When we become Christians, we receive Christ not only as Savior but also as Lord, which means He is our boss or CEO. As we let Christ be the Lord of our lives, our old values, attitudes, and habits are replaced by new ones. As we allow Christ to take control of our lives, we change and become more and more like Him. Becoming more Christlike requires we do at least five things …
The Spirit-filled life requires continuous spiritual growth so we will not become spiritual pygmies. During our last lesson, we discovered after Christ’s triumphant ascension back into heaven as Victor over Satan, sin, and death, He gave gifts to men (4:8). These equipping, or spiritual, gifts are given to us with great expectations on Christ’s part. He expects us to use them to serve and build up other believers (1 Pet. 4:10). Now, Paul lists four spiritual gifts, but many more are mentioned in the New Testament (Rom. 12:6–8; 1 Cor. 12:8–10; 1 Pet. 4:9–11). The gifts listed here are the different kinds of speaking gifts Christ has given us for the building up, or spiritual growth, of the church. To grow spiritually, you must receive, achieve, and leave and cleave.
Receive instruction (4:11)
Paul writes that Christ gave some to be apostles … (4:11a). The first gift mentioned is apostles (apostolos, ah-pos′-tol-os), which means “one sent with a message” or an “ambassador.” The ultimate apostle is Jesus Christ because God sent Him to earth with a message. That’s why we find what description of Jesus in Hebrews 3:1d–e?
Have you ever wished for more power in your prayer life? Do you sometimes have trouble trying to figure out for what you should be praying? Do you have problems with your mind wandering when you pray? In this passage we find four elements of praying powerfully. Paul begins: For this reason I kneel before the Father (3:14a). The phrase for this reason repeats and picks up the prayer Paul began in verse one. He began a prayer and then parenthetically wrote about the mystery of the ages—the mystery of the church—in verses 2–13. Overwhelmed by the mystery of the church and his privilege of sharing the mystery, Paul exclaims, I kneel before the Father.
When we really mean business in prayer, we often kneel. Kneeling is not a required posture for prayer. However, it reveals a special spirit of submission and acknowledges we are in the presence of an awesome, holy God who is much higher than us. Sometimes in prayer we need to follow what example of the psalmist in Psalm 95:6?
EXPERIENCING GOD’S AWESOME POWER – EPHESIANS 2:11-22
We can’t live the Spirit-filled life if we don’t fellowship with God and God’s people. Jesus saves individuals of all races, walks of life, and backgrounds and makes us one in Him. To live the Spirit-filled life, not only do we need to know who we are as individuals in Christ (as we learned in the last lesson), but we also must realize who we are together in Christ. In this passage, Paul explains four truths we must understand to experience God’s awesome power …
Without Christ we are alienated from God (2:11–12)
Paul begins this section: Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men) (2:11). Abraham’s descendants, the Jews, had the privilege of being God’s chosen people. Therefore, what does Moses tell the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7:6b?
Finding God’s Purpose for Your Life (Ephesians 2:1–10)
God has a purpose for our lives even before we are born (Psa. 139:16). In our last lesson we found that God wants to use the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead to transform our lives. God wants to transform us so we can fulfill His purpose for our lives. To find God’s purpose for our lives, we need to know three things:
Our Predicament Without Christ (2:1–3)
To appreciate who we are in Christ, we must understand our predicament before coming to Christ. Our frightening, pre-Christian predicament was being dead in our trespasses and sins (2:1, ESV). This means we were spiritually dead. What does it mean to be spiritually dead? When people are physically dead, they do not react to physical stimuli. If I fell over dead right now, you could stand over my corpse and say, “Major, are you OK?”, but I wouldn’t hear you. If you didn’t like me, you could kick me and I wouldn’t feel it. Just as a physically dead person doesn’t respond to physical things, a spiritually dead person doesn’t respond to spiritual things. Without Christ we are spiritually dead and will not receive not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14a). Why, according to 1 Corinthians 2:14b–c?
ON ALLOWING GOD TO TRANSFORM YOU - Ephesians 1:7–23
As believers in Christ, we are like diamonds in the rough—some of us more so than others. Sometimes, before God completes His work of chipping off the rough edges of our lives, we wonder how we could ever be valuable and lovable in God’s sight. That’s when we need to remember what fact found in Philippians 1:6?
This means God will transform us into the persons He wants us to be. It’s a process that takes a lifetime, and it’s all part of the Spirit-filled life. To understand how God can take “diamonds in the rough” like us and transform us into people who live Spirit-filled lives, we must do three things:
Beginning the Spirit-filled Life (Ephesians 1:1–6)
Pecos County in west Texas has a famous oil field known as the Yates Pool. During the Depression this oil field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money ranching to pay his mortgage and was in danger of losing his ranch. Then, in 1926, an oil company asked Mr. Yates’ permission to drill a wildcat well on his ranch, and he signed a lease.
The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day and some subsequent wells at more than twice that. Mr. Yates owned it all and yet was living in poverty. He owned it, but he did not possess it. He was like many Christians today who have untold spiritual riches, but they don’t possess them.
More than any other book in the Bible, Ephesians tells us how to possess the spiritual riches that are a result of living the Spirit-filled life. Beginning to live the Spirit-filled life requires three things …
