Jesus’ Life Standard
Preached by Apostle Aje Pelser as a pre-cursor to a series about the seven churches of Revelation.
When studying the 7 churches that John wrote to in the book of Revelation, the key is to discern the characteristic of Christ being revealed to any specific church. It is that revelation that unlocks the full potential of that church and corrects any erroneous misrepresentation of Jesus through His Church locally.

Here is a passage that reveals the standards of Jesus Christ that we all pray for in our local churches, and indeed our personal lives.
“John [writing] to the seven assemblies, the ones in Asia. [Sanctifiying] grace to you and [tranquilizing] peace, from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the trustworthy, dependable witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and set us free from our sins by means of His blood, and who constituted us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him is the glory and power forever and forever. Amen.” Revelation 1:4-6 Wuest’s Greek New Testament Translation.

Standards from Jesus life that builds the Church

1. Grace that sanctifies. There are few terms as full of meaning as ‘grace.’ God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. What I have found in ministry is that grace is an enabling force that lifts you above your own abilities to fulfil something that originated in God’s heart. It includes both the power and provision for the task and creates an environment that makes anything you believe seem possible for a moment. If you can zoom into your spirit and track that moment of grace, it becomes a new pathway for your existence and starts to spread out across all the spheres of your life.
2. Peace that calms. Kingdom peace is something that surpasses your understanding. Surrealism is art that creates a sur-reality where the laws of physics are bent to accommodate creative ideas that use free association in settings that seem life-like, yet totally impossible. Salvidor Dali and Rene Magritte were some of my favourite Surrealists.
What the world needs is for creative thinker to life society into a sur-reality of faith that will challenge current affairs and philosophy, and indeed ways of life that have not produced peace. The liberation of the world is dependent on the revelation of the sons of God being revealed. But if we don’t’ overcome the angst of the world, how will the world know our peace?

3. Eternity. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. John understand something about the eternal existence of the man he knew as his friend, but also the Light of the World, the son of God, the Christ Jesus he worshiped and continued to see in the higher reality of his visions on the isle of Patmos.
Hebrews 11:6
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God is. He exists in the spiritual realm of eternity. We need to relate to God in that realm. Sense evidence is deceiving. What appears to be is temporal, what is unseen is eternal. Quantum physics has changed people’s view of matter and what is visible. Things are inconstant flux and oscillations of electrons in fields create what we see in the visible spectrum of light. There is so much more to life than empirical evidence. Just the concept of thought helps to show that you can override the laws of physics with an idea. Gravity is a fact and if you jump up you will come down, but the idea of lift and thrust can cause a plan to overcome the forces of gravity and drag.

4. Seven Spirits. Why seven? They are facets of the Lord’s spirit, wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the Lord,
Isa 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

5. He has a throne. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Act 7:56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Mat 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

Rev_3:21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
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6. He is trustworthy. In what or whom do we place our trust? Are we confident when we have everything we need and insecure when we don’t? That is a sign that your trust is in the material world, versus the spiritual world. Remember God’s covenant with Abraham:
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

7. He is a dependable witness. Jesus is the Word of God that bears testimony in heaven, and His own blood bears testimony on earth that He paid for our sins. The waters of baptism that he entered testify and witness of His obedience to God to fulfil righteousness, and the Spirit of the Lord is His promised Helper that he sent to make sure His witness continues. Jesus is the most dependable witness. He sees all the angles and delivers the truth every time. 1Jn 5:6 This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
1Jn 5:8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

8. He rose from the dead. Firstborn from the dead – He is also the Firstborn among many brethren – remember he referred to Himself as the only begotten son in John 3, but after His resurrection he is not ashamed to call us His brethren:

Heb 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Heb 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

8. He is the king of all kings. Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

9. He loves us.
Joh 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Joh 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
Joh 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

10. Jesus sets us free. He is the great emancipator. Luk_4:18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED;

11. He paid the price for our emancipator with his own blood. Mat 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

12. He wrote the constitution for a new kingdom and made us kings and priests unto God.
Heb 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

13. He deserves all the glory and power forever and ever. Jud 1:25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.

14. He is the Amen – according to His word, let it be so!
Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

2Pe_1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.