A Study of Ephesians

The Relationship of God and His Saints

Many folks who read this lesson from the blog or email will miss a great deal of context simply because time does not allow me to fill in a lot of the material I will be discussing during our class. If you have questions please let me know I will be glad to answer you via email. Jesse

Ephesians 4:7-16

Lesson #8

Goal of the Lesson:

• To establish Jesus Christ as the Head of the church

• To show that He places people in the church with permanent gifts to equip the Body of Christ

• To show that every believer is a member of the Body of Christ.

• To show that every believer in Jesus is dependent on Jesus Christ and that this dependence only works when we allow ourselves to be dependent on one another.

• To show God's design and plan for unity in the church

• To show the need for every believer to grow and mature in Christ.

   

This Lesson will help us:

• To appreciate that the LORD has provided all our needs of leadership in the church.

• To know the design of God's plan for the Body of Christ

• To realize the importance of every member of the Body of Christ

• To know that it God's Will is for us to Love one another

• To trust the LORD for spiritual growth and for understanding the will of God through the teaching of His Word.

So far we have learned that salvation is a new life of blessing and purpose. In Christ we have this life that is apart from our old life in Adam.

Christ in us; living as LORD and the Holy Spirit to guide us in the use of our spiritual ability is designed to show us how to live in unity with one another. If we find that we are not getting along with one another it is not because we are not equipped to do so. It is because we fail to allow Christ and the Holy Spirit to control our human flesh.

The LORD is our Shepherd means exactly THAT! Why, because He knows that we are sheep that need His continual guidance, otherwise unity in the Spirit is worthless.

We need to focus on the two characters. One: Our character of what we are like when living in the character of Adam. And two: What Christ in us, provides through the blessings of the Holy Spirit to live in unity.

This may help; through salvation we are all placed into the Body of Christ, we are Spiritually united and related to each other “In Christ” if I offend you, or you offend me we are offending our unity in Him. Why, because we have One Father.

Sometimes we are offended because of the blessings, abilities and the gifts as these work in other believers around us. This is because we do not understand the working of the Spirit.

Sometimes we are offended because of the blessing, abilities and the gifts that are suppose to be working in other believers around us. This is because we do not understand that those around us have the same problem. Growing in the grace and knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:7 The LORD Jesus gives each of us the ability to live in the body of Christ, He also give us the strength and wisdom to use the ability to live in the body of Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians 12 in your spare time. These spiritual abilities are temporal workings of the Holy Spirit that are much like the temporal workings of our emotions. For example, when someone needs comfort, we are not given the spirit of discomfort to help them and so on.

Romans 12:3-8 Just as the body has specific parts that function for specific purposes, the Body of Christ also has specific parts that function for specific purposes.

Ephesians 4:7-10 In these verses the apostle quotes from Psalm 68 to remind his readers that it is all about Christ. It is not about us. He wants his readers to understand this. So again on your own study this Psalm. To wet our spiritual appetite we will look at two verses. Psalm 68:18-19. Salvation is not a once in a lifetime experience, it is a daily walk in the benefits of being in Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-12 People tend to get all confused about “apostles and prophets”. Some say that these men have past from the outworking of unity in the Spirit and that we should not look for or learn from men or woman who claim to be apostles or prophets in our current day. Those who say such things are RIGHT!. However, how do we learn about Christ. We do not have Christ with us today, but we do have the Body of Christ, the church and the Body of Christ hangs on the truth taught by the apostles and prophets. So the reference that Paul is making is to the “Living Word of God” in your hand this morning that was written by God the Holy Spirit via the Prophets and Apostles.

This Bible then is given to the evangelist, the pastors and the teachers for the equipping of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, the unity of the faith, the edifying of the Body of Christ and the knowledge of the Son of God.

So God through Christ has equipped the Body of Christ of overcome death with strength and victory; 1 Corinthians 15:55-58. That the Body of Christ stands on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the apostles and prophets; Ephesians 2:20

So we should not act like strangers when we enter the church, bumping into our feelings and avoiding each other like we have some sort of corruptible thing going on. If we do, then yes we are allowing ourselves to live in the corruptible flesh of life in Adam. We are not strangers or foreigners to the household of God and we need to stop living as though we are. Ephesians 2:19

The evangelist, the pastor and teachers are those people who are gifted by God to be the proclaimers of “good news” life in the Body of Christ is different than life in the body of Adam. Take a mental look at any organization that is in the world today. Government, business, community or family. If these are not functioning in the Body of Christ and most are not, these are full of endeavors which eventually lead to corruption.

Ephesians 4:13 The pastor of the local Body of Christ has a serious authority over the flock. 1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17-28

Ephesians 4:14 The warning is to you and me. You know how easy it is for us to say; “well this will never happen to me” we need to be constantly aware of this truth. “It can happen to any one of us” To be tossed like one tosses a ball from player to player is very real purpose of false teaching. It can happen right within the church and we most likely will be unaware of it if we living like children in the faith.

Ephesians 4:15-16 The LORD Jesus Christ does not want us to grow in knowledge only, we all have knowledge, we have been taught these things before so we have no excuse to act or live in any childish manner. 1 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 3:7-11. Christ is the Head of the church, He has given us His Living Word, written by the Prophets and Apostles. He has provided Pastors to the Body of Christ, along with Teachers to equip the saints that cause growth to the body that edifies each in the body in LOVE. Christ loves His church, that means He loves you. If you are failing to love the church, then you are failing to become an adult and are still acting as a child.