That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus spoke these words on the last evening He spent with His disciples after the last Passover supper, in the last hours before He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the world. They were given after He had exposed His betrayer and in answer to contention over who should be counted greatest, stirred by Satan, when though they had continued with Him in His temptations they came with selfish hearts and tempers heated by strife, which brought Him sorrow and kept them from the great blessing they might have received. In response He contrasted Gentile lordship with His kingdom, teaching that greatness is being as the younger and the chief as one who serves, as He Himself was among them as one who serves. He sealed that lesson without words by laying aside His garment, girding Himself as a servant, and washing their feet, which opened their eyes, filled them with shame and humiliation, and gave them a lifelong memory that true greatness is humble service.
He then commended those who had continued with Him in His temptations and appointed them a kingdom as His Father had appointed to Him, promising that the twelve apostles will eat and drink at His table in His kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The promise was followed at once by the warning that Satan desired to sift them and that self-confident Peter would thrice deny Him, teaching that strength lies not in what poor finite beings suppose they can do but in what Christ will do for those who exercise strong persevering faith and entire trust in Him. The kingdom promised is spiritual, where the greatest are those most active in serving their brethren, and sharing His table means being admitted to near and close communion with Him, placed nearest to Him. Sharing His rule means sharing with Him in the kingdom He received from His Father and administering its affairs under His direction and authority.
The promise will be fulfilled in the regeneration, when Christ sits on His throne of glory at His coming; the kingdom will not be established on earth before then but comes at the final judgment, when the righteous receive their reward and the wicked are punished. Christ receives the kingdom in heaven, then returns in glory to redeem His people and welcome them to that feast, where His redeemed people will eat and sit at His table in His kingdom and partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Until that time His followers are strangers and pilgrims on earth, with their citizenship in heaven.
The honor is given as encouragement to faithful, lowly, self-sacrificing disciples who deny self, show compassion, love and self-denial, help and bless others, and give them preference, and who do not seek honor, distinction, or worldly greatness. Christ reads the heart, sees their true merit, counts them worthy, and gives positions of distinction because of their character, even when they do not seek or recognize those positions. It is given to poor, fallen sinners made one with Christ and partakers of His divine nature, refined, purified and glorified through His grace, who on earth have followed in His footsteps and labored as He labored for the souls for whom He died, and who have overcome even as He overcame, so closely united to Him in love that they share His glory, glorified with Him and entering into His joy when He comes to claim His own. Sitting with Him at His table is reserved for those prepared for His sudden appearing in the clouds of heaven, which means having stewardship called into account and standing on vantage ground, purified, made white, and tried, clothed in the robe of His righteousness. Followers of different races will share the same place at His table in God's kingdom, so those who are one with Christ will not despise a fellow believer, because they are journeying to the same heaven and will share the kingdom together.
Jesus spoke these words on the last evening He spent with His disciples after the last Passover supper, in the last hours before He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the world. They were given after He had exposed His betrayer and in answer to contention over who should be counted greatest, stirred by Satan, when though they had continued with Him in His temptations they came with selfish hearts and tempers heated by strife, which brought Him sorrow and kept them from the great blessing they might have received. In response He contrasted Gentile lordship with His kingdom, teaching that greatness is being as the younger and the chief as one who serves, as He Himself was among them as one who serves. He sealed that lesson without words by laying aside His garment, girding Himself as a servant, and washing their feet, which opened their eyes, filled them with shame and humiliation, and gave them a lifelong memory that true greatness is humble service.
He then commended those who had continued with Him in His temptations and appointed them a kingdom as His Father had appointed to Him, promising that the twelve apostles will eat and drink at His table in His kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The promise was followed at once by the warning that Satan desired to sift them and that self-confident Peter would thrice deny Him, teaching that strength lies not in what poor finite beings suppose they can do but in what Christ will do for those who exercise strong persevering faith and entire trust in Him. The kingdom promised is spiritual, where the greatest are those most active in serving their brethren, and sharing His table means being admitted to near and close communion with Him, placed nearest to Him. Sharing His rule means sharing with Him in the kingdom He received from His Father and administering its affairs under His direction and authority.
The promise will be fulfilled in the regeneration, when Christ sits on His throne of glory at His coming; the kingdom will not be established on earth before then but comes at the final judgment, when the righteous receive their reward and the wicked are punished. Christ receives the kingdom in heaven, then returns in glory to redeem His people and welcome them to that feast, where His redeemed people will eat and sit at His table in His kingdom and partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Until that time His followers are strangers and pilgrims on earth, with their citizenship in heaven.
The honor is given as encouragement to faithful, lowly, self-sacrificing disciples who deny self, show compassion, love and self-denial, help and bless others, and give them preference, and who do not seek honor, distinction, or worldly greatness. Christ reads the heart, sees their true merit, counts them worthy, and gives positions of distinction because of their character, even when they do not seek or recognize those positions. It is given to poor, fallen sinners made one with Christ and partakers of His divine nature, refined, purified and glorified through His grace, who on earth have followed in His footsteps and labored as He labored for the souls for whom He died, and who have overcome even as He overcame, so closely united to Him in love that they share His glory, glorified with Him and entering into His joy when He comes to claim His own. Sitting with Him at His table is reserved for those prepared for His sudden appearing in the clouds of heaven, which means having stewardship called into account and standing on vantage ground, purified, made white, and tried, clothed in the robe of His righteousness. Followers of different races will share the same place at His table in God's kingdom, so those who are one with Christ will not despise a fellow believer, because they are journeying to the same heaven and will share the kingdom together.