Gold

Praise and thank God for this wonderful time the Lord has given to us to be in worship, to experience the presence of God in such a powerful way. Anytime you sing scripture, anytime you lift up the name of the Lord, the Holy Spirit delights to move in the life of God’s people. I am so thankful for the way in which God is moving in the life of our church and so thankful for all the things that God is doing in spite of everything that individual families might be going through. We experience God’s presence, his provision, his great care in all of our lives. A special warm welcome to all the guests that are here during this service. We are so grateful that you are here.

We are concluding our series on the Gifts for the Coming King, Advent, as we have gone through the last couple of weeks looking at the two other gifts, myrrh and frankincense, that were brought by the wise men as they came to worship the child who was born in Bethlehem. We looked at myrrh and we talked about how it points to the death of our Lord, the anointing of the body of our Lord, preparing it for his own burial. Frankincense last week reminded us of the fact that he is our mediator, the only one, the only mediator between God and man, and also the fact how he was laid out for us as a fragrant offering that is pleasing into the smell of the Heavenly Father, satisfying the needs and the requirements of a holy God in order to buy us redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.

Today, we will look at the third gift. We’ll turn our Bibles to Matthew 2:1-2. Read the words again that I’ve been reading for the last couple of weeks. “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem 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.’ Maybe Isaiah 9:2 was a prophetic word that foretold the coming of this light, literally a light that would shine in the darkness, but also more importantly, spiritually the light that would come to now awaken a world that was in slumber. Especially as you study Biblical history, you know how there were 400 years of darkness before our Lord came into this world. Isaiah would prophesy about it and would tell us that the people that were walking in darkness, they have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned, talking about the coming of our Lord. Literally it would happen with the coming of the star in the sky, warning and also compelling them to come and see the newborn king that was born in Bethlehem.

The last couple of weeks, we talked about the gifts, we talked about the Magi in detail, we talked about the star in detail last week. Today, I want to focus on the third important person in this story, and that is in Matthew 2:3, “When King Herod heard, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” When King Herod heard the inquiry of the wise men, probably numbering many, maybe many hundreds, and they were asking a very curious question, “Where is his King?” Being the king of the Jews, Herod did not want to hear this. In fact, the word that is used over there, “tarasso” in Greek, actually means he was greatly perturbed, highly agitated. He was deeply troubled, and if you know anything about this man, you will know that this is the last thing that he wanted to hear.

See, he is known in history as Herod the Great. He ruled over the Jewish people for 30 plus years, but he came into power not because of anything good that he has done or because he was indeed Herod the Great. His father had done a favor to Julius Caesar. In order to show kindness to his father, when after his father, he made his father to be in charge of the Jewish people. When his father passed away, by default being his son, Herod would ascend to be ruling over the Jewish people. But here’s the problem, Herod himself was not a pure Jew. Herod the Great was actually a descendant of Edom; he was an Edomite who had converted to Judaism. And in his conversion to Judaism, he was not truly a true Jew. In fact, history tells us that he ate pork, something that the Jewish people would never do. He would sacrifice to idols along with worshiping the Jewish god. He would actually erect a lot of statues in and around Jerusalem and around his palace. So the Jewish people detested him, but they could not do anything about it because of the fact that they were under the Roman rule, and what of the Romans said went as far as that would go.

By this time that our Lord was born, probably around somewhere on BC 6, maybe Herod had almost killed all of his immediate family. Look at this list that I have, he had killed so many people. He had killed two of his wives by this time because he thought they were plotting to overthrow him. He had killed three of his sons, killed his uncle, killed his aunt, killed many other members of his family. Because along with Herod the Great, he was also known as Herod the paranoid one, was always worried that somebody was out there to kill him and become king of the Jews. So you can understand why he was highly agitated, deeply disturbed when strange men from the East are coming and asking, “Where is he that is born the king of the Jews?” The one who would even want to kill his own wife to retain his throne, can you imagine how deeply troubled and agitated he had become? Definitely, he had become just that.

In fact, there was a saying among the Jewish people that it was better to be a pig in the palace of Herod than be one of his sons. Because if you were a son, you were more likely to be killed by Herod than the pig in his own palace. That is how bad it was when he came to Herod and his family members. In fact, a couple of years later, when he would die, he knew that nobody would cry for him. So you know what he did? He arrested all the important people in Jerusalem at that time, imprisoned them, and he also gave an order, the day before I am about to die or the day when it looks like I’m about to die, the order of the king is that all of these men should be killed. You know why? Because he said that there would be nobody crying when I die, because people hate me so much. If I kill these many people, at least there will be a lot of people crying on the day that when I die. That is how paranoid, that is how self-absorbed, that is how much of an evil person this Herod was.

And he hears this and he says to them, “You go and find him. Let me also go and worship the same king.” And you know exactly that’s not what he wanted to do. Just like the people in the palace, he had no intention of finding Jesus, most importantly, he had no intention of finding him for the right reason and worshiping him.

Going forward to verse 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 them with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” We already talked about frankincense and myrrh, and we already talked about the fact of these two spices were probably much more worth their weight in value than even gold itself. But we come to the third gift that they brought to him, one that is very familiar to all of us, and all throughout history, and even in God’s word as well. 385 times in Scriptures, gold is mentioned, more than any other metal. In fact, at the time of this writing, and at the time of our Lord, gold was considered to be the most precious metal on the face of the earth. Now, later on, science will show us that things like platinum is actually more valuable than gold, but in that day, gold was the most precious metal. Any time you would go to welcome a newborn king, the one gift you have to take with you was always gold. Frankincense, and myrrh didn’t make much sense, but gold makes perfect sense. 

And this was also foretold by God’s word. Look at Isaiah 60:3, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” But look what they come, they are not coming empty-handed. Look at verse five, “The wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.” God’s word had already foretold that the kings will come from far away to come to the light that is about to shine in the darkness, but they are not going to come empty-handed. They will come bearing wealth and gifts unto them. They will come to bring them the wealth of the nations.

And I want you to understand one thing here, how critical this would become in the life of Mary and Joseph. As we’ve been going through this series, you know the spiritual meaning behind these gifts, but practically, I want to remind the church this afternoon, how our Lord prepares things for us much ahead of when we need them. Mary and Joseph were poor people. Even the travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a difficult journey for them to make. Now, in their poverty, in a few hours, God would ask them to take the newborn baby and travel all the way to Egypt. And there, Joseph maybe could not be a carpenter, there they would have to live for many years before they could come back to their hometown. Here comes frankincense, here comes myrrh, here comes gold. What is God doing? God is bringing them wealth, gifts, so that the family can be fed, the family can be taken care of for their exile towards Egypt. Isn’t it amazing? Our God prepares for his people and provides for what we need in our life.

As we come to the end of 2023, and as you look forward to 2024, there might be a lot of questions in your life. “God, what am I going to face? How am I going to pay my bills? What am I going to do?” But do you know that your God prepares things for our lives ahead of time? Oh, he will bring kings from the east, he will bring it from sources you cannot even imagine. God will supply all of our needs according to his riches and glory. Hallelujah, the god of Elijah, hallelujah, the God who would feed his servant with the ravens, hallelujah, the God who would open the brook and would open the treasure house of a widow in Zarephath, is still alive and well, bringing them the three wealthiest and costliest things you can imagine into the house of Joseph and Mary, preparing them for the long exile in the land of Egypt.

But not only that, why did they bring these gifts? Look at Psalm 76:11-12, “Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; let all the neighboring lands bring gifts to the one to be feared. He breaks the spirit of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth.” The kings of the earth are supposed to bring gifts to other kings, and here is the ultimate king being born, and they bring gold to him, to pay homage to him. When you study in God’s word, we can see that our Lord is always referred to as a king in the Gospels. In fact, as you study the Gospels, you immediately see certain things that you have never seen in scriptures, words like “kingdom of God”, “kingdom of heaven”. These things come into play in the scriptures. Why does the Bible mention kingdom? Because the King has come, that is why there is a kingdom. There are 100 verses in the New Testament that ties together Jesus with the kingdom. “My father’s kingdom”, “my kingdom is not of this world”, all these are phrases uttered by the Lord to tell the people that he was not an ordinary baby, nor an ordinary man. He is born to be a king, he is already a king, he is going to be king forever. Those who belong to him are members of the kingdom. Whatever he rules is his kingdom. “The kingdom of God is at hand”, “the kingdom of heaven is come”, and all of these are truths that point to the fact that our Lord is the king, even though he was born in a manger, born as a carpenter’s son, was the poorest of the poor, yet he was the only true king ever to walk on the face of the earth.

And when we go through his life on this earth, we see glimpses of his glory and majesty being revealed to the people. At the end of his earthly ministry, as he would march toward Jerusalem, here out of nowhere, people would come to pay homage to the king. “Hosanna, here comes the one, blessed he comes who comes in the name of the Lord.” This was no accident. Zechariah 9:9 had prophesied this, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout, daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you.” But unlike all the kings of the world who come riding on chariots and horses, look at the next verse, “Oh, the beauty of our Lord, righteous and victorious is he, but he is lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The one that is riding on top is worthy to be worshiped.

I remember years ago, Kanochan preaching about Jesus riding on a donkey, and in his own very humorous way, he was talking about how this donkey was a nobody. The disciples got the donkey, and they put Jesus on top of it. As he is marching toward Jerusalem, all the people are laying down palm trees and clothes before him, they’re singing, and suddenly the donkey starts to think, “Oh my goodness, I am somebody important, look at me, all these people are worshiping me, they’re all doing all these things, now no other donkey in the whole world has gotten a reception like this.” After a while, they go to Jerusalem, Jesus got off the donkey, and the donkey went on his own way. But he did not forget the way he entered into Jerusalem, he was thinking to himself he is something. So he starts walking on top of clothes of the people that he could find, and you know what happens to him? Suddenly, he gets beaten by the people, and he realizes all the honor that he had is not because of him, but because of the one who was riding on top of him.

A lot of times in our life, we think that we are something. We are only because we are in the Lord. We have importance in our life only because we are in the Lord. We love these titles: Reverend, Pastor, Most Reverend Bishop. All these things, I don’t care about any of those things. But where do these things come from? They only come because, by God’s grace, we have become children of God and God has called us to honor him by our service. Don’t walk around like the donkey, like you are something, only because He is riding on your life, you have become something. And that is because He is the King of Kings, and those who are lucky, fortunate enough to have Him in their life, are honored even by the people of this world.

He comes riding, and He comes. Pilate is about to crucify Him. There is no reason to put a title on top of His head, but he does: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Jews could not stand it, went back to him, change it, say that He claimed to be. For the first time in his life, Pilate developed a backbone. He said, what is written, is written. He is Jesus of Nazareth, He is King of the Jews. But the most important testimony about who our Lord comes from the lips of the Heavenly Father. Look at Hebrews 1:8, “About the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.'” Whose words are these? These are not the words of a man, these are not the words of a prophet, these are not the words of John the Baptist, these are not the words of an apostle, these are not the words of the angels, this is the word of the God, Heavenly Father, speaking about His Son. The Father is worshiping the Son and calling Him equal to Himself, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.” Hallelujah, the Father is also acknowledging the fact that the Son is the king, and the Son is the ruler, and the Son is God Himself.

As you go through your Scriptures, and you thumb through your Bible, you come to Revelation 15:3, and you see the song of the Saints in eternity, “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, King of the Nations.” Even today, who is the King of the Nations? It is the Lord, who is the King of the Nations. Don’t be fooled by that baby, don’t be fooled by His meager birth. The more you ponder about it, the more you think about it, the more you marvel at the wonder of God’s grace, that He, whom the heavens could not contain, would become a baby in a manger.

Philip Yancey, in his book “The Jesus I Never Knew,” writes about a time when Elizabeth II was still Queen of England. He says, “I looked towards the Royal box where the queen and her family sat. I looked at the way they would walk, their stride is different. They are bodyguards, a trumpet fanfare, a flourish of bright clothes and flashing jewelry. When she visited the United States, it was reported that she had 4,000 pounds of luggage, including two outfits for every occasion. Did you hear what I said? 4,000 pounds of luggage, two outfits for every occasion, in case one gets bad, I guess. A morning outfit, in case someone died. 40 pints of plasma, white kit leather toilet seat covers, her own hairdresser, two valets to open her doors, a host of other attendants. It is estimated that the visit of the royalty to a foreign country can easily cost $20 million.”

He writes, “In contrast, God’s visit to Earth took place in an animal shelter, with no attendants present, and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feeding trough. Indeed, that event divided history, even our calendars. It divided it into two parts. It had more witnesses to it in animals than human beings. If they were not careful, a mule would have stepped on Him.”

$20 million, King of the heavens, born in a manger. You know, it’s quite amazing, isn’t it? All the pomp and the greatness of this world, God looks at it and just laughs. Queen Elizabeth died, all gone. So has every king who ever reigned. Herod died, Elizabeth died, every king has died. It is only Him who is still alive and alive on the throne as well. One day, this baby boy who was born in the manger will come back. Revelation chapter 19 tells us about His coming, riding on a white horse. And if you read, you will see what it says on His robe and His thigh. On His robe and His thigh, He has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yes, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah, for every lord that ever was, He is Lord over them. For every king that ever was, because He is King over them. So together with the Apostle Paul, the church for all ages will say this, 1 Timothy 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hallelujah, let’s say that again. “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Let the church never stop worshiping the King. Let the church never stop singing of His praises. He is the only immortal one, He is the only God, and to Him belong all glory and honor forever.”

I’ll end with a couple of things. First one is this, Matthew 2:12, “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they return to their country by another route.” There’s a spiritual meaning in this verse. It is this: those who have come and encountered the Living God do not go back the same way again. He changes them forever. Those who encountered Him and worshiped Him do not go back by the same route. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; all things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” See, that is the story of Christmas, that the king who came has changed my life, the king who changed has changed your life, and has made us to be new creations. That is the greatest work that He did.

I don’t know how many of you play chess. In chess, the most important goal is that you protect the king at all costs. You never let the King die because once the King dies, what happens? The game is over. Checkmate is when there is no way for the king to escape. On June 6th, 1944, the Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, wanted to watch the D-Day invasion from the bridge of a battleship in the English Channel. He wanted to watch the invasion in person. The people said no, we cannot let you do that, it’s too dangerous. But if you know anything about Churchill, he was very resolved and said no, I want to see the war in person. So you know what they did? They appealed to the King, King George VI, and they told him, please help us. So the king called Winston Churchill and said, “I heard that you want to go and watch the war in person. Guess what, I also want to do the same thing. I’m going to come with you as well.” Suddenly Churchill realized, I cannot put the life of the king in danger by allowing him to be on the deck of a battleship in the middle of the war. You know why? In all wars, at all costs, you protect the King.

But our Lord did the opposite. Even though He is the King of Kings, even though He is the Lord of Lords, with royal courage, He surrendered His body to be crucified on the cross. He offered a King’s ransom, His life, for the life of His people. He would die for all the wrong things that we had ever done, and would do, completely atoning for all of our sins. The crown of thorns that was meant to make a mockery of His royal claims actually proclaimed His kingly dignity. Even in death, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. While Herod wanted to protect his life at all costs, my Lord, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, laid His life on the cross to bring us near to God. What great salvation He has given to us. Frankincense, myrrh, and gold.

Today, as we heard last night during our musical night, you may only have a drum, you may only have your own life, but your king is not impressed by any of your costly gifts. You know what He wants? Your life, offered as a living sacrifice unto Him. You know what He delights in today? If He is the King, make Him to be the ruler of your life. Let Him reign over the throne of your life, let nobody else take that place that is fit for the King and King alone. Only one needs to reign, it is He who has come to be born into your life and live there as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Make Him to be the Lord of your life, let Him reign over every circumstance of your life. Let’s look to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, we thank you that You came, we thank you that You sent Your Son to die for us on the cross. Lord, our hearts cannot even fathom properly the greatness of God’s grace that would send Your Son, the King of Kings, to die for us. But You did just that, and for that, we are grateful. Help us, O God, to offer our lives as a living sacrifice unto You, and You alone, for You are deserving of everything that is precious in our life, for You are King and worthy of honor, glory, and worship forever.