The Risen Christ Sat Down (2017 Easter Sunday, Jeff Kliewer)

But this morning, you're gathered here because you do. You're gathered because you care. Now, how does a person come to believe? Well, back in the 70s, it was enough to present evidence, and if the evidence was convincing enough, someone might believe.

But even so, evidence is never enough to convince someone. It requires something more than that. The gospel, the message of Jesus, crucified and risen, comes into a person's heart when the spirit of the living God confirms it to that person.

And the way that God does this is through the preaching of his word. I'm not really a topical preacher. What I like to do is I like to go through the scriptures week by week and preach a passage of scripture and pick up the next week where I left off.

Walter Kaiser is a scholar, and he once said of expository preaching that you should always preach verse by verse, chapter by chapter. And he said, maybe you can preach a topical sermon once every five years, and after that, immediately repent and never do it again.

I think the same way as him, but maybe not to that extreme. I think Easter Sunday is reason for a topical sermon. We need to talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so I wanna do two things today.

One, I want to show us evidence that Jesus, in fact, rose from the dead. Historically, bodily, he rose, and he is alive. I want to give evidence of that. But beyond that, I wanna take us into just three short passages of scripture that, by God's spirit, we would be quickened to believe because it takes more than evidence.

It takes the spirit of the living God wielding the truth. We are going to talk about how Jesus rose from the dead. And then he appeared to people for 40 days, showing by convincing proofs that he is alive.

And on that 40th day, he took his disciples to a mountain, and before their eyes, he ascended to heaven. And the Bible says, at that point, he sat down. If I can communicate to you the meaning of the sitting down of Jesus Christ, I believe your eyes will be opened to see what this gospel is all about.

It's more than evidence. There is a supernatural power in the word of God. What does it mean that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father? Well, the theological term for it is the session of Christ, the sitting down of Christ.

Session means sitting down. So Presbyterians, they have what's called a session. And those are the ruling elders in the church. Those are the ones that have the chair. They sit down to make decisions for the church.

There might be other elders in the church, but these are the ones who are appointed to sit down. What does it mean when we say that the United States Congress is in session? It means that they're in their chairs.

They're making the decisions for the country. The session of Christ refers to his sitting down at the right hand of the Father, where he rules the world, where he sits as judge. And the passages that speak to this are so profound, I believe they can open our eyes to the gospel.

Psalm 110 and the Prophecy of the Lord at God’s Right Hand

We're gonna begin in Psalm 110. If you have a Bible, turn to Psalm 110. If you don't, if you have a smartphone or some kind of device, you can just Google it real quick. It'll pop up. Psalm 110, we use the English standard version to preach from.

But any kind of translation will do. Before we get into Psalm 110, I wanna say what are we trying to accomplish here today? I want to say that having risen from the dead, Jesus appeared to people for 40 days, and then he sat down at the right hand of the Father.

His sitting down means three things for us this morning. One, he fulfilled a prophecy. Psalm 110. Number two, from his seat at the right hand of the Father, he rules the world as the Lord and Christ. And number three, by sitting down, he shows that his sacrificial work is complete.

It is finished. He has paid a price that the Father has accepted. We'll talk about what each of those things mean from three passages today. Psalm 110, verses one through four. This shows a prophecy that Jesus fulfills.

Psalm 110, verses one to four, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. In holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This prophecy was written 1 ,000 years before Jesus came to earth. The author is the famous King David, the great king of Israel, probably Israel's greatest king. He was a king, but he was also a prophet.

Now, a prophet is one who can speak by the Holy Spirit of God to say to the world what God has to say. God will speak through a prophet to deliver some message to the world. And those writings will be carried on and kept.

And that's how it comes to us today. This, what we read today, was written 3 ,000 years ago. David, the great king, says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

What does it mean? It's kind of a baffling question. In fact, when Jesus showed up on earth, he loved to use this question on people who opposed him. The Sadducees, he used it on them, the Pharisees, the scholars of the law.

They would try to trick him, and they would try to trip him up with questions about the Bible. And he would answer them in ways that astonished them. And then he would say, now I have a question for you.

What did David mean when he said, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? And no one could answer it, still to this day. Apart from what I'm about to tell you, there is no answer to Jesus' question.

David writes, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. The answer is that the Father, who is God, the Lord, says to the Son, who is also God, who is also called Lord, sit at my right hand. The Father tells Jesus to sit at his right hand with him on his throne.

Until all of his enemies are put down, till all rebellion in the world is vanquished, be seated at my right hand. The New Testament authors, there's 27 books in the New Testament. They pick up on this prophecy over and over again, quoting it or referencing it 18 times.

What we have here in Psalm 110 is very important. It refers to the seating of Jesus Christ as the Lord, the God of this world, seated at the right hand of the Father. So turn with me now to the second passage, Acts chapter two.

And here we have the first sermon ever preached in the era of the church. Guys, think about this. As I'm preaching right now, I ask the Holy Spirit to give me words to share. We open up this scripture all over this planet, from Sri Lanka to South Africa, from India to China, Irian, Jaya, Brazil, England, France, Russia, the same thing is happening on this day.

All over this world, these scriptures are being preached and the name of Jesus is being exalted. Here we have the sermon that was first preached after Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared for 40 days and he ascended to the right hand of his Father.

10 days after that, he sent his Holy Spirit down and it filled the believers. He filled the believers and the Holy Spirit gave them words to say and we have written for us the very words that Peter preached that day.

Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost

Acts chapter two, verses 31, 32 through 36. The sermon is longer than that but we're just gonna take a little chunk today. Peter is preaching. The day is called Pentecost, it's a festival so that Jerusalem has now swelled to almost a million people.

Everybody has come to Jerusalem for the festival. People from all different language groups have come to worship the God of Israel and on this day, 120 believers come spilling out of a house speaking languages they don't know and it draws a crowd and Peter stands up to preach and explain what is happening in that context and he says that the Jesus that they just crucified 50 days before has risen from the dead.

Let's read it, verses 32 through 36. Acts chapter two, 32 through 36. This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says, here's this quote from Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

I said the first meaning of the session of Christ, his sitting at the right hand of the Father, the first meaning is that a great prophecy has been fulfilled. King David wrote something 1 ,000 years before it came true in the life of Jesus.

That's the first thing.

But the second thing is his being seated lets us know for sure that Jesus is in fact the Lord and Christ. It declares, it is as if God himself speaks to the world and says, this is my son. Notice this in verse 32.

This Jesus, which Jesus are we talking about? Back in verse 22, listen to me, Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth, that guy from Nazareth, the town in Israel that everybody looked down on. Can anything good come from Nazareth?

This lowly carpenter, this mere man who grew up like anybody else and made tables and chairs and came from a place that nobody wants to go.

This Jesus.

He says, this Jesus who does miracles that everybody knows about, how he can open blind eyes and he can heal the sick and if someone's deaf, he can give them their hearing back.

This Jesus.

He says, this Jesus that was crucified. All of Israel knows about how he was hung on a cross to die, this Jesus. Now he says, this Jesus who rose from the dead, God declares that he is Lord and Christ.

And Peter points to some evidence here. He says, notice how these people are speaking languages they don't know, that's a miracle. So Parthians, Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, all of these people, Jews, converts to Judaism, Arabians, Cretans, everybody is hearing this message in their own language.

And he says, this is a miracle so that you can believe. He points to that evidence. And here we sit today, we all speak English, fortunately. You can understand what I'm saying.

How can you believe what I have to say?

How can you believe that Jesus really is the Lord and Christ? What can convince you? Well, I'm gonna give you 10 pieces of evidence that we have in our day. We'll go through them quickly. But I only mention these to show that the evidence does concur with the truth that Jesus rose from the dead.

But I know full well that as much as I try to convince you that this is true, I cannot convince you. I can declare to you and I can show you the evidence. But it's this very word that can take it to that next level as the Holy Spirit shows your heart that what I'm telling you is not from man but from God.

Because I don't preach myself. I'm a sinner. I am as sinful as any man. But I preach the word of God. This can convince you. So here are the 10 signs that concur with the truth. I ascribed a number to each one to make it easier to follow along.

The first one is 2 .2 billion. As we sit here this morning, there are 2 .2 billion people on planet Earth that believe Jesus rose from the dead.

That's a miracle.

Because none of us saw him like the original disciples did. What has convinced so many people? In fact, recognize the early generations of believers, they were as skeptical as our generation. The women didn't believe it when they heard.

The men didn't believe when they heard. Thomas said, I will not believe it unless I could put my finger where the nail went through his hand and touch where he was pierced in his side. And Jesus showed up to those select few people and he said, Thomas, show.

Come, touch. I show you where the nail went through. He believed because he saw. But Jesus said this. He said, Thomas, you believe because I've shown you the wounds. Blessed are those who believe who have not seen.

Only the Spirit reveals the Son of God. And the very fact that we're standing here 2 ,000 years later and one third of the world is believing or claiming to believe that Jesus rose from the dead is a powerful evidence that there is a force at work in this world that's beyond the ordinary.

The Spirit of the living God is here and the gospel even on this day is penetrating China and India and to the ends of the earth, 2 .2 billion people.

Think of it.

It's a powerful evidence that God is at work confirming this message. Number two, 5 ,000. We have still in museums in London and Jerusalem and around the world, more than 5 ,000 manuscripts from the early centuries of eyewitness testimony of those who did see.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. The writings of the gospel. God has supernaturally preserved the writings. We have more manuscripts, copies of these originals spread out all over the world than any other book in the history of the world from that time frame.

That date within not very long from the time that it was originally written. 5 ,000 manuscripts that God has seen fit to preserve for us that we could believe the eyewitness testimony. Next, 300. For the first 300 years of the Christian message going forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, catch this, Christians were being martyred for preaching what they said.

For 300 years until Constantine became a Christian and put an end to that. Christians would be killed for believing and preaching that Christ rose from the dead. In fact, of the 12, Judas got replaced by Matthias.

Of the 12 apostles, 11 of them paid for it with their own lives. They didn't just die because they believed something. It's not that they just said, well, we believe something, we're willing to die for that.

We see that in a lot of religions. People are willing to die for what they believe. But no, these are people who died for what they saw. We saw Jesus risen from the dead. That was their testimony. And even when their life was on the line, they didn't back down.

That doesn't sound like someone who's making something up. That doesn't sound like a lie. The next three, three Marys. Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, sister of Martha, and some other women were the first ones to see the risen Jesus.

The reason I bring that up is because in Jewish culture, at that time, the testimony of women was not valued. The testimony of women was looked down upon as less reliable than the testimony of men. And yet God chose that Jesus would appear to women first.

If someone was making up the story of the resurrection, they would not have written it this way. They would have had Jesus appearing to the emperor or to some great person of esteem. But Jesus appeared to the women first.

It has the ring of truth, because that's the way it happened, regardless of what the culture would say.

33 AD.

The earliest testimony of Jesus rising from the dead that's written for us comes from 1 Corinthians 15, verses three and four. That gospel, the gospel, I mean that writing, 1 Corinthians, dates to the year 45 AD.

And the writer of it, Paul, says, I delivered to you what I also received. 14 years earlier, he had visited with the apostles and received this. He says, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead, according to the scriptures.

So the writing of this message was already being preached as early as 45 AD, and Paul is saying, he had received it so much earlier. Guys, there's not enough time from 33 AD until this message was being preached for a myth or a legend to develop.

This is what the preachers were saying from the very beginning, that Jesus rose from the dead. Number six, 600. It wasn't until 600 years later that Muhammad offered another explanation. In the Quran, saying, it is supposed that Jesus was crucified, but really, they crucified him not.

That theory comes 600 years after the fact, whereas the New Testament dates within years of the event and was written by eyewitnesses. And still to this day, there's many theories of what happened on that resurrection Sunday.

Did everybody collude, come together, and say, you know what, we're gonna say he rose from the dead, and pay for that with their lives? Does that make sense? Did everybody hallucinate the same thing? 500 people hallucinating the same vision?

It's impossible. The other theories about the resurrection of Jesus don't hold water. The only one that does is that he rose from the dead. 312, that's the number of prophecies in the Old Testament that came true in the life of Jesus.

Many of them about his death and his resurrection from the dead. On Good Friday, we talked about Psalm 22, how the Messiah would be pierced through his hands and feet, how soldiers would gamble for his clothes.

That after suffering, he would see the light of life, according to Isaiah. Psalm 16 talks about not allowing the Holy One to see decay. Here's the point. Hundreds of years before Jesus came, the details of his death and his resurrection were written in a book, in many books, the scrolls of the Hebrew Bible.

Dating far before the time of Christ, they came true in Christ. 1948, the year that the Jews came back to Israel, demonstrating this, that the New Testament has prophecy too, that's being fulfilled. Actually, when I preached that last week, I got the date wrong, I said 1947.

But I wanna reference something to you. Go back and listen to that sermon online, because there are prophecies being fulfilled in our day that Jesus is coming back soon. 13, the number of letters that Paul wrote, Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians,.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,.

All these letters that Paul wrote, recognize this, that those 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament were written by a man who hated Christians, who killed Stephen, who was party to the killing of Stephen, who preached Christ.

Saul was a man that persecuted the church and chased them down and wanted to throw them in prison. There is only one explanation for these books that we have in the Bible, written by this man named Paul, and that is that his story is true.

On the road to Damascus, as he was going to persecute Christians and throw them in jail, he was blinded by a light, and a voice came from heaven that said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Saul said, who are you?

And the voice said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. That's the answer for why Paul became who he was. He encountered a living savior, Jesus is alive, and finally 100 plus, and you count the kids.

It's how many people who are in this building today that can tell you the same thing, that Jesus is alive. And guys, let me just say, I can testify to you that I don't just think he is alive, I know him.

I know that he is alive, I experience him in my life every day when I pray, when I read his word and I hear his voice on the pages of the scripture. And when I see the evidence of his hand in my life, the answer's the prayer, the blessing on family, the love, I wanna testify to you that I feel joy in my heart every day, even in the circumstances of life, because we all suffer.

But I know what it is to have peace and to wake up with a deep-seated joy that doesn't depend on circumstance. I can tell you that the blessing of God on my life is all because Jesus is alive. There's nothing in me, he has changed my life, he did it when I was young.

And some people love the dramatic testimony, you know. I was into drugs and I killed somebody and in jail I met Jesus and he saved me and changed me. I love those testimonies too, and it's powerful to see that because he's still doing that day after day after day.

We have a prison ministry where guys go down and minister to people and it's the same testimony, they hear over and over, God is still doing the same thing. But my testimony is that he saved me when I was young and he's kept me and he's held on to me and my faith in him just grows stronger and my passion to preach the name of Jesus gets stronger every day.

And I love to see his work in this world. I testify that he's alive because I know him and there's 100 people in this building who would say the same thing, including children. He's alive, the evidence is there.

Now we'll go to one last passage. It's in the book of Hebrews and the third thing I'd like to say about the seating of Christ is that his seating at the right hand of the Father, Hebrews chapter 10, 11 to 14, shows that his payment for sin is complete.

And guys, I want to convince you to believe in Christ. I want to do it with evidence. But I know that it's the word of God that brings life. So please turn there, find it. Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10.

It's near the end of the Bible. We're just gonna look at a few verses. Hebrews 10, 11 to 14. The evidence is there that Jesus rose from the dead, but it's the gospel itself that converts people. It's when the gospel is preached clearly, the meaning of all of this, when God shows the meaning to your heart, that's where faith comes.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So Hebrews 10, 11 to 14. This is the meaning of Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father. It says, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Did you catch the reference there to Psalm 110? It says, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down. His session, his being seated at the right hand of the Father.

So implicit there in that verse is that he's offered the sacrifice, he rose from the dead. He didn't just stay dead and gone in the grave, but he's come back up from the grave.

He appeared to people.

Now he's gone to heaven and he sat down.

What does this mean?

What is the meaning of his sitting down? He's waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. There's coming a time where he's gonna make everything right. And all the sin in this world and all the death will be vanquished.

Evil will be conquered once and for all at the second coming of Christ. But even in this meantime, something is already accomplished. Notice the contrast here. In the Old Testament, the Levites, the Levitical priests, daily would stand and people who were sinful would bring a sheep to the altar and every day they would shed the blood of those sacrifices.

Every day, repeating the same thing over and over again. And every year on the Day of Atonement, they'd offer a lamb. These sacrifices, time and again, daily. But they could never really take away sin.

All of this was only pointing us to something else. All of these sacrifices, the blood of all the bulls and goats in the world,.

Couldn't do it.

Notice the contrast. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. The contrast, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.

Do you see it? There is a single offering, one time, never to be repeated. It does something for all time. He sat down at the right hand of God. So you see the contrast between the standing of the priest.

Do you see this in verse 11? Every priest stands daily. He's up on his feet. Why is he standing? He has some work to do. He has to kill another animal because people keep on sinning. There's work to be done.

He's standing to do it. But the contrast is that when Christ has singularly, once and for all, offered this particular sacrifice he sits down, which means something has been accomplished once and for all.

And the repetition that would go on daily, there's no end to that. They would have to keep offering sins, offering sacrifice for sins. But Jesus has done something once and sat down. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he came as the king, riding on a donkey.

But not only that, he came as a priest. The priest is the go-between, God and man. A sinful man can't go to a holy God. Hear this now, understand this. If you have any sin, you've lied, you've stolen, you've had a lustful thought, you've coveted something, you have some sin, that sin cannot be in the presence of a holy God.

You can't do it because he's so holy. He's the God who created the universe and he is perfect. You can't be in heaven there. So what do you need? You need a go-between, a mediator, a priest that can get you from here to there, that can bridge a holy God to a sinful man.

Jesus rides in to Jerusalem as the king. But not only that, he comes to Jerusalem as the priest. And instead of bringing another lamb, yet another animal, he goes himself to Calvary's tree and he lays himself down like a lamb, the lamb of God.

He takes the sin of the world into his body and dies as a substitute. And as he's hanging on that cross, he says, "'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.'". He's bearing their sin in his body.

And when he breathes his last, before he gives up the ghost, he cries out, "'Tetelestai,' in Aramaic. "'It is finished! "'The priest has offered a sacrifice, "'and that sacrifice was himself.'". This is the gospel message, that the priest is Jesus and that Jesus offers a sacrifice of his own body, a body prepared for him to take away the sins of the world.

He cries, "'It is finished,' to say that the sacrifice has been made. So what's the meaning of the resurrection? As he comes back to life, the father is saying, "'I validate this. "'I accept this offering for sin.'".

Once and for all, a singular offering, it's exceptional. It's not just this ordinary thing, offered daily and becomes boring time and again, and you lose interest in it. It's just the ordinary sacrifice of the Levites.

No, this is the exceptional sacrifice. This is the once and for all, the one that pleases the father, it pleases the father to crush the son. And having been made a guilt offering, the father's wrath is turned away.

Here's the good news, that if the father has been pleased and resurrected the son, there remains no more condemnation for you who believe in him. Because that sacrifice stood for you. When he died, he took your punishment, which leaves no punishment left for you.

Jesus satisfied the father's demand. He rises from the dead and he sits down at the right hand of the father. That sitting means it is finished.

The priest has done it.

Psalm 110, if you recall, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies.

A footstool for your feet.

Then it talks about his conquering and a people being prepared for him. And then it says in verse four, you are a priest in the order of Melchizedek. We won't get into Melchizedek, it just means a higher order, a king of righteousness, whose sacrifice completes what was needed for salvation.

So in closing, Easter morning, Resurrection Sunday, better to say. It's the day we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead. But hear the whole story. He rises from the dead, he appears for 40 days to select people.

And after that, he ascends and he sits down. By sitting down, he fulfills a prophecy that was 1 ,000 years earlier from the great King David. Prophecies fulfilled again and again. And that one is the most quoted in the New Testament.

But by this sitting, he is declared Lord and Christ. From his seat of authority, he's the judge of the world. He sends out witnesses. That's what I'm doing right now. I'm just a witness. And the Spirit has been poured out on that 50th day.

I have that Spirit, I can tell you he's alive. And many of us here are born again and have that same testimony, can tell you he's alive. And so it's not just a matter of convincing you by the evidence.

The evidence concurs, but there's something more powerful than that. God has declared him both Lord and Christ. God testifies that Jesus is alive by his resurrection from the dead. The meaning of his sitting, secondly, is a priestly work.

He has been sacrificed once and for all, a singular, eternal, exceptional sacrifice. So the priest has done it, it is finished. By believing in this one, Jesus Christ, there remains no condemnation. Acts 17, verse 30 and 31 says, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, to turn away from your sin and to believe.

For God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by one man, by Jesus Christ, being assured of this by his resurrection from the dead. He is risen, amen. You guys caught that one, good. Hey, let's close in prayer.

I'm gonna call on the worship team to come up. We're gonna sing one last song. As they do, I wanna give each of you an opportunity, just between you and God, let's all just bow our heads. You can talk to God directly.

He is, Jesus remains your living priest, seated at the right hand of the Father. You can talk to him right now and he will hear you. You can go directly to your great high priest, Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us if you call on his name, you will be saved, believing in him.

So with all heads bowed, eyes closed, so you're not distracted, you talk to God. And if right now you believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the risen one, he is seated at the right hand of the Father. If you want him to be your priest that takes away your sin, all you have to do is repent of your sin, trust him for it.

Pray a prayer like this. Between you and God, say, God, I'm a sinner. You don't have to say this out loud, just between you and him, say, God, I am a sinner. I deserve to die for my sins. But God the Father, I believe you sent Jesus to die for my sins.

Believe he was buried and I believe he rose from the dead. I believe he appeared to people for 40 days. I believe he ascended to heaven and I believe he sits at the right hand of God the Father. I confess that Jesus is Lord and Christ.

Please now take away all my sin. Forgive me for my sins on account of Jesus who died for me. I bow my knee to you, King of Kings. Jesus, I bow the knee to you for you are seated at the right hand of the Father.

You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In your name I pray, amen. Hey guys, if you did that, if you prayed that prayer, I'd like to talk to you more about it and give you a Bible and help you understand and continue to grow as a Christian.