Ephesians: Get Started & Get More
TCBC is studying through Ephesians. Resources and sermons are available at tcbchurch.org/ephesians. Need help getting started or have questions? Join us every Wednesday at Behind the Message.
We’re two months into our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and Sunday (3/3/2024) we completed chapter 2. Below you’ll find some helpful ways to catch up and get even more out of our study.
Get Started
It isn’t too late to join in and study Ephesians with TCBC. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started and catch up.
- Read the entire letter in one day, preferably uninterrupted. Paul wrote Ephesians as one flowing letter. The best way to begin your study is to read and consider it in its entirety.
- Catch up using previous sermons. Listen to the sermons in order as a summary recap. Take advantage of car time, workouts, or wherever you can listen.
- Talk it through with others. Grab a meal or coffee with a friend who has been studying through Ephesians. Ask them to share a summary and talk it through.
- Familiarize yourself with the resources available at tcbchurch.org/ephesians. There are more resources available than you’ll use. Explore, see what’s there, and take advantage of those that help you get started.
Get More
- Talk about Ephesians on a regular basis. Make conversations about what you’re learning, questioning, and pursuing a normal part of your day-to-day conversations. Go Groups and Behind the Message (Wednesdays at 6:30pm at TCBC) can help facilitate these conversations.
- Memorize portions of Ephesians. Two great sections to commit to memory from chapters 1 and 2 are:
- Ephesians 1:3–6 [3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
- Ephesians 2:4–10 [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—[6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)
- Pray through Ephesians. Affirm and submit to revealed truths.
- “Father, you have blessed me in Jesus with every spiritual blessing. Set my thoughts accordingly.” (1:3)
- “Father, by your glorious grace you adopted me into your family through the blood of Jesus. Jesus is my redemption and my hope. Set my hope accordingly.” (1:5-10, 17-19)
- “Father, apart from Jesus I am a child of wrath, dead in sin. Everything I am, my life and all of its purpose, value, and worth is in Jesus. I confess my pride and submit to your Lordship in faith. Set my faith accordingly.” (2:1-10)
- “Father, I am near to you. I am no longer an outsider. I have been called in Christ. Set my confidence accordingly.” (2:12-13, 19)
- Study. Keep going back to the resources available at tcbchurch.org/ephesians. There are more resources available than you’ll use. Now that you’re a couple of chapters in and the context of the letter is becoming clearer, go back and take advantage of the resources that now have foundation. Keep in mind, study is work. You probably will not naturally desire it. Purpose yourself. Aim your desire with truth.
- Teach others what God has taught you. You may not think of yourself as a Bible scholar, but the reality is Jesus commissions us to make disciples, which he unpacks as “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). It might be as integrated as a conversation with your spouse or child, it might be as missional as knocking on your neighbor’s door, but teaching others what has been taught to you is faithful and beneficial. It’s as simple as, “I’ve been studying in Ephesians. Did you know that …”