Notice then, ‘walking with Christ in white’ is a reward for being faithful; and the reason He gives is: they are worthy. What does ‘worthy’ mean? It means having weight; substance; having value; having merited something; deserving acknowledgement. Some people, in their relationship and service, deserve being acknowledged, because what they have done has been outstanding in God's eyes. They've not defiled their garments. They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
What does the word ‘white’ mean? The white is used to describe purity; but it also describes the dazzling brightness of the garments. The word white is the Greek word leukos, L-E-U-K-O-S. It means bright, brilliant, dazzling garments, that emanate light. Most of our garments don't emanate light! He's saying that the garments we'll be clothed in are garments of glory - they actually emanate light from within. A third thing about those garments is that every person will be clothed uniquely, with different degrees of light and brilliance. They'll have their own degree of light and brilliance, that will depend on their rank and stature in the kingdom. You see that naturally too. If you go to a royal wedding, and see everyone there, you will see that they're all positioned in different ranks and places in the wedding service. You notice they're wearing different kinds of clothing; and all of the clothing, whatever they wear, reveals something about their rank, or about the status the person has.
Daniel 12:3 – “those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness who are (in other words they're evangelist, reach people for Christ) will be like the stars, forever and ever and ever.”
Matthew 13:43 – “then the righteous (that's when the kingdom comes) will shine like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father”.
1 Corinthians 15:41 – “there is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another glory of the stars, and just as one star differs from another in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead”.
I believe that in the coming resurrection, there will be great ranges of degrees of glory that people carry, and it will be evident in the way you present yourself, in the way you clothe. We see that even today - the way people dress tells something about them; and so it's quite possible that the garments will be diverse and varied, depending what the occasion is.
Now one of the things we shared before, was that if you want to understand some of these spiritual realities, you've got to go into the Old Testament, and have a look at the hidden prophetic pictures in the Old Testament's stories. When you start to get a hold of this, or understand this, you'll realise how amazing the Bible is, in terms of prophetic pictures of Jesus Christ - all the way through the Bible, and you've got to keep looking for Him everywhere.
I want to just divert now for a while and talk about the priestly garments. There are two reasons: Number 1, because we are all called to be priests to God.
Peter 2:5 – “you as living stones have been built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”.
Notice now, God says that we are a ‘holy priesthood’. We are a spiritual priesthood. We offer spiritual sacrifices, paise, worship, offerings, honour. There are so many different ways we can honour God, and offer something to Him. In our journey in life now, one of the roles every believer has, is to be a priest to God. What does a priest do? Priests would stand before God and offer sacrifices. So, our first call is to come before God, on a daily basis, and to praise and worship - that's what priests did. If we have a look at their list of duties, you'll see: they had to keep the candle, and they had to keep the fire burning; and they had to offer offerings every day - that was their job.
Second thing is, they stood between God and men, to make intersession. So, a second role every believer has, as a priest, is to be an intercessor - to pray on behalf of others who can't help themselves, or are in bondage or whatever.
The third role of a priest was to come from the presence of God, to men, and to bless them. There's a whole lot could be taught all around just those things there: how do I develop intimacy? How do I grow in the realm of building the atmosphere of God, and accessing His presence? How do I move in intercession? How do I begin to intercede for people? What are the strategies of intercession? What is involved in blessing people?