FIRST LESSON: Isaiah 59: 17 SECOND LESSON: Ephesians 6: 13-15 February 28, 2016 SERIES: The full armor of God: The breastplate of righteousness Protect Your Heart Sermon Lisa C. Farrell When it comes to cardiac health there s a lot of talk about diet, so I thought you would all be interested to hear the results of the latest study. 1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than 3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than 4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than 5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than The CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you. So far in our series on the full armor of God we have put on the belt of truth to protect ourselves with truth in our sexual relationships. We have put on the shoes of the gospel of peace so that we can navigate through the crisis of life with a firm foundation beneath us, carrying and living the good news that we have been forgiven and restored to God. Today, we put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts. This particular item of spiritual protection has been much misrepresented over the years. Part of the problem is the word itself breastplate. We tend to think of the breastplate as only covering the front of a person. After all, it s a breast-plate, right? In fact, whole sermons have been built around this false assumption. Paul uses the Greek term, thorax. What he is describing, is Roman. But in both cases, the so-called breastplate covers the entire top half of a person from the neck to the navel, front and back. Throughout the history of the Greco-Roman empire this particular piece of equipment took many forms. In later centuries it even became chainmail, because that was cheaper, although it offered less protection. But Paul was in the charge of the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire, and what Paul would have been looking at in his line of vision was most certainly the lorica 1
segmentata. All Praetorians were issued the lorica segmentata. They didn t call it the lorica segmentata. We have no idea what they called it. That was the name given to it in the 16 th century. But regardless of what the soldiers called it, this was the top of the line armor. Shoulder guards were included. It could be taken apart into four pieces for storage and reassembled. It was attached to the belt by leather thongs passed through rings on the bottom to keep it solidly anchored. It offered the best protection with the most flexibility. The original metal was iron. Modern recreations use steel. The lorica was fastened in the front and back using a combination of hooks and leather laces. The basic design was adjusted several times over the years, and in practice none of the soldiers wore exactly the same thing, because armor was expensive. It was always reused, adapted and repaired. One man could be wearing 30-year-old armor and another armor that was made the week before. So what did the lorica segmentata protect? A number of vital organs, but probably the most important of all the heart. And here s where we take everything we learned in school and all of our assumptions based on actual biology and toss them out the window, because in the 1 st century, the heart thinks. People didn t understand the functions of the organs in the body. Significant progress in this area didn t really happen until the 17 th and 18 th centuries. They didn t know about the circulation of the blood. They didn t know that the heart was a pump. They didn t dissect bodies! Bodies were sacred. They did, however, live in an age where violent death was a common occurrence, so they certainly knew what was inside of us, they just didn t know what those parts were for. You d be amazed at the things our liver used to get blamed for. If you suffer from depression it s all the fault of your liver. But the function of thinking was divided between the heart and the brain. In fact, Aristotle thought the brain was nothing more than a glorified cooling system for the heart. Although there was not a general consensus of opinion on the matter, pretty much everyone gave the heart a function we wouldn t dream of. The heart could think. The heart was where the will lived. The mental activity of the brain was all very well. They knew it was involved, because of what they saw when people had brain injuries, but the brain was largely intellectual. The brain had fun with jigsaw puzzles while the heart got down to the really important stuff. Personality, desire, and morality came from the heart. And despite the fact that we have an entirely different understanding of how the human body functions, this earlier understanding survives in our language today. We feel things are right in our heart. We think with our heart not our head. We can be brokenhearted. We even memorize things by heart. All of these expressions in English point to an ancient, and inaccurate, understanding of how we are put together. When scripture talks about the heart it means the central command station from which everything else proceeds. We don t have to accept the biology to grasp the concept because it is the concept that is important. Mary stored things up in her heart. (Luke 2:51) 2
Luke 2:51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. Jesus knew what the teachers of the law were thinking in their hearts. Mark 2: 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? According to the author of Hebrews the heart can have thoughts and attitudes. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Out of the heart can come evil. Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. According to Paul the conscience is located in the heart. Romans 2:15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) We don t think about these things because we assume that it is a mere figure of speech. For us, it is. For them, they really meant it! The heart was the center of a person s being. The brain, and its ability to perform mental gymnastics, would be nothing without the heart. The breastplate of righteousness protects our heart. So why is this significant? It is significant because we are not really talking about a physical organ that pumps blood. We re talking about our essential selves. And the nature of our spiritual protection is righteousness. But what Paul meant by righteousness and what we mean are two different things. Generally speaking, we mean self-righteousness, because the behavior of those who claim to be righteous has left a bad taste in our mouths. Paul used a Greek word to describe a Hebrew concept when he spoke of righteousness. At it s most basic, righteousness just means right. It s when everything is in perfect working order. I know I ve said it before, but I keep going back to what my old Hebrew professor at New College in Scotland used to say, If my car is in perfect working order, it is righteous. Within Israel, the concept of righteousness was expressed in three overlapping ways. First, righteousness was about relationship. The righteous were those who were in a covenantal relationship with God. It s a bit like saying you re a member of the family. Moral perfection was not necessary. You re God s child. You might be God s annoying child, but you re still God s child. The second meaning segues from the first, however, because it involves our response to God being in covenant with us. Our goal should be to live in accordance with the principles laid down by God. Because I belong to God, I m going to try to live in a way that pleases God. Finally, within Israel righteousness also had a legal component. To be righteous in this sense is to win your case. You ve been prosecuted in a court of law, but the verdict went in your favor. These three aspects of righteousness covenantal relationship to God, 3
ethics and morality, and legal vindication are all part of our protection when we have the breastplate of righteousness, because all three are given to us in Christ. It does not depend upon us. We are living under the New Covenant God made with us in Christ. It is a pure gift. While we should strive to live in a way that is pleasing to God, God knows that we will never be able to do this perfectly, and we can t do it at all without divine help. Because Jesus has died for us, however, God declared us who have no righteousness of our own to be righteous. We who are guilty, have been given a verdict of not guilty. So let s think of this from a spiritual warfare point of view. Why should we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts? The heart is our will; it s our personality with all its assets and flaws. It s our core self. Satan is referred to in scripture as the Accuser. And the Accuser has in the past and will in the future whisper in our ear to try to undermine us, destroy our faith, and rob us of our joy. We will receive messages that do not come from God. Thoughts will appear that are unsettling. We ll feel condemned or alienated. So what are we accused of? Not really belonging to God. Who are you trying to kid? You re not like the rest of these people sitting in church! You have doubts. Real Christians don t have doubts. You ve done things and thought things that real Christians don t... You don t belong here! To which we can apply the breastplate of righteousness and say, I belong to God because of the New Covenant in Christ. It doesn t depend upon me. It depends on what Jesus accomplished on the cross. End of story. Not being good enough. You hypocrite! Look at what you just said! Appalling! Look at what you spend your time thinking about. You re a complete and utter failure. You may put on a good face around here, but secretly you re a jerk. Do everyone a favor and leave! To which we can reply, And your point is? Of course I m not good enough! I rely on Christ s righteousness. It is Jesus perfection, not my own, that makes me right with God. Being guilty and continuing to fail. You ve done horrible things. You ve thought horrible things. And no matter what, you keep making the same mistakes over and over. You should be ashamed. You need to find a rock to crawl under and stay away from decent human beings. To which we can respond, Yep. Guilty as charged. Make mistakes all the time. But every time I fall down, God picks me up. In God s eyes I have been declared Not Guilty. The breastplate of righteousness is actually one of the most significant lifechanging and life saving pieces of spiritual protection we have! We just have to remember to put it on. A Roman soldier did not put on his breastplate casually or quickly. The lorica segmentata took time to put on. It was a systematic and deliberate process. In the same way as we affirm who we are in Christ and what Christ has done for us, we put on the breastplate of righteousness in prayer. For some of us, using the actual visual imagery of armor helps, but it is the content that 4
matters. Christ died for me. Christ is my righteousness. I do not ever need to fear being cast out and abandoned. I am secure in my place as a member of the family of God. I live under the protection of Christ s righteousness with God. So let us put on the breastplate of righteousness today and every day, so that the words of the enemy may find no chink in our armor, no way in to destroy. When we know who we are in Christ we can serve the kingdom of God in power, because it s not about perfection, it s about grace. Amen. Isaiah 59: 17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. Ephesians 6: 13-15 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 5