| A Mystery That Is No Longer A Mystery | |
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I want to ask you to do something for me. Listen very closely to a definition of the word "Mystery." I have several of them.
What it really means is this, unless you are personally involved, a member or an insider, then things remain a mystery. But to believers in Christ in the true church the world over, it is no longer a mystery. Now let me begin. Jesus had just told a parable in Mark 4: 1-9 of the sower who went out to sow the seed. Let me show you a mental picture, if I may. The sower in those days wore a bag slung over his shoulder and in this bag (sometimes it was a skin or whatever) there was seed. He would reach into the bag and take out a handful of seed and he would scatter it, and another handful of seed, and he would scatter it. So no matter where he went, he would reach into his container for another handful of seed and he would distribute, or sling, that seed and as a result, the Bible says, some landed on the path, some landed in the stones, some landed where they were supposed to, and some didn't, so the seed that landed in the hardened path and rocks and stones only produced about 30% and those that landed in a not so good and prepared place produced about 60%, but those that were scattered out here in front really produced as they were supposed to produce. I am not going to go into the parable today to talk to you about all the implications of who are the 30 percenters and who are the 60 percenters and who are the 100 percenters. I'm not going to talk to you about the type of soil in your heart, that is, stony, rocky, hard, trampled down by foot, whether it's over here among the weeds and the weeds are stronger and more powerful and more deeply rooted, so they suck up more moisture and more goodness out of the ground, so the seed is starving and it's puny. I'm not going to get into the parable. The parable isn't the object of today's lesson; what Jesus said next is the point I want to bring to your attention. Looking at verse 10, right after the parable, it says this, "Now when Jesus was alone (it doesn't mean alone, but alone with the twelve and a few others around Him) they asked Him what the parable was all about; and He said to them, 'For you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are on the outside (a modern language translation puts it this way: The secrets of God's kingdom are committed to you, but to outsiders these matters all come in parables)' ". In the Living Bible it is put in a rather interesting way. It says, "And Jesus replied to them, 'You are permitted to know some truths about the kingdom of God that remain hidden to those outside of the kingdom.' " So Jesus said, "To you who are with me, to you who are part of the kingdom of God, to those of you who have believed in me and have made your decision to follow me, to you the unknown becomes known and the secret is revealed. Because you are with me, everything the Father tells me, I will share or reveal to you." So a mystery need not remain a mystery. We do not have to continue to scratch our head and say, "I can't figure that out. I can't understand that. I don't understand that." The Bible says He has given to His own the ability to know, to understand and to comprehend. Why? Because believers have resident in them the Spirit of God, Who is our personal Tutor and Instructor, Who will open the eyes of our understanding so that we may KNOW what the Word of God is saying. The outsider cannot know because they have no personal tutor, they have no one to help them or lead them or guide them because they are still out there as sheep without a shepherd. They don't know. The natural man and the natural mind cannot understand spiritual things. Spiritual things must be understood spiritually, by a spiritual person. Now that is not talking about the quality or the quantity of your spirit, but the fact that your spirit has been awakened and now you are a spirit being and, therefore, the mysteries of the kingdom need not remain mysteries to you because you are an insider, because you are a follower, because you are a believer, because you are one with Him and He said, The things the Father tells me, I will share with you, so that we will all understand. How else is it ever going to be possible that the two of us become one if you know it all and I know nothing? If everything to you is wide open, but everything to me is still a mystery and still is shrouded in secrecy? It can't happen. So He says, "Because it is given to you to know" and to know that you know, so that you need not guess, if you face some perplexity, you need not be blown by every wind of doctrine and knocked into oblivion, because you know, and you know that you know. "I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." I know that God has a plan for me and He has a plan to prosper me and not to harm me; and He has a plan for my future, and I know that, and this has got to be part of the plan or I wouldn't be going through it. He said, "I'm not going to give you anything that's bigger or more difficult or tougher than what you can handle, but in every situation I will provide for you everything you need to see you through." So if you've got it, God knows you can handle it, so don't let it throw you. God knows you can handle it or it wouldn't be a part of your life, so handle it properly. With God, all things are possible. Now let me go on to another one. Paul is writing to the church at Rome and in the writings he writes about this marvelous grafting in process. He says something that looks almost dead can be grafted in to something that is alive and if the graft is proper and good and if disease and infection are kept out of it, all of a sudden that which was almost dead now becomes very much alive and becomes fruitful. So he is talking to the church at Rome about how wonderful it is to realize that we have been part of God's grafting in process. Let me shed a little more light on this. First of all, the Gospel was to be given to the Jewish nation, the Israelites, but the Bible says the Israelites refused to accept their Messiah and God turned His attention from the Jewish nation to the gentiles. Are you with me? So the Bible says He came to His own (talking about Jesus) but His own received Him not. So then He turns His attention and He brings the Gospel first to Cornelius' house, so the Gospel goes from the Jewish nation to the gentiles; and now because one grafting process was not allowed to take place (the Jews) He turns His attention now to what He calls a "wild olive branch." He likens the gentiles to a wild olive branch. He said, You were nothing, but because somebody else refused me, you now have the opportunity, you wild olive branches, to be grafted in. How many thank God today along with me that the Gospel came to the gentiles? If it hadn't, we would not be included in the family of God. What Paul is saying to the church at Rome is this: God turned His attention to the gentiles and they are spoken of as wild olive branches and they had the opportunity to hear the message and they believed the message and were grafted into the True Vine, which is Christ. Watch this now. He went on to tell them in verse 18 of Romans 11, But you must be careful (speaking to the gentiles of the church at Rome) not to brag about being put in to replace the branches that were broken off. Remember, he says, you are only important because you are now a part of God's tree. You are only important now because you have been grafted in, so quit your cock crowing and putting out your chest as something unusual; quit bragging about it and walking around with all kinds of braggadocio and a big head, because simply as a result of the Jews' refusing to accept the Messiah, you have been given a chance. I tell you what, friends. Today, if you were to listen to many preachers in many pulpits, particularly so when the television cameras are on and the movie cameras are going, you would think they were God's gift, that they were really something; when really all they are is a wild olive branch that God gave a chance to be grafted in because somebody else refused. So He says this in verse 25, "So that you might not be so self opinionated, brethren, I want you to understand this mystery, lest you be wise in your own opinions and blinded to what God will soon some day do again" - and that is, turn away from the gentiles and back to the Jews, and the Bible says all Israel shall be saved. But right now the Gospel is come to OUR side, to the gentile world. Thank God for His mercy and His grace and His kindness! But He says, "Don't get all puffed up in all your opinions and all the rest of it because God gave you an opportunity when somebody else refused their opportunity." In I Corinthians 2 Paul tells the church at Corinth that he didn't come to them with enticing words of men's wisdom or with excellence of speech or wisdom, "declaring unto you the testimony of God." And he goes on to say something that I think is very interesting. He says, "When I am among mature Christians, I do speak words of great wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that is known to this world." What comes to mind is, The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Man at his brilliance is such foolishness to God it's not even funny. So Paul says, "I come to you speaking words of wisdom, but not the kind that comes from this world." Instead, he says, "We give expression of divine wisdom in the form of a mystery. Wisdom that has been hidden. None of this world's rulers have understood it. Had they understood it, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory." Wow! What a statement! He said, "The wisdom that I use is not the wisdom of this world. The wisdom that I use is God's great mystery, hidden for ages and generation upon generation, but now open and understandable to you, and that's the wisdom that I share with you, not enticing words of man's wisdom, but divine revelation and the wisdom of God." He said, "We come speaking words of wisdom the world knows nothing about, but you do because God has opened the eyes of your understanding. A mystery no longer a mystery to you because you are an insider and God shares His heart with His children." The world says, "Huh?" And the believer says, "Wow!" The world says, "Ah, that's a whole bunch of gobbledegook to me. That book is the driest thing. Every time I open that book and start to say something, dust rolls out of my mouth. That's how dry that book is." Not to a believer! It's like honey in the comb. So he says a mystery no longer remains a mystery to you because you are an insider, privileged to divine revelation. Remember what Jesus said one day to Peter when Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Yes, and flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, Peter, but my Father, which is in heaven." So if you know something and it's powerful in your life, don't crow about it. It was given to you to know and understand the mysteries of the kingdom. They don't need to be question marks any more. Straighten it out and make an exclamation point out of it. God by His Spirit will do that in your life; if you are hungry and you want to know you just simply say, "God, I really need to know what that says; I really need to know what that portion of scripture is saying; I really want to know; I need to have some spiritual insight here so that the Word will become alive to me" - He will then begin to breathe upon that Word and it will become alive to you because your spiritual Tutor and Mentor living inside will take the veil off your eyes and will remove the doubt and clean out your spiritual eyes so as to be able to SEE and understand what God is saying to you. He wants you to know! Paul now is addressing the church at Colosse and he tells them in Colossians 1:25, "I have become a minister of the church by divine appointment." I wish there were more ministers today who could say that. So many of them are mommy called and daddy sent. But Paul the apostle said, "I have become a minister of the church by divine appointment that was given to me to preach fully to you the Word of God." Verse 26: "The secret that was hidden from ages and generations past, but which is now revealed to you, (in the Living it says, "But now at last it has pleased Him to tell it to those who love Him and live for Him") and this is the secret, Christ in you, the hope of glory." This is the secret! Now you don't have to go through form any more. Now you don't have to depend on your priest any longer. Now you don't have to make sacrifices any longer. Because God has made it possible for you to have this resurrected Christ, this Lord Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, Who came and became a living sacrifice to take away your sin, not yours only, but the sins of the whole world. He suffered, bled and died, was buried, but rose again for your justification. He is seated at the Father's right hand. He is interceding for you. And it's possible for you to have this One, this Christ, this Jesus, this Lord of glory, living inside you! AND he goes on further to say, "If you ever expect to make heaven your home, this is the only way that it is possible. Christ in you, the hope of glory." Now, hidden for ages, secrets now revealed, to followers! Now remember, Paul was also the one who said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16), for it is the power of God unto salvation to whoever believes, to the Jew first, and then to the gentile." Then he went on to say that there is no difference between bound or free, it doesn't make any difference; educated, uneducated, it doesn't matter; older or younger, it doesn't matter. He said it doesn't matter if you are red or yellow, black or white. All are precious in His sight. It doesn't matter to Him. The fact of the matter is, the Gospel, this Savior, this Jesus, can come and live in you and give you hope for today and hope for tomorrow and an eternal abiding place with Him, Christ, the hope of glory. This was a mystery, hidden for generations. Before, it was only symbolic of that which was going to happen. Every time they took an animal and shed its blood, it was a picture of Jesus. Every time they had to select another sheep out of the fold and offer it on the altar of sacrifice, it was a picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Every sacrifice, bulls and goats and turtle doves and whatever you could afford, was a picture of a coming day when One Sacrifice once for all would satisfy the demands of God for the washing away of our sins. How many are thankful? He said, "I'm just tired of the blood of bulls and goats. I'm tired of the stench. I'm tired of the rigamarole. I'm tired of the ritual. I'm tired of the form. I'm tired of all of it, and I'm sending my Son once for all , a complete sacrifice for sin." And now He says this mystery, hidden for ages, kept behind the shroud, known only to God, is revealed, it's done, it's over. The Son of God gave His life, was buried, but rose again. He ascended to the Father's right hand, sat down at the Father's right hand, Mission Accomplished. The job is done. And now, he said, the great mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. You can face a lot of things through life and you can go through some dark, dark tunnels and some deep and grinding valleys and some fiery trials and tests, but as long as you know Christ is in you, then you have hope. You can go through life and it seems to you that this friend and that friend and this group and the other group drops you like you were a hot coal of fire, but you will never, ever be abandoned by the One Who says, "I am a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And this is the mystery that need not remain a mystery any longer. You can have Christ Jesus living in you, the Hope of glory. Secrets now revealed to His followers, Jew, gentile, bond or free, red or yellow, black or white, young or old, educated or not. Jesus can now live in you and if He does, you will share everlasting life and a place with God in a place that He has gone to prepare for you. And He said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I am not going to leave it empty. I will come again and receive you unto myself." Oh! Now we're going back to I Corinthians 15 that we talked about in the early part of this service. "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up, together, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The old hymn of the church says, "Where Jesus is, 'tis heaven there." So you see, I'm simply saying to you today, hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people around you that you rub elbows with every day scratch their heads and say, "I just, that is, uh, I don't even want to go there, because I just can't figure any of that out and I have a real problem believing anything that I can't figure out." But to you, because you have exercised faith in something that you couldn't figure out, now you can have Jesus living in you, the Hope of glory. And now because He is living in you, the "figuring out" is a daily process of divine revelation, because you are an insider. He shares everything with the insiders. He will give you inside information. Let me close this way. No longer a mystery. Now the truth is out. Oh, how the message needs to be preached, and its message carried out, and it is this: It is God's eternal purpose that His people should come to know the thrill of a mystery revealed - Christ in you! All the other religions have nothing to compare with this. They can't even come close. We have and we know the great hidden secrets of God. The message is out. You can have Jesus. There is an old, old song that I was tempted to sing, but let me just share with you some of the words instead of singing it. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.Look at this now. Paul is dealing with the gentile church and the first thing that we must notice when he is dealing with this gentile church is this fantastic mystery: A Jewish person, Jesus, dwelling in a gentile heart, the only hope of glory. That's the message to you and that's the message to me. No matter who you are or what you've done or what your background is or your ethnicity, the message is Jesus can live in you, making us all one in the faith. This is our message and this is what we live and breathe. The little chorus says, "Everybody ought to know who Jesus is." If you don't, you can, and you should, and if you're standing on the outside and you're not as yet inside, privy to what is going on, you can be. It only takes a moment to simply say with a heart of absolute honesty, "Dear Jesus, I'm sorry I've lived as long as I have without You. Please come into my heart. Forgive me of all my sins. I accept your forgiveness. I believe my name is right now being written down in the Lamb's book of life. I believe that God has ordered this day and this time for me to become a believer. The mystery need no longer be a mystery to me. It's plain as day." |