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