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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim, Pastor
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Heavenly Father, I thank you for your many provisions to us, your many blessings that you have given. Lord, we especially give you thanks for the giving of your Son, Jesus Christ. You have said in your Word who you are, and you have described in your Word what we need, and your Word testifies of your Son, Christ, by whom we know you, by whom we are saved.
So we thank you for your many provisions today, and I ask that you would help us as we read your Word and consider its meaning and commune together with you and meet at our Lord's table. I pray that all that would happen here would be filled with your grace and so that you would be glorified in us.
We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.
Amen.
I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 2. We've been thinking about how the wise men were brought to Jesus by the Word of the Lord, by the sign of the star, in the providence of God, the wise men were brought to Jesus to worship Him, and what a contrast that makes regarding evil King Herod.
Wise men worship Jesus the King. This is a statement of fact. It is a record of history. It is a principle by which we may live. Wise men worship Jesus the King. Christmas has come, and it is in the process of going.
We are still in the Christmas season. Hopefully we still have the Christmas spirit. But Christmas comes just the same for us all. Advent of Jesus Christ is unavoidable. The incarnate reign of Christ, inevitable.
The kingdom of Christ, unassailable. So what is there to do? Wise men worship Jesus the King. It is the most honest and fitting and right thing to do. So, whether magi or drummer boy, angel or shepherd, king or slave, man or woman, elder or child, we bow the knee.
We offer our praise. We offer our gifts and our love, our lives. Wise men worship Jesus the King. I invite you to stand with me if you are able as we read God's holy word, Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.
This is the word of the Lord by his Holy Spirit through his servant Matthew. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the.
Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
So they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. But you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young child. And when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.
When they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
And when they had come into the house, and they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him, and when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. So much attention is given around the time of Christmas to considering gifts for others.
We have people in mind whom we love, whom we care for, whom God has put us in relationship to, and we have the sense that we ought to give honor to whom honor is due. We have the sense that we want to say something to somebody, and we can say it through a gift.
The consideration we give to the type of gift, the kind of gift, and then the giving of that gift to this person is a communication. We're saying something about the way we view that person. So that says something about us, and it says something about them.
This is what makes the selection of a gift sometimes such a challenge. We get afflicted with analysis paralysis, and we sit there and think, I don't know what I can do. I'd like to do the right thing.
I'd like to say the right thing. I want to give a gift that would be meaningful, that would be appreciated, that would show a thoughtfulness, a consideration, and the kind of love that I have for this person.
And this is the way that gift giving is. A man's well-considered love for a woman becomes a confession when on bended knee he offers her a ring. A father's well-considered love becomes a confession when even from beyond the grave he bestows upon his children an inheritance.
And our Creator's well-considered love becomes a confession when in the miracle of miracles he gives himself in the incarnation. Here are three wise men who have traveled from afar, and they come bearing gifts out of their treasures.
These gifts have been well-considered, well-preserved, and now they are offered to Jesus. These gifts are a confession. They say a great deal about how these wise men saw Jesus, what they understood about who this child truly was.
And the fact that these three gifts are highlighted for us in Matthew's gospel tells us that they are full of meaning, and we ought to pay attention. Here, out of all the gifts that possibly were given, here are the three that are given to us for consideration.
They are full of doctrine and reproof and correction and training and righteousness. Here is God's word for our benefit. So we ought to give it some consideration. There is a lesser glimmer in a gift that is there to tell of a greater glory.
So as promised, our last look at this passage for this season is going to be simply verse 11 and the three gifts. Again, in verse 11, the first part of it reads this way. And when they had opened their treasures, this is the second half of the verse.
And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense,.
And myrrh.
Now as we have discussed before, the fact that we have these three gifts does not thereby tell us that there were only three wise men. There is a poetic fittingness to that idea, one that is taken up by the traditional Christmas carol, We Three Kings of Orient Are.
But the fact that these three gifts are highlighted don't tell us that there are only three wise men, nor are we told that the three gifts that they gave were in neat little toddler-sized packages. As we often see in the storybooks and find in our nativity scenes.
And these are gifts that they offered out of their treasures. And so there is a great amount of things that they brought to give to the king, but only these three are highlighted. So we're not limited to just three gifts or even three kinds of gifts, but the point is these three kinds are very important.
These three are mentioned by Matthew because God in his spirit wants these three to catch.
Our eye.
We are to give these special consideration. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the generations have given much meditation about these three gifts. And clearly they represent the royal, priestly, and sacrificial nature of our Savior King,.
Jesus.
These traditional understandings of the gifts have stuck around for a good reason. This is the testimony of the scriptures. When we think about what gold means, when we think about what frankincense means and what purpose it had, the same with myrrh.
As we examine these things from the Word of God, we are enlightened to their meaning and what they have to say about Christ. After all, these gifts are a communication of the magi, how they view this king.
They're saying something about him. They're making a confession about him. These gifts are important for our consideration because Matthew is saying, hey, pay attention. Gold and frankincense and myrrh were given to Jesus when he was but a toddler.
And these gifts were given by royal representatives from nations from the east. Pay attention. So the king's presents. The first one listed is gold. Now when we think of gold, we might be tempted to think of gold primarily in terms of jewelry or an investment, perhaps a commodity.
Gold would remind us of an older form of recognized money which would be adopted and adapted by various nations as currency. But what does it mean that these magi, these royal representatives from the east, what does it mean that they gave gold to the Christ child whom they have already acknowledged as the king of the Jews?
What significance did gold carry in the days of Jesus' childhood, in the days of Matthew writing this gospel? It is helpful to remember that God made gold in the beginning. And he specifically mentions its quality in the description of his very good world in Genesis chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.
Gold is natively connected to land, land over which man is to exercise dominion, to be fruitful upon, and gold is given to men for their use. God gave gold as a part of what men needed to be fruitful and multiply and exercise dominion on the earth.
It is fitting that gold is God's rubric for money and that gold in its brilliance and in its weight is a fitting metaphor for glory. Glory, a word that means weightiness. Glory, which is a word that has the idea of brilliance.
And so gold, which is weighty and brilliant, stands in as glory's ambassador. The Bible tells us that the gold all belongs to God. And this is made clear in Solomon's architectural philosophy. First Kings chapter 6 through 8, as we read about the building projects of David's son Solomon, wise Solomon, the son of David, how he begins to build up and magnify the power of Jerusalem as he's building his palace and the temple.
We find that in style and substance there are many crossovers between the palace of Solomon and the temple that he built for the Lord. But there is one striking difference. No gold is ever mentioned gracing the palace of Solomon.
All the gold is over at the temple. The temple, which is uphill, higher than Solomon's palace. When Solomon walks out of his palace and he wants to go to the temple, he walks uphill. And it is this very significant matter that the throne of God on earth, which is the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, enthroned there in the Lord's house, in the temple, is of a higher throne than even Solomon's throne.
Though Solomon at that time is the greatest and wisest, the grandest king on the face of the earth, there is a king that is higher and grander than Solomon. And anyone who comes and visits Jerusalem at the height of Solomon will find him to be quite the king.
But they will also find that he has paid tribute. He has given all of the gold to a greater king. Now, this is a pattern that is one we find throughout history. In 2 Samuel 8, the king of Hamath sends his son with vessels of gold as tribute to King David.
In 1 Kings 9, Hiram, king of Tyre, sends 120 talents of gold to Solomon. In 1 Kings 10, the queen of Sheba gives Solomon 120 talents of gold as a royal gift. 1 Kings 10 also says that Solomon received over 600 talents of gold yearly from kings and governors.
What's going on here? David and Solomon were considered to be greater kings, and thus the gold was given from lesser kings to the greater kings. And we find this pattern reversed. When Israel, in covenant unfaithfulness, began to experience the curses of God, they began to give the gold of the temple to other kings, pagan kings.
King Joash gives the gold of the temple and the gold that was possessed in the treasuries as tribute to the king of Syria. Ahaz sent silver and gold from the temple as tribute to the king of Assyria. Hezekiah gave silver and gold to the king of Assyria.
What's going on there? They're saying, we are no longer, this is a lack of faith, we are no longer paying tribute to God as our greater king. We consider you as our greater kings, and we're going to send you the gold.
Now that is the meaning of gold in the biblical worldview. God designed gold from creation as a means of dominion. When the gold starts moving from one king to another, something significant is being.
Said.
It is this lesser kings give the greater king gold.
He's more glorious.
He's more deserving of all that weight and all that brilliance. And so when these magi, these royal representatives of the Gentile kings of the East, give gold to the Christ child, a humble toddler living in the little town of Bethlehem, what are they doing?
They're doing obeisance to him. They're bowing down and saying, you are the greater king. He was born not just king of the Jews, but that promised king from the Jews, who is the ruler of the kings of the earth, the son of man to whom is promised dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Daniel chapter seven. And these magi from the East possess that wisdom of Daniel.
And they also, by giving these gifts to the Christ child, fulfill the promises of Isaiah. Isaiah, like Matthew, is intensely interested in this question of who the true king is. Who is the true king of Israel?
This is a vital question. For all of the promises that God made to Israel would never come to pass until their true king came. And thus they waited. And the full glory of Jerusalem was never to be realized until the true son of David and the true king came to reign.
And so everyone's attention was on the true king.
Who is it?
When will he come? What will he be like? And so the prophecies of Isaiah and the gospel of Matthew are enthralled with this question. Consider Isaiah chapter 60, a more lengthy reading, verses one through six, but consider the language being used about Jerusalem and how it is very clearly used in the New Testament in various places.
You'll recognize the phrasing. How this prophecy is fulfilled only when Jesus Christ himself comes. Isaiah 60, verses one through six. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles, the nations, shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughter shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant and your heart will swell with joy because of the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you.
The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. All the nations flowing into the new Jerusalem. Something we've seen time and time again in Isaiah. But now listen to verse six. The multitude of camels shall cover your land.
The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. Do you ever wonder why it is in the nativity scenes that the wise men are depicted with camels?
I mean, when you read Matthew chapter two, not a camel is mentioned. There's no camels there. Someone would say, well, you just talk it up to fanciful imagination. But there it is in Isaiah chapter 60 verse six.
And and believers have long looked at this passage and said, yep, there there are the kings and the royal representatives from the nations from the east. And here they are traveling to give gold and incense to King Jesus.
And they come on camels. And that's why we put camels in our nativity scenes. Because of this prophecy fulfilled.
By Christ.
What we're being told is that in the arrival of the promised king of the Jews, the nations are gathering together into the true Jerusalem that he alone built. The city above the cities on Mount Zion, a mountain that cannot be touched.
We're told in Hebrews 12, a kingdom which cannot be shaken. We're told in Daniel seven. Now it is true that if he is king of kings and lord of lords, that he owns everything and needs nothing. That doesn't keep us from bringing the tribute that he deserves.
When we read in the Bible that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. This is true because it presupposes that the self is the supreme object of one's own gold. The love of money begins the moment that we forget that we are merely stewards of what already belongs to Christ, who is the heir of all things.
This is his world.
He's the king.
We're simply his servants, taking up whatever relationships and responsibilities and resources that we have by his grace. And we take them up to use them for the good and the true and the beautiful in his name.
That's wisdom. The skillful mastery of life. And here are wise men, magi, giving gold to Christ. That's fitting. That's honest. That's right. It is an act of faith to look at a toddler and own him as king and lord, worthy of the tribute of nations.
But isn't this exactly what we're told in the Christmas prophecies? For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, which is a name for a king.
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice. From that time forward even forever.
From the time that he was born, king of the Jews, the king from the Jews, the king for all the nations of the earth. How could this come to pass? It says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
How fitting. How right. How true. That the magi would give gold to Jesus, the child. But not just gold, also frankincense. They opened the treasures and they presented gifts to him. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Now we hear that in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 6. Not just gold, but also incense. The kings of the earth bring him both. Now what is frankincense? Well, you might be interested to know it's the dried sap of the boswellia tree.
So now you know. Before you didn't know, but now you do. It's just dried sap. But ground into dust, they would prepare it for mixtures meant to be placed into flame. Incense. This substance was incredibly valuable and important.
Frankincense is an English word we get from the old French, which simply means a high quality incense. A very noble incense. Very pure. And the word is telling us that this is the kind of incense that is only to be ever used for special offerings to God.
In Leviticus chapters 2 and 6, it tells us that this frankincense is to be used in grain offerings to the Lord and to the Lord alone. In Leviticus 2, it also says that it should accompany the first fruit offerings.
In Leviticus 24, pure frankincense is placed on the bread of the presence, the show bread, in the tabernacle as a memorial offering. In Exodus 30, there was a recipe given for the sacred incense. The pure frankincense is a part of the ingredients.
And in verse 37 of Exodus 30, we hear this,. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, none for yourselves, according to its composition, it shall be to you wholly for the Lord.
Right? In other words, frankincense was the exclusive property of the priests to only ever be used for the worship of the Most High God. So now you can see why Matthew considers it significant that these magi from the East bring frankincense and they give it to the Christ child.
Jesus Christ is king, recognized by even nations from afar as they come to pay tribute. He is king because he is Emmanuel, God with us, fully God and fully man, worthy therefore to receive the offering of frankincense.
And not just the king of kings, but also as the one mediator between God and man, he is the high priest. And not only high priest, but God Most High. This is not the only place in scripture where we find the reality of Christ's royal reign and his ministry as high priest brought together.
This is something that David overheard upon his throne. Psalm 110 verses 1 through 4, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. David is the king of all of Israel, but he says the Lord said to my Lord, so who's in charge of David?
God is in charge of David. And so he hears the father say to the son, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Verse 4, the Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
So the throne and priesthood. Frankincense belongs to Christ. Both offered to him and also notice placed in his hands for use. Because he is the great high priest. He is both God and man. The God man who brings us to God.
Jesus, as the Messiah, as the anointed one, is king and priest. He is both worthy of worship as God. And he is to be honored as the one who leads us in the right worship of God. It is in his name, it is by his merits that we approach, that we worship God.
He tells us how to worship. He leads us as the good shepherd. He is the elder brother, the great king, the high priest, the God man. We are to worship in him, with him, by him, through him, for him, to him.
Worship is the exclusive property of Jesus Christ. Worship God alone, amen. But we cannot worship God alone unless we worship by Christ alone. He is the mediator. And when he says that we must worship in spirit and in truth, what else does this mean?
Except that we do so in his name. Now why all this glory and why all this grace that he is both king and priest? Because for us and for our salvation, he was offered up as our sacrifice on the cross. In our place and for our sake, he was scourged and beaten.
He was bruised and he bled and he died. And that's why they gave him the myrrh. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Of course, myrrh is associated with both priests and kings. Myrrh is in the sacred anointing oil for priests in Exodus 30.
And myrrh is in the royal perfume given to the king in Psalm 45. But most basically, myrrh was used in the preservation of dead bodies. It was in great demand by the Egyptians who specialized in that kind of thing.
And King Asa is reported to have been buried using ointments that would have included myrrh. Myrrh anticipates death. Jesus is named this because he would save his people from their sins. Not only as a king, but also as a high priest who suffered in all things as we do, yet without sin.
Who learned and perfected obedience to God. This myrrh is ointment of death. And ointment of death is a woeful gift to a toddler who has been marked for assassination by Herod. But the Christ would not die until the Father's appointed time.
And in his burial, we read in John 19, verse 39, that Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came. Bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes. About a hundred pounds to anoint the dead body of Jesus.
So, these gifts, well considered, are a confession. The glimmer of these gifts confess the glory of the king to whom they were given. And so in these gifts, we are to behold the glory of our king, our priest, and our sacrifice, our Lord, our God, and our good.
God has spoken to us in his gift. He says who he is in Christ. And so tells us who we are and what we need. Jesus the Christ is the word of God and he is the light of the world. And God has spoken through his son, the gift of his son, describing what we need.
The state of us. And we need a savior. This is what God has said through his son. About himself and about who we are. That he is holy. And we are in need of a savior. We need a king. We need a priest.
We need a sacrifice. And God has given us his son. He has given us his son.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the gift of your son. We thank you for this time at Christmas where we are reminded of the glories of our savior. Of his kingship, of his priesthood, of his sacrifice, and these gifts given by the wise men.
And I thank you that you gather us here to partake in this communion, to be reminded of that. And that we would give you the praise for so great a salvation. We pray these things in Jesus' name.
