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HopeLives365

3rd Quarter Sabbath School 2023: Ephesians

Mark Finley

01 Paul and the Ephesians

Welcome to another 1 of our Sabbath School series.

We're beginning a new quarter, and in this new quarter, we'll be studying the Book of Ephesians.

This series of Sabbath School lessons was written by Dr.

McVeigh is the president of Walla Walla College, also teaches theology there.

As you look at the book of Ephesians, it has 6 chapters.

The first 3 chapters talk about the gospel, pointing out that we are adopted into the family of God through Christ.

That through the cross of Calvary, the middle wall of petition between all peoples has been broken down.

That we are saved by grace through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ?

Do you remember that renowned text, that famous text in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8, that says, for by grace are you saved through faith.

It is the gift of God and not of yourselves, not of works as anybody should boast for we have his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works.

So the first 3 chapters in the book of Ephesians talk about the gospel.

The last 3 chapters talk about the results of the gospel in our lives.

I like when I'm reading the Bible to summarize chapters in the Bible.

And I'll tell you how I've summarized these chapters, and sometimes in my own Bible, I will write the title of those chapters.

And we're gonna just take a look at the entire book of Ephesians, and then go back to follow our lesson study today.

In chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians, we find that Christ's riches are ours.

All the riches of Christ, the glory of who Jesus is, is ours.

In chapter 2, we find that Christ's grace is ours.

In chapter 3, we find that Christ's power is ours.

So his riches in chapter 1, his grace in chapter 2, his power in chapter 3.

Then what is the result of the riches of Christ dwelling in us?

What is the result of the grace of Christ changing our lives?

What is the result of the power of Christ transforming us?

Chapter 4, we are brought into unity with 1 another and unity with God.

We walk in love and we walk in the light of truth and we walk in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

So chapter 5, the result of the gospel is enabling us to walk in love, we walk in the light of God's truth, and we walk in wisdom.

Chapter 6 talks about the armor of Christ.

And if indeed we've been transformed by the grace of Christ, if we're adopted as children of God, we want to put the armor of Christ on.

Verse 13, chapter 6, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked 1 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

So this armor of God has to do with faith, with hope, with love, with courage, with firmness.

So let's look at the whole book of Ephesians together.

We're transformed by the grace, forgiven by that grace.

Our lives can be changed through the gospel.

The grace of God and the riches of Christ transform us through God's power.

Chapter 4, in Christ, we are unified, brought together as 1 community of believers, the church.

So the book of Ephesians talks about the church as a community of believers, the church as the body of Christ, the church as the bride of Christ.

We are filled with the light of his truth, and we walk in wisdom.

In chapter 6, we put on the whole armor of God to resist the temptations.

Where was Ephesians written from and when was it written?

The book of Ephesians was written from Paul's imprisonment in Rome.

There were 4 of the epistles that were written there.

You have Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon written from that imprisonment.

Paul had visited Ephesus on an occasion, it's in Acts 18, you'll find that on Monday's lesson.

And you'll, actually it's in Sunday's lesson that Paul is the evangelist to Ephesus and he goes there at the end of his second missionary journey.

Ephesus is 1 of the largest cities in the Roman Empire.

It was enjoying a time of great prosperity in Paul's day.

It was at the crossroads also of important land routes.

People worship many deities in that city, including Artemis.

So Paul briefly spends some time there as he has returned from his missionary journeys in Greece, in Achaia and Macedonia.

Macedonia in northern Greece, Achaia southern.

But then he later returns on his third missionary journey and that's what we want to pick up just for a few moments now, this third missionary journey in Acts chapter 19.

You'll find this in Monday's lesson in Acts, the 19th chapter, Paul returns.

He stays there for over 2 years as he's preaching.

The gospel has its impact and it has its impact in the culture.

As the result of that, the sale of the little silver shrines made by the shopkeepers falls off.

Demetrius, 1 of the silversmiths, becomes incredibly angry.

And it says in Acts chapter 19, verse 24, for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, that's Artemis is the same, that brought no small profit to the craftsmen.

He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, "'Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

"'Moreover, you see it here, that not only at Ephesus, "'but throughout almost all Asia, "'that this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying they are not gods, they're made with hands.

He's concerned about the trade is falling off.

So he stirs up the tradesmen, he stirs up the people in town, they enter into the stadium.

This stadium seating about 15, 000 people and as they come into this stadium, they're yelling, they're screaming.

Now you could jam in 25, 000 people into the stadium.

It's at least 15, 000, but if you're looking at the maximum seating capacity, it's 25, 000.

So let's imagine 25, 000 people in there, shouting, the Bible says, for 2 hours, great is the goddess of Diana, great is the goddess of Diana.

2 of Paul's compatriots are brought into that temple, brought into that theater, that stadium.

And It almost appears as if their lives are going to be taken.

But then a clerk stands up in the stadium from Rome.

Some of the officials who were his friends keep him from actually going in there.

02 God’s Grand, Christ-Centered Plan

Welcome to our second lesson, second week of the study of the book of Ephesians in our Sabbath school quarter.

This quarter's lessons were written by Dr.

John McVeigh, the president of Walla Walla College.

The title of our lesson this week is God's Grand Christ-Centered Plan.

McVeigh begins the lesson with an interesting concept.

He talks about Ephesians chapter 1 as a thank-you note, where the Apostle Paul is thanking God for God's predetermined plan to save us, for choosing us, for accepting us, for redeeming us, for forgiving us, for the riches of God's grace.

In The memory text for this week, Ephesians 1 verse 3, we read, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

Now the lesson this week unpacks what it means to be blessed with the spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

On Sunday's lesson, the title is Chosen and Accepted in Christ.

We find that concept in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 through 6.

So if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, maybe a little notepad to take a few notes to prepare for Sabbath school this coming week.

Verse 3, Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

Everything we need for redemption, for salvation is found in Jesus Christ.

He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings.

There is no sin too great for him to forgive.

There is no habit in our life too great for Him not to be able to overcome it.

There is no temptation we face that grace is insufficient to cope with.

It says, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he's made us accepted in the beloved.

Now there are 2 key words there, chosen and accepted.

Notice we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

When the genes and chromosomes came together to form the unique biological structure of your personality, when you were still in your mother's womb, you were chosen by God, chosen for a purpose, to live, to reflect His glory, to live, to reveal His love and grace in the world.

We are not merely some evolutionary anomaly that happened to take place.

And it says we are accepted in the beloved.

Have you ever felt at times not being accepted?

You may feel in your own family that you haven't been accepted, that you have been kind of pushed out.

A wife may feel not accepted by her husband.

A husband may feel not accepted by his wife.

We may go into a church and it may feel cold to us, it may not feel really accepted there.

Have you ever walked into a room at a social gathering and felt not accepted?

We cannot determine whether people accept us or not, but in spite of their acceptance, we are accepted in the Beloved.

Not because of the way we look, not because of our status in society, not because of our material blessings.

We're accepted because we are children of God.

Notice what the way it's put here in Sunday's lesson, the last few sentences just before the middle of the page.

Since before the sun began to shine, it has been his strategy, that's God's strategy, that we would be accepted in the Beloved.

In short, it's God's intention for us to be saved.

We lose salvation only by our own sinful choices.

Now notice what it says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3.

It says we have every spiritual blessing, this is our memory text, in heavenly places.

What does it, what does the expression in heavenly places mean?

This expression is only used in the book of Ephesians.

It's not used any other place in the Bible.

It has to do with the realm of the eternal.

Ephesians uses it to indicate Christ's ascension into heavenly places.

It uses it in the sense of Christ being in the presence of God in the heavenly sanctuary.

It also uses it in the idea of the battle between good and evil, between Christ and Satan in heavenly places.

So when The Bible says that we have spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

It means all the riches of heaven are ours to battle Satan in this cosmic conflict between good and evil.

What does it mean that we have spiritual blessings in heavenly places?

It means all the blessings of Jesus Christ, all the blessings of his death on the cross for us, all the blessings of his victorious life, all the blessings of knowing that we're children of God and accepted by the Beloved, All those blessings from heavenly sanctuary fall from that sanctuary, flow from that sanctuary for us.

There's no reason to be discouraged, disappointed.

Open your heart to the heavenly blessings that there are in Jesus Christ.

Our lesson goes on in Monday's lesson titled Costly Redemption and Lavish Forgiveness.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 puts it this way, in him we have redemption through his blood for the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

The word redemption is an interesting word there.

In the ancient Greek culture of the New Testament, the word redemption has to do with the redeeming of a slave by paying a ransom for that slave.

Slaves would be on an auction block and you can almost see the sweat dripping off those slaves as Paul writes.

You can almost hear the manacle and the chains of the horror of slavery.

And then you see somebody coming forward and the slave is being auctioned off.

The price is paid for the slave to be given to the master.

What this text is saying, when it says in his blood we have redemption, What it's actually saying is that Christ has purchased us on Calvary's cross, that we have a new master.

We're not masters, that Satan is not our master.

Sin is not our master, but Jesus Christ is our master.

Now, there is a little confusion in this that some people have.

There are those that move away from the idea of the blood atonement, this idea of redemption, the purchase of our souls through Christ or our lives through Christ.

Because they say, well the pagan gods demanded a worship and the sacrifice had to be brought.

Number 1, we're not bringing the sacrifice.

God himself in Christ made the sacrifice.

The second thing is that Christ's blood was not shed to pay a ransom to God.

Because the moral law of the universe is broken and the wages of sin are death.

03 The Power of the Exalted Jesus

Welcome back to another Sabbath School lesson.

We're on lesson number 3, the power of the exalted Christ.

This is an exciting, insightful, inspiring lesson.

Our memory text talks about the exceeding greatness of Christ's power.

It's found in Ephesians 1 verse 19 and 20.

It says that Christ's power is given to us who believe according to the riches of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Now, Ephesians 1 verse 19 and 20, if you have your Bible, if you have your Sabbath school quarterly, if you're taking notes, I want you to notice 2 specific things about this text.

First, the exceeding greatness of his power.

Christ not only has power, but his power is exceedingly great.

Second thing I want you to notice is also the mention of the word power.

So Christ not only has power, but He has mighty power.

How do we receive the exceeding greatness of His power?

It says that God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

So there are certain aspects of the reception of Christ's power, certain reasons why we get it.

Second, he was exalted at the throne of God.

Third, all things were placed in subservience to Christ.

And fourth, at that point he was made head of the church.

So the resurrection of Christ is everything to us.

If Christ died and was not resurrected from the dead, he would be more than, no more than, merely a martyr, dying for a good cause.

But when Jesus died and was resurrected, it demonstrates he's the divine son of God, that he has power over the principalities and powers of hell, that he was victor over all the forces of evil.

So in our lesson this week, we focus on the power of Christ that is ours because Christ conquered the grave and was raised from the dead.

Now, The lesson this week focuses really on a prayer, and it's the prayer of Paul for the church at Ephesus.

We find dimensions of that prayer in Ephesians 1, verse 15 to 23.

If you have your Bible, take it out, get out a pen, you can do some underlining.

We'll unpack this, Ephesians 1, 15 to 23.

Therefore, Paul says, "'I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, the believers, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." Paul prayed specifically for the church at Ephesus.

He was far distant from them, but yet he was praying for them.

Intercessory prayer for Paul wasn't something simply to talk about, discuss.

He believed in the power of intercession.

What are you praying about for these Ephesians?

He says, I don't cease to give thanks for you, always making mention of you in my prayers, verse 16, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, now here's what he's praying for, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

So Paul is praying that they would have wisdom, the wisdom to discern right from wrong, that they would have understanding of divine truth.

Then he goes on, verse 18, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, that what are the riches of his glory, of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe." So Paul longs for them to know the greatness of Christ's power.

In the first lesson on titled, Praying and Thanksgiving, the first detailed lesson after Sabbath, the Sunday's lesson, we read this.

Paul talks in 1 Thessalonians about praying without ceasing.

And he was constantly praying for the church at Ephesus, making mention of them constantly in his prayers.

What does it mean to pray without ceasing?

I love the way the Sabbath school quarterly puts it.

And this is the third paragraph down under the question on page 23 under Sunday's lesson.

It cannot mean that we're always kneeling before God in prayer.

It does mean that blessed by God's spirit, we move through life with hearts open to the presence and power of God, seeking cues for thanksgiving to him.

It means a readiness to possess the issues of life in the presence of God to seek divine counsel as we experience the twists and turns of life.

It means living not in estrangement from God, but in engagement with him ever open to divine leading.

So to pray without ceasing means we're in an atmosphere of prayer at all times, that we live in the presence of God, that we have this sense daily that whatever we're doing, that God is present with us through his Holy Spirit, that angels are present with us, that there's no place that for us as a Christian that's inappropriate to pray, to send and to dart up a prayer to God.

Now Paul prayed that the Ephesians would have insight from the Holy Spirit.

Remember Ephesians 1, 16 and 17, he says, I don't cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Paul is praying that they will have wise discernment.

He prays that the Holy Spirit will give them 3 things.

First, the spirit of wisdom and knowledge.

Second, that he will give them the exceeding power of God that will be poured out to them.

And third, that they'll have the hope of their calling or the inheritance that there is in Jesus.

Can you think of any 3 things that are more valuable than these?

To receive wisdom from God day by day, to be guided by God.

Secondly, to have the power of God from the sanctuary above flowing into your life.

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Series

3rd Quarter Sabbath School 2023: Ephesians

05 Horizontal Atonement: The Cross and the Church

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