IT’S ALIVE…THE WORD OF GOD
AIM: To help the congregation to take a stand on the Word of God.
TEXT: Hebrews 4:12
OPEN:
a) Good Morning
b) Announcements if any
c) Welcome to everyone
d) Tell Story or Joke
e) Introduce Topic…THE WORD OF GOD
f) Share how the word has affected me.
OUTLINE:
1. IT’S ALIVE
2. IT’S POWERFUL
3. IT’S NEEDED
1. IT’S ALIVE!!!!
a) In last weeks bible class we talked about the Sabbath rest of God.
b) The rest that God commanded His people to keep holy.
c) All through chapter 4 of Hebrews we can read of the new Sabbath…the new rest.
d) Hebrews 4:11 says “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
e) Today we are going to discuss that diligence. And the Hebrew writer, trying to express the need for diligence, refers to the Word of God.
f) The word of God is everything to us. It is our strength in weakness. Our guide and roadmap through life.
g) In it we find answers to life’s difficult questions, strong words of encouragement. Patterns to follow, and people to emulate.
h) The word of God, the Bible, is the number one best seller in all of history.
i) It is History, and Prophecy and Poetry! It is the Gospel message from beginning to end.
j) No other book in all creation can hold significance as the Bible can. Look back at your text books from when you were in college, all you older folk. They are dated, and in such a short time.
k) We are thousands of years since the first book of the Bible was written, yet it still holds more relevancy than any other book.
l) There is one good reason for this. The word of God is Alive.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Hebrews 4:12…”The word of God is Living…” It is alive.
b) The Bible isn’t a dead book…you know how I know this? The answer is 3 fold.
1. ALWAYS FRESH… It is always fresh. In every age and every generation the bible proves itself to be alive and relevant. I already gave you the illustration of the text book fading in relevance. But the Bible does not. II Timothy 3:16 says, ”All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Matthew 24:35: My words will never pass away.
2. LIFE GIVING AND CHANGING: There is no other way to heaven but through the word of God. While other books attempt to tell us that there is other ways, the truth of the matter is that the Bible is the only book that carries the true method into heaven. I Peter 1:23-25 “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God.” While some books have to power to move you emotionally, and some have to power to educate you, and some have the disturbing ability to deceive you, the Word of God has the power to alter your very being. It moves us emotionally, and teaches us doctrinally and historically, but will never deceive us. The word of God is Alive because it lives in each one of us….but most importantly!!!!
3. IT IS JESUS…Any good story has a beginning, middle, and end, and each of these parts are linked together. The Bible has a continuous theme all throughout…God’s ultimate plan to save man. God knew that we would fall from His presence, so he planned a way for us to return to Him in His son Jesus Christ. We can read about this in Genesis 3:15 “and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heal.” This is called the protogospel…the first occurrence of the gospel message in the scripture. It is God’s plan. Satan shall attack Jesus and will have success in that Jesus will be crucified, but Jesus will not be held by death, he will rise again and crush death for all people for all times. This plan was brought into fruition at the culmination of Jesus life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.” This passage is very clear that Jesus is that word. He was with God in the beginning, he created the world, The word is Jesus, and Jesus is the word. His Disciples were witness to Him rising from the tomb. They saw him after his death, they spoke to Him, and they watched Him rise into heaven. And from before the creation of the world, God planned this word to save us and give us rest and life. God knew that we were going to need victory over death, that is why he sent His son. Not only did He send Him, but allowed Him to be crucified, and rose Him up from the dead on the third day.
JESUS IS ALIVE TODAY…
THE GRAVE COULD NOT KEEP HIM
SIN HELD NO STRENGTH
DEATH HAD NO STING
SATAN’S HEAD WAS CRUSHED
LIFE WAS GIVEN
REST WAS SUPPLIED
SALVATION WAS SECURED
ALL BY THE UNBEATABLE, UNFATHOMABLE, UNQUENCHABLE, UNDENIABLE POWER OF THE LIVING WORD OF GOD…JESUS CHRIST!
APPLICATION:
The word of God is well and alive today. It has withstood the test of time. It is Jesus.. He is with God in Heaven as we speak, this very moment. Jesus is Alive, and Jesus is the word. But like I said, this isn’t a dead book. The Bible is Alive in that it works…It is Active and powerful.
2. IT IS POWERFUL…ACTIVE…SHARP
a) God planned the Bible so well, He knew that it would be relevant for all times in all generations.
b) He didn’t want it’s potency to fade, and planned the word so that it wouldn’t.
c) The word is powerful in that it sustains spiritual life.
d) In that it changes people, and alters their very nature. It examines us, and judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.
e) It Challenges us, and motivates us. And sometimes it’s words even hurt us.
f) Unlike any other book in all of History. The Bible works.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Hebrews 4:12b. “The word of God is…active…” It is a working book.
b) The Greek word that the author uses in this text for active is the same word that we get ENERGY from. It means operative and powerful, effectual. It comes from the verb EN which is move. Or motion.
c) The word of God is moving, it is in motion, it is powerful and operating, and it has and effect on those who cherish it.
d) In 1Thessalonians we read; “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but actually as it is the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” The Thessalonians believed that the word they were being taught was the word of God, and because of that belief, the word was an energy in them. It was at work.
e) As we read and ingest, and interpret the word of God for our lives, that word is actually at work within us… convicting us, and changing us day to day to become more and more like Christ!
f) My Friends, is the word of God at work within you?
g) There is a sure fire way to tell…
h) The Hebrew writer describes it very clearly…he makes a comparison between the word of God and a sword.
i) Hebrews 4:12c “Sharper than any double edged sword even to the division of soul and spirit…and joints and marrow…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The divine word of God is able to cut through everything that is in man!
EXAMPLE:
The word is likened to other things in the scripture. But this is by far my favorite comparison. The sword can mean so many things for us; it is our weapon in Battle according to Paul in Ephesians 6:10ff. Here it is something that cuts us and not our enemies. A sword is used to knight someone, and the word makes us holy. And a blade is used to heal. Our doctors today use a sword, it’s called a scalpel. They use it to perform needed surgeries. If a person has cancer it needs to be removed. The Dr. will go in and make incisions to get to the diseased cells, and then he will use the blade to remove those diseased cells. Most often your body will then heal itself. The word of God is like that scalpel. It cuts us deep, to the heart, and divides the Spiritual from the flesh. It performs and excision on the cancer of sin in our lives, removes the impurities. I have been through two minor surgeries in my life, and both of them hurt me. I was bed ridden for weeks, and a baby about it for even longer (just ask my wife). But now I am healed. When we read the word it is like that scalpel. It cuts into us, and removes the sin from our lives. I occasionally feel pains of where my surgery was, just as I occasionally feel pains of past sins, but I know that those sins are washed away, removed, excised.
APPLICATION:
Is the word at work within those who believe? Yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt. It changes us, alters our lives. It is ENERGIZED! No other book in all of history can work as the Bible works. No other writing can convict us and move us. There is nothing else in all of history that judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. The Bible is the only way to know God, and God is the surgeon who removes the sin from our lives. But hear this…The Bible is at work in those who believe! Do you believe? Is the Bible truly working within you? Are you allowing it to change you, and convict you? Is the Bible a part of your daily life? If not, maybe that is something that needs to be changed. We need the Bible, it is our livelihood.
3. IT IS NEEDED
a) Yes the Bible is alive, because Jesus is the Bible, and Yes the Bible is a working book, but it will not work if we do not use it.
b) We need the Bible, more than anything else in all of the world, we need the Bible.
c) The Bible is central to our spiritual lives. It is instrumental in our regeneration and crucial to our spiritual growth.
d) In it we are given everything we need for life and godliness, through knowledge.
e) We pay an extremely high price for neglecting it. IT IS NEEDED
SCRIPTURES:
a) Here’s what we need to do
1. BELIEVE IT!
b) In John 6:68 Peter responds to Jesus “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
c) There is no where else to look, Jesus is the word, and the word is the only way to eternal life.
d) Accept the Bible for what it is; The divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant, all-sufficient, perfect word of God!
2. STUDY IT!
e) All Christians should make a goal to be like Apollos “mighty in the Scriptures” according to Acts 18:24.
f) People in the churches of Christ across the world were renowned for their exhaustive Bible knowledge not 30 years ago, but now Biblical illiteracy is at an all time high.
g) It is because we do not devote ourselves to the study of the word.
h) Too many Christians are content with shallow, superficial bible study, or even none at all!
i) Such neglect of serious study can result in doctrinal error as well as misconceptions on how to live the Christian life.
j) II Timothy 2:15 says, ”Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
k) Through our study we present ourselves to God, we give him our best.
EXAMPLE: I remember writing a paper for Biology on year in high school. I didn’t do all that well in biology, but I really respected my teacher. I knew that he was disappointed with my low marks, so when it came time to write a paper for his class I put every last ounce of my strength into studying the topic. I wrote the best paper I could have possibly written, and presented it to my teacher. It was approved. Worthy of an A. My teacher was very proud of me for the effort I put into that study. God is our Father, and he desires us to pour our hearts into the study of the word, while we continuously get low marks in life due to the distraction of sin, we need to study, and study, and study, the word of God. Write it on our hearts, know it thoroughly, and in doing so we gain approval. We get an A.
3. OBEY IT!
l) Above all, as a result of belief and study, we must obey what is written in it.
m) Obedience is ultimately the only response to God’s word.
n) It will do us absolutely no good if all we do is believe it and study it. Knowledge isn’t action.
o) The Commands of God are not optional, the conditions of salvation are not suggestions. We must obey them.
p) Unlike the popular belief, the Bible is not a smorgasbord. We cannot just go through it and pick and choose what we want to obey and disregard the rest.
4. HOLD IT HIGH!
q) Romans 1:16-17 says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus , for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”
r) We cannot be ashamed of the Word. If it truly has changed us, than how can we be ashamed.
s) Last week my sermon was on How can we help but speak about what we have seen and heard.
APPLICATION:
We need the word of God, we need to believe it. Believe that it is the infallible word of God, that it is perfect, and able to change us. We need to believe that it will cut us to the heart. And because of that believe we need to study it. We must write the words of it on our hearts, we must know it. God will approve us if we devote ourselves to knowing Him. But more than that, we need to obey it. We need to follow the commands of God as commands and not suggestions, we need to do what He has called us to do. And when we do these things, the only natural response is to hold the message high. To not be ashamed of it.
CONCLUSION:
The word of God is alive and energized. It is a sword that cuts us to the heart and changes us. It convicts us, gives us hope and strength, joy and peace. It brings us understanding. The word of God is Jesus who is alive today. He is making intercession for us before our father, he is preparing a place for you and me. He is not dead as the world would have him be. He is alive, and we know him through his word. We need to know him, We need to have a relationship with Him. There is no other way by which we can be saved. That is why we need the word, we need it.
Is the word of God working in your life? If not, what are you going to do about that?
