The Fight
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Lindsay Lane East! It’s so good to see you! If you are new here, we are pumped that you have chosen to worship with us at East. In fact, we have a gift we would love to give you. If you will grab that card from the back of the seat in front of you and fill it out with as much info as you feel comfortable with, you can drop it by Next steps in the Lobby and they will hook you up with your very own East t shirt and some info about our church.
This morning, WE FINISH UP SUMMER SCHOOL! And the crowd goes wild!
We have traveled through the book of Ephesians looking at the top 8 themes discussed in the book. Today is number 8.
At the end of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he wraps up this incredible talk with a passage that, if you’ve been around church a lot, you will be familiar with. He describes the Christian as a soldier. He uses the different pieces of the soldier’s armor as analogies towards that which is needed for the Christian.
His main focus though is that we are in a FIGHT as a Christian. There is a real battle going on as we try to live for Christ. To deny that would be a foolish mistake.
Let me read the passage in its entirety, then we will come back and start working through this together.
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
PRAY
1. We have a real enemy
1. We have a real enemy
Growing up and honestly still today, I hate knowing someone doesn’t like me. Call it people pleasing or whatever, I can’t stand that idea! But Paul says here it’s not just someone doesn’t like you. Paul’s comment is that we have someone who wants to destroy us!
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
He calls this being the devil. He is scheming to take you down while you try to stand. The devil comes from a Greek word that means “slanderer.” Slander is to speak falsely with the intention of harming someone. This is what we see him doing back in Genesis 3! Twisting God’s Words and causing man and woman to question God and each other.
If you have walked with God long, you know that he is really good at this. When you look at your face in the mirror or think about who you are and hate certain parts of yourself, that’s the devil. Just as he did to Eve, he is whispering slander in your ear, trying to cause you to question what God has already said about you: what David recognized in Psalm 139,
I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.
When we buy into the slander, we are making the same mistake that Adam and Eve made in the garden.
But Satan doesn’t work alone. Since that time in the garden, he actually uses humans to spread his slander and destroy the walk of believers.
If you remember back to our previous conversations in this study, you may remember another name the Devil was given by Paul. He called him the ruler of the power of the air. We all used to walk with instead of God! Look at this verse...
in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
Do you see this? There are hosts of people walking around today who think they are calling their own shots, but they are not. They are actually walking according to the will of the devil. And often times, these people are being used to spread that slander into the lives of others.
These early Christians knew better than most what this looked like. You may be asked by your company to not include a Bible verse in the signature on your emails, or have a coworker who makes fun of Christianity during lunch when you invite people to church. Listen, these folks were being killed for it! They were run out of city after city because of the stance they took for Christ! They were being arrested and persecuted in very scary ways.
The leaders in the Roman empire have been the source of much of it. They are being viewed by many believers as the work of Satan in the world at this time.
But Paul leaves this reminder...
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Try to hear this verse in the context as they would have when the letter was read for the first time. I know you are being persecuted by your families, local leaders in the community, the Jewish leaders, and the Romans, but Paul says here our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
2. Our enemy is not other humans
2. Our enemy is not other humans
That’s exactly how it must have felt for these early believers! But Paul says that your fight is not with them!
As you look around the Christian landscape today, do you think we are living as if our fight is not against flesh and blood? I don’t think so! I see Christians arguing and fighting with other humans more than I do them recognize who their enemy really is. We act as if our voting ballot and lawsuits are the God-ordained way we battle in this fight. But if our fight is against the devil and not politicians and business owners, then these things are not the ultimate ways we stand in this fight. Let’s keep working through.
The next thing Paul does is describe our enemy’s work. The list we see is a little confusing. It sounds repetitive to us in english I think. But if you look at these words in Greek, their meanings are slightly different.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
I believe when you look at each of these words, we get a good overview of the intensity of our enemy’s work.
The first word is RULERS. The word here is most often translated into English as “beginning” not ruler though. This word points to the fact that our enemy is not a new one. As we go through difficulty in life, we can definitely feel as if we are alone in our fight. But we need to recognize that every believer before us has battled the same enemy. He has been at work back to the very beginning!
The second word is AUTHORITIES. One of the other ways it is translated is “power.” This word reminds us that this long-standing enemy of ours is actually powerful! One of the biggest mistakes we can make as believers is to downplay the danger we face. To think we can overcome this powerful enemy is a fool’s mistake. We see throughout the Bible that we need to take serious the ability of Satan to attack us with slander and temptation.
The third term is COSMIC POWERS OF THIS DARKNESS. This is another one of those famous compound words that Paul may have made up as we was writing. This is the only place it is found in the New Testament, but it clearly means “world ruler.” The same enemy that we face here in North Alabama as believers is the same enemy believing Christians face in Muslim countries in the Middle East. They are facing more dangerous persecution, but our enemy is the same!
The next term is EVIL. This is a word referring to the moral quality of our enemy. This word evil is also translated as wickedness or malicious. Our enemy is not kind of bad. He is not just a little confused. HE IS EVIL! The total opposite of God’s holiness and righteousness! We need acknowledge that if we are to battle well.
The last term is SPIRITUAL FORCES IN THE HEAVENS. This circles back to the beginning of the conversation that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is a real battle against a spiritual being. We may never look him in the face, but that doesn’t make him not real! He is very real.
These 5 terms help us get an idea of what kind of enemy we face. He should be taken seriously. He is a big deal. And this enemy is scheming to take you down. He is more powerful than you are and he is actively at work against every believer around the world.
That’s pretty intimidating to think about, right?
But the good thing about this fight is that it is not just us vs. him!
3. We can win the fight.
3. We can win the fight.
Paul does paint a daunting image of our enemy, but he seems to be saying that because our enemy is so much stronger than us, we need to depend on someone else to see us through!
Notice how this section of text began...
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
Paul says that if we are to stand in this fight against the devil, we must be STRENGTHENED BY THE LORD.
This is an idea that has direct Old Testament echoes. David was said to have been strengthened by the Lord in 1 Samuel chapter 30. And the Lord himself said Israel would be strengthened by him in Zechariah. God has always had a desire for his people to come to him to find strength.
When I was a kid, and I found myself in a situation that was overwhelming for me, I found strength by running to my parents. Even just a few years ago when Kelly had some health issues that scared us, I can remember my mom and dad getting to the hospital and the first thing I did was bearhug my dad. There was nothing he could do about the situation, I knew that. But that was a place I felt strength in that moment.
The fight we are in spiritually is much bigger than health trouble though. The daily fight against Satan is one of much more epic consequences. As much as I love my dad, a hug from him won’t help me in this! I need a greater strength.
We can find strength in the Lord because of his vast strength. The two words used there actually mean strength strength. Or strength might. God is more than just a being with strength. He has strength strength.
Paul says twice what it looks like to be strengthened by God. He says we need to “put on the armor of God.”
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
Paul uses an analogy of armor to drive home how we can find rest and strength in God. But just like the strength coming from God, this is not a new idea… It has echoed from the Old Testament...
David says in Psalm 18:
You have clothed me with strength for battle; you subdue my adversaries beneath me.
You have clothed me with strength. Paul is borrowing language from King David many many years before! Paul clearly sees the strength that David received from the Lord as available to us as well! If you have trusted in Jesus as Savior, this strength is for you! It’s available!
Paul goes on in verses 14-17 to describe how we can find that strength. The armor could be a sermon in itself, but let me just remind you of how we can receive God’s strength...
We need to center ourselves around some important things.
a. Truth
a. Truth
This goes directly against the name of our enemy altogether! He is the slanderer spreading lies to destroy others. We are to hold to truth instead.
b. Righteousness
b. Righteousness
We know that we cannot be righteous on our own because it means always living right. But we know the one who was righteous! And Paul helps us see in his other letters that if we have believed on Jesus, the perfect one, that his righteousness has been given to us though we don’t deserve it. We need to remind ourselves of that beautiful truth.
c. Gospel Readiness
c. Gospel Readiness
Because we have been changed by the Gospel, we must remain saturated in the Gospel. This is good for ourselves as a reminder of what Christ has done, but it is also good for those around us, because if it saturates us, then we are ready to share it with others.
d. Faith
d. Faith
This faith, Paul says, is like a shield that protects us from the attacks of the enemy. When we have a consistent ongoing faith, believing in Jesus for everything, there is no foothold. From the very beginning in the garden. If Adam and Eve had simply said, “Snake, you crazy. God knows what is best and this is what he said. Get out of here!” But it was that tiniest absence of faith that led to the temptation that he offered.
e. Salvation
e. Salvation
Understanding that you are saved and that there is nothing that this world or our enemy, the ruler of the darkness in this world can do to harm you, is key to finding strength. Jesus, speaking of those who are saved said this...
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
That’s where we find strength.
Then there is...
f. God’s Word
f. God’s Word
Paul wraps up the armor by giving us a weapon, the sword of the Spirit. God’s Word must be committed to memory so that when the devil comes to attack us, we can be ready to not just block his advances, but to fire back! This is what we see Jesus do as he is tempted in the wilderness after his baptism by Satan. With every slanderous attack, Jesus fires back with the Word of God. We must commit its content to memory.
When we take seriously our enemy, we can find strength in God’s strength.
If you are not a believer, this armor is not yours. You are in open waters. You are free game for the devil. And you cannot stand because you are as we all are a sinner.
But God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love that he has for you, even when you were a sitting duck for the devil, Christ died for you. All the sin that separates you from God, Jesus took within himself. He had no sin, but took our sin. SO THAT, it was paid for and we could then have nothing between us and God! You can have a relationship with the all powerful God of Creation because Jesus died for you!
Today, we would love to show you how you can be saved and find this strength to fight and to stand today!
If you are a believer...
Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda… surrendered himself in 1974 from World War 2..... hiding out in the Philippines, still carrying out guerrilla activities against local police and farmland.