PF - Ephesians 6:10-20

INTRO

If someone were to tell you that those who follow Jesus are fighting in a war, what would you say? Chat to your neighbour for a bit about it.

FEEDBACK

Well, look at verse 12. Paul says those who follow Jesus are part of a war, a struggle! But grab your pencils and here’s what I want you to do.

Underline what we’re not fighting against - maybe put an X next to it. And circle what we’re fighting against. Go!

So, what are we fighting against?

That’s right. We’re not fighting a physical war that can be seen with our eyes. We’re fighting a spiritual war. And the final boss - the big baddy - is not Putin or whatever. It’s Satan.

And if that’s the case, then we need to be ready. And for Paul, that means, verse 13… Putting on God’s armour.

Doing this is what - verse 13 again - will help us to stand our ground and resist!

But here’s where this gets really cool.

As you know, Paul knows the OT very well! And he’s getting this armour of God stuff from the OT, particularly from the book of Isaiah.

Now, if you read the book of Isaiah, guess who the armour belongs to.

It belongs to God’s Promised Servant. Which means, it belongs to Jesus!

Guys, what Paul is telling us to do is to put on Jesus’ own armour! Do you understand the privilege that is?

Imagine the UK gets into a war. And someone makes the best protection for King Charles. A nanosuit that stops every bullet and heals every wound.

But then King Charles says “No, I want YOU to use it. It’s mine but I want you to have it.

What a privilege right?! We would all love King Charles if he did that!

Well, this is what Jesus is doing to us. He is giving us His armour, His protection! We should be really thankful!

So, let’s look at the armour and see what it’s made of.

READ 14-17

Ephesians 6:14–17 NIV

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Maybe circle these as we look at them.

We start with the belt of truth in verse 14. And Jesus makes it clear that God’s Word is the truth.

So, the belt of truth is this: the Bible! But what is a belt supposed to do? What is a belt for?

Exactly, it holds everything together! So, Paul is saying that the Bible should hold everything together. Meaning that the Bible should guide everything we do in our lives!

Because the more we know God’s truth, the more we’ll know what to do and how to live!

Next - verse 14: the breastplate of righteousness. When we did Romans, do you remember what we said about righteousness? Where does our righteousness - our thumbs-up from God - come from?

Exactly! From Jesus! Remember - He lived a perfect life and, when we put our trust in Him, we receive that perfect record!

So, when Satan says “You’re not good enough. God won’t save you!”, we can always remember that’s a lie! We know Jesus died to give us His righteousness so we would be saved!

For our shoes - verse 15 - we have the shoes of readiness which comes from the gospel.

This can be a bit tricky to understand but Paul is basically saying that the gospel - the message about Jesus - makes us ready. Because it reminds us that we have peace with God.

Satan wants us to believe God is mad at us. But if we trust in Jesus, that’s a lie. God loves us and we have peace with Him!

3 more pieces to go.

Verse 16. Shield of faith. What do you think this means?

Faith - trusting in God and His promises - will help us to deflect and stop the lies and attacks of Satan!

Helmet of salvation - verse 17. Let me ask you this: can you be sure that God will save you? How?

That’s right. And if we can be sure that God will save us, then Satan has got nothing against us! We can really resist when he tries to tell us and make us doubt if God will save us!

Finally, verse 17 again - the sword of the Bible. Which Paul says - it’s the “word of God”.

Guys, the thing that will enable you and me to fight and beat Satan is not how clever we are. It’s not how educated we are.

When Satan was tempting Jesus in the desert, how did Jesus respond?

He quoted the Bible, specifically the OT. And Satan eventually went away, defeated.

If you want to be able to resist the devil and fight in this battle, you need the Bible. Which means, you need to read it. And maybe even memorise certain parts of it!

Not because it works like a magic spell. But because you will know what God says, which will allow you to see through the devil’s lies.

But all of this - all that we just said - is useless without something that’s in verse 18. Can you spot what it is?

Why is this all useless without prayer?

Praying is how we show God we depend on Him. It’s how we radio the commanding officer to send help to us. If we don’t pray, then we’re toast.

So, let me encourage you to fight in the battle. To stay strong and stick with Jesus!

But let me encourage you to pray because, without that, you will fail.

You don’t have to pray long, complicated prayers. It can be as simple as “God, please help me.”

Praying is like speaking to God. We would never stop speaking to our parents, right? So, why don’t we speak to our heavenly Father more?

So, this is it. We’re in a fight! Put on Jesus’ armour - all these things we talked about. And stay strong!

And remember - you’re not alone. You’ve got each other. And, more importantly, you have God.

Let’s pray.