16, October 2005
Dakota Community Church
Mystery
I have three words I want you to think about this morning:
- The first is “desperation”. Are you desperate for the Lord in your life this morning? Have you come to worship with a sense of urgency? Don’t let this be a church attendance experience – get hungry - and don’t leave until you’re satisfied.
- The second word is “mystery”. Why do you think it is that God wants us to pursue Him? Why is there so much intrigue involved? Why doesn’t He just lay it all out in the open so we can really get the whole picture?
- The third and final word is “love”. The Bible tells us that God is love. Jesus said that basically all He requires of us is that we love God with everything we have, and that we love each other. Could these three things be related? Think about it!
1 Corinthians 2: 1-10
When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.
However, among the mature we do speak a wisdom, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man’s heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him. Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.
The word “mystery” is used 27 times in the New Testament. It comes from the Greek word “musterion” and means “a hidden secret”.
I love a good mystery! I’ve read literally hundreds of books (Everything by John Grisham, David Baldacci, Jack McDevitt, Orson Scott Card, and many others, and I’ve watched many TV shows and movies.
My favorites are the ones I don’t have figured out by the half way point. – “Sixth Sense”
Most good mysteries have a few things in common.
- A crime of some sort.
- A victim or victims.
- A bad guy.
- A hero
- A damsel in distress.
This mystery of God’s has each of these.
Three truths about this mystery:
1. God is the author of this mystery.
Have you ever finished a great mystery and thought, “Wow, I wish I could write like that!”?
Romans 16:25-27
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
Look at the first exchange between the beloved and her lover in Song of Songs:
Song of Solomon 1:7-8
Tell me where you’re working -I love you so much--Tell me where you’re tending your flocks, where you let them rest at noontime.
Why should I be the one left out, outside the orbit of your tender care?
If you can’t find me, loveliest of all women, it’s all right. Stay with your flocks. Lead your lambs to good pasture. Stay with your shepherd neighbors.
He’s playing hard to get!
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
1 Peter 1:10-12
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
2. This mystery is beyond human comprehension.
Mark 4:10-13
But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that
‘ Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’”
And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word.
The Holy Spirit must lead and guide us
John 16:12-16
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
The mystery is intermingled with everything in life.
- In marriage.
Ephesians 5:31-33
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
- In salvation.
Jesus is the force behind and the sustaining power in everything.
John 1:3-5, 10-13
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
We don’t take Jesus to people we simply make them aware of the source of every joy, every good thing that has ever happened in their lives.
Romans 1:20
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 2:14-15
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.
- In the Lord’s return.
1Corinthians 15:51-52
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
3. God is revealing the mystery to us by His Spirit.
Everyday if we pursue Him.
Matthew 16:15-17
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
On Fire - Switchfoot
Cause everything inside me looks like
Everything I hate
You are the hope I have for change
You are the only chance I’ll take
When I’m on fire - When You’re near me
I’m on fire - When You speak
And I’m on fire - Burning at these mysteries - These mysteries...
And I’m on fire - When You’re near me
I’m on fire - When You speak
(Yea) I’m on fire
Burning at these mysteries... these mysteries... these mysteries
Ah you’re the mystery - You’re the mystery
PowerPoint available on request - dcormie@mts.net
