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In this message we will continue to consider the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the Son of Man.
Revelation 1:15 says, “His feet were like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace.” Feet signify the walk. In typology, bronze signifies divine judgment (Exo. 27:1-6). When Christ was on earth, His earthly walk and daily walk were tried and tested. Every step He took in His human living was tested, and He passed all the tests. Because His walk was tested, He came out shining. Now the feet of Christ are as shining bronze, as mentioned also in Ezekiel 1:7 and Daniel 10:6, signifying that His perfect and bright walk qualifies Him to exercise divine judgment.
To be “fired in a furnace” is to be tried by being burned. Christ’s walk was tried by His sufferings, even by His death on the cross. Hence, His walk is bright as the shining bronze, which qualifies Him to judge the unrighteous. Since His walk has been tested, He can test and try us. When He comes to possess the earth by judging it, His feet will be like pillars of fire (Rev. 10:1).
The Lord with His shining bronze feet is walking among the churches. His shining feet cause us to realize how dirty, unclean, sinful, dark, and earthly our daily walk is. Consequently, we fear and tremble before the Lord. Such humbling experiences are a strong sign that the Lord is walking through the churches. We should praise the Lord that He is shining today in the churches.
The Lord tests us by His shining feet. From His head to His feet, He is a shining person. When we come into His presence, there is no darkness. Instead, we are under the absolute shining. In His presence nothing can be hidden or concealed; everything is exposed. The apostle John saw this Christ, was frightened, and fell at His feet as dead (1:17). Similarly, in the church life we need to be in His presence, come under His absolute shining, and experience a thorough exposure that frightens us. Under this exposure, we will see that all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do cannot stand His test. Then we will fall at His feet as dead.
The feet of the Lord Jesus “were like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace.” Feet signify walk. We all should have a walk like the Lord’s walk. Ezekiel 1:7 tells us that the calf’s foot “sparkled like the sight of burnished bronze.” The shining of bronze comes from the heat of the furnace. The more the bronze is burned and tested, the brighter it shines. This indicates that we need a walk that has been tested and burned by the Lord. If our walk has been tested in this way, it will be like shining bronze, enlightening others and becoming a kind of shining to them. If we have been tested and examined by the Lord, our walk will shine like burnished bronze, giving light to others, testing them, and causing them to realize whether their walk is right or wrong. Likewise, if we have been tested and examined by the Lord in the church life, then our walk in the church life will be like shining bronze, enlightening others and testing them. Wherever we go and whatever way we take, our walk will shine upon others, giving them light and testing them.
Revelation 1:15 also says, “His voice was like the sound of many waters.” This means that His voice is loud and mighty. “The sound of many waters,” a tumultuous sound, is the sound of the voice of the Almighty God (Ezek. 1:24; 43:2). It signifies the seriousness and solemnity of His speaking (cf. Rev. 10:3). Sometimes the Lord’s voice is gentle and tender, but at other times His voice shocks us like thunder. Whenever we are sloppy or sleepy, the voice of the Lord will wake us up. His voice, which is that of the Almighty God, warns us and wakes us up.
In His human living, the Lord was at times silent (Matt. 12:19), but today He is different. Today He is in the churches with a voice like the sound of many waters. Like Him, we should be living and voicing. We are not serving a silent Christ but One with a voice like the sound of many waters. When we come together in the churches, we need to have many a sound. In the churches we must be filled with Him and make a joyful sound, a joyful noise, to Him (Psa. 100:1) so that our praises will be like the sound of many waters. We should praise the Lord with a joyful noise, because the Christ who is within us and who is walking in the midst of the churches is a Christ with a loud voice.
Revelation 1:16 says, “He had in His right hand seven stars.” As verse 20 makes clear, “the seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches.” The messengers are the spiritual ones in the churches bearing the responsibility of the testimony of Jesus. Like stars, they should be of the heavenly nature and in a heavenly position. In the Acts and the Epistles the elders were the leading ones in the operation of the local churches (Acts 14:23; 20:17; Titus 1:5). The eldership is somewhat official, and at the time that Revelation was written, the offices in the churches had deteriorated in the degradation of the church. In Revelation the Lord calls our attention back to spiritual reality. Hence, it emphasizes the messengers of the churches rather than the elders. The office of the elders is easily perceived, but the believers need to see the importance of the spiritual and heavenly reality of the messengers for the proper church life to bear the testimony of Jesus in the darkness of the church’s degradation.
Both the lampstands and the stars are for shining in the night. A lampstand, representing a local church, is a collective unit, whereas a star, representing a messenger of a local church, is an individual entity. In the dark night of the church’s degradation, there is the need of the shining both of the collective churches and of the individual messengers. While churches need the care of Christ, their messengers need His keeping grace. As Christ walks among the churches, He holds the leading ones in His right hand. How comforting this is! The leading ones must praise Him that they are in His hands and that He is holding them. Since the leading ones are in His hands, there is no need for them to shrink back, to be weak, or to be mistaken. Christ truly takes the responsibility for His testimony.
The saints who are taking the lead in the churches as the messengers are held in Christ’s right hand. This One is the holder of the leading ones in the churches. However, some of the so-called church leaders may not be held by Him. Christ holds in His hand only those He recognizes. To be held by Him, we must first be recognized by Him. We should realize that the leading ones in the churches in the Lord’s recovery are held in His right hand. When we see this, it will save us from disappointment and discouragement and strengthen us to the uttermost.
In Revelation the Lord repudiates all formalities. Being an elder may be somewhat legal or formal. We should not aspire to be one who is merely in the position of an elder; instead, we should desire to be a shining star. We who are the serving ones need to be aware that we are not in our own hands but His. He administrates the lampstands and holds the stars.
It is significant that every one of the seven epistles to the seven churches was written to the messengers of the churches. Under normal circumstances the messengers of the churches are the elders of the churches. It is true that the different churches are God’s lampstands in the different places. Yet when the Lord came to speak, He did not speak directly to the churches; rather, He spoke to the messengers of the churches. In the Lord’s recovery today, position means nothing. What we can do and how much we can accomplish also mean nothing. What matters is how much we are shining and how bright we are. In other words, what matters is not how much we can do but how much we shine. This is what it means to be a messenger of the Lord in the churches today. The night is so evil and dark that there is absolutely no light. But there are shining stars in the churches. Their presence in the church means very much. When they are in the churches, everything is in light. When they are gone, the whole situation is full of darkness.
As shining stars in the church, we do not have any light in ourselves. We can shine only by reflecting Christ as the sun (Luke 1:78). Hence, we must look unto Him with unveiled face that we might reflect His glory (2 Cor. 3:18). This causes us to become the shining stars.
In Revelation 1:16 we are told that “out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.” In Song of Songs 5:16 “His mouth is sweetness itself,” and in the Gospels “words of grace” proceeded out of His mouth (Luke 4:22). But in Revelation 1:16 “out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.” This is His divine, discerning, judging, and slaying word (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). The “words of grace” are for His supply of grace to His favored ones, whereas the “sharp two-edged sword” is for His dealing with negative persons and things. The Spirit speaks to the churches, and the speaking Spirit today is this Christ who speaks with a two-edged sword. There is judgment here, and we have experienced this. Because of the church’s degradation, we need a certain amount of judgment. Today all Christians need the judgment of the Lord by His word. Many times we have experienced this judgment because of our being mistaken and going astray from the Lord. Since we had wandered away from Him, He came to judge us. His speaking today is mainly a type of judgment. The Lord’s call for His overcomers involves judgment. If the Lord would speak to us, most of His words would be words of judgment. When He speaks, He judges. Every word out of His mouth in the churches today is like a sharp knife which judges us. The words which proceed out of the Lord’s mouth are sharp, piercing into our being, dividing our soul from our spirit, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of our heart (Heb. 4:12). This is the Christ we experience today in the church life.
In the Lord’s recovery today we have One who is walking in our midst. He watches over us with His seven burning eyes, and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword. This sword kills all the different concepts among us and eliminates debates in the churches. Every time an opinion rises up, the sword cuts it to pieces. The more we think about our opinion, the more we are cut. This is not doctrine — this is our experience. Whenever two brothers are close to arguing, the third party, the strongest party, appears, using the sharp sword to cut the opinions of both brothers. The two-edged sword quells all the turmoil. This third party is Christ, the Son of Man, who, as the High Priest, walks among the churches and cares for them in love. In the Old Testament there was the need for the priests to trim the lamps. Today our Priest, the Son of Man, knows the right time to trim us. As a result, we enjoy calm in the church life.
In Revelation 1:16 we are told that “His face shone as the sun shines in its power.” In Song of Songs 5:10 and 13 His face appears lovely for His seeker’s appreciation of Him, and in the Epistles His face reflects God’s glory (2 Cor. 4:6) for the imparting of life into His believers. In Revelation 1:16, however, His face is “as the sun shines in its power,” as in Daniel 10:6. This shining is the judging enlightenment for bringing in the kingdom. This indicates that Christ Himself is the universal sun; with Him, there is no night. When He was transfigured and His face shone like the sun, that was His coming in the kingdom (Matt. 16:28 — 17:2). When He comes to take over the earth for the kingdom, His face will be like the sun (Rev. 10:1).
Before the Lord comes back to enlighten the whole world, He is now walking among the local churches, shining over us. The church life is full of life and light. In the genuine church life we cannot lie to the brothers and sisters. Before a lie can come out of our lips, the shining of Christ causes it to vanish. Then we turn to the Lord and thank Him for His shining. We may pray, “O Lord Jesus, forgive me. I was going to lie to the brothers, but Your shining saved me.” This is the church life, where we experience the shining light of Christ. Christ is the real light in the church life. His face is like the shining of the sun, and He has seven eyes like flaming fire. When He looks at us, we are under His shining and exposing.
In Revelation 1:17 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the First and the Last.” Christ is not only the First and the Last but also the Beginning and the End. He is the First, the One at the beginning, and the Last, the One at the end. This assures us that, having started the church life, He will surely accomplish it. He will never leave His work unfinished. All the local churches must believe that the Lord Jesus is the beginning and the ending. He will accomplish what He has begun in His recovery.
In Revelation 1:18 we see that the Lord is “the living One,” the One who “became dead” and who is “living forever and ever.” The Lord suffered death and lived again. He entered into death, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24), because He is the resurrection (John 11:25). Christ died, but in resurrection He will live forever. Resurrection is the lengthening of the Lord’s days. He will exist forever and ever in His resurrection. Jesus Christ today is the living One, the One who is in resurrection. For Christ to dispense life, He must be the living One since a dead person can never dispense life to others.
The importance of His being the living One is that He is living in us. He is living forever and is living in us. Therefore, He wants us to leave every kind of death and rise up to be the living church. The living One within us can never be dead. His church should be neither dead nor deadened; instead, His church must be living all the time. We must learn to enjoy Christ as the living One. His living forever is His testimony, for the testimony of Jesus is always related to the matter of being living. If a local church is not living, it will not have the testimony of Jesus. The more living we are, the more we are the testimony of the living Jesus.
The Christ who walks in the midst of the churches, who is the Head of the churches and to whom the churches belong, is the living One — full of life. Hence, the churches as His Body should also be living, fresh, and strong. We have a living Christ who has overcome death. Our Christ, who is the resurrected One, is living in us and among us. He is living forever and ever. What a living Christ we have in the recovery! In the recovery all the churches should be as living as Christ, full of life and overcoming death.
The Lord Jesus is the living One. For us to be living, we must have not only life but also the life supply. If we do not eat any food, we will not be so living, but if we eat nutritious meals, we will be living and even energetic. Our energy comes from our eating. The living Christ cares for the churches by giving to the believers Himself as their food and life supply. Therefore, in His seven epistles to the seven churches, the Lord as the living One presents three promises of eating: the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), the hidden manna (v. 17), and a feast full of His riches (3:20). If we would be living, we need to eat Christ as the tree of life and the hidden manna and to feast with Him.
It was to the church in Smyrna, the suffering church, that the Lord revealed Himself as the One who became dead and lived again. The suffering church needs to know Him as such a One so that she may endure all kinds of suffering. However severe the persecution may be, the church will still be alive, for the resurrection life of Christ within her can endure death. The most that suffering or persecution can do is to kill us. Following the death from persecution, there is resurrection. The Lord was persecuted to death. But that death was not the end — it was the gateway into resurrection. When He entered into death, He came to the threshold of resurrection. This indicates that the suffering church should not frightened by persecution or terrified at the prospect of being killed; rather, she must welcome death and be happy, for once she has passed into death, she also will be on the threshold of resurrection. Whenever we are undergoing persecution, we must rise up and declare, “Hallelujah, I am about to enter into the gateway of resurrection.”
To the church, tribulation is a test of life. The extent to which the church experiences and enjoys the resurrection life of Christ can be tested only by tribulation. Moreover, tribulation also brings in the riches of the resurrection life of Christ. The Lord’s purpose in allowing the church to suffer tribulation is not only to testify that His resurrection life overcomes death but also to enable the church to enter into the riches of His life. The Lord’s resurrection life is in the church. Christ, the One who is the resurrection, is living in us. Because we have resurrection life in us, there is no reason or excuse for us to fail. We need not be defeated by persecution. Rather, we must suffer this persecution victoriously by His resurrection life.
In Revelation 1:18 the Lord also says, “I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Due to the fall and sin of man, death came in and is now working on earth to gather up all the sinful people into Hades. Death resembles a dustpan used to collect the dust from the floor, and Hades resembles a trash can. Whatever the dustpan collects is put into the trash can. Thus, death is a collector, and Hades is a keeper. In the church life today we are no longer subject to death and Hades, for Christ abolished death on the cross and overcame Hades in His resurrection. Although Hades tried its best to hold Him, it was powerless to do it (Acts 2:24). With Him, death has no sting and Hades has no power. We must be the same as Christ. In the church life the keys of death and Hades are in His hand. It is impossible for us to deal with death; we simply do not have the ability to handle it. Whenever death enters, it will deaden many. But as long as we give the Lord Jesus the ground, the opportunity, and the free way to move and act among us, both death and Hades will be under His control. However, whenever the Lord Jesus does not have the ground in the church, death immediately becomes prevailing and Hades becomes powerful to hold the dead ones. We should praise the Lord that Christ has the keys of death and of Hades. Death is subject to Him, and Hades is under His control.
Christ’s resurrection was also His victory over death, Satan, Hades, and the grave (2:24). Satan, death, Hades, and the grave form a group. Christ, the Son of Man, was not only vindicated by God and was proved to be a success in His achievements, but He was victorious over death, Satan, Hades, and the grave, all of which are a great concern and trouble to us. The Son of Man overcame death and destroyed Satan (Heb. 2:14). The keys of death and of Hades are now in His hand (Rev. 1:18), and He is victorious over the grave. Such a Christ is walking in the midst of all the local churches in His recovery, taking care of them as the golden lampstands.
The Christ in Revelation is different from the One in the four Gospels. Yes, He is the same Christ, but He is the same Christ in different aspects. In the four Gospels Christ was mild, gentle, and kind. When He looked at people, they felt loved. In the Gospel of John, Jesus looked at people and wept; He truly captured people by His loving look (11:35; Luke 22:61). This same Christ, however, appears differently in the book of Revelation. He has seven eyes, which are like a flame of fire (1:14; 5:6), burning and shining. In the Gospels His most intimate disciple could even recline on His bosom (John 13:23). John was close to Him, and He was nice, dear, gentle, kind, and loving to John. However, when John saw Him again in Revelation, he was frightened and fell at His feet as dead (Rev. 1:17). If such a Christ appeared to us today, we would all be shocked. Luke 4:22 says that words of grace proceeded out of His mouth, but Revelation tells us that a sharp two-edged sword proceeds out of His mouth (1:16; 19:15). Moreover, in John 1:29 He is introduced as the Lamb of God, but in Revelation 5:5 He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The book of Revelation unveils Christ to us not in a common way but in an extraordinary way. This way is absolutely different from that in the Gospels. In this sense, Revelation continues the Gospels and the Epistles, but it does not reveal Christ according to the Gospels and the Epistles. In Revelation He is not a small, gentle, kind, patient, silent, and suffering Christ; He is a bold, fierce, rich, burning, and living Christ. If we experience the Christ unveiled in Revelation, we will be in life, enjoy His victory, praise Him, and shout for joy.
If we consider the picture of Christ in Revelation 1, we will see that this chapter presents a fierce Christ. His eyes are as a flame of fire; His feet are like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace; His voice is as the sound of many waters; and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword. We must have a new impression of Christ. Christ, the Son of Man, who is walking in the midst of the local churches, is living, burning, and fierce. He is gracious, yet He is terrifying. Particularly at the end of the age of the church, Christ must be fierce. Because the days are so dark, evil, and dead, we need a fierce Christ. If we contact the Christ in Revelation, we will not be cold but burning, and we will not be silent but will shout to praise Him.
