Gifts Worthy of a King
1st Sunday after Christmas, 2003
Scripture Ref: Matthew 2:1-12; 28:18-20
Hebrews 12:28
Additional References: “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary
New Bible Dictionary
1. Introduction
a. Of the many decorations we use in our homes and elsewhere to celebrate this season, the crèche (or nativity) is the only one that truly depicts what and why we celebrate. Its history is this:
b. The story of the origin of the Christmas crèche rests with St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Bonaventure tells the story like this. In the year 1223, St. Francis, a deacon, was visiting the town of Grecio to celebrate Christmas. Grecio was a small town built on a mountainside overlooking a beautiful valley. The people had cultivated the fertile area with vineyards. St. Francis realized that the chapel of the Franciscan hermitage would be too small to hold the congregation for Midnight Mass. So he found a niche in the rock near the town square and set up the altar. However, this Midnight Mass would be very special, unlike any other Midnight Mass. He prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the appointed place. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. (St. Bonaventure, in his Life of Saint Francis of Assisi)
c. The difference between St. Francis’ nativity and the one we are familiar with today is the conspicuous absence of the wise men.
d. While the wise men played a prominent role in Christ’s early life, they were not part of that first Christmas night.
e. Today, however, I want to examine the role they did play and the example they set for us in worshipping Christ.
f. Read Matthew 2:1-12
g. Matthew is the only gospel that tells of the visit of the Magi. Yet their visit is extremely important and full of divine involvement and implication. This morning we are going to examine the significance of the star that led them to Christ and the gifts they offered Him.
2. So, they followed a star. So what?
a. A beautiful Christmas Carol entitled We Three Kings of Orient Are tells the wise men’s story. The first verse tells of their long, arduous journey following the star of Bethlehem.
“We three kings of Orient are: Bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain—Following yonder star.”
b. Read Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10—After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
c. That the wise men followed a star from the east is important, but it is not the most important part the star played.
(1) When the Magi met with Herod to inquire of Christ’s location, they met with him in Jerusalem.
(2) When the Magi left Herod, they followed the star to Bethlehem, a town 5 miles south of Jerusalem.
(3) Stars normally travel east to west, not north to south. God had changed the structured order of the heavens to lead the wise men to Christ.
d. Today’s Application
(1) We have the opportunity today to be that star. We may or may not lead wise men, but we have the opportunity, the authority, and the privilege of leading men to Christ.
(2) Read Matthew 28:18-20
(3) Jesus’ commission, applicable to all His followers, involved one command, “Make disciples,” which is accompanied by three participles in the Greek: going, baptizing, and teaching.
(4) The going is the most important of three, because if we don’t go, we can’t teach and we can’t baptize.
(5) We must be like the star of Bethlehem was to the wise men, we must go before our fellow man and lead them to Christ.
3. So they thought He was cool.
a. Matthew’s story goes on to say that after the star led them to Him, they worshipped Him.
b. Read Matthew 2:11—On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.
c. These wise men, men who were important people in their own right, recognized the importance of this child and worshipped Him.
d. The term worship originally referred to the action of human beings in expressing homage to God because he is worthy of it. It covered such activities as adoration, thanksgiving, prayers of all kinds, offering sacrifices, and making vows.
e. Nowadays, however, ‘worship’ is used for any kind of interaction between God and his people, expressed in (but not confined to) cultic or formal activity by a religious group or individuals. It therefore includes not only the human approach to God but also God communicating with his people, and the whole communal activity that takes place when the people gather together religiously.
f. The term ‘worship’ is misunderstood if it gives the impression that the major element is what we do or offer to God. Biblical religion is primarily concerned with what God does for his people. Worship is human response to a gracious God, and it needs to be placed in this context if it is to be properly understood.
g. Today’s Application
(1) The Magi before worshipping Him, bowed down to him—a pledge of obeisance or submission.
(2) They submitted first and then they worshipped.
(3) Read Hebrews 12:28—Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
(4) We must learn a very important lesson from the Magi—it makes no difference that we have a 6 figure income; it makes no difference that we own a mansion in the finest subdivision; it makes no difference that we drive the latest model card with all the bells and whistles. What does make a difference is that we are able to put all these things aside and put Christ in the front of our lives.
4. So they brought Him gifts. Big deal!
a. Matthew’s account goes on to tell us that after they worshipped Him, they gave him gifts.
b. Read Matthew 2:11—Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
c. Gold
(1) Our carol continues in the second verse.
“Born a king on Bethlehem’s plain; gold I bring to crown Him again. King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign.”
(2) The first gift the Magi presented to Jesus was gold.
(3) While could provide financial security to Mary and Joseph as they raised and took care of Jesus, there is also symbolic meaning to this gift.
(4) Gold represented Christ’s deity and His purity (explain gold purification process). It was a symbol of wealth and power. He would someday have the wealth of His father’s kingdom and wield all power of that kingdom.
(5) Today’s Application
(a) While we can offer actual gold as a gift, one that has monetary value and fiscal use within the church; it is more important, I believe, that we offer ourselves as symbolic gold.
(b) Read Illustration: Near Cripple Creek, Colorado, gold and tellurium occur mixed as tellurite ore. The refining methods of the early mining camps could not separate the two elements, so the ore was thrown into a scrap heap.
One day a miner mistook a lump of ore for coal and tossed it into his stove. Later, while removing ashes from the stove, he found the bottom littered with beads of pure gold. The heat had burned away the tellurium, leaving the gold in a purified state. The discarded ore was reworked and yielded a fortune.
People are like tellurite ore. We have gold inside us, but it often takes some trial in the fiery furnace of life to transform us. (Source: Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., Sower’s Seeds)
(c) Each time we successfully pass through one of life’s trials, we are like a piece of gold that has been further refined.
(d) Each time we submit ourselves to Christ before, during, and after, we are offering him higher quality gold.
(e) As James said, we should “count it all joy” for the trials and temptations to which we are subjected, so that we can offer ourselves to our King as refined gold.
d. Frankincense
(1) Our carol continues in the third verse:
“Frankincense to offer have I. Incense owns a Deity night; King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign.
(2) The second gift offered by the Magi was frankincense, or incense.
(3) The word has a double application: it refers both to the substance used for burning and to the aromatic odor that is produced. Incense most likely represented the fragrance of his life. In Mosaic law, the use or offering of incense was confined to the high priest, who burned it morning and evening as part of the prayer ritual.
(4) In Israel’s post-exilic ritual, the primary concept of incense was that burning it made atonement by propitiating the divine wrath. The offering of incense can be paralleled to the offering of prayer. Was this indicative of his becoming our High Priest?
(5) Today’s Application
(a) Each time we pray, it is as though we are presenting an offering of incense.
(b) The fumes of burning incense in the temple were symbolic of the people’s prayers wafting toward heaven into the presence of God. God, through Moses, described it as having a pleasing aroma.
(c) When we offer prayers that include praise and thanksgiving are we not, in essence, presenting an offering of incense to God?
e. Myrrh
(1) The fourth verse of our carol describes the final gift offered by the Magi.
“Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb.”
(2) Myrrh most likely symbolically represented and was given to be used in His sacrifice and death.
(a) It was an aromatic gum highly prized from earliest times.
(b) It was used in incense and as a perfume for garments.
(c) When bodies were being prepared for burial it was customary for spices to be placed in the grave clothes as a form of embalming. They included mixtures of myrrh and aloes.
(d) It was also offered as a painkiller (wine and myrrh) to Christ while on the cross.
(3) Today’s Application
(a) We this gift, we receive symbolically from Christ, rather than symbolically offering it to Him.
(b) Christ, in essence becomes our myrrh. We can receive and use it in all the ways it was used in Christ’s time.
(1) Incense—Because Christ is the means by which we can approach the throne of God in prayer, he becomes our incense.
(2) Perfume—Our lives are made better or “sweeter smelling” because of the changes He makes in our lives.
(3) Pain Killer—His love is a soothing unguent that calms and heals when we suffer emotional and mental pain in our daily lives.
(4) Embalming Agent—His sacrifice and His love preserves us from moral decay in this life. It preserves us that we may be presented clean and whole to His Father when we are called home.
5. Summary
a. The Wise Men played an important role in the birthday story of Christ.
b. We must not forget neither the factual nor the symbolic significance of their role.
c. As highly educated, wealthy persons of position, they still humbled themselves to worship a child they recognized as being far above them, as being the child of God. If the Wise Men could do this, how can we not.
d. The Wise Men brought valuable gifts to the Christ child.
(1) How can we, with a clear conscience, be content to give Him anything less than our best?
(2) The Wise Men bore gifts that had physical significance and symbolic relevance. We can offer, symbolically those same gifts and, in the process, receive gifts from Christ.
(3) How can we not offer that within our power? How can we snub our noses at the gifts He offers us in return.
6. Invitation
