Why the Gifts of the Wisemen - 19

This podcast is made available by Vision Christian Media.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation today at vision.org.au David Jeremiah clears up some of the mystery of the Magi. Here's David to share today's message, Why the Gifts of the Wise Men.

Thank you so much for joining us for the weekend edition of Turning Point. I'm David Jeremiah, and we're celebrating Christmas, talking about the themes of Christmas by asking some important questions. Today's question is the following. Why the Gifts of the Wise Men? Well, today I want to talk with you about gifts and giving. The whole nature of Christmas is to give gifts. And it all started, as you know, with the greatest gift that's ever been given by the greatest giver in all of the world, the Lord God himself, who gave us his son.

And that's what Christmas is all about. What is it that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians? Thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift. We start with a giving God, but when we're in the midst of studying the story of Christmas, we haven't gotten very far before we run into some people called the wise men. And these wise men probably have as much to do with our giving gifts to one another and gifts to the Lord as anyone in all of history. The record is given to us of their coming with gifts to the Lord in Matthew chapter 2.

I'd like for you to read with me from Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, and verses 11 and 12, and we can read out loud together. 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. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. There is something special and mysterious about this age-old picture that we have read. From across a continent over the desert sand beneath the silent stars trudges this curious caravan. In a distant land, these men have read signs in the evening sky, sensing an incredible truth that few other living souls were to recognize for many years. We remember them as the wise men, or using the gospel name, the magi, from which we derive the word magic, and it is indeed a story filled with wonder. For centuries, we have speculated about their identity. They were first sighted in the vicinity of Jerusalem, asking a question recorded in verse 2 of Matthew 2, 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. Painters throughout the ages have enjoyed showing the elegant wise men worshiping Jesus on Christmas night beside the shepherds, but such an idea never came from the Bible at all. Matthew tells us that when the magi arrived to worship Jesus, the scene was not the rustic birthplace of Christmas at all, but it was a house. Matthew 2.11 says, And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child. It would seem that a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a year and a half had passed since Jesus had been born in a manger.

Joseph and Mary had situated their little family in a more suitable home. Therefore, it was a bit later that the wise men came. Three, well, maybe there were three, and maybe there weren't. As a matter of fact, three names have traditionally been associated with these men, Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar, but they aren't in the Bible. You won't find their names in the Bible. In fact, it was the seventh century before these names were attached to the Christmas story, and they came out of an opera that was created to tell the story of Christmas. So, I don't want to undercut your faith in the Christmas story, but I want you to know what the Bible says. The wise men weren't in the manger scene.

Now, I hope that doesn't ruin your Christmas pageants or make you go back and rework your Christmas cards. I remember when the film, The Nativity Story, was being finished and they sent me the screenplay to read so that I could decide whether I wanted to do this book project or not. They asked me if there was anything in the screenplay that was unbiblical, and I said, well, there's only one thing that's not quite right, and that is the wise men are at the manger scene and they're not supposed to be there. And the director said, Jeremiah, this film's only 93 minutes long.

We have to get them there before the film is over. So, we give them a little latitude there, but if you really want to know the truth, the wise men came when Jesus wasn't a babe, which is the term that is used in the book of Luke, but here in the book of Matthew, he is called, look down at your Bibles, a young child. That's a different word in the language of the New Testament, which means an older child.

So, Jesus wasn't a babe. He was a young child when the wise men came. So, why do we say there were three wise men? The only reason we say that is because the Bible tells us there were three gifts, and we assume that each person brought one gift, but we don't know that for sure. In fact, there may have been many wise men and only three presenters, but having said all of that, what we do know is these men of intelligence, these aristocrats, these Gentile kings came a long way to find Jesus, and they came for the very same purpose for which the shepherds had come. They came to worship him, and they brought gifts.

That's what they bring to the story. These men brought gifts, and these were not incidental gifts. They are not just three things they chose out of their vast treasures to bring to Jesus. They weren't last-minute gifts, I'm sure. The gifts are extremely significant, and when we understand the background of each of the gifts that were brought, we will comprehend the tremendous faith that these wise men had in coming to worship the Lord. They truly are some of the heroes of the Nativity story.

Well, let's look at them. First of all, what the wise men gave to Jesus. They gave the gift of gold for a king. It says in Matthew 2-11, when they opened their treasures, they presented to him gold.

Now, we imagine the first visitor stepping forth, opening his little small chest to reveal a breathtaking sight. As he takes over the cover, there is gold, and the gift needed little explanation. Throughout the world, gold was coveted as the most precious of metals, the standard by which all wealth was measured. Even back then, they had such a thing as the gold standard. Gold is one of the noble metals.

No single acid can destroy it, nor will it rust away, or will it, like iron or tin, be corroded. No one can successfully imitate or fake gold, and it is the metal easily turned into the uses of beauty. All the way back in Exodus 39, we read of them sewing gold into fabric for garments.

Chemists say that the durability of gold is so great that a single grain of gold can be drawn out into a wire one one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, extending for a length of about one mile. Pure, simple, almost indestructible, gold is indeed a royal metal. In the ancient world into which Christ was born, gold was even rarer than it is today. That's why gold is a royal gift symbolizing kingship. John Henry Hopkins Jr. gave us the little carol that we sing at this time of the year, We Three Kings, which includes this stanza, Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown him again, King forever, ceasing never over us all to reign. So gold is a gift which was given to signify the royalty and kingship of Jesus.

Some have pointed out the paradox here, a baby born in the simplicity of a feed trough to peasant parents and three wealthy men journeying from a far country to give this child a gift fit for a king. Some have pointed out that what the wise men gave was the most precious of all metals, and they financed the trip of Mary and Joseph into Egypt, which they had to take to get away from the wrath of Herod. We may not know all of this except we do know that in that day, even in our day, gold is the royal metal, and it was presented to Jesus to signify his kingship. Secondly, the Bible says the gift of gold for a king and the gift of frankincense for a priest. Once again in Matthew 2-11, we're told that when they opened their treasures, they gave to Jesus gold and frankincense.

Another visitor steps forward. This time he doesn't have a box in his hand. He has a little bottle, and he opens the bottle, and this delicious fragrance permeates the small room. It's the aroma of frankincense, the second of the gifts. I did a little homework on frankincense, and I found out it is a resin, which is from a kind of tree that is held so sacred in Arabia and Ethiopia where it grew that only a few particularly holy and pure people were even allowed to approach the trees.

To obtain this precious frankincense itself, an Arab cuts a slash in the trunk of the tree like someone from Vermont cuts a maple tree and then strips off a narrow piece of bark and about five inches long below the cut, and the sap slowly oozes out of the tree, and it's allowed to harden for about three months. Then it's collected in lumps, and these lumps are yellow or colorless, dusty-looking with a bitter taste, but when you light them on fire, they burn with a bright white flame, and there arises from them this beautiful smell that goes to heaven, which certainly made the wise men believe that this was a gift that would be pleasing to God. In Jesus' day, this kind of incense was used in temple worship. It was mixed with oil, and it was used to anoint the priests of Israel. It was also mixed with the meal offerings as they offered them to God, but one of the interesting things about incense is this, that it was always an offering of thanksgiving and praise to God. It was significant of the priests' role among the people, and it is that, I believe, to which Paul refers when he writes to the Philippians in Philippians 4, "'Indeed, I have all and abound.

I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the fangs sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice while pleasing to God.'" In other words, Paul said, like the incense offering of the Old Testament, what you have given to me to support me in my ministry, Paul said, is like an incense offering that goes up to heaven, and the aroma is pleasing to God. In the Old Testament, the incense offerings were never associated in any way with the sin offerings. Never was an incense offering offered with meat offerings or with wine offerings in atonement for sin. The incense was always a thanksgiving and praise offering. It was always an act of worship to bring incense to God. Almost as if to say, as they presented this gift to the Christ child, here is the gift that is fitting for a priest, yes, fitting for a sinless priest who himself will become sin for us that we might know his forgiveness and his righteousness. Gold was given because Jesus was a king, and incense was given because Jesus was a priest, the high priest over us all.

And then finally, there is the third gift. In Matthew 2-11 says, they presented to him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Say the word myrrh out loud, myrrh. It is a word which comes from the Hebrew word mar, which means to be bitter. In Jesus' day, myrrh was the ingredient that was used to embalm a dead body. It was an external embalming. As you remember, in those days, they did not have the procedures that we have today, but when they prepared a body for burial, they would wrap the body in layers of cloth, and then they would place their embalming spices in between the layers and then wrap the body some more and continue to do that. We are told in the Scripture that when Joseph of Arimathea came to prepare Jesus' body for burial that he brought with him 100 pounds of myrrh for the burial to be wrapped within the cloth that was used to bury our Savior. The significance of the gift of myrrh is that it was given to someone who was born for the particular purpose of dying. Just as Mary of Bethany over in John 12 anointed Jesus' body for burial before he had even died, remember when she poured all of her expensive ointment on him and washed his feet with her hair, and it says in the Scripture that she anointed his body for burial in advance.

Well, long before Mary ever did this, the wise men did the very same thing, and the one who brought that gift to Jesus was saying, this one we have come to worship is not only our king and our priest, but we worship him as our Savior, for he has come to die for us, and the gift of myrrh signifies his death. There's one more verse about myrrh that I want you to see, this one from the Old Testament that is even more exciting to me as I see it. In Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 6, there is a prophecy concerning the second coming of Christ. Jesus at Bethlehem is the first coming, and there's another time when he's going to come again to set up his kingdom on this earth to rule and to reign, and we will all be subjects with him if we are Christians. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter 60 has to do with this second coming of Christ, and I want to read it to you from the sixth verse, and you listen to the prophecy carefully. The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephra.

All those from Shey shall come, they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. Now, when you read that prophecy, there is something missing, isn't there? What's missing?

Say it. What's missing? Myrrh. The writer must have forgotten. No, he did not forget, because, you see, the gifts you bring to Jesus in his second coming don't have any myrrh in them because his death is already past. When he comes the next time, it will be for the gold and frankincense of praise and worship, and myrrh will be absent. Hallelujah.

He died once for all, and he will never die again. Myrrh is associated only with his first coming and how accurate is the scripture even so many years in advance that when speaking of his second coming, the third gift is omitted because it doesn't fit with the worship and praise of Almighty God our King when he sets up his reign upon this earth. So, there's a lot more in the gifts than you thought. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Gold for a king, incense for a priest, and myrrh for a Savior. Now, the question I want to ask as we close our time together is this. We talked first about what the wise men gave to Jesus, and I want to talk for just a moment about what wise men still give to Jesus. And I want to compliment all of you here today using man in the generic term. You are all very wise men and women here.

How many do you know who don't have that wisdom? So, I speak to you as to wise men and women. What do wise men and women still give to Jesus? Well, let's go back through the gifts once more and notice that, first of all, we give to Jesus gold responding to him as our king. Gold is the gift for a king, and as Christ's followers this Christmas, a gift we can bring to Jesus is our absolute total submission to him in the kingship of our life. We can say, Lord God, I bring to you the gift which is yours as my king. I bow my knee before you as the Lord of my life, and I am confident that what God wants from his people, more than the great treasures that we have, even more than the money which we give representing our sacrifice, is he wants our obedience. In fact, in the Old Testament, it says straight out, to obey is better than sacrifice. God wants the gold of our willingness to come before our king and really make him king of our life.

It's not enough that he be resident. He wants to be president. When we become Christians, we invite him into our heart, and he forgives our sin. But along the way, we begin to realize that he wants more than just the opportunity to forgive our sin. He wants to govern our lives as the king over us, and when we yield to him as the sovereign of our being, we begin to understand the purpose of being a Christ follower. You can become a Christian and just sort of slip inside the door, give lip service sometimes, not total commitment to him, but what greater gift could you give to Jesus this Christmas season than your total absolute devotion to him and willingness to let him govern your life?

Have you looked back over your life in this past year and noticed how easy it is to do foolish things, make stupid mistakes, go ways that now looking back, you say, how did I ever miss that? Sometimes when we do our own thing, we have to pay a penalty for it. Almighty God wants to spare us of that. He just simply says, if you'll just come, I will be the Lord of your life, and I will guide and direct you in every step. Then secondly, we not only give him gold, responding to him as king, but we give him frankincense, reaching out to him as our priest.

Is there ever such a time as this that it is more wonderful to be a preacher of the gospel than at Christmas time? For Christmas says basically this, that Almighty God did not stay in heaven to say, I love you from a distance, but he came to earth to draw near to us so that he could be touchable and knowable and put his arms around us in love and say, not just I love you in words, but I love you indeed and in action. And he comes not only to be our savior but to be our priest. We looked at the passage in Hebrews chapter 4 that says that we have a high priest who has sympathized with our weaknesses, who understands the hurts in our life. He has come down here to be one of us so he could experience it all, not even sparing all of the anxiousness of a child being born into the womb of Mary and growing up to be full-aged at 33.

And throughout all of his life, he felt the pain that you feel and that I feel. And frankincense reminds us that he is our priest. He is the one who has come to draw near to us, and we offer him now our hurts and our hang-ups and our problems and our issues.

Have you ever thought of that? You remember the story about Jerome who said he had a dream and God said, Jerome, just give me your sins, that's why I came. Did you ever stop to think about the fact that one of the gifts you can give to Jesus at this season of the year are all of the things that have so troubled you and you can offer them to him for his help and his encouragement, and he reaches out to grab hold of them as he grabs hold of you. Offer him the frankincense of responding to his high priestly ministry. And then finally, and most important of all, Mer tells us you can receive him as your Savior.

That's the thing that you need to do most of all. Somebody said, What gift should I give the Lord Jesus first? Give him your heart. If you haven't given him your heart, there's nothing you can do. He won't receive any gift from you till, first of all, you give him your heart. Mer tells us that he's a Savior who was born to die, and when you think of Mer, you ask yourself this question, So he died for me. Have I received his gift?

And have I given him my heart? That's the most fundamental truth of Christmas. And as a preacher of the gospel, I love more than anything else to remind you at Christmas time, though I know you are so preoccupied with everything else, that God loves you, and Christ came here to be your Savior.

And if you don't know him in a personal way, as Savior of your life, you cannot fully comprehend the true meaning of Christmas, for he wants to be born in your heart as he was one day born in Bethlehem. One day after a service, a preacher had a young man come up to him who was very upset with him. He said, I don't know why you have to preach on the cross, why you have to talk about the blood, why you have to say something about Jesus dying, especially at Christmas time.

It doesn't fit, and I don't like it. Why can't you just talk about Jesus as the great example? We would all deal with that so much better, and I have a lot of friends who've told me that if you wouldn't talk so much about the blood of Jesus and the death of Jesus, and if you would more talk about him being a great example, that they would be much more favorable toward the church and probably even support it more financially.

The pastor who received these compliments was much wiser than your pastor and more knowledgeable about how to deal with these things. And he said to the stranger, he said, Sir, would you be willing to follow Christ if I preached Christ as an example? If I preached Christ just as an example, would you be willing to follow him? He said, absolutely.

I would, and so would many others. And the preacher said, Jesus Christ did not sin. Can you take that step? And the stranger said obviously, no, I can't. I do sin. He was sort of confused. He didn't know what to do with it. Well, he said to the preacher, your first need of Christ then is not as an example. Your first need of Christ is as a Savior. If you try to follow him as an example without his redemptive work in your life, he will set an example you cannot follow, for he is sinless and you sin.

Do you see the problem? And then he told him this little parable. He said, Son, suppose you were sinking in quicksand and a man on firm ground nearby calls out to you, walk like I do, lift your feet like I do, follow my example. His advice would do you absolutely no good. His advice would do you no good because you have to get your feet planted on solid ground before you can walk like he does. What you need is someone to come and take you out of the quicksand and lift you up and place your feet on solid ground.

What does that sound like, class? That's what it means to be saved, to be brought out of the sand pit of sin by the miracle of God's grace, lifted up out of all that we have been and set over here on the solid ground of faith. And then as you watch the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, you can begin to emulate his life because he gives you a new power in the person of his Holy Spirit who comes to live within you. What can you give Jesus at Christmas? Give him the submission of your heart over all of your life. Give him the praise and worship and acknowledge his priestly ministry as he comforts you in your sorrow and sickness. But most of all, give him your heart because that's where it starts. And until you've given him your heart, you don't have a relationship with God.

He came here so that if you would believe in him, you would not perish but have everlasting life. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point weekend edition with Dr David Jeremiah. To hear this and other Turning Point programs or to get more information about this ministry, simply download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smart device or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. You can also view Turning Point television on Frida Air Channel 7 too Sunday mornings at 8 and on ACC TV Sundays at 6.30 a.m. and Friday afternoons at 1. We invite you to join us again next weekend as Dr David Jeremiah shares another powerful message from God's Word here on Turning Point Weekend Edition. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au