OUR ENTHRONED CHRIST
Sermon by Rev. Steven R. Key

Lord's Day 19

Scripture: Hebrews 1:1 - 2:10

Lord's Day 19 brings to a conclusion our consideration of Christ's exaltation. With our spiritual eyes fixed upon His clear Word of truth, we have seen Him rise from the dead, and ascend up into heaven. He was received up into glory. For the Lord Christ to take His place in glory was the necessary consequence of His perfect obedience and the permanent, binding union of His human nature with the divine. In the greatest display of God's wisdom, grace and love, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, with all things in subjection under his feet, as we read in the epistle to the Hebrews.

And let us not forget, that human nature that is glorified and enthroned in heaven in Christ is our human nature, what Hebrews 2:14 calls the flesh and blood of the children. In our present condition, while groaning in our earthly house of this tabernacle, surrounded by evils innumerable and burdened with a body of sin and death, we can only apprehend and realize by faith what our nature now is in union with the Person of the Son of God. But the day is coming, when He shall appear, and "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2). The day is coming—and we must yet consider that too in Lord's Day 22—when Christ shall return to receive us unto Himself, and to be glorified in all who are His. The day is coming when He "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" (Phil. 3:21). And all those promises are true and certain of fulfillment because Christ is now enthroned above all, and is accomplishing His good pleasure for the salvation of His Church. Let us direct our thoughts this morning, to the instruction of Lord's Day 19, as the Catechism expounds the truth of Scripture concerning:

OUR ENTHRONED CHRIST

I. HIS EXALTED POSITION

II. HIS SUPREME LORDSHIP

III. HIS PROMISED COMING

I. THE ASCENDED CHRIST NOW OCCUPIES AN EXALTED POSITION.

WE READ IN HEBREWS 1:3 THAT WHEN CHRIST HAD BY HIMSELF PURGED OUR SINS, HE SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MAJESTY ON HIGH.

What a tremendous transition this is! The writer to the Hebrews points to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of that which was spoken by the psalmist. Prior to Christ's resurrection He entered our state of deep humiliation. He Who is the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person, to use the language of Hebrews 1:3; He Who upholds all things by the Word of His power, was made a little lower than the angels. He entered the suffering of death for us. But when He arose from the dead, His humiliation was past, and His glory began—i.e., the glory of His human nature. That is how we must read Hebrews 2:9 too. The Greek language did not have punctuation. But the translation of Hebrews 2:9 has a misplaced comma. The comma there should come after "angels." So that the emphasis of the text becomes this: We see Jesus, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. As Jesus Himself said during His appearance to the two men on the road to Emmaus immediately after His resurrection: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26).

When our Lord Jesus Christ had purged our sins, He "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." We understand that the expression "sitting at the right hand of God" is a figurative expression. But it is a figure with deep significance. It is a position which denotes Christ's high exaltation. As Paul writes in Philippians 2:9-11: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." In this entire creation there is none who holds a higher place than the enthroned Christ. And there is no creature over which Christ does not sway His scepter, which He does not hold in His power, and which He does not make to serve His own will and purpose. All things have been subjected under His feet. That is the picture.

THIS EXALTED POSITION HAS BEEN GIVEN HIM BY THE FATHER.

This does not refer to the power of the Son of God in His divine nature. In His divine nature He was never without that power. He is the Omnipotent One. But we continue to speak of Christ as the Son of God in our flesh. We speak of our Redeemer, Who took our nature upon Himself. We speak of Him Who became poor, that we might be made rich in Him. We speak of Him Who walked the way of perfect obedience, even unto the death of the cross, for us. For His righteous obedience, for His saving work, He has been given this power. He received it according to the promise. This was always the way it should be. The angel had even spoken of that truth to Mary, before her conception by the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke 1:32,33: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." And so, after all His work in His earthly sojourn, just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said to His disciples (as the Catechism notes in a footnote to Matthew 28:18): "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth."

When our Lord Jesus Christ entered into glory, He took possession of the throne of David which His Father had given Him. We ought to note this biblical truth. Many in our day deny that Christ is King over His Church. Christ, they say, is King of Israel. But He is the Head of the Church. The Church is His body, but the Church is not His kingdom. And so they make separation between Israel and the Church, between the Old Testament and the New. That is an error that profoundly affects one's outlook upon the whole of Scripture, including many significant truths. That is an error that has a profound effect upon one's view of the covenant, and that has misled many into rejecting the divine requirement of marking children of believers with the sign of the covenant. But that error of making division between Old and New Testaments, and between Israel and the Church is an error plainly contrary to Scripture.

The epistle to the Hebrews establishes the truth that Jesus Christ was Himself the only begotten Son of God, the fulfillment of the King and Priest typified in the Old Testament structure of Israel. He is the Messiah, Whose kingdom is not merely over the natural Jews, but over the spiritual children of Abraham. God has set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. That Zion is not the throne of national Israel. Hebrews 12:22,23 explains. In the New Testament it is said to the people of God, those of Jewish heritage: "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest....But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven" (Heb. 12:18,22,23a). The Church of the firstborn is seen in Mount Zion! And upon that Mount God has set His Son as King forever.

He is indeed the Head of His Church, even as we confess in Q & A 50. "Christ is ascended into heaven for this end, that He might appear as head of His church." The Church is, to be sure, His body. That is why the Reformed Churches have always maintained, as the Belgic Confession teaches, that there is no life apart from membership in the Church, also as that Church is gathered institutionally on earth. Christ does not live in the world. He lives in and with His Church, and His Church lives through and out of Him. As the branches live in connection with the vine, and never apart from the vine, so believers are grafted into Christ and live out of Him alone.

I speak not merely of those of the world. Church membership is not for them any way. Church membership is for those who are called out of darkness, into the light of life and faith. But there are those who wander from church to church, never uniting with the body, never subjecting themselves to the rule of Christ through There are many in our day who want to reject that truth. They live in open rejection of church membership. His officebearers, and insisting all the while that their spiritual state is fine.

Then you have those within the church, born and baptized and brought up under the ministry of the Word and with Christian instruction in the home, and who, in our churches, are taught the doctrines of the Scriptures faithfully not only from the pulpit but in the catechism classes, and who also refuse to take their places as members of the church. Although adults, whose minds work well, they reject the calling of Scripture to confess their faith before men and to exercise their calling to be members of Christ's body. Many times their motives are kept to themselves. In some cases it becomes evident why they do not confess their faith. In some cases it is clearly a matter of not being one with the body of Christ. They have no interest—no interest in the preaching of the Word, no interest in growing spiritually, no interest in living faithfully, no interest in the responsibilities of holy living, no interest in subjecting themselves to the authority of God's Word and His Lordship over them, no interest in partaking of the sacraments. Make no mistake: By the refusal to confess Christ and live in fellowship with His body, they show themselves unbelieving. They show themselves outside the body of Christ. That is why we view it as a matter urgent prayer and instruction that you young people, show yourselves the children of God by your acknowledgement of Christ's Headship over Him. That is why we instruct and exhort and admonish you. That is why we pray for you continually. That is why your pastor repeatedly in Catechism classes calls attention to the importance of holy living and confessing your faith.

But when we confess that Christ is the Head of the Church, we confess that He is Head not only organically, so that He is the life of His Church. But He is also the Head in the legal sense. He is the King, the Lord of the Church. That is clear not only from the passages to which I already called your attention, which reveal Him as King. But in Ephesians 1:20ff, Paul points to this wonderful truth of Christ's exaltation, as that being the explanation for the wonder of our salvation and our spiritual life. We must see with the eyes of faith "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his might power, Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." God has given that to His Son. He has given His Son the position of King over all, "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." In that context of speaking of Christ's exalted position of Lordship over all, His position as King, He is called "the head over all things" in relation to the church. In the domain of His Church He rules. He is Head, but He is also King. And for the sake of His Church He rules over all things.

II. HIS IS A SUPREME LORDSHIP.

THE CATECHISM WOULD FOCUS OUR ATTENTION, IN THE FIRST PLACE, ON THE FACT THAT OUR ENTHRONED CHRIST, BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT, POURS OUT HEAVENLY GRACES UPON US HIS MEMBERS.

His Lordship over His Church is a Lordship of grace. That is the first part of the answer to Q.51. "What profit is this glory of Christ, our Head, unto us? First, that by His Holy Spirit He pours out heavenly graces upon us His members." We believe that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is particular. It is bestowed only upon those who are members of His body. There is a clear distinction in Scripture between the Lord's attitude toward His Church and that toward the world. There is a clear distinction in His rule over His Church and His rule over the world. He rules in His Church with grace. Over the world, however, He rules by His power. It is in the domain of His Church that He dwells with His brethren. He is the living Christ in the midst of His Church on this earth. He is so by His Spirit and Word. His rule in the Church is a rule by His Spirit and Word. As we pointed out last week in connection with Christ's ascension, He has returned to His Church by His Spirit, to dwell in her and to make her a partaker of all His benefits. But in addition His gospel goes out into all the world with conquering power. He is seen in the white horse and its rider, in the vision of Revelation 6:1,2. Christ is victorious in the gathering of His Church by His Spirit and Word, pouring out His heavenly graces upon all those whom He draws unto Himself.

What belong to those heavenly graces? Everything you know and enjoy of Christ's fellowship and love is a direct consequence of His supreme Lordship as Head of His Church. Do you know the grace of God, beloved? It comes from the exalted Christ, by His Spirit. Have you faith? You received it from Him. Have you tasted His love and mercy? It is because He has shed abroad His love in your heart by His Holy Spirit. When you place yourself before the light of God's Word, can you find in yourself a measure of wisdom and knowledge? I speak of those spiritual virtues, not worldly wisdom and knowledge. Do you know the fellowship of God and do you find in yourself an understanding of spiritual things that you apply to your life from day to day? Do you live in hope, with eyes fixed on glory? Do you find in yourself a hunger and thirst after righteousness, a desire to hear the Word, a satisfaction with the bread and water of life? Do you know the way of repentance and sanctification? Have you the assurance of the forgiveness of sins? All those things belong to the spiritual blessings that Christ has obtained for us by His obedience, and which He as the exalted Christ pours out upon us.

So He makes us, the members of His Church, His glad and willing servants. We are the servants of Christ, subjects of the great King. Do you live in that consciousness? Because of the rule of His grace, and by His grace, we become willing to acknowledge Him as our Lord, and to serve Him as our Friend-Sovereign. By His rule of grace in our hearts, we confess that our only comfort in life and death is that we are not our own, but belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ, Who delivered us from all the power of the devil, and makes us sincerely willing and ready to live unto Him. Then we hear His Word and obey it and live it. Then we represent His cause in the midst of the world. Then we recognize Him as Lord in every aspect of our life. He is Lord over our body and soul, over our mind and will and desires, over our families, in our marriages, in our relationships as parents to children. Then He is Lord over us as single men and women, and as widows, as employees and employers, as members of the Church here in this place. And the taste of that great salvation and that glorious Lordship of Christ over us by His grace, compels us to live in thankfulness to Him.

BUT IN THE SECOND PLACE, CHRIST'S RULE EXTENDED BEYOND THE CHURCH, OVER ALL THINGS.

So that, as the Catechism puts it, "by His power He defends and preserves us against all enemies." The Lordship of the enthroned Christ is not limited to His Church. He is Lord over all things, also in the world. He rules over the creation, as we read in Hebrews 1:3. He upholds all things by the Word of His power. He also directs them to His own end. He rules as well as the affairs of men. All things are used by Him to accomplish His own purpose in the salvation of His Church. There is nothing that takes place in the brute creation that does not happen according to His good purpose. Even in the affairs of wicked men, Christ is working all things for the good of His Church. He even rules over the devil and all His demons. That is the rule God gave His exalted Son. All power is given Him in heaven and on earth.

This is a truth that we often lose sight of. Because from our earthly perspective we often experience suffering at the hands of those over whom Christ rules. The defense and preservation that is ours in Him is not such that prevents us from suffering. On the contrary, it is our Lord's will that His people shall suffer with Him, and shall fill the measure of His suffering. But Jesus Christ is the Victor. He is so already now. He is so in this world. That is the clear testimony of Scripture. In His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, He has become Lord over all. He sits now at God's right hand, wielding all power in heaven and on earth. Jesus Christ is the Victor as Mediator of the Covenant and Head of the Church. All things are for the sake of His people. He defends and preserves us always. He does so in such a way that we are strengthened and established even under the attacks of the world. He does so by seeing to it that we shall never be deceived and fall away. He defends us in such a way that the enemy can never overstep the bounds of God's own purpose in their attacks against us, and that ultimately they will bring upon themselves their own damnation. I don't ask you to see this with your natural eyes. But do you believe it? Do you believe it, simply because God has said it?

Christ has said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Not only does His gospel go forth with all power, irresistibly drawing His own unto Himself; not only does He continually nurture and strengthen us His people in the midst of our great spiritual warfare and struggles, but He makes His Church indestructible. By His power, and particularly by the power of His Word, He defends and preserves us against all enemies. He gives us to accomplish our ecclesiastical calling and labor with awesome power, which cannot fail. It is rooted in His own sovereign authority. "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19).

And not only is the Church victorious in Christ Jesus her Head, but each member of the Church is victorious by the indwelling Christ. We are not merely conquerors, beloved. We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). The strength of our existence is often found in this assurance, that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. We share in the victory of Christ, in the glory of Him Who is our Head and King at God's right hand. Look at Him! See Him! You cannot see Him with your physical eyes. He is in heaven. But you can see Him by His Word. You can see Him in the Scriptures. By faith you can see the victorious Christ in the gospel that you hear. You must look at Him. Not at anyone else. Look upon Christ. He is the supreme Lord, Who does all things in this world for the interest of His kingdom. All things are under His sovereign Lordship, that His will and good pleasure may be accomplished, and His kingdom may be all in all, to the glory of God the Father. And when all things shall have been finished, He shall come again.

III. WE CONCLUDE THIS MORNING WITH HIS PROMISED COMING.

WE CONFESS THAT CHRIST SHALL COME AGAIN TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.

We confess that as a truth that gives us rich comfort! That comfort consists in this, as we confess it in Q & A 52: "That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head I look for the very same person Who before offered Himself for my sake to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me, to come as Judge from heaven; Who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall translate me with all His chosen ones to Himself, into heavenly joys and glory."

Language like this sounds very strange to modern ears—even offensive. Not only does the Catechism present Christ's coming as the object of our hope, but it strongly emphasizes that our hope focuses on our deliverance to glory and the condemnation of the world. He shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation. Do you see why so many today don't want these confessions? Isn't this cruel, to desire this? Doesn't this answer really breathe a spirit of hatred?! Well, many may not want an answer like this. But the fact is, this answer breathes the truth of Scripture. And none shall escape its final revelation.

The enthroned Christ is coming again. That coming, according to Scripture, will be a final coming, that will terminate all the history of this world forever. The Lord is coming establish His kingdom and to usher in the perfect realization of His covenant with us. Heaven itself is waiting for this event, which will result in the whole Church being assembled around the throne, and when the marriage supper of the Lamb shall be held in an unending celebration of joy and praise to God our Savior. The creation itself groans and travails for the realization of this promise, we read in Romans 8:19ff. John, according to Revelation 6:9,10, saw the souls of the saints under the altar crying out with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" The signs of the times, given us by Christ Himself, proclaim with one voice that He is coming.

THE LORD'S RETURN HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LEADING FEATURE IN THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH AND THE HOPE OF GOD'S PEOPLE.

Immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, you find Peter preaching this truth. Acts 3:20,21: "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." As the saints in the Old Testament longed for the coming of the Messiah, so it is in the life of the Church in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul in I Thessalonians 1 reminded the Thessalonians how they had received the gospel and what effect that gospel had in their lives, "how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." And so in his second epistle to them he seeks to comfort them. They were finding themselves overwhelmed with persecution. But Paul reminds them (in the first chapter of II Thessalonians) of the sure hope of eternal rest that has been promised, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." To be looking and waiting for the Lord's return was the special hope and consolation of the Church at that time. Is this your hope and comfort?

Now notice, in this Lord's Day, in this question and answer, the entire focus of hope is on the Lord's return in judgment. Certainly we hope for the resurrection. We hope for the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. We hope for the fellowship of the ever-blessed God. We hope for the perfection that awaits us. But here the one item of hope that is set before us is that of the judgment. Now face this reality. Christ shall come to judge. Judge what? Judge you, judge me, judge the world, judge the living and the dead. Is that really the object of your hope? Is that comfort? If so, we must be able to give an account of the reason for that hope that lives within us. Are you able to do that?

Look at the answer of the Catechism once again. Christ's return to judge is a comfort to me—now let's read it this way—because the very same Person Who before offered Himself for my sake to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me, is the One coming as Judge from heaven. Therefore I do not fear. And that is the only reason. The only reason this truth is a comfort to me, is because I belong to that faithful Savior Jesus Christ, Who redeemed me body and soul from the misery into which I plunged myself, and Who has fully satisfied for all my sins, and Who has delivered me from all the power of the devil. I believe. Therefore I have hope. Because I belong to Jesus, and live unto Him, I look with uplifted head for His promised coming.

Do you confess that? This is a personal confession. Don't overlook that. It requires that you and I be ready for that return. For you to make this confession, you must stand in a personal and living relationship with this Savior. Else what shall you have before the righteous Judge? We shall all be judged for the things that we have done in this body, whether good or evil. What shall you have to defend yourself? I have nothing, absolutely nothing—except that which would merit me the sentence of guilty and damnation. But because I belong to Him Who removed the curse from me, and Who has filled my heart and life with His heavenly graces, I stand in hope with all His chosen ones, awaiting that great day of the Lord. Confess that with me, will you? "I am not my own, but belong in body and soul, in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ." He shall translate me with all His chosen ones to Himself, into heavenly joys and glory.

Amen.

Preached:1) Randolph PRC 1/12/97 (am)
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