[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 24th of September, 2017. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
In his old age, nearing his final days, separated from his friends but not from God, the Apostle John is visited by Jesus in a vision where He reveals what is to come. Parts of this vision are warmly reassuring. Parts are horrifically frightening. I can only imagine that much of what John was shown could not be described in a way that most people could understand. But John wrote these scenes down the best he could, as he was instructed to do, putting everything he saw into words that might make some sense to us. These words of God were saved for us so that we might benefit and learn from what John alone witnessed.
Listen and follow along as I read from the Revelation of Jesus Christ to His beloved Apostle John, chapter 19 verses 11 through 16, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
Listen and follow along as I read from the Revelation of Jesus Christ to His beloved Apostle John, chapter 19 verses 11 through 16, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS ANDLORD OF LORDS.
--Revelation 19:11-16 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, there may be no book in Your Holy Bible that fills us with more fear and greater hope than Revelation, when Your Son Jesus revealed to His Apostle John and to all of us what must take place. You have had it all planned out from the beginning, Father. But we have resisted Your plan all along. Forgive us, please Father, for our disbelief and disobedience. Help us to understand what Your will involves so that we might better accept it and bend our will to it. Speak to us now through Your Holy Spirit directly into our hearts, and tell us what we must do. Give us greater insight into Your will for each of us. Help us find and walk the path that leads us directly to our King of kings, our Lord of lords. In the blessed name of Your Son Jesus we pray. Amen.
A husband read an article to his wife about how women speak 30,000 words a day while a man only utters 15,000. The wife indignantly replied, “That’s because we have to repeat everything we say to you men.” The husband turned, looked at his wife and said… “What?”
How many of you husbands use your wife as a translator? And how many of you have been told you have selective hearing? I definitely have fallen in both categories over the years. I do have a physical hearing problem, but I am pretty sure I also engaged in a bit of selective listening from time to time in my past.
And sadly, for too large a portion of my earlier life, that selectiveness also applied to what God was trying to tell me. For too many years, I did not even want to hear His word. Now I cherish it. The word of God. The Word.
Have you ever seen on TV or in a movie where two guys will meet and say “Word!” to each other? Or maybe one will say something and the other will reply, “Word!”? Did you wonder what they meant?
I sure did! It seemed a funny greeting or statement response to me. In effect, when someone simply said the word, “Word”, it meant that they were in agreement. It’s like a short form of stating that what is said is true.
So I think that is a most appropriate way of describing our Bible, too. Because what it says is definitely true, and it is, after all, the word of God. That’s what we call the Bible: the word of God.
John calls Jesus the “Word of God”, both in the Book of Revelation passage I just read, and also in his Gospel account, such as in chapter 1, verses 1 through 5…
Jesus has many titles, including the Light of man, the Light that shines in the darkness and cannot be overcome. If we go back to the slang use of “Word!” as being in agreement, then Jesus definitely is the “Word” of God, for He is in perfect agreement with our Father God. As is our Bible, our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, our user’s manual – it too is in perfect agreement with God. So calling Jesus the Word of God and referring to our Bible as the word of God are both correct.
Let me give you another example. Listen to what the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13…
Both Jesus and our Bible are living and powerful. Even if our Bible just sets on the coffee table or bookshelf or dresser collecting dust, it still has a strong, steady pulse as it waits for us to open it so God can reveal His word to us, His Word to us.
And notice the imagery of the sword again, like we saw in the passage from Revelation. Jesus, the Word, comes speaking the word, and it is if He wields the sharpest two-edged sword possible. And nothing, no one, can hide from His sight, for He sees all things.
I have to ask the question, and I want you to answer truthfully, to yourself, inside yourself… Just how important is the word of God to us?
I think we would all agree that Jesus is very important, to us and to the world. But what about God’s other word, our Holy Bible? Does it indeed just sit around the house collecting dust? Is it nothing more than a place where we keep the names and dates associated with our children and grandchildren? Do we find it too boring or too difficult to understand when we do try to read it? What keeps us from opening that book and reading from it at least a little every day?
We have Bible Study every Tuesday evening, yet we do good to have 10 or 11 people present. I know many of us have commitments and things to do, but isn’t the word of God important to us too?
What if the word were taken away from us? What if we could no longer hear or read the word of God? Never happen? Listen to the warning God gives us through His prophet Amos, in chapter 8 verses 11 of his book…
The days are coming, says God, when His word will be shut off from us. The world already tried to take His Word – Jesus – away from us, but thanks to God’s great mercy, our Lord was resurrected and lives still today. But our Bibles could indeed be taken away, as they have in some parts of the world. What will we do then, if we don’t know what God says, if we aren’t already very familiar with His word?
Nothing of this world lasts. Everything rots, withers, fades away. The prophet Isaiah, in one of his moments of beautiful poetry, from chapter 40 of his book, verses 6 through 8, speaks for God when he writes…
The grass withers, the flower fades away. We are like grass – we wither and fade away. But the word of God lasts forever, in both senses! Jesus always was and always will be. Our Bible is an earthly construct and will eventually rot and return to dust. But the truths it contains, the wisdom of God, the instructions we need to live by, will last forever. Nothing, no force in heaven or on earth, can destroy the Word of God!
Get familiar with God’s Word. Build a closer relationship with Jesus. Read, study, and understand the Bible. Because our Bible is God’s word and it is how we can learn more about His Son, His Word from the very beginning. Hear God’s word while we still can, for someday it will be too late.
Word!
In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You gave Your word for Your prophets to repeat, for Your servants to write down and preserve for us, just so we could have Your truth always at our fingertips. And You gave us Your Word, Jesus, so that we might find salvation through Him if we only believe, and in believing repent and follow His commands. Your word, Father, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. If we would only allow it, Your word will guide us safely through this earthly life and into the greater heavenly life You have planned for us. Help us, please Father, to believe in Your Word Jesus with all our heart. Help us to read and better understand Your word in our Bible so we can live as You want us to live. Forgive us, please God, when we are too busy to give of ourselves and our time to Your Word.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thanking You for Your great mercy, repenting of our disobedience and sin, and seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, from even before the beginning, You have been with God as His Word. While You lived and walked this earth, You spoke His word to us so that we might understand and obey. When You return You will again speak His word, but this time it will cut His enemies like the sharpest sword, leaving none standing. Help us, Lord Jesus, to heed God’s word contained in our Bible so that we do not have to fear His Word when You return.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
A husband read an article to his wife about how women speak 30,000 words a day while a man only utters 15,000. The wife indignantly replied, “That’s because we have to repeat everything we say to you men.” The husband turned, looked at his wife and said… “What?”
How many of you husbands use your wife as a translator? And how many of you have been told you have selective hearing? I definitely have fallen in both categories over the years. I do have a physical hearing problem, but I am pretty sure I also engaged in a bit of selective listening from time to time in my past.
And sadly, for too large a portion of my earlier life, that selectiveness also applied to what God was trying to tell me. For too many years, I did not even want to hear His word. Now I cherish it. The word of God. The Word.
Have you ever seen on TV or in a movie where two guys will meet and say “Word!” to each other? Or maybe one will say something and the other will reply, “Word!”? Did you wonder what they meant?
I sure did! It seemed a funny greeting or statement response to me. In effect, when someone simply said the word, “Word”, it meant that they were in agreement. It’s like a short form of stating that what is said is true.
So I think that is a most appropriate way of describing our Bible, too. Because what it says is definitely true, and it is, after all, the word of God. That’s what we call the Bible: the word of God.
John calls Jesus the “Word of God”, both in the Book of Revelation passage I just read, and also in his Gospel account, such as in chapter 1, verses 1 through 5…
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
--John 1:1-5 (NKJV)
Let me give you another example. Listen to what the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13…
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
--Hebrews 4:12-13 (NKJV)
And notice the imagery of the sword again, like we saw in the passage from Revelation. Jesus, the Word, comes speaking the word, and it is if He wields the sharpest two-edged sword possible. And nothing, no one, can hide from His sight, for He sees all things.
I have to ask the question, and I want you to answer truthfully, to yourself, inside yourself… Just how important is the word of God to us?
I think we would all agree that Jesus is very important, to us and to the world. But what about God’s other word, our Holy Bible? Does it indeed just sit around the house collecting dust? Is it nothing more than a place where we keep the names and dates associated with our children and grandchildren? Do we find it too boring or too difficult to understand when we do try to read it? What keeps us from opening that book and reading from it at least a little every day?
We have Bible Study every Tuesday evening, yet we do good to have 10 or 11 people present. I know many of us have commitments and things to do, but isn’t the word of God important to us too?
What if the word were taken away from us? What if we could no longer hear or read the word of God? Never happen? Listen to the warning God gives us through His prophet Amos, in chapter 8 verses 11 of his book…
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.”
--Amos 8:11 (NKJV)
Nothing of this world lasts. Everything rots, withers, fades away. The prophet Isaiah, in one of his moments of beautiful poetry, from chapter 40 of his book, verses 6 through 8, speaks for God when he writes…
6 The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”
--Isaiah 40:6-8 (NKJV)
Get familiar with God’s Word. Build a closer relationship with Jesus. Read, study, and understand the Bible. Because our Bible is God’s word and it is how we can learn more about His Son, His Word from the very beginning. Hear God’s word while we still can, for someday it will be too late.
Word!
In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You gave Your word for Your prophets to repeat, for Your servants to write down and preserve for us, just so we could have Your truth always at our fingertips. And You gave us Your Word, Jesus, so that we might find salvation through Him if we only believe, and in believing repent and follow His commands. Your word, Father, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. If we would only allow it, Your word will guide us safely through this earthly life and into the greater heavenly life You have planned for us. Help us, please Father, to believe in Your Word Jesus with all our heart. Help us to read and better understand Your word in our Bible so we can live as You want us to live. Forgive us, please God, when we are too busy to give of ourselves and our time to Your Word.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thanking You for Your great mercy, repenting of our disobedience and sin, and seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, from even before the beginning, You have been with God as His Word. While You lived and walked this earth, You spoke His word to us so that we might understand and obey. When You return You will again speak His word, but this time it will cut His enemies like the sharpest sword, leaving none standing. Help us, Lord Jesus, to heed God’s word contained in our Bible so that we do not have to fear His Word when You return.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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