Ephesians: May 7, 2020 Class 4 Chapter 4:1-16

Theme:  Living as a Christian

4:1-16  Building the Body of Christ

            Paul is now moving from his own life example to how the people in the congregation want to live their lives as Christian.  In this section he moves from the church as a group to the individual worshiper and back again.       

              

4:1-3  Here Paul lists some of the characteristics that a person should strive for who lives in Christ.  

Characteristic	What it looks likes
Humility	Opposite of egotistical; Smile – look at people; Give credit to others; Give credit to God and Christ.
Gentleness	Kind, Understanding, Friendly, Good Listener, Helpful
Patience	Have persistence and endurance; Willing to wait and see; Not live in the drama
Bearing with one another in love	Listen to and try to understand someone Show support even if you can’t help
Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace	All of the above Take on the Goal to Live in Christ

4:4-6  This part is emphasizing the unity of everyone under God and the unity of God.  We need to remember that God as a singularity was accepted by the Jews, but God was not a singularity with the gentiles; they worshiped many gods, major, minor, and demi-gods.  On the other hand, introducing Christ to the Jews might have been difficult because it was adding another aspect to God.  God was now a trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit was actually a part of Jewish worship, but adding the Son might have been difficult to comprehend.  

Q: What are some way that we can we explain the Trinity to people?

Father: All powerful; Compassion; All knowing and understanding; Creation Force; Divine Parent (Both male and female/beyond male and female)

Son: God’s Son;  Incarnation as human Jesus ; Show us that God understands us because He lived as human – This is our Blessed Assurance.

Holy Spirit: Prompting from God;  God’s whisper or God’s breeze that gives you direction when you need it.  Our personal guide from God.

4:7  This is emphasizing the individual in Christ and introducing the idea that everyone has gifts and graces.

4:8  “Captivity” is a difficult concept for us to wrap our minds around.  The 21^st century is much more individualistic and self-owned than in the 1^st century.  Many people were slaves or indentured servants, so you couldn’t get away from your employer if you wanted to; you just had to accept the fact that you were going to work for them until they died or you paid off your debt.  But just like today there were good owners and bad owners.  The idea of being captive in Christ is that you were willing to accept Christ as your Lord and in turn all good things would flow from him.  

Q:  What words for captivity/captive can we use today that express this idea, but are perhaps a bit more acceptable? 

            Follower; Disciple; Volunteer; Employer/Employee (God is my boss)

4:9 -10:  The idea of Christ ascending and descending gives Christ dominion over every place.  Even in Hell (Sheol – the deepest pit) Christ has dominion.

Q:  What are some of the deepest pits that we can fall into?       

            Depression; Addiction; Abuse – both physical and mental; Life-Threatening Illness; Poverty; Loneliness; Broken Relationships; 

How do we know that Christ is with us when we are there?

            Feeing of peace within; Help from someone; Continual connection with people.

4:11  List of individual gifts & the work of ministry, bringing us into maturity

  

Indivi- dual Gifts	Actions  1st Century & Today	Examples: People
Apostles	These are the people who lived w/ Jesus & were trained by him.	Ministers and Lay people who have gone through special spiritual training.
Prophets	Tell the future and warn about what is going to happen if things don’t change	People today: Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi
Evangel- ists	Preachers who inspire us to be spiritual	Any preacher that gives you inspiration Billy Graham Obama (Doesn’t have to be a minister)
Pastors	People who minister to others and make sure people are cared for	Mother Teresa Social Workers Anyone who cares for others
Teachers	Teaching spiritual discipline	Ministers and Special Spiritual Counselors or Trainers.

4: 14 – 15   Children here are contrasted with adults continuing the theme of maturity.  Children are influenced by people whereas adults have learned better.

                         

Child Attitudes & Beliefs	Adult Attitudes and Beliefs
I don’t have to do what I’m told	Knows that structure, rules, and boundaries are important and helpful
Live ONLY in the moment; can’t see the results of actions	Understand the concept of how the past, present and future relate to each other
Child perceives themselves as the center of the universe	Understands the connectivity and interdependence of relationships
Children’s beliefs are influenced by the moment.	Reasoning and beliefs are informed by comparative experience and past decisions of success or failure.

4:16  The body joined together has to function together in coordination.  In the first century it was believed that the body was made of Four Humors: Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, and Black Bile.  If one of these humors was weak then it created disease.  

            Paul is expressing the idea that the body & spirit must be in balance.  The way to do this is to continue to in Christ and “to speak truth in love,” then we are able to mature into adulthood in spirituality .

Ephesians: April 30, 2020 Class 4 Chapter 3:1-13, 14-21

Theme: Paul as Prisoner for the Gospel & The Apostle’s Prayer

3:1  Paul is referring to the theology that he has outlined in chapters 1&2.

3:2-4   This is referring to his revelation of Christ on the Road to Damascus.  If you read other parts of Paul’s writing, he apparently had a very complete revelation of who and what Christ was on that day.  He says that he is the only apostle that had never met Jesus before his crucifixion and resurrection, but met him as the resurrected Christ which is how we meet him. 

            Paul is reminding people that once he wasn’t a Christian – in fact he was violently opposed to the Christian movement.  He was given a commission by the Temple authorities to be in charge of persecuting Christians.  Paul couldn’t touch the Gentiles who had converted but under Jewish authority he was allowed to imprison and execute Jews who were Christian under charges of heresy.  He had caused a lot of the Jewish/Christian community to flee Jerusalem, and he was heading to Damascus to continue his efforts, probably with a small Temple police force, when he was struck down from his horse by Christ and was blinded.  A Christian in Damascus healed him, and he started to learn about Christ and then began to preach the Gospel.  This story was probably well known by everyone who knew him – so he doesn’t need to mention it further.

Q: Have you ever had a sudden revelation of who Christ is to you or something that you should do for Christ? 

            People shared their encounters with Christ.  They were a personal so I don’t want to connect with names, but I can give examples:  A person who was given a vision when a mother died; another when a grandmother died; and another during the incidents of 9/11.

All of these carried with them the certainty that God or Jesus was with them.

3:5-6   The mystery refers to how we can connect with God.  Christianity wasn’t a “mystery cult” like many religions in the ancient cultures.  This made it a radical idea and movement.  

Note that Paul is once again saying that by accepting Christ that gentiles are brought into the Hebrew covenant with God.

3:7  Servant of God: Paul often refers to himself as Christ’s servant.

Q: What do we think is the role of a servant?  

            * Doing what the master asks you to do.

            *  Doing little actions so that someone can spend time on bigger tasks

                Or doing the little stuff so God can have the big stuff happen.

            * Anticipate the needs of others.

3:8-9  Paul probably puts in “the least of all saints” because some churches had been saying that they followed or were disciples of Paul, or other apostles.  Paul wants us to remember that he is ONLY the servant of Christ, not a substitute for Christ.  Paul truly believed that his mission/job was to bring the gospel to people who weren’t Jewish.  

Q:  What do you think some of your missions have been in life?

     * As a secretary bringing humor to the office or to memos to relieve daily stress of the job. 

     *  Led to take get involved in elderly care after retirement.

     *  Help revitalize a church

Even small acts are something that God values

3:10-11  Paul is joining the church corporate to the worshiper-individual.  The church as a collective is a place for their members to find their purpose in Christ and then to realize it.  The community is the support of the individual and the individual the support of the community.

Q:   Do you have a mission that you want to do that you feel the church can help you with?

Q:   How do you feel that churches can help people support their ministry? 

            This brought about a discussion of things that we could do for the people at the Sharon Health Care nursing home who are isolated because of the crisis.  One of our Bible study members had been in touch with the director who mentioned that they need activities for people who were confined to their rooms, like coloring books, puzzle books and colored pens.  So we had a discussion of how we could help out.

3:12  The church should not be afraid to act because a mission will have the support of Christ.

3:14-20  This is Paul’s prayer to the congregation so that they will be strengthened in their faith and strengthened to do ministry. Below I have reworked it as an individual prayer.

Reworking of Paul’s prayer as a prayer for an individual:  Heavenly Father I bow before you.  From you every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.   I pray that, according to the riches of Your glory, You may grant that I may be strengthened in my inner being with power through Christ’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith, as I am being rooted and grounded in love.  I pray that I may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all that I can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

Q: If you were going to create a prayer for our church what would you like to include in it? Look at some of the subjects from Paul’s prayer below – but you can add your own.  Remember Paul is speaking to the church in Ephesus, but we want to think of what Sharon needs.

Paul’s Ideas to pray for	Ideas for our church
Strengthening in our inner being  with the Holy Spirit’s Power	This is a list of things we need to pray for in Sharon UMC *  All of our members will be safe
Christ dwell in our hearts	* Reach the younger community of adults * Financial certainty
Our faith rooted  and grounded in love	*  Increase our membership * Maintain relationship with each other
Power to comprehend the  full love of Christ and God	* Look for outreach programing
Ability to accomplish our tasks

Ephesians: April 22, 2020, Class 4: Chapter 2:11-22

Theme: How we are one in Christ

History:  Even before Jesus there was a huge argument within the Jewish community over who could or could not be considered to be Jewish.  

            In the 3^rd Century BCE the Septuagint was commissioned by Ptolomy of Alexandria.  This was what we would call our Old Testament.  According to legend 70 Jewish scholars put together in one book the Torah, books of history, books of the prophets, books of wisdom, and the proverbs and psalms.  All of these books were well known separately but this was the first time they had all been brought together into one book.  These writings were translated from Hebrew to Greek and became very popular in the ancient world.  The Hebrew religion and its philosophy was seen as being very pure because it was VERY ancient, had survived for a long time, and because of its clear ethical structure.  Many people became drawn to the religion, studied it, and wanted to become Jewish.

            This was a problem for conservative Jews because they believed that if you weren’t born Jewish – into the tribe of Abraham – then you couldn’t be Jewish.  But there was another movement that felt that gentiles should be allowed to become “converted Jews.”  As you can imagine there were opinions from all sides. 

            Paul actually started out as a Pharisee, which was more on the conservative side of this debate.  The fact that he was converted and saved by Jesus was a miracle in itself.  But he saw Christ as the answer to this debate.  By believing in Jesus and by being baptized into the faith through Christ a gentile could essentially become a Jew who believed in Jesus.    

            So, you can see why he is very insistent that Jews and Gentiles are now one in Christ. 

2:11-12:  * Circumcision was one of marks of being Jewish.  The Greeks had actually outlawed it when they were in power and the penalty for circumcising a child was death for the parents and the rabbi who had performed the ceremony.  Sometimes they would even kill the baby. This actually set off the Maccabee revolt.  You can see how if some people were Jewish in the church and some were Greek that this could cause lingering animosity.

            * The covenant and being Children of God was a big part of the theology that needed to be resolved.  Who is in – who is out?  People outside were seen as having no hope of ever knowing God.

Q:  Who do we think are outside the covenant today? 

            * Non-believers, homosexuals, members of other religions  

            * Historically: Women (restricted roles in the church) African-Americans, other races, Native-Americans.  Many people  throughout history have taken the stand that other races aren’t worthy of being included in the Christian religion or incapable of understanding it.

2:13:  Idea of Sacrifice.  Blood was a traditional sacrifice back then – for a long time it was considered to be the only thing that could “appease the gods.”  

Q: What are we required to sacrifice today for God/Christ? 

Note: Sacrifice comes from the word sacre: something holy and the suffix ice: state or condition of.  So a sacrifice puts you into a state of holiness.

* Our sins: We are supposed to give them up because even if they feel good, they end up hurting ourselves and others.  Think of the seven-deadly sins from our discussion on April 16: Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Laziness, Pride, Envy & Anger.  

* Then we Live Righteously – in the right way with God.  This is an offering that we give to God.  We do this with our time, talents & treasures.

* Prayers: Both a sacrifice and an offering. 

            Prayers to help you deal with parts of you that are wrong are sacrifices. 

            Prayers of thanksgiving and for others are offerings to God. 

2:14-16:  Christ as the person who unites the Gentiles and the Jewish ideologies and conditions of being under God.  (One body stands for the literal body of Christ and the Church)

Q:  What conditions do we set up in our own day and age (or have we set up in the past) for joining our Church?  

            * You need to believe in Christ

            * You need to understand the responsibilities of membership

2:17-18: Peace of God:  

            * Everyone gets along

            * Absence of war or conflict

            * Ability to listen and then to understand

            * Beauty we see/experience in nature

            * Felling inside of calmness and trust; God is always with you

2: 19-22:  

Citizens with Saints	Saints are the people of Faith who have gone before us.  They are now citizens of heaven.  But we are also citizens of heaven.  Jesus said that he is preparing a place for us – so we are already citizens, we just haven’t been there yet.
Members of God’s Household	Congregation, Family, Large Methodist Church as our family.  All Christians as our family.  A family looks out for each other so we must look out for each other.
House is built with the foundations of the apostles and prophets	Old Testament Prophets: Had a direct connection          with God New Testament Apostles: Had a direct connection           with Jesus We follow their example because of their experiences – they are our mentors and guides.
Christ as Cornerstone	Christ is our basis of belief; stabilizing factor; strong point of our faith.  The one who hold up the “weight” of the “Christian building.”
Structure creates Holy Temple (dwelling place of God.)	This is our holy space.  But the holy space is:       the individual       the fellowship      the building where we congregate      and the earth (all of God’s creation.
Church is:	The individual joined with the community, which creates the building. This is the summing up of all of the above.

Ephesians: April 16, 2020; Class 3; Chapter 2:1-10

Chapters 2 & 3 are a theological reflection on salvation in the body of the exalted Christ.  This part focus on Christians within the church.  The idea is that if you understand your own salvation then you will able to clearly express it others.  Paul’s idea is that since Christ’s salvation is for everyone, we need to be able to explain it clearly to people we meet to so that they can see that they can participate in it.

            Chapter 2 is broken down into two basic parts:

                        2:1-10  Conversion from Death to New Life

                        2:11-22  Unity in Christ

2:1-3:  Here we have the idea of being dead/not alive before we became Christians.  This is a constant theme with Paul.  Our sins are caused by the way the world works, and the evil spirit of the devil (note that Paul doesn’t name the evil spirit.  That is because to use the name or title is to invoke it.  This is like using “You know who” for Voldemort, in the Harry Potter books!  R.K. Rowling is apparently a Christian does use a lot of Christian imagery in her books, despite what fundamental Christians say about the books leading children astray because they talk about magic.)  The evil spirit is always among those at work who are disobedient to God.

            

Paul gives a list of how the evil spirit works:

Q: How do you think each of the below are reflected in Paul’s time and in our current time?           

Workings of the Evil Spirit	1st Century	Today
Passions of our flesh: Think of the 7 deadly sins – these are things that exist in the world.	Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Laziness, Pride, Envy & Anger	These carry over today.
Following the desires of flesh and senses: This is making a choice that you will give in to sins that can hurt you and others	Ex. Greed: Interest could be very high on a loan – 25% -- in the 1st  century.  It depended on the person to set the rate.  Many people remained “indentured servants” to others because they couldn’t pay back loans.	Greed: Price gouging of medical equipment Envy: The idea that you deserve to have something that someone else has. Pride:  Entitlement but also not willing to ask for help
Being children of wrath: This is the next step – you become angry that you don’t get what you want and become a selfish person.	When you feel that you aren’t given what you think you deserve you become angry all time as well as abusive and egotistical.	This hasn’t changed in our day and age.

                        

2:4-5   God is with us even when we are not with him.  He gives us salvation through Grace. 

Q.  What do you think Paul means when he says that God is rich in mercy?

God give us Generous Renewing Actions of Compassion Eternally

Wesley’s Three Stages of Grace:

Definitions	Examples: Ways to know God
Prevenient: This means that something surrounds us without us being aware of it.  EX. For us it is AIR – for a fish WATER	Nature, Sunshine, Water/Ocean, Night Sky
Justifying: This is the point that we encounter God’s love; know that God exists; and realize that we are God’s beloved child. We are loved even though we are not perfect.	* When you come out of a serious illness * When someone does something nice for you out of the blue. * When you are forgiven by someone for something you did wrong.
Sanctifying: Being aware of how God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are working in your life.  You also look for God and ways to connect with God.  You consciously try to grow in holiness.	* For our church – Bob’s flower & bird reports * Rainbows * A good feeling – when you have the peace that passes all understanding * Flashes of insight * When Prayers are answered * Wonderful Surprises

Quote from Wanda:  Life is full of surprises.  Why should today be any different?

2:6-7  Once we are saved and start to participate in God’s Grace then we are eternally joined with God. This continues through many generations.

            * Paul wanted people to realize that they were creating a church that would last for many generations.

            * Historically, the development from a monarchial state to a democracy where everyone is equal under the law as everyone is equal under God. 

2:8-10  Grace & Works

            Works do not bring about the grace of God – the grace of God is there without works.  But we are created for good works.  God prepares things that we can do to become stronger and better Christians through our works that we dedicate to Christ.

            * In the first century a lot of religions believed that you had to do something great or heroic (Good Works) to get into heaven.  Christianity blew that apart by saying that everyone was worthy to go to heaven.  The only caveat was that you had to open up your heart to God and establish a covenant relationship with Him.  Good Works don’t get you into heaven, but they keep you on track with expressing your love for your neighbor and help you to continually develop into a more loving Christian.