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​THE MYSTERY REVEALED

THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

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All Christians know what the Bible has to say about how God created the heavens and earth. The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) In his gospel, John gives us a better understanding of how God did that creation work.

John says that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3)

God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence by the Word of His mouth, and that Word created it all. The Psalmist confirms that to be true when he says that “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.” (Psalms 33:6)

He says, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” (Verses 8-9)

When we read scripture telling us how God created this universe by the Word of His mouth, the Spirit of Christ is speaking to us through what the prophets wrote in scripture. In one of his letters to the church, Peter spoke of our salvation and said that the Spirit of Christ is speaking to us.

Peter says, “- the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” (1 Peter 1:10-11) 

He says that “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look.”

If the Spirit of Christ is speaking, that brings up a question. We might ask the question, “Is the Spirit of Christ speaking God’s word in parables when He is speaking to the world through those prophets?” If so, then it would be true story parables because those things really happened.

The Spirit of Christ is speaking to the world through the prophets just as He spoke God’s word while He was on earth. Few people are reading the Bible so they can’t hear Him speak in parables. Most of those who are listening to Him can’t understand the true message because His disciples are the only ones that have been granted to understand those mysteries.

Matthew recorded Jesus speaking to the crowds in parables and said, “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” (Matthew 13:34-35)

If Christ only spoke to the crowds in parables, then the Father only speaks to them in parables because He was speaking the Father’s word. He was also the Word that became flesh on earth (John 1:14).

His disciples wondered why He spoke to the crowds in parables, so they asked Him, “- -Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” (Matthew 13:10-11)

He says, “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” His disciples will see it and understand because Jesus will explain the spiritual meaning to them when they are apart from the crowds.

Those Jews in the crowds were likely not very interested in hearing Jesus explain the spiritual meaning of His parables, because they were looking for an earthly king in the order of David who would come and lead his army into battle and drive the Romans out of their promised land. He would then reestablish David’s kingdom on this earth.

They would not have been interested in hearing about a king who would rule over the kingdom of heaven from His heavenly throne.

We can see how God’s spiritual message is being revealed to Christ’s disciples when they read what the prophet Moses says about God’s everlasting covenant promises to Abraham.

Moses recorded what God told him when He made His covenant with him. He told Abraham that His covenant was between Him and Abraham and his descendants after him. The Hebrew wording actually says that it was between God and Abraham and to his “seed” after him. One of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven is hidden within that promise.

Paul tells the Galatians that when God made His covenant promises to Abraham He told them, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

Christ was the only Seed of promise among Abraham’s descendants, because God foresaw Him as being the only descendant who would be made perfect and therefore the only One who would be qualified to become our perfect sacrifice for sin. Therefore He was the only heir to God’s promises.

Speaking of how Christ had been made perfect, scripture says that “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation-.” (Hebrews 5:7-9)

Christ is the only perfect Heir to God’s promises therefore we must believe and obey the gospel and become baptized into Christ in order to become sons of God with Him and heirs to the promises with Him. Paul tells us that we can only become sons of God and heirs with Christ by faith in Him in his letter to the Galatians.

He tells them (and us), “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)

He is telling us how we can be made perfect with Christ in order to receive God’s promise of that home in glory. We must become clothed with God’s perfect Son in order to be made perfect in Him.

We can see God speaking of that spiritual salvation when He tells Abraham that “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:8)

We can see the possibility of how God may be speaking to us in parables when we read where God tells Abraham that His promise to him was to give that land of Canaan to him and his descendants as an everlasting possession when we know that nothing on this earth is everlasting. There are no everlasting lands on this earth because this earth is not everlasting.

If God’s promise was for an earthly land, there is another problem. God promised to give it to Abraham and his descendants as an inheritance, but Abraham was never given any of that earthly land. He owned a small burial plot, but he paid for it with money (Genesis 23:13-16).

The Psalmist said of God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that “He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,” (Psalm 105:8-11)

We know that those three men never received any part of that earthly land. They never received any part of the earthly land because God’s promise was always for them to receive God’s heavenly land.

Speaking of Abraham’s descendants receiving that earthly land of Canaan, that would not happen for more than six hundred years after God’s promise was first made to Abraham. 

By the time that Joshua would lead God’s people into that earthly land to take possession of it, tens of thousands of Abraham’s earthly descendants will have lived and died having never even seen that earthly land of Canaan. What about God’s promise to them.

Abraham would come to know that God’s promise was not for that earthly land. The Hebrew writer says that “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8) 

He speaks of God’s promise and says that “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” 

Abraham knew that he was just an alien living in that earthly land. He therefore lived in tents rather than live in a permanent house.

God sent His Son into this world to save all who will believe in Him with Abraham’s kind of faith and that included believers from among the Gentiles. We can see Abraham’s faith being shown when we read what the Hebrew writer said about him.

He says that when Abraham was tested he “- - -offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” (Hebrews 11:17-19) 

We must be resurrected from the dead before we can receive God’s promise of that heavenly land because we are destined to die before it happens.

Scripture says that “- -it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Hebrews 7:27-28)

Paul speaks of how it will happen in another one of his letters. It appears as though He may be explaining the spiritual meaning of God’s parables to us when he says that it is a mystery.

He says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

He says, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.”

It will be victory for Abraham’s spiritual descendants, meaning Christ’s disciples, but not for some others. God’s promise is a hidden mystery to outsiders because our slavery is spiritual. God is revealing that mystery to Christ’s disciples in what Jesus told some Jews about their promised land and His disciples will listen to Jesus tell them about that.  

He told the Colossians how he was praying for them, “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel - -.” (Colossians 1:4-5)

He says that gospel that he preached to them was the word of truth and it was bearing fruit in them.

A little later he says of that promise, that it was the mystery which had been hidden from past ages but is now being revealed to God’s saints, “to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Verse 27)

He was telling them that the gospel message that he was preaching is how Christ was within them to give them the hope of glory. In his letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of how God’s promises to Abraham’s descendants includes Gentiles.

He says, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29)

When Paul speaks of circumcision he is referring back to what God told Abraham when He gave him his covenant requirements. After God told Abraham that He would give them that land of Canaan as an everlasting possession He them told him that his covenant requirement was that he and his descendants were to be circumcised in the flesh.

God told him, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.” (Genesis 17:9)

God then said, “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.” (Verses 10-11) 

When God told Abraham that circumcision was a sign of the covenant that is between God and Abraham and his descendants, the Hebrew wording says that it was a “token” of that covenant.

That fleshly foreskin removal was just a token example of our spiritual circumcision removal which is our whole body of sinful flesh.

Paul tells the Colossians that “- in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11-12)

Spiritual circumcision is circumcision of the heart. That happens when one believes the gospel message and repents of having lived for their earthly body of sin and makes the decision to have that body of sin put to death (spiritually speaking) and buried with Christ in baptism.

We will have become crucified with Christ in the likeness of His death so that we can be in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). We will be resurrected out of the water of baptism to walk in newness of life as we follow Jesus toward that home in glory.

Paul says, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Col. 3:1-4)

In his letter to the Romans, Paul confirms how God was causing that earthly salvation story to happen as it did when he speaks of the Pharaoh who ruled over God’s people when they were living under Egyptian slavery.

He says of that Pharaoh, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” (Romans 9:17-18)

Speaking of how God has mercy on some, but He hardens others, we can see that being shown in how God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to cause that old earthly salvation story to happen as it did.

When God sent Moses back into Egypt to bring His people out of Egyptian bondage, He told him to go before Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go but at one point He also told Moses that Pharaoh would not let them go because God would harden his heart.

God told Moses “- -See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:1-3)

We know how Moses was able to bring God’s people out of bondage when He and Aaron went before Pharaoh and worked God’s signs and wonders before him, but God hardened Pharaoh’s heart after each sign until after that great sign of the death of all the firstborn of Egypt. Only after that great sign did Pharoah and the Egyptians let God’s people go free.

God sent Moses into Egypt to bring them out of earthly slavery and take them to that earthly land just as He sent Christ into this world to bring us out of slavery to sin so that He could lead us to our heavenly land.

Christ spoke of that life of slavery to sin when He told some new believers that “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Speaking of how they would be made free He then tells them that “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (Verses 34-36)

Christ’s disciples will follow Him through the sea of baptism so that their body of sin will be destroyed in that sea. We will have been saved but our promised land lies beyond our wilderness. We must continue to faithfully follow Jesus through the spiritual wilderness of this evil world and fight for that heavenly land in order to for us receive it.

Paul says of our fight that “- our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) We fight with the sword of the Spirit (Verse 17).

We can see our fight in what happened to that Israelite nation. Paul says, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea-.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2) Remember, we were baptized into Christ by water and Spirit.

They had been saved, but “- with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.” (Verse 5) He says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall (Verses 11-12)

God is giving us a true story earthly example of our spiritual salvation. We must not turn away from following the Spirit of Christ and want to go back toward that old life of slavery to sin. Paul says that “- you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (Romans 8:9)

Remember, we read where God made “- known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If we keep the Spirit of Christ in us He will lead is to glory.

 

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Johnny Rogers 8/26/02                      Revised 11/30/23

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