Cutting Deep

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that you are able to join us this morning for worship.

Over the last couple of years i have enjoyed watching a tv show that i wanted to share with you. Forged in Fire on the history channel. Not sure if you have heard of it before but it is a really interesting TV show. It is a show that essentially is about different black smiths competting to forge some form of a weapon. They are faced with some time limitations and must use certian metals or scrap to create their knife, sword, axe, or whatever they are tasked with making. It really is an interesting show to watch these blade smiths form a weapon from the metal. Now of course they are compressing 3 to 4 hours of work into a five minute segment and its interesting to see how they can take these hunks of metal to something that could be considered to be deadly depending on how well they do.

Sometimes the quality doesn’t meet the standards and the weapons break. Other times you get to really see the damage that can be done by these blades.

One test that they typically do is the sharpness/deadliness test. They often will use a pig carcase, or a balistics gel dummy to simulate the deadliness of the weapon. Seeing the edge of these weapons slice through these objects with ease at times is frightening because it gives us a realistic example of how deadly these weapons can be. It is in these moments that i appreciate the danger and what these weapons were designed to do. This gives me a deep respect for them and make me realize i am so happy that i will probably never find myself at the end of one of these weapons.

It also drew me to the passage we are going to look at this morning.

Hebrews 4:12–13 NIV

12 For the word of God is alive 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. 13 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.

The Word

When we read this passage it is important to note that there are two main ways that we can read it.

The Word in a General sense

The Word in a Specific sense

The Word: The General sense

This idea of a general sense is formed around the idea of God’s Revelation to man. A more basic way to put this how does God reveal himself to humanity.

Through our intuitive knowledge of God’s Existence

This is how God reveals himself to us through nature and the world around us. This idea comes strongly from passages like...

Romans 1:20–25 NIV

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

This idea that God reveals himself in the world around us for all to see is a part of this general idea that we can see the “invisible Qualities” of God in the world around us. Now it is important that gaining our understanding and knowledge of God form this from of revelation is very limited and often inadequate, this is mostly because we have a better form of revelation.

2. Special revelation through the scriptures

One of the most amazing things about humanities interactions with God is the face that at points in our history God illuminated the hearts and the minds of people like Moses, the prophets, and the apostles to record a lasting message of the scriptures for the whole of humanity. The authority and power of the scriptures gives us insight into the divine plan and what God wants for us. It is an essential part of our faith and must be faithfully studied and examined so that we can work to maintain the truth that is the message of the Scriptures.

The Word: The Specific sense

Another way that we can understand the idea of the Word is in a much more specific way. The reference to the Word can also be a reference to Jesus and who he is.

John 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

While this is something that we can possibly connect in the particular passage we are looking at we need to understand that this is more than likely not a reference to Jesus but instead to the idea of the more General revelation and the scriptures to help us understand how God has and is still interacting with us in the world through his active revelation.

The Word’s Attributes

One of the interesting things about this passage is that there are clear defined attributes of the word that we need to examine because it informs a lot about the power and the nature of the Word.

The Word is Living

This is one of the most important aspects of the word that we can understand. This idea of the word as living is what helps us see that God is still active in the world around us. It feels like more and more these days that we are living in a world that gives into the idea that God no longer interacts with us. Yet, if we are examining the scriptures and we look to the world around us we can see that he is still actively working in both the big ways and the small ways. Yet, many see the Word as a dead code that we don’t need to follow. They have rejected and think it is antiquated. In many ways the Law became that for many of the Jewish people despite the fact that if we are honest it was still active an living. This danger repeated itself multiple times and yet the Word was still rediscovered and still transformed those that engaged it. Similarly when Jesus came the word illuminated and enlightened people again and transformed the very path of humanity.

This idea of the living word shows the nature of God to us as a source of life that it isn’t a stagnate or distant source of creation but is still actively engaged and he is working to achieve his divine plan. It is only through this living word that we recognize that revelation that is living has constant application to the minds of the recipients and that we must be every mindful of how the word is speaking into our lives.

2. The Word is Active

This seems like it is very similar to the idea of the word as living but it is different. A volcano can lay dormant for many years before becoming active in a moment. Yet in truth the volcano can be active despite being dormant from its true nature. The Word is working and moving in our lives and at the right moment can spring forward in explosive fashion to challenge and push us in ways that we don’t expect.

This is the beauty of the word is how it moves both subtle and at times explosively. It is both living and actively engaging us in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine and that is a beautiful thing.

3. The Word is a Sword

Thinking back to what i shared with you earlier about the show forged in fire this is one of the most powerful images that is presented here to me about the word. The word is a pointed double edge sword that cuts deep and changes the very nature of who we are if we allow it. At times the word is hard to hear because it can cut so deep. At times the truth of the word is down right painful because the truth is the sword that cuts down to our very soul and spirit and teaches and works in us.

It does this even for those who are following after him our whole lives and those who are new to the faith.

There is a story that is a perfect example of how deep the sword can cut.

Mark 10:17–31 NIV

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Jesus interacted with this rich man and he cuts right to the point. This man despite commiting himself to the code of the Law lacked one thing.

He wasn’t willing to give up everything for God. We often think this is a knock on being rich but the issue is deeper than that. It is the fact this man let his love of his wealth get in the way of following after God. His personal desires did not lie with God but with his own wealth.

Jesus cut to the point and the man walked away. Yet, the veres that follow share with us another truth.

“who then can be saved” is the questions the disciples ask. Jesus answer is a powerful one

“all things are possible with God”

our salvation isn’t dependent on what we do but on what God is willing to do in us.

Conclusion

The Word is powerful and we can’t ignore. it is in the word that we fine access to God and can learn and grow in his divine plan. It is in our acceptance of the word that we see the truth of v. 13

Hebrews 4:13 NIV

13 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.

We wall will give account to him one day of our actions and how we lived our lives. The truth is that nothing can hide from him nothing is hidden and he is able to see all. One of the interesting things that i learned in my studies of this passage is a couple of the translations of some of the words.

Uncovered literally means to be naked before God. This isn’t a position I want anyone to have to see but it is the reality that it shows us there will be nothing hiding us from him just like there was nothing hiding Adam and Eve in the very beginning.

The second was the translation of laid bare. This is a reference being made prostrate before God, but it includes an element of having our head pulled back so that our eyes can’t be hidden. We can’t hide our face from God. We will look at him and give account.

We don’t say all these things to invoke fear of what God may see but to realize that it is through Jesus that we can walk confidently in front of God and know that we are able to be saved. That is why we have this one truth that i want to leave you this morning.

Hebrews 4:14–16 NIV

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

amen let us pray.