“Get a Grip on Your Sword”
Ephesians 6:17

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost—October 24, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

You are invited to follow the sermon outline on the last pages of the bulletin as we consider today’s Epistle Reading from Ephesians under the theme, “Get a Grip on Your Sword.”

Reader’s Digest had a story about a pastor making a home visit to a family in his congregation.  In the kitchen, he noticed that the calendar on their refrigerator had a notation for that day: “Pastor visiting, dust Bibles.”  There’s an adage, “Many a truth is said in jest.”  The truth in that jest is, even we who claim to be faithful Christians often let our Bibles gather dust.

In today’s Epistle Reading, Paul says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”  Paul then describes this spiritual armor, imagery he no doubt took from the Roman soldiers who were standing there guarding him at the very moment he was writing these words while in prison at Rome: the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the final piece of this armor, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

There is a spiritual war going on inside you.  By nature, you are on Satan’s side.  As we confess in the Liturgy: “We are by nature sinful and unclean.  We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed.”  But, as Paul tells Titus, the Good News is we have been rescued from the Devil’s clutches by “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”  The battle for your salvation has been won for you by Jesus Christ.  Trust in him as your Savior.  All your sins are forgiven because he gave himself as a sacrifice for you, to purify you from all wickedness.  Your soul belongs to him, and he will take you to eternal life.

However, in this life, in this world, the struggle daily goes on, as Paul says in Romans, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”  The struggle daily goes on, not a struggle to win the battle for your salvation, Christ has already done that.  But, like Paul, you struggle to ASSERT Christ’s victory in YOUR life.  That’s what Christian living is all about, not trying to win the battle yourself, but struggling to assert in your life the victory Christ won for you.

You struggle against a three-fold enemy: the Devil, the world, and what we call the “flesh,” meaning the old sinful nature that still clings to us while we are in this world, as Paul says in Galatians, “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”

Always remember that this spiritual struggle is not a sign that you have fallen from faith, but actually your struggle against the Devil, the world, and the flesh is evidence that you are IN a state of saving faith.  Be alarmed not because you have this struggle in your life, but rather be alarmed if the struggle ceases, because that can only mean you have surrendered to the forces of evil.

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  You are in a spiritual war, and so you need spiritual weapons: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Paul tells Timothy, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  Hebrews says, “The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.”  Like a Roman soldier equipped for battle with his sword, God’s word will equip you for spiritual battle.  But not if you let your Bible gather dust!  Like a hand grasping a weapon, get a grip on your sword!

The sermon outline has a drawing of a hand, with each finger representing one way for you to get a grip on your sword, God’s word:

The LITTLE finger stands for BELIEVING.  Paul says in Romans, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”  The Good News contained on the pages of the Bible has power to bring you eternal salvation.  The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word to give you saving faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul says in Romans, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

But without such faith, the Bible is an incomprehensible book, as Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  Without faith, the Bible is a closed book, but through faith in Jesus Christ the Bible is opened to you.  As Luke says, “He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”  In the same way, Jesus promises you, “If you continue in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  Get a grip on your sword first of all by looking at the Bible through the eyes of faith, believing its message and trusting in the Savior it proclaims.

The RING finger stands for READING and HEARING.  Revelation says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it.”  

Read the Bible.  Follow the readings in Portals of Prayer; read a chapter each day from the Old and New Testaments.  However you do it, read the Bible.

“Blessed is the one who READS the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who HEAR it.”  Paul instructs the pastor Timothy, “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.”  HEAR God’s Word right here in God’s house, God’s word read and preached.  Get a grip on your sword by reading and hearing God’s Word, as Paul says in Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

The CENTER finger stands for STUDYING.  The book of Acts commends the Christians at Berea, “They received the message with great eagerness and studied the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  A great help for studying God’s Word is the Lutheran Study Bible or Concordia Self-Study Bible, both published by Concordia Publishing House, with introductions to the Bible books, explanation notes, cross-references and a concordance.

Study God’s Word by yourself and in Bible studies, such as Adult Bible Class on Sunday mornings.  Get a grip on your sword by studying God’s Word.

The INDEX finger stands for MEDITATING and PRAYING.  I recently saw in the newspaper a photograph of Buddhist monks being trained in Buddhist meditation.  Every day they sit rigidly for eight hours in a lotus position, in absolute silence, with a blank wall just inches from their faces.  The goal is to completely empty their minds.

That’s not what we mean by Christian meditation.  Christian meditation starts not with emptying your mind but FILLING it, FILLING it with God’s Word, his promises, his blessings, his will, and then contemplating how God’s Word applies to you.  As the Bible says of the Virgin Mary, “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Christian meditation often takes the form of prayer, a conversation with God: God speaking to you in the Bible, and you speaking to God in prayer.  Get a grip on your sword by meditating and praying on God’s Word.

Finally, the THUMB stands for DOING.  James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”  Believing, reading, hearing, studying, meditating, and praying on God’s Word will motivate and empower you to change your life, wanting to do God’s will, striving to live out God’s Word.  Get a grip on your sword by doing what it says.

“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Get a grip on your sword by believing, reading and hearing, studying, meditating and praying, and doing God’s Word.