Series: Jesus Manifesto
Message: Getting the Mystery Revealed
Preacher: Rebecca Murdock
Reflection: Japhet De Oliveira
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Lydia Svoboda
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Colossians 1:24-2:3 in the New Testament for Everyone (NTE). Note 1–3 insights or questions. 

Reflect: I believe that Paul wrote Colossians before Ephesians. Why is that significant? Simply because the concept of the mystery which is found in Jesus will be unpacked in more detail in his next letter (Ephesians 3:1-14). If you have read a fair amount of Paul’s letters, I am sure you are aware by now that he enjoyed creating dense statements and then unpacked them repeatedly in different places. Ephesians 3 helps us unpack what he means here about the mystery. 

One of my favorite plays in London which has been running for over 60 years is The Mousetrap. If you like to play the board game Clue, you would love this show. At the end, when they reveal who committed the crime, you are asked to promise never to share the secret. You must keep it a mystery for future audiences. Did I promise? Of course I promised. So it is a mystery. Locked up for you to discover.  There are other mysteries we face all the time. In this example, from the Apostle Paul, the mystery is something written for us to know. He expands on this even further in Ephesians 3:10-11:

His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in The heavenly world will know God's wisdom, which has so many forms. This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time. And God carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord.

When you connect the passage for today with Paul’s later expansion you start to grasp that what Paul has packed in so densely in Colossians is simply this: The mystery is that grace and incarnation are revealed through our Church. Sounds beautiful, right? What does it mean? Jesus is revealed when you don’t believe or understand who He is! When you are in so much pain that the noise is ringing in your ears. When you are mentally exhausted and can’t put coherent thoughts together. When the “when” is simply too much, grace and incarnation—Jesus Christ—is revealed through our church. Is your Church a source of wisdom? Are you able to listen to obtain wisdom? These words mean nothing unless they are attached to reality. That reality has to be Jesus. 

Recalibrate: Do you agree with Paul that wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus? What does that really mean? How would you explain that to someone who has just decided to follow Jesus?

Respond: Explore in prayer how you can listen more to wisdom in your life. 

Research: Read Ephesians 3 and unpack the mystery. 

Remember: “This truth is Christ Himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory” (Colossians 1:27, ICB).

Japhet De Oliveira is administrative director for the Center for Mission and Culture at Adventist Health in Roseville, California.

Gather a bunch of things around your home that have different textures. Rice, water, sandpaper or sand, leaves, and something soft like a teddy bear or a snuggly blanket. Explore with your little one how each one feels. Show them how to gently run the items through their fingers. Yes, our children will throw the rice and spread sand everywhere it shouldn’t be. Encourage them to be gentle, show them how it’s done. Clean up the mess together, always leaving a place better for you being there. Our children know what love is by seeing and hearing you live love in the little things.

Play a game of dominos or memory. The aim of these games is to match up the same pictures or dots. How does it feel when you get a match? If you have a mix and match game or book, play that too. It feels good to see the matching pieces come together. When we see love in actions and in words together, that feels good too. This is how Jesus loves. 

I am deathly afraid of heights. There is just something about being some place above where I can safely land without injury that causes me to freeze up. I was not fully aware of just how afraid I was until I found myself standing on a cliff above a small swimming hole and being told to jump off and land in the water below. My friends all found ways to jump multiple times in between my attempt to let my toes reach the edge of the rock and then shuffling back against the rock wall at the back of the ledge. I just couldn’t get myself to a place where jumping made any sense. Finally, after countless attempts to “go on the count of three.” I pushed off of the rock and leapt out into the nothing. 

Splash!

It felt like an eternity had passed between the time my foot left the rock and when it hit the water! I have never been so happy for the strength and pull of gravity as I plummeted towards earth!

Thinking back now, I have no idea how I conquered my fears that day. Even typing this now, my palms are getting a little sweaty just imagining being back on that cliff! Sometimes, there’s just something inside of you that gives you courage to do more than you expect of yourself.

In Colossians 1:27, Paul talks about the idea that Christ is “in you.” What a thought, to imagine that the hope of the world is inside of us. Often we think of God as far away, someone to whom we send prayers like messages in a bottle cast into the deep sea. Paul says that God is closer than we often think. He’s not somewhere in the clouds. He’s actually right here with us now. 

What is it that scares you? What have you done to face those fears? How did you call upon something extra inside of you to help you conquer those challenges? What part do you think God plays in facing adversity every day?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding” (Col 2:2). In order for anyone to learn, whatever age the student or learner is, learning is best accomplished in an environment where encouragement is abundant and love is fostered. I don’t think this is any coincidence—that is how God works. So naturally, for a people to understand God more, they must “be encouraged in heart and united in love.” The Holy Spirit unifies. Love unifies. Be united in love and you will see God.

Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Lydia Svoboda is a junior theology major at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.