Colossians 1:15 – “He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”.
Jesus is exactly like God, in His nature, character, and His make-up; He's the firstborn of many.
Hebrews 1:3 – “Who being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power. When He Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of God”.
Jesus is the express image of God. Jesus is the pattern upon which you build your life. If you model your life on other people, they will always let you down; you will always find a measure of disappointment; you will always see them come short. We need to make Jesus Christ the centre - we are following Jesus Christ. Paul said…
1 Corinthians 11:1 - “Follow me, as I follow Christ”.
Notice that, if he wasn't following Christ, then there's no reason to be following him. Often people put too much in men. We tend to make idols out of men. We want people to be perfect, when they're not perfect. The only one that's perfect is Jesus Christ, so build your life on Jesus, the pattern - how does He lead you; what example did He give; what did He teach; what is He saying; and how is He guiding you in all of this? If you do that, you won't get offended when people fail. On our journey, we've seen pastors who were over us, who failed in immorality. We've seen many, many people fail over the years; but it never stopped us pursuing the Lord, and our calling in Him, because our eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 12:1-2 – “…let us run with patience the race that's set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ, who's the author and finisher of our faith…”.
Set your eyes on the Lord!
Acts 4:10-12 - “Let it be known to all of you people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, who God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This (Jesus) is the stone, which was rejected by the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, there is no name given under heaven whereby men must be saved”.
Jesus is the chief cornerstone. He was rejected by the religious leaders, who were supposed to be building the people of God; but God has made Him the chief cornerstone.
Isaiah 28:16 – “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He whoever believes on Him will not act hastily”.
A cornerstone was the most important part of the building, because the whole weight of the building rested on that stone; and if it was removed, the structure collapsed. The stone was very important; and the cornerstone was also the keys to keeping the walls straight. When they were building, they would take sightings along the lines of the stones, and they would line all the walls up with the cornerstone. If everything is lined up correctly on the cornerstone, then all the angles will be right, and the building would all meet.
So when it comes to evaluating our works, looking at our works…
1) We need to discover what pleases God, what brings pleasure to Him
2) His eternal purpose is the ‘plumb line’, on which our works are evaluated. God considers the motive of our works; and He also considers how it relates to Jesus Christ - have we been formed to become like Him? Are we operating in sonship, like Jesus did? How much have we been conformed to the image of Jesus Christ?
3) Primarily, He's looking on the heart. He's also looking at: how does this relate to, compare to, and line up with, My eternal purpose; and also to the ‘pattern’ Son, that I put out in front of everyone.
It requires that we commit our lives to a life of intimacy. The first, and most important thing then, is intimacy: intimacy with Jesus - having a surrendered and pure heart. No matter what stage or state you are in, how much wealth you have, or how many gifts you have, every person can commit to intimacy; to develop, cultivate, and grow a surrendered, pure heart, because that's what intimacy does. It develops in us a surrendered and pure heart. Jesus is looking for works that are flowing out of intimacy. He won't overlook anything we do, but what He primarily looks for, are things that come out of a surrendered and a pure heart - works motivated by intimacy with Jesus, and surrender to His spirit, with a pure heart.
What does a ‘surrendered heart’ mean? Your ‘heart’ is your motivation; and ‘surrendered’ means to yield the power or control to someone. In worship, we surrender to Jesus, to His will. It's an expression of humility, humbling yourself before the Lord, to recognise Him. A surrendered and a pure heart is a humble heart; so intimacy with Jesus means: humility; developing a humble heart; a surrendered heart; a pure heart. A ‘pure heart’ means: no hidden self-centred agenda; no hidden expectations behind what we do; no impure motives. A ‘surrendered heart’ means that I'm yielded to Jesus, I've humbled myself, to surrender to Him; and pure heart means that there's no hidden agendas, so what I do is pure.