Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture:

Prayer:

FALLEN CONDITION FOCUS:

Very few of us will ever engage in military combat, but I think that every person carries around a certain awareness that life itself is somewhat of a battle.

Think of the way people talk about sports: The metaphors are too many to count, but even the built in vocabulary comes from wartime speak: “Throw a bomb”, “The defense is going to Blitz”, “The offense is lined up in an “I” Formation.”

In the medical world we speak about “battling cancer” and “they’re fighting for their life.”

The business and finance world shares in the use of military metaphor as well.

The business and finance world shares in the use of military metaphor as well.

Because we’re not super-humans, we’re prone to weakness and fatigue.

We all feel like quitting at times, life is hard.

Because we’re not super-humans, we’re prone to weakness and fatigue.

We all feel like quitting at times, life is hard.

Using Wartime language is not new, it’s been used for literally centuries.

But even though our writer, the Apostle Paul is the king of metaphors, he’s not using a metaphor when he says that

“we wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”

That’s not metaphorically speaking, that’s literal.

We fight an unseen battle.

INTRODUCTION:

We’re going to spend two weeks on the subject of Spiritual Warfare for two reasons:

I think that in our disenchanted, intellectually drunk society, we have all but ignored the spiritual battle that we’re all engaged in:

In the preface of “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis he wrote that “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve in their existence.

The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

Because we’re about to get uncomfortably serious about disciple-making and we need to be prepared.

The enemy is perfectly content in a congregation that is so busy with their “life” that they literally have no time to invest in the ministry of the Kingdom.

The first week, I am going to walk us through several key passages in Ephesians to help us to see why spiritual warfare is heightened for the Christian and in week two, we’ll look more closely at the verses we just read in order to see how we engage in spiritual warfare.

Why is Spiritual Warfare heightened for the Christian?

Before there was “us” there was “God”

Eph 1:

This is going to come as a shock to some, but God is unashamedly and completely God-Centered.

This doesn’t mean you’re not unique or loved, but it does mean this whole thing is not about you.

The world does not revolve around you or even “us.”

And before the earth was ever in existence, God had a plan and within that plan God chose a people who would be set apart and without any blame before him.

This is a key starting place because if you (as a Christian) buy in to the worldview that “You determine your own destiny” and “You chart your own course” and “You’re the captain of your own ship” you will be sorely misled.

In fact, the whole idea that “God has a plan for my life” is a misunderstanding of the meaning of “God’s plan.”

If our definition of “God’s plan” is outside of his actual plan, we’re really just trying to spiritualize our own plan.

God has one plan and He chose a people, redeemed those people, and uniquely gifted each person to play a role in His plan.

So then, what is God’s plan?

Eph 1:

God’s Plan is to Unite All Things in Christ

Other translations say “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head” or “he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ.”

This reveals to us in the most basic form that God’s plan is to restore all things and all people.

This implies that we all and all things needs to be restored.

We’re hurting and broken, but the earth is also in disrepair as Paul tells the church in Rome that the earth itself is groaning as it waits to be restored.

This also reveals that in Christ heaven and earth will be restored to the way it was from the very beginning.

This is God’s plan, a full restoration of all things and all people.

If God’s plan is to restore mankind, What is the current state of mankind?

Eph

This is a bleak picture, but accurate.

And as Christians we’re prone to forget just where God has brought us from.

We’re only where we are because of Christ.

This should inform our understanding of where people who do not believe in Jesus are content to be: “living in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind...”

Those who do not follow Christ are “following the prince of the power of the air” and to them all that they do makes perfect and logical sense.

And if it were not for God’s grace, we would all still be the walking dead

God’s plan is already at work and it has been for a long time.

But His plan was at work to regenerate you to see his grace, and to answer to his voice, so when all things have been restored (in the new heavens and the new earth) he could

And He did it of his own free will and his own work so that none of us could say that we made ourselves so holy or so good so obviously God saved us.

God does have a purpose for US within His plan:

Before Paul goes much further to explain what those good works are, he stops to remind his readers who the “WE” are that are God’s workmanship

Eph 2:13-

God’s Plan is to Unite All Things in Christ through His Church

His death on the cross and his resurrection was the dawn of not just a new era, but a new race, the race where Jew and Gentile purchased with the blood of Christ become one family, one community, one race.

Now we’re:

Eph 2:

This new race called the Church (the body of Christ) now plays a key role in God’s plan to unite all things together in Christ:

God assembled the Church to reveal the multifaceted and immeasurable wisdom of God to those who oppose Him.

When we understand this, we begin to see why

unity amongst all Christians

humility towards each other

love towards each other and even our enemies

takes up a good chunk of real estate in the Scriptures

takes up a good chunk of real estate in Paul’s letters

When we understand this, we begin to see why

All forms of racism

All forms of elitism

All forms of sexism

are dealt with harshly in Scripture.

When we elevate a race, a class, or a gender above the other we disregard the imago dei; that is, we show no true understanding of God’s creation - all people are created in the image of God regardless of race, class, or gender.

The role the Church plays has cosmic effects; we are to be reflectors of God’s nature and character.

But in order for the Church to function the way God planned us to, Paul prayed that we would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to comprehend God’s love for us.

Because only when we comprehend the love the Triune God has for us can we begin to fulfill our role in God’s plan.

The practical outworking of his plan begins in:

The way we interact with everyone inside of the body of Christ and outside of the body of Christ is entirely different.

We are given the charge to be imitators of God, to walk in love as Christ loved us.

Love (agape) and not (eros) is our chief ethic in friendship, business, marriage, and raising children.

The way we interact with everyone inside of the body of Christ and outside of the body of Christ is entirely different.

We are given the charge to be imitators of God, to walk in love as Christ loved us.

Love (agape) and not (eros) is our chief ethic in marriage, raising children.

So, why is spiritual warfare heightened for the Christian?

Because everything we do is reflecting what God is like to the rest of the world, so that in their knowing of God through the drawing of the Holy Spirit, and the hearing and seeing of the Gospel through the Church, they may worship and follow Jesus.

And when we’re actively pursuing God’s plan, and God’s purpose for God’s people, we will run up against the flaming darts of the evil one.

Will we be prepared?

In the next couple of months the elders will be seeking to lead the church in a direction that

Sometimes we think of spiritual warfare as a personal struggle.

But the church is actually one unit.

And we are to live within our community as if we were the entire unit.

We’re not a bunch of individuals trying to put on the whole armor of God, we’re one unit