In Revelations 3 it's a similar thing, when he talks about the garments being given to the overcomer; he called them: white raiment. Actually the word white is still a problem, because white is the best colour he could use. If he said: you know if something is really hot and blazing, it becomes white hot, see? And so what he's trying to say, it's like it so shines. I bet the best thing we could say: it's white; but actually the word we're using is lamp-like, shining, glistening, glittering. In other words, what he's saying is: the garments are beautiful, magnificent garments, formed specifically by God for you, and they reveal aspects of His glory, and they also reveal aspects of how you have grown and developed in this journey of your apprenticeship. And those garments that you will receive, will exactly reflect what you accomplish with your life while you're on the earth, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
In other words, it is God who ascribes to you, reward and honour and majesty, according to how you've lived your life on the earth; and it's given to you, so you can't buy it, or earn it. It is given, but you can position yourself, so that this actually is the path that your life takes, a path with eternity in mind, and I'm living every day to count. Getting the idea?
Now, so we've got the idea then about the garments, what they may look like. They are actually a manifestation of God's nature and glory. Now the thing that's helpful to understand is, that in eternity, it will vary. If we were to go in our community, we would find rich people and poor people. In heaven it's the same. I'll give you a scripture - I'll give you two scriptures. I want to just show you these scriptures quickly, and then we'll just finish and show you just exactly how Jesus talks about the possibility of loss, and the need for us to be proactive in our Christian life and faith, because eternal reward is at stake.
I want to share you two scriptures just on reward. Here it is. The first one's found in Matthew, Chapter 16. There are heaps of them, I'm just going to give you two. In Matthew 16 verse 27: For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father, with His angels. So he's talking about the second coming of Christ you see, the second coming; He will come in glory - so when they saw Him on the mountain, they saw what He would look like - absolutely amazing and brilliant, so magnificent they fell down. They couldn't handle it. It was too much. It was overwhelming for them - and he says: when He comes, He will come in the glory of His Father with His angels; now notice what it says He will do. He will reward each man, according to his work. Now this statement about rewarding according to his work is repeated in Revelation. Low I come quickly; my reward is with me, to get every man according to his work.
Now what you have to understand is: your work, is your work. The work He's talking about, is the work you have done in this life, representing God and His interests. I'm not talking about preaching. I'm talking about the unique work God called you to do with your life. This is personal. I can't do that work for you, and you can't copy me and do your work. Every man has their own work, and only God can tell you what that is. Everyone, and the work God has for you, is unique to you, your personality, your background, whatever; and God has got various ways of looking how to evaluate it, but notice this: the reward is according to your work. No work, no reward. Lots of accomplishing the will of God, a bigger reward. It's very, very clear. We've shared enough scriptures on that for you to see that, so the reward that Jesus has - in other words He's saying this: I really appreciate people who responded to my gift of my life. I gave the only thing I could give really, was I gave the thing most precious. I let my life be laid down, for you to be saved; so you could then live a different life, and honour me; and those who've honoured me, them also will I honour. It makes sense. So He laid his life down, so freely we could be saved; and after that we need to let His life live in us, and express in us, so we live a life that brings honour to Him. Those that honour me, I will honour. Makes sense doesn't it?