Build The Future - Peter

Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”

Matthew 19:27

A company vice president who made very good money surprised at least one guest at his New Year’s Eve party. Despite his wealth, the VP, his wife, and their two children lived in a modest three-bedroom house. He drove a ten-year-old SUV.

When the guest asked the VP why he lived in such a humble home and drove an unassuming automobile, he replied, “I want to be able to send my kids to college and take my wife on vacations later. If we spend all our money now, we won’t be able to do either.”

Jesus taught his followers that those who give up current comfort and status will receive in the years to come and in eternity far more than anything they gave up. After meeting the rich young ruler who couldn’t make that connection, Peter wanted to connect some dots of his own.

Peter never had riches, but he gave up everything he had—his business, status in his hometown, the comforts of home—to follow Jesus Christ and become his disciple. Now he couldn’t help wondering what he and the other disciples would get out of it. Being Peter, he asked Jesus about it directly.

Jesus wasn’t surprised or angered by the question. In fact, he seemed eager to answer. He told the disciples that they would one day judge Israel’s twelve tribes and that “everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).

Sounds like a great trade-off, doesn’t it?

Jesus wanted Peter to understand that because he had given up everything to follow him, he could expect something far better in return in this life and in the one to come.

That’s a promise for you, too!

What does Jesus’ command to “store your treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20) mean to you? When you give yourself for God, he notices and will reward you far beyond anything you’ve given up.