Ascension: Accomplishments of the Session

Gifts are consistently mistaught. The reason is that we have people who are so filled with arrogance and self-absorption that they are more concerned about what my spiritual gift is rather than understanding that spiritual gifts are designed for service. But it goes beyond simply service in the local church, it goes to the level of what God is doing in the church age through His body the church. We see this emphasized in the introduction to the brief discussion about spiritual gifts in Ephesians chapter four, verses 8-11, where we are told that because of Christ’s ascension He then gave gifts to men. So there we see this very tantalizing information about the connection of the ascension to the giving of spiritual gifts. As we have explored that connection we have had to go back into the Old Testament where we dealt with the quotation in Psalm 68:17 that is found in Ephesians chapter four, and then we had to connect that because in Psalm 68 we saw that the psalm in talking about the ascension in its original context was talking about the ascension of the ark up the temple mount. And it was a victory psalm expressing the victory that God had over the enemies of Israel. Paul, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, borrowed that imagery to relate it to the victory of Jesus Christ over Satan in the angelic conflict and His ascension into heaven.

The kingdom was postponed; it did not begin. That is an important fact. Jesus Christ has not been given the kingdom. There are many throughout the ages who have taught that Jesus Christ in some way inaugurated His kingdom and His rule at the first advent. What we are demonstrating painstakingly from these Old Testament passages is that there is a clear gap prior to the giving of the kingdom to the King, a time where He is seen as being passive, not active in relationship to His reign when He is seen as being seated at the right hand of God the Father, and there will come a future time when he asks the Father for the kingdom.

Where we are going with this and where we are going with this is that there is a period of time between the ascension of Christ, which takes place in Acts 1, and the giving of the kingdom which doesn’t take place until the second coming of Christ. So there is a time lapse here and during this time lapse there is preparation of rulers, those who will rule and reign with Him. We will see this from other passages.

We will first of all look at 2 Samuel 7 which is the establishment of the Davidic covenant, then to Psalm 89 which is David’s reflection on the grace that was given to him in the Davidic covenant. Then we will look at Psalm 110 which is called the enthronement psalm and is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. All of this is to show why the ascension is happening, it is not just so people can have special ability. God has empowered every believer with certain spiritual gifts, certain abilities, certain strengths, and they are to be used within the local church. They are not so that you can impress everybody else with what you do, they are to serve one another. There is a purpose in this, a short-term purpose, and that is to build up the body of Christ which is what Jesus is doing during this age in order to prepare the church to rule and reign at the second coming. So this is a preparatory time and those gifts are necessary in order to build the body, not only numerically or quantitatively but to build is qualitatively, to build strength and maturity into that body.

2 Samuel 7:12 ^NASB “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. [13] He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” The reference in these two verses is to his immediate human descendant Solomon. It is not establishing Solomon forever but it is establishing the throne, the dynasty, forever, a lineage that will go forever. This is what is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. [16] “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”

We interpret the Bible in a plain or normal fashion, the same way we interpret anything else in life. The problem we run into is that a number of people want to go into the Bible and read a verse, a phrase or a word and they just sort of jump on that word and use it as a springboard for jumping into whatever topic or issue is their favourite little hobby horse. That is not how you interpret Scripture. You always interpret Scripture in light of the times in which it was written. Secondly, you have to interpret it in light of other Scripture, comparing Scripture with Scripture. This is called the analogy of Scripture. You don’t just come in arbitrarily, look at the word “throne,” and say there is a throne there so obviously Jesus is seated at the right hand of God so that, too, must be a throne, therefore since this promises a throne and that is a throne in heaven, they must be the same throne. You may laugh and think why would anybody want to do that but that is how a vast majority of Christians down through the ages have interpreted this passage, that this throne is fulfilled today in Jesus being seated at the right hand of God the Father.

A little history of interpretation

Jesus Christ died on the cross in approximately 33 AD, the apostolic period starting in Acts 2 with the day of Pentecost and it extends to approximately 95 AD. This ended a period known as the time of the apostles. It is followed, up to about 150 AD, by the period known as the apostolic fathers—the disciples of the apostles. Then this is followed in turn by a period generally referred to as the age of the apologist and theologians. That extended from about 150 to about 300. During this period of time from the late second century up to the end of the third century that a major shift took place in the way Scripture was interpreted. In the early part of the church, when we read the apostolic fathers and many of the apologists and theologians, there was a man named Irenaeus. He wrote one of the best defences of what was called at that time chiliasm, from the Greek word chilios [xilioj] meaning one thousand. So in the early church if you believed in a literal 1000-year reign of Christ you were called a chilias. The Latin word for one thousand was the word MILI, and later, because of the dominance of the Romans church, the term “millennialists” was adopted in the late 18^th and early 19^th century. Those who believed Jesus Christ would come back before that 1000-year kingdom were called pre-milliennialists. But this term and theological position was well recognized by Iranaeus and others in the early church. They held to a literal interpretation of Scripture, that when Revelation chapter 20 speaks of the 1000-year reign of Jesus Christ that that 1000 meant 1000 and didn’t mean an indefinite period of time or a perfect period of time, or an ideal period of time, but it referred to a 1000-year period of time. When it spoke about the fact that this kingdom would be on the earth it would be on the earth and not somewhere off in heaven. They believed that when God promised a specific piece of real estate through Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, 17, that because the Jews had never occupied that piece of real estate to its fullest extent, that it must refer to a yet future time when God in the future would give that real estate to Israel. They believed that Israel had a right to that land and that had been promised to them by God at the time of Abraham, so they interpreted these things literally.

But in the late second century a man came along by the name of Origen. He was well schooled in neo-Platonic thought. One of the emphases in neo-Plantonism was on the ideal as opposed to the literal. So he introduced a new form of interpretation, an allegorical form of interpretation, and there were, according to Origen, three levels of meaning in Scripture. The first level was a physical meaning which was analogous to the literal meaning. The second level he identified with the soul, and the third he identified with the spirit. But the further you get from the literal meaning of the words and grammar of the text, the more you get out into some sort of speculation, if not just guesswork, with regard to the meaning of the text. So Origen was one of the first to develop a position called amillennialism. In amillennialism there is no literal Millennium, no literal thousand-year rule and reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. In amillennianism the land that was promised to Abraham in the Old Testament is no longer a literal piece of real estate, it is now spiritualised to refer to heaven, and the people who inherit the promises to Abraham are now the church; the church replaced Israel. Israel in this system is now completely removed from God’s plan and purposes in history, and Israel became pictured by many to be the source of all evil in the world because they crucified the Lord. It was the source of tremendous anti-Semitism throughout the Middle Ages and on into the present day. Amillennialism gave birth to a similar position called post-millennialism. In post-millennialism Jesus Christ comes back at the end of the Millennium, but the Millennium is not a literal thousand-year reign, it is still the same spiritual form as in amillennialism.

We would say as pre-Millennialists that there is the Davidic covenant where God promises a son, a dynasty to David, it must be understood as David understood it, a literal dynasty, a literal, physical descendant.

In the Abrahamic covenant there were three basic provisions. One was that there would be a land specified in that contract in terms of its borders. Secondly, that there would be a seed (singular), that God would bless all people. There would be a blessing that would extend to all nations. The first part of that covenant, the land, is expanded in Deuteronomy, but that real estate covenant is not fulfilled until the future Millennial kingdom. The Davidic covenant expanded on the seed portion of that covenant so that we learn that the seed would be a descendant of David. Third, Jeremiah informs us that there will be a new covenant. It was established at the cross but it isn’t fulfilled until the second coming. It is applied to the church but the covenant itself is between God and Israel.

Psalm 89 is David’s reflection on the Davidic covenant. Psalm 89:19 ^NASB “Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, And said, ‘I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people….” That tells us that the people, being Israel, that the one being spoken of is a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [20] “ ‘I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, [21] With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. [22] The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. [23] But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. [24] My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn [power, authority, kingdom] will be exalted. [25] I shall also set his hand on the sea And his right hand on the rivers.[26] He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ [27] I also shall make him {My} firstborn [Jesus Christ], The highest of the kings of the earth’.” Verse 27 talks about what God is going to do for David and the Davidic descendant. [28] “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. [29] So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven’.”

So whose throne is this? It is David’s throne. Where is David’s throne located? It is located in Jerusalem. What is the dominion related to David’s throne? The extent of this kingdom is the land that God gave to Israel.

Psalm 89:36 ^NASB “His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. [37] It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.”

What happened in allegorical interpretation is that all of these throne terms were said to be identical. However, we have to distinguish thrones. There is the throne of God the Father in Heaven, there is the throne of David. They are not the same. The throne of God is located in heaven; the throne of David is located on the earth. The throne of God is related to His sovereign rule over the human race; the throne of David is related to the rule of a king over the nation Israel. Even in the Millennial kingdom the throne of David is not over the Gentiles. The Messianic throne is over the Gentiles but the throne of David is not over the Gentiles. The title son of David relates to Jesus Christ’s descendancy from David and rulership over the Jews; His title King of kings and Lord of lords relates to His rulership over all the people.

Psalm 110 is quoted nine times in Hebrews: 1:3, 13; 5:6; 6:20; 7:17, 21, 28; 12:2. It is also quote in Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42, 43; Acts 2:34, 35. The emphasis in the psalm is that this King is not only royalty but he is also a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So Psalm 110 is a revelation that the Messianic King fulfils the imagery and the typology of a pre-Israelite, a Gentile King-Priest.

Psalm 110:1 ^NASB “The LORD [Yahweh] says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet’.” David is writing this and he is the highest authority in Israel. Here is no one over him, no authority over him, so who can David be talking about here when he says “my Lord”? He is referring to somebody over him. The only one over the theocratic king of Israel was God. So “my Lord” has to refer to deity. “Yahweh says to my Lord” indicates deity of both persons. On that basis Jesus Christ quotes it in the Gospels in order to substantiate His own deity. “Sit” is our subject: the session. “Right hand” is a position of prestige, honour and glory. When Jesus Christ ascended the Father honoured Him and glorified Him by putting Him in the highest position in all of the universe. “Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” indicates that he is seated at this time, this session, until God the Father does something. He is accomplishing something during this period of time in human history. There will be a time when God the Son will ask for the nations as His inheritance. In the meantime He is in a position where He is seated and He is not ruling.

Psalm 110:4 ^NASB “The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’.” Melchizedek was a Gentile who lived at the time of Abraham in Jerusalem, but his priesthood is distinct from the Jewish Aaronic priesthood. His priesthood was a Gentile priesthood which pre-existed Abraham. This makes this a universal priesthood whereas the Aaronic priesthood, those who were the descendants of Aaron in the tribe of Levi, was a racial priesthood and a priesthood based on the Mosaic covenant which was a temporary covenant. The priesthood for Melchizedek was a priesthood that was a universal priesthood. This introduces an interesting feature that will take place when Jesus Christ returns. That is, that both political and religious authority will be united in one person in the person of that Priest-King. During the time prior to Abraham there was something similar take place and this is later going to be separated. It is identified together under the theocratic kingdom of the theocracy when God is seen as the political leader and He is served by the priests, and it is distinguished in this age when there must be a distinction between religious authority and political authority.

Acts 2:30 ^NASB “And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT {one} OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE…” Peter is quoting here from Psalm 132. We have seen that this is the throne of David. However, amillennialists have always taken this throne to be the throne of God. [31] “he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. [32] This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. [33] Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God [Ps. 110], and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” What does he receive at the right hand of God? The promise of the Spirit. The right hand of God is not the throne of David, it is the right hand of God.