The Session on God's Right Hand, Part 1

Introduction to Christ's Session and its Significance

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, September 5th, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those of you who attend this place on a regular basis know that in the course of our studies through the book of 1 Peter, we came last Lord's Day to the words of 1 Peter 3 and verse 22, Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subject to him. Now these words occur at the end of a lengthy paragraph in which Peter's main pastoral burden has been to enlighten, encourage, and strengthen the people of God in the face of the world. Present and future suffering for the sake of Christ.

1:08 In giving expression to that pastoral burden, Peter has again pointed these believers in Asia Minor to the Lord Jesus Christ himself as the great and perfect sufferer. He did this earlier in the epistle when speaking to these house slaves who had recalcitrant, unreasonable, and unreasonable faith. And at times brutal masters in seeking to comfort them, to guide them, to give them direction as to how they were to respond. In chapter 2 and verses 21 to 23, he pointed them to the Lord Jesus as the one who went before them in the path of suffering for righteousness sake. He does a similar thing here in chapter 3. And after pointing these believers to Christ, he says, Christ as the perfect sufferer, who in his suffering has set, as it were, the direction for their suffering, and who in his suffering has done things that only he could do in the procurement of their salvation, goes from the sufferings of Christ to the exaltation of Christ here in verse 22.

2:26 And last Lord's Day, I sought to open up this text under two very simple headings. First of all, where Jesus went after his resurrection. And Peter tells us he went into heaven, having gone into heaven. And then secondly, what is his position in heaven?

2:48 It's figurative portrayal, who is on the right hand of God, and it's explicit description, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject to him. Now in seeking to...

3:02 arrive at a responsible exposition of that text, I found myself tracing out every reference in the New Testament to Christ being at the right hand of God, or at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the right hand of the power, as we find it in Luke. And then in the book of the Revelation, those references to the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the whole subject of Christ's ascension and session at the right hand of the Father, grew in my own understanding, and in a sense I was ashamed of myself that I appreciated so little this dimension of the activity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in opening up the text last week, I had to exercise a very strict discipline of exclusion in order to simply...

4:02 open up the language and the grammar of the text, and seek to show its application to these suffering saints. Now before we move into chapter 4, God willing, next Lord's Day, and this fresh series of exhortations that Peter gives to these suffering saints, I want to preach, God helping me, this morning and this evening, what is really one topical message in two installments, on the session...

4:31 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the term, the session, comes from the Latin word, sessio, which means sitting. And when people speak of the session of our Lord Jesus, they are describing by that term the fact that Peter underscores in this text, having gone into heaven, he is now on the right hand of God. If I were to give a title to the message this morning and this evening, it would be this.

5:03 Jesus Christ Is Seated in Heaven, So What. Jesus Christ Is Seated in Heaven, So What. As I have already indicated, the Bible makes much more of this fact, than I have made of it in my own thinking. In the complex of my own Christian life, I confess with shame, days have passed in which I have not thought.

5:31 Of the truths. embodied in the biblical terminology, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is seated at the right hand of God. And while I commune with Him as the risen and exalted Lord, the peculiar emphasis of Scripture has not been at the forefront of my communion with the Lord Jesus.

5:58 And so if for no other reason than to preach these things into a heightened level of awareness in my own soul, I want to direct your attention to the session of our Lord Jesus. Now as we take up the subject, there are two matters by way of introduction that I must address. First, a definition of a convenient term and an explanation of a crucial distinction. Now I know I'm making you think.

Defining Christ's Exaltation and a Crucial Distinction

6:28 And as I wrestled at my desk as to how I might illustrate some of these things, I found every conceivable illustration rebounding upon me as being either inadequate to truly illustrate or borderline blasphemous in trying to illustrate high mysteries that in some ways cannot be illustrated. They can only be preached. And I want to begin with this brief definition of a convenient term. And the term I want to define is that of the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

7:05 The term the exaltation of Jesus Christ, unlike some theological terms, is found in the Scriptures. The term Trinity is not found in the Bible. The term effectual calling is not found in the Bible. The term total depravity is not found in the Bible.

7:27 Those are theological terms. Those are theological terms that helpfully condense and accurately express truths embedded in the Bible. But the term the exaltation of Christ does have some biblical roots. For example, in Philippians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul writes, After dealing with Christ's voluntary humiliation, a humiliation that took him to the depths of death, even the death of the cross, he writes in Philippians 2, 9, Wherefore, God has highly exalted him.

8:08 Now, if you move from the death of the cross to Christ being highly exalted, you know that included in the exaltation was his resurrection from the dead, his passing up into heaven, and his being seated at the right hand, in heaven, awaiting the time when every knee and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Again, in Acts 2.33 and 5.31, we read that Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of God.

8:48 So the term the exaltation of Christ has some biblical roots, but in its common usage, it includes these three, these three aspects in the life history of the Lord Jesus. When we speak of the exaltation of Christ, when the framers of the shorter catechism speak of Christ occupying the offices of prophet, priest, and king in his estate of humiliation and exaltation, what are they referring to when they speak of his exaltation? They are speaking of his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven, and his session at the right hand of God. His exaltation involves the realities of the empty tomb, the enveloping cloud in which he went into heaven, and the throne of God on which he sits in heaven. Empty tomb, enveloping cloud, and shared throne. Those three historic realities constitute the exaltation of Christ. The exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10:00 And when I use the term, and when you read the term in the books that you read, you should understand that the term is used to describe those three events in the history of the God-man Christ Jesus. Then secondly, I want to give an explanation of a very crucial distinction. The exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ, pertains to matters exclusively related to him as the God-man with respect to his person, and as Messiah with respect to his position. Now again, this means you've got to think. But if you're going to sort out many passages in the word of God, you must understand this crucial distinction. If you don't, you're going to be vulnerable to thinking, heretical thoughts. You'll be vulnerable to heretics turning your Bible on you, and not knowing how to answer them.

11:05 And the scripture says, each of us is to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and as we found in 1 Peter 3.15, we are to be able to give answer to everyone who asks, a reason of the hope that is in us. When the Bible speaks of the exaltation of Christ, when I speak to you, today of his exaltation, particularly that aspect of his session at the right hand of the majesty on high, we are speaking of the exaltation of the God-man, Christ Jesus, as to his person, and in his office as Messiah. As God, he always has been, and ever shall be, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, and truth. Nothing could be added to the perfection of the eternal word, who was ever with God, and ever was God, himself God, so that all of the attributes of deity in here, in the Son of God, prior to his incarnation, at his incarnation, throughout the period of his humiliation, there is no way in which God can be exalted as God.

12:34 He is the exalted one. Hence, Jesus could say in John 3.13, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. He's talking eyeball to eyeball to Nicodemus, and says, I am the Son of Man, who is, right now, in heaven.

12:53 Hebrews 1.3, speaks of him upholding all things, by the word of his power, when he had made purification for sins, while he hangs upon a cross, in the eyes of men, a helpless victim of a kangaroo court, immolated, soaked in his own blood, his face confused, spittle dripping from his beard. He is the Lord of glory, upholding all things, by the word of his power. As to his divine nature, it is the Lord of glory, we read this morning, who was crucified.

13:32 Had the great ones of this world known who he was, Paul says, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, the Lord to whom glory inherently belongs as God. Yes, he can lay aside some of the accoutrements, the trappings of deity, while he comes among us, and he can take them up again. That's his prayer in John 17.3.

13:58 He prays, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world began. He was conscious he was going to take up something he had before. There was a glory he had with the Father before he came among us. He will take back that glory.

14:20 But there is something given to him in his session that he never possessed before. Because it is something he takes and possesses, not as God, but as the God-man, as the Messiah. It is the God-man, Christ Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. It is the God-man in his office as Messiah.

14:54 And therefore, when the Bible speaks of his exaltation, it is speaking of that which was unique and new in the experience of the God-man. He had not been the God-man before he left heaven. He becomes the God-man in Mary's womb. When conceived by the Holy Spirit, the eternal word takes to himself a true human soul and a human body.

15:25 And you will see, I trust, the importance of this crucial distinction, I know you sit there scratching your head, so do I scratch my head. Great is the mystery of godliness, Paul says. God was manifest in the flesh. Listen to two theologians who are conscious of how crucial this is.

15:47 I quote from Robert Raymond's new work on systematic theology. It was the divine human Messiah then that acquired or was given at his ascension, actual authority to exercise mediatorial dominion. It was not then the exaltation, but the prior humiliation that was the strange experience to the Son as God. As God, having the glory he had before was no new experience.

16:20 But Mr. Raymond goes on to say, but in the history of redemption, we must be willing to say in a certain sense, the exaltation involved for the Son an experience that had not been his before. This new experience was universal dominion, not as God as such, but as the divine human Messiah, and as the divine human mediator between God and man. He takes up something when he's seated at the right hand of the Father that he had not had as his position.

16:59 Before, not he didn't have as God. He did not have as the God-man. He did not have as Messiah. And therefore, having received it, he can relinquish it without in any way prejudicing his essential deity.

17:15 And that's where you'll see how crucial this distinction is. Some of you, if you were to explain to a Jehovah's Witness, 1 Corinthians 15, right now, you'd be hard pressed when he said, wait a minute, it says, the Son shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all. See, he's not God. Ah yes, he can deliver up as the God-man something that was given to him in his own history as the God-man.

17:44 When the purpose for which it was given is accomplished, he can give it back again without in any way prejudicing his essential identity as God. And then, wonder of wonders, these words were written, as the outgrowth of a Bible study that was elicited by a group of women in 1885 down in Princeton. Apparently some of the wives got jealous that their husbands were learning theology and discussing theology and a group of women pleaded with A. A. Hodge that he would have some weeknight lectures on theological themes. And so for two years, A. A. Hodge lectured a group of women and this is what the women got.

18:33 Listen women, this is what they got. And this is predicated of him not merely as God, but as God-man, speaking of his exaltation. This is predicated of him not merely as God, but as the God-man in his work as mediator between God and man. As the second person of the Trinity, equal in power and glory to the Eternal Father, the Eternal Word possesses an absolute, inherent, sovereign dominion as King over the whole universe.

19:03 That authority is intrinsic, underrived, inalienable, and is the same yesterday, today, and forever. During all the years of the earthly life of the God-man, alike while an unconscious babe in a manger and while hanging a dying victim on the cross, the Eternal Son of God was exercising his sovereign dominion over the entire universe. You see the point he's making? As God, he always had dominion, maintained dominion, never relinquished dominion, but in his office as mediator and in his entire person after the incarnation as God-man, he was constituted a King by the authority of the entire Godhead as represented in the Father. His mediatorial sovereignty is derived as distinguished from his essential dominion, his essential divine sovereignty, which is intrinsic. This rule was given to him by the Father as the reward of his obedience in suffering, and then he quotes Philippians 2. This authority bestowed upon him by the Father is special, having particular reference to the salvation of his own people, to that end, to the administration of all the provisions of the covenant of grace, of which he is the gracious executive.

20:26 It attaches not to his divine nature exclusively, but to his entire person as the God-man. A man sits upon the mediatorial throne of the universe. And then he goes on to preach. The one condemned at Pilate's bar has been placed by God upon his throne in his right hand and given a dominion as the God-man and as the mediator of his people.

The Session as Christ's Reward for Obedience

20:54 That distinction is the one that is critical when we talk about these matters. And I hope you'll see why and how as it unfolds. Well then, in the remainder of our time this morning, I want to speak to you on what the exaltation of Jesus means to Jesus. Then when we come to our communion meditation tonight, I want to at least begin to speak to you on what the exaltation of Jesus means to us.

21:23 I hope you aren't disappointed with my order. In this touchy-feely, what's-in-it-for-me age, I know it's not popular to preach on what something means to Jesus. You're judged by how much they are relevant to me. Well, frankly, I could care less if you're disappointed.

21:46 I could not care less. Because my Savior won this position at tremendous cost. And we ought to see Him in that position in such a way that in our hearts we fall down before Him and cry, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessing and honor and glory and power. And so, for the time that remains, consider with me what the exaltation of Jesus means to Jesus Himself.

22:18 When He was raised from the dead, taken up in the cloud, seated at the right hand of the Father, upon His throne, what does this mean to Jesus? Number one. It was His reward for His unswerving obedience as the submissive, suffering servant of Jehovah. More simply stated, it was His reward for His obedience.

22:49 It was His reward for His unswerving obedience as the submissive, suffering servant of Jehovah. When the eternal Word took our nature upon Himself and came into the world, have you ever wondered what were Jesus' last words when He left heaven? We can talk in those spatial dimensions because He's still in heaven. But He leaves heaven.

23:16 I came down, He says, out of heaven, not to do My own will. So, we're talking in biblical language when we think of Him coming down from heaven while recognizing in His divine nature He is still in heaven and fills heaven and earth. What were His last words? What were His first words upon coming to this sphere?

23:42 Well, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 5 to 7. Hebrews 10, verses 5 to 7. Note the language. Wherefore, when He comes into the world, when He comes into the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body did you prepare for Me in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.

24:15 Then said I, Lo, I am come. In the roll of the book it is written of Me to do your will, O God. When He came into the world, He saith, I come to do your will, O God. That's what Jesus is committed to.

24:37 Coming into the world to do the will of His Father. He reiterates that in John 6. I came down out of heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. Here is the language of inner Trinitarian communion.

24:55 The Son saying to the Father, I come to do Your will. Now think for a moment what it must have meant to Him when having done the will of the Father for His first thirty years here on earth, He goes to the Jordan River. He is baptized by John and while He is praying, Luke tells us in chapter 3 and verse 22, the heavens are opened. The Spirit of God descends in the form of a dove.

25:25 And what comes out of heaven? A voice saying, You are My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Father attests that the purpose for which He came had to that point been fully realized. You are My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

25:51 You declared You came to do My will. You have perfectly done My will up to this point. And I am well pleased. For the end of the three years of His ministry, healing, preaching, teaching, gathering a band around Him upon whose shoulders He would lay the future work of His kingdom, He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

26:16 And the Lord Jesus is approaching the most demanding bracket of His earthly obedience. And God gives Him that amazing experience on the Mount of Transfiguration recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. And there, as recorded in Matthew 17 and verse 5, God speaks again. Now looking back on that three, almost three year period of all that He had done in His public ministry, the Father says, I'm well pleased with everything that pertains to You through Your thirty quiet years of preparation.

26:53 Now for Your almost three years of active engagement, the Father speaks from heaven and says, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the Lord Jesus, knowing His Old Testament as He did and knowing His own identity as the servant of Jehovah, no doubt had in His mind the words of Isaiah 42.1, Behold My servant in whom I am well pleased. And He hears the Father speaking of His pleasure in Him as the obedient servant.

27:29 But the most important work and the most demanding obedience was yet before Him. The most important work and the most demanding obedience was yet before Him. The most important work was giving Himself a ransom for sinners. The most demanding obedience would be voluntarily undergoing the Father's hidden face.

28:00 The writer to Hebrews says He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And therefore the book of the letter to the Philippians can use this language. Being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is what wrung from Him the bloody sweat in Gethsemane, the agonizing prayer that drove Him to His face three times, crying out, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

28:42 Yes, I've come to do Your will, Father. I've told my disciples I must go to Jerusalem and there be rejected of the chief priests and the elders and be handed over to the Roman authorities and be killed. I've told them this, but my Father, as the cup is brought close to me and I see that cauldron of divine wrath brewing in that cup as I smell the stench of what it will be to bear imputed sin, O my Father, if it be possible, let the cup pass. Nevertheless, what are His words? Not mine, but Yours be done. Lord, in the roll of the book it is written of me to do Your will. Father, did Your will in the silent, hidden years of preparation.

29:46 You spoke from heaven saying, I was Your beloved Son and You were pleased with me. I did Your will as I healed, as I taught, as I preached, as I gave myself to the needy who were constantly pressing me with their manifold needs. And You spoke from heaven, Father, that I was Your beloved Son in whom You were well pleased. But my Father, to please You and to do Your will now is bringing me to a new level of felt experience of obedience as the very dominating principle of my life.

30:28 Hebrews 5.8 He is learning obedience by the things which He suffered. Who in the days of His flesh when He had offered up strong cryings and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard in that He feared. His obedience was tested as never before.

30:52 And what does He do? He embraces the cross. And after the wrestlings of Gethsemane and when He is arrested there in the garden, He goes forth with a dignity and unruffled serenity as the commitments of His heart were made. And not until the cry of dereliction pierces the air, my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

31:22 Do we hear anything from the lips of the Son of God with respect to the horror of that ordeal? Now what in the world does all of that have to do with His being seated at the right hand of the Father? Well now I want you to turn to Philippians 2. I've been quoting from memory and you've been listening intently but now I want you to see it with your own eyes.

31:47 Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus who existing in the form of God conquered not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself taking. There is subtraction by addition. He emptied Himself taking, taking the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, now notice, becoming obedient even unto death. Yes, death of the cross.

32:30 There His humiliation reaches its low point death of the cross. The death reserved for slaves for those guilty of treason that death that stripped a man of every last semblance of personal dignity death of the cross and what are the next words as Paul writes? Wherefore Wherefore on account of this wherefore also God highly exalted Him and gave unto Him the name which is above every name that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Why is He given that place of hyper exaltation? The word exaltation with the prefix that we would translate hyper. He is hyper exalted.

33:41 Why? Wherefore because in the light of His obedience that carried Him to death even the death of the cross. So then we look upon the exaltation of our Lord Jesus as His reward for His unswerving obedience as the submissive suffering servant of Jehovah. And He was conscious of this speaking to the churches of Asia Minor.

34:18 He can say to the church of Laodicea in chapter 3 and verse 21 of the book of the Revelation to Him that overcomes I will give to sit down with Me in My throne even as I overcame and sat down with My Father in His throne. He knows that the throne was the reward of His overcoming. And in that moving picture in Revelation 5 there is weeping in heaven. No one is found worthy to break open the seals of the purposes of God until one is found worthy.

34:53 And what makes Him worthy? You are worthy. Why? Because you did redeem.

34:59 Because you shed your blood. Because you carried your obedience even to the death of the cross. You see the Lord Jesus knew that in that marvelous servant of Jehovah passage that is the most beautiful detailed description of the sufferings of the cross it begins in Isaiah 52 and verse 13 and you know the words with which it begins? It begins with these words My servant shall be exalted and shall be very high.

35:33 And He knew that He went down into the depths of the cross. The Father was committed to exalt Him and bring Him to the most high position. Let me ask you this morning do you know something of the exquisite soul-ravishing thrill of accomplishing a task out of love for another person and when they have recognized the accomplishment of that task motivated by love accomplished by conscious effort that exquisite ravishing thrill of having them say I'm well pleased. So then you know that the soul-ravishing delight of hearing of their pleasure is often in direct proportion to the difficulty of the task rendered. And the more that task motivated by love you the more exquisite the more ravishing is the thrill of having the approbation and the commendation of the one for whose sake you accomplished the task. Can you imagine what it meant

37:02 to the Lord Jesus to be taken up into heaven and seated upon His Father's throne and know that this was the Father's reward for His obedience obedience unto death even the death of the cross. You say Jesus has emotions? Yeah, He does. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit saying I thank Thee Father Lord of heaven and earth Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes for even so far it seemed good in Thy sight.

37:46 Hebrews 12 to who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising its shame and is set down at the right hand of God. Oh dear people if we have any love for Christ break with a set of the wonder and we long to be able to somehow to what His joy must have been. When as the reward of His unswerving obedience as the suffering servant of Jehovah He is exalted. That's what it meant to Him.

The Session as Christ's Official Investiture with Messianic Lordship

38:30 Number one it was His reward for His unswerving obedience as the submissive suffering servant of Jehovah. But secondly it was His official don't run away now with the next word I'll explain it. It was His official investiture with all the power and authority of messianic lordship. Or briefly stated it was His official investiture.

39:01 His official investiture. When you invest something or someone with something you furnish someone with power with privilege or authority. And the formal act of investing is an investiture. And what I am saying is that for the Lord Jesus as the God-man and as Messiah I emphasize again not in terms of who He is as God always was ever shall be but who He is as the God-man and as Messiah His exaltation and particularly His session at the right hand of the Father was His official investiture with all the power and authority of messianic lordship. And what are the key texts that make this abundantly clear? And this is where I hope some of you now will say well it's been worth it hanging in there. These texts have bothered me and I've always been a bit nervous that the Jehovah's Witnesses might stick them under my nose.

40:08 Acts chapter 2 Peter understood this distinction that we made in the introductory statement and therefore as he is preaching Christ on the day of Pentecost under the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God and Luke gives us a synopsis of his sermon notice how this truth comes through so clearly speaking about Christ and His resurrection and how it was prophesied in the Psalms particularly Psalm 16 now then verse 30 Being therefore that is David being therefore a prophet in knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that in the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne a reference to the Davidic covenant that we heard about in the previous hour he David foreseeing this spoke of the resurrection of Christ that neither was he left unto Hades nor did his flesh see corruption this Jesus did God raise up whereof we are all witnesses being therefore by the right hand of God exalted you see he skips over the ascension to the right hand of God exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted

41:37 exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted exalted He's telling them that if you want to understand what's going on here with all of these people around me speaking in languages that they never acquired in the normal course of acquisition and speaking the mighty works of God, you've got to understand that God has done something with reference to Christ that you didn't see. He raised him up. We are witnesses. We saw him.

42:11 He took him up and he seated him and he is now the administrator of messianic power. He has received of the Father the promise of the Spirit. He has shed forth this which you now see and hear. For David ascended not into the heavens, but he says himself, and now he quotes Psalm 110.

42:33 We saw last week how significant this is. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. Now here's the conclusion. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

43:00 Well, wait a minute. I thought he always was the Lord. Wasn't he always the Lord of glory? Didn't the angel say on the occasion of his birth, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will?

43:18 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Messiah, Lord, who is Christ the Lord. And yet Peter is saying, You folk need to know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ.

43:41 Now the Bible is full of contradictions. Throw it out. It's unworthy to be confirmed. Peter understood this.

43:47 And he is saying that in conjunction with his resurrection, his ascension implied, his session at the right hand of the Father, he has now been infested with all the power and authority of messianic lordship. He's made him Lord and Christ. And from now on, everything in the administration of God's kingdom of grace is administered by the messianic king, who's been officially installed when he was taken back into heaven. That's what Peter's saying.

44:23 So when the Jehovah's Witnesses say, Oh, see, he's there. And don't bother me. He says, No, I fully understand that. That's because it has to do with the economy of redemption, with the outworking of God's saving purposes in the life history of the Lord Jesus.

44:38 Another key text, Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. As Paul lets the Ephesians know what he's praying for, and it's amazing when you just trace out what Paul writes to these infant congregations, telling them what he prays for them.

45:01 No little ditty prayers, Lord bless all the mamas and the papas and kids and take them to heaven when they die. You read the prayers recorded in Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians. They are mind-boggling. And yet he communicates them to these infant congregations.

45:17 This is one of the things he's praying for the Ephesians. Only one of the things. That they would know, by the illumination of the Spirit, verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us were to believe. And he says, the exceeding greatness of that power is to be measured by a certain reality.

45:36 The power to us were to believe according to the working of the strength of His might that He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places for us. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. Now notice, and He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him to be head or as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. The key phrase is He put all things in subjection under Him. Well, I thought as God, He upheld all things by the word of His power. All things were from eternity in subjection to Him. Yes, as God, that is true.

46:36 But as the God-man and Messiah, it was not true till He raised Him and seated Him at His own right hand. And you have no problem with the passage. You see that for the Lord Jesus, the ascension and session at the right hand of the Father was His official thing. Investiture with all the power and authority of messianic lordship.

47:01 And it is in this position that all things are under His feet and He will reign as the messianic Lord until all the purposes of the messianic kingdom are accomplished and then He will yield up that function without in any way diminishing the wonder and the glory of His glory. of His glory. of His glory. of His person.

47:26 1 Corinthians 15, 25-28. A passage that I'm sure has troubled many of you. I hope it won't trouble you after our study this morning.

47:38 In this resurrection chapter,

47:42 Paul writes,

47:45 verse 25, He must reign, that is, Christ in His present messianic lordship must reign till. He must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy, that shall be abolished, is death. For He put all things in subjection under His feet.

48:06 Ephesians 1. He has put all things under Him. But when He says, all things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is accepted who did subject all things unto Him. And when all things have been subjected unto Him, not in principle, not in terms of the Father's purpose, but in terms of actual experience, death is abolished.

48:35 In reality, we are given our resurrection bodies. He's ushered in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein will dwell nothing but righteousness. When all things have been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all. In a way that I cannot fully explain, but the text clearly, clearly points to it.

49:01 When the Messianic Lord has fully accomplished all of the unique and particular functions of exercising that Lordship, and all of the saving purposes of God in and through the enthroned Messiah are accomplished, there will be an alteration not in the essence of who He is, but in His function. And there will be a functional change. And we will forever worship the Lamb in the midst of the throne. He will never unincarnate Himself.

49:39 Humanity has been taken to the throne of God. And it will never, never, never leave it. Except to come and get us. And take us with Him.

49:51 Right now, as we sit in this place, Jesus is seated on the throne of the universe. There is not, think now, think with me, there's not a motion in an atom, in the deepest center of our planet. Now think of that for a minute. If we could burrow down into the very center of the earth and have instruments that would measure the exact center of the earth, and there we could isolate an atom, there is not a motion within that atom all the way to the twinkle of the star in the farthest yet undiscovered galaxy.

50:31 But the Jesus Christ, governs it, tenually, in fact. And that's His position, as the reward of His suffering, in the purposes of God, that the second person of the Godhead should become incarnate in the fulfillment of what you've been studying in the adult class of eternal inner Trinitarian commitments made between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost concerning the redemption of a people. What does session mean to Christ? To Christ it means His investiture with all of the rights and responsibilities of messianic lordship. And He sits now knowing that everything will end in triumph. There will be a full salvation for all who know Him, eternal banishment of all who in their love of sin and pride and unbelief will not embrace Him.

The Session as Christ's Entrance Upon His Heavenly High Priestly Ministry

51:47 And when the last enemy is destroyed, He yields up that messianic kingdom. And there is then some relationship of inner Trinitarian glory that exceeds my ability even to think about, let alone to preach. But then very quickly as I close, what was the session to Christ? His reward for His obedience.

52:12 Secondly, His investiture with messianic lordship. But thirdly, it was His entrance upon His heavenly high priestly ministry. For Him, it was His entrance upon His heavenly high priestly ministry. When we take up the book of Hebrews, and I made a brief reference to this last week, this is the dominant emphasis in the passages that speak of Christ seated at the right hand of God.

52:39 Christ seated at the right hand of the majesty. And the book of Hebrews has the unique contribution in that it, not the unique, but the dominant contribution that it focuses on a second strand of emphasis from Psalm 110. Please turn to Psalm 110. We noted last week that this psalm, most frequently quoted psalm in the New Testament, and Psalm 110 in verse one, the most frequently quoted verse in the New Testament.

53:11 But in Psalm 110, we not only have the picture of a sovereign upon a throne in verse one, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion rule in the midst of your enemies. That's regal emphasis, dominant emphasis upon the regal. But look at verse four.

53:37 The Lord has sworn and will not repent. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

53:47 The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in the day of His wrath. That's a kingly function. He's a priest forever. He's going to be both one who shares the throne of Jehovah, and yet he is a priest, but a priest not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek.

54:09 This strange feature who appears in the biblical history, nothing about his genealogy, nothing about his progeny. He appears and so imposing a figure that Abraham pays tithes to him. God picks up that. That strange figure and says that he prefigures this one who will be exalted to God's right hand and share his throne, but who in sharing his throne will be a priest.

54:39 And as you were reminded in the previous hour, as God unfolds his revelation in the Old Testament, you come to one of the restoration prophets, one of the last prophets before the 400 silent years. And God prophesies a strange thing through Zechariah, in chapter six, verses 12 and 13. In one of these rich messianic prophecies, this is what he says. The book of Zechariah, second last book in the Old Testament, chapter six, verses 12 and 13.

55:13 Thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying, behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall go up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall serve the Lord. And he shall go up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. Here is a personage called the branch, who will be both a sovereign and a priest. He will be a sovereign who is a priest, but a priest who is a sovereign.

55:52 Well when you come to the book of Hebrews, this is beautifully opened up, and Christ is set before us as the one who is the sovereign. He is that priest after the order of Melchizedek, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, and all that rich teaching. But now, very briefly, I want you to focus on how this all comes together with the truth that Christ is seated as a priest. What's the significance of that?

56:18 Turn please to Hebrews 10, and the writer of the Hebrews will answer it in very clear language. Hebrews chapter 10, having stated that he comes to do the will of God, and through that will, culminating in his death, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. Verse 10. Now verse 11.

56:41 Every priest indeed stands. Circle that word in your mind if not in your Bibles. Every priest indeed stands, day by day, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices. The witch can never take away sins.

57:00 But he when he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, he would not take away his sins. But he when he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, he would not take away his sins. But he when he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, the one who would never take away his sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. You see the contrast?

57:18 Every priest under the Old Covenant he stands. A priest never sat. If he was one of the ordinary priests who was offering up the daily sacrifices, he performed his functions. If it were the high priest, high priest, and there's some textual evidence that the word should be high priest. It's not strong evidence. But if it were the high priest, he didn't stand in the holiest place, in the holy of all. He went in with a robe that had bells around the fringe of it. If he did not go in cleansed as he ought to be and perform his services out of sight where no one could see him but God, whose glory was in a concentrated way revealed there above the ark and between the cherubim and the mercy seat. If he were struck dead, they wouldn't

58:09 hear the bells and they would have to go in and haul him out. He did not sit in that place. Nobody sat performing the function of a priest. The daily sacrifices offered by a standing priest, the yearly day of atonement, that special sacrifice by the high priest, he didn't sit. He went in, he did his thing, and he got out. But now we have a priest who's sitting.

58:36 That's the emphasis of the passage. And why is he sitting? Because there's nothing more to do. One sacrifice for sin is once for all sacrifice is accepted in the presence of almighty God. And now he sits because he has no more offering to be made. Yet he sits in the posture of a high priest who still functions. As we shall see tonight, he functions. In sympathy, in succoring, he functions in intercession, all of which are based upon the once for all sacrifice that he never needs to stand again to repeat. But he sits. This

59:25 passage is expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. In other words, he's going to have the full realization of everything for which he died. But he sits, and he's not sitting there drumming his fingers with impatience. He's sitting there, accomplishing all of the Father's purposes, flowing out of his once for all sacrifice. And he will not be frustrated in having the fruition of all that he died to accomplish, for God said, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. Now, dear people, can you turn your minds away from yourself long enough to think what must have it meant for Jesus, having tread the winepresses of the world, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him, and to 되ed him, to be the one who died for him, to be the one who died for him. He://. 0 reliant on every soul, living in the pains of death, yearning for victory,

60:20 Question 1 If Jesus Christ is an Anointed One, then your what should He claim pig внутrpert functioning sense in only to assume full messianic lordship but the father saying my son you've accomplished all that needs to be accomplished in suffering in rejection in blood in abandonment and in forsakenness my son and all that you have yet to do in the accomplishment of the redemption of your people you can accomplish sitting as the great high priest oh dear people that's where he is today that's where our Savior is he's sitting if you're here thinking there's anything you can do that will fix you up to God you are seeking to negate his posture he's sitting he's sitting and no Roman priest with his mumbo-jumbo over

61:40 the altar makes him stand he sits by the Father's decree you and off expecting to his enemy he made the footstool obviously well when Peter wrote that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven angels authorities principalities subject to this being seated his session for the Lord Jesus was a major event in his life history as the God man part of this exaltation distinct duty in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord loves the exalted holy his person as the God-man in his position as Messiah. What did it mean to him? It was the reward of his obedience, the investiture as Messianic Lord, his entrance upon his heavenly high priestly ministry. My friend, that's just the kind of Savior you and I need. Not

Conclusion and Prayer

62:41 one of those things is a luxury. Your sin and mine is of such a nature that nothing less than this kind of a salvation wrought in this way will satisfy God. So if you're satisfied with anything less, you're satisfied with a bogus salvation. There's no luxuries in God's salvation. Everything Christ undertook to do and all that the Father has marked out for him to become is essential to your salvation and to mine. Thank God if we've entrusted ourselves to him. He is all this to us. The one at the right hand of the Father is ours. We are his in indissoluble bonds of

63:31 covenant love and grace. May God help us from the heart to say, Hallelujah. What a Savior. Let's pray. Our Father, we confess with shame that we have such low thoughts of you. Lord Jesus, we confess with shame that we have not meditated. We have not meditated as we ought upon the glory that is now yours at the right hand of the majesty on high, the glory that you are pleased to share with your people. For you have said to him that overcomes, I will give to sit on my throne, even as I overcame and have sat down upon my Father's throne. We pray that you would deliver us from constricted minds and restricted hearts.

64:30 And reserved affections, O Lord, kindle in our hearts new measures of genuine love for yourself and appreciation of all that you have done and all that you are. Seal, then, your word to the profit of our souls and to the praise of your name. We ask for your name's sake. Amen.