Messiah: Sitting at God’s Right Hand

“The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’ “ (Psalm 110:1, NIV). “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:18-23. NIV).

With His mission on earth completed, the redemption for mankind’s salvation paid, disciples taught and commissioned to go forth and tell the wonderful story, Jesus was caught up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God in exaltation and glory. I could have chosen many New Testament references to show the fulfillment of this prophecy made by David centuries before Messiah’s coming to earth. Jesus Himself quoted from Psalm 110:1 in His teachings. See Matthew 22:44, Mark 12:36 and Luke 20:42-43. The writer of Hebrews, whose major intention was presenting Jesus both as the sacrifice for sins and as the Great High Priest, has many references to Christ’s exaltation. “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: You are a priest forever” (Hebrews 7:21. NIV). “Because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7; 24-25. NIV).

Paul, writing in Ephesians 1:18-23 seemed, even with his ability with words and explaining intricate spiritual truths, especially burdened to let the church know what a tremendous gift we have in the exalted Christ and His work now as He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He intercedes and prays for us! Can you imagine Christ Himself praying for us to the Father? It is a concept beyond our human understanding, but it is a fact of His strength, power and dominion. And of His love for us! He came to earth and identified with us. Now in heaven, He knows our human frailties, our tendencies to stray, our inabilities to stand on our own without His strength. Because of Christ’s position at the right hand of God, we can have confidence as we approach God. Read about that confidence in Hebrews 10:18-25. A good summary of what we should do is in Hebrews 10:22-23 (NIV): “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” He is faithful to us; let us be faithful to Him! Amen!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Redeemer: Promised and Fulfilled

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27, NIV) “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-29, NIV) “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4, NIV). “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7. NIV).

Close upon the celebration of Thanksgiving comes the Advent Season and our celebration of Christmas. We have looked at the seventeen psalms termed “psalms of thanksgiving.” Now we turn attention to Old Testament prophecies of Jesus’ coming and New Testament fulfillment. There are many. A month will not be enough time to cover them all. We begin on this December 1 to consider our Redeemer, our need for Him and our assurance that Jesus did, indeed come, with the paramount purpose of redeeming mankind: and make that personal, to redeem you and me. Throughout the whole Bible, the story of redemption is told. It is the major theme of God’s message to us.

In the midst of all his troubles and loss, Job heard his friends argue that his sins surely brought him down and his plight was a result of living a life apart from God.
In the midst of the arguments, Job makes a profound and positive statement, a prophetic pronouncement: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25). Even though Job was a good and just man who served God, he was, as is the rest of mankind, a sinner. The curse exacted upon Adam and Eve in their disobedience and rebellion against God is upon all mankind. Our nature is sinful and each of us needs a Redeemer to bring us back into right relationship with God. Job’s statement is one of the high peaks of the Old Testament, giving a firm statement about the Redeemer’s coming and resurrection from the dead. Jesus reinforced and taught the resurrection from the dead. He Himself, the Redeemer, the one who paid the price for our sins, arose from the dead. He demonstrated what He prophesied and taught. Paul put the whole message of the gospel of redemption succinctly in Galatians 1:7. His blood redeems us through God’s grace. With all of God’s understanding and grace, redemption (buying us back, ransoming us from sin’s dominion) was “lavished” upon us. It is a gift made possible by our Lord Jesus Christ. We reach out to God and accept it. For the believer, redemption begins now and lasts throughout eternity. Our Redeemer—promised and fulfilled! Praise be to God!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Unity in the Christian Fellowship

“And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (NIV Ephesians 1:22-23. Read Ephesians 1:15-23).

“Unity in the Christian fellowship”—the church: how do we gain it, how do we maintain it? This has been a deep question ever since Christ established the church and commissioned his disciples to “go into all the world…teaching, preaching, baptisting, teaching them to observe all things” (Mt. 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8). One aim Paul had in writing Ephesians was to warn the church about forces that would undermine unity: false doctrine, enticements of worldliness, internal bickering, and forgetting to make Christ Lord of all. Do these seem relevant to our present day as we consider our own church? If we are honest, we would admit that these and other forces are at work to undermine the effectiveness of a local Christian fellowship.

We need to recognize, first and foremost, that God has chosen believers to be His children. We are part of the family of God. A family is bound by ties of love. The ideal is to quell petty jealousies and for “each to esteem the other better than himself.” This ideal is hard to reach in a family setting, and it is also hard to attain in a church family. We have our “pet agenda” and often vie for it at great expense to the fellowship. We are prone to blame, slow to forgive. All of this, unfortunately, occurs within the confines of the fellowship founded by the Lord Christ Himself.

One of the best ways to ensure unity in the fellowship is demonstrated within Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. This, which is believed to be a general letter to the churches (and hence to us) not just to the Christians at Ephesus, Paul does not pinpoint one particular problem and dwell upon it. Instead, he emphasized who they were in Christ Jesus, all that was available to them through Christ, and the importance of oneness within the body of Christ. He knew they would be facing persecution, scattering, divisions and grave opposition. He wanted them to be strong in the faith that would give them confidence and boldness. He was praying for their wisdom and revelation (v. 17) and that “the eyes of your heart be enlightened” (v. 18). In this way they (and we) can come to know “the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance…and His incomparably great power for us who believe” (v. 19). These are the keys to unity in the fellowship of believers. It takes much prayer and putting the Lord first.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, June 14, 2010

Living from a Positive Perspective

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory” (NIV Ephesians 1:13-14. Read Ephesians 1:1-14).

For many weeks now we have considered passages in the Psalms. We have explored the “Wisdom” Psalms (1, 14, 36, 37, 49, 53, 73, 78, 112, 119, 127, 128 and 133) and the “Confidence” Psalms (4, 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 125, 131). I could easily spend the remainder of the year (and more) pursuing the other nine categories of the Psalms (lamentation, thanksgiving, hymns, kingship, entrance ceremonies, enthronement, Songs of Zion, prophecy, and liturgy). However, for the next several weeks, we will turn our thoughts to some epistles of Paul the Apostle and see how his advice to the churches he helped to establish on his missionary journeys applies to us in this perilous, troubled twenty-first century.

How does the Christian live victoriously? First, he/she recognizes the Lordship of Christ. Commitment is the key. Jesus is Lord. The allure of the world is always present with us: the pursuit of wealth, the lack of wealth, wanting it, desiring it.

How can we live and work in a secular world and still put Christ first? There is no magic formula that I know of, nor is there a way except for the sincere believer’s daily dependence on the Holy Spirit to guide and guard against the wiles of Satan. Living from a positive perspective is making Christ Lord of our thoughts and actions, our time and work, and especially of our will. In the back flyleaf of my much-used Bible, I have written an outline to which I refer frequently. It is headed “Jesus Is Lord!” It has this over-riding scripture: “Luke 9:23: “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Contained within my self-made outline of making Jesus Lord are these points with Scriptures to back them up: Jesus is Lord: 1) Of my mind; 2) Of my emotions; 3) Of my will; 4) Of my body; 5) Of my time; 6) Of my money; 7) Of my responsible Christian citizenship; 8) Of my family; 9) Of my future. When Jesus is Lord, then “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 13:17).

Making Jesus Lord of our life has one supreme aim: “For the praise of His glory!” (note: not my glory, but His glory). Paul repeats this phrase four times in Ephesians 1:1-14. That means it is a very important concept for the Christian to understand and adopt as a life practice. Living from a positive perspective, everything we do should be “for the praise of His glory.” This is not an easy goal for the Christian. But it is one to which we should aim, every day, yes every day! Today should find us closer to Christ than did yesterday.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, June 13, 2010