Uncovering Mysteries

Uncovering Mysteries

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- Mysteries captivate us. We Love to dig into a good mystery story

+Top Crime-Solvers:

>- A favorite programs on television is Unsolved Mysteries, Hosted by Robert Stack, the series features re-enactments of stories in which viewers participate to help solve cases.

- If you go to the Internet, you find that through that viewers have helped law enforcement officials apprehend approximately 40% of the fugitives profiled on the series since its premiere.

- In addition, the show has been responsible for 93 reunions and has solved nearly 300 cases to date

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> Sherlock Holmes - Fictional London Detective by A. C onan Doyle X

> Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew Came out in 1927 - Over 200 vol.& 200 million sold world X

> Charlie Chan- Chinese-Hawaiian detective has 6 novels X

> Alfred Hitchcock - Master of Suspense British film director X

> Monk on USA - an obsessive-compulsive detective with phobias X

> Agatha Christie - Worlds most popular mystery writer 1920-1970 billion books X

> There is a Mysterynet.com Online mysteries, mystery games, mystery books and resources. For everyone who enjoys a mystery...

Take a break...2-5 minute mini-mysteries

Solve-it Mysteries, Get-a-Clue! daily - "Three Non-Burglaries "

Solve-it monthly - "The Bloody Elevator"

See-n-Solve monthly - "Amy and the Five-Cent Blue"

Mystery Stories with a monthly twist - "Playing with Murder"

Reason - we like to solve mysteries but don’t like mysteries that we cannot solve.

+ Mystery & the Bible

>- Mystery is found only in NT

>-22x singular 27x plural in the Bible

>- Dictionary - "a truth known only through faith or revelation and incomprehensible to the human reason."

+ Christ a Mystery

> - Col 1:26-27 Hid until he came

>- OT Jews looking for a Messiah, Savior, King

>- Now made know to those who believe – Col 2:2

- Philip Yancey’s book The Jesus I Never Knew (1995,p.188) picked up on this, and he noted, of the many biographies he had read,

“few devote more than ten percent of their pages to the subject’s death – including biographies of men like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who died violent and politically significant deaths. The Gospels, though, devote nearly a third of their length to the climatic last week of Jesus’ life. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John saw death as the central mystery of Jesus.”

>- Jesus - Definition Lk 8:9-11 parable of the

sower of the seed. - meaning of the parable. v.11

- Jesus said, "unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parable’s."

- Notice ’unto you it is given, to know the mystery’

>- To understand a Bible mystery, it is given to us

by the Lord.

+ Some Mysteries Solved

> 1. The Mystery of His Will

> Made known unto us - Eph 1:9

> 2. The Mystery of the Church

> Understood through the relationship of marriage

- Eph. 5:32

+ 3. Mystery of Death

> I Cor. 15:51 We are going to be changed

> 4. Mystery of the Gospel

> Eph 6:19 - NEWS - Sin’s wages are paid

- Oops I stumbled here

+ The Greatest Mystery

> Why Reject the Gospel? - Rom. 11:25..

Paul’s question - Rom. 11:25..

> Israel’s Input

- Instructed by Prophets - Moses. & Abraham.

- Were given the covenant & promises of God.

- Why did they not embrace Jesus as their savior?

- Now personalize for yourself

- We know the blessing of reading His word.

- We’re blessed by hearing it.

- The Holy Spirit speaks to our heart that I need a savior & make Him Lord.

- I can understand this teaching

- Why don’t I embrace His Word

- To reject Jesus has got to be a mystery.

Most Priceless Treasure

+ Robert Fulghum in It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It, tells a story involving his daughter, Molly. One day, as Fulghum was ready to leave for work,

> Molly handed him two brown paper sacks. In one was his lunch.

> What was in the other was a mystery. When Fulghum asked Molly what was in the

mystery bag, she said, "Just some stuff—take it with you." At lunch time, Fulghum tore open the mystery bag, Dumping the contents onto his desk.

> The contents consisted of: two hair ribbons, three small stones, a plastic dinosaur, a pencil stub, a tiny seashell, two animal

crackers, a marble, a used lipstick, a small doll, two chocolate kisses, and thirteen pennies.

Later in the day, when Fulghum was cleaning off his desk before going home, he wiped the contents of Molly’s bag into the waste basket. As he said, "There wasn’t anything in there I needed." That evening Molly asked where her bag was. He told her he had left it at his office, and asked, "why?" Molly said, "Those are my things in the sack, Daddy, the ones I really like—I thought you might like to play with them, but now I want them back.