Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Matthew 2:1-12
Matthew 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2
and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his
star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all
Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief
priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be
born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet
has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no
means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will
shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out
from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and
said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report
to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
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. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother
Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures
and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having
been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by
another route.
-- we are a
people who are easily manipulated – at least, that’s what retailers and social
media influencers believe – they think they can control what we do and what we
say – what we want and desire – simply by putting an object in front of us,
over and over again – repetition and constant awareness have been shown to lead
us down the path to where others want us to go
-- I
guarantee that all of you who have a computer or smart phone have had this
happen to you – how many times have you searched for a product – say, a new
grill – maybe you just talked about getting a new grill with someone on your
phone or around your phone – and what happens? – you start getting ads on your
phone and on social media and on your computer about new grills
-- or maybe
it’s something that you never thought of before, but ads start popping up for
it – and you keep seeing these ads and something clicks and you start thinking,
“That’s a good idea – I need one of those” – I can’t tell you how many
Christmas presents I bought this year were not my idea, but I ended up buying
them because their ads came across the computer and put the idea in my head
-- that’s
what marketing is all about – because retailers and advertisers know that they
can manipulate you into buying something if they keep putting it in front of
you – and they get you thinking about the next holiday or next gift-giving
occasion in the same way – all without you even noticing
-- for
instance, what’s the next major gift-giving holiday in the country? –
Valentine’s Day – February 14th – over six weeks away – but I went
into a store this week, and they have already taken down all their Christmas
items and have started putting up Valentine’s Day decorations and gifts
-- retailers
and advertisers and social influencers are always trying to push us to the next
best thing – but like the old rock song says, “We’re not going to take it” –
we’re not going to let them push us to where they want us to go – it’s not time
to celebrate Valentine’s Day, because we are still in the middle of the Christmas
season
– today is actually the 11th
day of Christmas – so, you’ve still got time to go out and get eleven pipers
piping, if you want to surprise your loved one with the appropriate gift this
year
-- Christmas Day marks the start of
the twelve-day Christmas season, which ends each year on January 5th
– and then we celebrate Epiphany on January 6th, which is on Tuesday
this year
-- I went through all that for a
couple of reasons – to make a point
-- first, I think it would be a
good thing for all of us to just try to slow down a little in our lives – we
get so busy and so wrapped up in what’s coming next and getting ready for it,
that we forget to celebrate and enjoy the present – don’t let life pass you by
– and don’t rush ahead to the future – but enjoy what God has given you this
day
-- as I’ve gotten older, one of my
biggest regrets is that I put off living for the future – rather than enjoying
life as I could have, I focused on working hard and being responsible and
taking care of business – thinking that I could have fun and travel and do
things in the future when I retire --
that Kim and I would have ample opportunities to do that in the future – but
now, I’ve come to realize that we wasted the best years of our lives and we are
going to be limited in what we can do in the future
-- I know most everybody here is
middle-aged or getting there, but pass this message on to your younger friends
and family – encourage them to live now – to do things now – to enjoy the
moment and to live in the present and not worry so much about the future as we
might have done
-- second, always remember that
there are people around you who are going to try to influence you and
manipulate you into doing what they want you to do – sometimes it is as innocuous
as trying to get you to buy gifts or specific items they are advertising – but
sometimes people are trying to influence you or manipulate you to harm you –
physically, materially, emotionally, spiritually – and this is true of the
people you meet online and the people you meet in person
-- most people do not have your
best interests in mind – they are only out for themselves and what they can get
from you – whether that’s money or sex or power or whatever – know that this is
an unfortunate consequence of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden
– the message for you is to just be
on your guard – as John cautions us in 1 John 4:1, “do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false
prophets have gone out”
II. The Giving of
Gifts at Christmas
-- so, with
that said -- since we are still in the Christmas season -- even though it may
not feel like it – we’re going to dive into this passage from Matthew Chapter 2
about the coming of the magi – the wise men – that we traditionally associate
with the birth of Christ – although, as you will see as we read through this
and study it together, the Magi didn’t show up at Mary and Joseph’s door for a
couple of years after Jesus was born – they most certainly were not at the
manger, as we portray in our nativity sets and Christmas pageants – the visit
of the Magi to Jesus came much later
-- Matthew
2:1-12 is the passage that marks the Epiphany – the revealing of the purpose
and meaning of the birth of Jesus to the world in a way that is greater than
the story of the nativity that Luke gives us in his gospel
-- we looked
at part of this passage last week as an illustration of the epic quest that God
has called all of us to in our lives – the quest to find the Savior and then to
carry the good news of salvation and eternal life to this world – as we talked
about, the journey of the Magi from the east to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to find
the newborn King of the Jews was a picture of our own journeys to the cross and
to salvation through Christ
-- and,
once again, we’re not diving deeply into this, but let me just point out that
some came early to Jesus – like the shepherds and those they shared the message
with – but some came later – like the Magi – and that’s true for all of us, too
-- some
people are fortunate and receive Christ as their Lord and Savior early in life
– but for many, they don’t find Jesus until some time later in their lives –
but the good news is that the blessing is the same and the promises of eternal
life and the forgiveness of sins is the same, regardless of when you find Him
-- the Magi
might have gotten there a little later than the shepherds, but the blessing of
salvation and eternal life was given to them, just the same
-- this
morning, I want us to focus on the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus as
recorded here in Matthew 12 – the gifts of Christmas, as it were
-- I don't
care who you are, when the season of Advent rolls around – or Christmas season,
as the world calls it – on Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving -- your
thoughts don’t turn to the baby in the manger or the Savior on the cross
-- no, you think about gifts – from
the time the turkey is put in the refrigerator on Thanksgiving Day, all the way
right up to Christmas Eve, your thoughts and your focus are primarily on gifts
– finding and buying the right gifts for the people in your life – and that’s
true for all of us
-- gift-giving – and the gift-searching and
the gift-buying that go along with it -- is what occupies or time and energy
and thoughts throughout the entire season of Advent – whether you are religious
or not – because even people who are not Christians still celebrate Christmas
and give gifts to each other this time of the year
-- there's
a lot of pressure that comes with this every year -- when you're in the middle
of a store or you’re searching online and you're trying to find something for
that last person on your list, that's the moment when you realize, "I
really don't know this person at all"
-- they may be family -- you may
have known them for years -- grown up with them, even -- but when you think
about what it is they might want for Christmas, you draw a blank -- I can't
tell you the number of times I told Kim this year, "I have no idea what we
can get this person for Christmas"
-- but,
thankfully, it's not just us who struggle with this -- it's everybody -- that's
why we get so many gifts that are just wrong at Christmas -- that's why the
return lines at the stores are packed on December 26th -- it's either the wrong
size or the wrong color or it's just wrong and we want to get something else
better
-- I saw a
commercial from the Georgia Lottery one year that poked fun at what we really
think when we get some of these gifts that are just wrong – that we just don’t
want – the things that we would never say out loud to someone
-- the commercial showed several
friends sitting around a fire at Christmas exchanging presents -- and as they
open their presents, they say exactly what's on their mind, but in the same
upbeat, friendly tone we all use when we're trying to find something nice to
say about these presents we just really don't want
-- one guy
opens up a bronze statue of a lion and says, "Hey, look at this -- I'm
totally taking this back -- this is hideous!" -- the woman who gave it to
him says, "I put no thought into it" -- and he says, "It's
obvious"
-- one lady
opens up a huge pink fluffy sweater and exclaims, "Oh, you must think I'm
still fat!" and her friend replies, "I do, I do!"
-- one
person gets a singing reindeer toy and announces, "I'm going to smash this
little guy with a bat!"
-- one lady
gets a coffee table book about kittens, "Oh, a kitty book! Now everyone
will know I'm still single!"
-- and,
finally, one guy gets a ceramic Christmas gnome and says, "This is going
right into the trash!"
-- while
this commercial was really funny, it does point out just how hard it is to give
the right gift to the right person -- this morning, we're going to look at some
people in the Bible who had the perfect knack for gift-giving
-- so, with
that enormously long introduction, let's look again at this passage from the
Book of Matthew – specifically, the verses about the Magi and the gifts of
Christmas
III. The Gifts of Christmas (Matthew 2:9-12)
-- we're
just going to focus on the last four verses in this passage, so if you would,
please look back with me at verse 9-10
Matthew 2:9 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.
-- just to
summarize where we are at this point in the story, Matthew relates to us that
wise men from the East -- the Magi -- had seen a star rise that portended the
birth of the Messiah and had traveled to Israel to seek the newborn King of the
Jews
-- they
went to Herod to ask him the location of the Messiah -- and when Herod was
clueless, he turned to his advisors and to the priests -- who shared the
prophecy from the Bible that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem -- Herod
sends the Magi on their way to Bethlehem to find the baby and with the
instructions to let him know when they do -- not so he can worship the Messiah
as he tells them, but so he can kill Him and eliminate a threat to the throne
-- we’re
focusing this morning on the gifts of Christmas – and here in these two verses,
we find hidden the two first gifts of Christmas that were given – although they
didn’t come from the Magi – but to the Magi and the world
-- the
first gift of Christmas is represented by the star that led the Magi from the
East to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem -- this star is an expression of
God's prevenient grace -- the grace that comes before the cross -- the grace
that God gives us even before we are aware of His presence in our lives --
prevenient grace is the grace that calls us to come to God -- that blesses us
with the things of life -- that leads us to the cross
-- remember
what we talked about last week – the Magi were Gentiles – they were not Jews –
they did not know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the way the Jewish
people did – they were not part of God’s chosen people
-- but God still reached out to
them through His prevenient grace – calling them on the journey to find the
Messiah – the journey to salvation -- the Gentile Magi didn't know God in the
same way as the Jews, but His grace called to them none-the-less
-- God's
prevenient grace is a gift that He has given to all of us – Jews and Gentiles –
a gift that continues to be present in our world and in our lives today -- this
gift is the grace that leads the homeless to receive God's love through our
gifts of food and clothing and other material things -- this is the grace that
leads the sinner to respond to God's call of salvation and come to church for
the first time, even though they don't know why -- this is the grace that puts
people in our path who need to know hope and love and life once again and who
need to know the true meaning of Christmas
--
prevenient grace is the first gift of Christmas that we see in this passage
-- the
second gift is closely related and derives from God's prevenient grace -- the
second gift is the gift of evangelism – as Gentiles from Persia, the Magi would
have come from a culture that worshiped many gods and they didn't have the
knowledge of the One True God of Israel that the Jews had
-- so think
about this for a moment -- how, then, did they know about the Messiah? -- when
the star rose and these Magi observed it in the East, what made them even think
about searching for the One who had been born King of the Jews? -- the only
answer is that someone must have told them
-- as we
talked about last week, the Jews had been carried into exile into Babylon and
Persia because of their unfaithfulness to God -- for 70 years, they resided in
the land of the Babylonians and the Media-Persians, until Cyrus gave the Jews
permission to return to Jerusalem
-- and
while they were living in exile in Persia, God's prevenient grace led the Jews
to share their faith and their beliefs with those around them -- the Jews had
shared with their captors the good news of the coming Messiah promised by God
-- and so, when the Magi saw the Christmas star in the sky, they remembered the
words that the Jews had preached to them and traveled to find the baby who had
been born King of the Jews
-- in the
prelude to the healing of the lame man by the Gate Beautiful in Jerusalem,
Peter spoke these words in Acts 3:6, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I
do have I give you.”
-- we may
not have much to give others materially, but the sharing of the good news of
God with the world is one of the greatest gifts that we can give
– the sharing of the good news of
the manger and the cross and the empty tomb – of the forgiveness of sins and
eternal life through Jesus – is the greatest gift of all
– and it was this gift, given by a
captive people in Persia who shared their love and the promises of their God
with their pagan captors, that led the Magi on this journey that we are reading
about here in Matthew 2
-- verse 11-12
Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the
child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they
opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and
myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they
returned to their country by another route.
-- having responded
to the Holy Spirit through God’s prevenient grace – and having received God's
grace through the preaching of the Jews – the Magi journeyed from their distant
land to Israel, where they finally found the baby they were looking for and
shared gifts of their own with Jesus
-- the
first gift they gave is actually the only gift God requires of us – Matthew
tells us that after they found the child, they bowed down and worshiped Him --humbling
themselves in the presence of the King and offering Jesus their praise and
worship
-- the
Bible tells us God owns every beast of the forest and the cattle on a thousand
hills – that the heavens are His throne and the earth is His footstool
-- you want to talk about somebody
who is hard to buy for? – what do you give Someone who literally has
everything? -- what can we offer to
Someone who IS everything and who has given us so much?
-- Psalm
29:2 says, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the
splendor of holiness.”
-- Psalm
95:6 – “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our
Maker!”
-- and Philippians
2:9-11 tells us, “Therefore God has highly exalted him – Jesus -- and bestowed
on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
-- we may
not know what our family and friends might want for Christmas, but we do know
the one thing that God always wants -- the gift that God always wants and
always desires is our praise and our worship -- as the Westminster Catechism
tells us, that is our chief end as His creations -- to glorify God and to enjoy
Him forever
-- before
they did anything else, the Magi gave this gift to Jesus and showed us the best
gift we could ever give Him ourselves
-- after the
Magi had worshiped Jesus, they gave Him the other gifts that they had brought --
the traditional gifts we think of as the gifts of the Magi: gold, frankincense,
and myrrh
-- I don't
know if you've ever thought about it or not, but this passage is the reason why
we give each other gifts at Christmas -- we're simply following the example of
the Magi
-- when they came before Jesus on
the first Christmas, they offered Him gifts -- and so we follow their example
and share gifts with other people this time of the year, too
-- our Puritan forefathers had a
problem with this aspect of Christmas -- they didn't like the giving of gifts
to others -- they thought it took the focus off of Jesus and they worried it
would turn Christmas into a secular holiday focused on family and friends rather
than on the Savior -- and looking at Christmas today, you'd have to say they
were not wrong in their thinking
-- but I think it's okay to give
each other gifts at Christmas as a reminder of the greatest gift of all that
God gave us on Christmas morn and in imitation of the Magi as they offered up
their treasures to Jesus
-- you can
tell the Magi put a lot of thought into their gifts -- they didn't get Jesus a
gift card to the Bethlehem Mall -- no, their gifts were inspired by their
worship and by their new-found faith -- each of their gifts were prophetic and
spoke of the reason God sent Jesus to us at Christmas
-- the
first gift the Magi offered was gold -- the most valuable of the precious
metals -- gold represents royalty -- it represents power – so, the gold the
Magi gave to Jesus pointed to His position as the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords
-- the
second gift they offered to Jesus was incense -- traditionally, we remember
this as frankincense -- this gift points to Christ's role as our High Priest
and mediator before God -- as part of the Jewish religious practices the
priests would burn incense before God every morning and every evening on the
altar of incense in the Holy Place
-- and one
time a year -- on the Day of Atonement -- the high priest would carry coals
from the altar along with two handfuls of incense into the Most Holy Place and
burn the incense before the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant as part of
the ceremony to cleanse the people of their sins
-- Hebrews
2:17 tells us that Christ became our merciful and faithful high priest and made
atonement for the sins of the people once and for all time -- and the Bible
tells us that Jesus remains at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes
on our behalf
-- the
incense given by the Magi points to the atonement of Christ and His position as
our High Priest, who has mediated for us the forgiveness of sins with the
Father
-- the
third gift the Magi gave to Jesus as recorded by Matthew here was myrrh -- myrrh
was used as a salve to put on wounds and sores – but, more importantly, it was
used to anoint bodies for final burial -- in the gospel accounts of what
happened after Jesus died on the cross, we read that the women who followed
Jesus and who were there with Him when He died went to the tomb on Easter
morning to prepare His body for final burial since Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus were not able to do so themselves in the limited amount of time they
had before the start of the Sabbath – they just laid Jesus in the tomb and
covered Him with a shroud, but the entire Jewish preparation for burial was not
completed
-- the women were there and saw
that – so, after the Sabbath – on that very first Easter morning – they went to
the tomb to anoint the body with myrrh and other perfumes and prepare it for
burial
-- the gift
of myrrh points to Christ's atoning death for the forgiveness of our sins -- He
became the healing salve that was put on our physical and spiritual wounds --
as the Bible says, "By His stripes, we are healed" -- He also became
the perfect sacrifice for us -- dying in our place that we might experience
eternal life with Him
-- this
unusual gift the Magi gave the baby Jesus was to proclaim to the world the true
reason for the season of Christmas -- it reminds us that Jesus came for a
purpose -- and that was to die in our place -- to pay the price of our sin debt
-- so that we might live with Him forever
IV. Closing
-- let me
close by sharing with you a story from C.S. Lewis from his book, "Mere
Christianity"
-- Lewis gives
the example of a small child going to his father and saying, "Daddy, give
me sixpence to buy you a birthday present" -- and, of course, the father
does -- and the child goes out with the money and buys his father a present and
brings it back -- the father is pleased with the gift he received -- as Lewis
says, "It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that
the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction"
-- Lewis wrote
this story to make a point that is appropriate for us to consider this morning
-- and I'm quoting here, "Every faculty you have -- your power of thinking
or of moving your limbs from moment to moment -- is given you by God. -- If you
devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could
not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already -- So that when
we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell
you what that is really like" -- it is like a father who receives a gift
but is sixpence none the richer
-- what
Lewis is trying to get us to understand is that every good and perfect gift
comes from the Father above -- every gift we receive – every gift that we give
-- is an expression of His providence -- His love -- and His grace
-- the same
is true of the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus – God had given them to the
Magi first, for the express purpose of them seeking the newborn King of the
Jews and offering these prophetic gifts to Jesus as an act of worship and
praise
-- it all
comes from God – everything – that means that everything we have in our lives
today – our very life -- our breath -- our health -- our family -- our job --
our resources -- our spiritual knowledge – salvation and the forgiveness of
sins -- all of this was given to us by the Father so we might receive it with
joy and offer them and ourselves back to Him in praise and in worship
-- the
whole point that is being made in this passage -- and in the Bible, for that
matter -- is that it's not about us -- it's always about Him
-- and the
true gift of Christmas is God Himself – the Messiah – the Savior of the World
-- who came to us wrapped as a baby in the manger to eventually go to the cross
for us in our place
-- as we
close in prayer on the last Sunday of Christmas and as we remember the coming
of the Magi at Epiphany and their acts and their gifts that revealed the
purpose and meaning of Christ to this world -- let us give back to God our
praise and worship – let us thank Him for all that He is and all that He has
done and for the perfect gift that He has given us through His Son, our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ
-- we’re
going to close with our last hymn – and then we’re going to share in Holy
Communion – as we reflect on the gift that Jesus gave us – His very own body
and blood – broken and poured out for us as the atoning sacrifice for our sins
-- let us
pray
