Week 40: Paul in Rome

Opening Question

Read Ephesians 3:20-21 aloud together. Then ask: If you truly believed that God is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” how would it change the way you prayed this week?

Review of This Week’s Readings

Core Discussion Questions

1. Acts 28 – The Open Ending: Acts ends with Paul preaching “without hindrance” from a prison cell. Why do you think Luke chose to end the book this way rather than narrating Paul’s trial or death? What does this open ending say about the nature of the gospel and the ongoing story of the church?

2. Ephesians 1 – Chosen Before the Foundation of the World: Paul says God chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (1:4). How does this truth function in your spiritual life – as a source of assurance, a theological puzzle, or something else? What is the purpose of election according to this passage?

3. Ephesians 2 – “But God”: The two-word pivot of Ephesians 2:4 may be the most important phrase in the Bible. Share a moment in your own life when you experienced a “but God” intervention – a situation that was hopeless until God stepped in. How does this chapter’s description of spiritual death change the way you understand salvation?

4. Ephesians 3 – The Mystery and the Church: Paul says the church is the means through which God’s “manifold wisdom” is displayed to cosmic powers (3:10). What does this suggest about the significance of the local church? How does the reality of church disunity affect this cosmic witness?

5. Ephesians 4 – Walking Worthy: Paul grounds all of Christian ethics in the single word “therefore” (4:1), connecting behavior to the grace described in chapters 1-3. How does understanding ethics as a response to grace change the way you approach moral living? What is the difference between obedience motivated by grace and obedience motivated by fear?

Going Deeper

1. The Unchainable Word: Paul was physically chained to a Roman soldier, yet the gospel was “without hindrance.” Share examples from history or your own experience where the gospel advanced through or despite severe limitation. What does this pattern teach about God’s way of working in the world?

2. Grace Through Faith – Not of Works: Ephesians 2:8-9 is one of the most memorized passages in the Bible. Yet verse 10 adds that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” How do you hold these two truths together in practice? When have you seen the church err on one side or the other?

3. The Manifold Wisdom of God: The word “manifold” (polypoikilos) in 3:10 means “many-colored” or “richly varied.” What does this say about the value of diversity in the church? How is the church’s diversity itself a form of witness?

4. Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit: Paul warns against grieving the Spirit through unwholesome speech, bitterness, rage, and slander (4:29-31). Why does Paul single out speech-related sins in a passage about the Spirit? What is the connection between the way we speak and the Spirit’s work in the community?

5. The Old Self and the New: Ephesians 4:22-24 describes a three-step process: put off the old self, be renewed in the spirit of your minds, put on the new self. Why is the middle step – renewal of the mind – essential? What happens when people try to change behavior without changing their thinking?

Application

• This week’s challenge: Memorize Ephesians 2:8-10 (all three verses, not just 8-9). Each day, remind yourself that you are God’s “workmanship” – his creative masterpiece – made for specific good works that he prepared in advance.

• Relational step: Paul says to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (4:32). Identify one person you need to forgive this week. Begin the process – not because they deserve it, but because God in Christ has forgiven you.

• Reflective practice: Spend time each day this week praying Paul’s prayer from Ephesians 3:14-21 for someone specific – a family member, a friend, your church community. Ask God to strengthen them with power in their inner being, to root them in love, and to fill them with all the fullness of God.

Memory Verse

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

Closing Prayer

God of immeasurable power and inexhaustible grace, we have spent this week in the heights and depths of your purposes. You have chosen us, redeemed us, made us alive, broken down the walls that divide us, and revealed the mystery that all people are welcome at your table. Now strengthen us with power through your Spirit. Dwell in our hearts. Root us in love. Equip us for ministry. Renew our minds so that we can put off the old and put on the new. And when we fail – when we grieve your Spirit with careless words and bitter hearts – remind us that your grace still flows, your calling is still irrevocable, and your power is still at work within us, doing immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. To you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.