GOSPEL FOOTWEAR
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 2, 2024 under 2024 |
Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from February 4, 2024 from Ephesians 6:15
Theme: In this world, we must have our feet securely fitted with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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A few years ago, I learned an important lesson about casual footwear. It wasn’t a very pleasant lesson, either.
It was a very dark and rainy late afternoon, and I was walking into the church building to get some work finished up. In one arm, I had my Bible and a stack of papers; and in the other hand, I had a cup of coffee. I stepped into the building without bothering to turn on the light (with my elbow); and—without knowing it—I placed my comfortable, casual smooth, flat-soled deck shoes on a damp spot on the tile entryway. Suddenly, my foot slipped, and my legs shot out from under me, and I fell flat on my back on the corner edge of the tile steps. My papers went flying. My Bible fell into a tumbled mess. My coffee cup went bouncing down the steps … flinging coffee everywhere as it went. And I was laying on a sticky wet floor with the breath knocked out of me.
I was sore and confused, but—praise God!—I was alright. But as I was lying there in pain and confusion, I did a little thinking. The first thing I thought about (and this is the honest truth) was whether or not I still had enough coffee in the coffee pot at home to make at least one more cup. That’s how I knew that I was probably alright. The second thing I thought about was that we needed to have some strips of carpet glued on those steps so that this didn’t happen to someone else. We got that done shortly thereafter. And the third thing I thought about was my shoes. I thought of how important it is to have the right footwear for the right occasion. And flat-soled deck shoes on a dark, wet, and rainy day are apparently not the best footwear for walking on damp tile steps.
I guess that the lesson that I learned that day about ‘casual footwear’ was that it’s not wise to be too ‘casual’ about ‘footwear’.
‘Proper footwear’ is a subject that the apostle Paul brought up in our passage this morning. But in this case, it’s no laughing matter. The kind of footwear he spoke of is spiritual in nature; and a failure to have the proper spiritual footwear in a time of spiritual conflict could lead to disaster.
Paul had been writing about the spiritual battle we’re in as believers. He told us in the Book of Ephesians about the glorious spiritual riches that are ours in Christ; and of how we are now called upon to walk through life in a manner that’s worthy of what we’ve been given. But he reminded us that we do so in the midst of an intense spiritual battlefield. We war—as he told us—not against a ‘flesh and blood’ opponent, but “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). And so, he urged us to make sure that we’re wearing the spiritual armor that God has provided for our defense in battle. He said;
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God … (Ephesians 6:14-17).
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been giving our attention to each of these pieces of armor. And this morning, we’ll consider what we’re told in verse 15 about having proper footwear on the spiritual battlefield: “Stand therefore … having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace …”
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Footwear has changed greatly over the centuries. Today, there’s a unique shoe for almost any occasion you can think of. You can wear athletic shoes, ballet flats, boat shoes or non-slipping deck shoes (for all the good they do me), clogs, cleats, flip flops, high heels, penny loafers, oxfords, platforms, slingbacks, ankle boots, hiking boots, cowboy boots, knee-high boots, Beatles-boots (remember them?), steel-toe boots, rubber boots, galoshes, slippers and—of course—sandals. But in the time of the Bible, that wasn’t the case. There weren’t that many different kinds of footwear. Back then, it was basically a kind of sandal that was tied to the leg with leather straps. The king of Sodom once offered a reward to Abraham; and Abraham said that he wouldn’t take so much as a “sandal strap” from him (Genesis 14:23). John the Baptist once emphasized how much ‘mightier’ Jesus was than him by saying that he wasn’t even worthy to loosen Jesus’ “sandal strap” (Luke 3:16).
Soldiers also wore such strapped-on sandals. (They even occasionally wore warm socks with their sandals—which apparently wasn’t the fashion faux pas back then that it is now). But the sandals that they wore had to be specially prepared for combat use. (Just imagine being issued a pair of ‘combat sandals’ …!) In the times of Paul, Roman soldiers wore sandals that were fitted with hobnails in the soles to give them better traction and a more reliable grip on the ground. Historians tell us that Roman generals were often able to win decisive victories in battle by making sure their troops had the kind of footwear that enabled them to travel long distances quicker; and thus, to bring a surprise attack upon their enemy. It enabled soldiers to travel across long, dusty roads or rocky terrain without injuring their feet; because an army of soldiers with sore, blistered, wounded feet will be a defeated army very quickly. And when it actually came to hand-to-hand fighting, the right footwear with the hobnailed sole enabled a soldier to fight with stability and confidence; so that he didn’t slip and fall and become vulnerable to their opponent. In a very real sense, an army could win or lose the battle on the basis of footwear. Having the right footwear was crucial to battle readiness.
And so, in our passage this morning the apostle Paul urged us to make sure that we’re wearing the kind of spiritual footwear for our battle against the enemy. Without it, we become vulnerable to the blows of the devil. And in that case, our loss could be greater than the loss on any earthly battlefield.
In Ephesians 6:15, Paul teaches us that, in this world—as Jesus’ followers—we absolutely must have our feet securely fitted with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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So then; let’s consider this exhortation from Paul. And let’s begin by considering …
1. ITS FOCUS IN THE BATTLE.
Paul wrote, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace …” And so, the focus of these words is on the gospel; which Paul refers to as ‘the gospel of peace’.
The word ‘gospel’ means “good tidings” or “good news”. It can also refer to the act of preaching or declaring good news. As Christians, we speak often of ‘the gospel’. We love to share ‘the good news’. But it’s very important that we understand what ‘the good news’ of ‘the gospel’ is about. It’s about something very specific. It’s the ‘good news’—given to us by God—of who Jesus is and what He has done for us to make it possible for our sins to be taken away. It’s the good news of how God the Father looked upon our sinful and lost condition, saw that we were alienated from Him because of our sin, and did something to take the barrier of sin out of the way so that we could be reconciled to Him. It’s the good news of how His Son willingly left heavenly glory, became born into the human family as one of us; and yet was born without inheriting the guilt of Adam’s sin—born of a virgin. It’s the story of how He lived a sinless life of perfect obedience to the Father; of how he took all the guilt of our sins upon Himself and died in our place on the cross; and of how He was raised from the dead in victory to show to us that our debt has been completely paid by Him. It’s the story of how He ascended to the right hand of the Father in glory; of how He sits today as our advocate before the Father; and of how He will return one day to receive us to Himself and share His eternal glory with us forever.
Now; this ‘gospel’—this ‘good news’—is the specific focus of this piece of armor that Paul is talking about. It’s an essential part of our provision in the time of battle. But you’ll notice that Paul calls this ‘the gospel of peace’. And doesn’t that seem like a strange quality to apply to a piece of battle armor? Why is it called ‘the gospel of peace’?
Some have thought that it’s called ‘the gospel of peace’ because embracing it gives us inward peace in the time of battle. The idea would be that, even in the most intense moments of battle against the devil, we have peace. We know that, in the end, God’s cause will be victorious and we can have complete assurance about the outcome. Others have thought that it’s ‘the gospel of peace’ because—as brothers and sisters together in this battle—it makes us at peace with one another. We’re fighting the same battle together, against the same enemy, for the cause of the same Lord and for the advancement of His kingdom. Still others have thought that it’s called ‘the gospel of peace’ because that’s what it will eventually result in. The gospel of Jesus will prevail in this world, and will defeat the enemy, and will ultimately bring about peace. And I believe that, to some degree, all of these things are true of the gospel. But they don’t really represent what Paul meant when he called it ‘the gospel of peace’.
The clue to what Paul meant is found in the fact that he’s quoting from an Old Testament passage from Isaiah 52:7. Do you remember how, not long ago, I said that almost every piece of armor that Paul mentions has its roots in the Book of Isaiah?—and specifically in something that Isaiah tells us prophetically about the promised Messiah? In Isaiah 52, God spoke words of comfort to His people Israel—promising a time when they will be delivered from their captivity and from their punishment for sin. He lets them know that they will be restored to His favor through the redemption He provides through Christ. And in verse 7, He told them;
How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7).
This is the proclamation of ‘good news’. Whoever bears it ‘proclaims peace’. And who is the peace to be with? It’s with God Himself. He saves His alienated people and reconciles them to Himself through Christ our Redeemer. And that’s really the focus of this “gospel of peace” that Paul is speaking of. It’s the good news of peace with God. It’s the good news that our sin is taken out of the way—having been completely atoned for by Jesus on the cross. It’s the good news that the barrier is now removed; and that we are free to draw near and have peace with God. You can see this very plainly in something else that Paul wrote in his letter—in Ephesians 2:11-17. He wrote;
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:11-17).
Dear brothers and sisters; the devil deceived our first parents and introduced sin into the world to separate us from God our Creator. But ‘the gospel of peace’ is the good news that Jesus has taken the cause of the separation out of the way for us on the cross. Now every man and woman and young person who places their faith in what Jesus has done for us is reconciled to God. The devil’s great act of deception is now defeated; and through Jesus, we have peace with God. That’s the greatest kind of peace that there is.
That’s what it means that this is ‘the gospel of peace’. And that gospel is what Paul’s exhortation to us in this verse is all about.
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Now; dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I need to understand that the devil hates what I’ve just described to you. He hates ‘the gospel of peace’ with all his being, and he directs all of his efforts toward silencing it and stopping its spread in this world. In Revelation 12:17, he’s pictured as a great dragon that wages war against all “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.” This is because everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus, and who is redeemed by Him, and who now has peace with God through Him, is destined to be the devil’s judge. Romans 16:20 says that God will soon crush him beneath our feet. And so, the devil wars viciously against all who believe in ‘the gospel of peace’ and fights fiercely against its spread in this world.
You and I are followers of Jesus in the midst of a spiritual battlefield in which—for our enemy—the stakes are inexpressibly high. And so, that leads us to another thing we need to consider about this exhortation from the apostle Paul …
2. ITS PURPOSE IN THE BATTLE.
He wrote that we’re to enter into the battle having shod our feet “with the preparation” of the gospel of peace. That word “preparation” can also be translated as “readiness”. And so, the exhortation that Paul gives us is to help us—in a very practical sense—to be equipped in battle by the “preparation” or “the readiness” of the gospel of peace.
Imagine how it would be if a soldier was out on the battlefield—minding his own business and enjoying the nice sunny day; and suddenly discovered that the enemy was rushing toward him with a drawn sword. That would not be the time to strap his footwear on. It would be too late. The enemy would have the advantage over him because he didn’t enter into the battlefield with ‘the preparation’ or ‘the readiness’ of the footwear in place.
And the same is the case for you and me. We are on a spiritual battlefield against powerful spiritual forces who are doing everything in their power to silence ‘the gospel of peace’. It is truly an ‘existential threat’ to them. And they’re counting on you and me not having prepared ourselves properly with the gospel of peace. They are hoping that you and I will not really understand what that ‘gospel’ is, or how to share it with others, or how powerful it is to transform the lives of others. They’re counting on you and me preaching and proclaiming almost anything else. They don’t care what it may be—politics, social justice, cultural reform, psychology, spirituality, self-improvement … anything but the true ‘gospel of peace’.
And you and I must enter into the battle with ‘the preparation’—with the whole-hearted eagerness, and confidence, and joyful readiness with competent understanding—of proclaiming the wonderful ‘gospel of peace’ through Jesus Christ; because our doing so faithfully in this world—by the empowering help of the Holy Spirit—is quite literally the devil’s worst nightmare. It spells his doom.
Think of the apostle Paul. Think of his ‘readiness’. Think of how prepared he was. Think of what he wrote to his brothers and sisters in Rome in Romans 1. He wrote about how he was looking forward to coming to them and spending time with them. And in verses 13-17, he told them;
Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:13-17).
As you can tell, Paul was ready. He was confident in the power of the gospel to change lives. He knew it reconciled sinners to God, and brought them into a saving condition of peace with Him. He was prepared to preach it to everyone. He was excited about it. And that’s what you and I need to be.
Dear brothers and sisters; do you know—with a clear, biblical understanding—what ‘the gospel of peace’ is? Do you know how to tell someone what Jesus has done for them, and how to invite them to pray and receive it by faith? Do you know the basic points of the gospel? Are you ‘prepared’ to share this good news with joy? Are you—like Paul—“ready”?
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So; that’s what Paul’s exhortation is about. It’s about ‘the gospel of peace’. And that’s what the purpose of his exhortation is. It’s that we enter into and live on the battlefield fully ready and equipped with the ‘preparation’ of the gospel of peace.
And now; notice …
3. ITS APPLICATION IN BATTLE.
Paul wrote, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace …” We’re not to merely have this gospel of peace stored away somewhere. We’re to have it on that specific part of our personhood that does business with and has immediate contact with this world. Just like a soldier who’s about to enter into the battlefield, we’re to have the ‘preparation’ of this ‘gospel of peace’ strapped tightly and inseparably to the place of our direct contact with this world—as it were, on our feet.
When I think of this ‘applicational’ aspect of this exhortation from Paul—when I think of how we’re specifically told to have ‘shod our feet’ with it—I think of how it illustrates to us that ‘the gospel of peace’ is that thing upon which we’re to take our stand. Our faith in the gospel is what differentiates us from this world. Our feet are to be firmly fixed upon it; so that when the devil attacks us, he is unable to knock us off from it. It is our personal mainstay—the ground upon which we stand firm. It’s that upon which—in this world—we take our stand. The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 5:1-2;
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).
In the moment of battle, the devil will throw everything he has at us and seek to knock us off of the confidence the gospel gives us in our relationship with the Father. He’ll seek to tell us that it’s not true—that we’re not really right with Him—that Jesus didn’t pay the full debt for our sins—that we’re unworthy of His love—that we really need to work more diligently, and try harder, and do more good deeds and observe more religious ceremonies and rituals, and make ourselves worthy of God’s love and favor—that because of our shortcomings and faults and weaknesses, we’ll never really attain to peace with Him. And when we refuse to listen to the devil’s lies, and instead keep the gospel of peace strapped onto our feet tightly, then we cannot be knocked off our feet by him. The gospel is “this grace in which we stand”.
But I also think of how the ‘applicational’ aspect of this exhortation also illustrates that we take this ‘gospel of peace’ with us out into the world—out into the very domain of the devil. We march with it on our feet into the devil’s very kingdom, and proclaim it to his captives with the confidence that it’s ‘the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes’.
This reminds me of what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:14-15;
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15).
We’re called upon to have our ‘feet shod’ with the preparation of this gospel of peace because it’s meant to travel. It’s meant to go out into the world.
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So then; when it comes to this exhortation from Paul, the focus is on ‘the gospel of peace’. The purpose for battle is ‘preparation’. And the application in battle is it’s to be where our feet go in this world.
And notice a final thing about this exhortation from Paul …
4. ITS RESULT IN THE BATTLE.
It’s told to us at the beginning of verse 14: “Stand therefore …” When the battle is over, and when the dust has cleared, we will not have been knocked down. We’ll still be standing.
Dear brothers and sisters; Paul had this piece of armor—this provision from God—strapped on firmly to his feet. And consider the confidence it gave him. You find it expressed in Romans 8:31-39;
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).
Paul made this declaration as a man who had fought hard in the battle for the faith. And his confidence can be ours too—if we will heed his advice and go into the battle faithfully; having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
In the spiritual battle for the faith, let’s never again be casual about our footwear!
AE
