Spartan Faith (Greeting in which I do not say any combination of Hi I m Scott and I m a worship leader here) I love studying ancient history. More specifically I love studying combat styles and strategies of ancient cultures. Perhaps born from a childhood watching television shows like Hercules and Sinbad, or maybe from a childhood of finding any stick that resembled a sword and physically assaulting my cousin. When the day comes I that have time and financing I would love to study anthropology in a post secondary setting, and not just exercise my degree in Google searches and deepdiving Wikipedia. Swordplay and combat has always captured my attention. From bronze age greeks to dark age knights, asian war cultures such as the mongolians, or the empirical samurais you name it. I m fascinated by their armor, their weapons, their tactics, the training they experience, campaign histories. In the Bible, particularly the Old Testament there are a lot of records of wars. Not a lot of description though. Not enough meat on the bones for me to enjoy. Besides the toppling of Jericho, and the account of David beating Goliath, there s no description of strategy, tactics, no armory listed. In the New Testament there is no combat recorded. We meet a Roman Centurion, but that s about it. So in this time where there s no regional wars, out of the blue Paul writes this in Ephesians 6 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord s people. While there may not be physical wars being fought regionally in the time this was written, we re taught about a much more important fight that's still relevant today. Our fight is no longer against people, but against spiritual forces. Luckily we re not sent into combat unarmed. Paul went into great detail to inform us what s in the
armory of God. This is exciting for me because I get to use my Google degree and discuss strategy! With this description available from Paul in Ephesians, a complete inventory of what we as Christians have at our disposal, a responsibility to use, and instructions for how to use them, which piece of God s armor is the most important? We can debate that all of these things are equally important, and I wouldn t deny that. However, Samurais valued their katana, their reflexes and their discipline over anything, unlike the movies, samurai combat lasted seconds, not minutes. The Mongols of 5th century Asia, led by Atilla the Hun valued their ability to fight on horseback above all, conquering two thirds of asia by striking fast and being mobile. Sun Tzu, the author of the book on warfare the Art of War, valued intel and strategy, believing any fight can be won with careful planning and by knowing your enemy. So for the sake of this conversation let s suppose that there is one piece of equipment slightly more fundamental than the rest, which one would it be? Between 600BC - 100BC in Greece there was a nation called Sparta. Unlike their rival nation Athens who focused on arts and politics, Spartans were trained for one thing, combat. From early childhood, spartan boys would enter into state sponsored programs including combat training and education. Their lives were devoted to these two things alone. At age 20, Spartan males became full-time soldiers, and remained on active duty until age 60. The Spartans constant military drilling and discipline made them skilled at the ancient Greek style of fighting called the phalanx formation. In the phalanx, the army worked as a unit in a close, deep formation, and made coordinated mass maneuvers. No one soldier was considered superior to another. Going into battle, a Spartan soldier wore a bronze helmet, breastplate and ankle guards, and carried a large round shield made of bronze and wood, a long spear and sword. In the summer of 480 BC, King Xerxes I and the Persian army moved south through Greece on the eastern coast, accompanied by the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. To reach its destination the Persians needed to go through the coastal pass of Thermopylae, nicknamed the Hot-Gates. In these times to be successful at war, you had to receive the blessings of the Gods. Leonidas, king of Sparta at the time went to consult the oracles, and they had forbidden him to go to war because of an upcoming festival to the Gods. Understanding that these Persians didn t care about their festival and that the men would be slaughtered and the women and children made slaves if no action was taken, Leonidas made a choice. He and 300 Spartan soldiers, which whom
had willingly defied the words of their Gods in unity with their King, journeyed to the Hot Gates to meet the Persians. There was a huge advantage for these few spartans to fighting in the Hot Gates. The massive Persian army was estimated to have numbers over 100,000 people. With the way the Spartans had trained, their Phalynx combat strategy, and the narrow mountain pass, huge numbers meant nothing. How the Phalynx worked is that the spartans would line up side by side, essentially creating a wall of shields and spears. A spartans shield was 3 in diameter, and designed to protect a soldier from neck to knee. Not only would it protect it's holder, but it would overlap and protect half of the soldier next to them. The front row was the shield wall and spears, the soldiers behind would help brace for impact against enemy soldiers, making the front row indestructible. The Spartans valued their shield above all other equipment. Their spears and swords were just standard issue mass produced tools so to speak. Spartans revolutionized the shield. They customized their shields and how they wielded them by adding a strap near the end and a strap below their elbow so that the 15 pound massive shield was just an extension of their body. If a Spartan was killed in combat, they would be carried home on their shield. If their body couldn t be found the shield was sent to the widow. Their shield was the key to their military success and deeply, personally important. We need our shield of faith as fundamentally as Spartans needed their shields. The requirements and training from us to them are different though. A spartan can go into a fight without his shield, but he wouldn t survive for very long. He may be successful in the sense that he may eliminate a few opponents, but he s 99.9% more likely to die because he s not protected. As Christians, our shield HAS TO BE the most important piece of equipment. Christian life doesn t work any other way. If we don t have faith in Christ, how can we wear the belt of truth? Because we won t know the truth? John 14:6 6 Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. The SINGULAR, only truth. If we don t have faith in Christ, we aren t qualified to wear the breastplate of righteousness. Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. It takes faith to live the righteous life that God has outlined for us, it takes discipline. Righteousness comes from God, and even with God in our lives we're human, we fall to sin REGULARLY and we rely on God's grace daily. Gal 3 11
Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the righteous will live by faith. Without faith it s obvious that you won t wear the sandals of readiness and spread the gospel. And why would you advocate for something you don t believe in? The helmet of salvation will not fit upon your head if you don t have faith. Referencing Habakkuk in his letter to the Hebrews, Paul writes But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. 39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. Secondly Mark 10 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. We talked about this not long ago, a childlike faith is not an immature faith. It s childlike in the sense that a child is 1oo% dependant on their parents, and if raised in a nurturing environment such as what God s grace provides we as children learn to lean on God for everything with every ounce of our being. Jesus PROMISES we will not earn salvation with a faith lesser than this. And lastly, sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. If we doubt that the bible is actually the word of God then we are unarmed. It s one thing to possess and study the Bible, but what about what David has to say? Psalm 119 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. As spiritual warfare is concerned that is the equivalent of combat training. It means you are fluent and well versed in scriptures, so that you can protect yourselves and can identify the enemy effectively. So do we have a fundamental piece of equipment yet? Do we have a keystone? A piece we are critically weak without? Faith is a protective barrier between us and the schemes of Satan. When we believe God and take Him at His word, we remain grounded in truth, the lies of the enemy lose their power, and we become overcomers. In that way, faith is our shield. Without faith, we re certain to be skewered by the flaming arrows of the enemy. This is important because A Christian who takes up the shield of faith identifies himself as a foot soldier who serves the Commander of the Lord s army. As Christians
we HAVE TO identify and accept that there is a spiritual realm. We have to identify and accept the existence and power of angels in this world, identify and accept the existence and powers of demons in this world right now. The flaming arrows spoken of in Ephesians aren t literal flaming arrows that will pierce your skin and burn you, they are spiritual arrows that will disrupt you, corrupt the truth, and attempts to take away your salvation and your strength. God didn t just give the people in the early church this armor as decoration, and it s certainly not meant to rust in a closet somewhere. The Bible does not embellish or exaggerate, it is the word of God, it is a promise a warning of things to come Matt 17:20 Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. A mustard seed. God isn t asking for a mountain of faith to move that mountain, it takes a seed. It takes a seed sized faith to pick up that shield. A shield which I feel would be Spartan in design, big enough to cover you AND your neighbor. After all the Spartan shield was paramount in their warring strategy. They were able to advance and strike because of their phalynx strategy, so let s let our shields of faith and our behaviors as Christians mimic that of the Phalynx. Let s let our faith protect us from the scheme s of those who oppose us. Let s let our faith position us to advance the kingdom effectively. Let s use our faith to protect our neighbors. Built upon our shield, the rest of our armor from God fits and becomes effective tools, but only once we can use the shield. There is a conclusion to the King Leonidas story. I ll recap a hair here, King Leonidas took 300 soldiers, without the support of their Gods or their country. By funneling the Persians into a narrow battleground their strategy was flawless. By perfecting their phalynx, they were an effective wall of shields and spears and resisted the enemy for two days, defeating thousands of soldiers. A hidden path through the mountains was discovered, leading behind where the spartans were established. The slaughter of Leonidas and his spartans was quick. This is where us and the Spartans deviate. Though they were really false Gods, Leonidas did not have spiritual support in his fight. No amount of training or preparation would have changed the outcome of this battle. The God s of the Spartans would not nor could not save them. In the presence of their enemies their armor rendered into 40 pounds of scrap metal and their shields and swords to dust. Our shield and armor is not made of bronze, or kevlar. Our shield and armor is forged by God and our weapons are the living word of God. The Armory of God wont rust, wither or dull because our God doesn t wither or become dull.
This is my favorite verse 1 John 4 f or everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. We overcome the enemy because OUR GOD is with us. We win the fight because it is God who strengthens us. When we become Christians we put on armour and fight for a king that defeated death to serve a kingdom that WILL NEVER FALL. With a mustard seed of faith no flaming arrows can pierce us, and the enemy smashes into our shield and dies. *Call the worship team up* *My biggest fears aren't the flaming arrows of the enemy. My biggest fears don't come from anything in this world. My biggest fear comes from Revelations 3 These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Can you imagine, you've passed on, you're in the throne room of God, Jesus at His right hand. You've gone to church your whole life, maybe even been faithful in tithing and volunteering. But have you loved the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as such? Have you made disciples of all nations? Teaching them the ways of the spirit? Have you laid a stone in the building of God's kingdom? Have you worn and used the armor of God? Are you coming home on your shield? My fear is that complacency happens to all of us. My fear is that you, me, anyone will enter the throne room of God and be spit out! Spit out for not being on fire for God. So here s my challenge to you. Christmas is coming up, for many Christians it s a reminder of the hope that the birth of Jesus brought us. For others though, it s well documented to be the most depressing time of year. Suicide rates are the highest during this holiday season. We have this light, we have this hope, let s share it outside this convention centers walls. I m positive I heard it here once that a person will go to church if asked by a friend 80% of the time. In this season of hope, invite someone to
come to church with you. Let s estimate that there are 100 families in this church. If each family invites one person, that s possibly 80 new people discovering the hope that lives in the hearts of believers. Discipleship also doesn t end there, because it's repeatable. Imagine how much harder our set up team would have to work if in 6 months time from now we discipled and duplicated repeatedly. Take your shield, put on your armor and go! Hand shields of faith to those who can carry it and who are willing. Bring them here for teaching and support, and in doing so we are building a kingdom. And unlike kingdoms of ancient times, this is a kingdom that's never ending! *