Church Series-The Stewardship of Spiritual Gifts
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday November 17, 2016
The Church Series: The Stewardship of Spiritual Gifts
Lesson # 17
Each and every church age believer will give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church to determine if they were faithful stewards with the time, talent, treasure and truth which God gave them.
The Christian will give an account to the Lord or in other words, they will be held responsible by the Lord for their service, which involves a four-fold stewardship:
(1) Time: Were they profitable in how they used their time on earth that the Lord gave them?
(2) Talent: Were they profitable in how they used their spiritual gift the Lord gave them?
(3) Truth: Were they profitable in how they used the truth the Lord gave them?
(4) Treasure: Were they profitable in how they used their finances that the Lord gave them?
Church age believers are to be good stewards with their talent (they are to operate in their spiritual gifts) and treasure (they are to financially support each other when necessary) and truth (they are to apply the Word of God in their relationships with each other).
Time: Galatians 6:9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Talent: 1 Peter 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Treasure: Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure -- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.
Truth: Colossians 4:5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
At the Bema Seat, the believer’s service, as expressed through their stewardship in these four areas, will be evaluated by the Lord Jesus Christ to determine if they were a faithful and profitable steward in these four areas or not.
If they were a faithful and profitable servant and steward with their time, spiritual gift, truth and finances that were given to them by the Lord as trusts, they will receive a reward from the Lord and if they were not, they will not receive a reward.
Both Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 speak of the “judgment seat.” “Judgment Seat” is the noun bema.
Romans 14:10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.” 12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. (NASB95)
While Bema is used in the gospels and Acts of the raised platform where a Roman magistrate or ruler sat to make decisions and pass sentence, its use in the epistles of Paul is more in keeping with its original use among the Greeks because of his many allusions to the Greek athletic contests.
This word was taken from Isthmian games where the contestants would compete for the prize under the careful scrutiny of judges who would make sure that every rule of the contest was obeyed.
The victor of a given event who participated according the rules was led by the judge to the platform called the Bema.
There the laurel wreath was placed on his head as a symbol of victory (2 Tim. 2:5; 1 Cor. 9:24-25).
In 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 and 2 Timothy 2:5, Paul was picturing the believer as a competitor in a spiritual contest.
As the victorious Grecian athlete appeared before the Bema to receive his perishable award, so the Christian will appear before Christ’s Bema to receive his imperishable award.
The judge at the Bema bestowed rewards to the victors and did not whip the losers.
In other words, it is a reward seat and portrays a time of rewards or loss of rewards following examination.
But it is not a time of punishment where believers are judged for their sins.
Such would be inconsistent with the finished work of Christ on the cross because He totally paid the penalty for our sins.
A steward is a manager, not an owner.
He is one who manages the property of another.
God is the owner and we are the managers of the various stewardships He has given.
This includes the whole of life, of course.
But to be good stewards of His grace, we must know the precise areas of stewardship for which God is holding us accountable.
Stewardship is one of four concepts related to Christian fellowship:
(1) Relationship with Christ: We are all permanently united together by the common (eternal) life that we share as a result of regeneration and the Baptism of the Spirit (Acts 2:42; 1 C. 1:9; 1 Jn. 1:3).
(2) Partnership: We are to work together for a common purpose to obtain common objectives for the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 1:27; Phlp. 1:5; Gal. 2:9; Heb. 1:9).
(3) Companionship: We are to communicate with one another and have fellowship with one another sharing with one another the things (viewpoint and thinking) of Christ (Acts. 2:42; Heb. 10:25; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess. 5:11; Rom. 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess 5:11; Phlm. 6).
(4) Stewardship: We must recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord and has been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purposes.
A steward is one who manages the property of another and is not an owner; he is a manager.
As stewards, we must recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord and has been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purposes.
Believers need to be willing to share their material possessions for the promotion of the gospel and to help those in need.
Everything that we are and possess as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, both spiritually and materially, namely, our time, talent and treasure are in fact, trusts given to us by God which we are to invest for God’s kingdom and glory (1 Pet. 1:17; 2:11; 4:10-11; Luke 19:11-26).
Good stewardship stems from recognizing our relationship to Jesus Christ, but it also means recognizing our partnership in Christ’s enterprise on earth.
In any good partnership, the partners share equally in both privileges and responsibilities, the assets and liabilities, and the blessings and burdens.
What kind of partnership would it be if one partner took all the income and enjoyed all the privileges while the other partner did all the work and paid all the bills?
No one would enter into a partnership like that, yet that is what goes on in the church today.
Partners are to share and share alike in all the aspects of their enterprise.
They may not do the same things since there are diverse spiritual gifts distributed to individuals in the body of Christ.
In fact, members of any partnership will be much more successful in their enterprise if they work and share according to their abilities, expertise, and training, but still share the load.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples the importance of being obedient servants of God.
He taught His disciples to be profitable rather than unprofitable servants of God.
A profitable servant is obedient whereas the unprofitable servant is disobedient (Matthew 24:47-51; 25:14-30).
The purpose of the Bema Seat is to evaluate the quality of every believer’s work whether it is good in the sense of acceptable or bad in the sense of being unacceptable.
In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ evaluates the church every day according to Revelation 2-3.
The Bema Seat Evaluation of the church is a time when those works that the believer performed in the energy of the sin nature will be destroyed.
1 Corinthians 3:11 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. (NASB95)
The Bema Seat is a time when the believer will be rewarded for their actions that were empowered by the Spirit and in response to God’s love for them.
