Sword Of The Spirit Series

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

A former park ranger at Yellowstone National Park tells the story of a ranger leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was so intent on telling the hikers about the flowers and animals that he considered the messages on his two-way radio distracting, so he switched it off. Nearing the tower, the ranger was met by a breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn’t responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger. Any time we tune out the messages God has sent us, we put ourselves in peril. And not only ourselves, but also those around us. How important it is that we never turn off God’s saving communication!

Today we are concluding our series looking at the armor of God. We are looking at the last piece;

Eph 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The Roman sword had a blade about 24 inches long. It was sharpened on both edges and came to a very sharp point. It was both an offensive and defensive weapon, designed so that a trained legionnaire could cut and thrust from any position. Unlike the other pieces of armour that we have looked at, Swords can be both defensive or offensive, used to defend or attack.

What does the ‘word of God’ mean? In order to understand what Paul is saying in this passage we must understand that there are 2 words which translate as WORD in the Bible. These are the 2 ways God speaks to us. He speaks to us universally (to everyone) and He speaks to us individually.

1. The Written Word of God (LOGOS)

A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term LOGOS in around 600 B.C. meaning to designate a divine reason or plan. In the Bible it is used to speak of God’s will or plan in the general sense. It is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. Jesus was described as the Word of God;

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is God’s word personified, He is revelation personified. He is the Word become flesh. He is the fulfilment of God’s plan in physical form.

The Bible is God’s written word. It outlines God’s will and plan for each of us. It is what God has declared to us through revelation to individuals down through the centuries who have then written it down for us to read.

2 Timothy 3: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:20-21 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

God’s written word is powerful. Petra is serving on a ship called the Logos Hope. The name of the ship reflects part of it’s mission, to make the bible available to everyone on earth. When Naomi and I served on the Doulos that was certainly a primary emphasis.

Why is bible distribution so important? Because God’s written word changes lives. The English ship Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, journeyed to the South Pacific in 1787. Bligh appointed a young friend, Fletcher Christian, to the post of second in command. The Bounty stayed in Tahiti for 6 months and led by the happy go lucky Fletcher Christian enjoyed paradise to the fullest. On April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian staged the most famous mutiny in history. He and his mutineers set Bligh and his supporters adrift in an overloaded lifeboat.

The mutineers aboard the Bounty immediately began quarreling about what to do next. They returned to Tahiti, where he left some of the mutineers, kidnapped some women, took some slaves, and traveled with the remaining crew a thousand miles to uninhabited Pitcairn Island. There the little group unraveled. They distilled whiskey from a native plant. Drunkenness, disease, and murder took the lives of all the men except for one. John Adams, found himself as the only man on the island surrounded by an assortment of women and children.

Then an amazing change occurred. Adams found the Bounty’s neglected Bible. As he read it, he took its message to heart, and began instructing the little community. He taught the colonists the scriptures and helped them obey its instructions. The message of Christ so transformed their lives that twenty years later, in 1808, when the ship Topaz landed on the island, it found a happy society of Christians living in prosperity and peace, free from crime, disease, murder --- and mutiny. Years later the Bible fell into the hands of a visiting whaler who brought it to America, but in 1950 it was returned to the island. It now resides on display in the church in Pitcairn as a monument to its transforming message.