Music and the Messiah Mega Mystery

“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” (1Tim 3:16).

There’s just something about music that touches your soul. Dare I say “magic?” Hear a great hook and you’re humming it in your head all day. Ever try to remove a Taylor Swift ear worm? Catchy lyrics will burn into your brain for a lifetime. I’m occasionally tormented by Steve Miller’s square-peg-in-a-round-hole rhyme “Abracadabra, I wanna reach out a grab ya.” 

God knows the power of music. For heaven’s sake, it was His idea! There’s even an entire book of the Bible called the Psalms that’s basically a boxed set of the greatest worship hits of all time. So it’s no surprise there are songs and music all throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Did you realize Adam sang when he got his first look at Eve (Gen 2:23)? I’m pretty sure that’s biblical support for why chicks dig musicians. While we don’t know the melodies, we can read the words. The lyrics are chockfull of great truth. 

Here in his letter to Timothy, Paul quotes the lyrics of a first century worship song. You have to wonder if it was originally recorded by St. Christopher of Tomlin. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (v16). It’s musical take on the Messiah Mega Mystery.

The apostle writes his spiritual son while he’s on the road in Macedonia. Paul has appointed Tim as the lead pastor of the Ephesian megachurch. A team of false teachers have distracted folks from the Gospel. It’s Tim’s job to clean up their mess (1Tim 1:3-7) and find a new lead team (1Tim 3:1-13). The man from Tarsus may be suggesting that the pastor make sure a particular tune be put back in the worship set list. The words a loaded with the truth about Jesus.

Before he gets to the lyrics, Paul makes the point that everyone can agree that the idea of Christ as Messiah is a Mega Mystery! “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness” (v16). The word “confess” (Gr. homologoumenos) literally means “to all say the same words” about something. It’s one thing we can all agree on. There’s no question is hard to figure out.

Just how big is this? It’s “great” (v16). Paul uses the word mega. It probably won’t take a PhD in biblical languages to figure out what that means. Huge. Mammoth. Extraordinary. Overwhelming. Whatever we’re agreeing on, it’s gonna be Mega!

At this point, the apostle drops one of his all-time favorite terms. He throws it around a LOT! He uses is 20 times if you’re scoring at home (Rom 11:25; 16:25; 1Cor 2:7; 4:1; 13:2; 14:2; 15:1; Eph 1:9; 3:3-4; 3:9; 5:32; 6:19; Col 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:2; 2Th 2:7; 1Tim 3:9; 1Tim 3:16). But “mystery” doesn’t quite mean the same thing for us as it did back in the first century. Musterion actually describes something hidden for a long time that’s now disclosed. Think mystery revealed!

Nineteen out of 20 times that Paul uses the word “mystery” (Gr. musterion), he’s not talking about a what but a Who. God’s Mega Mystery is the identity of the Messiah. When the apostle drops the the term, it almost always involves some aspect of God’s rescue mission and sending His Son to do it. He writes to the multisite church in Colossae that Jesus is “the mystery (Gr. musterion) hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints” (Col 1:26). The ultimate “knowledge of God’s mystery (Gr. musterion), which is Christ” (Col 2:2). The apostle made it his life’s mission “boldly to proclaim the mystery (Gr. musterion) of the Gospel” (Eph 6:19). The central point of “this mystery (Gr. musterion), which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

Even after God reveals the Mega Mystery of Messiah Jesus, it’s still hard to wrap your head around! I think we can all agree on that! Paul then quotes six lines of lyrics from a song in his letter. Six simple lines soaked in truth of who our Savior is and what He has done for us. We’ll run through them quickly but will only scratch the surface on some unfathomably deep theology.

“He was manifested in the flesh” (v16). This opening line lets us know “He” is Jesus. The verb translated “manifested” (Gr. phanero’o) means to make known, reveal, cause to be seen, or show. We’re talking about the incarnation. Christ became human by adding humanity to His divinity (Phil 2:6-8). It’s what we celebrate at Christmas. Rocky the Apostle says Christ existed “before the foundation of the world but was made manifest (Gr. phanero’o) in the last times for the sake of you” (1Pet 1:20). Paul tells the Colossians that the clearly visible Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). John the Apostle writes, “And 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” (Jn 1:14). In other words, God revealed the Messiah Mega Mystery when Jesus came to earth.

The second line tells us Christ was “vindicated by the Spirit” (v16). The Holy Spirit made a surprise appearance at Jesus’ baptism proving exactly who He is (Mt 3:16-17; Mk 1:10-11; Lk 3:21-22). That’s exactly the moment the weird, bug-eating prophet John the Baptizer found out his own cousin was actually the sinless Son of God (Jn 1:32-34). The Holy Spirit declared Jesus to be the Son of God at His resurrection (Rom 1:4). The Spirit acts like one of those blue checkmarks you see on the Twitter accounts of celebrities and newsmakers. They’re verified. The Third Person of the Trinity verifies that this Carpenter/Rabbi from the boondocks is the long-promised Messiah.

Jesus was also “seen by angels” (v16). God’s angel army exploded in the night sky over Bethlehem the night Jesus made His grand entrance (Lk 2:13-14). Wow! Talk about walkup music!! A pair of God’s angelic messengers were there to tell the women that Christ’s tomb was unexpectedly unoccupied (Lk 24:4-6). Peter tells us that the angels are so blown away at what Jesus is doing to rescue us that they can’t take their eyes off of the action (1Pet 1:12). If the Gospel is broadcast in heaven, it’s must-see TV for the angels!

The next line Paul quotes says Christ is “proclaimed among the nations” (v16). “Nations” here does NOT mean a sovereign political state like the U.S. or Russia. The Greek word ethnos describes racial groups. Think of the largest social and cultural unit which you can divide the people of the world. It’s where we get the term “ethnicity.” And that’s probably a great way to understand it. In the Greco-Roman world, this term meant non-Jews. The Good News of Jesus is taken to every demographic subset and people group on the planet.

Paul knew all about that personally with his tours of the Mediterranean Rim telling everyone he met that Jesus is Messiah for not just the Jewish people but every race and culture. And why not? The resurrected Christ personally handpicked the former Pharisee for the job (Acts 9:15; Gal 2:7). Don’t make the mistake of thinking this was just Paul’s gig and nothing for us to worry about. Before He headed back home to heaven, Jesus told all of us to “make disciples of all nations (Gr. ethnos)” (Mt 28:19-20). And unless you’re Jewish, Paul is talking YOUR inclusion into God’s kingdom right here. 

The song goes on to sing about how Jesus is “believed on in the world” (v16). To believe in Jesus is not just admitting He is an historical figure and not just some Middle Eastern myth. We don’t so much believe in Jesus. He’s not Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. We believe ON Jesus. Think putting all our trust upon Him. We trust in the fact that He lived the perfect life that we couldn’t pull off. We trust in His death on the cross that should have been ours. We trust in His resurrection life that we don’t deserve. 

We trust in what He’s done that we could never dream of doing for ourselves. He takes our sin and hands us His perfection (2Cor 5:21). The incredible opportunity to place our trust in our sinless Savior came through His Father’s great love for us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

The last line of the lyrics land with the Lord’s launch. Christ was “taken up in glory” (v16). As if His resurrection wasn’t stunning enough, Jesus lifted off and headed home to heaven in front of a huge crowd in the suburbs of Jerusalem (Lk 24:50-51; Acts 1:2, 9). While He’s there, our Savior preps the place for our arrival (Jn 14:3). Jesus is also interceding on our behalf with His Dad (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25). And while it’s not included in this particular song, Christ is coming back for one final incredible encore. He’s far from finished.

We’ve only cracked the door on the “mystery of godliness” (v16) in these six lines of lyrics. While God pulled the curtain back on who He is by sending His sinless Son to save us, there’s only so much we can wrap our heads around on this side of eternity. That’s why they call it the Messiah Mega Mystery. And they wrote a song all about it!