 Good morning everyone. Today we'll be looking at the books of Galatians and Ephesians. Before we begin, would someone open us in prayer please? Let's pray. Have any father? We'll just thank you for this time of study. We commit this time into their hands and we pray father that whatever we learn father will be able to apply the same in our lives father. We also pray for a blessing upon our entire faculty and all the students here in the Bible College. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Okay, so we'll just begin with the book of Galatians. So before we begin, is there any one I know all of us tend to be drawn to certain books and their messages? Is there anyone who has that with Galatians? Anything specific that you would like to share about the book of Galatians that you have found to be very impactful for you personally? Any specific verses from the book of Galatians that come to mind? Okay, so Galatians talks about the fruit of the spirit. That's one passage that we're all very familiar with. So while we go through it maybe we will see some other things that Galatians talks about which will jog our memory of some of the important verses from this book. So why is Galatians important? It's considered as the Christian Declaration of Independence. So basically because the book of Galatians was so key in the Protestant Reformation, right? So in the Reformation when the leaders of the Reformation started to talk about justification by faith, right? Not by works, this doctrine came primarily from the book of Galatians and so it's considered as a very important book in the history of Christianity and the history of the Church because of that move from the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. The occasion for writing the book of Galatians was something similar where there were teachers from Judea who were going to the Gentiles and asking them to be circumcised, okay? So they were demanding that Gentiles be circumcised and so Paul is writing here against these teachings that are basically saying that you must follow the Old Testament law and to talk against legalism. So again that whole thing of Gentiles also should be following the Jewish law specifically when it came to circumcision. So we look a little more at that as we progress. The author of the book is Paul. So from chapter 1 verse 1 we see Paul and Apostle sent not from men nor by a man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So right here Paul is stating his authority and why he states his authority here is because that is something that the Judaizers the people who are saying the Gentiles should follow Judean Jewish law. They are questioning his apostleship. So he states it right at the start of the letter to emphasize that his calling is from God. It's not something that any man give him, okay? And then verse 5 too is also very important verse. Mark my words I Paul tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised Christ will be of no value to you at all. So this issue of circumcision was not just a physical act, right? It was not like okay just get circumcised it's okay if everyone is saying it the Jews are pushing for you to be circumcised just do it to make them happy. He wasn't willing to do that because in doing that they were giving up this gift of salvation by faith in Christ. Okay so it was not just a physical act of circumcision but it was that move from trusting in Christ for salvation to going back to the works of the law and saying that only when we follow the law we made holy. Are we saved or are we walking as children of God? So that was the main issue that Paul is addressing in this book. The date for writing so some people consider this as a very early letter written in 4980. That would make it one of Paul's earliest letters but most likely it was written a little later. So later in the 50s after Paul's first missionary journey he goes back to the Jerusalem Council. Do you remember why they go to the Jerusalem Council? We read about it at Acts 13 to 15. So there are some Jews from Judea who are coming and teaching the Gentiles about this thing of being circumcised. So Paul goes back and meets with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and they send back a letter to the Gentile Christians saying these are the only rules we will ask you to follow. Don't sacrifice, don't worship idols, don't eat food sacrificed to idols. So they give them don't eat the blood of animals. Those are the things that they emphasize and they say that you do not need to be circumcised. So this letter is written most probably after that journey and after he went back to the Jerusalem Council. So the recipients of this letter, there is some questions about who Paul is addressing in this letter because there were two places that were possibly called Galatia. So if you see up here that part in green, that was the place where the ethnic Galatians lived. So that place is not really mentioned in Acts as any place that Paul visited. So it's North Galatia. So it's unlikely that he's actually writing to the people there. But who he's probably writing to is people in this region which would fall into the province of Galatia rather than that area. And if we look at Paul's other letters, he's usually writing to certain provinces. So a province was something that was like the Romans had different provinces and so this was the province of Galatia which included Phrygia, so that's Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derby. I don't know if Derby is here on the map. So Paul visited, if you look at this map, it shows you his first missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey. On all three journeys he actually goes through this area. So it's most likely that he's actually addressing the South Galatian Christians rather than North Galatia which we don't have any record of him going to. So what was the situation here? I've actually just copied this quote from the IDP Bible Background commentary because there were lots of very interesting facts about what was happening in the church in Galatia. So according to even the strict Pharisees emphasized you have to be circumcised. But the lenient Pharisees would not make it so important but they would still insist that circumcision was very important for anyone who was going to follow Jewish custom and for people to accept people who were coming to Christ they also were asking that they be circumcised. They were not willing to accept Gentiles who were not circumcised. So they considered it as a symbol of fidelity. That means you're showing that you are faithful to the Jewish faith by being circumcised. So this is why they were all emphasizing that you must be circumcised because that is showing that you are truly faithful. You're truly committed to this faith and we can only accept you if you are circumcised. If you're not circumcised, we cannot accept you as one of the believers in the church as a follower of Christ. So they were coming from their own Jewish background. They were not trying to be evil. They were not trying to force their faith on people. It was just their understanding of what was important. And to them circumcision was a very, very important act of faith. And so they wanted the Gentiles also to express their faith in the same way. So why Paul writes this is to bring correction to that thinking. It's one of Paul's most severe letters. If you read it, he doesn't start with, usually he'll start saying certain things about the church that he appreciates some things that are going well. But here he doesn't say anything like that. He just starts with correction. So why have you been so deceived? He starts with that kind of writing to correct their thinking. So he states here the doctrine of justification by faith, like we talked about. It has a lot of history. So we read actually about Paul's different journeys, how long he was in certain places. When he went to Jerusalem, he writes a lot about the history of his travels. There's a lot of contrast between the flesh and the works, spirit and his fruit. The world, the cross, circumcision, new creation, faith and the law. And then we see in this letter that Paul doesn't use a secretary. In the end of the letter, he actually writes that he himself has written it. And so it looks like he wrote a lot of Galatians by his own hand because it was something that was so important to him. The key verse in Galatians is 5-1. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. And the main theme being Christian liberty. So here in this key verse and main theme, this is just something that he recognized that going back to the law would be an act of slavery. So you've been redeemed from that yoke of slavery. You've been brought into freedom of Christ. So don't go back and make yourselves slaves by trying to follow the law because we know that the Jews were never able to follow the law perfectly. And it is only by perfect following of the law that you can be declared righteous. So if you're not able to follow the law perfectly, then don't even try and go back to that. Don't put yourselves in that position is what he's telling the Galatians. So comparison with other Bible books. In 2 Corinthians, we see that Paul was defending his apostleship. There were people who had come against him. We talked about in our last class. There were other leaders who had come into the church in Corinth and were kind of putting down Paul's ministry. But here Paul is defending himself like he does in 2 Corinthians. In Hebrews, both Hebrews and Galatians talk about the new covenant superiority to the old covenant. So we see that similarity with the book of Hebrews. So we'll just quickly go through the outline on this book of Galatians. So he begins with his greeting in the first few verses talking about liberty as the grounds of our faith. He then talks about the challenge of liberty. He talks about his own experience of coming to faith in Christ. He recounts how he was saved. He was someone who was persecuting Christians. But then he encountered Christ and how he actually came to faith through revelation of Jesus Christ himself. There was no one who taught him what was true. He never went back to Jerusalem. He just grew in his faith and it was only much later on that he traveled to Jerusalem and met the Jewish leaders. So his confidence is in the revelation he's received from Christ himself. Here, 431, failure of legalism. So he's talking about how the Jews have never been able to be made righteous by following the law. So why are you trying to follow the law when you can see that they had never succeeded? Why are they trying to make you do it? Why are you also accepting that and coming, being deceived by that? He then talks in chapter 5 to 610 about liberty. And both these books, Galatians and Ephesians are really short books. Sorry, I went past that. He talks about the practical effects of liberty and then closes with three important things. Let's just read that concluding chapter. I think that's a good chapter for us to kind of understand what are the main things that he talks about. So we'll read from verse 11 to 18 if someone can read that for us. Galatians 611, see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law. Yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation, peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God. Finally, let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Thank you. So that's a good conclusion. He kind of makes his main points in this and this is what he talks about throughout the book. So circumcision versus new creation and circumcision being only something that is on the outside but the work of the spirit being the true transformation that happens on the inside and that we have already received. We have received the spirit of sonship. So we are no longer slaves. So with that we come to the end of the book of Galatians. We will also look at Ephesians today and then go on from there next week. So Ephesians is also a shorter letter written by Paul. If you see here on the map, it's on the coast of the sea. And so it was actually a very important port city. It became important for trade and it was also important for religion and politics. So religion and politics were very closely tied together in Ephesus. If you recall when we were looking at the book of Acts, when Paul is in Ephesus, the silversmith Demetrius comes up and causes problems for them because their trade in silver is being affected because of this ministry. So people no longer asking for idols of the God Artemis. So he was bringing up a religious issue. But his main reason for doing that was because it was affecting his trade. It was affecting them financially. So we see that commerce, religion, politics all very intricately tied together in Ephesus. So there was the temple of Diana which was actually considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. And there was also a 50,000 seat theater that was there. This is where that Demetrius and all of them believed to have caused that issue with Paul and all those who were with him. So it was the main city of the province of Asia. This is the Roman province of Asia. Ephesus was one of the main cities. And we also see that it had a stadium, a race course that hosted fights between men and animals. So they used to have that as one of their forms of entertainment as well as one of their forms of punishment of people who had for some reason been put in prison. So Paul traveled to Ephesus. If you remember, he traveled in his second missionary journey, but he was on his way to Jerusalem so he doesn't stop in Ephesus for very long. He just reaches there and then he moves on. It's after Paul leaves that Apollos comes into Ephesus, reaches there and then Paul goes back to Ephesus on his third missionary journey. So when he is there on his third missionary journey is where he spends between two to three years in Ephesus and from Ephesus he goes to other parts of Asia Minor preaching. So Ephesus became his center for where he was staying and ministering. But from there he was also going to other places and establishing churches in other parts of Asia. After Paul leaves, he sends Timothy to continue to take care of the church there and later it's believed that John also settled in Ephesus and was there when he and he. So he also addresses the church in Ephesus in the book of Revelation. So why Paul writes this letter? There was some division between Jews and Gentiles. So he's addressing some of that in this letter. We also see that the author was Paul. So Ephesians 1-1 he names himself and Ephesians 3-1. The recipients so it's not in the oldest of Greek manuscripts. There's no mention that this letter is addressed to the Ephesians or the church in Ephesus. But in more recent the not recent but the later manuscripts which we have copies of there is mention of in Ephesus. So it's probable that he wrote it to the Ephesian church but was meant to be a letter that went to other churches in Asia Minor as well. So there are two possible dates for the writing of this letter. So we know that Paul was in prison several times in the book. He mentions that he's a prisoner as he's writing the book. We see that in chapter 3 verse 1, chapter 4 verse 1, chapter 6 verse 19 and 20. So if someone can just read 4, 1 and 6, 19 and 20. Whereas 4, 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you may call. And this does 6, 6, 19 and 20. For which I am an ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that you also may know my affairs and how I'm doing. Tychus and beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, I will make all things known to you. Thank you. So I think you read 20 and 21. I'll just read 19. So he says pray also for me that whenever I speak words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. For which I am an ambassador in chains pray that I may declare fiercely as I should. So we see in this these two verses and in 3 1 as well. 3 1 he where he's talking about him being the writer that he mentions that he is in prison as he's writing this these letters, this letter specifically. So it's possible that he was either a prisoner in Caesarea or he was a prisoner in Rome. More likely that he was in Rome as he was writing this letter. So then it puts this letter around 80 60 to 62 is when he actually wrote the letter and it's probably when he just arrived and he was put in under house arrest. So we see that in acts 28 30. His purpose of writing was to strengthen believers in their Christian faith. We'll go through the outline and we'll see how he does that. He also wants to encourage them to turn away from their old life to put on the new man. And then he talks about unity between Jews and Gentiles in the body of Christ because it's through that unity that the glory of Christ is revealed. The key verses here I didn't put for one because we just read it verse one three if someone can read that for us Ephesians chapter one verse three. Ephesians chapter one verse three, let's be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Okay, so this is considered as one of the key verses because Paul focuses a lot on this spiritual blessing in Christ that we have and how it is to affect our lives here on earth. That's what this book mainly talks about. So the theme, like I just mentioned, heavenly position of the believer as a member of the body of Christ and the daily life of the believer which corresponds. How does that heavenly position that we are in affect the way we are living our lives here on earth, our daily lives here on earth. So some of the unique features. There's no specific issue within the church that Paul is addressing. So in all the books we usually see that he's writing it to address some issue. We don't see that in this book. It is one of the letters where he doesn't make mention of any personal, no people are mentioned, no greetings are given. So there's no real personal address here. Okay, verse 3 to 14 of chapter 1 is the longest sentence in the Bible in the original Greek. In the heavenly realms occurs in this book only five times and nowhere else in scripture. So that we see is an important part of this book, our position in the heavenly realms. And then there are three figures of speech he uses to mention our unity to Christ as a church, building a body and a bride. Those are the three images he uses to talk about the church in relation to Christ. In comparison with other Bible books, Joshua deals with the Israelites going to possess the promised land. So talking about the earthly possession of the promised land. Whereas Ephesians talks about our possession of the promise that is in the heavenly realms. So taking that same theme but talking about it from the heavenly perspective. Colossians and Ephesians actually have a lot of similarity in content. So maybe when we're going through the book of Colossians we'll see a little bit of that. 78 out of 155 verses are repeated. So there's a lot of the same things being talked about in both. And 78 out of 95 verses in Colossians resemble Ephesians. So both of them stress the relationship between Christ who is the head of the church and the church being the body of Christ. Ephesians talks more from the church's perspective and Colossians emphasizes Christ as the head. So that is the only difference. Philippians, Colossians, 2 Timothy and Philemon are all prison epistles. So all epistles that Paul wrote while he was in prison. 2 Timothy is written in his 2nd imprisonment but the other books were all written during his imprisonment in Rome. This is one of the epistles that were written while he was in Rome. So we'll just quickly look through the outline of this book and we'll close with this for today. So in the first three chapters of the book, Paul is calling the church out of the world. So he begins with a greeting. He talks about our redemption in Christ. And this is where the famous verse of, I pray that you would grasp how deep, how wide, how high, how long is the love of Christ. So even though it is so beyond our ability to grasp, I pray that you would grasp what the love of Christ truly is. So that's how he starts this book. In the end of that first chapter, he starts to talk about our redemption. And then he moves on in chapter 2 to talk about being saved by grace. He specifically we see focusing on the Gentiles here. So he's talking about how the Gentiles have been included as people who were excluded previously have now been included as God's children. And then he talks about how in verses 11 to 22, how Jews and Gentiles are now united by grace. And then chapter 3, how we are now united as equals. So there's no difference between Jew and Gentile, no difference between slave and free. And then, so that was that first section where he's talking about what is our redemption? What does it mean that we have been included in this family that has God as its father? And then in chapters 4 to 6, he talks about how does that affect how we live in the world as a result? As a result of being children of God, how do we live in this world? So we'll just read a few verses here. In chapter 4, if someone can read verses 4 to 6, Ephesians 4, 4 to 6. Ephesians 4, 4 to 6, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. Thank you. So we see here that emphasis on unity. So Gentiles have been included. Now Jews and Gentiles have become one and we are one under God. So there's one body, one Lord, one Father, one faith, one baptism. So we see this in the beginning of chapter 4. And the second half of chapter 4, we see him talking about righteousness. So if we can read verses 22 to 24, someone can read that for us of chapter 4. Can I read, sister? Yes, please. That you put off concerning your former conducts, the old man which grows corrupt according to the disful us and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. 24 also? Yes, please. And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Okay, so this second part of chapter 4 is talking about now as a result of this new identity that we have. We put off that old self and we put on the new person who has been created in Christ and we walk in righteousness. From here, we go into chapter 5 which is talking, we'll talk more about this walking in righteousness and in holiness. So walking free from sin. You used to be the kind of people who did this, this, this, this, this, this, but now be the kind of people who are walking in the spirit. And then he'll talk about what does it mean to be walking in the spirit? What are the works of the spirit? In the end of chapter 5, he comes into talking about marriage. So he says you should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives. So this part is how do marriages within the church, what should they look like? As believers, what should our marriages look like? And if we look at the culture of that time, there was the women in a marriage were much, much younger than the men. And so it was usually just accepted that the woman would submit to the husband. So for Paul to say submit to one another is something that is going against the cultural trend. So he's calling them to walk in a certain way out of reverence for Christ and also he's giving instructions to the husband. So that was also not typical of the culture. So it would all be directed to the wife. But here he's also saying as the wife is submitting to the husband, the husband submits to the wife. The wife loves the husband, the husband loves the wife. So while he's bringing Christian truth in a cultural context, he's also subverting certain things in culture that are not in line with what Christ asks of those who follow him. Then in chapter 61-9, he starts to talk about families. So this is where he talks about children obeying your parents, fathers don't exasperate your children, slaves obey your masters, masters don't mistreat your slaves. So all of these relationships are addressed in chapter 61-9. So all of this was actually quite common to have these kinds of codes that were written in that culture. It was common for them to write these codes for this is how a family should function. This is how society should function. So Paul is following that cultural practice but putting it within the Christian framework. Then the last part is how do you deal with conflict, 6-10-20. And then he concludes the book of Ephesians. So with that we come to the end of Galatians and Ephesians. Anything y'all would like to share or any questions? Any verses that now you remember from these two books that have in some way been important verses for you? Sister, can you explain the armor of God, the Ephesians chapter 6. That's how important it is for us. Okay, let's just open to that. You can just read it for us. Sister, I'll open it up. So that's Ephesians 6-10, right? Yeah. Would you like to read that for us first? Yes, sister. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of disease, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all this stand, stand therefore having guarded your ways with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shored your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery doubts of the wicked ones. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Thank you. So that's verses 10 to 18. So Paul puts this right at the end of his letter, right? So he's given them instructions throughout this letter about how they are to live in holiness, how they are to live as the body of Christ. And then his conclusion is to be strong in the Lord. This is keep yourselves, equip yourselves so that you will be able to withstand the battle, the spiritual battle that is something that every one of us as believers are going to face. So not only do you walk in certain ways, not only do you do certain things in your family, in society, in all of those things, but you spiritually guard your own self. And how do you guard yourself is to hold on to truth. So he uses this picture of someone, a soldier in battle. He's using the imagery of a soldier in battle and using all of the things that a soldier would be wearing. So that is kind of just putting a picture to the things that he's saying. But he's emphasizing truth, righteousness, holding, being ready to take the gospel wherever God gives you opportunity. Faith that will withstand when anything, the enemy comes against you. So faith will keep you from falling if the enemy comes against you. And then the things that are used to attack. So there is the word of God and praying in the spirit. So always pray in the spirit and use the word of God, the things that come to you. So these are very key things that he's giving them as weapons for them to withstand spiritual battles that are going to come their way. And this is what will help them to stay faithful in the challenges that they are going through. So like we said, this is a more generic letter. There's no specific situation that he's writing to. He's just writing to all these churches in Asia. And so it's a letter of encouragement to the churches about living our Christian faith and how do we live it in our everyday lives. And this being aware of the spiritual battles we face and staying strong in the midst of that is what he closes with at the end of Ephesians. Does that answer your question, sister? Yes, sister. Thank you so much. No problem. And Sister Lucy shared Ephesians 2-6 and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Yes. Thank you so much. Sister Gertrude, did you share the link here on chat? Is that something you were intending to share or I think it may have come here by mistake? Okay. Okay. So we will close class for today and I'll see you all here on Monday. Thank you all very much. I'll also just keep your posted. I am traveling today and so I'll just keep your posted about Monday's class, whether I'll be here or how we'll take the class. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sister. Thank you.