New Bible Study On Ephesians

Hey! Now that we ended our Bible Study on 1 Peter we will now go into Ephesians!!!!!! To any Kent Stater who goes to the Monday Night Bible Study the outline is a little different. Remember how my outlines for 1 Peter were more like a commentary?(so much so that if you double spaced them they'd be 5 pages for a single outline and if you were to put them all together you'd have The John Babri Commentary On 1 Peter) Well, I am doing things a little different now. The outline will be a true outline. It won't be nearly as detailed or complete. The upside is it leaves more room for notes and it won't take me 1 hour and half to go through 14 verses. Anyway enjoy:

Ephesians 1: 1-14

v.1-2 Paul’s greeting to Ephesus. For a quick background on Ephesus look at Acts 19 and Revelation 2:1-7. For problems Ephesus was dealing with look at 1 Tim1:4, 1:7 and4:3

I. v.4-6 God’s Redemptive Plan for the World from Eternity Past

V.4 we were chosen to be holy
V.5 we were chosen to be adopted sons of God
V6 we were chosen to be to bring God glory

Lets look at Col 1:15-18. Why do I include that here? What does this tell us about Christ and the universe? Can we see why the universe is here in theses verses Lets look at Romans 3:9-20 What do these verses say that should make us more grateful for God’s plan for us?

Others places that deal with God’s election of his people are: 1 Thes 1:3,4 2 Thes2:13, 2 Tim2:10 and Romans 8:29, 9:11.

When talking about salvation why does Paul here emphasize God’s election of us? What point was he making? According to v.5 and 6 why is anyone predestined?

II. v.7-11 Our Benefits our God’s Plan for Us Now

V.7 describes the riches we have according to God’s grace what are they? Why are they ‘riches’ of God’s grace?
V.9 God has now made know to the mystery of his will. What is the mystery? What is the will?
V.11 Here its says we have obtained an inheritance. How does one receive an inheritance? Compare this verse to 1 Peter 1:3,4

Lets look at Romans 5:6-11. How does this compliment what we see here?

III. v.12-14 The Future Benefits of God’s Plan

V.12 this verse says that we who trusted in Christ should be to the praise and glory of Christ. This word implies purpose. What is our purpose?
V.13 The rest of the chapter dealt with our salvation from God’s perspective what does 1 verse say we did as part of our Salvation? Bonus question: what is wrong in my last question? How could I have better stated it to be biblically correct? Once we get saved we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. What role does the Holy Spirit play in our salvation? How does this verse run against other people’s idea that you ‘get’ the Holy Spirit sometime after salvation?
V.14 The Holy Spirit is called the guarantee of our inheritance. What is our inheritance and how is the Holy Spirit our guarantee?

Some themes from this passage are inheritance, promise, and guarantee? Does this remind you of anything for the Old Testament? Lets compare our promise and inheritance to that of Abraham’s. For a summary of the promise made to Abraham lets looks at Gal 3:15-18 and to see the promise made to Abraham look at Gen 12:1-3. What do we have in common with Abraham? What is different? How does it all work together to point to one redemptive plan for the world?

Application Questions: Can we describe from this passage the role of each member of the trinity in God’s redemptive plan? What can we praise God for in this passage? What can we take comfort in? How would this theology here presented by Paul encourage the church at Ephesus? What problem do you think Ephesus was dealing with that lead Paul to start out his letter this theological look at God’s Redemptive Plan and our salvation. How is that relevant to today? This passage is packed with awesome theological truth but that does mean it is not practical! All theology is! How does a having a clear understanding of theses truth impact us in our daily lives?