The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 12)—He Ascended into Heaven and is Seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty

by on April 22, 2025 | Comment

It is a common bug of humanity that we do not like saying goodbye. We even have stock phrases like, “I’m bad at goodbyes,” or, “Let’s say ‘see you later’ rather than ‘goodbye.’” Even “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as true as it can be, aims to make us feel better being apart. Regardless of how we cope with it, we have an innate sense that separation is not good.

We must reckon with what that instinct against separation means for Christ’s ascension. The disciples were heartbroken at the crucifixion, thinking all their hopes that they had found the true messiah were dashed to pieces. Imagine their elation at the resurrection, having their messiah returned to them in his risen, glorified power. But then imagine their confusion when Jesus ascends. They had just gotten him back, and then he leaves them again. The crestfallen sense of confusion sits heavy over Acts 1:9–11 as the disciples stand dawdling, probably open-mouthed, after watching Jesus ascend:

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Whether they should have understood what was happening in light of Scripture and Jesus’ explanation of Scripture, almost nothing went according to their expectations regarding Christ’s work and the way he would win and expand his kingdom. In light of this passage, we too are left to consider what Christ’s ascension means for us as we walk the Christian life in this age waiting for Christ’s return.

We might easily think that the ascension is Jesus’ way of letting time move on as he waits to come back and finish what he started. But as we saw in this series’ previous article, his resurrection was his recognized coronation, his formal investiture with the kingly office. We should consider that coronations are usually followed, not by taking a break and delaying the exercise of authority, but by taking a seat on the throne to start wielding royal dominion.

That’s why Luke began Acts saying: “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” In other words, the Gospel of Luke describes what Jesus began to do and teach, implying that Acts is about what Jesus continues to do and teach. We must get our heads around the fact that Jesus did not ascend to heaven in order to rest but rather to reign and rule. The main point is that Christ rules and works for our good from heaven.

Installation

Ephesians 1:15–23 helps us start our reflections on Christ’s ascension. This section is part of Paul’s prayer: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” We should not overlook what prayer means in this context. Prayer is appealing to the king. Prayer is looking to the God who reigns, asking that he wield his royal authority on our behalf.

Because God does that for us, Paul was thankful that God the Father of glory enlightened spiritual eyes “toward us who believe” to see the majesty of the gospel, specifying that God performed this great work,

in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (emphasis added)

This is royal discourse describing Christ’s reign. After rising from the grave, so being crowned as the risen Son of God in power, Jesus ascended to heaven and is now seated at the Father’s right hand. In other words, after his coronation, he took a seat on his throne to reign and rule over the affairs of his kingdom. He is continuing to do and to teach from his throne in the heavenly places, exercising his dominion over all things.

Notice the specific connection as God put everything under Christ’s feet, Christ was given to the church as head over all things. As Christ reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth, he does so as the Father’s gift to the church. The reciprocal relationship is that the Father gave the elect to the Son as a gift to be his people, his church, to glorify and exalt him in everlasting life. The Father also gave the risen Christ to the church as their redeeming king to reign on their behalf.

Even the act of being seated at the Father’s right hand is significant. Taking a seat on the throne meant full right to be in that position of authority. Being seated also means that his mission was completed. Christ’s physical posture in heaven has theological value. Taking his seat means that everything needed to procure redemption is complete. On the other hand, in Acts 7:55–56, as Stephen was being stoned to death as the church’s first martyr, Christ blessed Stephen with a vision of his posture in heaven: “But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (emphasis added.)

Whereas Jesus seated marks his mission’s completion, coming to rest on the heavenly throne to reign until his return, here his posture of standing marks that he is at attention to wield his authority. He stands to act as king. The comfort for Stephen was that whatever befell him, it occurred under the watchful reign of Jesus Christ as he stood to oversee and direct all the affairs of his church. Even Stephen’s death happened under the authority of Christ, who reigned as the Father’s gift to the church to be our king for our good. All things then, even the hard ones, are fruits of Christ’s ascended kingship. Christ’s ascension was his installation to the heavenly throne.

Intercession

If Christ ascended to take up his throne in heaven, what is he doing as he reigns now? Commenting on why Christ is a better mediator than the old covenant priests, Hebrews 7:23–25 says, “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” The resurrection is the assumed premise here, explaining why Christ lives forever. He came back to life, defeating death. He lives forever because he has overturned the power of death by dealing with our sin. As the everlasting high priest, we learn what he is doing while he reigns in heaven: he always lives to make intercession for us.

What does it mean for Christ to intercede for us? It means that he is continually applying his own work on our behalf. It means that he is continually reminding his Father of his own finished work so that the grounds of our forgiveness and acceptance are never forgotten in the divine throne room. He is pointing to what he has done so that there is unceasing awareness of why we get to be welcomed into God’s presence.

There are two applications we need to pick up from this point. The first concerns worship. Christ’s intercession is the reason why we talk about worship as being welcomed into God’s throne room. When God calls us to worship at the beginning of Lord’s Day services, it is an elevation of this time into the heavenly places. Before we shoulder that aside as an odd or simply sentimental way of describing worship, we should remember that Ephesians 2:6 says that salvation is tied into how God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (emphasis added). There is a default sense of the Christian life in which it is being seated already with Christ in the heavenly places. Worship is entering the throne room of the heavenly places because God promises to be at work through his means of grace. Christ’s intercession undergirds this whole reality. The doors to God’s throne room can open for us because Christ has opened them.

We should really grapple with the majesty of this reality. Imagine what would happen if a known criminal walked through the doors of the Oval Office. The secret service would immediately tackle them to the ground, seize them, and drag them off for incarceration. If that is the case with the working space of a simple civil servant in the US, how much more should we imagine that to be the case for God’s own throne room?

We can come into this time of worship in God’s own presence without being seized and destroyed by the angelic guards because Jesus’ intercession is ringing constantly through the heavenly halls. Believer, Jesus is calling out your name to defend you and sustain your status of acceptance before God himself. The call to worship opens the halls of heaven for us to enter, and God calls lovingly for us to join him in worship precisely because Jesus’ intercession allows us to bring our praises, confess our sin, and most of all hear the gospel. So, worship rides the rails of Jesus’ intercession.

Second, Jesus’ intercession reminds us of the simple but profound point that Jesus loves you and cares for you. Jesus’ intercession means that he is carrying your prayers before God’s own throne. That means first that Jesus has received your prayers as our mediator. Jesus himself hears you and cares for all that you bring before God in prayer. Jesus himself is guaranteeing that those prayers are received, are heard, and even are pleasing to the Lord. Christ’s intercession is his ongoing work in heaven to care for his people in light of what he has already accomplished.

Indwelling

Despite the emphasis here that Jesus is bodily in heaven, which creates a distance of sorts wherein Jesus is away from us, we should not think we are totally without Christ’s presence. Because Jesus has ascended, he is able to come to all his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. After all, Jesus ended the Great Commission with a promise: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (emphasis added).

Our closing reflection needs to be on how Christ ascended so that he could be with you in a special way. In John 14:16–19, Jesus explained what he will do after he ascended:

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

Being justified by the Spirit at his resurrection, Jesus ascends with new authority to send the Spirit, namely as the means by which he himself indwells those who believe in him. The Spirit is with us forever as our helper to learn, grow, and persevere as Christians. He dwells in us by faith.

But note that the Spirit’s indwelling is why Christ says that he will not leave us as orphans but will come to us and we will see him. This is why gathered worship is the backbone of Christian experience. The preaching of the gospel, as Galatians 3:1 says, means that “before your eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (emphasis added). In the Supper, we see the deposits of Christ’s very presence with us, as he joins us at that table for our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. That is why we rejoice now to celebrate the Supper each week because it is an event of Christ coming by the power of the Spirit to be with us for our help.

As the Christian faith upends so many expectations, Christ’s ascension means his deeper presence with his people. By his ascension and heavenly enthronement, he both raises us to heaven to be seated with him and comes down to us to be with us as we live in this age. Christ’s ascension means the Spirit’s indwelling, which is the promise and presence of Christ himself living for and in us forever.

©Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find the whole series here.

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