The Great Mystery
The Great Mystery
· We all love a good mystery. My favorite movies are mysteries. My favorite books when I was a child (Hardy boys) were mysteries.
· There is something about our nature that loves something that is “hidden and secret,” waiting to be discovered and revealed. We like to look for clues…for who “dunnit!” (Roy liked Scooby Doo!)
· Proverbs 25:2: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
· God understands us completely, and he has hidden His mysteries in every aspect of life. We struggle to understand the great mysteries of life, but the Lord wants us to know the truth of these things. He wants us to dig a little for them…seek them out.
· However, physicists tell us that everything is filled with uncertainties.
· Their sciences are based on the “principle of uncertainty.” In other words, everything is based on probabilities rather than certainty. Therefore truth remains a mystery to them--but not to us… we have certainty!
Ephesians 3:1-4: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ).
· Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians from prison in Rome.
· But he was not a prisoner of the Romans—he was a prisoner of Christ. Jesus had Paul right where He wanted Him… writing letters from prison—letters that have changed the world.
· This “dispensation of grace” is the greatest revelation ever been given to mankind. We are now in a time where God is now relating to us by His grace, He is giving us what we don’t deserve--instead of what we do deserve!
· He is pouring out his love, and His mercy and His forgiveness, and His blessings on us based on what Jesus has done, not on what we have done!!!
· Paul says it is a “mystery,” but he wants to reveal these truths to us. The key to all mystery is Christ.
Ephesians 3:5: Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets…
· The greatest men of God in the Old Testament did not understand this mystery. Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest… may have understood some of God’s plan as God revealed it to them, but they didn’t understand this mystery. This secret was hidden in past ages.
· If we listen carefully to television news, talk radio, and the internet, many are talking about the overwhelming problems we face on planet earth.
· It’s clear that we are living in very troubled times.
· We worry about war, pollution, crime, violence, drug abuse, homelessness and so many other things. Yet all these things are just an extension of the main problem that has plagued mankind from the beginning.
· The brightest minds of our times propose all kinds of solutions, but they never deal with the core problem; that core problem is sin!
· And the key to solving that problem is Jesus!
Matthew 13:34-35: All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
· God needed to prepare mankind for the revelation of this secret.
· He prepared mankind in the Old Testament with rituals and symbols—giving them the Law and sacrifices of animals—so they could understand there was something very wrong with them in the core of their being and therefore, they could also see the solution when He came!
· New Year’s resolutions couldn’t help us.
· The only thing that can cure our sin problem is DEATH.
· God was preparing mankind to be able to grasp this concept. And even then the mystery was not fully revealed; it remained hidden.
· We need to go “way back” for some “clues” to the answers for this mystery.
Genesis 3:17-18: Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
· In this, “who dunnit,” we can say, “Adam did it, with an apple, in the garden!”
· Man was created to have dominion over the earth, but with Adam’s disobedience sin entered the world and the ground became cursed.
Ø The old creation—the original creation--was cursed with an unbreakable law; the “law of decay.”
· Scientists call this the “Second Law of Thermonuclear Dynamics” This states that everything is in a perpetual state of decline; everything is in a state of decay, it is running down in corruption and deteriorating… there’s no such thing as evolution!
· Paul talks about this corruption and man’s inability to solve our problems, but God has a different solution. He’s making all things new!
Romans 8:19-21: For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
· God is beginning a new creation, one that lives by completely different principles and not subject to the law of decay and corruption.
· And this new creation has already begun. It began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection was an act of creation!
· All of creation eagerly waits to be delivered from the bondage of corruption…into the liberty of the children of God.
· That is what the apostles taught—that God has already broken through the old creation-- and He is bringing about His new creation.
· As children of God we are to live on the basis of that new creation.
· We are to thrive in this new creation
· We can experience personal “revival” in this new creation even if the people around me are not interested in revival!
Ephesians 3:6-7: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
· God’s plan was to eliminate the divisions between men and make them “one new man” in Christ Jesus.
· There would no longer be distinctions between Jew and Gentile, black or white, red or yellow. All those distinctions would be gone in Christ.
· We would not differentiate each other based on skin pigment.
· We could find unity in the Holy Spirit, instead of fighting with each other.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
· One day, all of creation will be in a complete reversal of corruption and decay and all will be revitalized and renewed. Until then, we have been re-created.
· We have been made new. We have been transformed.
· We may now walk in the power of the Spirit. We can choose to walk in the Spirit of new creation, or we can choose to live in the old creation.
· Let me say it differently; you can choose to walk in the flesh and fulfill the lusts of the flesh, or you can walk in the Spirit.
· If you choose to walk in the old creation of the flesh, you will not experience the fullness of your inheritance.
· But in the realm of the Spirit, we can love, forgive, and reach out to others. Here is a different view.
Colossians 1:26-28: the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
· Here’s the fulfillment of the mystery; Christ living in us! What great riches we have. We are rich beyond our wildest imaginations!
· The greatest riches are internal, not external—and they are forever riches. You can take them with you!
· God Himself, dwelling in us, abiding in us, living with us. His Presence continually with us forever!
· This is not some future fulfillment, this is our “now” reality.
Romans 12:2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (metamorphosis) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
· If you really want to experience all that Jesus died and was resurrected to give you, you have to choose to leave the old creation and walk in the new.
· This old creation with its civilization, politics, greed, and pride… is dying a slow painful death like a slow sinking ship with its sin and darkness.
· It is passing away. It will make way for the new creation
· You’re going to have to change some of your old thinking and change some of your old priorities, or you will not experience all this new life has for you… or you will be stuck in the old creation.
· The caterpillar is a wonderful parable that God has put in nature to teach us His ways if we would only pay attention. We are like that caterpillar.
· It can only crawl painfully on the ground, everything is an obstacle. It cannot see very far, and it doesn’t know which turns to make. This is the way we live our lives.
· But God has a wonderful plan for the caterpillar. It fastens itself to a branch and its life as a caterpillar comes to an end. It encases itself in a silken death shroud, it becomes limp and lifeless.
· But inside that cocoon a mystery takes place. Springtime comes and the cocoon begins to split, and out comes a beautiful new creature with colorful wings—the butterfly no longer has to crawl on the ground but is able to fly far above this world.
· You and I must choose to become part of his new creation or remain in the same old--same old. We cannot do both. It’s your choice. One more thing:
Ephesians 3:8-10: To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
· Paul preached the “immeasurable riches” in Christ—not in some time to come, but right here and now. These riches are a present reality, not just a heavenly hope.
· But Paul also told us that this manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church!
· Angelic beings are watching us and learning from what is happening in the lives of believers. Peter said in his first letter that “angels longed to look into these things.”
· God’s incredible love within the church amazes the angels. His manifold wisdom is infinitely faceted like a diamond refracting His colors of wisdom and love towards us.
· As the angels watch us, they see us learning to turn from our fears, our anger, and our sin…as we learn to trust God.
· When the angels who have seen God--see the weak and faltering humans, who have never seen God, can learn to trust and obey Him, they cannot help but to praise Him. Even the fallen angels see us love and obey God, where they failed and rebelled.
· The mystery of the ages began in a stable in Bethlehem, and was further revealed on a cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem, and more importantly in an empty tomb… is still going on.
· The reverberations of the mystery are reaching out around the world, and penetrating the heavenly realms. It is shaking the kingdoms of Satan and breaking the power of darkness, as it illuminates the hearts of men with the truth of God’s love.