TPT The Book of Ephesians E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 129

Beschreibung

The book of Ephesians is the constitution of our faith, the great summary description of all that is precious and esteemed in Christian doctrine and Christian living. It asserts the authority of the church over every other force, and its living revelation drips with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.   This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Ephesians provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Ephesians, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.    Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Ephesians, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.      

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Ephesians: 12-Lesson Bible Study Guide

Copyright © 2021 BroadStreet Publishing Group

978-1-4245-6380-7 (softcover)

978-1-4245-6381-4 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

All Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use.

For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Christy Phillippe

Cover and interior by Garborg Design Works | GarborgDesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Ephesians

Lesson 1  The Apostle Paul and the Ephesian Church

Lesson 2  Becoming God’s Delightful Children

Lesson 3  Paul’s Prayer for You

Lesson 4  Made Completely New

Lesson 5  The Divine Mystery

Lesson 6  Walking in Love and Holiness

Lesson 7  Christ’s Gifts to Us

Lesson 8  New Life in Jesus

Lesson 9  Living in God’s Love, Light, and Wisdom

Lesson 10God’s Design for Marriage

Lesson 11Practicing Loving Relationships

Lesson 12Spiritual Warfare

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as unlimited as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “unlock the passion of [God’s] heart.” It is “a heart-level translation, from the passion of God’s heart to the passion of your heart,” created to “kindle in you a burning desire for him and his heart, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding:

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word, to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on how the lesson relates to growing closer to others, to enriching your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means. You may also find maps and charts that will help you reimagine these groups, places, and activities. Finally, in this feature you will find references to additional Bible texts that will further illuminate the Scripture you are studying.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith; Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare; Irenaeus for his fight against heresy; Billy Graham for his work in evangelism; Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law; Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you into the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “‘Now go in my authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age’” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Ephesians

As a new believer, I began reading through the New Testament. I loved the Gospels, but when I got to the book of Ephesians, my heart jumped inside of my chest. It starts off with such a glory list of blessings that I could hardly take them in! In fact, reading Ephesians thrilled me so much, I think I underlined almost every verse. I committed this book to memory over forty-five years ago because I love it so much.

If you ever feel like you are neglected or you have to go without something you really want, read Ephesians. It is a nonstop list of blessings that you already possess. It easily divides itself in two parts: Chapters 1–3 could be titled “My Blessings.” Chapters 4–6 could be named “My Calling.” When you know how much God has blessed you, you will know how to use those blessings to encourage and build up others. That is your calling.

Two words stand out when I read Ephesians: “in Christ.” Those words, or “in him” (Christ), are found over forty-five times in this book. To be “in Christ” is to have every spiritual blessing, including love, hope, and acceptance with the Father. I don’t know of any other two words that encourage me more than “in Christ.”

God has placed every believer into Christ, which means God now sees you as hidden in his Son. Your sins are not showing; he is. Your failures do not stick out when you come before the Father; rather, Christ shines through you. He sees you in the righteousness of Christ. To know that you are in Christ will secure your soul in the mercy and love of God. You are hidden in him, so now your true life is found in him.

Ephesians also touches so many of the important doctrines of our faith. It teaches us of the precious unity we have together in the family of God. It imprints us with the Holy Spirit, the engagement ring given to us the moment we believe. Yes, Ephesians reminds us that we, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ on earth, and the army of God, move forward fully clothed in his armor.

So many verses encourage my inner being when I read through this book. I know Ephesians will change your life.

Start your study today of this glorious book. Be sure to personalize every verse and take it into your heart as truth and life. May your journey through Ephesians bring you so close to God that you will see yourself clothed with Christ, tucked inside of his glory, and filled with his life!

Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

The Apostle Paul and the Ephesian Church

The book of Ephesians is a very special book in the canon of Scripture. It is, in essence, the great constitution of the Christian faith, a powerful summation of the most basic principles of our foundational doctrines, followed by practical ways in which we are to live out this faith in our daily lives.

The church of Jesus Christ, his bride, is at the center of the letter to the Ephesians, with Christ himself situated at her head. Both Jews and gentiles have been brought into his body, and as the Holy Spirit fills the church with power, we—both individually and as a corporate body of believers—receive the calling to partner with Jesus in bringing about God’s will in the earth. What a joy and a privilege we have been given!

What an exciting letter Paul has written to us! Ephesians is full of life and its words reach higher in Christian thought than any letter in our New Testament. Full of living revelation, it simply drips with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Where most of Paul’s letters are addressed to churches facing specific issues dealing with belief and practice, this isn’t the case with Ephesians. There is a more general, theologically reflective tone to this letter that is meant to ground, shape, and challenge believers (mainly gentile) in their faith.2

Authorship