SPEAKER_00 0:00

Church, this morning we are starting our Advent series. Uh and so we'll be preaching through uh sermons that will uh pertain to the Advent and we are kind of one week earlier in order to fit the sermon schedule. Um but I'm sure you're already in the Christmas mood. Right? All the shopping centers and supermarkets and restaurants uh have already started way earlier, even maybe a month ago, right, with their decorations, with their Christmas goods and their holiday promotions. Uh someone asked me two days ago, uh, how are you feeling about Christmas? Right? And my knee-jerk and unfiltered reaction was I don't have the festive mood. Right? Christmas is so co so commercialized and I really don't care for it. Um and I realized after going back home and then kind of thinking about it a bit more, I realized that subconsciously and actually ironically, I've allowed the secular world to define Christmas for me. Right? Why is it that I think of Christmas as mere uh commercialism? Right, how I feel about Christmas should be actually something more something deeper and something more joyous, right, than just the commercial part of the holiday. Um and I kind of want to bring this point across that Advent is actually a very significant season for the church. Uh yeah, the word Advent means the arrival of someone or something. Something. And for the church, the Advent season is a time when we reflect on the arrival of the Christ, the coming of our King and Savior. And so in Christmas, we also kind of anticipate the second, his second coming or his second advent. Right? It's a time of celebration, it is a time of uh praising God for our joy, our hope, and our peace. And as I reflect on the question, how do you feel about Christmas? Right, I realize that our response really matters. Right? It reveals, at least for me, it reveals my heart's condition now, and it reveals what I will bring to the Lord this season. And that is what our sermon series will touch on. What gift do you bring? We remember that after all, Christ gave the greatest gift of all when he came down to give his life on the cross for us. And so we give him back in our act of worship and thanksgiving.

unknown 2:37

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SPEAKER_00 2:37

And so our first reflection in this series will be on this question the question of worship, right? We bring our worship to the Lord during this Christmas. And we'll look at the story recorded in Matthew chapter 2, uh, which our sister Karen just read for us. And it's a actually kind of strange story, right? Um kind of the next slide. If uh I'm sure you know that there's this famous uh Christmas carol written based on this message, uh passage. Um, you will have heard it somewhere right out there, right? Uh we three kings of Orions are bearing gifts, we traverse a far. Right? Um we think we think that there are three of them. Um we think that that they are kings or they are, you know, sometimes we can call them wise men, right? Um when you we look at the text, we'll see that the number is actually not stated, right? Uh we don't know that they were only three. People used to think that they are three because of the number of gifts that they brought, right? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, right? So it must be three, um three, three of them who came, right? But we are not told how many. And it's very likely there was an entourage of uh not just the magi, not just wise men, but also their servants and people who helped them along with their journeys, and huge group of people traveling uh from afar. And neither were these people kings. Uh when the when they first wrote this hymn and when they first thought about them as kings, they were interpreting passages like Psalm 68, verse 29, where it says, Kings shall bear you gifts, right? And and so they they thought, oh yeah, then these are the three kings that came and bear and bore gifts to Jesus, right? Um but none of that's in the text, right? Um so who were these people? They were, you know, in our ESV translation, they are they're called the wise men. In the Greek, they are referred to as Magi, right? So who are the Magi? They were originally a priest, uh a tribe of priests in Persia, right? And so, I mean, through the years, their role kind of uh took on different shapes, uh, they kind of merged different things into their understanding of what a magi should be. Uh but they were they they were wise men, they were king makers, right? They're not kings themselves, but they were king makers. Uh at some point they became known as magicians, right? Not the kind that will pull coin from the from the back of a ear, but they were astrologers who can read the stars. They were the interpreters of dreams. So you think of the magicians in the uh in Nebuchadnezzar's court, whom Nebuchadnezzar calls them, you know, all these magicians who come and try to interpret his dream, right? They were interpreters of dreams, they were holding you know uh religious and and political roles in uh the eastern nations, whether it is Babylon or in Persia or you know Assyria, right? Um these were high-ranking officials, they were advisors and counselors to kings, they were interpreters of signs and dreams. So that's what the Magi's were, right? So this is why this story is strange. These were pagans. They were not Jews, right? They were pagans, they were Gentiles coming to find and worship the king of the Jews. So why did Matthew record this story in his gospel? Which I think would have shocked his readers, right? Uh, if not uh scandalized them. Right? In other parts of scripture, Magi is always referred to negatively, right? Whether in the Old Testament or in the New, they are always referred to negatively. But here in this story, they are examples for us.

unknown 6:17

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SPEAKER_00 6:17

They show us what the right response to Christ is. And even more interesting is that they act as a juxtaposition to the response of a Jewish king, King Herod.

unknown 6:31

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SPEAKER_00 6:31

So, what's going on here? You know, let's let's kind of look to the story and then uh I'll bring all of us through, and uh hopefully it will start to you know add up as we go along. Uh, but in chapter chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew, verse 1, uh it says, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born, king of the Jews? For we saw his star when he rose and have come to worship him. Right? Uh it's it may seem kind of strange that out of nowhere pops this group of magis and say, Yeah, we saw a star from our nation, then we decided to come along and try to find out what's going on, right? Um, but it really shouldn't surprise us that they have learned about the Jewish faith and the Jewish prophecies. Right? Uh after all, Jews were deported to their to their nation. Um rather more accurately, right? Persia in the end uh overtook Babylon, right? Where Daniel was at, for example, including the other other Jewish friends and and other, I'm sure other Jewish citizens as well, right? There was a Jewish population, and they learned these things from the Jews. Which actually in some sense is quite a quite interesting point where you plot they planted seeds way, way, way back. And at the advent, right, a group of magi who have heard of these prophecies saw the sign and were open to the gospel. And so I'm not sure if they understood the full meaning of what was happening, but they knew when they saw the star, they knew that they had to take the month-long uh journey, right? It's at least three months, right, to travel all the way to Jerusalem, to find this foreign king, to bow down to this uh to this uh king of the Jews. Um and I I think they quite innocently went to Jerusalem, right? Of course, obviously you want to go to Jerusalem, the city of this nation, right? So so he they went to Jerusalem and innocently asked, of all people, they asked King Herod about the birth of this new king, right? Verse 3 uh tells us when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Right? He was troubled, and the entire city was troubled with him. Not because they were so scared of the coming of Christ per se, but they were so scared of his reaction. You know how sometimes like somebody somebody may accidentally say or do something to trigger your friend or trigger your spouse, right? Someone accidentally bumped into her, someone cut his cue, uh, your kid dropped her food all over the floor even after being told a hundred times not to play with the food. And you know when the food hits the floor, it's gonna trigger someone in the family, right? And you just immediately clench up. Not because you are angry, but because of because you know the person next to you is filming, right? You know that things are about to get bad. And the whole of Jerusalem collectively clenched up when these pagans, magicians, right, this this this page, these heathens, these gentiles come and talk to their king and ask, where is this king of the Jews? Right? Obviously uh triggering Herod, who was a paranoid king. Uh in history, he was very brutal and he had no qualms killing any b any person that he thinks is a threat, including his mother-in-law, his uh brother-in-law, including his own wife and sons. Right? Which makes it uh I mean I don't want to say more understandable, but which makes more sense that later on he will kill all boys uh below the age of two, right? He was a brutal king. And he was afraid. He just wanted to get rid of Jesus, and then so so we see how he responded in uh uh in the next slide. I'm not gonna try to read out everything to you, but he basically got all the priests, all the religious experts, right, and asked them, you guys know the Bible, tell me where the Christ will be born. And they told him it will be in Bethlehem, it's written in the prophecies, right? Um and then verse 7, Herod then summoned the wise men back secretly and and um they summoned the wise men back secretly uh and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared, right? And he started um saying, you know, your go, you'll go on head to Bethlehem. If you find this Christ, please come and tell me. I also want to go and worship him, right? Which is obviously a lie. He wanted to find find ways to kill this uh this Jesus, right? Um to him, Jesus was not a savior, Jesus was a usurper, right? A threat that he must quickly erase before any trouble arise. So after after listening to King uh verse 9, right, the the the wise men they went on their way, behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Right? Um it's such an interesting point. In verse 2, no mean the magi saw the star, uh you could say maybe they are astrologers, right? They saw natural natural celestial movements and they saw the star and then they just go and follow the star, right? Um but now the star moves to guide the magi. As if painting a location on the Google map. And if we if we try to understand this, this this part a bit more, it I kind of I think it shows that God took the initiative to reveal something to the Magi. Right? And then when they were at Jerusalem, God continued to lead them by the star. It was God's initiative and God's intervention that led the Magi to his son, Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, it also meant that the Magi were not just aware of the prophecies, right? Like I said earlier, they were actually open to what the prophecies actually meant.

unknown 13:00

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SPEAKER_00 13:01

Last night there was a huge thunderstorm, right? Um if I were uh if I were for what were you called? A Norse person, a Norse man, right? I would think, yeah, that was the work of of uh Thor, right? Right, because they believe that Thor is the one that is in charge of all the uh the thunder and lightning, right? Um but just because I know of the the no no uh the Nordic mythology doesn't mean that I will actually believe it, right? Just because this group of Persian Magi know about the prophecy, just because they know it doesn't mean that they will actually believe it, right? But somehow this group of magi were already open, right? They were already open to what the prophecies were about. They were open to what it meant to them and to the world. And so they saw the star and they followed, without knowing exactly where it will lead them to, by the way. But they they followed, right? And it's it is kind of put here, I know it's a bit scarcely, it's a bit shocking, it's a bit strange, right? Um, but it is put here, I think, as a way of hinting, right? As we see in, say, Matthew chapter 1, the genealogy of Jesus, and then later on in other stories in the Gospels, right? We see that these are signs and hints that the door to the kingdom of heaven is being opened to include the Gentiles. Right now the Gentiles will be included in God's salvation plan, and um we we can see how these pagans respond, right? In in verse 10, we see that when they saw the star, they rejoice exceedingly with great joy. They rejoice exceedingly with great joy, right? That is like unnecessary. It's redundant, right? Matthew spilled ink to write redundantly, right? They rejoice with joy. Um but it is a way of you know uh emphasizing just how much joy was in them when they found this Jesus. We know them for bringing their gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts, but before they worshiped with their gifts, they worshiped with their heart first. Right? And it is this first thing that I think we can learn from the passage today. The first takeaway from uh Matthew chapter 2 is this that we are called to worship with our hearts as we bring our gift to Jesus. Right? This means we come with sincere adoration and reverence, right? And this morning's passage really is a contrast and a reversal of responses. Uh rather than being excited, Herod was threatened and he wanted to get rid of Jesus. Jesus was bad news and not the gospel, not the good news for him. And so he was an insider, acting like an outsider. Right? On the other hand, the magi were had no business being this thrilled about spending months on the road following a star to get to a foreign king so that they can bow down to worship him. Right? They have no, there's no reason for them to be this excited. But they were outsiders responding like insiders. And so this morning's passage calls for us to contemplate on our own hearts our attitude and our response to the coming of Christ. Right? The exceeding joy of the Magi reminds us that the appropriate response to Christ is joyful worship.

unknown 16:39

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SPEAKER_00 16:39

It encourages us to have an honest introspection and ask if we approach God with genuine joy. And if not, why? Sometimes we feel like our heart is just not there. You know, you come to service, something is not right, something happened at home, you know, there was a setback at work. You know, your heart is just not there, right? And that is understandable, right? We all go through low moments, uh, we suffer setbacks and tragedies, and sometimes our heart is just not there. But what if it becomes a prolonged feeling? What happens when we grow just a little bit more distant each time we come? We grow a bit more bored, more disengaged, more uninterested as the weeks go by. We could get to a point where everything feels like mere routine and ritual. Right? The same old thing week in and week out. Christmas can feel a bit more special. No, we buy presents, we have uh CG gatherings, we eat nicer food, we come for Christmas service, everyone's dressed up, everyone's exchanging small gifts and all. But otherwise, it's the same old message and same old routine. Right? We might even look at the new believers, newer believers, or we look at the exuberant ones and question why they are acting so happy. Right? We can become cynical towards people's heightened religious experiences. And perhaps unknowingly, we find ourselves responding more like an outsider than an insider. And to be honest, as a full-time worker in church, there are times when everything feels like just work, right? Uh including Sunday service, right? Um I wish I could say my heart is always in the right place, man. Like I'm always there for the Lord. My heart is always very centered around him and it's all all aligned to him, right? Um, and that I am able to do all this work as and worship unto God. But really, sometimes it feels like nothing but work. Everything feels very performative, everything feels like I just need to get this task over and done with. Um and I realize that when I'm not careful to tend to my soul, I I can I can feel myself losing that joy, lose uh becoming spiritually down, um, even becoming kind of cynical. Right? And then every Avant season, uh, Kevin the next side, every Aven season, I'm reminded of a song by Keith and Christine Getty. It's not really a worship song, it's not really a hymn, but it's a it's a song written uh based on their reflection on Christmas, right? It's titled Wonder, or like sometimes the title is Don't Let Me Lose My Wonder. Um the song speaks of seeing God's power and love in the seemingly insignificant things of everyday life, and also to see his power and love in suffering, in brokenness. And what's on screen here is the last verse of the song that, of course, talks about the birth of Christ and what it means. This song always moves me when I uh listen to it. It reminds me of the gospel, it reminds me of the significance of Christmas, it reminds me of the wonder and the awe that I used to have for the Lord. It reminds me that there was a time when I was a sinner, when I was lost and broken, when everything about life has been just void of meaning until Jesus came and dusk gave way to dawn. It reminds me that now in Christ I am redeemed and I am made new. And now I can see because the light of the world illumines the way of life. And during this season, I always find myself praying, you know, God, don't let me lose my wonder. Don't let me lose my wonder in the Almighty God. And there's a renewed longing to draw close to Him. And now I find my joy restored and deepened every time Advent season comes around. And and all this is to say that Advent season is for us to ask the Lord to set our hearts straight so that as we come to offer him a gift, it will be done with the right heart, filled with joy and awe. We sang the song The Heart of Worship.

unknown 21:33

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SPEAKER_00 21:34

God searches much deeper than whatever gifts we have to give him. And so first we come and we ask the Lord God set my heart right. And so that's the first point, right? Uh we worship with the right heart. And here's the second point we find from today's passage, uh, which is that we worship with Our offerings, or to be more precise, we worship with our sacrifice. Right. Verse 11, we continue to read that going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. They fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offer him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Worship involves offering. It involves sacrificial offering, even. So the part on sacrifice may not be so obvious in this passage. I'll give you that, right? It is not so explicit in Matthew chapter 2. But it is definitely explicit in both the old and the new testaments. But when we look at this story, I think it is at least clear that the Magi came with a huge offering of gifts, right? They are high-ranking officials, they would at least have the means to buy expensive gifts, and then they were giving gifts to a king, right? You don't just buy anything from your neighborhood shop to give something to a king, right? They would have spent a lot of money, right, to get this gift to Jesus. And I think importantly, they did all of this simply because it is their joy to offer gifts to the Christ. Not really looking for any payback, any benefit, any any personal gain, right? Not to carry favor with with Jesus, right? But because simply because it is their joy to give to Jesus. And they gave because Jesus was just much more valuable than these treasures. Right? And they offered it to Jesus out of worship, out of this pure satisfaction and joy in knowing that the Christ is born. And I would personally consider, of course, that this whatever they did and offered to Jesus was indeed a sacrifice. I mean, imagine imagine how they had a huge group of people, they lugged all these treasures that they bought with their own money, they traveled for months on their own dime just to get to Jesus, right? And elsewhere in scripture, we see that that worship always entails sacrifice. Um just very quickly, in the Old Testament, right, the sacrificial system is actually very central to Israel's worship. Right? They had uh I don't think I have it up there, right? They had things like burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, trespass offering. They have all these different offerings that you would uh sacrifice to the Lord. And all this was part of worship. Now worship always entailed sacrifices, which is why there is this story in in uh 1 Samuel chapter 24. And I I feel like David was very cool when he said it, right? They had to build an altar, you know. So he went to this person and said, Hey, I want to buy your land, I want to buy your your your animals and all so that I can give burnt offering. Right? This man out of his own heart he says, No, no, no, I'll give I'll give this plot of land to you, I'll give all this animal to you, you know, take it and just just uh uh sacrifice to God. Uh and in 1 Samuel chapter 24, verse 24, David says, I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. Right? I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. And that is a key concept to true worship. It involves offering something to God at a cost, at a sacrifice. And so in uh New Testament, Paul then would write this, right? Um he says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, I'm sure you're familiar with this, right? Appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And so sacrifice is key to our understanding of worship. And to some it may sound terrible, right, that you have to that you come to worship Jesus at a cost, but it I think it kind of comes back to the heart, right? Who are you sacrificing to? And if it's someone you hold dear, if if it's someone that you revere, then you will you would gladly do it. And that there's this story written by um an American writer called O. Henry. Uh, this is his reflection of the this passage, the the visit of the Magi. He wrote this short story called The Gift of the Magi. Right, but um he tells this story of, I think it's uh if you can go to the next slide, yeah. Thank you. He tells this story of this young couple who were very poor. Right? It opens with uh so the the the wife's name is Della, the husband's name is Jim. Right? It opens with Della lamenting. I have tried to save every single cent that I can, right? But I'm still left with, I mean, this is probably written way back, right? But I'm still left with $1.87. $1.87. It was not enough for anything, and Christmas was coming. And Della really, really wanted to get something nice for her husband, for Jim, for his Christmas present. Um, see, Jim had a gold watch, a very nice gold watch that belonged to his grandfather, that belonged to his father, and now belongs to him. Very nice gold watch. But it was it had a very torn and worn-out leather strap, and she wanted to get a gold chain so that he would be proud to bring it up. But of course, gold chain cost a lot of money, which she couldn't afford. So she was just lamenting and not knowing what to do. She sold the only thing uh that she could sell, which is her long, beautiful hair. That was her pride and joy. Everyone marveled at how beautiful her hair is, right? And it was precious to her, but she decided, you know what, I'm gonna give it up. She goes to the wake maker, um, she gets it chopped off, she gets paid $20, right? And with that $21.87, she goes and buys the chain for Jim. And then she went home and she looks at herself in the mirror, and he thought of her, oh goodness, I cut my hair so short. What if Jim finds me ugly now? Right? So now she's frantic. She keeps praying, Wow God, please, please make Jim still think that I'm pretty. Please make Jim still think I'm pretty. Right? And then the door opens and Jim steps in. Right? And she sees this shocked look on Jim's face. Right? And she she she she's like, do you find me ugly? You know, like like I'm still I'm still your wife, you know, and my hair will grow back really quickly. Right? She was just so frantic. And and um it's not a very long story, but I'm gonna cut it even shorter. Um, Jim was not repulsed by her looks. Um see, Jim also thought long and hard about what to get for his dear wife Della. Um also no money, so didn't know what to do. So the only thing he could sell his gold watch. He sold off his gold watch to go get this set of really nice tortoise shell combs. Right? It's a set of combs that Della had always wanted to get so that she can comb her hair, she can maintain it, right? But they never could afford it. But now, having sold the watch, he can buy the comb to Della. So when he came home, he was shocked because he bought the gifts for her hair, which is not there anymore. Right? And Della sacrificed her hair with a to get a gold chain that has nothing to attach to anymore. And at the end of the of the story, of course, they embrace and the point of the story um it's not that it is like a tragic comedy, right? It's not that it is so tragic, it's so foolish, right? Of course you could read it that way, right? One never communicates. I mean, it's a short story, like it's meant to drive one point only, right? But we don't we don't never talk to each other, one never communicate, you know, this is 101 for Christian uh marriage counseling and all, right? Um but the point of the story, and and I think this is what the author was really trying to say, this was a demonstration of genuine love and self-sacrifice to the most important person of all. We can say we will sacrifice our lives for Jesus or for my spouse, we will give, we are we are very uh sacrificial and all, right? Um but how often do we get to really really demonstrate it? And I think the point of this story is that this is a demonstration of genuine love and self-sacrifice. And really at the end of it, they lost what was precious to them, and you may think that they did it all for nothing, but at the end they became richer and fuller in their love. And that's kind of the point, right? It's not about what we have lost, what we have given up, what we have sacrificed, but that at the end, as we offer it up to Jesus, we become fuller and richer in Him. And so for us, our sacrifice may seem costly as we part with our most valuable things, right? Whether it's time, whether it's energy, for us some, maybe it's money, um, maybe it's our very lives, right? Orientating our lives towards Jesus. But that is what worship calls for: our sacrificial offerings to God. And I trust that as we joyfully offer them to our King, we may yet find ourselves richer and fuller than ever before. And so here are the two components, as I conclude, here are the two components to our gift of worship to God. Right? That first we worship with the right heart. Right? We must come to Jesus with the right heart first, and then we worship with sacrificial offering. And I pray that in this advent season, as we bring our gift to Him, we may experience genuine joy and delight in the Lord who has come, uh who came to redeem and to restore us. Church, let us pray.