Tuesday, May 1, 2018 – Ephesians 6:15
The Armor of God, Pt. 13
Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace,
Pt. 5
The Gospel, Pt. 2
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17
Eph 6:15;
Isa 61:1; Rom 1:16; 2 Cor 5:18-20; Phil 1:27; Col 1:28
Vs.
15, “And having shod YOUR FEET
WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.”
The Christian soldier is to stand firm against the attacks
of Satan, his demonic forces, and world system. To do so, we must see to it
that our feet are properly protected and equipped, which leads us into our final
phrase “the gospel of peace,”
which is the Genitive of HO EUAGGELION HO EIRENE.
The gospel of Jesus Christ has many qualifying descriptions,
which we noted in our previous lesson. In addition to those qualifying
descriptions, other phrases are used in the NT to describe the gospel. For
example, the content of its message is signified as “the preaching of the
cross,” 1 Cor 1:18, and also the “witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” Acts 4:33. This emphasizes both the
Lord’s death and resurrection as being vital parts of the Gospel.
Elsewhere we see further description, as the gospel message
is referred to as:
1. The word
of God’s grace, Acts 14:3.
2. The word
of salvation, Acts 13:26.
3. The word
of reconciliation, 2 Cor 5:19.
4. The word
of truth, Eph 1:13.
5. The word
of faith, Rom 10:8.
6. The word
of life, Phil 2:16.
7. The word
of God, 1 Thes 2:13.
Nevertheless,
the main emphasis of the message is contained in the phrase “preach Christ” cf.
Acts 8:5; Col 1:28.
Col 1:28, “We
proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so
that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Believers are
not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Rom 1:16; 2 Tim 1:8, and are to govern their life-style by it, Phil 1:27.
Rom 1:16,
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power
of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek.”
Phil 1:27, “Only conduct yourselves
in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see
you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in
one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
Though
believers may be called to suffer on account of the gospel, Phil 1:15-18; they must continue to
proclaim it to the ends of the earth, 2
Tim 4:2, cf. Acts 1:8; 13:47; Rom 1:8; 10:18.
It alone
heralds the sound words of truth, salvation, reconciliation, and grace, e.g., Acts 13:26; 14:3; 2 Cor 5:19; Eph 1:13.
Only the gospel is the word of life, Phil
2:16. Therefore, this gospel is to be preached to the poor and to the
captives, who will be set free by its power, cf. Luke 4:18, (quoting Isa 61:1,
Jesus used this term as descriptive of His own ministry).
Isa
61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”
Spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ is the responsibility of every
believer, because we are all in full-time Christian service. We are
professionals and our profession is “Christianity,” which includes spreading
the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are in full-time Christian service related of
our spiritual gift, our Royal Priesthood, 1
Peter 2:5, 9; Rev 1:6, 5:10, our Royal Ambassadorship, 2 Cor 5:20; Eph 6:20; Philemon 9, our invisible impact for Christ
having a phenomenal testimony to billions of angels, as well as those in our
periphery, and our job, either in the home or outside the home. Our function in
life is part of our full-time Christian service. Therefore, whether we are an
evangelist, Pastor-Teacher, or have another spiritual gift, we are all in the profession
of witnessing for Christ, 2 Cor 5:18-21.
2 Cor 5:18, “Now all these
things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us
the ministry of reconciliation.”
2 Cor 5:20, “Therefore, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we
beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
The Church Age believer has two areas of responsibility in witnessing for
Christ.
1. The witness of the life, 2 Cor
3:3, “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us,
written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of
stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
2. The witness of the lips. Witnessing is the Royal Family communicating
the gospel to an unbeliever on a personal basis. It is personal evangelism
rather than mass evangelism. It is informal, conversational, whereby one
individual communicates the gospel to another individual, cf. 1 Thes 2.
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