Where Jesus Is

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:3).

Where is Jesus that we should be with Him? (Acts 1:9-11) Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Luke 24 51 affirms this. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.

Mark 16:19 states He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. Is this to be taken literally or metaphorically? The concept is an anthropomorphism - a spiritual reality conveyed in human terms so that the reality can be understood. To understand God and how creation relates to Him, Scripture has to use anthropomorphic terms. Heaven is a real place. God the Father is a real person. However, He is spirit and has no physical form (John 4:24). Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven in a physical, glorified body. For Jesus to be seated at the right hand of God simply means that He has been exalted to a position of honor and power in the heavens. To be at the right hand of a king was the highest position of honor a person could obtain. So, to be seated at the right hand of God means that Jesus is exalted to the highest honor of the universe. 1 Peter 3:22 states that Jesus has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18).

Also note that He is ‘seated’ or has ‘sat down’ at God’s right hand. This is the position of retirement. It signifies that Jesus has completed all that the Father has assigned Him. In other texts we read that Jesus ‘stands’ at the right hand of God. This is the position of activity. Acts 7:55-56 states that as Stephen was being stoned (executed) he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” At that moment, Jesus was in heaven attending the execution of Stephen, and stood to receive his soul upon his death. 

King David said in the Spirit, The LORD (Yahweh, God the Father) said to my Lord (Adonai, the Lord Christ), “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool (Psalm 110:1). In Matthew 22:43–45, Jesus applied this psalm to Himself, claiming that He is more than the Son of David, but He is David’s Lord, seated at the right hand of God in heaven.

It is to heaven that all of the saints go when they leave this life in death (2 Corinthians 5:8). It is to heaven that Jesus prayed we would be with Him (John 17:24). And so we shall. Amen.

Pastor