Classified Supernatural Secrets Revealed
![Classified Supernatural Secrets Revealed
Ephesians Pt. 4
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© August 2, 2015
www.pastorkennedy.com
Does God Keep Secrets?
When God says He is not going to tell anybody a secret that He is holding, He doesn’t break His Word.
What key Secrets (that we know of) did God Keep from Everyone until Just the Right Time?
There are at least three secrets that God has held since the creation of the world, which He then revealed after Christ had been crucified and was raised again. These “secrets” are our topics today, as we continue our study in the book of Ephesians, 3:1-13, while also including 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:14.
Secret 1. The Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Why was it important for God to reveal this secret two thousand years ago after His Son was crucified and was raised again?
And, what makes it important that we know the answers to those secrets today?
It is important for us to know the answer of Secret #1, because this identifies who the Messiah is, promised from the creation of the world. It also reveals the actions we need to take individually to accept Him as our personal Messiah.
Why the Need for God’s Secret #1?
Why was it important for God to cloak the mystery of Jesus, the Messiah’s Redemptive Sacrifice and Salvation, until He was revealed at just the right time in the history of the world?
1 Corinthians 2:7-8
7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God kept the reality of His objectives hidden regarding Christ’s Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection, in that way, demonic forces could not skew the accomplishment of Jesus’ virgin birth, the key God-given sign of the Messiah, nor could they overcome Jesus’ life and miraculous ministry, through temptation or the blatant rejection of His own people.
The hordes of the demonic host were also blinded by their zealous fervor, as God’s archenemies, by fanning to a white heat the hatred of the Jewish religious leadership, in order to bring gross humiliation, sadistic suffering and a cruel death upon Jesus Christ. Then, to their horror, God’s Secret plan was now clear – Jesus Christ was born to die and rise again, and through His death and resurrection, sin, death and Satan were defeated!
Humans look for Human Deliverance
Even though we are often too proud to admit it, humans are continually looking for a world-class superhero or heroine to deliver us from any number of woes: be it war, terrorism, national debt, hunger, poverty, political corruption, moral dilemmas, or potential environmental disasters, etc. Humans rarely include “spiritual” dynamics in this list because of feigned tolerance for many diverse religions and non-religious ideologies in the world.
The Critical Spiritual Dimension and Relationship
God does not overlook the spiritual dimension. In fact, God recognizes the spiritual part of human beings to be the most fundamental aspect of mankind’s need.
Why?
Relationship with God Is Spiritual, and this is the most important relationship in the world. This relationship with God will have profound affects on all the needs relevant to mankind. All other human relationships terminate at a person’s death…but in a relationship with God, supernatural life-after-death continues forever!
Therefore, the revelation and relationship of God’s Messiah, for each individual in the human race cannot be equaled.
Why do we need God’s Messiah?
• To Have a Genuine Relationship with God:
We need a healed relationship with God, which had been broken because of sin. Through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we can have ongoing communion and relationship with God.
• Power to Live an Honorable Life:
We need the power to live honorably before God in a broken world, which is often defiant of God.
• Enablement to Accomplish God’s Purposes:
We need God’s enablement to accomplish what God has commissioned us to do while we are living with the corruption of sin all around us – with a depraved nature within us tampering with our soul, and, at the same time, the transformation of the Holy Spirit changing and maturing us spiritually to be more like Christ.
• Protection and Guidance:
We need God’s protection and guidance in a world engulfed and embedded in the kingdom of darkness.
• Abundant Life:
God provided His Messiah, in the fullness of time, so that through Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, as our Messiah, we can have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
• Eternal Salvation:
We are all condemned eternally to damnation if we do not accept God’s provision of His Messiah’s Sacrifice for our sins. We are destined for a supernatural and spiritually alive eternity with God, if we, by grace through faith, have been redeemed through Christ’s blood and transformed by His Spirit.
God’s Wisdom is very different from human wisdom.
The wisdom of the world cannot be compared with God’s wisdom.
Human wisdom crowns its recipient with power, position and ability to have wealth and pride. We can flaunt our wisdom, gouge each other with the sharpness of the barbs of our wit, and attain self-made goals through the prowess of our intellect…but isn’t this a mere continuing after-taste of the fruit Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and of evil, in the Garden of Eden?
God’s wisdom is very different.
1 Corinthians 1:18–2:14
Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
2 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The “Brilliance” of our Natural Mind is Naturally Terminal
We do not automatically know about God because we are extremely smart and can intelligently comprehend a lot of information about our world.
In fact, our natural mind “defaults” to believe that spiritual things are foolish fantasies and ignorant traditions from the dark ages.
• The Terminal Point for our Natural Mind is DEATH.
• The Continuing Point for God’s Spiritual Wisdom is Eternal Life after DEATH.
• Which is more “Brilliant”?
We can only truly know God through the understanding that God’s Spirit gives us!
What is the first Secret (that we are aware of) that God withheld from the world since the beginning of creation?
Secret 1. The Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
That the Sacrifice and Redemption for the lost and fallen souls of mankind would be given through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Suffering Savior and Messiah.
Why did God withhold it from the world, and make it a mystery to the spiritual forces of darkness?
1 Corinthians 2:7-8
7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The second sequential spiritual secret from God (that we know of) broadens the scope of the Gospel to include those of any other ethnic group who by faith reach out to God for His salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Secret 2. Believing Gentiles (those from any other ethnic group) can become Spiritual Heirs with believing Israel
This Spiritual “Secret” was revealed to Paul, a man who knew and studied the Scripture from His youth.
God called Paul to have a Thorough Jewish Education from Paul’s youth:
• Paul’s Early Education in the Law, under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).
• Paul’s Continuing Education as a Zealous Pharisee (Gal. 1:14).
God called Paul to be Transformed through a Personal Encounter with Jesus Christ:
• Paul’s Meeting with Jesus on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9).
God called Paul to be Taught by Jesus for Three Years after his conversion:
• Paul’s spiritual teaching from Jesus Christ in the Arabian Desert for three years, with continued encounters with Christ (Gal. 1:11-18; 2 Cor. 12:1-7).
The revelation of this part of God’s Secret to Paul regarding the co-heir relationship of believing Gentiles (all other ethnic groups) was earthshaking to the Jewish religious world in Paul’s day (it isn’t earthshaking to us today, because we have had 2,000 years to understand it and appreciate it!).
Ephesians 3
God’s Mystery Regarding Gentiles being Co-Heirs Revealed
3 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable (something that cannot be searched out, that cannot be comprehended.) riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration (1a the management, oversight, administration, of other’s property.) of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
Why did God Originally Choose the Jewish Race?
In Genesis 3:15, God spoke directly to “the serpent” (Satan, wrapped in reptilian form), who had tempted Eve to break God’s one restriction in the Garden of Eden. In this part of the judgment on the serpent, God cryptically revealed to Adam and Eve (and to us) of the Messiah and Redeemer’s coming, but this was simply a clue of what God was planning in the future. God had good reason to reserve the full disclosure of His Redemptive Plan until after Christ was born, lived, was crucified, rose again and ascended into heaven. God’s plan was to bring the Messiah into the world through a special race of people, initiated by Abraham, a man whose faith was counted as righteousness, whose genetic line had not been corrupted as had the nations of the world, and whose generations following would acknowledge the One True God. Through the Jewish race the Incarnate Son of God would be born, capable of breaking the power of sin and death - but that was the hidden part.
Genesis 3:15 (NCV)
15 “I will make you and the woman
enemies to each other.
Your descendants and her descendants
will be enemies.
One of her descendants will crush your head,
and you will bite his heel.”
The Jewish Nation was conceived by God to flourish for 2,000 years (following the Genesis Flood):
• To reveal to the pagan world once again, a consistent view of the Creator God of heaven;
• To reveal the righteous requirements of God’s Law in the Ten Commandments;
• And, to bring into the world His Messiah and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Why did God keep His Plan for the Messiah limited, at first, to the Jewish race?
• God brought His Messiah, Jesus Christ, into the world through a Chosen People who believed in Him, and to whom He had given His Law.
• God protected the Incarnation of His Son through His Chosen People until Jesus Christ’s Redemptive Sacrifice, Resurrection, and Ascension was complete.
Although the book of Revelation has a great scope of meaning and interpretation
Rev. 12:1-6 gives us a glimpse of why God protected the incarnation of His Son with a spiritual and figurative snapshot of the Jewish race, the birth of the Messiah and the peril of the Satanic throng swirling around His conception on earth.
Revelation 12:1–5 (NIV84)
The Woman (Israel) and the Dragon (Satan and his forces)
12 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. [Remember Herod’s slaughter of the boys in Bethlehem two years and younger, following Jesus’ birth? Matt. 2:16-18] 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
The interpretation of this passage goes well beyond what it is revealed for an illustration of Satan and the powers of darkness’ rabid desire to see Christ’s destruction from birth. This passage gives a “holographic” type sketch of the spiritual battle waged against Jesus, the Incarnate Messiah and His People in the past, and what will be waged against His People, in the future.
Through this symbolic picture we have an emotional glimpse to help us understand why God, fully aware of Satan’s desire to destroy the potential of a Redeemer, kept the secret of Christ’s mission a mystery until it was accomplished.
The second secret reveals the scope of God’s desire for everyone to come to the knowledge of the Truth.
Secret 2. Believing Gentiles (those from any other ethnic group) can, by faith, become Spiritual Heirs with believing Israel
Through the Gospel of Christ, believing Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. A heritage based on Redemptive Faith (the faith evidenced through Abraham) in God’s provided Savior, rather than through a physical, ideological, gender, or societal heritage (Gal. 3:26-29).
Galatians 3:26–29
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
The Revelation of this Mystery that all other races (the Gentiles) besides the Jews be given the opportunity to have salvation by Grace through faith, may not seem very big to you and I, but it was history making in Paul’s day…and it really is major for us, from every diverse ethnic group, who have Salvation, to partake, without restriction, in New Birth and Transformation, by the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ.
God’s original goal is still the same, throughout the human generations, and in the fullness of His time:
“To bring all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head, even Christ.”
Ephesians 1:9-10
Secret 1. The Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Secret 2. Believing Gentiles (those from any other ethnic group) can, by faith, become Spiritual Heirs with believing Israel
God then revealed full disclosure of His Redemptive Plan before all the principalities in heaven and earth, through the Church.
What is the third sequential Secret (that we know of) that God Kept from everyone?
Secret 3. The Revelation of God’s Plan through the Church
That the Revelation of God’s plan would be revealed to everyone, including the unseen spiritual powers, through “the Church”, that in Christ and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence… and that this Gospel would spread to the ends of the earth (Matt. 24:14).
Ephesians 3:10-12
10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
That now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
According to his eternal purpose…
In Christ Jesus our Lord and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
What are “the rulers and authorities” spoken of in this verse?
Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
16 For by him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones (places of power) or dominions (areas under authority of power)
or rulers (those in authority) or authorities (those who are able to endow authority)
—all things were created through him and for him.
That the Revelation of God’s plan would be revealed to everyone, including the unseen spiritual powers, through “the Church”, that in Christ and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence…
Three Classified Secrets Revealed
1. The Incarnation of Christ as the Messiah.
2. The Availability of His Salvation to the World.
3. The Revelation to all the Powers that those in Christ’s Church can approach God with Freedom and Confidence! (And when the Gospel is shared throughout the world…the end would come! Matt. 24:14)
Is God Still Keeping Secrets from the World?
God doesn’t share His Secrets with those who do not Honor Him
God is withholding the secrets of His Kingdom from those who despise Him, from those who reject Him, and from those who want to live their own lives apart from Him…from those who want to benefit from Him with eternal life and whatever they can get from Him, without having to submit to Him or serve Him.
God, the Father, Keeps the Secret of the Day of Christ’s Return
Jesus said that no one knows when He is returning, but the Father only (Mk. 13:33). That is a top classified secret. A lot of people have been trying to second guess God on this secret…and, “signs of the times” will give us clues (Matt. 24), but for the wicked, selfish and deceitful…they will not even have a clue (Luke 12:45-46).
Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant,
whom his master has set over his household,
to give them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing
when he comes.
Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
But if that wicked servant says to himself,
‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants
and eats and drinks with drunkards,
the master of that servant will come on a day
when he does not expect him
and at an hour he does not know
and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 24:44–51
And Can It Be
By Charles Wesley
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior's blood!
Died He for me who caused His pain!
For me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be!
that Thou, my God, shoulds’t die for me!
Amazing love! How can it be!
that Thou, my God, shoulds’t die for me!
’Tis mystery all: th’ Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father's Throne above
(so free, so infinite His grace!),
emptied Himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my Living Head,
and clothed in righteousness Divine.
Bold I approach th' Eternal Throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th' Eternal Throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.](Eph._Pt._4_%28Classified_Supernatural_Secrets_Revealed%29_files/shapeimage_1.png)
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