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THE BELIEVER'S BULLET-PROOF VEST #1

LUCIFER'S CUTE CANNONS

I don't know if it's in our heads because we've seen too many episodes of M*A*S*H, or maybe Vietnam-era war films on TV, but are you familiar with the battle warning: INCOMING!! Maybe it's bombs, or bullets, or just a wave of enemy soldiers, but the word "Incoming" is usually not good news. Deadly hailfire is coming in your direction, or, as one "dogface" put it in a recent Hollywood depiction, "The metal hits the meat."

We've come to a 13th and final week of Bible study here in this wonderful, life-changing book of Ephesians. And you know, for most of these past three months together, it's been a very positive message. Paul preaches about the importance of unity. He lifts up the centrality of the Cross of Jesus Christ. He describes God's glorious plan to bring the entire universe back to peace and harmony in His eternal kingdom.

But all of a sudden, right at the close — Incoming! And if you read the last 11 or so verses right before the benediction, you can almost hear the tanks rumbling across the fields near your house and see Lucifer's troops in camouflage and with their AK-47s and Stinger missiles taking up their positions around your local Christian church.
And so Paul writes:

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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."

Back in October of 2001, only a few weeks after the World Trade Center attack, and just as the United States and its allies declared open war on the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, Newsweek magazine ran a cover article with this title: "Special Ops: Can Our Commandos Finish the Job?" And there was a full-cover picture of an Army Fifth Special Forces Group soldier – a Green Beret with all of his Year 2001 military gear. First of all, an M4 carbine machine gun with a detachable 40 mm grenade launcher and, of course, a night-vision sight for when you're parachuted into hostile territory off an MC-130H transport plane in the middle of the night. Your helmet is equipped with a "whisper mike" so you can communicate silently back to headquarters; you also have GPS technology — Global Positioning Satellite capability so that you and others can know, to within 35 feet, where you are at all times. You carry an M9 Beretta pistol, 9 mm, and a K-Bar fighting knife. And of course, the very latest in weather-proof footwear and light, mobile combat fatigues. Not to mention — at least someone in your division has one — a laptop computer so you can download the latest intelligence figures and stay in touch with each other while in the battle zone.

And what Paul is saying here is really very simple. Friend, if it's important for our brave men and women fighting on our behalf in these earthly battles to be properly equipped, it's even MORE vital for the men and women of God to have, as the Bible puts it, the panoplia, the "complete armor of God." Because war results in our earthly skirmishes are always temporary; the scars don't last and God's children who die on the battlefield can live again . . . but to be defeated by Satan's arrows and his legions could very well be a permanent loss. If you die being overcome by Lucifer, you could be dead for a very long time. As in forever.

It's interesting that Paul uses such military terminology here at the close of Ephesians, but as one commentary points out, he should know.

"[Some] point to [Paul's] knowledge of the armor of the Roman soldier," the scholars write, "because he was chained to one for several years." Then they add this encouraging good news: "The armor is God's because He is the One who provides each particular piece of equipment. We are asked to put it on and to fight valiantly the battle. The One who forged the armor guarantees its effectiveness."

In Eugene Peterson's The Message paraphrase, he seems to focus on that same point — about these weapons being of excellent quality considering who made them. Notice:

"So take everything the Master has set out for you," Paul writes, "well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way."

One thing that is very plain in Scripture is that Christians should consider the devil to be a very real foe. All through the Bible, from the serpent of Genesis 3 to the dragon in Revelation 20, this fallen angel named Lucifer or Satan is not just a spiritual metaphor. He is real and his armies are real and his attack plans are real and his weaponry is real. I don't know how literally God's people should take all the swordplay and sparks and cloaks and daggers in books like Frank Peretti's bestseller, This Present Darkness, but when God invites us to put on the whole armor, we're not suiting up just to play Paintball or for a bit of spiritual theater. This is a very real battle you and I are in — and I think, deep in our heart, we know it. We've felt the sting of his arrows, and we've heard the whine of his incoming missiles. Am I right? Again borrowing from that great paraphrase, The Message, the warning sounds like this:

"This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a LIFE-OR-DEATH FIGHT TO THE FINISH against the Devil and all his angels."

I think there's a temptation, because this "put on the armor" line is so familiar and also kind of poetic, to dismiss the whole idea as "cute." And we say, "Yes, yes, the breastplate of righteousness, very nice." And we don't DO anything different from before, maybe also because we're not sure what it means to put ON that breastplate of righteousness. But let me tell you something: there's nothing poetic or cute about Satan's arrows. They're real and we both know it. A person commits adultery and loses their spouse and kids over it. Is that cute? A person lies and forfeits the trust and respect of their friends; is that an imaginary thing or a real wound? So when the Bible says, in response, "Okay, put on the whole armor of God," it behooves us to take that seriously and say, "All right, forget poetry and ‘cute.' What exactly IS the armor, and how do I suit up, right now, today? And again tomorrow? And every day that this war continues?" I know we sometimes sound like a broken record — or I guess we should say, now, a scratched CD or scrambled MP3 file — saying, "Tune in again tomorrow. Get into the Word. Join our many friends who are fortifying themselves with our Discover Bible Course." But friend, the only reason we're here is to just help outfit one another with this God-given armor.

There was a telling little note in the New International Version study helps or comments for Ephesians 6:11, 12. They point out that our battle isn't against "flesh and blood," but boy, don't we spend most of our time suiting up against "flesh and blood"? Have you ever thought about that?

"[This passage is] a caution," they write, "against lashing out against human opponents as though they were the real enemy . . . and ALSO against assuming that the battle can be fought using merely human resources."

You know, every time I go into Barnes & Noble, it's interesting that there are so many books about how to deal with difficult people or how to best your opponent on the corporate level. Airline magazines always have an ad for the Karrass Negotiating Seminar, where you use this tactic and that psychological "weapon" to defend your company's turf. But here in the Christian arena, we're not fighting against that kind of enemy! And we can't use those kinds of weapons! We have to use God's weapons in order to defeat God's enemy.

The good news is this. You and I — and let me say frankly that I'm right here in the trenches with you; I have "incoming" aimed at me 365 days of every year — you and I do not have to get beat by Lucifer. There is just no reason that we have to resign ourselves to defeat, either in the long haul or in our day-to-day combat of living Christian lives. Why? Well, two reasons. First of all, Satan is a defeated foe. The Bible tells us that. He knows his time is short, because he got crushed at Calvary. And secondly, we have this armor. We have a belt of truth and a shield of faith and a helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit — and our loving heavenly Father designed every weapon and personally put in all the rivets, sharpened all the blades, and programmed the GPS software Himself. Speaking of GPS, God knows with greater precision than just to a radius of 35 feet where you are at all times. He knows when you're under fire. He knows which rock your enemy is hiding behind. And as a Green Beret named David once whispered into his own helmet mike:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me."