The glorious Christ that the Apostle John saw in Revelation 1 is different from the Christ he walked with and was with while on earth. This One was “the Son of Man”, and He was clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle (Rev. 1:13).
All the items related to the Lord’s appearance are significant: the long garment signifies He is the High Priest, being girded at the breast signifies that He finished His work to produce the churches and now He’s caring for them in love, and the golden girdle is like an “energy belt”, the divine energy being exercised in love to cherish and nourish the churches (the golden lampstands).
Today Christ is still the Son of Man and He is also the High Priest caring for the churches by shepherding them: He cherishes them in His humanity and cherishes them in His divinity. How much we need the Lord’s shepherding both individually and as the church!
What we need in the church life today is not “more meetings” but “more shepherding”. We need more one-on-one shepherding in which we cooperate with the Lord to cherish one another with His humanity and nourish one another with His divinity. What keeps us in the church life and what keeps us fresh with the Lord is being shepherded and shepherding others.
In His heavenly ministry today Christ is shepherding the saints and the churches, and He wants to incorporate not only the apostles (as the ones sent by God to shepherd men into God’s kingdom) and the elders (as the overseers and shepherds in the local churches) but also all the saints into His heavenly ministry.
We need to see how Christ takes care of the churches in His humanity as the Son of Man to cherish them, and how He is girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle to care for us in love with the strength of His divinity. May we see a vision of the glorious Christ in Revelation 1 and may we cooperate with His heavenly ministry of shepherding!
Christ is Girded about at the Breasts with a Golden Girdle
Why did Christ reveal Himself in Rev. 1:13 as the Son of Man who was girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle? What does this signify?
The long garment shows that Christ is the High Priests, but in general the priests are girded at the loins so that they may do the work for God (Exo. 28:4). Christ Himself is also girded at His loins with fine gold – see Dan. 10:5. In His earthly ministry Christ was girded at the loins, working for God to accomplish His purpose.
But now, in His heavenly ministry, Christ is girded not at the loins but at the breasts – He has finished His divine work of producing the churches, and so what He does now is to care for them in love. The breasts signify love, and gold signifies the divine nature.
Christ today as the High Priest is taking care in love of all the churches, and in His care He is strengthened by the divine nature in love. Christ’s divinity has become a girdle to strengthen Him and be His energy to care for the churches in love.
Be encouraged: Christ as the High Priest is strengthened by the totality of Christ in His divinity and is motivated by His love to care for us individually and for all the local churches corporately. In love, Christ comes to us to cherish us in His humanity and nourish us in His divinity.
When He was on earth, Christ was the Son of Man taking care of people in His humanity; He was so human that He even cared for and blessed the children (and through this He cared for the parents). Today Christ in His heavenly ministry is still the Son of Man (He didn’t leave His humanity in the tomb neither did He remove it) and shepherds us by cherishing us and nourishing us, making us happy and comfortable to dispense His divine life into us.
Without the Lord’s loving care for us we would not be here today. We may care for others for a while, but at one point our care will run out. But Christ is strengthened by an “energy belt” about His breasts, the golden girdle, to care for His people. He is exercising His heavenly divine energy to take care of us in love.
Son of Man, we love You! Thank You for being the glorious Christ girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. We love Your tender care for us. Thank You for caring for us personally and intimately. Thank You for taking care of the churches in Your love strengthened by Your divinity. Son of Man, we treasure Your cherishing and nourishing in Your love!
Christ Takes Care of the Churches in His Humanity as the Son of Man to Cherish Them
More specifically, what does Christ do to care for us as the Son of Man in His humanity? Just as the high priest in the Old Testament was taking care of the lamps of the lampstand in the Holy Place, so Christ is walking among the local churches and, as the Son of Man, he dresses the lamps of the lampstands to make them proper (see Exo. 30:7; cf. Psa. 42:5, 11).
Christ is cherishing the churches in His humanity so that all the saints may feel happy, pleasant, and comfortable. The Lord’s presence provides an atmosphere of tenderness and warmth to cherish our being, giving us rest, comfort, healing, cleansing, and encouragement.
He as the Son of Man is caring for us personally and for all the local churches corporately by trimming the wicks of the lamps. When the wick is burned out, when we become old, stale, deadened, “smoky”, and natural, Christ comes to gently cut off any burnt part that gives an unpleasant odor.
Our flesh, our natural man, our self, our old creation, etc together with our deadness and our oldness – all these are things that Christ trims down (on the one hand), and then He adds Himself as the oil for us and the church to shine brighter. In the church life we need to be new and fresh with the Lord, and for this we need to be trimmed by Him and get rid of all our oldness.
In His humanity, Christ as the Son of Man cares for us and shepherds us by cherishing us to make us happy and comfortable. He cherishes us face-to-face, one-on-one, eye-to-eye, and heart-to-heart. This is what keeps us going on with the Lord in the church life. We need a lot of shepherding in the church life.
The meetings are good but they don’t take an all-inclusive care of our needs. A lot of one-on-one shepherding is needed, where the Lord’s humanity cherishes us and His divinity nourishes us. Not only the elders are entrusted with the commission of shepherding others but we all the saints need to first let the Lord shepherd us and then shepherd others by first cherishing them in His humanity and then nourishing them in His divinity.
Christ trims away all the differences among the saints and among the churches (all the wrongdoings, shortages, failures, defects, oldness, staleness, etc) so that all the local churches may be the same in essence (gold), appearance (Christ), and expression (Christ) (see 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 12:18; Phil. 2:2).
The Need for Shepherding in the Church Life
We all need to be incorporated with the apostolic ministry into the Lord’s heavenly ministry to shepherd people by cherishing them and nourishing them. Sometimes all we need to do is visit a brother or a sister in the church that hasn’t been around lately – and simply listen to them.
When we visit the new ones or the saints we don’t need to prepare to “give a message” or “open up the Bible”; we simply need to be Jesusly human and cooperate with the Lord to cherish others. Listen to what the saints want to say. Be one with the Lord in His humanity to sympathize with them. Let the Lord shepherd them through you in a divinely-human way.
There’s no “agenda” in shepherding others. We simply need to let the Lord trim our burnt wick and cherish us in His humanity, and then go and just be with someone who the Lord puts on our heart.
When the Lord makes us happy by cherishing us, we will be happy indeed! Then, when we go to others to speak to them, we will be genuinely happy and joyful, and we will minister Christ to them even though we may not even mention the Lord’s name in their presence.
Many times other brothers and sisters cherished us simply by being Jesusly human with us and caring for our physical or material needs, or by just being with us and listening to our problems. It’s not us who does the cherishing: it’s the Lord’s sweet presence in us and with us that cherishes others.
Lord Jesus, keep us in Your sweet cherishing presence all day long. Make us happy in You. Lord, You know our situation and our condition. Cherish us in Your humanity and nourish us in Your divinity. Lord, we want to enjoy the cherishing atmosphere of Your presence in the church so that we may receive the nourishing supply of life! Trim what needs to be trimmed, and cut off any negative or old element that frustrate the shining. Trim away all the differences among the churches so that all the local churches may be the same in essence, appearance, and expression!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Vital Groups (pp. 102-106), as quoted in, in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 4 / msg 4, The Vision of the Glorious Christ.
- Further reading: recommending msgs. 7, 10-11 in, The Vital Groups (by Witness Lee). Also, the outline for this week via Living Stream Ministry (PDF file) is pretty amazing!
- Hymns on this topic:
# The great high priestly robe He wears, / For every church He fully cares: / He trims the lamp, the oil supplies; / He makes them burn, flames in His eyes. / A golden girdle on His breast— / His work is done, and from His rest / He unto all the churches pours / Himself in love, the treasure store. (Hymns #1184)
# Our lamps to shine forth must be trimmed / By calling on Thee every day. / In spirit we must exercise / To burn all the oldness away. / But there is a much deeper need: / Reality in us must grow, / Until it makes home in our hearts, / Till oil in our vessels o’erflows. (Hymns #1303)
# His appearance, lo, how different / From the One John knew before. / Now He’s girt in golden raiment, / Not the robe which then He wore. / Girt about the breasts and serving, / He the priesthood fully bears; / Cherishing the lampstands dearly, / He for all the churches cares. (Hymns #1183)
# O Lord, do cherish us, as on Thyself we feed; / Warm us so tenderly and meet our every need. / Our hardness soften, Lord, till we are Yours indeed; / Oh, cherish us, dear Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
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