16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and
received up into glory.
Message Points
1. There was a story I found that I would like to use to bring a little context to this message
today. If you don’t mind bearing with me for just a minute or two, I’ll tell you the story.
There was a man who came up to the border between the United States and Mexico on
his bicycle. He has two large bags over his shoulders. The guard at the border stops him
and says “What do you have in those bags?” The man answered with “sand.” The
guard, not believing the man, tells the man to get off the bike, takes the bags, and rips
them apart. He empties out the bags only to realize there is nothing in them but sand.
Still in disbelief, he decides to detain the man overnight to have the sand analyzed. The
chemical analysis comes back that there is nothing in the bags but sand. The guard
releases the man, puts the sand into new bags, helps the man put them back on his
shoulders, and the man crosses the boarder on his bicycle. This series of events is
repeated every week for three years. Finally, the man doesn’t show up one day, and the
guard runs into him at a restaurant in Mexico. The guard says to the man “hey buddy... I
know I can’t be crazy! I know you had to be smuggling something across the border... I
can’t sleep at night trying to figure it out... just between you and me, what were you
smuggling in those bags? The man looks up, and says “There was nothing in the bags
but sand... and I used the sand to distract you to smuggle in bicycles.”
2. This story is a good example of a great mystery for the guard that went unsolved before
the man could help him to figure out what was going on. You may remember, but an
entire syndicated television series built its success on the premise of unsolved
mysteries. The show aired original episodes from 1987 to 2010, 23 years of TV episodes
in which the viewers were asked to help solve the mystery of the week. Some mysteries
were solved by tips provided by the viewers, while others are still unsolved to this day.
God woke me up early this morning to tell me to tell you that Godliness, the nature of God, the purpose of God, the truth that God is real is a mystery that has been solved and easily found in scripture.
3. Believe it or not, though, not everyone understands that Jesus, because of the
fulfillment of today’s scripture, is the way, the truth and the life. Not everyone
understands the Jesus is the revealed mystery of God. Understanding the scripture
gives us some ways to make the great mystery revealed to those that do not understand
who Jesus is.
4. The verse starts with the Apostle Paul explaining to us that Jesus appeared in a body.
The first part of this mystery is the understanding that Jesus is God in the flesh, came to
seek and to save the lost, came to serve, not to be served, and came to reveal the
Father to us. God loves us so much, that He knew the sacrifice of lambs and the blood
of animals was only a symbol of what we really needed. He understood that for us to
worship the Father, we must do so in spirit and in truth. Because of this, God took
counsel with himself in heaven, and made a decision that the best way to reveal himself
to us was through the flesh. I’m going to pause right here for a second to encourage
you and let you know that God doesn’t have to ask permission of anyone to bless you.
God doesn’t have to ask permission of anyone to save you, to deliver you, to make a
way out of no way for you, to answer your prayers. God is God all by himself, and
beside Him, there is no other God. And because of that, when God is going to do
something with you, the only one He has to counsel with on how He will deliver you is
Himself! He doesn’t need permission from your creditor, your banker, your enemy,
your manager, or even your mother and father—God blesses you when He wants, how
He wants, and in the way He wants. So today God is saying stop talking yourself out of
your blessings! God was manifest in the flesh so that He would not be a high priest that
is unable to empathize with our weaknesses and infirmities. He was tempted in every
way that was possible, but provided us an example of being tempted, but not choosing
to sin. To prove what kind of father He is, God gave himself! In every situation that we
face, God doesn’t send a substitute, He gives Himself. As a matter of fact, when we
needed a substitute for the penalty of our sins, God gave himself as a propitiation. I
now understand what the song writer was saying when he wrote: I was sinking deep in
sin, far from the peaceful shore! Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.
But the master of the sea, heard my despairing cry, from the waters He lifted me now
safe am I! Someone turn to your neighbor and say “love lifted me!”
5. Next, God was justified by the spirit. Everything that Jesus did on Earth was because the
spirit of God empowered Him to do so. Every miracle, every prophesy, even His death,
burial, and resurrection were because of the spirit that made Jesus’ works ones of
infallible proof. If anyone could have gotten big headed, prideful, or beside himself, it
could have been Jesus. After all, He is God manifest in the flesh. But Jesus, being the
teacher that He was, showed us the importance of realizing that apart from the spirit of
the living God, we can do nothing. The question for us today with this part of the
mystery is are we allowing the Holy Ghost to work in our lives? Do we have what
Galatians 5 describes as the fruit of the spirit? Do we love God and one another, or do
we find it difficult to love everyone the way that God loves? Do we make excuses by
saying things like I don’t have to like you, I just have to love you? I don’t see anywhere in my bible that says behavior like that is okay... and I guarantee the Holy Ghost would not say something like that. I love all of you, and I like you too, because loving you may be my expectation, but liking you is my choice. I choose to like you enough to tell you that the spirit of God is real. I choose to like you enough to say greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. I choose to like you enough to say God has plans for
you. The bible goes on to say that justification of the spirit of God shows up as joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Touch
your neighbor and say neighbor... did he just say self-control? Yes I did... you can’t cuss
someone out and have the spirit of God justified in your life. You can’t expect to win
souls and not have the patience to explain to a sinner just who Jesus is. We can spend
all day long until we are blue in the face trying to tell someone that they have to be
holy, but if we are nasty than the first people that need to be holy is us.
6. Next, the bible says God was seen of angels. This proves to me that God gives angels to
be on assignment. When is the last time you have given your angels something to do?
If you activate them, would they have to think twice about who is telling them to be
dispatched, or will they move at the sound of your voice? We have the power to
dispatch and assign our angels to war on our behalf. Paul and Silas were able to have a
peace in the midst of a midnight experience because their angels knew their voice. The
angels of the Lord even came to be with Jesus to minister to Him when Satan tried to
tempt Jesus. The angels were a sign of divine revelation. Prior to God robing himself in
flesh, the angels could not comprehend the reasons and nature of human salvation.
God even unveiled the mystery to the angels by coming to Earth in the flesh and being
received up into glory.
7. Jesus was a preacher—even if you never have the opportunity to bring the Word of God
across a pulpit, know that God has placed a call on the believer to share His Word. And
when we share, we must be careful to share His Word, not our own. Stick to God’s
Word.... Preach it in season, out of season, present it to others so that it can be
received, point people to Jesus through the Word and the fulfillment of the Word in our
lives. We need to preach Jesus wherever we go and in whatever we do! The song says
stand up and be counted, stand up and testify, stand up and be a witness for the Lord
Jesus Christ! Touch your neighbor “have you preached any sermons lately?” This is the
way we begin to believe and get others to believe as well.....
8. Received up into glory—our goal is to have God order our steps so we can be back with
Him one day.