Let's Get Mystical
There is an area of your brain called broca. Its function is pattern recognition. If I was to quote a poem to you,
“Roses are red,
Violets are green…"
” Immediately your broca just turned on, in high alert. Your brain has already determined and said,
“that’s not right!
It is supposed to be;
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue.”
But by awaking broca, I ensure that you are not going to go to sleep on me. If broca determines what I am saying has a predictable pattern to it, you will turn me off… You will say,
“been there, done that, got the t-shirt.”
Now I am not going into heresy, but I do want to upset broca this morning.
We are going to contrast two things.
I Corinthians 2:14
But the pragmatic man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are a mystical concept to him; nor can he know them, because they are mystically discerned.
How many here are pragmatic? (no hands) and how many are mystical? ( no hands)
Oh nobody wants to be pragmatic. Ok, how many are mystical, no mystical people, okay we can go home! We might as well go home, Tim you can stay, we will have a spiritual service.
You Guys are a little scared of that mystical word aren’t you?
And if I hadn’t read that scripture that way, you would be real comfortable being pragmatic, right?
Let’s pretend, let’s turn time back okay? How many before I read that Scripture that way would say would say I am pragmatic?... Several hands went up.
The rest of you are what? non-committal or what?
I went to an online dictionary because…this is kind of crazy but God woke me up this morning He said to me, David are you…do you want to be Spiritual or do you want to be pragmatic?
And I was thinking pragmatic that’s a good word isn’t it?
Pragmatism (defined) it has a doctrine did you know it is a faith
Doctrine of pragmaticism: that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and learning.
Attribute: of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Naturalism (defined) another religion
Doctrine of Naturalism: that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations. Wow!
In our culture, if we could go back to the 1950s There was a wave of scientific thought that came into our culture that was scientific naturalism.
What what kinds of things followed that philosophy in the sixties?
Well we took prayer out of the schools in the early sixties.
We assassinated our own president in 1963,
Civil Rights leaders assassinated
We had a sexual revolution of immorality in 68,
We started aborting our babies in 73,
We went to hyper consumerism, in the 80s
Me Time in the 80s
eventually into the new age in the late 80s and 90s.
So guess what happens when you cut off the mystical aspects of the gospel, cut off the Spirit on the Christian side. You take all that Spiritual dimension (mystical dimension) away and you can now explain God, and all the power of God away, and you have become a pragmatic man!
But there is something on the inside of each one of you that is God shaped, that still is hungry and thirsty, like the deer that pants for the water (Psalm 42).
And it has got to be filled and so what you do is, you take yourself out of the pragmatic world that you live in, in the 50s and the 60s. are getting shot, Civil rights leaders and Presidents are being assassinated. And you say, “I have got to have something more, than what I understand.” So you go out there in the wilderness, a spiritual wilderness. And you begin looking, for mystical experiences, spiritual experiences. And you know what, we are the result of that process, all of us here. Maybe you weren’t born in the fifties, so you don’t have the idealism of the fifties. But we are all living in a post modern world where pragmatism doesn’t cut it, and Christianity isn’t relevant to my life and so I have got to go and find some spiritual power. Let me read another verse for you.
Hebrews 11: 6
But without a mystical belief it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe mystically that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Mystical (defined)
Having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence. Involving or having the nature of an individual’s direct communion with God.
Faith (defined)
A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny
Mystical comes from the same root as mystery
Jesus talked to the crowds in mysteries, we call them parables but they were really mysteries. You notice that the root word of mystical is the same as mystery.
Mark 4:11
And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know THE MYSTERY of the Kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables.
So for those on the inside it is a powerful (Mystical) experience to those on the outside it is foolishness. And you don’t have to look very far to see that. Now if you look at.
I Corinthians verses on foolishness
- For the message of the cross is foolishness (mystical) to those (who rely on pragmatic reasoning and miss the message of salvation in the cross) who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18
- For since, in the (mystical) wisdom of God, the world through (pragmatic) wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1 Cor. 1:21
- but we preach Christ crucified, to the religious (Jews) a stumbling block and to the intellectuals (Greeks) foolishness, 1 Cor. 1:23
- Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Cor. 1:25
- But the natural (pragmatic) man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are (mystical) foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14
For the wisdom (pragmatism) of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise (pragmatic) in their own (pragmatism) craftiness"; 1 Cor. 3:19
So as we were trying to think of a title for this talk, this morning so Rick could put it on the web-site, I was reminded of an old Olivia Newton John song that talks about, really if we contrast it again the tile was let’s get physical. It is all about being a natural man so I wanted to call this talk “Let’s Get Mystical”
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ
Other resources on praying scripture:
“Praying The Bible” The book of prayers by Wesley & Stacy Campbell...Please feel free to share this with a friend by sending them a link. Why not e-mail me with your comments.
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