Seated with Jesus

“Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31)

The Father has exalted Jesus by setting Him on His throne at His right hand. “Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 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,” (Ephesians 1:20-22) It is the highest place of honor. His Name is exalted above every other name. At His Name every knee will bow before Him, in heaven, on earth and under the earth. (Philippians 2:9-10) All things are subject to Him. (1 Peter 3:22)

Luke writes to his friend, Theophilus in Acts. This is Luke’s second letter to Theophilus. The first letter is what we know as the Gospel of Luke. In his first letter, Luke address Theophilus in a formal manner. “And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.” (Luke 1:3) But in Acts, Luke addresses him less formally. “Dear Theophilus: In my first book I wrote about all the things that Jesus did and taught from the time He began his work until the day He was taken up to heaven. Before He was taken up, He gave instructions by the power of the Holy Spirit to the men He had chosen as His apostles. For forty days after His death, He appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that He was alive. They saw Him, and He talked with them about the Kingdom of God. And when they came together, He gave them this order: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift My Father promised.” (Acts 1:1-4) Luke’s intention was to convince Theophilus that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had risen. There are scholars who believe that there was no such person as Theophilus, but that Luke, an educated and excellent writer used the name Theophilus meaning “friend of God” to write to all who wanted to know the Truth about Jesus.

Luke mentions the repentance and forgiveness of the sins of Israel. As we know, that will take place in the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus on earth, when all of God’s promises to Israel and His creation will be fulfilled.

To continue with the study of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, let’s look at this Scripture. “But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” (Ephesians 2:4-6) We have to remember that God sees the past, present and future at the same time. There is no time with God. So, while we were sinners, He sees the future and sees us who have not gone to heaven yet and sees those that are not even born yet who will believe in Jesus, already seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. To God it is a done deal. Those words “made us sit” means He gave us a seat.

Now there are some that have been confused by the following Scriptures, thinking that God chooses and eliminates others from believing in Jesus. This is far from the Truth. Why would Jesus tell us to preach the Gospel if He has already chosen specific ones to share in the glory of Jesus? When we read the following Scriptures, we must have the mindset that from the beginning God wants everyone to be saved. Paul in writing to Timothy about praying for everyone in authority writes: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1Timothy 2:4) If this is true, but God sees the end from the beginning, He has ordained certain blessings for those who will come to believe in Jesus and His merciful gift of salvation. Reading the following Scriptures with this in mind will give clarity to Paul’s writing here. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6) He has chosen those He sees in the future believing in Jesus from before the creation of the world. He has predestinated us who He sees in our future being adopted children in Jesus. It may be difficult to understand because we don’t live in a place where there is no time. We know the past and live in the present. We know there’s a future, but we have no idea what the future holds. In contrast, God sees the past, present and future at the same time.