Bible Study Methods Practice Ephesians 2:11-22
Read the passage.
Who is writing?
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
Who is Paul writing to?
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus
Who is Paul’s Audience?
What was our condition before Jesus?
remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
What has the work of Christ done and how has he accomplished it?
What does Paul mean by...
For he himself is our peace,
he himself is our peace,
he himself is our peace,
Who does Christ give us access to? Why is this important?
we both have access in one Spirit to the Father
Before Christ we were separated and strangers and Aliens... What are we now?
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
What metaphor does Paul use to describe the church?
a holy temple in the Lord
What other passages can you think of where the Bible uses a similar metaphor?
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
What does it mean that Christ is the Cornerstone of this temple?
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Where else do we see the theme of a “Dwelling place for God”?
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Application
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it