Seated With The King
Notes
Transcript
A Wonderful Seat
A Wonderful Seat
We have been looking at the place that Jesus has given us to sit with him.
The place where we get to share life with our Savior and King and where we get to enjoy his presence and what he died to give us.
In , Jesus invites his friends and disciples to that table.
14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.
15 Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
When these words were spoken, Jesus hadn’t died yet. But he knew what he was about to do and he was excited to get his disciples into a place where they could experience it.
And though it was a horrible experience for them, on the third day everything changed.
That table of pain and remembrance became a table of joy and power and celebration.
And that’s what Jesus invites you and I to sit down at today.
The table of relationship and commitment
The table of the Kingdom of heaven.
It awaits for us in glory, but we also get to experience it in a powerful way today.
We used to sing a song, “Blessed Assurance” that went like this
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood
We have a foretaste of heaven before us this morning brothers and sisters
It is the table of victory. We no longer have to stuggle to exist today, we have a seat at the table.
It’s the table of action
We worship Jesus
We access what he has come to enable us to live in
and we abide in his presence every step of our lives
It’s the table where we are seated with Him
In his resurrection - We have victory over sin and the grave
In his ascension - Our Spirits are lifted with him above these earthly trials and tribulations
In his present rule - We are a child of heaven and he has moved us into a new dimension of power and authority.
And last week we saw that it was the table of Provision
Provision in the midst of trouble and persecution
a posture in our lives that invites the provision of God
A place where that provision provides us the ability to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit
A place where we are with others just like us.
They believe like we do
They speak what they believe
And they live what they speak
We are one. With Jesus and with each other.
And that’s the thought that I want to look at this morning - that we are seated together.
With one another and with Jesus
Turn over to
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
We Are Seated Together
We Are Seated Together
I closed with this last week.
I told you to look around the room and see all the people from here (for there are many more) who are invited to the table with you.
Think back to our verses in Ephesians that we spent a couple of weeks in where it says that we are seated together in Christ.
This impacts how we look at life now.
It’s no longer about ourselves, but about us as a whole
Hopefully we recognize that our place at the table is nothing different than anyone elses.
That we are all here because we’ve received the same calling
That we all are significant in Christ, but that we each have the same amount of significance
I love the legends of King Arthur
The knights of the round table.
King Arthur chose the round table and called his knights to it so that nobody would see their place as either inferior or superior. Not even the King
Every knight was equal at the round table
Every knight has his own place, his own talents and his own assignment, but when they sat down at the round table, they were each, though uniquely equipped, unitedly devoted to the Kingdom and interdependent.
Sounds almost identical to what Paul writes in the scriptures about the church, doesn’t it?
Also think about the people that it was written to and the time that it was written.
He made us to sit down together in Christ - the idea that Jews and Gentiles could be seated together was a huge thinking adjustment for these people
Sadly, the church hasn’t progressed all that much. For the thought of peoples of different skin colors and ethnic backgrounds worshiping together is still a stretch for many churches.
But it is the plan of God that it take place.
52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
God’s plan is to bring his children together and cause them to live in unity and peace
That plan includes making them (or us) a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. But as we see in the pentecostal outpouring that only takes place when the people are one.
17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
He intends to use this unity to build us up and give us the ability to live clean before him
that we would be able to see our faith strengthened as we come together through the unity that his Holy Spirit provides to us.
27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,
Even greater yet would be these folks understanding of the verb used here - seated
If you had a seat anywhere, you were something special for a seat denoted a very important place of honor.
In this time of history, people around a table would sit, squat or recline on the floor
Even during Jewish feasts, the guest would recline or squat unless they were part of the kings circle
So let me drive this home church family.
We, You and I, are seated together at a royal table in a seat.
We are given the privilege of royalty. Jesus has given us, as we are seated with him, a place of great honor.
And think about that, because that is our second point today.
We Are Seated With The King!
We Are Seated With The King!
Or should I say it like this, The King is seated with us.
It is very important that we see Jesus as being seated here.
And this is where our scriptures in come into play.
You may not know this, but the Jewish tabernacle had not seats in it.
The priests never sat down while they were doing their time of ministry.
In verse 11 we see that they just went out their priestly duties continuously with no breaks.
There was not time to sit. And yet, these verses also add, their works were non-effective.
On February 4, 1872, Charles Spurgeon spoke this message from entitled, “The Only Atoning Priest.”
Here is what he preached.
The priests stood because there was work to do; still must they present their sacrifices; but our Lord sits down because there is no more sacrificial work to do; atonement is complete, he has finished his task. There were no seats in the tabernacle. Observe the Levitical descriptions and you will see that there were no resting places for the priests in the holy place. Not only were none allowed to sit, but there was nothing whatever to sit upon.
…A priest never sat in the tabernacle, he was under a dispensation which did not afford rest, and was not intended to give it, a covenant of works which gives the soul no repose. Jesus sits in the holy of holies, and herein we see that his work is finished.
These people weren’t used to a priest that could finish his work.
As the people sinned, more sacrifices had to be made.
The sin was never acquitted
God’s need for atonement was never accomplished
But then comes Jesus.
He finishes the task and then takes his seat at the right hand of the Father
And invites us to sit with him.
Now we can sit because our justification is accomplished
The price for our sin has been paid
No more sacrifice can be made. No more hoops need to be jumped through. No more mountains need to be scaled.
Through this table or relationship that we are invited to with our King, where our High Priest is seated with us.
we receive the fullness of Christ in our lives.
Our motivations are purified as we do the work of the ministry that God has called us to.
We already so a couple of weeks ago that we take on the works that the Lord created us to do which he created for us to do before we were even born
We become able to do those things
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us to get the task done
and we become confident, through Jesus, to step into that calling and accomplish what he has tasked us to do
We become full of hope
Hope in what our God is doing in us
Hope in what God is going to do through us
Hope in the provision that God has stored for us
We see people differently
we greet them with genuine love and encouragement as we see them seated around the table with us
We encourage them in their calling for we are all committed to the Kingdom
We declare over ourselves the full finished work of God in our lives as we see who we are in the heavenly realms
We take our rightful place as the children of God which is our true identity as we live daily lives empowered by that truth and faith in our God.
so
Where Are You Today?
Where Are You Today?
Are you seated with the King? Is the King seated with you?
Have you entered into your fullness through Jesus or are you still looking through the trash for scraps
Live the life that’s been promised to you, not the one struggle to make happen.
If you are seated with Christ and his followers, your life will be a celebration
Your life will be peaceful
Your life will be relaxed and lived in truth.
If you don’t see these things, then you will be sitting around the floor waiting for someone to call you. Missing the fact that Jesus already has.
The pool of Bethesda
Let’s not wait anymore.
Let us rise up as the children of God and take our place at the table.
Seated together with Christ in Heavenly places
Seated together with our high priest who has accomplished his work
Let’s Pray