Sermon Notes

January 26, 2025

The Peace of the Gospel

Ephesians 6:15

A Puritan Minister wrote a very interesting book concerning the armor of God from Ephesians 6 back in the 1600’s. He entitled (take a deep breath) “The Christian in complete armor. Or A treatise of the saint’s war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickedness, and chief designer he hath against the saints. A magazine open'd: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms for the battle, help't on with his armor, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole war.” This very short book has 3 volumes, 261 chapters and around 1500 pages on the 11 verses that we have been looking at in this sermon series. He said in this book that “In heaven we shall appear not in armor but in robes of glory; but here they (speaking of the pieces of the armor of God) are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work, and sleep in them.” A little further down the page he continues by saying, “In this armor we are to stand and watch, and never relax our vigilance, for the saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time; every fly dares venture to creep on a sleeping lion.” The author is right, we can never relax and let our guard down when it comes to spiritual warfare, because our enemy never sleeps, and he is relentless. We must always be standing against the enemy and his tricks, trusting in God, and finding victory against our enemy through the blood of Jesus Christ. If we are honest with ourselves that part of never relaxing is concerning. We think that if we don’t have time to relax then there is a real worry that we will experience exhaustion when we try to stand against our enemies constantly. If you have ever had a job in which you had to stand for a long period of time, you understand this worry and how tiring and wearisome it can be to just stand. However we can combat this fatigue by the footwear that we choose, it needs to be both comforting and functional. This solution is the same when it comes to our stand against the attacks of Satan. It’s going to wear us out because we must constantly stand in the battle, but God has provided us gear to protect our feet that is both comforting and functional. That’s what we are going to talk about this morning as we shift from the conflict and turmoil we have seen as Satan attacks truth and righteousness in our lives and look at the peace Jesus brings through His Gospel.

The Shoes that We Wear - Ephesians 6:15a

For shoes …

Have you ever experienced the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is a cognitive bias concerning a frequency illusion that occurs when a person starts noticing a specific thing more often once they become aware of it or have been focusing on it recently. Let me give you an example. Say you decided to start looking to buy a vehicle, so you go and do some research on different cars, and you pick one out that is perfect for you. Once you have made your decision on a car, you start seeing that there are way more of those cars on the road than you have ever noticed before. That’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. This is exactly what happened to me this week as I was studying the foot coverings or shoes that God provided for us as we stand against the attacks of Satan. This may be obvious, but I still want to ask if you have ever noticed how almost everyone wears something to cover their feet and those coverings are very specific for the situation that they find themselves in? I came and watched our kids play basketball here at FBC last Saturday and all the kids were wearing basketball shoes. I’ve watched a bunch of football in the last few weeks and noticed that all the players were wearing football cleats while they were playing on the field. I was even watching a documentary on the “World under the Waves” and those who were filming underwater life were also wearing flippers on their feet to help them while they were underwater. I know that should be obvious to us all, but there is something else I noticed as well. When it comes to shoes, if you are wearing the wrong shoes for the situation you are in, it usually means you are in trouble and most of the time people will step in and help you. Say you see someone that is trying to swim in basketball shoes, you’re probably going to want to make sure they are ok. Or say your favorite football team tries to come out of the locker room and all their players are wearing flip-flops. I’m sure you would see a coach or assistant or the ball boy or someone, stop them before they make it to the field and correct them so that they will have more than a zero percent chance to succeed during the game. Or even in this cold weather, if you see someone without shoes, your first instinct is to help them. I know many of you would literally give them the shoes right off your own feet. Footwear is important because when you are wearing the wrong footwear, you are going to struggle to accomplish the task that has been given to you, whether on the court or in life in general. The same goes for spiritual warfare. We must have the right footwear, and Paul wants to make sure we don’t end up in the battle equipped with the wrong footwear. When he speaks of “shoes” here Paul would not have been speaking of them as we understand shoes or even speaking of the normal sandals we would equate with the Romans. Remember, all this armor he is commanding we put on is in context of a Roman soldier, so these foot coverings are most likely the caligae. Caligae were like leather sandals but were probably closer to our modern-day sports cleats than the sandals we are accustomed to. These shoes were made to keep the enemy from knocking them backwards and help them stand their ground. Therefore for us to be able to stand and not be knocked backwards we are going to have to put on these same types of shoes. We do this by putting on the peace that only comes from the Gospel if we are going to be able to stand and stand for the long haul.

The Peace that’s Brought - Ephesians 6:15b

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News

When it comes to all 11 verses concerning the armor of God in Ephesians, verse 15 is arguably the most ambiguous in its message. This ambiguity starts with the word we translate here in our text as “shoes” because the literal meaning of the Greek word Paul uses means “foot coverings”. He’s very specific with the other pieces of armor when He speaks of the belt and breastplate, but when it comes to the feet, we just must assume he was speaking of the caligae because it fits with the context of the rest of the gear, he is commanding us to put on. The same thing happens here when we speak of the peace that comes from the Good News. The Good News is without a doubt the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s the fact that we are all sinners. However Jesus came and shed His blood to give us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and be made right with God. It’s this peace that is going to give us the comfort we need when the battle makes us weary. But when it comes to what type of peace Paul is specifically talking about here, we are sort of left hanging. Let’s briefly look at the two ways that this peace could be understood and see how both are equally important to a believer as they stand against the enemy.

Peace with God

When the coming of the Messiah was being promised in the Book of Isaiah, He was given a plethora of names in chapter 9. Among those names He was to be called the “Prince of Peace”. We have seen how Jesus was the Messiah and why that was important. With Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of the coming Messiah, this title would be applied to Jesus and would be appropriate because it would be Jesus who would bring peace between God and man. Colossians 1:21 tells us that we are enemies of God because of our sin and nothing we could do could fix this problem because the wages of those sins is death (Romans 6:23). Last week, we saw that through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus who can have His righteous imputed or credited to our account. We can have our sins forgiven and can have peace with God when and only when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. This would be something that Paul would have had in mind when it came to the peace that the Gospel brings us. This is something that is very comforting for a believer and is an imperative step for a follower of Jesus if they are ever going to experience the other type of peace that Paul could be speaking of here.

Peace of God

It’s only through having peace WITH God that we can experience the peace OF God. It’s this type of peace that Paul spoke of extensively. It was included in the opening of most of his epistles that we have in Scripture. He even addressed it specifically many times like in Philippians when he refers to this peace as “the peace of God which transcends all understanding.” One writer describes this peace as a state of tranquility or quietness of spirit that transcends circumstances. This is the peace that we see exhibited in the life of Jesus. It’s like the time He was asleep in a boat during a storm when the rest of the boat’s crew were sure they were all going to die, or the time He calmly responded to Pilate’s questions when His life was on the line on Good Friday. Both situations showed us the peace that passes all understanding Paul was talking about. It’s this peace that Paul could be speaking of as well when it comes to what is going to protect our feet and keep us from being fatigued in the battle against the enemy. It’s this peace that can make the storms of life not seem so bad and cause us to feel calm during certain disasters. It’s a peace that we can only experience after we put our total trust in Jesus. It’s what Jesus said the disciples on the boat with Him lacked during the storm that He slept through, because Jesus is the Lord of the storms. It’s also what Jesus prayed for when He prayed in the garden before He was betrayed when He prayed “Not my will, but yours be done”. Jesus knew it was God’s will for Him to lay down His life on the cross as a sacrifice. When He was faced with death before Pilate, He had nothing but peace knowing that God’s will was being done. The Psalmist understood this as well and wrote about this peace in Psalms 91 when He wrote. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” It is in Christ alone that we can find the peace that will also give us comfort in the battle against the enemy. That peace only comes once you first have peace with God and as you continue to place all your trust in Him, in all parts of your life. You will experience the peace of God that will always guard you during all your battles.

The Preparation that’s Required - Ephesians 6:15c

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared

The ambiguity of verse 15 continues as the verse concludes with the word interpreted here as “prepared”. It’s the only time in Scripture that this Greek word is used, so it’s hard for us to understand exactly what Paul means here. Usually when a word is used that might have a variety of meanings you would go to the other writings of the same author in Scripture, but Paul never uses it again. If that happens then you go to Scripture to see where it was used and what it means in that context. Again this word doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Bible. When that happens you go outside of scripture to find how the word is usually used by authors who would have been contemporaries of Paul. When we do the word, we find that it can mean two things. Just like we saw with the dual meanings of peace, both meanings are very applicable when it comes to making sure we are prepared with the peace of the Gospel when we are engaging in spiritual warfare.

Be Prepared to stand on the Promises.

When we think of being prepared in the context of the soldier Paul has been referring to in this passage, we must remember the shoes this soldier wore would have their bottoms covered with metal cleats. Therefore when the soldier would get prepared for the coming battle, one of the steps these soldiers would take would be to make sure that his feet were sunk in the ground where he was making his stand and would take advantage of those cleats to make sure that his enemy couldn’t cause him to slip or knock him back from the front line. For a Christian during battle against the enemy this step of being prepared would be closely related to the belt of truth. We should make sure we have God’s truth in our lives (instead of the opinions of man) to not be tripped up while we stand against the enemy. We could also take it a step further and say that to be prepared in the Gospel is to stand on the promises of God that we have access to because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s these promises that bring us peace WITH God and the peace OF God. When the enemy brings his worst attacks on our lives, we can dig our heels in because we are standing on the promises of the one who has never let us down and will never let us down. He is the one who holds us in His mighty hands and has shown us that these battles will end in victory if we fight in His truth.

Be Prepared to share the Hope of the Gospel.

As we look again at the context of a soldier as we try to understand what Paul means by being prepared, we can also see that this command is a command to be prepared to carry out your orders. It’s his shoes that will enable a soldier to do that effectively. Whether he is commanded to stand his ground or march to a new position, it would be his shoes that would aid him in being obedient to the command. As for a Christian, Paul has made it clear in these few verses that we have a command to stand our ground when it comes to the battle with our enemy. However when it comes to the Gospel of peace, we, as Christians have another order we must carry out as well. Jesus commands us in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no doubt that we must share the Gospel during making a stand in the battle. This is going to require an attitude that only comes through the peace we have in Jesus. We must carry out both commands and do so simultaneously. We must be ready and have the attitude to share the Gospel no matter the costs or no matter the struggle for the glory of God, we must dig our heels in. Every time I think about sharing the hope that we have in the Gospel, I can’t help but think of the story of John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman. It was during the early 1700’s in Germany that these two young men were in church and heard their Pastor speak of the island. It was a place in the West Indies that had never had the Gospel shared. An atheist owned the island as well as about 3,000 slaves and without an intervention those 3,000 slaves would live and die never having heard the Gospel. These two young men decided that it was going to have to be them that brought the Gospel to those slaves, but what could 2 young men in Germany do to bring the Gospel to the West Indies? Well, to them the answer was easy, they were going to have to sell themselves into slavery. Pretty much everyone in their lives told them they were fools; however they knew that’s what had to be done for the Gospel of Jesus to get to these people. As they were on their ship heading out, never to see or be seen by their families again, one of them proclaimed out loud for everyone on the docks to hear them, “Let the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” They knew that Jesus had died so that men might be made free and be saved to the glory of God — the message was for all men, free or slave. This must be our attitude in our lives as well. We must be prepared to share the Gospel, and this can only happen when we take our call seriously and have the peace OF God and the peace WITH God, as we stand on his promises the whole way. Satan thought he had those on the island, but God had other plans and sent His soldiers. These men had a missionary spirit, evangelical zeal, and preparedness and readiness to carry the Gospel everywhere. That is at least one meaning of wearing the sandals of the Gospel.

The battle is going to be long and hard, and we will get tired. However when we bring all of this together when we have peace WITH God and the peace OF God, we will be able to stand because we are prepared to stand against the Devil. and we will be prepared to share the Gospel the entire way. Where has God called you to take a stand?

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Sermon Notes

The Peace of the Gospel

Ephesians 6:15

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