“When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? 6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.” 7 And of the angels He says, “WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.” 8 But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.” NASB
We don’t think very much of sitting down any more; at least not in our American culture. When we sit down we do it without much thought beyond making sure there is something actually there behind us, and there is not anything on it that will be uncomfortable or mess our clothing.
In fact, sitting down for us is either a neutral thing, eg., sitting at a desk in a classroom because it is expected and class is about to begin, or negative, eg., someone we know is a ‘couch potato’ or as we say, ‘so and so is sitting down on the job’. But seldom does the act of sitting for our culture express something particularly positive beyond being a position of repose at the end of a trying day.
In our reading of the Bible it would always be helpful to take notice when we are told that someone sat down and why, and sometimes even where.
Isaiah, in a lament over the future fall of Babylon, said,
“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. Isa 47:1
Sitting in the dust was a sign of poverty and defeat and grieving.
When Jesus sat down to teach the multitudes the act of sitting was an indicator of the authority to teach.
Whereas in modern culture the teacher stands before a sitting class, in those days the students stood and the teacher sat down to teach them. You may remember that after teaching the multitudes for hours Jesus told His disciples to have the people sit down on the green grass, then He fed them the bread and fish. (Mark 6:39-40)
Find a good concordance, every student of the Bible should have one, and spend an hour or so looking up places where someone sat or was sitting. It will impress you.
You will find Jesus sitting down to teach (Matt 5:1), Peter sitting fearfully with the enemies of his Master (Matt 26:58), Pilate sitting on his judgment seat when his wife came to him to warn him to have nothing to do with this ‘righteous man’ (Matt 27:19), the angel outside the tomb on Resurrection morning, sitting on the stone as though daring anyone to try and roll it back (Matt 28:2), and this isn’t even a smattering. I didn’t even touch the Old Testament, and took all these only from Matthew’s Gospel.
In the Bible sitting down is always significant, and especially when our Lord is doing it.
Before we move on from here there is something I would like to bring to your attention. In Matthew 26:64, in response to the high priest’s unlawful demand that Jesus testify against Himself, Jesus finally answers this way:
“Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”
Of course, this enraged the pious Sanhedrin and the high priest tore his robe as a sign that he had heard blasphemy, and called for the death of Messiah. I can’t help wondering if there was also some fear involved, since the implication was that while the beaten Jesus was standing before their throne of judgment now, in the end they would be standing before the Judgment throne of the Son of God in Glory.
In any case, turn briefly to Acts 7, where faithful Stephan has given his lengthy defense before the Jews wherein he has brought a righteous indictment against them. Look at verses 54 through 56.
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Fellow believers, the risen and glorified Christ sits as victor over sin and death and the Devil in His rightful position of authority at the Father’s right hand.
But an advocate stands to defend the innocent. And the about-to-be martyred Stephan was blessed with a vision of the Son of Man, not sitting, but standing at the right hand of God.
No one on earth would defend this innocent and righteous man and stand as his advocate, but he had the very best Lawyer of all stand for him, and declare his innocence and his faithfulness to the Father, before whose joyful presence Stephan would soon be standing himself.
I can’t help but wonder if this connection was made in the mind of Saul as he stood looking on, and as he went about his rampage to destroy the church… but we must get back on track.
I want to move through these verses today and talk about the significance of Christ sitting down; where He sat, why He sat, what it means for us.
First…
HE SAT DOWN BECAUSE HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE IS AT THE FATHER’S RIGHT HAND
Luke 22:69, 24:26 John 16:28, 17:4-5
Now as we move into this I want to call to your attention once again that this is not a literal sitting on a throne next to God the Father.
It would be helpful, once we have that picture in our head, to try to get it out of our head for a moment and realize that what is being conveyed to us is the office of absolute authority and Kingship that Jesus holds as God and Creator and Owner of all.
Our puny minds could not begin to fathom what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit truly share in relationship to one another; we must only try to comprehend on a basic, very fundamental level, the truths we are laying out today and really through the course of this epistle, being repeated over and over again, that Christ is preeminent over all, applying that word ‘better’ to every picture the author draws for us as we go along.
So the first thing we discover is that Christ Jesus left His place of authority and equality with the Father, becoming for a little while lower than the angels, and here we are speaking solely of His humanity, and He came down. He descended.
He did not become less God, He simply became also, fully Man.
In coming into this world as a Man, Christ temporarily lay aside the prerogative of independent exercise of His divine attributes, submitting Himself to the Father’s will and the Holy Spirit’s help, and He came down. Having finished the work the Father gave Him to accomplish, He has ascended back to the Father and as the Glorified God-Man has once again taken His rightful place and position of Divine Royalty.
As a result of His atoning work, as Jesus said to His Apostles following His resurrection, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on the earth”. And if you recognize that as coming from what we frequently refer to as the Great Commission in Matthew 28, then let me assure you that the One who holds all authority in Heaven and on earth, takes His calling and His commands very seriously.
But this is what I want to impress upon you today in regards to Christ’s rightful place being at the Father’s right hand.
Think of a father. Picture, if you will, a middle-aged man with graying at the temples, standing at the bus station or a train station or in an airport terminal, shaking the hand of his one and only son. Picture, if you will, the son, tall, muscular, wearing a military uniform and carrying a duffle bag, because he is going off to war.
Now even if you are not a man, or if you are not a father, or you have never sent a son to war, we can still all get a sense of how heart-wrenching, how gut-wrenching that would be for any loving father, and even for the son who sees the pain in his dad’s eyes but has his duty to perform and must go aboard the vessel to whatever destiny awaits him.
God, the Father of all, existing from eternity in three Persons, existing in perfect divine Love and Unity, sent His one and only Son off to certain and horrible death. Can you think for a moment that His great heart did not feel that same pain and sadness on a level that we could never imagine?
Jesus said to the two on the road, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
Was He only saying that the suffering was necessary? No! So was His entering into His glory. But do you realize that the suffering was necessary so that He could enter into His glory?
As a Man, even perfect Man, He could not have gone home. This is why He prayed, “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” John 17:5
What a joyful reunion that must have been! What celebration in Heaven, as the Son came home from war, the VICTOR! Alive forevermore! Taking up His crown, taking up once again the independent exercise of His own divine attributes, entering forevermore into the glory which He had with the Father before the world was,… and sitting down!
HE SAT DOWN BECAUSE HE IS ROYALTY
Now I’ve already said this a couple of times but let’s make our next point a focus on His Royalty just for sake of making this distinction. He is better than the angels.
Verse 8
“But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”
This distinction is important for two reasons. First for the original reason it was written – that being that the ancient Jews elevated the angels to a position of importance just under God Himself. They believed that angels acted as God’s senate, so to speak, and that He took counsel with them. In Genesis 1:26 where we read “Let Us make man in Our image”, which we understand to be God taking counsel with ‘His-selves’ as the Divine Trinity, the Jews believed it was God taking counsel with the angels.
They believed it was the angels that delivered and mediated the Old Covenant to man, thus the necessity here in HEBREWS of establishing that the Mediator of the New Covenant is infinitely higher and better than the angels.
The second reason it is important to make this distinction is that angel worship is a large part of Gnosticism, and therefore a large part of the New Age beliefs and practices. So it needs to be guarded against as carefully in today’s church as in the infant church of the first century.
Paul had to warn the Colossians, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels” (Col 2:18).
Because of the Gnostic beliefs seeping in, some of them had even begun to think of Jesus as an angel, a heresy that needed very clear correction.
So the writer to the Hebrews employs their own Scriptures, verse 8 being a quote of Psalm 45:6, to show that as Divine Royalty He is indeed King of the angels who are only a part of His created universe.
So He sat down as Glorified Son, and He sat down as Divine Royalty. Next…
HE SAT DOWN TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR US
John 17:20-23 Acts 7:55-56 Romans 8:34
Now I realize I am departing from the text to get this point that He intercedes for us, and my homiletics instructor would be aghast. But later in this letter and again in Romans 8 we are assured of this truth and I just can’t not talk about it today, even though we will address it again in chapter 7.
When Jesus prayed His High Priestly prayer recorded for us in the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, He prayed in this manner:
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” Vs 20-23
Now consider please, that the One who prayed this way for you and for me on that day He was to suffer, now prays for you and for me, as He sits on His Royal throne.
This One, this Christ, this Jesus intercedes for you, believer!
Do you know what intercession is? There are several Greek words in the New Testament that the translators have rendered ‘intercede’ or some form of the word. The one in Romans 8:34 which I’m going to read for you in a second, means to come together with someone to plead a case for another.
So we read Romans 8:34
“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God [there’s the link to our text], who also intercedes for us.”
From His place of Divine Authority the One who died for you, pleads your case before the Throne of Holiness. Believer, here is another very strong argument for our doctrine of eternal security, also known as the perseverance of the saints.
How can we vacillate? How can we doubt? How can we fear that He will ever turn His back on us or turn us away from His presence, when He, according even to this very epistle we’re studying, “..always lives to make intercession for (us) them”? (7:25 parenthesis mine)
If the accuser of the brethren, as he did in the case of Job, should ever be granted audience with the Father and begin to list off all the things you and I have done that deserve death and Hell, our Intercessor pleads our case. He speaks on our behalf.
And He has the perfect, unchanging, unchallengeable defense for us, in that His own blood, shed for us to make propitiation for our sins, has already paid the penalty in full for any accusation ol’ Slewfoot could ever bring.
The Glorified Son of the Father, Creator and Owner and final Authority over all, pleads – your – case! And since He lives forevermore, and since He will never be toppled from His throne, He intercedes for you FOREVER!
Now once we’re all there and glorified with Him there may not be any more need for intercession. I guess we’ll find out then, but it makes sense to me that if we are going to be transformed and conformed to His image and the work of our sanctification is perfectly completed, there won’t be need any longer.
All I know is He intercedes for me until then at the very least, and if He gets me in the door that’ll be good enough for me!
Let me just make one more point about this and I’ll go fully back to our text for today.
When thinking about Christ being your intercessor before the Throne, be careful not to assume that by so doing He is turning the Father’s wrath way from you as a believer. Remember that it is called the Throne of Grace. Remember that it was God who loved the world. It was God who gave His only Son. It was God who declared His approval of the finished work of Christ by raising Him from the dead. It was God who poured out all His wrath against sin in the body of His Son on the cross and as a born again believer He has no more wrath for you.
No, Christ does not intercede with a scowling, vengeful God for you, but with God who delights in sending ol’ Slewfoot away empty-handed.
HE SAT DOWN BECAUSE HIS WORK WAS FINISHED
“When He had made purification of sins…”
1 Tim 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”
I’ve saved this for last, although it is said at the beginning of today’s text.
“When He had made purification of sins, He sat down…”
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. ‘We all owe a death’, says one secular fiction writer, and he is absolutely correct. The fact is though, our death would not be enough to redeem us; it would not be enough to reverse our sin – pay for what we’ve done.
When a man is convicted of a crime the judge determines his punishment, and when the man has served that time or done the assigned work, he says, “I’ve done my time. I’ve paid my dues. There is no more punishment for me for that crime.”
Not so with our sinful nature, folks. Death is the proper penalty but it is not a penance, it is not a payback, it does not get us off the hook. So we may die in our sin, but we will then spend eternity in our guilt.
But take heart! Be encouraged today! Christ made purification of sins, and so complete was His work that He sat down!
He offered Himself, as our perfect High Priest, to be the perfect Sacrifice. Get it? The priests offer sacrifices for the people, but He took on both roles and sacrificed Himself on the altar of God’s wrath, and died our death.
Listen:
Heb 10:11-13
“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.
The priests of old never sat down. Their work was done standing and their work was never done. (Num 28:3, Heb 9:6) Among the Tabernacle and Temple furnishings, which were all God-ordained, there were not even places to sit, because God knew they would be making sacrifices over and over and over without rest.
But Christ’s one sacrifice was sufficient, not to cover sin, but to remove it – to purge it – to purify forever those who are made perfect by the blood of the Lamb of God, so He sat down.
Believer, it was this act, this accomplished work, that made all the rest possible. This is what the Father delighted in, that His Son left His glory and redeemed us – bought us back – reclaimed us for the Father’s glory.
Paul wrote to Titus that He is “…our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession…” (2:13-14)
WHEN HE HAD MADE PURIFICATION OF SINS…
No angel could have done that for us
WHEN HE HAD MADE PURIFICATION OF SINS…
None of the prophets nor all the prophets together could have done that for us; indeed, they needed a Redeemer like we!
WHEN HE HAD MADE PURIFICATION OF SINS…
“But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:10-12
And… He sat down.
HE SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER
To intercede there for us while He continues to perfect the good work He has begun in us.
HE SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER
Because it was His rightful place which He had with the Father before the world was.
HE SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER
Because His work was finished and finished perfectly.
I’m going to leave our text one more time for my closing, and if my Homiletics professor is watching from the windows of glory he’s going to chastise me when I get there, but so be it.
Revelation 3:21-22
“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
Keep on, believer. Keep on. Don’t fall back and don’t stop moving forward in your growth and in your faith and in your witness. The One who is preeminent over the prophets and over the angels and over all that is in Heaven or on the earth or under the earth, sits at the Father’s right hand to intercede for you as the one who paid your penalty and purified your sins, and He doesn’t intend to just squeak you through Heaven’s door by the seat of your pants – He intends to lift you all the way up to sit with Him.
“When all my labors and trials are o’er
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will thro’ the ages be glory for me.
When, by the gift of his infinite grace,
I am accorded in Heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on his face,
Will thro’ the ages be glory for me.
Friends will be there I have loved long ago;
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know,
Will thro’ the ages be glory for me.”
- C.H. Gabriel, 1900
