GEARING UP FOR WAR - The Shield of Faith
October 2, 2022
Ephesians 6:10-16
Introduction:
My weird sense of humor always lets me enjoy Gary Larsen’s cartoons…He was the artist of little one scene drawings called, “The Far Side.”
And my favorite Far Side cartoon by far was this one…two deer standing upright in the forest…one deer is looking at his buddy who clearly has a target on his chest…and says, “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal!”
SHOW PIC
I think all of us have felt like Hal the deer at times. It seems like there’s a target on our chest and its hunting season.
The struggle Paul talks about is real and intense…Satan has a quiver full of arrows…He and his demonic army notch and light them up…and these fiery missiles shoot toward us from all angles.
We’ve put on God’s armor at the cross…buckled on the belt of truth, covered our hearts with Christ’s breastplate of righteousness, laced on new shoes making us ready to share the gospel of peace…but then comes a vicious attack…It’s the day of evil we’ve been warned to prepare for…How can I stand up under this barrage of flaming arrows? How can I stand firm? How do I stand my ground when I want to run away?
It’s when this is happening in our life God’s word tells us…“In addition to all this…take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish ALL the flaming arrows of the Evil One.” (Eph. 6:16)
Roman legionnaires carried a large rectangular shield called a “scutum.” It had a leather handle toward the top and was made out of wood with iron around its borders. It was the most important part of their gear for personal protection…and also for the protections of their comrades
SHOW INDIVIDUAL SHIELD PIC
When arrows were launched into a unit they would form a protective shell with their shields
SHOW UNIT PIC
It was called the “Testudo Formation, Tortoise Formation.” Soldiers in the back used their shield for covering…It was strong, tight formation formed by a unit to protect every soldier when they were attacked.
The individual shield was curved to wrap around the soldier’s body and allow him to stay in the fight…and it also could be held against another solder's shield to form a protective shell.
It's not a coincidence that the Apostle Paul chose the shield to represent faith in God’s armor.
Roman soldiers have two hands…just like every one of us (unless we’ve lost one in combat or never had one) but in those 2 hands they hold two things…in one hand they hold a sword…we’ll talk about that in a couple of weeks, Lord willing…and in the other hand they hold a shield…Both have to be grabbed and held on to.
I. THE SHIELD OF FAITH IS USELESS UNLESS WE USE IT
Ephesians 2:9 tells us “we are saved by grace, through faith…”
Grace and faith are the two essential ingredients of salvation according to the Word of God. Grace is the gift of God. It’s the action He took to send His son to die on the cross to pay for all our sins…all sin period. None of us deserve it…none of us can earn it…He paid our unpayable debt…and He conquered the consequences of sin by rising from the dead…Jesus now offers that same resurrection to those who will accept His gift of grace…
But that gift is accepted by the gift of faith…Grace comes to us through faith…there is no other avenue…unless I grab this gift, it lies useless on the table…unless you pick up this shield you have no way to extinguish the Evil One’s flaming arrows.
“Put on” and “take up” as in “put on” the whole armor of God and “take up” the shield of faith are clearly things we’re responsible for…God does grace…only He can…but He won’t force you to put it on or take it up.
It’s as if your commander comes to you with a shield…marked with your unit’s crest, it’s beautifully made out of wood and iron…Leather covers the outside so you can soak it with water to extinguish flaming arrows…but you decide it’s too cumbersome…too heavy…so you leave it on the floor…you were offered this shield…you just chose not to pick it up…who’s responsible for that choice…you or your commander?
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “Faith is the confidence of things hoped for and the assurance about what we do not see.” And verse 6 in that same chapter says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
You and I cannot see God or the Devil…neither of their Kingdoms or their armies are visible…both are in the heavenly realms…not the earthly…and both are fighting for our souls.
And you might think, “Why doesn’t God just crush him…why doesn’t God just conquer this evil pipsqueak? God is tremendously bigger and more powerful…you’re right…God did crush his head at Calvary…He lost the war then and there…Sin was defeated…death was conquered…But God will not love us by forcing us to choose Him…God will reveal Himself, convict us of our sin, draw us to repentance…He will give us His Word to reveal His heart and His plan…He fights for us…But He will not make us choose Him over the evil one…choosing God, surrendering our sin and lives to Christ requires us to choose Him…that’s faith.
You can believe there’s a shield all you want…faith picks it up…faith believes…faith repents…faith is obedient in baptism…faith receives new life through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit…faith rises to walk in new shoes…faith put on the armor of God and is ready for the day of evil when it comes.
So let me end by answering this question:
II. HOW DOES A SHIELD OF FAITH EXTINGUISH FLAMING ARROWS?
Nobody needs a shield of faith when they are lounging on the beach or when they’re surrounded by their best buds at a party.
But that shield’s gonna be pretty essential when the flaming arrows start raining down in a combat zone.
Let me share with you one tough scripture from the book of James:
JAMES 1:2-8
Folks, we’re human, so when tough trials come our way…when the arrows start zinging at us…our natural reaction isn’t to “consider it pure joy” our normal reaction is “God why is this happening to me…get me out of this now!” Why are you letting this happen!?”
There are two choices for a Christian…move away from God because you believe He is punishing you…or move toward God because you trust He is growing you.
Moving away from God has some caustic affects in your life…you create distance between Him and more often than not your Church family, you become cynical and critical…not just with God but almost always of others…pure joy is replaced with bitterness and doubt…you become that double minded individual James cautions about…And your prayer life stops or focuses on the wrong things. You stop believing God is really working.
The second choice is “you move closer to God.” You pick up the shield of faith and take your stand on the truth and on the righteousness of Christ…In other words…“You fight. You resist the lies of the Evil One.”
Listen to what the Apostle Peter tells us to do in his first letter:
1 PETER 4:12-19; 5:6-11
How does our shield of faith extinguish the flaming arrows of a Satanic attack:
1. We pray believing in a God who is working…nothing is going to touch us that doesn’t pass through his nail scarred hands…Even though we cannot see what He has in store for us…it is for our good and our growth…God’s plan isn’t to make us comfortable…His plan is to make us like His Son…that cannot happen without trusting Him in prayer through trials. Fervent prayer to our “Abba” father thanking Him for what He is doing in the midst of an attack…pours water on Satan’s arrows!
And secondly,
2. We cover others with our shield…As God’s family we gather around each other in that “Turtle Formation.” We don’t shoot at each other…which is exactly what Satan hopes to accomplish with his schemes…we cover each other with love and prayers…“We bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.”
(Gal. 6)
This is exactly how Jesus has designed His Church…It is the greatest witness of our faith to a world that’s trying to fight its own battles with filthy rags…and most of the time the result is pouring gasoline on flaming arrows.
Randy Frazee has written a book called “The Connecting Church.” He has a son who was born without a left hand. One day in Sunday School the teacher was talking with the children about the church. To illustrate her point she folded her hands together and said, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple; open the doors and see all the people.”
She asked the class to do it along with her - obviously not thinking about his son’s inability to pull this exercise off. Then it dawned on her that the boy wouldn’t be able to join in.
Before she could do anything about it, the little boy next to his son, a friend of his from the time they were babies reached out his left hand and said, “Let’s do it together.” The two boys proceeded to join their hands together to make the church and the steeple.
Frazee says, “This hand exercise should never be done again by an individual because the church is not a collection of individuals, but the one body of Christ.”
Something powerful happens when people of faith join hands to make the church. Satan’s arrows are extinguished and real connections are made.
