Mark 10:28 Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!" 29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-- and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
Introduction: What’s In It For Me?
We left off last time with the rich young ruler walking away. He seemed so eager. The hottest prospect in Israel runs up to Jesus—this guy was voted “Most likely to enter the kingdom of God” by his class. Everything in his attitude shouted, “I’ll do anything—just tell me what to do.” Jesus says, “Your money,” and the guy’s face clouds over, he drops his head, and walks away dejected because he had great wealth. Jesus didn’t mess around with this guy—he pressed his thumb right down on his idol, and the guy says, “No, I can’t give that up, not even for eternal life.”
And as he’s walking away, Jesus gives the disciples a profound lesson on how it’s next to impossible for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. And by the time Jesus is done with his explanation, the disciples are wondering if anyone will make it into the kingdom. Jesus says that, by God’s grace the answer is yes.
So the obvious question rattling around in Peter’s brain at this point is, “Okay, so what about us?” And any time something is rattling around in Peter’s brain, it rattles right on out of his mouth. You love a guy like Peter because you can always count on him to speak up in those moments when no one else dares say it out loud. You’ve got this solemn, shocking moment. The man is walking away from the eternal life he so desperately wanted because the price was too high—give up everything. The disciples are astonished. They watch this man disappear out of sight down the road.
And in the silence, Peter speaks. “You know we left everything to follow you. Just sayin’.” (v.28) What is he saying? He wants to know what’s in it for him.
Now at this point you’re just bracing yourself for a rebuke from Jesus, right? It seems like the disciples get rebuked for just about everything they ever say do—especially Peter. And some of those rebukes might strike us as a little harsh, right? A storm was sinking their boat in deep water in the middle the night and Jesus rebuked them for being afraid. Most of us would have probably given them a pass on that one. But this—some guy just got shut out of the kingdom of God and Peter’s saying, “What’s in it for me?” We don’t even need Jesus to rebuke him, because thousands of preachers throughout the centuries have done it. “What a greedy, self-serving question! What’s the matter with you Peter? Ask not what the kingdom of God can do for you; ask rather what you can do for the kingdom! You shouldn’t be in it to get, but to give!”
If that’s what we would expect, as usual, Jesus does the exact opposite.
29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much
“Glad you asked, Peter. Great question! What’s in it for you? A hundred times what you gave up!” The one time we all agree that Peter really did deserve a rebuke—instead of rebuking him, Jesus gushes about how much reward he’s going to get. And in describing that reward, Jesus teaches us some crucially important principles about discipleship, about reward, and about the church.
The Cost of Discipleship
What You Must Give Up
Notice first that Jesus accepts Peter’s premise. Peter says, "We have left everything to follow you" and Jesus goes on to describe the reward people who do that will get, so he’s affirming what Peter said was true. They had left everything. Say what you will about the disciples—we love to laugh at their failures and foibles and follies—but still, you’ve got to hand it to them. Jesus said, “Leave it all behind and follow me” and they didn’t hesitate. They walked away from their careers, livelihood, family, friends, everything that was familiar and comfortable and safe—what the rich young ruler couldn’t bring himself to do, they did it.
That’s significant because it tells us there is a cost to following Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote the famous book, The Cost of Discipleship. And we see here that’s a good title. If you want to be a Christian, it will cost you.
Never try to define grace in a way that means nothing is required of you. That’s not what grace means. It costs something.
And not just something, but Peter says everything. Now, does that mean they sold all their possessions? No. Peter and Andrew still owned their home (1:29) and a boat (3:9; 4:1, 36). So what does he mean by “everything”? What do you have to give up? Look at what he says.
28 "We have left everything to follow you!"
What do you have to leave behind? Very simple. Whatever gets in the way of following Jesus’ call on your life.
Logistical or Spiritual
And that can be logistical or spiritual. Logistically, Peter couldn’t keep his fishing business and follow Jesus because Jesus called him to something that didn’t allow any time for running a fishing business. So the career had to go. He didn’t leave his sandals behind because he needed those to follow Jesus. That’s what I mean by a logistical issue.
And what I mean by a heart issue is illustrated by the rich man who walked away because he loved his money more than he loved Jesus. Coming to Jesus is like getting married. You get married—you’ve got to leave your old girlfriends behind. Anything that has a claim on your heart, like money had on the rich ruler’s heart. That’s is the cost of discipleship.
Luke 14:33 …, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
For the Gospel
And it’s interesting to see the shift in terminology from v.28 to v.29 In verse 28, they left everything behind to follow Jesus. In v.29 Jesus talks about leaving everything behind “for me and for the gospel.” Leaving something behind for the sake of Jesus and leaving something behind for the gospel are two ways of saying the same thing, because to follow Jesus means you join him in his work, and his work is the ministry of the gospel. So that’s our task: the work of the gospel. Either preach it or support those who preach it. Paul used that same terminology.
Philippians 1:4 … I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel.
Philippians 2:22 … Timothy … served with me in the work of the gospel.
Philippians 4:3 … help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel.
What Do I Need to Forsake?
So what do you need to leave behind? Anything that gets in the way of you doing your part in the work of the gospel. And anything that competes with God for your heart. And you can usually spot those things when it triggers anger when it’s taken away—whether it be your comfort, your time, your money, your freedom, etc. When you lose that thing, or it’s threatened, you leave the path of righteousness and fall into anger or self-pity or grumbling and complaining, or any other sinful attitude. Or if it’s a higher priority to you than the things of God.
The Profit of Discipleship
Okay, so all that under the heading, “The Cost of Discipleship,” but I’m not even going to talk about that, because that’s not Jesus’ main point. His message here isn’t mainly about the cost of discipleship; it’s about the profit of discipleship. The cost is incidental.
29 … Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much
If what you get is 100 times what you gave up, then what you gave up is literally only 1/100th as important as what you get. If I told you I’d give you $100 bill if you gave me a $1 bill, you wouldn’t run around talking about how the whole thing cost you a dollar. No—you’d be saying, “Some weird-o just gave me 99 bucks.” Jesus wants to put our eyes on that 100-fold reward. He wants to entice us with it. That’s why he makes it such a ridiculously big reward (instead of giving you double or triple—it’s 100 times.
Jesus makes it so no one will ever, ever be able to say, “I made a sacrifice for Jesus.” That’s impossible, because what you get is so much more than what you gave up.
Reward
Sometimes preachers try to say it’s wrong to be motivated by reward. They say things like, “We should do what’s right just because it’s right, not for reward.” Or they say, “I don’t care about rewards in heaven; I just care about God.” That sounds really spiritual but it’s not because you can’t separate God from his rewards because his rewards come from his heart. His rewards are expressions of his love. Imagine a woman tells her husband, “If you come home early tonight, I’ll make you the happiest man on earth,” and he says, “Oh, that doesn’t motivate me in the slightest. I desire you, not your expressions of love,” is that somehow noble? No. That’s just a man who doesn’t love his wife. If he doesn’t desire her expressions of love, he doesn’t desire her. And if you aren’t motivated by God’s expressions of love, you don’t love God.
I’ve preached this for years, but it’s only been recently that I feel like I’m finally starting to get a handle on what it means, in practical terms, to live that way. It occurred to me recently that there are so many things I do just because of conscience, without any thought of reward. I can tell when that’s happening when the words, “I should probably” go through my mind. “Oh, I should probably clean up that mess.” “I should probably wash my truck before handing it off to the other driver.” “I should probably apologize to my wife for what I said.” Either that, or saying, “It would be wrong.” “I could fudge the numbers on my taxes no, that would be wrong” I just want to avoid a guilty conscience. That’s not horrible, but there’s nothing relational between me and God in that.
But when I catch myself and think, “I should probably clean up that mess. Oh, wait. If I clean up that mess for Christ, he will be pleased. And I’ll be in a better position to receive his expression of love, which will be a thousand times greater than whatever it costs me to clean up this mess.” When I think that way, instead of just grinding out another good deed, I’m just become that much closer to God relationally.
In This Life
So this is one of the rare times when Jesus doesn’t rebuke Peter. Why? Because he has his eye on eternal reward? That’s what I would think, but again, Jesus does the unexpected.
29 … "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age
The Church Family
Jesus promises a 100-fold reward here and now in this present age. What is he talking about? What’s the reward? Well, it’s mostly people, right? Instead of just saying, “family,” he specifies the various family relationships—brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children—that’s almost the entire list. The focus is on people because the 100-fold reward Jesus is talking about is the church. If following Christ has cost you something, your big, massive, over-the-top reward for that is a giant family in the church.
Homes
So let’s look at this list. He begins with homes. You can’t go to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth without leaving home. And Jesus promises that if you do that, you’ll have 100 homes. Everywhere you go, there will be members of the family of God, and their casa will be your casa. When I went on tour with the Continentals, we had a concert in a different city every night for 3 months, and every single night we slept in the home of some brother or sister in Christ. A hundred homes. Recently Bernie Sanders criticized Michael Bloomberg for being so rich. Bloomberg pointed out that Sanders is a millionaire with three homes. But, of course, that’s nothing compared to Bloomberg who has a cool dozen homes. Not too bad. And I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’ve got 100 I can go anywhere in the world, and I’ll have a home where I will be warmly welcomed. Whatever the work of the gospel may have cost me, I’m coming out way ahead just on the homes.
Some people have put together huge networks—1000 connections on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. But no one in the world has a network that is even a fraction of what you and I have in our spiritual family.
Siblings
Next in the list is brothers and sisters. One of the greatest blessings of my entire life was growing up in a big family. One of the most painful realities I’ve had to face is when it became evident that my kids weren’t going to be able to grow up with as many siblings as I had. So much joy has come to me in my life through my siblings.
Think of the role of an ideal older brother—such a unique combination of protector, teacher, friend, companion—he’s there in moments of your life where your parents can never reach. Think of the brother-sister relationship. Closeness unlike any other relationship, where you enjoy everything God designed in masculinity and femininity without any of the complications of a romantic aspect. Or think of the bond between two sisters that is unlike any other friendship.
When people want to refer to the most unbreakable bond of closeness—like comrades on the battlefield, we use the metaphor of brotherhood. But when soldiers or fraternities or sororities use that kind of terminology, it’s just a metaphor. They aren’t really brothers and sisters. But in the church, we really are a band of brothers. You’re more closely related to other Christians in the church you’ve never even met than you are to your own blood relatives. There have been billions of people who have lived and died and never once experienced a relationship like the ones I’ve enjoyed routinely all my life in the church.
Mothers
Next is mothers. What is there in the entire natural world more beautiful than a mother’s love? What are some words that come to your mind when you describe maternal love? Nurturing, unbreakable, gentle, soft, healing, powerful, selfless. Is there any kind of human love that comes closer to divine love than that?
You might not have received love like that from your mom. Maybe you had a dysfunctional mom, or maybe you were dysfunctional so you messed up the relationship, or maybe both. But if so, you haven’t missed out, because that kind of love is available in the church. There are some older women in the church who, if you get to know them, they will love you like that.
Children
Next in the list is children. Thousands of people are heartbroken because they always wanted to have kids and it didn’t happen (still single or infertile, etc.). But you can have that in the church. Every church is begging people to work in children’s ministry. You can be a spiritual mother or father to a hundred little souls who desperately need that. I can still remember my Sunday School teacher from when I was elementary age.
Fields
Next in the list is fields. You can pencil in the word “livelihood” there. That’s how people made a living. My sister and brother-in-law were making a great living—he did the books for a large company and she had a thriving, very profitable photography business she had worked hard to build. Then God called them to the mission field and they had to just leave all that behind. That was 13 years ago. Guess how many of those 13 years as missionaries God provided all their needs? Thirteen. How did that happen? A hundred fields. Brothers and sisters in Christ all over the country gave a portion of their weekly paycheck all those years. They left their fields (livelihood), and Jesus gave them income from 100 fields.
Bad Families
So what is the 100-fold reward? It’s the household of God. This is such great news – especially for those with disappointing families. Sometimes people who had a messed-up family think they can’t appreciate the imagery of God as Father, or the church as family, because their experience of those things growing up was a negative thing, not a beautiful thing. But in many ways, those people can appreciate the beauty and goodness of family more than those of us who had great families. They have unique insight into how wonderful true fatherhood is, because they have felt the misery of what it’s like when that’s missing. They have felt the sting of what happens when family isn’t really family, and that pain they have gone through is the most profound teacher on the importance of what they are missing.
Dysfunctional Reward
So the family of God is a marvelous reality. It’s our reward. If you don’t see the church as a 100-fold reward, your perspective is off. And I know for some of you that might be hard to hear because your experience with the church hasn’t felt like a 100-fold reward. All that stuff about nurture and camaraderie and brotherhood and warmth and acceptance and friendship—it hasn’t been like that for you. You go to church and your treated like a stranger—or worse. (I know what it’s like to go to church and get treated like a leper.) I’ve heard people say they get treated better in the secular world than at church. You go into the Cheers bar and everybody knows your name; you go to church and no one even says hi. How do we explain that? Is this amazing 100-fold reward of a spiritual family—is this a dysfunctional family or what?
My response is to say this: “Absolutely!” Of course it’s dysfunctional. Sinful human beings are involved. That’s shouldn’t be any big surprise if you read the Bible. What kind of experience did the Apostle Paul have when he entered this wonderful new spiritual family? He came to Jerusalem and all his brothers and sisters in Christ promptly rejected him. Later on, his brothers in Christ in Rome were preaching sermons for the specific purpose of stirring up more trouble for him. And at the end of his life at his final trial, everyone abandoned him. Dysfunctional? You bet—in the extreme! If you have some romanticized idea of the early church in the book of Acts, you need to re-read the NT. Of all the churches mentioned in the epistles, you know how many of them were messed up? 100%. Every single one of them—everything from squabbling and disunity all the way to full-blown apostasy. That’s the reason the epistles were written – to straighten those messes out.
So yes, this glorious new family is indeed a dysfunctional family. It’s just like every other element of our salvation—we enjoy this reward now only in a partial way. You’ve heard that phrase “already but not yet.” The kingdom of God is already in place, but not yet in its final form. Do we have deliverance from sin? Already in one sense but not yet completely. Do we know God? Already, yes, but not yet like we will. Do we have joy and peace? Already but not yet. That’s true of everything, including the family relationships in the household of God.
Eternal Life
The final, glorious, fully functional reward is in the age to come.
30 … and in the age to come, eternal life.
That’s when everything will be as it should be. When Jesus gives the list of rewards in this present age, how many are in the list? Six—incomplete. When he adds eternal life, that makes seven—the completed, final reward.
Take Hold of The Promise
That’s our great hope. However, there is a very real “already’ that we dare not throw out the window because of our cynicism over its imperfections. Those people who say the church is worse than the world—usually they say that because they are comparing the best in the world with the worst in the church. And if you do that, then sure, there will be instances where unbelievers do better. But if you compare the best to the best, it’s no contest. People in the church who mistreated Paul, but not everyone in the church. Not Barnabas. Not Luke or Timothy or Epaphroditus or Euodia or Syntyche or the 30+ people he mentions in the last chapter of Romans. There were people who laid down their lives to help Paul.
So did Jesus’ promise fail in Paul’s case? Not at all. Even with all those sinful, dysfunctional family members, still, the Lord saw to it that the promise was fulfilled.
You see, the glorious 100-fold reward is there, but it takes some doing to seek it out. It takes some work to participate in it. It takes some work on your attitude, and it takes some initiative in building relationships with people in the church. If all you do is attend church, you’ll miss out on the reward. When that day comes when the bottom falls out of your world and you lose your job, lose your home, lose your family; you’re not going to have the relationships that God designed to be your reward on that day.
You know, Paul could have easily missed out on all the unspeakable joy he received through people like Luke and Timothy and Barnabas. What if he just focused on the dysfunctional siblings? “This is what the church has come to? People purposely preaching sermons to cause me more trouble while I’m in prison? Forget it. I’m done with the church. I had better friends than that among the Pharisees.” He would have missed out on the greatest joys of his life.
Paul mentions those dysfunctional siblings on occasion, you notice, he doesn’t say much about how they made him feel. When he talks about the good ones, he talks a lot about the joy they brought him. Paul let the good ones have a far greater impact on his emotions than the bad ones. It’s all a matter of your attitude and what you spend most of your time thinking about—the good ones or the bad ones.
Fulfill the Promise
So that’s one point of application for this—it’s a glorious, priceless reward Jesus has offered, so honor Jesus by treating it as such. Do the hard work of placing yourself in a position to enjoy this reward.
But there’s another point of application. Think of this: who’s in charge of fulfilling Jesus’ promise? Who’s in charge of making sure Christians share their homes and hearts and incomes with other Christians? Who made all those people share their homes with me when I was on tour? Who made all those people support Carolyn and Dave on the mission field? No one—they all did it on their own. Jesus made this grandiose promise, and it’s up to people in the church—you and me—to fulfill it.
Share Your Home
When Jesus promised the 100 homes, one of the homes he promised was yours—and mine. His promise was, “Hey, if you lose your home in the work of the gospel, don’t worry about it. Darrell’s house is your house. You lost your brother? Don’t worry—Darrell and 99 others will be a brother to you.” Jesus made promises that you and I have to fulfill.
That’s the other side of this coin. It’s crucial that you and I aren’t dysfunctional family members who foul up the whole promise. Remember that when a fellow believer has a need. Jesus Christ promised that brother that you would share your home and your paycheck and that you would be a brother or sister or mother to that person.
Persecutions
Okay, so back to our passage. So far this is sounding great to the disciples. 100-fold reward here and now in this present age? Fantastic. So following Jesus is like a bed of roses, right? Flowers and sunshine, just one, big barrel of laughs. Not quite. There’s one more item in his list of rewards.
30 [you will] receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-- and with them, persecutions).
So much for the prosperity gospel. Does Jesus promise a life of prosperity and comfort and ease? No, he promises a family church and persecution. That’s our reward. “Jesus, we gave up everything to follow you. What do we get in return?” “Oh, you get the church and you get your teeth kicked in.” That’s the prosperity gospel according to Jesus.
Notice the words “with them.” Right alongside all the blessings in the church is persecution. It’s attached at the hip with the blessings of life. Jesus has been saying that throughout the book—he will not let us forget it—persecution is part of the deal.
And that would have been a great encouragement to the readers of Mark, who were being severely persecuted at the time Mark published his gospel. They might have been tempted to think they had done something to anger God, or God had forsaken them, or something like that. And Mark shows them, “No, this was all part of what Jesus promised right from the beginning. It’s not punishment. In fact, it’s connected to your reward.”
So be encouraged to know that it’s all part of the plan. And be encouraged to know it isn’t forever.
Temporary
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
When you are being persecuted, the persecutors are on top and you’re on the bottom. But that will be reversed. When the kingdom comes, you will be on top and they will be on the bottom.
Summary
So verse 31 is an encouragement, and it’s also a summary of everything Jesus has been saying for the last couple chapters. The disciples argued about who was greatest, and Jesus said the greatest is the slave. The greatest is like a little baby. Meanwhile, those who look like they would be greatest—like the rich young ruler, come in dead last.
So verse 31 is kind of a double-edged word. It’s an encouragement if you’re on the bottom. But it’s also a warning. If we say to Jesus, “Jesus, I gave up everything to follow you. I made this sacrifice and that sacrifice—more than other folks. I definitely did better than the rich young ruler …”—we run the risk of getting puffed up. “I’m better than these other Christians.”
Oh, you’re first are you? That’s not where you want to be, because it will put you on the bottom when Jesus comes back.
Conclusion
So, the bottom line of all that is this: see the church for what it is—a glorious, 100-fold reward. Show that you believe that by your attitudes and behaviors and priorities. Place yourself in a context to receive this promise, and make sure you fulfill your role in fulfilling the promise for others.
