For forty days after the resurrection, Jesus kept appearing to His disciples. He cooked fish for them over a charcoal fire by the lake. He invited Thomas to touch the wounds in His hands. He opened the Scriptures and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. Then, on a day that probably began like any other, He led them out of Jerusalem, past the walls and across the Kidron valley, up the slope of the Mount of Olives toward Bethany.
They still had questions. Their last recorded one shows how much they had yet to understand: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus did not give them a date. He gave them a promise. The Holy Spirit would come upon them, and they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Luke tells us that as He spoke, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And while He was blessing them, He began to rise.
Luke describes it with great restraint:
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Try to picture those eleven men. Fishermen, a former tax collector, a former zealot, standing on a hillside with their heads tilted back, watching the place in the sky where the cloud had been. Nobody wanted to be the first to look down. Their Lord had been taken from them once already, on a cross. Now He had been taken again, this time upward, out of sight. And they stood there, staring.
PunchlineIt took two angels to bring them back to earth. “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”
Here is what surprises me every time I read the story. Luke tells us how they went home. “And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52). Not with sorrow. Not with the grief of the night after the crucifixion. With great joy. Something about the ascension made them glad. They understood, at least in part, that Jesus had not simply left. He had gone somewhere, to do something, and it was good news for them.
The neglected chapter of the gospel
Most believers know the gospel story as a sequence of great events: the birth of Jesus, His life and ministry, His death on the cross, His resurrection on the third day, and His promised return. We celebrate Christmas and Easter. We preach about Pentecost. But there is a chapter between the empty tomb and the coming of the Spirit that many churches pass over almost without comment. It is the ascension of Christ, and His session, His being seated at the right hand of the Father.
Yet the New Testament treats these events as central. Jesus Himself told His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). Expedient means to your advantage. His going was for their good. The Spirit would be poured out because the Son had been exalted. Peter says so on the day of Pentecost: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).
The prophet Daniel had seen the same event from heaven’s side, centuries earlier. In a night vision he saw “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days” (Daniel 7:13). The disciples on the Mount of Olives watched Jesus disappear into a cloud. Daniel watched Him arrive in the presence of God, “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:14).
Paul describes the movement from humiliation to exaltation in a single sweep. Christ “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:8-9). The cross and the throne belong together. The One who descended to the lowest place has been raised to the highest. And as we shall see, what happened to Him has everything to do with where you now stand.
“Sit thou at my right hand”
To understand the ascension, the early Christians went straight to one verse of the Old Testament more than to any other. It is the opening line of Psalm 110, a psalm of David:
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The verse is quoted or echoed throughout the New Testament. Jesus used it to ask the Pharisees how the Messiah could be both David’s son and David’s Lord (Matthew 22:44). He alluded to it at His trial before the high priest: “ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power” (Mark 14:62). Peter quoted it on the day of Pentecost to explain what had just happened (Acts 2:34-35). Hebrews uses it to show that Jesus is greater than the angels: “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” (Hebrews 1:13).
Three things in this verse matter for us.
First, the place: at my right hand. In the ancient world, the right hand of a king was the place of highest honour and delegated authority. The one who sat there shared in the king’s rule. When Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand, He is not simply resting in a pleasant place. He is reigning. Peter says He has gone into heaven, “and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:22).
Second, the posture: sit. We will look at this more closely in a moment.
Third, the timing: until. “Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” The reign of Christ has begun, but its full outworking is still unfolding. Paul says, “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). Hebrews is honest about the gap between the two: “But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus... crowned with glory and honour” (Hebrews 2:8-9).
That is where we live. We do not yet see every enemy defeated. We still see sickness, injustice, corruption, violence and death. But we see Jesus, crowned. The throne is occupied. The outcome is certain. And the One who sits there is the same Jesus who blessed His disciples on the Mount of Olives with nail-scarred hands.
He sat down because the work was finished
Hebrews opens with one of the most majestic sentences in the Bible, and it ends with the session of Christ:
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Look at the order. The Son is the heir of all things. Through Him the worlds were made. He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being. He holds the universe together by His word. And then, “when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
NuggetBy himself. No priest helped Him. No angel assisted. Nobody added anything. He made purification for sins alone.
Sat down. This is a deliberate contrast with every priest who had ever served in Israel. As the writer will say later, “every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices” (Hebrews 10:11). The priest’s posture was standing, because his work was never complete. Christ’s posture is seated, because the purification of sins has been finished. You only sit down when the job is done.
This matters enormously for your peace. If Jesus were still standing, offering, working to make atonement, then your forgiveness would still be in progress. You would have reason to wonder whether enough had been done for you. But He has sat down. Nothing remains to be added to the sacrifice. Every attempt you make to complete your own cleansing is an attempt to stand up at a task that He has already sat down from.
At the same time, sitting down does not mean doing nothing. The seated Christ is “upholding all things by the word of his power.” He reigns. He pours out the Spirit. He gives gifts to His church: “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:8). And He prays.
The seated Christ prays for you
Paul brings the session of Christ into one of the most comforting passages in all his letters. At the end of Romans 8 he asks a series of questions designed to silence every accusation:
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Look at the four steps of Paul’s answer. Christ died. More than that, He is risen. More than that, He is at the right hand of God. And more than that, He “also maketh intercession for us.”
The One who sits at the place of highest authority uses that place to speak for you. John says, “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Hebrews says He is “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
We should not picture this as Jesus anxiously pleading with a reluctant Father to give us one more chance. The Father sent the Son. The Father and the Son are of one heart toward us. Christ’s intercession is His continual presence before God as our representative, the One whose finished sacrifice stands permanently for us, and whose living concern for His people never stops. When the accuser brings a charge, the answer is already seated at the Father’s right hand.
That is why Paul can ask, “Who is he that condemneth?” Nobody with any authority. The only One who has the right to condemn you is the One who died for you and now prays for you.
Seated together with Him
Now we come to the part of the gospel that most directly concerns your position. In Ephesians 1, Paul prayed that believers would understand the power God worked in Christ when He raised Him and seated Him at His own right hand. Earlier teaching in this series explored that prayer and the power it describes. As Paul moves into chapter 2, his emphasis shifts. He turns from the greatness of God’s power to the riches of God’s mercy, and he tells us what that mercy has done with people like us:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
The passage begins with “But God.” Just before it, Paul has described our condition without Christ: dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, under the influence of the prince of the power of the air, by nature children of wrath. There was nothing in us to work with. Then: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.”
Paul uses three verbs, each with the prefix syn, meaning together with. God has made us alive together with Christ. He has raised us up together with Him. And He has seated us together with Him in the heavenly places. The same three things that happened to Jesus, resurrection, exaltation and session, have happened to those who are in Him. Where He went, we went.
This is the language of position. It describes where God has placed you in relation to Christ, regardless of how you feel today. Your condition may vary. Some weeks you feel strong and close to God. Some weeks you feel weak and far away. Your circumstances may be hard. But your position has been fixed by God’s grace, in Christ, in the heavenly places. Condition changes daily. Position does not.
Notice what Paul says the seating is for. “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” God has seated you with Christ in order to put His kindness on display for eternity. You are an exhibit of grace. When the universe looks at the redeemed seated with Christ, it will not be impressed by how spiritual they were. It will be astonished at how kind God is.
This guards us against a misuse of the teaching. Some have taken “seated in heavenly places” as though it made believers small gods, able to command circumstances by their words or to claim authority over other people. That is not what Paul is saying. We are seated in Christ Jesus, by grace, as recipients of mercy. The seat is a gift. It produces gratitude, security and rest, and it rules out boasting completely, as Paul says in the very next verses. “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).
PunchlineYour condition may change from day to day. Your position does not. God has seated you with Christ by mercy, to display His kindness for ever.
Seated in heaven, standing on earth
The Chinese Bible teacher Watchman Nee once summarised the letter to the Ephesians in three words: sit, walk and stand. The first chapters teach us to sit, resting in what God has done in Christ. The middle chapters teach us to walk worthy of our calling. And the final chapter teaches us to stand. It is a helpful outline, because it shows that the seated position is not the end of the Christian life. It is the starting point.
Paul closes Ephesians with these words:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places . Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Notice what Paul does not say. He does not tell us to fight our way up to a position of victory. He tells us to stand. Four times in a few verses: “that ye may be able to stand,” “to withstand,” “having done all, to stand,” and then “Stand therefore” (Ephesians 6:14). Standing is what you do on ground that has already been won. A soldier holding a captured position does not need to capture it again. He needs to refuse to give it up.
That is why the seated position and the standing posture belong together. Because you are seated with Christ, you can stand on earth. The victory has been secured at the right hand of God. Your task is to hold the ground.
And look at the strength Paul names: “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” The armour he goes on to describe is largely made up of gospel truths: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the word of God. To put on the armour is very largely to put on Christ and what He has accomplished.
Paul also tells us who the real enemy is. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” Your colleague who undermines you, the relative who opposes your faith, the official who demands a bribe: none of them is the ultimate enemy, even when they do real wrong. That should make us both braver and kinder. Braver, because the true opposition is already under Christ’s feet. Kinder, because the people in front of us are not the ones we are really fighting.
Consider a believer I will call Abubakar. He worked as an accounts officer in a government agency in Abuja. One month a senior colleague brought him a payment voucher for a contract that had been inflated far beyond the value of the work done. “Just sign,” the man said. “Everybody signs. Your own share is already arranged.” Abubakar refused. For the next six months, life in that office was very unpleasant. He was passed over for a training course. His files were delayed. People stopped greeting him in the corridor.
He told me later that what kept him steady was not a feeling of power. It was the knowledge of where he was seated. “They could move my desk,” he said, “but they could not move my seat.” He did not shout at his colleagues or call down fire on them. He prayed for them. He kept doing honest work. He documented what had happened and reported it through the proper channels. He stood. That is what Ephesians 6 looks like in an ordinary office.
A word of balance belongs here. Some believers become so focused on spiritual warfare that they see demons behind every delay and attack behind every illness. That kind of fear does not reflect the confidence of people seated with Christ. Scripture calls us to be sober and watchful, “Whom resist stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9). It also calls us to do ordinary things faithfully: seek medical help, fix the generator, apologise when we are wrong, and work diligently. Standing firm is often very quiet.
Living from the throne
How does all of this shape the way you live this week?
It shapes the way you pray. You do not pray from the bottom of a ladder, hoping your words will climb high enough to be heard. You pray as someone seated with Christ, coming through the One who is at the Father’s right hand. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Bold, because of where He is. Humble, because you need mercy and grace.
It shapes your priorities. Paul tells the Colossians, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). A person who knows where Christ is seated begins to care about what He cares about. You still work, plan, earn and build. But your ambitions are measured against the reign of the One on the throne.
It shapes your humility. When John was given a vision of the throne of God in Revelation, one of the elders told him to look at the Lion of the tribe of Judah. When he turned, what he saw “in the midst of the throne” was “a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). The One who reigns still bears the marks of the cross. His authority is the authority of self-giving love. Anyone who claims to share His position while treating people harshly, demanding honour or refusing correction has forgotten whose throne it is.
It shapes your service. Immediately after telling us that we are seated with Christ by grace, Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The seat leads to the walk. Those who rest in Christ’s finished work are free to give themselves to good works without any need to earn their place by them.
And it shapes your hope. The angels on the Mount of Olives did not only rebuke the disciples for staring. They gave them a promise: “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” The ascended Lord is the returning Lord. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). The throne is not His final destination. He will come back, and He will bring His people with Him into the full display of what is already true.
Luke uses a vivid word when he describes the disciples on the Mount of Olives. They “looked stedfastly toward heaven” as Jesus went up. The Greek verb means to gaze intently, to fix one’s eyes. The angels had to tell them to stop, because there was work to do.
A few chapters later Luke uses the same verb again. Stephen, one of the seven men chosen to serve the widows of the Jerusalem church, is on trial before the same council that condemned Jesus. He has preached with great boldness, and the room has turned murderous. And in that moment, Luke tells us, Stephen “looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).
Almost everywhere else, the New Testament describes Christ at the Father’s right hand as seated. Here, for His dying witness, He is standing. Many interpreters have believed that the Lord rose to receive His faithful servant, or to stand as his advocate before the court of heaven while an earthly court condemned him. Whatever the full meaning, Stephen saw what the disciples on the Mount of Olives could not yet see: the throne occupied, and the One on it fully engaged with the man who was standing for Him on earth.
The disciples’ gaze had to be redirected toward witness. Stephen’s gaze came in the middle of witness. That is the difference the ascension makes. We do not stand on hillsides staring at an empty sky, wondering where Jesus went. We know where He is. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and we are seated with Him. So we go back into our Jerusalem, our offices and markets and homes, with great joy. We walk. We stand. And when the pressure comes, we can look up steadfastly and know that the throne is not empty.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Why do you think the ascension and session of Christ receive so little attention in many churches? What difference does it make to you that Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand now?
- How does the contrast between the priests who stood and Christ who sat down speak to the way you handle guilt?
- In your own words, what is the difference between your condition and your position in Christ? Which one usually governs your prayers?
- Where are you being called to “stand” at the moment, in your work, your family or your faith? What would standing look like in practice?
- How does the picture of a Lamb on the throne correct any tendency in you to use spiritual authority harshly?
This Week
This week, read Psalm 110:1, Hebrews 1:1-3, Ephesians 2:4-7 and Ephesians 6:10-13, one passage each morning for four days, and then all four together on the fifth. Each time you begin to pray, start with one sentence that names where Christ is and where you are: “Lord Jesus, You are seated at the right hand of the Father, and I am seated with You by grace.” Then bring your requests. When you face a moment of pressure during the week, say quietly, “They can move my desk, but they cannot move my seat,” and stand.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You that You went from the cross to the throne. Thank You that You purged my sins by Yourself and then sat down, because the work was finished. Thank You that You are reigning at the Father’s right hand and praying for me. Father, thank You that in Your rich mercy You made me alive with Christ, raised me with Him and seated me with Him in the heavenly places. Teach me to rest in my position when my condition is weak. Make me strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that I may stand in the evil day. Keep me humble before the Lamb on the throne, and keep my eyes lifted toward the day when You will come again. Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.