Live in the Mystery
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To He appears and the soul felt its worth!
“St. Augustine was struggling to understand God, to understand the Trinity, to understand the magnitude of God’s creation. His human mind could not grasp it. He was searching here and there when he came upon a small boy, who was trying to fill water into a hole in the ground, and he asked him what he was doing. The boy said, ‘I’m trying to fill this hole with water.’ And St. Augustine said it was impossible. Then the child, who, in truth, was an angel, said, ‘It is still easier to put the ocean into this hole than for you to understand the mystery of God.’ And it is true.”
10 And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
11 When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”
Agabas previously prophesied about the great famine that would happen around the world in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Prompting the Antioch church to send relief
Which happened historically
So Agabas was certified.
Now Agabus gave another prophecy about Pauls imprisonment in Jerusalem by the Jews and handed over the gentiles .
When Agabas gave this propesy it wasn’t I. The form of a warning but a prediction.
He wasn’t trying to deter Paul to not go to Jerusalem.
A couple verses earlier in Tyre there where so Christians there and in
4 And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.
So the Spirit is telling Paul to go to Jerusalem. But The same Holy Spirit is telling him to not go.
Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
21 When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
also Acts 20:22
22 And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there,
God later comforted Paul that He was in the will of God by going through Jerusalem.
11 But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”
The knew that through The Spirit Paul was going to suffer in Jerusalem, but concerned for his safety, they tried to dissuade him.
I was talking to Pastor Melvin yesterday about God laying things on our hearts about ministry and even marriage .
He’ll send someone about what God has laid on your heart.
Maybe you heard a message from the pulpit and God stirs you up about it
Psalm 62: 11God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God
Go back to
12 Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem.
So Luke and other disciples in Caesarea pleaded with Paul not to go.
You mean Luke that one who wrote one gospel and the book of Acts Luke? Yes!
13 Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Paul said why are you pounding away at my heart.
Sometimes its the closes ones to you that will pound away at your heart.
The ones that are closes to you that why try to get you out of the will of God.
The verb “breaking or pounding” (synthryptō) was often used of washing clothes and referred to pounding them with stones in order to whiten them.
They tried to pound Pauls heart to set him straight.
So he can think sensibly.
Some of you when you mention anything about Bible college well intentioned people will try to pound some sense into you.
- what about your future
- what about your asperation in becoming a news anchor
- If God is indeed speaking to you none of those pleas matter
How many well intentioned people told you not to get married. But God gave you a word.
Its a different kind of conviction when your counselors are wrong about the will of God for your life.
I think these pleas where more difficult then the trails themselves. Then the imprisonment themselves.
So the very fact that they where pleading with Paul heightened the conflict.
Paul remember the words of Christ I believe. “I have many things for you to suffer.”
Paul understood a profound truth thats the mystery of God.
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul bowed He knee because he was overwhelmed with the mystery of God.
Earlier we see verses that reference the mystery.
3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already,
4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),
5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
The mystery defined
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
The Gentile believers are now heirs with Him. That means we have the riches of Christ.
We are shares together in the promise that means Messianic promise.
Ephesians 2:12“12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
A first we where foreigners, But now we have a citizenship.
Just like if you are a citizen of America you reap the blessing of being in America. Like paying taxes lol haha
Galatians 3:29 “29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
The mystery of the grace of God that was revealed to all men through Jesus Christ.
The mystery that God will become a man.
The mystery of the Church.
The mystery that Christ can raise those who are dead in sin to life.
The mystery of the gentile inclusion. The fact not just the Jewish people would be saved but all people.
The mystery that Jew and Gentile would be equal. And brought into one household to fellowship with one another.
These are mysteries that brought Paul to his knees in prayer.
This impossibility God made Possible
Paul said for this reason I bow my knee.
The mystery of God should make us bow our knees.
See Amongst the Jews it was usual to pray standing up.
The Pharisees stood
5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
But the tax collector knelt
13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
Kneeling for prayer, was formally an expression of deep emotion and earnestness.
Paul had a sincere and intense encounter with God.
Solomon Knelt at the dedication of the temple . 1 Kings 8:54
54 And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.
Stephen at the time of his martyrdom. Acts 7:60
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Peter at the death bed of Dorcas Acts 9:40
40 But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.
Paul at the time of his farewell journey to Jerusalem Acts 20:36
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
5 When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us, with wives and children, till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed.
Jesus Christ Himself in His agony in Gethsemane.
41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed,
He knelt because He understood the mystery of the gospel.
The mystery of iniquity.
The mystery of godliness.
The mystery of providence defies our attempt to tame it by reason. I do not mean it is illogical; I mean that we do not know enough about it to be able to unpack it.
D. A. Carson
Providence is the governing power of God that oversees His creation and works out his plans for it.
Every hair on your head he knows it. He knows every thought that exalts it self against God He knows.
Every slur against someone He knows it.
Every heart break He knows it.
Imagine the intellectual capacity to know all these things .
But also imagine God knowing all these things but God still uses you.
The disciples fell on there faces when God The Father spoke to them about the mystery of Christ.
Matt 17“This is My Beloved So in Him Whom I’m well please”!
The mysteries of God, isn’t discovered but revealed.
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
Christ makes known this mystery.