Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-24
We’ve arrived at the final part, Part 12, of our current series in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. It’s called, “The Devil and the Whole Armor of God.” And I want to make three points: Number One, Why We Need Armor. Number Two, How Do We Put on This Armor? And Number Three, The Priority of Prayer.
But Point Number One… Why We Need Armor…
From a journal entry dated Thursday, October 25, 1739:
I was sent for to one in Bristol, who was taken ill the evening before…She lay on the ground, furiously gnashing her teeth, and after a while roared aloud. It was not easy for three or four persons to hold her, especially when the name of Jesus was named. We prayed, [and] the violence of her symptoms ceased, though without a complete deliverance.
In the evening, being sent… to her again, I was unwilling, indeed, afraid, to go… [But] I opened my Testament on those words, “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth.” I stood reproved, and went immediately. She began screaming before I came into the room; then broke out into a horrid laughter, mixed with blasphemy, grievous to hear… My brother coming in, she cried out, “Preacher! Field preacher! I don’t love field preaching.” This was repeated two hours together, with spitting, and all the expressions of strong aversion. We left her at twelve, but called again about noon on Friday, [October] 26. And now it was that God showed He heareth the prayer. All her pangs ceased in a moment: She was filled with peace, and knew that the son of wickedness was departed from her.
These are, in case you haven’t guessed, the words of John Wesley himself, the founder of our Methodist movement. Between 1739 and 1768, in his journals, Wesley documents dozens of other instances of demonic encounters and exorcisms in the course of his pastoral ministry.
I wanted to begin with Wesley because none of us, I hope, would think that he’s a crackpot. After all, none of us would be in this church this morning without him. Yet, please notice, John and Charles Wesley—Charles gets referred to in this journal entry—believed in the power of the devil and the demonic realm.
I confess, many years ago, when I was in seminary, I was skeptical of a literal devil. But thank God, the Lord rescued me and changed my thinking on the subject. And the change happened, in part, when I began to take seriously—once again—the entire truthfulness of the Bible, not to mention the credible testimonies of thoughtful Christians I respect who also believe in the reality of the devil… and, like Wesley, have seen evidence of the devil’s work.
But maybe you’re skeptical of the reality of Satan? If so, I want to challenge you to think of your own life. Pay attention to the timing of events in your life—when some bad thing happens at the most inopportune time, and it just wrecks you; it disorients you; it overwhelms you with fear or anger or a sense of hopelessness. Doesn’t it make sense that there are spiritual forces who are actively working against you?
Paul tells us in verse 11, after all, that we put on the whole armor of God for one reason: “that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” The Greek word for “scheme” is methodeia, which as you can tell from the way it sounds, is the root of the word “method.” The devil has custom-tailored methods for harming each one of us spiritually. The methods he uses against me will not necessarily be the same methods he uses against you.
Let’s notice what Paul says in verse 12, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
Isn’t this a strange thing for Paul, of all people, to say? After all, his entire apostolic ministry seems to bear witness to the truth that if anyone ever “wrestled against flesh and blood,” it was Paul. Even when he wrestled against demons Paul was still wrestling against flesh and blood! Let me read from one episode in the in the Book of Acts, from chapter 16, beginning with verse 16. Notice this is a firsthand report from Dr. Luke, the author, who was with Paul and Silas at the time:
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 1
Do you get the picture? Paul exorcised the demon from this slave girl. This demon had given the girl some measure of psychic abilities. And in turn the slave girl’s owners apparently made a killing from their “psychic hotline”—or whatever the first-century equivalent of that was. And now that they’ve lost their source of income, they’re angry. So what happens next? Luke goes on…
The crowd joined in attacking them [Paul and Silas], and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 2
Gosh, it almost sounds like dealing directly with the demon was the easy part. The hard part, it seems, was not what Satan and his minions did to Paul and Silas, the hard part was what “flesh-and-blood” humans did to them! Right?
But not so fast: Paul knows that we have a more ultimate Enemy, who lies behind all human enemies.
This was true of Judas when he betrayed Jesus—we’re told that Satan “entered into him.” 3 This was true, Paul says, of false teachers and false apostles in the churches.
This was true even of Peter, when Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”4 If Satan can manipulate and use Jesus’ closest disciple, then it goes without saying that Satan can manipulate and use even good people and good Christians—including people like you and me. We can unwittingly do his bidding.
This was true when Paul said, earlier in this letter, in chapter 4, “Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” 5Angry people can be exploited and used to cause harm by the devil.
This was true in 1 Timothy 5:13 to 15, where Paul talks about a tiny, little, itty-bitty problem of among some members of the church. And let me give you a hint what this problem was:
Oh we’re not ones to go ’round spreading rumors
Really, we’re just not the gossipin’ kind
You’ll never hear one of us repeating gossip
So you better be sure and listen close the first time
We trivialize the problem of gossiping and slandering and judging and rumor-mongering. Paul doesn’t trivialize it. In fact, he says that that also is an occasion for Satan to harm people. And then in verse 15 he says, “For some have already strayed after Satan.” When we gossip, when we slander, when we commit sins of the tongue, when we presume to know what’s in the heart of someone we dislike, and we are more than happy to share that opinion with other people, we can be sure that this, too, is one of the devil’s deadly schemes… to harm not just the one being gossiped about, but the gossiper too! And this is what we often consider a so-called “little” sin like gossip.
Do we have a problem with gossip? If so, please know we are working for the devil himself. We need to repent!
With that in mind, we all have to fight in this war that Paul describes. And that’s Point Number One…
So if we all must fight, how do we do it—this is Point Number Two. Verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God”…
So… what exactly does this armor represent, and what does it mean to “put this armor on”? As best I can tell, there are a couple of traditional approaches to interpreting Paul’s words. The first approach is to view these pieces of armor as virtues that we possess, inside of us… virtues that are formed within us, for example, as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us.
And that makes some sense: The “shield of faith,” we might say, wouldn’t refer to mere “saving faith,” when we first receive Christ as our Savior and Lord. No, it’s a faith that puts itself into practice. It’s not merely believing that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and therefore has infinite power to help us… It’s believing that truth so deeply that, like Peter, we’re willing to step out onto the water and walk toward Jesus!
We wield the “shield of faith,” for instance, when we put faith into action in bold, practical, tangible ways.
But… if Paul were merely talking about inward virtues, couldn’t he simply call these pieces of armor the “fruit of the Spirit,” as in Galatians 5:22 and 23?
But that wouldn’t make sense: fruit is something that grows within you, naturally, as you follow Jesus. It’s not something you can “put on,” any more than you duct-tape apples onto a 2×4 and call it an apple tree!
Besides, if this “armor of God” were only something that we possess, or something that grows inside of us as we’re sanctified, that wouldn’t make sense, for example, of the “helmet of salvation”!
Salvation is something we possess—through faith in Christ—or we don’t. There’s nothing in between. And since Paul is writing these words to Christians only, these are people who, by definition, already possess salvation. They don’t need to do anything to acquire more of it.
No… I like this insight that I got from pastor Tim Keller: He compares Paul’s words about the “armor of God” to something Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3. In that paragraph, Paul shares with the Ephesians what his prayers are for them. They include, verse 17, his prayer “that Christ may dwell in [their] hearts through faith.”
But hold on… Once again, Paul is talking to Christians. By definition, they already possess the Holy Spirit—who is the Spirit of Christ. So we can be sure that Christ already dwells within the hearts of the people to whom Paul is writing.
Why is Paul praying for something that is already objectively true for the people he’s praying for? Because in praying this prayer, Keller says, Paul is asking God to make this objective fact more and more of a subjective reality! In other words, Paul is praying that members of this church would internalize this reality in their hearts… that they would make this reality their own… that they would experience this reality more deeply.
Something like that is happening with the different pieces of armor. We “put on” these pieces of armor by applying these things to challenges, trials, or problems that we face in life—which the devil may otherwise use to attack us…
For example, in Wesley’s journal entry I quoted at the beginning of this sermon, we see Wesley himself “putting on the armor of God.” Remember, he had already spent time praying for this woman possessed by the devil earlier in the day. But she wasn’t entirely “delivered,” he said. So later that day her family summoned him to her house to try again. And he said, “I was unwilling, indeed, afraid, to go…” Notice: he was afraid. Then he writes, “[But] I opened my Testament on those words, ‘I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth.’ [These words come from the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Then Wesley writes,] I stood reproved, and went immediately.”
So Wesley felt afraid… Afraid of what?
Probably afraid of Satan and his power, or afraid of failure—afraid that he wasn’t up to the task at hand. Or afraid, perhaps, of what other people might think of him if he were unable to exorcise this demon. Or maybe he was afraid that people would think he’s crazy for even believing that there was a demon that needed to be driven out of this woman in the first place.
People living in the eighteenth century were hardly less skeptical of the devil than we modern people are. Wesley didn’t know many of his Anglican colleagues, after all, who were performing exorcisms! So perhaps he was worried about his reputation… Maybe some combination of all those things was scaring Wesley. Who knows?
But what happens next? How does he overcome his fear. By using the “sword of the Spirit,” God’s Word… a particular verse in this case… motivated him to overcome his fears.
And he may also have used other scripture… If he was worried about his reputation, for instance, he might have taken the “sword of the Spirit” and quoted to himself 1 Corinthians 4:3-4: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”
Or if he was worried about other people’s opinions of him, he might have “put on the shoes of the ‘gospel of peace’ and reminded himself of this gospel truth: “Because I’ve believed the gospel of Christ, I know that God loves me and accepts me and approves of me and is pleased with me. More than I can imagine! Jesus made that possible through his atoning death on the cross. Therefore, why do I need the love, approval, or acceptance of mere humans. I no longer live to please people; I live to please God.”
Of if he was worried about the power of the devil, he might have taken that “belt of truth” and reminded himself that he has nothing less than God himself—the Holy Spirit—living within him. Then he might have used the “sword of the Spirit” again to remind himself, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”6
If Wesley was worried that God wouldn’t give him the power to drive out this demon because, after all, Wesley was so unworthy, he was a sinner, who showed time and again how weak his faith was, how unfaithful he was. So who was he that God would help him? In that case, Wesley could put on the “breastplate of righteousness” and remind himself that while it’s true he himself is unworthy of God’s help, he is covered in the perfect righteousness of God’s Son Jesus. So Wesley stands before God as if he had never sinned. So of course God isn’t going to withhold his love or power!
Or he might have put on that “helmet of salvation” and thought, God paid an infinite cost to redeem me and make me his own—because God paid for my salvation with the death of his infinitely precious Son Jesus. If God loved and treasured me enough to do that for me, why am I worried that he won’t take care of me now?
These are just a few examples of John Wesley “putting on the whole armor of God,” and using the different pieces. Go and do likewise!
That’s Point Number Two… How to Put On the Armor.
Point Number Three… The Priority of Prayer.
Let’s look at verses 18 to 20:
As you’re putting on this armor, Paul says, you do so
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Notice that prayer isn’t described as one particular piece of armor in verse 18. Rather, Paul seems to say that you “put on” all the pieces he’s just described, in large part, through prayer. Prayer is the most important means by which to “put on the full armor of God.” It is the most important and necessary way to protect ourselves in this spiritual war in which we are called to fight…
And not just the prayers we pray for ourselves and for people we love… but other people’s prayers for us.
When Paul asks the Ephesians to pray that God would give him boldness to preach the gospel, even in prison, why does he do so?
Paul is surely the boldest man who ever lived, apart from Jesus himself!
So why ask for the Ephesians to pray this for him? Because he understands that the boldness that is so evident in his lifeis made possible through other Christians praying for boldness on Paul’s behalf.
Let me put it another way: The boldness that is so evident in Paul’s lifeis made possible, in part, through other Christians who are praying that Paul would be bold.
Or try this: the boldness that Paul has, he has—at least in part—because fellow Christians pray for Paul to be bold… because their prayers for him will make a difference in his ability to live out his mission… because without these prayers for him, and for his successful defense of the gospel before Caesar himself, Paul may very well fail in living out his mission!
So Paul, knowing that, asks these Christians to pray for him!
The Bible is crystal clear on this point: God will do things for us when other people pray for us that he won’t necessarily do when we simply pray for ourselves.
God will do things for us when other people pray for us that he won’t necessarily do when we simply pray for ourselves. Of course, when Christians pray for one another, it’s called intercessory prayer.
God loves intercessory prayer…
Think, for instance, of Paul’s experience on that Road to Damascus, when Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, was blinded by the resurrected Lord Jesus, the One he’d been persecuting. Jesus talks to Paul directly, during that event. And Paul, we’re told, spends the next three days blind… fasting… Was he praying, too? Of course he was!
But… What happens next? God calls a man named Ananias to intercede for Paul, to go to his house, to lay his hands on Paul, and to heal him.
Why does God do this? The Lord has already been speaking to Paul; Paul has been praying to the Lord. Why use Ananias at all? Why use a “middle man”? God doesn’t need to use middle men or intercessory prayer to accomplish his purposes. God could easily snap his fingers and—poof—those scales on Paul’s eyes just fall off.
So why use Ananias?
I don’t know… But I know from many examples in scripture that God loves to accomplish mighty things through other Christians’ prayers for us that he won’t otherwise accomplish!
Them’s just the facts! I almost wish that weren’t the case, because I hate to think that the success or failure of people I know and love depends in part on my prayers for them. But there’s no question, biblically speaking, that it does! What an awesome responsibility we have to pray for one another! How lightly we often take this responsibility.
Here’s another example if you don’t believe me: In Genesis 20, Abraham, for the second time, tries to pass off his wife Sarah as his sister, so that powerful rulers won’t kill Abraham in order to take Sarah as their wife.
And so, a king named Abimelech intends to make Sarah his wife and has her brought to his palace.
Verse 3: “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, ‘Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.’” And God sends a deadly plague on Abimelech and his household.
But in verses 4 and 5, Abimelech tells God, “But I didn’t know she was this man’s wife. He told me she was his sister! I’m innocent. I acted with integrity!” Verse 6: God tells Abimelech: “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart…”
Now listen to the astonishing verse 7: “Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live…”
Wait, what? God is already talking to Abimelech. Why doesn’t God simply tell him, “Return Sarah to Abraham, and I’ll heal you and your household of this plague”? But God will only heal these people through the prayer of God’s representative, Abraham!
And then in verse 17, we’re told that Abraham does pray for the king, and only then are he and his household saved from this plague.
Again… God doesn’t need to do things like this. But he chooses to. God sometimes accomplishes mighty things through through intercessory prayer that God won’t otherwise accomplish!
Do we pray like that? Do we pray for other people as if their lives, their ministry, their success, their failure, their wellbeing, the advancement of God’s kingdom in this world depend on it?
If not, what is God calling you to do about it?