Proper 19 (September 15, 2024)

Followers of Christ are Armed for Battle

Goal of the Message: To impress on believers the need to take up the full armor of God in order to withstand the attacks of the evil one.

Introduction: “The devil made me do it!” That was a frequent line on a well-known TV program several years ago. It was supposed to be funny, spoken to make the audience laugh—and they did laugh, because many people today consider the idea of a real devil tempting humans to say or do bad things to be an old religious superstition. It’s naive to take the devil seriously.

But Bible-believing people do not find the devil at all funny. We know that the devil is real, and very dangerous. God warns us to be alert: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Pet 5:8–9). Today’s text also speaks of the devil. May the Holy Spirit guide and bless us as we consider how God provides heavenly armor for our battle with the devil.

We are in the midst of a real spiritual battle.

The battle is for our souls. It is a matter of eternal life or death. Satan is terribly potent (v 12). People who do not believe that Satan is real lay themselves wide open to attack.

We can withstand the devil’s attacks only with the full armor of God.

Beware of trying to solo it. “With might of ours can naught be done.”

God says to be strong in him and his might. Note the familiar prayer, “You and I together can handle anything and everything.”

Illustration: Recall the terror of Elisha’s servant when he saw the Aramean army surrounding them, and how God opened his eyes to see the angelic army he had sent to protect his servants (2 Kings 6:14–17). This is a wonderful illustration of the invisible but very real spiritual battle that is being waged around us, and how “those who are with us are more [or greater] than those who are with them.”

We cannot protect ourselves piecemeal. Our text tells us to “put on the whole armor of God.”

God says we are to put it on. Action on our part is necessary if we are to fight the forces of evil successfully.

Illustration: Is it possible to have the armor lying around the house without putting it on? Here is a rhyme about a child who found a dusty Bible (author unknown):

Mother, I’ve found a dusty old thing

High on the shelf. Just look.

Why, that’s God’s Bible, Tommy dear.

Be careful, that’s God’s book.

God’s book? Then, Mother, before we lose it

We’d better send it back to God,

for you know we never use it!

Application: It is not merely crafty humans with whom we contend. We’re confronted by spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That’s why we need to be alert to what this text teaches, aware of our need for the whole armor, and appreciative that God offers it to us. This war cost the life of God’s own Son. Jesus Christ died on the cross to defeat the devil and to be able to clothe us with the armor of his own righteousness. While Jesus has already won the war for us, battles will still rage until he returns again. In gratitude for his supreme sacrifice, we gladly fight on his side.

God tells us to stand firm, protected by the spiritual equipment he provides.

He describes the equipment as a soldier’s armor. (Briefly describe the various pieces).

Vv 14–17: This fascinating section describes the pieces of armor. To do justice to the whole text, however, the preacher should limit his discussion of the various pieces and what they symbolize. The girdle was a belt wrapped snugly around the loose flowing robes so they would not impede during battle. —Shield “refers to the large door-shaped shield . . . the Roman scutum which had an iron frame and sometimes a metal boss in the center of the front. Often the several layers of leather were soaked in water before the battle in order to put out the incendiary missiles of the enemy.”

—Barnes (p. 130) says “faith here is made to occupy a more important place than either of the other Christian graces. It protects all, and is indispensable to the security of all, as is the case with the shield. The shield . . . could be made to protect the head, or the heart, or thrown behind to meet an attack there. As long as the soldier had his shield, he felt secure; and as long as a Christian has faith, he is safe.” Luther comments, “Do not think that the devil is in hell, or beyond Babylon, or only in Turkey, or at Rome . . . here among us he is struggling and striving to turn us out of the heaven in which we are through Christ” (Plass, p. 399).

—Kretzmann (Popular Commentary of the Bible [St. Louis: Concordia, 1922] NT vol. 2, p. 292) quotes Luther “Here it is not enough that we defend ourselves against the devil with faith and hope as our shield and helmet, but we must also draw the sword and go for him with such insistence that he must fall back and flee, and we thus obtain the victory over him . . . the Word of God is this weapon.”

Illustration: The armor which God provides is best. Saul meant well in offering David the king’s ill-fitting armor, but that wasn’t what David needed. He was victorious as he trusted only in God’s protection (1 Sam 17:38–50). God’s armor is tailor-made and all-sufficient for every individual believer.

God tells us to pray constantly in all circumstances.

Soldiers need to keep in touch with their commanding officer lest they fall prey to a sudden attack by the enemy.

We are to pray alertly (v 19), not merely repeating prayers without thinking.

We pray by the power of the Spirit, according to the will of God, with a believing heart (v 19).

We pray on all occasions for all kinds of needs, “without ceasing.”

In particular, we pray for “all the saints.”

Application: Stress the blessed service believers can render one another by faithful, frequent prayer. Are we helping each other to wear God’s protective armor by our prayer support of each other? In an army, the individual soldiers depend heavily on each other and on the unit as a whole.

Conclusion: May we go forward together as God’s soldiers, in his mighty power, taking full advantage of his armor, and prayerfully supporting each other. Grateful to Jesus Christ, who promises that we will share in his victory, we daily fight on his side. By his grace we will stand firm until God takes us out of this world, out of Satan’s reach, to be with him in glory forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.