A Mystery Revealed
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2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.
4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
I’ve always enjoyed political thriller type movies. I don’t really know why I like them so much, but I’m intrigued by the mystery of them in some way. I’m intrigued by the things that are going on in the background of the movie, behind the scenes that affect the characters. Sometimes they don’t even know that they are part of the story until it’s been revealed to them.
Similarly, Paul is explaining in this digression about how the mystery of Christ has been revealed to the Gentiles as equally as the Jews and it is a big deal to everyone involved.
It’s a big deal to Paul, it’s a big deal to the Jews, and it’s a big deal to the Gentiles.
v.2-3) Paul’s responsibility
Verse 2 here talks about Paul’s responsibility that he was given to take the gospel to the gentiles. See the word “stewardship” here. It means administration or responsibility. It means that he was made a manager of the grace that was given to the gentiles. He was to “administrate” it to them.
Paul was divinely commissioned to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. And that was a big deal in these days that the Gentiles could be saved in a similar fashion to the Jews.
1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 “ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10 “ ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
19 “ ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
That was Paul’s commission to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. He received these orders directly from Christ himself!
In Galatians 1:11-12 Paul says something similar...
11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Transformation
The life change that Paul had was so dramatic. He went from the place where he hated these people and approved their killing, he rounded them up to be persecuted - to being their messenger from God to save them!
If that’s not a testament to what Christ can do to change a life - I don’t know what is!
Don’t tell me a person is too bad to be saved! God is able to use the worst sinner who turns from their sin to accomplish his purposes.
v.4) Insight into the mystery of Christ
Paul here says that he had divine insight into who Christ was and what Christ came to do for these Gentiles. When you think about the “mystery of Christ” you can’t help but think about how the God/Man Jesus existed with God before the foundation of the world. You can’t help but wonder about the incarnation. You can’t help but wonder how he was so HOLY, yet so HUMBLE; how he was so MAJESTIC, yet so MEEK; how he came to SERVE, but also to SAVE.
Isn’t that something to behold? It truly is an amazing thing to think about.
And by the way, don’t try to reconcile all of that in your mind. You can’t. We take what the Bible tells us and we accept it by faith - knowing that our minds are very limited in our understanding.
I was talking to a group of guys today about how Christ took on the sin of the world all at once on the cross. Think about what that would have been like. Think about how your sin or the sin of others hurts and grieves you. It bothers you. My sin certainly bothers me. But when you think about Christ absorbing all of that sin - by the way we call that the “substitutionary atonement” when you think about Him taking it all at once it is overwhelming.
You think - how could He do it? How could He bear it? Well we know He felt the weight of it as a man, but He absorbed in in His divine nature. That’s how He was able to be our substitute, it was because He was also fully God.
The mystery of Christ. It truly is something that should make us pause in awe and wonder.
v.5) The Spirit reveals
Just a quick word about this verse. We see in this verse that Paul makes it clear that the Spirit is the one who illuminates the Word to us. That it was the Holy Spirit who revealed the Word to the prophets and apostles and inspired them to write the pages of the Bible. The Spirit illuminates the Bible to us. He is our teacher.
v.6) Jews & Gentiles are EQUALS
The Jews had a very “elder brother” mentality of spiritual pride when it came to the Gentiles. They resented the fact that this offer of salvation was even offered to the Gentiles at all! They didn’t care about their souls, all they cared about was their own spiritual “social status” as a Jew. They liked the fact that being a Jew gave them a kind of authority over these lower class Gentiles.
I want to take you to a story to illustrate this. I think this is helpful for us to see how dangerous pride is our life as well.
I want to say clearly that there is no favoritism or prejudice in the Gospel at ALL! None in any form.
Acts 10:9-48
I want you to take a little time and look at these verse with me if you will.
9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;
11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.
13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
Peter gets a vision here. And we are going to see later that God uses this vision to teach Peter a valuable lesson.
17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;
18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.
19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”
21 Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?”
22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.”
This is all very interesting isn’t it? Almost like God is setting the stage for something big to happen. Putting all the pieces together divinely. An angel directs Cornelius to seek for Peter to get a message, Peter gets a directive from the Spirit that he should visit with these men...
23 So he invited them in and gave them lodging.
And on the next day he got up and went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
24 On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him.
26 But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.”
This verse says so much about the relationship (or lack of it) between the Jews and the Gentiles of that day. This guy doesn’t even know Peter except the fact that he’s a Jew and what’s the first thing he does when he gets in front of him?
Stay with me, Peter is about to reveal his lesson.
28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
29 “That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me.”
Cornelius’ response:
30 Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments,
31 and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
32 ‘Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’
33 “So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
Peter finally gets it!
34 Opening his mouth, Peter said:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
What does Peter do? Make a Gospel presentation!
37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.
38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
39 “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.
40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible,
41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.
43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
How did they respond?
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered,
47 “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”
48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
Wow. What a truly God ordained story that Peter learned that the Gentiles are equal in the sight of God. That God has no favorites or shows favoritism towards any one nation or race.
Peter not only learned the lesson, he got to live the lesson out by leading these people to Christ. Peter got to experience the Gentiles being fellow members, fellow partakers, fellow heirs of the household of God.
I wonder today if we need the same lesson. I wonder if we need the same lesson to illuminate any areas of spiritual pride in our lives where we think we are superior to anyone else.
It’s quite plain to me that God goes out of His way to show that any man-made wall of hostility like what the Jews erected here, needs to be torn down immediately.
God help us not to be spiritually prideful and arrogant.