Facing Prometheus | Week 29 (The Mysterion) | “You Can Stand” | Pastor Jason Parrish
About the series: We’re currently in Facing Prometheus: A Letter to the Ephesians and the Future Church Dilemma, a 48-week look at how Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus can transform our lives. For more on what the series is about, watch the prequel message here. Please note that this is a recap of Pastor’s sermon notes and not perfect so please watch the full message.
Last week established that worship is warfare. This week Pastor Jason picks up the next verse and asks the follow-up question: what is the armor actually for?
Ephesians 6:11 is one sentence, and it’s easy to read past. Week 29 slows down and takes it apart phrase by phrase. The individual pieces of the armor come in a few weeks. This week is the foundation underneath all of them.
The Text
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.”
— Ephesians 6:11 (CSB)
The Enemy Does Not Fight Fair
The message opened with the early church father John Chrysostom:
“The enemy does not make war on us straightforwardly or openly but by his wiles. What are the devil’s wiles? They consist in trying to capture us by some shortcut and always by deceit… The devil never openly lays temptation before us. He does not mention idolatry out loud. But by his stratagems he presents idolatrous choices to us, by persuasive words and by employing clever euphemisms.”
— John Chrysostom, Homily on Ephesians 22.6.11
The devil’s tactics are subtle, surreptitious, and low-key. They come disguised as truth that is one degree off, and pursued over time they lead into a wilderness of destruction, shame, and spiritual death.
Paul knew this, which is why he reminds the Ephesians and us that we have something at our disposal. In his words, it is the full armor of God.
Exegesis
Four phrases from verse 11, taken one at a time.
1. “Put On”
The Greek word is enduo. It means to clothe yourself. Putting on the armor is more than a functional act. It is a deeper term that carries covering, protection, and purpose, and it connects to other moments where Paul tells believers to put on a new self, a new identity, to put on Christ:
Romans 13:12–14 (CSB) — The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
Ephesians 4:20–24 (CSB) — But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Colossians 3:9–10 (CSB) — Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
Paul is writing from a prison cell. As he stares at a Roman guard, the imagery in front of him and the Spirit of God working through him bring this picture forward as a reality for the believers in Ephesus and for us.
There is an actual reason for putting on the armor. Just like a seatbelt, it serves a purpose, but that purpose is not served if it is not put on.
Too many Christians do not take the spiritual battle seriously and do not take their faith seriously enough, so they leave the armor we are told to put on in the closet.
★★ You cannot afford to do Monday without the armor.
★★ “To ‘put on’ God’s armor evokes the notion of sharing that implies a sense of participation or union between believers and the Lord, which resonates with the participatory element of the injunction to ‘be strong in the Lord’ (6:10 NIV), and it identifies believers as members of Christ.”
— Constantine R. Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 2023), 280
2. “The Full Armor of God”
Many scholars believe Paul was riffing on Isaiah 59:17:
Isaiah 59:17 (CSB) — He put on righteousness as body armor, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
Paul stresses that the WHOLE armor is put on. Not a piece of it, but the full ★★ “panoplia,” as it would be used in the Greek. That word tells us the armor is not only complete, it is both defensive and offensive in nature.
The armor is necessary because we do not wage war as the world does:
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (CSB) — For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
★★ The armor provided for in Christ enables us to demolish strongholds and the things that set themselves up against the knowledge of God.
Paul tells Timothy to fight well, and the armor of God is needed to do it:
1 Timothy 1:18–19 (CSB) — Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith.
The armor also helps us realize that we are not civilians when it comes to spiritual warfare:
2 Timothy 2:3–4 (CSB) — Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the commanding officer.
Paul gives six items that make up the whole armor of God. Looked at together, they show that what we are putting on is Christ as he is:
- Our truth
- Our righteousness
- Our peace
- Our faith
- Our salvation
- Our word
He is all of these things, and we are to clothe ourselves in him.
3. “You Can Stand”
In the Greek the statement looks like this:
★★ δύνασθαι ὑμᾶς στῆναι — “dynasthai hymas stēnai.”
The word for “can” is dynasthai. It tells us we are able because of a power given to us, not in our own right. It is power and ability imputed by the Holy Spirit, and it is a derivative of the word we know in Scripture as dunamis:
★★ “By metonymy spoken of a person or thing in whom the power of God is manifested, i.e., the manifestation of the power of God.”
— Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (AMG Publishers, 2000)
Metonymy is when something gets called by the name of what it is closely tied to. Here, the word for power is used to name the person the power shows up in. In other words: you.
★★ “The term ‘can’ (dynasthai) means more than merely being able; it connotes having the power (from God) to do something.”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 225
★★ “We must endure the action of demons against us, while at the same time taking the battle to them and defeating them.”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 225
This is not positive thinking and it is not a self-help seminar. By the power given to us in the Holy Spirit, we CAN.
★★ What CAN you do? Paul says… STAND!
That word is stēnai, meaning to be in place, to stay, to establish, or to fix. It is used figuratively to express a very important reality we see in Scripture: ★★ to be a people of perseverance. Four sections of text address this:
James 1:2–4 (CSB) — Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
★★ Some of us are not maturing because we are not enduring.
James 1:12 (CSB) — Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
Romans 5:3–5 (CSB) — And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Matthew 24:13 (CSB) — But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
“The Triune Godhead is involved in our lives, providing the strength we lack to live victorious lives in a sinful world fraught with dangers. We experience this power through the unity between ourselves and Christ. In union with Him, we become ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom 8:37).”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 223
“‘Standing’ and ‘holding ground,’ then, occur throughout this passage as the goal of the church in its struggle (vv. 11–14), during which ‘the gates of hell’ will not prevail against the holy temple and assembly of God’s people, which Christ is building (Matt 16:18).”
— S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Lexham Press, 2015), 543
Christ and the armor provided in him enable us to persevere, endure, and stand.
4. “The Schemes of the Devil”
Paul uses the Greek word ★★ “3180. μεθοδεία methodeía,” which means:
“To work by method. Method, the following or pursuing of an orderly and technical procedure in the handling of a subject.”
— Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (AMG Publishers, 2000)
This is where we get our word: method. A noun. A way of doing something (deceptive), especially in a systematic way, implying an orderly logical arrangement, usually in steps.
“Craft and strength are both present in the assault, but the latter is concealed under the former, thus becoming dangerous and destructive. ‘The devil’ is mentioned as the precise enemy, even though it be sin that is to be immediately contended against (Heb. 12:1, 4). ‘The panoply of God’ and ‘the wiles of the devil,’ are thus opposed to each other. The power of the latter is by no means inconsiderable and the contest is difficult, hence the next statement.”
— John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, Karl Braune, and M. B. Riddle, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Logos Bible Software, 2008)
★★ The devil is real and so are his plans or schemes, or methods.
Too many people have been lured into the idea of the devil as a figure with a pitchfork and tights, to the point that it is now a costume you can pick up at Zurcher’s and Spirit Halloween.
Paul’s goal is not to produce fear. It is to produce awareness.
★★★ Because what you do not know, you do not look for.
“The word ‘wiles’ means the deceits, craftiness, trickery, methods, and strategies which the devil uses to wage war against the believer. He will do everything he can to deceive and capture the believer.”
— Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Ephesians, The Teacher’s Outline & Study Bible (2010)
1 Peter 5:8–9 (CSB) — Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
Practically, the devil uses what is common to come against us:
1 Corinthians 10:13 (CSB) — No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
★★ “He plans to lead the weaker members into a trap, strike them from every side, and so defeat them. His weapons are well known, and he specializes in tempting people through worldly enticements, fleshly pleasures, and material luxuries to forget God and live for self (Eph 2:2; 4:27).”
— Grant R. Osborne, Ephesians: Verse by Verse (Lexham Press, 2017), 225
- ★★ Worldly enticements
- ★★ Fleshly pleasures
- ★★ Material luxuries
- ★★ A life lived for self
These are the common temptations the devil uses to lure us into destruction and sin. Luther rendered this verse as “the crafty assaults of the devil,” wartime language for exactly what Paul is describing in verse 11.
Closing
“From what we read of the Lord our Savior throughout the Scriptures, it is manifestly clear that the whole armor of Christ is the Savior himself. It is he whom we are asked to ‘put on.’ It is one and the same thing to say ‘Put on the whole armor of God’ and ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Our belt is truth and our breastplate is righteousness. The Savior is also called both ‘truth’ and ‘righteousness.’ So no one can doubt that he himself is that very belt and breastplate. On this principle he is also to be understood as the ‘preparation of the gospel of peace.’ He himself is the ‘shield of faith’ and the ‘helmet of salvation.’ He is the ‘sword of the Spirit,’ because he is the Word of God, living and efficacious, the utterance of which is stronger than any helmet and sharp on both sides.”
— Jerome, Epistle to the Ephesians 3.6.11
Writing in the fourth century, Jerome saw what this passage is finally driving at. The armor of God is not a collection of spiritual accessories. The armor is Christ himself. Jesus is our truth. Christ has become our righteousness. He is our peace. We live by faith in the Son of God. There is salvation in no other name, and John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So when Paul says to put on the full armor of God, he is telling us to put on Christ.
The tragedy is that you can own armor and never wear it. You can have a uniform hanging in the closet and never put it on. You can possess everything necessary for the battle and still walk onto the battlefield completely exposed. That describes more of us than we would like to admit. We have Christ, but we fight in our own strength. We have his truth, but we navigate life by our feelings. We have his righteousness, but we try to establish our own. We have his peace, but we live controlled by anxiety. We have his Word, but we fight lies with opinions.
Church, ★★★ don’t leave your armor in the closet. The enemy has a method. He has schemes. He knows where temptation has worked before, where disappointment has weakened you, and where desire can deceive you. But ★★★ the enemy may have a method, but God has given us armor. Because we are clothed in Christ, we can stand. We don’t have to outrun the devil, outsmart the devil, or overpower the devil. Paul gives one command: stand. When temptation comes, stand. When accusation comes, stand. When your feelings betray you, stand. When culture shifts around you, stand. When hell whispers that compromise would be easier, stand. And when you’ve done everything else, still be standing. Not because you are strong enough, not because you are smart enough, and not because you saw every scheme coming, but because when the battle came, you were found in Christ.
