[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, from God the Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
In the church where I grew up, there would be an assembly every Sunday morning before
children were dismissed to their Sunday school classes.
The Sunday school superintendent would conduct a short devotion consisting of scripture
and prayer.
The whole assembly would then recite word for word the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’
Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer.
there, and after that, each class sitting in their assigned rows would be signaled to
go in a group to their respective rooms while singing Onward Christian Soldiers.
It was invariably the same routine week in and week out. Onward Christian
soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ
the royal master leads against the foe.
Well that was back in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Since then that hymn in many circles has fallen into disfavor
as being too militaristic, warlike,
Imperial. I started to say, I don’t know the last time that I heard it sung in
church service, even though it is in LSB, but I would have to correct myself
because we actually substituted it as the closing hymn in the early service. So
prior to that, it’d be a long time since I heard the hymns sung in a church service.
but say what you will about the hymn, it does highlight and underscore an
important truth of the Bible. There is a war going on and Christians cannot claim
to be conscientious objectors or unalloyed spectators. Christians are on a
battlefield and a cosmic one at that. That is the point of today’s epistle
text. Luther referred to this section of Ephesians 6 as the Christians’ military
sermon. For there is a war going on and no soldiers, no soldier dare set foot on
the battlefield, without the essential gear both offensive and defensive. The
fight is fierce and the warfare long. In the class that met here at St. Paul’s
this week, I described Luther’s approach to theology, not as faith-seeking
understanding, but as faith-enduring attack. Luther knew, as did the prophets
and the Apostle Paul before him, that the Christian life is lived on a battlefield.
You might not see the craters created by the explosion of sin. The corpses of
those slaughtered by the old evil foe who is a murderer from the beginning
might not be immediately apparent to the eyes. You might not perceive the cries of
the walking wounded. You don’t always know where the enemy is hiding or where
the minds are placed. To use the words of another hymn, we indeed walk in danger
all the way. We are constantly praying the Lord’s prayer and especially the
seventh petition, deliver us from evil. For you see, the Christian life, your life,
is an imperiled life. The Apostle does not direct us to our own resources but
to Christ. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Satan knows
your weaknesses better than you do yourself. He is an expert military
strategist in the war that he wages against you, if you are to stand against his demonic
schemes, you cannot do so unprepared.
You see, this conflict is with no earthly Taliban of flesh and blood, but spiritual
enemies who are no match for human beings.
It is as though Paul was working through a checklist of gear that a Roman soldier would
be outfitted with for armed conflict.
And you see, not only you as an individual Christian, but God’s army, God’s saints need
his armor if they are to hold their ground and stand firm against the assaults of the
prince of darkness who seeks our overthrow. Over and against the deceptive
lies of him who was and is a liar from the beginning, you have the belt of truth.
Those who don’t know the truth can’t recognize the lie. Like a belt, the truth
holds everything in place. And this truth is found only in Jesus who himself is the
the truth and the life. Next, the Apostle speaks of the breastplate of righteousness.
This is not a self-made righteousness that indeed would be as flimsy as dirty
rags. No, this is the blood-bought righteousness of your Messiah, and it
covers you. In Roman warfare, the breastplate protects the vital organs of
heart and the lungs. The righteousness of Jesus now shields your heart. When Satan
would accuse you and knock the air out of you with all of those evil things,
those dark thoughts and the fleshly deeds that come out of your heart,
you have the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness. It is imputed to you, that is given externally
by the gospel, to cover your heart so that even when your heart accuses you,
You stand in innocence and blessedness before God.
The breastplate of righteousness is sure armor no matter how much Satan attacks with his
ugly accusations.
And you do not go barefooted into the battle. The soldier needs his boots.
Walking through the muck and the mire of this decadent and disruptive war,
your feet are carriers not of mud, but of God’s peace.
Your mothers may have admonished you as mine did.
take off your shoes and don’t trap mud all over the house. But the Apostle says
the opposite. Leave your shoes on and track the peace of Jesus wherever you go
in this world. You see, now your shoes leave a footprint, the footprint of
Jesus’ peace, the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that passes, all
understanding. Track that peace around. Let it be your imprint. And there’s more.
If a Roman soldier was to defend himself, he would need a shield to block the
and the spears that would be flying at him from the enemy. And you have a shield,
the shield of faith, faith in Christ who loved you and gave himself up for
you on the cross. And that faith is the only thing that can intercept the
burning darts of the devil. In fact, in the face of his attach, we
have the faith that overcomes the world, and so we can confess in all
boldness, I belong to Christ. I am baptized into him. He has forgiven me all
of my sins, the shield of faith in Jesus Christ is my sure defense.
And your head is not left uncovered either.
The head is the place of the mind, the brain, and if the brain is crushed, the body is incapacitated
and dies. The Christian wears the helmet of salvation. Christ’s blood sanctifies
our thinking, giving us what the Scriptures call a renewed mind. We can
think clearly and rightly according to God’s Word, both about Him and His love
for us poor sinners and the reality of our need for him.
There is offensive weaponry as well. The sword of the spirit.
The sword of the spirit is the word of God.
Words which are spirit and they are life. And this
word of the Lord is an efficacious word, a word that says what it does and does
what it says. This word is the power of God and to salvation for those who
believe. And how are we to use God’s word? The Apostle says with alertness, paying
attention and perseverance, keeping at it, always exercising God’s Word in prayer
and in supplication, one for another. We are not contending against flesh and
and blood.
Back during the days of World War II,
there was a Lutheran theologian in Germany
by the name of Hermann Sasse, a faithful pastor, professor.
And he once commented on this text from Ephesians 6,
saying that if the church’s only enemy was Nazism,
we really had no worries.
We could simply be patient, because in the course of history, political ideologies come and go.
Dictators gain power and lose power.
Empires flourish and then fail.
Wokeness, political correctness today, something new next year.
But Sasa reminded his peers, and I remind you here today, that the real contest, the
real conflict is not with politicians or politics or philosophies and media commentators.
Instead, our battle is against Satan and his dark principalities and demonic powers.
And it is ironic that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is flesh and blood, enters
into this battle, which is not against flesh and blood, and yet the battle is
won by him who is flesh and blood. He is the one who has defeated Satan. He is the
who even today forgives you your sin. He is the one who has conquered the grave.
By his Word and Spirit, he equips you to endure these evil days, and he will bring
you to the final victory. And as pledge and token of this, he calls you to his
altar this morning, to eat his body and drink his blood, given and shed for the
forgiveness of your sins. And as often as we do this, we proclaim his death until
he comes. And in that death is our life. Amen. In the peace of God which passes all understanding,
keep and guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
