Do you see what I see Part 4

Intro:

Good morning

Recap:

Walking through the real Christmas story

adding and talking about characters

What we might see when we envision the nativity scene

show picutre

Week 1: what does the Bible really say?

The Bible is more than a fairytale kids story

And there might be less characters than you picture there more going on than what you can see

The build up and anticipation to this moment is unimaginable

And really the birth of Christ is a story that should and does transcend Christmas.

The Gospel writers never intended this story to be told and remembered one month out of the year.

So perhaps the wonder of the Christmas story is it isn’t just a Christmas story.

Week 2: We talked about Herod and the evilness that Jesus enters into

We talked about how the presence of sin and evilness doesn’t shew God away in fact the presence sin beckons the presence of God

And in the same way God still does that in our lives today. Your sin doesn’t scare God

Week 3: Last week we talked about the Shepherds

How God uses the lowly to do the most important work that could be done

God chose the lowly shepherds to become the first missionaries and the group in which His coming would first be told by

And how God wants to use us too!

This morning I want us to return back to Matt 2 and read one verse and then I’ll pray and we will dive in

Matthew 2:11 NIV

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.

pray

childrens nativity picture

So, we have Mary and Joseph, we talked about no mention of barn animals, the wisemen came a little while later, the Shepherds are there, the angel, the stars, but now the character in which the whole story is about, the baby. Jesus

I’ve told the story before about how my daughter got a gift one time and after she opened it up looked at the person who gave it to her and said “oh I thought it was going to be a good gift”

And the reality is, we’ve all been there. Now hopefully you didn’t say that out loud but we’ve all gotten gifts that are pretty bad

Thanks to reddit I have a few good examples of some bad gifts for us

One year I got a New York Yankees baby onesie. I don’t have kids, I don’t watch baseball.

"When I was 8 or 9, my grandma gave me a Christmas ornament. It was a little stuffed cherub with pink cheeks and yarn hair. I cried because I had saved up my allowance to buy it for her the year before."

"When I was 10 years old my grandparents gave me an unwrapped suitcase for Christmas. In the interests of convenience, they used that suitcase for the wrapped presents for my sisters."

"The year I gave my husband a TAG Heuer watch he gave me a $19.99 Walmart blender. We already had three blenders."

"A dishtowel...I was 8 years old."

"One year I got a Titanic DVD, but a pirated copy and it didn't have a case — just had Titanic written in marker pen. Also, the DVD was SCRATCHED AND DIDN'T EVEN PLAY!"

"On year, my husband's stepmother gave me, a 36-year-old, a kindergarten-size backpack and when I opened it she said, 'I actually bought that for (a child) a few years ago and she hated it so I threw it in a closet and I saw it and thought you’d like it. None of us did, we all think it’s ugly.'"

Now hopefully you guys don’t have anything like this for someone, you do have a few days so maybe you can make some changes

But, we’ve all experienced a bad gift.

We’ve also all experienced good gifts.

Maybe they were thoughtful or expensive or unexpected or just exactly what you were hoping for

But regardless Christmas is centered around the idea of gifts

And sometimes you just don’t know what to get

And sometimes you’re a procrastinator and you just get stuck with whatever is left on the shelf

If you’re anything like us you’ve got to buy gifts for spouses and your kids and mom and dad and classmates and teachers and friends and extended family and the list goes on

But you shop and shop and some of us are really good at it and some of it comes easy

Some of us are creative and have the ability to think abut what the other person really would use and enjoy and cherish

some of us not so much

And some just buy the first thing they see or whatever is the cheapest

But in the story of Jesus, the wisemen come along and they bring gifts, 3 of them

Now, if you had to bring 3 gifts to Jesus, what are you bringing?

The wisemen choose….

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrhh

Now, I think we’d all agree that gold is a pretty good gift.

I’d take some gold right now that’s a pretty good gift

Gold back then had similar values and meanings as it does today

A valuable commodity

It was used to create jewelry and expensive medallions and things like it

But because of its scarcity and value it was particularly associated with royalty and nobility

So by bringing the gift of gold the wisemen acknowledged Jesus as king

to make the point further, when you study the book of Matthew, his primary focal point is the kingship of Jesus

Then you had Frankincense. Maybe on the list of bad gifts but I think could be a good one

Frankincense was an aromatic gum resin

So it was resin beads collected from bark scraped from a specific native tree

It’s actually still used in the middle east and Africa today

But it’s burned as an incense and has a beautiful aroma to it

But it was so valuable that it wasn’t an every day thing

People weren’t putting it in their diffusers at the house

It was saved to be burned in temples during worship

so the gift of frankincense indicates that the wisemen understood that this newborn king carried with it a claim of deity

Then last but not least, Myrrh

now myrhh definitely makes that bad gift list

Myrhh was also used as a fragrance and gathered from a native tree but it was a spice and also had medicinal purposes

But one of it’s primary uses was as an embalming oil after someone had died

And so most believe that it was gift to show the saving work of Jesus

That He would be the Savior of the world.

And many believe it could have been more valuable than gold at the time

So, what are these gifts? Why did they bring them? What significance do they hold?

I believe Matthew leaves this detail in here for us to signify to us that this baby born in a manger is king, God, and Savior

The gold is a reminder that Jesus is king

The Frankincense is reminder that Jesus is God

And the Myrrh is reminder that Jesus is fully man and would die but it would be for the sins of the world

that He would also rise from the grave 3 days later

He would conquer death, defeat sin, establish a kingdom and return one day

3 gifts for the King of kings and Lord of lords

Now here is where I want to challenge us this morning

What gifts are you bringing to Jesus this Christmas

does he just get the last thing on your shelf?

does he just get the cheapest easiest thing we can give?

The wisemen brought valuable significant gifts!

God doesn't want your leftovers and He doesn’t deserve your leftovers

God deserves value and significance

let me be clear, He deserves them, He does not need them

Scripture is clear to us that God does not need anything

In fact, even in this instance it would dishonor a king or monarch if someone brought a royal care package

The gifts are also not a bribe.

So what are they? I like the way Piper says this:

Gifts given to wealthy, self-sufficient people are echoes and intensifiers of the giver’s desire to show how wonderful the person is. In a sense, giving gifts to Christ are like fasting — going without something to show that Christ is more valuable than what you are going without.

When you give a gift to Christ like this, it’s a way of saying, “The joy that I pursue (notice Matthew 2:10! “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy”) — the joy that I pursue is not the hope of getting rich by bartering with you or negotiating some payment. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, ‘You are my treasure, not these things.’”

This is what I think it means to worship God with gifts of gold, frankincense and Myrrh or whatever else we can think of giving God

It’s not because He needs, it’s because we need. We need and He came and filled our needs and nothing else compares to Him and so nothing is worth getting in the way of the greatest treasure we have

It’s not to bribe Him because what He gives, He gives freely. It’s to remind ourselves that nothing we have is worth more than having Jesus

And so although the wisemen actually do bring some pretty incredible gifts, the greatest gift in this story is the one laying in the manger

Christmas is centered around gift giving and rightly so

But for the believer it’s the gift of Jesus

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE GIFT OF JESUS IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE

We will never wrap our minds around the great exchange that happens through the gift of Jesus

James 1:17 NIV

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Ephesians 2:8 NIV

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

John 3:16 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 7:11 NIV

11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Acts 2:38 NIV

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 6:23 NIV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This same Jesus that was born to us, that laid in a manger, angels sang about, that Shepherd told about, that wisemen gave gifts to

This baby is Jesus and He is Christ our Lord

And this same Jesus takes death and gives eternal life

Talk about a gift!

Jesus is the ultimate gift giver!

This is what God gave for you

And you may say that doesn't sound fair and it’s not

And you may think you are undeserving and you are

And you may think it’s too good to be true and it is too good but it’s also true

And He did all of this because He loves you and He wants you

And so we can do a few things here

#1 Warmly accept the greatest gift ever given

#2 Give like Jesus

Not because He needs it, not to earn something from Him, but to show Him and yourself that He is deserving of it and greater than anything you possess

Give your worship

Give your time

Give that which you most value

Whatever it may be, give, because He deserves and He gave the best gift ever given

His Son, Jesus