SABBATH

God's Gift to Us

Sermonette: Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom

#1604s

Given 26-Jun-21; 18 minutes

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description: When Jesus answered the Jewish religious leaders at His trial, telling them they would shortly see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of the sky (Matthew 26:64), He did not mean that they would be alive at His second coming. The verb 'see' in this passage (and in Mark 14:62) means "to comprehend"; Jesus was prophesying that very soon they would begin grasping—though still rejecting the truth—that Christ was indeed the Messiah prophesied to sit on the right hand of the Father after ascending to heaven in clouds (Psalm 110:1). Daniel 7:13-14 clarifies the meaning of "coming" in Matthew 26:64: Christ was referring to His coming to the Father in heaven, not to His return to earth much later. In the events shortly after Christ's Ascension, the Jewish leadership became aware of Christ's resurrection and the miraculous events of Pentecost—none of which were done in a corner. They repeatedly heard reference to Christ's sitting on the right hand of God (Acts 2:32, Acts 5:30, Acts 7:56). Though they sometimes silenced the messengers (Acts 5:17-21; 40-43, Acts 7:60), they were unable to stop the work of the One who had received "all authority ... on heaven and earth" (Matthew 28:18). Forty years later, God destroyed the iteration of His Kingdom and its capital, from where those leaders had so corruptly ruled (Matthew 21:41), giving the Kingdom to a nation which bore its fruits (Matthew 21:43). Today, Christ sits at the right hand of His Father (Ephesians 1:20); furthermore, God has enlivened His chosen and, through a process we do not fully understand at this time, enabled them to "sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). They, together with Christ, have received the Kingdom, and will possess it forever (Daniel 7:18).