Title: The Mystery of Godliness
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:16
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, as we turn to our text this morning as Christians, we ought to consider what is the core of our life and of our faith? What makes us who we are as Christians? Is it that we all believe in God or is it that we're all just theists? Or is it that we go to church? Does going to church make you a Christian? Perhaps it has to do with our affinity for the Bible. Some might think that Christianity has to do with our devotion to God or a personal piety that we have in ourselves or even our understanding of the doctrines of the gospel. Now, all of these things are good.
Don't get me wrong. They're all good things, but they're not everything. Furthermore, I would add, without Jesus Christ, all of those things are worthless without Christ.
And the apostle Paul would agree with that. In fact, in his first letter to the Corinthians, he made an emphatic statement. And I'm just going to read a couple of verses to you from 1 Corinthians chapter two.
This is just introduction, by the way. But in his first letter of the Corinthians, he makes this emphatic statement. He says, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And so Paul, who's the preacher, who's the apostle, his faith and his ministry were not built on the stuff of Christian religion, nor were they built on his oratory skill, his personal wisdom, his charisma. Paul didn't come to these churches in these cities, wowing them and winning them over with his ability to preach. Rather, Paul says he's manifesting a singular focus on the person and work of Jesus.
The job of any minister is to point God's people to Jesus Christ and him crucify. That's what Paul's saying. He goes on to say in verses three through five.
He says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. He recognizes his own weakness here, and he knew that other people, if other people's faith was built in any way on him, it would inevitably fail.
And we see that kind of a problem even today when we when you attach yourself to some popular preacher or teacher or YouTuber or conference speaker, when you attaching yourself to a personality, to an individual and your faith is resting solely on them. I'm not talking about looking to them for spiritual guidance and mentorship and things like that. We have our spiritual heroes who help us along in the faith.
But when your faith is resting on these individuals, it will invariably fail because it's in the wrong place. I was reading a book even yesterday where the person gives testimony to this person was wandering wayward and she found herself aligning with one particular pastor and the pastor, it said at one point during the sermon, listen, if you're idolizing me, you're missing the point. You need to go after Christ.
I'm just the messenger. And she was convicted. So Paul is saying much of the same thing.
The people's faith is not resting on him. He knows that people's faith must rest squarely on God. But then he advances the discussion to another place here beyond that.
He says in verses six through eight of First Corinthians two, he says, yet we speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God's wisdom, wisdom in a mystery. God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
He testifies that God has entrusted to the apostles and later to all the church with this hidden wisdom, this divine wisdom, something Paul calls God's wisdom in a mystery. Of course, we know that that mystery is a reference to Jesus from verse two, because Paul also calls him in verse eight, the Lord of glory. What exactly is this hidden wisdom of God that refers to Christ? It is certainly no less than the revelation of his identity and his saving work, his identity, that Jesus is the God man and his work, that he came to save sinners through the cross.
And yet Paul says if the Jews and the Romans had understood who Christ really was and why he had come, they would not have killed him. Of course, we understand in God's providence that if they hadn't killed him, there would be no payment for salvation. So again, God's providence is working even through all of that.
But Paul understands that he, along with all the others, are a keeper of this great mystery, this great mystery that's been hidden for ages, this great mystery that's since been revealed. And in first Timothy 3, 16, he shares this mystery with us. But he refers to it by a different title.
He calls it the mystery of godliness. And so if you haven't already turned over, turn to first Timothy chapter three. We're going to look at verse 16.
So first Timothy 3, 16. In many ways, first Timothy 3, 16 is the theological pinnacle of this letter. It is the high point, the focal point.
And it really comes in a long line of other wondrous 3, 16 verses, verses which have been arbitrarily numbered by textual scholars since the 16th century, yet providentially contain very powerful truth for us. We think of verses. If I were to say, what's a famous 3, 16 verse of the Bible? You would invariably say John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.
Or maybe Colossians 3, 16. Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making or singing with thankfulness in your hearts to the Lord. Or maybe first John 3, 16, where he says, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us.
And we ought to also lay down our lives for the brethren. So very famous 3, 16 verses. Now, why do I point this out to you? Is there any kind of textual or theological relevance? No, absolutely not.
But this is so that you'll remember that 3, 16 is the pinnacle of first Timothy. And so you can add it to your list of 3, 16 verses. But furthermore, again, to remind and to drive home the point that this is the central focus of all of the Christian life, not just first Timothy.
And so as we're working our way back into first Timothy chapter three, Paul charges the elders and the deacons with the the care of the church. That's where we've been for quite a while now. But now Paul's going to exhort the church itself to consider their conduct within the household of God.
Verse 15. Yet with that consideration, Paul expresses three key identities of that church. First, he calls us God's spiritual family.
We're called the household of God. And then he calls us the church of the living God. This is all about the living God.
And then finally, he says the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. And so we're the household of God. We're the church of the living God.
And we're the pillar in support of the truth. It's this last consideration that motivates Paul to this powerful confession of Christian truth in verse 16. There is a textual connection between verse 15 and verse 16.
Again, focusing on the word truth here and from that word truth, the truth that we are charged to uphold. Paul brings us into verse 16, where he writes by common confession. Great is the mystery of godliness.
He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Now, scholars have scratched their heads as to the origin of this verse, because many believe that this might have been either an early Christian hymn or a popular Christian creed, a church creed or a confession. We don't really know, but they speculate.
Regardless of where it comes from, it's clearly a confession of core biblical truth. There are many of these throughout the course of the New Testament. The truth that the church is charged to uphold.
And we know this because of the way that Paul introduces it. He writes the statement here and he says at the very beginning of the verse that this is something in the Greek that is homo lugu menos, which is literally it means to say the same thing, to repeat the same words. But translators have grabbed that Greek word and they've sort of expanded it.
Note, and this is something that every single Christian professes and holds to. It's something that we say or confess altogether. We say the same thing.
That's what a common confession is. And so the NASB, the New American Standard Version, which is the one we're using this morning, translates this or renders this by common confession. Other translations will use this word and they'll translate it undeniably or beyond question.
Again, this is something that all of us as believers are able to confess without reservation. There's no arguing and disputing about these core truths. This is common confession here.
Again, this is truth that we are to uphold. But then Paul introduces the six line confession of faith and he introduces it by saying this. Great is the mystery of godliness.
That's another one of those phrases that has given cause for conversation within the scholars for years. What is the mystery of godliness? And I know I primed the pump with several of you this week. Some of you had the blessing and the opportunity to have me walk up to you and say, what is the mystery of godliness? And then walk away.
And I'm sure you've been scratching your head all week saying, what is the mystery of godliness? That's just a tactic, by the way, to get you to read your Bible. But I know you've been thinking about it, right? And I've been thinking about it, too, because you approach this and what does this mean? And I'll tell you, this is not just us, by the way. I read articles this week of eminent theologians and scholars who, after 45 years of ministry, are still scratching their heads saying, I know I've read the verse, but what is the mystery of godliness? And so you're not alone in joining me in my pondering and in awe of this verse.
Well, let's start by looking at the words themselves. The word mystery here in the Greek is mysterion. It doesn't necessarily refer to something that is enigmatic or confused in the way that we would think of a mystery.
And when it's used in the Bible, it generally refers to something that was once hidden and has now since been revealed. So then when the Bible talks about mystery, it was formerly unknown and hidden, usually hidden in the Old Testament, concealed in the Old Testament, and then made clear or revealed in the New Testament. So that's what the mystery is when we talk about it in the Bible.
And so what is this mystery specifically referring to? Well, Paul uses the word to qualify this. He uses the word Eusebia, Eusebia here, which can refer to piety or godliness or religious devotion. Denny Burke, a Southern Baptist scholar, calls this the duty that man owes to God in terms of both believing and living rightly.
That's what Eusebia is. William Hendrickson defines it as piety in action. It's a very, very quick way to talk about this word Eusebia.
So godliness or piety in action. It's the life that God calls all of his people to live, to be faithful, devoted and godly. And yet what's interesting is that Paul seems not to use this word in that way here as he does elsewhere.
Say, for example, in chapter two, verse two, when he calls all believers, when he calls the church to live lives that are in a quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Remember that verse? He's calling us to live a quiet life in all godliness, Eusebia, and dignity. But here in chapter three, verse 16, he attaches this word mystery to it and he gives this the reader a pause.
Well, I understand the idea of living a life that is godly before the Lord. But what is this mystery? And then to our great surprise, he attaches to this mystery of godliness a personal pronoun. He.
The mystery of godliness is he. And so in the context, this is not a thing. This is a person.
The mystery of godliness. Well, who is that person? Again, a very quick scan of what these verses, the next six lines, what they read. It's very clear that we're talking about Jesus.
Very clear. We're talking about Jesus Christ. In fact, some translations even connect the dots here.
The new the King James Version, the authorized version, renders this first line as God was manifest in the flesh. The New Living Translation takes it a step further and says Christ was revealed in a human body. However, he, this personal pronoun he, is actually more accurate because neither the word for God, Theos, or the word for Christ, Christos, appears in the original manuscripts.
But we understand that that is what we're talking about here. The mystery of godliness is most certainly a reference to Jesus Christ. It's an obscure title for Jesus very specifically.
Well, how so? Again, scholars are also trying to wrap their heads around why and how this title, the mystery of godliness, is a reference to Christ and how this all fills out. And when you read through the interpretation of a verse, if all the scholars aren't 100 percent aligned and they give you lots of options, it means that we're not settled on the exact interpretation. There are lots of things that are very, very clear in our understanding of this, but there's some things on the periphery that are not so clear.
And so my job is to simply do the best I can to explain this connection in the way that I see it. And hopefully it's helpful for you as well. Here's how I understand the connection of Christ being the mystery of godliness.
Very simply, God's requirement for his people has always been for them to be holy. Always. That's always God's requirement.
Leviticus 19 to the Lord tells his people, you shall be holy for the Lord, your God. He says, I, the Lord, your God, am holy. And so this word holy means set apart.
It means consecrated to God. It also means purity. God doesn't simply want us to be holier than other people.
Holiness is not a matter of horizontal where we're just holy amongst ourselves. No, holiness is a standard of divine perfection. Holiness is our relationship to God.
Do we stand holy before him? Be holy, he says, like I am holy. He is the standard of holiness. So the call is essentially this.
The call is to be like God. We might say this is not just godliness, but God likeness. God likeness.
Yet over and over again, we see that because of our sin nature, the people of God fail to be holy. We fail to be holy. We fail to be like God.
Even the greatest saints throughout the course of the Bible. And you look, you could do the who's who of biblical history. You look at Abraham, you look at Joseph, you look at Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah.
You look at all these wonderful saints, these godly people who lived their lives in obedience to God. And yet they are marred with sin. They are marred with problems.
They disobeyed every twist and turn. In many ways, they are not like God. They fall far short and so do we.
They all fail to meet God's standard of perfect righteousness and God like holiness. Century after century, Israel tries to be like the Lord and yet fails miserably. And again, because of the fall, it's impossible.
And the same thing goes with us. It almost seems as though the harder you try to be more and more like God and to be holy, it just seems like your failures are right in front of you all the time. And so in a very real way, attaining to true godliness was a mystery in that no one knew how they were to attain it.
Nobody knew. And God gave them the law. And he says, if you obey this, then I will be your God and you'll be my people.
And they said, great, we have a map. And they started trying to follow the law of God, having festivals and Sabbaths and holding from this and being pure in this and doing this and saying this and all these practices. And all it did was reveal how utterly sinful they were, how holy God truly is and how utterly short we fall.
The law doesn't produce and create righteousness. It only reveals the lack of righteousness. So law keeping didn't work.
So, again, a mystery. How are we going to be righteous? How are we going to be like God? And then something happens. God became man and lived here on earth among us and in his being and who he is.
He embodies perfect godliness. More than that, he is God likeness incarnate. You see that there is nobody more like God than Jesus Christ.
Why? Because he is God. He is God manifested in human flesh and in his perfect and sinless and holy and righteous life. He displays the godliness that the Lord required all of us to attain.
And yet we could not. But Christ demonstrates that perfect godliness in everything he does, thinks, says, accomplishes. But more than this, Jesus Christ obeys the will of God on behalf of his people.
He obeys for us. For us. That's the grace of the gospel, isn't it? That's the whole point that Christ dies in the place of sinners because we can't be godly in the way that is appropriate and pleasing to God.
We deserve that cross. Each one of us deserve the cross. Ten times over, a hundred times over, a million times over.
And yet Christ comes in perfect righteousness, dies in the place of sinners. And then the sinfulness that we have is placed on him and he dies with it. And then the righteousness that Jesus possesses in and of himself is credited to us by faith.
That's the great reversal where we are receiving this alien righteousness that doesn't belong to us. It's an outer worldly righteousness that we didn't earn or attain. And so the mystery of godliness, in my view, is this, that the perfect godlikeness that was required and yet concealed is now revealed in the one who is truly God and the one who is able to be godly for us.
He is godliness and he does godliness because none of us can and none of us are. It's a wonderful mystery that has been revealed. This concept of an incarnated God who came to be the sacrifice for his people was a complete mystery in the Old Testament.
And yet now this mystery is revealed. They had no idea that he would be coming in the flesh and doing these things. The signs were all there.
You can have the benefit of hindsight to look back. You can read the Old Testament with New Testament, you know, illuminated eyes. And you can now see it.
But in the moment they couldn't see it. They didn't understand that God was going to come in the flesh and give his life for them. They read Isaiah 53 and they just didn't understand.
And many of them to this day still don't. But Paul calls Christ the mystery of godliness. But more than this, he calls him great.
Great is the mystery of godliness. He says the same thing in Titus 2.13 when he calls him our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. But scholars have actually seen even another layer to this statement.
Ten years earlier, when Paul was ministering in the city of Ephesus, he was caught up in a riot that broke out in the city caused by a man named Demetrius, who was a silversmith. And he would create these silver shrines for all of the pagan worshipers in the city. And they would be worshiping to the god Artemis, or also known as the goddess Diana.
And so when this silversmith perceived that Paul was a threat to his business, he incited a riot to try to get rid of Paul and all the disciples. And so this riot breaks out and the crowd swells up and in their fury and in their rage, they begin to chant over and over again. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
For hours they chanted as the throng was pressing in on the apostles. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. For hours they chanted it.
And Paul would have scarcely forgotten this. This would have been a shocking and possibly terrifying moment at the time. And so when when he pens his letter to the pastor and the church in Ephesus, he is sure to include the declaration of worship to the true and living God.
Great is the mystery of godliness. In other words, great is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so who is he? Who is this mystery of godliness who has now been revealed? Well, he is the one, verse 16, who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
These six lines highlight the key points of Jesus's life and ministry. One scholar, Robert Yarbrough, notes that these six clauses characterize Christ's greatness. I like that.
They characterize his greatness. After all, we read in Colossians 2, 2, that the mystery of God, he says, is Christ himself, who in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything we long for is hidden in Christ, but hidden in such a way that we, by faith, will find it.
And so let's explore this ancient creed together. The greatness of Christ, who is the mystery of godliness. Now, as for the structure of this short little creed, there's many theories about how the design of this creed, the outline of it.
Some have seen that there are three pairs of two statements featuring antithetical statements. So if you look at the at the verse itself, you're going to see first flesh versus spirit and then angels versus nations and then the world versus glory. And many scholars have seen that that's intentional, that you see these antithetical statements.
That's a pattern or some sort of a literary device to keep it fresh in our mind and show the breadth of the doctrine. But more than just the structure or the prose, I think we need to consider what these phrases represent. Now, they don't articulate everything about Christian doctrine.
This is not a systematic theology here, but they do serve as slogans for the theology of the gospel. And so I want to just very briefly look at each one. As I was thinking this week, I'm like, boy, each one of these phrases could be a whole sermon in and of itself.
But we don't have that kind of time. So I'm going to have to work pretty quickly here. But I'm hoping to give you just enough so that you yourself will also be interested and be desiring to grow and understanding these verses.
But the first line we read here is that Christ, he was revealed in the flesh. He was revealed in the flesh. This refers to the incarnation of Christ, the incarnation.
John 1-1, famously, we looked at this a couple of weeks ago. John 1-1, we see Jesus as the divine word. He's called the Word with a capital W. He's the second person of the Trinity.
He existed before creation in perfect union with the Father and the Spirit. But then in the fullness of time, John 1-14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. God the Son was revealed.
And the Greek word refers to something that was made visible or clear or known. The ESV translates this word manifested, manifested, revealed, shown. And it says that he was revealed or manifested in the flesh.
And the word flesh here is sarx in the Greek. Now, this word for flesh can refer to several different things. Flesh is used in many places to talk about the sinful nature.
So flesh versus spirit, that you're either in the sinful nature or you're operating in this spiritual realm that's appealing to God. So that's that kind of flesh, sinfulness. But it also can simply refer to the human body.
The human body is flesh. And that's the meaning here. He's not saying that that Jesus is somehow sinful and fleshly in that regard, but rather embodied in a human form.
In fact, Romans 8-3 bridges these two by saying that God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Again, though he himself is not sinful, he came to earth clothed in our human form so that he could redeem it. 1 John 3-5 says that Christ appeared, manifested, was revealed.
He appeared in order to take away sins. And in him there is no sin. Again, speaking to that reality, then verse 8 of the same place, the Son of God appeared, made manifest, was revealed so that he might destroy the works of the devil.
And so he, by coming to earth as a man, he obeys God's law perfectly. And then by bearing the curse on himself, he becomes, as 1 Corinthians 5-21 says, he becomes sin so that we might know the righteousness of God. He bears the sin on himself.
He so identifies with it that he carries it and puts it to death. That's what Philippians 2-7 is talking about. It says, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, the likeness of men in the flesh.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. All of the wonder and the mystery of the incarnation, the two natures of Christ, perfect in divinity, perfect in humanity, coming together into one united person. The perfect obedience of Christ.
I mean, all of these realities are all wrapped up in this one phrase that he was revealed in the flesh. Second, he was vindicated in the Spirit. Vindicated in the Spirit.
At every single point in the earthly life of Christ, the Holy Spirit was with him. If you read your Bible, you read the Gospels, and you just see punctuated out the course of his life, you just see references to the Spirit, the ministry of the Spirit. Just a couple of examples.
Matthew 1.20 records that an angel comes to Joseph and tells him that Jesus would be conceived, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So even before Jesus was even born, the Spirit had an influence and was working to bring him about. The Spirit is present with Christ at his baptism.
He was with him during the wilderness temptation. Romans 8.11 says that the Spirit of him raised him from the dead. And John 16.7 records that Jesus' testimony is that he will be sent to the disciples after his ascension.
The Spirit will be there even at the ascension, which he is. So all throughout the New Testament, we see the Spirit abiding with Christ and bearing witness to his identity and to his ministry. And so here in verse 16, we read that in the second line of the confession that Christ was also vindicated, vindicated in the Spirit.
Now, there's several thoughts about what this refers to, but many have seen the connection between the resurrection of Christ and this vindication in the Spirit. Because to look at the word vindicated here, it's the Greek word dikaiou, which is the same word for just or justified. So vindication and justification in this word usage is the same word.
Some even translate this justified in the Spirit. Now, certainly Christ did not need to be justified or declared righteous in the same way that we do. He doesn't get declared righteous even though he's not, because that's us.
So God doesn't justify him in that he needs to be declared righteous. Christ already is righteous. But there is a sense in which the sacrifice of Christ needed to be vindicated or verified, verified.
After all, what did Christ's resurrection prove? Jesus dies to pay the penalty for sins. By going into the ground, the penalty for our sins is in the ground and buried with him. That is also symbolic.
But then there's a resurrection. When he's resurrected, what does that show? Romans 1.4 says that Christ was declared, declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness. In other words, when Christ rose from the dead, it served to prove that he is the Son of God.
It vindicates his identity. Because again, you could ask the question, and the soldier at the cross says, truly, this was the Son of God. That's his view of the whole thing.
But everybody else around the cross is wondering, was this the Son of God that just died? Well, guess what? When he rose up from the grave, there's no more question anymore. This is the Son of God. But the resurrection vindicates even more than just his identity.
It vindicates him as being both sinless and accepted by the Father. Sinless because raised to new life and seated with God in heaven, he cannot be sinful, right? There's no way a sinful being, a fallen being, even one modicum of sinfulness would allow him into the courts of heaven. So it vindicates his sinlessness, but it also vindicates the fact that his sacrifice to the Lord was accepted.
God accepted the sacrifice of paying for sins by raising him from the dead. It was God's stamp of approval and acceptance, satisfied through his substitutionary death on the cross. How is this vindication brought about in the spirit? Certainly the spirit's there to bear witness while Christ is here.
But I want you to consider something else, too. The spirit of God also inspired the scriptures. He inspired the scriptures and the scriptures tell us who Christ is and what he's done.
The scriptures, who are inspired by the spirit, vindicate the person and work of Jesus. And so Jesus, the fact that he lives, vindicates him both as the Son of God and our all-sufficient Savior, again, through the ministry of the spirit, born witness in the scriptures. Third, Christ was seen by angels, seen by angels as with the spirit.
Jesus Christ was also accompanied by angels during his lifetime. Luke 2, 13 and 14, we read those verses usually at Christmastime, shows angels announcing his birth. After the wilderness temptation, Matthew 4, 11 says that angels then ministered to him.
It was angels who appeared at the empty tomb to tell the followers that he had risen. It was two angels that testified about Christ's ascension in Acts 1, 11. Even now, Revelation 5 tells us that angels surround the throne with continuing praise and worship all the day long.
And so his ministry, his life is borne witness to by all of these angels. But what does it mean that he was seen by angels? Certainly there are others, other examples of those who's witnessed his identity as the Christ and of his greatness. It's interesting because the word for angel here, angelos in the Greek, can also be translated messenger.
And so some have seen that this is actually an allusion, not necessarily to angelic beings, but to earthly messengers, i.e. the apostles, the disciples, the rest of us. Anyone who goes forward in the ministry of the gospel is a messenger showing forth and bearing witness to who Christ is. And so even these messengers see him alive after the resurrection, they could testify to his identity.
But even if I don't hold or we don't hold that that is what that means, because not every scholar sees that same meaning, let's just say that it is actually angelic beings. I tend to think that this is, in terms of literary device, what's called a synecdoche. In other words, it's when one part represents the whole.
Okay? When one part represents the whole. For example, if you were to hear about a world-famous opera singer, and the singer was so famous and so well revered that it was said of that singer, they performed for kings. We would understand that you're not talking about someone who only ever performs for kings, right? The understanding is they perform for everybody, but eminently of all the people they perform for is they perform for kings.
It's possible that, again, performed everywhere in the world here we see that everybody, all these people, angels and humans and even the lower parts of the earth behold all this, but there could be a sense in which that preeminently here he's seen by angels. If you think about Philippians 2, 9 through 11 speaks of Christ being exalted over all creation, over humans, over demons, over angels, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Listen to this.
Of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. That's all creation. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Again, that's my personal view that that's what this is talking about. That preeminently he was seen by angels, but he was seen by anyone who was a witness to his glory. And even we can see him by faith through the Word of God empowered by the Spirit.
We testify. This is the testimony of all creation that Christ is our great God and Savior. Which then leads us to the fourth thing.
That Christ was proclaimed among the nations. Not just seen by angels, by humans, by everyone, but also proclaimed among the nations. See, once Jesus had gone to the cross and he died and was buried and resurrected and ascended, the good news, the gospel, that's what gospel means is good news.
This message of salvation that he had accomplished salvation, it had to be proclaimed. You can't just have the work of Christ happen and then tell nobody about it. So the work had to be proclaimed.
And this word for proclaimed is keruso. It literally means preached. Preached.
And that's what Paul argues for in Romans chapter 10, if you know Romans 10. That the only way for people to believe the gospel is if they hear the gospel. And the only way we can hear the gospel is if someone preaches the gospel.
But the only way someone can preach the gospel is if we send gospel preachers. You see that? And so the only way that this can happen is if someone goes to proclaim. And then he concludes the argument Romans 10 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
And so after the ascension, the church went out and engaged in the work of proclaiming the person and work of Jesus Christ. Preaching the word of Christ and not just to Jews. They began in Jerusalem.
They started preaching to all the Jews, but then they started preaching to the nations, to the ethnos and the Greek ethnos as nations, all the peoples of the world, all the peoples. This conveys the universal scope of the gospel. It's not just for Jews, it's to the Jew first, but also to the Gentiles, to the Greeks, to all of us.
And this is an obedience to the Great Commission in Matthew 28 19, that we are to make disciples, make students and learners, make disciples of all nations. And one evidence of the power and the greatness of Christ is the universal spread of the gospel and its saving effects throughout the world for the last 20 centuries. Of course, one key component of the gospel is not only that it's proclaimed, it's been proclaimed throughout the whole world, but also that in proclaiming the gospel, you get number five, that Christ was believed on in the world.
That's the natural progression. Not just that we've witnessed Christ, that's the third line. Not that we've only proclaimed Christ, that's the fourth line.
But now the people have believed on Christ. Believed, again, the greatness of Christ is demonstrated in the successful gospel proclamation. But even more than that, millions upon millions of people around the world have believed on him for eternal life.
It's not just been a successful marketing campaign. It has also been an amazing work of belief. After all, Christianity is not just an add on religion.
It's not just a series of principles that you agree to. No, it's a saving relationship enacted by God's grace through faith. Belief, the word is pistis here, and the word to believe, believed on is pistou.
So this is a work of faith, of belief in Christ. But the continuous advancement of genuine belief around the world points to the greatness of the one in whom we have believed. In fact, that's what 2 Thessalonians 1 10 points to.
A day when Christ returns, when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed. For our testimony to you was believed. As Christ has been building his church, the kingdom of God advances in saving faith abounds.
The faith of believers declares his greatness. And then finally, speaking of the greatness of the mystery of godliness, we get to the last one, the sixth one, that Christ was taken up in glory. This is a reference to his bodily ascension in Acts 1 9. Because after the resurrection, Jesus told the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it was necessary for Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory.
Luke 24 26. Because where did Christ go after the resurrection? He walked around and lived and interacted on earth for a short bit of time. But after he ascended, or after he resurrected, he ascended bodily into the clouds.
And not just into the clouds, but into the glorious presence of the Father, where he too would share in the glory. Of course, we know that there is coming a day, Matthew 25 31, where Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead, to reconcile all things to himself and to to draw us home to be with him. And yet that time is not yet come.
And so for now we wait for him, knowing that this world is not our final home. And we dwell together here in unity as the body of Christ. We dwell together as the household of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
And Paul actually adds to that. He talks about this in Colossians 1 25 very quickly here. Of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.
That is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his saints to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is, here's the mystery, ready? Christ in you. The hope of glory. Not just that Christ came and was manifested here.
Not just that Christ died and was buried and rose again and ascended. And not only that Christ is coming again, but because of the miracle of the witness of the spirit of regeneration of the indwelling of God's spirit living inside of believers. When you become a Christian, you don't just believe and then go on your merry way.
No, the spirit of God, he lives in you. He takes up residence and walks with you and changes your mind and changes your heart and draws you to him. And in a very real way, this isn't just the spirit of God, this is the spirit of Christ.
That is a greater mystery. Not just that he was revealed, not just that he's with us, but that he's in us. And that hope that we have is the hope of glory.
I know I'm going to see him because my mind's eye even sees him now by faith. I read his word and it comes alive to me and I start to see him. It's like a mirror dimly.
It's murky. I can't quite make him out in the way that I'd like to, but I see him, he's there. And one day we will see him face to face.
But beloved, mark this, our hope is not in better circumstances. Our hope is not in more money, a life of ease, a fulfilling retirement, a moral society, as great as that would be. It's not even in a peaceful world, that's not our hope.
Our hope is Christ. Our hope is Christ and a life well spent is one that seeks to know him and grow in him because great is the mystery of godliness. Great is the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for us.
Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we've only scratched the surface here. And Lord, even in my own feeble understanding of how to apply and see these verses, even in our greatest attempts.
Even in the most brilliant scholars that we have available to us, we know that as much understanding as we do have and as much as we do see, there is a great mystery here. There's something that you do have hidden within yourself, the full realization of who you are. And Lord, the Bible bears witness that if we were to see you, we wouldn't even know what to do.
Our hearts can't fathom your glory. Those who have even seen a glimmer of you fall down as if dead. And yet the Bible tells us, Jesus tells us that if we've seen him, we've seen the father.
And so as many ways that we can see Christ, we know that it's sufficient that we see you. And yet the great mystery for us is that we can only see you by faith. We see you in your word.
The spirit helps us to understand. But Lord, increase our longing. Give us an appetite, a hunger, a thirst for your word, a desire to see your face, a desire to be like you, a desire to have our mind and our heart changed by you.
That we wouldn't be satisfied with what this world has to offer. And Lord, the more that we do see what the world has to offer, the more that we're just in despair and depressed. This world has nothing for us.
And yet we know that in you are all the treasures of wisdom and godliness. In you, we have life. And in you, we do see light.
Reveal yourself to us, O Lord. Help us to know you and understand you so that we can love you. And in loving you, that we might worship you.
We thank you for this great mystery of godliness that is revealed to us in Christ, in Jesus' holy name. Amen.