Grace Thoughts
Teaching Ephesians – The Gospel of Your Salvation (Part 12)
Courtesy of D. Osseman library
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We are sharing a special series about teaching the Book of Ephesians in small groups. If you haven’t read the Introduction to the series, we invite you to read it here.
Whether you are interested in studying Ephesians for the purpose of teaching it to small groups or for your own personal study, we believe you will find this series helpful.
Basic Premises for Studying Scripture
- God is worth knowing
- His Word is worth learning and obeying
- Because God is worth knowing and His Word is worth learning, we will follow a proven method of knowing Him and learning His Word.
- We will use the I – M – D – I method of Bible study:
- Inductive – Methodical – Direct – Independent
- Inductive study – “logical, objective, impartial reasoning” … examining specifics of Scripture before reaching conclusions
- Methodical study – “a way or path of transit” (Greek – methodos) … focused on taking the proper path to gaining knowledge about God
- Direct study – “relying on Scripture as the primary tool for learning”
- Independent study – “original thinking combined with Spirit insight”
- Observe (See and Record)
- Question (Ask and Answer)
- Interpret (Determine the Holy Spirit’s Intent)
- Apply (How God’s Truth applies to your life)
Bible Study – The Group Process
We invite you to model the process of observing, asking questions for interpretation, interpreting for meaning, and applying for discipleship for your small group. This process may be new to some of the people in your group, so going through it with them for awhile may help them feel comfortable with how to do it.
One of the biggest mistakes people make in reading the Bible is trying to interpret the meaning of individual verses before observing everything in the verses. Studying in context also helps keep us from making incorrect interpretations. That means starting the observation process at the beginning of each Bible book.
The challenge in studying alone or with the group is trying to determine the meaning of passages in the Bible before assuring that we’ve observed everything in the passages and asked every possible question. We carefully answer all of the questions before reaching a conclusion to the meaning.
Read the Scripture and go through each step with your group. You may be able to cover observation,questions, interpretation and application in one meeting, but don’t rush the process. It takes time to see everything in a text, ask good questions, get good answers to those good questions, interpret the meaning of the text and apply the meaning to life. If it takes two or three meetings to do that for each text, that’s fine! The goal is to rightly divide God’s Word, not finish by a certain date.
Observe – Write what you see
Ephesians 2:19-22
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
During the past couple of lessons we have seen how the Blood of Jesus Christ brings Gentiles spiritual hope. Jesus brought peace between Gentiles and Jews by creating in Himself “one new man from the two” and reconciled both to God “through the cross.” (Ephesians 2:15-16)
Paul wrote that Christians have access to God the Father through Christ and “by one Spirit.” This continues the theme Paul introduced earlier in Ephesians.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace … In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:7, 13-14
The Jews and Gentiles had disagreed with each other’s religious beliefs for centuries. Both believed they were right and the other was wrong. God solved the age-old controversy by sending His Son Jesus Christ from Heaven to earth. “For He Himself is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14)
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22 in Greek
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners … αρα ουν ουκετι εστε ξενοι και παροικοι
now, therefore … αρα ουν (so then) … Paul concludes his recent points for the Gentiles in the Ephesian church … he wants them to understand he full weight and importance of what he wrote concerning their new position in Christ … being reconciled with Jews “to God in one body through the cross” …
you are no longer strangers and foreigners … ουκετι εστε ξενοι και παροικοι … the Gentile believers had been strangers and foreigners in the past, but no more … ξενοι (xenos) means “foreigner, alien, stranger” … the English word xenophobia comes from the Greek ξενοι … παροικοι means “dwelling near, foreign” … the idea was of someone who lived close to others as a temporary dweller … they would have limited rights as a non-citizen … this is similar to what we find in many countries today with some foreigners living and working with certain limitations, but without citizenship rights …
The word ‘stranger’ is xenos, ‘an alien.’ The word speaks of that which is of a different quality or nature than something else, thus, alien to it.
Kenneth Wuest, Ephesians in the Greek New Testament,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God … αλλα συμπολιται των αγιων και οικειοι του θεου
but fellow citizens with the saints … συμπολιται means “citizen together with” … this hearkens back to Paul’s earlier words – “you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” … Gentile Christians were now full citizens together with the saints (των αγιων) … the word αγιων means “set apart ones, holy ones, set apart for sacred service” …
and members of the household of God … και οικειοι του θεου … οικειοι means “of the household, of one’s family” … the word carries the idea of intimacy … Gentile Christians were intimate members of God’s family, the household of faith …
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone … εποικοδομηθεντες επι τω θεμελιω των αποστολων και προφητων οντος ακρογωνιαιου αυτου ιησου χριστου
having been built … εποικοδομηθεντες επι … εποικοδομηθεντες means “to build upon” (aorist participle passive) …
the foundation … τω θεμελιω … θεμελιω means “belonging to a foundation, laid down as a foundation, a foundation stone” … every house (building) and household (family) has a foundation which undergirds it …
of the apostles and prophets … των αποστολων και προφητων … while the identity of the apostles αποστολων) is understood, the identity of the prophets is not as clear … some scholars believe the prophets Paul mentioned were the Old Testament prophets … others believe Paul meant New Testament prophets … some believe the word prophets (προφητων) should be included with the word apostles, to understand that apostles were also prophets and prophetic in their ministry … Paul later presents apostles and prophets as separate gifts that Jesus gave to the Church (Ephesians 4:11), so it may be that he meant the phrase to be understood similarly here in 2:20 … one problem with identifying the “prophets” as New Testament prophets who were part of the foundation upon which God built His household is that few NT prophets are mentioned in Acts or the letters of the apostles … who were they and how did they play a foundational role for the household of God? … it may be that people may have had in mind some of the people who served with him who had the gift of prophecy … we know that Agabus was a prophet of the New Testament (Acts 11:28; 21:10) … we also know that Acts 13:1 identifies several prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch, Syria: “Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” … it may be that Paul was referring to some of these men as being foundational to the household of God … another possible prophet was Apollos (Acts 18:24; 19:1; 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:5-6; Titus 3:13) … there may be others, but this gives us some sense of how New Testament prophets may have been in Paul’s mind when he wrote about people who were part of the foundation of the household God was building … and there is still the possibility Paul was thinking about the Old Testament prophets whose writings he quoted more than a hundred times in his letters …
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone … οντος ακρογωνιαιου αυτου ιησου χριστου … ακρογωνιαιου means “at the extreme angle or corner, cornerstone” … it was used for the primary foundation stone at the corner or angle of a building … the cornerstone “fixes a standard for the bearings of the walls and cross-walls throughout” (W.W. Lloyd) … the word was also used for the chief cornerstone and the capstone … it is the most important part of a foundation as it connects and upholds everything else … that is who Jesus Christ is to the household of God, the Church …
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord … εν ω πασα η οικοδομη συναρμολογουμενη αυξει εις ναον αγιον εν κυριω
in whom … εν ω points to Jesus Christ … the idea of the preposition εν is of being on the inside or within …
the whole building … πασα η οικοδομη … πασα means “every part, the whole, every kind of” … οικοδομη means “a building, a building serving as a home, the act of building” … it is within Jesus that the whole building of God:
being fitted together … συναρμολογουμενη … συναρμολογουμενη means “to fit together, joined closely with, hinged together, fitly framed together” … Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the household of God and it is “in Christ that the whole building is being (present participle middle or passive) fitted together for a particular purpose …
grows into a holy temple in the Lord … αυξει εις ναον αγιον εν κυριω … αυξει means “to make to grow, cause to increase, become greater” … ναον means “inner sanctuary of a temple” … it’s important to note that Paul did not use the term ἱερόν, which would include the porches and outer buildings of the temple complex … Paul made a powerful statement about the “Church” Jesus is building, the inner sanctuary where God dwells …
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit … εν ω και υμεις συνοικοδομεισθε εις κατοικητηριον του θεου εν πνευματι
in whom you also are being built together … Paul emphasized his statement … even as the whole building being fitted together to grow into a holy inner sanctuary in the Lord, so the individual believers are also being built together (συνοικοδομεισθε)
for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit … εις κατοικητηριον του θεου εν πνευματι … κατοικητηριον means “habitation, abode, dwelling place” … it has the idea of permanency of occupation … του θεου εν πνευματι tells us that God permanently dwells in His earthly inner sanctuary εν (in, by) His Spirit …
We are reminded here of what Paul wrote in the opening portion of this letter:
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14
Every true believer in Christ is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That promise is connected to our inheritance in Christ (“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” 1:11-12) That promise is made to Gentile and Jew who Christ has created as “one new man” (2:15) through His death on the Cross. Not only do we have this special promise of an inheritance, but we also have the promise that God is fitting us all together “for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” How precious are the promises of God our Savior!
Observe – Write what you see
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
EPHESIANS 2:19-22
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Question – Ask and answer questions based on observations
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Interpret – What is the Holy Spirit’s intent in these verses?
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Apply – How can you apply these spiritual truths to your life?
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Free eBooks
We invite you to download, read, and share these free eBooks about Teaching Ephesians:
Next Time
We will look at Ephesians 3:1-3 in the next part of our series, Teaching Ephesians.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Apostle PaulBook of EphesiansGentileGospel of Your SalvationJesus ChristJew
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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
