Mystery Shared
Peter Sample
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 48:41
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· 4 viewsThe spiritually mature can reveal the things of God
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Last week, we discussed how the spiritually mature can know the things of God. Though God has hidden his plan since the beginning of time, he has revealed it to those who are his. He reveals it through the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the teachings of other Christians. His wisdom is a free gift to anyone who asks.
Now, what use is something revealed, if it is never shared?
When I was in high school, I started researching colleges to attend. My top choice was not the one I ultimately went to. My top choice was Patrick Henry College in Lynchburg VA. This is a school which specializes in government studies. I didn’t ultimately apply there, even though I was invited to apply, because they wanted me to submit a lengthy essay, and I hated writing. So, I chose the lazy way out. I don’t recommend anyone using me as an example.
Anyway, I had the opportunity to attend a youth camp there. Really nice campus. All of the buildings are based on Colonial Revival Architectural style. It’s been described like a Hollywood set of an Ivy League School. Behind the buildings is Lake Bob. It is a retention pond with no outlet. Which means that there is always this nice layer of green scum over it. Stagnant. Whenever guy got engaged, he would be thrown into Lake Bob. They called it Bobtisms.
Anything that does not have an outlet grows stagnant.
Paul says that the spiritually mature can reveal the things of God.
Let’s read the passage again.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
Pray
The spiritually mature can reveal the things of God.
2A. The spiritually mature can reveal the things of God
2A. The spiritually mature can reveal the things of God
I love that last sentence: We have the mind of Christ. Such an amazing privilege. Such an amazing knowledge that we can know the things of God. This amazing gift, privilege, responsibility, comes with a catch.
1B. Having the mind of Christ demands that we speak
1B. Having the mind of Christ demands that we speak
Having the mind of Christ demands that we speak. Things with no outlet grow stagnant. Why does having the mind of Christ demand that we speak?
1C. We are taught by the Spirit
1C. We are taught by the Spirit
Well, first, we have discussed that we are taught by the Spirit.
Paul writes:
What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
The Spirit teaches us the things of God. As Jesus said:
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
What are things that he teaches?
He teaches us what it means to have assurance in our salvation.
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
He teaches what it means to be fully transformed and reflect the image of Christ to those around us:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
He teaches what it means to live in freedom
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
And, yes I just walked through Romans 8 from the end to the beginning.
Through the ministry of the Spirit,
we are able to understand the Word of God: what it means and how to apply it to our lives.
But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
I have interacted with people before they came to Christ and they couldn’t understand verses in the Bible. After they came to Christ, they could understand those same verses.
It’s like walking around in the dark and then all of a sudden a light turns on. There is a reason the Bible describes salvation as being brought out of darkness into God’s light.
The Holy Spirit illuminates so that we can understand. Last week, I talked about how the Holy Spirit is our instruction manual for the new life.
John says it this way:
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
The anointing he mentions here is the Holy Spirit. So, all those verses to say: the Holy Spirit teaches us the ways of God, just as he empowers us to live them.
2C. We are convicted by the things revealed
2C. We are convicted by the things revealed
Have you ever taken time to consider how amazing the things are that he teaches?
Paul describes them this way:
However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
He is not just talking about eternity. He is talking about our daily life of having a personal, intimate friendship with the Creator of the universe and the Savior of our souls. Each day, the Spirit reveals to us the amazing things which God has prepared for those who love him.
Which brings us to the second reason that having the mind of Christ demands that we should speak:
We are convicted by the things revealed
What we are able to participate in as a Christian is beyond the imagination. No human mind has conceived.
Think about the days of Adam and Eve.
Not the beginning, but after they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Their intimate relationship with God was broken. They knew what it meant to walk with God and talk with him face to face and now all of that was gone. They interacted with him through sacrifices, but even then, the relationship was broken. They felt the distance from God. They felt the whole in their heart that only God could fill and he wouldn’t.
We know what it is like to have a broken relationship. We know what happens to families who are divorced, the awkwardness when the husband and wife are in the same room afterwards. They had an intimacy which cannot be had again. Take that and amplify it: you have Adam and Eve towards God after the Fall.
I am sure they could not fathom anything which could restore them to what was. Sure, they had heard the Gospel told for the first time.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
The amazing thing is: what God has in store for those who love him, is better than what Adam and Eve had. They had a time of perfection, but they didn’t understand fully the perfect meshing of the holiness and love of God. They did not know what it meant that God loved the world so much that he sent his only son to die for them. They could not fathom it because God kicked them out.
Throughout the centuries, people knew the coming Messiah. They knew that God was going to do something, but they never experienced it. They couldn’t understand it.
Jesus said:
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
We have what they longed to see! We possess what it means to be called a child of God.
Not only do we have what the prophets and the righteous longed to see and hear, but we have what the angels longed to see.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
I guess what I am trying to say is this:
We have an amazing gift. We have amazing knowledge and we should be bursting at the seams to tell it.
I love talking with young kids the week after Christmas. They run up to me and start bursting about their favorite present. They can tell me all the details.
I’ve been with older kids and adults who talk to be about video games, drones, cars, camping trips, guns, sport teams. Everyone is able to talk about something that they consider awesome.
Why are we not bursting at the seams to talk about the God who saved us, who calls us his child, who gives us forgiveness, love, who provides a place to belong, hope, and strength?
If we truly know what it means to know what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, we would want to tell it.
3C. We are concerned for those around us
3C. We are concerned for those around us
So, the Holy Spirit has taught us the deep things of God and we are convicted by what we know. We should then turn around and see those around us. We should be concerned for them.
Paul says:
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The person without the Spirit is a non-Christian. They don’t have the Spirit. They cannot understand the things of God. They need someone to explain it to them.
Philip was walking along a rode one day. South on a desert road. I think of south on a desert road: I think about Texas and no one wants to be walking on a desert road.
But Philip is walking on a desert road and he sees a man sitting in his chariot as it is parked on the side of the road. You don’t normally see people parked on the side of a desert road unless there is trouble. Philip walks up to the chariot and asks him whats wrong. Finds out that the man is reading from the prophet Isaiah. What do you do when you hear someone reading Scripture out loud? I can almost guarantee that you don’t normally hear people reading Scripture out loud when they are parked on the side of a desert road.
The man answers:
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
Philip explains to the man what Isaiah was saying and told him about Jesus.
Philip had compassion towards this man who wanted to know but couldn’t.
How many people do we interact with each day who cannot know the things of God because they do not have the Holy Spirit in their lives?
How many people do we gripe and complain about because they are not acting in a way that we think is correct or they are not speaking in a way that we think is correct, but who do not know any better because they do not have the Holy Spirit in their lives?
How many times do we bemoan the state of our nation, wishing it was in a different place and we worry what our grandkids are going to grow up in, but we forget that our nation is the way it is because people do not know Christ, they don’t have the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Paul writes:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
That is a great question. If they do not have the Holy Spirit, how can they know the things of God unless we tell them.
We have what the world is seeking. We the antidote to the pandemic of sin. We have the filling for the God-sized hole. We have whatever crazy metaphor we want to insert here. We have it. Why do we keep it to ourselves?
Not to put the pressure on or anything. But, not only do we have the secret that they need, the missing key, but when we stick all that amazing stuff we know into our pocket to never share it, we are disobeying the Savior who died for us. The one who gave us the ability to know commanded us to share.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus commands us to teach things of God to those around us. So, if we have the mind of Christ, having been taught by the Spirit, being convicted by the things revealed, and being concerned for the world around, we better be revealing the things of God instead of just sitting on our hands.
2B. Having the mind of Christ results in our situation
2B. Having the mind of Christ results in our situation
Now, we all know what will happen if we actually start obeying God and teaching the things of God to those around us.
Let’s read about it in Paul’s life.
While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” So he drove them off. Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.
Hard things can happen to those who actually talk about the things of God. Or, as my point says: having the mind of Christ not only demands that we speak, but having the mind of Christ results in our situation.
1C. We have a Christian ethic
1C. We have a Christian ethic
Hard things happen because we have a Christian ethic.
As I talked about last week: wisdom equals knowledge put into action. When we have the mind of Christ, we are supposed to know what is godly and do what is godly.
Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
We are to live in a way that is different than the world around us because we have the mind of Christ, because we have the Spirit of God, because we know all the wonderful things that God has in store for those who love him.
We are to live in a way that is completely different than the world around.
Let’s think about some case studies.
Let’s talk about marriage.
What would it be like if a husband and wife lived Philippians 2:1-5?
What would happen if in humility they valued their spouse above themselves, not looking to their own interest but to the interest of the other? What would happen if they did this no matter how their spouse was acting at the moment?
The culture tells us differently. The culture tells us that if the husband is being a jerk you should be a jerk back. The culture tells us that if the wife makes you mad you just work longer hours.
The mind of Christ calls us to be one in spirit and in mind.
Let’s talk about school
What would happen if we did nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit? What would happen if we looked out for the interests of everyone around us, even those who hurt us? What would happen if we did everything without grumbling or arguing? What would happen if we voiced what the Bible said about morality and substance abuse.
The culture says to look out for yourself. The culture says to seek revenge. The culture says to speak your mind. The culture says that our depravity is normal.
The mind of Christ calls us to be different.
We could talk about how siblings treat one another. We could talk about our conversations and the words that we use. We could talk about gender roles, the way we treat authority, and the political candidates we endorse.
The mind of Christ affects everything.
It affects everything so much that the Peter describes us as a peculiar people, because God has set us apart to be holy.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Our Christian ethic through our actions and through what we say when we bring the message of God to those around us causes a barrier.
2C. This ethic causes a barrier
2C. This ethic causes a barrier
The culture thinks that the way of Christ is the way of foolishness.
Paul wrote:
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
So when we act like Christ, they think we are being foolish. Not only do they think we are being foolish, but they might think that we are looking down at them, that we are being stuck up.
I am sure that you have had a friend or a relative wonder why you are doing the things you are doing. Possibly, you still have friends or relatives who wonder why you are different from them, why you don’t do the things that they do, why you don’t find fun the way they have fun.
Even though we don’t necessarily put a barrier between us and them, the nature of living as a Christian makes that barrier.
Jesus describes us as a city on a hill or a candle in the darkness.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
The thing about light. There is a definite difference between light and darkness. People know what light is and they know what darkness is. Darkness does not mix with light. Light drives darkness away.
There is a barrier between light and darkness. There is a barrier between those who have a Christian ethic and those who do not.
3C. Non-Christians resent the barrier
3C. Non-Christians resent the barrier
There is such a barrier that Non-Christians resent the barrier.
Paul wrote:
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
The phrase here “not subject to merely human judgments” can be translated many ways. However, the meaning is the same. The literal translation is “he is discerned by no one.” Or “he is evaluated by no one.”
Basically, those who who do not have the Spirit make evaluations and judgements about Christians because they do not understand them. And often those judgments hurt. Paul says that we are not subject to those judgments or critical evaluations. However, they still hurt.
Perhaps you have experienced some of that hurt. Perhaps classmates have said things to you or done things to you because of your Christian stance. Perhaps you have lost friends or have broken relationships with family because of following Jesus. It hurts.
We shouldn’t expect any less than what Jesus experienced.
John describes him as the true light:
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Those who were considered God’s nation, turned their backs on God and sent Jesus to the cross, because of what he taught and because he did not fit into what they expected him to be.
Jesus said that if they did these things to him, how much more will they do it to us?
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
So, yes, having the mind of Christ results in our situation. It results in difficulty, pain, broken relationships. It can. It doesn’t always, but it can.
4C. We have the mind of Christ
4C. We have the mind of Christ
So what do we do when it results in that pain? When the barrier is thrown up and resentment rises?
We remember that we have the mind of Christ.
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
We are not controlled by the judgments of those around us. We keep living and speaking and sharing in spite of the reception we receive. Because we have been taught by the Spirit, we have been convicted by what is revealed, and we have compassion on those around us. We have the mind of Christ.
And Christ promised that his light would not be overcome.
John wrote:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus said
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We are on the winning team. Let us not let the losing team teach us how to play.
The losing team wants us to dam up the outlets of our lake. They say that it is okay for us to learn about Christianity as long as we keep it in the church. However, we know that anything that does not have an outlet grows stagnant. The spiritually mature can know the things of God and can share the things of God.
When I lived in Dallas, I worked for a missions organization directed at international students. In addition to other things, we held Bible studies, specifically designed to teach Bible study methods and to instill a culture of evangelism. At the end of every session, the students had to answer the question: With whom will you share what you learned today. And they would do it.
These Asian students, African students, Middle Eastern students, were so excited to learn about the Bible that they had no problem sharing it with those around them, even when they hadn’t excepted Christ yet.
Why won’t we do it? Let us take the glorious things that God has taught us and share them.