Sermon Notes

February 2, 2025

Shield of Faith

Ephesians 6:16

When I was growing up, one of my favorite times of the year was when the annual “Blue and Grey BBQ” would be held. This annual event was centered around all the Civil War history that happened in our area and was held at the Chickamauga National Battlefield. Over a weekend, they would have all sorts of events that showed the various activities that would have been commonplace around the time of the Civil War in the 1860’s. They would prepare and serve food from that period. Artisans and craftsmen would demonstrate their skills and show us what a normal day in their lives would have consisted of back then. They would have storytellers that would share their favorite campfire stories from the era. Musicians would play in the style of the day, and the list of activities goes on and on, but as a kid my favorite part would be the historical reenactments of the actual battles that occurred right on that very battlefield. They had cannons set up that would fire blanks. All the soldiers were equipped with dummy rifles that too would fire blanks. They had soldiers who would carry their banners into battle. They had drummer boys who would be used for communication and with all the players in place they would reenact the battles exactly how they took place in history. The battles were a very neat thing to experience as a kid. This was before I understood that the Civil War was more than just history and didn’t realize there was a real impact these events had on so many individuals and families. What I really liked were the actors who were on the field, not all the actors mind you, just the ones who were really into it. It wasn’t until years later that I learned these actors were usually divided into 3 different categories by their peers. First, you had the “Farbs” who had just bought a costume and knew very little of the event they were reenacting, and they had just signed up to come out to have some fun. Then you have those they call the “Mainstreamers”. They usually knew a little about the event they were reenacting and usually tried their best, but they are just your average reenactor. The ones I always loved were the ones that the reenactment community calls the “Progressives”. These were the fanatics that your teacher would invite to talk to your class when you were going through the unit on the Civil War in your US History class, because these people ate, drank, and slept their character (literally). Their clothes would be perfect for what someone of the period would wear, right down to every single stitch in every piece of period clothing they wore, they would hand make all their metal items in their uniform, and they were in character 24/7. It was these types of actors that you could learn so much from by just asking questions when they visited your school or when you went to the festival. These fanatics came to mind as I was studying for this sermon series, because of Paul’s use of the imagery of a Roman Soldier’s Armor. As I was reading about all the pieces of armor Paul spoke about, I needed some more details about them. I began to wonder if maybe there were Roman Military reenactors that were as meticulous as the Civil War reenactors I had grown up with. To my excitement, I found that not only did they exist, but they were more meticulous than any reenactors I had seen before. These men knew everything about the armor of a Roman Soldier. They knew each piece's proper use in battle, their use in daily life, and what was required of each of these pieces of armor for them to be used to the maximum potential. I’ve relied on these people a lot to help me understand the context in which Paul is writing throughout his discourse of the armor of God. As much as I have learned from them so far, they became an extremely valuable resource when it came to understanding the shield which Paul speaks of in verse 16. The shield that Paul used to describe faith would have been a massive shield, not just a small buckler. The word that Paul uses for shield is a derivative from the Greek word door (just to give you an image of its size) and it had a unique feature that most of the other pieces of a Roman Soldier’s armor didn’t have. For the shield to work at its peak efficiency on the battlefield there was quite a bit of effort that was required of the soldier. While the soldier wasn’t the one who crafted the shield, they were the ones who must maintain and wield it. They had to oil and condition the animal skins that held the shield together to make sure the bindings would not fail and cause the shield to fall apart, especially during an attack from their enemy. The soldier had to maintain the wood to keep it from drying out so it would not crack and fail during the heat of battle. They also had to make sure their shields were soaked in water for the shield to be able to stop any fiery arrows that the enemies would send their way. This is the type of shield that Paul equates with our faith. Now, the faith Paul is talking about isn’t a saving faith, but rather it is the faith that the writer of Hebrews speaks about that is required to please God (Hebrews 11:6). However it’s the faith that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians that we are required to walk in as Christians. This faith is a confidence in Christ (who is the object of this faith) that moves us to action. Since we understand what type of shield Paul is talking about and how a soldier would have used and maintained it, and since we understand what type of faith it is, let’s read exactly what Paul says about this shield of Faith.

Ephesians 6:16

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

As Paul begins this verse, we see that he uses the phrase that is interpreted here as “In addition to all of these”. The English translation misses an important nuance that is found in the original language. With this phrase, Paul is painting a picture that shows us that this shield would be used “above all” or as a covering for the rest of the armor. It’s almost the idea of an umbrella and that’s exactly what a Roman Shield would have been used for. The shield would be the first line of defense for a soldier. Because of its size and make up it would protect them against attacks before the attack reaches any of the other pieces of armor, so it could be thought of as working hand in hand with each of the other pieces. As we have seen in this sermon series, this is the same thing that our faith in Jesus does. It's faith in the truth of God’s word and the Truth Himself (who is Jesus Christ) that makes the belt of truth work. It’s faith in Jesus that allows us access to the Breastplate of Righteousness and its faith in Jesus that allows us to stand upon the promises that God brings us through the Gospel of peace. Since we have already spoken of the uses of faith when it comes to the pieces of armor we have spoken about so far and since we will continue to see faith’s role in the rest of these pieces. I want to focus on the care that is involved in making sure the shield of faith is ready for battle, just as a Roman Soldier would. 2 Peter tells us exactly what we are supposed to do to make this shield of faith ready for all those flaming arrows of lies, accusations, twisted truths, and plausibility that Satan uses to attack all parts of our walk with Jesus.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It has been said that your faith in Christ is either growing or it is dying, there is no stagnation. You will either be moving forward or falling back. Peter is speaking here to that truth as he tells how a follower of Christ can continue to grow in their faith or in the context of the Shield of Faith, it’s making sure that their shield is ready for battle. Peter’s command here is considering the fact of what Christ has done for us on the cross, what he is presently doing in our lives as we are being made into His image, and what He has promised to do for us in the future. Because of this, we are called to strengthen our faith and strengthen our shield by following 7 very practical steps that we should be striving for each day in our walk with Christ.

Moral Excellence

The first thing that Paul tells us to do to strengthen our shield is to add moral excellence to our lives. The call for moral excellence is much like the call of God to the children of Israel in Isaiah 2:5 when He says “Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD!”. This is a call to live a life that brings glory to God, to walk in His light, to let your light shine before man, and to leave that old sinful nature behind you. It’s a call to live for Christ and to live like Christ. This means to let Christ be honored in your values, your attitudes, your motives, your priorities, your goals, your speech, your entertainment choices, and in your hobbies. It’s also a call to have a Christ-like character in your home and in the workplace, in addition to church. When we start to live like Christ has called us, we start to learn and trust WHY God called us to live that way because we start to see the results of that obedience.

Knowledge

When Peter speaks of knowledge being added to one's shield of faith, it’s not just a pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake that he’s speaking of here. Scripture doesn’t ever just reveal truth in its pages for the sake of increasing our knowledge alone, but rather we are given truth to transform our lives. There is a response that is needed to the knowledge we have added to our faith for it to be an effective way to strengthen our faith. This is the reason we have an invitation to the end of our services. It is an opportunity to strengthen your faith in Christ by putting into practice what you have learned from His word. When we do not allow our knowledge of scripture to produce the character of Christ in our lives, it can be worse than useless. It can blind us to our true state in life and Satan would love to deceive us in that way and keep our faith from growing.

Self-Control

This additive to the shield of faith is an interesting one because it is also a fruit of the spirit. Although it will be present in the life of all followers of Jesus to some degree, there is still a need to cultivate it in our lives. We can do this by following the truth found in 1 Corinthians 10:13. We are told there is no temptation that will overtake us because we will always be provided with a way out or escape in every situation. We must not just give up and indulge in sin when it presents itself but rather look for that way out that God has promised to always provide. Remember we never sin by accident, but every sin is a rebellious act of the will. We must learn to bring those sinful thoughts and desires under the Lordship of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer slaves to sin when we are in Jesus Christ.

Patient Endurance

When it comes to strengthening one's shield, some of the things that Peter calls us to are difficult and I believe this one is the hardest. Patient Endurance in its most literal interpretation means to “walk under the load”. This is a call for courage during hardship because of what Jesus has promised us during that suffering. Suffering is something that we do not like talking about when it comes to the Christian life, but it is something that is non removable from the life of a follower of Jesus. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. To patiently endure is to wait upon the Lord even during these hard times, carrying the burden not in our own strength but learning to always cast ALL our cares upon Him. The more we learn to not deal with the struggles of life on our own but rather in the power of the Lord, the more our faith will be strengthened. So when Satan attacks during those valleys in our life, our shield of faith will be ready to repel any of the fiery attacks that he brings.

Godliness

This call for godliness is much like the call for Moral Excellence but it deals more specifically with our thought lives. It’s a call like that in 2 Corinthians 10:5, when we are commanded to bring every thought under the obedience of Christ. All sin is first birthed as a thought and when we start to recognize the seeds of sin that are planted in our minds and can stop them at the source, our faith will continue to be strengthened.

Brotherly Affection

This is a call to love others in the church as a family would. This involves bearing one another burdens, serving one another, forgiving one another, encouraging one another, having fellowship with one another, and praying for each other. However there is more than just universal acceptance in this command, because if we are to truly love someone then there are also things that we must reject because those things have been rejected by Christ.

We are to reject and confront in love — spirits which bring disunity.
We reject and stop gossiping.
We confront sin with the truth of the Bible in the life of fellow believers
We fight against prejudices and false teachings.

This call is what church is all about. It is a community of believers all working together in love to bolster each other's faith for the glory of God.

Love for Everyone

The final thing Paul mentions when it comes to strengthening our faith is love for everyone. This is not a call for universal acceptance of everyone and their sins, but it’s a call to love the lost like Jesus did. The previous call was a brotherly love or a phileo love. This is a call for agape love — a love that only comes from God. We are told that God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son. It’s the type of love that desires the highest good for a person and since we are followers of Jesus, we know the greatest need for a lost world is a perfect savior. So if we truly love everyone, we are going to share the Gospel with them and when we share the Gospel, we get to see those who are dead in sin be made alive in Christ. It's the change that only comes from Jesus Christ and witnessing that change in others that will be our biggest motivating factor when it comes to our faith in Christ. When Jesus changed those, we never thought they would be changed, our faith cannot help but be strengthened.

All these 7 principles will strengthen our faith because they cause us to live out our faith in the real world, and it’s in the real world where faith is strengthened. We can sit on the sidelines and never get in the game and all that will happen in our life in our shield of faith will start to dry out and will slowly deteriorate to the point that when the fiery arrows of our enemy hits that shield, it will not protect us, but rather it will cause us to become inflamed with the lies that Satan loves to hurl our way in all of their forms. The shield of faith is a very important piece of our armor in Spiritual Warfare because it’s the piece that covers and works with all the other pieces. When it’s not in shape for battle, we will quickly become a causality to the enemy. Warren Wiesrby has three questions that a Christian must ask themselves to see if their shield is in shape for battle.

Are you working for Christ in your life or are you working for someone or something else.
Does your knowledge of Christ produce spiritual fruit in your life?
Do you often find yourself forgetting all the things Christ has done for you in your life?

If you find yourself not liking the answer to these questions, it’s time to start working on that shield.

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Sermon Notes

Shield of Faith

Ephesians 6:16

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