Sermon Tone Analysis

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

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.”

[1]

Mysteries are a favourite genre in books, movies and television entertainment in contemporary culture; and the New Testament seems to speak of “mysteries” rather frequently.

However, whenever the writers of the New Testament spoke of a mystery, they didn’t mean precisely what we mean today when we speak of a mystery.

In contemporary language, a mystery is an enigma—an unexplained or unsolved phenomenon—for which the skein must be unraveled in order to discover the cause of some action we have observed.

Often, the term refers to an action that is hurtful or harmful, an action resulting in loss, even loss of life, or an action that threatens health and/or life.

The writers of the New Testament used the term /mustérion/—mystery twenty-eight times.

However, in that Greek tongue, the concept of /mustérion/ was a truth that was previously unknown and now revealed.

For instance, Jesus explained to the disciples why He spoke in parables.

He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” [MATTHEW 13:11-13].

[2] The word translated “secrets” in my translation is the Greek term /mustérion/; the “mysteries of the Kingdom” were deliberately obscured with parables.

Disciples would understand what was meant; outsiders would be clueless.

Paul spoke of the recalcitrance of Israel toward the Good News of the Messiah as a mustérion.

[3] According to the Apostle, the Gospel was a mustérion.

[4] That Gentiles would be included in the salvation of God was a mystery.

[5] The lawlessness of the wicked one is a mystery, and especially that this lawlessness is restrained by God’s Spirit is a mystery.

[6] And the truth that not all believers shall die—many will be raptured, translated into the presence of the Risen Master—is a mystery.

[7]

In our text today, Paul speaks of the “mystery of godliness.”

The term is intriguing, perhaps the more so as we read his recitation of what appears to have been a hymn that was known to Timothy.

I believe he is quoting a hymn that would have been familiar to many Christians during that time.

Before tackling the text, I want to take a moment to speak about Paul’s citation of what I believe to be a hymn.

From earliest days, the people of God have been a singing people.

John Wesley instructed the circuit riding preachers to carry the Bible and a hymnal.

And to this day, the churches of our Lord sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs.

In fact, we have instructions to be a singing people.

For instance, Paul writes in the Ephesian Letter, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” [EPHESIANS 5:18b-20].

Was this the only place where such instruction was given, it would be enough to encourage us to sing; however, we are instructed elsewhere, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” [COLOSSIANS 3:16, 17].

Indulge me for a brief moment as I make a statement concerning the music of the Faith.

My early years of higher education were funded by music scholarships.

I appreciate music—all music.

Thinking about music of the Faith, I recognise two aspects of music that serves to honour God.

Good music must be harmonious—it must be melodic, pleasing to the ear.

Whether a song is syncopated or whether the melody is uncomplicated is immaterial.

Discordant music may characterise some of what is presented as music in this day; but harmony speaks of unity and of the Faith.

Likewise, the lyrics must have meaning.

Music that ennobles the singer and the listener will combine these two elements—harmony and meaning.

This is not an “either/or” situation—it is a “both/and” requirement.

Many songs that are popular among the churches lack theological fidelity, though the tune is catchy and perhaps even easy to sing.

From the standpoint of making the singer or listener nobler, a theologically imprecise song has about as much depth as some of the songs that were popular when I was a child.

One such song that became quite popular in the early 1960s was an NBC radio announcer’s test put to music; the song became a hit with teenagers of the era.

One hen

Two ducks

Three squawking geese

Four limerick oysters

Five corpulent porpoises

Six pair of Don Alverzo’s tweezers

Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array

Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt

Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth

Ten lyrical, spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who hall stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all at same time.

Good music—music that will stand the test of time, honouring God through encouraging those who sing and those who listen while building them in the Faith—will present biblical truth in melodic fashion.

When we sing or present music in the services of the congregation, we are responsible to make every effort to glorify God just as we do in every other aspect of worship, and we do this through thoughtful selection of what is to be sung.

In short, our hymnody should be instructional as well as pleasant.

Now, I invite you to join me in exploring this mystery presented through a song that was popular among the faithful at the time Paul was writing.

My prayer is that together we will be encouraged and strengthened in this most holy Faith.

*HE WAS MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH* — From earliest days of the Faith, the central message of all who will honour God has been Christ Jesus.

The great mystery of godliness is centred in a Person, Jesus who is the Christ.

When He promised to send the Holy Spirit as the Divine Comforter, Jesus taught His disciples, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” [JOHN 14:26].

Jesus also taught His disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” [JOHN 16:12-15].

The preacher who fails to point his listeners to Christ is not energised by the Spirit of Christ; he is failing the primary task of prophetic preaching, which is revealing the Son of God to this age.

Christ Jesus must be central to all that we declare among the saints and before outsiders who may share our service.

Thus, Paul points to the confession that was, and still is, common among the faithful.

He uses the Greek term, homologouménos, which would literally mean “to say the same thing.”

His point is that what he is about to present is a common confession among the saints.

In fact, some translations render what this verse, “By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness” [NASB, 1995 UPDATE].

The Apostle’s presentation is truth that is revealed in the New Testament—truth that defines the Christian Faith.

It is not clear whether Paul is giving a statement presenting a chronologic account of Jesus’ life and ministry, a statement that has two stanzas each consisting of a triplet or whether there are three couplets, in each of which there is a deliberate antithesis.

What is apparent is that Paul sees this hymn as taking the believer through the full account of Jesus’ life from birth to ascension giving the human and divine aspects of His life and ministry in Judea.

Admittedly, the hymn does not speak of Jesus’ return; it focuses on His ministry and return to Heaven.

The first truth is that Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh—He was revealed as very man.

Jesus is truly and fully God.

John will testify of Him, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” [JOHN 1:1-3].

Paul will testify of Jesus, “To [the Jews] belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen” [ROMANS 9:5].

And Peter will address his second Letter to the saints in the Diaspora, appending an affirmation of Jesus’ divinity when he writes, “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” [2 PETER 1:1].

Very God took on human form.

The testimony of the Word is that Jesus was truly man.

Listen to some of the testimony about who He was and is.

John, in the Gospel that bears his name, writes of Jesus, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” [JOHN 1:14].

Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” [PHILIPPIANS 2:6- 8].

The author of the Letter to Hebrew Christians has written of Jesus, “Since … the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” [HEBREWS 2:14].

For this reason, “He is not ashamed to call [us] brothers” [HEBREWS 2:11].

Jesus was truly and fully human, and yet without sin, just as that same author testifies.

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” [HEBREWS 4:15].

When we allow ourselves to think about what this means, we are stunned.

Max Lucado has challenged modern Christians to reflect on the full humanity of Jesus when he wrote, “Angels watched as Mary changed God’s diaper.