CHURCH IMPROVEMENT: BUILDING A CHURCH THAT HONORS GOD AND LOVES PEOPLE BY A WARFARE LIFESTYLE

Ephesians 6: 10-20

INTRODUCTION

On December 30 th , Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, issued a security alert to our nation. Due to increased activity among known terrorist groups, the security level went from yellow to orange, the second highest level of security. I want to quote for you a portion of Mr. Ridge’s speech announcing the increased security measures.

“All Americans should know:  Now that we are at a Code Orange state of alert, additional meaningful security measures have been put in place.  And these measures - both visible and invisible to travelers - are blanketing airports, seaports, chemical and nuclear sites, gathering places - all across America, and with unparalleled protection.  I also want to remind all Americans that as we continue under an Orange alert, your awareness and preparedness is critical to the ultimate security of our nation…  In the end, each of us must remember that we are at war - at war against an enemy driven by hate and determined to destroy the ideals we cherish and the way of life we hold dear.  For them, victory is gained if we give in to the terror and panic they seek to create.  And yet, as citizens you make the difference in this fight.  When you choose to get on a plane, when you choose to live your lives, when you choose to press on even in the face of fear, you send a message to the terrorists - a message that says, in the midst of threats, we will not give way to fear.…   we will show the terrorists the strength of our resolve and the spirit of our determination never to falter, never to fail.”

He reminded us that we are at war as a nation and that we each must live our lives knowing that we are at war. There is much work being done that is invisible to us. At times, the reality of the war breaks out when we hear of another suicide bombing or the grounding of an airplane. However, most of the time the war goes on without our noticing. Some of us will take a more active role by joining the military or another security force. All of us have a role to play in that war by living our lives and by being alert. This “War on Terrorism” is an excellent image of the greater war that has been going on in the world since the day Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A great, invisible world war has been raging on our planet for thousands of years. In our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul is going to describe that battle and tell us how we are to fight it.

In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul, in the first three chapters describes the amazing salvation that God has accomplished for us through Christ. A salvation motivated by his love for his people and carried out by the power of his grace in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. In chapter 2 this salvation is described as God’s taking dead people and making them alive; taking captive people and setting them free; taking alienated people and making them part of his family. Beginning in chapter 4 he describes the present effects of this salvation in the life of his people. He talks about the routine realities of human life as his new people experience them. He talks about our relationships with one another in the church, he talks about sex, he talks about how we communicate, he talks about how we use our time, he talks about parents and children, husbands and wives, employers and employees. In short, Paul shows how the people whom God has saved through Jesus Christ live out their ordinary lives in a new and extraordinary manner .

He hints, throughout this discussion, at the larger realities surrounding our daily lives but at the end of his letter, in 6: 10-20 he pulls back the curtain of our mundane lives and shows us what is really going on, what is really at stake. What he is doing here is very much like what Secretary Ridge did last week. He is reminding us that there is a great war going on and that we must join in the struggle. As average Americans, it is hard to remember in the daily realities of our lives that we are engaged in a “war on terror.” How much more easily are we, who claim to be Christ’s followers, lulled into a false sense of security and complacency by the ordinariness and ease of our lives here. We need Paul’s stirring cry to join the fight far more than we need Secretary Ridge’s call because the stakes are far greater than airplanes flying into office buildings or nuclear plants.

Paul is telling us that when you relate to your spouse or your parent, when you go to work, when you decide what to watch on TV, when you talk with your co-workers, you are no less involved in a massive war than our soldiers in Iraq when they walk the streets of Baghdad. This passage is meant to arouse us to action, to prepare us for battle, to equip us to live authentic Christian lives. What Paul means to do in these eleven verses is what coaches do as they send their teams out on the playing field and what commanders do as they send their men into battle. It is what Winston Churchill did in his great speech calling England to resist the Nazi’s. It is what every US President has done before sending our troops into war. Paul wants you to know that you are in a war, regardless of how it appears to you. The good news is that the only way to lose is to not fight. The only way to be destroyed is to act as if you are not at war. The victory is assured, if you will fight. That is Paul’s main point.

MAIN POINT

Authentic Christian living requires that we put up a fight because…

I. We have fierce and formidable enemies (vv. 10-13)

The contrast between what Paul has been talking about from 4:1 to 6:9 and vv.10-20 cannot be overemphasized. He has been dealing with the very commonplace realities of our lives. His final words prior to verse ten have been addressed to employers and employees describing how to get along with one another. But now, he commands that we be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Why do I need to be told to be strong in God’s power in order to be a good employee? How can it be that I need the power that created the universe and raised from Christ from the dead in order to be a good husband? The answer is in vv. 11-13. We are in a fierce war in which our enemies are not mere men but the devil and all his cohorts. What seems to you to be a simple decision as to whether or not to have that extra piece of pie is actually a skirmish in the war between the devil and his demonic legions and God and his people. What seems to you a simple, normal family squabble is part of the devil’s diabolical scheme to erase all evidence of God’s power and grace from the world of men. It is a war that began eons ago in heaven when the devil determined that he would take God’s place. He sought to throw God out of heaven but was instead himself thrown out. It is a battle in which humankind became involved when Adam and Eve succumbed to the “schemes of the evil one” by believing to eat would make them happier than not eating. God described the battle in his cursing of Satan when he said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers ; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This war’s most fevered and determinative battle was fought when the Son of Man came to earth and lived, suffered and died. In that death, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them. He triumphed over Satan and his foul forces by the cross. In a very real sense, the world we live in spiritually is much like Iraq is now physically. The U.S. won the war. Saddam Hussein is captured and there will be no place for any of his followers in the new government. However, there are still pockets of resistance and our soldiers are always at risk of being harmed. They must ever be alert and dare not go into the streets of Baghdad without their armor and weapons. It is the same for us.

Let’s see the ways in which Paul describes our foes and consider their weaponry. The first thing to note is that these enemies are not merely human. The fight we are in is not against human foes. We are engaged in a fight against invisible, spiritual beings. I love what Calvin says at this point in his commentary, “Let us remember this when the injurious treatment of others provokes us to revenge. Our natural disposition would lead us to direct all our exertions against the men themselves; but this foolish desire will be restrained by the consideration that the men who annoy us are nothing more than darts thrown by the hand of Satan.” The main point, however is that they are infinitely more powerful than we are. They cannot be resisted apart from God’s power. Look at how Paul spells out the superiority of the devil and his power in chapter two. He was our slave master. He rules over every human being from the moment of their conception. He is the one who is at work in every human in their disobedience. The only reason we are not under his power at the moment is due to the power of God giving us life and freedom from his tyranny. To think that any of us can successfully resist the devil apart from God’s power is as ludicrous as a runaway slave thinking that he can outrun his master’s bloodhounds and posse without any help. It is foolish as Jewish people in the Nazi concentration camps thinking they could become free from their oppressors without any assistance.

In verse 12 Paul is not trying to give us the inside scoop on Satan’s organizational chart, as some suppose. Rather, he “now employs a variety of epithets, to make the reader understand that this is not an enemy who may be safely despised,” in the words of Calvin. The invisible enemy that stands behind this world of sin and suffering is fierce and formidable. These beings are world dominating, powerful, evil rulers. The potent hostility of Sauron and his Nasgul in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” are but dim reflections of the power of the real prince of darkness. Paul uses several phrases in these verses to point towards the nature of the devil’s power and strategy. Notice he says that we need to put on God’s full armor to be able to take our stand against “ the devil’s schemes ”. In v. 12 we are battling the world rulers of “ this darkness ” and they are spiritual forces of “ evil ”. Then in v. 13, we are told that there is a “ day of evil ” coming.

To what does, “the schemes of the devil,” refer? In 4:14, Paul tells us that as we grow up into mature Christians we “will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming .” These are the only 2 verses in the NT where the word “scheme” is used. Paul is pointing to a reality that we dare not forget. The primary way that the devil enslaves humans and harasses Christians is through false teaching. Paul states this even more clearly in 1 Timothy 4:1-3. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” As Jesus says in John 8, Satan is a liar and the father of lies. His primary weapon against us to get us to believe false things. There are literally billions of people in the world held captive by Satan by false religious systems. This is why Paul can call the demonic hosts “world rulers of this darkness.” The darkness of sin, unbelief and error. It is literally true that Satan rules over the world of men by inspiring false teachers with demonic teaching of all shades and stripes. Don’t be fooled by the fact that you do not believe one of the grand deceptions like Islam or Hinduism or Mormonism. Satan’s strategies are subtle and insidious. It is not without reason that Jesus says that the deception of wealth sends people to hell or that the writer to the Hebrews says that we must watch out or our hearts will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

What you believe, what you think, what you trust in and hope for controls your life. If Satan can get you to believe a lie, he can rule and ruin your life. The lies that Satan is aiming to get you to believe appear normal and sane. On occasion, he entraps people with wild and wacky things like the Hale-Bopp comet cult. These are the 20 or so people that killed themselves a few years ago because they believed there was a space ship in the tale of the comet that would take them along if they died. However, the lies of the devil are usually far more plausible. Once, I was told by a man who was addicted to pornography that it was OK for him to look at pornography because God had given him a stronger sexual drive than most men and so he needed this release. “God made me like this,” is a favorite lie to justify many sins. One of the most common deceptions I encounter in helping people in conflict is the lie, “I don’t deserve to be treated like this. I deserve better than this. I don’t have to put up with this anymore. God wouldn’t want me to suffer like this. It’s not fair.” The mouths of the devil are innumerable and not easily detected. His primary goal is to entrap us in unbelief and sin and thus expose us to the wrath of God.

He does this not only through false teaching and false thinking but also through suffering and persecution. He is the agent of all our evil days. Satan is the one who sent the Sabeans to kill Job’s servants and steal his property, he is the one who sent the tornado that killed Job’s children. He is the one who inspired Judas to betray Jesus and the one who inspired Herod to kill the apostle James. According to Peter in his letter, he is the direct cause to all the persecution and suffering of God’s people. His goal in all suffering and persecution is what he stated in Job. He aims to prove that God is not worthy of our trust. He aims to destroy our faith and confidence in the goodness, love and power of God. His purpose is that we hate God as he actually is and worship false gods of our own making. (Let me hasten to say what Job said about his suffering. While Satan is the direct agent of all the suffering of God’s people in the world, it is also true that “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.” What Satan intends for our harm, God intends for our good. Satan is on God’s leash and can only do what God wills for our good.)

The devil and his forces are invisible, spiritual forces who seek to deceive and intimidate us so that we believe lies. He aims to destroy the church of Jesus Christ by leading us into sin and promoting dissension and division. His forces do not sleep. He is speaking everywhere in our world seeking to lead us astray. His spokespeople often appear as the most reasonable, normal and friendly people you’ve ever met. Every waking moment of our lives, we are under attack. Every circumstance of our lives affords us with an opportunity to fight against his schemes or to be overcome by his deception.

Authentic Christian living requires that we put up a fight because…

•  We have fierce and formidable enemies

•  And because…

II. We have God’s armor (vv. 14-17)

How are we to resist the devil’s schemes? What does it mean to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power? Paul uses the metaphor of a soldier putting on his armor to explain the action we are to take. The wrong way to read this analogy is to ask why he calls the belt, truth or why he makes it the breastplate of righteousness . Paul uses this same metaphor in several places and doesn’t always label the same parts of the armor with the same virtue. Additionally, he doesn’t name all the parts of a soldier’s armor. Paul didn’t get this analogy from seeing Roman soldiers but from reading his Bible. Several places in the OT state that God is dressed in armor. In fact, in Isaiah 11, the Messiah is said to be clothed with the belt of righteousness and his words are described as a sword. Paul’s point is that what we put on is God’s armor, not ours. The way to successfully stand in the day of evil and resist the devil’s schemes is to put on the armor God gives you.

What does it mean to put on each of these pieces of armor? What actually are we to do? There are six pieces of equipment. I want to look at the pieces of armor in light of the book of Ephesians for it is in the letter itself that we find out what Paul means by each item.

Belt of truth : It is the word of truth that saves us. The new life we have received is created to be like God in truth. We are commanded to “speak the truth in love” and to “put off falsehood, speaking truthfully to one another.” We put on the belt of truth when we determine to live a truth filled life. I am determined to only believe the truth and to only speak the truth. When I am honest with myself, with God and with others, I have put on the belt of truth. Calvin says, “The purity of the gospel ought to remove from our minds all cunning, and from our hearts all hypocrisy.” When you are a Christian, you have nothing to hide. Being a Christian means you have openly confessed that you are a horrible criminal. I have been declared pardoned and perfectly righteous by my Judge and claim him as my father. Therefore, I have nothing to fear from the accusations of the devil or the disapproval of man. When someone thinks poorly of me, they don’t know the half of it. I am far worse than the worst you can imagine about me. I can be honest because I cannot be harmed. I don’t need to pretend or to live to impress others. I live for an audience of one, the approval of God.

Breastplate of righteousness : Paul does not mean by this the righteousness of Christ that is given to the believing sinner. Rather it is being and doing right as described in 4:1-6:9. It means that I live justly in my church, home, community and workplace. I live a devout and holy life.

Readiness of the gospel of peace : The gospel has given me peace with God and peace with man. That is the message of 2: 11-22. The shoes are the readiness to live at peace with God and men that is given to us by the gospel. We are peacemakers, not trouble-makers. We are always ready to forgive, to die to our own desires, to not demand our own way in our relationships with others. One of Satan’s primary goals is to destroy the church by division and dissension. The gospel of peace makes me a person who is always ready to reconcile, to acknowledge my faults and to seek forgiveness. I am always ready to forgive. I live with an absence of hostility and anger. We are prepared to live at peace with others in this troubled world.

Shield of faith : Faith in the superiority of Jesus and all he promises is what will extinguish every flaming arrow launched by the evil one. Whether it is the false promise of sin, the offer of a false god or pleasure, the hardship of suffering or persecution that threatens our faith in the love and power of God, faith in Christ’s love and power is what extinguishes the harm designed by Satan’s schemes. It is not only believing that Jesus will do what he promises to do, take me to heaven, but that what Jesus promises is better than the whole universe. Faith extinguishes the arrow of temptation by giving me greater pleasure in being loved by Jesus than by being angry with my child. Faith extinguishes the arrow of suffering by assuring me that belonging to Jesus is better than not suffering.

Helmet of salvation : Taking the helmet, which is salvation, means to fix my attention on the greatness of the deliverance I’ve been given, to enjoy the rescue that has already been obtained. We rejoice in the change that has occurred in our condition. We were dead, we were slaves to Satan and sin, we were outsiders but now, through the gospel we have been given life, set free from Satan’s tyranny and become members of God’s family. In this we greatly rejoice. Our minds are set upon Christ and his saving work for us and thus we are shielded from the blows aimed at our heads.

Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God : The Holy Spirit is the warrior who wields the word of God. He is the one who makes this word effective in defeating our enemies. This written word is our only offensive weapon in our battle against the devil and his demons. It is the word of God we must use if we intend to destroy Satan. Remember Jesus said that the gates of hell would not stand against Christ’s church. The reason is that the word of God cuts through all the deception and schemes of the devil. This word creates and sustains all else, as it is the word that is directed by the Spirit. The word shatters hard hearts and overcomes stubborn wills. The word judges our thoughts and motives. I cannot tell you how often I have seen God’s word destroy the devil’s schemes in my life and in the lives of others. The word drives the devil away as we see in the life of Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness. It is the word, with the promises and commands of God that will destroy the devil’s schemes.

Authentic Christian living requires that we put up a fight because…

•  We have fierce and formidable enemies

•  We have God’s armor

•  And because…

III. We have God’s help (vv. 18-20)

Verses 18-20 are strongly connected to what precedes. Calvin says, “Having instructed the Ephesians to put on their armor, he now enjoins them to fight by prayer. This is the true method.” Prayer is the means by which we put on the armor and when we have the armor on it is how we fight against the devil and all his schemes. As John Piper says, “The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, is the agent of salvation. Spirit filled prayer is the hand that wields the weapon.” Again, he says, “Prayer is the battlefield walkie-talkie that is directly connected to our commander-in-chief. He commands us to use the walkie-talkie to get the help we need.” That is the main point of vv. 18-20. Let’s look at the directions Paul gives us in our praying.

First , note that we are to pray in the Spirit. In other words, the same Holy Spirit who makes the word of God effective makes our prayers effective. There is no effective prayer that is not Spirit directed prayer. This means that our praying must be in accord with the will of God, it must align with the Holy Spirit’s purposes, which are revealed in the Scriptures. Second , we are to pray at all times. The Christian life is a praying life. Our days are to be lived in a state of prayer. As the battle is unending, so must be our praying. We are always in danger and always in need and so we must be always at our prayers. Third , there is not just one kind of prayer that God will accept. We are to offer all kinds of prayers. There are to be hours spent just praying and then prayer as we wash the dishes. If you want to see the different kinds of prayers to pray, read and use the Psalms to form your prayers. Let me put in a brief advertisement for our Wed. morning prayer meeting. Our method is to pray through a psalm together, so that we are not only asking God’s help but learning to pray all kinds of prayers.

Fourth , our prayers are to be characterized by two things, alertness and perseverance. We are to pay attention to what we are praying. We are to be thoughtful and intelligent in our praying. We are alert to God’s will as he reveals it in his word and we are alert to the circumstances of the battlefield. We are to be alert to the strategies of the evil one. Where is he attacking me, my family, my church right now? If you’ll permit the extension of the metaphor, we are trying to call in the artillery to hit the right target, so we need to be alert to the movement of the enemy. It is an amazing thing that the God of the universe, who has ordained all things that happen, fulfills his plan through the thoughtful, alert prayers of his people. Why would Paul need to tell us to persevere in our prayers? We are going to be in the war until the day we die. We will see victories along the way but the war will not be ended until Christ comes again. Therefore, we are to build disciplines into our lives that we can continue in for our whole lives. We need to find ways to pray daily that we will be able to continue all the days of our lives. Finally , notice that our prayers are in behalf of all God’s people, not just our own personal concerns. Here, Paul is simply following the Lord Jesus when he taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father”.

Now look at vv. 19-20 because Paul gives an example from his own life of what he has just told them in vv. 10-18. He is in the midst of one of those evil days he referred to in v. 13. He is in prison for preaching the gospel. The world rulers of this darkness have conspired to throw Paul into prison in order to destroy his faith and the faith of other Christians. How is he putting on the armor of God in this evil day and so after having done everything to stand? First , notice Paul’s truthfulness. He knows that he is a coward. His natural inclination while being thrown into prison for preaching the gospel is to not speak anymore. Being in prison is no fun and if he keeps being thrown into prison for preaching then the easy way out of the dilemma is to stop preaching. He openly, without shame, declares his weakness and asks for prayer. Second , notice that his goal is to stand in the day of evil, not to be delivered from it. It is not wrong to pray for physical safety. In fact, in Romans 15 Paul asks to be protected from the unbelievers in Rome when he goes there. However, this is not the main thing. The main thing is that in this day of evil, he wants them to pray that he stand firm and use the word of God to do what it is meant for, vanquish Satan. He doesn’t ask to be delivered from his circumstances but that he would be a Christian in these circumstances. He is asking that they pray for him to put on the full armor of God and so stand firm in the day of evil.

Paul knows that there are far worse things than being thrown into prison. He knows that he is in a war against foul and fierce spiritual forces whose aim is to destroy his faith and get him to sin and betray his Lord and the people of God. He knows that his greatest need isn’t being delivered from prison but to stand firm and fight for faith while in prison. His life is about knowing and glorifying God, not about living a comfortable life here. He shows by his life how to stand firm and pray in the day of evil, while the devil schemes to destroy him.

Authentic Christian living requires that we put up a fight because…

•  We have fierce and formidable enemies

•  We have God’s armor

•  We have God’s help