In Christ Jesus | A Study on Ephesians

We have a few resources for you to use with your small groups for the sermon series In Christ Jesus: A Study on Ephesians. The letter to the Ephesians is a wide vision of life in Christ. Before Paul gives the church instructions on what to do, he first reshapes how they understand who they are in Christ Jesus. Our new identity in light of what Jesus accomplished becomes the lens through which everything else is interpreted, our relationships, our unity, our maturity, and our resistance to evil. As NT Wright puts it, the church becomes the “small working model of new creation”.

We’ll be in this series for 12-weeks. Four weeks each will be spent on one of our five practices for growing in Jesus—worship, belong, serve, give, and learn. The first four weeks focus on worship, the second four on belong, and the final four on serve. Choose what small group resources you think would work best for your group!

Ephesians Study

1. Book Study of NT Wright’s book The Vision of Ephesians. If you’re a group who loves to read together, this would be a good option. This booked helped shaped the form of the current sermon series.

2. You could also use a classic inductive bible study method to explore each week’s scripture. InterVarsity has short helpful videos on how to get started with inductive studies as a group. Below are the scriptures for each Sunday of the series.

   Note: As you prepare to discuss Ephesians as a group, BibleProject’s resources might be valuable to you.

Worship Study

1. The first offering for specifically studying the Worship practice comes from Vineyard USA. Vineyard USA has put together a 4-week small group study on worship that covers questions of who, why, and how we worship along with exploring our values of worship in the Vineyard movement.

2. Another 4-week study for your group adjacent to worship is Practicing the Way’s Prayer Practice. This study has materials and videos ready to go. There is the option to use the video or to use the teaching notes for the video and guide your time together yourself.

Weekly Ephesians Scriptures from Sundays

• Weeks 1-4 | Worship

  • Eph 1:1-14

  • Eph 1:15-23

  • Eph 2:1-10

  • Eph 2:11-22

• Weeks 5-8 | Belong

  • Eph 3:1-13

  • Eph 3:14-21

  • Eph 4:1-6

  • Eph 4:11-16

• Weeks 9-12 | Serve

  • Eph 4:17-24

  • Eph 4:25-5:20

  • Eph 5:21-6:9

  • Eph 6:10-20