Meadowbrooke Church

Where’s the Love?

The church in Ephesus was planted sometime around AD 52 by apostle Paul with the help of Aquila and Priscilla.  The book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John sometime in the mid 90s.  The church had existed in a very difficult city for many years; a city where Christians did not have rights, emperor worship was mandatory, and the economy was heavily dependent on the worship of Artemis. From the time the apostle brought the gospel to the city and the letter to Ephesus, written to the church and included in the book of Revelation, the challenges the church faced in Ephesus did not get easier.  Yet in its 40th year (relatively speaking), they were known for doing some really good things and what they were most known for was their doctrinal purity.
 
It would have been easy for any church present in a city like Ephesus to have fallen prey to the sin of the city had its doctrine not been rock solid.  The church was commended by Jesus for her doctrinal purity: “I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary” (Rev. 2:2–3).  Jesus praised the Ephesian Church for not tolerating evil people, their ability to sniff out false apostles, and perseverance to hold the line doctrinally in a city that was utterly demonic.
 
It is only because their doctrine as a church was pure that they were able to persevere and stand against the onslaught of evil people, false apostles, and every other demonic force that threatened their congregation.  Sound doctrine is good theology, and good theology is known as orthodoxy.  As a church, we spent 46 weeks in Ephesians.  Throughout the epistle were encouraged to make sure that our doctrine is pure!  We are told in Ephesians 5:26 that Jesus is cleansing and purifying His people “through the washing of the water of the word.” We, the church of Jesus Christ, are being, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone...” (2:20-22).  Sound doctrine cannot and must not be substituted by what others feel is less offensive and more agreeable.  
 
However, there was something that Jesus did have against the church in Ephesus, and it is a danger each of us face even today. 
 
Their Love Was Found Wanting
There was a lot of good the Ephesian Church was doing that was praised by Jesus, but the thing that threatened the church most in Ephesus was not the temple of Artemus, it was not the demonic idols and sorcery the city was known for, and it was not even the Roman Empire that saw Christianity as a threat.  The thing that threatened the church was from within, and it is what threatens us today. The church looked healthy on the outside, but there was a cancer that if left untreated could turn terminal, and it was the only antidote that keeps orthodoxy from becoming dead legalism. Listen again to Jesus’ loving but stern rebuke of this church: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (v. 4).
 
Now, there are three questions you need to answer before you can be helped and encouraged by Revelation 2:1-7, and verse 4 is at the center of those three questions.  Here are the three questions that must be answered: 
“What is meant by ‘first love’”?
“Whose love abandoned who?”
“Who is it that was no longer loved?” The question is this, “What is the object of their love that they left?”
 
What is meant by “first love”?
If the Bible you are using is the NIV or ESV, then your translation reads, “...you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  But the KJV and NASB versions of the Bible translate the Greek in such a way to suggest that the Ephesian Christians have left their first love.  Is the love that has been abandoned a person or is it the depth and quality of love?  Well, one way you can answer that question is to see if there are any clues in the epistle to the Ephesians that help us understand what kind of love is being talked about here, and thankfully there are two clues given to us at the beginning and end of Paul’s letter to this church.  The first clue is found in Ephesians 1:15-16, “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you...”  The second clue is found in the very last verse in Ephesians: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love” (6:24). 
 
So what kind of love is it that has been abandoned?  I believe it is the quality of love they once had for another person or people.  This is why I believe the NLT version of the Bible offers the best translation of Revelation 2:4, “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!”
 
Whose Love Abandoned Who?
This is an easy question to answer.  The Ephesian church is who “left” their first love. What Paul thanked God for in Ephesians 1:15-16, they had lost.  Love is what keeps orthodoxy from becoming legalism.  Legalism is a perversion of orthopraxy (right living) that is devoid of mercy and grace.  You also need to understand that love for Jesus and His people with orthodoxy is also a deadly cancer that threatens the church. 
 
The Ephesian Church abandoned their first love, and I do not think that they did it intentionally. I believe it happened somewhere along their journey and participation in God’s mission that they did not even realize that it happened.  During my church planting years Sundays were always hard work just to make it happen.  We had to set up our platform, chairs, and equipment every single Sunday for years.  One particular Sunday, Seth wanted to go home with me so that he could play with his friends whose parents were helping me tear down.  When I was finished with what I had to do to wrap up, I headed home but it wasn’t long before I received a call from Julie (my administrative assistant at the time) who asked me if I had forgotten anything.  I immediately realized that I had forgotten my Bible to which she replied: “Yes, you did forget your Bible.  Did you forget anything else?”  At that moment, I realized I had forgotten Seth, who was about five at the time.  Somewhere along the way the passion and love for Jesus had been left behind while they held tight to their orthodoxy, but what they were left with was a legalism that threatened from within the church.
 
Who was no longer loved?
You probably already guessed by now the answer.  I believe it was their love for Jesus and His people.  When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was by a group of legalistic religious leaders, he answered: “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:37–39).  Your love for God will create in you a love for people; you cannot claim to love God and at the same time refuse to love others.  Your vertical love for God will overflow into a love for others, this is especially true for those who Christ died for and are now His church (people).  If you are struggling to believe what I just said, then believe the apostle John who said, “If someone says, ‘I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’” (1 John 4:20).
 
I believe the Ephesian church, who was first known for their faith in Jesus and incorruptible love for Him was the catalyst that created in them a love for one another that they were known for in the early days of the church’s existence.  Their love infused faith in Jesus and their love for all the saints was the cocktail God used to push back evil and transform lives! 
 
What Revelation 2:1-4 teaches us is that Jesus wants our obedience, but He also wants our hearts!  In fact, if Jesus has you heart, He will have your obedience.    
 
The Way Back is Always Jesus
What about you dear Christian?  Have you lost your love for Jesus and His people?  Has your love for Him waned over the years?  Have you gotten sidetracked?  Think about the days when you first encountered Jesus and believed in Him. Remember the excitement of those days.  In many respects, it is very similar to any relationship where you experienced love.
 
If you are married, think back to the days when you first met your spouse.  Try to remember what you felt on your first date.  Can you recall the day you were engaged?  Revelation 2:1-7 reminds me of a funny little article titled, “The Seven Years of the Married Cold.” I am not sure who wrote it, but I first heard about in through a sermon Pastor Greg Laurie preached; here is how the article described the first seven years of marriage dealing with the common cold:
First year of marriage: “Sugar dumpling, I’m really worried about my baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle and there’s no telling about these things with all the strep going around. I’m putting you in the hospital this afternoon for a general checkup and a good rest. I know the food’s lousy, but I’ll be bringing your meals in from Rozzini’s. I already have it all arranged with the floor superintendent.”
 
Second year: “Listen darling, I don’t like the sound of that cough. I’ve called Doc Miller to rush over here. Now you go to bed like a good girl, just for Poppa.”
 
Third year: “Maybe you had better lie down, honey. Nothing like a little rest when you feel lousy. I’ll bring you some soup.”
 
Fourth year: “Now look, dear, be sensible. After you’ve fed the kids, and done the dishes, and washed the floor, you better lie down.”
 
Fifth year: “Why don’t you take a couple aspirin?”
 
Sixth year: “I wish you’d just gargle or something instead of sitting around barking like a seal all evening.”
 
Seventh year: “For Pete’s sake, stop sneezing! Are you trying to give me pneumonia?”
 
I am not sure what you may be feeling concerning your marriage, but my relationship with Jesus has also had its ups and downs.  The problem in all my 33 years since the day I entered into a relationship with Jesus was never with Jesus and always with me.  I was the one who found myself growing cold.  But when I first came to faith in Jesus, I could not get enough about Jesus, nor could I stop talking about Him.
 
Who is Jesus to you today?  Have you grown weary of spending time with Him? When you sing in church is it more about what you like about the song than it is about who we are singing about?  Do you find reading your Bible to be boring? Do you find being around His people to be irritating?  Is it possible that your problem is less about music, the church you attend, and your spiritual lethargy, and more about what you have forgotten and left behind? 
 
I don’t want you to feel worse about where you are at spiritually.  But if you are experiencing a loss of awe and wonder, if you are less grateful for the miracle of your salvation, if you are motivated by duty instead of delight for God, and if you feel pressure to perform, you have lost your first love just as the church in Ephesus did.  But here is the good news: it doesn’t have to be that way any longer! Listen to what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus and what He is saying to you: “Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5).
 
Here is what Jesus tells us we can do to get back to our first love: Rember where you have fallen, repent by recognizing what led you away from Jesus so that you do not do it again, and return to Jesus by serving and loving on His people. It is quite simple:
Remember the things you did that deepened your love for Jesus and His people.
Repent by beginning to do the things that fueled your love for Jesus and His people.
Return by finding ways to spend time with Jesus and ways you can serve with His people.

Freedom in the Desert

Men's Breakfast - January

Rejoicing in Suffering

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Rom 5:1-11 ESV)  
As we begin a new year, many of us are filled with hope and expectation. We set resolutions and goals in anticipation of making even more of the year ahead. However, we don’t really have control over the actual outcomes. Illness can beset us. We may experience the sudden loss of someone close to us. National or global events beyond our control can intrude upon our lives, affecting our businesses, jobs, or financial situations. On top of the uncertainty of life, we are constantly bombarded with stories of what could potentially go wrong. Will the stock market crash and take your retirement fund along with it? Will the economy enter a recession and cause my company or department to downsize? What if this country goes to war with that country? Now, the question that I want to address today is: how do we, as Christians, think about and address the uncertainty of this world and suffering when it happens to us and those close to us?
When contemplating this passage in Romans, I thought of a story and what it means to rejoice in suffering as a believer in the risen Messiah. This story is about a Chicago lawyer and businessman named Horatio Spafford. Now, Horatio had invested much of his wealth in real estate in the city.
Unfortunately, most of these properties, and thus much of his investment, were reduced to ash during the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871. The fallout from this loss and the work that he and other property owners in Chicago had to undertake to rebuild and restore would take years. The scale of this tragedy cannot be overstated. Over 17,000 buildings were destroyed, and more than 100,000 people (1/3 of Chicago’s population) were homeless. If this were not enough, the Spafford’s young son died of scarlet fever at the age of four not long after the fire.
A couple of years after the fire, Horatio decided to take his family on a trip to Europe to escape the constant work and stress of rebuilding. Who wouldn’t want to get away after all that had happened? He and his family were also going to meet up with and help the famous evangelist D.L. Moody, who was working on the continent at the time. However, some urgent business came up that needed his attention as the trip neared, so Horatio sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him.
One week after the ship set sail, it was violently struck in an accident by another boat at two in the morning. Because of how the ships collided, the vessel the Spafford family was on sank within 12 minutes. Of the 313 people on board, 226 perished. All four of Horatio’s daughters perished that night. His wife, Anna, was found unconscious, held up by floating debris. Nine days after the accident, Anna landed in Europe and sent a telegram. It read, “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
Upon receiving the message, Horatio booked the first passage he could find. However, this was during the 1800s, so this was far from a rapid process. One night, the captain called Horatio aside and informed him that they were currently sailing over the location where the ship carrying his family had sunk. As I contemplate this situation, I can’t help but ask myself how I would have responded. Would I be overcome by anguish or anger? Would I have broken down and wept or shouted out words of rage at God for allowing such a thing to happen? Instead of either of these things, Horatio returned to his cabin to attempt to try to sleep and felt a sense of comfort and hope overcome him. He wrote down these words, “It is well; the will of God be done.” These words would soon become his timeless hymn that resounds with so many gospel truths. The name of that hymn is “It Is Well with My Soul.”
It is worth reflecting on that there is a similar story in the Bible. Job, the man God Himself called blameless and upright, lost everything he owned in a single day. Additionally, his sons and daughters all died that very same day. Job responded to these events with the statement, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Notice the similarities? These are not words of quiet resignation or defeat. The LORD may give, and He may take away. In the words of Horatio, the will of God will be done. However, regardless of what happened to these two men, their response is instructive and encouraging beyond belief. Despite what comes, the believer can say, “Blessed be the name of the LORD,” and “It is well with my soul.”
Now, these stories may be inspiring, but you’d be right in asking, “How do I develop that kind of abiding faith and trust in God?” It is so easy to marvel at the faith of others. But the reality is that knowing the stories is not enough. These same types of tragedies, and many more besides, can happen in our lives. Thankfully, as in all things, God does not leave us alone. And I know this because the verses we are looking at today have been my anchor through the most challenging times in my life. They acted as my north star, the way that God guided me through trials and kept me traveling on the path that leads to Him. So, let’s dive in.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
            The chapter opens with the word, therefore. This means that what Paul, the apostle who wrote this letter, is about to say directly follows what he has already said. It is essential to keep this at the forefront of our minds as we read scripture; what is the context? Uncountable numbers of irresponsible teachings have come through taking verses out of context and misapplying them. So, let’s take a high-level view of what was said in the letter before our passage today. Paul was writing to the believers in Rome in anticipation of him traveling there, something he had long wanted to do. He wanted to accomplish several things. The letter to the Romans primarily concerns the gospel; Paul wanted to unify the church in Rome around the good news of Christ. Romans is a great place to start if you want a comprehensive understanding of the gospel message. Additionally, Paul wanted to prepare for the missionary journey he was planning to Spain; he wanted the Roman believers to help him on his way after he was able to visit them. Finally, Paul wanted to get in front of a growing division in the church between Jewish and Gentile believers. The focus for our study today aligns with the primary purpose for which Paul was writing: the good news of what Jesus has done. Or, as we more commonly call it, the gospel.
            Paul starts his letter by pointing to the grandeur of the universe as proof of God’s existence and that we can even learn some things about Him through creation. However, many, instead of worshiping the God who created everything, worshiped the things He made.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Rom 1:20-25)
            Paul addressed this because pagan worship was the norm in the Roman Empire. It is important to note here that the people Paul is talking about were the ones who exchanged God for created things in nature. God allowed them to choose and gave them up to what they wanted. N.T. Wright perhaps sums up this concept best.
“You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.” N.T. Wright
            This is a critical point that Paul made. It spoke directly to the heart of Roman culture and society. And it speaks directly to ours as well. The Romans, like the Greeks, worshipped a pantheon of gods who were very human in nature. They were spiteful, filled with lust, and sought their own pleasure above the good of others. Paul was saying that if you venerate that type of activity, you will act the same way. Now, consider our culture today; we may not wrap it up in religious language and ritual, but it is the same. Think about the lyrics of many of the most popular songs today. Consider the lives and actions of celebrities and others that our society lifts up and puts on a pedestal. Reflect on how often we are told in advertising by the rich, powerful, and famous how if we only buy this item or consume this service, we will be as happy and fulfilled as they are, or supposedly are. Think about how society as a whole treats marriage as trivial or that it is entirely ok to objectify other human beings, especially with what is deemed acceptable to view on the internet for our own pleasure.
Paul then addresses those who did know about the one true God, namely the Jewish nation. However, instead of commending them, Paul has a very different message. What he said was precisely what Jesus did. It doesn’t matter that you come from the line of Abraham or how well you know the Old Testament Law. God cares about and judges people based on what we actually do.
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. (Rom 2:12-13)
            And if we stop for a minute and honestly look at our own lives, this is what we see. We know at our core that there is an absolute standard for good and evil. We know that saying one thing and then doing another is both hypocritical and wrong. We have all, myself included, done things that genuinely hurt other people, damaged relationships, and were contrary to what we know in the deepest parts of ouor being are good and right and holy. Paul quoted the Psalms to sum up this point.
10 “None is righteous, no, not one;11     no one understands;    no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;    no one does good,    not even one.” (Rom 3:10b-12)
            Now, this is a pretty bleak letter so far. This is not something that you read at the beginning of a year to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We’re left with all of these questions that seem pretty important and rather urgent. What if there is a creator of the universe? Spoiler alert: there is. And what if He genuinely cares about right and wrong and how we treat each other? Another spoiler alert: He does. If we’ve all fallen short, and there are consequences for that, is there something that can be done to restore ourselves to God? And here is the best spoiler alert: There is. Paul tells us how this happens.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood (Rom 3:21-25a, NIV)
            And there it is, the gospel, the good news that Paul based his entire letter around. There is a God who created both us and the universe we live in. He is perfectly good and, therefore, has made a moral law that we all are to live by. However, all of us fall short and sin. This causes a separation between us and God. However, God did not see fit to leave us as we are. He sent Jesus to live the life we never could and die the death we deserved so that we could be reconciled to Him. This is the good news that Paul was proclaiming.
            So, we return to the opening verses of our passage today.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
            We now see what the “therefore” is there for. We were separated from God, but we can now be justified before him by faith. And because of this good news, that we have been justified by faith, certain things happen in the believer's life. First, we have peace with God. You see, it wasn’t that we were just separated from God. We were, in fact, working against Him and were enemies.
In another letter, Paul said, “21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col 1:21-22, NIV). We just wrapped up an extremely deep study of the book of Ephesians here at Meadowbrooke. Remember what we were told in that letter about the state we were in before being saved?
 
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1-3)
            When Paul says that we now have peace with God, he doesn’t mean that we have a tranquil state of mind or something like that. Instead, when we become followers of Jesus, we go from being against God or an enemy of God to having peace with Him. Remember what Paul said earlier in the letter. Nobody is righteous; nobody does good.
            But it doesn’t stop there. We aren’t just in some truce or ceasefire with God. What has happened is so much more glorious and incredible than that. We also, through Jesus, have obtained grace. Now, grace can be a mysterious-sounding religious word. All it means is that somebody has received unmerited or unearned favor. It means we don’t deserve the favor or good things God freely bestows on us. Remember, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God; we all were, by nature, children of wrath. The Greek word that is translated here as “access” literally means “to approach” or “to bring into.” We are brought into God’s grace and can actually have a personal relationship with Him. How much has changed because of what Jesus has done for us. We who were enemies not only have peace with God but also can draw near to Him and have a personal relationship with our Creator.
            Finally, we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And given what we have just read, there is so much to rejoice in. But again, there is something even more glorious behind these words. We rejoice not just in our newfound peace with God or our ability to be brought into His grace. We rejoice in the hope of something else. The word “hope” in our English language is quite weak. Typically, it means something like, “I hope this year is better than the last” or “I hope my team wins the Super Bowl this year.” It expresses the desire for something to be true, but with the realization that it may not turn out that way. However, the Greek word employed here means something more like “joyful and confident expectation.” Our hope is in something that we are confident and sure of. Tim Keller remarked on this passage that, “Christian hope is not a hopeful wish – it is a hope-filled certainty.”
            But what is it that we are hopeful for? If we were to poll random people about what they most hoped for or were most looking forward to regarding the promises of God, we would likely get a broad range of answers. Many would almost certainly revolve around seeing loved ones again or being eternally happy and without pain or suffering. However, notice what Paul says here. His focus is on the glory of God. More than his own happiness or desires, the reason for Paul’s rejoicing is in the hope of being in the presence of God’s glory.
John Murray remarked on this passage, “[Believers] are interested in the manifestation of the glory of God for its own sake. The glory of God is their chief end and they long for and hasten unto that day when with undimmed vision they will behold the glory of God in its fullest exhibition and vindication.”
            What this means is that the hope of the Christian is not in the hope of our wants, desires, and comfort. Instead, our hope is in being with and living within the glory of God. The focus is on God, not on us. John Piper put this better than anybody else I have heard.
He said, “The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?” Paul’s answer would be a resounding no. What makes the restored heaven and earth what they will be is that we will finally be with God in all His infinite glory. Everything else pales in comparison to that. And any heaven without that is no real heaven at all.
            Now, Paul has covered a lot of ground in his letter so far. The people listening to this being read for the first time would have been on a real rollercoaster of a ride. First, they heard about this God who is powerful and mighty enough to create the entire universe in which we live. But then they heard that this God is also perfectly good and, therefore, has a moral law. They, just like all of us, broke that law. And they, just like us, broke it repeatedly. They heard about how this created a separation between humanity and God, a chasm we could not overcome ourselves. However, when everything seemed lost and without hope, they heard about how God, through Jesus, redeemed them, and they were now justified. This justification was not through anything they had done but what Jesus had done for them. They heard that they did not have to try to earn God’s merit, and in fact, they never could. They heard that what God really sought after was their hearts and faith in Him. Finally, because of that faith, the believer has peace with God, access to God’s grace, and the hope-filled certainty of witnessing God in His full glory one day. What an experience it must have been to be the first people to hear this letter being read. Can you imagine hearing this fantastic news?
Then, the church in Rome would have heard the words, “Not only that…” Wait! There is more!?! What more could there be after being told this fantastic news? I can only imagine sitting there and anticipating new promises and hopes the apostle was about to relay. Instead, the audience heard, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.” Wait… what? We rejoice in our suffering? Weren’t we talking about drawing close to God and witnessing His glory?
            But this is reality, isn’t it? When we decide to follow Jesus, all the hardships and suffering we’ve experienced don’t magically disappear. We still get sick. Our finances don’t magically improve; we all don’t suddenly receive private jets and mansions. We still lose loved ones, and we all certainly still experience getting older and all the wear and tear that comes from that.
            As I reflect upon this past year, the single word that comes most to mind is “difficult.” This was a challenging year for our church family, and we had to go through things, including church discipline and the termination of a staff person in a pastoral role. Individuals and families in our church have also been going through extremely difficult things. There have been cancer diagnoses, losses of family members, struggles with chronic illnesses, sudden visits to the ER, heart issues, urgent and completely unexpected surgeries, and many, many more things besides. Personally, this last year, especially the past six months, has, if I’m being completely honest, been extremely difficult. Due to an autoimmune disease, my health spiraled to a place I have not experienced in over a decade. This resulted in a 10-day stay in a hospital after losing 15% of my body weight and a substantial amount of internal bleeding. But, more importantly, it put a lot of strain on my marriage and meant I was less present as a father than I should be. The stark reality is that suffering is still a part of our lives. It has real impacts on us and those around us. But, as we’ll see, faith in Jesus is not about the cessation of pain and suffering but instead giving that suffering over to God in faith that He will use it for good.
            Paul lays out how this looks for us:
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
            Notice here that Paul says we rejoice in our sufferings, not because of our sufferings. Paul does not say that suffering suddenly becomes pleasurable for us or trivially easy to endure. He does not say that God is giving us a way to prove ourselves to Him or earn His favor by persevering through hardship. Instead, we rejoice in our sufferings because of something we know. We know that suffering can produce something within us. That something is endurance. For most of my life, and by that, I mean since I was eight, I have participated in endurance sports. This has included distance running, cycling over 100 miles in a day over multiple mountain passes, and summiting 20,000 ft peaks. I bring this up because I have learned a lot about myself and quite a bit about endurance through these activities.
            The first is that endurance is not something magical you hope to have on the day of your event. It is something that you train for diligently. It may take months or even years in some cases to train your body and mind to accomplish the goal you have set before yourself. It is possible to train and not reach the goals you set. However, if you don’t train, the goals will forever remain out of reach. And the thing about training is that a substantial amount of suffering can be involved. Mile repeats hurt. Hill training on a bike can be painful. Interval sessions have left me draped over the handlebars of my indoor trainer like a rag doll. Watching cyclists or other endurance athletes achieve the incredible can be awe-inspiring, often making it look easy. However, it isn’t. What we witness when we watch world-class athletes is the outcome of a lifetime of training and preparation.
And I can tell you from experience, every day I’ve had where I’ve looked like this, cycling up mountain passes feeling in great shape and like I could tackle the biggest of obstacles, I’ve had many more days where I’ve looked a bit more like this.
The key here is that, like in athletics, in life, endurance is not something that happens automatically or magically. It is something that is produced. And often, the production of endurance happens through the crucible of suffering.
            But, unlike endurance training for sports, the type of endurance Paul talks about is not the end goal. It serves a greater purpose. You see, our character is also changing when we develop spiritual endurance. Now, this word in Greek doesn’t just mean something like, “He is a really good person and has good character.” Instead, it is about something proven, or something tested and found to be approved. An example of this can be seen in Paul’s letter to the Philippians concerning his protégé, Timothy.
22 But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. (Phil 2:22)
            The phrase “proven worth” is the same word that is translated as character. And to some extent, we’ve all experienced this. If we have endured something before, when we have to endure it again, there is a confidence we didn’t have before. Or, thought of in a different way, if you had to go into battle with somebody, would you rather go with a special forces soldier who had been on multiple deployments or somebody who has never been through military training but plays their fair share of Tom Clancy video games? The choice is easy, right? What Paul is saying here is that when we go through suffering, endurance is produced. And when we endure our trials and tribulations, we are tested successfully or, as Paul says, our worth is proven.
            But Paul does not stop there. He says that this “testedness” produces something else: hope. And here we return to this idea of hope. Remember, this idea Paul is talking about can be best thought of as “a hope-filled certainty.” As we go through suffering, the endurance and character that result produces an ever-greater certainty that God is exactly who He has said He is and that His promises are sure. Paul then offers a proof of this. He states that hope will never put us to shame because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. In fact, the relationship between the believer and the Holy Spirit is so close that he has been poured into our hearts.
            I had mentioned earlier that these verses have been my anchor verses through suffering. That is not an understatement in any way. I had grown up in the church. In fact, I heard hymns and the words of the Bible before I was born. As I grew up, I did all the church things, camps, and confirmation; I even started participating in lay-level leadership roles in my church. If any of those things sound a bit foreign, it is because I grew up in the Episcopal tradition. Ultimately, instead of letting God into my heart and being the Lord of my entire life, I was going through the motions. Especially in college, my life looked no different than anybody else’s. Remember those verses from Ephesians about living in the passions of our flesh and carrying out the desires of the body and the mind? That was me. Until that is, God got ahold of my heart. A group of us in ROTC decided that we wanted to start getting serious about our faith and started going to church together. We formed our own Bible study and as a small community of college-aged believers, we began trying to figure out what it meant to be Jesus followers.
            To make a long story very short, one of the members of this group would ultimately become my wife. As we deepened in our faith together as a group, I was drawn to what God was doing in her life. However, two weeks after we started dating, I started noticing an immense amount of pain in my abdomen and, even more concerning, evidence of internal bleeding. I started losing weight at an alarming rate and was ultimately diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called ulcerative colitis. Effectively, my immune system goes into overdrive and starts attacking and causing ulcers and a crazy amount of inflammation in my large intestine. Unfortunately, I have a rather severe form of the disease that affects not just a part of the intestine, but the entire thing. As is common with autoimmune diseases, finding the therapy that worked for me took a long time. Because of the severity of my diagnosis, this ultimately led me to being hospitalized seven times in the first 18 months following the onset of my symptoms.
            In addition to the pain, frustration, and confusion over what was happening, other things also started falling apart. A military career was now no longer an option for me. Because of the impact the disease was having on my body, I was sleeping 12-16 hours a day and was unable to continue pursuing my master's program. What is more, because of how the insurance I had purchased through the university was structured, it did not cover costs from chronic illnesses beyond $20,000. But through it all, God was working on my heart and my mind. He was showing me things about himself that I would likely never have learned had it not been for this. He was teaching me that my future job was not what defined me. Who I am in Jesus is what defines me. He was teaching me that the highest goal in life is not academic or professional achievement (I’m a bit of an A-type personality and struggle with making my life about accomplishments). Instead, He showed me that following Him is the highest purpose in life.
            Now, perhaps the most incredible thing about this entire story is that Michaela stayed by my side throughout all of it. We had only recently started dating, but she was there for everything. I can still remember her voice as I was coming out of anesthesia after the scoping procedure that resulted in the diagnosis of the disease. I was insanely sick, my planned career was completely shattered, treatments weren’t working, and I had a sum of medical debt that was growing increasingly large. There were so many times when I felt absolutely lost and without hope. Yet, because of this community of people, especially Michaela, I was constantly reminded of God's goodness and how He works all things for the good of those who love Him, even if we don’t see it in the moment. The Bible was my source of refuge, reminding me of the eternal promises of God that transcend our momentary afflictions.
            Things ultimately improved for me, and through a lot of help from my doctors and a lot of prayer, my condition was able to be controlled. There were still some rough points, and I experienced the occasional flare-up, but things returned to normal. Michaela and I got married, we found a way to pay off the medical debt, and life seemed to be going just fine. But what I didn’t know at the time was that as I was going through all my medical issues and seeing Michaela’s character displayed, God was showing me what it means to stand beside somebody as they are suffering.
            About two years after we got married, Michaela started showing symptoms of something, but the doctors couldn’t figure out what it was. Finally, they had her stay on a heart monitor for an extended time, and the results were so concerning that the hospital in Laramie told us that we needed to come to the hospital here in Cheyenne because they were not prepared to deal with whatever the issue was. When Michaela arrived here, they took an Xray, and they found out that there was a mass about 12cm in diameter in her chest next to her heart. We were once again told that she needed to go to another hospital because the one here had no idea what was going on. However, this time, she had to travel via ambulance. We had come in the same vehicle, but as she was leaving in an ambulance, I followed in the car we brought over. It was such a good thing that it was the middle of the night because I was an absolute mess. If there had been any traffic whatsoever, I probably would have crashed. On that drive, I was confronted with an absolutely petrifying truth. There was nothing I could do for my wife but pray. I was helpless in the face of whatever it was that she had to face. I could not protect her, and I could not save her. And this was an earth-shattering realization for me. Of course, we all intellectually know that our time here is limited and that when it is time for us to leave this world, there is nothing we can do to stop it for ourselves or those we love. However, facing that reality directly is an entirely different notion. The radical realization that I had was that in this situation, she was entirely in the Lord’s hands. The even more radical realization I would only have reflecting later on, was that this is true every moment of every day. I just don’t live like it.
            To capture this idea in his book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” This has been precisely my experience. The eternal truths that God exists, that we desperately need Him, and that He alone is sufficient for all our needs are sometimes most clearly heard when we are in our most desperate times of need.
            Upon arriving at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, we learned that the mass was a tumor, and it was an advanced stage of lymphoma. The doctors recommended that she start an aggressive form of chemotherapy immediately. We didn’t have time to go home and talk about it. We didn’t have time to prepare in case the therapy made it difficult or impossible to have kids. It was almost as if everything had been put onto tracks, and we were just along for the ride. Now, soon after all of this happened a good friend of mine who has been a mentor in many ways to me came by and prayed with us. Her prayers included pleas for healing, comfort, and everything else we typically lift up to God during these types of events. However, she prayed something else as well. She prayed that our hearts and minds would be open to what God had to teach us during this time of trial. It literally felt like a physical switch turned in my head. Despite all that I had been through, and all God had done in my own heart during my battles with illness, I had not stopped to consider that God may have something to teach us here as well. And teach He did. I learned how incredibly strong of a woman He made when He created my wife. I learned that I am not sufficient for her; only Jesus is. I learned that life can be extraordinarily fleeting and what we consider normal and act like will go on forever can end in an instant.
            Michaela spent the following months going to Denver for a week of treatment every three weeks. I tagged along and slept on the pullout bed on the couch in her room. That was our lives for almost four months: two weeks at home and one in the hospital. When I had to travel for work, her mom took my place. Now, you may be wondering who the better caretaker in our relationship is when the other is undergoing adversity. The answer is Michaela. You may also be wondering who deals with suffering better. The answer is also Michaela.
            Ultimately, Michaela completed the chemo regimen and has been in full remission for almost 10 years. Despite not being able to make alternative preparations, we have two incredible boys who are miracles in the fullest sense of the word. It can be easy to praise God and extol His greatness when things work out the way we hope and pray they will. However, there will come a day when I and everybody else whom I love will draw in their last breath. And in those moments, God still deserves all the glory and all the praise. I want to relay one more story before I wrap up about one of those times.
            My stepmom’s father, my grandfather, or as we called him, Papou (that part of my family is Greek), had been extremely sick for a long time. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His wife, my Yaiyia, was a missionary in Kenya when he proposed to her in a letter. After starting their young family, they moved to Athens so he could pastor a church while they served as missionaries. When they moved back to the States, their home was always a place of love where all were welcome. Toward the end of his life, he was unable to care for or even feed himself and had to be placed in a home to receive the care he needed. As the end of his life was drawing ever closer, he came down with a severe infection that left him almost entirely incapacitated. One day, some of our dearest family friends were visiting him. As they prepared to leave, everybody gathered to pray, potentially for the last time, over this man who had lived his life faithfully for God. However, before anybody else had a chance to speak, this saint (by the way, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a saint as well) who could not feed himself or even sit up started to pray. I was not there to hear these words, but they still reverberate in the deepest part of my being more than a decade later. “Our precious heavenly father,” he said, “we just can’t thank you enough. You have been so good to us.”
            That is the strength that a life lived in the service and love of God bestows upon a person. The Christian lives not in quiet resignation in the face of a world that can be so cruel and cause so much suffering. Instead, the Christian can raise a triumphant cry that in our weakness, the strength of the Lord will be made perfect, and that is enough. We can, as Job did, bless the name of the Lord, come whatever may. We see this in the letter to the Corinthians:
9 But he [God] said to me [Paul], “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:9-11)
            This is why Paul ends this passage with a reiteration of the gospel message. Even though each of us who follow Jesus has the real experience of having the Holy Spirit residing within us, there also is an objective truth for all to see. Christ came and died for us while we were still sinners. And this point is even more important than the point that we are physically broken and endure sufferings in this world. That point is that we are spiritually broken and separated from God, desperately in need of a Savior. Reflect with me on these closing verses.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
            Jesus did not wait until we were perfect and had everything figured out before he came to die in our place. Instead, he came when we were still in sin, weak, and enemies of God. Unlike us, who so often act out of self-regard or do something because we view somebody as good and deserving, Jesus came to save us while we were still standing in complete opposition to God. This is the incredible news of the gospel. As much pain and suffering, as much physical brokenness that we may experience in this world, it is nothing compared to the spiritual sickness we suffer because of our separation from God. We all were far from God before coming to Christ, but he died in our place regardless and rose again, conquering death. We are justified, reconciled, and saved by what he did. And if you don’t know Jesus yet, all you must do is accept him as your Lord and Savior and begin walking with him.
            Before we leave, I wanted to review some of the things I have learned from other believers and scripture about how to endure times of suffering. None of this is groundbreaking, but it works.
Don’t wait until you are in suffering to prepare – If you wait until the morning of a marathon to train, it won’t go well for you. The same is true here. If you wait until the moment of your trial to prepare, you are too late.
Be in your Bible daily – The stories of those who suffer in scripture are incredibly instructive and helpful. The principles you will learn from this book will help you in your time of need. But I never would have had these verses constantly in my mind and nourishing my soul if I had not read them. God uses scripture to help His followers in their time of need.
Build relationships with fellow believers—When Michaela and I have experienced times of suffering, it is the people of God, the Church, who have helped us more than anybody else. I have experienced the benefit of having somebody just come sit with you. Recently, while I was in the hospital, several friends visited throughout my stay. Mostly, we talked about the goodness of God. It helped me raise my eyes above my situation and stay focused on my Lord and Savior.
Pray without ceasing – Pray for those who are going through trials. Ask others to pray for you as you endure suffering. The Church was designed so that each member could help one another. And as you pray, follow God’s Spirit in how you can help. If you feel drawn to visit somebody who is ailing, go. If you feel called to cook them a meal, do it.
Look for what God is trying to teach you – Until our dying breath, we are running our race. As believers, we are walking down that narrow path that leads to Jesus. That path can be difficult and filled with obstacles sometimes. But even in our worst suffering, God is faithful, and He works all things for the good of those who love Him. If you let Him, He will develop in you: endurance, character, and a hope which will never be put to shame. Even in our greatest trials, He is still so incredibly good.

Rahab, A New Beginning

Many of us are probably familiar to some extent with Rahab, the Jericho prostitute who turns to God and is spared along with her family when the Israelites destroy the city.  But there is much more to her story that should cause us to marvel at God’s mercy and grace, and warn us against hypocrisy. 
 
Let’s go look at where we encounter her.  Israel had sent out two spies to check out Jericho.  They go to the home of Rahab, the prostitute, where presumably it would not be unusual to find strangers.  But someone alerts the authorities and Rahab is told to turn over the men.  She covers for them and hides them on her roof.  A search party begins looking for them near the Jordan River. 
 
Joshua 2:8-21
8 Now before [a]the spies lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have despaired because of you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the [b]Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you [c]utterly destroyed. 11 When we heard these reports, our hearts melted and no [d]courage remained in anyone any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of [e]truth, 13 and [f]spare my father and my mother, and my brothers and my sisters, and all who belong to them, and save our [g]lives from death.” 14 So the men said to her, “Our [h]life [i]for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and [j]faithfully with you.”
15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. 16 And she said to them, “Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not encounter you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way.” 17 And the men said to her, “We shall be exempt from this oath [k]to you which you have made us swear, 18 [l]unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather into your house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 And it shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house outside will have [m]his blood on his own head, and we will be innocent; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be exempt from the oath which you have made us swear.” 21 She then said, “According to your words, so be it.” So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
Let’s think about a couple of things. First: How did God communicate with Rahab?  By dream? By vision? How did she learn that Yahweh was the one true God?  However He did it, we must be humbled by the love and concern God showed to a woman who was part of an accursed tribe and who lived an immoral lifestyle. 
 
Second: Think about the scarlet cord hanging out her window.  Where else do we see in Scripture that a red mark protects everyone inside a dwelling?  The night of Passover, when the blood of the lamb on the lintel and doorposts protected those who were inside.  Here is another picture of Passover, but this one is not protecting Israelites, but pagan Canaanites! Were these Hebrew spies thinking about how their relatives had been spared from wrath by a similar process? Here is an example of faith resulting in right standing with God apart from the Law, just like Abraham, proving that God is no respecter of persons. 
 
Now we pick up in Joshua Chapter 6. 
 
Most of us know how Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, so we will skip to the relevant portion for our study today:
 
 
Joshua 6:20-25
“So the people shouted, and [g]the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down [h]flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight [i]ahead, and they took the city. 21 They [j]utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
22 And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, just as you have sworn to her.” 23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel. 24 Then they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and the articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the [k]house of the Lord. 25 However, Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua [l]spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
 
Let’s think about this first from Rahab’s perspective.  She and her family have been listening to utter chaos and terror outside her house.  The screams of people and animals as they are brutally slaughtered.  Then, there is, literally, a deathly quiet, and then there is a knock at the door.  With great trepidation, they open the door and step out into a living nightmare.  Everything destroyed.  All people, all livestock, all structures.  Everybody Rahab and her family knew was dead, their corpses lying mutilated on the ground.   Spared, but unclean, she and her family are put “outside the camp.” So was Jesus. 
 
Hebrews 13:11-13
 
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.  Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood.  So then, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
 
Jesus has a special affinity for those who are rejected, scorned, despised by the in crowd, just as Rahab was and many others.  He personally experienced that same rejection, and invites us to journey with Him to where He resides with those whom He has rescued from rejection.
 
Back to Jericho.  Imagine the terror of what Rahab’s family was feeling.  You are now totally dependent on these people who just destroyed your city and killed all your friends and neighbors.  You are feeling not just terror, but profound loneliness and sense of loss.  Imagine if Russians invaded and killed everybody in your city except you, and now you were dependent on them. 
What about the other side?  As Israelites, you were warned to kill all the Canaanites completely, to avoid being infected with their idols.  Now, what do you do with this family?  I’m sure some advocated to let them starve.  They only promised to spare their lives from the destruction of Jericho.  There were no promises about feeding and caring for them.  But Rahab knew that Yahweh was the God of heaven and earth.  God had somehow revealed Himself to her, and He would not see her abandoned.
 
But she is a profound sinner, from a foreign culture, filled with idolatrous practices, living in enforced isolation.  How does she become discipled, and an important figure in Jewish history?  Yes.  That is exactly what happens to her, but we have to fill in the details with our imagination.  As with the mystery of Melchizedek, sometimes the most profound biblical stories are about what’s left out of the narrative. 
 
There had to have been interaction between Rahab’s family and the Israelites.  Probably, there was daily interaction as more merciful heads prevailed and food was delivered to keep them alive.  But that doesn’t solve the problem.  Keeping her alive doesn’t equate to discipleship. 
 
I can imagine a godly woman provoking her husband to think about these poor people and shouldn’t someone try to teach Rahab and her family about the Lord?  I’m sure the idea was met with apprehension at first.  “What if we get infected with their idolatry?  No, it’s too risky.  Too bad they weren’t born Jews.”
 
Time passes, but somewhere along the line, at least Rahab is discipled, probably by one of those godly wives who kept persisting until her husband acquiesced!  Rahab responds and learns well.  In fact, she surpasses most of the young Israelite women in her devotion to the Lord, and becomes known for her character and the radical transformation of a changed life.  How do we know that?  Because of something revealed in the Book of Ruth and a one-sentence reference in Matthew Chapter 1. 
 
 
So, let’s turn our attention first to Ruth.
 
If you are not familiar with Ruth, it is a short book packed with depth and meaning.  The story centers around a family from Bethlehem, a husband named Elimelech and his wife Naomi.  They have two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.  A severe drought causes them to move east across the Jordan river to the area of Moab, where Naomi stays for 10 years.  While there, her husband dies.  Her sons marry Moabite women.  But then her sons die, and she is left in Moab with her two daughters-in-law, Orpah, and Ruth.  Naomi hears that the drought is gone in Bethlehem and she decides to return, and tries to convince her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab.  Orpah does, but Ruth insists on going to Bethlehem with Naomi and staying with her until her death, and will worship the God of Israel.  So, they return.
 
When they arrive in Bethlehem, it is the beginning of the barley harvest, probably mid-April.  How to get food?  Well, Ruth goes out to glean in the common area which the landowners use, and she just happens to get connected with a man named Boaz.  We need to learn something about Boaz.  He is described as “gibbor,” which is sometimes translated as “mighty man.”  It implies he is a man of substance and character, and when we read Ruth, we are touched by his compassion and concern both for Naomi and for Ruth.  He is impressed by Ruth’s devotion to Naomi, and her willingness to seek shelter under Yahweh’s wings.
 
Interestingly, he is also a kinsman redeemer (Leviticus 25:47-55) to Naomi, and is willing to redeem her land including the necessity of giving her offspring through Ruth, the Moabitess.  He was willing to marry a foreign woman.  Boaz and Ruth had a child, Obed, who was the grandfather of David.  Ruth 4:21-22.  So, Ruth the Moabite woman participates in establishing the earthly lineage of the Messiah. 
 
We are told in Ruth 4:21 that Salmon (or Salma) begot Boaz. We don’t know from the account here who Boaz’ mother is, but Matthew clears that up for us.   
 
Matthew 1:5 tells us “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse.”
 
Salmon was the father of Boaz, and Boaz’ mother is Rahab.  Interestingly, she is not referred to as “Rahab the Harlot,” just Rahab.  She is a harlot no more.
 
Remember, Boaz is a man of influence and character in Bethlehem.  There is no doubt that Boaz’ character was formed in large part due to his mother’s influence.  She would have had to be a woman of great moral character to attract the attention of Salmon.
 
Knowing people as we do, we can be sure that Salmon was scorned and rejected by some of his peers for marrying a former pagan harlot.  That took a lot of courage on his part.  And think about his parents!  Let’s say our son came home all excited about this woman he met at a Bible study, who had been a sexual abuse victim by her stepdad, ran away from home, wound up on Colfax Avenue in Denver, was befriended by a man who turned out to be a pimp, got her strung out on fentanyl, and trafficked her as a prostitute?  Sound like something that happens every day.  But she had been arrested, detoxed, came to Christ while in substance abuse treatment, and was now a very godly young woman in love with Jesus.  We love to hear stories like that. 
 
But what if our son decided he wanted to marry her? Would we be accepting of her as a redeemed child of God, or would we be concerned about our family’s reputation, and suggest he seek out a virgin from one of the “good” families from his Awana’s group? 
 
What if your son said, “But what about that verse in Second Corinthians Five?
 
2 Corinthians 5:17
 
If anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
 
Is that true, or not?”
 
Do we feel the conviction of hypocrisy as we contemplate our reaction?  Are we interested more in what serves God’s purposes, or being concerned about what our peer group will think? 
 
Remember, God chose Rahab and Ruth (and Tamar, for that matter) to be mothers of men in the lineage of Christ.  He did that on purpose to teach us something about His mercy and grace.
No doubt, Boaz’ own family history was a strong influence for him to so readily agree to marry Ruth the Moabitess.  He knew his parent’s story, had heard from his mother Rahab about the pain of loneliness and rejection when they lived “outside the camp,” and had no hesitation to marry a foreign woman who so obviously loved God and honored Naomi. 
 
The character of Rahab may also be inferred from Hebrews.  She and Sarah are the only two women named in the Hall of Faith (Hebrews Chapter 11).  Rahab is also mentioned by James as an example of the works of faith. 
 
(Call up the worship team)
 
So, who are the Rahab’s in our life?  The people who have a checkered past, but who are growing in the Lord?  Can we see past who they were, and see what they can become as the Lord changes them?  He wants us to see with His eyes, and be His hands and feet to disciple them so they can become the godly Rahab’s of this generation.
 
The main reason why I love working in the criminal justice system is that I get to participate in God’s mission of making modern-day Rahabs.  To see a life in chaos become a godly man or woman is a privilege I have witnessed repeatedly over the past 35 years. 
 
Fact is, none of us come from “good” families.  There is only one Good Family, and that consists of all of us, from whatever background, who have repented, been born again, and belong to the body of Christ.  We all are new creations in Christ, and our sins—all of them—are forgiven and forgotten by our Lord.  May we celebrate our new beginnings every day!

The Power to Stand Firm

We come to the end of Ephesians today.  At the beginning of his letter to these dear Christians, Paul prayed that they would come to know the significance of what it meant to be a Christian and what it meant to be the Church: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18–19a).  Isn’t this what we want for our own selves?  To see with the eyes of our hearts the hope we have because of God’s calling, to wrap our hearts around the profound implications of what it means to belong to God as His inheritance, and to have our hearts full with the reality that the boundless greatness of the power of Almighty God now belongs to those of us who have been redeemed by God’s own Son. 
 
What does it mean to be a Christian?  What does it mean to be the Church?  The answer is provided for us more than 200 times in the New Testament and over 30 times in Ephesians alone; the answer given for what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be the Church is that you are a Christian and you belong to His church if you are “in Christ.” 
 
Before He spoke Creation into existence, God chose you and set His love upon you for the purpose that you would be holy and blameless... in Christ (1:4-6).  Your sin was not so great to keep you from the love of God, for He made your salvation and redemption possible through His Son who died upon a cross for your sins and lavished His grace upon you (vv. 7-12).  You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit which guarantees your complete and total salvation... and He did it “in Christ” (vv. 13-14).  Oh, dear Christian, what did you ever do to deserve so great a salvation?  Nothing, because all of it was provided for you in and through Christ! 
 
The Christ who was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places is now yours (1:20-21)!  The Christ who is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, the One to Whom belongs the obedience of the nations, and He who is head over all things... is now yours (vv. 22-23)!  Christian, what did you do to receive Him as yours?  You who were once dead in your offenses and sins, was there anything in you that warranted God’s grace?  You were listed among the “sons of disobedience,” you “lived in the lusts of your flesh,” you “indulged the desires of the flesh and of the mind,” and because of your sins... you were categorized by the Almighty as a “child of wrath” (2:1-3).  What was it about you that compelled God to save you instead of leaving you in your sins?  It was His rich mercy, His great love, and His all-sufficient grace that made you alive in Christ (vv. 4-9).  You are now in Christ, and all because of Christ!
 
Now that you have been saved by Christ, you who were once far away have been brought near so that He is now your truth, He is now your righteousness, and He is now your peace (2:11-16).  You are now united to Christ and belong to His body (4:1-32).  As a member of His body, you now belong to the Bride of Christ, and because you are His Bride, Jesus is cleansing and sanctifying you through His word and the power of the Holy Spirit (5:22-32). 
 
So, when you come to Ephesians 6:10 and read: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” you should know by now where it is that you are able to find that strength.  It is found... “in Christ.”  We are strong in the Lord when we put on the “full armor of God.”  Yet, the irony is that it is already provided because of our union in Jesus.  He is our belt of truth, He is our breastplate of righteousness, He is our peace through the gospel, He is our shield of faith, He is our helmet of salvation, and He is our sword of the Spirit.  We are stronger in the Lord the more we recognize our weakness and how much we need to pursue Him.
 
Listen, the only way you will discover how weak you are is by seeing how big God is, how sufficient Jesus is as your Savior, and how powerful the Holy Spirit is as the One who is keeping you. 
 
How We Are to Pray
So here is what I want to do with the remainder of our time together.  First, I want to look at how we are to pray and then I hope to show you what that kind of praying is where the power of the armor of God is experienced.
 
There are four categories of prayer that ought to be a part of our prayer life as Christians listed in Ephesians 6:18.  The Greek word that is used four times in verse 18 that can be translated “all” or “every” is the Greek word, “pas” (πᾶς). Some versions of the Bible have chosen to translate pas as “all” every time it is used in verse 18, while others like new version of the NASB translate pas as “every” and “all.”  In an effort to make the translation read smoothly, the NASB translates it this way: “With every [pas] prayer and request, pray at all [pas] times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all [pas] perseverance and every request for all [pas] the saints...”  So how are we to pray?
 
We are to pray in ALL ways to God (v. 18a).
What are the ways you can pray?  You can pray quietly to God.  You can pray vocally to God.  You can pray with groups of other Christians to God. You can pray privately to God.  You can pray while prostrate on your face to God. You can pray while standing, you can pray while kneeling, and you can pray while walking.  You can pray with your eyes closed, you can pray with your eyes open, and you can pray with your head bowed or lifted up.  You can pray in all ways to God because of who you are in Christ.
 
We are to pray at ALL times to God (v. 18b).
You can pray in the evening to God.  You can pray in the morning to God.  You can pray midday to God.  You can pray while suffering, while hungry, while in good health, or when in ill health.  It does not matter what the circumstances are or if it is in the early morning hours or in the midnight hour... there is no time when God’s door is shut, or His time limited so that His redeemed children are not permitted to come before Him in prayer. 
We are to pray with ALL perseverance (v. 18c).
While we pray in all ways and at all times in the Spirit, we are to do so while alert and do so persistently.  We stand between the first advent and the second advent when Jesus will come again as King, until He comes again, we are to remain alert for two reasons: first, while we wait, we are in enemy territory where our adversary is categorized as a roaring lion who longs to destroy and devour (1 Pet. 5:8).  Jesus told His disciples that while we wait for His return that we must, “Watch out, stay alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is” (Mark 13:33).  Sinclair Ferguson said of prayer: “Christ is building his church on territory that has been occupied by an enemy.  Alertness is always essential when living in a war zone.”[1]
 
We are to pray for ALL the saints (v. 18d).
In the same way that we pray for ourselves, we must also pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ! We do not just pray for those who we agree with theologically, but for every Christian regardless of where they fellowship, what church they attend, or in what part of the world they live.  This also means praying for your spouse, praying for your children, praying for your grandchildren, and anyone else in your world who believes in Jesus.  When it comes to their relationship with God, God cares more about their spiritual health than you ever could, so pray expecting that God can do, “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think...” (3:20) in the lives of those saints you pray for more than your imagination can come up with. 
 
There is a fifth way we are to pray: We are to pray in all ways and at all times in the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the power that makes the armor of God effective so that you can stand strong, stand against the schemes of the devil, and stand firm on the evil day.
 
The Power of the Armor of God is in Who it Belongs To
To Pray in the Spirit according to Ephesians 6:18 is not to pray in tongues, that is a different type of praying addressed elsewhere in the Bible, but not here.  When we pray in the Spirit, we pray with the confidence that we have access to God Almighty who spoke billions of stars into existence with just the word of His power; not only does He hear us as our Heavenly Father, but He can, “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (3:20) because we are in Christ and He is our Heavenly father.  It is the kind of confidence we read about in Romans 8:14-16, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God...”
 
Do you remember what I said about what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit when we covered Ephesians 4:30 and 5:18 in this sermon series? I said to be filled with the Spirit is not about you getting more of the Holy Spirit, but about the Holy Spirit getting more of you.  The more of you that the Holy Spirit has, the more power of the Holy Spirit you will experience!  Same is true when it comes to experiencing the strength of the Lord: the more of our hearts, the more of our obedience, and the more of our dependance He has of us... the more of His strength we will experience through His Holy Spirit. 
 
The power of the Armor of God is not in our ability to put it on but in the One who it belongs to! This brings us back full circle from what we read in the first sentence of Ephesians (1:1-14) to Ephesians 6:18-24.
 
Conclusion
The baby born on the first Christmas and laid in a manger is Christ the Lord! He who was born of a virgin, is the same One who formed Mary in her own mother’s womb. The One who through whom all things were created, was laid in a manger for the purpose of carrying a cross to die for sinners.  The One who lived the life we could not, to die a death we deserved is not only our Savior, but our Mediator: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all...” (1 Tim. 2:5–6).  The Christ in the manger is ours not because of anything we have done, but because of His victory on the cross and over the grave: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Eph. 1:7-8a).
 
So, it makes perfect sense that Paul would conclude his letter with a call to all of those who are in Christ to pray in the Spirit in all ways, all the time, with all perseverance, and for all the saints because in Jesus, “we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens...” (Heb. 9:1).  If you are a Christian, then one of the things you learn from Ephesians is that you are “in Christ.”  To be “in Christ” means that you now share an unbreakable union with Christ because that union was chosen by God the Father, purchased by His Son’s own blood, and sealed by His Holy Spirit.  Prayer is the fruit of our union in Christ, prayer is communion we have with God, prayer is the direct access we have to God because of our union in Christ. Prayer is the power source to the strength of the Lord that is available to the Christian with the armor of God. 
 
Jesus is the belt of truth, which is your identity in Him, but the security you have with Jesus as your truth will only be as firm as your understanding and confidence that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).  Jesus is your breastplate of righteousness, but your confidence in Him as your righteousness will only be as firm as your confidence that His righteousness is all the righteousness that you will ever need.  Jesus is the shoes of the gospel of peace, but the extent you will be able to stand firm in the gospel will only be as secure as your understanding of the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the shield of faith, but your shield will only be as large as your understanding of who He is based on how saturated your faith in the Word of God is.  Jesus is the helmet of salvation, but the hope of your salvation will only be as effective as your joy in just how great your salvation really is.  Jesus is the sword of the Spirit in that all the word of God points to Him, but your ability to wield the truth of God’s word will only be as effective as you are willing to use it.  Prayer is what happens when you understand how weak you are and how big God really is.
 
Prayer is the evidence that we are growing in our relationship with Christ!  Sam Allberry, in his excellent book, One with My Lord, put it this way: “Growth in the Christian life is needing God more, not needing him less.  So we will be doing more asking over the years, not less asking.  We don’t grow out of prayer, just further into it.”[2] This is why it is only fitting that Paul would conclude his epistle with the appeal to pray at all times! The more we seek God out of a growing awareness of our weakness, the more like Jesus we will become.  Again Sam Allberry is spot on: “Prayer is not about bending God to our wills but about expressing our own wills as they are being bent to his.”[3]
 
Here is the thing though: Our union in Christ is not dependent upon our performance as Christians.  Our union in Christ was, is, and forever will be dependent upon the life and faithfulness of Jesus.  To the extent that we depend upon Him will determine just how much of our hearts He really has, and to the extent of how much of our minds, our hearts, and our will that He has will determine just how much of His power we will experience in our lives.  You will never be less in Him than you already are, but His power will only be experienced in and through your life to the extent of how much of you Jesus really has.  So, my question to you dear Christian is simply this: How much of you does Jesus really have? 
 
Oh, dear brother... oh, dear sister in Christ, do you not want to see with the eyes of your heart the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance, and know the power of the Holy Spirit (1:18-19a)?  Do you not want to know the joy of a life built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as your chief cornerstone (2:20)?  Do you not long for the kind of life that comes out of comprehending the width and length and height and depth of what you have in Christ (3:14-19)?  Are you not tired of the cheap thrills this world offers when it is through Christ that you can know the kind of satisfaction that comes with walking in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called (4:1-3)? 
 
If you understood your union in Christ, you would seek to enjoy the unity we are called to with those who belong to His Church (4:4-6).  If you understood what it is that you share with Christ, you would desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit instead of looking for ways to grieve Him (4:30; 5:18).  Oh, because of the great redemption you now enjoy, do you not hate the things that displease Him (5:1-13)?  Do you not want to come out of this life smelling like the sweet aroma of Christ; can you not hear the Holy Spirit’s call upon your life at this very moment: “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (5:14)?
 
To be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (6:10), the ability to stand firm against the devil’s schemes, and to be able to resist when the evil day comes... will only be experienced more frequently when you see just how weak you are and how sufficient Christ is in all things, in all ways, for all times, and for all people!  In so doing, may we be known for our love for Jesus  and in the way we live for Him and serve those around us.
 
[1] Sinclair Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 186.
[2] Sam Allberry, One With My Lord (Weaton, IL: Crossway; 2024), p. 151
[3] Sam Allberry, One With My Lord (Weaton, IL: Crossway; 2024), p. 152.

The Sword of the Spirit

Ancient warfare was fierce.  It was close, it was personal, it was dirty, it was aggressive, it was violent, and it was in your face. In preparation for battle, soldiers lined up in tight formation side by side with about three feet separating each soldier so that they could move freely.  Every piece of the armor was critically important: The belt kept everything he was wearing in its rightful place, the breastplate protected his vital organs, his shoes were designed so that he could stand his ground and maintain his footing, his shield helped protected him from any weapon that would pierce such as arrows or spears, and his helmet kept his head on his shoulders, protected his mind, line of sight, and neck.  The part of his armor that was designed to defend and to harm was his sword. 
 
The sword used by Rome’s soldiers between 3BC and 3AD was a double-edged short sword known as the Gladius. Roman legionaries whose shield defended them from the fiery arrows of the enemy received advanced training in using the Gladius to slash the exposed kneecaps or throat of their enemies while in formation and carried their Gladius sword on their belt, or sometimes on a shoulder strap. 
 
It was impossible to forget your belt, breastplate, and shoes when marching into battle because those pieces of the soldier’s armor were attached to his person.  However, it was possible to leave you shield, helmet, and even your sword back in the camp where it was safe and comfortable, but no skilled and experienced soldier would dare enter battle without those parts of his armor he was required to take up and put on, such as his shield, helmet, and sword. 
 
A modern equivalent to just how foolish it would be for a Roman soldier to forget any part of his armor is a Russian soldier who became the 2022 winner of the Darwin Awards.  The Darwin Awards are those awards given to honor Charles Darwin by commemorating “those who improve the gene pool – by removing themselves from it in the most spectacular way possible.” Here is the description of the unnamed Russian soldier who won this award:
You are wearing body armor in a warzone. You spot abandoned Macbook. You want Macbook. Where to hide it? With quick reflexes a Russian soldier slid that Macbook into his chest armor pocket, replacing a ballistic plate designed to save his life.
 
He was killed in Irpin, and his body was retrieved, providing a hearty laugh for all of Ukraine. 'Instant Karma' They reportedly found a stolen iPad as well. Wonder where the iPad was hidden?
 
I am no soldier, and although I love my Macbook Pro and have a great deal of respect for the way it is designed, even I know enough that in a warzone it is best to keep the ballistic plate in the chest armor pocket because a Macbook was never designed to stop a bullet. Yet, when it comes to the armor of God, how often do we intentionally or unintentionally replace that which is designed to protect with philosophies, ideologies, feelings, and practices that serve the enemy rather than our own protection? 
 
What is the Sword of the Spirit
We are told what the Sword of the Spirit is in the very same verse: It is the word of God. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be “The Word of the Lord.”  In 2 Timothy 3:16 we are told: “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness...” We are told in the Old Testament book, Deuteronomy: “...man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (8:3), which is a verse Jesus used against the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness (see Matt. 4:1-11).  In the Psalms, we learn of the written word of God: “The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19:7-8).  As it relates to the authority of God’s word, we are instructed through the prophet Isaiah: “This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, so all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. But I will look to this one, at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:1–2). 
 
From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be “The Word of the Lord.”  The word of God in written form is contained in the 66 books that make up our Bible.  When Paul wrote that “all Scripture is inspired by God...”, we believe that it is a reference to all of the Old Testament and New Testament books that make up the Bible that were written over a period of hundreds of years with many different contributors who were all guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that what you have before you is a supernatural book unlike any other book, that is without error.  It is upon the word of God, both Old Testament (the prophets) and the New Testament (the apostles) that Jesus’ Church is being built upon (see Eph. 2:19-22).  It is the written word of God that has supernatural and transformative power to shape and transform God’s people, for from the imagery of the Roman Gladius the author of Hebrews wrote: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
 
Regarding the Word of God, Jesus prayed to the Father for His church: “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:14–17).  In just one chapter earlier, Paul said that the way Jesus is purifying and sanctifying His church is, “by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:26-27).
 
So, we know what the word of God is; the question we must answer is how do we use it as the Sword of the Spirit? 
 
How Do We Use the Sword of the Spirit
To answer that question, you need to know something about the two words that are used in reference to the word of God, and they are logos and rhēma. Logos is often translated as word or message.  Rhēma is often translated word, saying, or statement.  In Hebrews 4:12 and Isaiah 66:2 (in the Greek Septuagint) the word logos is used in reference to the Word of God.  In Deuteronomy 8:3 (in the Greek Septuagint) and Ephesians 6:17, the word rhēma is used.  So, what’s the point?  Both words are used in reference to the written and spoken word of God and its authority is based on the fact that it has come from God.  
 
Listen, every word in the Bible is authoritative because it is the Word of God and is used by the Holy Spirit of God to transform and shape the people of God.  When you read or speak out loud the Word of God, as it is given within all 66 books of the Holy Bible, the voice of God is heard through His word.  Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:17 are calculated and carefully crafted through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; do not miss what is written: “Take... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  God always uses the authority of His own words with the power of His Holy Spirit to transform, change, and divinely challenge! 
 
So, how does one use the Word of God as the offensive sword of the Spirit?  Jesus showed us how to use it as an offensive weapon when he was approached three times by the devil.  In Matthew 4:1-17 and Luke 4:1-13 we are given the details of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the same wilderness that Israel wondered for 40 years because of their failure to believe and obey the word of God.  Each of the temptations Jesus faced was like one of the temptations Israel faced and failed, by sinning. 
When Israel was in the wilderness, they complained about their lack of food (see Exod. 16). The devil came to Jesus and tempted Him with these words: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Jesus answered with the word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3, “It is written: ‘Man Shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:3-4).
 
In the wilderness, Israel frequently put God to the test, so with the second temptation Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: ‘He will give His angels orders concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will lift You up, so that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.” The devil even quoted and twisted Psalm 91 to try to get Jesus to fall into the same sin Israel fell into in the wilderness. Again, Jesus responded rightly and skillfully with the word of God: “You shall not put the Lord Your God to the Test.” (Matt. 4:5-7).
 
In the wilderness and throughout Israel’s history, they were frequently guilty of false worship. In an effort to get Jesus to fall into the same sin, Satan tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross by worshiping him, to which Jesus responded with the sword of the Spirit: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matt. 4:8-11).
 
Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to counter the Devil’s temptations.  Did you ever notice that two of the three temptations Jesus faced were not inherently evil; it is not wrong to eat when you are hungry nor is it wrong to expect God to save you from harm. However, the scheming of the Devil was to try and get the Son of God to not trust the Father’s plan but to use a different plan that would have avoided the cross.  
 
We often counter our temptation to sin with human reason by believing another way is better than God’s way.  Think about the way we reason our way out of obedience to God: “I know God’s word says sex is a gift to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage, but we’re in love and we’re going to get married anyway;” or “It’s only a little lie.” Sometimes it is more subtle: “I know God’s word says, ‘there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking...’, but at least it is not a 4-letter word, it’s not gossip if it is a prayer request, it’s just an innocent joke...”  “I know that God’s word says that, ‘sexual immorality or impurity’ is sinful, but it’s only a few scenes in the movie.” Or... “It only happens once a month...” 
 
What if we learned from the way Jesus responded to temptation by countering our own with the Word of God?  Imagine what would have happened if, in the Garden, Adam responded to the serpent’s temptation with the Word of God? 
 
You can take up the word of God as the sword of the Spirit or you can leave it in its sheath.  Here is the thing though, just as handling a sword effectively takes some skill that can only come if you take it out of its sheath, to handle the sword of the Spirit with skill you must take it out and use it.  To handle the Word of God with skill, you need to use it by reading it, studying it, memorizing it, and immerse yourself into it so that it can do what God designed it to do, which is to change you, mold you, cleanse you, and guide you.  Just as you will never improve your shooting skills if you do not get out to a range and shoot, or a martial artist will only be as skilled as his time in the dojo practicing his techniques, so it is true with handling the word of God with skill. Just as there are resources to improve your aim, or your skills as a martial artist, so there are resources that God has provided through pastors, theologians, scholars, and Christian publishers to improve your skills in handling the word of God.
 
In his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).  Some think that this verse is only applicable to pastors, but do you know why we know that is not true?  How do we know that every Christian needs to strive to be able to “accurately handle the word of truth”?  Because of what Jesus commanded every Christian: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19–20).
 
Conclusion
Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor of God belongs to God!  The sword of the Spirit is no exception!  The list of God’s armor begins with the belt of truth, and it concludes with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  What we have discovered about the armor of God is that the belt of truth is our identity in Jesus, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Jesus, the shoes of the gospel of peace is our redemption that Jesus has made possible, the shield of faith is provided through Jesus, the helmet of salvation is the hope of our salvation in Jesus, and the sword of the Spirit is the word of God that points us back to... Jesus!  We learn from the Bible that all the promises of God through His word find their yes and Amen in and through Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor. 19-22).    
  
In fact, Jesus is not only God’s “Yes” to all of His promises, Jesus is God’s most perfect revelation of Himself because He is the living Word of God!  In the opening verses of the Gospel of John, we learn that as the Word of God, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.” And as the Word of God, He, “became flesh, and dwelt among us...” (John 1:1-14). 
 
Not only is Jesus your belt, not only is He your breastplate, not only is He your peace, not only is He your shield and your helmet... Jesus is your sword!  How do you remain strong in the Lord?  You must find Him to be your life!  In closing, I read something in Iain Duguid’s little book, titled, The Whole Armor of God, what I am about to read to you is the essence of the Christmas message:
As the Word of God, he [Jesus] spoke the world into existence.  As the Word of God, he uniquely reveals to us the Father.  As the Word of God, he is God’s final communication to this broken and now redeemed world, come to heal the sick, rescue the lost, restore the broken, and lift up the downcast.... The Word of God in its cleansing work serves as a set of shears, a scalpel, and a sword.  Ask God to equip you with these three different tools, each one uniquely crafted to help us in the fight against temptation by the world, the flesh, and the devil.  All that sanctifying power flows into your life through the work of the Holy Spirit applying his Word.  And when you fail and fall, as you often will, the Sword of the Spirit points you back again to the fact that the gospel is still true and Christ’s power is still sufficient to keep you safe and bring you at last into your heavenly inheritance.[1]
 
[1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), pp. 101-02.

The Helmet of Salvation

On the first Christmas, an angel appeared to some shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks at night.  We are told that at the angel’s appearing, the shepherds were “terribly frightened.”  The angel announced to the shepherds: “And so the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10–12).
 
The Christmas story does not begin with the shepherds, or with the angel’s visit to Mary with the words: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:31-33).  The story of Christmas began long before the promise made to Mary’s fiancé, Joseph: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20b-21).
 
The story of Christmas begins in Genesis 1:1 with the words: “In the beginning.”  It involves an antagonist (the devil), it is all about a hero (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit), and it is about our need to be rescued (we have a sin problem).  The story of Christmas is a story that transforms unlike any other story; it is a story identified by one word in the Bible, and that word is, “Gospel” which means, “good news.”  Of this good news, the apostle Paul wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Rom. 1:16).
 
The Christmas story is about the promised savior born to be king—the Lion of the Tribe of Judah from whom, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet” (Gen. 29:10).  Christmas is the ancient promise that the Son of David would be unlike any other king in that God would, “establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:13).  The coming King who would save His people from their sins would be “Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14)—God with us. 
 
What is the Helmet of Salvation?
Like the soldier’s shield, the helmet could be taken of and put back on.  The helmet of the Roman soldier was made of bronze and had cheek pieces to provide protection to his head.  Like the breastplate of righteousness, Paul draws his language from Isaiah 59:17, “He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a cloak.”  If you recall from my sermon on the breastplate of righteousness, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who was, “pierced for our offences, and was crushed for our wrongdoings” is the Divine Warrior of Isaiah 59, which begins with these words: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear” (v. 1).  The One who is able to save is the One to Whom righteousness and salvation truly belongs. 
 
When redemption and righteousness was beyond the reach of sinful humanity, Immanuel “put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head” and was born of a virgin to save us from our sins. But what does it mean to be saved from our sins, and is salvation something that can be taken up and put off like a helmet? To answer those questions we must answer what “salvation” is. 
 
Salvation literally means, “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.”  In the strictest and most biblical sense, salvation is something that has happened in the past, but it is also happening in the present, and yes... it is also something that will happen in the future.  In other words, Jesus came to save his people from their sins so that they can be saved from the past, the present, and in the future, from the full curse of sin.  How so?  Well, think about what was announced: Jesus came to save His people from their sins. 
 
When Adam and Eve sinned, all of creation was brought under a curse, and that curse includes not only our propensity to sin against God, but also death and the vandalizing of a peace with God all of humanity was intended to enjoy.  Here is what the Bible says: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned...” (Rom. 5:12).  So, when it comes to our salvation, Timothy Keller said, “The Bible says every Christian stands in the middle of three tenses of their salvation. You can’t understand the glory and the beauty of it unless you see it. In fact, you won’t be able to understand the Scripture and you won’t be able to understand what’s happening to you if you don’t understand.”[1] 
We stand in the past tense of our salvation: You have been saved from the penalty of sin and pardoned from your guilt and now have been covered under the righteousness of Christ and are justified before a holy God (1 Pet. 3:18). We stand in the reality that we have been saved from the penalty of sin!
 
We stand in the present tense of our salvation: You are being saved in the sense that God is changing you through the power of His Holy Spirit.  The evidence of your nature to sin is still there and the struggle against your own sin is very real, but each moment that you move closer to death on this side of eternity is one step closer to Christlikeness.  This is the fight I was talking about last week. In this present life you, Christian, “fight the good fight of the faith” and by doing so, we “take hold of the eternal life to which you have been called” (1 Tim. 6:12).  We stand in the reality that we are being saved from the power of sin!
 
We stand in the future tense of our salvation:  Because we have been saved from the penalty of sin and we are being saved from the power of sin because Jesus, as the Divine Warrior of Isaiah 59, is able and will indeed rescue us from all sin.  The third verse in the carol, Joy to the Word, rightly states:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make his blessings flowFar as the curse is found.
 
 Jesus came to save us from our sins in the sense that He will make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found, and on that day: Death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54), what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4), sorrow and singing will flee away (Isa. 51:11), every tear will be wiped away (Rev. 21:1-4), and all things will be made new (Rev. 21:5).  We stand in the reality that we will be saved from the presence of sin... forever and will receive a better and more glorious Eden! 
 
The salvation that Jesus came to deliver is not something we take off and put on again, so what then is the helmet of salvation?  According to 1 Thessalonians 5:8, the helmet of salvation is the hope of our salvation: “But since we are of the day, let’s be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” Because we are saved, being saved, and will be saved... we live in the hope of our salvation no matter what the enemy launches at us or does to us, “the night is almost gone, and the day is near” (Rom. 13:12).
 
How Do You Take Up the Helmet of Salvation?
To take up the helmet of salvation is to live in the reality that this mortal life is not the end and that you are now, and forever will, remain a child of the living God! 
 
The helmet of salvation protects your head, it protects your mind, it protects your line of sight so that you can see the hope that is yours in Christ.  When things in life seem to go south, when this life is shortened by disease, when this world’s resources are stripped away, when the proverbial rug is pulled from underneath, and when it seems that all in this world is lost... you can respond with gospel-centered hope: “For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison...” (2 Cor. 4:17).
 
The helmet of salvation is the assurance of our salvation! Listen, there are two dangers that every person faces if they are a part of any Bible teaching and gospel centered church.  The first danger is to believe that you are a Christian when you are not.  If you believe that you can believe in Jesus with your mind for the salvation of your soul with little consequence to the way you are living your life today, then you may not be a genuine Christian. 
 
True saving faith is to believe and trust that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is enough for the salvation of your soul; the evidence that you genuinely believe and trust in Jesus as your savior will be evidenced in your standing in your past salvation, present salvation, and hope in your future salvation.  Do not forget Ephesians 2:8-10!  You were saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and the purpose for your salvation is stated in verse 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Genuine saving faith in Jesus will be evidenced by a changing life that looks more and more like Jesus’ life over the years. 
 
The second danger you face in the local church is that the enemy can get you to doubt your salvation.  If the enemy can get you to doubt your salvation successfully, he will have a better chance of tempting you to live closer to your sin rather than closer to Jesus as your savior.  When you take up the helmet of salvation, you stand in the shoes of the gospel of peace, with your identity in Christ firmly belted around your waist, the righteousness of Christ securely fastened over your chest, so that you can take up your biblically saturated faith.  When the devil attempts to undermine your salvation, you can take up your helmet of salvation knowing that only because of Jesus, there is no condemnation for you (Rom. 8:1)! 
 
When you take up your helmet of salvation in the enemy’s presence, you do so with confidence, knowing: “...that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).  When the attacks come and the devil or your flesh is all up in your face to tempt you to doubt the sufficiency of Christ, you take up your helmet of salvation with the assurance of 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, “But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed...” (2 Cor. 4:7–9).
 
How do you know that the salvation Jesus provided is enough?  The One born to save His people from their sins is the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” promised long ago (Isa. 9:6-7).  He is the promised King whose, “times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2).  The One born King of the Jews is He who was declared long before His birth through the virgin Mary: “I am the first and the last, and there is no God besides Me” (Isa. 44:6; Rev. 1:17-18). Jesus can save because He is the righteous Branch of David who is called, “Yahweh Our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:5-6). He is Him who is, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation... by Whom all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15-16).  The salvation Jesus provided is enough because, while He existed in the form of God as the Divine Son, He humbled Himself, “by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross” (see Phil. 2:1-11).  This is why we can have every confidence that Ephesians 1:7-8 is all that we need for the hope of our salvation: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
 
So, in light of all that Jesus is and all that he did to secure your salvation, who are you, Chistian?  You are chosen by God before the foundation of the world (1:4-6)!  Who are you Christian?  You are redeemed as a child of God by the blood of His own Son... namely Jesus (1:7-12)!  Who are you Christian?  You are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a child of the living God until the day when redemption is finally complete (1:13-14).  You can have all the confidence that Jesus is enough because He alone is the Divine Warrior qualified to live the life you could not live for the purpose of dying a death you deserved! Jesus is your righteousness, and He is your salvation! 
 
On December 4th, I read something Thomas Watson wrote that Jonathan Gibson’s O Come, O Come, Emmanuel included in his devotional.  When it comes to what our salvation means, Watson’s words seem to capture the beauty and magnitude of the Jesus who came to save his people from their sins:
He was poor that he might make us rich.  He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God.  He took our flesh that he might give us his Spirit.  He lay in the manger that we might lie in paradise.  He came down from heaven that he might bring us to heaven... that the Ancient of Days should be born,--that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle,--that he who rules the stars should suck the breast,--that a virgin should conceive,--that Christ should be made of a woman which himself made,--that the branch should bear the vine,--that the mother should be younger than the child she bore, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother,--that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God: this was not only amazing but miraculous.”
 
If you a Christian, Jesus is the hope of your salvation for He is the helmet of your salvation.  If you are not a Christian, you can receive Him as the Hope of your salvation by surrendering your life to Him as your Savior.
 
[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

The Shield of Faith

It has been a few weeks since we were in Ephesians.  The last sermon I preached was on the shoes of the gospel of peace.  I have a confession to make, and it is not one to be proud of: I am not very good at creating space for my own rest. One of the symptoms that a break and vacation is needed is when your pastor takes 15-20 minutes to talk about shoes during his sermon introduction!  In preparation for this sermon, I have been thinking about the importance of rest as it is related to faith. 
 
One of the Ten Commandments is to, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exod. 20:8-11).  Here is the irony with the fourth commandment: The first four commandments address our relationship with God and the last six commandments address our relationships with one another.  I am of the opinion that a Sabbath rest has less to do with the seventh day of the week and more to do with our need to separate ourselves from the noise of life. Regarding the fourth commandment, Jesus said: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:23-28).  The purpose of the Sabbath is that it creates space for you to listen to God for the purpose being strengthened in Him.
 
The reason why the fourth commandment is sandwiched between the first three concerning our vertical relationship with God and the final six concerning our horizontal relationships with your neighbor is because if you ignore a Sabbath rest, both your relationship with God and your relationships with others will suffer.  If you ignore the fourth commandment, you will be more prone to develop idols in your heart and become little good to those around you.  So, here is what I want you to hear as we move forward: Sabbath rest stabilizes gospel grounded faith.  The kind of rest I am talking about must include the kind of rest described in Psalm 46:10, “Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.”  
 
Now, with God’s command for a Sabbath rest as our backdrop, let’s consider again the armor of God:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (Eph. 6:10–13)
 
Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor we are to put on belongs to God.  The belt of truth is our identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace enable us to keep our footing in the whole Gospel, that includes our salvation but also the full redemption of all creation.  The whole Gospel includes our resurrection, but it also promises us a day when sorrow and sighing will flee away: “And the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 51:11).
 
The fourth piece of God’s armor is the shield of faith.  The questions we need to answer are what is it really; and how does one use the shield of faith? 
 
What is the Shield of Faith?
The shield Paul had in mind was not the small round shield you would expect a soldier to have for hand-to-hand combat, for it was light but left most of the body exposed.  Instead, the shield Paul envisioned was more like the one a soldier carried to protect his whole body from the enemy’s arrows shot from a distance. 
 
The large shield was called a “scutum” and was typically used by Roman legionaries. It was designed not only to protect the soldier wielding it from arrows, but was designed especially to protect him from arrows that were dipped in pitch and lit on fire before they were launched.  The front of the shield was covered in leather that could be soaked in water; in this way, when the flaming arrows hit the shield, the fire would be quenched. 
 
For what purpose did a flaming arrow (aka “fire arrow”) serve?  What is fire known for doing?  The enemy would launch flaming arrows to set on fire anything that was flammable such as buildings, materials, and enemy troops.  Fire consumes and destroys, and this is exactly what the rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places desire to do to any and all of God’s people.  We are told to take up the shield of faith to protect us from such attacks from the enemy, but what is it? 
 
Is the shield of faith a self-determined will to hold on to what you believe?  Is it something that you would have more of if you simply believed more?  Is the shield of faith more about having enough faith in what we read about in the Bible so that you can claim financial, emotional, relational, spiritual, and physical healing and wholeness for yourself?  I don’t think the shield of faith includes any of that. 
 
Remember that Paul did not just come up with the armor of God because of some Roman soldiers around him.  Paul received his shield metaphor from the Old Testament.  To address Abraham’s fear about being without an heir, God promised Him, “Do not fear Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.”  In Psalm 28:7, David celebrated the God who hears the prayers of His people with these words: “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the sound of my pleading.  The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart triumphs, and with my song I shall thank Him.”  However, I think Proverbs 30:5 is the most helpful verse that helps us understand what the shield of faith is: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”
 
So, which is it? Is God our shield and if so, how can our faith be the shield?  On this point Iain Duguid is helpful: “Faith is the means by which we flee to God for refuge.  It is how we cling to God and find in him comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress.”[1]  It is one thing to believe that God exists but is quite another thing to flee to the God you know to be true because of the way He has revealed Himself through His Word.  The more you know about God, the more inclined you will be to flee to Him as your refuge and strength, for the Bible says, “the people who know their God will be strong and take action” (Dan. 11:32b). 
 
The way you cling to God and find Him to be your comfort and protection is through His Word!  We are told in Ephesians 5:26 that Jesus intends to sanctify and beautify His church through the washing of water with the word.  It is the word of God that we use to saturate our shield “to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  This is not a New Testament concept; it is a Genesis through Revelation principle for living faithfully before God.  Listen to Psalm 119:10-11 and tell me if you cannot hear the same tone that you hear in Ephesians 6:16, “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.  I have treasured Your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You.” 
 
How do We Use the Shield of Faith?
It is all well and good to know what the shield of faith is, but how do you use it?  To answer that question, permit me to show you something that I have read dozens of times and missed because I did not read Ephesians 6:14-17 as carefully as I should have.  There are six pieces that belong to the armor of God. The first three are all pieces that a soldier puts on and keeps on so long as he is active:
“...having belted your waist with truth” (v. 14a)
“...having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (v. 14b)
“...having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace” (v. 15)
 
Each of these pieces are attached to the Christian as part of his/her identity in Christ.  The belt of truth is your new identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is your righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace are the promise of full redemption that Jesus makes possible.  You put on these pieces of armor by standing in the gospel, confidently recognizing that all your righteousness is in Christ, and that your identity is rooted in Christ as truth for all of life!
 
Now notice the final three pieces of the armor of God and how Paul distinguishes them from the first three pieces with the words, “in addition to all...”:
“...taking up the shield of faith” (v. 16)
“...take the helmet of salvation” (v. 17a)
“...take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17b)
 
The soldier’s shield, helmet, and sword were all a part of his armor, but they were pieces he could take up and put down at will. The enemy can tempt you to believe that Christ is not enough, but what he already knows is that your righteousness is Christ’s righteousness; wearing the breastplate of righteousness is simply walking in light of that truth.  However, when the enemy attacks with his flaming arrows in the form of temptations, lies, and accusations, you can choose to take up the shield of faith or allow those arrows to pierce you so that their fire can overwhelm, consume, and incapacitate you.
 
If you are a Christian and you have truly been born again, the flaming arrows may not be able to destroy your soul, but they certainly can wound to the point of rendering you immobile and unable to fully engage and participate in God’s mission in the world and purpose for your life.  If you are a Christian, the enemy knows that God chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6), that you were fully and completely redeemed by the blood of His Son (1:7-12), and that you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit as God’s inheritance to receive all of His promises (1:13-14, 18-23). 
 
In fact, I am convinced that the devil has more of a theological grasp over what it means for you to be a Christian than many Christians, but if he can deceive you, if he can aid in destroying your Christian witness, if he can paralyze you with shame and guilt to keep you from clinging to all that the cross of Christ represents, then he will do all within his ability to do just that!  Dear Christian, when those flaming arrows come, you have a shield God has given that you can take up to defend yourself from such attacks! God has given us all that we need, but faith in His promises, a dependance upon Him, and the responsibility to proactively saturate our faith with the word of God is something we must do. 
 
Conclusion
The enemy will launch his flaming arrows but make no mistake from what we have learned so far from Ephesians, there is also the danger we face from self-inflicted wounds when we fall into temptation.  The devil never makes us sin, we do that all on our own!  This is why it is important to take on the full armor of God.  When we are mindful that Jesus is our identity and not our sin, when we are fully aware that Jesus is our only hope and righteousness, and then stand in the truth of all of God’s redemptive promises, our resolve to resist sin and temptation becomes more determined. 
 
But, when the flaming arrows fly you can lower your shield and let them pierce and consume, or you can take up your shield.  When the enemy whispers: “You sinned and now you are too disgusting for God to love you!”  You take up your shield saturated with the word of God and say: “Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine.  Though I fall I will rise; though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me... He will bring me out to the light, and I will look at His righteousness” (Micah 7:8, 9).  You take up your shield saturated by the word of God and say, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:8, 10).
 
Don’t you think that Mary and Joseph endured many the constant barrage of the enemy’s flaming arrows the moment they found out about the conception of Jesus while Mary was still a virgin?  Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus” (Luke 1:30-31).  Her only question was: “How?” since she was a virgin.  After the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would make it possible miraculously, her response was simply: “Behold, the Lord’s bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word” (v. 38).  Mary could have been overwhelmed by fear over what her mother, father, relatives, and neighbors would think, but instead she raised up her shield of faith in the form of a song saturated with what she knew from the word of God:
“My soul exalts the Lord,
   And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant;
      For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
 
“For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
      And holy is His name.
“And His mercy is to generation after generation
      Toward those who fear Him.
 
“He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
      He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
      And has exalted those who were humble.
 
“He has filled the hungry with good things,
      And sent the rich away empty-handed.
“He has given help to His servant Israel,
      In remembrance of His mercy,
 
Just as He spoke to our fathers,
      To Abraham and his descendants forever. (Luke 1:47–55)
 
Joseph could have walked out on Mary in disbelief, but He took up his shield as well and believed that God was not only big enough to make the conception of Jesus supernaturally possible, but he too believed the word of God: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14; see also Matt. 1:18-25).
 
So, how do you use the shield of faith?  How do you take it up to defend yourself?  You take up the shield of faith each time you flee to God for refuge through the truth of His word and cling to Him to find your comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress. 
 
[1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), p. 68.

Growing Up

Centered on Jesus