The Armory
A sermon series in preparation for a new season of ministry at Dulins Grove. We need to put on the full armor of God as a church, because our enemy is serious about stopping us. This sermon is an exposition of Ephesians 6:15
…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace…
Spiritual Shoes?
This is super abstract, so let’s concretize it as best we can:
1. Feet enable you to move. Paul is talking about what enables us to move spiritually: to act decisively, speak well, dodge and outrun the enemy’s attacks, rush to the aid of others, and charge the gates of hell.
2. Shoes enable feet to work well. Paul is talking about what we need first, before we’re able to move well spiritually.
3. Shoe material and function are connected. Leather boots to hike. Steel-toed boots to work. Rigid high heels to look tall and awkward. Paul is talking about shoes made of gospel preparation. So the function of these shoes requires the unique material of preparation that can only come from the gospel.
In other words, what Paul is mobilizing us to do is gospel-necessary, like: saving souls, making disciples, freeing the spiritually enslaved, being salt and light in our communities, worshipping in spirit and truth, repenting from sin, responding to his word, building strong marriages and families, etc. Potlucks, food pantries, finance seminars, and other nice activities, while good, aren’t necessarily gospel-necessary. People without the gospel can do these things too. Let’s not get sidetracked in peaceful lands of activity far from the bloody battlefields of the gospel.
What is the Gospel of Peace?
1. Good news. Not advice to heed or teaching to learn. It’s news to hear and believe: Jesus lived, died, and rose again to set us free from sin’s grip, guilt, and filth.
2. Good news that saves people. The news itself is powerful to save.
3. Good news of peace. It puts people at peace with God, others, and themselves.
How Does the Gospel of Peace Prepare People to Move?
You and I are helplessly immobile on the spiritual battlefield without the gospel. We can’t free ourselves from sin’s grip, guilt and filth, much less anyone else.
With the preparation of the gospel, we can move and fight and come to the rescue of others who are stuck, vulnerable, and dying.
How to Put on the Gospel of Peace
Hear it.
Read it.
Study it.
Write it out.
Meditate on it.
Frontward and backward, figure it out.
Ask all your questions.
Understand it.
Embrace it.
Accept it.
Slide it on.
Lace it up.
We have miles to march, hills to charge, comrades down. We need to be ready to move.
