Standing in the Armour of God Pt.3
Intro
A man walked out of his house and fell into a pit. Realizing that he couldn’t get out, he waited for someone to come and save him.
- An environmentalist came by and wanted to ban the pit
- A lawyer came by and wanted to sue him because of the pit
- A Real Estate agent came by and wanted to sell the pit
- An OH&S Officer came along and wanted to condemn the pit
- An atheist came by and said the pit didn’t exist
- A priest came by and wanted to sprinkle the pit
- A charismatic came by and wanted to heal the pit
- A feminist came by and said a woman never would have fallen into the pit
- A contractor came by and wanted to fill in the pit
- A pessimist came by and said, “You’ll never get out of that pit!”
- A Labour MP came by and wanted to tax the pit
- A Liberal MP came by and wanted the throw the Labour MP into the pit
- Everyone has there own pit. Q. What is the pit?
- It is the place of despair – it is the place where life's questions and it's meaning are not answered
- The pit is the hopelessness of life in the present – of life without a future – of life without God
William Provine, Professor of History and Biological Sciences at Cornell University (calls himself “a total atheist”)
“There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directing forces of any kind. There is no life after death...There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no meaning to life, and no free will for humans either”.
(cited in John Blanchard, Evolution, Fact or Fiction? (Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2002) 30)
- There is no shortage of people who think they have the answer to an escape from the pit
- But most of those answers try to convince a person that they are not in the pit when, if fact, the people know full well they are in it
- You've heard it haven't you – education is the answer
- When people make bad choices in life, it is not their fault, they are not educated enough
- Education is certainly helpful & I would be the first one to put my hand up for it, but it is not the solution to moral decadence
- Moral decadence comes from a separation from the Creator
- The big problem here is that our society won't admit they are in a pit
- They apply superficial solutions to a problem that cannot be fixed by human means
- All they can generate is a foot stool which comes way short of the mouth of the pit
- I have been going through this series on the Armour of God rather slowly, but I'm doing it slowly because these are vital points a Christian needs to understand
- If we are to stand firm in the armour that God provides, in order to resist the attacks of the spiritual forces of evil, then it is vital we understand what God has done for us
- Today, we need to understand that God has rescued us from the pit
- We need to understand the FACT that He has rescued, & we need to understand HOW He rescued, because both are vital
- Let's begin with the main point of today...
1. Stand in the Gospel
Eph 6:15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
- This relates, of course, to what has gone before in v.13 where Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to put on the full armour of God
- Footwear is still part of the Roman equipment
- It should make sense to us
- We, who are so fussy about the shoes we wear - Nike, Adidas etc..
- Not only are we fussy about the brand, but we are fussy about the performance of the shoe
- Touch footy shoes that I wear, have to have good grip on the grass – so they have studded soles – same for a golfer or any other sport, the shoe is build for a purpose
- If footwear is so critical to sportsmen & women, imagine how important it is to a soldier
- A sportsman might slip over, hurt his ankle or even cause his team to lose the game, but if a soldier slips over, he could lose his life
- The Roman soldier's shoe was made up of strips of leather to a min of 20 mms thick
- Hobnails, which are short nails with a large head were driven into the sole of the shoe so that the heads would be left showing on the bot. of the shoe & would then act like the modern stud found on soccer, touch, or golf shoe
- The idea is grip - the metal sole also made for longer wearing
- The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, recounts one great Roman Centurion in haste running across the Temple pavement pursuing the rebellious Jews
- While the heads of nails may grip on grass or dirt, they are like Ice Skating boots on ice, when on a hard surface
– Josephus says he slipped & went down flat on his back with a great noise from all his armour hitting the pavement
- With that, the Jews turned around, attacked & killed him while he lay there
- So there you are – the shoe was an important part in your armour – just don't fight on hard pavement
- However, what is important for us is not the Roman armour, but what it corresponds to
- It is difficult to know whether this verse talks about evangelising or holding fast to the Gospel message
2. To Proclaim or to Stand?
Q. Are we protected against Satan's schemes by proclaiming the Gospel or are we protected by keeping true to it?
- I think both are important for the Christian, but here I suggest it is talking about holding fast to the message of the Gospel as the all important foundation for the Church
- For a couple of reasons
1. The key command in all of this is back in v.11-13 which says to “Stand Firm”
- That means “stand your ground” rather than advance
2. All the weapons in the armour, except one, are for defence
- The sword is the only one for attacking
Q. Why is it so important to stand firm in the Gospel? Simple!
Ro 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
- If the foot slips by not holding to this true message, then the person will undoubtedly come unstuck
- A key concept here is that the Gospel is ...
1. Key Concept: A Gospel of Peace
- When we talk about peace, quite often we think of the absence of war
- However, HARMONY is also a concept which dovetails with peace, yet it is much richer than just the absence of strife
- When a person faces old age & the body is deteriorating, they are not really feeling harmony or wholeness, are they?
- In relationships, you may not be at full on war with one another, but you may not be experiencing harmony or wholeness either
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a good news of harmony (of wholeness) with God and all who belong to Christ
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ has effected this now, in part, but then, wholeness in full, when Jesus returns to destroy death
- At that time, there will be the resurrection of our deteriorating bodies & the restoration of all Creation
Q. What are we after? What is the deepest human need?
- Apart from knowing God, isn't it to live forever! To have life forever! - I don't want to die, at least, never to know life again
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ holds out to us the hope of everlasting life
- To let that slip out of our hands is to lose everything
3. How can the Gospel slip out of our Hands
Lk 22:31-34 .. 31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you [all] like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” 34 And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”
- Peter did fail the Lord by denying Him 3 times, however, Peter was at this point weak in his understanding of the Gospel
- When Jesus submitted to an arrest & then a trial, Peter, began to question whether Jesus was truly the Messiah (the coming King)
- His inadequate view of the Gospel caused Satan to undermine his confidence in Jesus
Q, How is your confidence in Jesus?
- The strength or weakness of our confidence in Jesus is shown by the choices we make in life – life decisions – think about it
Q. Why do we decide to do the things we do? It comes from our belief engine
- If our belief is not grounded well, then neither will be our decisions
- Choices in life are driven by beliefs – the Gospel ought to be the foundation of our belief system
- I wish to deal with 2 ways by which the Gospel can slip out of our hands
1. By Not Holding to the Historical
Q. Does history have anything to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
- Absolutely!
- I'm going to suggest to you that if you do not rely on the historical footing for the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ, then the Gospel has slipped our of your hand
- The Greeks believed in mythological gods
- There was Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, Morpheus, Nemesis
- The creatures in their mythology were Cyclopes, Gorgons, Pegasus, Centaurs
Q. How can anyone prove this stuff is true? - They can't
- Because there is no basis in history for those stories
Q. What is the single most crucial factor that we need, to prove to us that there is life beyond the grave? Who has the answers?
Q. Of all the world's religions & philosophies, who has the answers?
- You cannot rely on Buddha or Confucius or Abraham
- You cannot rely on Muhammad
- All these men who espoused either philosophies or religions are in the grave & still in the grave
- Muhammad's body is still viewed by thousands of dedicated Muslims each year in Medina
Q. How can anyone rely on these men to tell us about life after death when they never experienced it themselves?
Q. How can they give us any sort of guarantee of future life when they have been unable to conquer death themselves?
- Our faith is unique in this respect
- Because we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins & rose again triumphant over death
Jn 10:18 “No one has taken [My life] away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
- Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate but 3 days later rose again from the grave
- The historicity of this fact is absolutely essential
1 Jn 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ
1 Co 15:1-11 .. 1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, 2 by which you also are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, although some have died... 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
- Now some will say, “how do we know that He rose again”?
- Someone could have just made the story up
- In other words, I didn't see it for myself!
- That would mean, for you, that God would have to send His Son to earth to die a terrible death for every generation so they could see it
- But let us think about this for a moment
- We accept that TV & radio signals are real don't we?
- You don't watch a TV screen & think that you are looking through a window & the characters are actually in the room behind the set
- You cannot see, hear, taste, touch or smell TV or radio signals
- You accept the word of others that they exist
- You say, yes but I can see & hear it on the TV
- That is true, but you do not see the signals, only the result when they hit the TV or radio
- I could say the same about Jesus resurrection – you don't actually see the resurrection, but can see it's affect on those who believe in Him
- You may say – “Oh, but it happened so long ago”
Q. Well, do you believe that the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki n 1945?
Q. Do you believe that Hitler killed 6,000,000 Jews?
Q. Do you believe that Alexander the Great existed & conquered the known world in 300 BC?
Q. Do you believe that Julius Caesar existed & conquered?
- None of you have seen that personally
- Most people believe those things because it doesn't cost them anything to believe it & they happily believe it
- It is only when it comes to Jesus Christ do people start to question because they understand there is a cost to believing in Him
- The fact that Jesus existed is well-attested by both Jewish & pagan sources
- The NT is the best body of ancient manuscripts in the world
- Jesus' disciples, who recorded the resurrection, were repentant, God-fearing men who were looking for the coming of the Messiah & the Kingdom of God
- You need to realise that the disciples understood the Messiah to be an unbeatable, eternal king
- The notion that the Messiah could be arrested, tried & then crucified was totally inconsistent with their concept of a Messiah
- So when this happened to Jesus, they were crushed & naturally went into a shell in embarrassment believing they had followed a wrong, even false Messiah
Q. What explains the change in the disciple's life?
- A lie never changed them; only the resurrection of Jesus changed them into men ready to lay down their lives for Him
Q. Why did they accept persecution & not deny Jesus?
- Because of the hope they now had of their own resurrection from the dead
- Jesus had been crucified, but conquered death by rising from the dead
- I will listen to Jesus when it comes to knowing what happens beyond the grave, because I have a King who has been there & triumphed over it
- Muhammad can't help you, nor Buddha, nor Confucius, only One who lives eternally
- You know, to fabricate a story of Jesus rising from the dead would have meant that His disciples broke the 9th commandment which says that “you are not to bear false testimony against your neighbour”
1 Co 15:12-15 ..12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
- Then you have the Roman guards who stationed at the tomb & you have now an empty tomb
- I cannot say how important the historical aspect of Jesus' resurrection is
- Secondly, the Gospel can slip out of our hands...
2. By Shaping the Gospel to Fit our Culture
- We are not to conform the Gospel to our culture, but our culture to the Gospel
- For example, we are bombarded with religious pluralists who say that all religions lead to God
- Well for starters, that destroys the uniqueness of what Jesus did in history
- He died for our sins said Paul
Q. What is the point of Him dying for our sins if there other ways to God?
- We have a barrage of liberal “Christian” scholars who deny the resurrection, I dare say, because they are so caught up in rationalism which starts from the premise that miracles are impossible
- Therefore, the miracle of the resurrection is impossible according to them
- The retired Episcopal churchmen, Bishop Spong, is one such person who denies the literal resurrection of Christ
- Then you have the speculations of people wanting to make a buck by selling “sensationalism” – like the Da Vinci code
- You have the left wing media – the ABC & SBS willing to grab any documentary that cast doubts on the Christian faith
- And they love to do it especially during Easter or Christmas
- Don't worry about those speculative theories you get on those shows – in fact, I suggest you don't watch them because they do have a humanistic agenda behind them
- I'm not saying to bury your head in the sand, but I am saying that there is good, sound material around that you can read or watch
- Remember, the media has an agenda – they are not neutral in this
Conclusion
At the request of his father, Karl Marx was baptized at 6 years old into the Evangelical Established Church. Marx's adolescent writings exhibited a spirit of Christian devotion and longing for self-sacrifice on behalf of humanity. Later at the University of Berlin, he fell under the influence of a young lecturer in theology named Bruno Bauer who was developing the idea that the Christian gospels were a record not of history but of human fantasies arising from men's emotional needs and that Jesus had not been an historical person. Marx also enrolled in a course of lectures given by Bauer on the prophet Isaiah. Bauer taught that a new social catastrophe "more tremendous" than that of the advent of Christianity was in the making.
Marx would eventually call religion “the opiate of the masses”. When Marx wrote his book “Das Kapital”, he wanted to dedicate it to Charles Darwin. Darwin also was once a theology student and eventually repudiated the Bible and became an agnostic.
- I cannot stress enough the importance of the historical when it comes to the Gospel of Christ
- In the day of evil, Paul says, to make sure you have the footing of the Gospel
- It is the power of God – it is our only means of rightly relating to God
- We stand steadfast & immovable in the Gospel
- Let that slip out of your hands & you have opened the door to Satan
- Don't buy into all the lies that are about
- The historic nature of Jesus' resurrection stands firm & it has survived all the half-baked attempts at trying to dismiss it
1 Ti 3:16 .. 16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory