2.15.08 - Were You There? Study Guide Notes

Today's Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

NLT Ephesians 1:3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. 4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. 9 God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. 10 And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ -- everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,(1 )for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. 12 God's purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. 13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.


Reading this passage with the backdrop of Judas' betrayel brings to light that God's plan is truly for all people. There is not a subsection of the population that is excluded, not even Judas. Jesus went through this suffering on earth at the hands of the very people he came to offer salvation. Judas at the last supper is an image that must resonate with us. The betrayer being offered a place at the table. The Savior freely sharing the meal and conversation and hospitality with the destroyer. If Judas can be at the table, there is no one on earth that is beyond being at the table as well. God's grace is for the least, the lost, and those who think they need it the least (ie. the self-sufficient.) I, for one, am eternally grateful.