Powerpoint Pictures: Spiderman; Superman; Batman; Wolverine; Willian Tyndale

What word would you use to describe these four people?  Spiderman; Superman; Batman; Wolverine.

They are all superheroes!

Today I want to talk to you about a superhero.  This superhero didn’t have any special powers.  He was just an ordinary person.  But he used THIS [show a bag of flour] to do an amazing thing.

What amazing thing do you think this person could do with a bag of flour?

Let me tell you the story of a man who did an amazing thing using bags of flour…

The man’s name was William Tyndale and he lived about 500 years, around the time when Henry VIII was king of England.

In those days the Bible wasn’t written in English but a language called Latin.  Most of the people in England couldn’t understand Latin.  It was only the priests and those who had been to school that could.

But William Tyndale thought that everyone, not just a few people, should be able to read the Bible if they wanted to, so they could learn about God’s good news of rescue through Jesus.

Can anyone speak more than one language?

Can anyone speak more than two languages?

Can anyone speak eight different languages?

William Tyndale could speak eight different languages.  He used his knowledge of lots of different languages to put the words of the Bible into English so that everyone could read Bible.

But there was a problem!  King Henry VIII didn’t want everyone to be able to read the Bible.

Who has a Bible at home?

500 years ago in this country you could have been arrested and put in prison for having a Bible.  So William Tyndale had to leave England to translate the Bible into English.

Now in England there were lots of people who wanted a Bible, and soon lots of English Bible started to appear.  How did they get them?

Using bags of flour!  [Open bag of flour and pull out Bible].  William Tyndale gave his English Bibles to merchants who hid them in sacks of flour or big rolls of wool, who then sold the Bibles to anyone who wanted one.

This made the king and the priests angry and they would buy as many as English Bibles as they could and burn them.  But more and more copies of William Tyndale’s English Bible were made.

Eventually William Tyndale was found and arrested and was burnt at the stake.  As William Tyndale was facing death he prayed this prayer: ‘O God! Open the King of England’s eyes!’