What does First B Jackson teach about ephesians?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on Ephesians starts with a conviction that the letter cannot be split in two and still make sense. Both Pastor Gary and Pastor Mark have taken time to read the first three chapters aloud, straight through, before saying anything else. The reason is the same in both cases: the commands Paul gives in the second half of the letter only carry weight if you have first heard what God has already declared true about the people he is addressing. Redemption, adoption, inheritance, being seated with Christ in the heavenly places, none of it earned and none of it conditioned on behavior. Paul does not ask anyone to do anything in those first three chapters.
When the teaching moves into chapter four, the picture that emerges is of a life being gradually reshaped. The position of every person is described as binary, either in sin or in Christ, with no middle category. But in practice, as the teaching at First B has put it, the Christian life looks less like a sharp line and more like movement, hills and valleys, gradually from darkness toward light. Paul's description of life outside Christ follows a sequence: hardness of heart leads to darkened understanding, which leads to a kind of ignorance where a person does not even know what they do not know, and from there to reaching for whatever seems like it might satisfy. This is where all of us start, not a condition unique to people outside the church.
Paul's answer to that drift is not trying harder. The teaching here has pointed to the phrase 'put off your old self' and connected it to Romans 12 and Colossians 3, which together make the same move: after chapters of solid theology, the application lands like a foot stomp. The renewal of the mind, the exchange of an old garment for a new one, these are driven by the Holy Spirit, not by willpower. For Pastor Mark's part, the first chapter closes with the reminder that God made Christ head over all things to the church, which is his body and his fullness. That is plan A, and the rest of Ephesians works out what it looks like to live as that body.
Taught from Ephesians 4:17-24 · Ephesians 1:1-14 · Ephesians 2:1-10 · Romans 12:1-2 · Colossians 3
The passage taught · Colossians 3:12-15
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 3, 2026 Walk Worthy: Put Off, Put On Pastor Mark opens Ephesians 4 by grounding the call to walk worthy in the solid truth of chapters 1 through 3, tracing the path from darkness to light.
- May 3, 2026 First Be, Then Do The pastor walks through Ephesians 4, showing how who we are in Christ comes before how we live, and why being precedes doing in the Christian life.
- March 15, 2026 Be the Church God Wants to See in the World Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 covers past, present, and future: God's calling, our inheritance, and the power he gives his church to carry his mission forward.