You're Seated with Christ [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When he was on the cross, he experienced in some mysterious way what it feels like to be shut off from God.

So much so that he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We who were shut off from God, that was our seat, had the Savior of the world come and take our seat. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Ephesians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. When we were at the amazing Bible dedication in Papua New Guinea a few weeks ago, and we are on this little island that is so simple. They have no electricity, no running water, no roads, no means by which they would be able to really show much honor to the international guests like ourselves. It's hot, 95 degrees, and we're going to have a three hour worship service outside and the Bible dedication and it's just going to be. And so they were so thoughtful, the locals were that what they had done is they had prepared a place out on the beach, a big open area, they cleared it out so that hundreds of people could sit. And they had built up a little shaded area using palm branches and sticks and things so that, and what they did was they came and they invited us, the internationals, to come and to be seated there. And not only that, but a very rare, rare thing, somebody had gotten hold of some plastic tarps. So there were two plastic tarps that they put down towards the front area. And not only were we, you come in and you sit down in the shade, but you come and you sit on the tarp.

And then all of the locals, they began to come in behind us in the shade and then many others, probably about 1,000 out of the 3,000 people that live on the island were there and they began to fan out on the beaches. But we were there. Why was this going on? And why did we need to accept this? Because this was in their hearts to honor us as we've come internationally.

And so this was a seat of honor. Now, there was not anything much they could offer us. There was no air conditioning. There are no sky boxes. There are no refreshments.

There are, there is no fan blowing. There is nothing much that they could do except it was a tarp and it was in some shade. On the tarp on the ground in some shade. But on that day, and maybe in the whole history of that little island, there had never been a greater place of honor than right there.

You see? So on that day, it was the best seat in the island. And what Paul is showing us is that Jesus has been seated in the best seat of honor in the entire cosmos. He has been given the place of ultimate perfect honor.

What honor means is to attach high value, to highly esteem. So Jesus is seated at the right hand of majesty because he is the victorious one and because he's the honored one. There's a third reason that Jesus is seated and this is partly what the writer of Hebrews is referencing when he says that after he had made the one sacrifice for sin, he is contrasted to the priests because the priests in the Old Testament tabernacle were always standing because they would always have to offer another sacrifice. There was no such thing as this sacrifice has been offered and no more are needed. So there were no chairs in the tabernacle.

The priests stood to do their ministry. But what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus, having offered up himself on the cross, he was the one sacrifice for all time. And when Jesus said it is finished, it is finished. And what he meant when saying it is finished is that there is no more payment that is necessary for the penalty of sin is finished. He meant there is no more curse or sting of the law because the law has now been fulfilled in me.

It is finished. What he meant is that there was no more need for Jesus to offer himself up as a sacrifice because he had been sacrificed. And there are no more sacrifices needed. We don't need an old tabernacle anymore.

We don't need the blood of heifers and rams and goats and lambs and turtle doves because we have the blood of the Lord Jesus. And having once and for all offered himself up as the atonement for our sin, it is finished. And so he sat down and is resting from his work. He is seated because he is victorious. He is seated because he is honored.

He is seated because he is resting. And he is seated at the right hand of majesty because in that seat there is all authority and dominion in the world. The seat symbolizes the authority. You might say Joseph was in the dungeon but then he took the throne of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Well, if you say he had the throne, what you mean in saying he had that seat is that he had the authority. The seat symbolized the authority. This is what Paul has been building up to in Ephesians chapter one and two is all authority has been ascribed unto the Lord Jesus.

Do you understand what happened? Was it Jesus, while he was on earth, was dishonored and he did not rest because he was offering himself as a sacrifice for us. But the victory was accomplished and though his authority was not recognized by the religious leaders of the day, in his exalted position as Lord of all, he has all authority in heaven and on earth. There is not one single thing that is not his and he is holding together the entire cosmos by the word of his power.

He's seated there. So what this means, now just go ahead, try to wrap your mind around this, but what this means is that if Jesus is seated because of victory and honor and rest and authority, victory and honor and rest and authority, that if you have been seated mystically, figuratively, legally with Christ, then you, Christian, now are in a position of victory and honor and rest and authority. That's who you are.

That's who you are. You are not the one who becomes the groveling footstool of Jesus. You are seated with Jesus in a position in which you celebrate and are a co-conqueror. This is why Paul can say you are more than a conqueror.

What did you conquer? Well, Jesus conquered it and you're seated with him. This is why though the world may dishonor you, and I don't know what we might face in our culture in coming years. Christians have been persecuted on the face of this earth as long as there have been Christianity, but in the heavenlies, you are already being honored. You are spiritually seated in a place of honor.

Never forget it. God has attached ultimate value to who you are and you are in the heavenlies highly esteemed. When anyone esteems you not in this world, remember who you are, oh highly esteemed and honored one. And you are invited into this seat because this is the position of the Christian's soul. Even when you are at your hardest work for the kingdom or whatever task God has put into your hand, you're invited to a Sabbath rest, Hebrews 4 says, in Christ. What does this mean? This means that as Jesus finished the work and there's no more payment for sin and there is no more work that needs to be done for blessing to be released into the believer's life, that so it is that there is no more law for you to keep, no more righteousness for you to fulfill in order to be highly favored and blessed.

You already are. And so you can rest. You can rest from your striving. And it means that if you're seated there, that you're in a position of authority. I wish I had the whole scope of this message just to talk about the authority of the believer. But simply put, every believer, every believer from the youngest Christian, newest Christian to the one who's been walking with the Lord for 70 years, and everything in between, your position has changed. And because you are sharing in the victory that Jesus has accomplished, and because you have been now reckoned as if you never sinned and reckoned as the righteousness of Christ himself, the authority of Jesus is delegated to you and your power over evil. You don't have power over other people, but you have power over the forces of evil in this earth. You have the light of God in you and you have power over the darkness. This means you are not captive to sin and you're not captive to demons. But sin is subject to you. Your own thoughts are subject to you. And so are the powers of hell.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Just who do you think you are? And really think about it. How do you see yourself? If you see yourself as worthless, then you might as well do nothing worthwhile. But if you see yourself as treasured, then you'll invest yourself with joy. If you see yourself as a sinner cursed by your failures, then you'll be anxious and exhausted. But if you see yourself as a saint blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, then you'll be confident and free.

How you see yourself determines how you live. In an 11-message series, Pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians. It'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesians series, but we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life. Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. The astounding thing is that what Jesus did was all of these things Paul describes in the opening verses, you were dead in your trespasses, you once walked in the course of the world, prince of the power of the air falling, the spirit is now lived in the passions of flesh, children of wrath. This condition of ours in which we didn't have Christ and were separated from God, God in his rich mercy came in the person of Jesus. And so Jesus had a seat in the heavenlies and he left and became flesh and came to sit where we sit. When he was on the cross, he experienced in some mysterious way what it feels like to be shut off from God. So much so that he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We who were shut off from God, that was our seat, had the savior of the world come and take our seat and experience the pain of humanity and then he took the very seat of death in the dust so that we would be offered by grace through faith to have his seat.

What manner of love is this? When I think of the image of being seated with Christ, two primary New Covenant images well up in my spirit from the scriptures. And the first is the image of the throne of grace. This is how the writer of Hebrews describes the seat of Jesus. When the writer Hebrews says in your time of need, come boldly to the throne of grace is a very beautiful image because he's making reference to the mercy seat of the old covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant was considered the holiest item in all of Israel. It was positioned in the inmost sanctum behind a thick veil and the tabernacle. And it had a gold lid, a gold lid that had these golden cherubim facing each other up on the lid. And once a year, the high priest would come in on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and only once a year and only the high priest would come in having the blood of an innocent animal to sprinkle onto that lid that atonement cover as it became known. And the blood of the innocent one was splattered upon this lid, this mercy seat. And the Shekinah glory of God would come like a cloud, the Bible says, and would in a sense be seated, hover over the Ark of the Covenant, over this lid. And there, out of this cloud, God would speak to man and would grant, though it be temporary, forgiveness and covering for the sins of the people for that year. It was a meeting place of God and humanity. God, in other words, was seated on the place of mercy where blood had been sprinkled. And that is the image that the New Testament gathers and says, come to the throne of grace. This is where Jesus is seated. He is seated amidst a throne that has been bespeckled with his own blood, forever dispensing mercy.

God is dwelling on a throne of love. The other image that comes to mind is the image of the banquet table. Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding party and then in numerous accounts throughout the Gospels, he is pictured either at a party reclining at table or telling a story about someone who had a banquet and invited people to come to the table. The image in the end is that we are the bride of Christ and he's the groom. And we're invited to the marriage supper.

That's the greatest party imaginable. And you're invited to come and have a seat at the table. So when you think of yourself in this mystical and figurative and yet legally established position in the heavenlies, I encourage you to see yourself at the throne of grace. That's where you just live your life out of the throne of grace, being positioned there. And to see yourself seated figuratively but really at a banquet table with Christ himself. And so whether you're taking communion or the Lord's Supper or whether you're just getting up in the morning and going to work or getting kids ready or whatever, your condition on the earth at any moment might be up and down mountains and valleys, but your position does not change. Live out of your position in the heavenlies rather than your condition on earth.

This has been established for all time. When we were traveling to Papua, we would go through Australia and we flew to Los Angeles. And then after that five hours, you get on the plane and you go about 15 or 16 hours and it's long. So what my daughter and I had done was we had strategized. And our little strategery was that we got over on the section of the plane next to the window where there were three seats and so we had her seat next to the window and me on the aisle because I told her, I said, I got to have the aisle no matter what. And then we left the seat empty in between because we were thinking, you know, maybe people won't select the seat that's just right in between somebody else and maybe we'll wind up having, you know, nobody in between us. And I said, and Abby, you know, if somebody does take that seat, we can always just say to them, you know, would you rather have the window seat and you can move over into the middle if you prefer. And so I don't know if she knew what a bad deal this was for her, but we had some faith about it.

It just didn't work, neither flight. And I wish especially on the way back from Australia and we were just so tired that long flight ahead of us. So here comes this young man, he looks, he said, I suppose I'm sitting between the two of you. And I saw it like this and Abby said, well, would you prefer to have the window seat? And he's like, you don't want the window seat? She said, well, that's my dad, we're together.

And so he jumped over and took the window seat and she was squished for 15 hours because she'd rather sit next to her dad than next to a stranger and take the squished position. I just want you to think about this, that this is how much Jesus loves you. He came, he gave up his seat to be crushed for your iniquity. He'd rather be with you and bear what it is to be crushed under the weight of sin than to be separate from you. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, in the word picture, I mean, I'm just creating an image in my mind now of this.

It's part of our teaching in Ephesians. And today specifically you're seated with Christ. Stick with us Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life. The final word, just who do you think you are? And really think about it. How do you see yourself? If you see yourself as worthless, then you might as well do nothing worthwhile. But if you see yourself as treasured, then you'll invest yourself with joy. If you see yourself as a sinner cursed by your failures, then you'll be anxious and exhausted. But if you see yourself as a saint blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, then you'll be confident and free.

How you see yourself determines how you live. In an 11 message series, Pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians. It'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesians series, we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life.

Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. If you think someone's listening right now that I really want to believe this, I'm just not good enough. I really like what Jesus has to say.

I'm just not pure enough. And then they hear a message like this today to say not only is it covered, but you're elevated to being seated with Christ. It's transformational. Jesus says, I'll take your seat of death, your seat of wrath, the seat of punishment, the seat that you should be sitting in. This is the gospel.

It's an exchange. And he says, and I'm going to give you a position that only Christ himself should have ever been placed in. I know, Daniel, this is hard for people to receive and believe, but I encourage our listeners today just to take this in. You have been seated with Christ. Believe it deeply, and it'll change your entire perspective on your life. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.