John 17:1-16 and Eph. 6:10-12
I want to begin by giving you some verses
of scripture that I find very interesting as they concern what is going on in
our world today; the first is from the Book of Gen. 2:10-14 “A river watering
the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of
Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold
of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it
winds through the entire land of Cush.
The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side
of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” This is describing the area of Garden of
Eden…which is the area of Iraq. It was a
beautiful place; a paradise….
Gen. 10:6-10 “The sons of
Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan…( Ham was the youngest son of Noah, who
sinned against his father, and the result was a curse against Canaan. ) “Cush
was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth….The
first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in
Shinar…From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh”…Again, the
area of Iraq…ancient Babylon. Rev. 9:13-16 “13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.”
I have two questions; Do you know that we are not only fighting a physical war but also a spiritual war…and we are the army?” And, “Do you know that God, the creator of heaven and earth, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, has a plan and a timetable and is in control of both?”
It is nearly impossible not to know what is going on with the war in Iraq. Never before in history have we had such access to what is happening as we have today. We can almost look down the barrel of the gun and see the war live! My prayers go out to the soldiers who are in the Middle-East and their families back home; especially to those who have sacrificed their lives on our behalf.
There are some similarities that we can draw from the spiritual warfare that Paul mentions;
First of all, our soldiers are foreigners in enemy territory. We also as Christians are foreigners in enemy territory. In verse 14, Jesus says “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” While the world may seem like a friendly place, he is talking about spiritual hostility. The fact is that the world is hostile toward Christianity.
If you are of the world, then you are driven by four things; money, power, pleasure, and fame. If you think about the so called “reality” shows on T.V…the reality of it is that people will do anything for money!
If you are a Christian, you ought to have only one thing that drives you in everything in life; and that is the Word of God. Look at verse 14 again; “I have given them your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world…” Did you get that? The world hates those who live according to God’s Word…Why? Because even though we are in the world, we are not of the world. We live by a different set of rules. We live with a different kind of morals. We live according to a different philosophy. We value life and freedom and justice and righteousness. And the enemy hates us for that. It doesn’t make sense to us, but we must remember that it goes much deeper than the flesh The war is not just on land and sea; but of heart, mind, and soul. It is a war in the spiritual realm of “rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil” as Eph. 6:12 tells us.
The second parallel we can draw is that our troops are in a hostile land and their mission is to topple an evil regime. As foreigners in the world, what is our mission?
Well, it’s actually different than we may think. You see, Jesus has already toppled Satan’s regime - the battle has already been fought - and Jesus won! Our mission is to get the word out that we have been set free! Talk about humanitarian aid…We have the greatest humanitarian aid project in the history of mankind!
Thirdly, the war coverage makes it very clear that even though the way has been cleared, Iraq is still a very dangerous place to be. There are still small pockets of hostility. There are still terrorist attacks and car bombs and soldiers dressed like civilians sneaking around. 1 Peter 5:8 says; “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Jesus describes our world as a dangerous place to be. Even though he has won the war, Satan is still here, trying to steal away as many of God’s people as he can. Satan has intelligence that is always trying to determine our weaknesses and then he will use our weakness against us. I am here to testify that if our weakness is money, or power, or pleasure or fame, Satan has us in his crosshairs! How many do you know that have been shot down over the years and even generations because of these four?
How can we succeed in this constant battle? How do we persevere to the end?
Jesus prays in verse 11 - “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one.” And, in verse 15 - “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”… We are proud of those who fight on our behalf in Iraq…and we pray the same for them as Jesus prayed for us! In this war, as in any war, there will be casualties….and the same is true in our battle with the spiritual enemy… but, we still have the protection of Almighty God with us and upon us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” … We may not see Him, but he is there.
The early American Indians had a unique practice of training young braves. On the night of a boy’s 13th birthday, after learning hunting and fishing and scouting skills, he was put to one final test. The boy was blindfolded and led to a dark dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until this time he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But, on this night he would find himself in the middle of the thick dark woods, and he was terrified. Every time a twig snapped; every time there was a noise or sound of any kind, he would envision a wild animal ready to attack. After what seemed to be an eternity, dawn would break and the first rays of the sun would enter the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers and trees and even a path that led back to the village. And, to his astonishment he sees the outline of a man…standing just a few feet away…armed with bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long. Yes, we are foreigners in enemy territory…and the enemy will do everything in his power to bring us down…but, we have the power and the protection of God with us at all times. And, “greater is he that is in me than he who is in the world!”
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