"THE ARMOR OF GOD"
(Studies in Ephesians - 13)

03/28/04  The Rev. Alan Jackson

SERMON

"Finally," Paul writes, "be strong in the Lord…." And with that admonition he begins to draw to a close this remarkable letter – a letter that has moved us, as John Stott put it, "from theory to practice; from doctrine to duty; from what God has done to what we are to do." And what are we to do?
 
We are to "put on the full armor of God," Paul writes, "so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." And with this object lesson on proper military equipment he points us to a truth we can easily lose sight of when we're in the thick of it. And the truth is this: When you commit yourself to seeking God's will in your life and then doing it, you will come under attack. It's going to happen. So you had better be prepared for it. When Paul talks about the "full armor of God" he isn't just engaging us in a little theological exercise – a handy way of listing the important elements of faith. He's talking about the utter necessity of being ready for stern spiritual warfare.
 
But why the military imagery? Picture in your mind Paul chained to a Roman guard 24/7. As he writes this letter he pauses, he turns and looks at his captor. He sees a soldier dressed in his panoply, his full armor, and ready for anything. With this image in his mind, Paul takes up his pen and begins to write. "Our struggle isn't against flesh and blood," he says, "but against the spiritual forces of evil. Therefore put on the full armor (panoplian) of God," he says, so that you may be able to stand and fight; and when there's no more fight left in you, to still go on standing for what you know is right.
 
And of what does the "full armor of God" consist? The first piece of equipment you need is the belt of truth. To a Roman soldier the belt was important for two reasons. First it provided a handy place to hang equipment – especially the sword. But just as important, it held the tunic out of the way to allow freedom of movement. When you're fighting for your life, the last thing you want is to get tangled up in your clothing.
 
Paul says the same is true in spiritual warfare. If you're going to fight the good fight, the first thing you need is truth securely buckled around you. If you try to carry on without that belt – that is, if you're not ready to speak the truth and live a life that rings true – then you had better be prepared to get all tangled up in your own stuff. Because that is exactly what is going to happen. We all know how it works. You tell a little lie and pretty soon you have to tell another lie to cover for the first one – and on it goes. Deception inevitably breeds more deception until you finally get all tangled up in it. But when you're girded by truth, surrounded by it, everything is kept in its proper place.
 
Standing firm also requires that the breastplate of righteousness be in place. The breastplate protected the vital organs and kept a Roman soldier almost impregnable. Paul says righteousness can do the same thing for the Christian. When you're under attack – let's say someone is spreading a vicious rumor about you – righteousness can deflect it. How? This is how righteousness works. You live your life in such a way that you prove the rumor to be false.
 
Will you suffer for righteousness sake? Most likely you will. (Jesus said so in the beatitudes.) But will righteousness prevail in the end? Without question! (Jesus said so in the beatitudes.) I think it's noteworthy that the righteousness Paul is talking about here is a breastplate and not a back-plate. The Roman soldier's armor, like righteousness, assumes that you are going to face your enemy and take what's thrown at you; not be caught from behind because you're running away from it. When you're protected by personal righteousness because you know you're living rightly, it's amazing what you can stand up to.
 
If you're going to take a stand against evil, the next equipment you'll need in the full armor of God are shoes of readiness. It has been said that the secret of the Roman conquest of the world was the attention given to the soldiers' feet. They made sure that all their foot soldiers had well made, properly fitting shoes. Some of you have learned the hard way that when you haves poorly fitted shoes it's not long before you give up or have to be carried.
 
But the surprising thing here is that Paul likens a soldier's shoes to being "fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." What does he mean by that? Simply put, if you want to be ready to face life's struggles in the right way, you have to be well grounded in God's peace. Some time ago I had an eye-opening conversation with a police officer in this congregation. He told me that without his Christian faith he couldn't maintain his equilibrium in his job. He said that he deals so much with the seamy, sleazy side of society that, if it weren't for the peace he has inside that comes from being part of a Christian family of faith, he would be on the fast track to becoming a hardened cynic. I honor that man for his wisdom. When you're grounded in the gospel of peace, you can maintain your poise.
 
The next item of equipment in the panoply of God's armor is the shield of faith that can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. I was intrigued to discover that the purpose of those flaming darts wasn't so much to cause damage as to create chaos and make the soldiers break rank. You can get a mental picture of what it would be like if someone were to suddenly shout, "Fire!" in a crowded room.
 
In the same way, there are those who create havoc in the Christian community by starting little brush fires here and there. And when those fires spring up, they cause divisions in the church; the solidarity of the family of faith is compromised. Now, those people may not be out to destroy the church, but they seem to have an uncanny ability to make life miserable for the rest of us. And when Paul identifies their work as "the flaming arrows of the evil one," he's saying that, whether they realize it or not, they're working for the enemy.
 
The most effective countermeasure for those flaming arrows, says Paul, is the shield of faith. Why? Because you're not going to be able to handle all those attacks on your own. You need help. One of Satan's most insidious and effective tactics is to convince us that we can handle our problems without any help from God. But the shield of faith, faith in the thick of battle, means that you trust God to actually block and extinguish those attacks you're not able to handle on your own. Faith is remembering that you're not in this battle alone. And if you'll put your faith in God's faithfulness, it will be an invaluable shield.
 
The next piece of equipment in the armor of God, says Paul, is the helmet of salvation. Just like a helmet, the knowledge of your salvation is vital protection. Salvation isn't simply a past event; it is a very present help. Far too many Christians, I fear, think about salvation in terms of something that happened "back then" – while here I am facing a battle "right now" – as though one had little or nothing to do with the other. When you put on the helmet of salvation – that is, when you consciously remind yourself that Christ not only loved and redeemed your former self, he's loving and redeeming you every single day of your life – you can face almost anything.
 
In planning a wedding once, I asked the young couple if they had any scriptures they wanted in their service. Without hesitation the bride said, "Yes – Romans 8:28-39. That is a kick-butt scripture!" Then she added, "Excuse me. I should explain. My father died a year ago and that scripture has held me together for the past year." Now, we might not use her choice of words to describe it. But she's right. That passage ends with these words: "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is salvation. And I'm grateful to that young woman for reminding me that salvation is not only an accomplished fact; it is a very present strength.
 
There's one more thing. Standing firm requires the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. In Hebrews 4:12 we're reminded that the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any double-edged sword. I find it instructive that among all the panoply listed, the only piece of offensive equipment is the word of God. And you'll notice that it isn't a mace or a club we can use to bludgeon people. It's a sword that we need to wield with great finesse and care and grace.
 
The one sense in which the Christian goes on the offensive is when the word of God needs to be brought to bear on some issue. That is sage advice for those Christians who are all too eager to "bless" others with their opinions. Opinions are fine, as long as they are acknowledged as such and not used as offensive weapons. Stuart Briscoe once shared with some of us pastors a fine strategy for dealing with those who tend to be critical of the church. He would say to them, "You make a very interesting point. Please show me where your opinion is confirmed in Scripture. If God's Word corroborates it, I'll be more than willing to agree. If you cannot show me where the Bible supports your position, I will continue to treat your opinion as just that – your opinion – nothing more and nothing less." He said it's amazing how many critics will be silenced with that simple tactic. The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, has a way of cutting to the quick.
 
Paul has one last vital thing to add to the full armor of God. At verse 18 he reminds his readers to never underestimate the importance of prayer in the business of spiritual warfare. At Westminster we hold our primary core value to be a foundation of habitual and fervent prayer. Paul says much the same thing here. Prayer is absolutely essential. And he urges us to keep our prayers diverse and persistent and personal.
 
"Pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests," he says. Don't get into the rut of thinking that your prayers have to follow a set pattern of specific language and offered only at prearranged times. Think about how you talk with your closest friend. At times your loud, sometimes you'll be gentle, or argumentative, or passionate, or joking. God loves you and understands everything about you far better than your closest friend. So what makes you think you should talk with God any differently? I mean no disrespect for the awesome holiness of God. But I honestly believe God wants you to be real with him when you pray. Try it.
 
Then he goes on: "Be alert and always keep on praying." That, too, is good counsel. Rather than letting your prayers become a routine, a kind of "checking in" occasionally to bring God up to date on what's been going on in your life (as if God didn't already know what was going on) let your prayers be a running conversation with God – the same way you might have an ongoing discussion with a good friend.
 
Then he says, "Pray also for me..." And you'll notice that it's not a vague general request, as if to say, "Hold a good thought for me." No, he is quite specific and personal. "And pray for me, in particular, that I will declare the gospel fearlessly, as I should." Follow Paul's lead here. When you ask people to pray for you, be specific in what you want them to pray about. Not only will it be helpful to them in giving them clear guidance, it will honor them that you trust them with those specific needs in your life.
 
Paul then draws this letter to a close by setting one more example for his readers. "I'm sending Tychicus to you to let you know first-hand how we're doing and to encourage you." In those words lies one of the keys to health in the Body of Christ – or anywhere for that matter. If anyone could have used some encouragement it would have been Paul the "ambassador in chains." Instead he looked for a way of encouraging others.
 
Karl Menninger was once asked at a forum what he would do if he felt a nervous breakdown coming on. I suspect the questioner thought he'd say, "I'd see a psychiatrist." Menninger's reply was profound. He said, "If you feel a nervous breakdown coming on, lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks and find someone in need, and do something for him." There is great truth behind his advice. Preoccupation with self is destructive; caring for others is healing – both for the one who receives and the one who gives. Paul understood that.
 
Paul began this letter with his signature greeting: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And with a final blessing, with the same grace and peace with which he began, Paul ends the letter. He reminded us that it was God's grace behind the gift of his Son. It was by grace that we were saved and not by works. And it is God's amazing grace that will protect us and lead us home. It was the peace of Christ that reconciled us, breaking down those dividing walls of hostility. That same peace will one day be seen in the perfect harmony of all things under his authority. Meanwhile we have our work cut out for us.
 
So we've come top the end of the letter. Let me close with words of John Stott who challenges us to keep on wrestling with what the Lord is here calling his church to be. He writes:

Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul's letter to the Ephesians with a privatized gospel. Ephesians is the gospel of the church. It sets forth God's eternal purpose to create through Jesus Christ a new society which stands out in bright relief against the somber background of the old world. For God's new society is characterized by life in place of death, by unity and reconciliation in place of division and alienation, by the wholesome standards of righteousness in place of the corruption of wickedness, by love and peace in place of hatred and strife, and by unremitting conflict with evil in place of a flabby compromise with it.
 
This vision of a renewed human community has stirred me deeply. At the same time, the realities of lovelessness and sin in so many contemporary churches are enough to make one weep, for they dishonor Christ, contradict the nature of the church, and deprive the Christian witness of integrity. Yet increasing numbers of church members are seeking the church's radical renewal. For the sake of the glory of God and the evangelization of the world, nothing is more important than that the church should be, and should be seen to be, God's new society. Towards the fulfillment of this vision Paul's letter to the Ephesians gives us a strong and steady stimulus.

And to that I would add my "Amen."
 

amen

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