Waiting for the Kingdom
Ephesians 2:6; Psalm 68; Daniel 7; Psalm 2
Ephesians Series #56
January 12, 2020
Dr. Robert L. Dean, Jr.
www.deanbibleministries.org
Opening Prayer
“Father, we’re thankful that we have Your Word to enlighten us. We have Your Word to tell us about reality, that we might be conformed to Your truth and not be conformed to the world. That Your Word by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit will transform us from faith to faith, conforming us to the image of Christ.
“Father, we pray that as we study today, coming to a better understanding of what it means that Christ is seated at Your right hand, that He is waiting and we are waiting until that time predicted in Daniel 7—a time when the kingdom will be given to Him and He will come to establish it.
“Father, help us to understand the things we study today in Christ’s name, amen.”
Slide 2
Ephesians 2:6 uses the phrase that we are seated together in Christ. I’m taking the time to ask why the Session of Jesus Christ is so important:
What has that got to do with us, and what does it mean that we are seated together with Him?
He is at the right hand of the Father, so if we are seated in Him, we are positionally seated at the right hand of the Father. We need to understand what is going on in the plan of God, because that understanding enables us to orient our own thinking to God’s plan for our life and understand the mission that God has given for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this Church Age.
Slide 3
Ephesians 2:6, we were “… raised up together—with Christ—and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
This tells us that, at the instant of salvation—whether you were 4, 5, 6 years of age or 19, 20, 30 or 40—at the instant you understood the gospel and trusted in Christ as your Savior, along with the fact that you were given the righteousness of Christ, that you were declared justified, that you were regenerated—made alive together in Him.
At that same time you were raised up, related to the resurrection of Christ. We are given new life in Him, and we were made to sit positionally. At that instant you’re made to sit in Christ at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
We need to understand what that means, its significance for us today. We must understand that this cuts across the grain of what is typically taught in many conservative evangelical Churches today. Because of the fact that there is gross misunderstanding of who Jesus is today: His role today, what it means to sit at the right hand. They get all confused about things like the kingdom and the kingship and dominion of Christ.
Slide 4
So you get the vocabulary down, we have this sort of cobbled-together word called amillennialism. The word “mille” comes from the Latin; it refers to 1000. The “A” prefix is Greek, so it’s compounding a Greek word with a Latin word, and it means “no.” It negates any kind of 1000-year rule of Christ on the earth. They do not believe in a literal earthly kingdom.
Part of amillennialism is that they hold to some form of Replacement Theology because they believe that the church has replaced Israel, so the church has brought this spiritualized kingdom on the earth today.
If we chart it, from the time of the ascension of Christ in the beginning of the Church Age on the Day of Pentecost, there is a spiritual kingdom. When Christ ascended to heaven, He is seated not only at the right hand of the Father, but on David’s throne, so Christ is reigning from His throne in heaven.
Amillennialism doesn’t hold to a consistent literal interpretation of Scripture. They think the First Resurrection is comprised of Christ the First fruits, then the Church Age believers at the Rapture, the resurrection of Tribulation believers, then the resurrection of Old Testament saints. That’s all part of the first resurrection. They believe that the first resurrection isn’t that, what I just said, it is spiritual and it takes place at conversion.
If you come out of a reformed, Lutheran, Roman Catholic or just about any other background other than a dispensational background, then the idea is that the first resurrection takes place when you were saved. They’ve spiritualized it; they reject literal interpretation.
The Second Coming of Christ takes place at the end of this Church Age. Christ comes to the earth, there’s no future Tribulation, there is no future literal kingdom on the earth. We are in a spiritual form of the kingdom today, then Jesus comes and that ends, then we all go into eternity.
It’s important to recognize that in amillennialism, they believe that Jesus is now ruling on David’s throne from heaven, so they’ve spiritualized David’s throne. It’s not a literal physical throne in Jerusalem where Christ is reigning over a geophysical literal kingdom on the earth.
Slide 5
Postmillennialism: “Post” means after, and this is the view. It grew out of amillennialism, so it has many of the same features such as a nonliteral interpretation of especially prophetic passages. They believe that Christ returns after the Millennial Kingdom, but it’s not a literal 1000-year kingdom.
If we chart it, it begins with the Church Age, but notice that somewhere during the Church Age, the kingdom begins to gradually come in. It’s brought in by the Church in one sense, but they would say that it’s brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s not something that the church militant brings in.
As the Church through the Holy Spirit and evangelism expands and expands, things are going to get better and better, and eventually we realize we’re living in that utopian phase. Then after a while, Jesus will return to the earth.
They still have the same view that the first resurrection is spiritual and that the kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, then everything comes to a conclusion at the Second Coming in the same way as in amillennialism. Then all judgment that takes place, and then we go into eternity.
Slide 6
Premillennialism builds a different case: that Christ returns before the kingdom, before the millennium. “Pre” meaning before. Jesus returns before the kingdom and establishes the kingdom.
We are living in the Church Age according to dispensational premillennialism. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, the Church Age believers will be raptured to be with the Lord when He returns in the air, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. When the Rapture occurs, it leaves a lot of people on the earth who are unbelievers.
That which concludes the Tribulation is the literal physical bodily return of Christ to the earth. His coming concludes the end of the four stages of the first resurrection. Then He establishes His kingdom, which lasts for a literal 1000 years. In Revelation 20:1–7, “1000” is repeated about 6 or 7 times, which indicates that this must be taken literally. Every other number in Revelation is taken literally, and this also must be taken literally.
At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, there will be a revolt. Satan is bound during that thousand years. He’s released at the end of the Millennium, leads a revolt against God and against the Lord Jesus Christ, and he’s going to be vaporized with fire and brimstone, and that ends the Millennium.
There will be another judgment—the Great White Throne judgment—a second resurrection of all unbelievers, where they are judged. Then God creates the new heavens and new earth, and we go into eternity.
Slide 6
In premillennialism, Jesus is not ruling on David’s throne from heaven—that is, in traditional dispensational premillennialism. In amillennialism Jesus is now on David’s throne—they spiritualize or allegorize those passages.
In postmillennialism Jesus is reigning today from David’s throne at the right hand of the Father. But in premillennialism, Jesus is not ruling on David’s throne, He is waiting. He’s seated at the right hand of the Father, according to Revelation 3:21,
“To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
When Jesus went to heaven, He didn’t sit on His throne. He didn’t sit on David’s throne, He sat on the Father’s throne.
Slide 7
There is a screwy view that came along that is not dispensational premillennialism; some call it historic premillennialism. This also applies to progressive dispensationalism—which is not really dispensationalism, and it’s not very progressive. It is the idea that the kingdom was inaugurated at the beginning of the Church Age on the Day of Pentecost, and that it is progressively coming in through this Church Age.
It is called “realized eschatology” because they believe that certain aspects of the New Covenant are realized today but not fully until Jesus returns at the Second Coming.
In their view, like premillennialism, there is the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation, which concludes the stages of the First Resurrection, then the Great White Throne Judgment at the Second Resurrection. But in their view, just like amillennialism and postmillennialism, Jesus is now ruling on David’s throne from heaven.
Interestingly, to get to this point, they have spiritualized certain passages, so they do not have a consistent literal interpretation, just like amillennialism and postmillennialism.
In progressive dispensationalism, to get this, they had to invent a new hermeneutic—a new way of interpreting Scripture—called “complementary hermeneutics.” That’s another discussion. But when somebody has to invent a new way to interpret the Bible, your spiritual radar ought to be going off with all sorts of bells screaming that something’s wrong and somebody’s getting into false teaching.
Slide 8
In this whole issue about the ascension and session of Christ, the idea that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father is mentioned numerous times in the Scripture. At least 19 passages mention it, and there are probably others that allude to it, so we have to pay attention to this as a very important doctrine—a very important teaching—of Scripture, so we’re taking the time to look at it.
Slide 9
The foundation for understanding this takes us back to the Old Testament. That even though we’re talking about something that takes place during the Church Age, in these passages there’s no mention of the church, but there’s mention of something that will occur in the career of the Messiah: that He will be seated at the right hand of the Father. But there’s no hint as to what is actually taking place there other than He is waiting for something.
Slide 10
What happened to God’s plan when the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected and crucified?
The plan for Israel was put on hold, but something new came in that was not prophesied or laid out in the Old Testament and that’s why it’s called “the mystery.” That’s a term we’ve run into in Ephesians before and we will run into it several more times.
A mystery is something that has not been revealed before. It was something unknown and unrevealed; this is something new that came in. If God had told Israel in the Old Testament that “you’re going to reject the Messiah and I’m going to choose another people” that might have skewed the results, so nothing is said.
They’re given a clear opportunity to accept or reject the Messiah when He comes. They rejected, and God says, “Okay, we got a plan that was always in effect, but I didn’t tell you about it. So we’re going to put your plan on pause because of your rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, and we’re going to go to a second people of God—the Church Age.” This meant that the kingdom was postponed.
Slide 11
Jesus talked about this and why the disciples are asking Him, Acts 1:6, “… will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Notice they knew that the kingdom hadn’t started yet Jesus implied, “No, not now.”
Slide 12
He said just wait here in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes; that there would be something new, this unforeseen inter-advent age, the present Church Age.
Slide 13
The first important thing in the ascension of Christ, is that Jesus said He had to go to the Father, John 16:7, so that He could send the Holy Spirit. Again, this was something different.
A future ministry of the Holy Spirit that is similar to the Church Age in some ways was prophesied in the New Covenant, but similarity does not mean identity. A lot of people get confused over that. Just because the Holy Spirit is the Primary Agent for the spiritual life in the Church Age, doesn’t mean we’re in the time of the New Covenant.
Just because somebody had their theology messed up and decided to call the Old Testament “the Old Covenant” and the New Testament “the New Covenant”—which is how it is in the Greek, DIATHEKE KAINE is New Covenant—doesn’t mean we’re in the New Covenant. That’s just a wrong title that was given to the New Testament.
There are a lot of similarities between the spiritual life and some other things in the Church Age, and that which will be true under the New Covenant, but there are a lot of differences.
That’s why you will hear people say, “Well, it’s already here, but not yet fully here.” Just because you have similarity doesn’t mean they’re the same thing. Just because you have an indwelling of the Spirit today doesn’t mean it’s like the indwelling of the Spirit in the millennial kingdom.
Under the New Covenant it is phenomenal! Under the New Covenant, the indwelling of the Spirit has different characteristics, such as nobody’s going to need to teach their neighbor. Well, if we were in the New Covenant under that ministry of the New Testament, we wouldn’t need to be here. You wouldn’t need to be taught.
There are a lot of differences. It’s the differences that matter, not the similarities. If you don’t understand that, like a lot of people today, then you’re going to have problems with understanding the differences between men and women. It’s not the similarities, it’s the differences that are important. As Maurice Chevalier said in the film “Gigi,” “Viva la difference.” We have different things going on in this Church Age.
Slide 14
1. Psalm 110 shows that Christ at the ascension sits at the right hand of the Father until God finishes preparing His enemies for the final defeat.
Psalms 110:1, “Sit, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.” Making them His footstool is preparing them for defeat.
I want to connect three other passages.
2. Psalm 68:18, which is applied to the ascension of Christ and giving gifts to the Church.
We will look at that because it takes place—in terms of His application of that passage— after the ascension at the beginning of the Church Age.
3. After waiting at the right hand, the Son is sent to destroy the enemies of God and establish His kingdom, 7:13-14.
(We won’t do an in-depth study of either one of those passages. Psalm 68 is quite long, so I’m going to reserve saying a lot about it until we get to Ephesians 4.)
4. Psalm 2 shows the Messiah’s victory over His enemies after He has waited at the right hand of the Father.
That gets into some important issues related to when the coronation of the king takes place.
Slide 15
A quick flyover review, Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. It’s quoted seven times in Hebrews; also in Matthew 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42–43, Acts 34–35—at least 13 times in the New Testament.
Psalm 110:1 is also quoted numerous times in the New Testament.
Slide 16
Who wrote it?
1. The psalm itself says it was written by David, called the psalm of David.
2. Jesus affirmed that in Matthew 22:43.
But we have so many brilliant scholars in our world today who deny Davidic authorship.
Why?
This applies to a lot of conservative evangelicals who jump through all kinds of hoops to deny that this is truly predictive prophecy about the Messiah. That’s a big debate that’s been going on for a number of decades now among conservative evangelicals.
Slide 17
Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord—that is God the Father said to my Lord. This is the title of the Messiah. He is David’s Lord, the authority over David. Yahweh, God the Father, said—“Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
Three things about this:
1. The future Messiah-King is fully divine. He is undiminished Deity. Psalm 110:1a
He is “the LORD says to my Lord,” and that indicates that He is divine because He’s in authority over David.
2. The future Messiah-King is at the right hand of God the Father. He is seated there. It is a position of honor, a position of privilege, and He is waiting for something. Psalm 110:1b
3. The future Messiah-King is awaiting the preparation for this future victory. Psalm 110:1c
It is a time of looking forward to Him coming to rule. He is not ruling now. He will rule in the future at the time when He returns.
Slide 18
Psalm 110:2, “The Lord—that is God the Father Yahweh—will stretch forth Your strong scepter—the strong scepter is the ruling authority of the Messiah—from Zion.”
Zion refers to one of three things in the Scripture:
His rule will be in Zion. He will rule from what we know is the millennial temple in Ezekiel 40 and following; He will rule from the temple on the Temple Mount, referred to here as Mount Zion.
Slide 19
Psalm 110:3, again, emphasizing that military conquest that occurs once His enemies are made His footstool. “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power—talking about those who come with Him—in the beauties of holiness …” which is how they will be clothed.
The last line should be translated “… from the womb of the dawn I have begotten You.” “Womb of the dawn” is the beginning of time: eternity past; another term for “in eternity “… I have begotten you.”
There is that phrase again from the Nicene Creed. It is a term that emphasizes the identity of essence between the Son and the Father.
Slide 20
Allen Ross, in His commentary on Psalm 2 in Volume 1 of his two-volume commentary on the Psalms.
“The verb ‘begotten’ in its literal sense refers to a child who shares the nature of the father (as opposed to words like ‘made’ and ‘created’), to describe Jesus as ‘begotten’ indicates that he has the nature of the Father. i.e., divine and eternal; and if He is eternal, then ‘begotten’ refers to nature and not a beginning. The description is figurative. This is why the Nicene Creed clarifies the point; Jesus is ‘begotten not made.’ When Scripture uses ‘begotten’ in that sense, the expression includes ‘only’ MONOGENES (that’s the Greek word used in John 1:14 and John 3:16) ‘the only begotten;’ there’s only one person who shares the divine nature of the Father and that is Jesus Christ.”
Slide 21
Hebrews 10:12–13, along with other passages, says that it is from the time of His sitting down at the right hand of the Father “until His enemies are made His footstool.” He is in that position of sitting.
Slide 22
Psalm 110:4 also emphasized that He would be a priest. This is the issue: Jesus is Prophet, Priest and King. He exhibited His role as a Prophet during the First Advent. Now the emphasis is not on His royal kingship, but on His priesthood. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek forever, according to Psalm 110:4 and the way it is used in Hebrews. This is the current phase; not a ruling, dominating phase of His kingship.
Slide 23
The future Messiah King will then defeat the enemies of Yahweh, Psalm 110:5 and following.
Slide 24
1. We are seated with Him, so we are awaiting the giving of the kingdom. We’re not in a spiritual form of the kingdom, we’re not trying to bring in the kingdom; we are waiting for the kingdom to be given to the Son.
2. Like Him, our role is to carry out our royal priesthood IN HIM, which involves a number of things including: intercession, our ambassadorship for Christ, and reconciliation, all related to our priesthood.
Slide 25
Psalm 68:16. This is simply a context psalm that was written as a commemoration of establishing the location of the Temple on the Temple Mount.
The first part of the psalm is a rehearsal of the way God has worked in the life of the nation Israel in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and into the land and conquest over their enemies. And finally bringing them to Mount Moriah, where the temple is built, giving David the victory over the Jebusites and conquering the then-Jebusite city, now called the City of David.
This Temple Mount is where the Ark of the Covenant will come to rest, so this psalm looks to that as a victory song of God’s ascent to the Temple Mount and making His home there.
When we get down to Psalm 68:18, the psalmist says, “You have ascended on high—that ascension, that march started with the Exodus and concludes with the establishment of the temple—You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives—that’s a reference in this passage to the Jews who were captives in Egypt, and He has made them His captives and brings them to Jerusalem and says—You have received gifts among men.”
This is one of those interesting passages where you have the New Testament writer, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, take an Old Testament passage that isn’t talking about in context what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 4, but it is similar, so it is used as an application.
In Matthew you have an example of the statement that there was weeping in Jerusalem, and that’s applied in Matthew 2 in relation to the death of the infants by Herod.
The event that is quoted in Jeremiah, doesn’t have the infants being killed but mothers weeping for their sons who are being taken off to captivity. It doesn’t have anything to do with what happens in Bethlehem when Herod had the infants slaughtered, but there is one point of similarity, and that is the weeping of the mothers. It’s not literal fulfillment like Micah 5:2, which says Jesus the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. There are different ways regarding fulfillment, as we’ve gone through in detail many times.
Slide 26
In Ephesians 4:7 Paul sees this comparison that just as you have a victory ascent of Yahweh to the Temple Mount, there is a victorious ascent of the Messiah to the right hand of the Father. But there’s a difference.
In the Psalm 68, which is what he is quoting here, it says when He ascended on high, “You received gifts among men.” But in Ephesians 4:8 Paul changes it and says, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
It’s the same kind of situation, but instead of receiving gifts, now when the Messiah ascends, He is not only sending the Holy Spirit, He’s giving gifts to men. In the context it talks about the leadership gifts of the Church: He gave prophets and apostles and evangelists and pastors and teachers. That’s the context of Ephesians 4:8, and we will talk about all the details of that when we get to Ephesians 4:7–10.
Slide 27
The next passage that needs to be pulled in here is from Daniel 7:9–10, 13–14. Turn in your Bibles to Daniel 7. This is a picture of what will happen in the future when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, stops sitting, when His enemies will be made His footstool.
In Daniel 7 we see a picture of these different kingdoms that will dominate earth history in the future. These are the kingdoms that represent the future:
The first is a historical stage that is completed now, but there is a future stage. There will be a revival of this Roman Empire during the Tribulation period, and it becomes the power base for the one who is called the Antichrist.
We see a picture of this in Daniel 7:9-10, “I kept looking—he has seen the panorama of these four kingdoms—I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat …” The Ancient of Days is God the Father, so you have two Persons indicated in this passage.
“… the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair like pure wool …” That’s similar to the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 1, but this is clearly not the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God the Father. “His throne is ablaze with flames, its wheels were burning fire …” This is very similar to the portrayal of the throne of God in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10.
“A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him. The court sat, and the books were opened.”
This is very similar to the scene in Revelation 4 and 5, but it is taking place at the end of the Tribulation period.
Slide 28
Daniel 7:13, “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming.” The First Person mentioned as the Ancient of Days, then He is approached by One like the Son of Man.
The title “Son of Man” that Jesus used comes from this passage. He was self-identifying with the Son of Man of Daniel 7:13 every time He used it. That was the favorite title that Jesus used of Himself in the Gospels—that He was the Son of Man.
“One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him—this is very similar to the scene of Revelation 5—and to Him was given dominion.”
He doesn’t have dominion now; He is seated with the Father. He doesn’t have that power, that authority, even though positionally He has been raised above all of the principalities and powers, it’s not bestowed upon Him. He is seated awaiting to be given His enemies.
“And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom—at that point—that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” All the previous kingdoms are destroyed.
Slide 29
This will be important background for Psalm 2, it is the pattern of what we see with the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of His coronation, which happens here. This is when He is given the kingdom; it comes from David.
We’ll see in Psalm 2 that there is a decree referenced, the decree of 2 Samuel 7:14, which is part of the Davidic Covenant, that He is declared to be the Son. This relates to David. With subsequent kings, Solomon, etc., they were anointed and crowned on the same day. Not so with David.
David was anointed when he was about 17, 18, 19 years of age, in 1 Samuel 16 towards the end. He is anointed to be king, and he’s even referred to a couple of times as king. But it’s a proleptic use—it’s talking about what he will be. It’s clear that David never refers to himself as king.
Saul is the king until he dies. We have various episodes where David could take Saul’s life, but he says, “I won’t because he is the Lord’s anointed.” He can’t interfere with that; he understood that. David is anointed then probably 7 to 10 years later, he finally is crowned king.
That is parallel. Jesus was anointed, as it were, at His baptism, but He is not crowned as King until He returns at the Second Coming. In between the ascension and the Second Coming, He is seated at the right hand of the Father awaiting the giving of the kingdom. The giving of that kingdom is described in Daniel 7:13–14.
At that time He is going to come back and take on the enemies of God, the kings of the earth. We’ll see that next time in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is one of the most often quoted Psalms in the New Testament; not as much a Psalm 110, but frequent.
We’re seeing a pattern here: the ascension; the Messiah is told to sit at the right hand of the Father. In Psalm 68, at the ascension He gives gifts. He gives the Holy Spirit, and He gives spiritual gifts.
In Daniel 7 He goes to the Ancient of Days, He’s given the kingdom, and then He comes to the earth and takes it by defeating the Antichrist and the false prophet and destroying the kingdom of man that dominates through the Tribulation period.
Next time we will look at Psalm 2 and tie all this together to see why it is important. This is the foundation for our spiritual life. It’s related to Christ’s priesthood. He’s a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. That’s the focus of the Session now, so we’re connected to that because in that priestly ministry, the focus is on reconciliation and proclaiming the message of reconciliation.
It’s related to intercession, praying for others, praying for the church, praying for one another. It is connected to our priestly ministry in teaching others about Jesus, carrying out the Great Commission. That’s the mission for the church today, and it ultimately culminates in our role as priest in the future kingdom, which means we have to be preparing today and training today by learning the Word and growing spiritually, so that we can fulfill our future role as priest to God in the Millennial Kingdom.
Closing Prayer
“Father, we thank You for this opportunity to go through these passages, to tie things together, to see the implications of so much that is here in the Scripture, that we can have a greater understanding of our role and responsibilities today in preparation for the future.
“There is so much confusion, so much distortion, so much bad interpretation of Scripture that there is often confusion over these things, and that confusion leads to a false view of the spiritual life and a false view of Christianity. Help us to understand the truth of Scripture, make it clear.
“Father, we pray that if there is anyone listening, anyone here that has never trusted in Christ as Savior, that they would understand that Jesus is the promised and prophesied Messiah from the Old Testament, that He fulfilled over a hundred prophecies in the first coming, that He died on the Cross for our sins, so that we could be saved from eternal condemnation, that we can have eternal life simply by trusting in Him, not our works, but His, and that all we have to do is look to Him as the One who saves us. We pray that that will be clear to those listening.
“Father, we pray these things in Christ’s name, amen.”