Well, we take up today another wonderful incarnation text as we have been doing throughout the Sundays of December. Starting, as you recall, on the first Sunday with Colossians 2, 9, which reminds us that in Him, that is in Jesus Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And last Sunday, we looked at that great testimony by the Apostle Paul himself, who told us that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Today, we're taking up 1 Timothy 3.16.
This is the same setting, basically, as the text for last Sunday. Paul is writing to young Timothy, his protege, his beloved companion and partner in the gospel and one that he was training for gospel ministry, and one who was taking over little by little many of the responsibilities that Paul himself had carried out. But his responsibilities are growing greater and greater and greater as more and more churches are being established across the Roman world.
And his life is coming closer and closer to the end. And so God is raising up others, and Timothy is one of them. And Paul writes two epistles, as you know, to Timothy. And in these epistles, Paul is primarily instructing Timothy as to how to order the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, what they are to do, how they are to dwell together, how they are to operate the work of the local church. Chapters 2 and 3 are primarily taken up with this and this epistle. In chapter 2, Paul talks about public prayer and how that is to be offered. And he talks about the roles of men and women, distinct roles in the churches of the Lord. And in chapter 3 that we read, he gives the qualifications for pastors and then for deacons.
And coming down to the end of the chapter, he comes to that very significant text, verse 15. So that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, how to conduct yourself in the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. At this time, Timothy was at Ephesus giving guidance and leadership to the church at Ephesus, but how you may know how to conduct yourself in the house or in the church of God, the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground. One of the unfortunate aspects of modern day Christianity is that sometimes I think there has been too large a demarcation between our thoughts about the church universal and the church local. There is a distinction.
It must be understood and maintained. But the distinction is not nearly as great in the New Testament as it is in the minds of many people. And here, as you read 1 Timothy 3 15, the church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth, your mind might be brought to the church universal. That's the pillar and ground of the truth. But in the context, it is churches local. How to conduct yourself in the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And then we come to our text for today. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. We are to be upholding essential Christian doctrine and proclaiming it in the world. And what does that look like? Timothy might have been asking when Paul said the churches are the pillar and ground of the truth.
What do you mean by that? Well, I mean the churches are to be the custodians of and proclaimers of essential Christian truth, such as this that we find in verse 16. And so Paul is actually quoting what I think all Bible students agree is an early creed or confession of the Christian church. It is clearly a poem. It is likely, therefore, a hymn.
The structure, the parallelism, the verb forms, everything about it suggests that that's what it is. Something that was already being circulated in the churches of that day. Paul was familiar with it. Others were familiar with it.
And Paul just takes it up and quotes it and, as it were, sanctifies it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and enshrines it for all the rest of time until time shall be no more and holds it up for our examination. This is a vital statement of essential Christian doctrine. It is in six statements or six stanzas and each one contains a notable truth. And we could summarize these six with the following six words.
Number one, incarnation. Two, vindication. Three, observation. Four, proclamation. Five, regeneration. And six, exaltation.
Shall we begin? We begin with incarnation. That's what drew me to this text, of course, as we're talking about the incarnation of Christ and examining significant incarnation texts in the Bible.
And this is one of them. God was manifested in the flesh. Some Bibles say he who was manifested in the flesh. That reflects a difference in manuscripts. I'm told that the oldest manuscripts have he who was manifested in the flesh. But there's not much doubt about who this he is. Whenever you find a pronoun, and that's probably what we have here, you must always relate it to an antecedent that tells you who that pronoun represents.
And you've got it there in the preceding verse. How you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. God was manifested in the flesh.
There's really no question about who this is talking about. God, he who was manifested in the flesh. He was revealed or made known in the flesh, in human nature. The word flesh, sarx in the Greek, is found quite a few times in the New Testament. And I would say the majority of times it is referring to fallen sinful human flesh.
We talk in language like that. But when I did that, I was in the flesh. As if you could get out of it until you die.
But anyway, we know what we're talking about. I was operating according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. I was operating according to my sinful humanity, according to what still remains of my Adamic fallenness, even though I'm a Christian. When I said that, I was in the flesh. But as I talk to you now, I'm in the spirit.
I'm being controlled by the spirit. We talk that way, sarx, flesh, fallen sinful humanity. But the word itself does not require us to insert the concept of sinfulness or fallenness. The reason why we generally associate that with flesh is because all humanity is sinful. All human flesh from the fall of Adam in the garden down to today is not only humanness flesh, but sinfulness, sinful human flesh.
But there are some exceptions to this, and this is certainly one of them. God was manifested in the flesh, not in the sinfulness of human flesh, but in the humanness of human flesh. God was manifested, was revealed in the flesh.
This is clearly speaking about God, not only because we see the antecedents to the first statement, but back in verse 15, the references to God. But also because this idea of someone being revealed in the flesh indicates, if not requires, a pre-existence that was not in the flesh. If I talk about myself coming to you in the flesh, well, there's nothing remarkable about that.
How else could I come? That's all I am. I've got a spirit, of course, and at my death, my spirit or soul will be divided from my flesh until the Lord returns and raises my body glorified and joins soul and body back together again. But anything I do in this world, I have to do in the flesh because that's who I am, that's all I am. From the moment of my conception, I have been flesh and so have you.
So to talk about someone who was revealed in the flesh, who, as it were, came in the flesh, is an indication that this one existed previously without the flesh. And who would that be? God. God. This mysterious miracle, God, manifested himself in human flesh. God. God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
That is incarnation. But the second phrase we could call vindication. Justified in the Spirit. Justified in or just as accurately, it could be translated by the Spirit. Justified by the Spirit.
Capital S in my translation, probably yours as well, because it's clear that this is talking about the Holy Spirit of God. And it's telling us that this one who stepped out of eternity into time, the one who stepped out of heaven into human flesh, the one who was eternal spirit, who now roped himself in humanity, this one was justified by the Holy Spirit. Well, that requires a little bit of pondering, doesn't it? Because justified primarily in our thinking means being made righteous before God, those who are sinful being declared righteous on the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. That's what we think of when we think of being justified. But the word justified is also used in at least one other way in the Bible, maybe more than one. But it's also used sometimes of demonstrating what is true.
And we use it that way in our language. When somebody does something, we might even discuss it. Was that person justified in doing that? Did what they do manifest the right thing? Were they justified? Were they demonstrating what is right and true when they did that?
Or were they sinning when they did that? And therefore, we're not justified in doing that. We use it in that way. And the Bible does as well. When the Apostle Paul uses the word justification, he's almost, I think, maybe exclusively using it in terms of a theological reality, really the heart of salvation, that sinners are justified, that is declared just before the judgment bar of God because the perfect righteousness of Christ is accounted to every believing sinner. And so believing sinners who in themselves are sinful are nevertheless justified, declared righteous, made righteous before the judgment bar of God. But sometimes the New Testament uses the term in another way.
And that would have to be the way that is used here. So Paul doesn't exclusively use it in the way that I just suggested because these two are the words of the Apostle Paul, aren't they? But most of us are familiar with that passage in James. Again, a puzzling passage on the surface until you explain the way that James is using the word justified. But when James says, Was not our father Abraham justified when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? Is James telling us that Abraham was justified by works, that what he did in offering his son upon the altar is what saved him, is what justified him?
No, no. Now James is using it in the sense that we're looking at here at this moment. Abraham demonstrated the reality of his salvation, of his faith in God by being willing to offer his son upon the altar and believing that if he did, God would do whatever was necessary to make that son the heir of a great people, innumerable people. That his descendants would be greater than the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea.
And that promise must come through this one that Abraham is commanded to offer upon the altar. Was Abraham a true believer? He sure was.
How do we know? Well, it was demonstrated in this way. He was justified when he offered Isaac upon the altar. He demonstrated the depth of his faith, the strength of his faith, the comprehensiveness of his faith. All of that was clearly manifested when he offered Isaac upon the altar.
He was justified in that sense. This one, this God who was revealed in the flesh was justified in that way by the Spirit. He was shown to be who he really was by the Spirit of God.
Now why was there a need for this kind of justification? Well, as we know, reading the Gospel accounts, all throughout the life of Christ, he was facing doubters, deniers. Those who did not believe his claims, did not believe that he was the Messiah, did not believe that he was even a true messenger of God, did not believe that he was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Those who did not believe him looked to elements in his life that seemed to support their opinion that he was not and could not be the promised Messiah, even though that's who he claimed to be. They saw his lowly birth. How could the Messiah, the Savior of the world, be born in such a lowly manner? They saw his absence of earthly power, of earthly power that would impress people. He had no army. How is this one who is going to sit upon the throne of David and is going to, as it were, subdue all other nations into subjection while elevating Israel above the other nations of the world, which was their concept of Messiah when he came?
How is this one going to do that? Why, he just got a band of motley disciples, fishermen and tax collectors, those sinners, and all kinds of low-class people in that day. Nothing impressive about that. He can't be the Messiah. And they saw that he was mistreated and abused and eventually executed in ignominy in the most horrible way possible, the most shameful death possible. How could he be the Messiah sent by God, the Savior of the world? He cannot be.
Ah, but he is. And the Holy Spirit makes that clear at various important points throughout the life of our Savior. The Holy Spirit vindicates his claims beginning with his virgin birth. True, not a lot of people knew the details and the reality of the virgin birth, but for those who did, how could they doubt? How could they doubt? Here's one who was born without a human father.
How is that possible? Well, as the angel said to Joseph, the Holy Spirit shall come. Or he said to Mary, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you. And that which is conceived in you will be of the Holy Spirit. To the answer to her question, how can these things be since I do not know a man? The Holy Spirit shall do this.
What is that? But the Holy Spirit vindicating who this one is. And on throughout his lifetime, there were some pretty impressive crowds that were present at the public baptism of Jesus when he prevailed upon John to baptize him, though John said, you don't need to be baptized by me. I ought to be baptized by you. No, no, said Jesus, let's do it.
This is the way it needs to be done. This is the way we fulfill all righteousness. And so John took him down into the river and lowered him into the water in the river. And lo, the heavens above opened and a voice spoke from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And down from heaven there flew a dove who was, as we know, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And it came and visibly landed upon Jesus Christ, demonstrating that he is the Beloved of the Father and he is filled with the Spirit of the living God and he is who he claims to be. And thus he is vindicated or justified by the Spirit. The miracles that he did. I heard reference recently, I think it was Pastor Carnes on a Sunday night, saying that one of his seminary professors said, prove me wrong in saying that everything that Jesus did on earth, he did in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in his own innate deity. And I couldn't disprove that.
I don't know if I can absolutely prove it, but I think that is correct. In other words, what we're seeing when Jesus performs a miracle is that the Holy Spirit comes to him at that time and gives him the divine power to perform the miracle. He was God, but for the work of redemption, he certainly laid aside his glory and he may have laid aside his independent exercise of those prerogatives of deity, but he had them available always because of the Holy Spirit.
You can't really chop up the triune Godhead into different pieces and separate them. He, as God, always was joined to the Holy Spirit. So those miracles performed in the power of the Holy Spirit, what did they do?
They justified, they vindicated, they demonstrated that he is indeed the Son of God with glory. And probably the greatest demonstration of all was his resurrection from the grave, which the Bible tells us in Romans more than once, but I'll read just one text that tells us that that resurrection was accomplished in the power of the Spirit. Romans 8-11, but if the Spirit, capital S, of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
And it goes on, I'll stop there. The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.
The grave was empty. That was impossible to explain apart from this incredible miracle that the Holy Spirit vindicated who Jesus was by raising him bodily from the grave. Yes, he was manifest in the flesh, justified by the Spirit, and then thirdly, seen by angels. Angels are involved in his earthly sojourn from beginning to end.
It was an angel who announced to Mary and then to Joseph that the Christ child would be born and would be born by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it was an angel who announced that. Angels observed his life carefully. Angels ministered to him after the forty day of wilderness temptations. Angels were at the empty tomb when Jesus rose from the dead so that those who came to inquire could be directed into proper understanding. He is not here. He is risen as he said.
Who said that? An angel. And angels were present when Jesus ascended back to heaven and told the disciples, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
The same Jesus who was taken away from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. Angels did that. Angels are interested. Angels are involved in the life of Jesus and very interested in what God is doing. Peter talks about that in 1 Peter 1.12 when he says, To them it was revealed that not to themselves, to the prophets of old, the Old Testament prophets, to them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, and then this, things which angels desire to look into. We don't know how many angels there are.
Probably more than we could count. God created them all. We do know that a certain sizable number of them sinned and rebelled against God and became the demons, the fallen angels, demons. And I think this phrase that he was seen by angels probably refers to both categories. But angels are interested in what God is doing in this work of redemption. They are as puzzled by some aspects of it as we are. What is he doing? I'm watching, I'm looking, I'm trying to understand what is God doing saving these people who all deserve eternal damnation.
What is God doing? And they're watching and they're wondering. And they believe the testimony that is given to them of who Christ is and what he is doing. Even the fallen angels, we read again in the book of James, that they believe there is one God, like a lot of people seem to be unable or unwilling to believe, but they believe in God, but they tremble. They know their day, their end is coming. They tremble when they see Jesus coming to earth to save sinners. They applaud when they see wicked men taking him and nailing him to a cross.
Aha, finally the threat is over for us. And then they tremble all the more when Jesus is raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit and ascends back into heaven. And they know that it's only a matter of time until they are consigned to the place of torment. Angels, both holy and fallen, are observing these things carefully, wondering what this all means and waiting like we are in many respects to see how it's all going to turn out. The angels don't know any more than we do. They can read the same Bible we have.
They can observe what's going on. But one thing is clear. This reference to the angels observing what Jesus is doing just reminds us to look up a little bit higher. What Jesus did was not only to come to this planet earth and save sinners in this world, but what he's doing has ramifications for the whole universe. It is cosmic in nature, not just earthly in nature. All of the universe is under the curse, we read in Romans chapter 8, waiting for the adoption and the removal of the curse that's coming to all believers. And angels are observing all of this and what Jesus did in coming is much bigger than just saving sinners, much bigger than saving you and me and a myriad of other sinners. It is renovating the whole universe and angels are watching that.
He was seen by angels. Number four, he was preached among the Gentiles and now we've moved from incarnation and vindication and observation to proclamation, preached among the Gentiles. This of course fulfills the Great Commission. Before he went back to heaven, Jesus said to his disciples, go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptize those who become disciples in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and teach those who become disciples to observe all things that I have commanded you. The Great Commission, one of my commentaries making reference at this point to the Great Commission, the author categorized three elements of the Great Commission as the great claim, the great commission, the great presence.
That's a good outline. If I hadn't told you now that it's there, I could have preached it later and you'd never have known where it came from. But the great claim, all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. That's the great claim. The Great Commission, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them the great presence.
How can we do this? Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That's a great text, isn't it? And Jesus is preached among the Gentiles. But this not only fulfills the Great Commission, it fulfills the promise that God made to Abraham. When he said, in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
All the nations of the earth. Israel had trouble understanding that. Recognizing that God had chosen them, the physical descendants of Abraham, to be a special nation in this world, they somehow assumed that they would always have an elevated position and any of these promises that were made to Gentiles could only be fulfilled as Gentiles as it were came under the leadership, under the authority, under the guidance of Israel. They could get, as it were, some of the spillover from the coffee cup that was poured for Israel's benefit. That was the way they looked at it, but that's not the way the Bible presents it. Not by elevating Israel, but by reaching beyond national Israel to all the nations of the earth.
That's the purpose. It's been the plan all along. Israel was just stage one in a plan that is now reaching out, out, out, out, out to all the nations of the world. Preached among the Gentiles. Not by building the nation of Israel to an exalted position and then bringing people to receive their benefits from God through national Israel, but instead by building a multinational, multicultural, multi-ethnic church.
It's still going on, that building, preached among the Gentiles. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the true DEI. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. And it's the only one that's actually true and just and holy. Talk about diversity. Every nation, every language, every tribe, every culture is included in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take up equity. All alike are sinners. No better ones and worse ones. We're all sinners. And all are invited to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin. It makes no difference your race or your background or your wealth or your education.
That makes no difference. There's total equity here. Anyone who will may come to the Lord Jesus Christ for the cleansing of your sins. Talk about D. Diversity. E. Equity. I. Inclusion. Talk about inclusion. When you get all this together, how could you imagine a greater body, a greater inclusive body than the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the universal Church? Christians ought to be the most welcoming people in the world, but not at the expense of truth. The world's idea of inclusion is take everybody as they are, invite people in their sin and leave them in their sin, accept their sin, celebrate their sin.
No, no, no. Welcome people to come to Christ for cleansing from sin. And when you do, welcome to the family of God. Walk with us as we serve the Lord and follow his precepts. That is what happens when he is preached among Gentiles.
And then number five, believed on in the world, that's regeneration. Sometimes when the messengers of God have gone forth with the gospel, they have gone forth with some doubts and fears and trepidations and the question, who will believe this? Isn't that what Isaiah said in Isaiah 53.1? Lord, who hath believed my report, our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Isaiah at least understood that if anybody was going to believe it, it's because God revealed it unto them. But who's going to have this revealed to them?
It doesn't look like very many are involved in this. Will anyone believe? Yes, Isaiah, many will believe. Why, you yourself wrote it there in Isaiah 53 that he shall see the travail of your soul and be satisfied. He's going to have a number of children, a number of descendants that will belong to him as a result of his work in coming to earth to redeem sinners. Yes, there will be believers, but how and why?
Let's take the why first. Why can we be sure that there will be many believers? Because God has decreed it and declared it. No reason to doubt it. If God said it, I believe it, right? If God said it, I believe it.
That settles it, right? Well, how is this going to take place? The Holy Spirit will accomplish it. The Holy Spirit will not try and hope and grieve when he can't succeed. The Holy Spirit will accomplish it. Christ shall see the travail of his soul, the people he has purchased with the travail of his soul. Christ shall see that vast number and he will be fully satisfied. He knows that not a single one for whom he died will be missing.
He'll be satisfied. Praise the Lord for that. God has decreed it. The Holy Spirit accomplishes it. And he does so by the work of regeneration as the gospel is proclaimed.
It's quite amazing, isn't it, what happened? After our Lord's resurrection, the very first gospel sermon that was preached was on the day of Pentecost by Peter, that cowardly disciple who had denied the Lord just a few days before. And now he stands up and preaches the gospel. And he may have been preaching in a bit of fear and trepidation.
Are they going to descend upon me and put me on a cross like they did my Savior? But lo and behold, three thousand believed and were baptized. How did that happen? God decreed it. The Holy Spirit accomplished it. And just a few days later he preached again and five thousand believed and were baptized.
How did that happen? God decreed it and the Holy Spirit accomplished it. And then after that it was so many they quit counting. Thousands more and thousands more and thousands more and thousands more. And it's still going on and on and on and on and on.
Day after day after day after day. I always enjoy thinking about and learning about the ministry of our missionaries. And some in particular. I have a special fondness in my heart from missionary David Edens who was here not too many weeks ago to report on his work in Niger in the Sahara Desert.
If you talk about a place where people would go with the concept that I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to serve the Lord, but I don't expect much to happen here. But I'll do my best. And he did his best. And years went by without very much happening there among those illiterate people. He had to learn their language. He had to write their language. He had to teach them to read their language so they could read a Bible.
People who were Muslim. Not much harvest here. I'm going to go someplace else where I can count more converts to report to my churches to keep my support flowing.
But no, not David. He went to one of the most unlikely places in all the world. And today the harvest is coming in in such great numbers it's impossible to keep track of it all.
How does that happen? Well here it is. Preached among the Gentiles. Believed on in the world.
How can we be sure? God has decreed it. God has declared it.
And the Holy Spirit will accomplish it. And he is accomplishing it across the world. I picked up on something that Michael Webster, missionary de France said when he was here just a few weeks ago. Remember he's used to the work in France being pretty slow.
And he's very careful. And he doesn't expect people to make a profession of faith quickly. First time they hear the gospel.
There's all kinds of barriers and hindrances. So he goes very slowly, very carefully, line upon line, precept upon precept. Many explanations. And hopes and has seen that in the passing of time there are some who truly come to believe in Christ. But he talked about one young lady, young adult who came from a, I don't remember exactly the background, came to church, heard the gospel and professed Christ immediately. And he said, I didn't believe she was really saved.
It was too quick. Until I heard her pray. She didn't pray like an unbeliever. She wasn't praying like a cultural Christian. She wasn't a cultural Christian. She had no concept of that in her background. But she wasn't praying about somebody like somebody who's playing church. Her prayer manifested.
It justified her profession of faith in Christ. It revealed the reality of it. It came suddenly. It came quickly. It came unexpectedly.
How do you explain that? God decreed it. The Holy Spirit accomplished it and there it is. As he is preached on in the world, number four, he will be believed in the world. Number five, which brings us finally to number six, exaltation.
And finally he was received up in glory. That of course is the ascension of Christ in Acts chapter one. That's the enthronement of Christ upon the throne of the universe in heaven. What theologians call the session of Christ. He is seated upon his throne.
He is there now. That's the exaltation. That's the glorification. That's the returning of the glory to Christ that he prayed for in John chapter 17. The glory that he had with the Father from the foundation of the world. That is his now. That's who's sitting upon this throne.
What an amazing thing. This one who was manifested in the flesh as a lowly babe in the manger is now seated upon the throne of the universe. He is almighty God. King of kings. Lord of lords.
That one. Six short statements that summarize the gospel. God became man, died for our sins, triumphed over death, was honored by angels and feared by demons, ascended into heaven where he rules upon the throne. This was proclaimed all over the world and many believed and were saved. This is the heart of the message that we are to proclaim to the world. This hymn begins with his humiliation and ends with his exaltation.
The gospel is about the mystery of the incarnate word, why he became man, and what he did to redeem men. And this is what we celebrate at Christmas. Let's celebrate with joy and great faith, shall we pray. Thank you, Father, for loving the unlovely, for rescuing the undeserving, for giving your son that rebels shall be turned into humble servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we who deserve eternal damnation might reign with Christ forever and forever. Amen.
