Last week I talked about the cosmopolitan city of Ephesus: as a centre of government, commerce, culture and religion; and about the church there, founded and built up by Paul, being one of both Jews and Gentiles, fulfilling God’s plan to bring together both Jews and Gentiles as chosen, forgiven, redeemed and adopted members of God’s own family. As our reading from Isaiah says this evening, God called other nations into his community. In this first chapter of the letter Paul wants to encourage his readers. In the first half of the chapter, he has given them the big picture of his work. Now he wants to get a little more personal. First of all he does this by taking three words, words with everyday meaning to his readers, and investing them with spiritual meaning. An inheritance is what we receive when a member of our family dies. Different cultures have different rules about what is inherited by who from whom: status, land, property, responsibilities, even debts. In our society we can write a will and specify what others will inherit from us - if we have anything to for us to pass on. We can also disinherit people. For example, in 2007, newspapers carried reports that the celebrity Paris Hilton had got into trouble once too often for the liking of her grandfather; he modified his financial arrangements so that she would not get the $60M that she was expecting on his death! As I look around this evening, it may be that some here have already inherited things from parents, uncles, aunts or grandparents. It may be that some are looking forward to that eventuality. Though some may prefer not to think about it. Paul is saying that the Christians in Ephesus - and by extension Christians in Woodford too - have an inheritance to look forward to. Not when somebody else dies, but when we die. We look forward to the inheritance of eternal life. One characteristic of an inheritance is that it is received by virtue of who we are, because of a relationship we have. Our Christian inheritance comes to us because we are members of God’s family. A second characteristic is that it is a free gift. The same is true of our Christian inheritance. It is the wine and milk of which Isaiah speaks - wine and milk bought without money and without a price. Such talk may ring warning bells for you. You may have been told that - ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ - ‘if a deal looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true’. But this is the good news of the Christian gospel: a free gift from God Paul’s readers, in Ephesus the city of commerce, may have been as sceptical as some of us have been trained to be. So he tells them that they have been sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit. Typically his readers would think of a seal in wax, applied to a letter or a parcel, so that the recipient knew that it had not been tampered with en route. A trader receiving bundles of cloth, for example, by sea from another trader in Rome or Corinth, would look to see whether the seals on the bundle were intact. Even today, modern shipping containers are sometimes sealed with a numbered metal fastening, that has to be broken to open the container. The purpose is the same; the seal assures the recipient that he is getting what he expects. Paul says that the seal of the Holy Spirit is proof of our inheritance. In similar vein he uses the Greek word arrabon, variously translated as pledge, earnest or guarantee; ie the down-payment made to secure a business deal. Such as when we pay a deposit on a second-hand car, and come back a few days later with the rest of the money and appropriate paperwork, and expect the car to be serviced and ready to drive away. Nobody else will have bought it, because we have secured it with our down-payment. Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit is the deposit that God gives to Christians - so that they know the inheritance will follow. (In modern Greek the same word is used to refer to an engagement ring… an interesting idea which we will not pursue tonight.) However if (for these Christians in Ephesus) the Holy Spirit is supposed to be a seal and a down-payment, we are bound to ask in what way Paul’s readers would have experienced the Holy Spirit. On what are they encouraged to hang their hopes? In Acts Luke tells us about the curious incident of some Spirit-less Christians in Ephesus. Between Paul’s short visit to the city, and his long visit a few months later, a Jew called Apollos visited, who taught well about Jesus, but baptised in the way of John the Baptist, and did not teach about the Holy Spirit. Perhaps he had not been present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and had no contact with the Jerusalem church. Those whom Apollos baptised needed teaching from Paul about the Spirit, and had to be baptised again. They then spoke in tongues and prophesied. Possibly this was the norm for the Christians in Ephesus, and Paul was pointing to this kind of experience when he encouraged them to see the Spirit as a seal on their inheritance. The experience of tongues and prophesy was not the norm for all Christians in all places even in NT times – for at least once we find Paul wishing that his readers would all speak in tongues. And it is certainly not the norm now. However I think that Paul would encourage each of us to think of our own experiences of the Spirit - be that a spectacular event, or a quiet warming of the heart (such as Wesley felt), and to value that experience as our spiritual seal and pledge. In vv15-23 Paul writes very tenderly of his concern for these Ephesian believers, and reveals himself as a caring pastor as well as a teacher. He says that he has heard of their faith, and their love for all the saints - presumably travellers have brought him news of their worship and their Christian behaviour, and their hospitality. He is praying for them that they might know in their hearts - the hope to which they are called - the richness of their inheritance - and the power of God to bring that inheritance about, for it is the same power that raised Jesus from the grave to God’s right hand. We do not know what discouragements the saints of Ephesus experienced, such that they needed this encouragement. We each know what discourages us: life not turning out the way we hope; pain and suffering in the world; the attacks on our faith from a secular society. But we can take heart from what the Spirit has done in us; and from the resurrection of Jesus. We can pray for one another, as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that God’s Spirit will give us wisdom and enlighten our hearts. Like them, we have heard ‘the word of truth’ (v13). As God said through Isaiah, his word does not return to him without achieving something. So let us open our hearts to him, and offer our lives to him afresh. is is the good news of the Christian gospel: a free gift from God.