Do you like to read a good mystery? Some of my favorite mystery authors are Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, Tony Hillerman and Robert Ludlum.
Back on the popular TV show M*A*S*H*, in one episode, someone received a mystery novel in the mail. Of course this was a prized treasure for a bunch of Gis and Doctors away from family, in a foreign country, in the middle of a war and with time on their hands. The problem was that the mystery was missing the last page. Everyone was in a frantic search for the ending. Who did it? How did it happen? What would the conclusion be? The best part of a good mystery is trying to figure out the end and then seeing if you had it right.
I have caught my wife, who loves mysteries, reading the last chapter long before she has completed the rest of the book. She can't wait to discover the answer to the mystery
The Bible uses the word mystery quite often to refer to the revelation of Gods plans and purposes. Once hidden or undiscovered, the mystery is revealed as Gods purposes are worked out.
The word mystery comes from the Greek word musterion. It is a word that was developed in ancient Greece to refer to secret religious societies and cults. The mustes were those who had been initiated into the rite through some secret ceremony where the secrets or mysteries of the cult were revealed
In order to become a Temple Mormon, one has to undergo a series of initiation rites where certain mysteries or secrets are revealed and the oaths are taken which promise to never reveal those secrets to others wh are uninitiated.
The same mysteries are all part of initiation into fraternities or soroities, the Masons and other secret soctieties.
The knowledge of such secrets is available only to those initiated
The closing doxology of Pauls letter reminds us that God's advent into the world in the person of Jesus Christ is the conclusion to the great mystery of God's plan for savlation. It is the final chapter of the story in which the truth of God is unfolded and unveiled. To everyone's surprise, it is a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
It is no mistake that Paul includes this praise at the end of his letter. For the Gospel he - Paul- preached is the revelation of Jesus God s son. It is the beginning and the end of the gospel. It is the mystery of the ages revealed not through some secret ritual but by the spirit of God.
The knowledge of this mystery has some very significant implications for tge believer.
The revelation of Jesus is the most profoundly moving reminder that God has yur future in his hands and that should make you strong and able to stand through any uncertainty and every trial.
For thousands of years, men, women and children trusted God to deliver them. Yet the plan was a mystery to them. They received Gods word through prophets and seers, yet the outcome was unclear
Amy Grants song El Shaddai says it this way Though your word contained the plan, they just couldn't understand that your most awesome work was done in the frailty of your son. over 2,000 Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Christ's birth, but prophecy alone was not enough to solve the mystery. It had to be done through personal communication.
The writer of Hebrews says that in tomes of old God spoke in various ways through the prophets but now he has spoekn to us through his son who is the exact image of the father.
The only way god could communicate effectively with the part of his creation he loved themost was to become like them and to incarnate himself into the midst of that creation.
The secret is out. The plan has been revealed. Now the only real issue is seeing that everybody hears about it and comes to a place of saving faith. It is intended to bring men and women to a place of obedience and submission to Jesus as Lord. And yet there are millions of people who still see God's plan as a mystery and want to know how it all turns out. We need to tell them
Today, according to the Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are over 20,000 language groups in the world who have not had a chance to hear about the Gospel whose advent we celebrate this week. Yet it is not a gospel reserved for only one ethnic group or one natuion or one culture or language. Jesus said at the end of his life that his disciples task was to preach this Gospel to the whole world.
If we celebrate Christmas without an awareness that there are countlsee souls who are literally dying to know this good news of the gospel, we will have grieved God greatly. For God always knew that all nations woulfd be blessed. He brought wise men from the east following a star. He appointed a Jew with Roman citizenship to preach it to the gentiles.
God wants yu and I to participate somehow in seeing that this secret is passed along to a wating watching and hurting world.
In the Fullness of time, galatians says, God sent his Son into the world. Long held secret could not be contained. At just the right time, God revealed the mystery.
The world in solemn stillness lay
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
The God of Eternity took on human form. Invaded time and space. It is the one event that all history before had looked ahead to. It is the one event from which world history has flowed since. No other person has so captivated, transformed and shaped history as the one solitary life.
We may think that God has forgotten us or that God doesn't care. We may still at times wonder what God is doing and what are God's plans. And yet, the God of Christmas has revealed his plan and its effects are sometimes surprising. In the Dec. 11 papaers, world news headlines carried the following items:
Add to that civil wars in Bosnnia, Rwanda and other places around the world. Think also of the millions of refugees, homeless and orphaned. Consider the violence of gangs and even that which occurs behind closed doors in respectable neighborhoods around our country,
It seems like a mystery novel whose final chapter has not been written. Yet God has answered all those questions and provided for all those needs in the person of Jesus.
What personal cries are you facing? Gods secret is no longer a secret. The Gospel became a human being and that gospel is able to make you stand firm through any of them