I preached on the last part of Ephesians 6 last Sunday night and was asked a question about what and where are the heavenly places.
I’m still thinking about it and so this is my brief response. I’d love your thoughts on how to flesh this out.
The heavenly places is a description of the spiritual realm. It’s also where Jesus is now. Looking back over Ephesians and we see it mentioned in 1.3; 1.20; 2.6; 3.10 and 6.12. It describes the spiritual realm in which we’ve received spiritual blessings (1.3), where Jesus is now seated (1.20; 2.6) and where the rulers and authorities dwell (3.10; 6.12).
It’s not a place you can find on Google maps, but a real place where real activity takes place. We must make sure we don’t dismiss the spiritual aspect to reality that Paul clearly talks about.
At evening church we’ve been looking at Ephesians and last night I preached on Ephesians 3.14-21. It’s a fantastic prayer asking God to change us from the inside out to make us a more suitable dwelling place for him. I had a question on the tear off slips asking about whether we can be fit for God to live in us and thought I’d share my response to a wider audience.
I think the prayer in Eph 3.16-17 is that we continually be made a more and more suitable dwelling place for God (see also Eph 2.22). This means that though God’s Spirit now lives in us, he is continuing to change and shape us to be more like Christ. ie filled with the fullness of God (3.19).
Does it mean we can be perfect? No. I don’t think so. I do think we will be made perfect on the last day. However, in the meantime, we are to keep praying that God keep changing us.
Can we fully comprehend Christ’s love? Again, I don’t think so. However, we grow and mature as Christians, as we appreciate and know better his love for us.
It is the love of Christ that will motivate us to seek to be more like Christ. It is the love of Christ that will drive us to more prayerful dependence on God. And, it is the love of Christ that will drive us to want God to be glorified in all things.
PS I thought about blogging about the sermon after reading a Sydney Anglican article on exactly that.