Standing firm: an introduction, Eph, 6:10-18

We're going to be tackling quite a passage here, and so you'll notice that your handout is a little differently formatted to accommodate that. In order not to shrink the words of the passage down so small that you need magnifying glass to read it, we've expanded the passage a bit. And so you'll bear with me with the change of format and hopefully track OK.

One of the things that jumps out as you look through this passage is God's provision. Paul continues, as we look at this passage on spiritual warfare, to point to God's provision in dealing with everything. Notice he doesn't say, now look, hang in there, give the old college a try, you know, give it your best, do what you can, and really try hard, and all those kind of things. He doesn't just try to pump you up and give it your best. He keeps pointing, from start to finish, God's provision for spiritual warfare. God has accomplished. God has provided everything that God has done. That's what he keeps underscoring here.

One of the questions we have to ask, though, because Paul is writing to the church there at Ephesus, they're mostly of Greek background, certainly some international influx into a major port city like that, a city that was along the Silk Road route, as we pointed out some months back.

There were some Jews, we know that. About 220 BC, a number of Jews were enticed to move in that general area because they were told, if you move here, we'll give you a decade with no taxes. And a lot of them said, where do I sign? So at any rate, why did Paul write about a Roman soldier's armor if we have the largely Greek and somewhat Jewish background to the church there? Well, let's take a look at that.

Here's Ephesus. We look at Paul's third missionary journey. This is his second missionary journey on which he went to Ephesus. So he's gone there again. On his trip back on that journey, he had the Ephesian elders meet him in Miletus as he was kind of hightailing it, if you will, back towards Jerusalem. And he wanted to meet with them. And a little bit more focus here was there in Miletus where in Acts 20 we see the last conversation, and it's the longest recorded message to believers in the book of Acts, the last conversation with these Ephesian elders.

And what we find there, it's the home of a Roman governor and a few thousand Roman soldiers. So while the Roman soldiers would have been few compared to the roughly quarter million people who lived in Ephesus, they would have been prominent and they would have been very visible and so people would have been quite well aware of their presence and how they operated.

Paul is also himself very familiar with them. We have all these references to Paul in prison and in chains. We saw earlier in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1, chapter 4 verse 1, Paul's own reference to being in prison at the very moment. We saw in Philippians 1, especially verse 13, Paul himself, while he was imprisoned in Rome, was chained to a Praetorian guard 24-7. So he himself, he's sitting there chained to this guy looking at the very armor that he's got.

And so he's able to refer by personal witness right there to the pieces of armor that they have with them. And having been to Ephesus in chapter 20, he records three years in Ephesus. He would know very well that the people there would have frequent exposure to the Roman soldiers that were stationed there.

Now, it's clear, spiritual warfare is about God's strength and God's armor. It's not about how we see ourselves as ourselves, but it's who the Lord says we are. See that? It's about God's strength and not ours. It's not what we are able to pull off, it's what God does. It's about God's armor. You ever hear somebody say, don't be so defensive, right? Well, Paul is saying, be defensive, but just don't use your own. Okay? It's God's defenses.

Spiritual warfare, as we see in verse 10 here, in verse 10 we see that the strength and the person and position from which that strength originates, strong, what does he say? In the Lord. He doesn't say, buck up, keep a stiff upper. He says, strong in the Lord. Okay?

In the Lord is in Christ, that Ephesians 1.15 makes that clear. In the Lord Jesus Christ is where he spells it out full.

The other thing that's clear is that the magnitude of the strength we're talking about isn't just, boy, I hope it's enough. I hope it's sufficient. I hope it's adequate, what the Lord's going to provide for me here, because I need something, you know, a little bit more than what I got.

He says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, His power, right? Now, if we were to look at that in our own language, in our own vernacular, we might just put it this way, and he is mighty strength. You need to order magnitude calibration? Mighty strength. That's what he's saying.

One of the things that's really cool about this, as human beings, a lot of people struggle with adequacy. You ever notice that? People wrestle in their minds with, am I sufficient for these things? Do I measure up? Am I adequate? Do you see any question about that in here?

Paul never doubts for a minute. He never throws in even a little tiny sliver of doubt about the Lord's adequacy for the situation. Do you notice that? It's why the exhortation to the believers there is absolute. The armor is complete. Twice, he says, the full armor. Notice here, that you will be able, so that you will be able. Twice he focuses. One of the ways that Scripture makes emphasis is by repetition. Twice.

So that you'll be able. So that you'll be able. Folks, are you going to be able? Yeah. In the Lord's strength. With the full armor of God. Yes. No question about it. He makes this sequence very clear in this passage. Put on the full armor of God. Here's the so that. Here's the outcome. so that you'll be able to stand firm. That's the simple message of this passage. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm.

Any question about your ability? No. What are you going to do? Stand firm. Real clear. The thing that's really clear is total adequacy. As human beings, people often will question, am I sufficient? Am I adequate for this? There's no question of adequacy here. Will you be able to stand?

Paul isn't saying, well, you've got pretty good odds. I hope it'll work. No. Complete confidence in the adequacy of what the Lord has done and provided. Paul doesn't talk about just put on some more armor or try to get on as much as you can. Give it your best shot. Put some more on. If that doesn't work, put a few more on top of that. He doesn't talk about you'll be a little more adequate.

No, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able, absolute statement, to stand. The idea here is he wants total adequacy from our eternal position, it's completely sufficient, translated into our daily condition. That's what he's spelling out. The full armor of God, as we look at it here, is emphatic, mentions it twice. The full armor of God. It is of God.

It's the Lord's armor provision, it's not yours. You look at a situation and you say, I'm not sure I can handle this. That's not the issue. He doesn't even bring that forth. It's of God. It's God's provision in this situation. Have you ever run into a situation where you've blown it in the past? And you say, well, I'm not sure I can handle this this time around. And the Lord says, that's not the point. It's of God. The full armor of God. And He also emphasizes the full armor. What God is giving you in the way of armor is full and complete and total. He's not giving you I hope so's and just about's and almost enough's. The full armor of God.

Now, the one thing to recognize here, and I think a lot of Christians may struggle with this, is we're in a battle, okay? We're in battle zone. I've from time to time heard Christians who have maybe become a believer and somehow they've been given the impression by the way Christians have talked to them, oh, if you become a believer, you'll just be on the highway to heaven. It'll just be smooth as silk. The next day, wham! Guess what? If you're a Christian, you're stepping into a battle that didn't happen before. You are in a battleground.

I think that's important to recognize. It isn't God's best guess. It isn't God just saying, well, boy, I think this will do it for you. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able. He makes double emphasis here on the full armor of God, okay?

He doesn't leave open the idea, you know, you can put on most of it and you'll be covered. Notice that? See that? He doesn't say, you know, put a few on and I think you probably have most of it dealt with there. You probably have sufficient, just put on a few.

No, the full, double emphasis. Nothing less than the full set of armor that God's provided will do. You get that picture? What God has provided is completely sufficient, but nothing less than the full amount will do. The full amount is what is intended.

We don't need to have God's help. We need to have everything that the Lord has provided, not just a little assistance. Shin guards are not going to cut it. We don't have to have them just in our possession. Just having them isn't enough. When it comes to adequate armor for saints, God just isn't fiddling around.

Now, the other thing, here are the imperatives. When we point out the imperatives, especially in this last half of Ephesians, there are imperatives. That is, in the Greek text, there's a certain form of the word imperative. It means must. It's not a suggestion. It's not advisements, it is a must. Put on, take up, stand and take. Those are imperatives.

It is by reason of our position in Christ that He can call us to take this action. Okay? He has spent the first few chapters, the first roughly half of the book, spelling out our position in Christ, who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ. It is on that basis that He can tell us these imperatives.

He doesn't say, you've got to go out and do it on your own strength, on your own power, based on your own motivations, and you've got to do it, and if you fall short, kaboom! God's going to lay a heavy load on you. No. that is all on the basis of what God's done. After spelling that out, who you are in Christ, what Christ has accomplished on your behalf, what God has made you to be in Him, that's the basis on which He can lay this imperative on you. Now, every imperative here is calling us to utilize what God has already done and accomplished. That's what it's about.

It's not getting into trouble and saying, oh Lord, I need your help. You needed his help long before you got into trouble. That's what he's spelling out here. And the help is not just a little bit of assistance. It's the whole thing. But the outcome isn't just... And this is where there is, I would say, a distinction with the analogy that Paul's used. It doesn't just increase our odds and increase our chances. He twice says, so that you will be able to stand. No qualifications, no percentages, no grayscale, full on, full out, able to stand.

Now, both the initial putting on of the armor of God and the standing are a result of putting on the full armor of God. They're both imperatives. Do you see that? Now, getting on the armor and standing are both the one logical conclusion that the believer can make. Put on is an imperative, and stand is an imperative. Put on the full armor of God so that you will stand, but both are imperatives. Based on your position in Christ, you must put on the full armor, but based on your position in Christ, you must also stand, having had that armor. Both are imperatives, both are logical conclusions from the believer's position in Christ.

So what does he say? Essentially, four times, and we'll explain the one that says resist here, four times stand firm. The standing firm here is the absolute outcome of having put on the full armour of God. Resist means to stand firm against. That's all it is. It means stand firm against. That's what resist means. The standing firm is indeed the outcome. and putting on the armor is the outcome. They are both imperatives. They are both based on our position in Christ.

Alright, now, I want you to learn about the logical imperative. It's the one logical conclusion. Okay? Notice he doesn't say, you know, you've got a bunch of choices here, you could take on the full armor of God, and you could take on some of it, and you could take on somebody else's armor, and you could mix in a little bit of your own best effort, and you'd probably come out okay. No, he says the one logical conclusion, that's where you stand in this putting on the full armor. It's the one thing that makes any sense. This standing firm here is both the outcome of putting on the full armor, that is putting on, that's an imperative, and the stand firm is an imperative in itself. Both are the sole logical conclusion.

Now, I want to present to you the American surprise. The passage here is typically presented as an individual thing. I would not disagree with that, but there's more to it, and let me explain. The typical teaching approach in the United States is to present these as individual, weapons and to be used and exercised individually with individual benefit. And I would say that that is true, but there is also another truth to be revealed here.

The training and mindset of every Roman soldier was strongly towards the group of soldiers, not just the individual. That is, there is an impact in this call to put on the full armor of God, not just for the individual believer, but for other believers around you. If you're involved in a local church body, as we are here this morning, if you're involved in a local church body, if you're involved in a family and you've got, you know, a Christian household, you have not only an individual opportunity and obligation and benefit, but there's also a group benefit. Isn't that interesting?

Here is the Roman Testudo, and this is a relief, and just so you can see it here, bracket it here, What they would do is, as you see in the picture, they would put their shields together and therefore be like a tortoise shell and give all the soldiers protection.

Notice how the soldiers behind would hold the shields out front, the soldiers on the sides would hold the shields on the sides. An enemy trying to come at them would have a tough time getting through and causing the damage that they intended. Here would be an example of the way they would use it.

They'd be up against a rock wall, the commander would give them the testudo command, and they would make this shield up against, and now when the enemy starts shooting down arrows, what happens? Everybody's protected. They're bounced off. The arrows go down the shield roof, if you will, just like it was shingles, and bounce off.

They would provide a living ramp, would be another form of the testudo formation. It'd give them opportunity to battle more directly with some cavalry if they were opposed to it. They would also be in a spot where they would be able to climb, you know, small ledges and walls and things of that sort by using this living ramp. And they would have that command given to them.

The shields would be held like riffing shingles, and that's more like the picture that you see there. And so when a rain of arrows, even arrows that are on fire, flaming arrows, would come down on them, they would be well-protected so that the shield would not be just for the protection of the individual soldier, but for all. And frequently the enemy would rain arrows down from different directions. Having the shields on all sides would do what? protect them all. My shield doesn't just protect me, it protects the guy next to me.

This is potent and powerful. As we look at this here, the mindset of the Roman soldier was strongly towards this group of soldiers and it turns out the barbarians were the ones that saw themselves as, I'm the powerful individual soldier and I happen to be aligned with these other fellows.

It was more like what you see with Goliath coming out. Frequently, the barbarians would taunt the Roman soldiers and they'd say, come out and fight like a man. What they wanted to do was they wanted to eliminate the Roman soldiers' advantage in using this group formation. They wanted to say, come out and fight like a man, which interpreted means, please let go of your great advantage in using this group formation. We can't beat it.

Now, so the training would be in the direction of this teamwork and group military formations. They would have the shout of the commander to get armed up and they would yell, armor on, of course in Latin, and then they would shout various forms of the testudo formation and then qualifications of what that was in order to fit it to the particular situation.

There's something else, the breastplate, which Paul says here to put on, was not something you could entirely put on yourself. One of the things that we noticed, this is the lorica segmentata was what they called this. And sometimes you'll see solid breastplates. That was typically not the average soldier because the solid breastplate, what do you do when you try to lean over and try to turn?

It doesn't work so good. So it's frequently used for people in palaces or for officers, but actual fighting soldiers would typically have this. This would be another example, and you can see in the background, they'd have to have somebody else tie these up, unless you're really good.

So it'd be something that it would be one soldier would check another, and they'd each look at it and checked it just like you check mine. They would check each other out before getting into the battle formation. The other advantage is this segmentata would collapse real easily. and be easier to carry when you were traveling without the armor on. The other thing is the shields were used often as a group protective measure.

You'd have a rain of arrows or rocks coming at you. It would be something everybody would get, the commander would shout, testudo, and they'd get in that formation and be protected on basically all sides except the rear from the attack that was coming upon them. So when the archers were shooting flaming arrows like this, you'd want to be in a formation like this, see? And then be protected because frequently those arrows, and often flaming, would come from different directions at once.

Just having a single soldier with a single shield would not be sufficient. You wouldn't want to be standing out in the open like this, okay? Even with a single shield in front of you, it wouldn't be as good as the group formation, the testudo formation that they had. We oftentimes will see soldiers in the Roman military with an oval shield. That was used in the cavalry and in other armies where they didn't have the group formation. The cavalry would frequently go out and having a heavy shield, the way that the typical infantry did, where they didn't connect together, didn't make sense. Here, they would have the lighter shield that wasn't as heavy and the corners trimmed off, and that would be sufficient for the cavalry. Instead, the infantry soldiers, the ones that Paul describes, would have this rounded rectangular shield to give them full protective measure, especially as a group. Roman soldiers weren't permitted to marry while they were in the military.

One of the reasons was they wanted to focus on your social connection and your social contact and your social orientation is going to be with the group. That was the focus there. The shields were often designed to interlock and at very least to be connected together side by side so you could close it up and have only enough arch in the top to see where you were going, which was also helpful.

Now, Paul doesn't mention something. There isn't a standard issue weapon he does not mention. It's the pilum or what would be the javelin or a spear. Those were typically made so that if you threw them once, the tip would bend, and then the enemy couldn't throw them back with any value or use. And he doesn't mention that, so that's real interesting. The pylum was more of an offensive weapon, and so he doesn't make use of that. It was typically not used, and you notice in this lower drawing, no pylum are used.

As a defensive measure, it was typically not. The upper drawing there does show them, and we'll mention that in a little bit here. Mostly they were used in offense. Now, if they were used in defense, what they would do is, as we see here, they would dig the end of the pylum into the ground for the front line and then put them out like this.

Why? Because a charging horse is going to do what when it hits those? hurt himself, right? And if you're imagining, if you're a foot soldier, a charging horse is going to be a scary thing. If you set the pylum up like this in a defensive mode, the charging horse is only going to hurt itself. And then they would supplement that with this mode. But that was only if the cavalry was coming after you.

Other than that, it was better not to have them because you could hold on to your shield more solidly. Now, So it doesn't mention the pylum, it may indicate an implication that the enemy does not have superior offensive power. Isn't that interesting?

There is a caution in this passage about Satan and the principalities and that they are on the attack mode, but there is the implication that they don't have a substantial offensive power and that your best position is one of standing and defense. Stand firm. It doesn't mean to take on aggressive spiritual warfare, attacking Satan and the demons.

Paul and Peter and James, all, all three of them, call for believers to resist Satan. And that's where he uses the word stand, and then uses a prefix that means against. Stand against. All three of them use that same word. Believers are not to try to rebuke, bind, or waste their time trying to boss Satan or his allies. There is no need to do so. The call, however, is to resist. Satan is already judged. That's clear from the Gospels. We're only called to stand in our position. Four times, stand, stand, stand. One of those, including the reference, stand against. The same thing that we find in Peter and in James.

Matthew 25, 41 basically says that Satan and his angels already have a destiny. It's already been fixed. And hell is basically prepared for them. In Matthew 8, 29, and we see another fairly thorough description of that on where Jesus meets the legion of demons, the demoniac.

The demons acknowledge Him as the Son of God and then say, have you come here to torment us before the time? They know what's coming. Can you imagine? This is kind of hard, but imagine putting yourself in the demon's position. You know you've chosen against the Lord. There is, from anything we can tell from Scripture, no opportunity for salvation. And you know your time is going to come. And when that happens, you're done.

Can you imagine that mindset? Can you imagine that? view of things, the way they look at things, they know where this is headed. So your opposition knows exactly what the outcome is going to be. You ever hear the term, you know, win the battle and lose the war? It's the other way around for believers. Paul is exhorting you, win the battle, the war is already won.

How about that? One of the things that's become popular in these days is spiritual mapping. There's even software if you want to buy that. and trying to plot out things so that you attack these spiritual forces. Well, what this passage is doing is telling us, look, recognize God has already done all that needs to be done through Jesus Christ to establish who owns what ground and to already declare Satan defeated. Satan will be bound. There will be a time when he is bound. It won't be because we command it or demand it. It'll be because the Lord says it's time. He won't break loose. There won't be any, whoops, how did he get out? It will be a done deal.

That's spelled out there in Revelation 19 and 20. First Peter, that we talked to about here earlier, the call is to resist. Stand against. Same idea that Paul has communicated in Ephesians 6. Stand against the enemy. Okay? Ephesians 4-7 uses the same word. Stand against. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Okay? Stand against him. Don't run after him. Don't try to chase him out, attack him, call him names, anything else. Just stand against him. Stand the ground that you have, that the Lord has already won. Stand in your position in Christ with the full armor of God entirely from him. That's your call. That's your place.

There are those who will, you know, go and rebuke Satan or try to bind him and things of that sort. There's a warning in 2 Peter not to revile angelic majesties. That same warning is repeated in Jude 8 with identical words in the Greek. There is no call for us to go running after Satan. Just stand your ground. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ.

Finally, there's a reference here, pulling down strongholds. Not even that calls for us to make some aggressive attack. Notice that verse 5, casting down arguments, okay? This has to do with dealing with issues within the church and dealing with the way people are speaking. Anyway, okay. The core message in this passage is this.

Don't just do something. Stand there, okay? Don't just do something, stand there. The human inclination is to do something. I've got to do something. Give me something to do. No. His call is stand there. You've got the full armor. You have the full armor. It's from God. It is completely adequate. Its ability is not the least bit in question. So what do you do? Stand there. The ground has already been gained and won by Jesus Christ. Stand there. This enemy has already been judged. He wants you to win the battle, but don't worry, the war's already won. It's a done deal.

Sometimes we might think that the answer is to get spiritually hyperactive. I'm going to go out and do spiritual stuff. Sign up for everything that looks like the good thing to do. His response there is no. Don't just do something. Stand there. Now, I'm not saying that It isn't valid for us to do things. We may indeed be called to do this and that thing.

God has prepared, as we saw in Ephesians 2.10, good works that we might walk in them. But the answer is not just in our doing.

The answer is in God's provision. The full armor of God. The full armor of God in every circumstance. Paul isn't just hoping that we have a fighting chance. He's urging us to take the fighting stance. He's not looking at improving our odds. He's saying, take the full armor of God, it's from Him, you will be able, full on, full out, no questions.

Though the armor was won by each individual soldier, at least part of the putting on of the armor required a team effort. We pointed to that. All the training of the soldiers were for benefiting the team. When the soldiers were armed individually, Their protection when they worked as a group was for themselves and for others. There is an individual action. The benefit and the action that each believer has with another also has a protection as well. When you put that all together, protection is absolute. Now, we stand against this enemy, the devil, and then Paul lists various rulers and authorities, powers of darkness.

One of the things I was going through business school, they had various programs and books and classes and seminars available on how to deal with difficult people. It's funny how many people were interested in that class. But the thing is, while frequently we'll see difficult people and difficult circumstances as perhaps our problem, there are also those who would rather just go past all that painful diplomacy and just really let them have it. And that's why you've probably seen things like this, you know, the books on getting even, and they even come up with getting even two. So, anyway, that's the natural human inclination.

Paul is pointing beyond that. He says, you know, really, that person there who's difficult, that's not the problem. We have a spiritual issue here that's behind it that you don't see. What those classes could never address is the enemy behind the apparent enemy. the problem behind the earthly and worldly apparent problem. You see, the weaponry has to be provided by God. That's the only way we can cope. Because He's going to do the coping, not us.

And finally it says here, in the heavenly places, take our position in Christ. These angelic beings have stood against the Lord and operate from the spiritual realm. It's from the spiritual realm that these things take place. It's from there that they start. We'll be taking a look at those in more detail in the weeks to come here.

It is the same place in the heavenlies, you see, in chapter 1, where we have our position in Christ. One thing to be remembered is Satan and his followers may have access to the heavenlies. They cannot touch our position. They can only touch whatever they are allowed to, and our position is not one of those things.

You see, there might be all sorts of things that cause us to run, to panic, to, you know, boy, what am I going to do, you know? We get to our wits' end, and that's a good thing, okay? It's critical to see all of what Paul lays out here for us, so that it's abundantly clear. We have throughout this passage superlatives, full, full, everything, all, all, all, all, all, okay?

Paul uses this armor analogy, and the armor in truth greatly increased the soldier's ability to stand. Paul uses that analogy as an example to bring it to mind, but not with greater odds, but absolutes. We are able to stand. He used these superlatives again and again. Why the difference?

The armor is based upon our position in Christ, which is absolute, not just better odds, not just better chances. There were a lot of people who had a lot of regard for the Roman military, and no doubt they had good reason to. There was devotion between the various members of the military unit, but some soldiers didn't survive the battle. But one of the things you notice here, in this battle, every believer survives.

It's different. The armor analogy is helpful, but not complete. It's totally adequate for every believer. He spells out, and we'll be going in the coming weeks into the details here, he spells out the character of that spiritual armor. And basically the point is, get it on. I'm going to tell you what those pieces are. I'm going to tell you about the armor. Get it on.

It doesn't enhance or improve anything if we try to make our own contribution to it. Oh, I'm going to have my faith and boy, I'm going to really believe hard. Or, I'm going to pray extra hard and that's going to fix it. No, he's not calling for that. It's what God provides and does, not us. It's dependence upon Him. It's in exercising faith in Him, not dependence on ourselves, that he's focusing on here. We are to walk in our daily condition as we already are in our eternal position. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 11, notice that the emphasis is similar.

So that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. He's not calling us to say, oh God, help me. The surpassing greatness of the power is from Him and not from ourselves. Not God added to what I have and what I do and what I try to accomplish.

So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in my body. the life of Jesus manifested in my body. And finally, with prayer and petition, pray at all times. Some Christians have adopted some terminology, and I've heard it, and some fine Christian folks have done so, but I'd just like to point something out. You know, praying a hedge of protection. You hear that? Or pray a wall of prayer. You might have come across that one. Or bathing someone or a situation in prayer. Now, I have a shocking thing to say. It's a good thing you're all sitting down.

I don't believe in the power of prayer. I don't. You see, the power is not in prayer. It's in the God to whom we're praying. And that's the key here. Pray and petition for all the saints. There is this teamwork effort. There is this communication with the commander. You pray not for yourselves, but for others in the church body.

He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might, and then appeals to prayer. Okay? We pray not because we believe in the power of prayer, but because we believe in the power of the God to whom we are praying. And because of the eternal relationship we have with Him. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, it is abundantly clear that all that you have given us is totally adequate, eternally adequate. We thank you that we can have this unusual circumstance of being urged to fight so that we win the battle. But don't worry, the war is already won. What a tremendous stance that we can have. Therefore, we are urged to stand, to stand, to stand, and to stand again. And how marvelous that we can stand in the position that you have won for us. How marvelous that we can be defended completely with the full armor that's provided by you. What a tremendous privilege we have. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.