
We've been studying for the last few weeks, the topic of the Armor of God. And we will continue this study. We're on the verge of being halfway through wrapping them up.
This morning we'll be looking at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 15.
"And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;" — Ephesians 6:15
So we're going to look at, the portion of the armor that covers the feet and the legs up to about the knee. Traditionally is the way that it was considered the where have we been?
Armor of God Background
We don't want to spend a lot of time looking at the things we've already talked about in the weeks previous, but it is good to keep us up to date.
We started with our loins girt about with truth, and if we don't have truth, if we don't have an understanding of what truth is or reality. Not necessarily the truth as in the Word of God, but if we are opposed to the reality of the way things are, then we're in trouble.
We talked about the Breastplate of Righteousness. The ability to protect our vital organs, in this case our spiritual ones from being pierced with the fiery darts of the wicked one.
We need to make sure that we're living in such a way that we can say that we are righteous when we are judged at the end of this life when Jesus comes back. He can then confirm that we are righteous before God.
We protect ourselves with that breastplate of righteousness.
Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace
This leads us to the idea of the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Most Wars Require Foot Soldiers
In the first century, there were wars. In today's century, there are wars too, but there's a little bit different. In the first century, and in ancient history, wars were fought primarily with infantry.
There was not a whole lot of artillery, there were no planes, no tanks, no submarines, and no missiles to help the soldier on the ground accomplish his particular mission, which was to defeat the guys on the other side of the hill. So, at the time of this writing, yes, they had chariots, horses, and elephants that were used in battle as well. They had these things. They had tools, if you will. But primarily, most of these battles were won by foot soldiers.
Spiritual Soldiers must have a Tactical Advantage.
So, the preparation of the foot soldier is paramount. And we, as New Testament Christians, don't want to be as good as our enemy. Spiritually speaking, we want to have the tactical advantage over our enemy, that is the devil, which is why we do not need to ignore the idea of, uh, verse 15 here, having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Should our feet be Worn with function or fashion?
We have decisions that we that we often make. I don't know if any of you have ever gone shoe shopping before, but there are some choices out there, right? There are some choices, but it really comes down to two main ideas. Do you want functional shoes or do you want to make a fashion statement with the shoes that you have?
But how you prepare for certain things also has to do with where you're going. What is it that you're going to be doing while you're out? I'm probably not going to wear the same kind of shoe outdoors down those potentially muddy steps outside as I would go into the mall. Now, I'm more likely to wear a pair of work boots to the mall, but I'm not necessarily going to wear a white pair of tennis shoes that I might wear to the mall.
But the idea is we choose what we put on our feet; appropriate for the actions that we are getting ready to participate in, right?
You don't take, uh, you don't take deck shoes that you wear out onto a boat to go play baseball out into a field. Or to go play football or soccer. You don't do that. Why? Because they're not appropriate. They're not made for that particular purpose.
So, we want shoes made for our spiritual purposes. That's, that's the point of all of this.
Definitions for Feet Shod with Preparation of the Gospel of Peace:
The text says our feet are shod with preparation.
Shod: From the Greek word “hupodeo”
- “hupo” meaning “under”
- “deo” meaning “to bind”
- “To underbind”
Something that goes from the bottom of our foot to the top of our foot. Traditionally, these, especially for the Roman soldiers, had greaves, as they were called. And they would come up the leg, up the calf, toward the bottom of the knee. And those were made of anything from leather to brass to whatever, to help protect them in whatever environment they were going to be in. Some had spikes on the bottom, which was to help make sure they maintained their footing in the terrain that they were going to be fighting in.
Remember, why are we talking about armor to begin with? If you go all the way back to our introductory lesson. We do this because we're in a spiritual battle and our desire is to stand against something. As we stand stand firm as a foundation stone for something. We want to stand against the wiles of the devil, we want to stand against Satan and the evil days to come.
And, we want to stand for God and what he authorizes us to do. In that instance, we want to be a pillar, which goes along with these [spiked shoes] as well. We don't necessarily wear these for being swift of foot in running purposes, but it is to maintain the ground that we are standing on.
"Concerning the feet being shod, “greaves…were deemed of essential importance in the ancient armor; if the feet or legs are materially wounded, a man can neither stand to resist his foe, pursue him if vanquished, nor flee from him should he have the worst of the fight." — Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible.
We emphasize the part about standing against our foe. That's what we ought to be doing. That's how we ought to be thinking about our feet being prepared for battle as pillars if you will.
Preparation
“The act of preparing; the condition of a person or thing so far forth as prepared, readiness.” — Thayer's Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
Making ready, making ourselves ready for the task at hand. We understand the idea of making ourselves ready for our own salvation. We understand there are things we need to do to prepare. There are a lot of things that are going to take place in our lives before we get to that part of being baptized.
It starts with the idea of being taught. In every word we read, and discussion we have, we understand it is preparing us for that final test we have. We're moving toward something when we're learning from the Word of God. We are preparing with every verse we read, with every Bible study that we're engaged in, with every conversation that we have, our own salvation. Otherwise, we wouldn't concern ourselves with becoming a child of God if we don't understand the value or the importance of being ready for that particular final test of ours.
Are We Making Ourselves “Ready” to Spread the Gospel?
But when it comes to the spreading of the gospel to others, unfortunately, we don't always make the same application when it comes to readiness. We often hear somebody say, that's someone else's job for me to go share the word of God with somebody else. That's not my responsibility. Or we might hear somebody say, you know, I'm not real good at being a teacher or public speaker. And, I don't think I'd be really effective in teaching somebody the gospel.
When in reality, you can at the very least teach someone what you did. But you don't really even have to do that because we have examples in the New Testament of how a certain man, in fact, we're reading from his epistle this morning, of how Paul, was saved. You don't want to talk about how you were saved. Talk about how Paul was saved, laid out plain as day for you.
But we don't think of being prepared necessarily in the same way as we do for our own selves, our own salvation, and our preparation to send the Word of God out into the world to those with whom we are in contact.
It's not impossible then, to recognize that sometimes in applying these things we might put on our preparation shoes while we're becoming a child of God and for the purpose of becoming a child of God. But for some, if you will give me just this moment to say, when we enter through the door of the kingdom we kick our shoes off like we're already home. There are places where I've been where you come in the door and you take your shoes off because you're home.
The point of being prepared is for a purpose. There's something that you are about to do, and you need to be ready to perform that thing.
- Exodus 12:11
God Instructed His people to be “ready.” This included having shoes on ready to leave. Going all the way back to Exodus when, when God's people are in Egypt and He's getting ready to bring them out. It's the time of the first Passover. You know, the angel of death was coming and in order to avoid the punishment of God, they had to prepare this particular feast. And blood had to be in certain places on the doorposts and down the sides. And they had to consume the offering all in one night. And if they couldn't do it by themselves, they shared it with somebody else.
But they ate it in a certain way. They ate it dressed ready to walk out. When they were told to go. They were eating it in one hand with their staff in the other hand. Ready to walk out.
How many times do we tell our children to get ready and then we have to remind them to go put shoes on? How many times are we, are we preparing ourselves and we're not really paying attention to everything that we're doing and the next thing you know, we've shown up in services with our house shoes on or our slippers because we, we just weren't thinking about what was on our feet.
But we said we were ready to go and we walked out the door, but we were wearing slippers. We didn't mean to do that.
Making sure we're prepared for where we're going has a lot to do with Christianity, making sure we're all ready to get to where we're heading.
Gospel of Peace
"The Gospel is termed the Gospel of peace, because it establishes peace between God and man, and proclaims peace and goodwill to the universe." — Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible
- Philippians 4:7
We have a peace that passes all understanding. Why? Because you and I, as New Testament Christians, are at peace with God because we're obedient to His will. We've prepared ourselves to be at peace with God.
Those who are in the world, those who've not come out of the world into the kingdom of God's dear Son, Paul would say, are not at peace with God because they've not prepared themselves for peace with God. And here's the problem, they're not prepared for war with God either. They need to be at peace with God because war is going to be the outcome.
- James 3:17
Our, spiritual Bible, our sword, if you will, is first pure and then peaceable and gentle and easy to be entreated.
- Isaiah 52:7
- Romans 10:15
How beautiful are the feet of those prepared to carry out the work that God has said that we are to carry out? According to Paul, the answer is implied in the statement, in the question that is made.
Is it important, then, to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Absolutely. Because we don't want to be the only ones that have this particular peace with God. We want to, or we should want, the rest of the world to have the same kind of peace and security in God that we have. And that's only going to happen if we are willing to share if we are preparing ourselves to share with one another.
Application of Having Our Feet Shod with the Gospel of Peace
Christians are the foot soldiers of God’s Army.
How do we apply this particular principle of our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? We need to recognize, first of all, that you and I as Christians are God's foot soldiers in his spiritual army. We're not at battle anymore, with flesh and blood.
- Ephesians 6:12
We're not at war against flesh and blood, but we are at war against; principalities, against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this world. In a spiritual sense, we're at war with the devil.
- 1 Peter 5:8
- Mark 16:15
As you are going throughout this world, in the things you do on a daily basis, with the people you come in contact with? It's not necessarily that we have to be in a position to travel all the way around the world and preach the gospel to those in India, Africa, Indonesia, or Australia, though we might want to do those things. If we have the ability to go and do that, by all means, go and do that.
But don't forget the world that you live in on a daily basis. That world is wherever you go. You go out of your house, that's part of your world. Go to work, school, whatever it is, go with the gospel. Ready to share it with those that you come in contact with?
- 2 Corinthians 4:4-7
What good is it going to do those who are lost if we don't release the gospel from the clutches of our minds from our lips and from our hearts?
It may look like the devil has power over the world, and he does, not because he's preventing the light from shining. You and I are the light. We're the reflectors of God's light.
- Matthew 5:16
- 2 Corinthians 4:5-7
"But we have this treasure", the burden of spreading the gospel, if you will, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels", that's you and I, "that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."
It's not because we're any great thing or any great person to be outgoing and spreading God's message, but that's the responsibility that's given to you and me as soldiers in His army. We are the earthen vessels that spread the gospel throughout the entire land so that darkness cannot prevail in the world. Instead, they see the likeness of God.
- Matthew 5:14-16
We are the foot soldiers in the Army of God.
We need to prepare our lives to preach/teach the Gospel of Peace.
You may not have an opportunity to get up here and to deliver a lesson to a public audience. There's more to preaching and teaching than that. You may not have the responsibility of teaching maybe a class as we had this morning, whether upstairs or downstairs, but there's more to preaching and teaching than those limited opportunities. Every time you talk to somebody, there's an opportunity, whether we take it or not, to say something good about Jesus, to say something good about God, to say something good about his kingdom and the gospel. But do we take those opportunities as part of our being prepared?
- Ezra 7:10
- Luke 12:42-48
Two kinds of people are portrayed in this particular reading. The one in verse 43, who is the faithful servant and the wise servant. And when the Lord comes back, he finds this servant so doing. Many in our religious communities today want to talk about being saved by faith. And we absolutely are.
But notice what this verse did not say. This verse did not say, Blessed is the servant who is Lord, when he cometh shall find him faithing. That's not what it says. The one who's doing. The one who's standing firm for what God wants him to stand firm for, the one who's standing against what God wants him to stand against, the one who's doing appropriately.
Notice the one who's going to be surprised when the master comes back. It's the one who says, Oh, my master's taking a long time coming back. I'm gonna start doing things the way I wanna do them. And he ends up beating the men's servants, and he's beating the women's servants, and he's being all sorts of inappropriate in the way he's dealing, with the things that belong to the master. They don't belong to him.
The master comes back and punishes him with many strikes. He's the one that's going to be surprised when the master comes back. Because he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. The one who had the knowledge has the greater responsibility. Therefore it's going to have the greater effect of punishment.
Don't be like John Mark, when during Paul's 1st missionary journey, John Mark went with them, but then turned back and went back home.
- Acts 13:13
We must prepare ourselves for living in a world of difficulties, trials, and traps.
- James 1:2,3
Your ability to withstand the things that are going to happen in this life is not always fun, or enjoyable. But they're there to help us to grow in our faith toward God.
There is only one Gospel that can bring Peace!
- Philippians 4:6,7
Let's have our feet prepared for the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. Be ready to do the things that God would have us to do as New Testament Christians. Going out into the world and sharing His message so that the power of the darkness is not power at all, but it's dispelled by the light of the glorious gospel that we find that comes from Jesus Christ.
Do you have your feet wrapped and prepared to enter the fight?
Are you not a member of the body of Christ? But considering the cost of where you're at, remember those that are in the church are soldiers in God's kingdom and there's a spiritual war that's taking place.
Those who are not in God's kingdom are also in a war, but they're on the wrong side. They're on the side of the wicked one. They're on the side of the devil and if that's not where you want to be, then the light is where you want to be. You want to be in God's kingdom.
God’s Invitation is always prepared for any soul desiring the forgiveness of sins.
- Hear the Gospel John 6:45
- Believe the Gospel Mark 16:16
- Repent of Sins Acts 3:19
- Confess the name of Jesus Matthew 16:16
- Baptized in Water Acts 8:36-38
Having heard the word, are you willing to believe it? Willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in Christ?
Confess that Jesus is a deity and be baptized in water to have your sins forgiven. Have them washed away by the blood of Jesus.
Maybe you're one who's already done that in times past, but you've walked on ground that you're not prepared to walk on. And as a soldier of Christ, you're suffering at the moment. Are you ready to turn that around and be prepared again to walk in the footsteps of righteousness, to be a child of God the way that He would have you to be?
If we can help you in any way, we encourage you to contact us.