Oh, What A Mystery!

In Mark 4, Jesus gives the parable of the sower and when the disciples ask him what it means, He says in verse 11, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables.”

Why were the disciples the ones who were “given to know the mystery?” Turn back to Mark 3 and we’re going to read a couple of verses.

(13) And he (Jesus) goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

The first thing we see is that there were more than just the twelve when Jesus went up into the mountain.

(14) And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach.

(15) And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.

“Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.” These twelve individuals that Jesus hand-picked or ordained were the ones to whom the mystery of the kingdom would be made known.

The word “mystery” is the Greek word “musterion.” It’s a “secret or mystery that you can find out once you are initiated into it or once someone shares it with you. When I read the word “mystery” in the Bible, the words that come to my mind are “sacred secret.”

Jesus is telling the twelve that He is going to invite them – to initiate them – in understanding the mysteries, the sacred secrets, of the kingdom of God that no one other than Him even knew existed.

Now think about this for a moment. When we believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are welcomed into the kingdom of God. This gives us complete and unfiltered access to the mysteries, the sacred secrets, of the kingdom. Do you hear me? Complete and unfiltered access to the mysteries – the sacred secrets of the kingdom.

How do we access these mysteries? Turn to a very familiar scripture First Corinthians 14:2. “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”

The way I like to phrase this is the person is “downloading mysteries” as he or she speaks in tongues.

Now look in chapter two, beginning with verse six.

(6) Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect (or mature): yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

(7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

I want you to hear this verse from the Amplified Bible – “But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God (And the only way God can reveal this to us ladies and gentlemen is that we must have the same spiritual nature that He has.) – [that wisdom] which God devised before the ages of our glorification [to lift us into the glory of His presence].

(8) Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they know it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

(9) But as it it written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Notice what it says ladies and gentlemen. It doesn’t say they were prepared for them that “believe” him. Do you see this? It’s prepared for those that “love” him.

(10) But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit (by praying in tongues): for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

(11) For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

(12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God (the spirit which comes from God. The word “of” is the Greek word “ek” and it means “to come out of or to proceed from.); that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

(13) Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

(14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.