Strengthen yourselves for Battle.

Ephesians 6:10–12 KJV 1900

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

INTRODUCTION

I love the Lord of the Rings series.

Gandalf is one of the the best fictional characters ever imagined.

Throughout the series, he has so many great moments. I could listen to “you shall not pass” every day.

As I was studying this message, there was one quote that kept coming back to me.

Gandalf is assisting the human soldiers of Gondor in the defense of the capital city of Minas Tirith.

The battle has been raging and the army of Sauron is about to break through the massive gates of the city.

Gandalf strengthens the soldiers for what is about to happen.

He tells them, "You are soldiers of Gondor! No matter what comes through that gate, you will stand your ground!"

Paul is doing something very similar in our passage this morning.

We’ve been living at home for the last several weeks.

Husbands, wives, children, and servants.

As we begin to wind down our study of this letter, we transition our perspective.

We move from the home to the battle field.

Paul seeks to strengthen the soldiers of God’s army for what they will face in the battle.

Every Christian is in need strength for a battle we can’t escape.

Verse 10 uses 3 different words for strength and power.

Christians must never be known as weaklings.

We cannot afford the risk of spiritual weakness.

At the same time, we cannot strengthen ourselves any more than we could save ourselves.

We need to be empowered.

Thankfully, our Lord has all the strength that we need.

See that we draw our power from HIS might.

How do we appropriate His power to our lives?

The key is found in the phrase, “be strong in the Lord.”

Paul does not say “be strong by the Lord.”

This phrase tells us that God’s strength is shared with those that live in union with Him.

This is reiterated by the phrase “in the power.”

We are to live in union with Him and with His power.

Paul has in mind the union that exists between a successful commander and soldiers.

When the soldiers obey and execute the commander’s orders, there is strength.

The commander can see things that they cannot.

The commander knows what they do not.

When they are in union, they are strong.

When the soldiers each go their own way, doing their own things, then there is weakness.

We secure our needed increase in strength through our union with the Lord.

No Christian can walk worthy if they are not in communion with God.

This is not a one time infusion of strength and then you’re good.

The tense of verse 10 tells us that we must constantly access the power of Jesus through our union with Him.

You cannot rest on the fact that you used to walk in His power.

We need His power all the time.

You cannot assume that there are times where you are safe on your own or in your own strength.

We have an enemy.

He may attack you in any number of ways at any time.

We need to posses God’s might.

We need to exercise His strength.

We also need his armor.

This is something that we are really going to talk about next week.

The emphasis in this verse is that we put it on.

Every piece needs to be used.

Don’t leave any piece behind.

We can know all about the different pieces of God’s armor, but if we don’t put them on, what good are they.

Paul was well-acquainted with Roman armor.

He was often chained to a Roman soldier.

The armor that Paul liken’s God’s armor to is that or a Roman hoplite.

Other names for this soldier would be a man of arms, a heavily armed legionary.

The point is, the picture that Paul has of the christian soldier is not the lightly armed fighter in the auxiliary contingent.

Paul sees the Christian soldier as a fighter on the front lines.

Just as we don’t possess our own strength, we don’t wear our own armor.

Paul calls the Christian’s armor the armor of God!

The armor belongs to Him.

He is responsible for outfitting His soldiers.

Think about how freeing this is.

Paul says “Be Strong!” “Put on the Armor!”

You think oh man I don’t know if I can do that.

But then when you dig deeper, you realize that when He says be strong, He is saying, stay close to God and He will make you strong.

When he says, put on the armor, He is referring to the armor pieces that God has already given you.

We need His armor and His strength so that we can stand our ground against our enemy.

God has equipped us to stand against the Devil.

The greek word for “Stand” in verse 11 is much stronger than simply remaining on two feet.

The word means to be invincible or unbeatable.

We have to stand!

The alternative to standing is not retreat, it’s defeat.

The present picture that Paul is painting is specifically of Christian soldiers holding down a fortress.

I know people get spiritual about this.

God’s army is marching on, we are advancing.

But in this picture, God is saying that we are to hold our ground.

Protect this place.

If we do not stand, if we do not hold this ground, there is nowhere to retreat.

When it comes to standing against Satan, I’m reminded of another Lord of the Rings character’s words before a different battle.

Aragorn is rallying the elves to fight the armies of Saruman.

He tells them to show no mercy, because they shall receive none.

The same is true in our fight against the Devil.

If we are going to fight and hold this territory for God, then we need to know what we are up against.

Every Christian will participate in spiritual warfare.

We have an enemy and he has an army.

There is one thing you need to know about your enemy.

He is a champion fighter and leader.

Don’t imagine a cartoon because of the use of the word wiles.

Some of you are already thinking about Wile E. Coyote.

Don’t do that.

The word wiles refers to the expert skills, strategy, and tactics possessed by the Devil.

He is a master tactician.

He is a convincing leader.

He is singularly focused on destroying anything precious to God, including you.

He is not alone.

Paul informs us of the reality of Satan’s demonic army.

We must have a biblical understanding of the conflict that we are a part of.

To start with, it is not a conflict with flesh and blood.

We are engaged in spiritual, not physical conflict.

Depending on the terrain on which you are fighting, you will need to employ different strategies and tactics.

Our military trains to engage enemies on a variety of fronts.

Too many Christians are confused about the nature of the battle that we are facing.

Paul parades the whole army of Satan before our eyes.

He warns of the principalities that we will wrestle with.

Principalities are regions or domains that are ruled by a prince.

In this case, there are domains that are under demonic rule or authority.

This is sobering to think about.

There are domains that are under demonic control in our world.

He warns of powers.

These are personalities or forces of influence or authority.

These powers work to accomplish one mission.

The frustration of God’s work.

The destruction of His people.

He warns of the Rulers of the Darkness of this World.

This whole english phrase is a single greek word.

Kosmokratoras.

It speaks of the rulers as tyrants.

They do not care about the people under their influence.

They care only for themselves.

It speaks of the darkness of the world.

Light requires nothing from darkness in order to exist.

Darkness can only exist if light is not present.

The darkness of this world is not the mere absence of light; it is the absolute antagonism towards the light.

There are spiritual forces standing behind institutions of our world seeking to control the lives of persons and nations.

He warns of spiritual wickedness in high places.

Spiritual wickedness distinguishes from the wickedness found in men here on earth.

These are the spiritual agents of evil which are challenging us (the army of God) in a battle that started in heaven and has spilled over onto the earth.

This is not a fairy tale, this is the reality of the Christian life.

No Christian can live the Christian life without a spiritual battle.

The Christian life is like the illustration of Israel moving into Canaan.

It was a beautiful, blessed life, but it required the Israelites to fight for it.

There are no Christians staying back with camp.

We are all on the front lines.

The only thing that is up for debate is whether you are fighting in your strength or God’s..

Are you fully armed or are you exposed.

We need all Christians to be ready for spiritual battle.

I can’t talk to all Christians, but I can talk to you.

Are you living in union with God and drawing from His strength?

Are you putting on the whole of the armor that He has given you?

Why not?

What makes you think you can go up against an expert enemy like Satan on your own?

Do you think you can face his domains, his influencers and tyrants alone?

Do you think you can effectively participate in this spiritual battle against darkness in your own strength?

Your engagement in this battle is essential for the rest of our sakes.

Paul wrote this to a church of christian soldiers.

He had in mind a specific type of armor used by a specific type of soldier.

These hoplites used a greek military strategy that enabled both the Greek and Roman empires to spread and defeat enemies that far outnumbered them.

It’s a strategy called the phalanx.

One soldier standing next to another and another.

Through this tactic, Rome was able to take on larger forces and win.

This tactic required that each member of the phalanx do their part.

If you had one soldier that didn’t come prepared, then there would be a weak point in the formation.

If you had a soldier who decided to abandon the plan and go out on their own, then the whole formation would be compromised.

We are soldiers of the kingdom heaven.