Mike Domeny, actor, author, and founder of Outloud Bible (outloudbible.com), reads the Bible out loud in a conversational and approachable way so you can read the Bible like it makes a difference! This isn't simply an audiobook version of the Bible! Every episode offers helpful context so you won't get lost, and a brief takeaway to help apply that reading to your life.
Want to invite Mike to read Scripture at your event or gathering? Visit outloudbible.com.
We start Ephesians by tracing Paul’s history with Ephesus and then reading chapters 1 and 2 as a focused picture of what God has done for us in Christ. We end by challenging ourselves to rethink peace as reconciliation and to take seriously what it means to be Jesus’ body on earth. • the origin story of the Ephesian church in Acts 19 and the clash with Artemis worship and occult practices • Paul writing from house arrest in Rome and why the prison letters carry urgency and heart • how Ephesians is structured around what God has done and how we respond • spiritual blessings, adoption, redemption and the Holy Spirit as the seal of our inheritance • “by grace you are saved through faith” as the center of identity and assurance • Gentiles brought near, hostility killed and a new unified people formed in Christ • the church as Christ’s body and why unity matters for mission • Jehovah Shalom and peace as God’s declared end of conflict • reflection questions on living as a member of Jesus’ body
At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you’re there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event.
If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.
Check out outloudbible.com for helpful study resources, and to discover how to bring the public reading of God's word to your church, conference, retreat, or other event.
Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Podcast. This is Mike. In this season of the podcast, we've been going through most of the New Testament, not in order that it appears in the book, but in the order that Paul was writing them, kind of chronologically. We started with the big picture of the New Testament in the book of Luke and then in the book of Acts, and then we've been reading the letters that Paul has been writing to various churches in various cities and regions throughout the Mediterranean area. And as we've done this, we've been able to see some connections between the events that led up to a church being born, and then some instruction that Paul gave further down
the road. So today we're going to start reading Paul's letter to Ephesus, the church in Ephesus, which we have as Ephesians. You can go read how Paul first interacted with the believers in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. Or if you want to go back and listen to that episode, we got a fascinating story in Ephesus, which is the hub of worship of the demon, the goddess Artemis. And Paul didn't even really have to do or say anything. I mean, he definitely had a ministry in the region, but the Holy Spirit was working so that even if Paul's handkerchief touched someone who was sick or demon-possessed, then the sickness left and the demon left. Things really came to a head, however, when a couple Jewish exorcists, I think it says they were itinerant, they weren't even from there. They just kind of go around and I don't know, cast out demons. Uh, they saw the success of Paul and him, you know, in the name of Jesus be gone, you know, this it's like, oh well, that that seems to work. Let's try that. And so they go up to some guy with a demon and say, hey, in the name of this Jesus that Paul preaches about, we tell you to leave. And the demon wasn't having it. Demon's like, I know Jesus, I know Paul, I don't know who you are, and just beat those seven Jewish exorcists to a pulp. And so a word spread very quickly in Ephesus of like, whoa, apparently the demons will submit to this Jesus we've been hearing about, but not anything else that's going on. There's some power there. And so the whole city just turned away from their witchcraft, their new age, their idolatry, burned all of their witchcraft books and occult and dark magic, all those things. Like 50,000 silver coins worth of paraphernalia and occultic literature burned. And well, that caused quite the stir among the local idolatry industry. The silversmiths who had made a lot of money building little uh trinkets and idols and statues for Artemis, now we're going out of business. So it caused all sorts of uproar. And now we're we're some years past that, not too many years past that, and the church in Ephesus has grown from that and been established, and now Paul is writing back
to them. Now, Paul is writing from being under house arrest in Rome. We can read about that in Acts chapter 28. The end of Acts, we see Paul appealing his way all the way to like, I want to go make my case before Caesar. Really, Paul wanted to go share the gospel with Caesar. And this thing, all right, if I can stay in the court systems, I'll work my way up there. I haven't done anything wrong. If they're if they're still wanting to find something wrong with me, I'll I'll go all the way to the top and tell my testimony if that's what it takes. It's kind of a crazy man. And while he's there, he's under house arrest because he's not deemed to be a dangerous prisoner or anything. Uh, and while he's there, he is writing and writing and writing a bunch of letters, some of the most famous and popular letters that we have. Uh Ephesians, Philippians, first and second Timothy, he's writing these letters in this, well, what ends up being the last season of his life. So we have a really, uh, really wonderful collection of heartfelt and urgent letters from Paul here under house arrest.
So Ephesians here is this first one, as far as we can tell, that he wrote uh in this position, going back to the church in Ephesus. And what we have here is a really beautiful display of it's kind of similar to what we were talking about in Romans when we had just finished Romans here on the podcast, where you have a great discourse of the gospel, doctrine, theology around what God has done, who we are in in light of him and what he has done, and then ends with, okay, so in light of all that, here's what we got to do. Paul follows a similar pattern, but it's almost split exactly in half. Actually, it is, it's split in half. Ephesians 1 through 3 is about what God did, and Ephesians 5 through 6 is about what we ought to do in response to that. Now, we're not going to break it up on in these next episodes like that. I actually did that, our first run through the Bible, kind of phase one of the podcast. We did three chapters and three chapters. I want to break them up a little bit more here because I want us to slow down, really savor this letter, because this is one of the most packed letters full of great one-liners and doctrine, theology, encouragement. Uh whole lot in here that I don't I don't wanna I don't want to miss. So we're gonna take it slow and take just two chapters at a time. Today we're gonna talk about chapters one and two, uh, focusing on what God did. Next episode, we'll take a look at chapters three and four about the therefore. That's where we see chapter three concludes the what God did section, and chapter four begins the what we ought to do section, and we see that transition with a word, literally therefore. And then Ephesians five and six we'll tackle on part three of our run through Ephesians, wrapping up the what we ought to do. And that contains uh another very famous section of the Bible, and we'll get to that later. So, ready to do this? Let's
check it out. Ephesians chapter one and two in the New English Translation. From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ, for he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He did this in predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace that he has lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He did this when he revealed to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on earth. In Christ we too have been claimed as God's own possession, since we were predestined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory. And when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed in Christ, you were marked with a seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. For this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of Him, since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened, so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that's named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And God put all things under Christ's feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things. Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And although you were dead in your offenses and sins in which you formerly lived, according to this world's present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that's now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you are saved. And he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved. Through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it's the gift of God. It's not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand, so we can do them. Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision that is performed on the body by human hands, that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. The one who made both groups into one, and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by which the hostility has been killed. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. So that through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you're no longer foreigners and non-citizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. Because you've built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
I love Ephesians 1 twenty-three that says, Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This was the plan that the church would serve as Jesus' body. Now he had to come in a physical, earthly human body to be fully human with a body, so that he could die. That was the only way for humans to be right with God, that he would live a perfect, sinless life and represent humanity on the sacrificial altar as a human. But of course, because he has a body, he can't just stay on earth and do his ministry forever. That's that that's not the plan. He ascended to heaven. But he didn't want to leave us, so he gave us the Holy Spirit and formed the church and said, You are my body now. You are the way that I'm going to reach out and walk with and and touch and and minister to the world. You're my body, which is pretty wild if you ask me. Like you you have you met us? We we are not really good representations of Jesus. It's like you want your body to I don't know, like just go our separate ways and not do what you want us to do and and fight over in and amongst ourselves. Like I mean, that's why unity in the church is so important because he's like, hey, this is my body. What are you doing? Why why are you trying to rip yourselves apart and go in different different directions? I'm trying to do some work here. Get with the program, body. Yet he in his wisdom decided this is how he was going to do it. We're gonna read more about that as we go through the book of Ephesians. A lot of great um discussion here about the church being Christ's body and what that means.
But here in this discussion and in these sections here, we also saw the word peace come up a little bit, and we often think of peace in a very um personal way. Like peaceful, I feel peace, I feel at peace, like I just want some peace, or like it's a nice sunny day with a cool breeze, and I'm sipping some tea on the porch or something like that. You know, oh, that's peaceful, that's nice, that's good. But when God comes to bring peace, he's not only looking to bring that kind of peace. That's not a peace that he promises, even. Um yeah, we can be thankful for times like that that are peaceful moments, but that's not what the God of peace, Jehovah Shalom, is. In fact, where we get that title, Jehovah Shalom, is actually from the book of Judges, where Gideon uh is going about his life and and God appears to him, and and Gideon's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you I I I should die. Like I I can't I I you I deserve to be killed. I I I can't see you and live. And he said, No, no, no, no, you you will live. I'm just here to to give you a mission, and then you know the rest of the story of uh story of Gideon. But Gideon declares that this is Jehovah Shalom, God of peace. Not because Gideon felt any uh any peaceful feelings, but because God declares peace with us. He desires for us to be at peace with him because our sins d require conflict, but Jesus has declared an end to the conflict through Jesus Christ. So we can be at peace with God, and he requires that we live at peace with other members of his body so that we can continue this message of peace and reconciliation with God. That's uh Judges chapter six if you want to go check out the origin of Jehovah Shalom as a as a name for God in the story of Gideon.
Do you see yourself as a member of Jesus' body? Pretty wild to think about, but the implications are significant if we're willing to take this seriously. Do you consider yourself part of Jesus' body in his earthly ministry today? If so, what does that require of you? That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here in this introduction to the book of Ephesians. We'll continue the rest of the book next time on Out Loud Bible Podcast. We'll see you then.
