the mysteries weren’t revealed to the apostles? are you sure?v
Jesus preached the law?
This is not the best explanation that I tried to find, but it will do....
This mystery . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Which we preach, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching men in all wisdom; that we may present every man
teleios –
that you might be initiated into the great secrets of God.[
Colossians 1:27-29]
It’s a crime, I tell you, for God’s people to live all of their lives and know nothing about the great mysteries and revelations and teachings of God! After they’ve been Christians forty years, don’t know any more about God, don’t know any more about the church, don’t know any more about the Bible than they did when they began. Paul says his task is “to teach the people the wisdom of God that we may present eyyvery man
teleios before the Lord” [
Colossians 1:29] – that you might know the great secrets and the great revelations and the great meanings of the Word of God.
Now, when your religion stops at
John 3:16 – we stand up, quote
John 3:16, and that’s all we know about it. We learned
John 3:16 when we were children, and after forty years, that’s still all we know! Paul says that’s not it, that’s not it. These initiations into the great mysteries of God, we are to know them. We are to love them. We ought to understand them. We ought to enter into them.
I think one of the greatest manifestations of the favor of God upon us is the attendance here at these 8:30 services where we’re trying to learn the mysteries of the Lord, the great secrets of the Almighty that He’s revealed here in the Book. And ninety-nine out of a hundred never understand, never know, never try. They have no hungering or thirsting after them.
We ought to grow in knowledge, in spiritual discernment, not being fed with milk as babes all our lives, but ready to eat strong meat [
1 Corinthians 3:1-2]. Go out in the deep with the Lord. Get out there! The Lord likes it!
Simon Peter said, “Lord, if it’s You, let me come – let me walk on the water!” And Jesus said, “Fine! I like a faith that will get over the board of the ship and walk on the water” [
Matthew 14:28-29].
Well that’s – I’m just tellin’ you what Paul says, that’s all. “This mystery, whom we preach, warning and teaching in all wisdom; that we may present everyone
teleios in Christ Jesus” [
Colossians 1:28] – fully initiated into all of the great truths of the Son of God.
Now, I haven’t time to expatiate upon this mystery – this mystery I’d call the mystery of the new birth, the mystery Christ dwelling in you, the mystery of being born again, the mystery of how we get to be a member of the household of faith and a member of the body of Christ.
Oh, Nicodemus, when he heard Jesus talk about that mystery, Nicodemus said, “How could such a thing be?” [
John 3:9]. And Jesus said, “Art thou a master in Israel, art thou” – the Greek is
ho didaskalos, the teacher in Israel – “and you do not know these things? You are not initiated into these wisdoms?” [
John 3:10] The mystery of Christ in us: regeneration [
Titus 3:5], born again [
John 3:3-8], members of the household of faith [
Ephesians 2:8-9].
All right, the third mystery: the third mystery is the mystery of the church –
Ephesians 3:1-10. And I will take no further time on that because the last two services, I have spoken on that passage. The mystery of the church – Ephesians [3:]1-10:
How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery . . .
Whereby, when ye read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, but is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. [
Ephesians 3:3-5]
Namely, that the Gentiles and the Jews were to be together in a church, an organism called the church [
Ephesians 3:6] – a thing that was hid from the old prophets and the old seers. And they never saw it this long distance of time between the sufferings of Christ and the glory of Christ and the dispensation of grace in between – what we call the church age.
That was a mystery. It was something they didn’t see [
Ephesians 3:5]. It was hidden in the heart and counsels of God until time came for it to be revealed. That’s the third mystery, the mystery of the church: that Jew and Gentile should be together in one great body called the church [
Ephesians 3:6].
All right, the fourth mystery – – and I hastily go over this one. I’ve spoken of it before. The fourth mystery is the mystery of the blindness of Israel, and that is discussed in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Romans. And I read just a verse: 25 and 26.
Romans 11:25-26 – the mystery of the blindness of Israel.
Listen to Paul. That’s the fourth mystery:
I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
But when that day comes, when that day comes, all Israel shall be saved. [from
Romans 11:25-26]
“I show you a mystery.” That is, this is something you’d never know. It’s a secret hid in God you’d never find out. It’s a revelation of God –
Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep –
we’re not all going to die –
but we shall all be changed –
transfigured, translated –
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. [
1 Corinthians 15:50-52]
Why, you could think and think and think and read Socrates and Plato and Aristophanes and Euripides and Marcos Aurelius and Schopenhauer five hundred million thousand years and you’d never know that. It’s a mystery. That is, it’s something that God had to reveal to us – this rapture, this translation of the church. It’s something God tells us, hid in His heart. That’s the fifth mystery.
Let’s go to the sixth one real quick. The sixth mystery is the revelation of the antichrist – the mystery of iniquity. In the second chapter of the second Thessalonian letter,
Second Thessalonians 2:1-9, that’s the sixth mystery:
Now the last one, real quick like. The seventh mystery is the mystery of the bride of Christ – the bride of Christ, the church – the bride of Christ. Now that’s in
Ephesians 5:22-32. Ephesians 5, verse 22 to 32: “Wives,” then he speaks of the wife and her husband, “As the husband is the head of the wife, so Christ is the head of the church. Husbands, as Christ loved the church, gave Himself for it” [from
Ephesians 5:22-25] and so on