Text: Eph 6:10-20
11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For 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.
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Songwriter: STILLS, STEPHEN, Published by Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. http://www.metrolyrics.com/for-what-its-worth-lyrics-buffalo-springfield.html
For What it’s Worth - the anthem of the unrest of the late 1960s, 1967 in fact … from the pen of Stephen Stills and the band Buffalo Springfield. The Vietnam War raged on, along with the draft and the draft dodgers who went to Canada; Kent State, and the students who died protesting at an Ohio University, an institution of higher learning. Richard Nixon and Watergate; the White House tapes and on and on … this was a hard and turbulent time in our nation’s history.
Today seems headed in a similar direction. Social unrest in the streets fill the headlines. Confederate statues come tumbling down, pro choice or pro life, politicians vying for mid-term election wins, and protests going on around the country. Battle lines are certainly being drawn, politically … socially … and morally.
Christianity and the church are being attacked from within and without. Young people are speaking their minds ... by their very absence from church – parents, grandparents and we the church are concerned.
In 1966 Time Magazine, on its cover asked the question: “Is God Dead?”
23 years ago Joan Osborn asked the question, in her hit song from 1995,
“What if God was one of us” you might remember the chorus:
What if God was one of us / Just a slob like one of us / Just a stranger on the bus / Trying to make His way home?
Today many may wonder and ask this same question as they struggle with the brokenness of their lives, in a world that is spiraling out of control, with ... it seems like … little ... or no hope.
Paul tells the Ephesian church to,
11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Many Christians today take this as their marching orders from God to get in the world being ready to do battle and to fight the righteous fight for truth, justice and moral purity. And while we are told always [to] be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; (1 Peter 3:15) we are also told to do this, with gentleness and respect.
For Paul reminds us who the enemy really is.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, - not against those who appear to be the enemies we face - 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.
The darkness of the devil and his demons are the ones railing against Christ and the victory won at the cross.
The target is on you too. To cause you to fall back into the darkness that you have been rescued once and for all from.
God’s armor is for your protection.
Paul tells the Ephesian church and us to:
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand [or stand firm] in the evil day, days just like today … not to battle but, to stand firm … not to fall again into darkness and the temptations of the devil … but to rise, being clothed with Christ daily!
With the image of battle lines being drawn and battle armor being put on … belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet and sword Paul says that we are really armed and fitted with truth, with righteousness, with peace, and with faith through the Gospel, the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.
You dear friends are clothed in Christ with the armor of God and his saving gospel!
In the Joan Osborn song, the writer Eric Bazilian asks:
If God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to His face?
If you were faced with Him in all His glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
Songwriter Eric Bazilian, Published by HUMAN BOY MUSIC http://www.metrolyrics.com/what-if-god-was-one-of-us-lyrics-alanis-morissette.html
When the Joan Osborn song was climbing up the charts and I was still pretty active playing music with a few bands back in the mid 90s I wrote a song in answer to “What if God was one of us?” It was simply called, “God was one of us.”
As a Christian rescued by Christ and shown mercy in the face of my own depravity I could only sing God’s praise for what he had done for me. We are not called to faith to escape the trials of this world, for from the words of Jesus himself he says:
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
But, in spite of these trials we are to sing the truth of God’s rescue in Christ. To call, by the power of the saving gospel, those to faith by the word of God through the working of the Holy Spirit, that in spite of the devils lies that question “did God really say” from the Garden of Eden, to the lie’s of our own day which questions the existence of the historical Jesus, our own sinfulness, or the working of the devil in the world,
God was one of us!
He came to live suffer die and rise again just for you and me.
You are God’s child not because of your efforts, but because God desires you.
You are God’s child because he died for you and freed you from the curse of the law that you and I could never keep … with even 99% being a failing grade.
You are God’s child because by his Spirit he called you to believe the word of the gospel giving you faith and raising you from being dead in trespass and sin to newness of life in him, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The song asks the question:
If you were faced with Him in all His glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
Jesus gives answer to questions in Matthew to the sheep and the goats when he says in Matthew 25:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Matt 25:31
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matt 25:34
But the questions the righteous will ask:
37 … ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King [Jesus in glory] will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matt 25:37-40
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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