Question: Why was it that the Lord Jesus asked those He healed not to make Him known? (Matt. 12:16).
Answer: Because that He as Messiah was rejected, and Israel was no longer to be accounted His people. The next chapter shows us the new aspect of the kingdom of heaven, not to be set up in power at present, but in its mysterious form, by the preaching of the Word, while the King is absent in glory, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling in His people on earth.
Question: What is meant by “Mystery of the faith” and “Mystery of Godliness” 1 Timothy 3:9, 16? B.
Answer: We are to hold the “Mystery of the faith” in a pure conscience (chap. 1:19). The faith is what is given us to know and hold as Christianity.
“The Mystery of Godliness” is the truth about the person of Christ. Christ was God manifest in flesh; He was justified in the Spirit as God’s beloved Son. “Him hath God the Father sealed.” The angels saw their Maker in the babe in Bethlehem’s manger; He was preached unto the Gentiles as their Saviour; we have believed on Him in this world; He is now received up into glory.
Question: What is a reward? (1 Cor. 3:14). K.
Answer: It is something to show the Lord’s appreciation of the servant’s behavior.
Question: Was Paul a Jew or Gentile? L.
Answer: He was a Jew by birth, who had obtained Roman citizenship, and when brought to know the Lord Jesus, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, He became a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:21), a member of the body of Christ, and so became neither Jew nor Gentile but a Christian (1 Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:27, 28).
Question: How can one preach Christ of envy and strife? (Phil. 1:15, 16). Y.
Answer: These were jealous of Paul, and their hearts being away from the Lord, they thought to do him harm. We need to cleave in close communion to Christ our Lord to serve Him rightly.
Question: Please explain Matthew 18:20.
Answer: Read verses 18-20. The whole church (meaning assembly in Scripture) at the beginning was gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s name is the only name in Scripture to which the Holy Ghost would gather the members of the body of Christ. It is the same today; it is the only Name, the only center God has for His saints to gather to, and there we have the promise, “There am I in the midst of them.”
The name of the Lord is “holy and true” (Rev. 3:7). To be gathered to His Name is to be gathered in separation from evil associations, evil doctrines, evil behavior, as 2 Tim. 2:22; and that includes the unity of the Spirit. All truly gathered, are in one fellowship. Acts 20:30 foretells how divisions came, and Romans 16:17, 18.
In 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 we find that children of God are gathered together as redeemed by the blood, and made members of the body of Christ. We gather together because we are one, and if the number is only two or three, yet He is in the midst of them.