NT Framework - Mystery Church

Not shady, secret, or a puzzle to be solved like a murder mystery; instead a mystery is something that was not known and is now being revealed. The church was unknown in the Old Testament, it was revealed by Christ and further explained by the Apostles. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

Faith And Spirit-Produced Fruit

SPEAKER_01 0:10

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Then three chapters later he says, What? Walk by the Spirit, and he'll produce the fruit of the Spirit. So when we conjoin these ideas together, what's happening is when we trust the promise of God, we have faith in the Christian life. We're trusting some promise. The Holy Spirit produces the life of Christ in us. And it's messed manifested before men. So this is this is not true in the Old Testament.

Church Distinct From Israel

SPEAKER_01 0:40

The Messiah was not in Old Testament believers, in Israel. This is a new truth. So the church is obviously distinct from Israel.

The Bride Of Christ Explained

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The third one here is the church is the bride of Christ. I said, Hold your place in Ephesians because we're going to go back there, right? 522 to 33. One of the classic texts on husbands and wives. Wives first, wives get three verses, and the men come later, husbands second, they get eight verses. So deal with that. You know, wives be submissive or subject to your own husbands, husbands love your wives. It goes through the whole thing, right? Describing the husband-wife relationship. You think that he's talking about husbands and wives, and then he comes to verse 32 and he says, This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ in the church. In other words, you thought I was talking about husbands and wives. That all along, what I've been teaching you about is the relationship of Christ in the church. So the church is the bride of Christ, and you see that over in Revelation 19 as well. But that is another mystery. Now, was Israel the bride of Christ? No, Israel is the wife of Yahweh. We'll talk about this in a minute. But they had a total, they have a they have a relationship with the first person of the Trinity, whereas the church has a relationship to the second person of the Trinity. They're both marital relationships. And they're both with different members of the Trinity. Now they're metaphors, but this you have to keep the metaphor straight. You can't just blend them all together. Otherwise, God becomes an adulterer because he's married to two different women at the same time. You can't do that. That is the logical end of replacement theology is that God is an adulterer. Next.

The Rapture As A Mystery

SPEAKER_01 2:49

In other words, this is not something that's the content of Old Testament revelation. You can read the Old Testament, but you'll never find anything about the rapture. That's a new truth that's been revealed. He says in verse 51, 15, 51, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. And he's not talking about the nursery. You all know that. But that is a good phrase you could put on the wall in the nursery. This is the idea that not every believer in the church will die, right? But there will be one generation that will be left alive when he comes for us at the rapture, and that those people will just be changed. He says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. So those who've already died, they're going to be raised imperishable on that day they get their resurrection body. But those of us who are alive, he says, we will be changed. How quickly? In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. If you were standing there talking to somebody on the streets in the grocery store, and they blinked their eyes and they weren't a believer, and the rapture happened while they blinked their eyes, you'd be gone. And they would not know where you went. They'd be like, Where do you go? Because that's how quickly it will transpire. It means it's from a word, uh atomas from which we get atom. And we study atoms and chemistry and physics and so forth. It means something that can't be cut, not cut, not to cut. In other words, an interval of time so quick that it can't be cut in half. So the rapture, and therefore, of course, the church is different because this was not revealed in the Old Testament. So if the church was a mystery in the Old Testament, it could have not had possibly existed in the Old Testament because then it would have been known. Right? So the church is different from Israel. That means God has a different plan for Israel than He has for the church. He's got different things going on. They're all saved the same way. That's not a problem. It's just He's got different uh purposes for you. Fourth.

One New Man In Christ

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Fourth reason most say on Pentecost is the church is not Israel but one new man. Go back to Ephesians. Remember, I said this book is all about the church, so you get a lot of truths about the church right from here. Ephesians 2, verse 15. You can see in verse 11 that he's, you know, you formerly, you Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which are Jews. So you got Jews, Gentiles, all in this context. He says, verse 12, remember that you were at that time, this is in the Old Testament, separate from Christ, separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, that is, citizenship in Israel and all the rights that came with being a citizen of Israel. And you were strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope, and you were without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both Jew and Gentile one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. By abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments. So what divided Jew and Gentile in the Old Testament, this barrier was the law of Moses, right? And ordinances which had specific like dietary laws. You know, kosher versus non-kosher. I mean, Jews didn't go eat with Gentiles. You didn't do that. Why? So these it was it provided a barrier between Jew and Gentile. But he says that has been broken down. Okay. So that in himself he might make the two, that's Jew and Gentile, into one new man. So a new man that's neither Jew nor Gentile. So the church can't be a continuation of Israel. It's a new man. It's not an old man with new clothes, it's a new man. It's neither Jew nor Gentile. So, yes, the church is not Israel. It's a different thing.

Where To Find Visuals And Closing

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.