The spirit of revelation
Trevor Withers 2nd July 2006
Ephesians 3 v 1-7
Mystery & discovery. The mystery has been revealed to Paul so he can reveal it to the church.
Book by John Finney 'Emerging evangelism' refers to these very verses, he says that 'mystery' is from the Greek word 'mysteron', which is used 28 times in the New Testament, sometimes mistranslated as 'secret'.
But it's not a secret which implies that it is kept hidden deliberately by God and revealed like a rabbit out of a hat at which point the mystery is solved. It actually means that the gospel is a divine mystery which has been revealed, is being revealed, and will be revealed. There is some clarity but more is coming and more is yet to come. This shows the broad sweep of God's plan. Some of it will not be revealed until the end-times.
As we walk through life with God some mysteries are still mysteries, eg why does God step into some situations and he seems not to in others. And yet as we walk with him our trust of him grows. We can't make sense of him which means we have to trust him, even though a lot of the way he works is a mystery.
The mystery is partly revealed in Jesus. He showed us how to live and shows us a little of the end times
Our culture has invaded our own world view, we want things to be scientific, we want to analyse every verse of God's word. But in doing so we have taken the mystery out of it, we have lost a key part. God will always be a mystery and we have to live with that mystery.
Trevor recently spent two hours just sitting in Rydal's garden with some colouring pencils and blank paper, something he would not normally do, and found it a very valuable and revealing time. Be encouraged to step away from our analytical way of doing things, and explore things more creatively, revel in the mystery.
Back to the passage: the mystery is revealed to the apostles and prophets in the spirit. Why to these people? The definition of an apostle is someone who is sent. Sent to pioneer things and to establish new things. A prophet hears what God has to say and says it, there is usually a 'now' interpretation and a 'future' interpretation.
Why should the mystery be given to these two people. They are key in the church's outreach. You have to know what God is saying to the world and you need someone who is going to go out and establish it.
The revelation of the mystery was revealed so Paul and the believers could do something with it.
As we share with our friends be honest that we don't understand how God works, we don't have it all sussed. But share how he worked with you on a recent occasion. They will probably be relieved, we're not scary people who know it all.
Verse 6: means all are grafted in, together (this word appears 3 times)
The word 'together' makes the whole thing more mysterious, because the more we discover of other people the more we realise how big God is. He can relate to everybody, and everybody is so different, so how big must he be! Even more so as we visit other countries, other cultures. God works with it all.
As we share our lives together and share how God relates to each of us, and as we create opportunities for other people to join us on this journey of discovery, showing how big he is and how mysterious he is, that will be so powerful.
Trevor brought some bricks to church today. They were destined for the skip but Trevor saved them because they were made for a purpose and had never been used. Some were chipped, cracked or broken into pieces. All people present were encouraged to pick up one and together build a wall, whilst saying to God that we're up for learning more of God and being part of this community, discovering more of God's mystery as we share our lives with each other and with the people we work with or otherwise share our lives with.
A thought from Tim: If we think we understand God, we are relying on our own understanding. Paul says (in Phillippians?) that he only trusts that he has been saved by Jesus. | 
