Hebrews 9:24-28
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer Himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then He would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.
Every Easter, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I don’t think we’ll ever fully fathom what happened during Jesus’ suffering and death—though we preachers preach on it extensively—but we do know what Jesus did was amazing. Jesus chose to step down from His throne to suffer and die for you, and to rise from the dead for you three days later.
And now, He is reigning at the right hand of the Father. The right hand of the Father is not exactly a physical location, as the Father does not have a physical body. It is a description of Jesus’ authority. A person described as being the right hand of a king is to say this person exercises the authority of the king. Thus, by Jesus ruling at the right hand of the Father, this means Jesus reigns with authority equal to the Father, hence Jesus’ words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18).
We are also obsessed with the end times. We are fascinated with end time dates. False prophets predict exact dates for Jesus’ return. Many Christians say, “We are in the end times! More so than a few decades ago!” Ridiculous. The apostolic writers, including the Hebrews author here, understood the end times to have started with Jesus’ death and resurrection. We have been in the end times for over 2,000 years now. It is during these end times that Christ is in the presence of God the Father on our behalf.
Thus, prayers to dead saints are pointless, since Christ is in God’s presence specifically for your sake. And the Catholic notion that Christ is continually re-sacrificed during their Mass is disproved here, for He already suffered and died—once for all, “offered once to bear the sins of many.”
This is why you ought to never fret, for Christ stands before God the Father on your behalf, declaring your blamelessness by faith because of what He has done for you.
The Lutheran Column 