Ephesians 2:18-22 Jesus the Cornerstone

This is our last week in chapter two. I am amazed at everything the Lord has shown us in just 22 verses! I pray that you are amazed at the Gospel and that it compels you to share what you have learned with those around you. 

Start by reading chapter 2. (Yes again) As you read pay attention to everything Jesus has done for you.  Now go back and read verses 17-22. If you didn't last week mark the word building/built/dwelling in these verses. Make a list of what you learn about what Jesus built. 

Did you notice the word cornerstone? Last week someone asked what that was. Well this week we are going to talk about it. Look up the definition in Blue Letter Bible for the word "cornerstone." Ephesians tells us that Jesus is the cornerstone. But what does that mean? Let's look up some cross references and write down what we learn about the cornerstone: Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 8:13-15, Matthew 21:42-44, Romans 9:30-33. 

Now let's look at the cornerstone a little bit further. Find 1 Peter 2:4-10 (or use the handout below) and mark references to the recipients in Peter's letter (you), stone, and house. Now make a list on what you learn about the stone and the recipients. 

Are you confused yet? I pray that God is using His word to bring the pieces together and help it make sense to you. It's time to do another word study. Look up "being fitted together" in Blue Letter Bible and write down what you learn in your journal. In verse 22, being built together is present tense which means a continuous action. How does this help you understand this verse? What is it telling you about the house? Write down what you learn in your journal. Also ask yourself: What follows the foundation? Who makes up the rest of the building? 

Have you noticed the word "Spirit" in these verses? Who is this Spirit and what role does the Spirit have in what you have studied in verses 14-22? What role does the Spirit play in 1:13-14? Write down your conclusions. 

This week ends our study in Ephesians 2. Spend some time thinking about what God has taught you in this chapter. Write in your journal what you have learned in our study do far.

Ephesians 2:14-16: Reconciled in Jesus

Last week we looked at what it meant to be strangers to the covenants of promise. I pray your eyes were opened to new truth. This week our focus will be Ephesians 2:14-16. 

Let's begin by reading Ephesians 2 (yes the whole chapter). Now go back and read Ephesians 2:11-22 and mark references to Jesus. I like to mark Jesus with a red cross. Now get out your journal and write down everything you learn about Jesus in these verses. Do you notice any other key words in this passage? Go back and look for any other key words and mark them. As we focus on 14-16 what do we see in these verses that Jesus did and is? 

We see that Jesus abolished in His flesh the enmity which is the Law of the commandments. Look up the greek word "enmity" using Blue Letter Bible. Write down what you learn in your journal. What two groups are being made into one new man because of what Jesus abolished? Write down your observation in your journal. What does it mean that Jesus made the two groups into one new man? Let's look up the word "new" using Blue Letter Bible. Write down what you learn in your journal. What do you think caused this enmity between these two groups? Let's look up some cross references and write down what we learn:

• Leviticus 20:22-26
• Acts 11:1-18 (Note who is taking issue with whom and why. How is the behavior validated? How does this verse support the enmity Christ takes away?)
• Colossians 2:16-17 (What is the issue here?)

Let's consider...who were the two groups that God was bringing together? Why were they separated? How was the enmity abolished? Write down your answers.

Another thing we see is that Jesus is our peace (vs 14). Peace is a key word in this section. Was it one of the words you marked? If not, go back and mark peace. Write down what you learn about peace in verses 14-16. What does that word peace mean? Let's look up the word "peace" using Blue Letter Bible. Look up Isaiah 9:6-7 and write down what you learn about Jesus and peace. 

Did you notice the word reconcile in Ephesians 2:16? The jews and gentiles were reconciled to God through the death of Jesus. Look up the definition for "reconcile" and write it down in your journal. Now let's look at other places in scripture that talk about this reconciliation. Look up Romans 5:6-10, Colossians 1:18-21, and 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (Or use the handouts attached to the end of this lesson). Mark the word reconcile in each passage. Make a list in your journal about what you learn about reconciliation. Now ask yourself how can we who are dead in our transgressions and sins, living under the power of the prince of the power of the air, be reconciled to God? Write down your answer in your journal. 

As you end this week of study I want your to go back and look at Ephesians 2:11-16. Read it. Remember the context. Why does reconciliation matter? How then should we live? Write down your thoughts in your journal. Be ready to share what God is teaching you! 

Ephesians 2:11-12 - Strangers to the Covenants of Promise

Have you ever been a stranger? Walked into a place where you did not belong? Felt cut out or separated from a group of people? Welcome to the world of a Gentile. This week we will look at the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Covenants of Promise. I know I say this every week, but this week's study will blow your mind!! I pray you are excited each week to approach Scripture on your own, to see it for yourself. I pray you gain confidence that you can study scripture on your own! 

Begin each day of study this week with prayer. Ask the Lord to open up your eyes. Ask Him to help you understand anything that is difficult for you to get. Ask Him to be your teacher. Ask Him to illuminate your mind with His awesome truths!! 

Start by reading Ephesians 2 (yes the whole chapter). I want you to remember where we have been so that it connects to what we will study this week. As you read, slow down, and actually read through the text. Don't rush through just to mark words. This is the Word of God, we want to cherish it's words and soak them them. We want to truly understand them, not just breeze over them to complete a task. Now get out your colored pens or pencils and mark these key words in 2:11-12: remember & time. Notice how Paul begins verse 11, he says "remember." Paul wants the Ephesians to remember something. In your journal write down what Paul wants them to remember from verses 11&12. 

One of the things Paul wants them to remember is that they were called "uncircumcision." Let's dive a little deeper and figure out what the text means when it says this. To do so, we must go all the way back to Genesis. Find Genesis Chapter 17:1-14 (in your Bible or on the worksheet attached at the end of this lesson). Read and mark the words covenant and circumcision. Now make a list in your journal about what you learn about covenant and circumcision. Ask yourself this question and write the answer in your journal: How does what you learned in Genesis 17 relate to the place of the Gentiles before they were saved by grace? 

Ephesians 2:12 tells us that the Ephesians were strangers to the covenants of promise. Notice that word covenant is plural meaning multiple covenants. Don't you think we need to explore what these covenants were? Let's explore these covenants by diving into some scripture. Read the passages below and write down what you learn about each covenant:

• Abrahamic Covenant
• Genesis 12:1-3 & 15:1-18 (How does Gd plan to make Abraham a father of many nations? How does Abraham respond?)
• Galatians 3:5-9 (Look for how this passage relates to Abraham)
• The New Covenant
• Jeremiah 31:31-34 & Ezekiel 36:26-27
• Hebrews 10:10-18
• Luke 22:14, 19-20
• The Davidic Covenant
• 2 Samuel 7:12-13,16 & 2 Chronicles 21:7
• Romans 1:1-5 & Revelation 19:11-16; 20:4

I realize at this point you may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with Ephesians? Well, let's look at it. Go back and read Ephesians 2:11-12. Ask yourself how do these covenants relate to the Ephesians and where they were without Christ? Be ready to discuss everything you learned in class on Thursday! 

Ephesians 2:8-10: Saved by Grace

I am so excited for our study this week! I pray that this week you will be amazed by the grace of Jesus! I pray that through your diligent study God will reveal Himself to you and the way He calls you to live! 

I want to start this week with a review of the Inductive Study Method (ISM). The ISM is the way we study the Bible. You have probably walked the aisles of several Christians book stores and seen lots of Bible studies written by great Christian Authors. I know we have all listened to a sermon on a Sunday morning. Both using a a study written by someone else and listening to a sermon are called deductive learning. We are getting the information through someone else's way of thinking. Inductive Bible Study is getting the information from the primary source...the Bible. We are not listening to what someone else thinks about it, but discovering it on our own. 

The Inductive Study Method has three main components:

Observation
Observation is when we ask the question "What does the text say?" We are looking not to figure out what it means or what it means to me, but just what it says. We do several things to help us learn what the text says. We read with a purpose, not just skimming the text but trying to understand it as we read. We mark key words. Key words are words that are repeated and help us unlock the meaning of the text. We ask questions. Questions like "who is writing, who are they writing to, what are they asking, why are they asking that...."We also make lists and make note of contrasts, comparisons, and terms of conclusion. Remember in observation we are looking to find out what the text says and only what the text says. We often have to keep ourselves from rushing forward, so many of us cannot wait to get to the next step. Proper observation is essential because it builds the foundation of our interpretation!!! So don't miss out here! 

Interpretation
Interpretation is when we ask the question "What does the text mean?" The biggest thing we must remember in interpretation is CONTEXT. Context is the setting in which something dwells. As we study any passage we want to remember what the book as a whole is talking about along with the chapter we are studying. The meaning is always connected to the chapter and the book as a whole. Interpretation is where we focus on key word studies and cross references. We are digging deeper to understand the meaning. 

Application
Application is when we ask the question "How does the meaning of the text apply to me?" In application we must determine how what we have learned changes our belief about something or our behavior. Application is our ultimate goal in Bible Study. We do not just want to gain knowledge, we want our lives to be transformed by the living and breathing Word of God!

Okay, now let's look at our homework for this week. I am going to break the homework up this week into the three steps so you can see them for yourself. 

Observation
Start by praying and asking the Lord for His wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to teach you as your study. Now let's read Ephesians 2:1-10. Now I want you to read it again, this time I want you to mark every reference to grace.  Go back through verses 1-10 and mark any reference to time. I mark time with a green clock. Get out your journal. I want you to write the following questions in your journal along with your answers. Remember look for the answers in the text:

• What do you learn about grace in these verses?
• How are the Ephesians saved?
• Through what are they saved?
• What is it not of?
• Why?
• What does verse 10 say about the Ephesians?
• How are they described?
• When were their works prepared?
• What were they prepared for?

Interpretation

Let's do some word studies and cross references. Let's start with the word grace. You may have looked it up last week. Let's look it up again, write it down, and allow it to sink in. Now I want you to look up the word faith. Write down what you learn in your journal. Now we are going to do some cross references. Look up these verses and write down what you learn about grace, faith, and works.

• Romans 3:22-28
• Romans 4:13-24
• Galatians 2:16
• Galatians 3:22-24
• Acts 26:15-18
• Hebrews 11:1-2

Now let's dig deeper into verse 10. We must ask ourselves, What does it mean to be God's workmanship? Look up these verses and write down what you learn: 

• 2 Cor 5:15
• James 2:14-26

Application

How does what you have learned this week about grace, faith, works change the way you believe or the way you act? What in your life needs to be transformed by God's Word? 

Ephesians 2:4-7 - But God...

Last week left us in a heavy place. We were faced with the reality of our sin. We realized that what we have all earned is death and wrath. And that's difficult, because we often believe we are pretty good people, doing pretty good on our own. But no, last week left us realizing we need someone to step in on our behalf. And I promise you that verse 4 will be sweet music to your ears.

This week as you do your homework, please stop each time you study and pray. Ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to help you to remember the dark reality of life without Him. I encourage you to slowly work on your homework throughout the week. This helps you savor the text instead of rushing through it just to get it completed. (Tip: Each paragraph below could be treated as a day of homework)

Let's start by reading verses 1-7 of Ephesians chapter 2. Look for the word that marks a big shift or contrast (but) and place a black slash before the word but. Marking contrasts help us to see that there are two major things Paul is showing us the difference between. Last week we looked at the dark reality of being without Jesus, this week we will look at the other side Read back through verses 4-7. What did God do? Paul lists out several things God did, let's number each one to help us see them more clearly. When you have marked them, get out your journal a make a list of what God did. How is God described in verse 4? I would like us to break down what we learn about God here. We learn two things in verse four about God, write them down in your journal. 

The two attributes of God that we see here are His mercy and His love. Using Blue Letter Bible do a word study on mercy and love. Now let's look up some cross references. Look up these cross references and write down what you learn about God's mercy & love: Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 1:3, John 15:13, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 1:4-5, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:7-8.

Now we must ask ourselves, because of God's mercy & love, what did he do for us? Remember that list we made? Let's look at it further. The first thins we see that God did, was while we were dead, He made us alive (by grace you have been saved). Look up the phrase alive together in Blue Letter Bible. Write down in your journal what you learn. We must ask ourselves, how were we made alive? Did we  earn it? Did we strive toward it? The answer is there in the text. It's by grace that we were saved. Look up the definition of the word grace using Blue Letter Bible. Write down what you learn. There are probably a million cross references on grace, let's look at just a few: John 1:14-17, Romans 3:23-24, 1 Cor 15:10, 2 Tim 1:8-9

What is the next thing that God did for us? He raised us up with Him. What does the word raised up mean? Look up the definition using Blue Letter Bible and write down what you learn in your journal. Let's look up some cross references. Look up these cross references and write down what you learn in your journal: Colossians 2:12, Colossians 3:1. Now I want you to ask yourself after God raised us up, what did He do? He seated us with Him in the heavenly places. Look up these cross references on the heavenly places and write down what you learn in your journal: Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:20,

Now let's look at verse 7. verse 7 has a phrase we call a term of conclusion. a term os conclusion is often determined by the use of the phrase "so that" or "therefore." Find the term of conclusion in verse 7 and mark it with a black box. Now we must ask ourselves what is Paul concluding here? Look at the text and try to answer the question based on what we see in verse 7. Write down your answer in your journal. What the the ultimate outcome or conclusion? That in the age to come God would show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Let's look at this a little closer. We have already looked up the definition of grace, so let's look up the definition of kindness. Write down what you learn. I encourage you to stop and read back through verses 4-7. Conclude this week by thinking about what God has done in Jesus on our behalf. Remember that He did this when we were dead. Dead people can't help themselves, we needed someone to intervene on our behalf.

Know that I am praying for you this week! Asking God to open your hearts and minds to the goodness of His grace, mercy, and kindness!

Ephesians 2: Formerly & In Christ

Welcome to chapter 2!!! I believe this chapter is one of the most important chapters in this book. I believe this chapter will drastically transform the way you view grace.

Let's start this week by praying and asking God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Now let's look at chapter two and read the entire chapter once all the way through (remember to read slowing looking for key words.) Now, go back and reread chapter 2. This time, I want you to mark two key phrases: formerly (once were or at one time) and in Christ. After you mark these words I want you to make a list contrasting what you were formerly with what you are in Christ.

We will spend the rest of this week focusing on verses 1-3. What does Paul say that we were in these verses? Let's look at verse one first. What does Paul say that we were? Write it down in your journal. Paul tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Let's focus on that phrase and break it apart. What does it mean to be dead? Let's do a word study on the word dead using Blue Letter Bible.  Now let's do some cross references on the word dead. Remember we look at cross references to see what Scripture tells us in other places about that same word. Look up these cross references about the word dead and write down in your journal what you learn: Luke 7:15, Roman 8:10, & Colossians 2:13

What does Paul tell us in verse one we are dead in? Write down the answer in your journal. Yes, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Look up the definition to both of these words in Blue Letter Bible and write down what you learn. We also want to check out some cross references for these words. Look up the following cross references and write down what you leant about trespasses or sin: Romans 5:18, Romans 8:28, Galatians 3:22, & James 1:15

Now let's look at verse 2. How does verse 2 tell us we walked formerly? Who is the prince of the power of air? Let's look up some verses on the prince of the power of the air. Look up these verses and write down what you learn about satan: John 8:44, John 12:31, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. Now, go back to verse two. What does it say we did or lived? We walked according to the the course of this world. What does the word walk mean? Look up the definition and write it down in your journal. Look up James 4:4 and write down what you learn about the world.

Okay, let's move on to verse 3. What does Paul say we were in this verse? How did we live? What is lust? Let's look up that word on Blue Letter Bible, write down what you find. Now let's look at some cross references: Romans 6:12, Romans 13:14, Titus 3:3, James 1:14-15.

Now go back and read the first three verses and allow the reality to set in. What were we formerly? Who exactly were we before we became in Christ? Be ready to talk about all of this and share what you learned.

Ephesians 1: Paul's Prayer

This week we will turn our attention to Paul's Prayer in the second part of chapter one. Last week we studied and talked about what it means to be blessed and how God has blessed us. Start this week by praying and asking the Lord to open up your eyes to His Truth. Grab your observation worksheets and read through chapter one. Now read back through 1:15-23. Our study this week will focus on these verses. As you read mark these words: prayer, what is/what are, knowledge, power, & body.

Get out your journal and make a list of what Paul is praying for the Ephesians.

Now let's dive into it! What is Paul praying for them? My hope is that you see this is not just a prayer, but Paul's hope for their growth as they walked in Jesus!

Paul prayed that they would have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Stop and consider what it means to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. What is Paul specifically asking that the Ephesians would have knowledge of? Look for the phrase what to find out. What does the word knowledge mean? Look up the greek definition and write down what you learn in your journal.

First thing Paul prays is that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, so that they will know what is the hope of His calling. I want you to think about what is the hope of His calling. Think about what we studied and talked about last week. How do they connect to the hope of His calling? Look up the greek definition of the word hope. Write down in your journal what you learn. Now look at these cross references and write down what you learn from each verse about the hope of your calling: Romans 8:28-30, Philippians 1:3-6, Philippians 1:19-21, 2 Timothy 1:9-12, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Ephesians 4:1&4.

Next, Paul prays that they would know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.What is the inheritance that Christ has given? How is the inheritance defined? Go back and look at the verses we looked at last week about inheritance.

Finally Paul prays that the Ephesians would know what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Let's look up some greek definitions. Using Blue Letter Bible, look up these words in the greek: power, working, strength, might. Now stop and think about how great God's power is, what does that mean for believers who are sealed in the Spirit?

Now stop. Go back, and read verses 15-23 in context. See if you can't piece it together and make sense of it. Looking forward to our time together this week!