R U READY TO RUMBLE
SHOES OF PEACE
DR. JIM DIXON
EPHESIANS 6:10-17
JULY 20, 2008
A long, long time ago there was a Kingdom named Walachia. Today the geographical land space that was once Walachia is Southern Romania. In the year 1456, Vladimir V ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Walachia, and the people were afraid. They were very, very afraid because they knew that Vladimir V was insane. He was worse than insane. He was evil and he was twisted. Historians tell us that as Vladimir V took the throne over the Wallachians that he literally implemented a reign of terror. In fact, he impaled 40,000 people with stakes through the heart, including some members of the royal house and some members of his own family. He drove stakes through the chest and heart of 40,000 people.
Of course, today historians refer to Vladimir Vas “Vlad the Impaler,” but in his day the people of Walachia had another name for him. They called him “Son of the Devil.” In their language that title was expressed through the word “Dracula.” Of course, Bram Stoker used this title, Dracula, Son of the Devil, in his famous stories.
We live in the 21st Century and it’s hard for many people today to imagine that there really is a devil, that there’s an entity that the Bible calls Satan, that there are principalities and powers of darkness and that there is spiritual warfare on the supernatural level between the forces of light and darkness, that there is a battle cosmically going on between Christ and Satan, between angels and demons, and yet the Bible tells us it is true. Jesus tells us that the devil is the Archon, the Ruler of this World. He said, “Fear not. He has no power over Me.” Of course, we are told in scripture that this spiritual warfare is something that as Christians we are all engaged in, that there is a battle going on for the souls of people all over the world. There’s a battle going on for the souls of men and women and children. The Bible tells us that as Christians we are to put on the full armor of God.
We being this new series, “Get Ready to Rumble” with the thought that we need to put on the full armor of God and we’re going to start at the bottom. We’re going to start with the feet and kind of work our way up. We’re going to start with “shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace. Put on your feet these boots, these shoes, the Gospel of Peace.” We’re going to take a look at the meaning of this spiritually. You can’t engage this battle with demonic forces unless you’ve put on these shoes called, “The Gospel of Peace.”
In this passage in Ephesians 6, there’s a split in the Christian scholarly community and some scholars believe that these shoes called “The Gospel of Peace” represent a defensive kind of armor, a defensive kind of weapon. There are other biblical scholars who believe these shoes represent an offensive kind of weapon. Is the Gospel of Peace something we stand in or is the Gospel of Peace something we march with? So, there’s a split in the Christian community and we’re going to look at both of these.
First of all, we’re going to look at “Shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace.” We’re going to look at it defensively first of all. It is true that the primary thrust of this passage in Ephesians, chapter 6, is defensive. When you think of spiritual warfare, this passage is talking about a defensive posture. It says that, “We are to stand against all the wiles of the devil, withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore.” It’s all about standing so it’s a kind of defensive posture in the passage. It is also true that the Greek word, “hetoimasia” which, in the RSV is rendered “equipment.” “Shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace.”
That word, “hetoimasia” is translated “equipment.” That’s an unfortunate translation because it doesn’t mean that. That’s the RSV. That’s not the meaning of the Greek. Hetoimasia literally means, “foundation,” so God is saying to us, “Shod your feet with the foundation of the Gospel of Peace. The message apparently, at least as some scholars view it is not that we are to take the Gospel of Peace and march with it but that we are to stand in it as our foundation. Do you understand this interpretation of the passage? So, “Shod your feet with the foundation of the Gospel of Peace” means that your base, your feet, should be your foundation and it needs to be founded in the Gospel of Peace. The message would be that you can’t possibly live life in this world, you can’t engage in spiritual warfare, you’ll never have victory, unless your life is founded on the Gospel of Peace.
To understand the Gospel of Peace you need to understand that Jesus is the Gospel. Did you know that? If someone were to ask you, “How do you define the Gospel, what would you say?” Everybody’s heard the word “gospel” and it comes from the old English “God spell” and it means, “good news,” but how would you define it? There are many ways you could define it but biblically the core of the concept of the Gospel is simply, “Jesus.” “The Angel of the Lord announced to the world, the Angel of the Lord announced to the shepherds, ‘I bring you good news, God spell. I bring you Gospel for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ. Jesus is the good news. Jesus is the God spell. Jesus is the Gospel.” When you think of the Gospel, you think of Jesus. The Gospel of Peace is Jesus and Jesus is “Sar Shalom.” He is the Prince of Peace. “Unto us this day is born in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom.”‘ The foundation of our lives, as we shod our feet, must be Jesus, Prince of Peace, the Gospel of Peace.
We want to understand His peace. It was Jesus who said, “A peace I leave with you. A peace I give unto you.” In the midst of this life do you have peace? In the midst of the attacks by the evil one, do you have peace? “The devil,” the Bible tells us, “oppresses. The devil afflicts. The devil deceives. The devil even possesses.” I don’t believe biblically there’s any evidence that the devil can possess a Christian, but he can oppress and afflict and deceive. In the midst of this life with all the problems, some of which come from man, some of which come from nature, some of which come from spiritual warfare, do you have peace? As you sit here this morning, do you have peace or are you anxious? Are you troubled? Are you worried? Are you afraid? God wants us to live this life founded in the Gospel of Peace.
Jesus offers a unique peace, the peace of sins forgiven, the peace of knowing your ticket is punched for heaven, the peace of knowing your soul has been sealed and is safe, the peace of knowing that “all things will work together for good in your life.” This is the promise of our Savior. There’s no meaningless pain. Whatever you’re going through, His promise is that He will use it for some good somehow and there’s a peace in that, the peace of Jesus, the Gospel of Peace from the Prince of Peace.
Ultimately Jesus offers international peace. The Bible tells us that. You can go to New York City and you can go to the United Nations. I’m sure many of you have been there and you can see that plaque that’s on their wall. It quotes scripture, Micah, chapter 4, verse 3; Isaiah, chapter 2, verse 4, “He will beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks and nation shall not lift up sword against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore.” Right on the United Nation Building, New York City, Micah, Isaiah, the Bible, but I think when they put that plaque up there, they perhaps didn’t know that those were Messianic passages. That passage in Micah, that passage in Isaiah, Messianic passages. They point to the Messiah. They point to Christ. They point to Jesus. It is Jesus who will “beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks.” It is Jesus who will guarantee one day that “nation will not lift up sword against nation and neither shall we learn war anymore.” He will come and He will rule the world in peace, the Second Coming of Christ, international peace.
Of course, Jesus offers relational peace. You come to Jesus and you’re reconciled with the Father through Jesus. He brings us into this community called “The Church” and there is meant to be peaceful relationships in the church and a lot of love. He shows us how to find peace even with our enemies. You go through the Gospels and you go through the Sermon on the Mount and it’s almost prescription for relational peace with humility and mercy and grace and forgiveness and all the beautiful teachings of Jesus. It’s a prescription for relational peace. Of course, Jesus tells us that we are to be peacemakers. What’s a peacemaker?
I have a few coins here. They’re all the same. These are Sacagawea $1 coins printed by the United States Government. Why Sacagawea? Why is she on American currency? According to legends, according to tradition, she was the guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition but that legend, that tradition, is not true. She did not serve as a guide. The year was 1804 when Lewis and Clark met Sacagawea in North Dakota with her French-Canadian husband. They joined Lewis and Clark as they moved west. Sacajawea did become critical because she was the peacemaker. She was the daughter of a Shoshone Chief and the sister of a Shoshone Chieftain and she was able to negotiate peace for Lewis and Clark, not only with the Shoshones but with many other Indian nations, a peacemaker, of course just a small microcosm that is Jesus. Jesus is the One who offers peace with God Himself and Jesus brings us into harmony with the Father and into an eternal community called, “The Church.”
The big focus in a passage like this is inner peace. “Shod your feet with the foundation of the Gospel of Peace.” It’s got to be talking about inner peace. You can’t live life in this world and you can’t be victorious in spiritual warfare unless you have an unshakable inner peace, unshakable inner peace. Jesus offers that unshakable inner peace. As I have said, it’s that peace of sins forgiven, that peace of knowing you’re bound for heaven, that peace of knowing that God is always at work in every crisis and every trial and every test of your life working for good, that peace of knowing your soul is safe and sealed, the peace of Jesus inwardly.
I know last Tuesday probably some of you might have seen the All-Star game for Major League baseball. It was a pretty amazing game – 15 innings in length, I think the longest All-Star game in Major League history. It lasted almost 5 hours. Clint Hurdle coached the National League team, Clint Hurdle from the Rockies, and Matt Holliday, also played for the National League team. He hit a home run. Aaron Cook pitched for the National League team, a Rockies pitcher. He pitched three scoreless innings. Everybody from Clint Hurdle to Aaron Cook and Matt Holliday did a great job but a long and yet kind of fun game. Maybe Monday night some of you kind of just, at least for a little bit of time, checked out the Home Run Derby. That was on TV on ESPN on Monday night and something incredible happened. In the first round of the Home Run Derby, this guy named Josh Hamilton from the Texas Rangers hit 28 home runs, the most home runs in any single round in Major League history, 28 home runs. I tuned in and I marveled as I watched Josh Hamilton just hit home run after home run and the incredible stroke that he has as he was just hitting near record-setting home runs, home runs over 500 feet in distance. It was just amazing to watch. There’s an amazing story about Josh Hamilton that has to do with Jesus.
Josh Hamilton has just an amazing story. He’s really only been playing in the Major Leagues for the last two years and he’s just risen to… I mean this year he leads all the Major Leagues in RBI’s with 95 RBI’s. He could become MVP of all of baseball. It’s an amazing thing, particularly given his history.
A number of years ago Josh Hamilton was drafted and came into the Major Leagues. He was a shining star. They thought this guy had more young talent than perhaps anybody else in America and they thought he was bound for super stardom, but they didn’t know he had drug addictions. Josh Hamilton never even got his baseball career off the ground because he was so addicted to drugs. He went into a 3-year stupor, three years where he just disappeared. He didn’t play baseball. He just disappeared. He was addicted to heroin and he was addicted to cocaine and he was addicted to alcohol. He would go on these stupors where he would just be totally dysfunctional. He would sleep for 48 hours at a time and just wake up in a fog and then just take more heroin and more cocaine. It was just tragic. Everybody who loved him wept.
What happened to him? Well, he found Jesus. So, incredible. He found Jesus and Jesus just changed his life, forgave his sins, gave him the promise of heaven and a cause and a purpose to life for and a sense of value in life. It’s all changed for Josh Hamilton. I’m sure life isn’t easy and won’t be easy but it’s all changed for him.
It was fun Monday night to hear him share his testimony, talk about the Lord, talk about God and talk about Christ. When it came back to the ESPN announcers, I thought it was funny. The first thing the ESPN announcer said was, “It’s not a good night to be an atheist.” Isn’t that true? I don’t think there’s ever a good night to be an atheist.
How does a guy like that make it? How does a guy like Josh Hamilton make it and where does he find peace? In the midst of all those tragic kind of demonic addictions, where does he find peace? He’s found it in Jesus. That’s what this passage is saying. You’ve got to shod your feet with the equipment, with the foundation of the Gospel of Peace and the Gospel of Peace is Jesus Himself.
Maybe you’ve heard of Henry Drummond. In the 19th Century there were three famous people named Henry Drummond so maybe you’ve heard of one of them. There was the Canadian Henry Drummond, William Henry Drummond who was a poet and a physician. Then there was the Scottish Henry Drummond who was an evangelist in the 19th Century, an incredible evangelist, but the Henry Drummond that I want to mention this morning is the British Henry Drummond who was a politician and an author. He went to Oxford and he served in the British parliament for 16 years. After his first term of service, he met Jesus. He was traveling on a trip to the Holy Land just for educational purposes. He heard the gospel of Christ. He’d heard it before, but this time his soul was ready and it touched him and he gave his heart to Christ.
He returned to Parliament, and he served Jesus Christ the rest of his life. There’s a story about Henry Drummond where he commissioned two artists to paint a picture of the peace of Christ, Christian peace. What does Christian peace look like? He said, whichever painting I like, I will promote it. Well, one artist came back with a picture of a beautiful meadow with deer kind of grazing in the meadow and a little tranquil pond or lake in the background and then mountains rising—blue sky, billowy, white clouds. Christian peace. Henry Drummond said, “No. It was a pretty picture, but I don’t think that’s the piece of Christ.”
Well, the other artist came, and when Drummond saw the picture, he thought, oh, this is it. The artist showed just a violently cascading waterfall thundering down off of jagged cliff and down onto jagged sharp rocks. At the base of the waterfall, the water is rising and it’s like mist is rising, and there’s a barren tree on the bank with one branch going out over the jagged rocks right next to the waterfall. On that barren branch is a bird, sound asleep. Henry Drummond said, that’s it.
Isn’t that it? I think that is it. As you look at this crazy world and all the stresses of life… I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what medical condition you have or what financial situation you’re in or what relational issue you might be struggling with, what heartache, what pain. But I know this: there’s a peace in Jesus, and your life must be founded on Him. Shod your feet, your foundation, with the Gospel of Peace, Jesus.
Well, there’s a second meaning here, and Bible scholars are quick to point that out. Of course, Bible scholars are even divided on this issue. But many Bible scholars believe that the force of this statement “shod your feet with the Gospel of Peace” should be offensive. We should take the Gospel of Peace, carry the Gospel of Peace, run with the Gospel of Peace—so the understanding is that it’s not a defensive foundation but an offensive kind of thing.
Understand that the power of the Holy Spirit is so great that you can have more than one meaning to a single passage in the Bible. By the inspiration of God and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, this passage by the intention of God can mean both things. It can mean that you need the Gospel of Peace as your foundation, but it can also mean at the same time that you’re meant to carry the Gospel of Peace to the world. So those who say that this armor of God passage in Ephesians six is just a defensive passage, and the theme is, “stand,” have kind of overstated their case. You can look at the armor of God in Ephesians six, and some of the armor, some of the weapons, seem to be as much offensive as defensive—certainly the sword of the Spirit can be used both defensively and offensively.
But if you look at the passage contextually (and we should always look at scripture contextually), you really get a bigger picture. So you don’t just look at Ephesians 6:10-17, you look at Ephesians 6:10-20 and include those final verses. In those final verses, Paul says, “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray at all times in the Spirit, making prayer and supplication, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that I might be given utterance to open my mouth boldly and proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I’m an ambassador in chains.” So Paul is saying, right in conjunction with this spiritual warfare and armor of God passage, “Pray that I might speak boldly and take the mystery of the gospel now to the world.”
I think there’s a sense in which as you look at this passage, “shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace,” there’s an act sense here too. Your feet are not only your foundation, but they also carry you. And we’re meant to carry the Gospel of Peace. And in fact, this Greek word, “hetoimasia,” which means foundation, doesn’t only mean foundation. “Hetoimasia” can also mean preparation or readiness for action. You can see where, “shod your feet with the preparation for action that is the Gospel of Peace,” could be the force. So it’s both of these things. So it’s very important, biblically, for us to participate in evangelism in this spiritual warfare as we serve the cause of heaven on earth.
We all are called to be founded in Jesus, but to take Jesus as well to the world, to the nations, to our neighbors, to our friends. And I think the Western Church has failed. I think in America, by and large, as Christians, we are failing in this spiritual warfare. I look back on history Christian history, and I marvel at the great men and women God has raised up by His anointing and by His power. I think many of you’ve probably heard of William Booth. If you’ve not heard of William Booth, you’ve certainly heard of the Salvation Army, which William Booth founded. And of course, the Salvation Army exists today and the Salvation Army is a wonderful relief organization that cares about the total needs of people and the poor and the hurting and the ill.
The Salvation Army has also cared throughout its history for the souls of people and for their salvation. William Booth served for a time as a revivalist and an evangelist. But near the end of his life, when William Booth began to be known and the Salvation Army began to be kind of famous, William Booth was invited to come before King Edward II of England. The year was 1904, and the place was Buckingham Palace. And here William Booth is invited, and King Edward III wanted to see Booth, to see what made him tick. Booth only had eight more years of life left, but he came to Buckingham Palace and he met with Edward II. Edward II said, what is your ambition in life? And William Booth thought for a second. He said, sir, some have ambition for the arts. Some have ambition for fame. Some have ambition for gold. Sir, my ambition is for the souls of men and women.
I wonder today in the Western church—in the American church, in our church—where our greatest ambition lies. How many of us have ambition for gold, ambition for fame, ambition to express our creative giftedness? How many of us would really say that our greatest ambition, our greatest passion, is the souls of men and women—that they might be saved, that they might find Jesus?
I’m reminded of John Knox. John Knox was probably the greatest Christian leader in the history of Scotland. Today, you can go to Edinburgh and you can walk the royal mile from the Palace of Holyrood all the way up to Edinburgh Castle. It’s a wonderful royal mile.
Along the royal mile, you’ll come to the home of John Knox. Barbara and I have been there a number of times, and you can go on the main floor or upstairs and you can see the history of this man’s life—the theologian, this pastor, this servant of Jesus. It was John Knox who brought Christ to Scotland en masse. The Presbyterian Church became the Church of Scotland through John Knox. He wasn’t as much concerned that they be Presbyterians as he was that they be Christians and that they be followers of Jesus Christ. With regard to the gospel, John Knox once prayed (and you can see the quote in his house), “Give me Scotland or let me die.” With regard to the gospel, he said, “Give me Scotland or let me die.” And God gave him Scotland.
But I wonder, does anybody think like that now? Does anybody pray like that now? It reminds me of George Whitfield, one of the greatest revivalists in the history of the Christian world. He came to America with John Wesley, and they launched great awakenings and revivals all across America. And what did George Whitfield say? He said, “Lord, give me souls or take my soul.” I wonder if we understand the heart of Jesus. Do you understand why He told some of the parables He did? The parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18 and Luke 15), the parable of the sower, the parable of the lost coin—all these parables have to do with the preciousness of each person and how when one who was lost is found there’s joy in heaven. It was so we would understand the heart of God and the passion of God to seek the lost.
We live in a culture today where “nobody’s lost and everybody’s okay.” We’re pluralistic, we’re syncretists. But of course, the Bible makes it very clear that, in the sight of God, we’re all lost apart from grace and mercy—apart from the cross and apart from Christ. So we have this call to take Christ, and we have this Great Commission. So you come to Matthew 28 and Mark 16 (and even Acts chapter one—”You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth”). This call is upon us to take the gospel.
I thought it was a great 10 days that we’ve just had as a church as we’ve looked at the call of Christ upon us to reach out to the hurting and the suffering and those afflicted with AIDS in Africa. John Thomas preached to us last Sunday with a very, very powerful message. He acknowledged that, as Christians, we need to be burdened not only for the souls of people, but for their bodies and for their needs and for the poor. Of course, John Thomas is from Africa and doesn’t really know Cherry Hills Community Church, either the history of our church or even currently all that we’re involved in. We are involved in 21 programs to the poor and the inner city, and we’re reaching out to the poor around the world. But he’s right. As the church of Jesus Christ, we need to always be concerned with the poor and always be concerned for the souls of the lost.
I was so proud of you as a congregation. Over 5,000 people went through our AIDS experience, an exhibit with World Vision, in our atrium. Wow. Over 5,000 people, and over a thousand adopted children. I mean, I’m so pleased. I couldn’t be more proud in Christ that you have responded in such a wonderful way because these children are orphans—many of them destitute—and their parents have died because of AIDS. What a loving response.
I worry sometimes, however, whether we care as much about the souls of people, whether we as a church are really committed to taking Jesus to those who don’t know Him, and whether we really realize what’s at stake. I was looking at my calendar and I was noticing that in a couple of weeks we have a discovery class. Discovery classes here at the church meet on Saturdays, and they’re really new member classes. We have a discovery class or a new members class every few months. And there’s a part of those Saturdays in the discovery class that I participate in. I kind of share the vision statement of the church, but then I have the privilege of giving an invitation for folks to accept Jesus in our discovery class. In our last discovery class, 28 people accepted Christ. It’s like tears of joy to see God do that, to see people give their hearts to Jesus. 28 people accepted Christ. Oftentimes we have between 10% and 20% of our folks in a discovery class except Christ.
I’ve always marveled that people are seeking to join a church but they’ve never accepted Christ. And yet what a wonderful opportunity we have in this culture. I hope that your heart beats to this beat of evangelism. You want to be loving and you want to be friends with people and you want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, but you want to have the boldness to talk about Jesus. So much is at stake. The church of Jesus Christ is stagnant in America and dying in Europe. It’s only vital in those parts of the world where people have shod their feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace.
So we need to shod our feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace, and that means that our lives are founded on Jesus and His peace. But it also means that these boots are made for walking and that we carry Jesus and the Gospel of Peace to the world. This is our commitment. If we’re going to have victory for the cause of heaven, if we’re going to be light in the darkness, salt in the corruption, we must shod our feet with the Gospel of Peace
As we conclude, I wanted to just say something about Harvard University. I from time to time think about Harvard. You’ll probably be glad to know I don’t think too often about Harvard, but Harvard is a great school academically and the first university in the United States of America, the oldest school in America, founded in 1636.
Did you know the original purpose of Harvard was to train ministers and missionaries? That was the original purpose of Harvard in 1636. 2 years later, in 1638, it was actually named Harvard after John Harvard. And who was John Harvard? He was a Christian minister who gave his library and land to the university. So they named it Harvard University. Its purposes were Christian to the core. The first president of Harvard was Henry Dunster. And Henry Dunste’s greatest passion was to take the gospel to the Indian nations. So at Harvard, in those early years, they built this two story brick building, which was for 20 Indian students. Every four years they’d have 20 new Indian students and they’d be trained for the ministry and trained as missionaries, indigenous missionaries, to take Jesus back to the Indian peoples.
Of course, the first Bible printed in the United States of America was at Harvard by Harvard University Press. And it wasn’t printed in English. It was printed in an Indian language because, the whole purpose of Harvard was to take Jesus to the nations, including the Indian nations. It was all about evangelism.
But something’s happened, hasn’t it? Something’s happened with our institutions of higher learning. Something’s happened with Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Something’s happened to schools like DU, which was once a Methodist school. Something’s happened to USC, which was once a Methodist school. Once these schools were centered on Jesus. Something’s happened. It’s happened all across our nation and all across our culture. Something’s changed in our mores, in our social fabric, our moral fabric. Something’s happened with people. Something’s happened in the church. People no longer have the boldness to share Jesus, and the church is dying. So shod your feet with the equipment—with the foundation, with the readiness—of the Gospel of Peace. Let’s close with the word of prayer.