Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Prayer

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 2:1-12.

That's mostly the same passage we looked at the last time we were together.

This week, however, we will focus on the last couple of verses in that passage as we study our next sign of Christmas: The Gifts of the Magi.

As you make your way to Matthew 2, My family and I just returned from the Big Island for a planned but short getaway.

I say it was planned because although we've been awaiting this trip for some time, it really came at a special time as Mauna Loa started erupting for the first time since 1984.

We went up to the Lava Viewing Area along saddle road on our visit.

The first time we drove up, the cloud cover was so thick we couldn't see anything, even in the dead of night.

However, I did notice that a tiny pumpkin was placed at the spot we ended up parking.

On that first day, I didn't think anything of it.

The next time we went, we stopped at a couple of spots along the viewing area, and we noticed apples, a pear, various leis, a pear, and more.

Seeing those things reminded me of something I learned during our first trip to the Big Island a while back.

Legend has it that offerings or gifts of fruit or flowers should be made to Pele to keep her happy and protect your home and family from her unpredictable destructive wrath of lava.

The thought is that Pele makes her home in the summit Caldera on Kilauea, and if you want to avoid her anger, it's best to leave some type of gift.

I share all of that because we understand that gifts are an important part of life worldwide.

In many cultures, gifts are given on birthdays, at weddings and on wedding anniversaries, and certain holidays.

Christians exchange gifts on Christmas.

Jews exchange gifts at Hannukah and some Muslims exchange gifts at the end of Ramadan.

Just like in the Bible, sometimes gifts can have special meanings intended to say something about the gift's receiver.

We often give specific gifts because they relate in some way to the one we're honoring with the present.

In today's passage, we're going to look at the three different gifts given to Jesus by the Magi, or the wise men, as they arrived at the house where Jesus and His family were staying.

Have you ever tried to think of just the right gift to give someone, only to find out that the particular thing had a deeper meaning to them than you planned for?

It's like, when you give the gift, they tear up and ask, "How did you know?" and the story ends up becoming the plotline to next year's hallmark Christmas movie.

In all seriousness, ask that because that is what happened in our passage.

The wise men gave gifts fit for a king, but they had deeper meanings than they had intended.

Let's turn our attention to the Word this morning as we look into these gifts of the Magi.

**CHANGE SLIDE**

Let's unpack these gifts with the time we have remaining together today.

The Scriptures record that when the wise men arrived where Jesus was, they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Each has been seen to have a symbolic meaning attached to it, giving us insight into who Jesus is: our ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King.

Let's unpack these gifts with the time we have remaining together today.

We'll look at the gifts in a slightly different order than we find them given, though.

First, let's look at the gift of Myrrh.

**CHANGE SLIDE**

They presented Him with a gift of myrrh.

Myrrh was a traditional spice gift in the East.

It was often given to someone considered to be superior as a means of honoring them.

It was also a costly gift to give someone.

I read that as a perfume, a bottle of myrrh could cost as much as $10,000 in today’s terms.

Myrrh had two primary purposes in biblical times.

The first was as a spice in an anointing oil.

According to scholars, myrrh was often mixed into the oil for anointing prophets to set them apart for the work of communicating God's will and words to His people" (Shari Abbott, "What Is the Significance of the Wise Men's Gifts?

And, Were These Men Kings (or Magi)?," Reasons for Hope, December 22, 2019, https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/significance-of-the-three-kings-gifts/).

The second use for myrrh was as an embalming fluid.

This might appear odd, but the early church understood the symbolism of myrrh to be pointing toward the day Jesus died for the sins of the world (Robert Hampshire, "What Is the Significance of the Three Wise Men and Their Gifts?," Christianity.com,

December 1, 2020, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/significance-of-the-

three-wise-men-and-their-gifts.html).

The long-awaited Messiah is said, in Scripture, to be a prophet.

As you know, a prophet is, simply put, sent by God to give people His message.

All throughout the Old Testament, each prophet was called and commissioned by God, and came with a special message.

In the New Testament, Jesus is seen as a prophet.

Crowds identified him as such.

He even described Himself as a prophet.

He proclaimed God's plan for Him to take away sin, and He prophesied His own death, burial, and resurrection.

The Wise men gave a gift of a distinctive spice, but it can be understood, in a symbolic way, to show Christ's office as prophet.

The next present they shared with Jesus was a gift of frankincense.

**CHANGE SLIDE**

They presented Him with a gift of frankincense.

Frankincense was a glittering, fragrant sap that took some serious work to extract from the bark of rare trees in India and Arabia.

It has been used worldwide as an incense and has become popular again as an essential oil, being used to clean cuts, ease migraines and headaches, and more.

As incense, according to Business Insider, the Roman Catholic Church uses approximately 50 metric tons of it per year, and as an oil, it can cost up to $6000 per liter!

In Exodus 30, we find that the priest was to use it as part of a mixture for incense in the "Tent of Meeting" and was to be kept holy among the priests.

Scholars believe that because it was used primarily by priests in the Temple, frankincense can be considered symbolic of Jesus' office as the High Priest.

The writer of Hebrews actually compares Jesus to the mysterious priest of the Old Testament, Melchizedek, as the better and more perfect high priest.

A Jewish priest was often seen as a mediator between God and his people, but in Christ, we have only one mediator between God and Man, the Man Jesus Christ, as 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us.

The Wise men gave a gift of expensive incense, which can be understood, symbolically, to show Christ's office as priest.

The next present they shared with Jesus was a gift of gold.

**CHANGE SLIDE**

They presented Him with a gift of gold.

While gold was a traditional gift for a king, we see some symbolism here too.

Gold in biblical times meant wealth, but it also had royal connotations.

One commentator shares, "For millennia, gold was the metal of kings—beautiful, rare, and expensive.

[The wise men] knew that when a man meets a king, he brings gifts, and their three gifts were costly and grand."

(Doriani, Daniel M. Matthew: Volumes 1 and 2)

Jesus is not only our Prophet and Priest; he is also our King.

Matthew likely shared the three gifts to show the fulfillment of OT passages where the Gentiles bring their wealth to Israel's king, such as:

Ps. 72:10 “10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands bring a present; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer tribute.”

and

Is.

60:6 “6 “A multitude of camels will cover you, The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of Yahweh.”

Clearly, these gifts were customary and expensive, yet God used them to show us something significant.

In these gifts, we see Christ in a greater light.

Though He was only a small child at this point, He was the long-awaited Messiah, who perfectly fulfilled the roles of Prophet, Priest, and King.

**CHANGE SLIDE**

Conclusion:

Allow me to read the following from an article I found:

Christ has secured our freedom because, in the shedding of His blood, He operated in the divinely ordained ... threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King.

This is why He is called "the faithful witness" (as Prophet); "the firstborn of the dead" (as Priest); and "the ruler of kings on earth" (as King) in Revelation 1:5.

As Prophet, Jesus pronounced an end to all our sin.

He came not just proclaiming the Word of God; He is the Word of God (John 1:1).

He came to the world because of sin (Matt.

1:21).

He proclaimed our need to repent and believe on Him (Mark 1:15).

And He proclaimed our pardon and forgiveness for sin (Col.

1:14).

As Priest, Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice for all our sin.

In the Old Testament, the high priest was the mediator between the holy God and His sinful people.

... Like the high priest of old, Christ entered the Holy Place, but unlike the high priest, He entered to offer Himself.

As king, Jesus will rule over us so that sin no longer has a hold on us.

In Scripture, a king was understood to be one who was meant to establish peace, prosperity, and welfare for his kingdom.

Scripture holds King David up as a sort of prototype for a good king.