WEEK ONE
Day Four
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 1:11
LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS
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Know: Read Ephesians 1:9-14
Note: Read slowly, carefully marking keywords- continue to mark the words from previous lessons—Mark keywords with a different color or with a symbol to differentiate them.
In Him, In Christ
Mystery
Fullness of Time
Inheritance
Holy Spirit
Observation: Study notes below for context. Journal your thoughts or questions.
What: What does it mean to be holy?
“(In all wisdom and insight) He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” Ephesians 1:9-10
Have you ever believed that God is angry with you, against you, punishing you, distant from you?
The way we view God is the lens through which we will view all of life. Jesus came to show us that God is neither evil nor distant. Who Jesus is is who God is.
God used to be a mystery, but He is no longer. Through Jesus, we now know the heart of God and His will toward us. “His kind intent” means “His pleasure”; His pleasure was to make His desire for us known to us; He did it through His Son. Romans 2:4 tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. (“To repent” is metanoia, which means “a change of mind.”) Jesus came to reveal God to us. He desired that we would change our minds about who He was.
Galatians 4:4-7 says,
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
It was as if the whole world was groaning under the weight of sin and death; God had a plan that would take time. That time was needed for the world to cry out for a Savior. When the time was right, the Savior was born.
Jesus is the center point of all time and eternity, the point in which History hinges.
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:11-12
Paul was coming to the end of his life when he dictated this letter. He had loved the churches well, correcting, teaching, exhorting, and praying for them. This letter reveals a heart that is humming with revelation and peace, a desire for the churches to know what they have been saved from and, most importantly, saved into.
He wanted them to know that they were sons and daughters of value worth the blood of God himself. Paid for by his blood, Jesus restored our value and gave us all that is His. It was as if Paul was at the climax of a great revelation, and He, the executor, was reverently revealing the great treasure of the Will.
Paul wanted us to know that we have every spiritual blessing because of Christ; we are chosen, accepted in the beloved, forgiven, redeemed, sealed, and purposed. This is what you inherited!
Paul, the forerunner of every believer, received such revelation because religion failed him. Religion blinded his eyes, but Jesus opened them up, and Paul stepped into that great call to do greater works than Christ himself. Every person in the ancient modern world had heard the gospel through Paul. (Colossians 1:5-6)
Many times, people have asked me to pray that God give them peace, blessing, grace, patience, etc. I (hopefully)gently remind them that we have been given those things already! We don’t need to ask for them. We receive what we have been given and thank God for it- and we walk from a position of peace, blessing, etc.
As sons and daughters, we live at rest when we learn to walk from inheritance instead of for inheritance. Resting in the finished work of Jesus makes us confident sons and daughters! God is not going to change His mind about us. His love is constant. His love will never change, nor is it conditional.
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14
2 Corinthians 5:21-22 says,
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
When Jesus took away the world's sin, it was a past, present and future event. The whole world was included in that forgiveness. However, not all will inherit salvation. It is not because God didn’t want them to. His Spirit was ever drawing them; even creation declares Him and testifies of Him so none are without excuse (Romans 1:20-21). Those who never enter into the inheritance are the ones who didn’t receive it because of unbelief.
Jesus, before going to the cross, prophesied about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” (John 16:8-11)
The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Let’s look at just one of these for now. You can read about the three ways the Holy Spirit convicts here.
He convicts the world of sin… because they do not believe Me. The “they” are unbelievers. Unbelief is the sin.
There is only one sin the Holy Spirit convicts of- unbelief in Jesus.
When Jesus received our sin and condemnation,
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)
All of our sins were counted against Jesus. That means it can’t be counted again. In a court of law, that is double jeopardy. It would be unjust to have our sins counted against us again.
God so loved the world that he gave His Son, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
The one sin not paid for was unbelief, the sin of rejecting Jesus.
We can believe that Jesus died for our sin and receive it, or we can reject Him. When we receive His forgiveness, we inherit the benefits of sonship here on earth! Sadly, some will reject His love and salvation. God does not force us to love Him, but He does give us everything to convince us of His love. Those who reject Christ will not only live in a darkness of heart and mind; they will never experience the great love that comes from knowing Him.
For the believer, the Holy Spirit seals us in Jesus. He is like the engagement ring for the wedding. When Paul first visited the Ephesians in Acts 19, he asked them, “Have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit?”
They told him they had received John’s Baptism (water) but didn’t know what he meant. They were believers. They had been sealed in Christ, but Paul said they had not received the power of the Holy Spirit. They received power when he laid hands on them and began speaking in tongues.
The power of the Holy Spirit is the overflow and what is needed to do “greater works.”
For more, watch my message on the filling of the Holy Spirit here.