The Real Enemy: Powers, Idols, and God's Armor

The gods of the nations promise protection if you appease them. Jesus gives himself for his enemies. The gods of the nations sit on shelves and thresholds, and people tremble before him. Jesus crosses the threshold himself. He comes into our world. He takes on flesh. He enters our darkness. He faces the powers. He bears our sin. He passes through death and comes out on the other side alive. So he's not one more God to add to our room. He is the Lord. [00:44:49] (34 seconds)  #JesusIsLordNotAnIdol

Paul says to us this morning, look deeper. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. This does not mean flesh and blood people cannot do real evil. They can. They have. We have. It does not mean our suffering is imaginary. It's not. It does not mean injustice is unreal. It is very, very real. But it does mean that if we stop our vision simply at the human level, we will misunderstand the battle we are in. We will swing at the wrong target. We will make enemies out of people Christ tells us to love. [00:18:23] (42 seconds)  #NotAgainstFleshAndBlood

But the Bible is equally clear. This devil and all his schemes, he is not ultimate. He's not God's equal. He is not infinite. He is not omniscient. He is not omnipresent. We make that mistake all the time. We think he is omnipresent. He is not. He is finite, leashed, and doomed. And church, you would do well to remember those three words. The devil is finite. He is leashed, and he is doomed. [00:23:05] (30 seconds)  #DevilIsLeashedAndDoomed

So we say, redeemer, mammon, you're not my savior. Power, you're not my refuge. Screen, you're not my comforter. Work, you are not my righteousness. Self, you are not my lord. Despair, you do not get the last word. And because the power seek embodiment in our habits, resistance gets concrete. Prayer before the phone. Generosity against mammon. Sabbath against labor. Quiet against distraction, solidarity with the oppressed against the powers at work in our town. And finally, we remember whose household we are in. [00:50:01] (48 seconds)  #HabitsAsResistance

And that is why, like, when we were in China and we would share the gospel in these homes, We did not present Jesus as one more helpful deity to add to their room. We said Jesus is Shang Day, the most high God. And what makes that announcement Christian is this. Jesus is great not only because he's powerful. Jesus is great because in love, he went to a cross and rose again. The the gods of the nations demand offerings. Jesus was our offering. [00:43:51] (39 seconds)  #JesusMostHighAndSacrifice

We're not spiritual orphans scavenging among the gods for protection and provision. We are not left to put charms at the threshold of our lives and hope the darkness stays out. We're not left to feed the idols and bargain with the powers and then keep our fingers crossed. We belong to the triune God. And that is why the gospel is so much bigger than just our private forgiveness. Hear this, redeemer. The gospel of God is reclaiming the nations, reclaiming peoples from these powers. [00:42:25] (39 seconds)  #GospelReclaimsNations

This is why we must not be naive. The issue is not simply that people have bad priorities. The issue is worship and trust and allegiance and protection and provision. Which power has your hope? Which Lord gets your obedience? This is household language, by the way. It's not something we are importing into Ephesians from the outside. It's already here in the letter. In chapter three, Paul says that every family in heaven on earth is named from the father. [00:40:12] (36 seconds)  #WhoHoldsYourHope

The Christian life is not less than what we can see. It's more. And that is unsettling for people like us because we're we're often really comfortable talking about systems, psychology, trauma, ideology, sociology. Those categories matter. They they name something real. But Paul is not embarrassed to say there's more. He says there is an enemy. He says there are schemes. He says there are rulers and authorities and cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. In other words, the world that we inhabit is not spiritually neutral. [00:19:22] (50 seconds)  #WorldIsNotSpirituallyNeutral