?

Transcript

The Crown Of Righteousness

Welcome to World Events and the Bible. I’m Brandon T. Ward.

The Crown of Righteousness. That’s our subject today. We’re going to talk about what it is, how you obtain it, and when you obtain it. Now, this Crown of Righteousness, it’s also known as the Crown of Life and a Crown of Glory in the Bible. So when you’re reading through scripture and you see that, we’re talking about the same thing.

Okay. Now, before we dive into it, let’s just say a quick prayer. Heavenly Father, we ask you for wisdom and understanding of your word in Jesus name.

Your Reward Is The Crown Of Life

[00:00:30]

All right. So just a quick summary, the Crown of Life, it’s your eternal reward. It’s everlasting life. And for some, it’s even their position in God’s eternal kingdom. And we’re going to touch on that more later in the Bible and show you that.

This Crown of Righteousness it is granted to those who do the works of Jesus Christ. You know, they believe in him, but they also do the work. The book of James says, faith without works is dead. So that’s kind of what we’re getting at here.

And this Crown of Righteousness is granted to those who fulfill our Christian heritage. And I want to touch on that because it’s tied to this entire message. So to do that, let’s go and open our Bible to mark chapter 16, verse 15, mark chapter 16, verse 15. All right. And he said unto them. So Jesus is talking and he’s talking to the doctor.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I mean, that’s the very basics of Christianity, right? After we’ve accepted Jesus. Then it’s our job to go out into the world and, you know, try to help everybody teach everybody about Jesus.

Why?

To share that there’s so much more hope than just this life and our lifespan that we have today, right?

To tell people that there’s a creator over the entire universe. And one day, we’ll all be gathered back together with Him. Okay. And, you know, just to, just to even understand that all the good is going to overcome all the evil that exists in the world. You know, I think that’s kind of comforting. So this is all a part of what we’re supposed to do.

Keep The Faith And Obtain The Crown

[00:02:11]

And some of how we even obtain this Crown of Righteousness. Now, where can we read about this crown? Right. Let’s go ahead and turn our Bible to second Timothy chapter four versus. Second Timothy chapter four, verse seven. Let’s see what it says here. I fought a good fight.

That doesn’t really mean like a real fist fight with somebody, right?

We’re talking about the fight of this life that we’re all dealing with every day. You know, if you try to be a righteous person and you go out into the world, it is like a fight, you know, it’s good against evil.

I have finished my course, this is my mission even. My mission in life. I’ve kept the faith. What faith, the faith of Jesus Christ.

All right. Verse eight. Let’s read that one too. Hence forth. This means because of that, there is laid up for me, a Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but to all of them also that love his appearing. All right.

So there you go. You have the Crown of Righteousness and it is given why, because they kept the faith because you had this, you finished your course in life and you kept up the good fight the entire time.

Doesn’t mean you’re not going to slip up sometimes, right? But that’s what repentance is for. And that’s what Jesus is for. And you obtain this Crown of Life at Jesus appearing basically. We’re going to touch on that more, a little bit later as well.

And you know, the point that you want to make sure you grab there as the Crown is Righteousness, it says it’s laid up in Heaven. This is like our treasure in Heaven. It’s one in the same thing. The Bible just explained stuff in certain ways, you know, a Crown of Righteousness or treasures in Heaven.

It’s not that we will literally have a bunch of gold and diamonds and everything. Right. It’s just a symbology. So we understand that there are some great spiritual rewards that are waiting for those who follow God’s word.

Now I want to tie in another verse about this Crown that we’ve been talking about here, and for that, we’re going to turn to James chapter one, verse 12. So let’s do that.

The Crown Of Life For Those Who Love God

[00:04:23]

James chapter one, verse 12. It says blessed is the man that endureth temptation. Why do you think that is? For when he’s tried, he shall receive the Crown of Life. There it is the same Crown, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

He promised to him that, to those that love him, those that do His Word. Follow His Word that love his appearing like the other verse says. Hey, not everybody’s going to love Jesus appearing when he comes.

You know, we’re told in the book of Revelation that some are going to wish for mountains and rocks and stuff to fall on them because they’re so ashamed. They led horrible lifestyles or whatever. There’s a million different things. It’s entirely different subject.

But the whole point here is that those who obtain this Crown of Righteousness, they love Jesus. They love the Lord and they endure temptation for his sake. Trials and tribulations always build your faith.

And that’s why it says if you’re blessed, if you can endure these things and whatnot. Okay. When you have an obstacle in your life and you’re able to stick to your faith and overcome it, it makes you that much stronger of a person. And it also proves your faith to God. It proves that you’re going to stand by him through thick and thin.

Be Faithful To God To Earn The Crown Of Righteousness

[00:05:41]

Okay. Now we’re going to turn to the book of Revelation, Revelation, chapter two. Verse 10 revelation, two 10

Fear, none of those things, which doubt shall suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death, even and I will give thee a crown of life.

Be thou faithful and you keep seeing the message here. Endure temptation, be faithful to Jesus.

Now Jesus, he was talking to the church of Smyrna here in this verse. And if you go back to verse nine, he says, I know thy works. That’s why they are going to get this Crown. What were their works? They were righteous works. So they’re going to obtain the Crown of Righteousness.

This church, Philadelphia and Smyrna actually, they both suffered tremendous persecution by the religious leaders of the time.

I mean, that’s the whole point of this, if you to start reading through the seven churches, which we’re not going to get into this. Okay. But Smyrna and Philadelphia, they stayed true to Jesus the whole time, no matter what happened to them. And for that, they’d get the Crown of Righteousness.

Do Not Deny Jesus

[00:07:04]

All right, let’s go over to Revelation three verse eleven. And let’s hear about Philadelphia. The church of Philadelphia. Revelation three verse 11.

Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast. Your faith even is what we’re talking about. That no, man take die Crown. Because somebody can come and slip some temptation in your life. And if you don’t endure that temptation, like we just learned about someone may snatch up your Crown. You know, no one can literally really take up your, take your Crown from you, right.

But if you just, if you leave the Lord and you go with world. I mean, then you kind of did let them take your Crown. You know what I mean?

Let’s read this a 12th verse too.

Him that overcometh. Overcome the world, overcome the trials and tribulations that the world brings you. And I will make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out.

And I will write upon him the name of my God. Jesus speaking. And the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name.

So you’re given a bunch more promises there, right? That ties into this Crown of Life, this Crown that you were supposed to keep the world basically from snatching out of your hands.

Now this was the church of Philadelphia. And if you read verse 10, Jesus said to them, You kept my word and hast not denied my name. This is why Smyrna and Philadelphia were blessed. This is why they were going to get the Crown of Life, the Crown of Righteousness and the other churches weren’t. I mean, this has been the same message the whole time out of all these verses I’ve been sharing with you, right?

Endure temptation. Keep up the good fight. You kept the faith, right? So important.

All this during rising persecution for Smyrna and Philadelphia, they were under tremendous persecution. And, you know, I want to I want to give you an example of that, but I also want you to think about the persecution that we all endure every day as Christians. And not just in, you know, I’m in the United States, but not just the United States all around in some of these third world countries.

For example, try being a Christian, try being a Christian in China. It’s extremely hard. You want to talk about persecution? There’s real persecution, but now even in the Western nations, we’re starting to be persecuted for our faith. If we read or teach certain things that are in this book, we’re considered, you know bigots and all these sorts of things. Okay.

So I want you to think about that the persecution is even happening for us, but hold fast to your faith. So you do not lose the Crown of Righteousness.

The Apostles Suffered For Jesus Sake

[00:09:55]

Now we’re going to turn to the book of Acts. All right. And to give you a little bit of what was going on there. You have the religious leaders that we’ve been talking about and they told the Disciples don’t preach in the name of Jesus.

Stop talking about that guy. You know, so the Disciples they’re arrested and arrested again. And they’re brought before these priests, the high priests. So let’s see what happens to them. That’s where we’re going to pick it up. And we’re going to turn to Acts chapter five, verse 28, Acts 5 28. Let’s see what’s happening here.

So they’re kind of interrogating them. This is the Pharisees high priests, all this stuff. All right. And they’re saying to the Disciples did not, we straightly command you that you teach that you not teach in this man’s name. Like quit teaching in the name of Jesus. We already told you that. And behold, you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine.

More like the doctrine of Jesus Christ, right. And intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. That’s what is going to happen, you keep doing this, you’re going to bring his blood upon us. And rightfully so. Rightfully so because there are some of the people that had Jesus killed, obviously. All right.

So how did the Disciples respond? They responded, they said we ought to obey God rather than men. And you always want to remember that. No matter what your boss, church or government, whoever it is tells you what to do. What is right to them and what is wrong? You always obey God over anyone else’s commandment. Okay.

Because God’s number one, right? Not what someone else tells us. So the Pharisees, they were super excited about this. Upset is the better word. It says they were cut to the heart and they wanted to kill them. So one Pharisee, he stood up, and he tells the whole bunch. Hey, you know, basically relax here.

We can’t kill them because if their works are from God, then there’s no stopping it. So he basically convinced them. He basically convinces the rest of the Pharisees to not kill the Disciples. So let’s, let’s hope you didn’t lose your page there. We’re just going to go to verse 40 in Acts chapter five. Okay.

Let’s see what it says there. And to him, they agreed. So all the other Pharisees, they said, okay. Fine. You’re right. If their works are from God, then there’s no stopping it. And when they had called the Apostles and beat them, you see, they got the Apostles got whipped up for their belief in Jesus Christ.

So don’t be afraid if something happens to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I mean, if it happened to the Apostles and look what happened to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And what did Jesus tell one of the churches there be faithful, even unto death. So these Apostles are beaten and the Pharisees commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and they laid them go.

So they told them again, don’t you go preach in that man’s name again, around here. What’s 41 tells us? Verse 41 and they departed. The Disciples did from the presence of the council, rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

They endured temptation, they kept the faith. And what are they going to get the crown of righteous? But it wasn’t easy. They endured.

Don’t Be Afraid To Suffer For Jesus Name

[00:13:09]

And you think about this. It’s one thing when we read this stories and stuff like this in the Bible, right. But I want you to think this, say you attend a church, maybe it’s even a mega church. One of these ones has like a couple thousand people showing up on a Sunday.

Could you imagine being drug out of your seat, for example, up to the front and the big head honchos, of the congregation are just going after you. Even threatening to kill you, if you don’t stop, if you don’t stop preaching in the name of Jesus. Can you imagine the pressure there would be to convert, to what they’re telling you to do?

Not only threat of being killed and beat, but just because of the pressure of the audience. I mean, everyone is against just you, think about that. Okay. Because that’s the type of temptation that we all need to overcome. It’s overcoming that type of temptation that is going to give us this Crown of Life.

Now give us, we will have earned it at that point. So remember when you endure any trial in your life for your faith, it’s going to make you that much stronger and it proves your faith to God. So we covered some of that. We covered quite a bit of that, but when do you get this Crown of Life? I mean, I kind of, kind of tipped you off a little earlier, but I want to really nail it here.

When Do We Obtain The Crown Of Life?

[00:14:21]

So to find out, let’s turn to first Peter chapter five, verse four. First Peter chapter five, verse four.

See what we got here and when the chief Shepherd shall appear.

Who’s the chief shepherd?

It’s Jesus Christ. You shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not. That’s when you obtain this promise from God, you obtain the Crown of Life, eternal life. If you stood with him, through all of our trials that we face on this earth, when he appears, at his appearance. Okay.

So when Jesus returns after the Tribulation, so let’s dial it in. That’s when he comes. After the Tribulation. On the first day of the Millennium, then we received this Crown. Okay. Just to make sure we have it all dialed in there.

What does this Crown grant us?

Everlasting life, even a place in God’s government for some people. And I know some of you are thinking. Leadership? God’s government? You know, these are details that we typically don’t talk about, but I think it’s pretty important when we’re talking about the Crown of Righteousness.

The Saints Will Judge The World

[00:15:31]

So let’s dive in, Revelation chapter 20 verse four. Let’s go ahead and turn over there. Revelation 20 verse four.

Here it is. All right. And I saw Thrones. And they that sat upon them.

Who is this?

Think about this. And judgment was given unto them. Couldn’t be Jesus, couldn’t be the Lord, God. Right? They already have judgment. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the worship of God and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived in reigned with Christ a thousand.

So, what do we have there? Who’s the one that is kind of reigning here. I want to read this again, but what we have here is we kind of have a statement and then we had a lot of details on the middle and it can kind of get confusing sometimes. So you see where there’s the colon here at them, when that first part of the sentence there, was given unto them and we have a colon and then we also have another one towards the end of this sentence.

So I’m just not going to read those details and we’ll come back and explain them. So I want to make it clear who is reigning with Christ. All right.

And so it would read then, and I saw Thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment was given unto them, and they lived in reigned with Christ a thousand years. So it’s the saints.

This is who’s getting judgment. And I’m going to prove that even more in just a minute. So who are, what are all these details that we had in the middle here?

Let’s read them and then I’ll explain it. And the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Present all the way to the past, and for the word of God, present to the past, and which not worship the beast, future, neither his image, future neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hands, future.

So we’re talking about everyone who has ever stood for God and was not deceived. Didn’t get sucked into the ways of the world. Always stood for God. These are the people that are going to live in reign with for a thousand years. They’re the ones that are going to be judging. How about that? So this is another reward of the Crown of Righteousness.

This ties into what I was talking about of being a part of God’s government. I mean, as a judge. So I want to prove that because some people may not be quite convinced of that.

So let’s turn our Bible over to first Corinthians chapter six, verse two first Corinthians six, two. Let’s see, what is.

Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? Bingo. There it is. And if the world shall be judged by you, are you not, are you worthy to judge the smallest matters? If you’re going to judge the world, you can definitely judge the smallest matters. And I know some people are thinking, oh, we’re not supposed to judge. No, the Bible says, judge righteous judgement.

You know, when Jesus and there’s different verses in there that talk about don’t judge and everything, it’s talking about condemning someone to hell. Moses judged the people, God had Moses judge the people. There were judges in ancient Israel. So there’s just a fine line there about what it is, but you definitely judge, but again, it’s not about condemning your brother. It’s about maybe correcting, or you think about the judicial system in a civil society. These types of things, okay.

The verse of Revelation, 20 verse four is talking about during the Millennium that some of us will be judges. And then we just got the documentation there that, do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? God’s rewards are everlasting.

It’s something you really kind of want to think about, you know. So we’re not enduring and living this life just for nothing or holding our belief for maybe what some people perceive as nothing, but it’s a real belief. We worship and serve the creator of the entire universe. And for making that stand throughout all our life, we’re going to be rewarded one day.

I want to read another verse here for you. Oh, that’s what it is. Daniel chapter seven, verse 22. I just wanted to give you another verse from the Old Testament. It says judgment was given unto the saints of the most high. So there again, you have judgment was given to the saints, and let’s read one more verse if you held your place there in Corinthians, if you didn’t it’s okay. Don’t turn back.

First. Corinthians chapter six, verse three. I know we’re going through a lot. It says, know ye not that we shall judge angels. Wicked angels. How much more things that pertain to this life. If you can judge wicked angels you can certainly judge in his life. Okay.

So, I mean, just think about the responsibility that is going to be placed on some people and it’s all because of what you endure for Jesus. What you endure every day for our Lord and savior. Okay.

The Crown Is Granted To The Priests Of God And Christ

[00:20:39]

Now, if you weren’t convinced about who was sitting on those Thrones in Revelation 20 verse four, let’s dial it in by looking at Revelation 20 verse six. So let’s flip back over there. Revelation 20 verse six.

All right. It says blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. That happens on the first day that Jesus shows up. The end of the Tribulation. The first day of the Millennium on such the second death hath no power. That would be the White Throne Judgment that occurs at the end of the Millennium

But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Reign doing what?

Being priests, being judges, sitting on those Thrones. Just like we learned about, okay. So the first resurrection, these people who take part in that. It means they obtain not only an immortal body, which we all will obtain. That’s what first Corinthians chapter 15, verse 30. All the way through 55 was really getting at.

When Jesus returns, at the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump, we all will be changed, right? All change into our spiritual body that does not see corruption, our body at that point will live forever, but not the soul. Not the soul, but these people that we just read about here in Revelation, 20 verse six, they obtain their immortal soul.

They will live forever at that point. That’s why they take part in the first resurrection. And that’s why the second death has no power over them. They already obtained eternal life. They have obtained that Crown of Righteousness. All right. So they’re rewarded really greatly for their stands that they made in life.

Let’s see, how long do these priests reign some of your thinking?

Is it just the Millennium? You know, how long?

We’re not going to turn there on this last one, but in Daniel chapter seven, verse 27, let me just read it. It says, and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given unto the saints of the most high whose kingdom is an ever lasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

All right. So there it is. Once the Millennium kicks in after Jesus shows up, ending the Tribulation. You’re going to obtain your Crown of Righteous. If you’ve stayed true to God all this time. Okay. So how about just a little bit of a recap.

Let’s Recap, How Do We Obtain The Crown?

[00:23:16]

How do we obtain the Crown of Righteousness?

We fight the good fight.

We finish our course in life.

And we keep the faith as second Timothy told us.

All right, keep the faith of Jesus Christ. Hold tight to the mission in life, which is accepting Jesus Christ and living according to the book. Okay. It’s one thing to say. Yes, I believe in Jesus. It’s quite another to live according to the book. All right. So you want to make sure you do that, finish the good fight.

We want to endure temptation, as the book of James told us. Every day there’s temptation thrown at us, and you know what? If you’re a new Christian, you’re going to get even more temptation, most likely. That’s just kind of the way it goes. Spiritual attacks and whatnot.

And how about the church at Smyrna? What did we learn there? Jesus said, I know thy works. Their works were righteous, so they were going to obtain the Crown.

The church of Philadelphia. What did Jesus say to them? You kept my word and hast not denied my name. Again, showing that they prove their faith. They proved themselves. So they’re going to get the Crown of Righteousness, and they’re going to obtain everlasting life on the first day of the Millennium.

It’s such an amazing thing. The Crown of Righteousness, to be eternally rewarded, live forever in God’s paradise of peace, and obtain rewards that will even see you being a part of God’s kingdom.

So, hey, that covers this. I really hope it’s helped you out.

/* *** Print tooltip */ #printfriendly .underline.web-tooltip.web-tooltip-top:after { content: ' (' attr(data-tooltip)')'; font-size: 70%; font-style: italic; color: #777; } /* *** Font body of document */ #printfriendly #pf-body, ol, ul, dl, li { font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; font-size: 14pt; } #printfriendly #pf-title { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; text-align: center; } /*dev*/ #printfriendly #pf-author { font-size: 9pt; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; font-weight: bold; color: #888; text-align: center; } /* *** Style Table of Contents */ #printfriendly .elementor-toc__header, .elementor-toc__body { background-color:#f1f1f1; border-radius: 5px; padding: 15px; width: 75%; margin:auto; margin-bottom: 10px; display:none; } #printfriendly .elementor-toc__header-title { font-weight: bold; text-align: center; } #printfriendly h2 { font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; text-align: center; } #printfriendly h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; text-align: center; } /*print link color, does not affect pdf*/ #printfriendly a, #printfriendly a:visited { color: blue; } /*remove reftagger link attributes, does not affect pdf*/ #printfriendly a.rtBibleRef, #printfriendly a.rtBibleRef a:visited { font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; color:#333; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-color: transparent; } #printfriendly p, ul { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia, Arial, Tahoma; } /*style blockquote font size*/ #printfriendly blockquote { font-size: 14pt; } #printfriendly img { border-radius: 3px; } /*favicon*/ #printfriendly #pf-src-url img { border-radius: 0px; } /*print in footer*/ #printfriendly #pf-print-area:after { content: 'Visit: worldeventsandthebible.com, © World Events and the Bible'; font-size: 10pt; color: #777; display: block; text-align: center; }