The Mystery of Christmas!

            At our house for Christmas my wife likes to plan a treasure hunt.   It’s a mystery, where are the presents hiding?   What she does is gather all the family together in one room.   Each family gets the first clue.   Then they are off on the hunt to find the next clue.   It might take you into the garage, into a bathroom, or in a closet.   Then you find another clue and you are off again on the hunt.   Finally you get to the treasure; you have found your gift.   Our text today reminds us that Christmas is like mystery hidden for long ages past.   So people were on a treasure hunt.   Clue after clue would lead them to the treasure, the present that God prepared for Christmas. Today I would like to take you on a treasure hunt, a mystery that God prepared.

Where do we find the treasure map with the clues we need to find the treasure?   Our text reminds us it has been hidden for long ages past.   But where are the clues?  We read, the clues are  revealed and made known through the prophetic writings.  We are told 1 Peter 1:10 (NIV84) — 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care.   So the Bible is a treasure map.  I would like to show you some clues to the treasure.  We also need to know what kind of treasure we are looking for?   How valuable is it?  What are we to do when we find it? 

            The first clue we find in the Bible is Genesis 3:15 (NIV84) — 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”  We know we are to be looking for a woman and her offspring.  Another clue we find Isaiah 7:14 (NIV84) — 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, a virgin will conceive.

First of all we need to find a woman, a special woman.   We need to find a virgin.  We have another clue in Luke 1, our Gospel lesson: In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  Did we find the right woman?  The Greek word describing her is “parthenos”.   Should we be in Greece?  You have heard of the Parthenon in Athens.  A quick check in Encarta Encyclopedia indicated that the temple in Athens was dedicated to Parthenos Athena, “Virgin Athena.” 

            Maybe we should go to Athens then, to Greece?  Is that where the treasure will be found?  Maybe we should be headed to Rome? Let’s look at that map again.  We with the Wise men follow the clue:   Micah 5:2 (NIV84) — 2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”   So we have to go to Bethlehem, not Italy or Greece. 

            When we get to Bethlehem, what are we looking for.  Remember Isaiah gave us the clue, The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son.  So we are not looking for a baby girl, but a baby boy.  As Isaiah also told us: Isaiah 9:6–7 (NIV84) — 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.  These clues are coming together, we are on the right track, because our first clue said, the seed of the woman, he would crush.  So we are oft to Bethlehem to find a baby boy, but where should we look?  This will be a sign (a clue to the treasure) to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Some people don’t know what a treasure really is.   Antique Roadshow let people bring in things they own but don’t know the value.  Maybe it is something found at a rummage sale, garage sale, or maybe they have been out picking.  One of the show’s most unusual treasures happened last year.    A man arrived at the Tulsa Convention Center in Oklahoma Saturday with five Chinese, carved cups and learned the set, made from rhinoceros horn, was valued at more than $1 million, the highest evaluation in the show's history. "As each one came out of the box, my jaw started to drop a little more," appraiser Lark Mason told ABC News Tulsa affiliate KTUL. "[They] are worth between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000."

Here we are at the manger in Bethlehem and find a baby boy.  But the mystery gets even deeper.  What kind of baby boy is this?  Is this really the treasure?  There is another clue about what we were looking for, Colossians 2:2–3 (NIV84) — 2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

            Did you hear that, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in that little boy!  What have we found?  What is God like?  What can and will he do for us?   There are clues hidden in the past that really should have told us that.   Isaiah 9:6–7 (NIV84) — 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.  Matthew 1:23 (NIV84) — 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”  God in a little child…a mystery!  How can that be?

            But what wisdom and knowledge do we find when we have found that child?  James 3:17 (NIV84) — 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.   Doesn’t this describe the baby of Bethlehem!  Those who found the child found what God was really like.  But they found even more.   This treasure opened up to them the truth about what is their relationship to the Lord.   The knowledge of salvation was wrapped up in that child.   What that child’s treasure was how God in his wisdom and planning would save the world!

            Paul describes the treasure personally this way: Establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ.  Have you ever wondered about where you stood with the Lord God almighty?  When you pick up the treasure, that baby in your arms, you are holding God answer to you personally.   That child just firmed up that you also are being held in his arms.  But you feel unworthy?  Troubled, guilt, ashamed for who are you to hold the baby in your arms?  Only to search the clues again and you will find, Isaiah 53:6 (NIV84) — 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

            How many of you remember when there were no polio shots?  No penicillin, no pneumonia? How many of us have had the blessing of those medicines?  What a difference having those medicines have made in peoples’ lives!   But can you imagine that someone would discover one of those medicines and then keep the secret to themselves?   Could imagine someone discovering a cure for a form of cancer and keep it quiet?   No, those discoveries have been shared to help us all.   We needed that for ourselves.

            How will the world know about the treasure we have found if those who have it don’t share it?              We have found the treasure, now we can share it, so that all nations might believe and obey him.  This weekend we have the children telling the story.  The first place we need to share the treasure is to the children, the next generation.  We are just one generation from losing the gospel.   When children don’t know that there is a treasure, when they don’t know the love from above, how sad.   Children are precious.   Sometimes Children have to share the truth with their parents.   Children, do you ever have to share candy with someone?  Do you wonder who will get the bigger piece?  What is so amazing the more we give this treasure to others, the more we have.   So simple, so profound, but know the treasure we have found and hold in our hearts.   Jesus.   To God be the glory.  Amen.