Note: I have developed a set of PowerPoint slides for use with this sermon. If you are interested in the slides I will send them to you by Email. Email your request to me at sam@srmccormick.net and be sure to enter "Easter Slides" in the subject line (otherwise I am likely to overlook your Email message among the hundreds I receive). I will try to respond promptly but allow a few days for me to respond.
THE MYSTERY REVEALED
I The Genesis of the Mystery
The question is asked, “Why did God create man?” We know why he created the woman – it was not good for the man to be alone. But why did God create man?
Several answers are given, some of them rooted in scripture and some not.
Someone says, “We are created to glorify God.” I have no doubt God wants that from us, but is it the reason man was created in the first place?
Someone quotes Ephesians 2:10, “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” But I rather think Paul refers to every new creation in Christ when one obeys the gospel, and not the creation of the first man.
Perhaps the best answer is found in the act of creation itself, and the things God did immediately.
What he did was to create man and place him in a garden of paradise.
God wanted a loving relationship in which he would shower bountiful blessings on his children who would love him.
Placing the man and woman in the beautiful garden of Eden was an outpouring of love. God is love, and he created someone to be, and then was a precious object of his love.
There would be sweet harmony and happiness as he blessed them beyond imagining in the paradise he built for them.
The garden of Eden shows that God created man for him to love. And that is what God did.
He wanted man to return his love, which would have been meaningless had God not designed within man the capability to redirect the love intended for God and instead love himself.
So the man and the woman failed in reciprocating the pure, unadulterated love they received.
Here’s what God said:
Genesis 3:14-19 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
When God spoke to the serpent, Eve, and then Adam following the fall of the first man and woman, they learned something about what the future held in store. You see highlighted the things they now knew.
• They had no idea whether God’s words would be entirely fulfilled within whatever generation the woman’s seed lived.
• They couldn’t have grasped how far-reaching and consequential the meaning of that short sentence was, and that the seed of the woman would also be the very Son of God.
• They did not know what was to be done with their sins. Sin now stood between them and God who made them, and with whom they had enjoyed a sweet and satisfying relationship. Though God still loved them, it was different. Sin now alienated them from God.
• Most of all, they didn’t know the broader implications – that the serpent was a manifestation of Satan, that they had ventured onto the battlefield of a titanic war, and they had been captured by the enemy.
These words launched a divine mystery that would not be revealed for thousands of years.
The relationship God had with Adam and Eve and the blessings of paradise are no more.
In the garden, their lives had meaning to them and to God.
The mystery is “What is the meaning of life NOW, since the original framework is greatly altered, the relationship vastly damaged; and the question loomed, “Can what was lost ever be regained? (For that would require a way of separating the man and the woman from their sins.)
II The Mystery Would Continue for a Long Time
It was a mystery that would not be revealed for a very long time…
A. Noah could not have known how building an ark to save the righteous family would prefigure “the like figure whereunto baptism now saves us.”
B. Nor could Abraham have known his one-way journey from Chaldea to the promised land would establish God’s people in the location where God would eventually put his name, nor could he know his journey would prefigure the life journey of every Christian from being lost in the quagmire of sin (represented by Babylon) to citizenship in heaven (represented by the promised land).
Abraham had no way of knowing that his faithful act of offering his beloved son prefigured God not sparing God’s beloved Son 42 generations later.
C. Nor could Moses know that the exodus from Egypt prefigured the redemption of every obedient believer from the bondage of sin, and that as the deliverer of God’s chosen people Moses was a type of Christ.
D. Even Solomon, the wisest of all men, who would be the one to unravel the mystery if anyone could by his own facility with reasoning, struggled to understand the mystery of life. His own life displays that struggle.
The book of Ecclesiastes is a mysterious journal in which Solomon documents his search for something that is not vain.
For much of Solomon’s life that had been a unsuccessful quest.
He had sought the meaning of life in:
• Pleasure, and Solomon had plenty of it - Ecclesiastes 2:1ff
By the way, the pursuit of pleasure was the underlayment of the worship of Baal and Asherah and all the other variations of idol-worship. Pursuit of pleasure was – and is - the besetting sin of God’s people.
• Laughter and folly (also in 2:12ff)
• Wisdom, and Solomon had an abundance of it, but he learned that wisdom itself is accompanied by difficulties and vexation - Ecclesiastes 2:12ff, 6:8
• Work – toil – labor Ecclesiastes 2:18ff (beyond what was needed to meet his necessities. Even though Solomon worked for his meal, it was still God who supplied it. See Ecclesiastes 6:7)
• Wealth Ecclesiastes 5:10ff (Read 2 Chronicles 9:13-22, and that’s only part it.)
• Many children Ecclesiastes 6:3
• Long life Ecclesiastes 6:6
• Power, authority Ecclesiastes 8:4ff
Solomon had an abundance of these things, and he came to realize that the mystery of life was not solved by any of these things.
His exploration of the life’s mystery brought him to a crystal clear conclusion:
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
After traveling many false and unhappy roads, Solomon learned the lesson of the futility of a Godless life.
That’s the reason I am convinced the book of Ecclesiasties tells the story of Solomon finding his way back to God.
But it is only part of the solution to the mystery of the serpent and the woman’s seed. Though he arduously sought it, the mystery set before Adam and Eve was not completely revealed to Solomon.
III The Mystery Is Revealed Gradually
E. The prophets were the voices of God to kings and the people, revealing things about their time and giving glimpses into the distant future, including – significantly – what would be done about the old unsolved problem of sin.
Prophets had clues and shared them with the people of their time, but even those titans of faith did not know the full answer to the mystery.
They knew much and revealed much, but even the prophets did not know what you know.
Jesus told his disciples:
Matthew 13:17 … truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
God did not fully reveal the answer to the mystery to Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, or Solomon.
He was revealing pieces of it to the human race gradually over many generations.
They all wanted to know, but it was not theirs to see and hear.
F. Joseph and Mary
Angels – possibly the same angel – came to the Galilean village of Nazareth and revealed much more of the mystery than Moses and the prophets and the rest knew.
Mary was told things that made her head swim.
Luke 1:26-33 – read
Joseph was actually told in broad brush strokes that the child born to Mary was to be named Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:18-21
No one else in the world knew the answer to that mystery!
Joseph and Mary knew the fulfillment of the familiar prophecies – even those in the ancient writings of Moses - would be through their own son.
G. Jesus
For three years Jesus revealed mysteries of the kingdom of God to his disciples, often in parables.
Mark 4:10-12 As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven."
That is where things stood when the time of the Passover came at the close of the 3rd year of Jesus’ ministry.
Before he was arrested that last night, he was still revealing things not to be understood until clarifying events occurred:
• He washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:3-9).
• He told them he was going away. (John 14:1-6)
• He told them he would prepare a place for them to join him.
• He told them, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:7-11)
• He prayed for the ones who would believe because of the words the disciples would say. (John 17:20)
• He told them the Holy Spirit would come and reveal “all truth.” (John 16:12-14)
The disciples comprehended very little of what Jesus taught them, because something else waited to be revealed – the key that unlocked the door to understanding they mystery of life and sin.
IV The Holy Spirit reveals the mystery
Jesus told his disciples, the Holy Spirit was the revealer of “all the truth.” (John 16:12-14)
The mystery of life, hidden since the cherubim and the flaming sword were set in place, guarding the way to the garden of Eden, was first revealed through the Spirit by Peter on Pentecost day. (Acts 2:4)
The mystery - now fully revealed - was the means by which the human race would be saved.
• By then, the veil to the Holy of Holies had been breached, torn in two at the precise moment Jesus breathed his last breath. Mark 15:37-38; Hebrews 2:14-15
• The throne room of God was no longer hidden, but now accessible to every person. Hebrews 10:19-20
• The Levitical priesthood became obsolete as the means of approaching God. Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-12
• Every person became a priest. Revelation 1:6
• Satan’s head was bruised, for now there was a remedy for sin. Romans 8:1-3
• The ancient mystery was revealed.
V The Revealed Mystery Needed to be Shared
The revelation of the mystery of the ages, revealed in the gospel needed to be known throughout the world.
Everyone needed to know what was revealed through the Holy Spirit on Pentecost - everyone living then and would ever live.
A. The Spirit made his entrance at a time when people from all over the known world were in Jerusalem:
Acts 2:9-11 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews also, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians: we have heard them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.
As those people returned to their countries, the knowledge of the revealed mystery went all over the world.
Seeds were planted.
B. The disciples remembered the words of Jesus:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus’ disciples were dispatched to all parts of the world to reveal the mystery. And go they did.
Paul was commissioned to join the effort.
C. Change the scene to Athens, Greece, one of the oldest cities in the world, and the world’s capital of knowledge and thought.
The Athenians worshiped many deities, represented in the multiplicity of ruins that can be seen today on the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the ruins of several ancient buildings. To the left you can see the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, which we’ll talk about in a minute or two.
The most famous building on the Acropolis is the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, for whom the city of Athens is named.
Paul went to Athens on his second missionary journey. Following his usual method, he took his message to the Jews and anyone else he chanced to meet in the marketplace. Some of the latter were Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.
Unlike the Jews who pursued Paul from place to place for the sake of refuting his teaching about Jesus, at least some of the philosophers showed a genuine interest.
V19 “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?”
They brought Paul to the Areopagus, sometimes referred to as “Mars Hill.” The word Areopagus was the name of the council of philosophers and the place where they held counsel.
Paul’s sermon was short. It’s contained in Acts 17:22-31. You can read it in about one minute.
(Read the sermon.)
Within about a minute, Paul revealed the solution to the mystery of the meaning of earthly existence that had baffled generations of philosophers, as it had puzzled the very prophets even as they revealed pieces of it.
Paul laid the foundation for the remainder of the sermon by saying:
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
Think about that! What you worship, this I proclaim!
Paul does not attack the Unknown God, insisting that it was just another idol.
To the philosophers, the Unknown God was called the Unknown God, not because he didn’t exist, but because they didn’t know anything about him.
Paul does not introduce the God of heaven as a new and different God from one they already worshiped.
Instead, Paul says:
“I will reveal what you don’t know about the God you worship.”
Paul’s address was packed with things about the Unknown God the philosophers didn’t know. The last 3 lines are possibly the most abbreviated statement of the gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere in the scriptures.
But within the gospel is the revealing of the mystery.
Revealing the mystery was Paul’s life work.
He put his life on the line many times for it, and he would eventually give up his life for revealing it.
As is usually the case when the gospel is presented, some believed, others did not.
D. Paul’s second missionary tour took him to Ephesus where he had stopped briefly on his second tour. This time he remained there for two years, preaching in the synagogue, in the school of Tyrannus and in private houses.
Later, he wrote a letter to the Christians there:
Ephesians 3:1-10 – read – “For this reason…[what reason? – In Ch 2 he showed the Ephesians they were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.]
Read on…
To the gentile Christians at Ephesus and everywhere, the revealing of the mystery meant they were fellow-heirs, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
V We Are Revealers of the Mystery
There are people around us in Montrose and throughout the world, to whom the mystery of life’s meaning seems as impenetrable as it ever was.
Some lack any curiosity about it.
Life to them is something that happens with no apparent concept that life has meaning apart from getting through the next situation.
They are like rudderless ships, or clouds that go where the wind blows them.
We are to be revealers of the mystery of God.
How do we do that?
Paul, a fellow revealer, wrote:
Philippians 1:21 For me to live is Christ. Matthew 5:14-16
Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (like clothing)
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You don’t have to be a preacher or deacon or elder to illuminate the revealed mystery for those who have not discovered it.
If you have believed Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for your sins, and you have accepted the free gift of his grace by being baptized into his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection, you are a living, breathing testimony of the revealed mystery.
We are living illustrations of the revealed mystery.
