The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
The
whole of this reading, in Greek, consists of three sentences.
Chapter 1. 15-23; Chapter 2. 1-7, and 8-10. Somebody is very
excited! As Paul writes to his friends in Ephesus, to encourage them
in their faith, he knows about the cultural melting pot they lived
in. The temple of Diana or Artemis, the goddess with the Greek name
but with a history that went back way before the Greeks arrived in
Asia Minor. The Greek Artemis as a hunter. The Ephesian one was a
mother goddess, a fertility goddess. So there was a strong Pagan
influence. There was the Greek influence. All the philosophical
ideas that had developed in Athens, over hundreds of years, were
there in one form or another. Questions like “Do we really know
anything? Is the world as we know it real or is it a copy of he real
world?” (A bit like the idea of the film “the Matrix”) Or the
idea that “the universe is layered like a sheet of plywood or a
slice of puff pastry so we need some secret knowledge to get to the
supreme being at the top” And then there was Roman culture which
liked to copy Greek education and art but expressed Greek logic in a
highly organised and centralised empire. And all of these elements
were present in Ephesus. This stuff was hitting them all the time,
just as a soup of weird and wonderful ideas hits us all the time
through TV. Facebook and conversations with friends and family. No
wonder they needed to have God’s Spirit to give them wisdom and
revelation and understanding of his great power as Paul prays for
them.
And
as he prays, the backdrop is – Jesus! Jesus
raised from the dead and seated at
God’s right
hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power
and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present
age but also in the one to come.
No wonder Paul is excited! In
our mixed up world we say “The
third day he rose again from the dead. He
ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
almighty.” For
Paul these are not separate things but past of a huge, continuous
journey of triumph and hope. Paul
is speaking about a pair
of
historical, physical event that took place on the earth but affected
the heavens.
Jesus
is
-
Risen from the dead. God raised him from the dead. An event on earth that demonstrated the meaning and effectiveness of Jesus’ death. That showed that whatever forces were at work against Jesus, against God’s kingdom and rule, were now spent forces. Paul speaks about the resurrection with the confidence of an eye-witness, based on his visionary encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and on repeated encounters with Jesus in the power of he Spirit. Peter as an eye-witness makes the same statement: “ God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” (Acts 2. 32) The four Gospels each describe the resurrection with the immediacy, un-doctored candour and local colour of eye-witness accounts that tell the same story without having to iron out the slight differences in perspective. People saw him. He appeared. But he didn’t have to. Paul as we have said runs the resurrection and ascension together as one continuous flow: as far as he was concerned, the place where Jesus was raised to was heaven. But God has always cared about the physical, created world; so the Jesus who became flesh and died a physical death at a place and time on earth, was raised at a place and time on earth.
-
Ascended – “far above all “rulers and authorities and powers and lordships”… (v. 21) Paul lists the variety defeated cosmic powers to show the scope of the victory God has secured. Yes, sin is dealt wit, the price is paid. But Satan, sin and death are defeated. Jesus is bigger than all the people and institutions who hold power and claim authority in our world. He is above all of those powers. Paul’s language suggests angelic beings who had authority over nations. We began to understand through the last few chapters of the book of Daniel that there is a connexion between our earthly battles, and heavenly battle between spiritual “princes.” Paul tells us that Jesus is ascended, therefore, is above and over all of these princes. They are arranged in subjection under his feet.
Jesus is the one “in
whom all things hold together.” (Col 1. 17) The ascension of Jesus
to the Heavenly Realms means there has been a shift in the Cosmic
centre of gravity: the central figure is now not on Earth but in
heaven; so what was above us is now below us. We are seated in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (2. 6: literal translation: “God
raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus”)
-
seated at the right hand of the Father – with all things under his feet. The right hand of the father is a place of special Honour. It is a symbol of sovereignty, that belongs uniquely to Jesus. There has never been anyone like Him and there never will be anyone like Him. As Paul says in Philippians 2, God has bestowed upon him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Jesus shares his authority with us. But not his sovereignty. We are seated together in the heavenly places in Christ – but Paul very carefully doesn’t say we are at the Father’s right hand. We too must bow our knees in wonder and adoration before this Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the father in glory.
So
Jesus is risen; ascended, seated at the father’s right hand. He is
is head over all things for the Church which is his Body, the fulness
of him who fills everything in every way. 4 small words but big
concepts:-
-
head -- Christ's rule and authority over all things. The Greeks sometimes thought of the world or universe as like a body. Paul doesn’t go there – but he does say that Jesus is head over all things... -- which is bigger than the church but of course includes the church
-
Church, Christ’s body. Jesus is head over all for the Church. The AV translates literally “gave him to be the head over all things to the church” Jesus exercises that headship for the benefit of the Church. In Corinthians, the Church is a local body; in Ephesians and Colossians it is the Christian community in its totality.
-
Fulness was another of these words for the Greeks dripped meaning. Sometimes they talked about God as fulness. Paul says all God’s fulness dwelt in Christ (Col 1. 19) and the Church is the fulness of Christ. The Church is meant to be full of God. There’s a connexion between the Church and the universe – and that connexion is Jesus.
So,
to say “We
believe the
third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is
seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty” is
an immense statement. We
will look at hat it means to “believe in the Church” next month.
But for now, we note that to believe that Jesus is risen, ascended
and seated at the Father's right hand, affects the Church; it affects
all of us.
Paul,
remember, is praying and giving thanks for the Church in Ephesus.
And specifically, he is giving thanks because he has heard of their
faith in Jesus. Now
when we talk about faith in Christ, we mean that Jesus is the person
we trust. When Paul wanted to say “Jesus is the person we trust”
he talked about faith “towards Jesus”. (For the Greek Scholars,
either using the word “pros” or the objective Genitive.) So
when he mentions faith in Jesus, he doesn’t mean Jesus is the one
we one we trust. He means Jesus is where we are. He is not only the
object of faith; he is the environment of faith. Paul has heard of
the faith they exercise in
their relationship
with Jesus.
So
where are we. We are “in Christ”. We are “seated in the
heavenly places in Christ”. In our union with Jesus, we are in a
place where all the enemy’s powers, all the evil forces that are at
work in the nations, are under our feet. There, in Christ, is where
we are called upon to exercise faith.
To
believe Jesus is risen, ascended and seated at the father’s right
hand, is to take our place of authority in him. It is to use that
authority in prayer. It is to receive God’s grace and his gifts by
faith (2. 9). It is to do the good works that God created brought us
into being for, and that he has already got ready for us to walk in
(2. 10). In Christ, you exist for a purpose. That purpose is
already prepared for you.
 |
| Photo © G Lilly. |
In
Christ, discover that purpose and by faith, grab hold of it.
©
Gilmour Lilly February 2017
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