Sandals of the Gospel of Peace - St. Mark Church, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of London

The Armour of God:
The Sandals of the Gospel of Peace

‘AND HAVING SHOD YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.’

Ephesians 6:15

Introduction:

Gospel: good news. What good news is in the bible? Salvation – forgiveness of our sins so we can have eternal life.
The difference between our Bible and other religious books – they are good advice, but ours is good advice and primarily good news. We are redeemed, we are loved, and our name is written in heaven. What we must do in this life is just confirm that, we our starting on good ground. Anywhere else, it talks about being accepted. We are already accepted and loved. The gospel is a piece of armour.
In the verse: the gospel is the gospel of PEACE. Why peace, and why do we need peace in war? Because you can’t have love, or strong in faith etc. if we don’t have peace – peace is a foundation to all these things. Also Jesus has already won it for us. You need peace with God and peace with yourself. If you are going to war because you are part of the kingdom of God, how about if you are not sure about God’s support? You cannot really fight. How can you be part of the mighty power if you don’t have peace with God? How to have peace with God – Romans 5:1 – ‘Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’

One of the attacks of the enemy is to feel that God cannot love me because I am not a good person. But God understands that, and he is not against us.

Peace with ourselves: sometimes we can be sure of God’s forgiveness, but we cannot forgive ourselves. Sometimes we condemn ourselves and belittle ourselves – NOT GOOD. The message of the gospel is to build ourselves form the inside. When we have forgiveness from God, we should feel good about ourselves. God doesn’t want his children to have low self esteem, or to be lacking confidence. Why? Because if affects everything.
John1 3:21 – ‘If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God’. Explained: If you don’t always discourage yourself, you’ll always look to God in confidence knowing that you can reach him. There is a direct link between condemnation and faith. If have condemnation – your faith goes down. If have forgiveness your faith goes up. This will happen when we have faith in our hearts.
We must have peace in the battle: when we have problems, we should have peace inside ourselves.
Philippians 4:4-6. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice…’ We should put everything towards God, and the peace will come over us.

How does that function as an armour?

It gives you peace which brings on more faith and confidence.
If you didn’t have that confidence that you were peaceful within yourself, you wouldn’t be able to fight

Preparation:

If we are wearing the gospel of peace, this makes us ready – gives us preparation.
This readiness means awareness: we are aware of who we are, we are aware of the devil and his plans, and we are aware that there is a war around us, but also that God’s mighty power is supporting us. We are on alert. The gospel of peace gives you a form of readiness.
Without this awareness, we can learn about these things as facts in the Friday meeting, and forget it so it is not a part of our life.
If we have this awareness through reading the Bible, it gives us awareness.
It gives us willingness to be a part of the fight – willing to win.
How can he be willing? What makes him willing? The gospel of peace tells us that Jesus won. We are willing because we know we’re going to win. Also we know about the reward so we are willing.
Colossians 2:15 ‘and having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, trampling over them by the Cross.’ You are fighting with a disarmed enemy. He made an example of them. Part of the devil’s plan is that we don’t know about this. We think of ourselves as losers, but it’s not true. Jesus in heaven, after the Cross, made an example of them. All their plans had failed. We, when we know this, are willing and keen, because we are following a leader who has won.
Philippians 2:9-11 ‘Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Now when the name is mentioned in heaven everybody bows, even the devil. When you attack, say Jesus.

Ephesians 1:20 Here he says that Jesus is risen and is sitting on the right hand side of God
Ephesians 2:6 ‘and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’
Romans 8:37 We are more than conquerors. Just put on the armour of God which is mainly defensive, and we are more than conquerors.
Our leader Jesus has won. We should be very keen to follow Jesus because he has already won. This gives us readiness.

The Feet:

If our feet are shaken, everything is shaken
It supports our whole body. Why do we want the peace of the gospel and preparation, on our feet?
Once the shoes our on, we are ready. Preparation links with readiness.
The cross reference of feet in the Bible – at least 3 other references linking feet to giving out the message of the gospel:
Isaiah 52:7 ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news.’ Feet are linked to bringing of good news. Also found in Romans.
This is not just good news for us, but also the good news that we give out. We must be prepared, ready to tell others the good news.
The enemies can be brought onto our side so our force is stronger
Giving good news is a way of defeating the enemy. Revelations 12:11 ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of the testimony.’ Bringing out the message of Jesus Christ defeats Satan.
In Ephesians 1:20 and 2:6 – we are risen and in Christ we are sitting at the Right hand side of God. Later we are asked to put on the armour of God. He starts with us winning. We start fighting after we know that we have won.