The Mystery Revealed

Merry Epiphany!

“Shine through”, manifestation, revelation

Epiphany makes Christmas worth celebrating

Christmas: God became incarnate as one of us

Epiphany: This Christmas baby is God’s mystery of salvation revealed.

How am I saved? A mystery revealed even to unlikeliest of candidates.

God reveals the mystery to Magi!

Magi not “Kings” or “Wise Men”, but Magicians & sorcerers, servants of pagan kings learned in dark arts!

Magi: in the know, but ignorant

don’t know how to get to Jesus

go to Jesus’s enemy

bring gifts to Jesus as if to a normal king

duped by Herod’s plan until dream tells them otherwise

Meanwhile, Jerusalem, who should be in the know, abandons revelation for worldly gain, can’t help Magi.

Salvation is a mystery revealed, not discovered.

Magi understood Jesus was a big deal, but did they understand how important Jesus really was?

Not enough to know what magi know, that Jesus is just a big deal.

It’s an ongoing Epiphany; starts w/gold, frankincense, myrrh, but not fully revealed until soldiers present Him w/crown of thorns.

Mystery revealed in its fullness on the cross:

Salvation looks like condemnation

God’s wisdom looks like foolishness

Eternal life looks like death

Mystery isn’t something that God leaves for rich, powerful, & wise to discover.

Mystery revealed to unlikely candidates like babies, captives, outlaws, sorcerers, sinners, foreigners.

Christianity something small children can explain, yet can leave smartest scratching their heads

As disciples, we chase the epiphany of the mystery.

As you think about New Years Resolutions, consider being like Magi: chase the epiphany.

Mystery revealed is that you are saved through faith, dependence on Jesus.

Salvation is right relationship w/God & His creation through dependence on Jesus.

Depend on Him through ways He has promised to reveal His mysteries to you.

Not through reason, philosophy, mysticism, emotions, works (it’s not discovered)

But revealed though Word, baptism (baby!), Communion

God reveals His mysteries through the Church!

We should be place where mystery is most clear!

We should be bold about it! Mystery is all are brought into righteousness (right relationships) through Jesus.

We should be a place where unlikely candidates like babies, captives, outlaws, sorcerers, sinners, foreigners can come to be put into right relationships. After all, God let you in!

God has revealed the deepest mysterious of the cosmos to you.

Easy for Christians to think God’s Word is boring, too lofty, irrelevant

But Jesus is the revealed mystery of right relationships w/God, Family, World

The magi willing to travel for years to get a small epiphany.

Do you really know it all? Are you chasing Scripture’s ongoing epiphany of mystery?

Mystery that infants can fully understand through faith, but disciples can explore its depths for a lifetime.

Mystery has been revealed to you & His name is Jesus. He is your righteousness; for world.

This year, chase His Epiphany. Merry Christmas & Epiphany!