Preached on 17th of July 2011
Text: 1 Corinthians 4:1
The mysteries of God.
Bible readings: Colossians 4:1-6 & Mark 4:1-11
Dear sons and daughters of the Almighty, loving God.
Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth:
“This is the way you should consider us: as the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
The mysteries of God.
This morning I’ll try to answer 4 questions:
1. What are the mysteries of God?
2. If they are mysteries, is there a way how we could get them revealed to us?
3. When they are revealed to us what is the purpose of that revelation of the mysteries?
4. What do they mean to us today?
1. What are the mysteries of God?
In the Old Testament book of Job, one of the Job’s friends, Zophar the Naamathite asks:
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” (Job 11:7)
And immediately he provides the answer to this rhetorical question and says:
“They are higher than the heavens – what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths of the grave – what can you know?” (Job 11:8)
(interesting parallel to Romans 10:6-7)
However the Hebrew word that is translated as “mysteries” here is very difficult word with a few dozen meanings. That is why some Bible versions translate this passage as:
“Can you understand the deep things of God” (Lamsa)
or “depths of God” (NASB)
“Can you discover the essence of God?” (NET Bible)
“Can you find out God by searching?” (Interlinear Bible)
“Can you discover the limits and bounds of the greatness and power of God?” (Good News Bible)
All these translations are somehow trying to express that God is infinite; that God is beyond the range of the human mind. Simply God is mysterious and we human beings cannot find God by the means of our own searching, by our own efforts. God is beyond reach of anything and everything. It means unless God decides to make Himself known He will be always a mystery God.
But then when apostle Paul spoke about the Gentiles (non Jews) that even though they do not belong to the chosen people of God, e.g. they are outside the covenant of God, they are not participating in the blessings of God and are strangers to God, yet,
“What may be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
So even though God is spirit, as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman (John 4:24), yet even the non Jews just by observing the creation can know something about God – “his eternal power and divine nature”.
God’s power and the fact that He is God, that is not a mystery, that is revealed in His creation. Look up in to the starry sky and you have to say: ‘Whoever did this, His power must be totally unlimited, awesome, amazing. And His power beyond description, because this universe seems unlimited – or at least we can’t fathom its size, its limits, so how could we fathom the limits of the maker of this universe?’
His eternal power and his divine nature are clearly seen and clearly understood – as Paul says – by all men. God’s power and divinity are not mysteries then. But something else is.
The Scripture from Job speaks of deep things of God – they are mysteries. If there are deep things it leads us to the conclusion that there are also things to know about God that are not so deep, e.g. things that provide only shallow knowledge of God.
Unfortunately the sad fact is, that very many people are satisfied with very shallow faith and very shallow understanding of who God is and what He is. So good question to ask yourself is: How deep is your understanding of God? Is your faith shallow? Is your understanding of who God is, shallow? Are you interested at all to know the mysteries of God; the deeper things of God?
Paul wrote to Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
That was his prayer for the Ephesians and this is also my prayer for all of you here. I pray that you may comprehend the depth and to know Christ’s love and be filled with all the fullness of God.
There is shallow and deep understanding and there is also fullness and (what is the opposite of fullness) – not fullness of God. So where do you find on the scale? Are you satisfied where you stand? Are you happy with your depth? Do you think it will suffice?
But if you say: ‘I am OK. It’s been fine so far with me, and I do not see any need for change. I’ll be fine.’
How can you be so sure that you’ll be fine?
Is it important to go deeper into the mysteries of God? And after all if they are mysteries, can we find out?
Still what are those mysteries? We keep on asking this question, but so far we don’t have the answer.
Paul actually answer that, at least partially – to know the deep things of God is to know His love. That is fullness of God – love of God revealed to us in Jesus. And that is our next point.
2. If they are mysteries, is there a way how we could get them revealed to us?
When Jesus spoke to the multitudes that gathered around Him, He often spoke in parables. After one of this public speeches, His disciples came to Him and asked Him (Matthew 13:10-11 same as Luke 8:10):
"Why do you speak to them in parables?"
He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.”
So as we can see Jesus acknowledged that there are certain things that are secret; certain maybe teachings or God’s dealings with men that are not supposed to be known to everybody but to the chosen ones.
In Mark’s gospel we have even more graphic description of this segregation:
Mark 4:11
"To you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables.”
‘Those who are outside’ are obviously in contrast to those ‘who are inside’; meaning outside the kingdom of God and inside the kingdom of God; outside of the group that belong to the Messiah and part of that group; outsiders vs. insiders.
This is interesting statement to hear from the lips of Jewish Messiah, because all the Jews considered themselves to be inside, in the covenant of God. And the Gentiles were the ones that were outside. But Jesus had different measuring tape: There are those who understand deeper things of God, those who get what the parables mean, and the parables all speak about the kingdom of God – and then there are those who do not get it; they have no idea, they listen to the stories but “seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear” (Matthew 13:13).
So what did Jesus say was that the understanding of the kingdom of God, understanding of the deeper things of God comes through listening to Him.
That’s what the voice of the Father requested from them again and again – “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him” (Luke 9:35).
We get the revelation through the word, because faith comes by hearing. The more we listen to Jesus’ teachings the more we understand, the deeper we go into the richness of God’s word and the understanding of the inheritance of the saints.
Of course God will never pressure anybody into anything. He is a gentleman. He is however inviting you all the time to go deeper and deeper. Are you interested to know more, to experience God more, to understand more, to see more of God’s power operating in your life and through your life? The invitation is daily there – He is calling you this morning: Will you go deeper? Will you let Him lead you into greater and greater things? You can say no – He will not force you. But will you be such a fool? You can remain shallow. You do not have to know all the mysteries of God.
But I have to remind you again of the words that I read in the beginning:
“This is the way you should consider us: as the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
I am send here to you to be a steward of God’s mysteries. And I want to be a good steward and I want to teach you and lead you deeper and deeper so that we call all grow together in the love of Christ.
3. When they are revealed to us what is the purpose of that revelation of the mysteries?
When God appeared to Moses He was hidden in the cloud, in the fire, in the burning bush. Later in the tabernacle God was there in a very visible way, but still nobody could see Him – God was a mysterious God. The Shekinah cloud of God’s glory was all that people could see, but they could not see God.
The Jewish people could know and understand God only by reading and studying the word, the Torah. But then the word became flesh and God, the word, became a human being and He dwelt amongst us.
So John can say in John 1:18
“No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”
Firstly there was no name for God, no image of God, no way how to describe or how to understand Him. When Jesus came it all changed.
Hebrews 1:1-2
“God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.”
The purpose of revealing God’s mysteries is to know Him, to know the purposes of God for your life and for His church and get ready for His glorious coming.
1 Timothy 6:15-16
“In its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power.”
When you get a present and it is wrapped, it is a mystery to you, what’s inside. You are happy that you got a present but your joy is not somehow complete until you unwrap it and see it with your eyes and hold it in your hands.
As we read in 1 Peter 1:10
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you.”
God spoke through the prophets, and all the prophets searched and searched but they could not see it and know all the mysteries, because they were revealed only in Jesus incarnated.
So we can say that the ultimate reason of all the mysteries of God is to come to Jesus and to know Him
Paul summarized that beautifully in Ephesians 3:1-6:
“For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News.”
“To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ.”
Interestingly in Colossians 2:1-3 Paul speaks not of mysteries of God, but mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ. Is it the same thing or are there different mysteries?
“For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.”
4. What do they mean to us today?
We all know Jesus today – or if any of you here does not know Jesus come to Him, make Him your Saviour right this very morning. Jesus is not a mystery to us anymore. Jews wait for the Messiah – it is still a mystery to them. But we know! He is revealed. The veil has been removed.
But there are still many mysteries of God yet to be revealed, yet to be unwrapped even to us. Some of them might be revealed during our lifetime, some of them at the end of the world.
So what mysteries are we involved with today? And what does it mean to us now?
1 Corinthians 13:2
“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing.”
This is a clear message from Paul that there are and will be mysteries, but love is above all. So take this as a warning and important rule as we search for new and new revelations so that they would not become a stumbling block for us but a building block.
1 Corinthians 14:2
“For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God; for no one understands; but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries.”
And what is the purpose of speaking in tongues? What is the purpose of speaking the mysteries that we do not even understand in the language that we do not speak and understand and our mind has no benefit from it? Paul answered that right in the following verses:
“He who speaks in another language edifies himself”. (1 Corinthians 14:4)
When we pray in tongues, we have no idea what mysteries we are uttering, but the Spirit of God; the Holy Spirit is using our tongue to speak things of the Spirit of God. And as our spirit in unison with His Spirit speaks these things divine things can happen. We somehow edify ourselves. We do not have to understand the process – let it remain a mystery to us – let us just trust the Lord and His word, His promise that this mysterious thing actually works.
All of you that have this gift of speaking in tongues use it! Do not neglect this power tool!
Another mystery that we shouldn’t ignore is mentioned by Paul in Romans 11:25
“For I don't desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
This week’s Newsletter from Australian Prayer Network centred in Canberra contained an interesting statement. I will read only a short segment from it (the highlighted part).
CHRISTIAN CENTRE RELEASES STATEMENT ON JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS
As a result of continuing dialogue with scholars associated with the Israeli based Centre for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC), the Hebraic Heritage Christian Centre (HHCC), headquartered in Atlanta has developed an Evangelical Christian statement on "Covenant and Witness" to encourage a new era of Christian-Jewish relations based on mutual respect and support. The statement maintains, "We accept the conclusion of Scripture that God's relationship with the Jewish community has never been abrogated but continues in the same realm of divine mystery just as his relationship of steadfast love continues with non-Jewish Believers."
HHCC President Dr. John D. Garr says, "In an effort to recover Biblical perspectives for Christian relations with the international Jewish community, our team of Evangelical scholars has interacted for many years with leaders from the Jewish community. Most recently we have joined in dialogue with Orthodox Jewish academic and religious leaders for joint consideration of theological and religious issues that are important to both communities." The HHCC team suggests that it is time for greater mutual understanding and cooperation between Christians and Jews.
"In order for Christians to engage Jews as fraternal partners in religious dialogue," Garr asserts, "it is essential for Christians to recognize that their Christian faith is rooted in Biblical and Second-Temple Judaism and that they are indebted to the Jewish people of history and the present for the core elements of their faith." The Hebraic Heritage Christian Centre encourages other Christian laypersons, ministers, ministries, denominations, and other organizations, to join this effort toward rapprochement with the Jewish community so that the historical schism between the two faiths that are based in the Hebrew Scriptures may begin to be resolved to the honour of the one God.
Source: Hebraic Centre
People who hate Israel are ignorant, because God loves Israel. They are hardened, but only partially and only for a season – for our sake, so that us Gentiles can come in. And then when the fullness of Gentiles will be in the kingdom of God, the season for the Jews to come to their Messiah will come.
It is a mystery – because we do not know what is the fullness of the Gentiles, we do not know the time and we do not know many things, but DO NOT BE IGMORANT OF THIS MYSTERY. This warning is very serious, because it is so easy to become ignorant and it is so easy to speak anti-Semitic language and join the rest of the world lead by the more and more Islamic United Nations. But the time of final countdown is coming – rather sooner than later. Will you be ignorant? Your choice. Bible speaks of these things.
Previously we spoke of the things that the Lord has prepared. That is also a mystery yet to be revealed (1 Corinthians 2:7-9):
“But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him."
At the second coming of Jesus another mystery will be revealed:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,” (1 Corinthians 15:51) –we do not know who, because we do not know when that will happen. It is a mystery and we do not fully know how we shall be changed. Shall we like die and leave as spirits? Shall we evaporate and our clothes will be left behind like in the ‘Left behind’ movie? Shall we turn into some beings of light? Or all of the above? It is a mystery, but it concerns all of us, because it might happen tonight! Are you ready?
2 Thessalonians 2:7 speaks of another mystery yet to be revealed:
“For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.”
This is the mystery of the Antichrist. Who is he, where shall he come from, what will be his deception? Revelation speaks a lot about it, but we do not have time to speak about that today. But his mystery is going to be revealed. However in the same way as with numerous other mysteries, many people will be ignorant about this one as well. You might say you don’t care about the Antichrist, but will your ignorance, or lack of interest help the advance of the kingdom of God and will it quicken the harvest? I let you to answer.
In Ephesians 5:32 relationship, or union between husband and wife is called a mystery. And Paul used it to describe the relationship between Christ and the church – even that is mystery we are all part of. How are we part of His body? How can so many different denominations be one bride of Christ, so many theologies, traditions, variations of Christianity – what unity can we see? Mystery upon mystery, yet it is so. And we are part of it. How wonderful and amazing. And we could speak of these things for many hours, but let just ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us any mysteries of God that are there for us to unwrap for today.
Amen.
Blessing:
Romans 16:25-27
“Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages, but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever. Amen.”
Additional Scriptures:
1 Timothy 3:9.16.
Revelation 1:20
Revelation 10:7
Revelation 17:5-7
