The Power of the Word of God

Pastor Ty Blackburn, preaching a Reformation Day sermon
Providence Duluth, October 31, 2010
"The Power of the Word of God" (John 1:5)

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5)

"The Protestant Reformation is the greatest revival in spiritual awakening that has happened in church history since the New Testament.  Nothing rivals it. It was an astonishing event that radically altered the spiritual and cultural landscape of Europe - and subsequently America - and subsequently the entire world. When Luther took the action that he did, and began to teach and to preach and to write, it was as if a flame was ignited and then rushed across the entire church, and the entire continent of Europe.

I mentioned earlier that if you distilled down the essence of what the Reformation was, it was that it was the recovery of the Word of God.  You see, for centuries, before 1517, the Bible could not be read at all by the common people.  In fact, when the people went to church and sat down in the pew, and heard a homily, it was in Latin. The problem was that nobody spoke Latin. A number of the priests could understand Latin, but a number of them actually couldn't.  Can you imagine that?  They preached sermons, they read Latin, and they didn't know what they were reading.  And the people in the pews had no idea what was being preached.  It was as if they thought the Scriptures were a magical incantation."

(Listen to the entire sermon here)


See also:

Providence Duluth