The Word of the Lord Grows!

And the word of God continued to grow and to be multiplied.
Acts 12:24


This is one of three times Luke uses this phrase in Acts, the other two being 6:7 and 19:20. Many of us pastors likely were touched by this in reading Martin Franzmann's famous book: "The Word of the Lord Grows" whereby he uses this theme and Acts to navigate the New Testament. So, I know of no more fitting way to unload what this phrase means than the opening words of that great book:

"The word of the Lord grew"---three times in the Book of Acts Luke uses this sentence to sum up a period of the history of the first church. These words are a telling expression of the Biblical conception of the divine word. Our Lord Himself compared the word with a seed that is sown and sprouts and grows: "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). The word of the Lord is a power and is active; it "prevails mightily," as Luke puts it in one of the passages just referred to (Acts 19:20). Paul speaks of the Gospel as "bearing fruit and growing" (Col.1:6), and Peter speaks of the "living and abiding word of God" as an "imperishable seed" (1 Peter 1:23).

This "living and active" word (Heb. 4:12) is therefore a force in history; it "speeds on" in the world and "triumphs" there (2 Thess. 3:1), in time and place and among men; itis enmeshed in events, tied up with the world, and it involves people. The word of God is God in action; for God is not a lecturer but the God who is "working still," as Jesus said of His Father, and of Himself the Son (John 5:17). God is the Lord of all history, reveals Himself by His mighty acts in history, and the word which He gives to His prophets to utter interprets those acts and makes them an enduring force in the world. "

May this wonderful, powerful, salvation granting Word of God grow in each of us, then may it multiply and spread from us to all parts of this earth for His kingdom's sake., that repentance and the forgiveness of sins be proclaimed in Jesus' name. Amen.