Ephesians: Living in the Armor of God

So we've been making our way through the book of Ephesians, studying it.

We are in the last sermon, the last Sunday in the book of Ephesians, this New Testament letter that Paul wrote to a church in Ephesus.

Here's what we've been saying along the way.

Chapters 1 through 3 teach us what God has done for us in Christ.

And there's a transition in the letter about halfway through.

Chapters 4 through 6, we learn how we should live in light of it.

So what we've been saying is our walk with Jesus is not for God's love, but from God's love.

In those early chapters, Paul took us through all the promises we have in Jesus, just promise after promise, lavishness of Jesus' sufficiency for us.

And then he began in chapters four and five to say, well, this is how you should live in light of it.

This is how you should live in your relationships.

And now at the end of the letter, he tells us, hey, by the way, all that will not be easy.

And that's what we just read.

Be strong in the Lord.

The devil's gonna, we're fighting, there's a fight.

Okay, how are we gonna withstand?

Verses 10 through 13 that I just read.

And that's point number one.

The devil is a liar whose schemes against our flourishing.

Now, maybe the idea of a devil or the idea of a person of the devil has always felt sort of cartoonish to you, but that word devil means liar.

That's how you can think of him.

He's a liar.

There's two main lies of the liar.

Lie number one is this you need something else.

That's the lure of temptation.

You need something else.

The second lie is you aren't worthy.

And that's the despair of accusation.

And we all know these lies.

These are the motives and the thoughts under the service.

Maybe you don't even tell anybody.

But they're there.

It's the sin under the sin.

So how are we going to resist?

How do we walk through a world where we're constantly hearing you need something else, or you are not worthy?

Well, Paul has something to say for us.

Verse 14 stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 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.

Two weeks ago, my wife Christy and I we went fly fishing up in North Carolina.

Here's a picture of us.

We're on the east fork of the Broad River near Brevard, North Carolina, between Brevard and Cashers.

Aren't we cute there in the river?

And so here's a picture of one of the fish that Christy caught, a good brookie, that's a little brook trout.

See that orange belly?

Beautiful, beautiful North Carolina fish.

But when we first pulled up to the river, we pulled over on the side of the street.

And the first thing I did is I pulled a huge bag of gear out of the back of the car and dropped it on the ground.

Now, if I'm holding a bag, I love bags and I love gear and gear in a bag.

I like it even more.

If I'm carrying a bag full of gear, I'm just in a happy place and we begin to get that gear out, and we put on our socks, we put on our waiters, we put on our boots, right?

We're suiting up.

I put on my vest and my pack, I got my net, like I mean, it looks like you're going into war into this river, right?

And you want the boots so you don't slip, you want the waiters so you don't freeze.

You put on all the armor so you're ready.

You suit up so you can thrive.

Paul says we need to suit up to live in a hostile world.

You need something else.

You aren't worthy.

Point number two is this our Christian walk is steady through God's provision.

That's what this armor is, God's provision, not our achievement.

Paul's desire is for us to be steady, not wobbly.

So, how do we become steady?

Well, Paul uses that familiar image, the Roman soldier, because all his readers would have known exactly what he's talking about.

And gives six pieces of armor.

The first is this.

Let's look at these six.

The belt of truth.

So the belt would have held up the soldier's tunic, would have also held his sword, and this teaches us truth gives us security and confidence.

I mean, what if the only basis for truth in your life about who you are and what you should do and how you should live and what you should think and how you should relate to people and how you should handle it?

What if the only is your feelings?

Well, I'd be a mess.

I mean, because sometimes my feelings are good and solid, and sometimes my feelings are horrible.

Sometimes I don't even know.

Like, I'm not sure.

How am I to discern that?

Well, we have a truth outside of ourselves, a standard in the Word of God.

What is true about me?

What's true about God?

What's true about how God feels about me?

What's true about relationships?

What's true about money?

What's true about this world?

Gives us security and confidence.

Second, we have the breastplate of righteousness.

That's a soldier's breastplate.

He covered his back and his front, the core of who he was.

Now, for Paul, whenever he mentions righteousness, he almost always means Christ's righteousness to us.

Not our righteous behaviors, but Jesus' gift of righteous to us.

2 Corinthians 5, 21, God made him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So you're righteous not based on your righteous behavior or your record or resume, but on Jesus'.

And so what this means is the core of who you are, the breastplate of righteousness, the core of who you are, is protected by a justification that you do not achieve and you don't even maintain it.

It is a gift of grace in Jesus.

Imagine the freedom.

Paul's speaking of a boot that would have been made for long marches and a solid stance.

We can walk in this world in peace, ready for whatever comes, because God is for us.

And God is with us.

That gives us a steadiness.

Fourth, the shield of faith.

Paul's speaking of a shield, not a small little round shield, but a huge shield that would have covered the whole body, and it was made to withstand arrows that were even lit on fire.

The commentary worded it this way: for faith takes hold of the promises of God in times of doubt and depression, and faith takes hold of the power of God in times of temptation.

We have a resource outside of ourselves, strength beyond our strength.

Fifth, the helmet of salvation.

The helmet's worn over our being, and that's our salvation.

That we have a confidence that we're already fully forgiven.

That you're already fully righteous, you're already fully God's beloved, by God's grace and gift to you, nothing for you to add.

Just a life of response.

Meaning that we walk in this world already justified, already righteous, already forgiven because of Jesus.

Six, the sword of the Spirit.

Out of the six pieces of armor, this is the only one meant for defense and attack.

In verse 17, it's very clear that this spirit is going to use the word of God to protect us.

So with all the armor, what is clear is God supplies this kind of life, and we walk in it.

Okay, on to verse 18.

Paul connects this to prayer, relational communion with the Father, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

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

So Paul is connecting, how we're becoming aware of what God's providing for us so that we might live steady, and in that steadiness, we're going to live in a communion and a relational attunement, alignment, centering with the Heavenly Father.

Verse 21, last three verses of the letter.

So that you may also know how I am and what I am doing.

Tecaicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything.

I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.

Closing two verses.

Peace be to the brothers and love with faith.

From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

That word incorruptible, love Jesus with incorruptible love.

That word can also mean undying.

Love Jesus.

You are to love, I am to love Jesus with undying love.

So pondering verses 23 and 24, last point, point number three, God's undying love for us creates our peace and love back toward him.

In our house, we watch the TV show The Office, just on repeat over and over, just kind of start at the beginning, work your way through, and go back.

We're season six right now, so that means Jim and Pam are married.

We're on the other side of the torture, of the romance torture that they put you through for five seasons because Jim just loves her so much.

I think that's in season one.

She in a meeting she falls asleep, and then the meeting adjourns and everybody leaves, and Jim won't even move, right?

He's just so enamored that you know Pam's on his shoulder, right?

The meeting ends, he won't, he loves her so much.

And then the end of season two, finally, Jim confesses his love for her.

Do you remember that just outside the building?

And she says, No, no.

Like I'm good at it.

It's heartbreaking.

And then finally, in season five, episode one, we get the same stuff.

The audio's a little weird, you can read a lot.

I mean, we we've been on an emotional journey with Jim and Pam.

I mean, we lived through Pam and Roy.

Roy is so horrible.

And then Jim moved away, and Jim got with Karen.

I liked Karen.

Anybody else like Karen?

I was always kind of like, what about Karen?

Like, I think Karen's pretty great.

But the entire time Jim loves Pam.

He just waits on her, encourages her, supports her.

He knows her and he loves her.

I mean, we could say, in the modern world of television metaphors for sermons, Jim's love for Pam is undying.

No matter what happens, it just doesn't stop.

This word undying, it's interesting when we look through the New Testament.

We can learn a little bit more about it.

It also can be worded immortality, so it's never stopping.

Incorruption, it's never warping.

Sincerity, it's never faking.

So we're called to undying love to Jesus.

Never stopping, never warping, never faking.

I get to the end of that lesson, I'm like, uh-oh.

Like I don't know about you and your life, but I have not loved Jesus with undying love.

I love the encouragement.

I love the call.

But my life has not always looked like that.

Now, fortunately, we're in the book of Ephesians, and we've already read Ephesians 1 through 3.

We have already learned, we've been grounded and rooted in Ephesians 1 through 3, that God loves us with undying love.

Never stopping love toward you, never warping love toward you, never faking love toward you.

That's why we can say God's love for us creates our love, our imperfect love toward Him.

This had me thinking about the Luke 15 prodigal son story.

Remember the young boy asked the dad for his inheritance?

Would have been offensive.

The dad gives him his share of the inheritance.

The boy runs off to a foreign country, begins to spend his money, he's having a good time, throwing some parties, so he has lots of friends.

And then the money starts to run out, so the parties stop, so the friends start, stop, and then eventually he has nothing left.

He wastes it all.

He has nothing, he's starving, he's broken.

The world did not deliver.

But he thinks, maybe dad, maybe dad'll love me.

Maybe the father would just still have me.

Maybe I could go home.

Maybe if I make it home, maybe if I go home, dad'll accept me.

Do you remember this piece of artwork by Charles Mackie, a British artist?

That's his piece on the prodigal.

Just the worn and weary son being embraced by the loving father who ran toward the sun.

That's what we read in Luke 15.

The father comes off the porch, runs toward the sun, a lavish welcome, lavish acceptance.

The father wraps his arms around that boy.

And then there's that elder brother.

Self-righteous.

Probably went to church a lot.

Like he was consumed with how good he was.

He's proud, he's judgmental.

He's unaware of his need of grace.

And he says to the father, hey, I've what about my party?

Like you're throwing throwing him a party.

The guy wasted all that money.

What about me?

Look what I've been doing.

The father says, You've always been with me.

Right?

He invites both of them to the party.

The older brothers invited the party.

The older brother has no awareness of his need of grace.

For both the boys, the rebellious and the self-righteous, for us, whether you're the rebellious or you're the self-righteous, we're invited to a party to enjoy the free forgiveness and acceptance that is lavish from the Father because of Jesus.

And what Paul knows and why he writes his letter like he does in Ephesians 1 through 3, giving us and leading us to Ephesians 4 through 6, is if we become aware of how lavish the acceptance, the justification, the free forgiveness we have in Jesus, this will change everything else.

Can you imagine being loved like that?

Undying.

You are.

God loves you like this.

My prayer is that you just would come alive to it.

He moves toward you with undying love.

The world won't give you that, religion won't give you that.

But the gospel.

God's love to us in Jesus' will.

God is not reluctant toward you, He's not half interested in you, He delights in you.

The image we have is a father coming off of a porch running toward us.

And that we are held by that love.

This is why the end of the letter, verses 20, return to this idea of grace and peace.

Because a life of endless scorekeeping on yourself, it'll keep you in fear and anxiety.

You will not achieve enough in the world, you won't achieve enough in the church, you won't achieve enough in your spiritual religious activities.

You won't even love God enough.

Here's how Martin Luther spoke of grace and peace as he wrote in his Galatians commentary.

These two terms, grace and peace, constitute Christianity.

Grace involves the remission of sins, peace, and a happy conscience.

Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live up to the law.

The law reveals guilt, fills the conscience with terror, and drives men to despair.

Much less is sin taken away by man-invented endeavors.

The fact is, the more a person seeks credit for himself by his own efforts, the deeper he goes into debt.

Luther's saying, stop scorekeeping, stop comparing, stop rooting in your love for God, begin to root in God's love for you.

Live in Ephesians 1 through 3 so you might live out Ephesians 4 through 6.

And that's why Paul's saying, grace and peace.

He says it at the beginning of the book, and he says it at the end of the book.

And that's why we've been saying, we'll say it again, we'll close the series with it.

Our walk with Jesus is not for God's love.

It's from God's love.

Now to close, it's Thanksgiving week.

So I'd love to just have a little bit of Thanksgiving reflection.

I'm gonna read three verses from a psalm, give you a little bit of quiet.

And maybe you're gonna hear every little noise that this building has to offer you.

Maybe it's the first time you've been quiet all week.

Maybe you just need to just enjoy the rest that nobody's asking anything of you.

And you can just sit and be quiet for a moment.

Can we read the passage once?

You just sit quiet, let it kind of wash over you.

I'll read it a second time.

Maybe a word or a phrase will jump out to you.

And in a second bit of quiet, just let that word or phrase find its home in your heart.

Let's pray together.

God, in this time, as we open our hearts to you, would you soften us?

Would you center us, ground us in Jesus?

Would you give us thankful hearts in all the places that we tend to be greedy or discontent?

Psalm 100 verses 3 through 5.

Psalms 100:3–5

Know that the Lord, He is God.

It is He who made us, and we are His.

We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

And we are His.

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him and bless His name.

Our Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessings of this life for our homes, for our families, friends, for daily bread, for daily care, for the love and mercy you show without measure.

Teach us to live in grateful hearts, rejoicing always in your provision and giving thanks in all circumstances.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.