Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 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. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Crazy times we are in these days. Panic. Pandemonium. Hoarding. Social distancing - and in some ways it seems like it almost comes too easily. Paul Leiffer joked to me that the social distancing comes easy to engineers cuz they’ve been doing it all their lives! But have you noticed what is coming out of people in this crisis? Out of so many people? People who live in the most free and prosperous country on earth. All this fear and insecurity. [think Toilet Paper?] I think what we are seeing is that, for far too many of us, our security, our trust is in the temporal. It’s in this life, the things of this world, our stuff, the material. And the object of our trust/faith is what matters. How timely it is that we have been reading and talking about… a struggle, and an enemy, and a suit of armor that are NOT of this world. The armor of God. And this armor is immaterial. It’s not immaterial in the sense that it doesn’t matter, but it is immaterial in that it is not of this world. It is not something we can touch or feel or taste or even see. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Not even against a virus. We’re not facing a physical struggle, it is spiritual. And it matters. A lot.
And so we read that we’ve been given a shield of faith. Not a physical shield. Right now we’re TRYING to shield ourselves from a virus. Shields of quarantines, of vaccines, of social distancing. But our shield is not like anything in this world. This word appears only once in the entire New Testament. It comes from the Greek word meaning door. And this thyreon, this particular shield looked like a door. This shield excelled at the exact purpose which Paul has in mind - defense against arrows. Extinguish the flaming arrows, he says. Arrows, you generally do not see coming. We’re talking about something more UNseen and perhaps UNexpected. Like a thief in the night, and the fire they bring can spread like wildfire. Immaterial yes, but the sting is quite real.
These diabolical arrows are fired by the evil one - diabolos himself, this slandering lying accuser of the brethren. Out of nowhere He will try to discourage you, to deceive you, to isolate you. He likes to try it on the heels of some great success, when we are most flammable. Because fire only spreads when it comes in contact with something combustible. [note the NFPA 4-4-4 label, found on many combustibles - hydrogen, oxygen, fuel, gunpowder, wood/paper, AND ClF3. Sprinkling THIS chemical compound on virtually any other thing will start a fire that cannot be extinguished. It can ignite things that are otherwise fireproof, like asbestos. One spill burned thru a foot of concrete and 3 feet of gravel underneath. Banned since WW2 by Chemical Weapons Convention.]
But let’s just stick with hydrogen - the most abundant chemical element in the universe, usually found in combination with other elements. In isolation, it is odorless, colorless, tasteless, so it can be almost impossible to detect [sort of like "iocane powder" - but non-toxic]. It’s also the most flammable element on earth when exposed to air. The National Fire Protection Association gives hydrogen its highest rating of “4” on the flammability scale because it is flammable when mixed even in small amounts with ordinary air. In addition, it takes only a small amount of energy to ignite hydrogen. In fact, it can actually self-ignite, even without an external energy source [Recall the Hindenburg].
I’d like to suggest that there is a spiritual form of flammable hydrogen. Pride. Pride is spiritual hydrogen. It is everywhere. It can show up anywhere. And it can be hard to see, difficult to detect. It is that part of us which says, me first, me better. Looking out for number one - and as far as I’m concerned, that’s me. I’m most concerned about me. It says, I am better than you. And I got this. I don’t need you. I don’t need help. I can handle this. And I don’t need the Lord. I don’t need to listen to what He says. And pride can be subtle, we may not even detect it. We get to this place of overconfidence. Of independence. Of unteachability. We’re not leaning on the Lord. We not looking to Him, depending on Him. We get isolated on our little island of me, we lower our shield. Pride leads us to put our trust in some object other than God and His Word. And then we’re sitting ducks for the enemy’s flaming arrows.
[Pandemonium]. It is the palace of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Literally, the place of all demons. The place of pride, the realm of the unbent knee, for those who would rather rule in hell than serve even in heaven. So let’s ask, how combustible am I? Are you? How easily does fear or discouragement or selfish anger rise up in my soul? Where might there be some undetected pocket of pride in my heart? Some reservoir of me-first? Some denizen of distrust? Of unbelief? Because we’re talking about a shield of faith. Trust. Belief.
This shield of faith - or trust - how exactly does it work? Let’s remember the definition of faith from Hebrews 11.1 - faith is what? The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The conviction of things you don't see. It is trusting and believing (and obeying) even when you don’t see it. Yes, for sure, seeing IS believing, but in this sense believing is seeing. The immaterial made material! Remember the object of my faith is what matters most. [It needs to be trust-worthy]. So faith leans into God and His promises, because He is supremely trustworthy. The shield of faith begins with saying, maybe I don’t see Him per se, but there IS a God, and I will trust Him. The accuser says, look at yourself you’re a crummy Christian - and faith says, no - my Maker, the One Who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ. The accuser says, look at that person, that person is bad, they are your enemy, and faith says no, love your neighbor, love your enemy and pray for them. The accuser says, look at this, this is hopeless - and faith says, no - I may not see it yet but God is good and He works all things together for good and nothing is too difficult for Him. Or, pride says, I got this, I don’t need help, I don’t need the body, I don’t need to trust the Lord on this, and faith says, no, apart from the Lord there is nothing I can do.
On March 20 [2020], covid-19 was responsible for some 1000 deaths/day worldwide. There are at least 5 other preventable treatable diseases which are more deadly - tuberculosis, hepatitis b, pneumonia, HIV, and malaria. Malaria is one of the more tragic ones, because it is entirely preventable [mosquito nets!]. The shield of faith is like mosquito netting. Those little buggers - you often don’t see them. And the disease they often carry (malaria) - it can spread not only through your entire body and kill you, but it can also spread to others. [malaria: 230 million cases worldwide; 400k deaths/yr (2/3’s are children under 5); africa 90%. A long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net costs an average of $5 and protects up to three children. Unfortunately, this cost is too high for most families in poor rural African communities who survive through subsistence farming.] But mosquito netting is a cheap way to prevent countless suffering. Like faith. Faith actually costs nothing - it is a free gift. But it can and does ward off untold suffering. [Of course all death is tragic - cancer 25k/day, heart disease 49k, 150k/day total] [think even covid is no threat to kids? How about abortion - 125k/day world, 2500/day US].
But the shield of faith… What really makes this thyreon shield work is the phalanx. A group of soldiers employed in a unit. A fighting unit. If you are isolated, or somehow the enemy manages to split up the phalanx, then your flanks become exposed. This what Paul has in mind when he begins this whole section by urging us to guard the oneness. We need each other. I need you, and you need me. We are a spiritual phalanx, a family, and we journey together. But pride - in all its forms - keeps us apart. The enemy tries to keep us apart. So as a family we take up our shield of faith and we hold onto the Lord, and we stick to one another - and that, Jesus says, is how the world will get to see Him.
Helmet of salvation - Hunters say, “Aim low, watch ‘em go. Aim high, watch ‘em die." It’s a trickier shot, but if you want an instant kill, you go for the head. And so with all these arrows flying we need a helmet, too, a spiritual helmet of salvation - yes, the boots are critical, as is the weapon (we’ll get to that next week) - but you gotta protect the head! This should be obvious, as the head is quite fragile and yet controls the functioning of the entire body. In fact, modern research has shown that there is no better investment in battlefield safety equipment than a good helmet. It is the best piece of protective gear - by weight and by size - that any soldier has. In battle, almost half of all deaths among infantry are due to head injuries. Thus this last piece of defensive armor is that which is arguably most important to our very survival. How appropriate that our spiritual helmet is salvation, rescue from the very death towards which we were hurtling like a car over a cliff. We were already dead in our sins, destined to pay the ultimate death penalty of eternal separation from God - and then He stepped in.
Christ stepped down from heaven and onto the battlefield and took the bullet for us, He went to the Cross in our place and there secured our eternal rescue. Salvation. This is the helmet we wear into battle every day (or should). Death - the second one, the ultimate one - has been defeated. It is no longer even a thing for us in Christ. Granted, we all most likely will still face physical death in some shape or form, but in Christ we are totally protected from the second death. With a helmet made of spiritual kevlar! And so yes, if we are in Christ clearly this is true for us, but taking our helmet of salvation into battle means we remind ourselves of this and live into this truth every day. No need for fear, no need to worry [cuz in Christ, death= toothless declawed cat].
1Cor 15.54-5 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O death where is your victory? oh death, where is your sting?
"Then came the morning that sealed the promise, Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion, declared the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, Yours is the victory, whoa! Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free, Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me."
We can plunge into the thick of the battle, into the messiness and tragic brokenness of the world, knowing that we are protected by the best helmet money can buy. In fact, way better than that, as it was purchased with something far more precious…
1Pet 1:19 [you were redeemed] with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Hebrews 2:1-4 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
The immaterial material of immortality. In 2Kings, the king of Aram sends an army to capture the prophet Elisha. We read that Elisha’s servant goes out and sees a great army with horses and chariots circling the city, and he says to Elisha, “Alas, my master, what will we do?” And Elisha answers, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And then he prays: “O Lord, open his eyes, that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha [2Ki 16.14-17]. This is a spiritual battle. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Greater is He Who is in you than he who is in the world [1Jn 4.4]. God is for us - who can be against us [Rom 8.31]! Let’s take up our shield of faith - in Jesus - and our helmet of immortal salvation - through Jesus - every day - because lives - wonderful, immortal souls - really are at stake!
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