Ephesians 1

 

June 3rd, 2020

Title: Ephesians 1 Bible Study

Text: Ephesians 1

Introduction:

1. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to be spending time studying the six chapters from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians was written in AD 60-61 by the Apostle Paul during one of his three known imprisonments in Rome. It is one of the Prison Epistles. Prison conditions were not good: The town sewage ran through the prison. But Paul’s heart was sincere, and he was in the will of God. He was still trying to help others even though he was suffering.

2. Ephesians is divided into two sections. Chapters 1-3 describe the believer’s position: who we are in Christ, how much God loves us, and our relationship with Him. Chapters 4-6 is about our behavior and how we can apply the truths learned from chapters 1-3 to our lives. Once we know how much God loves us, our behavior can change if we work with Him. We will want to walk in His ways, seeking to do His will. But we must develop our relationship with Him first. Today, we will be going over the first chapter.

Proposition: In chapter one, Paul discusses God’s grace, peace, mercy, love, and who we are in Christ.

Interrogative Sentence: How does knowing who we are in Christ impact our walk with Him?

Transitional Sentence: We were chosen and adopted by God into His family, redeemed from our sins by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and sealed with God’s Spirit. We’ll first go over the first three verses, discussing the background of Ephesus, Paul’s apostleship, being in God's will, and God’s grace and peace, which we all have.

1.  Reading from the NIV, Ephesians 1-3 says:

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

a. BACKGROUND OF EPHESUS

The city of Ephesus was built by the Greeks. It was the 4^th largest city in the world in Paul’s time. The city had a population of about 250,000-340,000 people. It was a wealthy city: a political, religious, and commercial center in Asia Minor. Unfortunately, it was also home to the Temple of Diana, a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, which made it under spiritual demonic strongholds. Ephesus was conquered several times until it came under Roman control.

b. PAUL’S APOSTLESHIP

Paul states at the beginning of Ephesians that he was an apostle of Christ Jesus. This wasn’t a position that he decided to have in his own choosing, but rather by God's will.  The word apostle means “sent one.” To qualify to be an apostle, a person must have a close relationship with the Lord.  It was God’s will that Paul was an apostle.

c. IN THE WILL OF GOD

How can we know if we are in the will of God? If you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind; if you’re diligently walking in His ways, and spending time with Him by actively reading His word; and spending time in worship and giving thanks to Him, you can discover what His will is for your life. You’ll feel a sense of joy, peace, and satisfaction if you’re walking in His will. We should ask God regularly to show us anything that isn’t pleasing to Him in our lives and remove it.

d. GRACE AND PEACE

Notice at the beginning of the scripture, Paul says, “Grace and peace to you from God, our Father.” Paul says, “grace and peace” at the beginning of many of his letters. It is important to notice that he always says grace first and then peace. So many of us want peace. We’ll go around saying, “I just need some peace,” or “I wish I had more peace.” We already have peace; it is one of the fruits of the Spirit that God gives to us. Since we already have it, we need to learn to access it. We can do this because it is already ours for the taking because of God’s grace, which is His favor. He gives us grace, not because we deserve it, but because of Jesus's death and resurrection, we have His grace. To access His peace, we have to believe we are worthy, and access it through our faith, because we know what Christ has done on the cross, and everything that He did, every spiritual blessing that was given to us is ours for the taking. We see in Philippians 4 verse 7 that the peace of God stands guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Notice it says the peace of God stands guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It didn’t say human peace. Human peace is based on if our circumstances are good, then we will feel peace. God’s peace isn’t based on circumstances and is powerful, and that is what He has given us. His peace stands guard: It protects our hearts and minds against all attacks of the enemy. If we open the door for attacks of the enemy through sin, we can lose God’s peace, and Satan can enter our hearts.

Transitional Sentence: Being in the will of God, and knowing that we have His grace and His peace allows me to begin to understand who I am in Christ: I am God’s chosen one. Next, we’ll discuss who we are in Him, that we’ve been called, and adopted into His family.

2. Ephesians 4-7:        

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

a. IN CHRIST

In this portion of Ephesians, Paul mentions that we are “in Christ.” To be in Christ has to do with our union with Him. It means because of Jesus’s death and resurrection; He is now seated at the right hand of the Father: and so are we. We are in Christ: united with Him and the Father, and we have a joint inheritance with Him. Everything that is His is ours. Every spiritual promise and blessing that Christ has, as mentioned in verse 3, is also ours. All you need to do is have faith. God has given us the Holy Spirit as our helper. We can take what is rightfully ours, which is all the spiritual blessings He graciously has poured unto the body of believers.

b. CHOSEN, ADOPTED, FORGIVEN

We have been chosen by God and adopted into His family. As the scripture says, God adopted us because He wanted to, it gave Him great pleasure. Before the foundations of the world, He knew us. God knew what we would look like, every good and bad thing we would ever do, and He still chose us. He wanted a family. God loves us so much, and there is nothing we can ever do to make Him love us any more or less. His love is everlasting and unconditional. Because of His love, He sent to us the greatest gift of all, His Son Jesus, to buy us back from the strongholds of the enemy. He wanted to restore the relationship with us, so He sent Jesus. And because of this, we have been declared “not guilty.” He no longer sees our sins, and we are also seated at the right hand of Jesus in the heavenly places. We certainly didn’t deserve it, but because of His grace and love, He sees us as He sees His Son. This is love.

Transitional Sentence: As God’s child, we’ve been sealed with the Spirit. His Spirit gives us the power to do His good works, which He set out for us to do, all of us, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles as well.

3. Ephesians 13-14:

And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, who he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S SALVATION

God reveals the good news, the mystery that the Gentiles also have been called, chosen, and adopted into His family. Eternal life isn’t just available to the Jews. The Gentiles are saved, united, and have eternal life with Him. God often reveals to us what He wants us to know through the Holy Spirit, but He doesn’t reveal everything because He wants us to pursue Him and have a close relationship with Him.

SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit has sealed us. God promised never to leave nor forsake us; He promises to always be with us. He gave us His Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance. It is a sign of our adoption. Through our faith, the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts when we accept Christ as our Savior. The Holy Spirit has many roles in our lives. The Spirit is our friend, helper, teacher, and guide. The Spirit convicts us of our sin, strengthens us, and is our interceder. With God’s Spirit living within us, there is nothing that we can’t do. God even gives us His desires so that we can continue to change and be transformed into His image. We can do anything that God asks of us. He isn’t ever going to ask us to do something for Him without giving us the ability to do it. We have to have faith and rely on Him for help. We can step out with confidence in doing His will. And the gift of the Spirit is so we would praise and glorify Him. When we know how much He loves us and all that He has already done for us, how can we not say, “thank you, God, you are so good, I love you.”

Transitional Sentence: “Thank you, God, thank you for who you are and for loving me.” Knowing that I have His Spirit living on the inside of me, gives me peace, and Joy. It gives me confidence, and the strength to do His good works: knowing that He is forever with me. Paul ends Ephesians 1 with his prayers over the believers in Ephesus.

4. In Ephesians 15-23, Paul prays for the Ephesians believers in Christ. This prayer applies to all believers today:

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called-his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else-not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

PAUL’S APOSTOLIC PRAYER’S

a. In verse 17, “asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.” Paul is asking that we might grow in the knowledge of God. He is praying that we would have the spirit of wisdom. We have wisdom when we are born again. He wasn’t praying that we’d be given wisdom again, but that we would have a revelation of it, and access it through our faith.

b. In verses 19-20, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms,” Paul prayed that the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of God would live in each of us. Jesus is at God’s right hand. It is a place of honor, authority, power, and rulership. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we, too, have God’s power within us, it is at our disposal to use it. God isn’t ever going to ask us to do something for Him without given us the power to do what He’s called us to do. That means He is with us, aiding us, and strengthening us. We need to step out in faith. In John 14:12, Jesus told His disciples that they would do greater things than He. Jesus certainly did a lot of great things during His time of earth, but He was one Man and had to go be with the Father. Because of the Holy Spirit’s power living in each of us, the body of Christ can preach the gospel of Christ throughout the world.

c. Verse 22-23, “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.” The verse is saying God has put all things under the authority of Christ’s feet. Christ has authority over all creation, and because He is the head, and we are the body, we too have been given authority over all creation. We have the power to care for creation, to help others believe that Jesus is the source of eternal life, and use the tools we’ve been given to fight against Satan schemes. We are already victorious because of Christ.

Conclusion:

God is with you. He has sealed you with His Spirit because you are His chosen ones. We have all the spiritual blessings that Jesus has. Like Jesus, we, too, are seated at the Father’s right hand. Guard your hearts, keep it pure and right before Him, and walk with confidence, knowing who you are in Him. Be a light to this dark world, letting others see the glorious light of our Father shining through you.

I’ll leave you with this short poem: “There is no storm that God won’t carry you through; No bridge that God won’t help you cross; No battle that God won’t help you win; No heartache that God won’t help you let go of. He is so much bigger than anything you will face today.  Leave everything in His hands and embrace this day confidently knowing that He will take care of you.”