I serve a great king. Isn’t that the truth this morning? The video we just watched actually kind of gives me chills at the end because it’s an amazing declaration of the victory we have in Christ Jesus.
If you have your Bibles with you this morning, would you turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, starting in verse 10 (through 18). It’s up on the overhead for you as well. This morning, I will be reading out of the New International Version
When I was a young teenager, maybe 13 or 14, I lived in Quispamsis, just outside of Saint John and my family attended King’s Valley Wesleyan Church. Every spring, the church puts on a huge Easter musical production. I had also been a part of it in some way, a kid that played with Jesus or a random townsperson in the ensemble, singing my heart out. But this year was different, I had always wanted to have a “role”. I wanted to be distinguishable. I wanted to be in the spotlight. The long and the short of it was I wanted to be the centre of attention. This year was my chance. I got a called from the director of the production and she said to me, “Jordon, how would you like to be a Roman soldier?”. Not only that, but she said I’d have a line! I was pumped. Now, my part was small, and my line was miniscule, but at 14 years old, I didn’t care. I spoke! People looked at me! I was a SOMEBODY!
One day, during a practice, the costume director pulled me aside to do a costume fitting. Now, I wasn’t a small teenager, but when I put on that Roman armor, I felt like I was swimming in it. The breastplate was too big and the helmet kept slipping off my head. In retrospect, I don’t know how to take that…did they really think I was a 6’2”, 350 pound 14 year-old? Well, I digress.
One of the things I got to learn through the course of the production was the importance of the armor I was wearing… or at least the importance that it symbolized. I have a feeling what I was actually wearing wouldn’t protect me against a 5 year old. Each piece of armor was specifically designed to protect a Roman soldier in battle. No piece was frivolous. No piece was an afterthought. Though, as a side-note, those broom-looking things were actually not used in battle. They served no purpose except to distinguish rank in parades and other ceremonies.
I share all of this to bring you back to the passage we read from the book of Ephesians. The apostle Paul, who more or less wrote every book of the Bible, admonishes his readers that we are locked in a battle. Now Christians in the 1st century were used to conflict of some nature. Many had been persecuted already by Jewish leaders throughout Israel. But Paul tells them that this is not the struggle that we need to place importance on. There’s another realm out there. And we are warriors in a spiritual battle of good versus evil. It’s a battle that has no middle ground. There was a line at the beginning of the video when one of the actors declared, “I am not an innocent bystander”. In this struggle, there are no bystanders. There are no neutral corners. This morning, we have been asked to suit up for battle. This morning, I want us to participate in a kind of basic training on becoming a spiritual warrior.
In his book, Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey writes, "There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him.
"Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons, but the instructor wanted $5 a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate."
Too many Christians believe it’s easier to pay the bully than learn how to defeat him. The problem is that many Christians do not understand the reality of the situation.
Here is the reality we live in:
1) There Is An Invisible World That Is Just As Real As The Visible World
Ephesians is chocked full of discussions of the “heavenly realms”. In chapter 1, verse 20, Paul talks about the power of God “that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms”. That is the reality.
2) We are involved in a battle in this invisible world.
Pastor Ryan shared a couple of weeks ago about Elisha and a battle against his foes from Aram. In 2 Kings 6, God opens the eyes of Elisha’s servant to reveal His spiritual army brought to protect Israel.
3) We are not in this fight alone.
God has given us the Holy Spirit to serve as a comforter and protector. We are engaged in a spiritual battle, but not alone. His Holy Spirit is present to protect and guide us.
So, this morning, would you come with me as we go through a spiritual boot camp and understand how we can be spiritual warriors for the cause of Christ?
There are three attributes of a spiritual warrior that we can enact into our lives to be effective warriors for the cause of Christ.
Firstly, a spiritual warrior knows his enemy. A spiritual warrior knows his enemy.
Look with me at verse 12 with me again, “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.”
It’s easy for believers to lose sight of the enemy. We are so easily side-tracked. We put ourselves whole-heartedly into a fight that has no eternal relevance. In fact, that fight can sometimes damage the cause of Christ.
As spiritual warriors, we need to have a clear picture of the enemy. Paul admonished his readers that the enemy was not the Jews or the Romans or the Samaritans. It was so easy for the early Christians to get caught up in a fight against those perceived enemies. But Paul declares, “No! Your fight is not against the Jews. Your fight is not against the Romans! These are humans. Empires will come and go. Religious oppressors will rise and fall. But there is an enemy that is real and persistent. And that enemy is not of this world.”
Throughout history, wars have been fought. Some have been local conflicts. Some have been national conflicts and some have been international incidents. The common thread throughout these wars has been that there is a specific enemy. For the Jews, it was the Romans. For the Americans in 1776, it was their British rulers. For the Canadians in the War of 1812, it was the Americans. In World War II, it was Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan. For Canadians today, it is the Taliban in Afghanistan. There is a specific enemy. Above all, when in war, it is imperative to maintain focus on your enemy.
Not only is it important to know who your enemy is, but to know how your enemy operates. Luckily, we’ve been given some spiritual espionage. We are not flying blind. We know how the enemy operates. We know his strategies. We know his plans.
Verse 11 says this “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes”. I love the use of the word “scheme”. It gives a good picture of our enemy. He is scheming, manipulative, devious enemy. He’s a bit like a guerilla warrior. Are you familiar with guerilla warfare? Guerrilla warfare is characterized as unconventional. They don’t operate as a traditional army. Guerrilla warriors attack their enemy at different areas of weakness to inflict maximum damage. Each enemy is attacked in different ways to ensure premium loses. Sound familiar?
Our enemy operates the same. For many of us, Satan does not come to us and tempt us to murder or steal. These are some of our areas of strength. But our enemy studies us, looking for a weakness, and when he finds that weakness, he exploits it. That’s why we so often stumble over the little things. We lie. We gossip. We slander. We curse. Satan attacks our weaknesses.
When we know our enemy, when we understand their motivation (check out John 10:10- our enemy’s purpose “steal and kill and destroy”. Simply put, this is his motivation), and his strategies, we understand how we can combat him. We can launch countermeasures. We will be able to arm ourselves against our enemy.
Consequently, that brings us to our second characteristic of a spiritual warrior. A spiritual warrior trains for battle. A spiritual warrior trains for battle.
When I think of training, my mind often wanders to almost every underdog movie from the 80’s and early 90’s. Maybe you know what I mean.
Think of Rocky…any Rocky, really. Have you seen that movie? Yea, I thought so. If you’re not familiar with the movies, let me bring you up to speed with Rocky III…the greatest Rocky movie of all times. Rocky Balboa is the champion of the world. He beat Apollo Creed for the world title. He is then challenged by the newcomer Clubber Lang, played by the illustrious Mr. T. After avoiding him for months, the two finally meet in a showdown that ends in tragedy for Rocky. He is beat. Really, he is creamed by Clubber Lang. Defeated, Rocky falls from grace, depressed and angry with himself. But encouragement comes from an unlikely place: Apollo Creed, his old opponent. Creed pushes Rocky to get back on his feet and reclaim his title.
What follows is a staple of underdog movies of this era: the classic training montage to the classic theme song. The montage lasts three minutes and shows Rocky go from down and out to the hardened warrior. In the climax of the film, Rocky defeats Clubber Lang and is once again the champion of the world.
What Rocky knew is that to defeat his formidable opponent, Clubber Lang, he had to train hard. He had to work hard to be able to overcome the odds and defeat his enemy.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Now, I’m sure Sylvester Stallone didn’t intend to have such strong spiritual parallels, but we can get so much out of that.
As spiritual warriors, we cannot simply go into battle against our opponent. What we need to realize is that our enemy is fierce and strong and on our own merits, we cannot beat him.
But we have been given help. We are not alone in our fight. God is with us and he has given us tools to help defeat the enemy. Look with me at verses 13 through 18:
Therefore put on the full armor 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.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Simply put, we’ve been given a manual for training for battle. A big part of training is properly utilizing the tools at your disposal. This is something that soldiers, fighters, and athletes alike understand. Hockey players don’t play without using all their equipment. To do otherwise would be foolish. A soldier doesn’t go into battle without his weapon. To do so would be foolish.
We have been given tools to help us in battle. We don’t have to dissect each tool given to us, even though they are all of extreme importance, but let’s look at some of the tools Paul describes.
When you look at this passage, you can see that they are deliberate analogies used by Paul. He gives tools for protection: the breastplate of righteousness. What does this mean? A breastplate, in essence, was armor used to protect a soldier’s heart. Righteousness, basically meaning right living, acts as a guard for our heart. Here, a warrior’s character acts as his defense. In fact, in Isaiah 59, God is described as putting on “righteousness as his breastplate” when going forth to bring forth justice.
Another tool given to us is the shield of faith. Paul says with it, “you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” In Paul’s day, Roman soldiers used shields covered in leather, soaked in water. The purpose was to extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. In the same way, our faith in Christ can serve as a shield that can extinguish the flaming lies of the enemy. Our dependence on God’s promises can protect us from the fiercest attacks of the enemy.
Finally, let’s look at one final at one more. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and coupled with that is prayer. This is a reminder that this battle is spiritual and cannot be fought on God’s strength, depending on His Word and on Him through prayer.
In Rocky III, Rocky couldn’t have defeated Clubber Lang without his mentor: Apollo Creed. Creed pushed him, trained him and gave him the tools to defeat his enemy.
Today, we cannot defeat our enemy without our Mentor, Protector, Savior and Friend. Without Him to train us, push us, and give us the tools, we cannot possibly defeat the enemy.
With His help, though, when we are properly equipped and properly trained, we can defeat the enemy.
That brings us to our third and final characteristic of a spiritual warrior. A spiritual warrior knows the outcome. A spiritual warrior knows the outcome.
You see, as spiritual warriors, we have an advantage that most armies don’t get. We know the outcome. See, while our enemy is strong, we serve a God that is stronger. In fact, we serve a God that has already defeated the enemy.
At the end of the first World War, on November 11, there was a treaty signed between the Germans and the Allies of the British, French and Americans. What was interesting about that day, though, was that the fighting continued on for hours until 11:11 for symbolic reasons.
Even though the enemy had already been defeated, they continued to charge forward. Many didn’t know they had lost and some did not care, but they continued to fight; to take one more casualty, to gain ground one more time.
In a similar way, the victory has already been won by Christ. We know how it will end because we have been given the declaration of victory. Even though the enemy continues to fight against that victory, Christ has won the victory already.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares that Christ “too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Christ brought victory over Satan through His death and resurrection.
In 1815, the legendary Battle of Waterloo was fought in Belgium between the British and the French. The Duke of Wellington led the British, while Napoleon Bonaparte led the French. After a stunning victory by Wellington and the British, the news of the Battle of Waterloo to England was signaled by a ship in the English Channel to a man on shore, who relayed the word to another on a hill, and so on across Britain. The process was a slow one and the messages had to be signaled one word at a time.
The first word, Wellington, was signaled. The next word was defeated. Then a fog closed in, and the message halted.
Across England people wept over the message. “Wellington defeated.” Then the fog lifted. The communication continued with two additional words: “the enemy.” Englishmen celebrated the victory.
There was great sorrow when the body of Jesus was carried from the cross to the tomb. The signal seemed to say, “Jesus Christ defeated.” But three days later the fog lifted and the angel announced, “Jesus Christ defeated the enemy.”
This morning, we can celebrate that Christ has defeated the enemy and is triumphant in his resurrection. What makes it even more amazing is how it is significant in our lives today. The triumph of Christ through His resurrection makes a difference in our world today and in our lives this morning.
When we operate as spiritual warriors with the knowledge that Christ has already won the victory, we move forward with confidence, knowing that with His help, we can continue to produce that victory in our lives.
I was so pleased when I learned that Erica had chosen to sing the hymn Victory in Jesus this morning because it really fits well with our discussion this morning.
Today, as we close, I encourage you to quit trying to be an innocent bystander. Many of us try to convince ourselves that we can just sit on the sidelines and avoid the conflict. We go through our lives reeking of mediocrity.
Here’s the problem though, there are no sidelines. There are no neutral corners. There are no innocent bystanders. As Christians we have been called to suit up. We have been called to take a side.
This morning, I would invite you to get serious about this. To embrace your call as a spiritual warrior and to utilize the characteristics shared this morning. Because spiritual warriors understand their enemy; spiritual warriors train for battle, and spiritual warriors know the outcome.
