Summary
Six trumpets sound and the walls of this world have come crashing down, but still, no one repents.
We entertain, make promises, threaten and argue, and still no one repents.
Repent means, “Change your thinking. Wake up!”
Suddenly, a messenger descends from heaven to earth with a rainbow over his head.
His face shines like the sun. He has an open scroll in his hand.
He stands on land and sea—sovereign over all.
His voice is that of a lion roaring. He is the “Son of Man” and manifest Glory of God.
Seven thunders respond and John is told not to record what they say.
It is a mystery.
He raises His right hand and swears an oath that “there would be no more time, but in the days of the seventh trumpet call, the mystery of God would be fulfilled.”
Modern people have been taught that mysteries are not true.
And yet this teaching—that mysteries can’t be true—must not be true, for Truth itself is a mystery.
Indeed a mystery undergirds all of space/time and therefore every physical law.
And, clearly, there is a mystery buried deep inside of you.
So what is “The Mystery of God?”
Even if it can’t be fully explained, perhaps it has been revealed.
Indeed, Saint Paul revealed it to the people of these seven churches.
The mystery hidden for ages and generations is “Christ in y’all.”
For this is “the plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ Jesus.”
“The Gentiles” and Jews are one body connected in one ecstatic communion of Love.
It has happened, is happening, and will happen.
Jesus put it this way, “Repent. The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We are not seven billion individual souls only bound together in covenants of self-interest and torn apart by walls.
We are more like seven billion cells bound together by an eternal covenant of sacrificial love—a communion of Logos and Love that is Life Himself.
Just outside the walls of Jerusalem on the sixth day, and the edge of an endless 7th day, the Son of Man cried, “It is fulfilled.”
In the days of the 7th trumpet call, the mystery of God is fulfilled; Eternity is invading this illusion of space and time.
To preach the Gospel is to prophesy a mystery, which is the testimony of Jesus:
“You are not a bastard—the product of physical laws and chance. You’re a son of thunder. Your Daddy is God. And the truest thing about you is Jesus.”
To repent is to awaken from the dream of your own sovereignty and find that you are, and always have been, the beloved child of God.
When you prophesy the Mystery, you deliver a message to the principalities and powers of this world, and the walls of hostility come tumbling down.
The Mystery is sweet in your mouth but will be bitter in your stomach.
If you ingest it, the walls of your ego will come tumbling down.
And yet, if you digest it, you will preach it, and it will be sweet on your lips as you do.
You will prophesy a mystery—the testimony of Jesus.
*Discussion questions are available for this sermon here: Discussion Questions “To Prophesy the Mystery (Sweet & Sour Gospel)
Some other great resources related to this sermon:
Every Instance of Mysterion in the New Testament
T.F. Torrance Quote