The word of God increased and the number of the disciples greatly multiplied in Jerusalem. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7)

The word of God grew and multiplied. (Acts 12:24)

So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty. (Acts 19:20)

I’m sure I had read Acts at least 20 times before I noticed these verses. A friend came to visit us who held some peculiar doctrines, but he was aging and getting forgetful. Over and over, he would say, “I used to know the word of God for this.” Throughout his visit, he used “the word of God” so often, and usually in regard to scriptures that he had forgotten, that it got annoying.

Perhaps that is the kind of event that is necessary for me, or maybe for all of us, to notice things that are right under our nose.

During his visit, I started wondering if “the word of God” was really a metonym (an alternate term) for “the Bible” in the Bible itself.

One evening after his visit, and long into the night, I got on the computer and searched every occurrence of the word “word” in the New Testament. I was most surprised by the 3 verses that began this post. The Bible was certainly not “growing and becoming mighty” (Acts 19:20) just because the Ephesians burned their magic books. The Bible does not increase when the number of disciples as increasing (Acts 6:7).

Obviously, “the word of God” can be a metonym–what a great word!–for the Son of God, both before, during, and after his time on earth (Jn. 1:1; 1:14; Rev. 19:13), but what does “word of God” mean when it is increasing and becoming mighty?

The Word of God and the Number of Disciples

In Acts 6:7, it is easy to see that the increase in the word of God is associated with an increase in disciples. In Acts 12:24 and 19:20, the context suggests that the word of God is increasing, and even “prevailing mightily” (NASB), because of an increase in disciples.

When you search every occurrence of “word” in the New Testament, you get a whole new perspective of the “word” of God. God gave birth to us by the “word of truth” (Jas. 1:18), and we are to receive “the implanted word” with humility (Jas. 1:21). Peter thinks similarly, telling us that we have been born again of the imperishable seed of the word of God (1 Pet. 1:23). Peter also tells us this seed is “the word of the Gospel” that was preached to us (1 Pet. 1:25).

It seemed clear enough that those 3 verses in Acts were referring to the seed of the Gospel being planted in us. Jesus himself gives us a picture of how this works in the parable of the sower (explained in Matt. 13:18-23). The seed of the Gospel is sown in human hearts (Matt. 13:19). Jesus lists 4 things that can happen:

1. Sometimes Satan snatches it right out because the heart is hard.
2. Sometimes the seed sprouts rapidly in shallow hearts, but dies out at the first experience of trouble.
3. Sometimes the seed lands in good hearts but the fruit is eventually choked out by “the cares of this age” and “the deceitfulness of riches” (Matt. 13:22).
4. Finally, sometimes the seed lands in good hearts and produces fruit 30 or 60 or 100 times over.

In the fourth case, the seed, the word of the Gospel, increases because full-grown grain, which is the sort of plant Jesus was almost certainly referring to, produces the next generation of seeds.

Thus, the word of God increases because it is planted as a seed in human hearts, the very source of the new birth (Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23), and as it grows up, bearing fruit in us, we bring others to Christ through the light of our good behavior (Matt. 5:13-16; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; Tit. 2:6-8; 1 Pet. 3:13-16; see also Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. 16) or through preaching (Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Thess. 1:5-9).

James gives a command to receive the implanted word with humility (Jas. 1:21). John tells us that those who receive the word of God will be given authority to be children of God (Jn. 1:12). So how do we “receive” the word?

Receiving the Word of God

I don’t have room in a blog post to tell you my whole path of thinking that led me to conclude that to “receive” the word of God is to do it. I have two stories that illustrate receiving the word of God, though.

In Luke 5, Simon (later Peter) has been fishing all night with no success. In the morning, he finds Jesus preaching on the shore, and Jesus asks if he can preach from Simon’s boat. When he is done, he asks Simon to go back out to try again. Simon’s response is interesting, “Master, we worked all night and caught nothing; but at your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).

Simon, of course, catches “a great multitude” of fish. He comes back to shore, falls on his knees, declares himself a sinner, and then leaves everything and follows Jesus (Luke 5:8-11).

Simon was transformed by letting down his net “at [Jesus] word” (v. 5). The “word” was not the preaching of the Gospel, but Jesus’ command to “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (v. 4). The word was implanted in Simon’s heart by his obedience to it.

The second story is even more carefully worded. In Luke 19, Jesus is passing through Jericho, and he sees Zacchaeus in a tree. He tells him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5). Verse 6 says, “He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.”

Note the exact obedience to Jesus’ words that Luke purposely (I think) notes. Jesus said to hurry, and Zacchaeus hurried. Jesus said to come down, and Zacchaeus came down. Jesus said he had to stay at Zacchaeus’ house, and Zacchaeus received him joyfully.

The next thing we know, apparently without any further teaching from Jesus, Zacchaeus is announcing that he will give half his goods to the poor and refund anyone he has cheated 4 times the amount he cheated them (Luke 19:8). In the next verse, Jesus tells everyone that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house.

These stories drive home the point that we receive the word of God by obeying it. Though it is sadly controversial to bring up obedience in relation to receiving the word of God nowadays, the apostle Paul looked for “the obedience of faith” in those he preached to (Rom. 1:5).

These stories also show us that the word of God, received by obeying it and implanted in us by God, is immediately fruitful. Peter responded immediately with shame for his sinfulness and awe for Jesus when he received the word. Zacchaeus responded with abundant generosity when he received the word.

In the same way, when the word was expanding in Acts 12:24, it also “prevailed mightily.” The truth of this makes Isaiah 55:10-13 sound like a prophecy of the Word of God, who became flesh, bringing the word of God in its transforming power to the apostles who multiplied the word through their disciples.

For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky,
and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth,
and makes it grow and bud,
and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
so is my word that goes out of my mouth:
it will not return to me void,
but it will accomplish that which I please,
and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
For you shall go out with joy,
and be led out with peace.
The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing;
and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up;
and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up.
It will make a name for Yahweh,
for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”

The Word, the Word, and the Word

While I have never found a place in Scripture where “the word of God” is a metonym for “the Bible,” various passages and messages quoted in Scripture are called the word of God. And, of course, we know that the Scriptures are God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16-17). When God breathes into someone or something, they or it come to life (Gen. 2:7). As a result, Moses is said to have received “living oracles” (KJV) or “living words” (NASB) or “living revelations” (WEB). If the law, even though it kills (2 Cor. 3:6) and is a “service of death” (2 Cor. 3:7) is living, how much more the rest of the revelation of God that is the Scriptures.

Yes, the Scriptures are the word and words of God. Yet we have seen in the Scriptures that they are not all of the word of God. Jesus is the Word of God, and the seed planted and growing in the heart of disciples is also the word of God, which can multiply, grow, and prevail mightily as the number of disciples multiplies.

As a takeaway, let us remember that the word of God that saves is not always just a repetition of words we have been taught in an evangelism class. The Word of God is first and foremost Jesus himself, who was with God in the beginning when everything was created. His word is power. Sometimes, to bring people to Christ, we must utter the words the Holy Spirit puts in our heart, let them sink into the hearts of others, and let them grow up into the fruit of salvation.