Mary
All is at rest. It is quite now. As she lays beside her husband and her new born baby, she drifts in and out of a tired sleep. But when the baby stirs, she wakes. In the still of the night, she reflects the events of the past day. They had just traveled three days to her husband's home town. They know no one and worst than that, all the hotels were occupied. Someone allowed them to stay in their shack.
At the old broken down shed, she delivered her precious baby. Far from her home. Far from her friends. Far from her relatives. Far from her mother. She was 16 and alone.
She looks up at the roof and beyond the roof, through the massive holes in the roof are the stars. They seem quietly speaking to her. Yet they are so far away. She felt alone.
She looks over to her loving husband. He has tried his hardest to make things comfortable for her. He put fresh straws on the ground and laid it with his one and only coat. He is curled up shivering but being the loving husband, he gave his blanket and coat to make sure she is warm. Even with all the work, this is still a pungent smelly dilapidated shack.
She looks down to her brand new baby next to her. He doesn't have all the nice things that a baby should be showered with. No baby blanket. No baby crib. No little baby toys. Not even clothes. Joseph had to go into the streets to find something to wrap him in. He came back with some rags that people had thrown out. Rags!!!
"God, there is no one to talk to. People despise me because they think I had this baby out of wedlock. My friends have left me. I feel soooo alone."
She looks at her little baby as he stirs. She pulls him closer to give him more body heat. It is a cold night. Between the cold air and the sharp smell of the animals, she looks up again towards the stars.
"God, what am I doing here? I'm only 16 years old. I feel sooooo alone. I have no one to teach me what to do. No one to celebrate YOUR son's birth. I'm only 16. How am I suppose to raise this child all by myself?"
Tears rolled down her eyes and quietly sobs.
<<< Song - Breath of Bethlehem by Amy Grant >>>
Joseph
Mary was not the first that felt that way. Two thousand years before her, a young man had to young man looked up at those same stars. This young man was in the Pharos's dungeon. He thought he was doing the right thing. But every time something good happens, he is beaten down even lower. He looks up to the stars in cries out: "God how much lower am I going to have to go? You made my brothers hate me. Then I am sold to slavery. Just when things started to go well, I am beaten down again. God, just let me die in this place. I cannot bear it anymore."
Jeremiah
The Bible records many people in their lowest moments. Take Jeremiah. He was God's prophet. He spoke what God wanted Him to say. Because people did not want to hear what he had to say, they threw him into a tar pit. The tar was up to his chest. He was having a hard time breathing. He looks up towards to heaven and cries:
Turn to me in Jeremiah 20:7-8
7You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
Follow me to verse 14: Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Many Others
There are many others - Jacob, Hagar, David, Hosea, Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, John the Baptist - just to name a few.
The faithful have received validation and confirmation when they are discouraged. When there doesn't seem to be any way out, God gives His children a sign.
The Baker and the Butler
Joseph was given two servants of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was angry with his baker and butler, so they were thrown into Pharaoh's prison. The two of them had dreams they could not figure out. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret their dreams. Through this experience, God affirmed Joseph. God told Joseph He was with him. God did not leave him in destitute without encouragement. Joseph's situation did not change for another three years, but that incident gave him the affirmation he needed. And just the exact time he needed it.
Ethiopian
Jeremiah's savior came in the form of a Ethiopian eunuch. This eunuch worked in the courts of the king. He told what happened to Jeremiah and the king gave him authority to save Jeremiah.
Gift of the Shepherd
In the darkest of Mary's moments, a hand reached down from heaven to give her comfort.
As she cried in silence. Tears stream down her faces like a water fall. Just when as she felt there was no one to turn to, there was a soft voice around the corner.
"Hello?"
A face at the edge of the door appears. Then another.
"Hi, ummm. We are shepherds. We heard you just had a baby. ummmm. Can we look at your new baby?"
Mary wakes up Joseph. Through the moon light, the shepherds worship the new born baby.
Joseph asked them how they knew. All of them started to talk all at once. They were excited to describe their encounter with a sky full of angels. They talked about how the angels could not contain their excitement.
Mary took in all their stories. She was validated and affirmed.
Settling in Bethlehem
Joseph and Mary settled in Bethlehem for a while. The baby was too young to travel and they really did not want to face the stares and condemnation from the people at Nazareth.
Joseph probably resumed his trade as a carpenter in Bethlehem. A carpenter, which is called Tekton in Greek, was really a day worker. Have you seen today's day workers? They are the people standing outside Home Depot and Lowes waiting for someone to pick them up for a day's work. Joseph probably had his tools and he took them with him. He made a meager living. It was nothing to write home about. Tekton was the lowest of all trade's men.
About a year or so later, other visitors came from the East. Do you remember what these visitors gave Jesus? - Yes - Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
Wise Men Not From Babylon
Please allow me to digress from our story for a few minutes.
The Bible does not tell us where or how many wise men came. We have traditionally believed that there were three wise men because of the three gifts. We further deduce that they are probably from Babylon or Persia since the Bible tells us they were from the east. But there are a few problems with this theory.
Number one problem: If you were to give spices to a future king, would you give common spices or the most expensive spices you can find? That's right - we would give the most expensive spices wouldn't we? Well Frankincense and Myrrh are spices that grew around Babylon. It is a very common spice, if the wise men were from Babylon, they would have probably given something like Spikenard.
King Solomon refers to Spikenard is the most expensive spice. Mary Magdalene used Spikenard to anoint Jesus' feet. Spikenard would have been the spice of choice, not Frankincense and Myrrh.
So the wise men must have come from a place the Frankincense and Myrrh were rare and fit for a king.
Number two problem: Babylon is about 1200 -1300 miles from Jerusalem. According to Google Map, it would take about 265 hours to make that journey. A person travel at a good speed can walk about 30 miles per day. For a slow caravan with dignitaries, they would have probably traveled about 15 miles a day. At 15 miles a day, it would have taken only 80 to 90 days to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem.
When Harold wanted to kill Jesus, do you remember who he killed? Let us look in the Bible - Matthew 2:16
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Harold wanted to be safe so after asking the wise men how long had they seen the star, he decided to kill all babies under 2 years of age. In other words, Jesus was probably older than one and younger than two. We are looking for a place that would have taken a to two year's journey.
Problem number Three: If the Babylonian astronomers had discovered a star, there would have been records of such an event. But there were no record of a discovery of a new star between BC 5 and AD 1.
Wiseman from China
After hours of research, I have come to the conclusion that at least one of the wise men is from China and maybe Korea. Please allow me to provide the evidence.
During the time of Jesus birth, China was at the end of the East Han Dynasty. The emperor was Aidi. The capital of East Han was today's Xian. The Han Dynasty was the dominant kingdom of the East as the Roman Empire was of the West.
1. The East Han Dynasty had created the Silk Road about 150-200 years before. This road was very well traveled and it started at Xian. If you would travel on the Silk Road all the way to Palestine then down to Jerusalem, you would have walked 4400 - 4500 miles. And it would have taken you about one year. The amount of time the magi said they had seen the star.
2. Do you remember what were the gifts the wise men gave? - Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Well, since Frankincense and Myrrh had to travel 3000 thousand of miles, via the Silk Road, it was very expensive in China. Only the very rich and royalty can afford it. Hence Frankincense and Myrrh are gifts fit for a king.
3. The emperor at that time was Han Aidi. He had three advisors. One of those advisor's name was Lui Xin. Lui Xin was also one of the most famous astronomers in the Han Dynasty. He mapped the heavens and developed star charts. He was also the first to calculated that one year was 365.2502 days. Hence we have leap years now.
Well Lui Xin recorded the appearance of three different comets - one in 12BC, another in 5BC and the third appeared a year later in 4BC. The comet on 5BC stayed visible for 70 days and it traveled from the East to the West. Matthew records that wise men saw the star from the East but they traveled West. Now we know why. Oh by the way, Lui Xin called the comet - King Star.
4. Immediately after the 5BC comet, Lui Xin took a leave of absent for about two years. It is recorded that he wanted to travel to the West through the Silk Road. Hmmmm... Interesting coincidence... Two years would have been just enough time to travel to Jerusalem and return without a lengthy rest. What is so important that he would travel 4500 miles just to return immediate?
5. Matthew records that after the wise men left Harold, the star re-appeared. Let's turn to Matthew 2:9-10
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
Well that would have been the 4BC comet. These comets are only found in the Chinese and Korean astronomer records, not in the Babylonian or Persian astronomer records.
I think there is enough circumstantial evidence to say that at least one of the magi were probably from the courts of China.
Significance of a Eastern Visitor
This is an important fact. God is validating that the Son of God is for all peoples. This little baby came to save both people of the East as well as the people of the West. What better way to show His importance than to bring someone from the courts of the Eastern empire.
God wanted to show Joseph and Mary a perspective that they had never considered - a global perspective.
Gifts
The wise men gave three gifts - Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. What are these three items given and what is the significance of them?
Gold
Firstly, the most obvious is Gold. Gold has intrinsic value. You can go out and buy things with it. It is a common measurement of exchange. A gift of gold gave Joseph and Mary the necessary finances to make the trip to Egypt. They were very poor. This gold was a life saver. To the courts of China, it was probably nothing, but to this little family it was everything.
Frankincense
The second gift was Frankincense. Why Frankincense? What is so important about this spice? How is it used? Frankincense is used to boast a person's immune system. It also has a emotional stabilization effect. This oil is used to "harness the power of our own connection on a emotional, spiritual and mental level. Useful for visualizing, improving one's spiritual connection, and centering, it has comforting properties that help focus the mind and overcome stress and despair. Frankincense is considered a holy oil." (http://www.experience-essential-oils.com/frankincense-oil.html)
Myrrh
The third and final gift was Myrrh. Myrrh is a powerful antioxidant and is a often use for aging skin. It is believed that it will help wrinkles and cracked skin. It also heal wounds and skin diseases. Myrrh is used for physical healing.
Value of the Gifts
Could it be that God is sending three different messages to Mary and Joseph?
God knew Mary and Joseph needed money. So God gave them a financial gift.
God knew Mary and Joseph's heart needed to be calmed. So God gave them a gift of Frankincense.
Last but not least, is a gift of Myrrh. They also needed physical healing so myrrh was provided.
It is possible that God wanted to send us a message as well as a message to Mary and Joseph. If so, what is that message?
Salt of the World
Jesus told his disciples that they are the salt of the world. We are suppose to provide the living flavor that the world needs to badly. Could it be that we are suppose to be more than that?
We have people around us that may need our help. Are we prepared to help them?
Jenny lost her husband around this season. Every year she sits home and cries. Christmas is not a happy time. It is an annual reminder of her lost.
Lee Ling left home to study here in Loma Linda. He is alone with no one to celebrate feasts and festivals. He sits in his dorm room and looks at the four walls every Christmas. Christmas is a very lonely time.
Christine is a single mom with two small children. Every Christmas her children asks her for presents that she cannot afford. It is not a happy time for them because means don't have the means to buy her children a present. She is depressed. She doesn't even have money to cook them a special meal.
Kim has server allergies.
Enoch has just lost his mother.
I can go on and on and on. You know people and I know people.
God is asking us not only to be the salt of the world but maybe be the shepherds, gold, frankincense, and myrrh of the world.
<<< Video - Ripple >>>
God Gives You the Names
If you open up to God's calling, He will give you names of people that need your special help.
Please allow me to pray a prayer of activation. Then after my prayer, I want you to ask God to give you just one name. Write that name down.
<<< Prayer of Activation >>>
David's Story
Last week, while I was on my prayer walk thinking of about this sermon, I asked God to give me a name of a person that needed special attention. He gave me a name. Let us call him David. David discovered he has cancer. He has a wife and two young children. The next day, I sent him a message on Facebook that I felt very impressed to pray for him. The message was: "And if he needs to talk, I will be there for him. He is not along in his struggle. God had directed me to be his support system."
He replied to my message saying: "Wow, I had been praying asking God for someone to help him through. Your name came up."
God had told him and me at the same time... God knows of our needs and provides for us even before we ask. I am that Frankincense.
Winston's Story
Last weekend, we went down to San Diego to listen to Sammy's last Christmas program at Point Loma. We spend some time with some dear friends. Even though they are very active in their church and community, they felt lonely. They didn't really have friends to talk to. When we left San Diego after dinner, the husband told Helen that his cup was now full.
There are many people out there needing a friend. Hurting without friends.
God ye therefore and preaching to the nations.
• You are the Shepherd.
• You are the Gold.
• You are the Frankincense to help their hearts.
• You are the Myrrh.
• They are God's children.
Jesus says: "As God has sent Me -- So sent I you."
Be there...
