17. “Be Strengthened for Battle” (Ephesians 6)

Be Strengthened for Battle

Ephesians 6:10-20

We’ve been working through Paul’s letter to Ephesians since January, and we can tell that our time studying it is near to an end because Paul says, “Finally.” Here’s what I leave you with. Here’s the takeaway that I want you to sit with. There’s a sense in which all of our study in Ephesians has brought us to this point. And what he wants to drive home as a conclusion is a command: “Finally, be strong in the Lord.” Or perhaps, a slightly better translation, “Be strengthened in the Lord.” If you are a follower of Jesus, Paul says, you need to become more powerful, and you need to get that power from Jesus.

We’re going to be considering this final exhortation over the next two weeks. This morning, I’d like us to pay attention to why it is that we need to be strengthened. To what kind of strength is being offered to us. And how it is that we are to be strengthened. Why, what, how.

Why

First: why, if you are a follower of Jesus, do you need to be strengthened? The answer is that you and I are in a battle, and it’s a battle that we are not able to win.

Over these past weeks we’ve been talking about the collective project that God has given to us, his church. We are called to be a community through whom the glory of Jesus fills the world. This is how God is fixing what is broken. This is how he is making all things new in Christ—by his church. And that means that what we are called to do is also what God’s enemies most deeply, and energetically seek to ruin.

“Be strengthened in the Lord…put on the whole armor of God,” Paul says, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The devil is actively scheming against us. Whether we realize it or not, you and I are wrestling, as it says in verse 12; we are engaged in a kind of hand to hand combat. And Paul tells us that even though at times it might feel like that struggle is against other people who seek to oppose us, the real battle is “against the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil.” If you are a Christian and part of God’s great temple project, Satan and his demonic forces are actively seeking to take you down.

Which is a frightening thought. It’s also, well, a strange thought. Our culture generally feels okay about talking about God, a higher power that we might believe in. But the devil? The devil is someone that only appears in cartoons with a tail and pitchfork. Demons are something that our minds reserve for horror films, in the same category as ghosts and curses. Talking about demons can almost feel superstitious.

But the Bible doesn’t share any of our materialistic hangups. We are, Scripture says, in a world where there are very real and very dangerous spiritual forces of evil.

I suspect part of our confusion about this comes from the assumption that demonic activity is always dramatic, in the form of frightening demon possessions, like we hear tales from missionaries or like we see in movies; people writhing on the floor or speaking in raspy voices. Because we don’t see anything like this in our lives, we assume the spiritual battle being spoken of here doesn’t really touch us. But Satan, the Bible says, disguises himself, and he can work in many different ways. What his efforts all have in common is that he uses deceit—Jesus says he is the “Father of lies”—and that he seeks to destroy. He opposes the Creator who is the source of light and life. 

Wherever you see people becoming ensnared and dehumanized by deception, you see signs of demonic efforts. 

• Satan and his servants are incredibly capable at manipulating through half-truths. If you look in Genesis at how the serpent ensnared Eve, it was by saying true things that led Eve to believe something entirely false—that God was withholding something good from her. He continues to work in this way today: think of how many marriages have been destroyed by this half-truth: “how can it be wrong to love another person?”  
• Satan and his servants also deceive through creating vulnerabilities. The gospels speak of the devil oppressing a woman with a disease for 18 years so that in the midst of her suffering she might believe the lie that there is no hope for her. He uses accusations about guilt to cause people to believe they cannot be forgiven. When we are in our most vulnerable state, Satan knows how to exploit those moments to convince us that we would be happier if we submit to a temptation—whether that’s anger, laziness, lust.
• Sometimes Satan simply seeks to remove access to the truth. In Jesus’ parable of the sower, Satan is the one who snatches up the gospel before some hear it. Paul speaks of how Satan sometimes hindered him from being able to preach the truth in certain places. In our day, we only need to look at how distracted we all are, how increasingly hard it is to know falsehood from reality to see the handiwork of the devil.

He is the deceiver.

In all of these efforts, Satan is seeking to destroy what matters most to God. He uses lies to trap people into guilt and addictions and bitterness and broken relationships and isolation, so as to keep them from the freedom and love and goodness that is found in God. Even more than this, Satan especially seeks to destroy the spearhead of God’s mission in this world. He is intent on destroying Christ’s church.

Do you ever wonder how the church, a community where the Spirit is at work, can become so divided? Paul in Ephesians says, to a congregation, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger so that you don’t give opportunity to the devil.” Because Satan often takes smaller frustrations between members of a church and uses it like a wedge to create growing bitterness, gossip, sides being taken, so that people forget the deep unity they share.

How can a group of people transformed by the gospel be a community that has the reputation for being judgmental and unforgiving? Paul warns the Corinthian church to make sure that they forgive and receive back someone who had done something very wrong but now had repented for it. And Paul says do this so that “we don’t get outwitted by Satan and his devices.” For Satan will take that failure to show grace and allow it to make a community proud and unforgiving. 

Why is it that church leaders who devote their lives to serving Christ can so frequently and publicly fail? Paul specifically warns that elders and pastors will need to avoid falling into the “devil’s snare.” For Satan seeks to exploit the vulnerabilities of church leaders in order to deal a deep wound to God’s church.

Each of us who are part of Christ’s church need to be aware of what we are facing. In addition to our own sinful tendencies and the challenges of living in this world, there are evil supernatural persons who are working hard to oppose us and bring us down. 

And the truth is, they are more powerful than we are. You and I are not more clever than the Father of lies. We do enough skill in battle to withstand the prince of darkness. We do not possess greater willpower, more grit than the ancient serpent. The battle we are in is a battle that we simply are not able to win.  

Martin Luther had it right in the hymn we sang earlier: For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. 

But of course, that’s not how the hymn ends. It goes on to say: Did we in our own strength confide, our battle would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing.

What We Are Talking About 

This brings us to the second part of the sermon as we consider what it is that is being offered to us. The whole point of this passage is that we don’t need to confide in our own strength. “Be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of his might.” 

“Be strengthened in the power of his might.” This is a wild invitation, and it’s not the first time Paul has given it. Back in chapter 1 Paul prays that we who are Christians would come to understand the immeasurable greatness of God’s power, which he has made available to us. You have within your reach the very power of God that rose Jesus from the dead. This is what you need, Paul says, to be armed for the battle. Take hold of that strength.

And the metaphor he uses to help us think rightly about this “taking hold” is the putting on of armor. “Put on the whole armor of God,” he says—for that’s how you can stand against the schemes of the devil.  

Paul actually is drawing from the OT here, from the prophecy of Isaiah, who speaks of a moment in the future when God, looking at the evil of this world, arms himself to make things right. Isaiah says, “He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.”  Elsewhere Isaiah speaks of how God’s appointed Savior will wear truth like a belt and wields a sword in judgment.

These prophecies of a divine Savior are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus armed himself with the truth of God and the character of God and the power of God—he had the full armor. And in God’s strength, Jesus withstood the attacks of Satan throughout his life, and in his death and his resurrection, he defeated him. And now that Jesus has ascended into heaven, it’s like he’s now taken off his battlegear and tells us, “Here—now it’s your turn to use it.”

If you’re a Gen Xer like me, you might remember the TV show in the 80’s “The Greatest American Hero.” It wasn’t that good of a show, but I thought it was cool, because it was all about a really average guy who was given a mysterious supersuit, such that whenever he put on the suit, it gave him powers—speed, strength, the ability to fly.

That’s kind of the image we have here. There is amazing divine power for the battle that is available to us, a suit of armor that enables us to do what we could not possibly do on our own. It’s real, and it’s available for us to use. But first, we need to put it on.

And “WE” is an important word here. Because Paul is not just talking to us as individuals: he’s talking to us as a church. Throughout this passage the command is in the plural. I’m a Yankee, but to speak for a moment in southern, it’s “Finally, y’all be strengthened in the Lord; y’all put on the whole armor of God; y’all stand, having fastened on the belt of truth.” He’s talking to multiple people—the whole church, but he’s only speaking of one belt, one breastplate. That’s because we, the church, are the body of Christ, united, we are one mature man, as Paul said earlier. Satan especially attacks the body of Christ, and so also as the church community we together are to put on this armor so that we together are strengthened in God’s power. While there are certainly individual implications for each of us, the primary focus is on us collectively. “Y’all be strengthened by putting on God’s armor, for this is how you as the church can stand against the devil’s attacks.”

How?

And so we get to part 3: how? How do we as Trinity Western Springs take hold of God’s strength? How do we put on this armor so that we can stand firm against Satan’s attacks? Our passage calls us to make a number of choices to do this. Today, we’ll focus on three of them and cover more next week.  

How do we put on the armor of God?

First, it means us together choosing to be lifelong students of Scripture. Take up, Paul says in verse 17, the “Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The sword, of course, is a weapon that is designed to destroy. Paul elsewhere says, “The weapons we fight with…have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” With the sword of the Spirit, we can demolish Satan’s lies. Just think of how Jesus battled when he was being tempted in the wilderness. Satan throws a temptation at him, “Look, you can change these stones into  bread.” What does Jesus do? He calls to mind Scripture and applies it immediately so as to eviscerate the lie. “God’s Word says “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In a time where he was weak and his mind undoubtedly foggy, the truth of Scripture demolished Satan’s arguments. 

Satan throws so many half truths and distractions at us: how in the world do we keep from losing our heads? By immersing ourselves in God’s Word. By studying it together until it becomes so much a part of us that in moments of uncertainty, we can call it to mind like Jesus did. This is why so much of our time together is devoted to knowing what the Bible teaches: it’s what we seek to do every week in the sermon, when we recite the creeds, in our Bible studies and discipleship groups. And it’s also what we need to pursue on our own—reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on the bible. Because this is how we as a church keep from losing our way, getting thrown off by something that isn’t of Christ. In the Word is power! Power to destroy Satan’s lies. To take hold of God’s power, we need to be a student of the Scriptures.

Secondly, we put on this armor as we seek to let the gospel get inside of us and reshape the deepest parts of us. 

In verse 16 we are told that Satan attacks us with flaming darts. His goal is that wherever these arrows land, they start a fire that just grows more and more out of control. Which is how it works, right? Misunderstandings lead to hurt feelings lead to anger that becomes bitterness that leads to division. It’s all aflame. You find yourself failing at something, and that leads to shame, and the shame disconnects you more and more from God and his people. The fire blazes.

How are we able to protect against the flames of these attacks so that they don’t catch us on fire? We need a shield that can absorb the arrows and that is so doused in water that the fire is immediately extinguished. And so Paul says, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which we can extinguish these darts.” “Faith” here doesn’t just mean my personal belief, but “the faith,” that is, the gospel. When we are armed with the gospel in all circumstances, Paul is saying, the flames will be quenched. 

He’s talking about what we as a church sometimes refer to as developing gospel intuitions, where we are seeking to allow the reality of the gospel to become so deeply a part of us that they become instinctive. Paul in Ephesians prays that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened so that we might know the gospel—not just with our head, but in our experience, so that knowing the love of Jesus would fill us. This is what it means to be armed at all times with the shield of the faith—the gospel becomes so much a part of us that it protects us “in all circumstances.” 

For the gospel quenches the darts of temptation. When we are a community convinced of the grace of God, that gives us the freedom to talk openly about our concerns and the humility to hear others. And one good conversation can quench the possibility of division. When we are a community saturated in the gospel, we can speak openly about our failings and our shame loses its power over us. Our greatest weapon in withstanding Satan’s arrows is not our willpower; it’s the reality of the love of God.

How do we take up this shield? It begins as a community by us savoring the gospel. This is why our songs are filled with the truths of what Jesus has done and why we celebrate communion every week: because God has given the Lord’s Supper to help the gospel get inside of us as a community. One individual way we can take up the shield is by working to cultivate gratitude. Take time regularly to notice and give thanks for the ways that God has been kind to you. The more that we pay attention to how God loves us, the more that we savor God’s forgiving kindness to us, it’s like our shield gets bigger and more doused in water, and those darts have no chance.

Finally, we put this armor on as we take hold of the new way of Christ. “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.” In Romans Paul says something very similar: ““Put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.” That’s what Paul has in mind here—it’s what he spoke of in chapter 4, about us putting off the old man and putting on the new person, the person we are in Christ. In a sense, we’re talking here about choosing our identity. Who are you? Are you a person who follows your desires, whatever they seem to be at the moment? Or are you a person who follows Jesus and is committed to letting him lead you, no matter where he might take you?

It’s a decision you need to make before you find yourself in the heat of the battle. Because when temptation comes, if you haven’t made that decision, if you haven’t put on the breastplate of Christ, you will fall.

There’s a moment in the novel Jane Eyre when her attraction to Mr. Rochester means that she deeply wants to run away with him, even though he’s married. Jane speaks of how her feelings and even her reason became traitors to her, telling her that of course she should do this. She resists, saying, “I will keep the law given by God…I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad–as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour.” She withstood temptation in the hour of trial because she had determined that Christ’s will was her law, she had put on the breastplate of righteousness.

This is what we do every week when we take time to confess and repent after hearing God’s Word. We are actively seeking to place ourselves under Christ’s rule. And that rule is powerful. It protects us. This is why we confess so frequently “That I am not my own but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.” We are taking hold of who we are in Jesus, putting on this breastplate so that in the day of battle, when everything in us is saying, “I don’t want to do this,” we can say “Christ’s rule is for such a time as this, when my body and soul rise in mutiny.” We put on the armor as we chose to make our own the new way we have in Christ.

“Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.” Notice the logic here. If in the moment of calm we fail to do this, we will find ourselves completely unprepared for when Satan and his forces attack us. And he will be too strong for us. But Paul says, “You can stand. You can be victorious. Because you have the very power of God ready to help you. Take it up. Take up the sword—become a student of Scripture. Take up the shield—let the gospel shape you at your deepest part. Put on the breastplate of righteousness—let the way of Christ define you. Be strengthened in the Lord. This, Paul says, is how, as we battle together as the Church of God, we will prevail.