Ephesians 3:1-21
To me … grace was given to preach to the Gentiles … and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages … so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (vv. 8-10) Two items stand out in these three verses, one clear and the other unclear. First, what is clear is Paul’s phrase, “through the church”. This is a strange phrase for Paul; I don’t recall anywhere else in his writings where Paul mentions “the church” in any kind of global sense. That is, in other places he suggests individual churches, as in “the church in her house” (Colossians 4:15) and his “daily care of all the Churches” (2 Cor. 11:28), but in these instances he is referring to specific, geographical gatherings. In verse 8 above he is talking about the global church – and looking forward, that’s us, folks!! It is “through the church” (US!!) that God’s message is to go forth!
Second, the unclear: “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”… If Paul had spoken of rulers and authorities on earth, the verse would have been clear. He, himself had already appeared before “rulers and authorities” (Festus, Felix, King Agrippa and Bernice) and the church today continues to preach to the worldly leaders. But the end of the phrase, in the heavenly places, what does Paul mean by that?? Rulers and authorities in heaven…? That’s God’s domain; Jesus has been crowned king of the universe with “all things” under his subjection (I Corinthians 15:27). So, whatever is meant by “in the heavenly places”, it’s clear that we, today, are preaching to them. An awesome responsibility…!!
See also: September 2 / Ephesians 3:1-7; September 3 / Ephesians 3:8-13; September 4 / Ephesians 3:14-21
While it is true that Paul often uses the word “church” to refer to local congregations, his usage of “church” in v. 10 to refer to the global community of believers is by no means unique. It seems to me that all of the following refer to the global church: I Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13; Eph 1:22, 3:21, 5:23-25, 5:27, 5:29, 5:32; Phil 3:6; Col 1:18,24. And the following might also (i.e., they are ambiguous and could refer equally well to the global church or to local congregations): I Cor 5:12; 6:4; 10:32; 11:22; 12:28; 14:4,5,12; I Tim 3:5,15. In addition, Paul often uses the word “body” (as in “body of Christ”) when speaking of the global church rather than using the word “church”.
As to “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places“, why do we think we have to figure out such phrases for ourselves, as though no one has gone before us and provided appropriate teaching and interpretation? We have 2,000 years of church history and teaching to learn from. Find out what the church fathers said about such things. We 21st-century western evangelicals should not set ourselves up as the authorities, especially not as individual interpreters. And if we see authority structures and hierarchies here on earth, why would we imagine that the spiritual realm would be devoid of such authority structures? There are angels and archangels (obviously a hierarchy right there). And there are holy and fallen angels. Christ is indeed King over all, and that includes the heavenly realms that are well beyond our normal sensory perception. As you said, that makes the role of the church that much more awesome and glorious than what we may see in our daily experience.