Character: The Battle

Introduction

Mark Sayers quote pg 121

Read Eph 6:10-20

I. The Battle

Revelation - Apokalypsis - uncovering/disclosing

pull back the fabric of time and what is seen to what is unseen

Michael Heiser’s book - unseen realm

Marvel’s - Quantum realm or multiverse

Microscope - pulls back what we see to reveal what is unseen within matter

vs 11-12 - our battle is not against flesh and blood

This has not been the outlook at time in church history as the church became highly political and physical in their forms of battle

On the other side, is the belief that everything is simply a spiritual attack

So Paul in Chapter 2 actually lays out 3 “enemies” of Christ and faith

A. Flesh - He says we were all dead in our trespasses and sins in vs 1 a couple of verses later in vs 3 he says we all once lived in the passions of our flesh

Flesh as Paul uses it can mean body, physical realities done apart from Christ but also a nature in us that twists our thoughts, intents and desires away from God

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

James describes it this way

James 4:1–4 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

B. The world

This is not the created world as such

This has caused some to believe that the only goal for a believer is to resist until heaven

I don’t think this is God’s idea - by the way God will one day restore this world and we will live here eternally so he’s not done with it.

John 17:14–16 ESV

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

the world then is the worldview, influenced and perpetuated by the devil, that permeates our world, rejecting Jesus and seeking to create life apart from him

We see this most clearly in Gen 11 with the tower of Babel but really it began when Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan instead of God and choose disobedience

C. The Devil -

And so we can’t say that the “devil made me do it” as with Adam and Eve we have a choice

And yet Paul here calls him the prince of the power of the air - as he continues to work to keep people blinded to the truth of God in Jesus and trapped in the subsequent worldview.

Now in Chapter 6 Paul seems to indicate the Devil as our primary or only enemy but the rest of Scripture does not

As Paul moves from the theological truths of our life in Christ in ch 1-3 and into the practical living out of it he calls us to put away our former life in the flesh.

John 15:19 ESV

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

And so our battle is waged against all these enemies in our hearts, minds and in our lives and can be overwhelming and cause great fear in us

And so:

II. Begins with Reliance

Be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might

Paul reminds these believers that the battle cannot be fought on our own

Abiding in Christ

As we see a bit later Paul calls them to prayer specifically

He says pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication

In other words walk with Christ in the Spirit continually through prayer

And here is the power to which we are called to find our strength

Ephesians 1:15–23 ESV

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Abiding in Christ is both part of the means through which we grow into Christ like character and through which we walk in the power and truth of Christ

We see this in armor Paul then prescribes for us as believers

III. God Given Armor

And so Paul reminds us of the armor we have in Christ

Truth

1:13 - Paul ties it to the truth of the gospel they believed

4:15 - he calls them to live truthfully with each other

falsehood should not happen within our lives or church

Righteousness

4:24 - put on the new self created in righteousness, holiness of truth

Understand Christ’s righteousness placed on you and live it out

Gospel of peace

2:14-17 - Christ is our peace - peace with God

faith

3:12 - bold and confident access to God through our faith

4:13 - Unity of faith

Salvation

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

sword of the Spirit

Ephesians 5:15–17 ESV

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

James in 4:7 says resist the devil and he will flee from you

Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to resist the devil and eventually he left

This is our only weapon

Do you know what the sword of the Spirit says, do you believe it and are you seeking to follow it.

This is your defense and your offense

This is the gospel and the living of it out.

Here’s how Paul describes it just earlier in his letter

4:17-32

If the opposite is true of our life we are losing the battle, not standing firm.

This is what our flesh, the world and the devil are against.

Or as Mark Sayers states, have we been lulled asleep by our comfort?

And so Paul calls us, if we want to be light, city on a hill, to wage this war.

Conclusion