Christian Armor

Introduction

How foolish would it be for a solider in the Middle East to go to battle without his gun or radio? It would be crazy! How weird would it be for a couple to go hiking without the proper clothing and shoes? How would you feel if you had to take the ACT test and completely forgot to bring your calculator? In all of these examples, something very important was forgotten for the task at hand. Just as a soldier needs to have his gun and radio handy, a Christian must be prepared to stand firm against the devil’s schemes! As we will be looking at this evening in the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul shows how believers are to put on the “Armor of God” as they participate in spiritual warfare. This action and these specific pieces of armor are largely foreign to us today as technology has changed drastically over the last 2000 years, because of this we need to try and put ourselves back in the 1st century city of Ephesus.

Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire (rivaled only by Rome and Alexandria) and had a population of nearly 250,000 (for context, Springfield has about 175,000 citizens). Ephesus was a very wealthy city and a place where various religions and ethnicities were present, however the largest religious following in Ephesus was the cult of the ancient Greek god, Artemis. In Ephesus lied the “Temple of Artemis”, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, and this magnificent temple was 425 feet long and 225 feet wide and was supported by 127 columns that were 60 feet high! This was a huge temple that the citizens of Ephesus were very proud of. During this timeframe, people did not have a separation of natural and divine like we do today, they believed that everything was supernatural. Because of this distinction, the people in Ephesus were convinced that buying charms from Artemis would protect them from evil powers.

Paul, throughout this letter, shows how powerless these charms and incantations are and how powerful Jesus Christ is. Paul does this because the Christians in Ephesus are having to go about their lives without the “help” of magic and he encourages them that they do not need the help of magic because Christ is infinitely more powerful than Artemis or any other god. This is true because He chose us and He fights for us! Paul’s letter of encouragement comes to a conclusion in chapter 6 as he shows how the Ephesian Church is supposed to “put on the Armor of God”. So if you have not already, please turn in your copy of God’s word to , starting in verse 10.

Ephesians 6:10–20 ESV

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:10-20

Let’s pray!

1. Pray that we put on the whole armor of God and are able to stand firm against the devil’s schemes

2. Pray that God is glorified and that we draw near to His Word and point people to Him

The Believer’s Power (10)

Just as Isaiah shows in Isaiah 59

Isaiah 59:17–20 NASB95

17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. 18 According to their deeds, so He will repay, Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; To the coastlands He will make recompense. 19 So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west And His glory from the rising of the sun, For He will come like a rushing stream Which the wind of the Lord drives. 20 “A Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the Lord.

We have seen time after time that Christ is more powerful than the things of this world. We focused on that this morning as we saw that we are to “Come, behold the mighty works of the Lord” and we saw how the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of mankind or of nature or any other power.

Paul calls the believers to “Be strong” in the Lord. This phrase represents a growing strength (similar to what we see Paul say about Abraham in as Abraham did not waver but he grew in his faith and gave glory to God). Paul is calling his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to do the exact same thing here! Grow in your faith, hold strong to the teachings that I have taught you about Jesus Christ and glorify God in all things.

Are these believers called to stand in their own might? NO! They are called to stand in the strength of His (Christ’s) might as they see that Christ has defeated sin and death. Just as Christ defeated sin and death, believers too are “victors” because we share in Christ’s victory. With that said, though, there is a threat and an enemy. He is not superior to Christ but he uses deceit to confuse us and cause us to stumble. Because of his attacks, we are to stand firm in Christ because Christ has overcome and defeated him once and for all!

The Believer’s Foe (11-12)

The enemy is powerful, wicked and cunning

The Message of Ephesians 1. The Enemy We Face (Verses 10–12)

In Paul’s characterization of them, then, the powers of darkness are powerful, wicked and cunning. How can we expect to stand against the assaults of such enemies? It is impossible. We are far too weak and too ingenuous. Yet many—if not most—of our failures and defeats are due to our foolish self-confidence when we either disbelieve or forget how formidable our spiritual enemies are.

The Message of Ephesians 1. The Enemy We Face (Verses 10–12)

Only the power of God can defend and deliver us from the might, the evil and the craft of the devil. True, the principalities and powers are strong, but the power of God is stronger. It is his power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead and enthroned him in the heavenly places, and which has raised us from the death of sin and enthroned us with Christ. True, it is in those same heavenly places, in that same unseen world, that the principalities and powers are working (verse 12). But they were defeated at the cross and are now under Christ’s feet and ours

Our enemy is not physical - “Not against flesh and blood”

Our enemy is spiritual as we are against

The Message of Ephesians 1. The Enemy We Face (Verses 10–12)

Some Christians are so self-confident that they think they can manage by themselves without the Lord’s strength and armour. Others are so self-distrustful that they imagine they have nothing to contribute to their victory in spiritual warfare. Both are mistaken. Paul expresses the proper combination of divine ennabling and human co-operation. The power is indeed the Lord’s, and without the strength of his might we shall falter and fall, but still we need to be strong in him and in it, or more accurately to ‘be strengthened’.

Principalities

Powers

Rulers of darkness

Spiritual wickedness

Think about the life of Paul in context of this statement. Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned multiple times. People have held you and stopped you from proclaiming the gospel as you had intended to do. You have bled and had your flesh torn in the name of Jesus and yet you say that our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood?!

Whenever people think of Christianity they often think of living with God and having peace of mind, and those things are true, but think of Paul. We rarely associate hardships with Christianity. Yet, Paul is saying that our struggle is not with flesh and blood but it is deeper than that.

Yes, people did these things to Paul, however he is saying that the heart of the matter is deeper than flesh and blood. We often think of persecution as the worst form of punishment that we can experience, however Paul is saying that the prince of darkness is the true enemy and he is more powerful than the forces who bring about earthly persecution. That isn’t an inspiring or encouraging message for us to hear, however as the great Sun Tzu mentioned in his famous Art of War, ““If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” As the brilliant military leader Sun Tzu states, you must know your enemy and yourself in order to have victory. For Christians, we must know our enemy! He is crafty, he caused Adam and Eve to stumble in the garden and he has been deceiving humanity ever since! It is not enough to know how great our Christ is, we must prepare and have a battle plan in order to overcome his schemes.

We are not to fight this battle strictly naturally but rather we fight this battle in the supernatural realm as well! We participate in this battle in a variety of ways. We fight through prayer, reading God’s word and hiding it in our heart, opposing evil and through worshipping as John shows us in the Revelation that worship is how we encourage one another to continue fighting in this spiritual warfare.

We must know our enemy in order to defeat him and we must see that there is a consequence if we do not fight (we will not be able to resist the devil). We must participate in this cosmic battle and we do so by putting on the armor of God which brings us to our 3rd point today.

“Full armor” in the Greek means “all tools”. We see that the source of this armor is our Lord Himself and we are to put

The Believer’s Armor (13-17)

We must keep in mind where the apostle Paul is whenever he is writing this letter. He is in prison, chained to a Roman guard 24/7. He see’s the magnificent Roman armor constantly and must’ve thought, “Just as this armor protects this soldier, Jesus Christ is my armor and the armor of all who are in Christ.” What a powerful illustration that Paul uses in these verses! Notice how Paul says to take up the “whole armor of God”. Often times we will pray for discernment or for a peaceful day at work, however when was the last time that we truly prayed on the entire armor of God?

As a youth growing up at First Baptist Ozark, we had a program called Leaders In Training that 5th and 6th graders would go through on Wednesday afternoons. The person who came up with Leaders in Training (Clint May) and wrote all the material was very passionate about the Armor of God. We would do a daily Bible study as a part of LIT and in these studies (you can ask my wife as well), I grew so much in my understanding of this armor as we were called to pray it on as we would go to school or go to church. The most memorable experience I have had with the armor of God goes back to when I was a freshman in high school and was helping out on a LIT mission trip in Dallas, Texas. During this mission trip, there were hundreds pf 5th and 6th graders who were going to lead VBS camps throughout the entire Dallas/Ft. Worth area! Before we left on Monday morning to go out to our mission site, Clint opened us up in a word of prayer and as an entire body of believers, we put on the armor of God. Was this a little strange? You bet it was! Was it useful? You bet it was. At our site that day both the leaders and students were focused on the task at hand thanks in part to putting on the helmet of salvation and realizing that our strength came from God, not from ourselves. See, we were doing something that was beyond our strength and satan couldn’t stand it! He was trying to cause disunity and lessen our impact by causing distractions, however we were able to present the gospel over the course of 2 hours with a group of a dozen youth and by the grace of God, two of them prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.

“Full armor” in the Greek means “all tools”. We see that the source of this armor is our Lord Himself and we are to put Him on as our armor because He overcomes the evil powers that oppose us.

Whenever we examine this armor, we see that it is largely a defensive armor. As the saying goes, the best offense is a great defense. The armor shown in is a defensive heavy armor (as was the case for the Roman army during this time). The Roman Empire had roughly 1/4, or 25%, of the entire world population at the height of its power (something crazy to think about seeing as the United States is the most powerful nation on the planet today but we have roughly 4% of the earth’s population). The Roman Empire was massive thanks to its infrastructure (highway system, sanitation system, aqueducts to bring fresh water into large cities) but primarily due to its large and powerful military. The Roman legion was nearly unmatched on the battlefield due to technology, mobility and communication. Their equipment was unparalleled, their weapons were made from the finest metal in Europe and their commanders were the brightest in the world. When looking at the Roman army, they were composed of a large number of soldiers in a unit called a legion. These legions would split up and surround the enemy with the help of their large shields and powerful armor. Eventually, the enemy would be trapped by thousands of shields and be left to face an imminent death more times than not.

Paul uses this powerful imagery when he describes the armor and he only brings up one offensive weapon (the sword). An interesting thing about the sword, though, is that it too could act as a defensive weapon. The Spirit of God acts in a similar fashion in our lives. Whenever we walk in the Spirit, we see things differently and we act differently as a result. We confront sin and evil but we also fight against the attacks of the evil one.

One piece of the armor that I want to spend some time specifically talking about is the sandals of peace. In the Roman Army, you often traveled on their highway system (extensive series of roads that connected the entire empire from Spain to Israel). Seeing as the Roman Military was comprised of millions of soldiers, there were not enough horses to go around meaning that the vast majority of soldiers were forced to walk. Even though these men were forced to walk, the vast highway system of the empire allowed them to move quickly from one section to another. Sandals were the shoe of the day and we see that in Paul’s illustration that we are to put on the Sandals of Peace. Paul, being chained next to a Roman solider day in and day out, was surrounded by “Sandals of war” yet he calls Christians to put on the “Sandals of Peace” and be ready to share the gospel readily along the way.

This is a counter cultural idea by Paul as war was often associated (in the Roman world) with dominance and peace with being a subject or losing. Paul states that the believer is to put on the Sandals of Peace. We are to be ready to share the gospel and we should be willing to share that message with the entire world at a moments notice just as the Roman solider was ready to walk with his Sandals of War to fight an enemy thousands of miles away.

The Believer’s Resource (18-20)

If this were ultimately up to ourselves, we would undoubtedly fail. However, as Paul states in verses 18-20, we have the hope of the Spirit. We are to pray for one another and for ourselves to put on this armor and to stand firm against the devil’s schemes. We are to pray for one another and to be alert. This is the duty of the church! We should be a loving family that is sensitive to the needs of other congregation members and to ask God’s hand on their lives. We are to pray for boldness. We pray for boldness to preach and make known the “Mystery of the gospel”. What is this mystery, you might ask? It is that the Creator of the Universe would send His Son to die on a cross even though He did nothing wrong. That this death would provide a way for a sinner like myself to inherit eternal life and to overcome sin and death not by anything that I have done but because of what has been done for me on Calvary! There is no logical explanation for why God would do this, it is the Mystery of the Gospel. Paul calls for the Christians in Ephesus to pray for him to have boldness to preach the gospel. If the apostle Paul, arguably the greatest evangelist ever, requested people to pray that he would have the boldness to preach the gospel, I think it’s safe to say that each and everyone of us could use that as well. The great news is that we have the power to do this through the Spirit!

We are tasked with encouraging one another both in person and in prayer. We see that Paul is in chains and asks for boldness to preach the gospel. What is our excuse today? Many Christians believe that they are inadequate when it comes to evangelism. The great news for us as we wrap up is that with the Armor of God, we are able to stand firm against the devil’s schemes and be bold in our declaration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to lift one another up to this call as well!

Conclusion

Evangelism can be difficult, especially whenever we do not know our enemy. Our call from the apostle Paul this evening is to know our enemy, yes, but to also know our God! Whenever we put Christ on as our armor, we are able to stand firm and overcome the evil power just as He overcame sin and death. This is a difficult task, however we are to life one another up in prayer and to come alongside one another so that we have the boldness to carry out this great call. Our points of application are to:

Put on the armor of God daily - so that we can participate in this cosmic battle

Pray for one another - that they might be bold in proclaiming the Gospel

Not in a negative way! We pray that the Spirit fills them and that God uses them to advance the Kingdom!

Pray for ourselves - that we would be alert of the enemies schemes and that we ourselves would be bold in proclaiming the Gospel regardless of the cost because we see that we have the power to do so whenever we put on the Armor.

Let’s Pray