Putting on Christ

 

Ephesians 6:17


Introduction:

In the month since 911, to many in this country, life will never be the same again. With the lost of loved ones, friends and colleagues, there is an empty space in many hearts that will not be filled. To those who are not directly affected by this tragedy, their lives are also changed. According to ABC news, the change includes marriage proposal, a halt in divorce proceedings, a resignation letter and postponement of parenthood. Others are reevaluating priorities, rediscovering faith and patriotism, reconnecting with family and friends, and confronting fear and depression. 911 have left an indelible marker in the American history.

In our study of the book of Ephesians, we learned that with the coming of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, there was another marker in human history. He brought his children, those who believed in him, into a new society, a new community, the church. For those who come into this new community, their lives will never be the same again. They begin to live a life-style that is totally different from the previous one.

The members of this community, are recipients of every kind of heavenly blessings. In this new society, everyone is equal. There are no more barriers between the Jews and non-Jews, male and female. There is harmony among the Christian community and the family units. Instead of contentions and rivalries, there is love and submission between the husbands and wives; nurture and obedience between the fathers and children; respect, dignity and faithfulness between the employers and employees. The purpose of this new community, individual and corporate is to manifest God's glory and beauty.

However, the apostle Paul also realized the difficulty of living out such harmony in this new community. Even as we reflect upon our personal lives and the church history, we recognize failures and disappointments. We are lacking in manifesting God's glory in our lives, and on the contrary, we often bring shame to his name.

So Paul explained to us the reasons for such difficulties and failures. Yes, there is human sinfulness, but there is also a spiritual warfare going on. We have an enemy, the devil, Satan. He is ruthless, powerful and evil. His primary objective is to disrupt, destroy the harmony, at home and in the Christian community. Our enemy does his best to prevent us from expressing God's glory and beauty in personal and community life.

During our last several studies, we learned that even though our enemy is ferocious, we could be strong and standing firm. How so? Putting on the armor of God. This armor includes: Truth for defeating deception; Righteousness for combating evil and injustice; the gospel of peace enables others to be reconciled to God; faith in God instead of trusting ourselves. Today we will look at the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit. In November, we will look at Prayer.

In our study of the spiritual warfare, we begin to see a picture emerging. That is, the equipments we are to put on are all embodied in the person of Jesus Christ.

I. We are to be equipped with a wholesome view of Salvation.

The helmet is made of metal and can be broken only by an axe or hammer. It protects the soldier's head. In the spiritual warfare, it is the helmet of salvation.

What is salvation? To many of us, it means that I believe in Jesus Christ as my lord and savior. In 2 Cor 1:10 "????????????????????????????????????," Here we are told that there are 3 aspects of salvation.

One is the past. When we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, God delivered us from sin's bondage. He forgave our sins and adopted us into his family, becoming his children. We are secure in him and no one can snatch us away from his hands.

Then there is also the present aspect of salvation. Even though we have been delivered from the bondage of sin, we are still constantly influenced by sin. Everyday we face different temptations that lure us away from God. We depend on God to save us from yielding to these temptations. We need him to enable us to live a life of love, purity and harmony. We need him to enable us to become loving persons doing loving things. At this moment, we live in a world full of pain and suffering. He has not promised us that there will be no pain or difficulties in life, but he will give us strength and inner peace to endure and be strong in the midst of adversities. Like the words of this song: "?????, ????, ?????, ????, ?????, ????, ?????, ????. ?????, ????, ?????, ????, ?????, ????, ?????, ????." This is the present aspect of the salvation.

The future aspect of salvation. The bible tells us that one day in the future Jesus Christ will return to this world. At this moment, the entire creation is waiting for him to come and deliver us from our physical pain and suffering. Not just human pain and suffering, but including the abnormalities of the universe. When he comes, he will restore the entire creation back to what it is meant to be at the time of creation. Once again, the creation will manifest God's glory and beauty.

This is the past, present and future aspect of the salvation.

You see, salvation is more than a personal experience; it is also a worldview. This wholesome understanding of salvation will protect us from doubting and questioning about God's love. When we are in this world, there will be troubles, problems, pains and suffering. We do not aim for a painless life here and now. In the midst of adversities, we know that God will sustain us and give us the strength we need. Our hope is that there will come a day, when we, with the rest of the creation will be delivered from all physical pain and brokenness. Now, we experience a part of his salvation, but there will come a day, when we will experience salvation in its entirety. This understanding will enable us to handle life's different situations.

II. We are to be equipped with the Word of God.

The next piece of armor is the sword of the spirit. This is the short sword Roman soldier used; for both defense and offense. Paul immediately explains that this sword of the spirit is God's word, God's revealed truth. God's word and the Holy Spirit are inseparable. To be equipped with this Word means that one is to know, understand and obey the word of God, which is the bible. Bible is God's revealed truth to man. There are at least 3 reasons why this piece of armor is important.

First God's word is truth. We learned three Sundays ago that God's truth is the standard against which all is measured. His truth helps us to discern between right and wrong, false and true. God's truth tells us that not every religion will lead to God. Jesus Christ is the only way to God. In times of crisis, we don't just turn to any generic God, but to the creator God. The truth tells us that God has already blessed us with every kind of heavenly blessings, and therefore we can and should reject the gospel of wealth and prosperity. The Word tells us how husbands and wives are to love one another; how the parents are to nurture their children; how fellow believers are to live in harmony. It reminds us to forgive and love those who have hurt us. You see, without the Word, the truth; we have no way of knowing what is right and what is wrong. We easily accept what is as what should be. But God's word remind us that our personal and family life can be so much more fulfilling and enriching if we follow his principles and guidelines.

The Word is important because it reveals what is within us. Hebrews 4:12-13, "?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????.?????????????????????????." I can hide my thoughts and motives from you, but not from the Word. For this reason, word and the spirit are inseparable. It's the word, and at the same time the Holy Spirit that reveals what is within me. When I come to the Word, it shows me some of my thoughts that I want to hide from others. The Word reveals to me whether or not I am trying to please you, God or myself. It shows my pride and arrogant; and how unloving I am. The Word reveals what is my real motive for coming to church or fellowship. Am I here to gain merit to redeem my past wrong doings and thus gaining God's favor? Or are there any other selfish reasons?

Whenever I face the Word, it is like a x-ray, a CAT scan, revealing every part of me.

Then thirdly the Word is important because it is our spiritual food. 1 Peter 2:2, "???????????????????????????????????." Infants need milk to grow. When they are just a few days old, they drink from those 3 oz bottles, then soon 6 and 12 oz bottles. Sometimes one is not enough, the baby has to drink 2 bottles at a time. As the baby drinks that milk you can literally see the baby grow, getting heavier and heavier. Here Peter tells us that the Word is our spiritual food, enables us to grow into maturity.

When we don't take God's word seriously, its hard for us to grow spiritually. We may read a lot of books about the bible, but if we don't read the word regularly, its hard for us to attain spiritual maturity. We often hear people say, so and so has been a Christian for many years, yet there is little evidence of his spiritual maturity. Why? This person does not take in any spiritual food. If we don't read the Word regularly, we'll easily be influenced by all kinds of half-truths. We follow the fad instead of the Truth. In order for me to grow, in order for this church to grow, we must become men and women of the word. This means that we have to develop a habit of reading God's word regularly. Making Sunday school attendance a priority in life. And when we worship, we listen attentively to what God has to speak to us through the pastors. And often this means that I have to start preparing the night before. If we have to go out, we would come home early so we can have adequate rest.

I also have a word to those of us in the full time ministry, or considering full time ministry, or serving as leaders in the different fellowship groups. From time to time we need to ask ourselves: what is my priority? For Peter and other apostles in the early church, they decided early on that they are to devote their time to prayer and the ministry of the Word. In this 21st century, there are plenty of distractions for us. Counseling, planning, administrative responsibilities all demand much time from us. And consequently we begin to neglect the ministry of the Word. When God's sheep are not being fed by the under shepherds, they would go else where for food; or start to take in unhealthy food, leading to unbalanced and improper growth. May I encourage you to be determined to be a man or woman of God's Word. Even as I am preaching now, I still vividly remember some of the words my professor said to me during my ordination some 19 years ago, "Be a preacher of the Word".

Conclusion:

It has taken us 4 sermons to cover these 8 verses about putting on God's armor for the spiritual warfare. Next time in November, we will look at the last equipment: prayer.

However, I feel this is a good time to recap some of the truths we have studied so far. To fight this spiritual battle, we have to put on truth to resist untruth; righteousness to fight injustice around us; gospel of peace, to bring others to Jesus Christ; faith in God and not in what we can see and touch. Salvation: that complete worldview will help us to stand firm in the midst of a confusing world. There is also the Word or Holy Spirit, helping us to be true to ourselves and knowing the right from the wrong. Finally, the armor of prayer; telling us how much we are dependent upon God.

If we take a closer look at these equipments, what do we see? Don't we see them all embodied in Jesus Christ? He is the truth. He is the righteous one; not only did he kept all the laws, but he also brings righteousness into the world, he himself is the peace, and the giver of peace. He has the unswerving faith in God and is also the object of our faith. He is our salvation and the word from God. The bible tells us that in the last days, God revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. He is also a man of prayer.

These various parts of the armor point us to Jesus Christ. What is the secret of standing firm in this spiritual battle? To put on Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ, we can be conquerors.

Rev. William Hsueh   Oct.21 , 2001    Houston Chinese Church,  Houston, Texas