HOW TO BE WITNESSES - Part 8: Gospel Sandals

REVIEW
So, we have been learning what it means to be the Lord’s witnesses and we have seen that this is a much bigger part of our purpose here on the earth than we’ve realized. In fact, aside from personal relationship with God, the reason we are here is to bear witness of the goodness & glory of God to the rest of God’s creation.

Most recently, we’ve started talking about some practical things regarding how to be a witness, and last week we talked about where we are called to be His witnesses.

We saw in Acts 1:8 that after Jesus said that His disciples would receive power to be His witnesses that He said it would be “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So, we saw how these places are progressive: They were to start in Jerusalem, which was the city where they were currently at. Judea and Samaria were the regions surrounding their city. And to the ends of the earth obviously included everywhere beyond the previous two.

So, we looked at what these places symbolize to us:
First of all, Jerusalem being the place where they were currently at, shows us that God calls us to bear witness of Him where we live and with those close to us. And we saw how this can speak of many things:

Geographically speaking, our “Jerusalem” could describe our neighborhood, our county, or our own city. But our “Jerusalem” can also describe certain close people in our lives like our family, friends, co-workers, etc. So, in essence, our “Jerusalem” would be those close to us and where we are at. This is where we are first called to be His witnesses.

Now we saw that our “Judea and Samaria” symbolizes the places and people outside of where we live and those closest to us.

So geographically speaking, our “Judea” might be the state we reside in. So whatever we consider our “Jerusalem” to be, our “Judea” is the much more expansive part of it—like if we look at our “Jerusalem” as our immediate family, then our “Judea” would be our more far reaching family members like our uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. If we consider our “Jerusalem” our friends who are close to us, then our “Judea” would be those who are just outside of our inner circle of friends.

But we saw how our “Samaria” is different than our “Judea” in more ways than one because while our “Judea” are people who like us, our “Samaria” is not most people’s preferred place of evangelism.

Our “Samaria” is obvious: Geographically, it would be the places that are outside of our comfort zone. Like, for instance, to the southerner who was born & raised in Georgia, “Samaria” might be the northerner that talks a little differently and culturally, might be a little out of their comfort zone. But symbolically, the “Samaritan” might simply be the person who is different than you religiously, culturally, racially, sexually … the list can go on and on.

The bottom line is, Jesus was telling His disciples that they are not just called to be witnesses to those who are like them both physically and spiritually, but to those they don’t necessarily like, those who are different than them, etc.

Church, this is the Lord’s heart—that we possess His perfect love that goes beyond just loving our friends & family to loving the stranger & our enemies.  

And, last but not least, being witnesses in all of the earth doesn’t necessarily mean that we are all called to be world travelers. No, in this world we live in today, we are just one click of a button away from communicating with people all around the world.

So I see this as another way that we can be witnesses! We can utilize the technology that we’ve been blessed with today to share the Word with people! We can use email, social media platforms, YouTube, etc. to spread the Gospel and share what God has done in our lives!

We then looked at Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan and saw an excellent picture of how we are to love & witness to people! In this parable, Jesus perfectly illustrated how to love our neighbor as ourselves by what He did for us. And church, this is how we need to view & treat those first in our “Jerusalem,” then in our “Judea and Samaria,” and also everyone all around the world.

Jesus has said, “Go therefore!” Go into your Jerusalem! Go into your Judea and Samaria! Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and be His witness! Amen!

THE GOSPEL SANDALS
Now this week, I would like us to go over to Ephesians chapter 6 and take a look at a piece of our spiritual armor that echoes our call to be witnesses.

Now this chapter is basically devoted to the subject of spiritual warfare, and in it, the apostle Paul describes six pieces of armor that make up the whole armor of God. Well, one of these described by Paul are the shoes/sandals of the soldier—and that’s what I would like to talk to you about this week—the sandals of the soldier.
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Let’s look at Ephesians 6:15 … In it, Paul said, “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
 
First of all, what is important to understand about this piece of the armor of God is that it is not just the sandals of peace, but it’s the preparation of the gospel of peace. This is important because the terminology makes a big difference in understanding what these sandals are.
 
You see, most people have taught how these are the shoes of peace and, therefore, the peace of God is one of our weapons. And while I certainly believe that peace is a virtue that we ought to use in combatting fear, worry, anxiety, etc., I don’t believe that this is the peace Paul was talking about here. No, the peace Paul is speaking of here is “the gospel of peace,” which is obviously talking about the good news we are called to share with the lost.
 
So, what is this gospel of peace? Well, we know that the word “gospel” means “good news,” right? Which is a very important point of what it is that we are sharing with those we witness to.
 
You see, the gospel is not that God hates sin, people are going to hell, and that there is a judgment to come. No, the gospel is the good news in light of these issues of sin, hell, and judgment. In other words, the sharing of the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—everything from His death, burial, and resurrection and all that these events provided for mankind. That’s the gospel!  
 
But Paul tells us specifically what he considered to be the gospel that we are plundering the kingdom of darkness with – It’s the good news of “peace.” So, what is this good news of peace? Well, I believe that Second Corinthians 5:18-21 best describes what the gospel of peace is …
 
Verse 18 starts off by stating that we have now been reconciled to God and now God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19 states that this word of reconciliation that we have been given the responsibility to share with others is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. 
 
So, we can see from this passage of Scripture that this “gospel of peace” is referring to the good news that we can have peace with God. In other words, it is the good news of reconciliation—that is, that God is not mad at mankind but wishes to impart His righteousness to them and is not imputing their trespasses to them. 
 
If you recall, this gospel of peace was what was proclaimed at Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:14 when the angels appeared to the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” What were they declaring? It was that with the birth of the Messiah, God has sent the Way for peace between He and mankind! Glory to God in the highest indeed!
 
Therefore, when our sandals are shod with this gospel of peace, we are to be proclaiming the good news that there is a merciful, loving God who is willing to reconcile them to Himself just like the angels were. This is the good news of peace, and this is what our walk should consist of—sharing the gospel of reconciliation!
 
HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET
 
But what do our feet have to do with the gospel of peace? The Scriptures give us the answer to this question…
 
In both Isaiah 52:7 & Romans 10:15 the Bible tells us “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation.” Wow! We can see here a direct connection between our feet and preaching the good news of peace. Notice the phrases, “good news,” “peace,” and “glad tidings of good things” in connection with the feet of those who bring the message of salvation.
 
Therefore, it seems very obvious that Paul’s intent of identifying our shoes with the gospel of peace is to describe how our walk is meant to be a walk encompassed in bringing the good news of reconciliation to a lost and dying world. This is our complete mission on this earth—to bring others into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 
In fact, the words “bring glad tidings” come from the Greek word that is transliterated “evangelism.” Did you know that this word “evangelism” literally describes a good message, a good report, and good news? So I submit to you if there is no good news being proclaimed, then there is no evangelism going on.
 
You see, we weren’t given shoes so that we can survive. We were given shoes to bring others unto salvation. This is a major misconception about spiritual warfare. Many only identify our armor with what we need to bring ourselves victory, but our armor is meant primarily to accomplish the great commission. In other words, our armor is meant to propagate the gospel of the kingdom and not to merely experience God’s kingdom in our own little sphere of life.
 
Now, according to these Scriptures, proclaiming these things makes our feet beautiful. We need to make sure our feet are “beautiful” and not “unattractive” by preaching condemnation and judgment.
 
Now I am not saying that there is not a time to preach “fire and brimstone” messages, but the most consistently effective witness is to tell people God loves them and wants to give them a life full of fulfillment and purpose. The apostle Paul said that it is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. Unbelievers already have an inward intuition of an impending judgment (Romans 1:18-19).
 
Therefore, primarily preaching what the ungodly already know in their hearts does not offer the hope that they are looking for. In other words, they don’t need to hear more of what the problem is (i.e. sin & death, hell & judgment); they need to hear more of what the solution is to the problem. Yes, what they need to hear, and what is “attractive” to them, is the “good news” not the “bad news.” It is in this gospel of peace that righteousness is revealed (Romans 1:16-17).
 
Now again the sandals of a soldier are what he or she walks in, right? So regarding our spiritual armor, the sandals of the gospel of peace represent what our walk (or, lifestyle) should consist of. In other words, our life and conduct should be tied up with the sandals that are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
 
So this reiterates what we’ve already been learning about our witness: this is not just something that we do occasionally when there is initiative put forth to go witnessing. No, this is what our Christian “walk” is all about—being witnesses. Therefore, it’s not just something we do from time to time; it is who we are all the time.
 
So, what are these shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace? They represent a walk that consists of witnessing to others and sharing the good news- the gospel of peace!
 
So now that we have seen what the shoes of our armor represent, let’s look at what Paul specifically said regarding them and how they are to be walked in …
 
HAVING SHOD YOUR FEET
 
He begins by saying that we are to have “shod” our feet with this preparation of the gospel of peace…
 
The word “shod” comes from the Greek word hupodeomos which comes from the words hupo (meaning “under”) and deo (meaning “to bind”). Therefore, this word means to bind something very tightly under one’s feet. Of course, the shoes of the Roman soldier of those days looked more like sandals than what we think of nowadays when we think of shoes. Thus, the reason Paul describes to bind up tightly underfoot.
 
You see, our walk must be “wrapped up” in the preparation of the gospel of peace… All of us are well aware of what can happen if we have the laces of our shoes untied: We could trip up over them and also our shoes will not be as securely on our feet. Therefore, Paul uses this as an illustration to show us how, if the shoes of our armor are not securely fastened, we can lose our footing or stumble. What this means is that having our spiritual sandals tightly laced up is an important part to not stumbling around in our Christian walk.
 
If we were to have on all the armor of God except the shoes of the gospel of peace, how would that leave us susceptible to being defeated? It is because if we do not have our walks with a focus on reaching the lost then the enemy can and will confuse our purpose, destiny, and life. Without a lifestyle that is primarily focused on winning souls and sharing the good news with unbelievers, we will lose our sense of purpose and will “stumble” around. Church, that’s how one becomes “De feeted.” The high calling of every born-again believer is to be Christ’s witnesses and without a commitment to that calling, we are open to being confused and deceived by the enemy.
 
Oh, how many times have I heard Christians say, “I wish I knew what God has called me to do. I want to know His purpose for me.” Well, while I know what they are referring to (i.e. they want to know what their place is in the kingdom of God and what their specific calling is), I believe their “stumbling around” in finding their purpose is primarily because they have not “shod their feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” In other words, these people are trying to find their “ministry” but have missed the fact that their ministry is, first and foremost, “the ministry of reconciliation.” Therefore, if their walk in not “tied up in” sharing the good news with those they come in contact with, their walk will tend towards confusion and be void of purpose.
 
BE READY!
 
So, let me ask this question: what are we tying up our shoes of the gospel of peace with? Paul said that “having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace!
 
The word “preparation” comes from the Greek word etoimasin which means “readiness or preparation.” So what Paul is saying is that the act of having our spiritual shoes shod with the gospel of peace is us being prepared or ready to share the gospel of peace throughout our Christian walk.
 
There are a couple of Scriptures that further describe this preparedness of sharing the good news … 
One is found in Second Timothy 4:2 which says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” 
 
In this passage of Scripture, the word “preach” used here was from the Greek word that describes an imperial herald. The herald would go into the king’s throne room, receive the message from the king, and then go out on the balcony and deliver the message to the people. 
 
This is what we must do! We must spend time in the presence of the King of kings so that we can be full of the message to declare it to the people.
 
But this is one of the reasons so many “preachers/proclaimers” do not have beautiful feet. It is because they have never truly come to know their God. They have never spent time with Him to let Him teach them His true nature of love, goodness and peace. Therefore, they can only draw from the well that they have personally drank of.
 
Saints, we need to get into the presence of the King of kings and let Him teach us this “ministry of reconciliation.” Then, once we have received it for ourselves, we are able to proclaim it to others!
 
Then Paul says in Second Timothy 4:2, “Be ready…” Be ready to what?  Be ready to preach the Word!  The word “ready” was a Greek military term which meant “to stay at your post and not leave it.” We must always stay ready to share the gospel with people—that is, having our feet tied up tightly with the message of peace. 
 
He then says to “be ready in season and out of season.” This means we are to stay ready in the good times and we are to stay ready in the bad times.
 
What are the good times? An example of an “in-season” moment would be at church and someone comes to the altar to be prayed for. This would be an in-season moment because, hopefully, we would be prepared to minister to this person. Another example would be when we are specifically going to witness as a group somewhere. These are the “in season” times—the times when we are focused on being a witness and are in the position to witness. 
 
So, what are the “out of season” times? These would be the times where maybe it is inconvenient or is unplanned. For example, if we are in our  work place and a co-worker begins to open-up to you about their need for God. This is most certainly not a time or place where we are planning on sharing Christ with someone, but when these “out of season” opportunities present themselves, we must take advantage. Other examples of the “out of season” opportunities to share the good news may be when we are shopping at the grocery store, when we are at a sporting event, or when we are eating at a restaurant with family and friends. These are the “out of season” times—the times that we are not focused on and specifically prepared to witness. But it is during situations like this that God might lead us to tell someone about Jesus and we have to be ready to do so. 
 
Paul then said there are times we are to try and “convince” people of the truth, not argue with them.  There are times to “rebuke” people by calling them out on their sins.  There are times to “exhort” and encourage people in the Lord. We are to “convince, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering,” that is not getting quickly frustrated if they do not immediately say the “sinner’s prayer” with you, but bearing with them and giving the Holy Spirit time to work.  Sometimes it is just to be seed planting times. And, last but not least, Paul says we are to be this witness “with teaching”—that is, being able to explain and instruct in what the Scriptures say about Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection.
 
The other passage of Scripture that I want us to look at is First Peter 3:15… It says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”
 
Notice that Peter, first of all, said, “Set the Lord God apart (i.e. sanctify) in your hearts.” This literally means, “Make sure God has His own place of prominence in your hearts.” Why? Because whatever or whoever has that set apart place in your heart is what is going to be talked about the most, thought about the most, and lived for the most. 
 
Then Peter went on to say…”and always be ready …” Again, God tells us to be “ready” to be a witness. That is why Peter first said to sanctify the Lord God (the Greek literally has “Christ as Lord”) in our hearts because we will be even more ready to talk about who we have in our hearts the most. 
 
Ways we can be and stay ready are to be mindful of our surroundings and seeing the places we go as harvest fields. Also, we can be ready by being well grounded in what we believe so that we can be more convincing through our understanding and our confidence. 
 
Peter concluded this verse by saying (always be ready) “to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” “Giving a defense to everyone who asks” shows us that sharing the Gospel is not just going to happen because we approach people, sometimes it will happen when people approach us! So, we must be ready for that reason as well.
 
“The hope” that they will question us about is our lifestyles that reflect our belief in the resurrection, the second coming of Jesus, heaven, no fear of death, etc. Hope is one of our greatest tools to attract people to the Lord because they are without hope (Eph. 2:12).
 
Just like Paul did in Second Timothy 4:2, Peter tells us how we are to witness (or, in what spirit) when he says, “with meekness and fear.” “Meekness” describes being gentle and considerate. This would mean that we are not the only one who gets a word in, not being overly opinionative, and being considerate of their feelings. “Fear” literally means to be respectful or reverential. This would describe respecting their views and being careful not to offend them or drive them away because you place great value on them. A good example is how we witness to our loved ones. We are very careful with them. Why? Because we are afraid of driving them further away. This is the same attitude of meekness and fear that we are to witness to others in.
 
So, from these two passages of Scripture we should be able to see the importance that the apostles placed on being ready to share the gospel of peace.
 
IN CONCLUSION
 
So, in conclusion, I can promise you that if you do not have your walk prepared to share the good news, you will be susceptible to the enemy’s deception. If you do not stay on ready to fulfill the great commission, you will stumble and fall into one of the devil’s most deceptive devices—apathy.
 
Stay ready! Be prepared! Keep your shoes on, always being ready to move forward and take ground for the kingdom of God! There is no greater fulfillment; there is no greater sense of purpose than when we seek first the kingdom of God by sharing the gospel of reconciliation!