Have you ever had someone say to you - “Jesus is the answer; so what’s the question?

It’s one of those clichéd soundbites that one hears and then thinks, “That’s too general to be worth bothering about!”

But one day I was thinking about the Armour of God and I found myself wondering if it might apply!

I made some interesting discoveries as I looked at Eph 6:10-18 in this light and I thought I’d give a brief summary today in this Sermonette. There isn’t enough time to go through all the scriptures available but I thought I could give you a little preview and afterwards you can tell me what you thought of the premise!

So, let’s look at these seven pieces of Armour that God has prepared for us and see if the answer is Jesus; and what that might mean to us.

The first of the pieces of the Armour is the Belt of Truth.

In the physical world the belt was used to anchor and hold all the other armaments that the soldier hopes will protect him in battle. In the spiritual world TRUTH is the anchor upon which all of our hope in God is anchored. If God is not truthful then we have nothing on which to hope! But we know from John 17:17 that God's Word is truth. We can test this through fulfilled prophesy, through the accuracy of the scriptures from Genesis onward, and from His work in our lives.

But if we look further by going back to John 1:1 we find this statement.
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God."

And the Word became flesh - The Word is Jesus! The Word is Truth.

So Jesus is Truth. The ‘spiritual belt’ that we put on to anchor all the promises of help and protection and support that we have from God is – Jesus! That’s why the scriptures can tells us that, “All the promises of God are YES and AMEN in Christ Jesus.

That’s interesting I thought – one down!

The second item of Armour is the Breastplate of Righteousness.

Now you may have heard it said that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Well that is true and you can read that in 2 Cor 5:21.

You will also learn in 1 Cor1:30 that Jesus is our righteousness; and we can read that as our example…

1 Cor 1:30 It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

So Jesus has become our righteousness and thus to put on the breastplate of righteousness is to put on Jesus! We are righteous only because we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour and His righteousness has been imputed to us.

We need to remind ourselves of that each day. It’s not because of our good deeds it’s because we put on Christ. We have it, but with our daily self-reminder, we learn to appreciate it!

So I thought – that’s two down; what’s next!

Now let’s move on the item no 3 – The shoes of the Gospel of Peace.

Our feet are to be shod with the Gospel of Peace. Wherever we go we are to take the Gospel of Peace. It’s pretty important then…

As you know ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’, so this is the good news of peace. Thus the good news of the kingdom, is the good news of peace. There is only one gospel! We see also in Mark 1:1 that the gospel is the good news of or about ‘Jesus Christ’.

Mar 1:1 This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

When you see the natural equivalence of the gospel of peace being the gospel of Jesus you can understand why some speak in terms of Peace being a Person, and that person is Jesus. That is why Jesus could give the disciples Peace by breathing on them and saying “My peace I give to you!”

It’s also why we can let our Peace come upon a house and if it is not received take it back! Have a look at Mat 10:12-13.

Mat 10:12-13 As you enter the house, greet its occupants. If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.

God sent Jesus into the world and His words were spirit and life. As the Father sent Him, so Jesus has sent us! So, when we speak out the word of God, our words become spirit and life to those who hear them. So the Word of God goes out as we speak them and the Spirit goes out in the godly words we speak regarding Jesus.

Jesus goes out in our words of God (Jesus is the word) and Peace goes out into the household, because Jesus is our peace.

To put it another way, 'As you know Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself; He speaks of Jesus. As we speak the words of God and the Spirit goes out in the words, we speak Jesus; we speak Peace'.

If the people are receptive then the dove (Holy Spirit) has found a home and stays. If the people are not receptive the Spirit returns to us. Maybe the next time Jesus is preached they will receive Him. So we take the gospel to all, at all times, in all seasons!

I was beginning to think that there might be something to this idea that I am dependent for all things through the grace of Jesus and not by my great works so I decided not to stop half way but to carry on!

So let’s move on the item no 4 – The Shield of Faith.

Some will think that this must be a tricky one! After all we have to provide the faith for salvation or healing or anything else, don’t we?

So I thought I’d look at a few scriptures regarding where faith comes from and how we get it. First let’s look at 2 Peter 1:1.

2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

So according to this scripture we have obtained a faith of equal standing or level as the apostle Peter by the righteousness of Jesus. Our faith comes from Jesus! It might be worth checking how we are saved I thought. That question took me to Ephesians 2:8-9.

Eph 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

So faith is a gift not something WE bring to the table! And since it’s a gift the next question is, “Whose faith is it?” Let’s look at Phil 3:9.

Phil 3:9 And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through the faith OF Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:

So it seems that we are given the gift of the faith OF Jesus and it comes to us in the same measure as it was given to the Apostle Peter.

Isn’t that fantastic! That’s four down!

Item 5 in the list of Armour is the Helmet of Salvation.

This is the protection for our thinking as we live and renew our minds to be more and more like Jesus. What we call sanctification. The second phase of Salvation. (Justification, Sanctification, Glorification)

I was on a roll by this time and I instantly thought of how I had already read a scripture stating Jesus was our sanctification//salvation in 1 Cor 1:30.

1 Cor 1:30 It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

But then I thought that many would prefer to see a scripture that specifically referred to Jesus being our Salvation. So Let’s turn to Luke, Chapter 2 and Verses 27-32.

Luke 2:27-32 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“ Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your Salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples , a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

The Salvation that Simeon was holding in his hands and looking at was Jesus!

So I moved on to the sixth item of the Armour.

This is the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

This weapon, it appears from the wording, is wielded by Holy Spirit. And this weapon is the Word of God.

But we also know that Jesus is the Word of God from John 1:1.

And during His temptation in the wilderness tempted by Satan we are given three examples of how to use this weapon. Jesus said to Satan when tempted, “It is written”, and then quoted the word of God! That is how we are to use the sword of the spirit. We take our stand on what the Bible, our manual says!

So we have a link to Jesus for all the first 6 pieces of Armour.

We are to put on Jesus every day as we face the world. He is our “all in all”. With Him we can be victorious in all our endeavors and in every circumstance where we find ourselves representing God.

That is why Paul could say in Galatians 2:20,

Gal 2:20 ”It is not I who live but Jesus Christ who lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of God!”

Now to me there is one piece of the Armour left.

This is No 7, Praying at all times in the Spirit.

To me this is our long range weapon. The others operate at short range!

And this is the one item that proved to be problematical for me.

For me -
1. We are told to pray in the Spirit.

2. We know from 2 Cor 3:17 that The Lord is the Spirit.

3. As Rom 10:13 says, “Jesus is Lord”.

So to me point proven.

I realize though that not everyone believes that ‘praying in the Spirit’ is for today, so for them this is all about prayer in general and drawing close to God. It’s about building a close relationship with God the Father and Jesus so we can better access all the Armour of God which they see as being only the first 6 items.

Well I do believe that we should build a close relationship with God. Jesus is in us and we are in Him. And, we need to be experiencially aware that we are to see ourselves as clothed in Christ.

So it’s either 7 out of 7, or 6 out of 6, according to your beliefs.

The whole point though is this. We need to put on Christ at the start of every day. It’s His mind in us and His super abilities that we need, to do the work of God and to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus said He will never leave us or forsake us!

Jesus said that He is in us and we are in Him!

Like Gideon in Judges 6:34, God is in us. He has clothed himself with us.

But, unlike the O.T. saints, WE are to clothe ourselves with Jesus.

So don’t forget to put on (ie. be fully aware of living in/through) the Armour of God (Jesus) every day.

Amen.