[AI translation] According to the Bible reading guide that most of us in this congregation use to read the Bible, we are now reading Ephesians. Throughout the letter, there is a train of thought that centers around a particular word, a word that occurs five times in the letter. I will read from different parts of the letter the five verses where you find where the same word occurs: 'Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ' (Eph 1:3) 'Which He showed in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heaven. He is above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come." (Ephesians 1:20-21) "And he has been raised up together and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2,6) "That the manifold wisdom of God might be made known now unto the principalities and powers in heaven by the church." (Eph 3,10) "For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the world judges of the darkness of this life, against the spirits of wickedness which are in high places." (Eph 6,12)The one word that occurs in all five verses is this: in heaven. You could say: it is the key word of the whole letter. And the five verses read are the thread on which the pearls of the letter are strung. Here we have very practical guidance, information for the practice, the struggle, the victory and the glory of the Christian life. What does this word, this key word, which occurs five times, mean: in heaven? We must first clarify this in order to be well informed. Every general must know exactly the territory, the roads, the sources of supply, the possibility of contact with them, the strength of the enemy. Well, the Bible teaches that we are on earth, and our Lord is in the highest heaven, and much of the intervening territory is occupied by the enemy, Satan, with his armies. So, our prayers to the Lord, our pleas for help, are coming through such enemy territory, our blessings, gifts, help from the Lord are coming through such enemy territory. Well, it is in these mysterious things that God gives us instruction in Ephesians.
First of all, let's establish that the Bible says heaven is a specific place! To write it down, it would probably be more appropriate to write it in capital letters, like Budapest, Lake Balaton, or Hungary. There is no way to characterize this concept in the Bible. If heaven is not some physical, material place, then the bodily resurrection of Christ cannot be a reality. On Easter morning, our Lord was resurrected in the same body in which he died - albeit a glorified body. But if he was raised bodily, where is the body in which he was raised? After his resurrection he himself said to his disciples, 'See my hands and my feet, that I am I myself: touch me, and see; for the Spirit has neither flesh nor bones, as you see that I have. And saying these things, he shewed them his hands and his feet." (Lk 24,39-40) And where is this touchable body now? He would ascend into heaven, the Christian creed affirms, according to the testimony of Scripture. It says that he was lifted up before the disciples "And as they looked up to heaven, when he was going away, behold, two men in white stood by them, saying, Men of Galilee, why do ye look up to heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, is coming in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11). "To heaven, to heaven, to heaven, to heaven"! Here is the centre of our whole Christian consciousness, our thinking: heaven! Here is the source of our whole life and all our strength. The Lord, whom we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands - the witnesses testify - has gone up, is above, and now we must direct all our thoughts there, we must live from there, we are from heaven here on earth.
But let us look further at the concept of heaven. The Bible almost always speaks of it in the plural, like this: heavens! And that means that heaven - this real place - is not a one-plane thing. God "raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heaven. Above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come" (Eph 1,21) Above: in the original text it says: high above! It follows that there is one higher above, or one lower below. So our Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven above! And the principalities, powers, powers and dominions that Christ has been exalted above - that is, Satan and his hosts - are in the lower heavens, and the earth is even lower below. The Epistle to the Ephesians is almost a map of the secret way, the path, which leads through the hostile territory to the holy of holies, and is the revelation, the revelation of the channels through which the blessings from on high pour forth, reaching us on earth.
There is reference in the Bible to the sacred tabernacle made by Moses being made in the pattern of the heavenly things. "As God said to Moses, when he was about to finish the tabernacle, 'See,' he says, 'that you make all things according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.'" (Heb 8:5) There are three parts to the holy tabernacle: the outer court, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies. The Bible repeatedly refers to heaven as a place with three planes. The apostle Paul also speaks of the rapture to the third heaven. The holy of holies, the heaven of heavens, the highest heaven, the third heaven: the heaven of the throne of the living God, above the lower heavens, where principalities and powers, powers and dominions, dwell, and keep the way to the throne of grace occupied, and seek to prevent the outflow of blessings from thence to us. So here, in the highest heaven, Christ was exalted and seated at the right hand of God the Father. That is, our Lord is in the highest heaven, we on earth, and between us, in the lower heavens, the hostile powers of our souls swarm!
This is what the Scripture refers to, "For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the judges of the darkness of this life, against the spirits of wickedness which are in high places." (Eph 6,12) In the original text, the word for Satan's powers here is the same word as translated in the previous verses, the word in heaven. But here it is as if he had shied away from what he had found, and as if he had not dared to express that Satan's powers are also in heaven. But even so, the Hungarian text expresses the fact that, in relation to us, it is a question of higher regions, but in relation to the heaven to which Christ was raised, it is a question of lower spheres. Let us not forget that Lucifer was created in heaven, that the first rebellion and sin among the angels took place in heaven, and that the region of the spiritual activity of the fallen angels is also in heaven. From heaven, from this lower heaven, Satan rules on earth. That is why Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, as we know from revelation, had to go into heaven, by the power of His sacrificial blood, to cleanse heaven also, because sin has defiled heaven and the higher regions above the earth, just as it has defiled the earth. Just as there is a cosmic effect of sin's corruption, so there will be a cosmic effect of Christ's redemption and restoration work!
In the book of Job we read, "And it came to pass in one day, that the sons of God came to worship before the Lord; and Satan also came among them." (Job 1:6) So, Satan appeared in the court of God and as it were reports what he saw on earth, accusing the children of God, as he did Job. But whatever his activity on "high", his fate is sealed. Jesus once said to his disciples, "I saw Satan as lightning coming down from heaven." (Lk 10:18b) Although Jesus said it in the past tense, He said it as a prophecy to come. But it is so in the past tense that this future casting of Satan out of heaven is as certain as if it had already happened! Jesus' disciples can take it as certain as if it were already a past event. It is just as prophetic past tense as the glorification statement in the Bible. Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (past tense, for 1 event). And those whom He predestined, He called (past tense, for a past event). Those whom He has called, He has also justified (past tense for an event which is a past event for believers, but a future event for those who will be converted hereafter), and those whom He has justified, He will also glorify (past tense for an event which is fully future) (Rom 8:29-30).
When our Lord heard the report of the seventy disciples whom He had sent out to preach the kingdom of God, they told Him with enthusiasm that even the demons, even the devils, were yielding to them! And then the Lord looked up, and with His spiritual eyes He foresaw, as it were, the glorious day when Satan and all his mighty ones would be cast out of heaven. Then Jesus said, thinking therefore of the future, "I saw Satan as lightning coming down from heaven!" On another occasion Jesus spoke of this again, of the casting down of Satan from the heavenly spheres, saying, "Now is the condemnation of this world; now shall the prince of this world be taken away." (John 12:31) Of course, this too must be understood as prophecy, as a proclamation of the basis of a coming judgment. As you know, when Jesus said this, he was about to go to his death. Then He said, "Behold, now cometh the cross. The cross which is the basis of the judgment of the present age. This is the beginning of the judgment and condemnation of the world, which will ultimately end in the total dethronement of the prince of the world. The apostle John, in the book of Revelation, describes this last great heavenly battle, when the angels of God are given power to complete the victory which the Lord has given by His death over the enemy (Rev 12:7-12).
All this the Lord has given us in advance so that we may know what to do. We know, we must know, then, that for us believers, all the power, all the blessings, all the victories necessary to walk in this life on earth are in heaven, in the highest heaven, where Christ is at the right hand of the Father! We must see ourselves as if our life were an inverted tree: a tree that flourishes and bears fruit here on earth, but with its roots clinging upward, rooted in heaven, in the heavenly sphere! And we must also know that whatever demonic powers, whatever powers from on high, surround us and terrify us, tempt us, oppress us, or even overthrow us, Christ our Head is above all powers, forces, and dominions that exist in the world! We are free, and indeed must, see beyond problems, temptations, challenges, and even Satan, above and beyond, all the way to Christ. We are and must see everything and everyone as Christ above, in the highest heavens! From there, from above, the Christian man lives!
In war it is often the case that a troop or unit has its supply line cut by the enemy. If this is accomplished, there is no longer any need to fight that enemy. It will fall down on its own because it outlives its reserves. That is what Satan is after! He lets, he allows very willingly, one to be zealous, but only in the earthly spheres, without any connection with heaven if possible! A diver would be in great trouble under water if his breathing tube were cut. Many of the miseries and weaknesses of the believer come from the disconnection, the disconnection of the heavenly supply line. Heaven is to the believer as water is to the fish. The whole centre of gravity of his life has shifted from earth to heaven, it springs from there, it strives towards there. The believer is a heavenly man, a pilgrim and a stranger on earth, living here, but as one who is part of the heavenly calling, walking on earth with heavenly citizenship.
Hear, then, the Lord's warning, "Beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and sojourners, abstain from carnal lusts, which war against the spirit." (1Pt 2,11) "Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, seek those who are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:1-3)
Amen
Date: 30 April 1950.
Lesson
Ef 1,15-23