TEXT: THEME SCRIPTURE: (Ephesians 5:19-20):
· 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. Vs 20: For which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
SUBTOPIC: “THE MYSTERY
OF GOD”!!
GOSPEL:
means “good news”! It is
the “good news” concerning Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living
God!
GOSPEL is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words “God”
(good) and “spell” (tidings or history).
·
Paul
said: Romans 1:1: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to
be an apostle, separated unto the “gospel (good news) of (concerning;
about) God”.
A “mystery”: from the Greek word muste’rion, meaning to shut the mouth; a secret or mystery (through
the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites).
This word “mystery” doesn’t mean “mysterious”
[as something not understood], but it is that which is outside the
range of unassisted natural apprehension which can only be made known by divine
revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God,
and to those who are illumined by His Spirit.
“MYSTERY” ordinarily implies “knowledge
withheld”! Its scriptural significance
is “truth revealed”! Words
associated with “mystery” are: “made
known”; “manifested”; “revealed”; “preached”; “understand”; “dispensation”.
·
Colossians
1:26: Even the mystery which
hath been hid (apokrup’to) [to
conceal away (fully); to keep secret) [from the “wise and prudent”] from ages and from generations, but “NOW”
is made manifest to his saints!!!
Luke 10: (Jesus sends out the 70): (vs 17) And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils
are subject unto us through thy name:
(vs 18-19) I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I
give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy: and nothing shall by any
means hurt you: (20-21): Notwithstanding in this rejoice not,
that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because
your names are written in heaven. In
that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, “I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent (in the Jewish community
the lawyers were expert in the religious teachings of the Mosaic law rather
than an advocate in court; Pharisees; Sadducees), and hast revealed them unto babes (ne’pios) [implying
negation (deny; or make ineffective); not speaking, ie an infant (minor); a simple-minded
person; an immature Christian; childish]: even so, Father; for so it
seemed good in thy sight”.
·
1
Corinthians 13:9-12: For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spake
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away
childish things. For now we see
through a glass darkly; but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Because God has taken
the scales off our eyes and has given us the revelation of who He is in us and
who we are in Him, we now know ourselves as God know us. That’s because when we see each other we know
that we are looking at Him and when we look into the mirror, we see Him looking
back at us!
·
St.
John 1:1: In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
·
Vs 2: The same (you and I) was in the beginning
with God.
·
Vs 14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us. [Jesus was God in flesh
form].
·
Ephesians
5:30: We are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones.
·
1 John
4:17: As he is, so are we, in this
world.
“BACK TO THE MYSTERY OF GOD”!
God is like a “perfect 360 degree circle”,
you don’t know where it starts and you don’t know where it ends.
·
John
4:24: God is Spirit, and they
that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Spirit: is
the Greek root word pneu’ma, a current
of air, breath; a spirit, ie (human) the rational soul, implying that which is vital [essential to life; indispensable;
very important; full of life; energetic; an essential part]; principle (a fundamental truth, or law upon which others are based; a rule of conduct [adherence to such
rules; integrity; a basic part; the method of a thing’s operation]; mental disposition, or
(superhuman) an angel; demon; or (divine) God, Christ’ s Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, life, spiritual.
Pneu'ma, God's Spirit, is not just mere oxygen, but it is the breath by which we live, move, and have our being! The same "breath" the LORD God breathed into the man Adam in Genesis 2:7, that made him (male and female) a "living soul"!!
God has many names. A “name”
reveals particular aspects of one’s character (quality or traits that distinguishes an individual or group): or
His nature (one’s own
character or temperament or attributes).
Elohim (God) our Creator: (Genesis 1:1): Jehovah (translated – LORD) [self-Existent]
(Genesis 2:4): El Elyon (Most High) (Supreme Being)(Genesis
14:18): Adonai (LORD Sovereign
(supreme in authority) (Geneis.15:2): El Shaddai (God Almighty – all sufficient)(Genesis 17:1): El Roi (God sees) (all seeing) (Genesis 16:13): El Olam (God Eternal) (past; present; future) (Genesis 21:33): Jehovah Jireh (The LORD Provides) (Genesis 22:14): Jehovah Rapha (The LORD heals) (Genesis 20:17) (Exodus 15:26).
But there is a “mystery of God”!
Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created.
This was Elohiym, God our Creator at work. Elohiym in Hebrew means gods in the ordinary sense, but especially
of the supreme God. Elohiym being plural in number refers to rulers, judges, either as divine,
representatives at sacred places or as reflecting divine majesty and power; God;
angels; sons of God. “El” means “strength, mighty, Almighty, God, Immanuel”.
This does not mean
that there is more than one God: Isaiah
45:5: I am the LORD, and there
is none else, there is no God besides me: I girded thee though thou hast not known me: vs 6: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there
is none besides me. I am the
LORD, and there is none else.
·
Psalm
82:1: God (Elohiym) stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges
among the gods (elohiyms): vs 6: I have said, “You are gods (elohiyms); and
all of you are children of the most High”.
[“Most High” means that God is
“Elyown”
the Supreme” (highest in
rank, power, quality, achievement, above all, etc)].
John 10 (the Jews trying to arrest Jesus):
·
vs
32-34: Jesus answered them, “Many
good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you
stone me”? The Jews answered him,
saying, “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that
thou being a man, makest thyself God”.
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said,
you are gods”?
What they didn’t
realize was this - it wasn’t that Jesus was trying to make Himself God, in
reality it was that God chose to make Himself Man in Jesus and in us as
well!
·
St. John
1:1: In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: Vs 14: And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.
·
(That’s
in relation to us too): St. John 1:2: And the same (we His people) was in the beginning with
God.
·
Ephesians
5:30: We are members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones:
·
1John
4:17: As he is, so are we, in this
world. [Not one of these days
out beyond the blue, but right here and right now]!
That’s why in Genesis 1:26: And
God (Elohiym) said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have
dominion” over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth. Vs 27: So God (Elohiym) created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
In Genesis 1:24,
God (Elohiym) said, “Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth after his kind”:
and it was so. This was when “man” (human beings) (mankind)
(male & female; all races) stood
up, which makes him a product of the
earth. Adam was not a product of
the earth, because he Adam (male
& female), was the “son of God”:
·
Luke 3:38:
Which was the son of Enos, which was the
son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Adam (the son of God) was created when God
said in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness; and let them (male & female) have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
·
Vs 27: So God (Elohiym) created man (Adam)
in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them.
God (Elohiym) put these people in charge of
the creation so that He (God) could “rest”. That’s
because the male and female
God gave the command to “have dominion”
in Genesis 1:28, were the LORD
God taking over the creation in Genesis 2:4 by the command of
God. This is why God could “rest” in Genesis 2.
He had some people in the earth that could do what He commanded them to
do as His authoritative agents
ruling and reigning in the earth over the creation.
·
Genesis
2:1: Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the “host” of them.
The word “host” here is from the root word tsaba’ah, meaning a mass of persons (or things),
organized for war (an army); a campaign [(a series of military operations with
a particular objective; a series of planned actions), worship, service, appointed time / also from tsaba’ meaning to mass (an army or servants),
assemble, perform.
It was this “mass, campaign, or company of people”
called the LORD God (Jesus) or (Yehovah’ God) that’s in charge of the
creation in Genesis. THIS IS GOSPEL
(good news; history) OF THE MYSTERY
OF GOD!
The name Jehovah (Yehovah) means the “self-Existent or Eternal”.
Self as a
noun denotes the identity, or character of any person or thing. Further defining of Jehovah (Yehovah) as being “self-Existent”
is “hayah”
meaning to exist, be or become. It
goes on to the word “hava”, meaning “to breathe; to be thou (or
you; me)!
That’s why God said
in Genesis 1:26: “Let us
make man in our image”.
He was saying, let’s
make man in our “tselem” or phantom or ghost; our shade. It’s
like having a lamp with the shade
covering the light bulb. God in man as man, but you don’t know that
that man is God unless He (God) gives you the revelation of Himself as
man.
That’s the “mystery” of God! John
4:24 says, “God is a Spirit”:
(pneu’ma) a current of
air, ie breath or a breeze; a spirit ie (human) the rational soul; vital principle, mental disposition, (superhuman) an angel, demon, or
(divine) God, Christ’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth: [Rarely used of wind, but when so used it is
known for its strength, vigor, and
force].
·
John
3:8: The wind blows where it
listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth: so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit;
·
Acts.2:2:
And suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where
they were sitting;
·
Acts 27:40: And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto
the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the
wind, and made toward shore.
The majority of
humanity doesn’t know who they are.
God without man is
Spirit without form or Spirit without a body! God is Spirit! If man
is left out of the equation, then God is Spirit, without a form or Spirit without a
body! God has always been Spirit
throughout endless years of time even before He makes man, but God chose not to be by Himself therefore He
makes man. What is man? Man is the same Spirit that takes on form. But man has separated himself from God. When man did this in his mind he fell into trouble. Because man believes that he is a separate entity from God. He puts God out in the heavens, in buildings,
on a cross around their neck, which is a mockery to His resurrection, they put God everywhere except in man because he (man) has lost his oneness with God!
The “gospel” is to awaken man
(those that are asleep) out of the sleep of death he has been in. The “gospel”
is to awake the consciousness of man so that he (male & female) can see his true existence. What is man’s true existence! That
man is the God who had no form and He takes on that form in man! Man is God with a form! That’s why Jesus taught that you can do
everything you believe you can do and nothing is impossible to him that
believes. It’s only God that all things
are possible with, yet the scripture says, all things are possible to him that
believes (Mark 9:23). You are the visible expression (representation; pose; appearance) of God! But because of the concept that man holds in
his mind separating himself from God he falls into all kinds of trouble, and
the greatest trouble that man falls into is “death”. Because when a man dies, that’s the time he
really is separated from God. But God
did not create a man to die, He created man to live! He created man to be eternal as Himself! Genesis 1:11-12, everything was created to reproduce after its own kind. Because God made man in His image, man is made
after God’s kind. So what God is, is
really what we are. We lost that
knowledge which has led man into sickness,
disease, poverty, old age, and death.
And none of these is from God!
·
In the
Apocrypha, in the book The Wisdom
of Solomon: 1:13-16: For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction
of the living. For he created all
things, that they might have their being:
and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no
poison of destruction in them, nor the Kingdom of death upon the earth: for righteousness is immortal: but ungodly men with their works
and words called it to them: for
when they thought to have it their friend, they consumed to naught, and made a
covenant with it, because they are worthy to take part with it.
Any tree that’s not planted by our Heavenly Father shall be rooted up (Matthew
15:13). He’s not talking about the elm,
pine and oak tree, but any “idea”
(thought; concept; belief) that’s
been planted in man that didn’t come from God shall be rooted up!
That’s what the “gospel” is for to take out of man all these false ideas that have attached themselves to man and remove them so that man will be free as God intended him to be.
·
Romans
8:6: For to be carnally
minded is death; but to
be spiritually minded is life and peace.
The greatest that man can realize or attain to is transcending death itself by moving
out of mortality into immortality, from corruption into incorruption,
darkness
to light, death to life, and that’s gospel. The gospel is to show man the way
to leave
mortality behind him, because mortality doesn’t come from God! Man picked it up by the way, but God wants
man to move on into his original state where he lives
the abundant
life!
·
Wisdom
of Solomon 2:23-24: For God created
man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came
death into the world: and they that do
hold of his side do find it.
Psalm 8:4: What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visits him?
Mindful is from the root word zakar’, meaning to mark (so as to be recognized), to
remember; to mention; think; record.
I’ve explained in the above paragraphs what “man”
(male & female)
is. That’s why God was so “mindful”
of him so that he (man) (male & female) would stand out
from all of God’s creation to be
recognized as God Himself, being marked with God’s own image after His likeness.
“MAN”: from
the root word enowsh’, defined as a
mortal; and goes to another root word anash’,
meaning to be frail, feeble, melancholy, incurable,
desperate, desperately wicked, woeful, sick: (suffering; miserable man).
God who is Spirit was
made flesh! So God became what
man is! He was never flesh, He
was Spirit, but He was made flesh! It wasn’t to bring God down, but
it was to unify (consolidate;
combine; amalgamate; join) God’s
creation back to Himself!
What Jesus did on the Cross was to take the man who could
not help himself and bring him into oneness with God. This is “GOSPEL”
(good news)!!
The understanding
man has is - “I’m all flesh”, so he serves his flesh. Now God has to help man come into the knowledge
of who he (man) is and who God is together “as
one” entity or
one unit!
·
James
1:8: A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The “double-mindedness”
of man is him thinking that he is
“only human” and not knowing that he is “God” in flesh form. To be “single-minded”
is to know that God and you are ONE!!! And it’s only having a spiritual
mind or Christ’s mind that can bring you into this understanding.
·
Matthew
8 (the storm stilled): Vs
1-2: And when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in
the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he
was asleep.
[God
is Spirit and he doesn’t need to sleep]
·
Psalm
121:3: He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved: he that keeps thee will not
slumber. Vs 4: Behold, he that keeps Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep.
[That
was Jesus the man that was asleep]!
Matthew
8:25: And his disciples came to him
and awoke him saying, Lord, save us:
we perish. Vs 26: And he said unto them, “Why are you
fearful, O you of little faith”? Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
[That
was God that rebuked the winds and the sea]!
(Mark 4:39) [He rebuked
the wind and said unto the sea].
·
Mark 11:11-19
(Jesus cleanses the temple): Vs 11:
And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and
into the temple: and when he had looked
round about upon all things, and now the even tide was come, he went out unto
Bethany with the twelve: Vs 12:
And
on the morrow when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry.
[That
was Jesus the man that was hungry,
God is Spirit, He doesn’t need food].
·
Vs 13:
And seeing a fig tree afar off having
leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but
leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
Vs 14: And Jesus
answered and said unto it, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever”. And his disciples heard it. Vs 20: And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried
up from the roots.
[That
was God that spoke to the fig tree
and it dried up]!
Jesus was “man” but yet He was “God”!! He was “fully man” and “fully God”! He was made Christ, He wasn’t born
Christ. He was born Jesus but was made
or called Christ.
·
Matthew
1:16: And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus,
who is called Christ.
Jesus could not be “CHRIST” by Himself. He
needed us His Body to be CHRIST which came into being after His resurrection:
·
1
Corinthians 12:12: As the body is one and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one
body: SO ALSO IS CHRIST!!!
At 12 years of age He knew that Joseph was not His Father, He knew that God was His Father:
·
Luke 2:49:
He said unto them, “How is it that you
sought me? Know ye not that I must be
about my Father’s business”?
But at that time He didn’t know that He and His Father were one!
He didn’t do any miracles till He was thirty because before then He
didn’t know that He could do it. He
didn’t know He was Christ. It
was after His baptism that the “heavens” were open unto him (Matthew
3:13-17)! The “heavens”
being the revelation or understanding of the deep things of the higher
realms of spiritual elevation which brought Him to the place of knowing that He and His Father were one unit: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that were bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke
4:18-19).
John 14 (Jesus
telling His disciples He’s the way, the truth, and the life and of the
place He was going to prepare for them):
·
Vs 5:
Thomas
said unto him, “Lord we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the
way”?
·
Vs 6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man comes unto
the Father but by me:
·
Vs 7: If you had known me, you should have known
my Father also: and from henceforth you
know him and have seen him.
·
Vs
8: Philip said unto him, “Lord, show
us the Father, and it sufficeth us”.
·
Vs 9: Jesus said unto him, “Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
and how sayest thou then, show us the Father”?
·
Vs 10: Believest thou not that I am in the Father
and the Father in me? The words that I
speak unto you, I speak not of myself:
but the Father that dwells in me, he doeth the works.
·
Vs 11: Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me: or else
believe me for the very works sake.
This is the understanding that we must have also, that we to
are one with God the Father,
Jesus Christ the Son, through the power of the Holy Ghost!
·
John
17:10-11: And all mine are thine and thine are mine, and I am glorified in
them. And now I am no more in the
world, and I come to thee Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me that they may be one, as we are.
This doesn’t mean that Jesus sailed off somewhere beyond the
blue. The flesh body of Jesus that the
Father used as His house, to suffer and die in, He was now ready to deposit
that flesh body back into Spirit out of which it came, so that He could
redeposit
it in its original state of immortality back into His other body
which is Christ’s body,
which we are! The Father’s
house was Jesus’ body
– Jesus had another body which
is called
CHRIST!
·
1
Corinthians 12:12: For as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: SO ALSO IS CHRIST!
Remember - Jesus could not be Christ by Himself
because He needed us to make up the many-membered body that is called
Christ and yet we still have the same anointing that
Jesus had when He walked the earth to do the works God has assigned to the sons
of God by the power of the Holy Ghost without measure!
1
Corinthians 12:27: Now you are the body of Christ and
members in particular.
1 Corinthians 6:17:
He that is joined unto the Lord is
one spirit. THIS IS GOSPEL
(good news)!!!
Jesus’ prayer for
the disciples in John 17 was awesome and it included us as well:
·
Vs 20:
Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
·
Vs 21: That they all may be one; as thou
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me.
·
Vs 22: And the glory which thou gave me I have
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
·
Vs 23: I in them and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast love them, as thou hast love me.
·
Vs 24: Father, I will that they also, whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou
hast given me: for thou loved me before
the foundation of the world.
This place is not out
beyond the blue but it’s a place of dominion,
authority, and power, right here and right now and He has given us that
same power!
·
Luke
10:19: I give unto you power (exousi’a) [ability; liberty; jurisdiction] to
tread on serpents and scorpions and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
·
Acts
1:8: You shall receive power (dunamis) [force to do the miraculous] after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.
What Jesus was is
what every man is. The difference
between Jesus and us is He never committed sin:
·
2
Corinthians 5:21: He hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
This qualified Jesus
to reverse what was in every man – that sinful nature.
Being “saved” is accepting what Jesus
did on the cross:
·
Romans
10:9: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (forgiven).
But being “born” is a new concept of
oneself and that is “I’m not just a man/woman born of a woman but a
man/woman born of God:
·
St.
John 1:11-13: He came to his own, and
his own received him not. But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name: which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God.
·
1John3:9:
Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of
God (regened – has taken on
the very divine nature of God Himself).
Yes, in the natural
we were born of a woman as Jesus also was, but knowing we’re “born
of God” is a new birth:
·
2
Corinthians 5:17: If any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature (creation); old things are passed away, behold, all
things are become new.
1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in
this world!!!
THIS IS GOSPEL PEOPLE OF
gOD THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD!!!
Pastor Gracie Perry