I had to fill in for a friend today in teaching Sunday School. I was teaching boys of the High School age and quite enjoyed it. I was to teach on what Jesus was doing after his resurrection. Oh we had some occasional side notes, but by and large, we stuck to the lesson and we had a great time.
Time for a side note from me. I love teaching. I just do. My family tells me that even behind the pulpit, I teach more than I preach. Maybe so. I love it though. There is nothing like seeing the “eureka moment” as I call it when someone finally gets it. I was even up later last night talking to a friend about Plato’s doctrine of the forms. (Dude. You know who you are. You’re awesome. Just want you to know that.) Was I tired today? Yeah. It was sure worth it though.
I say that though because one thing becomes clear if you do any teaching. You will learn more from teaching than your students do most likely. Such is the case of my blog. It was something that I’d “known” but there are times that you read something or hear something you’ve heard before and the reality of what it is hits you.
Now the first passage was the first one we read with the phrase, but I’m going to include all of them from the book of Hebrews. All quotations are from the NIV.
1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
8:1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
10:12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
When we read verse 3, I told the boys that there was a shocking phrase in that passage. None of them would have dreamed that I was telling them that it was “he sat down.” What did that mean? It meant one thing. It meant that Jesus sat down because the work he had was done.
What was his work? Purification for sins in the mission that he was on from the Father. Jesus has purified us. We are justified in his sight. The work is done. No longer does a sacrifice have to be offered. It is done for all time. He sat down waiting for his enemies to be made into his footstool.
Some of us are thinking that this is what we know, but I often ask of the things we know if we have realized them yet. Has the full meaning of what we believe hit home? Have we really realized that our sins are covered? Do we fully grasp the idea that Jesus’s work of redeeming us is done?
This is one reason I say we need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday and to each other. We can say “Well we already know the gospel.” Of course we do. Do we realize it yet though? Maybe one day when we are told of the love of God, we will see that God really does love us as we are.
For now though, look at those passages again. The Hebrews writer tells us this four different times in the same book. It’s obviously something he wanted us to grasp.
Maybe it’s time we did.