Trinity 21
Eph
6:10-17
11/10/19
Not long ago I walked downstairs
into the basement and saw something that I never expected to see in my house. There on the floor with his other Army gear
was Timothy’s body armor. After
completing his infantry training at Ft. Benning last summer, Timothy had been
assigned to the Army National Guard unit in which he is going to serve. He had gone to that armory and there had been
issued his gear, which included the body armor he will wear.
The emergence of the rifle put an
end to armor worn by soldiers on the battlefield. The amount of metal armor
needed to stop the ever increasing power of bullets, made mobility impossible,
and so armor disappeared. Nothing like
it would appear again until the World War 1 era when soldiers began wearing
helmets to provide some protection to their head.
However, the desire to provide
protection to soldiers never disappeared, and the invention of new materials
restarted the quest. In the Vietnam war,
U.S. soldiers wore a vest made out of ballistic nylon. This could not stop a bullet, but was
intended to provide protection against shrapnel.
In the early 1980’s the United States
introduced body protection made out of the material Kevlar. This provided
protection that could stop a 9mm pistol round.
But it could not stop a rifle round, and was really intended to provide
better protection against shrapnel fragments.
Two further generations of body
armor have resulted in what Timothy wears.
Made of Kevlar it includes special plates in the chest and back area
that will stop a 7.62 mm round fired from an AK-47 rifle. The design of the
Kevlar panels provides protection and against shrapnel and explosive devices. This protection is a vast improvement over
anything seen before, but it does come at a cost. The body armor weighs more than thirty
pounds, and this weight must be carried along with all the other ammunition and
gear that a solider has on him in the field.
In the first century A.D., armor was
still essential equipment for the soldier, and played an important role in the
tactics that were employed. As the
apostle Paul brings this letter to a close, he uses the armor of the solider as
the means for talking about the Christian life.
The military – the martial character – of this description should catch
our attention. Paul describes the life
that we have in the Gospel, but he does so by warning us about the spiritual conflict
that we face.
Paul says in our text, “Finally, be
strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” The apostle says that we need o be strong in
the Lord and in his mighty strength.
Paul often describes the Christian as being “in Christ.” He means that through faith and baptism we
have been joined to Jesus and his saving work for us. It is only in the Lord and his mighty
strength that we are able to be strong. And
in our text, Paul goes on to describe what this looks like. But first he explains
why there is the need to be strong.
Paul
writes, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil. 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.” The
apostle takes up the metaphor of armor in order to describe what is needed in
order to stand against the schemes of the devil.
The
question for us is whether we really believe the apostle. Paul describes a situation of spiritual
conflict. He says that the devil is scheming against you and that it is
necessary to stand against those plots. The apostle tells us the struggle we
face in not against flesh and blood.
Instead, the battle – the struggle - is against the spiritual forces of
evil.
These
are the powers that once owned you. In
chapter two Paul had written, “And you were dead in the trespasses and
sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world,
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like
the rest of mankind.”
The devil once
owned you, and he wants you back. So, do
you really believe there is a threat? The world will mock any such claim. And of course it is through the world –
through our culture – that the devil works powerfully to separate us from
God. He uses the world’s rejection of
truth and authority to lead people to a rejection of God’s Word and the
Gospel. He uses the world’s “anything
goes” view of sexuality to trap people in sin, and ensnares churches in the
acceptance of couples living together outside of marriage, and
homosexuality. He works every angle –
every busy activity that we “have to do” - in order to separate us from
Christ’s Means of Grace at church and at home.
The devil
doesn’t want you to think about him, because it is then that he can operate
most effectively. He doesn’t want you to
think about your life in terms of spiritual conflict. But the apostle Paul warns us about the threat
and tells us what to do: “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.”
Paul says, “Stand
therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.” The belt fastened the tunic around the waist
and allowed for rapid movement. The apostle describes this as being done
in truth. He has already said in the
first chapter about Christ, “In him you also, when you heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit.”
You
are prepared to stand when your life is secured by the truth of the
Gospel. The death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ has won forgiveness and salvation for you. You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit who
has given you regeneration and created faith. You have been cleansed of your
sin by the washing of water with the word in baptism. In the truth of the
Gospel you have the basis for resisting the devil.
Next
the apostle says that you are ready when you have “put on the breastplate
of righteousness.” The breastplate
protected the chest and resisted blows.
The Spirit has made you a new creation through the Gospel. Because this is so, the new man lives in ways
that are produced by the Gospel. He lives in ways that are true to God’s will –
ways that are righteous.
Because
the old Adam is still present, we need to be reminded about the need to live in
righteous ways. Earlier Paul said that you
need “to put off your old man, which belongs to your former
manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to
be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new man, created
after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Through repentance we drown the old Adam, so
that the new man can come forth and live in righteous ways – ways that protect
us against the devils schemes.
Paul
says that we put on shoes in the readiness of the Gospel of peace. The Gospel gives us peace with God. It declares us to be saints – forgiven
sinners – because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for us. And in this
we find ourselves ready and prepared to stand up against the schemes of the
devil. We are ready to stand firm
against the devil because we know what God has made us to be. We know who we
are. We are God’s children. We are
saints, and so by God’s Spirit we are ready to resist the devil in his efforts
to take this away from us.
Next
Paul says, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which
you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” The apostle describes the shield’s role in
providing protection. And here he says
that faith protects us against the flaming arrows of the devil.
Paul
has already said of faith in this letter, “For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Faith in the crucified and risen Lord is the
means by which we have received salvation.
We learn that we have “boldness and access
with confidence through our faith” in Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ provides us with these
blessings and so it protects us against the devil’s attacks.
Finally,
Paul tells us, “and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
The helmet protected against blows to the head. We know that by God’s grace, faith in Christ
provides salvation. We have heard the
message of truth, the Gospel of our salvation. We have been baptized into
Christ’s saving death, and so we know that salvation is ours. The devils blows
are repelled by the certainty of our salvation in Christ. We are protected
because we know that already now that
we are saved, even as we look towards the consummation of God’s saving work on
the Last Day when Christ will raise our bodies.
In
all of the items mentioned, the sword is the only one that is both defensive
and offensive. Paul speaks of the sword
of the Spirit, and then identifies this as the word of God. It is the Spirit who has given the word
through his inspiration. It is the
Spirit who works through this same word to create and sustain faith. The word of God is the means by which we fend
off the devils attacks. It is also the
means by which we seek to share the Gospel with others in order to advance
Christ’s reign.
The
sword of the Spirit is the word of God. But the sword does little good if it
left in the scabbard – or in this case, on the book shelf. Paul says that we are to “take” the
sword. It must be taken in hand, read,
studied and learned by heart. It must be
called to mind and thought about. The Scriptures – the Word of God – are the
means by which the Spirit causes us to grow and mature in faith. Armed with the Word provided by the Spirit,
we have the weapon by which we can stand firm against our deadly foe.
In
the epistle lesson this morning, the apostle Paul warns us about the situation
we face. He says that we must put on the
whole armor of God so that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. Because we are Christians, we
live in the midst of spiritual conflict as we are attacked by all that is
demonic.
Yet
in the crucified and risen Lord, God has given us all that we need to stand
firm. By God’s grace, the Spirit has
worked faith and washed away our sins in baptism. We know the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel produces righteousness in our
life. It makes us ready for action because we have peace with God. Through
faith in Christ we are protected and we have the certainty of salvation. And by the word of God we are sustained and
defended in the struggle of the Christian life as we look towards the Day of
the Lord.
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