Mystery Revelation

[Luz Tonks]

Iprovide this manuscript as a courtesy. I do not follow the document word for word during the message. I also do not write the document with the intent of publication; there may be grammatical errors throughout. Unfortunately, there is not always time to proofread. I choose to use my available time for studying, finding ways to explain the truths of Scripture while keeping a balance of time for visiting and discipleship of people in the church. Thanks for understanding.

We will be spending time in the upcoming weeks mining the gems found in Ephesians 3:1-13. It is a mine filled with incredible truths; precious gems worthy of examining and inspiring in us a sense of awe and reverence for God.

Before diving too deep into our text this morning, I want to talk about one of the gems which is laying on the surface. We might be eager to start digging in the mine, but this precious gem is laying right on top and we should be careful to not pass it by without taking a good amount of time to admire its beauty. This gem will inspire in us a sense of awe in the God we worship.

27All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Matthew 11:27)

Nobody knows the Son except the Father. And, nobody knows the Father except the Son, and anyone the Son wills to reveal the Father. If anyone wants to know God the Father, Jesus must first give the okay. If the Son does not reveal the Father to a person, they will not know God. If the Son wills to reveal the Father, they will know God.

God brought large crowds to hear the words of the Messiah. Jesus opened His mouth to teach, but Jesus, in full obedience to the Father, taught in parables. Jesus purposefully spoke in a way so not everyone would understand. Jesus taught in parables, so those who are granted to know the mysteries of heaven would know and so others would not know. Jesus spoke in a way He knew is well-pleasing to His Father.

God allowed Peter to understand and know Jesus is the Christ. Peter is blessed because he did not figure this out on his own. Jesus said, no human in flesh and blood revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Christ. The Father revealed this to Peter, but not to others.

An excellent passage explaining this is found in 1 Corinthians chapter two. Paul begins the chapter by teaching the Corinthians that when he was with them, he did not preach to them using his superior speech or wisdom. Instead, Paul determined to preach only Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

This is truly an amazing truth which should definitely inspire worship. God so desires to have us understand Him and His love, that He gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and give us first-hand knowledge of Himself.

Let me give you an illustration which may help. I had the opportunity to speak at a funeral in another state. Two people were chosen to do the Scripture reading. I chose the passages to read. After the funeral had ended, one of the two shared how difficult it was to read the passage because they did not understand what it said. I was flabbergasted. I thought it was very plain and easy to understand. I know this person well. She graduated in the top five of her large high-school class and went on to obtain an advanced engineering degree. She oversees many other engineers in a Fortune 500 company. I consider her to be very intelligent. With this plain passage of Scripture, she could not understand what it said.

He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Acts 10 ad 11 tells us the story of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert in the New Testament. It took a miracle of God to bring Peter and Cornelius together. (Peter is in Joppa, Cornelius is in Caesarea, about 30 miles north.) But, once they were together, Peter shared with Cornelius, and those with him, the Gospel and they got saved.

The other apostles and brethren (Christian, not those still following the Mosaic Covenant) got wind Peter ate with Gentiles and shared with them the word of God. The next time Peter entered Jerusalem they started rebuking Peter. But, Peter tells them how they all came to Christ and were baptized. They all concluded God granted the Gentiles repentance leading to life, and they started to glorify God.

Once the Gentiles started getting saved in great numbers, the apostles had no clue what to do with them. These are a people they were once forbidden from the Temple courtyard! They had to have a special counsel to figure how this Gentile and Jew Christianity is supposed to work out (Acts 15).

What is the reason? The reason is because God is building the household of God by bringing in Jews and Gentiles and making them into one building. For that reason, Paul is chosen and given a dispensation of grace.

Paul says the stewardship of grace was given to him for the sake of the Ephesians; the Gentiles. Paul knows he is the Apostle of the Gentiles, and he refers to himself in this way a few times in his letters (Romans 11:3; Galatians 2:8).

Paul is completely driven by this former mystery which is now being made known. Imagine if something of this magnitude is revealed to you! Imagine being a zealous Israelite, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob blinds you and speaks to you and says, preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Do you think an event such as this would change your life? It should.

It is because Paul was completely engulfed with the magnitude of his ministry, he was willing to continue even though all the Israelite kinsmen tried to stop him. Paul is driven with such incredible purpose. He is a man on a mission.

All those people, those scum of the earth Gentiles, people he once looked down upon, perhaps even pitied, instantly became his brothers and sisters in Christ. He is begging and pleading with Gentiles to be saved. Every city he enters is filled with potential God-fearing Christians.

Jesus said to Peter that he was blessed because he knew Jesus is the Christ. Jesus said to His disciples they are blessed because of the things they understood. Right after He told them about why He speaks in parables, Jesus said this:

But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)

Do not be ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God to save. The God of Mystery is not hidden. Go and tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Cults commonly claim to have special teachings that are available only to a few who are wise enough to understand them or have enough money to buy this knowledge. This is far different from biblical Christianity, which assumes that God plays no favorites in delivering revelation but has given to all of His people all that they need for life and godliness in the Scriptures. As we work to study His Word, we can be sure that He will help us understand it.

At least two oracle mysteries contain revelations letting an oracle use his Charisma modifier instead of his Dexterity modifier to compute his AC (the mystery lore has the revelation sidestep secret and lunar has prophetic armor). I want a revelation like that, but I don't want to take the mysteries that make available that kind of revelation. Is there a way for an oracle to get an off-list revelation?

Ring of Revelation also explicitly states that you must have the appropriate mystery to use the revelation contained in the ring. (And the commentary on the sidebar is an unofficial (albeit from the Creative Director) statement saying that Use Magic Device would not allow you to fake having that mystery prerequisite)

Use Magic Device will let you trick an item into thinking you're a different class... but it does not grant the POWERS of that class. The way the ring of revelation is worded pretty much means you HAVE to be an oracle (aka you have to meet minimum level requirements in class abilities granted by the oracle class, since the powers granted directly affect that ability rather than grant you NEW abilities). Furthermore, the ring specifically says that it has no effect if worn by a non-oracle.

SO. Best case scenario, you could Use Magic Device to trick the ring into activating, but if you don't actually have class levels in oracle, the ring will do nothing more than take up a ring slot for you.

For example: Suppose a Nature oracle who finds a ring of revelation containing "Sacred Council" from the Ancestor mystery. Can s/he use UMD to emulate the Ancestor mystery class feature and thereby access the "Sacred Council" revelation from the ring (assuming s/he continues to make the requisite UMD checks every hour to continue emulating the Ancestor mystery)?

Yes. That's using the "emulate a class feature," in this case, the class feature of having the Ancestor mystery. I guess, in theory, you could do that if you were ANY class, though. Which may not be the way I've interpreted the ability before.

Strictly RAW, there are two versions of Ring of Revelation. One is from Ultimate Equipment and contains the line about not functioning under UMD. The other one is from Advanced Player's Guide and only says that it doesn't function for non-Oracles. There is a similar situation with Snowball: technically, Paizo didn't nerf the spell from People of the North, but rather published another spell with the same name.

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