The Ascension and Session of Christ:  The Strategic Victory Over Satan

From Lesson 204 of the Biblical Framework Series

Charles A. Clough

 

Eph. 1 says that the Lord Jesus Christ is seated in this heavenly domain and in verse 21  a claim is made.  This claim we may not think much of but if you read church history, the 1st and 2nd century Christians thought a lot of it because the 1st and 2nd century Christians were poor people, they were trodden down.  Talk about persecution, they had no rights, they were looked upon as a bunch of freaks, religious idiots, and despised by Roman society and they were just oppressed.  They had no earthly support.  But what Eph. 1:21 says, the risen Lord Jesus Christ “is far above,” not just above, but He is “far above all rule, all power, all dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.” 

The Lord Jesus Christ, in other words, one of the ideas you want to get out of the ascension and session is that He has the supreme rank of all time.  That means what, if you are Satan? What did Satan want to do?  What did he say He wanted to do in Isaiah?  He wanted to be… “I will be like the Most High.”  Well sorry, the throne is now occupied. 

One of the great lines, it came out of real history actually, but do you remember seeing the movie MacArthur, Gregory Peck plays the role of Douglas MacArthur in that film, it has this great theme where they’re discussing the islands, the northern Japanese islands, of course the Russians sat around, sat around, sat around all during World War II, didn’t do anything to help us, we bled and died getting Japan suppressed, and then all of a sudden the Russians wanted half of the northern part of Japan.  There’s this scene in the movie of this Russian general, this arrogant so and so comes in and he sits next to MacArthur, played by Gregory Peck, in the back seat of the car and he says, “we’ve already talked, General, with your President and with the United Nations, I’m going to occupy the Sakhalin islands,” whatever the islands were north of Japan, and Peck plays this Caesarian MacArthur, it’s really great, just with that arrogance that MacArthur was known for, a brilliant arrogance by the way, and he looked at him and he said, “No General, you’re not going to occupy those islands.” … “What do you mean, we discussed in the United Nations.”  He looked at him and he says “They’re already occupied.”  He says, Well who’s occupying them?” … “I am.”  End of the conversation.  That was when Americans acted like Americans. The world never likes it when you stand up for your rights.  “Ooh, we’re gonna’ go it alone.”  That’s right, we usually have to anyway. 

That’s what happened here and this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The throne is occupied.  Satan can do what he wants to in certain domains but he hasn’t got a shot at the throne now because now there sits on that throne a member of the human race that he tried to destroy in the Garden of Eden.  He knew that God was planning something for the human race and he thought he had the human race taken over and he thought that he could frustrate the plan of God by sabotaging God’s plan for the human race.  And now with the ascent of the Lord Jesus Christ “far above all principalities and powers,” he’s looking up at a man; before he was looking down at a man.  While the Lord Jesus Christ went through His earthly ministry what did Satan try to do?  Tempt Him. Remember one of the offers that Satan offered the Lord Jesus Christ? Bow down to me and I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world.  The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t say “well they’re not yours to give,” did He, because at that time Satan had the power to give.  Bow down to me, we’ll make a deal, let’s work this out, negotiate, a win-win situation.  No, it’s not a win; it’s a win-lose situation.  Jesus Christ is the winner and he’s the loser.  So the Lord Jesus Christ sits at the Father’s right hand. 

Now let’s go to another verse, Heb. 4:14.  We want to pick up the flavor of this.  There is an emotional impact to all this and I showed you last week the painting from the medieval artist.  I don’t care for this art but we have to respect the fact that the artist that did this is trying to give us a message.  And you notice in that painting that he painted the Lord Jesus Christ piercing that layer of angels, and that’s the painter’s way of expressing this truth, that Jesus Christ ascended far above the principalities and powers.  That’s an artistic rendition of this truth. 

Heb. 4:14, here’s another aspect to this ascended Lord Jesus Christ.  “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,” notice it’s plural, not passed through the heaven, but “passed through the heavens,” and notice it’s not he went into the heavens, He “passed through” them, there’s a journey here, there’s spatial movement.  That’s what I’m trying to convey.  Of thousand of miles, maybe millions of miles, there’s a movement in space between planet earth and this place called the throne of God.  He “passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”  And verse 15 is a very practical side which we’ll return to as we go on with this and deal with the nature of the Church.  “For we have not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. [15] Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,” because the Lord Jesus Christ sits at the Father’s right hand He represents us in the throne room.  We have representatives and representative government; we have representatives that are supposed to represent us in Washington D.C.   The Lord Jesus Christ represents you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a personal representative at the helm of the universe. 

Let’s start connecting the dots here.  Do you see what a powerful thing this is and why really it’s a sad thing that in our day, how few sermons do you hear about the ascended, seated Lord Jesus Christ?  It’s a powerful truth here, that He represents us.  He is face to face, He is within inches of the flaming cherubim; He is within inches of a manifest glory of God and He’s perfectly acceptable there.  He is at the helm of the universe right now.  It’s not run by a Martian; it’s not run by somebody out of Star Wars or Star Trek or something, some five-eyed creature in a cosmic bar.  The Lord Jesus Christ comes from planet earth, He is of our DNA, and He sits at the helm of the universe, far above all of the angels and all the cosmic powers of all the planets of all the galaxies. 

Let’s go to 1 Pet. 3:22.  I’m showing you this because different authors of the Bible are picking this theme up and using it.  Peter says, “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven,” by the way, the word “having gone” means go on a journey, “having gone on a journey from point A to point B, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”  So it shows you that the Lord Jesus Christ is in a position of power and rank, and the early Christians from the time of the New Testament gave testimony to this.

Now practical examples today: you’ve heard us praying, and you’ve done it yourself, praying in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Does that take on any new meaning tonight for you, when you pray “in the name of the Lord Jesus?”  Do you know what we ought to be thinking about when we say “in the Lord’s name,” or “the Lord Jesus Christ,” we ought to be in our mind’s eye visualizing this ascent and session because we are praying in the name of our representative who is face to face with the living God.  That is why we pray in Christ’s name.

That’s why Franklin Graham had the nerve in the middle of the inauguration two years ago to get up there in D.C. with everybody watching and say the very politically incorrect thing; instead of just praying to God, where God could be anything that you dream up, happened to conclude his prayer before the whole nation “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And he’s taken heat for that ever since, oh people have gotten hot at Franklin Graham for doing that.  He doesn’t care, he’s going to do it again, and he just did it again last month; he got up in front of the United Nations this time and it was on an Aid’s conference; and he got up in front of everybody and he prayed again “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Everybody fell over backwards and didn’t like it, and that’s too bad. What? Are you ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ?  If you don’t like it I’ll pray twice in His name, just so you get the point. 

It’s not trying to be arrogant, it’s recognition of the fact that something’s changed here, we’ve got a member of the human race at the Father’s right hand.  Of course we’re praying in His name, what name are you praying in?  Buddha?  So we pray in the Lord Jesus Christ’s name and we’re not going to be ashamed of it, and if people don’t like it, that’s too bad.