Ephesians 1:1-3

Announcements

Babysitting help needed for an event on Feb 16th

Watch a bunch of kids at the church - we’ll have craft/game/movie ideas pre-prepped

Make good money! (like $50-$100 for the night depending on how many kids we have)

Need 4 students - let me know!

Get involved at church!

Opportunities in kids ministry & nursery, as well as on worship team with Brian

Let me know, great way to grow in your faith when you are serving!

Intro/Background

We are going to start a new study tonight in the book of Ephesians

Usually we go through a book of the Bible, even though we have done some topical series lately if you’ve been here a few years

We’ll go through it verse by verse, meaning that we’re going to read this whole thing

Our format won’t change, we’ll do study and then break into small groups

My biggest request - start bringing your own Bible!

Take notes in it, or bring a journal to take notes

Not from a school perspective b/c there will be a quiz or anything, but having your own Bible, learning to read it, getting familiar with it, not having the distraction of your phone sending you notifications as you try to read your Bible app, and then taking notes to reinforce what you’re learning and to have something to go back to is an important part of growing in your own faith

You’ve heard all of us leaders say for years now that our goal is to help you make your faith your own so that you have a personal relationship with Jesus - not the faith of your parents or grandparents or friends - but that you are starting to get to know who Jesus is, you are talking to Him through prayer, you are listening to Him through His word, and that you are looking to live for Him and obey what He says

And falling in love with His word is a HUGE part of that personal relationship

I started doing that in my own life when I was in high school

Tell story of journal Bible & show to students

I still use this as my primary Bible. I still go back to my notes in it.

I never went to Bible college like Yen is doing. I don’t have a formal education on how to teach the Bible, I’ve just studied and read it a lot.

Corey and Jesse and Brian and Katie and Faith all have just spent time with Jesus and reading His word. We want you all to have that same kind of walk with Jesus and love for His word

Introduction

The book of Ephesians is in the New Testament and it is what’s called a “Pauline Epistle”

That’s a fancy way to say that it was a letter that Paul wrote

Most of the NT is comprised of Pauline epistles - 13 (or 14 if he wrote Hebrews) of the 27 books are his letters

Whenever we start a new book of the Bible, I like to ask 5 questions (great questions for us all to ask when we start a new book) - the 5 W’s - who, what, when, where, why?

Who?

I mentioned that the apostle Paul wrote this book/letter

How do we know? Verse 1a

He wrote it to the church that was in the city of Ephesus - Verse 1b

We’ll talk more about Ephesus during the “where” question

What?

This is an epistle, or a letter written by Paul to this church

Paul would want this letter read to the church, but then also shared with other churches in nearby towns like Colosse or Laodicea or Philadelphia

When?

It was written between 60-62 AD when Paul was in prison in Rome

If you read the book of Acts, Paul goes on 3 different missionary journeys.

At the end of the last trip, he ends up in Jerusalem in Israel, and the Jewish religious leaders found him and started a riot

Paul, in his BC years (Before Christ), was one of those religious leaders. He had been a Pharisee and he hated Christianity and Christians.

He persecuted Christians and was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest more of them when he met Jesus

If you were here in December when we talked about testimonies, you’ll remember that we read Paul’s story of how he met Jesus and Jesus changed his life

He quit being a Pharisee and became a follower of Jesus, and eventually an apostle (leader) in the early church

When Paul’s former buddies found him, they wanted him dead b/c they thought he betrayed them all

The Roman army saw the riot, stepped in, arrested Paul b/c they thought if this riot started b/c of this guy, he must have done something wrong, and eventually put him on trial

During the course of the trial, Paul appealed his case to Caesar, a right that every Roman citizen had - like appealing your court case to the US Supreme Court here

So he goes on a journey to Rome to stand trial before Caesar Nero, but was a prisoner while he waited to go on trial

He wrote 4 epistles/letters while he was in prison in Rome - Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon

Where?

It was written in Rome by Paul and then delivered by a man named Tychicus to that church

The city of Ephesus was a large city in what’s called Asia Minor - think modern day Turkey (between Greece & Israel)

About 200k people lived there which was big for back then

It was the capital of its province, so think of a city like Denver a state capital

It was a major business hub and was very wealthy

One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world was there - the temple to Artemis (or Diana)

Artemis, according to Greek mythology, is the daughter of Zeus and the twin sister of Apollo. She was considered the goddess of the hunt, wild animals and nature, of childbirth, and was the guardian of Ephesus

The temple was huge - twice the size of the Parthenon in Greece, and it brought in a lot of money

As the church in Ephesus started to grow, it started to impact the worship at that temple as people were walking away from following Artemis and started following Jesus

It became such a big deal that Acts 19 tells us there was a riot - the idol makers who made and sold little statues of Artemis were losing money, so they went to go get the Christians (including Paul) and put them in their 25,000 seat stadium and yelled at them for 2 hours before the city leadership stepped in and stopped what was heading for a riot

There’s this pull between false religion, false hope, a false way to live which was everywhere around the Christians, and the truth of following Jesus

This church was important to Paul

He lived there for 2 years, shared the gospel, and became basically the pastor of the church

Later, Timothy would become the pastor of this church, and even after that, the apostle John would pastor the church there too

Why?

Many of Paul’s letters were written to correct an issue that was going on in the church - that is not the case with Ephesians

He wrote to encourage the church and to further teach them

There are two parts to this book

Part I - doctrine

Doctrine = teaching

The first half (3 chapters) will deal with us learning sound doctrine

Part II - application

This is where we take what we learned about our faith and apply it to our lives practically

Now that you know the background behind everything, let’s get in and start reading

Lesson - Ephesians 1:1-3

Verses 1-3

Paul starts off with his greeting here in verses 1 & 2 which was a common way for writers back then to write a letter

You identify who is writing, who you’re writing to, and then give a greeting which in this case is grace and peace, a typical Pauline greeting

Verse 3 starts off with some worship

Paul writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Now I know this isn’t a prayer of Paul’s but it teaches us a good lesson that we should all remember - worship and praise is an important part of our relationship with Jesus

That’s singing worship - at church on Sunday, in your car as you’re driving home from school, while you’re doing homework - music is a big part of it

But it’s also part of prayer.

I think a lot of times, I know I am guilty of this, when we pray we just get right to what we need - “Dear God, help! Do this and do that! Amen.”

Jesus teaches us in the model prayer (aka the Lord’s prayer) that we should start off with worship of God

Why?

It reminds us of how big/powerful/awesome our God is

It puts our hearts in the right position before Him

It reminds us of our standing that we’re not greater than He is or calling the shots

He is worthy of it

Why is Paul worshipping God?

B/c He has given us every spiritual blessing through Jesus

This is an important, important thing to remember in our faith

There is a false picture of Christianity in our culture that is very materialistic and legalistic in nature

What do I mean by that?

We tie material blessings, stuff, health, good grades, a boyfriend or girlfriend, to how strong our faith is as a reward for “being a good Christian kid”

God does bless us with material stuff, but that isn’t His main focus/goal in our lives

In fact, it’s what we’d call a legalistic view (do good, get a reward, do bad, get a punishment) rather than a view of grace.

We’re going to learn a lot more about what God’s grace is and how our faith is 100% built on grace, not on good deeds (or what Paul calls works) in Chapter 2

But for now, we’ll talk about this concept that God wants to bless us spiritually more than materially

Having stuff or an easy or good life doesn’t mean that you have a stronger faith than someone, and it doesn’t mean that God loves you more than someone else

I think about so many Christians around the world that live in poverty or in sickness or in a place of war or persecution - does God love them less than He loves us?

What is a spiritual blessing then?

I think of character

I think of the fruit of the Spirit

Things like love for others, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, perseverance, contentment, and hope.

These can be things like spiritual gifts like evangelism (being good at sharing your faith with others), teaching God’s word, hospitality (taking care of others with what God’s given you), discernment (seeing a little deeper than what’s on the surface)

It’s guidance and direction and wisdom when we’re looking for answers

Its forgiveness and cleansing our guilt when we’ve messed up and sinned

Its the knowledge that no matter what happens in this world, we have the hope of heaven, a place where we’ll get to meet Jesus, a place with no more pain or suffering, and a place we’ll be reunited with other believers

This can be such a hard one to really understand b/c our society is based on the opposite end - do good, work hard, get a reward

Parents have that system with their kids, teachers with their students in the classroom, coaches with their players, and bosses with their employees

If you work hard you get a better grade or more playing time or more money at work

God operates a different way

God gives us the blessings ahead of time

He doesn’t wait to give us those blessings after we’ve earned them

Once you give your life to Jesus, every spiritual blessing is available to you immediately

B/c we’re still learning and growing in our faith, we don’t tap into those right away, and many of them take time to learn, but they are there for us

When we give our life to Jesus, He gives us His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is God, so God possesses all those things in full right now

It’s not like when you start a new video game and at the beginning you only have a couple of skills or items and you gain more as you defeat more levels

God has them all now and can give them to you now!

The blessings are based on God, not us

Spiritual blessings are not talents

You might be a really good singer, or good at math, or your a really good public speaker, those are all skills or talents God has given you

So opportunities like doing a solo at a performance or getting into a good school because of your grades depend on your talents

Spiritual blessings don’t depend on us! They are gifts from God that He can give according to His will

When we mess up or turn away from God, those blessings are still available

We have to repent (ask God to forgive us - not just feeling guilty for doing a bad thing but truly asking God to change our hearts), but once we do those blessings are there again in full!

Maybe you had an instance where you lied to your parents or something, and you lose some trust with them or even have some things like your phone taken away

It’s typical that you mess up, there are consequences, and you have to earn that trust or that thing back over time

With God, when you repent, that spiritual blessing is there

Now, God may not give you the same opportunities if you live in sin

If you are doing things you know are wrong, God won’t necessarily go, “Let’s give you this gift of teaching and have you be a youth pastor tomorrow even though you just spent 2 years partying and drinking and cussing and everything”

BUT, it is amazing that we serve a God of redemption because there are a lot of people who have sinful pasts that God has forgiven and given them all these spiritual blessings in spite of their sin

God cares more about your heart than your bank account

What is goal of life? At the end life, what is the thing that will matter the most?

How much money you make? How many cars you end up with? Getting the best grades or into the top college or the best job?

Or is it your heart? Your character? How you followed the Lord and served Him and served others?

Life is more than about stuff - so much more

Stuff leaves you empty and wanting more

There’s always more money to get, a bigger house, or a cooler car, or the next achievement. Stuff will never leave you satisfied

Just ask Solomon

Money? Check - he was the richest man in the world

Houses? Check - he build an incredibly huge mansion

Women? Check - he had more wives than you could even count, enough to spend a night with a different woman for almost 3 years

Possessions? Check - he had chariots and horses and wild animals, all the coolest toys

But Solomon would write at the end of his life in Ecclesiastes that it was all vanity or empty - life without God as your focus was meaningless

God knows that stuff will leave us empty, but things like joy and hope and peace and serving others will fill you up

He’s more interested in that and the type of person you become, not how rich or famous you become

PLUS, He is God, He is a jealous God which means He doesn’t give His glory to another

We are insignificant compared to Him, so life shouldn’t be about us getting bigger

Rather, we should be like John the Baptist and say, “less of me, more of Him.”

Small Groups

Small Group Questions

Have you ever read an entire book of the Bible before?

Why is spending time in God’s word so important?

What habits do you need to build in your own life to grow in His word?

Do you typically spend time worshipping God when you pray?

How does adding worship to your prayer time change your heart when you’re praying?

When you think of a “blessing,” what typically comes to your mind?

What is a spiritual blessing? Give some examples

How are spiritual blessings the same or different than what you typically think of as a “blessing”?

Why do you think Verse 3 says that God gives us every spiritual blessing, not every material blessing?

How are spiritual blessings greater than material blessings?

Sometimes when we don’t get material blessings, we think that God is angry with us or doesn’t love us or that we messed up. Why is that thought really a lie that we falsely believe?

What is one way you are going to live out what you learned this week?

Prayer Requests & Group Prayer