Gordon McPhee – delivered to St. Edward’s, Beauharnois

                                                John 6: 56-69

Scripture:  Ephesians 6:10-20 [MSG]

10-12 And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

13-18 Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

19-20 And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out.

Summary:

We have lots of enemies we can name in our Christian life. Some corporate we can apply to everyone and others we feel are more personal. But normally, they all have one universal characteristic, they have a face. They are organizations, businesses, ideologies, or governments but are all represented and motivated by people. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul calls on believers to equip themselves with God’s weapons, the best weapons available and fully capable of defending against the enemy. However, the weapons itemized have little use against the enemies we perceive. Paul isn’t concerned about the evil world either around his Ephesian brethren, Greeks, Romans and pagans, or the one we perceive.

Paul calls us to concern ourselves with the true enemy, the one who attacks the likeness of Jesus Christ in us, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. The body of Christ standing together, helping and supporting one another to use the Word of God and prayer to defeat all these attacks that would diminish the light of Christ in us. It is this witness in us that Satan, the true enemy, wishes to extinguish. The evil in the world is simply a symptom of the lack of light. The battle to be won is for your heart and it is fought on the ground of God’s Word and fervent prayer.

“Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. (Ephesians 6:14 [MSG]”

WILL THE REAL ENEMY, PLEASE STAND UP?

Introduction:

On the CBS television network from 1956 to 1968 a news-related game show called “To Tell the Truth” made the phrase, “Will the real, insert the guests name, please stand up?” The idea was that three people would be interviewed but only one would be the real guest personality, the others would be imposters.

Who’s your enemy? The LGBTQ etc. anti-family, anti-Christian movement perhaps? Maybe it’s the evolutionists and scientists who call you naive and short-sighted. Possibly you think it’s intellectuals who complicate Christianity or anti-intellectuals who seem to seek only money or power. Whomever your perceived enemy is you can always put a human face on it can’t you? But that’s not the face Paul or Jesus ever called an enemy.

What Paul will be talking to us about today is that our real enemy is, like the contestant on To Tell the Truth, doing everything he can to make us see the devil in everything else but himself. If we misidentify the enemy, then we’ll gather to ourselves the wrong defenses and fight the wrong battles, while he is free to invade, defeat and destroy the body of Christ. The question Paul answers for us today is, “Will the real enemy, please stand up?”

Sermon:

As Paul comes to the end of his letter to the church at Ephesus he says, “And that about wraps it up.” Which tells us what is to follow is the extra bit; the insight and encouragement which summarizes and amplifies all that he has been trying to say, all he hopes his brothers and sisters in Ephesus have taken to heart and will live out in their daily lives.

In the first half of the letter, he expounded and explained the theology of salvation in Christ, the plan of God for all creation and our place in it. The last half is comprised of four sections that describe how this salvation life is to be lived out in community with family and fellow believers. In the middle, the first 16 verses of chapter 4 link the two parts, Paul stressing the vital necessity of unity in the body of Christ, the ecclesia, the church, and I dare say, us.

This final exhortation before the salutations and benediction is the concluding appeal of Paul that flows from the depths of his heart. An expression of his love for the Ephesians in its rawest form; and as such, not something to be missed, misunderstood, or taken lightly. Usually, it is represented as a call to equip ourselves for the war with a world full of “the barren pursuits of darkness.” A fledgling Christian community pitted against the whole world, David against Goliath. Sound familiar? But Paul’s concern is not with Roman Legions and pagan hoards, he has a much bigger enemy in mind.

In fact, all those we might typically and easily regard as our adversaries, pitted against God’s Holy Church are, in reality, our neighbours, for whom the good news is intended as a blessing. There is only one enemy, and the armour is to prepare you to battle that enemy, not those who hate you and would spitefully use you, humiliate you and destroy you. Those are the ones we are called to love into the arms of Jesus. No, this battle is much closer to home, and much more in our control.

“God is strong” is how Paul begins. It’s not by your guts, gumption or determination that you’re going to see success. Maybe if it was just resisting the common temptations that surround us day-to-day, more money, a better job, nicer clothes, home or car, we might bear up to the test; screw up our resolve and our courage and in a fit of self-righteous indignation overcome the siren of the world that would tempt us away from the path. But it’s not these things Paul is concerned with. “[E]verything the Devil throws your way” is Paul’s worry. Satan doesn’t give up and doesn’t release the siege. “This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.”

“This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” Are you afraid yet? You should be. That’s why Paul earlier in chapter 5:16 adjures, “So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!” Desperate times indeed if little old me is being pitted against Lucifer himself and the thousands of demons at his beck and call. I would hazard to say the cause of Christ doesn’t have a hope. But Paul says God wants us to be strong.

“Take everything the Master has set out for you.” We are not alone unless we choose to be. “Well-made weapons of the best material” are ours to have. And listen carefully to what Paul says about them, “put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.” There is no maybe, or possible, or equivocation in what Paul says. It is an imperative. You will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way, only put them to use. The forces stacked against you may seem overwhelming, but the Lord’s equipping is equal to the task.

Let us, however; ask again, “What task?” What are we up against when Paul says, “You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own?” Paul doesn’t give us a list of sins and wickedness to be watchful of in the world around us. Instead, he itemizes “every weapon God has issued” so you can “Take all the help you can get.” These are “Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation.” Which are, “More than words.” We must, “Learn how to apply them” because “You’ll need them throughout your life.”

Interesting isn’t it, that you must learn how to apply them throughout your life. These aren’t weapons to beat and cudgel the dark wayward world all around you, to bring it into submission to the will of Christ. These are disciplines of character you apply daily to your own life while amid a world that knows nothing of “truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation.” You become a witness for the light of Christ by living out these truths in your own life, despite the state of the situation and the world around you.

What Paul is saying, and the battle you are waging, is against a spiritual enemy who despises every vestiture of this character within you, the likeness of Jesus Christ. You will be given every opportunity and reason to abandon truth. Righteousness, the pursuit of God’s will, will seem overwhelming. Peace will seem to run away at every turn. Faith in the face of the testing of reality will seem insurmountable. And the accuser will always be there to tell you that salvation for such a one as you is impossible.

This is the war Paul is urging the Ephesians, and us, to wage. The whole letter he has been writing has been leading up to this conclusion. Not a war out there, but one waged in our minds and hearts. Satan doesn’t care about the world, in his mind that is already his. His enemy is you, in whom dwells the Holy Spirit and through whom light is shed forth into this world. The battles are fought and won or lost when you seek Jesus at every decision. Look to His Truth and strength at every crossroad. When you lean in faith on a future you cannot see that He has led you to.

In these battles, of course, left to ourselves, we would be easily lost. But Paul reminds us that God in His mercy and wisdom has given us the means to succeed. The first is God’s Word, which Paul says is an indispensable weapon. The next time you feel you are lost or weak or have gone off the path you should have been on, check to see how many hours in the day you have dispensed with God’s Word. It is indispensable. You cannot spend too much time reading, learning, meditating, pondering, and simply listening to the Word of God. You’ll find it handily accessible in the Bible but God also reveals Himself in His creation around you and the life of the community of believers.

I dare say that finding every possible means to distract you from spending time in meditation upon and the study of God’s Word is one of the Devil’s principal concerns. Not that ignorance will win the day, but that God’s Word is one of the principal means of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s presence in your life and fulfil the task of sanctifying you for His work. Looking for direction in your walk with God? Turn to His Word, not the latest how-to-be-a-better-Christian self-help book. In Paul’s day, the scriptures were read aloud and you took with you only what you memorized. In particular, because poetry lent itself to being memorized, they learned the Psalms and so would worship by reciting them together. We lose much when God’s Word does not hold a principal place in our hearts, and our minds.

However, that is not all nor is it enough. “In the same way,” Paul says, “prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” This is a two-edged sword and both edges need to be sharp and in use, equally. One will only do half the job, and a battle half won is a battle lost. “Pray hard and long.” Think about that. Praying long we can understand easily, although it is usually the first part of prayer we abandon. Have you ever imagined beginning to pray, saying just a few words before you eat or leave on a trip, and found yourself so drawn up in the Spirit by thoughts and concerns that you had to hold yourself back to get on with the task at hand? I dare say, probably not often, but wouldn’t that be wonderful if focusing our hearts and minds on the person of Jesus could have such an effect?

Praying hard is less obvious. I think of Jesus’ parable of the woman who badgered the judge till he gave in to her demands. Is everything we bring to Jesus in prayer afforded that kind of dedication and attention? Paul doesn’t qualify special things that need to be prayed about ‘hard’ or ‘long’. When you pray, pray hard, and pray long. Everything you take the time and effort to lift up to God is something He is attentive to. What will you come with, before the throne of grace, in your hands and your heart that you think worthy of the attention of the One who said whatever you ask for will be done? Truly a humbling insight and one I think that responds to the question of God answering prayer. Do you consider your prayers and then pray hard and long, without doubting that the One who knows how to give good gifts will shower down His blessing, and much more?

But as if this two-edged sword wasn’t enough against our enemy, Satan, Paul reminds us that we are not alone. He reiterates the lynch-pin of his letter joining the theology and the practice in the unity of the Body of Christ saying, “Pray for your brothers and sisters.” We are to, “Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” One of my wife’s pet peeves happens when the leaders on a cadet training exercise allow some of the participants to trail behind and even fall out of sight. They could become lost or suffer an injury and be unable to get help. Paul says, “Keep your eyes open.” Not to criticize, gossip, or pat yourself on the back for being better, but so you’ll be aware of those needing help, so none who put their faith in Jesus will ever be alone in their journey.

“And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out.”

The real enemy does not reveal himself. You’ll know him only in the attacks he makes on your truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. Guard these with the weapons of God’s Word, faithful prayer, hard and long, and being attentive in love to the trials and needs of one another. “Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet.”

Amen