Today’s passage: Ephesians 5:1-2

Helpful thoughts:

• The Father loves His children.  Christ loved us.  We are to love one another.
• Christ’s love for us is depicted by His crucifixion.
• Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8)

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so important to remember that love is not an emotion or feeling?
2. How would you explain the idea of “walking” in love?  What would the difference be between walking in love and an act of love?
3. How is our love pleasing to God?  What made Christ’s sacrifice a “fragrant offering”?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:25-32

Helpful thoughts:

• This paragraph consists of the results of the renewed mind in verse 23.  These are examples of what gets “Put off” and then what gets “Put on”:
  • Lying -> Honesty
  • Growing bitter -> Resolving conflict
  • Stealing -> Giving from the fruits of honest work
  • Cutting words -> Building words
  • Etc.
• Our model for forgiveness is the forgiveness God has granted us.

Questions to consider:

1. What do I have to believe in order to feel justified or exonerated for lying, bitterness, stealing, using cutting words, etc.?  What kinds of things do I have to be thinking in order to excuse my sin?
2. If there is a sin struggle going on in your heart even now, how does your thinking about the situation compare with what God’s Word says?  How will your faith in His Word have to overrule how you might think or feel about it?
3. How would thinking about God’s forgiveness of my sin help me to be ready to forgive others?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:17-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Christians’ lives will progressively look different than the lives of those who do not follow Christ.
• Putting off the “old man”and putting on the “new man” results from changing our thinking (From “darkened understanding” and “ignorance” to being “taught” and “learning”).
  • We do what we do because we want what we want.
  • We want what we want because we think how we think.

Questions to consider:

1. What humble conclusion must I come to about myself before I can start learning and growing?
2. What humble conclusion must I come to about the Bible before I can start learning and growing?
3. What is the bottom-line obstacle for the unbeliever in gaining understanding?  (Verse 18)  How should this change the way we would try to “convince” someone to become a Christian?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:11-16

Helpful thoughts:

• Apostles and prophets were given for service to lay the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20)
• Evangelists, shepherds and teachers are still serving today!
• A united church is a church with maturing Christians who are growing in:
  • Knowledge of the truth of God’s Word and…
  • Service in the work of the ministry.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is the one who is to benefit from a believer speaking the truth in love?  Who is the one who desires to benefit when speaking craftiness in deceitful schemes?
2. Which type of church leadership is necessary for a church to truly be united, maturing…and therefore biblical?  Why would an “elder rule” model be dangerous? Who is the “head” of the church?
3. Who builds up the church?   (End of verse 16)  How should this passage instruct us, First Baptist Church, as we consider our “growth” (First spiritually because this passage is primarily about spiritual growth, then numerically)?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

• The “Therefore” in 4:1 could really be related to all of chapters 1-3.  We have moved from learning doctrinal truth to the application of truth.
• Walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel includes:
  • Humility
  • Gentleness
  • Patience
  • Forbearing love (Sacrificially loving others within the church even when they might make it tough to do so)
  • Eagerly maintaining unity
    • Our unity comes through the fact that we have all been saved the same way by the same Lord for the same ultimate purpose.
• We were held captive by our sin.  Now we are captive to Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so important that we remain Gospel-Centered as a church?  How does the Gospel keep us all humbled and focused on the right things?
2. Are you always bearing with others or are there ways that you know others have had to bear with you in love as well?  Why do we tend towards forgetting that we need the love of God and the love of others as well?
3. How does your blessed captivity to Christ give you a blessed purpose?  Why is your captivity to Christ better than self-willed freedom? (And, why might we struggle with that last question?)

Today’s passage: Ephesians 3:20-21

Helpful thoughts:

• God is able to do more than we are able to think.
  • This isn’t a “name it and claim it” prosperity gospel verse.  Those are things we think about and they are selfish.  They aren’t the riches and love of Christ.
  • This is a reminder of where our power comes from.  Our effectiveness in ministry/service comes from the one who gave us the Spirit, caused Christ to dwell in our hearts, and filled us with the fullness of God.  He is the power source, not my imagination.
• When we do God’s work, God’s way, God will get the glory and the results will last forever.
  • When we do man’s work, man’s way, man will get temporary praise and the results will last…a little while?

Questions to consider:

1. How could these verses help you to be encouraged to witness to that person you are sure would never get saved?
2. How do these verses encourage us to pray?  (Where does the power come from?)
3. Why is it so important that our church would seek to glorify God not just in what we are doing but also how we are doing it?  Whenever we see success in our church (Or our personal spiritual growth), who deserves the glory?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 3:14-19

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul’s response to the gift of God’s grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the creative power of God, the manifold wisdom of God, and the eternal purpose of God?  Bow – the – knee.  His posture in prayer was submissive.
• The Spirit ministers to you within your inner man…So that Christ may dwell in your inner man.
  • Over and over in Scripture the Spirit serves to point us to Jesus Christ.  The Spirit magnifies the Son.
  • Therefore, we are pleasing the Spirit of God when we are magnifying the Son of God.
• It takes the strength of God by the grace of God to comprehend the love of Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it right for us to pray submissively to God?  Why is it right to call Jesus our Lord?
2. Why did you come to understand the Gospel, repent of your sin, and put your faith in Jesus Christ?  What had to happen for you to hear the Gospel, believe, and be saved?  Praise God for His amazing grace!
3. Why does it make perfect sense for submission and love to be found in this same paragraph?  How does the way of the world make that pairing seem strange?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 3:7-13

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul’s present, temporary suffering was worth it!
  • He knew he wasn’t too important to suffer.
  • He knew his salvation and ministry were given to Him by God’s grace.
  • He knew the riches of Christ are unsearchable…beyond HUGE…beyond measure.
  • He knew the church was made to display the wisdom of God to the world, angels and demons alike.
• With all this knowledge of truth, Paul had (And we can have) boldness and confidence!
• Paul, in this passage, proves that we can be humble and confident at the same time.
  • Confidence is not found in self-esteem.
  • Confidence is found in esteeming Jesus Christ!

Questions to consider:

1. Why should we have confidence?  What is God doing and what is He going to do?  Can He lose?
2. What does boldness and confidence in these truths look like?  Is it going to look entirely different than it did in the first century A.D.?
3. How does faith turn our suffering into glory, our hurt into triumph, and worldly rejection into victory?  Which is temporary and which is eternal?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 3:1-6

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul was not growing wealthy in his endeavor.  From the world’s eyes this calling ruined his life.
• The generations that proceeded the life and ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ did not have the same knowledge of the Gospel that we do.  It was a mystery to them.
• If you are a Christian, you and Abraham and Paul are on the same team.  All given the same righteousness through Jesus Christ.  All the children of God.  All joint-heirs with Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. If Paul’s ministry was so hard from the world’s perspective, why did he do it?  What was his joy and motivation?
2. Who made the Apostles, apostles and the Prophets, prophets?  Who communicated the truth of the New Testament through them?  Does a person become a prophet because they or any other person wants them to be?  If a person calls themselves a prophet today or says they have heard from the Holy Spirit, how could you confidently measure what they are saying?
3. How amazing will it be to enjoy God forever with all the saints?  How could your faith and eagerness for that day help you to pursue God’s glory today?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 2:11-22

Helpful thoughts:

• Because of Jesus Christ, both circumcision and the lack thereof are nothing more than characteristics of the flesh.
  • Jews and Gentiles who are saved by the grace of God are one people.
  • There is no higher or lower rank in Christ.
  • All who are in Christ are fellow citizens.
  • Christ died for us all the same.
• God is the builder. Christ is the cornerstone. The apostles and prophets served as the foundation.  We are the building.

Questions to consider:

1. What was the function of the apostles and prophets?  Given their mention in this passage with this explanation, should we expect to see new apostles and prophets today?
2. What should the God-given makeup of the universal Church do to any forms of racism?
3. Why are we not required to become Jewish and follow the OT Law?  What has Christ done?  Does this mean that we can continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6)