OPEN: 5 year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go alone.
“It’s dark in there and I’m scared.”
She asked again and he persisted. Finally she said, “It’s OK-Jesus will be in there with you.”
Johnny walked slowly to the door and opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to turn around - when suddenly an idea came to him. He opened the door again – peaked inside – and said: “Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup.”
APPLY: The question for little Johnny was this: “Was Jesus there?”
I. The apostle Paul had written a personal letter to a young preacher named Timothy and basically told him to make sure JESUS WAS “THERE” at the church he served.
Timothy was told to be sure to:
· “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” 1 Timothy 4:13
· He was NOT to permit “false doctrines” or “controversies” in the church
· Instead he was to make sure that the people lived “peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” I Timothy 2:2
· that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone” I Tim. 2:1
· Paul wrote about how men should behave themselves. How women should conduct themselves. How young men and young women should treat other people.
And then Paul wrote in I Timothy 3:14-15 “Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
In other words, if the church that Timothy served followed the instructions in Paul’s letter they would truly be a church that honored God. And Jesus would be "there."
II. But there’s a mystery here
Right after Paul makes this dramatic comment stressing the importance of what’s in this letter he writes: “Beyond all question, the MYSTERY of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16
And as I read that verse in context it suddenly occurred to me that this verse seemed out of place. It didn’t seem to fit! It seemed to have absolutely no bearing on the verses immediately preceding it nor with those that follow.
One moment Paul’s writing about the instructions the church needs to follow to be pleasing to God, and the next, he’s talks about some “mystery” about Jesus.
ILLUS: It would be something like me telling you all about my daughter. I’d be telling you how much she loves horses and how she loves to dance and sing. How she enjoys…
(looking skyward) “oh, aren’t those pretty stars up there!”
On the face of it, that’s how disconnected verse 16 appeared to be from the verses surrounding it. But then, I looked a little closer at the first few words of that verse… and suddenly it all began to make sense.
You see, this letter to Timothy was all about “godliness”. It was all about how we ought to LIVE as God’s people. And if I OBEY the instructions of godliness in this letter then I am assured of pleasing God. And so Paul writes: “The mystery of GODLINESS is great”
(pause…) What’s a mystery?
A mystery is something that you can’t quite understand. If you could understand it, it wouldn’t be a mystery would it?
ILLUS: I once read the story of 3 men who were talking together in a hotel lobby:
One of the men said "I will not believe anything that I do not understand."
And the 2 men that were with him agreed that it would be foolish to believe something they couldn’t understand.
Sitting nearby there was another man who looked up from his paper and said:
"Gentlemen, on my ride this morning I saw some geese in a field eating grass; do you believe that?"
"Certainly," said one of the 3 listeners.
"I saw the pigs eating grass; do you believe that?"
"Of course," Said the 3.
"I also saw sheep and cows eating grass; do you believe that?"
"Of course," was again the reply.
"Well, the grass turned to feathers on the backs of the geese, to bristles on the backs of the swine, to white wool on the sheep, and to hair on the cow; do you believe that, gentlemen?"
"Certainly," they replied.
"But do you understand it?"
You see, the nature of a mystery is that it isn’t easily understood. And because mysteries are hard to understand… there are people who rebel at the idea of accepting those mysteries. As the man in the hotel lobby had said: "I will not believe anything that I do not understand."
I’ve heard people say that very thing: “If I can’t understand it… I can’t accept it”
ILLUS Tony Campolo was a theology professor in a secular college and had a student once who declared “For me to believe in God, I have to have a God that I can understand.”
Campolo smiled as he replied “God refuses to be that small.”
God refuses to be small enough for you or me to fully understand
In fact, it’s NOT POSSIBLE for us to fully understand Him. God Himself declared: “‘… my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9
You will never fully understand God because there will always be things about God that will always be a mystery.
So now, Paul tells us “the mystery of godliness is great”
III. But, what is THIS mystery?
Paul tells us: “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16
What’s Paul saying? He’s saying: Jesus is our mystery.
Jesus is our mystery because He was God in a flesh - appeared in a body.
Jesus is our mystery because He had such power and authority that He was vindicated by the Spirit beheld by the very angels in heaven and was taken up in glory.
Jesus is the mystery of godliness.
He is the foundation of all we say and do. Jesus is the reason we should read what is written in I Timothy and II Timothy and Ephesians, and Romans, and Hebrews and all the rest of Scripture. We should read those letters because their contents contain the type of godliness Jesus (our mystery) expects of us.
In SECOND Timothy 3:16-17 Paul tells us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
This book (the Bible) is not a collection of the writings of clever men.
This book is not a library of the thoughts and concepts of highly moral theologians.
THESE are the words of God. When we obey what is written within the pages of this book, when we attempt to mold our lives around what is written in a Bible letter like the one Paul wrote to Timothy - then we are pursuing godliness. We are attempting to make our lives pleasing to God.
IV. But what if I don’t agree with something that’s written in the Bible?
What if something that Paul wrote, or John wrote, or Luke wrote… what if something in one of the writings offends me? What if I don’t like what I’m reading?
Well. you don’t have to agree with what’s written. BUT you DO need to understand:
· The Bible is not a smorgasbord. You don’t get to pick and choose what you’re going to accept.
· You don’t get to vote on what you like and what you don’t like.
· You don’t get to tell Jesus "I’ll take a little of this and a little of that… and we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the rest."
NO…. you can’t do it that way.
The reason Paul tells us that Jesus is the MYSTERY of our GODLINESS is because:
Jesus is the final authority.
This is HIS book AND this is HIS church.
He sets the standards.
He tells us what is expected
And He can do that BECAUSE Jesus is the one who bought the church with His blood.
There is no other man or woman who has ever lived who has the right to alter one command or instruction given within the pages of your Bible.
If we agree to THIS standard then Jesus will be IN this church… and Jesus will be in our lives.
Too often Christians… and even churches fall into trap of saying: “I know that’s what the Bible says… but”
· our creed says
· our book of discipline maintains
· our church has always taught
I once encountered a preacher of a denominational church who declared something like the following: “I know what the Bible says, but we’ve become more cultured than the church of Jesus’ day. We’ve advanced to the point where we can make improvements on what they did back then.”
You know what are these people saying? They’re saying “We took a vote… and we made a few changes to make things more comfortable.”
What they basically did was substitute men’s reasonings for God’s. They have substituted the doctrines and teaching of men for the Word of God.
Jesus said: “You don’t want to go there!”
Jesus said: “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” Matthew 15:9
In other words, if we substitute what we prefer for what God has said our worship becomes vain/ empty/ worthless. You don’t want to go there!
V. In fact, our church doesn’t want to go there either
The Churches of Christ/ Christian churches have no creeds. We have no books of doctrine. Why? Because we want to avoid (at all costs) of falling into the trap of putting man’s doctrines above the teachings of God. That doesn’t mean we won’t fall into that error. It simply means we endeavor NEVER to say more than the Bible teaches… nor less.
Instead of “CREEDS” we have “mottos” we try to abide by.
Mottos like:
· “Where the Bible speaks we speak, where the Bible is silent we’re silent”
· “No book but the Bible, No creed but Christ, No law but love”
The whole purpose of those mottos is to remind ourselves that Jesus and His Word MUST be our ultimate authority. That doesn’t mean we’re always going to be successful… but it does mean that’s our fundamental objective.
VI. One last thought… (pause)
Paul tells us that Jesus is “the mystery of our godliness.”
ILLUS: I want to share a story I once read… and then I’ll tell you this last thought
A couple hundred years or so ago in Europe, the custodian (also called a Sexton) of a beautiful cathedral was putting things in order for the next days worship. This Cathedral was widely renowned for its beautiful pipe organ, and it seemed the entire from of the stage was dominated with the pipes of the organ. And when it was played, it sounded like the angels of heaven.
On this particular Saturday, the custodian was disturbed to see a visitor enter through the doors and approach him. The stranger wanted to know if he could look at the organ which he had heard so much about. The sexton was not sure he wanted a stranger to get so close to their celebrated instrument, but he conceded as long as this man didn’t touch it. The visitor went over to the organ and lovingly took it in its beauty, and then he pleaded that he be allowed just to play it for a short while. Annoyed, the custodian almost turned down this request. But something in the man’s eyes and manner changed his heart and he allowed that this man would be allowed to play, but only if he returned all the stops to their positions when he finished.
The stranger seated himself at the organ and began to play, softly at first and then building to a powerful crescendo. The custodian was startled to hear such beautiful music coming from the pipes and for a time he lost himself in the flow of its emotions. All too soon, the organist was finished, putting the stops back again and was walking down the aisle to leave. “Wait,” cried the sexton, “that was the most beautiful music I have ever heard. What is your name?”
The stranger turned and smiled. “My name is Felix Mendelssohn (one of the greatest composers of the day).
Commenting later to a friend, the custodian said “Just think, I almost kept the master from playing his music in my cathedral.”
Paul tells us that Jesus is “the mystery of our godliness”. Thus: We attain can attain godliness ONLY because Jesus is the mystery of our godliness. We can be godly only if Jesus plays His music in the cathedral of our lives. Jesus is what makes us godly.
You could obey every instruction in I Timothy.
You could abide by every command in the New Testament.
You could pray every day and attend church every Sunday
But if Jesus is not IN your life… Then you will never be godly in the eyes of the Father. As Colossians 1:27 declares: It is “…Christ in you, (which is) the hope of glory”
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES (“3:16 and Jesus”)
The Greatest Love - John 3:16-3:16
Why Was Jesus Baptized? - Matthew 3:1-3:17
The True Seed Of Abraham - Galatians 3:1-3:18
Is Jesus In Here? - 1 Timothy 3:14-3:16
