Today we begin a new study that will be a bit shorter on The Mysteries of God. Many years ago, I heard a sermon at a conference I attended where the pastor did an excellent job of explaining how the mysteries, as found in Scripture, unfold for us the secrets of God and also answers the questions that the whole world is asking. Questions that they have looked for solutions to but are unable to find answers. He showed them how each of the mysteries of God, that are in essence the secrets of God, have been revealed and actually unfold and answer those questions that people ask. Not only questions unbelievers ask, but Christians as well. As he talked about that and spoke about some of those mysteries, I was fascinated with that.
I, of course, knew about the mysteries in Scripture. There are twenty-seven times in the New Testament that the word “mystery” is found. Put together, they unfold thirteen different mysteries as found in Scripture. I knew about that and I have studied some of those in an isolated fashion as they came up in studies I was doing, but I have never thought about unraveling the mysteries in the way that this preacher did. So, since that time, I have often gone back and thought about that and looked at that and preached these principles at times. So, I want to do that with us on this Wonderful Day in the Lord broadcast. I want to look at these thirteen mysteries. I want to look at them one-by-one and see what God has for us.
Let us start with the fact that a “mystery” is a secret of God that has now been revealed to us in His Word. There is no way we would ever determine these answers to these mysteries had they not been revealed to us. The good news is, although these things are hidden from those who do not know God’s Word or know Christ, they are not hidden from those who do know Him. Similarly, to the parables that Jesus spoke telling His disciples that these things are hidden from the blind but revealed to the disciples, so too the other mysteries of Scripture are revealed to us who know His Word and believe in Christ. So, that is what a “mystery” is and that is what we are going to look at together.
In 1 Corinthians 4:1 it says, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Paul is talking about himself, and perhaps some of the other apostles, but by extension, at least, we too have the privilege of being stewards of the mysteries of God. Not simply servants of Christ, but stewards of the mysteries. Paul had been given direct revelation concerning these mysteries and that is what he unpacked for us in the epistles - explaining these things to us. We do not have that type of insight or revelation, but because we have the inspired Word of God, we can go back and look at those mysteries ourselves and proclaim them. We can grasp them, apply them to our own lives, proclaim them to the church and to any unbeliever who would bother to listen. So, we have these secrets . . .
