STRONGER-Part 18-AFTER THE SERMON
We trust today’s message encouraged and guided you in your journey of following Jesus. These notes are meant to help you remember and reflect on the message, help you go deeper into study on the subject, or to be used for a sermon group discussion. CLICK HERE to find a discussion group. Enjoy!
Sermon Title: The Armor of God
Main Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-17
If you’re going through this discussion with a community group this week consider taking the time to read the provided scripture to catch everyone up!
Check out this overview of the entire book, especially the first chapters of Ephesians to better understand the depth of Ephesians 1 Ephesians Overview
Summary:
Whether we want to be or not, we’re in the middle of a cosmic battle between good and evil. God seeks to save humanity...equip and deploy us to go announce the salvation of Christ to the world. Satan and his forces oppose God in every way. They seek to devour, kill, steal and destroy humanity. Satan and his forces do anything they can to keep humanity from knowing and trusting in Jesus.
Christians must expect the struggle of spiritual warfare for a few reasons: we’re allies with God, who is the victor. The victory we have in Christ has seriously upset the enemy and his spiritual forces. The message of Jesus is spreading everywhere through the church, challenging and threatening the power, authority, and influence of the enemy. Communities and people groups that once were divided are united in Christ and are a threat to the enemy's strategy of “divide and conquer.” The forces of evil are doing their best to divide, distract and discourage the church of Jesus Christ from advancing the truth of the gospel in love. For this reason, there is a huge target on us. But God has given us the overwhelming victory through faith in Christ. God has provided armor to help us stand firm in Christ as we fight to save our fellowman from sin, death, and Satan's schemes.
Pastor Ryan’s teaching notes:
Standing Strong V. 10-13
Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Our strength to face the attacks of the enemy comes from God and from His armor. The Bible always advises us to rely on God's power.
Put on “ALL” of God’s armor or “every piece.” Living without a piece leaves us vulnerable. Our ability to resist and stand through attacks depends on if we intentionally put on and live covered in the full armor of God.
The struggle is not overtly with humans, even though they are energized, influenced, and used as pawns in the fight (Eph 2:2). Ultimately, we are struggling with Satan and his evil forces.
What do spiritual battles look like?
Acts 19:8-31-Paul’s experience in Ephesus
Spiritual battles can be in the form of authorities in towns and cities who try to prevent Christians from spreading the message. The subtle form of persuading and distracting Christians to invest time and energy in irrelevant sides-issues, or to get caught up by new and distorted teaching. Then there is the age-old vices of money, sex, and power.
Some people dismiss all together spiritual battles and struggles as just part of life. Some people go too far and say everything is demonic and a spiritual battle. We can be sure that the devil is in the middle of trying to destroy our unity, our faith, and our focus to serve God and love others. We also can be sure that some of our struggles are brought on by our own decisions of not following and heeding God’s wisdom and instruction in the Bible. No matter what it is, Paul encourages the church to be ready for times of evil by putting on the armor of God.
THE ARMOR OF GOD V. 14-17 Paul was chained to a Roman soldier. He uses the Roman soldier as a metaphor to explain spiritual armor and weaponry for standing firm and unmoved by spiritual warfare.
Truth = Belt
The belt of truth is the truth of God’s message but it’s also living truthfully, or with integrity.
“The primary thing about the Christian message is that it is true; if it isn’t it’s meaningless. It isn’t true because it works; it works because it’s true. Never give up on the sheer truth of the gospel. It’s like the belt which holds everything else together in place.” -NT Wright
It’s important that we stand with and live according to the truth of God because Satan is the father of lies. Truth holds everything together, a lie can make things fall apart. When the enemy attempts to dismantle the truth through lies, God’s Word, our faith, and our integrity will hold together. They won’t fall apart and neither will the truth. The truth remains standing.
Righteousness = Breastplate
The breastplate of righteousness is similar to the belt of truth. This piece represents the believer’s righteous standing in Christ as well as living a righteous life. To put on righteousness is to walk in Christ-like virtue and character. To neglect what we know to be righteous action is to leave a gaping hole in our armor (Paul discussed this extensively in chapters 4-5).
The devil isn’t just a talented liar he is the great accuser. But he cannot successfully accuse, condemn or slander the believer who is living a godly life in the power of the spirit.
“Words are no defense against accusations but a good life is. The only way to meet accusations against Christianity is to show how good a Christian can be.” -William Barclay
Live like Jesus and your life will prove that the accusations are a lie. Righteousness will still be standing after the fight.
The Gospel of Peace = Sandals
There are two views for the sandals of peace: 1) We are ready to share the gospel of peace, the good news of Jesus to others or 2) We stand ready, at peace in our hearts and minds because we are at peace with God. The peace of Jesus gives us the confidence to stand against every attempt of fear and intimidation from the enemy.
Both would be biblical.
I’m at peace with where I stand, I stand on the truth of God’s Word. I know I’m forgiven, I am loved, I am immovable. The devil may try to disrupt our peace, but we’re not afraid.
Faith = Shield
The shield of faith is having complete trust in Christ. Like holding a shield, we live our lives holding onto the faithfulness and promises of God. We hold onto our adoption in Christ and the eternal inheritance we receive from putting our faith in Christ.
The enemy hurls flaming arrows at us that come in the form of doubt, despair, difficult circumstances, temptation, personal tragedy, fear, discouragement, and the list goes on. All planned by the enemy to burn and destroy. Only loyal faith and reliance on God will quench them all.
All you can do sometimes is hold on to God when so many pointed attacks are coming at you all at once. I’ve been there and I hold tight to my faith in God, His Word, and His faithfulness. Our faith is durable and able to stand firm when it’s in God, not ourselves.
Salvation = Helmet
The helmet of salvation refers to the assurance of salvation that we have in Christ and the future hope of final salvation at the second coming of Christ.
The devil will whisper lies that make us question whether God truly loves and forgives us. He’ll remind us of our weaknesses and shame us with past sin (even current sin we are unfortunately giving in to) to stir up insecurity about our standing with Christ. We put on our helmet of salvation by reminding ourselves that we are saved by the work and saving power of Christ, not our works (Eph 2:8-9). Faith in Christ declares us justified, saved and delivered, from the past, present and future.
Putting on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of peace, and holding the shield of faith, is extremely important to assist with the battle of the mind. The helmet of salvation is like a cap over our lives and it completes all the defensive armor so we can stand.
Revelation 12:11 “They triumphed over him (The devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”
Sword (of the spirit) = The Word of God
The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.
It is the sword of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit gave us the Word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:16) The Spirit uses the Word to guide, teach, convict, sanctify, correct, heal, train, and equip us.
When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the desert he distorted the word. Jesus wielded and spoke the Word properly and with precision, causing Satan to flee.
The truth of God’s word convicts, corrects, and teaches me way before the devil will ever accuse or misguide me.
We wield the sword of the Spirit, the word of God to block and cut down every attack from the enemy. But we also advance into this dark world, breaking chains and strongholds the enemy has established because we are “not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16).
HOW DO WE PUT ON THIS SPIRITUAL ARMOR?
The whole armor of God is a picture of Jesus Christ. Christ is the Truth, He is our righteousness, our peace, our object of faith, our salvation and He is the Word of God. When we believed in Christ we received the armor. We are clothed in Christ.
By faith and prayer, we put on the armor and I suggest that we live in it. As Paul said numerous times, walk a life worthy, walk in the light, live who you are in Christ. By faith, we remember we are walking in it, we are walking in this world with Christ. This is to put on the full armor of God.
We are never out of reach of Satan’s schemes, so we must never be without the whole armor of God.
A spiritual war needs spiritual armor and weapons. A spiritual war needs the power of the Holy Spirit. The battle for our community and world is spiritual and it won’t be won through the physical weapons of this world. It will be won on our knees in prayer and with the love and truth of the gospel in our homes, workplaces, and streets. More on that next week.
Takeaways:
The victory we have in Christ has seriously upset the enemy and his spiritual forces.
Our strength to face the attacks of the enemy comes from God and from His armor.
“The primary thing about the Christian message is that it is true; if it isn’t it’s meaningless. It isn’t true because it works; it works because it’s true. Never give up on the sheer truth of the gospel. It’s like the belt which holds everything else together in place.” -NT Wright
Live like Jesus and your life will prove that the accusations are a lie. Righteousness will still be standing after the fight.
The peace of Jesus gives us the confidence to stand against every attempt of fear and intimidation from the enemy.
The shield of faith is having complete trust in Christ. Like holding a shield, we live our lives holding onto the faithfulness and promises of God.
We put on our helmet of salvation to remind ourselves that we are saved by the work and saving power of Christ, not our works (Eph 2:8-9).
The truth of God’s word convicts, corrects, and teaches me way before the devil tries to accuse or misguide me.
By faith and prayer, we put on the armor and I suggest that we live in it.
A spiritual war needs spiritual armor and weapons.
Discussion:
What was one big takeaway for you from today’s message?
What something new you learned, from the message?
What scripture verse stuck out to you and why?
What did you sense the Holy Spirit was saying to you during this message?
Why is it a mistake to rely on our own power instead of God’s power, in this life?
What has spiritual warfare and battles looked like in your life?
How did you survive these struggles?
What piece of armor did you need to be reminded of and need to reinforce in your life?
How can we pray for your current struggle?
The most important decision you will ever make!
Are you ready to experience salvation and be transformed we encourage you to say a simple prayer like this from your heart: Dear God, I see my sin and how wrong it is. I see how without Jesus I’m lost. I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me from my sin, my past, this world, and your judgment. I repent, I turn away from that life and I put my faith and life in Jesus! Amen!
We would love to know if you made the decision to accept this wonderful gift from God. Let us know!
Pray Together
We hoped you found this AFTER THE SERMON discussion helpful for your walk with Jesus. We pray you can find ways to apply it this week!