SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/21/2022 9:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Purpose: To Reveal and to
Conceal”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:10-17
Message of the verses: “10 And the
disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in
parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For
whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance;
but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore
I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while
hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the
prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this
people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have
closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’
16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they
hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men
desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you
hear, and did not hear it.”
Now as I look at what the disciples asked Jesus it
strikes me that they knew what a parable was, as we have mentioned that the
Greek word for parable is used some 45 times in the Septuagint, the Old
Testament written in the Greek language.
They wondered why it was that Jesus was not giving the meaning of this
parable and so Jesus explains why. It is
as if they were saying to Jesus “Why do you bother saying anything to them at
all, if they can’t understand it?” I suppose that this was a good question, and
like the disciples we will soon find out the answer.
So
it was at this point that Jesus gives the twofold reason or in our case answer,
for why He was speaking in parables.
First to reveal meaning to those who receive Him and second, to conceal
meaning from those who do not, and I suppose that this is still true today for
people who do not belong to Christ when they try to understand the Bible. Jesus answered and said to them, "To you
it has been granted
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” Now the words “to you” speak of those who
believe in Jesus. We have to put this
into prospective as we have spent almost three months looking at Matthew
chapter 12 and we found out that the Pharisees and I suppose the scribes too,
had just committed the unpardonable sin which meant they could never be saved,
and so why give out the truth anymore when it would do them no good.
John
MacArthur writes “Mysteries does not refer to stories such as those found in
modern mystery novels, whose complex plot and unexpected situations pique [grab] the curiosity of the reader. In an
ancient world a mystery was a sacred secret known only to initiates and
sometimes only to upper level religionists.
They system of mystery religions began in ancient Babylon and spread in
various forms to every part of the civilized world. An influential Greek philosophical system of
New Testament times was called Gnosticism, a name derived from gnosis, which means knowledge. Gnostics considered themselves the ones ‘in
the know’ as far as philosophical matters were concerned.” I suppose today one could think of the Masons
is a similar vein as Gnosticism, as one moves up levels in that system they
receive more information.
I
want to show you a verse from Paul’s writing in 1st Corinthians which
will show us what the word mystery means in Scriptures. 1Co 15:51 “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed.”
From a derivative of muo (to shut the
mouth);
1) hidden thing, secret, mystery
1a) generally mysteries, religious
secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals
1b) a hidden or secret thing, not
obvious to the understanding
1c) a hidden purpose or counsel
1c1) secret will
1c1a) of men
1c1b) of God: the secret counsels which
govern God in dealing with the righteous, which are hidden from ungodly and
wicked men but plain to the godly
2) in rabbinic writings, it denotes the
mystic or hidden sense
2a) of an OT saying
2b) of an image or form seen in a vision
2c) of a dream
The mystery that Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians
is what is called the rapture of the church.
I have mentioned that the church is not mentioned in the Old Testament
and also once the Jews committed the unpardonable sin in Matthew 12 that in
effect, temporarily Jesus was done with Israel as they were actually put aside,
something that Paul writes about in Romans 9-11. We have mentioned that Jesus is speaking
about the church in these parables that He is speaking of in Matthew 13 and so
in that sense the church is a mystery. I
have heard from I think it was Hal Lindsey many years ago when he gave the
definition of the word mystery as far as in the Word of God. “Something that was not revealed in the Old
Testament but is not revealed in the New Testament.” I think when one thinks about the church, and
then one thinks about how the church age will end, (the rapture), that the
biblical meaning for mystery can be seen.
Lord
willing I will quote from John MacArthur who writes more about this word
mystery as we begin our next SD.
3/21/2022 10:35 AM
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