C, Last Sunday of Church Year Proper 29 - Luke 19:11-27 "Faithful Banking: Repentance and Forgiveness"

Jesus telling the parable of the ten minas.  A mina was about three months’ wages for a labourer, weighed out in precious metal.   

Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable in the home of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, after calling him down from a sycamore tree so he could stay at his house.  Because Zacchaeus was a “chief” of tax collectors, he was in charge of gathering taxes from Jews across a city or district.  He likely had other collectors working under him.  Not only was he a chief tax collector, he was rich,  but Zacchaeus was also a Jew.

Tax collectors were not liked by the Jews, because being tax farmers of fortune for Rome, they were seen to be traitors by their fellow Jews.  Roman authorities would have set quotas over areas that the collectors would have to fill. When Rome came calling for the quota, regardless of what you collected, it had to be paid in full. If you hadn’t collected enough, the difference would come out of your pocket.   So, you can understand that if this responsibility was placed upon you to fill the quota, adding extra would be in your best interest, so as not to be bankrupted by not collecting enough tax. 

But if you were the one paying the tax, seeing extra tax possibly banked by your local tax collector who then passes on his quota to the chief tax collector, who also has added an extra increment to his collection, the whole system would seem to stink from double-crossing scandalous pocket-lining crooks.  Therefore, a Jew collecting revenue for their Roman oppressors was viewed by the Jews as sinful and corrupt.  They were banking in badness, and it made these tax collectors rich.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and he was rich.  Yet when Jesus went to pass by the tree Zacchaeus climbed up to see him, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:5 ESV) When the pharisees and scribes saw Jesus go and stay with Zacchaeus at his house it is reported, “when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7 ESV)

However, Zacchaeus, a little man in stature, stood and confesses before the Lord that he was giving half his goods to the poor and repaying anyone he defrauded fourfold.  Since he was a chief tax collector, this could have been anyone who was cheated by other tax collectors under him too. 

It’s interesting to note that Zacchaeus’ name, a Hebrew name, comes from a Hebrew word meaning pure or to be made pure, to be transparent or clean, or made such!  Notice Zacchaeus didn’t seek to justify himself or his wealth, which one might understand him doing, since if not banking enough taxes for the Romans, he would have had to find it himself.

Regardless of whether he was an “honest tax collector” or being made clean in his interaction with Jesus, Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:9 ESV)

This then is the lens through which we can understand Jesus’ parable before us today, the last Sunday in the church year that calls each of us to see on whom or what we’re banking, knowing Jesus is returning when we die or in a special earth-ending event.

That’s why we hear Jesus tell the parable, “Because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.” (Luke 19:11 ESV)

Therefore, Jesus says, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’” (Luke 19:12–14 ESV)

The parable begins with the nobleman, his servants, and citizens who hated him.  In the house of Zacchaeus this is the chief tax collector, his collectors under him, and the Jews from whom they collected tax.  But Jesus calls him a nobleman now having been made pure, or being transparent through his confession to become a banker of honesty and truth.

Jesus here also speaks of himself having been sent by God the Father to receive a kingdom through the cross and then return to the right hand of the Father.  However, the Jews did not understand this and only those who received the Holy Spirit would understand and believe this after the fact.

Like Zacchaeus, whose name means pure and transparent, Jesus is the chief tax collector.  However, a monetary tax is not the commodity in which Jesus banks.  Jesus banks on repentance and forgiveness with sinners.  Jesus is the chief collector of human sin so he can bank it at the cross for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. 

The citizens in the parable are the Jewish pharisees and scribes, or anyone who does not see their own sin and refuses to repent or forgive those who have sinned against them.  Therefore, the parable is for us too.  Jesus is the chief collector, and he has collectors from those who operate under his authority.  But it’s not a collection of tax, rather it’s a collection of sin through repentance and forgiveness. Therefore, Jesus opposes those who are not banking on and building his kingdom through the call to repentance from sin and the faithful forgiveness of sin.

Jeremiah speaks of Jesus when he says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV)

And of the shepherds who don’t bank in the righteous branch he says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1–2 ESV)

In the parable, Jesus says of those citizens who refuse to bank in his righteousness of repentance and forgiveness, “But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.” (Luke 19:27 ESV)

This is a warning to all pastors and parishioners who don’t bank on Jesus, the righteous branch, and his commodities of receiving the call to repent and the freedom of giving the forgiveness of sin.  

Paul, another type of Zacchaeus, a pharisee who was made transparent and pure by Jesus Christ, says to the church in Colossae, “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9–14 ESV)

Jesus the chief collector of sin banks on you receiving redemption, that is repentance and the forgiveness of sin.  Jesus is the banker of light and seeks to remove the darkness from within you. In his kingdom of light, your inheritance is light, the gift of being made pure through receiving repentance and faithfully forgiving sin.

How much has Jesus invested in you?  He wants to lodge with you today, to purify and cleanse you like Zacchaeus!  He calls you to engage in business with what he has given you.  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to bring a return through repentance and forgiveness, tenfold, fivefold, or even a percentage above what you’ve been given?   

Like Zacchaeus, are you rich in the reception of repentance, transparent in truth, and faithful in forgiving others?  Or are you holding and hiding what God has given you?  If so, Jesus questions you through the parable, “Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?” Luke 19:23 (ESV)

God is calling us to be collectors under the chief tax collector, fulfilling his will on earth that he has fulfilled in heaven.  That is, he wants you to forgive others as he has forgiven you.  This is truly banking on Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, a peaceful life today, and the joy of salvation on the last day. 

Banking on receiving repentance and faithfully forgiving continues the collection and nullification of sin, and it’s the only way one can have true peace in the Lord, now and forever, Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, send the Holy Spirit to break our stony hearts so we welcome and receive your rewards of repentance and free faithful forgiveness.  When we don’t bank on these with each other, help us flee to the foot of the cross and demand of the Holy Spirit a heart to forgive as the Lord Jesus has forgiven us. Amen.

C, Post Pentecost 23 Proper 28 - Luke 21:5-19 "Eternal Endurance"

In the gospel reading before us today, Jesus speaks of the temple in Jerusalem and its desolation.  But not only its demise through destruction but also the collapse of creation in future events of chaos!

When what we know and have depended upon for everyday life disintegrates, the restless hearts of humanity will boil over with fear and horrors that history hasn’t even experienced.  The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple—a place where heaven met earth and God dwelt with man—all those years ago in 70 AD, stands as a reminder and warning to us that the collapse of creation is coming. 

God says, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” (Isaiah 65:17–19 ESV)

However, the hearts of those who elevated their created surroundings into their hope were overcome with unquenchable anguish.  Those who lift up this life as their heavenly paradise are heading for devastation just like the temple.

In stark contrast to these terminal times is the enduring name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He is the new temple.  Through him, heaven meets earth.  He is created like you and me, but he is also eternally begotten.  Not only did he have a human beginning, conceived in the womb of a woman, God the Son has always been there eternally enduring with our Heavenly Father.

Like the temple in Jerusalem, we find a place with God in Jesus’ person.  No longer do we need to have our sin atoned for in the sacrifice at the temple with the spilling of animals’ blood, but we’ve had his blood spilt for us.  The temple of his body was bludgeoned, beaten, and bled; left like temple rubble was Jesus dead on the cross.

We know the temple in Jerusalem has never been rebuilt and will never be resurrected.  Nevertheless, Jesus has!  He lives and rules eternally at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  We also know Jesus lives and rules eternally in the hearts of those who allow the Holy Spirit to create life-giving faith.

As the walls of Jerusalem’s temple crumbled and Jesus’ days on earth ended in chaos, we can expect the same thing to happen to us.  As creation shows its signs of coming down, those living in Christ will increasingly be handed over to torturous times.

Human spirituality will increase, as people look for answers.  Those who are faithful to Christ and his word will be rejected by those seeking spirituality in fruitless idols. Those led by the Holy Spirit will get the blame when temporary human temples tumble down.

This includes “so-called” Christian people too.   Many who call themselves Christian, in whom Christ is temple-ing through Holy Baptism, will cast him out of the temple of the human body, perishing through delusion and deception. They will be caught up chasing myths, whipped into uncontrollable frenzies by mob mentality. In fact, some of the greatest attacks against Jesus Christ and his faithful, will come from within the ranks of dysfunctional church institutions.

Like Judas Iscariot, there will be those who act towards the faithful, as he did towards Jesus Christ. With Christ one minute, then against him the next.  There’ll be those who worship Jesus with us one day, and then the next, turn on us and hand us over to all types of torture, just as Jesus was, and the countless martyrs have been since.

As the true church of Jesus Christ is moved by the Holy Spirit to be God’s mouthpiece, it’s not going to win any favours from the those whose idols are exposed by the light of the truth!  However, when the world is shaken, and you begin to witness horrors happening around you, to you,  know the end is drawing near.

Jesus tells us not to be afraid, not to go after those who come seeking to stand in Christ’s place, or who seek to bully you with fear and dread.   Jesus calls you and all who believe to stand firm in what our help really is.  And our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. 

Confess your sins and call on the name of the Lord, and he will forgive the guilt of your sin.  In fact, you will only endure in him, his word, his flesh, enabled by the Holy Spirit, who will fire faith within.  He will empower you with endurance as the day of death destroys all temporary goods and evils.

You might wonder how you might survive these dreadful days!  These times are here and have been here ever since Christ ascended into heaven — the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost.   From when the Jewish temple was sacked in Jerusalem in AD 70, and every temple and idol God has allowed destruction of since! 

These times of chaos and destruction also come to us individually in our death.  One day there will be a final event on earth, but for many, we’ll be faced with the destruction of our mortal frame first, just as the temple was destroyed and so too was Christ, on the cross.

But those who live in the body of Christ are adorned with the nobility and eternal beauty of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in the faith he gives.  Just like one who loves living in the light continues in the upkeep of the candle or the wick, those who allow Jesus Christ to be lifted up as their Saviour, will be lifted up in faith, hope, and love towards him. 

True believers will want to be in Jesus’ presence face to face in the warmth of his love, so they allow the enduring fuel of the Holy Spirit — faith, to burn within.  For them it’s no longer the temple of the human frame primarily important, but he who lives within making it a holy temple of the Lord.

So, it won’t be a surprise when others hate you for not upholding the righteousness they believe to be beneficial.  They won’t like hearing about the truth of our darkness as we confess our sins to the Lord. They will seek to deceive you and make you doubt Christ rather than enlighten you with the word for hope.  Why?  Because the true light of Christ threatens to expose their pleasure in their unrighteousness.

If you’re wondering if you’re one within the ranks of Christ, know you are when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to repentance, returning you to Jesus’ righteousness, rather than a righteousness of your own. Trust Jesus is — the only way, the only truth, and the only life! 

When the struggle is real and it’s before you, Jesus promises, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness.  Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.  You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:13–19 ESV)

Hear what’s happening!  Some may be put to death, but not a hair of the head will perish!  Holy Spirit assisted endurance gains life.  In faithfulness to death, you gain true life!  Just as Jesus endured by the will of the Father, enduring in the Holy Spirit, and knowing full well he would die, we too can endure, knowing full well we too will die.  But like Jesus, death will have no hold over us, your death will be a restoration to whom you were always meant to be, not one hair of the head will perish.  Some of us might even get a few head hairs back, and some lose a few hairs from where they shouldn’t be growing!

In fact, even today as God allows the idols and temples of your heart to be destroyed, he is calling you to endure in the joy and love of having your sinful self, daily drowned in repentance, having all your righteousness die, so Christ might fulfil all righteousness within you. 

As you notice the kingdoms and nations raging, the earth shaking, and the hatred of those against Christ directed towards you, know that death has already been dealt its death in you, because having been buried with him in baptism …you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12 ESV)

In other words, what now can truly harm you?  Nothing, when you allow him to daily raise you through repentance in faith!  And in the true faith that God gives, he will faithfully fill you with peace, joy, and love. 

Do you realise hell is for Satan and his angels!  It’s not meant for humans! God's will for humanity is to daily raise and recreate within us the new enduring eternal nature of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says, “But when all these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28 ESV)  God is working in you, enduring in you, with the holy goal that you gain your eternal life in him.  Amen. 

C, Post Pentecost 22 Proper 27 - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 "Thessalonica"

Paul writes two letters to the Thessalonians. It’s recognised that these two letters were Paul’s first, written in AD 51.

If we assume Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension occurred in AD 33, Paul writes these letters to the Thessalonians eighteen years after Jesus ascended to the right hand of our Father in heaven.

In today’s Epistle reading we hear Paul warn and comfort the church in Thessalonica over false letters shaking and alarming hearers that Jesus had already come a second time. Paul calls them not to be deceived in any way, but the reason and reality for why they shouldn’t be misled was no calming bedtime story either.

Paul says, “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:1–5 ESV)

Thessalonica sat on a major trade route, the Egnatian Way, that linked to Asia Minor through Byzantium, later called Constantinople, known today as Istanbul, then onto the Silk Highway to China. And to the west across Macedonia to the north of the Aegean Sea and onto Rome and what is Europe today. Sitting on the major trade route, Thessalonica was a hotbed of ideas and information which moved to and fro amongst the people who travelled “Via Egnatia”. No doubt these conversations likely conveyed many evolving half-truths, as you could imagine!

Then there was a synagogue of Jews, where Paul first preached the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many of these Jews were jealous when Paul reasoned Christ’s necessity from the Scriptures, especially when some Jews became converts along with many Greek men and women. In their jealousy they formed a lawless mob and attacked the house of Jason and other believing brothers. Even after Paul was sent off to Berea by the brothers, these jealous Jews followed and agitated against Paul and the gospel in Berea too. (See Acts 17:1–15)

In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica Paul speaks of this strife, “We had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:2b–4 ESV)

In his second letter, after Paul calls the Thessalonian church not to be deceived in any way by any spirit, he speaks of a coming rebellion, the revelation of a man of lawlessness — the son of destruction, and one who is a restrainer.

The rebellion is apostasy — the falling away from God and his word. Apostates and rebels are those who stand off from God, no longer trusting his word — abandoning the Holy Spirit and the faith he gives, in favour of another spirit or word. These are those spirits and words by whom Paul warns the Thessalonians not to be deceived.

With this rebellion Paul warns of a man of lawlessness. Who is this person? He is “the son of destruction”. This is a Hebrew expression, and Jesus first uses it in his high priestly prayer to refer to Judas Iscariot. Jesus prays to the Father, “I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12b ESV)

Any person who is without the law, a lawbreaker, one who commits wickedness without shame or regret, is a son of destruction, is a man of lawlessness. Opposite to Jesus Christ, he is an individual, “who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4 ESV)

The Apostle John refers to the lawless one as the antichrist. This person is not anointed by God, which is what Christ means. Rather they’re against God, taking the place of God. The man of lawlessness does not uphold the law of God, but ignores the law, so a contrary gospel of untruths and hidden programmes might further an antichrist’s agenda.

In his first Epistle, John says, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18 ESV)

Also, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22 ESV)

“…and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:3 ESV)

Then in his second Epistle John says, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 7 ESV)

Who is this antichrist? In the early church some labelled Caesar and Roman authority as the antichrist. Early Church fathers named it as the next authority to succeed the Roman empire.

Later on, in the Middle Ages Franciscans and some theologians identified the Pope as the Antichrist. Then some said the antichrist was the coming of the Turks with the threat of Islam to Europe. Lutheran doctrine labels Papal and Muslim doctrine as “marks of the antichrist”.

This seems compelling since the Vatican Library now has granted Muslims a prayer room. Also, King Charles, head of the Church of England, prayed recently with the Pope. He is known for his universalism rather than for being “The Defender of the Faith” as was Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors. So, it’s not a surprise the Papacy and leaders lend themselves to being labelled as the antichrist.

Nevertheless, as John has told us there are many antichrists, or persons of lawlessness, both male and female. So, the man of lawlessness can be an individual or individuals who do not uphold Jesus Christ, fulfiller of the law for us, but denies the law and he who came to put us right under the law by becoming our sacrifice.

The reality is any person can be an antichrist, when they put forward a gospel that does not promote Jesus Christ, Son of God, to reconcile us from our anti-God sinful antics. Or, those who inhibit the Holy Spirit from leading us to Jesus. So, it’s not hard for anyone to understand this occurred in the temple and it still occurs in God’s church where parishioners, pastors, presidents, bishops, and popes across Christendom seek to oppose and exalt themselves, not only against Christ and God’s kingdom, but over the kingdoms and idols of the world too.

What may or may not come as a surprise to you is that Paul needs to warn the Thessalonians just eighteen years after Jesus’ ascension. It’s no wonder Jesus said while being led to the cross, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28, 31 ESV)

The wood was barely dry in AD 51 when Paul warned the Thessalonian church! How dry is it in 2025 after so many spirits inside the church of God, trick people into turning away from Jesus Christ, rather than encourage God’s people to test the spirits. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not hocus pocus; this is as real as Jesus’ death and resurrection — as real as heaven and hell!

Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognise them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15–16a ESV)

Wake up to the reality of this revelation in God’s word! The man of lawlessness, many antichrists, and rebellions or apostasy occur in the Church since the resurrection — it’s still happening before us today! 

But there is good news for the faithful hidden in the denominations who wait on Jesus Christ. Take comfort in what Paul says to the church in Thessalonica, that those who mysteriously work the will of lawlessness under Satan are being restrained. The power of evil is over in all creation at the cross, and on earth where it continues, it does so, restrained with limited power. It’s God’s will to restrain rebellion and apostasy through various means, and he does so for the sake of his saints.

Know that those who succumb to the false signs of Satan and wonders in the world, “God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11–12 ESV)

Hear that those who endure under Jesus Christ, do so knowing, “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8 ESV)

Therefore, as the church in Thessalonica did, endure in Saint Paul’s gospel promise, “because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13–15 ESV)

Amen.

C, Commemoration of All Saints - Luke 6:20-31 Ephesians 1:11-23 "Your Heavenly Place"

What is your heavenly place?  This was the question on the minds of those in the Church at Ephesus. Paul writes to the congregation; this is his letter to the Ephesians.

He contends with the believers in Ephesus, who were tempted to believe they were missing out on their heavenly place, as Ephesus was the site of the pagan temple to Artemis, where the heavens had apparently fallen to earth.

Paul had left Ephesus after three years, following a commotion that was only calmed by the town clerk, who said:

“Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.” (Acts 19:35–36 ESV)

After Ephesus had settled, Paul encouraged the disciples of the Ephesian church and departed. Yet he wrote to them because their hearts were far from calm. He also wrote to Timothy after writing to the congregation, to refocus Timothy, who was unsettled as well.

Where was their heavenly place? Was it back in the synagogue, following the works of the law? No! The curtain of the temple in Jerusalem had long since been torn.

God was now present among his people. He was Immanuel, God with us, in Jesus Christ—risen from the dead, ascended into the hidden heavenly place at the right hand of the Father. Through faith, the living saints join the resurrected saints together with the whole company of heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the body of Christ, his church in God’s holy heavenly place now.

Where was their heavenly place? Was it where heaven supposedly fell to earth? Where the gods sent Artemis, where the sacred stone fell, where the Ephesian church saw the pagan temple thrive with crowds gathering from all over Asia and beyond? Where the world worshipped the goddess, led by her priests and priestesses?  No! This was not the heavenly place either.

From the outset of his letter, Paul points to and proclaims God the Father and his heavenly place. He says:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places … as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:3, 10 ESV)

Paul proclaims that the heavenly place was where the church was now—where they received and believed their inheritance and their predestination. Where men, women, and children were adopted as sons through Jesus Christ’s Sonship.

This occurred when they heard the word of truth, which uncovers everything and keeps nothing hidden, and the gospel of salvation, which they heard, exchanging these truths through the richness of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, in their personal redemption through believing the sacrificial blood of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

Where is your heavenly place? It is the same place! It is here and now, in the heavenly place of hearing the word of truth, which uncovers the whole truth, which calls for the exchange of these truths with repentance, and the gift of forgiveness through confession, glorifying the goodness of a merciful God.

With the Ephesians, we are encouraged by Paul to hold onto this heavenly place. He says: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–6 ESV)

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, seated in the heavenly place, and we too are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You are in God the Father’s family, today and forever.

Like Paul, you are encouraged to kneel before the Father in prayer, to combat the rulers and authorities in the deceptive heavenly places that hide the truth—the false heavenly places of this world. These are the powers and principles of people, no different from those the church in Ephesus struggled with and were tempted to adopt, over against the adoption and fatherhood of our Heavenly Father.

Instead of bowing to these false gods, these authorities and principalities of half-truths and hiddenness, Paul bows to God the Father, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” (Ephesians 3:15 ESV)

Having descended into the depths of hell and ascended to the right hand of God, Jesus is, “far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4:14b ESV)

Paul points out to the church in Ephesus: if one is led—or leads others—to a “so-called” heavenly place, and it is not where Jesus is, then one has not been led there by the Holy Spirit, but by the authorities and principalities governing human powers and principles, or directly by the forces of evil that control others. He calls those who wish to remain in Christ’s strength to: “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:11–12 ESV)

Today we hear the Lukan Beatitudes. Unlike Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus teaches at the Sermon on the Mount, here Jesus teaches at the Sermon on the Plain. In Luke’s account, Jesus speaks of blessings and woes. These blessings and woes give a clear picture of two heavenly places.

The blessings are the reality one receives when the Holy Spirit helps a person follow Jesus Christ and the way of the cross, to his heavenly place. The woes are the reality one receives when they follow the powers and passions of the human heart, and the spiritual forces of evil into the “so-called” heavenly places.

Four blessings and four woes. Where is your heavenly place?

Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil on account of the Son of Man.

It’s understandable that the church in Ephesus, and Christians today, would be tempted by the woes. The desire to be rich, to be full without hunger, to laugh, to be wanted and praised by others—this sounds like what all of us want.

No doubt the church in Ephesus saw many favour “the devil they knew”, returning to the synagogue.  Some were tempted by the pagan mob to indulge their pleasures at the “heavenly place” where everyone else was going, the pagan temple at the top of town!

However, as it was then in Ephesus, so it is today. The heavenly place that seems easy, that seems too good to be true, is too good to be true. In fact, it is not true or good at all. The powers and principalities at work promote eudaimonic pleasure—that is, “happy spirits” or “good demons” of pleasure—only to deliver eternal pain.

The true heavenly place may seem a sad and sorry place. But it’s veiled and seen only by those who have faith. One needs the Holy Spirit to look past wealth, fullness, laughter, and the shallow pleasures of false fellowship.

The question everyone must answer for themselves—the same question the saints had to answer, the same question those in hell had to answer—is this: What heavenly place do you want?

It was Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus, it’s also my prayer, and it’s God will for your prayer too—for all the saints God has hidden within the denominations of Christendom: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:17–18 ESV)

In other words, that the Holy Spirit would give you the eyes of faith, to look past human passions—deceptive at best—and to seek holiness in God’s promise: a holy, eternal kingdom; enduring satisfaction; laughter that never sours; and the promised reward, finally revealed on the great day of the resurrection. Unlike those who will weep and mourn when they lose the perishable goods in which they trust today.

Allow the Holy Spirit to give you a discerning heart, to see the shallowness of human goods and the evidence of all hidden evils, of self, of others, and of the evil one. But even more, allow the Holy Spirit to work in you a knowledge of Jesus Christ, so that you wait on him and the coming of his kingdom.

Amen.