Made to Sit at His Right Hand

Introduction: The Focus of Paul's Prayer for Power

0:02 We continue this morning our studies in this profound prayer of the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through the end of the chapter. We are studying this prayer in great detail because this prayer, as with all of the apostolic instruction, contains expressions of the will of God for his people. What an apostle prayed for on behalf of the people of God and then was led to write under the inspiration of the Spirit is just as much an indication of God's will for his people as if the apostle had said,

0:46 This is what you are to do. And so the things for which he prays are things that fall within the compass of the revealed will of God for all of his people. I would remind you briefly. By way of review, that the focus of this prayer is that God the Father would give to the Ephesians an increased measure of the Spirit's working and grace, particularly as the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that they might know inwardly, experientially, powerfully, three distinct things.

1:22 The hope of their calling, that is, the confident expectation of future blessings, which, came to them as a result of their being called by God into the faith of the gospel. Secondly, he says in verse 19, he's praying that the Spirit would help them to understand the exceeding, I'm sorry, verse 18, what the riches of the glory of their inheritance was. The hope resides within. The inheritance is the objective, substantial realization of that hope, and he wants them to know, precisely what it is.

2:03 And then in the third place, he wants them to know the exceeding greatness of God's power to believers. For it's by that power that all believers who have the hope, fixed upon the inheritance, are secured and brought safely to the realization of that inheritance. And of course it is this third matter, the exceeding greatness of his power, which receives the fullest power, the fullest treatment in the passage, and therefore has been receiving the most careful treatment in our exposition of this portion of the word of God. We have seen that the subject is the power of God.

2:45 As grace designs great blessings, and we saw them in the first paragraph, verses 3 to 14, so the power of God is operative to secure those blessings. Power without grace in God, is a frightening thing. Grace without power would be a disappointing thing. But grace joined power, is the blessed experience of true biblical Christianity.

3:14 And we've seen that the characteristics of this power, are described by the apostle in terms of what it is in itself, it is surpassingly great, verse 19, it is exceeding great power, and then the characteristic in its working, is described by the working of the strength of his might. In the third place, we saw that the recipients of this power are all believers, but only believers. It is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who are to believe, not some special class of believers, who've had a second or third or twentieth work of grace, not some limited class of believers,

3:58 but this power is operative to everyone, who is a believer, but only to believers. Those who have despaired of finding forgiveness in themselves, in ritual, in performance of duties, and have cast themselves upon Jesus Christ, as he is offered in the gospel, that constitutes a man a believer, and such a man is the recipient, of all of this exceeding greatness of the power of God, simply because he is a believer. And then we have begun to study the measure of this power. This power of God, characterized by exceeding greatness, and by the working of its might,

The Measure of God's Power: Wrought in Christ

4:42 this power that terminates upon believers, what is the measure of that power? And Paul tells us, it is that power which accords with the working of the strength of his might, which he wrought in Christ. And then there follows these four, distinct things. The measure of the power, is the power wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, sat him at his own right hand, put all things beneath his feet, and gave him to be head to the church.

5:16 And we have emphasized in our study, that all four of these things, are a unit of God's dealings with his Son. And together they comprise the measure of the power, that is exercised to believers. But if we are to understand the significance of all four together, we must break them down into individual units of study. And I have used the illustration, and I will repeat it.

5:42 We speak of the return of our prisoners of war, as one act. But that involves the North Vietnamese, giving them up to the South Vietnamese, or American authorities. It involves their being flown to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Being examined by the doctors, flown to the West Coast, and from there taken to their assigned homes.

6:06 Now all of those events, the giving up by the North Vietnamese, the reception by the American authorities, the flying to Clark Air Force Base, are all individual elements of one great act, that we call the return of our POWs. So then, the measure of the power, that is operative to believers, is the power, exercised when the Father raised Him, sat Him, put things under Him, and gave Him. But we must now break them down into their individual components. In our last study, and this completes our review, we considered the power of God exercised and manifested

6:48 in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw that it was power that broke the bands of death. Power that brought Him forth to everlasting life. And power that in bringing Christ from that grave, brought all of His elect in Him and with Him.

7:07 And that's the measure of the power that is operative to us. For what purpose? To bring us safely to the inheritance. That's the whole thrust of the passage.

The Fact of Christ's Heavenly Seating Asserted

7:16 It is power operative in us and towards us, that we might eventually know the full realization of our inheritance. Now, we come this morning to the second in this first couplet of divine activity. Notice the wording of the text. It is the measure of His power which He wrought in Christ, verse 20, when He raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places.

7:48 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. And so we're studying this morning the power of God to believers, exerted and manifested in the heavenly seating of Christ. Now, to think our way through this subject, we'll consider first of all the fact of the seating asserted, secondly, the meaning of the seating explained, and thirdly, the sphere of the seating delineated. Marked out and laid before us.

8:29 First of all, then, the fact of the seating asserted. Paul states it in very simple terminology. The measure of God's power to believers is that which He wrought in Christ when He made Him sit, or it could be translated, when He sat Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. And Paul asserts, as a fact concerning which he has no doubt whatever, that Jesus Christ, the same Christ who was taken from a Roman cross, placed in the tomb of Joseph, came out of that tomb in that resurrection which we described in our previous study,

9:13 that same Jesus was actually made to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Now this event, the ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ, forms a fundamental element in the events of Christ by which His person and work is vindicated and validated, and also upon which our salvation rests and is made secure. One cannot have even a surface acquaintance with the Bible without realizing that the power of God operative in sitting His Son at His right hand is a central theme

9:57 of biblical revelation. Consider very quickly a few verses that indicate this. In the prophecies that went before our Lord, Psalm 110 in verse 1, a clear example. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.

10:15 Whatever Messiah was to be and to do, some point in His history, there had to be the sitting of the Lord at the right hand of His Father. In His own words, our Lord Himself says in Luke 22 and verse 69, fully conscious that this would be His ultimate place, Luke 22, 69, But from henceforth shall the Son of man be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Did our Lord predict His own death? Again and again.

10:52 The Son of man must suffer, must be killed, must be raised. The same Son of man is fully conscious that His ultimate destiny is not simply to come from the tomb with newness of life, but to sit down at the right hand of the power of God. Then the Gospel record and the historical narrative of the life of our Lord brings this element in to a central place. In Mark 16 in verse 19, we have the record concerning our Lord's ascension and session to the right hand of the Father.

11:29 So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And then that very familiar record in the book of the Acts. The disciples are gathered together and suddenly their Lord begins to ascend right from their very midst and as they gaze up into heaven, the angels speak and say, this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner. And then in the apostolic preaching, this note of the seating of Christ is a dominant note.

12:06 In fact, Peter makes it the focal point of that Pentecostal sermon in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, Peter is explaining what has happened with the descent of the Spirit and he says in Acts 2 and verse 33, back up to verse 32, this Jesus did God raise up whereof we are all witnesses, being therefore by the right hand of God exalted. If someone were to ask Peter, where is he now? He assumes as a fact, asserted without any equivocation, he is exalted at God's right hand.

12:49 And so it is not only found in prophecy and the words of our Lord, in the historical narrative, in the apostolic preaching, but then throughout the epistles, the instructive portions of the New Testament, his seating at the right hand of the Father is asserted again and again. Colossians 3, 1, if he then had been raised with Christ, set your affection on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Hebrews 1, 3, when he had purged our hearts, our sins sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 8, 1, Hebrews 10, 12, and then 1 Peter 3, 22, this clear assertion by the apostle Peter,

13:33 1 Peter 3 and verse 22, who is on the right hand of God having gone into heaven. And then the classic statement, the apostle Paul in Romans 8, 34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather that is risen from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Now, why am I going through all of these passages?

14:02 Is it because I want to bluff it and I don't know how to open up the next phrases? Not at all. Not at all. I'm doing this because there are many in our day who claim to be Christians.

14:15 That is, who claim to be adherents to the religion revealed in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, who are either utterly indifferent to, ignorant of, or rejecters of this fact asserted in the text. It is asserted as a fact in the history of our Lord that He passed through the heavens and sat down at the right hand of God. Therefore, if we claim to be adherents to the religion revealed in the Bible, we must hold as part of the irreducible minimum of saving truth not only that Jesus was born of the Virgin,

14:58 that Jesus died, that Jesus rose, but that Jesus was made to sit in heaven. That at a certain point in time the same Christ raised from the dead with the glory and power of an everlasting life sat down in His glorified body and is somewhere in the universe of God so that if we could get to that place and pinch Him, He would say, Ouch! A substantial body that could be felt and touch, touch me, feel me, see that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. That's what we mean

15:41 by the seating of our Lord Jesus Christ. This person was actually brought into that place called in the text, the heavenlies. And He went there as the whole God-man, to use the theological term, the theanthropic person, theos, God, anthropos, man, the theanthropic person, the God-man, body, soul, and spirit passed into the heavens. Why is this essential?

16:14 Because you see, there is a deflection, a deflection from this in many segments of professed Christianity. There is the teaching of the Romanist that in the sacrament the very body and soul and divinity of Christ is present in the bread and in the wine. Well, how can it be? If He's passed through the heavens as the God-man, He's there and He can't be there in the wafer and in the wine.

16:44 It does away with the teaching of Lutheranism. It's double talk about He's not there physically present, but He is there. And that's why you'll find in Lutheran commentators that they will say it's only His humanity that passed through the heavens and sat down at the right hand of God. That isn't what the text says.

17:00 It says it is the Christ who was raised from the dead. It is the Christ who sat down at the right hand of God. And it destroys the heresy of Jehovah's Witnesses that this is some exalted angel because the Scripture says, unto which of the angels said He, Sit thou at my right hand. And if Christ is just an angel, then that verse doesn't apply.

17:23 He's saying Christ is greater than the angels. Only one has been made to sit at His right hand. And who is He? He is the same Christ who was risen, the same Christ who was crucified, the same Christ who became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin who came there from His position as the eternal Word in the bosom of the Father.

The Meaning of Christ's Seating Explained

17:46 So much, then, for the fact of His heavenly seating asserted. Now in the second place, let us consider the meaning of this seating explained. It is clearly figurative language. How do we know?

18:01 Well, God is a spirit and He has no hands right or left. So when the Scripture says He sat at the right hand of God, we know that this is speaking in figurative language. We also know it's figurative because the Bible shows us other pictures of Christ placed in heaven where He's not sitting. When Stephen is about to enter the presence of His Lord, the Scripture tells us in Acts 7.55,

18:28 He said, I see the Son of Man standing. John in Revelation chapter 1, he says, I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst one like unto the Son of Man. And the picture of Him obviously indicates that He was walking amidst the candlesticks. And then in Hebrews 8 verses 1 and 2, you find Him in verse 1 sitting, in verse 2 you find Him ministering.

18:58 Now what am I trying to show by this? Simply that this is figurative language. So if we're to come to the meaning of this seating of Christ, the meaning is not to be found in pressing some kind of wooden literalism upon the words. But figures are used to convey truth, not to blur it.

19:17 Not to fog it. So what is the figure? Christ seated at the right hand of God. Two elements.

19:25 First of all, the sovereignty of God is depicted again and again in Scripture by the concept of a throne. Whenever you find reference to the throne of God, it is reference to the sovereignty and the supremacy of God. Isaiah 6, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne. Psalm 47 and verse 8 is another passage which indicates that the enthronement of God is a finger pointing in the direction of the supremacy and sovereignty of God.

20:04 Psalm 47, 8, God reigneth over the nations, His sovereignty, God sitteth upon His holy throne. Now this is difficult for us who've been reared in democratic societies. There's all the difference in the world between the chair in the oval room and a throne. You see, that's an executive's chair whose executive powers in Washington are held in check by the Supreme Court and by the other bodies that initiate and pass legislation.

20:38 And it was our Puritan forefathers with their understanding of the depravity of the human heart that conceived the form of government in which there would not be a centralized power in the hands of wicked men. So there's this system of checks and balances. But what may be helpful in terms of common grace in human society is not helpful when it comes to understanding biblical concepts. Most of us have never seen a valid throne.

21:07 Most of us have never seen a throne that spoke of unrivaled and absolute sovereignty. Most of us have not lived in a society in which the king spoke and his word was law for good or for evil. So we must wrench ourselves loose from democratic concepts and put ourselves back in that state of affairs when the king's word was law and when anyone who dared to break it could be visited with death. And so any reference to the throne of God is a finger pointing to the absolute sovereignty and supremacy of God.

21:52 Then secondly, the meaning of this seating is to be understood in this perspective. The right hand of God is always the place of favor and shared dominion. The right hand of a king was the place of favor and of shared dominion. Look at 1 Kings 2 and verse 19.

22:19 Now this is just plain hard study. There's no application, very little illustrations. But if you want to know the exceeding greatness of the power of God that is to you as a believer, then you're going to have to hang in there. You're going to have to stick with it.

22:32 1 Kings 2 and verse 19. Bathsheba therefore went in unto King Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed himself unto her and sat down on his throne and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother. And she sat on his right hand.

23:06 Then she said, I ask one small petition of thee, deny me not. And the king said to her, Ask on my mother, for I will not deny thee. You get the picture? The right hand of the king was the place of privilege, the place of favor.

23:22 So when Solomon asked that a place be prepared, he was saying in essence, I give to you, my mother, a place of favor and privilege from which you may ask what you will and I will do what is your pleasure. This is what the mother of those two sons had in mind when she said in Mark 10.35, Lord, grant that my sons may sit at your right hand and left in your kingdom. Grant to them the place of peculiar favor.

23:50 But not only is the right hand of the king a place of favor, it's always the place of shared dominion. The heir apparent to the throne is described in Exodus 11.5 and 12.29 as the one who sat with Pharaoh upon his throne.

24:11 You find this in 1 Kings 1 and verse 34. 1 Kings 1 and verse 34. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel and blow the trumpet and say, Long live King Solomon. Verse 35.

24:28 Then shall ye come up after him and shall come and sit upon my throne, for he shall be king in my stead, for I have appointed him to be prince over Israel. And so you have this sharing of the throne of David with Solomon as the heir apparent. Revelation 3.21.

24:48 One of the promises to the overcomers is that they will sit with Christ in his throne. Now summarizing. What do you have as the meaning of this seating of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well I trust by now the meaning is clear.

25:05 This same Jesus who came from the presence of the Father as the pre-existent eternal Word who humbled himself in his mediatorial office has now gone back to the place of authority, sovereignty and shared dominion. But he's gone back as the God-man acting in his official capacity as the mediator of his people. Now the measure of God's power to us who believe is bound up in the power exerted not only to raise Christ from the dead but to raise him to so high

25:47 and so glorious a position. And before we develop the theme anymore I want to pause to say that the acid test of any confessed adherence to the religion of the Bible is to be found right here. What place does it accord to the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Word particularly the place the Father has afforded him right now. The Father has raised him from the dead.

26:22 The Father has seated him at his own right hand far above principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named. And I say the acid test of any professed adherence to the religion of the Bible is what place does it give to that Christ. Not what place does it give to Jesus in general or Jesus Christ in just the use of the terminology but what place does it give in its theology in its worship in its evangelism in its whole ethos to an enthroned Christ who came to the throne by way of a virgin's womb a bloody cross and an open tomb.

The Sphere of Christ's Seating: Locally in the Heavenlies

27:06 That's the acid test. You apply it to your own conscience and to your own heart. Now having dealt with the facts the fact of his seating asserted the meaning of that seating explained now we come to the heart of what I trust will be the Lord's word to us this morning. What is the sphere of that seating as delineated and marked out in the passage before us?

27:36 You see the power of God to us word is to be measured not just by the fact of his seating asserted the meaning of that seating understood but by the particular words the Apostle Paul uses in delineating the sphere of that seating. What is the sphere in which Jesus Christ has been seated? And in understanding that we come to understand the measure of the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe. There are three things in the text and therefore three things that I wish to share with you.

28:15 First of all the sphere of his seating is delineated locally look at the text he set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies then it's delineated positionally far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named then it's delineated temporally this age and in the age to come. And so we're going to see the sphere of his seating marked out with clarity locally, positionally and temporally. Locally. Where is Christ seated?

28:54 Look at the text. He is seated in the heavenlies. This is that funny word that the translators don't know quite what to do with. It's an adjective without a noun to describe it.

29:07 So you find in some translations as in the ASV they put heavenly and then in italics places. The noun places is not there in the original. But they feel awkward with an adjective with no noun so they put places. But here in Ephesians it's used five times.

29:26 And in two of those cases it very clearly we can almost say with absolute certainty it speaks of the locality of the special dwelling place of God and of Christ. Look at Colossians Ephesians 2 and verse 6. He has raised us up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies. Parallel that with Colossians 3.1.

29:56 Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We have been raised together with him. Here the word heavenlies seems to refer very clearly to the locality of God's special dwelling place. Chapter 3 and verse 10.

30:12 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God. Now in chapter 6 and verse 12 it obviously doesn't speak of the dwelling place of God but that region in which the powers of evil seem to congregate and plan and plot their attacks upon the people of God. So Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers where? In the heavenlies.

30:44 But now I'm convinced that in this particular text that we're looking at this morning the sphere of God of Christ being seated is the heavenlies in the sense of the location concept. It is the place where as the God-man in his glorified body he is to be found in the universe of God. Now it's interesting that the Bible makes clear that that's the precise place where our inheritance is laid up. Ephesians 1 Peter chapter 1.

31:22 To an inheritance undefiled uncorruptible reserved where? In heaven for you. But now follow closely. I know that I'll arrive at the inheritance reserved in heaven.

31:38 How do I know for sure that I will attain to that inheritance? Because the mighty power which raised the Lord Jesus to that locality is the power of God to us. The same power that brought heaven to our hearts in regeneration is the power that will keep and preserve us and bring us to the realization of the glories of heaven in that peculiar locality described in the word of God. Therefore God's dealings with his Son in power become the pattern and the pledge of his dealings with us

32:21 by the same power. It's the exceeding greatness of his power to us. What power? Not only power that raised him and assures us that we should be raised from the dead at the last day, but what would being raised from the dead be if we were not caught up to be together with him?

32:41 And so it's the power that not only raised him, but sat him at his right hand locally in the heavens and that power shall bring us into the heavens and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But secondly, the sphere is delineated positionally. And two things are said about the position to which our Lord has been exalted. First of all, something about the existing ranks and existing titles.

The Sphere of Christ's Seating: Positionally Far Above All

33:11 Now look at these words. He has been exalted positionally, not just above, but far above. And then there follows these words. All rule and authority and power and dominion, those are ranks, and then every name.

33:30 Every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come. Now what do these things mean? Rule, authority, power, dominion. Well again, we can be grateful that this is not the only place where the words occur.

33:45 And we have several parallel passages that will help us to understand what Paul is saying about the position assigned to the enthroned Christ. Turn to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16, perhaps the most helpful passage. Speaking of the Lord Jesus as the rightful heir of all creation because He Himself is the Creator, Paul says in Colossians 1.16, For in Him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers,

34:29 all things have been created through Him and unto Him. Here these words obviously describe all created things, visible potentates and rulers, invisible spirits, angels, archangels, both good and evil. Christ is the Creator of all these things. Now in Colossians 2.15

34:53 there is obviously a reference to evil powers and principalities. Christ in His death despoiled the principalities and the powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His death. Ephesians 6.12 obviously refers to ranks of evil spirits and evil beings.

35:16 We wrestle against what? Principalities, powers, world rulers of the darkness, the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. Titus 3.1, two of the same words in the original, says, put them in mind to be subject to rulers, to principalities.

35:35 It refers to human kings and governors. Now when you put all these things together, do you begin to see a pattern of meaning emerging? I think it is wrong for us to do as Goodwin has done in his commentary. He has about six or eight pages of fine print trying to demonstrate that here we have a classification of angels, good and evil into various ranks.

35:58 No, no. If there is any thought to this at all, it is certainly in the background. What is Paul doing? Paul is reaching into the grab bag of his Greek vocabulary.

36:09 And he is finding every word he can find to describe whatever we might call as a position or a person of pomp and authority and might and influence. And he is saying the position of Christ being seated is far above what? Far above any rank or order of authority and power, whatever you may think in terms of rank. Jesus Christ has been raised above it and whatever name you think bespeaks influence, king, prime minister, president, sovereign, lord, baron, duke, archduke, any name you name, there is a name which is above all of them.

36:54 You see? That is what he is saying. He wants the Ephesians to get hold of this truth that the position of Christ being seated is far above everything that bespeaks any kind of rule, any name that bespeaks any kind of authority and lifted above it, exalted beyond it, is our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He sits in a place of unrivaled, unrivaled dominion, with unsurpassed power, with undiminished authority, with unrelinquished supremacy, and with unexcelled glory.

37:34 That is what Paul is doing. That is what he is doing. Now, in what sense is that a manifestation of the power of God? Because that is the theme.

37:42 You see, the theme is not the exaltation of Christ. And I was sharing with Pastor Blaise, this is where the commentators didn't help me much, they get so caught up with this profound statement of the exaltation of Christ, they forgot the sense in which it was introduced. Paul did not introduce it as a general statement of the exaltation of Christ. He introduced it because he is praying that God would give to believers the spirit of wisdom that they might know the power that is operative towards them to bring them to their inheritance.

38:13 Now, we've got to understand then, in what way was the power of God manifested to raise Christ to that position? Well, if he is thinking of the good angels who gladly recognize Christ as their rightful head, then it was no exertion of power to raise Christ far above good principalities, good powers, and all of these things. Why, when he came into the world, they fell and worshipped him. Hebrews chapter 1.

38:43 When he bringeth the first begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him. And what is the first announcement we have when he is born? It's the multitude of the heavenly hosts saying, Glory to God, and on earth peace toward men in whom God is well pleased. So I believe the thinking of the apostle is more limited, more restricted.

39:05 That he is thinking of the exaltation of Christ positionally not far above those good principalities and powers and rules and dominion, but those evil principalities and powers and dominion. And why do I say that? For this simple reason. Colossians 2.15 says that when he died,

39:27 he despoiled principalities and powers and made an open show of them, triumphing over them in his death. Tie that in with Hebrews 2, in which it says, Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now what happened when the father raised him to his right hand? Well, I think an illustration will help.

39:49 Picture two conflicting armies who have gone forth to battle, led by their king who acts as their chief general. And in the course of the battle one king has defeated the other and actually slain him, torn his standard from his hands. And the conquering king raises his own flag of triumph. And the word spreads through the armies, Our king has been defeated.

40:16 We are a defeated army. We must turn heel and run for our lives. Immediately the king sets out to go to the capital city of the place where he has conquered. But on the way, as he seeks to go to the capital city to set up a new regime, to extend the influence of his scepter through a whole new domain, some of the soldiers of the defeated army stand between him and the capital city.

40:45 And though they know they are a defeated army, what do they do? They hide in the hedges and the bushes. And they shoot their arrows and throw their spears. And they do all within their power to keep the conquering king from assuming the place that is now his by right because he has conquered and from which he will extend the influence of his scepter throughout the whole kingdom.

41:07 I believe that's the picture we have here. The devil was stripped of his power in the death and in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. His death blow was struck. But the host of darkness knew that it was from the throne of exaltation that the Lord Jesus would rule in the midst of his enemies.

41:33 Psalm 110. It's when the Lord says to his Lord, Sit at my right hand. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. It's from that throne of power in sending forth the Spirit, in ruling in the midst of his enemies, conquering and to conquer.

41:50 It's from that position that he will now extend and secure all that he purchased by his death when he struck a death blow to the head of the king of the host of darkness. And so there stood in the way of our Lord and his ascension to that place of power the same principalities and powers and spiritual host of wickedness that war against us. And what did God do? He rode over the head of them all and brought his Son to his own right hand and set him down in power.

42:26 What power was exerted that all the host of hell could not stand in the way of the enthronement of the Son of God? And so the Lord Jesus is pictured in that first Pentecostal sermon, not as hoping to rule someday, but as seated upon the throne of David now. And I say to any of you, whose vision of Christ has been warped by defective theology at this point, don't think of Jesus as one day coming to the throne of David. Read Acts 2.23 to the end of the chapter,

43:05 where Peter argues that the whole end of the resurrection was that God might raise up the seed of David to sit upon the throne of David from whence the Holy Ghost was sent forth with power. Now we go back to the whole thrust of the passage. Now, you see in what sense it was a manifestation of the power of God. But in what sense a manifestation of the power of God to us-ward?

The Sphere of Christ's Seating: Temporally Eternal

43:35 Well, I hope you begin to see the point. The same powers that would have kept the Lord Jesus from coming to His throne and would this day wrench Him from His throne. Psalm 2. The kings and rulers gather together against the Lord and against His anointed.

43:50 Let us break their bands asunder. Yet He set His King upon His holy hill, and He reigns. Men ignore Him. Men despise Him.

43:59 Men cast out the venom of their unbelief. But He is still upon His throne. And child of God, the same power that brought Him to that throne and secures Him immovable upon it is the power that is operative in you to bring you to share that throne with Him. Now you see why Paul said, Lord, give Him the spirit to understand that.

44:22 The mind can't hold it. The human spirit cannot embrace it nor fathom it. It takes an inward work of the spirit even to equip the mind to entertain such concepts that that power which raised Him is the power of God to us-ward. That's the measure of the power wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, sat Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies.

44:50 Then in the third place, consider the delineation of the sphere of His seating, not only locally in the heavens, not only positionally, far above all principalities and powers and every name named in this world, but temporally, not only in this age, but also in the age which is to come. For how long shall Jesus Christ occupy this position of absolute and supreme authority? What are the temporal bounds of this position? The answer is from the moment He was seated and on through all eternity, so that whatever 1 Corinthians 15 means

45:33 when it speaks of the Son delivering up the kingdom, it must never blur or remove from our minds the vision that John had whenever he saw the throne of God. It was the throne of God and of the Lamb. I saw a Lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne. And that vision is not blurred right through to chapter 22, verses 1 and 3, because the promise God gave to His Son in Luke 1.33 is this,

46:06 He shall sit upon the throne of His Father David and of His kingdom. There shall be no end. The power that raised Him to a position from which He will never be moved is again, I say, the power that is to us. So that when God raises us to share in the full glory of the realization of the inheritance, there will never, never again be the defections of the Garden of Eden.

46:40 We need never fear that the whole cycle will again be enacted and someone acting in our room shall betray us. No, no. Jesus Christ has been raised to a place of exaltation, not only in this age, but in the age which is to come, and there are only two, and I'll not pause to digress into eschatological matters, but only two ages, the age that now is, time, the age which is to come, eternity, and in that sphere, Jesus Christ occupies this place, and in so doing, God's dealings with Him in power are the measure of His dealings with us, as His people.

Application to Believers: Assurance and Preservation

47:25 Dear child of God, I care not how weak is the faith by which you cling to Christ. I care not how little you may be able to discover the marks of grace within your own breast, but if you can say this morning, I rest the whole case of my soul's eternal well-being in the person and work of Jesus Christ, this is the power that is to your word. This is the power that God is exercising even now through the preached word to sanctify and to encourage and to strengthen faith, the power that will bring you to the inheritance.

48:09 It doesn't say it's the power to strong believers, to consistent believers, to fully yielded believers, fully consecrated believers. It's the power of God to us who believe without qualification. But oh dear sinner, those of you sitting here this morning who are not believers, you're trying to claw your way to heaven on the ladder of your own virtue and your own merits. Or maybe you're hoping to drift into heaven by a near-sighted God who won't see all of your imperfections.

Application to Unbelievers: Holy Dread and Hope

48:45 My friend, listen to me. Just as the measure of God's power to preserve the saints and bring them safe to heaven is found in the mighty saving acts of Christ, His resurrection, His heavenly session, this truth ought to fill you with holy dread because it's by that same power that He'll crush the head of all of His enemies and say from that same throne of absolute authority, depart from me cursed into everlasting fire. My friend, I don't know why you've come out on this Easter morning. It could be that somehow in the back of your conscience

49:28 is the gnawing realization there's something about this man, Jesus, that I ought to contemplate at least once a year. There's something about that religion called Christianity that deserves at least a token nod from me. But my friend, listen. Listen.

49:43 The Lord Jesus doesn't want your token nods. He doesn't want you to throw at His feet an hour once a year. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And He demands that you bow beneath His footstool in repentance and faith and cast yourself upon Him and say, Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me.

50:07 And you say, so what if I don't? This is the day of His long suffering, the day of His patience. But I remind you of the words that come from the vision of an enthroned Christ in the second Psalm. The Father says, kiss the Son.

50:23 Kiss Him with the kiss of trust, the kiss of submission, the kiss of allegiance. Kiss the Son lest He be angry and ye perish in the way. And the time is coming when this same Lord shall come from His throne with His vesture dipped in blood and He shall tread down His enemies with a vengeance that will find them fixed in an eternal state of unspeakable agony and of woe. Now may I turn the other side to the unconverted.

The Gospel Hope for Sinners

51:01 Not only is this vision of an enthroned Christ calculated to fill the heart of the unconverted with dread, but it's the one thing that can fill the heart with hope. What hope is there that patterns of sin in which you've been ingrained for years, habits of thought, of attitude, of deed, things that are as much a part of you as your own nose and your own ears, what hope is there that these shackles should be broken? What hope is there that all of the directions of your life can be changed and redirected 180 degrees in the opposite direction? Here's the hope.

51:39 It's not found in this church. It's not found in any pastor, preacher. It's not found in any priest or pope or minister. It's found in an enthroned Christ.

51:49 The same power that broke the bands of death. The same power that brought Him riding over the head of His enemies straight to the right hand of the majesty on high. That's the power by which He arrests the sinner, breaks His shackles, blots out His sin, implants new life within, and then commits Himself to bring Him precisely to the same place where He is. Oh sinner, that's the gospel we preach this morning.

52:21 We don't tell you to take out the boot polish and the brush of a little religious interest and a little religious activity. No, no. That's to mock you. And if you have any of the beginnings of a sense of your own bondage to sin, for me to tell you be good, be nice, like Easter in spring when all the life breaks new and we see the budding of the flowers and the lilies go out and start a new life, that would be to mock you if you have even the beginnings of a sense of how bad you are and how much in bondage you are.

52:52 And we would not mock you by self-help religious advice this morning. We give to you the one gospel by which God delivers sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Call upon Him while He is near.

53:11 May God make some of you this day monuments of resurrection power by bringing you from death to life in union with His own dear Son. What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe? What is the measure of that power? The measure is the power wrought in Christ when He raised Him.

53:35 The measure of that power is to be found in the exercise of divine might when He set it at His own right hand in the heavenlies. Let us pray.