The Mystery of Love

Exeter Temple Message notes

Sunday 8^th December 2013

Ephesians 6:19 
Christians awake, salute the happy morn
Wherein the Saviour of mankind was born
Rise to adore the mystery of love.
Which host of angels chanted from above
There is something of a mystery around the Christmas story.  The mystery is not just that no-one is really sure whether Jesus was really born in a stable, about strange star or how many wise men there were. The mystery that surrounds the story is centred upon how God chooses to make himself known and the methods he uses to restore his relationship with the human race.
1.      Appearance
There is a real sense in which God is a mystery because he has been hidden from us. This is simply because he is God and we are human beings.
1 Corinthians 2:10 “For who among men knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
It is like our humanity is a curtain in front of our eyes and we cannot see through it.
The Biblical definition of mystery is "A divine, sacred secret that is hidden in the heart of God, and cannot be understood unless God chooses to reveal it to man."
The coming of Jesus into the world is a moment of revelation as dramatic as the opening of the curtains of a play, although it didn’t happen on the world stage but in the obscurity of a little town in the backwater of the Roman Empire.

1 Timothy 3: 16 “He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit was seen by the angels was preached among the nations was believed on in the world was taken up in glory.”

When Jesus appeared, something unique and amazing was displayed to the world.

Hebrews 1:1  “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe.”

When we study the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus what is revealed to us is the very character and nature of God himself.  Hebrews 1:2 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things through his powerful word.” 

What has been hidden has been made known.

2. Accessibility  

God not only chooses to make himself known but this the revelation is now accessible to all people.  

In Ephesians 3 mystery is a key word.  This word mystery is taken right out of Paul’s culture, where mystery religions were common. Ephesus was filled with secret societies and mystery religions. To join one, you would go through an initiation, and if you passed, then certain codes and secrets would be disclosed to you. And as you climbed through their hierarchy, providing you fulfilled their conditions the people “in the know would let you see the hidden things.  But only the special people could join. These cults were built on limiting information to the few and the more complicated they could make the study of God the more they felt superior to those who couldn’t understand it. To the man on the street who was not a member of these religions the secrets they held were called ’mysteries’
Whilst the people belonging to the mystery religions believed that knowing God came about through unravelling complicated codes and philosophies, Paul had spent his whole life trying to understand and know God through the meticulously keeping of the rules of his religion and being zealous about keeping out anyone who held un-orthodox views.  But he remained deeply unsatisfied with this and a real relationship with God eluded him.

Then one day everything changed for him.  He understood that he could not earn salvation, he could not rely upon his heritage to put him in a right relationship with God but he needed God’s grace and mercy, which was available to him through Jesus Christ.

This was the secret, this was the key.  It was a person, it was Jesus Christ.  This understanding that he came to was not down to his own cleverness but came through revelation. In Ephesians 3:3 he refers to “the mystery made known to me by revelation.” God came to him on the road to Damascus and then used Ananias to explain the message of Jesus to him.  Paul also rejoices in the fact that he is not the only one to see that the way to God was through grace. It had been made known by the Spirit of God to the holy apostles and prophets and even to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. 

Paul is excited by the idea that there is no barrier of intellect, race or culture to knowing God.  The coming of Jesus Christ means God can be known by anyone.   

“Why doesn’t everyone accept this good news?”  What stops people from understanding that they can know God?  The Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of people.  There is evidence of God around them, perhaps even within them but they cannot see it. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world convicting people of their need for God and he has the power to lead people into truth.  The way in which he works is in itself often quite mysterious.  Sometimes we have no idea what the Holy Spirit is doing under the surface of a person’s life. 

 Often it appears that nothing much is happening in the spread of the kingdom of God but we need to be assured that even when we cannot see it, the Holy Spirit is at work. 

It is another mystery that God has chosen to use ordinary human beings to spread the news that he wants people to know him through Christ. The Holy Spirit invites us to join him in his work. Paul rather than keep the information about Jesus Christ to himself was going to tell everyone.
3. Amazement
It may be that the presence of mystery and ignorance of the ways of God in our understanding is down to the fact that we have allowed sin to blind us and we haven’t applied ourselves to the study of God’s word or spent enough time in the presence of Christ.  
God has already revealed far much more of his nature than we have grasped and he is ready and waiting for us to ask, to seek and to knock on his door so that we might enter into more understanding.
However God’s love remains a mystery.  He is not a scientific equation to be worked out; he is not a puzzle to unravel or a code to unlock.  He is a person who illogically and unbelievably loves us so much that he is prepared to behave in the most unpredictable way. 
Whilst it should be a comforting thing that there is a God who is bigger, wiser, more powerful and more loving than we are, most of the time human beings spent their time trying to make God fit their understanding, their plans and their thinking.Ephesus 6:19 “Pray that I will be given the message to speak that I might fearlessly explain the mystery about the good news.”
When we act in obedience and respond to the Spirit’s leading we so, often find that he has already gone before us. Ultimately a person must invite Jesus in. John’s gospel so clearly states, “To all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God.” 

When Paul became a Christian he could see that the missing piece in the puzzle of faith was Jesus Christ but in all his writings there is never a sense in which you feel Paul has God pinned down.  It continued to amaze him that God could love him. More than anyone Paul could explain the doctrine, unpack the theology and apply it all to life but he was still full of wonder.

1 Timothy 3:16 “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great.”
No one twisted God’s arm to send his son Jesus to the world. It’s not because he looked at us and was impressed with what great Christians we’d be. We didn’t deserve what God has given us.  We didn’t deserve His mercy and kindness but he loved us anyway. God who’s entirely has chosen to enter into a relationship with us.
One preacher puts it like this. “This is an incredible mystery that the free potter would choose to have a relationship with the clay.”
Whenever humans encounter God, we’re going to encounter mystery. We will never become God’s peer. There comes a time when the only appropriate response to him and that is to worship.

God bless

Alan