•        Introduction

I was delighted to have a few people come back to me after last week’s sermon on Esther 7, trying to think through and clarify what the concept of Holy War means and looks like in a New Covenant context.

Obviously, in the Christian faith, there IS such a thing as Holy War.

But it transcends the mundane and takes place at a cosmic level, and THAT is what we’re looking at today as we interrogate Ephesians 6:10-20 to discover what a Holy War is in the New Testament understanding of that term, and how important that is for the spiritual life.

Here’s where what we learned from Esther 7 last week on this subject comes right up to date in the present.

Now, I said I was delighted to have people come back to me with questions about this after last week, for this reason …

Praying is very important in the Christian life but thinking … thinking through questions we have for the Bible and questions the Bible puts to us … sorts out the foundations of the truth on which our faith as Christians is built, and the faith thus formed lays the corner stones of character in the Christian.

Praying is very important, but I can’t think when it was that I last heard a sermon on thinking … praying sounds more godly, but it is the stuff  we’ve thought our way to believing that undergirds the prayer that we offer to God.

But I digress …

Holy War.

What about it … specifically for the Christian?

Do we BELIEVE in it?

I tried to hint last time that the Lord speaks about the dimension in which He expects His followers to wage war … as He said in John 18:36 on trial before Pilate: “Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews …”

And I alluded last time to Paul’s teaching about the weapons the Christian fights with in a war he sees going on in Him and around Him all the time (a war which was being pursued against God’s people by factions and arguments that was in this case wrecking the Corinthian church from the inside) 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 

4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

You see, in the New Covenant era this Holy War is fought not with horses and chariots from Egypt, nor skilful politics in the court of King Xerxes in Susa … which is where Old Testament Esther found herself.

In the New Covenant the Holy War is not pursued with worldly weapons but with spiritual ones, and in Ephesians 6 Paul spells out the nuts and bolts of it with weapons of personal defence and spiritual offence in hand.

Here’s what’s been happening in this letter so far as Paul addresses the way to counteract what the enemy has been doing, pursuing HIS war against the saints in Ephesus:

In chapters 1-3 of Ephesians Paul has been ensuring that these Ephesian Christians, under attack from the dual threats posed by disunity and impurity in the church, have got clearly established in their minds a strong understanding of their identity in their calling from Christ.

Disunity undoes the work Christ did on the Cross to bring all things to unity again in this broken world under the headship of Christ. (Check that out in Ephesians 1:10).

Impurity undoes the sin-defeating work of His atonement … His death and resurrection … and the Spirit-given repentance wrought by faith in their hearts.

And key to all of this, in Paul’s theology, is the call they have received from God … which Paul begins with in ch. 1

Paul sets out the strong foundations of their calling in Christ and develops how that works through chs. 2-3.

Then in 4:1-2 he gets down to the point:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

The key to the Christian conflict with the world, flesh and devil is to BE who you ARE … live a life WORTHY of the call you received which has MADE you who you are.

Paul has spelled all of that out in ch. 1 with God’s initiative to save YOU, God setting His love on YOU …

He’s spelled it out in ch. 2 with a stark analysis of where we were when we received this high calling … dead, captive and condemned is how 2:1-10 put it … and then Paul has shown the marvellous intervention God has made into that situation and how by grace through faith alone we have been saved from that.

Saved from that for a clear purpose (Ephesians 2:10) which is to DO the good works He has prepared for us to do as part of one Holy Spirit-united, multi-ethnic people of God.

Paul unpacks what the unifying work the Gospel and call of God achieve in the first part of ch. 3 then goes on in the second part of the chapter (building on that foundation) to say:

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

And then Paul backs that pattern of his prayer for them by appealing directly for life re-direction in 4:1-2:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

That’s just the general principle.

He’s spoken about the Christian’s calling and now with the start of chapter 4 he appeals for conduct that is based on the calling … those are the two parts of the letter, the calling of the Christian (chs. 1-3) and the conduct of the Christian that flows from understanding that calling, which gets spelled out in chs. 4-6.

That conduct works itself out on the twin battlefields of unity and purity in Chs. 4 & 5.

And it’s clear from the scope of the fields of battle that this is really going to be quite a Holy War.

It will cover many areas of life in which the Christian’s flesh will cry out … pride, sexual immorality, family relationships and even the relationship of slaves and masters in the first century world.

But the weapons we fight with, the nitty gritty description of how you fight this war, only get spelled out in the epistle’s loud crescendo in Ephesians 6:10-20.

And THAT’s why we’ve come to this passage today … and we’ve been brought here in order to put into its proper New Covenant context what we were saying last week about decisiveness and taking the fight to the Enemy in a Holy War.

What does battling for God’s Kingdom against the enemy of souls and all his works, now actually look like?

Here we go …

Ephesians 6:

1) The call to conflict, vv. 10-13

Ephesians 6:10-13

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 

11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Now, there are three things about this to notice …

a) God’s strength not yours, v. 10

V. 10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”

Now, after five chapters, there’s the point Paul finally wants to labour.

His big theme has been the implications of the high and holy calling that these and all other believers must focus on.

This high and holy calling is the greatest of privileges, but it carries implications.

He is the One Who had the power to save you when you couldn’t save yourself and that carries over into the way we are to live out the Christian life, so you clearly depend on God’s power not yours.

Here’s HOW to be strong in His strength not yours in the battles we face.

b) God’s armour not yours, vv. 11-12

“Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

God’s strength goes into you His way not yours

The over-arching call of this section, in view of all Paul has written before in the book about the call of God, is to (v. 11) be strong in the Lord not in yourself.

But that gets focused into your life in HIS way, not just by His means, but by His agenda …

‘Put on the full armour of God’.

You pick it up and you put it on.

It is a discipline of daily preparation.

Now I CANNOT emphasise that issue enough.

There IS a Holy War.

If you are a believer, you ARE living in a war zone.

There IS an enemy and that enemy not only has you in their sights, but they have you under fire.

The key thing is NOT to get pinned down by that incoming fire but to retain your ability to manoeuvre and take the fight BACK to the enemy of your soul.

If you are going to STAND, and given the calling Paul has been highlighting and emphasising up until now, you need to grasp that the enemy of souls is locked in bitter and determined but utterly futile conflict with the Holy One Who has called you onto His side.

This means the enemy has ‘got beef’ with you too, as well as with the Lord you follow, and you are going to need to wise up to this Holy War.

You are going to need to be clear just Who’s side you are on and take your stand against the onslaught with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left.

And that, THAT is the life of the Kingdom of God.

God’s strength not yours.

God’s armour not yours.

So that you actually do not get pinned down but STAND.

c) So that you STAND, v. 13

The big point is to stand … did you see that there in v. 13?

To TAKE your stance, and to hold it … unmoved by the onslaught … ’til the end.

Think of the pike-man in 17th and 18th century warfare.

The pike was a - reasonably heavy - wooden pole around 10-25 feet long with a spear point on the end of it.

It weighed up to about 6 kgs but there was a lot of leverage because it was long so it took some effort to wield it, so that you could 

·       establish and 

·       hold

your stance.

The Macedonian phalanx of Alexander the Great reportedly used pikes to defend the phalanx in antiquity too … very much the same idea.

But the point is this.

With cavalry charging down at you as you stood there in the close-ranked square defending the musket men on the inside you’d keep close to the man next to you and ram the butt of your pike into the ground forming a wall of spears to take down the fearsome, galloping horse charging straight at you to defend the interior of the square.

You were there to guard the core.

To do that you’d be putting yourself right in the red zone!

You needed to have a firm and a strong stance as a pikeman in Stuart and Georgian England as well as in the phalanx of Alexander the Great.

And you needed good armour to protect you as you took up your stance, alongside your comrades, to resist the charge.

Your role is to take up that armour to maintain your stand.

Your commanding officer, in the Christian’s case, provides excellent ‘kit’ for this, excellent training, and excellent back-up.

But you need to keep your kit in order, you need to turn up for training and you need to dig in and engage an active enemy!

V. 13: “Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

It’s all going to be about maintaining your God-given calling by being able to stand up to the onslaught the world, flesh and devil will unleash on God’s own called and therefore highly privileged people.

To be clear … it’s NOT a matter of being strong in yourself.

But you do have a responsibility and you do have a role to play … it’s active not passive … 

So to summarise, the Christian’s call is a call to persevere in this cosmic conflict in God’s strength not yours, using His kit not yours, and to do so in His way not yours.

That’s vv. 10-13.

So, what is this kit that God provides and wants us to use going to look like?

2) What fighting God’s way is going to look like, vv. 14-18

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Here’s the definitive list of what matters in the Christian life.

·       The truth.

·       Righteousness.

·       The preparedness the Gospel of peace gives.

·       The fire extinguishing shield of faith.

·       The head-guarding helmet of the salvation God’s given us.

·       The sword of God’s Word to kill off the enemy that attacks us.

And the final ‘weapon’ … what Bunyan describes as giving ourselves to 

·       ‘all prayer’. 

Prayer at all times, calling in the ‘air cover’ … the strike-power and the victorious authority of God.

There are offensive weapons in there in that list.

But the list starts with and is dominated numerically by defensive ones:

The belt holds up and is foundational to the body armour that will protect you … the belt of truth is foundational to the Christian’s defence as they take up daily their stand for their God.

The breastplate of righteousness is the defence of your heart and vital organs against the stabbing and thrusting of the one who would rob you of your life … your eternal life.

Your God-decreed salvation does that for you.

Put it on!

The Gospel of peace … which gets strapped like your battle boots onto your Christian walk in defiance of the ‘hated and hating one another’ of chapter 2’s description of what life without Christ is like in the world.

The protective shield of faith which stops and extinguishes the flaming arrows … that ancient terror weapon of panic … and enables the threatened believer to keep their place and not turn tail to flee.

The shield of faith.

And yes, the helmet of salvation which absolutely prevents the enemy of your soul from taking your life … as the Lord says of His flock in John 10: ‘No-one can pluck them out of my hand’.

The helmet of salvation.

But then there’s the offensive weapons … two of them here:

·       The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

I would love to say so much about this …

God’s Word is your sword.

Simply that.

The Spirit has given it for this very purpose, and that is the function it fulfils.

And the second offensive weapon is 

·       ‘all-time prayer’ that calls down the intervention and the power of God.

THAT is what the Christian’s warfare, New Testament Holy War, is going to look like.

As Paul advised us already in v. 12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

So that will determine the form this Holy Warfare takes … and that’s why the key to standing for the Lord in the teeth of the enemy’s onslaught is to take up spiritual weapons and put on the spiritual provision the Lord makes for our welfare.

And these spiritual weapons, this armour, consists broadly of the disciplines of the spiritual life … Bible, prayer, love for God’s truth, the faith His Spirit gives, the salvation His saving death provides … getting them on you and in you every day.

And, finally, bear in mind this, says the Apostle … this is no theory but the reality that we live in.

3) Paul is depending, Himself, on this battle plan, vv. 19-20

“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Paul is in prison.

You would think that meant that this great proclaimer and preacher, herald and apostle of the Kingdom of God, was now out of the battle.

Useless now in the great cosmic battle because he’s languishing as a prisoner of war.

But that’s not so at all.

Paul identifies which of the weapons in the Christian’s full armour that he needs deployed by the other members of the phalanx.

He needs their prayer!

Prayer NOT for his comfort in captivity.

Not for his personal safety … though he very likely could have asked for those things!

He asks prayer for the advance of the Gospel.

And he does that because Paul is primarily committed so far as his time on earth is concerned as a Ranger Force operative rescuing souls from the grasp of the enemy in exposed situations way beyond the barracks and the parade ground.

Paul wants to be given the words that lead to life for others, and the fearlessness (he asks that twice in just two verses) to make the Gospel made known as he should.

Why that?

Because it is as the Gospel is proclaimed that God’s Kingdom advances.

Conclusion

So, here it is, then:

Paul has been writing to the believers in Ephesus to counter their embracing the enemy’s values of impurity and disunity – strife.

In that context Paul’s remedy is to focus on the immensely privileged calling the believer has received from Almighty God, to return to the point of the Gospel which is to address life-destroying sin and bring all people and all things into unity again under the headship of Christ (as Ephesians 1:10 puts it).

And having elaborated and applied that theme and called the believers to the cosmic battle that determines how this will all play out on the ground, he now tactically exhorts them to the ministry of the Word and of prayer for one another … across this ethnically, religiously and materially divided church.

Word and Spirit.

Word and Spirit.

Word and Spirit.

Take your stand, and having done all, to stand.

We can say all manner of things, quoting one this-worldly philosopher after another across the ages, about whether a person or a Christian should pick up physical weapons and engage in physical combat.

In the Old Testament that seems to have been the only way to contain the evil that had taken root in the world and that’s the context in which incorrigible enemies like Haman could be dealt with … and Esther sets us a bold example of determination to pursue the battle for the Lord’s purposes and people.

But in the New Testament context, that is not what the Holy War is all about.

If you have the mind to read and if you like to read old books, I couldn’t recommend more highly two extended meditations on these matters.

·       The first would be John Bunyan’s ‘The Holy War’.

You can get it free online as a .pdf or pay 49p. for the Kindle edition … it is frankly worth far more than that!

John Bunyan joined up with the Parliamentary forces aged 16 to fight the Royalists in the English Civil War, but he knew how different it was to fight with a material weapon and to faithfully join the cosmic conflict in the army of the Lord of Hosts.

·       The second book is a longer and harder read but it is William Gurnall’s great classic : ‘The Christian Complete Armour’ … and when he says complete, it really is pretty complete, but it is full of quite totally amazing stuff!

£1.25 on Kindle and therefore available immediately!

Biblically, the Holy War is not a philosophical theory to do with whether or not a Christian should pick up a physical weapon and kill the enemy, and if so how and in what circumstances.

Biblically the Holy War is the one that has broken out between the Saviour King and the enemy of souls in which God’s people are engaged every live-long day of this life on earth … and in which we are called by virtue of the Christian’s blood-bought, high and holy calling to take our stand alongside our brethren in the service of our great and glorious King.

And to do that we’re to pick up the kit that He gives and to work out in our lives His battle plan … which He details openly and plainly to us in His Word, by His Spirit, so that we can take our stand, for His Glory.

Every day’s a training day.

Every day’s a battle day.

This life is not the practice.

Every day counts.

Bomb up!

Pick up and wield His weapons.

This is IT.