We Are At War

8/29/21

Sermon preached Sunday August 29th 2021

By Beth Conkle

The borders were closed. There were no trains or buses going in or out of what was then left of Yugoslavia. Each person on our small team of three had to pay $50 to get a ride from Budapest Hungary to Belgrade. As the three of us climbed into the small Volkswagen Golf our nostrils filled with the smell of petro. The driver explained that gasoline was not readily available, so drivers had to carry their own so as not to run out. Once in Belgrade, we exchanged money only to be handed stacks of dinar bills—literally banded bundles of monay. Our mission in Yugoslavia was to pray and to make contact with the isolated church in Serbia and in Prishtina, Kosovo. To travel to Kosovo at this time was not safe, so we checked in with the American Embassy in Belgrade to inform them of our plans. Inside the embassy, we saw many Yugoslavians, lined up, waiting to get visas to America. As American passport holders, my companions and I were able to walk right up to a window without having to wait. Once on the train bound for Prishtina, we ended up sitting across from a group of men, dressed in traditional Balkan hats and garb and carrying machines guns. At that moment, I felt I was in the presence of absolute evil. I asked my Serbian pastor friend who these people were. “Chetniks,” he replied. “What are Chetniks,” I asked. He explained they were the Serbs who followed behind the army. When the army takes a town or village, the Chetniks would make sure to “clean up” afterwards through rape, torture and killing. 

All these experiences, all these signs that I encountered told me that I was traveling through a nation that was currently at war. 

Since March of 2020, things have shifted in our world, so much so that most people would agree the world will never go back to the way it was. This is not just a political or sociological shift. This shift is spiritual. 

There many signs that we are in the midst of a war, a spiritual war. 

Now more than ever, the Church of Jesus Christ needs to be in prayer and walk discernment, not relying on our own logic or on what we “see.” We are in a spiritual battle. We are constantly assaulted by entities that we cannot see. We have always been in this battle, but the church living in the West has lived in midst of modernity, a context that doesn’t readily accept the supernatural. To see the world as a place of spiritual conflict is not intuitive for us. 

But the whole of the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—speaks of a spiritual realm that exists side-by-side with our physical realm. Today’s reading from Ephesians tells us that

“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.”

So who are these rulers, authorities and powers and spiritual forces of evil? I have always thought that this passage was referring to the demonic, the Satan and his fallen angles. But the ancients didn’t quite view things in such a simplistic way.

Recently I have been reading a book by a biblical language scholar named Michael Heiser called Supernatural. I always thought there was just God, some angels and then people. That was it. I never noticed scripture references to a whole hosts of spiritual beings that interact with God and with humans. They are referred to as 

• the Divine Council (Psalm 82 & 89) 

• the Heavenly Hosts (Psalm 103:21; 148:2, Luke 2:13) 

• Host of Heaven (Nehemiah 9:6; Dainel 8:10)

• seraphim (Is.6:2, 6)

• cherubim (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25-27; and many more)

• the Starry Host (2 Kings 17:16, Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 40:26; Daniel 8:10)

• Heavenly Beings (Psalm 8) 

• demons (Matthew 7:22; James 2:19) 

• archangels (1 Thes. 4:16; Jude 1:9)

• satan (Job 1; 1 Chronicles 21:1; 1 Peter 5:8)

• authorities (Ephesians 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 1:16; 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22)

• powers (Isaiah 24:21; Daniel 4:35; Romans 8:38; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:16; 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22)

• rulers (Daniel 7:27; 1 Corinthians 2:6, 8; Ephesians 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 1:16)

• thrones (Colossians 1:16; Revelation 11:16)

or throughout scripture as the “gods,” or in Hebrew the Elohim (Exodus 15:11; Psalm 82). The name, elohim, is often used as a kind of category to refer to these different heavenly beings, kind of like the word “clergy.” You have bishops, priests and deacons, archbishops, etc., but they are all clergy. These angels, archangels, hosts of heaven, demons, spiritual beings, the Divine Council—these are all in the category of the elohim—the gods.  The Hebrews also used the title Elohim also as a name for God. Throughout the Old Testament we see the title the Most High God—or the Elohim of Elohim. The God we worship is the Elohim of elohim. 

Colossians says that he created all things: things in “heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). All these elohim were created by God to rule with him and to share his authority, just as he created humans to do the same. God doesn’t need us or the elohim, but because God is love, he enjoys sharing his authority with those he loves. He is a relational God. All he does is motivated by love and done for love. 

You see the man and the woman—that’s you and I—were created to share God’s authority, his rulership because God wants to be with us and to share his divine life with us (Genesis 1:26). Adam and Eve were not meant to stay in Eden so they could simply retire, kick back and enjoy themselves for eternity. They were given a job to do. They were to take Eden to the rest of the world. They were given dominion over the created world in order to reign with God and to turn the rest of the world into Eden. 

As we know from Genesis 3, things didn’t turn out as God designed. There was a rebellion—first amongst the elohim—and then amongst the humans. A rebellion that says, “I don’t need God. I will rule in my own way and in my own authority” Or “I’ll do life on my own terms.” And throughout history we have experienced the havoc and grief that this rebellion has created for the human race. We only have to look at the news events of the last few of days to see this havoc and grief.

In the biblical narrative, this rebellion reaches a climax at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). At Babel both the humans and the elohim rebel in an effort to enter the heavenlies and rule from there. You see the ancients didn’t see the spiritual realm as a separate place like we see heaven or hell. “When I die, I am going to heaven.” No, heaven is where God is. It is the place where he rules and reigns. The ancients saw the spiritual realm with all the elohim intersecting and interacting with the earthly human realm. So their effort to build a tower was an effort to establish their rulership apart from God on God’s turf.

God’s response? He scatters the people by confusing their languages. Literally they sounded like they were babbling to one another. At that point, according to Deuteronomy 32:8, 9 (See also Daniel 10:13), Yahweh appoints the fallen elohim to rule the nations, and we have the establishment of spiritual Babylon. Babylon is representative of this present evil fallen world system (Revelation 18). 

Following the fall of Babel, instead of trying to get the whole world onboard with his plan, God chooses Israel, his royal priesthood to the other nations, who were intended to live according to his ways. In our Deuteronomy reading the Hebrew children are commanded to hear and follow the decrees and the laws of Yahweh, so that they may take possession of the land the Lord was giving them, so that they may rule in this world with God.  Israel is meant to be a prototype community of God’s justice, peace and love as they live in dependence on God’s provision and life. 

What sets the Israelites apart from the other nations is that they are ruled by the one true God—the Elohim of elohim—who wants them to rule with him out of a love relationship. This love relationship is often depicted as an intimate relationship of a husband and wife (Hosea3:1). Their apostasy and worship of other gods is seen as adultery. He promises to be present with them as long as they are faithful to worship him, and him only (Deuteronomy . The other elohim demand the worship of the human beings and only want to use them. 

Yahweh commands the Israelites not to add or take away anything from his commands, which represent his ways.  This is what the scribes and the pharisees were doing in our Mark (Chapter 7) reading. They added to what God commands, and thereby, subtracted from it, literally taking from it it’s intended purpose as a means of true righteousness and justice. For the sake of their dead religious tradition, they nullify the command of God to love and honor their parents. 

We know the end of this story, too. Israel does not live out God’s call. They were unfaithful and didn’t worship and obey God. So God sent his Son, his only Son into the world to save and redeem, that is, to purchase back the human beings from darkness. Colossians says

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”

Jesus is the true Israel. In the midst of a world ruled by the principalities and powers, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life and did so—not by his divine powers—but by listening to the Spirit and following his Father. He did nothing but what he saw his Father doing. He became obedient to God even to submitting to a death by crucifixion. Thus, he overcame the principalities and powers through the foolishness of the cross. 

Brothers and sisters, we are at war. And this battle is not a fight with other people, other Americans, other races, with Muslims, or with gay or trans people. Our fight is not with the Republicans or with the Democratics or with progressives or the “religious right.” Our fight is not with the vaccinated or the unvaccinated, with the masked or the unmasked. If we are fighting those things, we are fighting on the wrong turf and engaging the wrong battle. We have to be careful that we are not trying to negotiate with Babylon. We don’t belong to Babylon any longer. We belong to our King Jesus, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms far above all rulers, powers and authorities. Our fight is with beings in the spiritual realm, who intend to keep us at each others’ throats.  

“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.”

“3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” (2 Cor. 10.3)

God still wants to bring Eden to the whole world by partnering with human beings. God’s plan is now through the church—which is meant to include Israel. The church is called to be the prototype community of God’s love and justice and shalom to the world. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Ephesians 3:10 tells us that . . .

“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” 

God has put the principalities and powers to shame by triumphing over them through the cross. He has served them notice and their time is up. Jesus has been raised from the dead, has conquered death and is seated at the right-hand of God far above all rule, all authorities, all principalities and all powers. And guess what, the Bible says we, too, are seated there with him.

The church, the ekklesia, or called out ones, are to continue what Jesus started by taking the gospel to the world. We are called to rescue people from the dominion of darkness. We are called to battle the principalities and powers by living out his righteousness within the community of God’s people--all done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The weapons he gives us are not of this world. They are not the weapons of Babylon. The weapons he gives us might even seem weak and ineffective, but the weapons he appoints for us are his divine attributes, his character. As we abide in him, walk in intimacy with him daily, we put on this armor, we put on Christ. 

• The Helmut of salvation— The gospel saves people. Nothing else can save a person, nothing else can save our world except the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says, 

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith.”

• The belt of truth – We must live by the truth. This is a world in which truth is hard to discern and know, but truth is greatly needed—truth spoken boldly. Speaking truth is a form of resistance against the principalities and powers. We have the truth in the Word of God, in the very person of Jesus, whom we worship and daily walk with. We don’t get truth from the latest YouTube video, CNN or Fox News. We get truth from God’s word. As we worship week after week using liturgy, we are being formed in Gospel truth. 

• The breastplate of righteousness—his righteousness. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5). Bottom line, our righteousness comes from Christ. We regularly confess our sins, receive his forgiveness, and walk in his imputed righteousness. We claim no righteousness of our own. The enemy can accuse me til the cows come home, but he can’t change the fact that I am righteous—not based on anything I have done—but only because God made me so through the work of Christ.

• The feet fitted with gospel of peace is a sign of preparedness. We are ready at all times—in season and out of season—to share the gospel, to share the good news. We rely on the wisdom and words of the Holy Spirit when he presents us with divine opportunities to share the good news.

• The shield of faith/faithfulness—in the Greek, they are one and the same word. One might say, “I don’t have faith.” But are you faithful? That is faith. I know many of you. You have not had an easy life. You have had every opportunity to grow bitter and give up. You may feel weak and powerless, but you keep showing up. That is faithfulness and that is a life of faith. Just keep showing up.

• The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. –Be in the word! Abide in the word. Don’t just read it, sit with Jesus daily and let him teach you from his word. His word is truth, his word is life. The Word of God is sacramental—it imparts grace to us. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God. People of God, let’s get off our screens and get into the Word. This is the only offensive weapon we have been given. People all over the world are willing to die and be imprisoned to have a copy of the Bible. 

Why is this weapon offensive? Look how Jesus uses it to fight temptation in the wilderness. He answers the Satan’s accusations and enticements by quoting truth from God’s word. And we need to speak truth to ourselves and to one another, the truth from God’s word. This is a weapon against the negative false thoughts that we so often battle.

One last weapon not really mentioned in this list of armor but that is a theme of Ephesians. That is submission! Remember, we are in this mess because of rebellion. The greatest armor we can put on is to be like Jesus and put on humility. We are called to submit one another first and foremost, then Paul gets specific with submission in the context of various relationships.  In submitting to one another, we make ourselves very vulnerable, but this also can be our greatest protection if we are submitting to one another out of reverence and love for the Lord, out of first being submitted to him. That is not a popular message in a culture that says you can define yourself. Put on humility as Christ put on humility by taking on the sinful human condition and lived a life of submission to his Father. We are called to do the same. In doing so, we resist and overcome the principalities and powers.

People of God, we are at war, but it is a war that has already been won by our Savior. Put on the full armor of God—put on Christ through daily intimacy with him-- so that you can take your stand when the day of evil comes.