Publisher’s Description
“The God of the universe has an amazing plan, and he is putting that plan into action through the preaching of the gospel. This plan has world-shattering implications and is deeply relevant to our lives.”
Matthias Bible Guides exist to help Bible teachers of all levels engage with the word of God and prepare themselves to teach the Bible to others. This series is for the Bible study leader who wants to equip himself or herself to prepare and lead studies that are faithful to the Scriptures and to answer questions with confidence. It’s for the busy preacher who’s faced with the wonderful but daunting task of writing a new sermon series. And it’s for any interested Christian who wants a reliable companion as they read through a book of the Bible, alone or with others.
Matthias Bible Guides assist in personal and group study of various books of the Bible, one book at a time. In this volume, New Testament scholar Lionel Windsor unpacks the book of Ephesians. Having spent years studying Ephesians and teaching from it—at Bible college, at conferences, online, and in the local church—Dr Windsor is ideally placed to guide readers through this magisterial letter from the apostle Paul. He handles the book’s controversies with a mixture of humility and confidence.
Free Resource Companion
At various points in this book, I refer to my series of free online reflections covering every sentence in Ephesians called Lift Your Eyes. This series acts as a supplement and companion to the book. It might be helpful to check it out if you’d like more details on anything I’ve written in the book, or if you want more information on particular verses or phrases in Ephesians.
In each reflection, I take a short portion from the letter, provide a translation, describe what it says, and reflect on what it means for our lives and relationships with others. It’s available in both text and podcast format. The reflections are designed to be accessible, but are a little more in-depth than the average devotional.
Here are some of the other ways you might be able to use the series:
- Make a plan to read or listen to one reflection per day (or every two days, once a week, or whatever suits you), and use the questions at the end as a basis for reflection and prayer. This would take 10–20 minutes each time.
- Subscribe to the entire podcast so you can listen to an episode as you travel or commute. Each episode is about 15 minutes long.
- Use the posts and questions in a weekly Bible study or discussion group.
- Share individual posts with friends on social media.
- If you’re a Bible teacher, use the posts to get ideas for teaching Ephesians, or share the posts for people to read in parallel with your series on Ephesians.
- Encourage others in your church or ministry to do the above.
As I mentioned, it’s all free right here on this website, so you can enjoy and share as you see fit!
Contents of the book
- Getting started with Ephesians
- 1. The central message of Ephesians
- 2. Who, what, when, where, why?
- 3. People and groups
- 4. Locations
- 5. Biblical theology
- 6. Systematic theology
- 7. Key words and phrases
- 8. Old Testament connections
- 9. Key questions and debates
- 10. Using Ephesians evangelistically
- 11. Structure
- 12. Understanding the text
- 13. Suggested teaching outlines
- Before you go …
- Appendix: Further reading