091706 Pentecost 15
Pentecost 15, September 17, 2006
We’re at War!
Text: Ephesians 6:10–20
Other Lessons: Psalm 119:129–136; Deuteronomy 4:1–2, 6–8; Mark 7:1–8, 14–15, 21–23
Sermon Theme: In this war, we need the full armor of God!
Goal: That hearers would realize the cosmic seriousness of our struggle against Satan, yet be confident that in Christ we are safe and victorious.
Introduction: Most people probably don’t realize this war ever happened: the Spanish-American War. Ever even heard of it? For a brief time, from April to August 1898, we were at war with Spain.
This is the war that began with Americans shouting, “Remember the Maine!” I bet we don’t remember the Maine, do we? This was the war with Admiral Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay. This was the war with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders and their charge up San Juan Hill.
Almost as if it had never happened, in four months, Spain had surrendered. Fact is, they weren’t much of an opponent. By the late 1800s, Spain was several centuries past its prime.
There’s another war not many people realize is going on, because the enemy is largely unseen. This war is more critical than any our nation has ever fought, and the casualties are much heavier. This time the enemy is no pushover. Every ounce of our energy, every weapon we can bring to bear, every defense we can raise will not be enough.
In This War, We Need the Full Armor of God!
I’m not talking about the war against terrorism that began five years ago this past Monday, September 11, 2001. That war is against a nearly invisible enemy who nevertheless seems to be operating in the shadows everywhere.
I. I am talking about the war with Satan.
In our text, Paul writes to the Ephesians:
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (vv 10–12 NKJV).
A. If any of you have seen any of the Star Wars movies, you have a good visual of our war with the greatest evil empire and the ruler of darkness himself, Satan. He likes the way a lot of this war is going, because his trickery and deceit are working. Amongst humanity, he’s got enemies, allies, and plenty of neutrals. But nearly all of them have been tricked into forgetting that this war exists and what this war is really all about.
B. Satan’s enemies are people, Christians, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality of this warfare with Satan is confusing to Christians.
Television evangelists and fundamentalist preachers often talk about the great war to be fought between God’s forces and the forces of Satan. They call it Armageddon—the great war at the end of world. You may have heard people talking about whether the wars in Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq might be the beginnings of Armageddon. Many fundamentalist Christians believe this will be the final war to end all wars, actually fought on earth, physically, in the Middle East. That is a terrifying thought for some Christians.
My point is this: When people make some end-of-the-world battle so important to their theology, or when Christians become frightened about it, Satan is winning. He’s diverting attention from the fact that the Great War is being fought right now—and we’re winning!
C. Satan’s got other poor souls even more confused. Imagine, the devil has human allies.
Satan worship is a real religion in America. One satanic priest claims that as many as fifty thousand human sacrifices are performed every year in the United States. That number may be hugely inflated, but time and again police do attribute violent crimes to satanic cults.
The entertainment world sometimes exerts a satanic influence. One very hot musician was asked why his group devoted so much of its material to deviltry. “Because,” he answered, “the devil sells.”
So often satanic involvement begins with things that seem like fun: drawing pentagrams, playing with Ouija boards, conducting séances just as a gag. But thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, do consciously relinquish their souls to the devil’s leading and control. They can’t possibly grasp how terrible hell will be. Even those who’ve consciously allied themselves with Satan have forgotten that he’s fighting a very deadly war with and against their own souls.
D. Satan hopes to inflict exactly the same fate on those who try to remain neutral in this war.
So many people, even professing Christians, don’t really believe we’re at war at all. They don’t really believe there’s a devil. This may be the devil’s wiliest scheme. When someone doesn’t believe in Satan, or when we forget, we forget we’re at war.
When we do that, we become even more vulnerable to sin than we were already. We can begin to rationalize our favorite sins, whatever they may be—loving our cars a little too much; showing love for our kids a little too little; failing to show love to God at all, except the occasional Sunday morning; maybe even pretending sex outside of marriage is love. Whatever. When we forget our war against Satan, we can rationalize almost anything, because we think we’re hearing words of wisdom rather than whispers of the enemy.
3. St. Paul won’t let us forget: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (v 12 NKJV). Satan is real, he’s at war with us right now, and he’s powerful!
Transition: Yet when the last drop of blood has been shed, we’ll be able to stand against him, because
II. God provides us with all the armor we need.
“Therefore,” Paul says, “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (v 13 NKJV).
A. Believe it or not, the Spanish-American War was a war that America wanted.
1. No less than Theodore Roosevelt, then serving as assistant secretary of the navy, wrote in 1897, “I should welcome any war. This country needs one.”
2. And the whole country got behind it. For that brief period, the energy of the whole nation was devoted to war.
3. We need the whole armor of God for our war against Satan. To Paul’s way of thinking, there’s no such thing as putting on half the armor of God. We need all the protection God gives!
B. Picture the armor in your minds.
1. A Roman soldier preparing for battle first puts the belt over his short tunic. “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth” (v 14a NKJV). Every soldier in every age and in every kind of war needs to feel convinced that the cause for which he’s fighting is true. Our cause is true. We stand against Satan and against the world because God has opened our eyes to see him as he truly is. Because Satan has blinded the world, it may ridicule us, abuse us, and call our cause foolish. But someday our cause will be vindicated.
2. “Having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (v 14b NKJV). We know our righteousness will never stand against Satan, because our righteousness, our works, the best we can do, is as filthy rags. But God has firmly fastened onto us the righteousness of Christ. Jesus did that on the cross, laying down his armor to die and rising from the grave to give us absolute protection against all Satan’s accusations—the assurance that we are forgiven, that we wear Christ’s own holiness.
3. As a result, we stand, “having shod [our] feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (v 15 NKJV). In the midst of war comes that beautiful word, peace. Now that our sins are forgiven by Jesus’ death, we are at peace with God. We are in holy alliance with God.
4. That means we need never fear. “Above all, [take] the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation” (vv 16–17a NKJV).
a. Satan will do everything he can to frighten us. He’ll tempt us, threaten us, and someday even bring physical death. At every turn, he’ll ask us, “Can God really get you out of this one?” In faith, we say, “Yes! He always has and always will.” “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).
b. We have the helmet of salvation! Salvation has been won for us! In the ultimate battle of the cross and grave, Jesus defeated the devil and broke Satan’s power. Satan fired all his arrows and spent all his weapons; he has nothing left. Christ has given us the victory by his death and resurrection. And that means someday he will certainly give us the crown to replace the helmet.
5. So there we are, outfitted for war—except that all our armor is worthless without a sword, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v 17b NKJV). How often do we go into battle with everything but our weapon? When fighting at close quarters, God’s holy Word is the best piece of all for warding off Satan’s thrusts. And it’s the only weapon we can use to attack, change things, even win for our Savior many of those neutrals—and some of Satan’s own allies.
6. Magnificent armor! Every piece of it!
C. But you know what makes it so powerful, truly invincible? All this is the very armor of Christ.
1. See, Paul’s illustration of armor isn’t original to him. Way back in Isaiah 59, God looked down and saw that man didn’t have a chance. So, in Isaiah 59, God himself put on the same armor and entered the fray.
2. Paul is telling us that this armor of ours is battle-tested. It’s been worn to victory. And the One who wore it before still fights for us.
3. When we put on the armor of God, we’re really wearing as our armor Christ himself.
4. And if we are in Christ, we are invincible!
Conclusion: By 1898, Spain was a shell of its former self. Three hundred years earlier, it had been the most powerful nation on earth, but the defeat of its armada by the English in 1588 forever changed that. By the time we picked a fight with Spain, it was a pushover. The enemy that declared war on the United States five years ago this week has certainly proved to be no pushover, largely because it’s invisible.
Satan once ruled the world, and even today, working in the shadows, always lurking, he’s no pushover. But he is pushed-over. Christ has knocked him flat. We’re still at war; let us always remember that. But in Christ we are armed for victory!
Liturgical Setting
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost is the midpoint of the second “third” of the Pentecost season, as the recurrence of the Gradual reminds. (This is fifth of nine consecutive Sundays this Gradual is used.) This portion of the Pentecost season explores “the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” We can never know the full mind of God—it is “unsearchable”—but what we do know we know from his Word. This is the focus of today’s other Propers. “The unfolding of [God’s] words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm, v 130). The Lord’s decrees would “show . . . wisdom and understanding to the nations” (Old Testament Reading, v 6). And in the Gospel, Jesus clarifies that God’s will for true good works is known only in the commands of God and not in the traditions of men (vv 1–8).
The Epistle, our text, is the last of eight readings through Paul’s Letter. Predictably, then, it takes a different direction. The emphasis is not so much on God’s revealed wisdom as on his power. There is, of course, more than coincidental connection between the two attributes. The Collect recognizes this by addressing God as “Lord of all power and might.” Further, we avail ourselves of God’s power (and therefore his protection against the adversary) only when we trust the wisdom of his Word. Israel was empowered to take possession of its Promised Land by following God’s decrees (Deut 4:1). And thus we confess our true uncleanness (Mk 7:14–15, 21–23) and plead that God “cast me not in wrath away” (LW 234:2, the Hymn of the Day) to become prey of the devil. This much we do know to be the will of God.
Textual Notes
V 10: tou loipou, “finally” or “from now on.” This pericope is a fitting climax to the whole Book of Ephesians, an Epistle that sets the Church’s very practical, earthly issues in their cosmic and eternal context (1:9–12, 18–23; 2:1–2; 3:8–10; 4:4–10, 25–32; 5:32–33; 6:9). autou: This verse may sound redundant in English (“strong in the Lord and in his mighty power”), but the emphasis is on his. The power to confront Satan is most emphatically Christ’s, not ours.
V 12: tas archas . . . tas exousias . . . tous kosmokratopas . . . ta pneumatika tēs ponērias. Not a series of different enemies, but a “piling up” of the description of Satan’s forces—the devil and his angels. Paul wants no mistake about just how formidable the opponent is. en tois epouraniois, “in the heavenly realms.” Used five times in Ephesians (1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10), it gives the reader a window into the big picture that Paul has in view throughout the Letter. Satan, like the holy angels, once occupied the heavenly places, and for a time still has had access to them (Job 1:6; 2:1).
V 13: tēn panoplian tou theou, “the full armor of God.” Various commentaries and Bible encyclopedias detail the armor typical of a Roman hoplite. Paul spent considerable time in the close presence of Roman soldiers, including legionary regulars (Acts 27:1; 28:16, 30; Phil 1:13, the last three references, probably, as he wrote this very Epistle) who were considerably better equipped than Jewish warriors or even Roman auxiliaries. God’s armor and weaponry can only be compared to the best available.
Vv 14–17: Key to Paul’s point are the specific messianic references. Images of the belt (Is 11:5, part of an Advent lection), the breastplate and helmet (both from Is 59:17), and the feet fitted (Is 52:7, read on Christmas Day) are all drawn from clear messianic passages. Of particular note is the context of Is 59:15b–21, in which “there was no one” else to save his people, so the Lord girded himself and worked salvation for them. To wear the armor of God is actually to put on Christ so that he does the fighting. “Extinguish all the flaming arrows” (Eph 6:16) The large curved rectangular shield, made of heavy leather, could be soaked in water before battle to extinguish fiery arrows.
V 17b: tēn machairan tou pneumatos, “the sword of the Spirit.” Even in a defensive war, victory is never won simply by absorbing and withstanding the aggressor’s blows, but rather by inflicting sufficient damage to discourage further attacks. The Word of God is not only our perfect defensive weapon against Satan (Mt 4:4, 7, 10), but it is also the power of God to despoil and plunder his kingdom (Rom 1:16; Lk 11:20–22). We use the Word both to keep ourselves in the faith and to rob Satan of other victims by winning new converts to Christ.
Vv 18–20: agrupnountes, “be alert” (from agros, “field,” and hupnos, “sleep”). Though the armor metaphor ends with v 17, the military imagery is not far removed; we are to be like soldiers deployed and ready, sleeping out in the field. Prayer is a chief activity of this readiness, especially prayer on behalf of those who, like Paul, wield the sword of God’s Word publicly.