Session of Christ

This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God [place of honor and approval], and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.                 Acts 2:32-33

Peter spoke these words to the gathering in Jerusalem at Pentecost when 3,000 souls received Jesus as Messiah. He was introducing the period in history known as the Session (sitting) of Christ, the ministry of Jesus between His first and second coming as High Priest, Head of the Church, and mediator of the new covenant. Peter was also confirming his position as king, prophesied by David in Psalm 110:

The Lord says [ne um - oracle, divine communication between the Father and the Son] to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “ Rule [radah - exercise dominion] in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will volunteer freely [nedabah - willingly] in the day of Your power; in holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order [dibrah - manner] of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore, He will lift up His head.                       Psalm 110:1-7

David has been given the privilege of hearing a conversation between Yahweh, the Father and Messiah, His Son. The right hand of the Father is also the place of authority and dominion. He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses; He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. Stephen saw Him seated at the right hand when he was stoned to death in Acts 7:56: “and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." The psalm refers to a people who will willingly follow Him, a reference to the church as well as those in the Kingdom Age. 

David sees the Messiah as not only king, but also a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi as those of the Aaronic priesthood but of Judah, as king of the Jews, thus  combining the offices of priest and king. At His baptism, Jesus would reunite the office of prophet with king and priest, signified by the Holy Spirit and the dove. The order of Melchizedek represents the combining of all three offices in one individual. The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us that there have been nine individuals occupying this position prior to Jesus, starting with Adam and ending with Jacob. Jesus is the tenth and final King of Righteousness.

High Priest

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."        Hebrews 5:1-6

The high priesthood of Christ is a central focus of the Session of Christ. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11).  According to The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: 

The functions peculiar to the high priest consisted partly in periodically presenting the sin offering for himself (Leviticus 4:3-12) and the congregation, and the atoning sacrifice and the burnt offering on the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). He also consulted the Lord by means of the Urim and Thummim, in regard to important matters affecting the theocracy, and informing the people thereon (Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 30:7-8). The high priest had the supervision of the rest of the priests and of the entire worship and was at liberty to exercise all the other priestly functions as well. 

Intercession

According to F.F. Bruce, The presence of Messiah at God's right hand means that for His people there was now a way of access to God more immediate and heart-satisfying than the obsolete temple ritual had ever been able to provide. As High Priest, He is able to save forever those who draw near to Him, since He is always interceding for each one (Hebrews 7:25). Intercession is the means by which He intervenes to the Father on behalf of believers for advocacy (1 John 2:1), deliverance (Romans 8:33-34) and care (1 Peter 5:7). 

Jesus’s sacrifice is the one offering on earth once for all, but the intercession for us in the heavens (Hebrews 7:26) is an ongoing work. This demonstrates God’s never-ending love, that we can never be separated from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:26,34,39). He intercedes for those who come unto God through Him; it is not for the unbeliever (John 17:9). Jesus is both the offeror and the offering. His intercession is founded on His voluntary offering of Himself without spot to God. The virtue of His sacrifice is salvation and forgiveness; His intercession is the avenue into God’s favor; it cannot be earned. In Exodus 30:8, And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.  Of the intercession of Christ we may conclude that it is righteous:  it is founded upon justice and truth (Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 3:5), compassionate (Hebrews 2:17; 5:8), perpetual (Hebrews, 7:25), and efficacious (1 John 2:1). 

Preparing a Place

In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.                   John 14:2-3

Jesus gave full assurance to His disciples that there was preparation work in heaven to be accomplished by the Father through the Son so that they would be ready to spend eternity with Him. Jesus would soon be leaving them with the expectation that He would return for all believers in Christ to be with Him always. According to Hebrews 9:28: so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. The disciples were being encouraged to eagerly await Him. 

Prayer for Disciples

I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. "But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.              John 17:9-24

Jesus spoke these words the night before His crucifixion. It illustrates His great concern and care for the welfare of not only His disciples, but all those who would believe in Him. It is a picture of His intercession which is taking place every day on behalf of those who believe. Jesus acknowledges that His followers do not belong to Him, but to the Father. His prayer was that the Father would keep them in the Father’s name or nature so that they would be united in purpose. Jesus wishes that they may have My joy made full in themselves. He then emphasizes the role that the Word of God would play in the believer’s life: Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. It would be the truth of His Words that will unify the believers as the Father and Son are united. The believer’s relationship to the Word of God will serve as evidence that the Son of God has appeared to the world on behalf of the Father. Unity is the avenue into His glory, the glory given to the Son and passed on to those who truly believe and follow Him.

Walking Among the Lampstands

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades        .Revelation 1:12-18

John was given an amazing vision of the Son of Man walking among the seven golden candlesticks, speaking of the seven churches of Revelations 2 and 3 and symbolizing the New Testament church. The description of His appearance, similar to that Daniel 7:13, is of a priest clothed in a robe reaching to the feet. The whiteness of His hair corresponds to that of the Ancient of Days, God the Father: God the Son has the same purity and eternity as God the Father, as signified by the whiteness of His head and hair. The eyes like blazing fire describe His piercing judgment of sin. This concept is further enhanced by His feet which were like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace. The bronze altar in the temple was related to sacrifice for sin and divine judgment on it. His voice was compared to the roar of rushing waters. His face glowed with a brilliance like the sun shining. In His right hand Jesus held seven stars, representing the pastors of the seven churches. Significantly Christ held them in His right hand, indicating sovereign possession. Speaking of Christ's role as Head of the Church, John saw a sharp double-edged sword coming out of His mouth, a reference to the authority and convicting power of the Word of God. 

Head of the Church

and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about 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 every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection 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.                     Ephesians 1:19-23

For the ones who recognize Christ as head over all things to the church, He gives access to the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Christ’s authority over all things is the key to finding the fullness of Christ as found only in His body, the church.

Mediator of the New Covenant

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.                  Hebrews 9:13-15

The blood of Christ provides every believer with eternal redemption through which the blessings of the new covenant are inaugurated, and should affect the way they serve God. First covenant rituals served for the ceremonially unclean and only made them outwardly clean, but the blood of Christ can do much more. His was a sacrifice of infinite value because through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself unblemished to God. With this assertion, the writer of Hebrews involved all three Persons of the Godhead in the sacrifice of Christ, which magnifies the greatness of His redemptive offering. Unblemished describes Christ's perfection.

Such a great accomplishment ought to cleanse our consciences from dead works, which refers to the Levitical rituals that, in contrast with the work of Christ, can never impart spiritual life. Their consciences ought to be perfectly free from any need to engage in religious works and ceremonial rites. When retaining their confidence in the perfect efficacy of the Cross, they will hold fast their profession and serve the living God within the new covenant environment, the promise of the eternal inheritance.