sunset from a recent walk…

The following is a continuation of an earlier blog post, adapted from a sermon preached recently at Cooks Point Methodist Church in Caldwell, TX. There is a need to be aware of spiritual warfare because it is becoming more and more pronounced. The sermon basis is Ephesians, the passage of the “whole armor of God” from chapter 6.

We may not want to believe in evil because it doesn’t fit into a worldview that people are basically good, that humankind is on an upward evolutionary arc.  Generations believed like this but then found only despair with the great losses of World War 1 and World War 2 and the news of the Nazi concentration camps, the Gulags in the Soviet Union, the horrors of other wars, of school shootings…so much more.  

Blaming such things on society, on poverty, on addictions can have it’s place, but underneath all that is something else.  

Be sober-minded, be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 1 Peter 5: 8-9

So why do we need armor?  

Because the battle is real, and we can be victors or victims.  We can give in to the hate that surrounds us, that engulfs us, or we can follow the Lord Jesus.  It’s very easy to give in, but following Jesus leads to life.  

So, let’s look at what Paul writes about the armor of God in his letter to the Ephesians.  It’s good to remember that Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison, about 30 or 32 years after the Resurrection of Jesus.  

ARMOR OF GOD

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 

Paul quotes Isaiah here.  The Lord says He will fight for righteousness in 59:17.  He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

Isaiah 59 begins, by the way, like this:  Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear..  God hears us, and came for us, to offer us salvation and eternal life with Him through the work of Jesus Christ.  

Verse 12: 

12For 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.

Evil is real.  Hitler wasn’t the result of an unhappy childhood.  Mass murderers like Jeffry Dahmer or Ted Kaczynski — the Unabomber — or Charles Manson or hundreds more — it’s real, the devil is real, and we need protection in that battle.  

Have you ever wondered why you got so angry, so out of proportion to the event?  

i13Therefore 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. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness…

Once more, Paul quotes Isaiah, this time from 11:5: righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins….

Verse 15 -18

 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. 

The shield of faith…remember Peter warned us to “always be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have, with gentleness and fear.”  Our faith is not to be neglected or taken for granted.  The Roman shields were large, rectangular pieces of wood, covered in leather, and wetted down before the battles.  This way they would not catch fire if their enemy used flaming arrows.  

The soldiers would be marching close together, some facing their shields forward and some with shields facing up that made a shield wall — tough for the enemy to break.

The analogy fits because we are not solo Christians.  We stay together.  Who do you have that walks beside you?  Who do you have that will pray with you, or even more so who do you have that will be bold enough to tell you that you could be on a wrong path?  

The helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God.  After a talk in our recent Kairos prison ministry,  one of the brothers in white wanted to talk to me.  He and  and another clergy that sat at his table met together.  

He told us that he had been in touch with some spirit and he named it but I didn’t catch the name, and I didn’t want to spend time on that.  He said that the spirit was well known in Mexico, and that the spirit had told him to read his Bible more and to attend Kairos.  Shouldn’t it be okay if it gave him such good advice?

The other clergy member and I told him whatever it was, it wasn’t Biblical, and when he asked for some verses to look up we suggested the Gospel of John, the letters to the Romans or to the Ephesians, or the rest of the New Testament or the Old Testament — read the word of God if you want to know God.  The devil masquerades as an angel of light, to deceive people.  (2 Corinthians 11:14-15 — And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.  Their end will correspond to their deeds.  

The sword is both an offensive and a defensive weapon.  We need the Word of God defensively to fight off attacks like this brother was trying to do — intentionally or not — and we need the offensive to strike down and to destroy that stronghold.  

We need the whole armor of God to put on to prepare for battle.  

Because evil is real.  

The devil is real.

And we need to be ready.  

Here’s the end to this section:

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Perhaps the strongest weapon we have is to pray.  Pray for each other, pray for yourself, pray for the world, pray alone, pray together…prayer is a lifelong journey, and we will never be where we cannot learn more about how to pray to the One who came for us.

We need the whole armor of God.  

Because evil is real.

Satan is real.

Your sin is real. So is mine.

And we need to be ready.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen