Beginning in verse 14 of 1 Timothy 3, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. How one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. I'm going to stop reading there because I want to explain what you've seen so far. Paul is talking, really, this entire chapter about godliness. Godliness just means acting in accordance with one's beliefs about God. It means reflecting the nature of God in your behavior.
And if you want to know, like, well, what is godliness practically, you could go back through the list of qualifications that Paul issues in the beginning of 1 Timothy 3. In fact, I'll just read some of those to you. These are qualifications for an elder or deacon, and really what we're seeing here is just a list of godliness, godly character qualities. An overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. So godliness is described in that section that leads up to this point that he's making about the mystery of godliness.
And you and I are called to act like we have been redeemed by the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so godliness includes a godly ambition to care for others. Godliness includes sexual purity, sexual integrity. Godliness includes self-control. Godliness includes gentleness. Godliness includes freedom from the love of money. Godliness includes looking at the relationships that God has placed you in and trying to honor him with the relationships that he has placed you in.
And that's what Paul's talking about in our text today. He's talking about godliness, about how one should behave if they are a follower of Christ Jesus. And so the first point of the message, I've covered it, is just the importance of godliness. But now let's look at the next section, where he says in verse 16, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Let's now turn from the importance of godliness to talking about the energy behind godliness.
Paul is telling us now the how of godliness. Early in the chapter, he's saying, well, this is what godliness is. And he lists all these qualities. That's the what of godliness. And then he says, this is how you ought to behave if you are a part of the household of God. Well, that's the why of godliness. And now he's turning and talking about the how. When he says, great indeed is the mystery of godliness. The word mystery, when it's used in religious context, it almost always refers to like the thing behind the thing. The power at work at the deepest heart of the factory, so to speak.
Suppose that one day you go to plug in a light and you just get super curious, like destructively curious. Like I used to be as a kid, I'd take everything apart, you know, because I wanted to know how it worked. And most of the time I would take it apart and I didn't know how it worked. But I would just take everything. So let's suppose one day you go to plug in a light. You know, enough of all this mystery. I want to know exactly what powers this light. And so you look at the outlet and you're like, wires. Okay, so you just take a hammer, you just knock a big chunk of drywall out, right? And now you can see the wires. And you start tracing those wires and they'll take you down to a box in your basement most likely. And you'll think, oh, is this the mystery? Is this the thing that was lighting the lights? Like, no, got to keep following the wires. And there's some bigger wires at the top of the box. And so you follow those outside and that takes you to some even bigger wires that go to a substation. And now the wires are really big. And you're like, is that the mystery? Is the substation the mystery of power? No, you got to keep following those lines. And eventually you wind up, you know, at a coal-powered plant most likely or a nuclear plant. And that's where the power is coming from. When the Bible talks about a mystery, it's talking about stripping all the layers away and finding the core, the thing that is powering everything else.
6 · Contrasts Christianity's openness with other religions' mystery systems
And that's what Paul is talking about in this section. He's talking about the mystery of godliness, the deepest thing at the center of everything. And really every religion has a mystery. They have a thing behind a thing behind a thing. But in many religions, like the Masons or the Mormons or the Scientologists, it's like you have to gamify the system. You know, it's just like a video game. You have to get this level, then you have to get that level, then you have to get this level. And eventually you become, you know, a 33rd degree Mormon with a minor in basket weaving, and you know the mystery, you know. You got to climb the levels. And Christianity is such an ennobling and dignity instilling thing because it goes to every single individual on day one and said, here's the mystery.
7 · Confesses a long-held misreading of the text—thinking 'great' described the mystery's mysteriousness rather than its inherent greatness
Now, I've read this text my whole life, you know, whatever, most of my life. And I have to confess something to you, and I hope that you won't leave me hanging if you, because I'm going to ask you to show your hands if you were with me on this. I have read this this whole time for all these years and thought that it was the mystery that was great. In other words, this is, the mystery was great in mysteriousness. Does that make sense? Like, that's, I thought that's what Paul was saying. I thought he was saying that the mystery is super mysterious. That the word great corresponded to the superior, to the misteriness of the mystery. Did anyone else think that? Okay, thanks Josh. You know, to me, I'd read this countless times, and that's what I thought. I just thought it meant, it's like, it's a super hard thing to see. It's a super hard thing to understand. And then, as I've done more work on it this week, I realized, no, that's, idiot, that's not what's happening here. Like, Paul is just saying that the thing is great. The power station is great. The central truth is great.
8 · Clarifies the biblical concept of mystery through two analogies—the holy of holies in the temple and the heart in a person—before reading 1 Timothy 3:16, which reveals the mystery of godliness in poetic form
And, again, in ancient times, the word mystery isn't quite used to mostly communicate hiddenness, although it does communicate that. It's mostly to communicate, well, let's put it this way. What the holy of holies is to the temple, that's what a mystery is in the Bible. Right? What the heart is to a person, that's what a mystery is to the Bible. It's the center operating system that's usually covered up by a bunch of other layers that are meaningful, but they're downstream. They're essentially effects of this internal cause. So, Paul's going to tell us what the mystery of godliness is, and he does that by telling us in verse 16, he was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.
9 · Makes a crucial grammatical observation: in 1 Timothy 3:16, Jesus is the grammatical object, not the subject—being acted upon by the Father
So, this is obviously talking about Jesus. And you could say, well, the mystery of godliness is Jesus. Then be done with it. And we could go home. And that's not untrue. It just doesn't happen to be what Paul is trying to communicate here. It's certainly true that Jesus is, in some ways, the center of our faith, the power at work in our faith, the power at work that causes us to behave differently, for instance. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. But I want you to look at this again. Look at verse 16 again, where it starts with, He was manifested, read this again. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. And one of the things I think you should notice here is that Jesus is portrayed in this passage as the object, not the agent. And I think this is important. When you read your New Testament, you'll see passages like this, where Jesus is being acted upon, mostly, namely by the Father. Okay, that's the typical idea here. And when you see those, where Jesus is, because we typically think of Jesus as the power, as the one who is doing the work. And there's nothing wrong with that. There are plenty of verses that talk about Jesus in that respect. But when you see verses like this, where Jesus is being acted upon by the Father, it is typically almost always Him being held out as an example for us to follow. These are kind of the big brother Jesus passages.
10 · Clarifies the balance between Jesus as savior and Jesus as example, warning against collapsing the distinction while affirming both are necessary
And now understand that if all you have of Jesus is an example, you don't have enough. You're not going to be saved. Jesus is more than an example. But He's not less than an example. And so there's these sections of Scripture where Jesus is being acted upon, mostly by the Father. Sometimes, like there's a passage in 1 Peter 3, where it says, He was reviled but did not return with reviling, but trusted Himself to the Father. There's an example of that older brother Jesus kind of thing. Like, look how He handled this. Look what God did for Him. Philippians 2 is probably the classic one. It's a verse we seem to wind up reading almost every week. I've thought about that. We really hit Philippians 2. If you ever were forced to make a memorization commitment, that'd be the one probably. Because we'll help you. We wind up reading that verse almost every week. But that's another one of those sections where Jesus is being acted upon. He becomes a servant. He surrenders. So that's Jesus acting there. There's some agency there. But the whole point of the end is, is because he surrendered to God and trusted the Father, the Father did what? He gave him a name above every name. And that's another one of those older brother passages where you're supposed to look at it and say, okay, how did he act here?
11 · Critiques a theological overreaction from 15-20 years ago that dismissed Jesus as example in favor of Jesus as savior
There was this kind of confusion that came into the church maybe 15, 20 years ago. Some young men in particular thought they were super smart. And they started saying, you know, people always talk about what would Jesus do, but I think we need to focus on what Jesus has done. And it's like, yeah, you sound super, boy, you've uncovered everything, you smart young man. It's like, let's do both because the Bible does both, right? And this is one of those passages where Jesus is seen as the object, not the agent.
12 · Reframes the sermon's central question from a general inquiry about Christian faith to a specific inquiry about behavioral transformation
Now, I want to remind you before we get into the details here, we're not asking just what is the center of the Christian faith in general. We're asking a more specific question than that. We're asking, how does godliness happen? That's what we're asking. How do people start being self-controlled when they're not? How do people with a temper overcome their temper and become men of peace? How do women without emotional self-control develop emotional self-control? Like, that's what we're asking. How does someone who loves money stop loving money inordinately? We're asking, where does the behavior change come from? And Paul is telling us with this, what is a poem? We don't know if he's the author of the poem or if he's just citing something that was well known at the time. There's disagreement about that, but he's sharing a poem with us. And that poem is essentially the story, or as I call it, the epic, the epic of Jesus. It's really just the same pattern over and over again, and we'll get into that in a moment.
13 · Transitions to Ephesians 1:15 to clarify what 1 Timothy 3:16 alludes to
But here's how I can help you see this more clearly. Paul wrote another letter to this church, not just 2 Timothy, but also a letter called Ephesians. And it's all the same people that he's dealing with in these letters. And in Ephesians, he spells out in more clarity what he's alluding to here. So if you would, if you have your Bibles, look at Ephesians 1, verse 15. Because we have this sense now that the mystery of godliness has something to do with what the Father did for Jesus. We have some sense now, we've traced this to the point where we can say, how do people change? How do people become more like Christ? How do they put away a life-dominating problem with lust or anger or whatever? Or whining or grumbling, you know? How do people change? How do they become godly? And Paul's left is in this place, he's like, well, just look at Jesus and look at how God, look what God did for Jesus. Okay?
14 · Reads Ephesians 1:15-21 aloud, pausing to emphasize the grammatical pattern where Jesus is the object of the Father's action
In Ephesians, he spells it out even more clearly. Beginning in verse 15 of chapter 1. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and of knowledge in him. Now here, just before we go further, you can see, even in verse 15, Jesus is really more of the object than the agent. I said 15, I meant 17. The God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory. So you see, Jesus is being held in that older brother position here. He's being held out of us as like one of us. The one of us-ness is heavily emphasized in this idea. So that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to what he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? This is where you maybe, if you put your finger on that, if you've got the, you've got your Bible open. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? According to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. So in this verse, who raised Jesus from the dead? Did Jesus raise Jesus from the dead? Did the Father raise Jesus from the dead? He's being done to. He's being, he's receiving the action of the Father. He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
15 · Synthesizes the two passages—1 Timothy 3:16 and Ephesians 1:15-23—to articulate the mystery of godliness in full: the same resurrection power that raised and exalted Jesus is available to believers for sanctification
Let me draw your attention to the similarities. Paul in 1 Timothy 3 says that there's a mystery of godliness. It's a, it's a central thing, hidden in some respects by all the things downstream from it. And in Ephesians, Paul says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. What is he praying for? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and a revelation in the knowledge of him. The word mystery doesn't appear in Ephesians, but it's the same idea. There's something hidden from you that is important for you to see. So important for you to see that Paul is praying that you see it. What is he praying that you see? Well, he's praying that you see how the very same power at work to raise Jesus from the dead and seat him at the right hand of the Father is available to you now to make you godly. That's the mystery of godliness. The mystery of godliness is that the energy working on us is the very same energy at work on Jesus when he trusted the Father, was raised after surrendering to death, and was elevated to the right hand of God. The mystery of godliness is simply this. God is going to use the exact same power, intention, effort to vindicate your choice to put to death sin, to vindicate your choice to choose him. God is going to confirm that choice in the same way that he confirmed Jesus' choice to trust the Father.
16 · Identifies two primary errors about godliness: believing you can have God without godliness (the contemporary error), and believing you can have godliness without God (the older error)
Now, I could sense a bit still a lack of fully grasping it. Just bear with me because we're going to get there. There are two main errors related to godliness. I suppose that there are three. One of them would just be like to always define it into something that's very low. It'd be like to remove the concept of sin. That would be an error too. But the two main errors that I want to present to you that are kind of dealt with in this idea is, the first is that you can have God without godliness. And this is, in my opinion, this is the error of our generation. I think that everybody is scrambling around in their gospel-centeredness, trying to tell us about the second error, which is you can't have godliness without God, when we need to be told, you cannot have God without godliness. Your sexual life has to look a certain way. You don't get to just make up the rules. You don't get to dumb down the standards of holiness that have been presented forever. You need to act as God is calling you to act. There is no such thing as a saint who has God who does not also have a desire for godliness.
17 · Applies the first error directly to the congregation with prophetic force
So the first error to me is extremely important to underline. In my opinion, there is probably more than we realize, an undercurrent, even in our own congregation, of pretty significant compromise in the areas of just simple holiness. And we show up and we are able to articulate not only the gospel, but even the reformed version. And we are really something with what we know. But our lives are, you know what vermiculated means? Worm ridden. When you pick up a log and you see all the holes in it. So let's be super clear here. This is how one ought to behave who is in the household of God. That's what we're talking about. What we're talking about is being done with the excuses, being done with the, oh, I've struggled with that too, and moving into the stop it section. And we dare do that for two reasons. Firstly, because God is worthy. You are not your own. You were bought with a price so that you would honor God with your bodies. So we dare say it because it's absolutely what is required. It's absolutely the appropriate thing. As we saw in Romans 12, therefore, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices. So let's make sure that we understand you can't have God without godliness. And if you can see areas of your life with just like, where you keep hitting the snooze button on obedience, you should be afraid, my friends. This should stir up in you the fear of God because you can't have God without godliness.
18 · Balances the prophetic call with pastoral assurance: the high call of godliness is both required and empowered by the same resurrection power
And we can say that to one another because it is both required, but also because it is empowered. This is the great theological truth that keeps us away from running away from the high call of the gospel, is whatever he requires, he empowers. If he bids us to fly, he'll give us wings. Indeed he has. And so what we're seeing in this mystery of godliness idea is that the very same power that rose Jesus from the dead is at work in you to make you more godly. And the second error, of course, is a sense of godliness without God. I don't think this is the issue it is ascribed to be, but perhaps I'm wrong and there are a bunch of us who are scrambling out there trying to reach moral perfection through our own flesh. Maybe that's really what's going on. If that's going on, I have one piece of counsel. Stop it. This too is impossible. But what I think I've noticed is, is of the kind of people who are trying to muster their own morality, is that it's never very loving and it's never very sacrificial. I'm not sure it's the problem we present it to be. I have a pretty clear sense in my humble opinion that the real problem lies in us attempting to have a glorious gospel, a glorious Jesus, and an extremely lukewarm set of behaviors in response to this. I just don't think that's, I don't think that'll even bring you any assurance or peace. And if it's bringing you assurance, you've missed fundamental parts of what the Bible says.
19 · Introduces the epic of Jesus—the universal narrative pattern of descent (incarnation), crisis (death), and restoration (resurrection)
So that seems to be the mystery. The mystery is, is that the God who is at work in Jesus is at work in us. And what we see in this passage is what I've referred to before as the epic of Jesus. There's always essentially one story. And that is a character is in some reasonable state of okayness. There's a crisis and then there's a restoration. It's sort of the story. In the situation of Jesus, it's important to understand that this epic of Jesus follows something similar. Something similar. In fact, I would say it doesn't follow it. It is the original version of it. And we see that basic pattern reflected in this passage in verse 16. He was manifested in the flesh. What does that mean? Well, friends, when that's just referring to Christ clothing himself in weakness. It's referring to him being put into a situation that is hard. A situation that's hard that he doesn't deserve. When Jesus took on flesh, Philippians 2 says he took on the form of a servant. You know, he took a diminished role. So the first part of the epic of Jesus is diminishment. He has left something he was before. You know, this idea of incarnation is really interesting. It shows up in surprising places. In Ephesians 5, Paul is calling men to leave their fathers and mothers and love their wives as Christ loved the church. And he says, this is a great mystery. Again, he kind of throws out the mystery language. He's like, what is he talking about there? He's like, well, men, husbands, just so you know, one of the things going on there is this idea that in an ideal world you would have left a home where your mom and dad loved you and where you were just their little superstar. And now you have to enter a world where no one appreciates you and maybe not even your wife a lot of the time. And you're taken for granted. And you literally take on the condescension of Christ who left glory and embraced being taken for granted, even by people who loved him the most. And Paul's saying, like, that's the way. That's the Jesus way. It's like, but if you do that, you'll be vindicated. God will got your back. But you've got to trust him. You essentially have to stop being like pursuing a life where you're like the special little boy and become the suffering servant. But when you become the suffering servant and like a sheep, you just shut up and do it, God's got your back. This is the epic of Jesus. This is the epic of godliness. And the pieces fit into every area of life.
20 · Explains why godliness feels terrifying: it requires voluntary vulnerability, like Adam and Eve's nakedness or Jesus's crucifixion
What is required for godliness to occur is some realization that the way you're living now is your preferred way, but not the right way. And so there's the departure element. There's the giving up. There's the surrendering. It's a letting go of the way you think things ought to be. And a surrender to the way that God says things ought to be. Now, what keeps us from doing this is it's very scary. Sin made men and women naked. It made them not, it didn't make them naked. It made them realize they're naked. Friends, doesn't it feel when you're like ready to trust God and walk away from an old sin, an old pattern of living, doesn't it feel in some respects like you're being de-clothed, like you're being stripped bare, like you're walking through vulnerability? There's a reason Jesus died stripped bare. So what does godliness entail? It entails some moment of leaving a way that you prefer, a way that seems right in your own eyes, and trusting God through a season of, this isn't, this is not how I want my life to be. Trusting God through a season of disappointment, trusting God through a season of waiting, trusting God through a season of self-denial. And one of the reasons why I think we are so hesitant to pursue godliness in a kind of open way is that as soon as you start trying to be godly, you're going to fail. And so you're going to be walking through a season where this new commitment, like I am not going to do X, Y, or Z, or I am going to do X, Y, and Z. Friends, the first kind of early season of that is going to be you failing because you're trying to do something you're new at. This early season of godliness is similar to the way that Jesus left his comfort, his glory, and took on flesh, and walked in humility. The difference being what Jesus left was good. What we leave when we're called to godliness isn't. Right? Right? But it's a similar feeling. It's the similar idea. It's the similar idea of trusting God and going into the hard thing.
21 · Exegetes the movement from 'manifested in the flesh' (weakness, vulnerability) to 'vindicated by the Spirit' (divine confirmation)
So when it says he was manifested in the flesh, it's this idea of I've just gotten a lot smaller than I want to be. I've just gotten a lot weaker than I want to be. I've just gotten a lot more vulnerable than I want to be. And then it says he was vindicated by the spirit. Well, what's the word vindicated? Vindication happens when someone's done you wrong. Or vindication happens when you've made a choice that everybody else thinks is crazy. There's a psalm that says, He will make the rightness of your cause shine like the noonday sun. God's big on vindication. If you trust him, he will vindicate you. So again, what we have here in the idea of him being vindicated is that Jesus had to basically be scoffed at and mocked and ridiculed and seen as a disappointment, maybe even to his own mother, potentially. He had to just be so small, so weak, and so frail. And friends, this is really what keeps us from changing. Positioning godliness is like sort of like leaving us in and choosing righteousness, but sometimes it's like leaving a good thing that's like time to move on and doing the bigger thing, the harder thing, the next thing. And what keeps us from change is this feeling of being unclothed, of being hyper-vulnerable, of entering into a new state of weakness. You know, it's crazy that when you're an adult, how much you can control your own life. It's crazy. Like, at least until, you know, you get to be older and you start getting sick and things. But early on, man, it's shocking how you really can, like, just make your life out to what you want it to be. And you don't realize is that whole time is as you've been fortifying a very particular identity that you feel most comfortable with. And so this theme of Jesus incarnating, him leaving, him becoming, this is part of the mystery of godliness, because what we see is that when he did that, God was with him. And then really from that point forward, we aren't really sure what Paul meant by seen by angels. It could be ministered by angels would be a better way of thinking that, and it could be referring to Jesus being tempted in the desert. We don't really know some of the things here, how the order and so on and so forth are up to much debate. But the one thing that you can see is, is that you essentially have decline and then elevation. This is the pattern in the Bible. It is the pattern of the seed. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But when it dies, it bears much fruit. And this is the pattern that Peter talks about when he says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of the Lord, and in due time he will lift you up. I talk about it as the humiliation and exaltation pattern.
22 · Synthesizes the entire sermon's argument into the controlling claim: when a believer enters the humiliation-exaltation cycle—leaving sin and trusting God through vulnerability—the same divine power that raised and exalted Jesus is at work in them
So what's the mystery of godliness? The mystery of godliness is that when you offer yourself up into the humiliation-exaltation cycle, when you live through the epic of Jesus, when you leave comfort in pursuit of more of God, in pursuit of godliness, God's got you. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory. That Ephesians passage says, not only did God raise him from the dead, when Jesus surrendered and emptied himself of everything, this is the leaving thing, Jesus is leaving life, right? Not only did God raise him from the dead, but he seated him at his right hand, far above every name, and so on and so forth. And so there's always more upside on the glory than there was on the grind of godliness. There's always more upside, and this is the mystery of godliness. It's simply that when a person, no matter how lowly, no matter what's a big thing or a small thing, when a person says, I'm not going to lean on my own understanding. I'm going to trust in you. I'm going to go through a season of feeling small, weak, vulnerable, like my whole world's about to cave in, completely naked, whatever the thing is. I'm going to go through that. The great mystery is, is that the very same god at work to raise Jesus from the dead and seat him at the right hand of the Father and make his name known throughout all of the nations, a name that is above every other name, that same god and that same power is helping you when you've decided that you're not going to cuss anymore, or you're going to get emotional control of yourself, or you're going to deal with lust once and for all. The same god of hosts who roused Jesus from the dead and has exalted him in all of the earth is with you. He's got you. You can trust him.
23 · Introduces the story of the twelve spies from Numbers 13-14, framing Israel's arrival at the promised land as a test of trusting God's faithfulness
Let me conclude by telling you a story from the Old Testament that's been on my heart. Not long after the Egyptians were freed, the Israelites were freed from Egypt, God brought them right up to the cusp of the promised land. And, you know, he had hyped the promised land up quite a bit by this point. He had said, I'm going to give you vineyards you did not plant. And cities you did not build. This is the justice of God. Israel had their labor stolen from them in Egypt. And God's going to give them cities they don't have to build as repayment for their labor being stolen. And vineyards they don't have to plant for their labor being stolen. So there's just like abundant justice in all of this. The deal is, is that they get the promised land. All they have to do is go in and fight and overcome the occupants that are already in the land whom God has judged. Like extinction level judging. And so prior to entering, Moses sends the 12 spies into the land to scope it out. And they return with a massive amount of fruit. And one of the things, just as an aside, if you're ever wondering why is Jesus called the first fruits from the dead? And so on and so forth. You know, this idea of fruit coming back from the promised land that everybody can taste. That's in some respects what communion is. Jesus is the fruit of God's abundance will, God's abundant will, God's abundant plan for us. Jesus is, in some respects, a first fruit at many levels. They come back with this fruit. And the Bible says it's so big that they have to carry it in special ways and so on and so forth. And, you know, showing that the land was indeed good.
24 · Applies the story of the twelve spies directly to the congregation's struggle with godliness
But here's where the divide on godliness happens. Ten of the spies saw the promise of obedience, saw the promise of God's blessing. They just couldn't get over all of the barriers. Namely the giants and the battle and the fortified cities and so on and so forth. See, the things that laid before them as challenges were bigger than the work of God that had been done for them already. So it's important to understand, it wasn't that long before that God had afflicted Egypt with plagues and redeemed them from slavery. And it wasn't long before that that God had snatched baby Moses out of the jaws of death and delivered him into the throne room of Pharaoh. But ten of the twelve spies saw this next thing, this growth in godliness is the way I'm allegorizing this. They saw that, they saw the giants, they saw the challenges, they saw what they would lose, they saw what they could lose. It's just too much. I just can't battle against this sin. I've failed so many times before. It's just too much to do this next level of obedience, to be more generous, to be more committed, to do this, to do that. It's just too much. And of course, the problem with that is, is they're just completely forgetting about God's recent redemption. And how he had been faithful in the past. This is adjacent to the mystery of godliness. If you're ever doubting whether God will be with you when you're trying to overcome this or that thing, whenever you're trying to just obey, friends, you can look to Jesus Christ and say, you know, the Father did not abandon him. The Father not only blessed him, but carried him all the way through. And it really is by his suffering that we are brought many sons, as many sons and daughters, into glory. Yes, to be more godly would require facing certain giants. But I need to stop making excuses about that. Is God for me or not? Is the God who was for Christ for me? Is the power at work in Christ at work in me? Is God committed to never letting anyone be put to shame who calls on his name and trusts in him? Is the power of God at work in Christ enough to help me overcome X, Y, or Z? Or grow in this or what? Well, of course it is. Of course it is.
25 · Frames communion as the reminder of God's deliverance that grounds trust for the next step of godliness
So for communion today, I want to invite you to come with a sense of humility before the Lord, understanding that in even this sermon, he may be inviting you to take another step of faith in some area of your life. And that as you partake of this, this symbol, this reminder of the Lord's body and blood, that you understand very clearly, I can trust the God who did this for me. I can trust the God who did this deliverance for me. I can trust him. 1 Corinthians 11, 23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Would you come?
26 · Invitation to partake of communion
Would you come?