On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and worshipped him; and opening their treasures they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
6 sermons cite this verse
I'd like you to have a seat. So I grew up, this is the, here we are, the last Sunday in Christmas season. It reminds me of this, this is the whole thing. I grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota, which is the vacation area of, one of the vacation areas of Minnesota. and one of the things we have, our claim to fame is that Brainerd is the quote-unquote birthplace or the home of Paul Bunyan. So if you know the tall tale of Paul Bunyan, tall tale, we recognized that we had a thing called Paul Bunyan Amusement Park and it was in my hometown, in town basically, kind of right on the outskirts of town, Paul Bunyan Amusement Park and we begged our parents to be able to, that we could go to Paul Bunyan. They never took us, never, the only time we ever got to go to Paul Bunyan amusement park was when the cousins came to visit, which was relatively rare. And they would say, okay, now we can go to the amusement park. It was one of those situations where I'm like, but we live here. We should be able to go here all the time. Now, obviously, if you've ever been to Paul Bunyan amusement park, you know that it's not, as an adult, it's not that big. It's kind of a small thing. But as a kid, it was the place I wanted to go more than anything. But it seemed like one of those situations where it was so, so close to home that it was too close to home, …
… Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. They fell down and they worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Now, some of you have read this story for years and thought, I get gold. That's a nice gift. Myrrh sounds like a perfume, but what the heck is frankincense? Maybe you heard about the kindergarten Christmas play where three kids are playing the three wise men and the first kid brings his gift to the Christ child, puts it down and says, Lord, I bring you gold. Second kid comes in, sets his gift down and says, I bring you myrrh. Third kid comes up, looking kind of confused, and says, Frank sent this, puts it down. What is frankincense? Frankincense was a rare and expensive incense that was used in ritual sacrifices. The point is these were extravagant gifts, but maybe more importantly, there's a profound symbolism at work in them too. Gold, you see, was the symbol of royalty. …
… That was outside. 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 opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a dream, they would not return to Herod. They departed to their own country another way. So I want to talk to you about this star. The star of the story is Jesus. It's not the star, but the star plays an important part in your life, whether you recognize it or not. I was thinking about it this week, this star, this miraculous star that began to shine at the perfect time of God on these men who were far from Jerusalem, far from God, far from any prophecies, knowing anything about who Messiah was, who was prophesied to come. They knew nothing. They were of other religions. They were into mysticism. They were into the reading of the stars and astrology and all kinds of gods in that area, the Hindus and all of that, even the Islamic faith. It all comes from that Persia area. …
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warmed in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. Let's talk about a few good men as we look at the wise men. I think I can say without fear of debate or denial that the wise men are critical to the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. You've never been to a Christmas play and there were no wise men. You've never seen a manger setting outside of a church or on your neighbor's lawn, and there'd be no wise men. The wise men are responsible for our tradition of sharing gifts at Christmas. The same way they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh to Jesus, we share gifts with one another as family and friends in the tradition of the wise men. …
… and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was when they saw the star they were overjoyed 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. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they were turned to their country by another route. You may be seated in God's presence. I want to put a tag on this text and for a few moments with your prayers, I want to raise the question, do you need directions? Do you need directions? Erykah Badu in Didn't You Know has a luminous line about direction. Ooh, hey, I got to decide which way to go. I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. It's a luminous line about direction. I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. …
… They saw the store, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. When they came into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped. When they had opened their treasures, they presented him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. this is one of the most profound examples of what to do before you get what you want to get the wise men rejoiced at the star not the Christ child they cut loose at the promise. That's when the rejoicing began. And when you rejoice at the promise, you have no problem bowing before the gift. They come and they see Jesus and they bow before him and they open their treasures as an expression of worship. Never worship in a way that doesn't cost you. sacrifice is a step beyond convenience i'm not talking money although it includes that for us i'm talking about the yieldedness of the heart it's intentional i'm going beyond what's convenient for me how many you know yesterday's what was convenient what was sacrificial yesterday's today's convenience Thank you. …