Hidden From the Foundation of the World: The Glory of Christ and the Task of Christian Learning

This isn’t a recent idea. We know that with the emergence of the university and the medieval world, and that was entirely in the context of Christianity. It was really, entirely, in the context of the Christian Church. The modern university as we know it, the university model even in the medieval age, really emerged out of the cathedral schools. 

Thus you had a clergy, faculty and you had students gathered together and they were accustomed to worship together and most importantly, as they began a new academic term, the custom arose that there would be a special service to commit teachers, students, learners alike, scholars for the service of the church and to the glory of God. Now, the interesting thing is that the word convocation, it’s applied in another context of course, but it’s also interesting that the vestiges appear just there are vestigial appearances, shadows of the past that show up in schools like Ivy League institutions that are no longer in the context of the church in so many ways, openly hostile to biblical Christianity, institutions that are so pervasively secularized that they don’t even know what they’re doing in an historical context. They gather together for an opening convocation.

Now, I just want to tell you that at this stage in life, I look at that and wonder what exactly you say there. You know, in a secular context where you have an educational institution that just prides itself on learning and scholarship. But of course, there’s also in today’s highly politicized age, where quite frankly most university presidents are just absolutely frightened of the possibility of a new outbreak of protests on campus in today’s cultural moment. 

So, even as you look at all of these events, I just wonder when you, you’re the president of one of these secularized universities, what do you say? Like, “good luck”? Seriously, “behave, don’t get arrested”? I mean it’s worse than that. When you look at actually the messaging. I’m not going to get into it, but on sexual issues, gender issues, a lot of it’s just a reminder of the sheer toxicity of the prevailing worldview. I have to tell you, I don’t know what I would do in that job, which is a sure sign that I don’t belong there. I don’t want to be president of an institution — I don’t have a clue of what it would be like. I have no sense of the importance of what it would mean to be president of such an institution and more or less say, well, let’s start this and let’s hope it ends with fewer arrests. 

That is not my responsibility this morning. My responsibility this morning is to look, and I want you to look around this room and see the great joy. This is a packed room seminary students and college students in this place. This is a sign of God’s favor. This is the kind of sight that should cause your blood to course just a little faster, your heart to beat just a little faster, your joy to rise. When you look and see the presence of so many young people in this room, young men and young women in this room is a refutation of the wisdom of the world. It is a sign of God’s promise. It is what this faculty and the board of trustees of this institution and all of us have been praying for, and this is why we have this faculty, this is why we have this campus, this is why we have this curriculum. 

This is why we have all of this, and your presence here is just a reminder to us that God is showing favor to his church. Praise be to God. And I don’t look at you and say, “let’s hope this turns out well.” I turn to you and say, let’s live every moment. “Let’s take every class. Let’s write every paper. Let’s read every book to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s build relationships here that are going to last for the rest of our lifetimes.” And I say to the young people in this room, this is really honestly where almost all the older people I know will say many of their deepest friendships were rooted in the college and in the seminary experience and in particular on a campus like this where the commonality is not just we end up in the same place, in the same class, on the same campus. It’s because there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and we are here in a sense of unity. It goes far beyond anything a secular institution could understand. I don’t say that just to take shots at the secular world. I say that just to remind us of our stewardship and of the faithfulness of God and of the joy that should mark this occasion — and it does.

The secularization of higher education also means that education in that context now has no particular aims. Just in the last week, an article appeared indicating that as secular university and college administrators get together, one of the topics of conversation is the fact that even on their campuses, there’s no agreement upon aims. This is also pervasive in a very hot discussion with the new labor government in power in Great Britain where all these billions of dollars being invested in higher education and now you have a new party in power and they’re saying this should produce jobs. That’s what this system is for, is to produce people who are ready for jobs. And I’ll say that is not irrelevant. I think in a Genesis 1 context, that’s something we understand with an even greater urgency. 

But, there are people who are saying, well, the universities were not established first of all for jobs, but for the creation of a certain kind of person. It was the development of certain virtues, certain practices and a certain body of knowledge, that would be a matter of stewardship and those voices are still there. It is very interesting in the British context, this is now being argued in parliament — and I would say from what I can tell, not very well, — but if you do desacralize education, you don’t have an agreement upon what to teach. You don’t even have an agreement upon why to teach. I say that just to be thankful for the fact that we don’t have to gather together just to talk about what to teach. We also don’t have to gather together as a faculty just to remind ourselves why we teach. Now, we do remind ourselves of these things, but we do so seeking the best we know to be in continuity with every faithful generation in the history of the Christian Church. You know, oddly enough, I think that university administrators,most places, college presidents most places, college faculty and trustees most places, want to say we need to update our mission statement constantly. Well, a mission statement, is not the most important thing. I know in some planning systems it is the most important thing. The most important thing for us is the mission assigned to this institution by the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. We don’t make it up. It’s assigned to us. And as I look here in this room today, look at the faculty, I look at the students, you’re here because you’re drawn by that mission.

Alright? Even as we begin a new academic year, I want to turn to an old text. I invite you to look to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 13. We’re going to focus on verse 35, but I’m going to read with you also verse 34. The Word of the Lord. “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” It is an amazing passage. This is a short text. My focus is really on verse 35. “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

Matthew 13 has been something of a textual obsession for me for decades. But, I just want to share with you that there are certain texts you kind of say to yourself, “I’m saving. I’m not ready to preach that I’m waiting for the right moment, for the right opportunity to preach that text.” I’ve given so much attention in my ministry to the opening of Matthew chapter 13, when Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower and his disciples, ask him, as you see in verse 10, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” It’s an honest question. We’re told that Jesus taught in parables, so much so that he never taught that he did not use a parable. The disciples after hearing the Parable of the Sower, they simply ask, “Why do you speak them in parables?” And I focused for decades on the answer Jesus gave in verse 11, “To you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given for to the one who has more will be given and he’ll have an abundance, but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing, they do not hear nor do they understand indeed in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. That says you’ll indeed hear but never understand and you’ll indeed see, but never perceive for this, people’s heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed unless they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.”

Okay, so the disciples ask, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus answers. And let’s just be honest. That answer is not. It’s not something that’s so simple. We can hear it and just think, well, okay, I understand it. That settles the matter conclusively because it’s a complex answer. And as a matter of fact, Jesus says, “I speak to them in parables because seeing they don’t see and hearing, they don’t hear and they don’t turn with their hearts that I might heal them.” But, then he says to the disciples, “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. And he goes on to say, for I tell you, many righteous men long to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.” But, Jesus also said to you, speaking to the disciples, “It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” So here you have divine sovereignty and human responsibility located bilaterally in the eyes and in the ears, but focused ultimately to the heart. And so, Jesus says to the disciples, “I speak to them in parables because they don’t get it.

I speak to them in parables. You’ve been given eyes to see and ears here I speak in parables because this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah.”

It’s an amazing passage. I think it’s an invitational passage. It’s a judgment passage in terms of the penalty, the consequence of not seeing and not hearing, and it’s also the judgment of God upon human sinfulness. The reason hearts are dull, eyes are blind and ears are deaf, but it’s also about grace. The grace extended in this case to the disciples, “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.” An interesting turn takes place right in the very break after those words, because prior to this break, Jesus is speaking parables and we have accounts of Jesus speaking parables and in a public ministry of public preaching to the crowds. But actually right here, right now, there is a shift in which the teaching ministry of Jesus and for the remainder of the gospel, for the most part, it is directed to the disciples, not to the crowd. So there’s even more going on here than we recognize. Jesus then explained the Parable of the Sower. Jesus then told the disciples, what’s identified here ass the Parable of the Weeds, and then the Mustard Seed and the Leaven. And then verse 34, Matthew writes, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the words of Jesus have closed in this passage we’re now hearing from Matthew all these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. And then this verse, “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”  What an amazing text.

Matthew here says, “Look, this is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. This is the fulfillment of Scripture.” Well, what Scripture? The answer is Psalm 78. You look at Psalm 78, this is a Psalm of Asaph. Let’s start at verse one and we’ll read verse two. “Give ear, O my people to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us.” Verse four, “We will not hide them from their children but told to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.” It’s verse two there that is picked up by Matthew. It’s the fulfillment of that text. Now in a larger sense, it’s already the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah, but this is one of the Psalms by Asaph, Psalm 50, Psalm 73 through 83 in one Chronicles 6, we have the assignment to men including Asaph of the role they are to play inside the temple. Asaph here articulates this strange, strange statement. “I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things we’ve heard and known that our fathers have told us.” Dark sayings from of old. 

Yeah, I’ve never heard a preacher open Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, turn to the words of Jesus and say, “Would you please get ready to hear dark sayings, yeah, dark stuff coming folks?” The dark sayings appears in this case to mean something that’s enigmatic. And as a matter of fact, the words used even in Old Testament and New Testament scholarship looking at Matthew 13 and then looking at Psalm 78. It’s like a riddle and of course, the word parable is what shows up in the English translations here. I will speak to them in parables. “I’ll open my mouth in parables” in Matthew. It’s, “I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

Okay, so let’s just get to the bottom line. The bottom line is that the presence of Jesus means that things that were dark are now light. Things that were not understood are now understood. Things that were confusing are now clarified. Things that were hidden are now revealed. This is the big story and in this sense is kind of the climax of Matthew chapter 13. “Why do you speak to them in parables?” It is because he is the fulfillment of the prophets. He is the presence of the Messiah. He is the Chosen One. He is the Son of the living God. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. The things hidden are now disclosed. The things opaque are now clarified. 

I love the way Matthew does this. This was in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. It’s sort of like we didn’t really know what this text meant for centuries. Let’s just be honest, folks. We didn’t know what this text was really ultimately about. We didn’t know who this text was ultimately about until the Lord has come and when they hear Jesus speak, when they see what Jesus does, even when they ask Jesus a question like, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” It becomes the opportunity not only for Jesus to say, “Here’s why I speak to them in parables,” but to speak the great truths of the gospel and to make very clear his singular purpose, his saving mission and to make very clear that the light of the world has come. “So there was darkness before and guess what folks, this text was not just difficult to understand, it was not just incompletely understood. You’re not even going to understand what this is about until I am come and I am here.” But, of course, there’s this great divide. “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.” But there are so many who will not see and they will not hear. So the key word here is “blessed.” Riddles, hard sayings, parables, things hidden since the foundation of the world now reveal the things concerning himself, the things concerning his kingdom, the content of the gospel, the New Covenant in his blood. 

Okay, this passage captivates me and I felt convicted because I’ve preached through Matthew 13 many times in many different contexts. It’s just pivotal in so many of my understandings, but I kind of saved verses 34 and 35 for future consideration. How would I preach that? What would I do with that? I mean, it’s not like someone invites you to the First Baptist church somewhere and you have one shot and you show up and say, “Let’s talk about things hidden since the foundation of the world, dark sayings from of old.” Now actually that is what you should do, but you got to be careful how you tell ’em what you’re doing. It is one of those passages, at least in my thinking, in my understanding of Scripture, it’s one of these passages that just kind of clarifies everything, but it takes some time to think about what everything is. 

We can’t unpack it all this morning, but I believe the Lord led me to this passage for this day because as I was thinking some time ago about preaching this service, it struck me, I really think there may be an opportunity to encourage all involved in teaching and learning at Boyce College in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary by saying we are here because the dark sayings of old have now been revealed. Things hidden since the foundation of the world. We get to teach, we get to learn. The stewardship of that is just spectacular, it’s just breathtaking. Every single day, in every single class, because of the mission of this institution, because of the centrality of Scripture to the glory of God, we get to say, “You know for most of all history, this was hidden.” It’s now revealed. Dark sayings from of old, now sweet light. I think it’s important we recognize that Jesus spoke the parable above and then it’s Matthew explaining it, and in Matthew’s characteristic way, as he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, and as is characteristic of his gospel, “These things happen in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”

It is like for Matthew, it’s like all of a sudden he realizes that what was hidden in the past, that’s exactly what’s going on, it’s now clarified. And then even in the Old Testament, even in the Psalms, this is exactly what Israel was told in its worship. But here’s the spectacularly obvious thing that is only obvious when you see it, and I feel the same perplexity. When you look at this and you recognize this bit, Israel is being told in the Psalm that there are things it’s not going to understand because not all had been revealed, the Christ had not come. What a gift that we are on the other side, I mean in every single way. Indescribably, eternally, infinitely, we’re on the other side of this. 

So what does it mean? Just thinking about an opening convocation service on the basis of the authority and the power of this text. First, I would argue it means our faithful stewardship of the truth revealed in and about the Christ. It’s about our faithful stewardship. That’s what we are committing ourselves to in this service, tachers and learners together, the faithful stewardship. And this means that what we’re about here is not just a Christian education, as if Christian’s a modifier. It’s a Christian education if Christian truth is the whole point. Christian faithfulness is the entire point. That’s our aim. 

So 12 points, have no heart attack, I can only mention them. This would mean, first of all, an education grounded in theism. I mean this is foundational, in theism. We’re not even to the gospel yet, but an education grounded in theism. Because if I could draw a dividing line between all the educational institutions in the United States and beyond, I would not make it between private and public. I would not make it between tax-supported and non-tax-supported. I would make it, first and foremost, between those that are established in a clear affirmation of theism and those that are not. Okay, education grounded in theism. 

Two, education saturated with biblical truth. And that’s our acknowledgment that we’re not smart enough to come up with a curriculum. We’re not smart enough to come up with content. And furthermore, there’s no need for this institution unless what we teach is saturated in biblical truth. That’s the bottom line because otherwise Southern Baptists can save their money, and use it for something else. The reason for what we do is to produce an education saturated in biblical truth. 

Third, education rooted in revelation. Again, this is not stuff we have discovered. It’s not stuff we have discerned. It is the revelation of God. Fourth, this education is directed to the church. So we belong to somebody. This board of trustees is elected by the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. We are a church institution. It’s not just that we look like it. We better show up as a church-directed institution, accountable to the church and joining the church, serving the church, local congregations with great joy and producing graduates who are the future leaders of those churches, preachers of those churches, and deployed Christians through those churches in the world. 

Fifth, education made joyful in the gospel. Joyful. I mean, I just want to say something and I mean this as heartfelt as I can say it, when I look at the passages we’ve shared, look at Matthew, look at the Psalm. I mean brothers and sisters, aren’t we glad we’re under the new covenant? Aren’t we glad we are hearing Matthew? Hearing Jesus? It’s a joyful gospel. We don’t deserve it. It’s unmerited favor, but by God’s grace, I’m so thankful we’re not trying in the dark to figure out a riddle. We’re joyful in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Six, it’s an education to serve the church. That is to say it’s not any good if this doesn’t produce faithful churches and if we’re not producing people who go into those churches and make a difference in the church and then in the ministry of the church in the world.

Seventh, it’s an education for the flourishing of human society. I think that’s the one thing that a lot of secular institutions can seize upon. They can say, “We’re here for our community.” Well, we’re here in a sense for our community and in this larger sense, our community is the world. We are committed to human flourishing. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so excited about Boyce College and the graduates we send out into the world and the difference they make in the world, in the community. That just excites me tremendously. And I look at the students, the seminary students, and the college students and I think there’s just something absolutely glorious here. You want to see ministry and outreach to the church and to the world. Just look here. Just look in this room. And we also know that the flourishing of human society is only going to come in accordance with the plan and purpose of God. Eighth, education for the cause of the Great Commission. What we’re doing here is not faithful until it is translated in the gospel being taken to the nations. Jesus himself makes that clear even in the same gospel. 

Education that is unapologetically moral. There you go. Just imagine saying that, I’m not going to name a school. But just look, in the last academic year at how presidents of many institutions were toppled, because they couldn’t say this. They couldn’t say the truth. They were asked by congressional authorities in congressional hearings. They were asked, “Is this wrong?” Antisemitism being the key issue, “Is that wrong?” And they couldn’t say “Yes, it’s wrong.” They couldn’t say “Yes, it’s happening. And when it happens, it’s wrong.” They’re just morally paralyzed. Well, folks, we have no reason to be morally paralyzed. We have no excuse for being morally paralyzed. And not only that, we’re the people who know that it’s only by God’s grace that this is true, but it is by God’s grace that it is true. It’s unapologetically moral. 

Education that is properly intellectual. Standards here are high. You want them high. Two o’clock in the morning before an exam. You may not be sure you want them that high. You do. Start earlier. We serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. What we do here had better be not only as excellent as the world but more excellent than what the world offers.

Education aimed at eternity. This is about as unsecular as you can possibly be because, no, I mean this wouldn’t even make sense in a secular frame. Can we just acknowledge this? If a secular institutional president got up and said “You know, all of this is going to be measured in eternity.” They’d just consider him hopelessly romantic in his literary illusions. We actually believe it’s true. We actually believe that what’s happening in hearts and minds here is preparation not just for usefulness in the world, but for eternity to the glory of God. That does change the frame. 

Finally, education for the glory of God. Because ultimately that is the sole reason for the existence of anything. As God created the cosmos and we are the creatures. Imago Dei who alone know this. We aim for the glory of God.

Okay, that was point one. Again, worry not, point two. This reminds us of our common calling in the task of learning and teaching together. Now, learning and teaching, those are different verbs and learners and teachers, students and teachers have different assignments. But I want to suggest to you that things are not as clear in truth as they are on a chart. I want to tell you one of the greatest things I can say about this faculty, most cherished colleagues I could imagine in this great task. Every single one of them is more a learner than a teacher. If I just let the cat out of the bag, they are learners their entire lifetime. And I can tell you that someone who’s been teaching a class for a number of years, they fully recognize, they know more than when they began teaching. Their notes, class notes, get thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker. The questions they ask just get keener and deeper and more urgent. I say that as an encouragement to students. We’re all students, all of us, we’re all being taught of God, we’re all learners, all of us. Some of us have learned to a certain degree where that’s translated into the calling also to teach. And that’s glorious because those are the teachers we’re looking for. Those are the teachers that we elect to this faculty. Those are the teachers who sign the abstract of principles and that’s glorious. 

But, I’ve got to tell you something else even as all the teachers are learners, I want to say to students, looking you in the eye, learners become teachers earlier than you think, like real soon. And by that I mean you’re learning together, you’re actually teaching each other. And in the mystery of things you just may not even understand, classrooms teach teachers how to teach. 

Isn’t this great? Who could come up with this? James Petigru Boyce? No, not that smart. Peter? Paul? James? No, not that smart. This is God’s plan and purpose. It goes all the way back into the experience of Israel’s father’s teaching sons. And again, that comes up in the very passage. We don’t have time to see it, it’s there. 

Third, our joy is in the light of Christ, the light of the world, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The King of kings and Lord of lords, savior, master, Lord and Christ. Our privilege is to turn together, to learn dark sayings from of old things hidden from the foundation of the world. Isn’t that something? Isn’t that breathtaking? Don’t you want to get to it? Every day, every class is a joyful confrontation with what has been hidden from the foundation of the world now revealed.

These revealed things now we get to learn, we get to see them, to hear them, to learn them, to teach them, to live them, to pass them onto our children, to sing them in hymns, to exalt on them, to take these truths to the nations, to preach these things in our churches, to live these things out in every dimension of our lives. So let’s get to it. Let’s get to it with joy. Let’s get to it. To the glory of God, let’s pray. 

Father, we pray that you use this time and you’ll use these words in such a way as to encourage your church unto faithfulness, starting here and now we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.