Some things you just expect to see together:

	Peanut butter and jelly
	Bread and butter
	Love and marriage
	Clouds and rain
	Flags and the Fourth of July

Some things though, you don’t expect together:

	Foot-long Icicles in the Mojave
	Butterflies in winter
	5 mile visibility in the darkness of night
	A lit candle in a tornado
	A man straining the limits of the language of praise while in an ancient prison

What was that again? A man straining the limits of the language of praise while in an ancient prison.

That’s what the first fourteen verses of Ephesians are about and that is what I want to consider with you this morning.

What we’re about to look at is an anomaly in this world. It’s an aberration. It’s a deviation from what you would expect. In many circles it would be cause to pause and say, "What’s this? I’ve never seen anything like it."

Once the message of these verses dawns on you, you will find yourself scratching your head in amazement and saying, "This surely is different than what I’m used to hearing!"

Paul wrote the letter of Ephesians, and three others about the same time period (Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon), from prison. Yet, their tone is radically different than what you would expect. From prison you would expect to hear:

	Groans of displeasure and perhaps even pain
	Pleas for relief and release
	Allegations of injustice ("I’m innocent. Get me out of here!")

In a day when modern prison reform was an unheard of tenant still tens of hundreds of years into the future, the last things you would expect to issue forth from a prison inmate are letters of praise. The author of such letters would have to be judged as either insane or in possession of some incredible information that most people don’t know or realize.

The great Apostle Paul was not insane. He was in full command of his faculties when he wrote the book of Ephesians. We must conclude, therefore, that he was in possession of some incredible information that most people either don’t know or don’t realize they have.

What information did Paul have that most either don’t know or don’t realize they have? I’m going to let Paul tell you as we consider these early verses of Ephesians.

(Read Ephesians 1:1-14)

Let’s go back now and examine these words of praise with prison origins more closely to see if we can figure out just what it was that Paul knew and had that others may not know or realize they have.

(Read v. 1-2)

These first two verses contain Paul’s nearly standard salutation to his letters. I could comment on them, but in the interest of time, I’ll refrain.

With the proper salutation done, Paul now jumps right into his topic of praise, in which he is, as one commentator put it, "transported to the limits of language in order to describe the enthroned Christ who is Lord of the church…" (1)   I hope to show you what he meant as we proceed.

(Read v. 3)

You might note that the idea of blessing occurs three times in this verse – in adjective, verb, and noun forms.

	The first occurrence, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… ," is in the adjective form. The original word is eulogetos and it means "worthy of praise and honor." Our English words "eulogy" and "eulogize" are derived from the same root.
	The verb form of this word "to bless" (which also appears here in this verse – "who has blessed us") is eulogeo, a compound word made up of eu, good, and logeo, word. It means literally, "to speak a good word."
	The noun form, "every spiritual blessing…" is also used. It refers to benefits.

Paul surely has a lot of "good to say" about God the Father in this passage. He is setting a tone of high praise for this letter to the Ephesians. Note also these words:

	v. 6: "to the praise of His glorious grace"
	v. 12: "to the praise of His glory"
	v. 14: "to the praise of His glory"

With the three "blessings" in verse 3 added to these, we have a total of six statements of praise in these 14 verses! Paul just can’t quit praising God! So what is the big deal? What is it that he realized that can account for such exuberance emanating from a dungeon? We’d better look closer.

There are four things he mentions in these verses that stirred Paul to such praise. I’m going to give all four of them to you first, then go back through the passage and show you where they come from. You might want to write these down. They are:

	God’ Gracious Choice of Us
	God’s Gracious Sacrifice for Us
	God’s Gracious Message to Us
	God’s Gracious Promise Concerning Us

I realize that we’re doing a bit of a "cold start" here this morning. Praise takes some "warm up" time for most of us and you may not yet be up to speed in realizing what these four things mean. I’ve had all week to dwell on them, so let’s see if I can get us all going.

Paul begins by mentioning:

(Read v. 4-6)

A couple of words in these verses have caused theologians to squabble over the years as to their meaning, to such an extent that many Christians just blow right past them, not even considering their significance. The words "chose" in verse 4 (your translation may say "chosen") and "predestined" in verse five are the culprits.

The natural question to ask is, "If He chose us before the world was created, and "predestined us to adoption as sons,", do we have any choice in the matter or is the whole thing a "done deal?" What about free will? Doesn’t God desire all men to be saved? (1 Timothy 2:4) Doesn’t He say in John 3:16 that "whosoever believes in Him should not perish?" Doesn’t Revelation 22:17 say that "whosoever will" may come? Obviously, something isn’t right!

Some people believe that the word "chose" here (also known as "election") means that, before the creation, God hand picked certain individuals for salvation, aside from any choice they might ever make in the matter, and that these will go to heaven. Everyone else, according to this view, will go to hell, aside from any choices they might make in the matter.

Others, myself included, wonder how that could be true in light of passages that call on individuals to choose to obey. For instance:

Deuteronomy 30:19 says, "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live…" Why call on people to choose if the choice has already been made apart from anything they might do or say?

Ezekiel 18:32 says, " ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.’ " Why say, "repent and live" if you cannot choose?

2 Peter 3:8-9 says, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." If the Lord doesn’t wish for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance, why create them so that they cannot choose?

One very good way to resolve this apparent contradiction is to understand that God chose and predestined us as a group rather than as individuals. In other words, God chose and predestined the church, or that there would be an assembly of people who would choose Him. Just as Israel was God’s chosen people under the Old Covenant, the church has become the same under the New. This understanding doesn’t force out the obvious biblical contradictions regarding man’s freedom of choice.

Yes, there is a sense in which this whole thing defies human explanation, in that God is omniscient, that is, all-knowing. He knows the future and knew it before the creation.(2) Thus, He knew those who would choose Him before they actually made the choice – and those who wouldn’t. I see no reason to say that takes away freedom of choice, however, when so many passages call on man to choose. Apparently, despite this foreknowledge, God has allowed free will by allowing man’s history to play out.

So, getting back to our original proposition about praise, what is so great about all this? What is it that would cause a jailbird like Paul to be "transported to the limits of language" (to quote that commentator again) in praising God?(3) Look again at verses 4-6. Not only did He choose us (that is, He made provision for our salvation before there was even a need), but He also "In love… predestined us to adoption as sons…according to the kind intention of His will."

God has shown us that He loves us and He has extended the greatest kindness, that is, He has adopted us into His family!

I remember a certain man I used to work for who loved to flaunt the special privileges he had on the job because his father-in-law owned the company. He would preface any sentence where he was about to boast of his relationship with the words "relatively speaking." ("Relatively speaking, I’m not worried about my pension plan. I’m going to inherit the company!")

You and I and every other person who, collectively, makes up that predestined-to-be-saved group of people called the church, can make the same "relatively speaking" boast. We’re going to inherit the earth!

Ah, but there is one piece of the picture missing in all this. Note that back in verse 3, Paul said that God has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." He didn’t say, "in this world." Thus, Paul isn’t praising God for the stench and darkness of his dungeon here on earth. He is anticipating the blessing that waits just beyond the limits of this life.

Paul was praising from prison because of God’s Gracious Choice of Us. He also praised God because of:

(Read v. 7-8a)

Why isn’t there more of a difference between the demeanor of non-Christians and that of Christians? Why do we all look so much alike? Why is it that we sometimes seem to be able to grovel and mope with the best of the unbelievers? Why don’t we stand out? Why is it often so hard to pick us out of the crowd of those who don’t even know which way is up? Do you think we would have had any trouble picking Paul out of a mixed crowd of believers and non-believers? I don’t think so.

Paul? Yes. He’s the one standing in the middle of all the rest, telling them everything he can about Christ and what He means to Him. Oh, there are some who think he is out of his mind, like Festus in Acts 26.(4) There are some who sneer and walk away from him, like the philosophers on Mars Hill in Acts 17.(5) There are some who succeed in shouting him down, like the worshippers of Diana in Ephesus, described in Acts 19.(6) There might even be those who stone him, like in Lystra in Acts 14.(7) But I don’t think Paul faded into the woodwork or blended into the crowd quite as nicely as we sometimes do. I don’t think he used those words, "Well, we mustn’t be too judgmental," and "Different strokes for different folks." Why not?

The next two verses hold the answer.

(Read v. 7-8)

What does "redemption though His blood" really mean? What does "the forgiveness of our trespasses" really mean? What does "according to the riches of His grace" really mean?

My friends, we cannot know anything about these things until we realize what a terrible price sin exacts from us and we understand and believe the truth about it’s staggering cost. To be damned forever to a place of eternal punishment, away from the presence of God and everything good boggles the mind when it finally hits you.

	"Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels," said Jesus in Matthew 25.(8) Can we even imagine the terror of hearing those words at judgement?
	"The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night," says John in Revelation 14.(9) Can we fathom, even for a moment, what it will be like to be on the inside of that inferno?

You and I are saved from that, my dear Christian brothers and sisters, but our friends and relatives and neighbors aren’t! The word "redemption" describes the act of buying something back. God bought us back from eternal punishment with the precious life of His Son. We have been blessed in great abundance! As Paul says here, God has"lavished" His grace upon us. That word lavish means to supply with extravagance. God’s grace hasn’t just trickled out. God hasn’t stingily rationed it out for us. Rather, He has flooded the place with His grace! That’s what lavish means.

Perhaps by now you can see why that one commentator spoke of Paul’s being "transported to the limits of language." The idea of his redemption had taken hold of him so fully that he couldn’t stop praising. He was possessed by praise, even in prison. He is gripped with the glory of God’s grace. He understood the nature of God’s sacrifice on his and our behalf.

What stirred Paul up to praise so purely from prison?

	God’ Gracious Choice of Us
	God’s Gracious Sacrifice for Us

(Read verses 9-10)

We see in abundance (at least if we are willing to apply ourselves to it) what people through the ages have longed to see, but were divinely prevented. Paul mentions a "mystery" here. Don’t think "Sherlock Holmes" or "Murder She Wrote" when you read that. People can always crack those kinds of mysteries. No. The word "mystery" here means "a secret." The point is that God has kept certain secrets in the past that are now out in the open. My speculation on the reason for the secrecy is that it was necessary to thwart the destructive plans of Satan and the evil He wanted to unleash on all that God was doing with man. (Don’t you think that if Satan had been able to figure out what Jesus was going to do on the cross, he would have stopped somewhere short of provoking men to crucify Him – the very act that defeated Satan?)

Paul describes his meaning here a little more clearly in the third chapter of Ephesians, verses 8-10, where he writes:

"To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places."

In chapter 6 of Ephesians, Paul uses the terminology "rulers and authorities" and "in heavenly places" to refer to the hoards of Satan. Satan didn’t know that God was going to redeem man! He didn’t know what Jesus was up to when He came. No one did except God because it was classified. It was marked "top secret."

Does it do your own soul good, like it does mine, to begin to understand how God, in His "wisdom and insight" as our text says, beat Satan at his own game and used Satan’s own evil against him? What a story! What a revelation! What a message! If we were playing chess we would say it was the ultimate checkmate. It’s not the revealing of "who-done-it," like in a murder mystery, but rather the revelation of "how-he-done-it!" It was an ingenious plan!

It was Paul’s privilege to announce it to his world and ours to announce it the world today.

Paul was praising God from prison because of

	God’ Gracious Choice of Us
	God’s Gracious Sacrifice for Us
	God’s Gracious Message to Us

Finally, he praised from prison because of:

(Read v. 11-14)

The same word begins and ends this series of verses – the word inheritance. Verse 11: "In Him we have obtained an inheritance…" and verse 14: "you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance…."

I don’t know who will inherit Bill Gates’ fortune when he dies, but whoever it is will surely have enough wealth to do all he or she might ever wish here on earth. Yet, he or she, the inheritor of Bill Gates’ fortune, will hold it only for a short time, then that person will leave it for another.

Paul says just a few verses after our text this morning ends (verse 18): "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe."

Paul prayed that the Ephesians would know what were the "riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."

He may have been praying that they would remain faithful so they would fully realize (by experiencing it) their inheritance, or he may have been praying that they would realize at least some of the magnitude of it while they were living.

Either way, here are a few of the things the New Testament says about our inheritance.

	We will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)
	We will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29)
	We will inherit the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34)
	Our inheritance will be among the saints (Acts 20:32)
	Our inheritance will be imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:50)
	We will inherit a new heaven and a new earth, made ready as a bride is adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:7)

God has already given us a little piece of our inheritance in that He has given us the indwelling of His Spirit as a pledge or "earnest money" to show us He means to keep His promise and that much more awaits us.