Stand

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-17

Structure:

• Introduction
• Stand against evil
• Put on God’s armour
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Theodore Roosevelt is considered by some to be one of the five best presidents of the United States

• He is still to this day the youngest, becoming president at 42, serving from 1901 to 1909
• One saying attributed to Roosevelt is: Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
• I understand this to mean we need to keep looking up to that which is lasting and beautiful and true, without losing touch with reality
• The stars are a reliable source for navigating our way through this world
• And keeping our feet on the ground is about humility, having a right understanding of yourself in relation to God and His creation

Today we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

• Ephesians is, in many ways, a letter that encourages us to keep our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground.
• It holds up some pretty lofty ideals but today’s passage has its feet firmly on the ground
• From Ephesians 6, verses 10-17 (in the NIV), we read…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

Stand against evil:

Winston Churchill is another well-known and well respected leader

• He didn’t always get it right and he struggled with his own personal demons, but he knew how to stand his ground
• His stubbornness was just what Britain needed during the war
• We all know his famous speech about never, ever giving in except to convictions of honour and good sense
• In a similar vein he also said: “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

Personally, I don’t like having enemies. Some people enjoy a fight. I don’t want anything to do with them. And yet, when one becomes a Christian, one picks a side in a very ancient conflict and when you pick a side you get some enemies.

In today’s reading Paul makes it very clear that our enemy is the devil and other evil spiritual beings

• The ‘rulers and authorities’ Paul mentions in verse 12 don’t refer to the Roman government – Paul is not talking about flesh and blood authorities
• He’s talking about spiritual authorities organized against God and his people.
• We can’t see the enemy because it operates in the ‘heavenly realms’.
• Right at the beginning of this series in Ephesians I explained how the expression heavenly realms doesn’t refer to heaven as such but rather to the spiritual realm
• The spiritual realm is sort of like another dimension all around us that we don’t normally see

Dogs can’t see orange or green, like we do, but they can see blue and yellow, so if you throw a bright orange ball across a green lawn a dog will struggle to see it because the orange & green look the same greyish colour to them.  

• When it comes to the spiritual realm we are a bit like dogs (no offence)
• We don’t see all the colours – spiritual things are camouflaged to us
• This means there is more to reality than meets the eye
• Our enemy is not physical flesh and blood. It is spiritual evil, hard to see.

Now some of you may be struggling with this idea of a devil and demons and evil forces. I understand. For many years it seemed weird to me as well.

• Not everything can be blamed on the devil – human selfishness, greed, fear and the choices people make do account for some evil, but not all.
• We would be arrogant to discard the ancient wisdom handed down to us in the Bible. Jesus did not deny the existence of the devil
• Nor did Paul or the Ephesians
• Whatever we modern readers might think, for Paul and his first century readers, the devil was a personal being, an external centre of evil – not a myth or metaphor to be explained away psychologically [1]
• Acts 19 tells us how some of the Ephesian Christians used to practice magic before their conversion and actually burned their spell books publicly when becoming followers of Christ – you wouldn’t do that if you thought the devil was just a metaphor.  

Speaking from my own experience in life and ministry I am of the view that the spiritual battle is real

• When you become a Christian your life gets better in some ways, but in other ways it often becomes harder
• If you are standing on the side lines watching the game you don’t have much to contend with
• But if you are on the field, running with the ball, then you are likely to be tackled.   

This is not to say we need to be afraid. We don’t need to fear because Jesus has defeated the devil and the forces of evil

• We just need to be aware that, despite their defeat, the forces of evil are still at large and refuse to surrender – so we need to stand, not in our own strength but in the strength of the Lord’s power (verse 10).

Now when we think of power we tend to think of a substance or a thing, like muscle or money or an engine or a long life battery or electricity

• But this is not what Paul means by power. For Paul, power is relational. We stand in the strength of our relationship with God
• So, in a Christian understanding, strength and power has to do with quality of connection  
• For example, the branch of a tree is strong and fruitful when it remains fully connected to the main trunk
• Likewise, the tree itself is strong when it is planted beside a stream, where it’s roots can be in close relationship with the water of the stream
• Children and young people tend to be stronger (or more resilient) when they have a number of stable adults in their life.
• We are strong, spiritually, when we are close to Jesus.

Verse 11 mentions the devil’s schemes

• Our enemy, the devil, doesn’t usually disclose his evil upfront or straight away. Paul says, in 2^nd Corinthians 11, that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
• So we need deliverance from evil that doesn’t look like evil at first
• When Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness, he quoted Scripture making his proposal sound like a harmless thing, even a good thing
• ‘If you’re the Son of God turns these stones into bread’ – surely there’s nothing wrong in that
• ‘If you’re the Son of God jump off the roof of the temple; God’s angels will catch you’ – could be good for your PR
• But Jesus saw through the devil’s schemes and stood his ground
• Jesus refused to give the devil an inch.

Our enemy is invisible and deceptive. That’s why we need to stay close to Jesus. We can’t handle the assault of the evil one on our own.

Four times in today’s reading Paul uses the verb ‘stand’

• Verse 11: Take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
• Verse 13: …so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
• And verse 14: Stand firm then…

The emphasis here is with ‘holding our ground’ as opposed to attacking the enemy or doing a runner. I like the poetic way C.F. Moule puts it…

• Stand suggests not a march or an assault, but the holding of the fortress of the soul and the church for the heavenly King [2]

You see, Jesus has won the ground for us.

• That ground or territory is our soul and also our relationships together as participants in the church  
• We need to occupy the ground Jesus sacrificed himself for and hold it.

When we do manage to hold our ground against evil God often does incredible things. “Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” 

In order to stand though we need the armour of God.  

The armour of God:

On the wall here is a picture of a platoon of Roman soldiers. Soldiers don’t normally fight alone. They usually function as a unit or a team.   

If you have grown up in an individualistic society, as I have, then you are probably more inclined to read these verses in Ephesians 6 as if they were addressed to individuals – so we tend to think things like…

• ‘Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, personally’
• Or, ‘I stand alone against the devil’
• Or, ‘I need to put the armour of God on myself as an individual’
• And while Paul’s instructions are certainly relevant for us as individuals the imperatives used here are plural, which means Paul is instructing the church collectively to stand and put on God’s armour.

Earlier in Ephesians Paul referred to the church as the body of Christ

• Which means we don’t stand alone against the devil – we stand as a unit, like a platoon or a company of soldiers who have each other’s backs.
• Likewise, it is the body of Christ (the church) who is to wear God’s armour together, collectively.
• And when the devil attacks he doesn’t just attack our mind, he attacks our relationships and tries to drive a wedge between people in the church.
• The evil one wants to destroy community as much as he does individuals.
• When we read these verses as applying to us collectively, as the church, then we feel safer and more secure, less alone.

In verses 14-17 Paul lists six pieces of protective armour in the order they would ordinarily be put on by a soldier.

• The use of a military metaphor like this is not meant to imply actual violence against people – our enemy is spiritual, not physical.
• What’s more, the armour is mostly defensive
• Paul may have been inspired to use this metaphor because he was literally chained to a Roman soldier while writing to the Ephesians.  
• Besides this, the prophet Isaiah also talks about the armour of God. [3]

Can anyone tell me what this logo stands for? [Wait]

• Yes, that’s right. This is the Under Armour logo
• Under Armour is a brand of sports clothing

In verse 14 Paul says, to the church collectively, Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…

• The belt in a Roman soldier’s uniform was their under armour – that’s why it went on first. 
• A belt gives you a sense of security. It holds everything together and enables you to be hands free.
• Truth here could have two meanings. It could refer to Biblical or doctrinal truth, like ‘Jesus has risen from the dead’
• But it could also refer to ‘truth in our inward parts’, meaning integrity
• Integrity is our moral under armour

Some of you may have grown up with mothers who were very concerned that you always put on clean underwear

• The belt of truth is like clean under wear. No one really sees it that much and yet without clean under wear we stink.
• A truthful community is one in which people are genuine – they are the same on the inside as they are on the outside.   
• A truthful community is more concerned with authenticity than image
• When we don’t pretend to be something we are not – when we are honest with ourselves and sincere with others, we enjoy a certain freedom
• The belt of truth gives us freedom of movement.

Next we have the breastplate of righteousness

• A breastplate protects the body’s vital internal organs, like your heart and lungs and your liver and kidneys
• One of the things about a breastplate is you usually need someone to help you put it on. Righteousness is not something we do alone
• Righteousness is about relating to others in a right way – it includes being both just and merciful.
• A righteous community is not one where anything goes.
• A righteous community has clear boundaries, it has certain standards and values that it expects its members to live by.
• This is not to say that a righteous community is a perfect community
• When someone messes up and does something wrong the instinctive response of a righteous community is to encourage that person to clean up their mess so they can be restored to the community.  

Last week we heard about Onesimus, the runaway slave. Paul wrote to Philemon asking him to take Onesimus back.

• Paul was acting in a righteous way, seeking to restore the Christian community, not just to the way it was before, but to better than before.
• Paul wanted Philemon to receive Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother

In verse 15 Paul instructs the church (collectively) to fit our feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace

• Another translation puts it this way: Let the shoes on your feet be the gospel of peace, to give you a firm footing. (NEB)

There are a number ideas held together in this verse:

• Firstly, there is the idea of readiness or being prepared
• We prepare ourselves (or we put on the shoes of peace) by making ourselves familiar with the gospel about Jesus
• In our context this involves studying the Bible together and listening to sermons.
• We need to know the content of our faith so we are ready to share it and apply it.

Also in this verse there is the idea of peace

• The gospel is good news because it shows us how to have peace with God, through faith in Jesus.
• Peace with God is the foundation really.
• Peace with God gives us a firm footing
• When we know (deep down) that God is our friend, fear and anxiety lose their hold on us. 

At their meeting last Thursday, the deacons spent 10 minutes listening to a podcast by the Barna Group (courtesy of Daryl)

• The Barna group are a Christian organisation that do research on the church and society
• In the podcast they interviewed an Australian pastor, Mark Sayers
• Mark made the comment that people generally feel secure when they can see the pathways they are to walk on.
• But all the cultural markers of our society, all the signs which tell us where the pathway is, are changing really quickly at the moment
• This rapid change creates an ‘ambient anxiety’ because we don’t know where we stand anymore – we don’t know where the path is.
• Freedom is good, up to a point, but too much freedom fosters anxiety.

When they asked Mark Sayers how the church is to respond to this, he said…  

• Christians need to be people of peace.
• The world today needs the church to be a non-anxious presence in society
• Being hectic and manic and busy only makes things worse.
• When the church has a firm footing in the peace of the gospel then we are ready to provide a steady place for people to stand.

Verse 16 reads: In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The sort of shield we are talking about here is the big rectangular shield, as opposed to the smaller round shield

• The Roman shield was made of wood and leather with metal edging on the top and bottom – it must have been pretty heavy to carry
• You wouldn’t want to be without it in a fire fight but the rest of the time I expect it would have been an inconvenience.
• Our faith isn’t always convenient, is it? But when the chips are down we are glad for it. Faith provides a refuge for us.    

Faith, in this context, could mean trust in God or it could mean ‘the faith’ in the sense of what we believe about God

• So, for example, when the evil one shoots off a flaming arrow of false guilt, Christian believers protect themselves from that assault with the belief that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• Or when a fellow believer dies, we shield ourselves from the flaming arrow of despair with the belief that we will see them again at the resurrection to eternal life.
• Or when we are doing our best but everything seems to be going wrong, we shield ourselves from the flaming arrow of discouragement with the belief that God is faithful and just – he works all things for good.
• Or when we are tormented by some weakness or infirmity and feel inadequate to the task, we shield ourselves from the flaming arrow of self-reliance by recalling that God’s grace is sufficient for us.

The next item of armour is the helmet of salvation

• The helmet of salvation is about hope – ‘keeping our eyes on the stars’.
• Hope is the capacity to imagine a good future
• Hope produces the positive energy of joy 
• We, the church, put on the helmet of salvation by keeping in mind that, whatever conflict or hardship or loss we might face in the present, ultimately we are on the winning side.
• We are justified by faith in Jesus and if we share in Christ’s sufferings we will also share in his glory.

Finally, Paul tells us to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

• The Roman soldier’s sword was a short blade used in close combat.
• We don’t use God’s word to attack people, rather we use God’s word to defend ourselves when evil comes close, perhaps in the form of temptation or some other intense pressure.
• Jesus used Scripture to protect himself when the devil tempted him in the wilderness.

The sword is a symbol of power

• The word of God is mightier than the sword – it has an authority all of its own. God’s word is quietly powerful.
• At the right moment, the moment of the Spirit’s prompting, we need to raise God’s word, without shouting and without anger.
• As Rumi says, ‘It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder’.    

Conclusion:  

All of this armour: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, is given to us by God

• We don’t create the armour, we simply put it on together and stand our ground in the strength of our relationship with Christ.

Let us pray…

• Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, you are our General. Strengthen us to stand firm in the fray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
2. Why would we be unwise to explain the devil away psychologically? How does the devil tend to operate?
3. What does Paul mean by power, in Ephesians 6?  What makes us spiritually strong?
4. What does it mean to stand our ground against spiritual evil?
5. What difference does it make (to our interpretation of these verses) knowing that Paul was giving instructions in the plural? 
6. Discuss / reflect on each of the six pieces of the armour of God and their relevance for our spiritual life.
7. How might we (the church) put each piece of armour on? (I.e. how might we apply Paul’s armour metaphor in our lives collectively and individually?)

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[1] Refer Ernest Best, Ephesians, page 317.

[2] Refer Francis Foulkes’ commentary on Ephesians, page 171.

[3] For example, Isaiah 59:17.