Ephesians 6:19
Top Secret
Colossians 1:26 Even the mystery which hath
been hid from ages and from generations, but
now is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory:
Colossians 2:2 That their hearts might be
comforted, being knit together in love, and unto
all riches of the full assurance of
understanding, to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, and of
Christ;
Colossians 4:3 Withal praying also for us, that
God would open unto us a door of utterance, to
speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bonds:
Notice the word used in all of these verses, "mystery." Do you enjoy
a good mystery?
I. What is a mystery?
A. A Bible mystery is something that is unknown and unknowable
unless God reveals it.
1. The word or some form of it is used 27 times in the New
Testament.
2. That is not 27 different mysteries as some mysteries are
mentioned more than once and sometmies an actual
mystery is not revealed.
3. But the fact remains that God reveals many mysteries in
the New Testament that were never made know.
B. These mysteries are not revealed in the Old Testament.
1. The Old Testament Scriptures will not speak of them and
the Jews did not know about them.
2. These truths were kept locked away.
II. Question: Why was God hiding these mysteries? The Bible does not
say, but there seems to be only a few logical reasons.
A. They were surprises that God wanted to keep for the New
Testament Saints.
1. The Old Testament saints got their share of surprises.
a. They got to meet God at the burning bush, to hear
His voice on Sinai, to follow Him through the
Red Sea, to see fire fall from heaven, to watch
as He defeated seven nations mightier than they.
b. Miracle after miracle, prophet after prophet,
deliverance after deliverance - They had their
surprises.
2. Maybe these mysteries were the surprises God saved for
us.
3. I think it is a good possibility. We all like
surprises, even when we know they are coming. That is
the reason why we spend as much money on wrapping
paper as we do on the present. We want to see the
joy of people when they are surprised. Perhaps that
is why God made mysteries and revealed them in the
New Testament.
4. But I think there is more.
B. I think God wanted to keep the truth from someone, someone
who if he had known what was going to happen would have
done things differently.
1. I am not sure that God had to work to keep these
mysteries from the Old Testament saints.
a. I am not attempting to insult the Jews but God
put a lot of information right out in the open
and they missed it.
b. Hiding from them did not seem to be very necessary.
2. One Bible verses sheds some light on why God kept
truths to Himself.
1Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew:
for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.
a. Notice the word mystery is used in this text as
well. Paul was revealing our first mystery.
b. And Paul says that God kept the mystery a secret
because if had been known, the rulers would have
never crucified Jesus.
c. What was the mystery?
1. It was the crucifixion. Paul mentioned it in the
verse.
2. No one knew about the cross in the Old Testament.
God did not reveal enough information so that
they could.
3. The Bible spoke of Christ’s suffering, the bulls
of Bashan gathering around Him, being able to see
His own bones, but the crucifixion itself was
unknown when the Old Testament was written.
4. Crucifixion was not invented until the Old
Testament was closed between 300 and 400 BC. At
which time, it was invented by the Persians.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/apr/08/
thisweekssciencequestions
3. But from WHOM did God keep this truth?
a. "From the princes of this world" \\#8\\.
b. The word "princes" comes a Greek word to mean "the
first" or the highest rulers over this world.
c. I think there were two sets of high leaders that
did not completely understand the crucifixion.
1. I alreaady mentioned that I am not sure He
needed to hide anything from the Jewish
rulers. They just were not looking.
2. But what about Piliate?
(a) Pilate actually interogated Jesus more and
better than the Jews.
(b) And he was asking the right questions: Who
are You?
(c) Apparrently, Pilate never figured it out—at
least not completely.
(d) The verse says that if he had, he would not
have crucified the Lord of Glory.
(e) The WHO that hung on the cross was TOP
SECRET, at least from some eyes.
3. I think there were spiritual rulers there that did
not understand the crucifixion.
(a) What details did the devil and his demons not
understand?
(b) They certainly knew WHO Jesus was.
(c) They had been advertising His identity for
years: sometimes asking Him for mercy and
sometimes mocking Him.
(d) What the spiritual high powers did not
understand about the crucifixion is WHAT IT
WOULD DO.
(e) They did not know that the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ would pay for the sins of
mankind.
(f) Had they known, they would not have crucified
the Lord of Glory!
(g) Hence, details of the crucifixion were kept
TOP SECRET by God Himself.
III. The TOP SECRET.
A. So our first mystery \\#1Cor 2:7-8\\, the cross.
B. Our second mystery.
1. In the book of Ephesians, the word mystery is used 6x.
That’s almost a quarter of the total number times used.
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his
will, according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself:
2. Paul was saying that God had made known to US what had
been a mystery concerning God’s will or God’s plan.
3. In the next verse, he revealed what the mystery was.
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness
of times he might gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and
which are on earth; even in him:
4. What was the mystery?
a. That "he," God," might gather together in one all
things in Christ."
b. Paul was speaking of the church.
c. In fact, Paul several of the references in the book of
Ephesians are references to the church.
Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ:
d. You and I are a part of something that no Old
Testament saint ever imagined or conceived.
(1) The fellowship which is the church has no
parallel in the history of mankind.
(2) God conceived the church before the world was
ever formed, but kept it a complete and total
secret.
(3) To my knowledge, there is absolutely no Scripture
about or even a hint of the church in the Old
Testament.
(4) The Jewish mind would have and does to this day
reject the notion that Jews and Gentiles could
be part of the same work of God.
(5) To the blinded Jewish mind, the church is and has
been a deviant heresy, something to be rejected
without being given a second, or for that
matter, even a first thought.
(6) Little do they know that in order for them to
worship God at all in this age of grace, they
have to do it through the church!
e. But it is not just the fellowship that the church
provides between all saved humans. It is also the
fellowship that we have with God.
Ephesians 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I
speak concerning Christ and the church.
(1) New Testament saints have a union with God that
was never possible in the Old Testament.
(2) And it is interesting that God speaks of the
fellowship not just between God and the
individual believe but of God and the collective
body, the church.
(a) Do not let anyone tell you the church is not
important.
(b) It is not the individuals that God works
within this age.
(c) It is the church, the body of believers.
(d) And it does not matter whether we are
talking about the local body or the full
body of believers.
(e) God uses, works through, calls from, and
blesses the church.
(f) God did not die for home Bible studies, or
para-church organizations, or small group
applications. He died for the church.
Eph 5:25 …Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it;
f. What a mystery. What a secret! It has been TOP
SECRET!
g. The church is just one of the mysteries of the New
Testament.
C. In \\#Matt 13:11\\, Jesus began a chapter of seven parables
about God’s earthly kingdom by stating He was revealing the
"mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" to His disciples.
1. In those parables Jesus described the explosive growth of
His kingdom, the enemy’s strategy against His kingdom,
and the ultimate purification of His kingdom to the
disciples.
2. Much of that is still not understood as Jesus revealed
those truths in parable so that only the saved could
comprehend the truths tucked away in them.
D. In \\#2Thess 2:7\\, Paul spoke of the "mystery of iniquity"
that was working in the world and would keep on working until
the Power that was holding it back was taken out of its way.
E. In 1Timothy 3, Paul spoke about the power of both "the mystery
of faith" \\#1Tim 3:9\\ and "the mystery of godliness."
F. Our text verse, \\#Eph 6:19\\, gave us a mystery:
1. Paul asked for prayer that he might "make known the
mystery of the gospel."
2. The gospel was a mystery.
G. And there are others but let me close by saying one of the
most exciting mysteries is the one that many Christians today
still do not understand.
1. It is the mystery of the rapture of the church.
1Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed,
2. Suddenly and without warning, every true believer in Jesus
Christ will be changed and caught up together with Jesus
to be with Him forever.
3. Some would ask, "What is so mysterious about this?"
a. People in churches like ours are exposed to this truth
much more than people in some churches.
(1) Many have never heard of the rapture at all
because many so-called preachers do not believe
in it.
(2) Many who have heard scoff at the notion of such
a miraculous event taking place. They put it in
same category Jonah and the Whale or a Seven-
Day Creation.
b. But even people in churches like ours do not really
believe in the sudden and total removal of the saved
from this earth for if they did, they would live
differently.
(1) Our lives give us away that we do not believe in
the rapture or, at the least, we do not think
about the rapture of the church.
(2) Such knowledge is still unknown to many.
(3) It has been classified by God as TOP SECRET.
These are some of our surprises, our New Testament gifts from God.
Perhaps you are familiar with them already, but I hope you enjoy a
good mystery.
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