Col No.11 The Mystery

Gospel of Luke chapter 8, there Jesus is found telling the famous parable of the sower and the seed which fell on a variety of grounds. Now whatever your version of the Bible might be we ask you to join with us in the reading and if you take the odd-numbered verses and I will come in on verse 4 and the even ones following. So that's Luke's gospel chapter 8 commencing with the fourth verse.

And when much people were gathered together and were come to Jesus out of every city he spake by a parable and some fell upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture. Another fell on good ground and sprang up and bear fruit and hundredfold and when he had said these things he cried, he that hath ears to hear let him hear. And Jesus said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but to others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.

Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. Amen.

Now if you have a Bible with you I'd be glad if you turn to Colossians and chapter 1 and if you haven't a Bible then the two verses that we're looking at in particular are written out on our weekly bulletin and I suggest that you consider them during the time of our meditation from God's Word. Let me read to you from the 24th verse down to the 27th verse of Colossians 1. Paul who has been made a minister, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake which is the church whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints 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.

It's our practice at the tabernacle here to go through scripture in an expository fashion and we have for quite a long number of weeks been looking into this first chapter of this magnificent letter that Paul writes to the church at Colossae and just to set the context so that visiting friends are aware of the significance of the message that I bring this morning let me tell you that in these verses the Apostle is really being quite personal which is unusual for him. Not very often you get autobiographical references in these letters that Paul wrote but here is one of the exceptions that proves the rule. He's been referring to the fact that he has been appointed to a specific duty within the Church of Jesus.

That's really what concerned us last week. We'd referred to the suffering that he has experienced as an ambassador of the gospel but in the 25th verse in particular he tells us about the very role that he is to play as an ambassador for God. Here is the description of his office.

He is a servant. Here is the derivation of his authority. He's made a servant of God.

He receives the authority of God to exercise his ministry. Here is its direction. This ministry of which he has stewardship which is the best translation of the word dispensation.

It's directed towards the general community. It's given to me for you and here is the determination of the Apostle. What is his overriding ambition? Well it's to fulfill the Word of God.

That means to declare with all clarity and comprehensiveness the message of the Lord but he's got something else to tell us. You see that message of God he has referred to just in terms of the Word of God but he hasn't described it. He hasn't really told us what this stewardship is all about and that's why the Spirit of God leads him on to the 26th and the 27th verses and here having told us that he has been called to be a servant of the Lord, granted a stewardship, an oversight of certain things, he now describes the nature of his stewardship.

What it's all about. In effect he's defining the gospel and I'm always glad when I come across scripture that defines the gospel because there's one thing that really moves my heart and gives me tremendous sense of joy. It is to preach the gospel in clarity on a Sunday morning God willing.

Well how would you describe the gospel my friend? Those of you who have been Christians for a long time maybe you would say well it's good news. You've been well instructed because that's what the word gospel means originally and some of you who perhaps have a little bit more theological knowledge will say well you know it's the it's the word of reconciliation and again full marks it's the gospel that reconciles a man with God that the Apostle has made reference to earlier in this epistle in the 21st verse in particular. But would you ever call the gospel a mystery? Well if you wouldn't here's news because that's what the gospel is.

So the Apostle uses that word twice does he not in these two verses even the mystery which has been hid from the ages. God has made known verse 27 what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Why does Paul use that word mystery in describing the gospel? Well stay with me for a while and give me your concentration because I promise you that this will stimulate you and enlighten you in an understanding of what the essentials of the gospel are if hitherto you have been ignorant of this.

Paul's writing to Greeks. He's writing centuries ago. He might well have been writing to Freemasons today.

Why do I say that? Well you see the Greeks in their pagan religion they knew a lot of initiation rites, a lot of ceremonies. These were very often secret things and the one word used to describe these were mysteries. And here was a pagan Greek feeling so satisfied and smug and complacent because he had been ushered into the mysteries of sometimes witchcraft and the black arts and pagan superstitions.

But the Apostle says do fellows there at Colossae, you sisters, do you know what the real mystery is? The key to the understanding of life? It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the Apostle is not just zooming in on Greek culture and plucking out a word and using that as the only reference. He's got right to employ such terminology as this because way back in the Old Testament there's a man by the name of Daniel and he was a sort of cabinet minister in the government of Nebuchadnezzar.

And Nebuchadnezzar he suffered occasionally from insomnia and when he did go to sleep he had pretty horrific dreams. At least I wouldn't like what he experienced every night. And on one occasion he woke up and he didn't understand the dream that he'd had and he wanted somebody to interpret what he'd forgotten, which seems to me to be quite a problem for anyone.

And Daniel is brought into the cart and he's asked because he's known as a man with spiritual discernment. And Daniel has this to say about Nebuchadnezzar and the understanding of dreams. The 19th verse of the prophecy that bears his name in the second chapter.

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. And then in the 28th and 29th verses, Daniel before the king reveals the meaning of the dream that disturbed Nebuchadnezzar but he had forgotten it. And Daniel says, there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

And so Daniel goes on and he describes this dream perfectly and interprets it and he says it's a mystery that God has made known. Now we haven't time to go into that any further but just hold that in mind because it's interesting for an understanding of the word mystery is used in the New Testament. Now I come on to the teaching of Jesus and to the parable that we read earlier.

You know the parable of the sower and how the seed fell in a variety of grounds and had a variety of responses. And Jesus when he put forth the parable said that it was to show the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And those who understood what he was talking about they had been initiated into the secret.

So here's the Old Testament making reference to a mystery. Here is Jesus making reference to a mystery. And when the Apostle talks about the gospel to the Colossians he uses the word mystery to describe it.

And not only there when for instance he's writing to the church at Rome. Right at the end of that letter the 16th chapter and the 26th verse is very interesting because he says that now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. What's he talking about? Well the 25th verse the one before tells you.

Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. Let me give you one other example of this. Here's the Apostle writing to the Ephesians.

Right at the end of the letter he asks for their prayers. Why does Paul want the Ephesians to pray for him? Well he says in the 19th verse will you pray for me that as a preacher I might be successful? Ephesians 6 19 and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So what have we decided so far? Well the conclusion is obvious.

The gospel is referred to in the New Testament in terms of a mystery. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations. Does that mean to say that the Old Testament have got no anticipation of the gospel at all? No that's not the case.

But you can't understand the work of God in salvation just from the Old Testament because the Old Testament is like God's finger pointing to future days and saying wait a while don't be impatient for you will see the plan come into fruition that I've had in my mind ever since the beginning of time. The Old Testament had some idea that God was going to forgive the sins of men and women. It has more than an idea that in Abraham's seed, his descendants, all the world is going to be blessed.

That was known in the Old Testament that God was going to do something phenomenal but how he was going to do it that remained a mystery until the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and his life, his death, his resurrection could be referred to in terms of the unfurling of a great secret. Lord you told Abraham that somehow through his descendants the whole world would be improved. Jesus is one of his descendants and Jesus not only will benefit the Jewish community by his life, his death, his resurrection, his total ministry but says the Apostle and this adds to the mystery.

The Lord Jesus Christ would benefit non-Jews, Gentile people, verse 27 of Colossians 1, 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. So what have we discovered so far? That here in the Old Testament lay a mystery that was hidden. You could say that it was latent.

That word describes something that's there but is not observable. Latent in the Old Testament is the gospel but when the gospel message comes to fruition in Jesus, will it be of particular benefit to the Jews alone? No. The extent of the gospel is here referred to in the 26th and 27th verses, not just to the Jews but the whole world, Gentile and Jew, shall be benefited by the gospel of Jesus.

So to the word latent, add the word extent and you'll get the teaching of Paul in these two verses. But there's one more word that really you need to grasp fully what the gospel and this mystery is all about and it's the word content. What is this mystery? Well, says the Apostle, I've referred to it before but now let me do so in praisey fashion so that it's very clear 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.

You say what does that mean? The reason why Jesus came into this world was to deal not only with the sins of Jewish people who believe in him but the sins of Gentile people too. And the possibility is this, no the certainty is this, that when a man stands as it were before the cross of the Lord Jesus and confesses his sin and says Lord Jesus I believe that you have unfurled God's plan of redemption and you have died for the things that I have done that are wrong then that man not only has absolution but Jesus enters into his heart and life. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

But how does Christ enter into my life? He enters by faith. Ah, but you say that's where I go wrong. I've got so little faith.

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that somehow or other he died to save me. I was taught that years ago as a little boy or as a little girl. But my faith is just a small faith, so very tiny, so very microscopic.

Have you ever been in an attic that wasn't properly watertight? Maybe a slate was missing and there you were in the attic and it was a sunny day and there's a tiny crack. Now you know that the Sun is thousands of times bigger than the earth and yet the Sun's rays from this gigantic source can get through the crack in that attic and start to illuminate it. And the marvel, the mystery of the gospel is this, that the love of Jesus and the cleansing power of the Lord Jesus can get through the very crack of faith in your personality so that Jesus can enter into you and bring you the knowledge of sins forgiven.

If you got up this morning at an early hour and you saw just the beginnings of the sunshine coming through your Venetian blinds and you thought, oh lovely, it's going to be a great day. Then the next step you probably took was to wind up the blind so that all the sunshine came in. And that's just what happens when Christ enters into our hearts.

A little bit of faith, you don't understand it, this whole doctrine of assurance, of sins forgiven, that terminology is beyond your comprehension. But you've got that small microscopic piece of faith which you offer to God and the very sunshine of the salvation of Jesus, hear me, can steal into your heart, into your personality, and absolutely transform you. And that's a mystery, that this great God in heaven can shine forth with the dynamo of the gospel into the hearts of folks who just have a particle of faith.

Christ in you, by faith, Christ enters into you and, if you like, by possession. I don't have much breakfast. I'm not boasting, it's just one of those things.

I don't seem to think much of food until about 12 o'clock. But my wife brought in to my little study at home the early hours of this morning just a small French roll and butter. And you know something that rolls in me right now? It's part of me.

Now I'm not suggesting that the sergeant larder is sometimes illegally filled, but even if you could disprove the ownership of that French roll, that it wasn't really ours, well, possession is nine points of the law and in this case it's ten points. I've got it, it's in my system. Nobody can extract it from me.

Christ in me. When the Lord Jesus enters into my life as my Savior, all the demons in hell, all the cynics and the scoffers and the professors of theology and philosophy in this world who are against the biblical revelation, can't take from me what is already in me. Christ in me by faith, by possession, by experience.

I have trouble from time to time with one of the discs in my back and I guess if there was medication that could always relieve me of the pain, then I'd take it. But you can imagine, armed with my prescription, I go to the chemist and he gives me the tablets that my doctor has written down on that piece of paper and then I take it home and I look at those tablets and I stare at those tablets and I know that when there's pain in my back that those tablets will relieve me of the pain. Unless I take the medication, it doesn't improve me one whit.

But when I take the tablet and it's consumed and absorbed into my system, then it does me good throughout my body and it stops the pain. Christ in me, entering into my personality, in me in a curative way, forgiving me from my sins, bathing his spirit, my spirit with his holiness, filling me with his love, firing me with zeal. Christ in me.

The steel city of Sheffield from which I come. Whereabouts Peter Edwards did some service in the RAF, if I heard him aright. Fortunate man to be trained in the north of England.

I've often, because my father worked in the steel mills there, I've often watched the steel in the furnaces. I've seen sometimes crude metal bars thrust into the white hot heat of the center of the furnace and after a few minutes the heat has so entered into the metal that you can hardly detect the difference between the metal and the fire itself. The one has almost transfigured itself into the other.

Christ in me. So that eventually the knowledge that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ not only becomes a deep-seated conviction in my life, but it's observable to those who have to deal with me. This is part of the splendid mystery of the gospel.

That the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the predictions of the Old Testament and offers both to Jew and to Gentile salvation through faith in Him. Answers the Apostle. This is the hope of glory.

There are those in this world who are spent of hope. Some of the cleverest men as eventide has dawned in their lives have not known how to cope with advancement in years. So HG Wells writes his book Mind at the end of his tether.

So one of the Oxford professors at the turn of outbreak of the World War writes in his diary that the autumn of his life has come and he only can anticipate the chillier days of winter. He must try not to lose hope yet there doesn't seem to be anything on the horizon for him. But how contrasting is the Christian understanding and experience of the gospel when the Christian reaches senior years and he knows that Christ in him is the hope of glory and when his earthly body decays and his soul his spirit is released it goes back to God its maker and there in the heavenly dimension he continues to exist to the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus.

Now this is a mystery but it's not a mystery beyond comprehension. It's not a mystery that only the philosophers and those with an incisive mind can come to understand. This is the mystery of God's program that he had in mind before the world was created not to let it spin on its course to a Christless eternity to condemnation but he had in mind through the seed of Abraham to bring to this world one who would be his own son who would hang on Calvary's cross for all the consequences of our rebellion and our disobedience and the Lord Jesus as a result of that death and the mighty resurrection which the father granted him has released into humankind for those who will appropriate it by faith.

Salvation. And that in a word is what it's all about. The mystery of the gospel.

You know something my friend this morning used in a different context my privilege has been this. That of the Apostle Paul. Behold I have shown you a mystery.

How men and women outside of Christ can enter into a relationship with him. Ah but listen to me. The hearing of what I have had to say is not sufficient in and of itself and that's the reason why we read the parable of the sower which left the lips of a greater teacher than ever has inhabited this pulpit.

Jesus spelt out that lovely parable in clear words and yet he said that there would be some amongst his hearers who having heard the story having heard the mysteries of the kingdom would still not come to a place where they had expressed faith in him and accepted the gospel message. And you can go out of this sanctuary this morning with your intellect grasping something of the truth but the experience of it remaining absolutely foreign to you. And this is what I've been preaching and praying against.

The gospel message is a mystery. Latent in the Old Testament. Patent revealed in the New Testament.

And the content of this mystery is simply this. That when a man by faith takes possession of Christ and the Lord God enters into him by the power of the Holy Spirit he becomes a new person. A new creature.

Open the attic of your personality and let the sunshine of God's love break through and then break open the whole roof and allow the love of God to dominate and bathe your whole life as you confess that you this day having had a mystery explained are now entering into the blessings of the mystery that are contained within it for Jesus' sake. Amen.