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It's one of the favorite part of the Christmas story and one that takes place in every nativity scene of holiday plays, the part where the three wise men come and present gifts to baby Jesus. It seems that the three things about the Christmas story that stick out in people's minds are the angels appearing to the shepherds by night, Jesus being born in a stable and laid in a manger, a feed trough for cattle, and the wise men coming to present their gifts following a star that showed them the way. These traditions are based upon the Biblical Christmas story, which can be found in Matthew 2 and Luke 2. Matthew has the wise men. Luke has the shepherds. The manger and "no room in the inn" is in Luke also. It makes the Christmas story easy to remember and find. It also makes it surprising to find out that very few people have ever read the original Christmas story from scripture and when they do, most are usually surprised to find out how little we really know about these times and events or how that our Christmas traditions are not always entirely accurate.

One of the most common inaccuracies is that the angels that appeared to the shepherds by night "sang" to them. The scripture says:

The Greek word for "saying" here is lego which means "to speak, tell, utter, or describe" but never ever in the Bible or any other Greek literature means "to sing." It sort of messes up the Christmas songs doesn't it!? I've never heard anyone sing "Hark, the Herald angels said!" But the facts are that in scripture we can't find angels singing in the heavenlies until after the Raptured church gets to heaven in Revelation. Ezekiel 28:13 seems to allude to Lucifer's being created as a being that could sing with "anointed vocal tabrets" and so many people believe that the devil started out as an angel who led the singing in heaven but then fell. Whatever the case, it's important to remember that no matter how off key you are or how smooth a voice you have, when you sing to God, you are praising Him in a way that He gets from no one else in heaven! That's why the Bible over and over again commands us to "sing unto the Lord a new song!" That's why the first part of our service with singing and music is important and not just to kill time until everyone gets here. When you sing along, you are praising God in a unique way that gets His attention!

It probably doesn't matter that tradition messes up this small point, but remember the facts from now on when you hear "and heaven and nature sing," "angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plain," and various other songs that they didn't sing at all but rather said because if God is going to be praised through song, then it must come through you and I!

I bring such things up not to disillusion anyone about Christmas, nor to stop anyone from singing Christmas carols, because we will probably still sing about angel's singing despite all of that, but to point out that although you may have "heard the Christmas story before," there is certainly something that you can still learn from it. In other words, no matter how familiar you are with the story, there is something in it that you still don't know or never thought about and that if understood and applied to your life could have an impact on your life in a positive way! Simply put, people tend to miss out on the tremendous spiritual lessons of the Christmas story simply because they have been passed down a familiar tradition of what happened which isn't always accurate and causes people to sort of disregard the birth of Jesus as "something that I already know all about." That's unfortunate because the birth of Jesus Christ was the second greatest event of human history, second only to His death and resurrection! There is no greater subject to talk about, celebrate, or preach on than the birth and death of Jesus Christ.

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We find the same type of tradition when we turn to Matthew 2 and speak of the wise men visiting Jesus. First of all, the scriptures are very clear that the wise men didn't get to Jesus on the night of His birth. They were not there at the same time with the shepherds in the stable that night, but the scriptures make it very clear that when they found Jesus, they found Him in a "house" (Matthew 2:11). It probably wasn't long after the birth of Jesus, maybe a few weeks or so, but it certainly wasn't the first night that was spent among the animals in the barn beside the inn. I know, I know, I'm messing up some of your mental images of the nativity scene which always has the wise men and the shepherds there at the same time. Don't throw them away, but just remember that the wise men really got there later.

A second thing about the story of Matthew 2 which has a little more practical application value is that nowhere in the scripture does it tell us how many wise men there were. They brought three gifts, but it does NOT say that there were three wise men. Men who traveled long distances in those days very rarely traveled in such small groups and so it's possible that there were far more than three wise men. Nor does the Bible say that each wise man brought one gift to Jesus, but rather that the wise men brought three gifts to Jesus. In our plays, we tend to have one man bring the gold and then another lay down the frankincense, and then another bring the myrrh, but the Bible doesn't say that it happened that way, in fact it can be argued that however many wise men there were, each one brought Jesus Christ all three items. The scripture says that "they presented gifts" from "their treasure." It's very much possible then that each man brought Him a portion of gold, a bit of frankincense, and a part of myrrh.

Really, we don't know a whole lot about these wise men, except that they were just that -- wise and that they traveled a long way following a star to worship Jesus Christ as the King of the Jews. Everything that we know about them scripturally is found in twelve verses of scripture. They are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.

There is a Jewish tradition that says that they were descendants of Abraham from his second wife Keturah. You probably remember that Abraham's first wife was Sarah, by whom he had Isaac, the promised child of his old age. What you may not remember about the story is that Sarah died not too long after all of that and that Abraham remarried to a younger woman named Keturah which according to Genesis 25 bore him six sons that the scripture later says were "sent to the land of the east" (Genesis 25:6). Jewish tradition states that these men and their offspring worshipped Jehovah God in the far away eastern lands and who would have been aware of the promises that God made to their father Abraham. It's very possible -- though not provable -- that the wise men who came to Jesus at His birth were the descendants of such men. If so, it's remarkable that such men -- living afar -- would recognize the signs of the Messiah's coming while those who were near by missed it at first. If nothing else it proves that when you are too close to a situation, or involved, that it's easy to miss the point and the working of God in your situation!

We do know that they were rich, wealthy enough to bring gold and such as gifts and wealthy enough to leave their jobs and duties and finance an expedition that took them across a desert following the Christmas star. We do know that they knew enough about the heavens and astronomy to note that something was special about this one. We have no idea how God revealed this "star" to them or what sort of "star" it was, but it's obvious that nobody else was following the star to Bethlehem. That these men realized the significance and the meaning of a visual sight in the sky that everybody in the world missed and that it fulfilled prophecy of one verse of scripture in an obscure passage of Numbers proves that these men were wise indeed, and not just in the ways of the world but in the understanding of scripture and prophecy and the workings of God. They didn't go to Herod and say "we're looking for someone that's famous that God has sent a star to tell us about, do you know whom we might be looking for?" No, they walked in to Herod who according to the Romans was supposed to be "the King of the Jews" and said "we've come to worship the King of the Jews, and we've seen His star leading us to Israel, do you know where He is?" They knew Herod wasn't it. They also weren't surprised to find a baby once they found Jesus. Somehow these men knew that they were coming to worship an infant whose royalty went far beyond the rule of Rome! And they understood all of this from a star, and one verse of prophecy!

I've heard preachers try to make it sound like the wise men had ulterior motives or evil intentions and I'm here to say today that that's hogwash. It's obvious that these men had a relationship with God. It's obvious that they knew exactly what and who they were coming to see. It's obvious that they were convinced that the promises of even the most obscure prophecies of scripture were sure and to be counted on. Hear the query of the wise men today: "Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen His star?" They haven't seen Him, and all they have is the written word of a promise to go on, but there's no doubt in that question. They're not saying "do you know about a King of the Jews, that might be around here." But rather "He's here, now where is He? Where can we find Him!?" That's certainty and a sureness based upon strong faith. They had no doubt that they would find it to be exactly as God's Word had said!

And so the story of the wise men goes beyond just a Sunday School tale but to the very heart of our everyday living. Jesus taught that there were two types of human beings, "wise and foolish" and so it's important to no the difference between the two lest we end up on the side that will miss His second coming! And the characteristics of those who were considered wise at His first coming will certainly be the characteristics of those will be "wise" at His return! Simply put, if you want to be a "wise man" then you must become like the "wise men." If you want to be ready for His coming to earth the second time, then you'd better behave as they and the lessons ring loud and clear:

Wise men today take the time to study scripture and apply it to their life. Wise men today don't doubt God's Word but are willing to step out and take the journey of faith towards the promises of God. What is not written about the wise men actually tells us quite a bit because not one time do we find recorded details about their journey to Jesus. They didn't waste time in living in the past, but knew whatever has happened has happened but as long as I end up at His feet at His coming, then everything will work out alright! They never got distracted by the details of their journey and the hardships that they doubtless faced on the way, but they were following a star and they kept their eyes and vision on getting closer to where He was! They were willing to disrupt their ordinary life cycle to find Him and not one time to we find record of them stopping and saying "maybe we should turn back, or maybe it won't happen like God's Word said it would!" They had an objective and they would see Jesus or else die trying. Such are the characteristics of wise men even today!

So let me say to you today, if you are to make heaven, if you are to be ready for Jesus' second visit to this earth, then you must become as wise men! You'd better give heed to even the most obscure and smallest commandments of the Word of God and act upon them. You'd better learn to never get your eyes off of following Him and not allow the cares of life and the hardships of this journey get you distracted from your true calling in following Christ Jesus! As for your direction, you must learn to always follow the light and head toward Him at all times and all stages of your life. You must learn that the best things only come to those who are so convinced about the promises of God's Word that they are willing to step out and sacrifice before they see God keeping their end of the bargain! You must learn to follow God's guidance and then when the star of His direction disappears, to patiently wait standing still, until the star of His guidance reappears leading you on. You must learn to judge a church or house not by it's appearance, finery, or class but by rather or not Jesus is there and if He's there even in a small way that it is a special place because of the greatness of His presence!

And perhaps one of the greatest characteristics of the original wise men that we must learn as well is that after they were in His presence, they left a different way and did not return home the same way that they entered. Oh, that Christians today would be wise enough to allow His presence and Spirit to transform them so that the path that you walked before is changed to a new one and that you leave refreshed, renewed, and going a different direction than before! Somebody learn the lessons of the wise men and make up in your mind to be a wise man (or woman) at Jesus' second coming!

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All of these things are important lessons to learn and certainly true. But to me, they are but side points to the most remarkable lesson from Matthew chapter 2 and this storyline. The most important point to learn and the one after which I have titled this sermon is this: wise men bring three gifts. That is, when they approach Jesus Christ at His coming, they are prepared to present to Him three things.

We read in our other text in Numbers where God commanded that when you bring a gift to Him, to bring your best. We could preach on that a while but it is enough to say that God was not pleased with the worst or the mediocre. He wanted the spotless lamb, the firstborn, the first fruits. God is pleased with gifts only when they consist of the best that you have to offer. And it follows that if the wise men knew about the obscure verse of scripture in Numbers 24:17 of a star rising out of Jacob signaling Jesus' birth, then they also knew about the also obscure verse that we read as our alternate text commanding that a gift to God must be of only the best and finest. What I'm trying to emphasize to you was that their choice of gifts was not pointless or last minute decisions but was the result of a conscience decision of deciding what the best was that they had to offer.

What kind of gift would you give the King of Kings? That's a thought provoking query. And it's important to realize that God doesn't ask for something that you don't have, but rather the best of what you do have to offer. No doubt the wealthy wise men had a greater spread of gifts to choose from than you and I today would have. But of all of these gifts, they chose three somewhat simple ones. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. No diamonds or furs or talents were chosen. No camels or royal robes. Three simple gifts that obviously were and still are the best three things that wise men can bring to Jesus. You can't give Him a million dollars because you don't have it and even if you did, what is a million dollars to the King who has power over everything? He doesn't want the gift of a million dollars. Wise men know that a million dollars -- even if you have it to give -- aren't the best that you can give. And so it will be at Jesus' second coming, those who are wise will be the ones who will have these same three gifts to present to Him. Wise men will bring a gift of:

The word for "gold" in the Greek is a very specific one. It refers to gold that has been refined for common use. It's important to understand that the wise men did not give Jesus rocks with gold ore within, but rather gold that was refined into a state of preciousness. Gold comes from the ground with impurities throughout it's vein. When it is heated by a hot fire to the point of melting, the impurities will rise to the top of the heated mixture and can be removed by skimming the surface. The gold is then cooled back to a solid state, but is now purer than it was before. The entire process is repeated and more impurities are revealed and removed. It takes many times of this cycle repeating itself to get a gold that is useful or precious. The more times it is heated and the more impurities that are removed, the more valuable the gold is and the more moldable and malleable the gold becomes. The wise men gave gold that had been through this process so many times that it was much purer than most. It was valuable because it was the gift of precious refinement.

Why is this important? Because of what it represents in scripture. The prophet Malachi likened God to the refiner's fire:

Isaiah joined in similar theme when he stated that God had said:

Ophir was a type of gold that was know for it's purity and high level of refined ness. God said "I will make a man more precious than that!" The point is that God uses troubles and trials in our life to "heat us up" and reveal the impurities that exist in our life. He does so because He is trying to make us "more precious than fine gold" and is trying to get us ready for His coming. That's why that when you live for God, you will have some bad days. That's why you will experience some persecution and trials. That's why if you live for God you will have to do so despite some hardships. It won't always be bad, but there will be times in every life, especially the child of God's life that things aren't all rosy. I've know some people who have given up living for God because of the bad times. They quit being faithful because of financial pressure or persecution. They quit being sold out because of enemies or trouble. They let sickness or health issues distract them from Jesus. And usually such people were convinced that their trouble and the "heat" in their life was a result of God being against them or "hating them." Actually it was the opposite and was a sign of God's great love for them. They didn't understand that God was trying to refine them and purify them. They didn't realize that the issues that identified the areas that they needed to change, while uncomfortable, allowed them to get to a point where they could choose to remove it from their life through the power of God. They didn't realize that the trials were a blessing in disguise from a God that was trying to get them ready for His return.

Job, the man who lost all of his family, went from being the richest man in the land to the poorest overnight and lost his health simply as a "test from God" didn't sin nor turn his back on God through all of the trials because Job understood that the hardships and the "heat" in his life were proof that God was working on him. Job said:

In other words, Job said "Everything that I'm going through in my life right now is just prove that I'm valuable to God and that when I come out of this faithful to God, I will be even more valuable just like refined gold!" Job understood that the refiner's fire of Godly persecution was not there to destroy him, but to make him what he should be. Therefore his faith did not waver. When God comes back, Job will be able to hand him a gift, a gift of precious refinement. The gift of a man who has been made even more precious than gold. The gift of a man who has allowed God to purify him through being faithful to God through the hard times!

We need to stand faithful to God so that we can one day as wise men offer Him the same gift. But one gift is not enough. Wise men bring three gifts, therefore we must also bring:

Frankincense is a white resin that seeps from trees when a thin slice is made in the bark. It has a pleasant and intense smell when burned and so it was harvested in Biblical times, ground into powder and used as a type of incense. Frankincense is special among the incenses because when it burns it is completely consumed and leaves no ashy residue. For this reason it was the incense that God commanded in the Old Testament to be burned day and night on the altar of incense in His temple. It's sweet fragrance represented worship and it's complete consumption represented giving God everything. Therefore to give frankincense was to give the gift of total worship.

Wise men will be able to present to Jesus at His second return not just a life refined by the hardships and heat of life, but of complete and total worship. If you stay faithful through every trial and every test and yet never learn to totally surrender yourself in worship, then you have missed the point. Wise men allow themselves to be totally consumed in worship of Jesus Christ.

There is a difference between praise and worship. Praise is speaking highly of someone or exalting them when you are not in their presence. It is impersonal and shallow. But take that same praise and look at the object of my devotion and directly present it to that person, and it becomes the deep avenues of worship. In other words, you must be in the presence of the one whom you worship. The wise men of Matthew 2 understood this for they asked Herod "where is He . . . we are come to worship?" They understood that they could not worship until they got in His presence in the same house with Him!

When you come into church and begin to praise God it's shallow but important. You may not feel very spiritual when you clap your hands or begin singing or first leap for joy or raise your hands to God. But keep doing it with a sincere heart and mind and you will find that the climate changes because "God inhabits praises." The Spirit of God will descend into this place and you will suddenly feel His presence. At that moment you have suddenly become in the presence of the one whom you are adoring and so your praise becomes worship. It's deeper and much more moving and only those who will praise God will experience what it is like to worship Him in "spirit and truth" as the scriptures says that God is looking for.

There are the critics of outward praise. There are those that think that clapping their hands and raising their hands and singing and shouting and dancing and leaping and weeping are too "below them" and unnecessary. Such a person is a foolish person because without praise, you will never get into worship and wise men understand the importance of worship. They'll come a long way to worship. They'll brave deserts just to worship. They'll go to great expense and cost just to have an opportunity to worship Jesus Christ. And they understand the importance of being in the same house with Him!

In Matthew 2:11 we find the three main components of wise men style worship. The scriptures say that they "saw Jesus," they "fell down" before Him, and that they "worshipped Him." You could sum it up in three words: vision, submission, and consecration. They got their eyes off of everything else and only on Him and became aware that they were in His presence. They laid themselves before Him on the ground in total surrender, and then they worshipped Him with everything in them. And they brought Him frankincense, the very thing that had been burning in the temple to Jehovah God since the time of Moses. It was a strange gift, unless they had a true revelation of just who this baby was! And then realizing that Jesus was "Jehovah has become salvation" it makes perfect sense.

When Jesus comes again the second time it will be wise men indeed who give Him the frankincense of a lifetime of worship. It will be wise men who give that worship to the One whom they have had a revelation is Jehovah God in flesh. He will receive the gifts of those who have spent a lifetime looking for Him in their life and focusing on where He is. Of those who are quick to spot His presence in a place and to be sensitive to that presence. Jesus will receive the gifts of those who once they realized that Jesus was near, forgot about protocol and who was around or not around and completely submitted every area of their life good and bad to Him. And most importantly, God will receive the worship of those who consecrated themselves to Him by giving themselves totally to adoring Him and who learn the value of being consumed by worshipping Him!

Being faithful through the trials that try you as gold are not enough, you must also give a lifetime of complete and total worship to Him. But even those two things as great as they are incomplete by themselves because wise men, you see, bring three gifts. So be complete you must also bring to Him the third:

At first glance this was the strangest gift of all to bring to Jesus. It is the resin from another tree and is harvested in the same manner as frankincense. Also like frankincense, myrrh is valuable because of it's unique, strong fragrance. The similarities end there. Myrrh means "bitterness" and it's most common use was in embalming bodies before burial. It would be given to Jesus another time, this time when Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus' crucified body in linens and laid Him in a tomb (John 19:39). That was a normal use, but here at Jesus' birth, to give to a newborn baby, it seems strange. Myrrh was the gift of death.

But strange as it may seem, wise men will be sure to give the gift of death to Jesus at His second return. I'm not saying that you've got to be a martyr to be saved but you do need to die in a spiritual way. Jesus said in another place:

In Romans 6, Paul said that we should be "dead to sin." He later wrote about being dead to the "principles of the world." Much of what we struggle with in our relationships and life is from our being "too much alive." We need to die out to some things. We need to surrender some dreams that are not in accordance with the will of God. We need to kill some habits that repeatedly take us from His presence. We need to die out to the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life that distract us. We need to die out from some weights that hang on us as we try to live for Him. Paul repented so much and so continually that he stated "I die daily." Paul was a wise man.

John the Baptist, as Jesus' ministry was taking off and his was winding down uttered these famous words which must be more than just words in our lives as well:

John the Baptist would later be beheaded for his ministry, but that was not his real point of death. Long before he ever began his ministry, John the Baptist had already died out to his will and had sold out to God's will. John the Baptist will join with Paul and many other wise men at Jesus' second coming in giving Him Myrrh, the gift of death.

I mentioned that repentance is a death. The scriptures declare in Colossians 2:11-12 that water baptism is a burial. And Peter said that those who repent and are baptized "shall receive the Holy Ghost." Paul wrote that this was a "new birth" and "regeneration" experience (Titus 3:5). If you've never repented of your sins, been baptized in the name of Jesus, and been filled with the Holy Ghost, then it's the first steps to being a wise man ready to meet Jesus at His return. If you will lose your life through a spiritual death, and burial, then you will fulfill Jesus' words and find a new life that is life "more abundantly" through the infilling of the Holy Ghost!

If you've already been born again, then He must increase and you must decrease. There needs to be some things that die off in our spiritual man today. Myrrh is a must because as strange as it sound, the gift of death is one of the three best gifts that can and must be given to Jesus Christ!

The same Jesus Christ that came as a baby over 2,000 years ago is coming again to earth. You have time now to get ready to greet Him and to prepare for His arrival. What will your life give Him? May I suggest that you bring Him the gift of precious refinement, the gift of worship, and the gift of death. Greet Him with having been faithful though the heat of life, surrendered in total worship, and having lost your life for His, and you will find out that you have been a wise man. For wise men bring three gifts!