Transforming Power of God’s Word
How
do you experience the transforming power of the word of God today? For me
personally, though I grew up in the church as the pastor’s kid, I didn’t experience
the power of God’s word until I went to the army – my spiritual wilderness.
There God began to speak to me. God’s word became alive, meaningful, relevant
to me. I still remember that after my night-watch duty, every night I read a
Psalm, prayed it, meditated on it, and recited it.
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By
living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me
stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not
sin against you!” (Ps 119:9-11)
“How sweet are your words to
my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps 119:103)
“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have
put my hope in your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promises.” (Ps 119:147-148)
The prayers of the Psalms became my prayers. God’s word began to shape me and became a part of my daily thoughts and actions. And I still
pray the Psalms every morning. By the transforming power of God’s word I am
corrected, encouraged, transformed, sanctified each and every day.
The Bible says, “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.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and
laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews
4:12-13). The word of God penetrates to the deepest place in our lives. It penetrates
to the bottom of all our defenses, all our thoughts and intentions. It lays
bare and assesses what’s really there at the bottom. The word of God assesses not
only our individual spiritual life,
but also it does evaluate the spiritual health of the community of faith. The word of God leads us, the church, to the
place where we must give account to Christ and answer the following three questions:
“Where are we?” “How are we?” and “Who are
we?”
Where Are We?
First of all, the word of God assesses where we are as a church. Again, the word
of God does penetrate to the deepest place of the life of the church and assess
what’s really happening there. In today’s passage Jesus, who holds the sharp two-edged
sword, does a spiritual assessment to see where Pergamum church is. On the surface
level, the church seemed to be doing ok. Though they were surrounded by a
non-Christian society and pressured by the world’s standards and values, Pergamum
Christians remained true to Christ’s name and didn’t deny their faith in
Christ. They even had a martyr, Antipas, among them. Perhaps they might have
been proud, saying, “We are the church of the martyrs.” But in a deeper level,
they were a compromising church. Somehow
they tolerated in their fellowship some false prophets, called “Balaamites” (14)
or “Nicolaitans” (15) who were saying, “Christ redeemed us from the law. Therefore,
we are no longer under the law but under grace. We may continue in sin that God’s
grace may continue to abound towards us in forgiveness.” And they murmured, “Just
a little idolatry. Just a little immorality. We are free. We do not have to go
to extremes. It’s ok to eat food offered to idols and practice sexual immorality.”
Then, they continued, “It is no use being idealistic. We are all human, you
know. Christ does not expect too much from us. His demands are not unreasonable.
He knows we are dust.”[1]
But what Christ thinks about this matter is totally different. In fact, Jesus
says that he hates the teaching of
the Nicolaitans (2:6, 15 KJV).
So where are we? The Scriptures always
hold love and truth together in balance. 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth!” We often
see two extremes. Some Christians say, “Let us drown our doctrinal differences
in the ocean of brotherly love.” And they forget or sacrifice core truths of the
Christian faith, such as truth about Christ and holiness. Others pursue truth
at the expense of love. They become harsh, bitter, and unloving. Based on
biblical Christian ethics Rupert Meldenius in the 17th century wisely
said, “We must preserve unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and
charity in all things.” So where are we as a church today? If Christ came to
our church today, what would he say? Let us come and see ourselves in the
mirror of the word and hear what the Spirit says to our church.
How Are We?
Not only does the word of God assess
where we are, but also it tells us how
we are, and how we should respond to the
word. The word of God gives us a remedy. After evaluating the spiritual
health of the Pergamum church, Jesus says to them, “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon
and war against them with the sword of my
mouth” (16), that is the word of God.
It is important to remember the story
of Balaam. The Bible says that Balaam loved the reward he got for doing wrong (2
Pt 2:15). He suggested Balak that Moabite girls should entice the Israelites to
sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual immorality. And
even one of the people of Israel paraded a Midianite woman into his tent. When
Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose, took a spear in his
hand, and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear through
both of them – through the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then, the
plague against the Israelites was stopped. Nevertheless, 24,000 had already
died (Nm 25).
What Balaam did to Israel in the Old
Testament, the Nicolaitans were doing to Pergamum church. Still today, perverse
reasoning, false doctrines, half-truths are hurting the church. In particular,
many people want to hold to this false belief, “Christ has made us free. So we
are free to sin. We are free to live whatever we want.” So they don’t grow.
They don’t bear fruit. Then, how should
we do it? How can we overcome it? The
false doctrines, values, standards of the world can be overthrown only by the two-edged
sword of the Spirit, that is the word of God. The word of God has divine power
to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning, destroy false arguments and
proud obstacle, capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ
(2 Co 10:4-5). So let us be diligent to hear the word, immerse ourselves to the
word with prayer, and not harden our hearts.
Who Are We?
The word of God assesses where we
are and tells us how we are. Then, the word of God even goes deeper, goes to
the foundation of our life and defines us, and shapes us – who we are. Jesus says to Pergamum Christians, “To the one who
conquers I will give some of the hidden
manna, and I will give him a white
stone with a new name written on it” (17). So what is the hidden manna?
What is the white stone? Though several different interpretations are possible,
these two precious gifts basically represent intimate fellowship with Christ. Why did God feed the Israelites
with manna? It was because to teach them
that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the
mouth of the Lord (Dt 8:3) Then, in John 6 after feeding the five
thousands, Jesus said to them, “I am the true manna. I am the bread of life. Unless
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you!” What does that mean?
It means unless we abide in him, and
he in us, we have no life in us (56).” Too often we just want God’s gifts and
blessings – health, or prosperity, or happiness. We just want more of 5 loaves
and 2 fish. But they are just a “sign,” pointing to real one, greater one, the
bread of life, Jesus Christ. God has a much bigger plan for us. And the best
gift God can give us is more of himself, the present of his presence. We were made to have fellowship with God, to
glorify God, to grow and become like Christ. In John 17 Jesus prayed for
us, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (17). We are sanctified and
transformed by the word of God. That’s who we are – progressively becoming like
Christ!
Once one of my mentors, Dr. Timothy
Tennent, shared his story about the transforming power of the word of God. As
he began his ministry, he was appointed to four churches, which were completely
different. One church was filled with college educated professionals. Another church
was filled with local farmers. The third church was a “family” church,
blood-related to one another. The fourth church was filled with merchants. Despite
all of the differences, the one thing he knew they all needed was the word of
God. On one occasion He had a chance to sit down with the Sunday school
teachers, a lady remarked that her lesson that week was on the return of
Christ. She said, “I don’t think I believe in the return of Christ and, if I
did, I don’t see how it would make much difference.” Dr. Tennent was shocked.
Right then and there he determined that he would teach and train his church the
word of God. Over a six-year period between sermons and weekly Bible studies he
was able to teach them the essentials of the entire Bible. After six years, he
was saying farewell to the church. They had a beautiful service and a reception
afterwards. The Sunday school teacher who had told him that she didn’t believe in
the return of Christ came up to him, and they had a wonderful, long hug. As she
turned to leave, then after a pause she turned back to him and said this with a
smile, “Oh, Tim, by the way, I now know how important the Return of Christ is.”[2]
That is the transforming power of the word of God!
My prayer is that all of us in this
room may have a story to tell how the word of God transforms us. “Let the
morning bring me word of your unfailing
love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to
you I lift up my soul” (Ps 143:8). This is my
prayer. This is our prayer. Amen.
[1] John Stott,
What Christ Thinks of the Church (Harold
Shaw Publishers, 1990), 49.
[2] Dr.
Timothy C. Tennent, “The Transforming Power of the Word of God,” https://asburyseminary.edu/elink/the-transforming-power-of-the-word-of-god/
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