“the revelation of the mystery kept secret
since the world began”
(Rom. 16:25, NKJV)
We need to consistently keep in mind that Matt. 11:13 deals a definitive blow to all the future-oriented prophesies of the Old Testament that believers are trying to impose on the time of the New Testament: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” This means that ALL Old Testament prophesies are already fulfilled in Jesus. But this is all the prophesies that are nestled in Jesus, the Son of God, and his coming to earth. Rather than then sticking to the traditional calendar, which demarcates the period before the birth of Jesus as B.C. (before Christ), and the period after it as A.C. (after Christ), it makes more sense for those of us who have the revelation of the extended meaning of the term Christ, to refer to it as Before Jesus and After Jesus!
In our prophetic understanding of the coming of the Christ, it was indeed the case that the term Christ had already been explained multiple times in the time of Jesus. This is for instance seen in the conversation between Jesus and Peter in Matt. 16:13-20, where Peter says to Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (v. 16). It is very interesting that Jesus then makes clear that, upon this revelation (v. 17) of who the Christ is, He will build his ecclesia (spiritual home): “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” In the original language Peter means rock, even in the Chaldean from which it is originally derived (kay-fas’ = Cephas – John 1:42), according to Strong. But Peter cannot be the rock upon which God builds His kingdom or ecclesia – it cannot happen through flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50), and EXPLICITLY this revelation does not come from “flesh and blood” (verse 17). Misunderstanding this revelation has led to appointing Peter as the first pope, and this in turn has led to the founding of the Roman Catholic church, with all its many deceptions over the centuries. As we’ve spelled out many times in these teachings, here the Rock refers only to Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).
The misunderstanding regarding the position of Peter lies in not only the fact that his name means rock, but also in Matt. 16:19, where Jesus says to him: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The personal pronouns that can, in this case, only refer to Peter, makes it seem as if the keys of the ecclesia have been given to him, the keys to the kingdom of the heavens and to power in the heavens and on earth. However, in the following verse Jesus does a strange thing: “Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.” Why would He do this?
With the supernatural sequence of events on the Mount of Transfiguration where God manifested in the cloud of witnesses (which included Moses and Elijah), Jesus specifically addressed Peter and two of the other disciples, saying: “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” (Matt. 17:9).
Perhaps it was only then the right time to “know the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:11), but specifically because Christ, as the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24), existed in “a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). Only after He had risen could have “made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself” (Eph. 1:9).
It was however only Paul, the apostle, who received the revelation of the Christ, as the greatest revelation of all times, in its complete depth, “the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25). As the untimely apostle (1 Cor. 15:8), Paul is called as wondrous sign, for the sake of this great revelation, which he himself calls, “my knowledge in the mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:4). His specific calling is mining this revelation of Christ, “attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of … Christ” (Col. 2:2). In Col. 4:3-4 he asks, “that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak”. In Col. 1:27 (AMP) it is made clear exactly what this mystery entails: “the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory”.
Back to Peter who, according to Matt. 16:19, seems like the one who received the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, death, and the realm of the dead. No, he could not have received it, as Jesus clearly states about Himself in Rev. 1:18: “I am the first and the last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” In Matt. 6:10 Jesus clearly prays: “let your [God’s] kingdom come”. In Ps. 103:19 the psalmist spells it out: “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.” Most believers of his time “thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately” (Luke 19:11), because they had expected a physical kingdom (Acts 1:6), but Jesus had said the opposite in John 18:36: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” And very clearly in Luke 17:20-21: “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Why then would Jesus create the impression that Peter would personally be so prominent? Consistently remember that we are here dealing with the revelation of the Christ, and through this, the coming of the kingdom of God. The most important facet of this revelation is that Jesus will return as the Holy Spirit, the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). And now: it is none other than Peter who, in Acts 2, facilitated the word with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which is to say, the return of Jesus to the earth! In verse 30 he makes it clear that God had promised to David, the arch father, that “Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne …” And later in verse 36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Only after Jesus had risen from the dead could Jesus’s fuller identity as the Christ be made public. From this statement, it clearly shows that Peter understood that Christ was much more than merely Jesus! Along with the other apostles, Peter was the specific wondrous sign who “made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:16), and thus brought about the new epoch that was now possible in seed form – the kingdom of Christ. And now, 2000 years After Jesus (Hos. 6:1-3), After Christ has fully commenced. The sixth kingdom that king Nebuchadnezzar had seen, declares this exciting new dispensation.
- Selah: Can you explain this immensely great truth to someone?
- Read: 4-9
- Memorise: 5:2
