Christ – the Majesty on High

For the Lord’s Day:  the 17^th of November 2002

 

Hebrews: 1: 3e

 

“In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,

… he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

 

 

Introduction:  There is the grandeur of God’s eternity in these first three verses, which we are honored to conclude our study of – this morning.  The Apostle Peter sums up the sevenfold description of just who He was, and just what was accomplished in Jesus Christ:  “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”  (1 Peter 1: 10-12)

 

The Apostle to the Hebrews has listed five aspects of the Holy One of Israel who shepherded His people through long ages before coming to them in the flesh.  Through all of those centuries the titles of Christ included amongst others: the Heir of all things, the Maker & Upholder of Worlds, and the Wisdom & Image of God.  And then last week, the description of the grand and glorious titles, turned to the purpose of it all – that He might serve as the active agent for our personal purification from sin.

 

John Owen describes the importance of this work and leads in to the text for today:  “The apostle, having thus asserted in general the priestly office of Christ and the sacrifice that he offered, with its consequence, as it could not be accomplished without the greatest humiliation and abasement of the Son ever conceivable, he now adds the blessed events and result of his great work:  ‘He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.’”

 

John Brown tells us straight away: “This glory was conferred on the incarnate Son in consequence of His having purged our sins by Himself.  It was on account of that suffering of death, in which He tasted death in the room of every one of His people, that ‘He was clothed with glory and honour.’ It was because He humbled Himself, that God thus highly exalted Him.”

 

Development:  The ascension into heaven, described by the gospels is no mere addendum or tidying up of the story line.  No indeed, it is given as the final evidence for the great victory over death and even the whole fallen creation order!  Christ merely returned to whence He had come in the first place.  And having served the cause of elected mankind in so glorious and successful manner, He is seated on the throne with the Majesty in heaven.  Did you get that, Jesus isn’t sitting on a chair beside the throne, no indeed – He is enthroned on the same seat with the Father.

 

Symbolically in the Old Testament, Solomon was enthroned as co-regent with his father David near the end of David’s life.  Certainly, this was only the polity of the difficult circumstances in the midst of many rival claimants to the throne of David.  We know all too well from the biblical record that there were others who would have taken Solomon’s place were they able!

 

So, in the grand scheme of redemption history, we may too well realize the work of the fallen angel: Satan – who mistakenly viewed his own personage too highly.  He it was, who thought he could offer the rule of the earth to this same Messiah who he meant to oppose even unto death!  How amazed Lucifer must have been to behold the rising of our Christ of all the earth and worlds.  Of all the lame ducks of history, he must truly be the lamest – knowing that he is undone and that the very person he thought he had destroyed was the very person of God Himself.

 

Now, let me break the momentum of this grand display of heavenly power to go back and retrieve two further points suggested by the commentator John Brown.  Last week, we considered briefly the first two points which would highlight the superiority of Christianity over Judaism – which point we must remember is the solemn purpose and argument of this whole book addressed to the Hebrews!

 

The first point was that the long expected Messiah offered His own Person as the sacrificial lamb for His own people.  This whole theme is the warp and woof of the Old Covenant record, for those who are being called into the Kingdom of God in Christ.  Yet, so many of the people who once supposedly looked forward to His coming missed all of the signs and signals and thereby missed acknowledging Him and His purpose.  This fact reminds me of the common OSHA requirement that steps, rest rooms and especially elevators be marked with dotted signage that the blind can read.  Forgive me for not appreciating the bureaucratic thinking, but I have often wondered how anyone who was blind is expected to find a random sign on a wall near the expected door.  I have been in hotels and schools where there were a multitude of doors, anyone of which could be looked into, but the majority of which have no special dotted label!  At least the intent and purpose of scripture is more thorough and pointed than any bureaucracy could define!

 

The second point was the special calling of Jesus Christ to be the final Priest for Israel and indeed all mankind.  I cannot help wondering what kind of fools there must have been in Jerusalem in the last generation of the Old Covenant Church.  The rending of the Temple veil, the destruction of the Temple and the scattering again of the people who had once composed Israel, then the loss of over two million members to the New Covenant Church – all of these things must have caused the Jewish authorities to think more deeply than the reported complaint: “the whole world is going after Him.”

 

The third and fourth points we make today from the glorious text before us.  Specifically, Brown’s third point for the superiority of the New Covenant Church is this fact:  “the completeness of His sacrifice, so that on its being offered He immediately leaves earth and goes to heaven.”

 

What with the Apostles being blessed with the Holy Presence of the Spirit within fifty days, and the ongoing preaching – even a casual visitor could have figured out what was being reported.  Add to that the amazing miraculous growth of the New Covenant Church and the dedication unto death of those threatened and even killed and any serious person must have given the message of the disciples a second and even a third thought?

 

Of course, we must admit that the people we are talking about had every chance to see, hear and witness the Lord of all the earth when He walked among them.  And like the people who accompanied Moses, the sound and signs of God were nothing more than suppositions or opinions.  Thus it remains for the written reports to be recorded and then verified by the five hundred witnesses who saw the risen Lord.  Thus, it remains for those untimely born to be given the gospel evidence by enthusiastic believers a generation later.  And all the while, the era of the Old Covenant Church was ending!

 

The fourth point, according to John Brown - for asserting the superiority of Christ’s Church over the old order is “His never-ending dignity and power, following and obtained by His expiatory sacrifice.”

 

Raymond Brown, a contemporary scholar in England observes:  “When this eternal work of purification was brought to its triumphant conclusion in the death and resurrection of Christ, our Lord sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.  The first readers of this letter were not likely to miss the implication of this statement … The Old Testament priest’s cultic work had constantly to be repeated because it was only temporarily beneficial.  But Christ ‘offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins’.  The priest stood because his task was never complete.  …  [Christ] sat down to indicate that the work was finished.  On that day when he bore our sins in his own body, he cried, ‘It is finished.’

 

Thus, His ascension only served to announce and endorse the obvious completion of the providential work of the Triune God to show mercy and grace through the work of Christ.

 

Application:  A final point for consideration today, comes from John Owen who asks us to consider “the security of Christ from all his enemies and from all future sufferings … he declares now that he is everlastingly secured from all opposition, for where he is, his enemies cannot come.  He is above their reach, secure in the throne and presence of God.”

 

For most of the Cold War (1945-1991), the United States of America had its Ace in the hole, in the various Missile silos of the middle and western portions of our country.  In addition, there were those vessels of the Silent Service who prowled the deeps of the scattered seas.  Ever on station, all of these weapons of mass destruction were in fact more unreachable than we once thought, given the inaccuracies of all foreign technologies.

 

With our Lord Jesus Christ in the highest of heavens, it is absurd to believe that any possible combination of events, powers and spirits could ever cause Him the least concern!  The reality of this majesty and glory of Christ cannot even be totally comprehended or expressed:  He is enthroned at the right hand of the Mighty on high!

 

F.F. Bruce attempts to define the inexplicable:  “The greatness of the Son of God receives sevenfold confirmation, and it appears, without being expressly emphasized, that He possesses in Himself all the qualifications to be the mediator between God and men.  He is the Prophet through whom God has spoken His final word to men; He is the Priest who has accomplished a perfect work of cleansing for His people’s sins; He is the King who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on high.”

 

So let us draw one final lesson from our text for today.  It is simply this:  if the Messiah of all the earth is being faithfully described in these verses of Hebrews, not only is His person and presence secure for all eternity, but also – so is your salvation which we understand was the sole purpose for His mediation between God the Father and all of the elect given into His care.  May you be assured that all of the power of the universe is poised on the throne to guarantee your salvation in this life and in the life to come!

 

I am reminded of the prophet’s assistant, who in the Old Covenant record despaired at the number of the prophet’s enemies who surrounded the town where they were staying.  Then the prophet prayed that God would open his assistant’s eyes so that He could see that those for him and us did indeed vastly outnumber all the minions of Satan and all the assembled hosts of the kings of the earth.  May your spiritual eyes too be opened, today, to realize the supreme safety in which your Lord and Savior holds you, keeps you and guides you – so that you may be His and He may be yours, both now and forever.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.

Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.

Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.

Owen, John:  Commentary on Book of Hebrews.

Morris & Burdick.  The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews & James.

The Westminster Confession of Faith

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

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