Heavenly Places
Sermon for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, year B
Bible reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
Wow – what is a preacher to do with this? This text is like an amazing kaleidoscope image – colours and patterns swirling before your eyes. It defies grammar!
It’s one long, crescendo-ing sentence, which does not really go anywhere, but circles round back on itself and looks at the same thing, God’s amazing plan of salvation in Christ, from different vantage points and describes different aspects of it. Paul’s words pile up like gold coins: blessings, destined, adopted, glory, grace, redemption, forgiveness, mystery, inheritance, counsel, might, truth, salvation. It builds up and ends in a boom, in verse 14 with those 6 words of doxology to the praise of his glory
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Paul defies grammar because he is describing something that defies human understanding. It is as if he has glimpsed behind the veil of this world and seen what is really happening behind the scenes, seen the spiritual forces at work that are shaping human history; the very workings of heaven.
In Ephesians, especially in this first amazing chapter, that’s exactly what Paul does. He tells us about the hidden reality of our lives, as God’s people. He takes the lid off eternity and shows us inside. And as he tries describe this mystery (here in today’s text and in this whole letter) there’s so much we could focus on, but today I want to draw out one aspect, and look a word Paul uses over and over again in this letter, and which appears right at the beginning of this text, in verse 3: He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places.
Heavenly places? Where does he mean? Where are these heavenly places?
This word appears 5 times in Ephesians. Here in verse 3, then later in chapter 1, in verse 20 he talks about how we share in Christ’s glorious inheritance, as the one who sits at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly places. And in the next chapter, chapter 2, in verse 6, he says we have already been “raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places”.
These “heavenly places” are clearly not just in heaven itself, but in fact extend right into and overlap with our lives here and now on earth – all around us and within us, the hidden reality of Christ and his work going on in your life. Without even knowing it, we live in these heavenly places.
Many Christians struggle to see God’s work in their lives. And I have sometimes struggled to see it myself too. And I have come to understand that this is common to most if not all Christians. We believe what scripture teaches; that we are God’s holy people and that the Holy Spirit is active in us and our lives, and yet (let’s face it) we find our own lives to be full of sin and selfishness. It doesn’t seem very heavenly.
We believe, on one hand, that God has saved us and chosen us and loves us, but sometimes we feel the opposite – worthless, unloved, guilty, at times perhaps even that God has forgotten us.
We hear that our work in the church is not in vain and that God is using us, but very often we do not see much in the way of results, not results we can measure anyway.
What we experience in our own lives does not seem to add up with what God says about our lives.
This happens to us because we forget that what we see and experience in life is only part of the picture. There’s something happening alongside the earthly reality we perceive with our natural senses.
In, with and under the stories of our ordinary lives is another story, a much larger story, an eternal story, Christ’s story. And we are, here and now, caught up in it. That’s what this first chapter of Ephesians is about, and that’s Paul’s message to us.
Here on earth, we are living in heavenly places. Christ has already begun his glorious reign as king and Lord, in this world, in you and me. As Paul says here, we live our heavenly lives under God’s grace, grace that is lavished on us, poured out day by day. We are adopted and included in God’s family, and have royal status alongside Jesus himself, and share in this glory.
And so unseen, yet just as real as anything we can see or touch, God is continually moving in our lives and doing his work with us and in us, calling us, enlightening us, making us holy; often very gently, but also very powerfully, teaching us and guiding us in our words and actions with his Spirit, even though we may not even be conscious of it.
You could say that it’s like the programs that run in the background on your computer that allow you to do the tasks you want to you. You don’t see this or become aware of it that often, but it is going on the whole time. In this same way, to a large extent, God’s hidden yet all important work is going on in our lives. Heaven has reached out to take over our lives, which are now heavenly places.
And the wonderful thing is, and I wonder if you noticed this in this text, Paul reports that this extraordinary reality not as something to come, something we have to wait for or hope for, or even achieve for ourselves, but something already accomplished:
- God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
- He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
- He destined us for adoption as sons and daughters
- We have redemption through Christ’s blood.
- He has lavished the riches of his grace upon us, and our sins have been forgiven.
- His grace has been freely bestowed on us
- He has made known to us the mystery of his will.
And there are four more that you can check out for yourself.
The point is that eternal life has already begun, and in fact it has been going on for some time. Since the day of your baptism, when you were sealed with Holy Spirit as Paul says in verse 13, you have been living heavenly lives here on earth.
Because we are in Christ, wherever we are is a heavenly place – a place where Christ has been crucified and raised, and where his glory dwells. Hidden in you and in your ordinary daily life – sitting in your car, sitting in church, working, taking your kids to school, doing the dishes – is the majesty of Christ’s mighty power, the mystery of the gospel, the power that raised Jesus from death; the power that loves, serves, gives, suffers, endures, rejoices.
And here again this evening, in this heavenly place, hidden under ordinary words, and ordinary bread and wine, Jesus is unfolding and making known the mystery of his hidden work in this world, blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, so that we may live our lives to the praise of his glory.