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.
2. The Spoken Word of God (RHEMA)
The other Greek word for WORD is the word RHEMA. It means that God speaks a specific word to a specific person for a specific purpose through the Holy Spirit. It is God’s word for you personally.
What is the difference between the Logos and the Rhema? Suppose I was to say this morning from the pulpit “I love you.” It would be the truth, I love this church and the people of this church. It is something said to the entire congregation. Now, if Naomi is sitting here this morning, she would understand that what I said included her. It was meant for everyone. However, if instead of saying it from the front I were to lean over and whisper in her ear “I love you” it would have a different reaction. Why? Because it was personalized.
Matthew 4:2-4 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Since Jesus is quoting the bible (logos) so you would think that the use of WORD here would be LOGOS, but it is actually the word RHEMA. It is God’s individual word, His loving relationship with us that sustains us.
An example of this can be seen in Acts 16:
Acts 16:6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
This passage does not mean that God did not want Asia to hear the gospel. The LOGOS word says in the Great Commission to go and preach the Gospel to all nations. This did not mean that message had been retracted, this RHEMA word simply meant that for that time God wanted Paul to go to that place - Macedonia. It was a specific word for a specific situation.
3. The Living Word of God
So what is Paul saying here when he says that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God? How is God’s word like a sword? We know that it says in Hebrews;
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living 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.
The word used here is the Greek word LOGOS. The written word of God is a guide for us. It shows us God’s truth, and that truth is like a double edged sword in that clearly separates truth from error. God’s written word for us is living, in that it is as true today as the day it was written. If we follow God’s word we find life and freedom.
As we just said, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil He used the written word of God as His defence. We spoke about this a few weeks ago. He was declaring truth against the devil’s lies and deception.
So what is Paul saying in Ephesians when he compares the word of God to the sword of the Spirit? Is he using the same word LOGOS as in Hebrews? Actually no. It is the Greek word Rhema. Both the LOGOS and RHEMA are a sword. Both are living and life giving. There are times that God speaks to us through His written word and spoken word. There are times when we need to rely on God’s written word and also times when we need to lean upon God’s spoken word for defence.
Matthew 10:16-20 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Jesus told His disciples that a time would come where they would be brought before officials and courts, and that God would give them the words to say. Yes, this included the written word of God, but also specific words that would be given to them in that moment.
Acts 22:30 The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
That means that listening for God’s voice is important. So how can we hear God’s voice today?
Sometimes God will speak to us in an audible voice. This is how God spoke to Samuel in the Old Testament and how Jesus spoke to Paul in the New Testament. This has never happened to me, though there have been times that God’s voice was so clear that it seemed almost audible.
Francis Schaeffer and his young family needed temporary housing during a transition time, but had little money. They needed a “minor miracle” from the Lord. In prayer Schaeffer asked God, “Where can we live, Lord? Please show us.” Immediately he heard an audible voice - not a voice in his mind or from another human, for he was alone. The voice simply said, “Uncle Harrison’s house.” Though perfectly clear, the answer made no sense. His uncle was living in the house and it was very unlikely he would offer his house for them to live in. Yet the voice was so direct he felt he had to obey it. He wrote his uncle, asking him what he planned to do with his house for the next year. He was astonished when his uncle replied that he planned to live with his brother for the next year and would like to offer his house free of rent to Schaeffer and his family for that year.
A second way that God speaks to us in through angels. Again we see this happened many times in the bible. I have never had an angel appear to me, but they have to members of my family. My grandmother and aunt would see and hear from angels on a regular basis.
A third way the God sometimes speaks to us is through miracles. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and to Balaam through a talking donkey. He can use anything or any means He wishes!
A fourth way that God speaks to us is through dreams and visions. A dream is when God speaks to you when you are asleep and a vision is when God speaks to you when you are awake. Generally these are visual images communicating God’s will to us.
Augustine of Hippo was a leader in the early church. He was born in 354 AD. Augustine had become a professor, and his brilliance was well-known. However, he had given himself over to the full-time occupation of drunkenness, sexual immorality, and turning people away from the one, true God with his philosophical speculations. His mother’s name was Monica. She had come close to utter despair several times, but labored on in prayer for his salvation. When he was 19, Monica had a dream in which she & her son were walking hand in hand in heaven. She knew God was speaking to her and the dream encouraged her to intensify her prayers. But after years of praying her son seemed to only be growing father away from God. He had become more intelligent, more arrogant, and more committed to evil than ever before.
One day she cried out to God on behalf of her son and God responded: “Woman, it is impossible for the son of those tears to perish.” She was greatly encouraged and continued on in prayer. Nine years after Monica’s dream, Augustine was sitting in a garden, still an unbeliever, when he heard an audible voice speak the words “take it and read, take it and read…” over and over in the singsong voice of a child’s nursery song. At first he thought the voice must be from some children playing nearby, but there were no children, and he had never heard this child’s song before. He sensed the voice was a divine command from heaven to read the scriptures that were opened before him;
Romans 13:13-14 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Augustine’s heart was miraculously transformed, and he would be known through history as St. Augustine. When Monica came close to despair, God gave her a dream to encourage her to keep praying. When she came to another low point, he gave her a vision to continue to pray. When the time was right in his eyes, God the Father sent his audible voice to the rebellious Augustine and opened his heart through the words of Scripture.
A fifth way that God speaks to us is through other people. When we read about the Gifts of the Spirit we see that there are gifts given by God to communicate His truth to the body of Christ. This includes prophecy, words of knowledge and words of wisdom.
Prophecy is basically just someone hearing what God is saying to a person or group and then passing it on. There have been many times in my life when people spoke over me prophetically. Many times it has been a tremendous blessing in my life. (e.g. meeting my wife) There have been times when God has given me a word of knowledge. I would just suddenly be given information about a person – something that I had no way of knowing. For me, this most often happens when I am preaching. It can be very distracting!
The sixth and last way that God speaks to us is through His still small voice. This is by far the most common way I have found that God speaks to me. It is when God gives you a sense or tug to move in a certain direction. There are many times when I have just sensed that God was saying something to me. It comes as a thought of image but is different than the normal background noise that happens in our minds as we go through the day.
Today is Palm Sunday. We remember it as the week before the crucifixion when Jesus entered Jerusalem to crowds shouting Hosanna. Sometimes we forget the end of that story;
Luke 19:41-44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you."
There were those that cheered the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, but there were also many that totally missed what was happening. They did not understand who Jesus was and what His coming meant. That failed to hear what God was trying to say to them. Let’s make sure we are listening to what God would say to each one of us today.
