The Devil and the ChurchEphesians 6:10-20Final sermon on Ephesians, ‘The Devil and the Church’Spiritual WarfareIllustration – Cooperative and Antagonistic board games.Central Point – Spiritual life is not just cooperative but involve a battle again the Enemy.Therefore – we must be focussed, aware of the enemy, aware of what he does.Who is the enemy?Who is the enemy? The devil (v.11) and the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil (v.12).A few things to say:- The enemy is invisible but real.o The Christian worldview involves belief in the supernatural realm.- The enemy is powerful and experienced.o Words of Paul uses all indicate power. Eg kosmokratas, ‘rulers of the world’.o Bible seems to indicate that these are ancient powers created before this world with lots of “lived experience”.- The enemy is deceitful.o ‘The schemes of the devil’o Word for ‘schemes’ – ‘methodias’: method, methodical, KJV ‘wiles’o Word for ‘devil’ – ‘diabolos’: false accuser, slanderero Principal weapon of the enemy is deceit.‘The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us.’ The Exorcist- Garden of Eden: straightforward lie – “You will not surely die. For God knows when you eat of (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5- Belief in the lie and acting upon it leads to exile and death.- The Devil lies. We believe and act. We die.How do we fight against the enemy?- Temptation of Christ in Wilderness: mixing of the lie with the truth. For example:‘The devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone’ (Ps. 91:11-12).”’ (Matthew 4:5-6)Devil quotes Word of God but distorts it. Very subtle. Here playing on temptation for Jesus to make a prideful public display of his power.‘Jesus said to him, “…it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7)General Point: wage war like Jesus – Identify the lies of the Devil. Attack them with the word of God.The Armour of God- Only offensive weapon is ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God’ (Ephesians 5:17).- Other bits are largely to do with the mind: ‘belt of truth’ (believing the truth), ‘the helmet of salvation’ (protecting the mind from accusation), ‘the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one’ (protection from lies and accusations which pierce the mind and cause anxiety and suffering).What do we need to do?- Like Jesus, learn the word of God.- Apply the word of God, especially when tempted and accused.- Praying: ‘praying at all times in the Spirit’ (5:18). Very important to enlist our ally, who is God and more powerful than the Devil.- Persevere: ‘To that end, keep alert with all perseverance’ (5:18). Not easy – a daily battle to win the territory of the mind. Sometimes very hard. Keep going!Final Action- Enlist in the Army of God, the Church.- Individual soldiers easy to pick off.‘One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes I our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided…Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.’C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters- Recognise the Church for what she truly is: ‘spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners’.Final exhortation: recognise Church for what she is: glorious and terrible. Join, commit, and make the Church as glorious and terrifying to our enemy as she can possibly be.Amen.
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