Are you ready for War?

Whenever we think of warfare, we often think of tanks, airplanes, submarines, machine guns, bombs, drones and battleships. Whenever we think of warfare back in Biblical times, we think of chariots, swords, spears, bows and arrows and possibly sling-shots. One of the things that we see throughout the Old Testament is that chariots were the main weapon of choice for the mighty nations of the day (like Egypt, Babylon, Assyria). This was because chariots were very swift on the battle field and a single archer or swordsman could be both protected and have the ability to kill dozens of enemy troops who were on foot. As time went on, though, and the Roman empire came into power, chariots were far less popular on the battlefield. In their place, the Roman legion became the most feared sight in combat. The Roman legion was comprised of a great amount of foot soldiers who were extremely well-trained, well-equipped and well led by some of the greatest military minds to ever walk the earth. The Roman legion was near robotic at times as they would destroy opposing armies with extreme efficiency and with minimal casualties. When we think of the Romans, we think of their great cities, their seemingly barbaric practices (gladiator games) and their vast power, however we can be quick to overlook the backbone of the Roman empire - the soldier.

There are a couple of different reactions 21st Century Christians have to this passage of Scripture. 1) Some people will absolutely love it because they either love history, war or video games involving warfare. Some of you love laser tag and paintball and this is your favorite passage in Ephesians because Paul talks about going off to war! You hear the “armor of God” and you think, this is right up my alley! 2) Others will hear this message and be a little confused. You read about a breastplate, helmet, sandals, belt and a shield and think that this armor seems a little outdated and you question if the armor needs a software update to include things like a tablet, machine gun, google lenses and a radio. You find more security in a marine with his grenades and sniper rifle than you do in this soldier and his metal sword. 3) Others will read this passage and feel uneasy in their stomach because war is of the devil and something that 21st century Christians are too evolved for. Because of that, talking about spiritual powers, warfare and flaming darts makes some people a little concerned and desire to simply stop talking about the matter at hand and skip forward to something else because they like to think that there is not a war at hand and that what we see with our eyes is all that there is until we pass on to glory...

Church, there is a war going on behind the veil and we cannot see it - but it is certainly transpiring at this very moment in time. There is a war taking place that is greater than flesh and blood, it is between God and the devil, the forces of light and darkness. That cosmic battle is going on and many people are completely oblivious of it. They might even be a regular attender of a church, yet they do not have their armor on! Our text this morning is the famous “Armor of God” passage of , but before we read it, a question: “Are you ready for War?” Are you going to participate in the battle, or are you simply going to stay on the sidelines and hope that other people pick up the slack? I pray that as we read and go through this passage that you would be encouraged and convicted to put on the whole armor of God in order to rely on the Lord’s strength, stand firm against the devil’s schemes and to be constantly in prayer. Let’s read this awesome text.

Ephesians 6:10–24 NASB95

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

A couple of notes before we look first at standing in the Lord’s strength. This text might come across as ancient and outdated because of the military terminology used to describe this soldier, however even though technology has changed, the spiritual needs and battle between light and dark has not changed. This is an ageless text and a reminder that we must be ready for battle today just as believers 2000 years ago in Ephesus because we face the same enemy. This passage might seem strange and out of place in the Bible but we will see that it is rooted with Old Testament Scripture throughout. You might think that this is bizarre to read about, however it is actually a brilliant conclusion to this letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians we have seen how the battle is already won, Christ has vanquished our foe and we have the ultimate victory, however there is still a battle going on. We must put on Christ and His armor. Whenever we do this, we understand that we have nothing to fear because Christ has defeated sin and death. Even though we might not notice or see the battle taking place, we must look at Paul’s words regarding this real, unseen battle taking place underneath the real world problems that we see on a daily basis.

We must be aware of the battle (10-13)

Our culture is very un-confrontational. We dislike the awkwardness and isolation that can come with confrontation. Our society likes to be right, though, so whenever someone has an opinion or view that is odd they like to crucify said person immediately rather than hearing their side. We hate confrontation. We hate the idea of there being a battle. We just got done discussing the household instructions of and the first 9 verses of . We love the peace that was discussed in those verses and we’d love to go back to that rather than looking at the idea of conflict as we see in verses 10-24 in . As Martin Lloyd-Jones said regarding the implications of this message from Paul, “This is a stirring call to battle, do you not hear the bugle and trumpet? We are being roused, we are being stimulated, we are being set upon our feet..... The tone is strong.” The peace of Christ’s Cross is to be experienced only in the midst of a relentless struggle against evil. Friends, we are in the midst of a war and we desperately need the strength of the Lord and the armor of God if we are to survive!

The first step, though, comes in being aware of the battle.

We see Paul state in verses 10-12 that we have an enemy. As Stott notes, a thorough knowledge of the enemy and a healthy respect for his prowess are a necessary preliminary to victory in war. We cannot underestimate our spiritual enemy, because if we do then we can easily view God’s armor as unnecessary and we will go off to war unarmed and defeated immediately. We must understand that the devil is out there and he is strong. He is powerful. He is wicked. He is cunning. Verse 12 shows us that our war is against the principalities and powers of the present darkness. Do you recall the temptation of Jesus in the desert? Satan took Jesus up to look at the surrounding kingdoms and promised to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in the Gospel of John? The devil is the ruler of this world - as Jesus Himself said. The devil is extremely powerful! Even though the cross has defeated these powers in one sense, they have not surrendered to this point and they will not until the 2nd coming of Christ. Often times whenever someone knows that they are defeated they squirm and they try to avoid the defeat - that is the idea we get from Satan here. He knows he is defeated, however he is still trying to avoid that fate and cause chaos. We do not need to go into this battle questioning if the victory will come our way or not, but instead we go into the battle knowing that we are victorious through Christ and that we fight with His armor in this cosmic battle. Apart from this, though, we would easily be defeated because the devil is powerful.

He is also wicked. Our enemy knows the power he wields and he uses it for destruction rather than construction. If you’ve ever seen a wrecking ball, you know exactly how powerful a tool can destruct an object. Just as it takes a crane and builders weeks and months to construct something beautiful, it takes a wrecking ball a couple of moments to completely destroy it. The same concept exists here. Satan is powerful and he uses his power for evil. His associates do the same. As JB Phillips put it, they are spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil! FF Bruce notes that the appearance of Christ on earth was the signal for an unprecedented outburst of activity on the part of the realm of darkness controlled by these world-rulers. We see so many examples of demonic activity throughout Jesus’ ministry and that happened for a reason, the ruler of this world was not pleased with Jesus’ ministry and wanted to stop it! Guess what? That war is still raging today. The battle is not over. We must recognize that these powers are ruthless and would like nothing more than to completely destroy us and stop us from spreading the Gospel message.

These powers are also cunning. The devil is a dangerous wolf but he comes into our life in the middle of the day disguised as an innocent sheep. Sometimes he roars like a lion, but he usually is subtle like a serpent. Satan could certainly go about this battle by dropping bombs upon Christians for all to see, however that would be far too public. Often times he prefers to seduce us into compromise and deceive us into error. Lloyd-Jones noted that one of the greatest ways that Satan succeeds in this war is to convince people that he does not exist, “I am certain that one of the main causes of the ill state of the Church today is the fact that the devil is being forgotten. All is attributed to us; we have all become so psychological in our attitude and thinking. We are ignorant of this great objective fact, the being, the existence of the devil, the adversary, the accuser, and his fiery darts.”

The devil is powerful, wicked and cunning. He is the great deceiver and many people have bought into his lie that he either does not exist or that this battle is no longer being fought. This is a lie church! How can we expect to stand against such an enemy? It is impossible on our own. We are too weak, yet we try so often to fight this battle on our own because we forget how formidable our enemy is. Only the power of God can defend and deliver us from the evil one. The principalities and powers are strong, but God is stronger! These evil powers are still working today, but they were defeated at the cross. The invisible world in which they attack us and we defend ourselves is the very world in which Christ reigns over them and we reign with Him! When Paul urges us to draw upon the power, might and strength of the Lord Jesus in verse 10, he uses exactly the same trio of words in in relation to God’s work of raising Jesus from the dead (dynamis, kratos, ischus).

The power that we so desperately need to fight against this foe is not found in our textbooks at school, it is not found on the football field or in the work place. It is not our intellect, strength, popularity or kindness - it is the power of the risen Christ! Paul is telling these believers to rely on His resurrecting power and to go to war. Some Christians are so self-confident that they think they can manage themselves without the Lord’s strength or armor. Others are so dis-trusting that they think that they cannot help out in this fight or that the fight is over. Both are mistaken. The power is the Lord’s and we are to be strong in it and be strengthened by it. Think of it like this, the armor is God’s and without it we shall be fatally unprotected and exposed, but we must take it up and put it on as we see in verses 13-17.

Before we go into the pieces, though, the idea of putting on the armor is a corporate idea that Christians do together. We are not alone in this fight. We put on the armor and go to war together! We do this on Sunday mornings at church as we declare war against these unseen powers and principalities. We know that we are outnumbered, out gunned and surrounded, but we come together and trust in the Lord’s power and we encourage one another along the way with the hope that someone might come to know the love of Jesus Christ because of the way that we live our life for Christ. Since we are on the subject of battles, think of the battle of Thermopylae between the mighty, invading Persian army and King Xerxes against 300 Spartans and a couple hundred Greek troops. The Persian army numbered over 100,000 but they could not defeat the Spartans in the small ocean pass. The Spartans fought as a unit and they defended one another and continued to push the Persian hoard back day after day. They managed to do this for 3 whole days. Take that idea and now look at the church. The Spartans had superior military training and equipment compared to the Persians. As Christians, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we are given the very armor of God to stand strong agains the fiery darts of the devil! If Christ’s armor is our armor, I’d say we’re in pretty good shape! We put it on together and we go to war like the 300 Spartans did against a foe that looks unstoppable and unbeatable. But we know that we are not fighting alone because we are fighting with the strength of the Lord. We must realize that we are supposed to fight and that there is a war being waged around us, though. That is the first step. The second step is to put on the armor!

Be prepared with God’s armor (13-17)

In the words of the Puritan minister William Gurnall, “In heaven we shall appear not in armor but in robes of glory, but here armor is to be worn night and day, we must walk, work and sleep in them or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.” That might seem like quite the line to walk and very difficult because who would sleep in their armor? Let’s look quickly at some key biblical figures and what happened to them in their sleep: Samson had his hair cut in his sleep, Saul was nearly killed by David and had his spear stolen as he slept, Noah fell asleep and was abused by his son, and Eutychus fell asleep while the apostle Paul was preaching in and fell from a 3rd story window to his death only to be raised back to life and hear Paul preach some more! *See what can happen when you fall asleep during church?

We must be prepared! We see in that God is a warrior

Isaiah 59:17 NASB95

17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.

Isaiah 59:17 NASB95

17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.

We see that the same armor that God wears is the same armor that we wear in the battle. If we have put on the armor of God, we do not have to yield an inch to Satan - we must be ready for battle. As we look at these things, realize that we do not wear jeans, suits, scrubs, pajamas or swimsuits, but we were battle armor and we stand firm in it.

Isaiah 11:1–5 NASB95

1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; 4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

There are 6 pieces of armor:

Belt of Truth (14). Truth is important throughout the book of Ephesians. The truth being spoken of here could refer to the truth of the Gospel and Scripture, or it could be more general and refer to truth in sincerity or integrity. Either way, honesty greatly matters to a Christian soldier. As Paul said in , the truth is in Jesus Christ. We should put on this truth every day. We should read the truth, sing about the truth, pray about the truth and proclaim the truth to ourselves and to those around us throughout the day. The devil tries to deceive, Christ is truth and we cannot beat the devil at his own game, we cannot out deceive the devil. The way we defeat him is to spread the light, the truth, into the darkness.

Breastplate of righteousness (14). The breastplate in Roman times often covered both the front and back of the soldier and was the major piece of protection of his vital organs. tells us that Yahweh puts on righteousness like a breastplate. The righteousness here is not justification but rather ethical righteousness or the righteousness of character. To neglect what we know to be righteous is to leave a gaping hole in our armor!

Sandals of Peace (15). Shoes are important, are they not? If you’ve ever gone to the gym to play basketball only to realize that you only had your flip flops, you know what I’m talking about! We must wear shoes that are appropriate to the activity that we are about to partake in. Athletes need their cleats or their basketball shoes in order to play their sport. A person going hiking needs their hiking boots. A person going to play in the snow needs their snow boots. There are dozens of types of shoes out there, and the word “shoe” or sandal is not explicitly stated in verse 15 of this text. The point that Paul is not trying to make is that you have to wear sandals to share the Gospel. What he is trying to say is that we should always be “ready” to share the Gospel. Be ready to share the news of Jesus Christ. Whenever I am going to play golf, I know that I need my golf shoes and I have them in the back of my car. In fact, they are almost always in the back of my car just in case the opportunity presents itself to swing by the golf course. That should be the mentality we have when sharing the gospel. We are prepared if and when the opportunity comes our way.

In context with his day, the Roman soldier of Paul’s time would have had very good footwear because traveling off to battle was extremely important. Rome had one of the most advanced highway systems in the ancient world which made traveling throughout the vast empire very efficient, however their army still had to travel hundreds of miles on foot. Because of this, having proper footwear was vitally important! Roman soldiers went to the cold forests of Germany and to the high mountains in Southern France to the barren deserts of Northern Africa. They went to hard places - that is where the Gospel is to go as well! You cannot say that you’ll take up the helmet or the sword without taking up the sandals as well. Paul calls us to take up the whole armor! Christ brought the message of Salvation to the world, our message to others is to be reconciled to Christ! We share that as we go. We offer life where others offer death and destruction.

Shield of Faith (16). The fourth piece is the shield. The word in the Greek (thyreos) notes that this shield is not a tiny 12 inch circle but rather a long shield that could protect an entire person (possibly the size of a door)! We have a shield to protect ourselves from the fiery darts of the evil one - that shield is God. Whenever we put on Jesus Christ as our armor, we are protected from spiritual harm. Does this mean that we will go without harm physically or emotionally? No. But it does mean that Satan has no power over us spiritually because we are protected fully under the protection of our Lord and savior.

Helmet of Salvation (17). The fifth piece of armor is the helmet of salvation. Roman helmets were incredibly strong, so much so that Stott notes that nothing short of an axe could pierce one! Do you know what is infinitely stronger than a Roman helmet? The assurance of God that you are saved and that you belong to Him. To resist the devil, we must be assured of our salvation! We must realize that our hope is in Him and we must realize that God’s saving power is our only defense against the devil. Whenever doubts enter our mind or we are being attacked, we should confidently say, “I have been saved from the penalty of sin, I am being saved from sin’s power today and I will be saved one day from sin’s very presence!” We tell the devil that we belong to Christ. We put our helmet on and we remind the devil of whose we are and we do not allow him to get into our head.

Sword of the Spirit (17). The 6th piece of armor is the sword. This is the only weapon that is clearly used for attack and defense. The Spirit is what makes the sword dangerous because it is the Spirit’s sword. We see examples in Scripture of the Word being a defensive weapon as we defend our actions or beliefs by telling others what Scripture says. It is also an offensive weapon as we declare Jesus to be King to the world around us. This is an act of war and many people simply call it another Sunday or just another day at church, or just another Bible study or just another devotion. No. You are declaring war against the forces of this world with that statement! We use the Sword in resisting temptation as Jesus did to satan in the wilderness and we also use it for evangelism as we fulfill the Great Commission. As tells us

Hebrews 4:12 NASB95

12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Praise God for this fact! We must not be ashamed to use the sword offensively, because that is what it was designed for.

Church, you can trust God’s Word. You need God’s Word. Just as a Roman soldier would not dare go into battle without his sword or a marine without his gun, you’d better not enter the battlefield without the living, breathing Word of God. Read it. Mediate on it. Pray it. Proclaim it to the world.

Be devoted to Prayer (18-20)

Verse 18 tells us to pray at all times. This is a continuation of the previous verses. We stand firm against the devil’s schemes through prayer. Prayer might not be a piece of the armor, but you’d better believe that it is important! Piper describes prayer in this passage as a walkie-talkie. It might not be a weapon like the others, but you’d better acknowledge the importance that is has during the battle! Prayer is the means by which we call out to God during the battle. Isn’t it remarkable that we can communicate with the living God in our time of greatest need?

We see examples of this in Scripture. Hezekiah cries out to the Lord of Hosts in . Instead of praying for Jerusalem to be saved, Hezekiah prays that the Lord show up and defend Israel so that the whole world might see the power and glory of Yahweh, God. Church, when we pray, we ought to pray like this! We should pray with boldness and we should pray at all times.

As we get into Daniel next week, we will see that God shows up in mighty ways and many of you can attest to the fact that God has done a mighty work in your life! He has saved you from danger, from financial ruin, from disaster or from yourself! God has done great things in our lives, but as we see in Scripture, our prayer should not be to avoid the storm or the suffering but to rely on Him through the storm and suffering.

All of our lives should be lived in prayer. We should pray all the time for all around us. We should pray persistently for the lost around us and for our church family. As we see in

1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB95

17 pray without ceasing;

Finally, we pray with boldness. You might say, Pastor I don’t know how I should do that because I’m retired and I don’t have the ability to minister to others like I used to. Then you pray for others as they share the Gospel on the front lines. You pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ to be filled with the Spirit and boldly proclaim the Gospel message. Satan does not want the truth of Scripture to be shared, in fact he hates it! Evangelism is spiritual warfare. Our culture hates it. We need prayer warriors to be lifting one another up in prayer as we proclaim the Gospel truth. We do this without ceasing, knowing that ultimately God is in control!

Conclusion

Paul asks the people at Ephesus to pray for him because he is an ambassador in chains. That should be our concern as well. We should pray for one another during this thing called life. We should put on the full armor of God on a daily basis and seek first the kingdom of God as we extinguish the darts of the evil one. This passage is a great one as we see that we are taking part in a war that has been going on for thousands of years! Paul wraps this letter up with some amazing remarks. He closes out with a message about their personal relationship with Christ. He has told them about what Christ has done for them and how they are supposed to live in light of that reality, and now he prays that they would have grace. Grace is found throughout this letter, and what we see is that everyone benefits from grace however only a born again Christian can truly experience the saving grace found in Scripture! So, do you love Christ? Are you a Christian? Have you turned from your sins and placed your faith and trust in Christ Jesus?

Remember, Paul is writing this letter from prison (house arrest), yet what concerns him most is not that he is in chains but that his mouth might be opened in testimony. Not that he may be set free, but that the Gospel might be spread freely and without hinderance. This is what Paul is praying for and what he asks the Ephesian believers to pray for as well. Not even the strongest power of darkness can stand against such a prayer. So, church, pray. As this season of revival comes our way, pray. As satan and his adversaries attack us, pray. In all things we do, pray and put on the full armor of God and let’s change the world with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and live out the truths found in Ephesians in our daily lives! Are you ready for War?