The Gifts of Christmas

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Kelly, keep your Bible open. You'll need that as we go along. Some of the stuff will be on the screen, but not all of it today. Be good for you to look at it for yourself. Make sure that what I'm saying is there. Yeah, if you haven't picked up already, we're kicking off our Advent Sermon series, focusing on the gifts of Christmas. I wonder, a quick show of hands who's excited for Christmas. Yeah, there's a few around the room. That's good. That's good. Yeah. It's only a few weeks away now. We're officially into this Advent season, which is the period from November 30 through to December 24, when Christians around the world reflect on the Advent or the arrival of Jesus. Maybe you've started your Advent calendar already. Maybe that's something you do as a family. You've got one there for the kids. It's interesting, the origins of those Advent calendars go back to Germany, where Christians as early as the beginning of the 19th century were counting down the days to those first 24 days of December. Often back then, they were just counting it with a chalk line somewhere beginning on December 1. Some families throughout history have had more elaborate means of marking the days, maybe lighting candles, hanging little pictures to remind them of a part of the Christmas story as each day unfolds. This whole idea of Advent comes from that Latin word Adventus, which just means coming or an arrival. It's this period throughout history where it's a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Jesus' birth at Christmas, and Christians have been celebrating that for some time. It is an exciting time, Christmas, because as believers, don't we, we understand that the hope of the Christian message is that God has come. Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, if you just turn back to chapter 1 and verses 22 to 23, Matthew records for us there that all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. It's exciting. Jesus has entered into human history in a way in which we can know him. He's come into a time and a place with witnesses that attest that he was indeed here, that he did indeed live, that he died on that Roman cross, that he rose again, and the Bible tells us that Jesus' death and resurrection on that cross made that way for us to be brought back into right relationship with God. That's why we get excited about remembering communion, because it's a reminder of what Jesus has done for us. He's made us right with God, that we can know who God is and what it means to be his children, because Jesus has come, because God has entered into human history. Now, because Jesus rose again, he intercedes for us, the Bible says, at the right hand of God in heaven, and one day Jesus will return. He's promised that he will. And so this season of Advent, just as Pastor Doug is rightly pointed out, it's also an anticipation of Jesus' second coming when he returns in glory and takes us to be with him forever. It's an exciting time, Christmas. For Christians, absolutely. But it's an exciting time for many Australians as well who celebrate the Christmas season. Some years ago now, back in 2019, the social researcher and his group, MacRindle, research, Mark MacRindle and his team, they conducted a survey of Australians asking about their excitement level for Christmas. And the top two reasons why Aussies were excited for Christmas were spending time with family and friends and the food and the celebration of Christmas. It's interesting that part of our celebration of Christmas is this giving of gifts and presents to our family and friends. Christmas is a time of giving. It's a tradition that we all embrace, regardless of where we might stand on faith or on Jesus. When it comes to Christmas, most of us get into the celebration and we give and receive gifts at Christmas. It's a little bit hard as you track throughout history to try and fully nail down the origin of this gift giving at Christmas. Some might point back to St Nicholas, the now famous Christian who gave gifts to the poor, particularly to children in around the third century in Turkey. Some go back to him. Some go further back. They go back to ancient Rome and apparently on the winter solstice, their gifts were given to the emperor as part of the Roman celebrations and the festival season. Some people go back there. Other people look to the Magi, the wise men that Kelly read for us this morning from Matthew's account as the origin of our gift giving at the Christmas season. We're going to dig into the the Magi's gift in a moment, but I think we need to go even further back than that. The first Christmas gift was given even before the Magi turned up. If you picked up in the reading today, this is some maybe a couple of years after Jesus was born. The Magi found Jesus in a house. He wasn't in the manger anymore. We often have the Magi there in the nativity scene, but that's not exactly when they turned up. We're told in the the Gospel account there it was some time later. Could have been as much as two years after. So we've got to go further back than the Magi and I think we need to go right back to that first Christmas day because we know it to be true, don't we? Right at the very heart of Christmas, right at the very center of that nativity scene is God's indescribable gift to us, and that gift is Jesus, God's Christmas gift to the world. The Bible tells us that God gave us that that first Christmas gift. He gave us the gift of his son. We all know that familiar passage, don't we, from John 3.16 that 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. That's the genesis of Christian gift giving is that we understand and know that God has given us an indescribable gift in the giving of his son. And it's out of that deep understanding of God's great gift to us. His gift of grace, of a saviour, of someone that makes us right with him. It's out of that overflow of the gratitude and affection we feel unto God because of that that forms the basis of our biblical theology for Christian giving. It's not just the gift of grace that God gave us that first Christmas as he sent his son. He gives us other gifts as well and we're going to unpack some of those as we go through our Advent series. We'll look at some gifts of joy and peace and right relationship with the God who made us. In coming weeks, Pastor Doug, Pastor Dylan are going to help us to unwrap those gifts in more detail as we dig into God's Word. But that's kind of the genesis of gift giving, I think. But it's not just Christians who like to give gifts at Christmas. I mentioned all Aussies get into the spirit of Christmas. There was another survey more recently done just last year, 2024, this time by the Australian Institute. And they reported that 77% of people, Aussies, like buying gifts for others at Christmas, 77%. Surprisingly, a little over half, 52%, would actually prefer it if people didn't buy them gifts. That's an interesting skew of the statistics, isn't it? It's interesting that we like giving more than we like receiving gifts at Christmas. Now, I don't know whether that's because Aussies understand what Jesus said about it being more blessed to give than to receive. Maybe not. Maybe it's because of the 27% of people surveyed that expected to receive presents that they would never wear or use for Christmas. 27% were expecting that in 2024. And the Australian Institute says that's approximately $1 billion in unused Christmas gifts that just goes to waste or to landfill, which is pretty striking. Interesting, here you go back to the MacRindle survey. The most hoped for Christmas presents, according to their research, was time with loved ones, cash or no present at all. So it kind of fits with the two surveys. Regardless of what you hope for this Christmas, I haven't done a poll, I haven't done a 2025 survey. Whatever it is that you're hoping for for Christmas, whether it's any of those top three things from previous years or whether it's something else, we know, don't we, that when it comes to giving and receiving gifts at Christmas, there are some good gifts and there are some dud gifts. There's some good gifts that we kind of are looking forward to getting. There might be good gifts because their heart felt, maybe they're significant gifts. Maybe there's something really useful, maybe like a nucleus hive for a beginner beekeeper, hair and fam, wink, wink. Maybe that could be a good gift. We know also that some other gifts are not so good and whether or not that's because it's the six or seven coffee mugs that you get as a school teacher at the end of every year. Maybe it's the undies and socks that you never knew that your nan needed to buy you as a youth or a young adult. Whatever it is, we know that there's some gifts that aren't as good. But gift giving is part of the celebration of Christmas. And if you're familiar with the Christmas story, particularly if you've heard that account from Matthew that Kelly read a little bit earlier on, there's still a bit of mystery about these unusual gifts that the Magi present to Jesus on that first Christmas. At face value, as we heard that account read for us there earlier, as those Magi came to that home, as they worship Jesus in the overflow of their joy at the good news of the coming king, as they give these gifts to the little boy Jesus, it kind of seems that these are strange gifts to be giving to a baby boy. Maybe even it seems like they're dodgy gifts to give to a baby. Surely there are more appropriate gifts for a baby boy. These days, if we kind of pull ourselves back into the modern culture, you think of gifts for a little baby, you think of nappies and clothes or baby formula or some money for a babysitter or maybe to put to future education or something, they're all kind of appropriate gifts for a baby. Maybe it was three wise ladies, instead of three wise men, maybe they would have given appropriate gifts. I don't know, I don't know, but whatever it is, it seems like at face value these are weird gifts to give a baby. We're going to unpack that this morning and I think we'll see that it's not dodgy at all. These are in actual fact rather significant gifts and if we properly understand them, they help us to make sense of who Jesus is. Not only that, they help us to understand why we should get excited about Christmas and I think we also see in these verses that there are three different responses that we can have to Jesus and so that's kind of where we're going to go. But let's just pause all that by way of introduction. Let's just pray and ask God to help us as we unpack this together. Father God, we do just want to give you thanks and praise for this joy of Christmas, for the excitement as we eagerly anticipate that Christmas day when we get to celebrate and give thanks again for your indescribable gift. Father, we just pray as we continue in this Advent season, as we intentionally reflect and prepare, as we anticipate that celebration on Christmas morning. Lord, we remember your great gift to us. We remember the truth of your Word that Jesus has promised to come again and so as we wait in this in-between time with great joy and expectation. Help us as we unpack your Word to understand what it means to be your children, what it means to be those who have received this gift of grace that you have so freely offered to each of us. Help us as we dig into your Word now by your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I think first up, before we even look at the gifts, we need to recognize right off the bat, if you didn't pick it up already, this is one amazing event. There's something kind of supernatural and significant that's going on here. If you cast your eye down to verse 1 of Matthew chapter 2 again, you see that this happens after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea. It's during the time of King Herod and these magi come from the east. They come to Jerusalem and before we even go any further, coming from the east in the Bible times, often the east is associated with being away from God's presence. When God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, he sent them out to the east. It's often that the east is pictured in the Bible as being away from God's presence. These are people that have come from outside of God's family of faith, outside of the people of Israel. They're Gentiles, it's from a pagan nation. These were not God followers or God worshipers and so straight away as we hear this term magi, as we hear they're coming from the east to Jerusalem, we're struck by this is actually an amazing event. Something weird is happening here and then we see that the magi come and they ask who is the one that's been born the king of the Jews. We saw his star and when it rose and we've come to worship him. We don't know the names or the nationalities or basically anything about these guys other than they were wise men from the east. History tells us potentially they're probably pagan astrologers. They've come seeking to worship this newborn king of the Jews. That Matthew tells us quite clearly in the text, but this is amazing when you think about it. Pagan, non-God-fearing astrologers from another land have come into Jerusalem because they saw a star in the sky and that somehow has led them to understand that there's a king that's come, the king of the Jews. I think you understand the significance of this even further when you consider that when Jesus was born, Israel as a nation had been longing for the appearance of the Messiah for hundreds of years. God had promised right back from the beginning as he constituted them as a nation, you go all the way back to Abram. When God had covenant with Abram in Genesis 15 as he took those animals and divided them in half and God walked down in between those animals and he made a covenant with Abram and he said, if you keep faithful to this covenant, I'll keep faithful to you and I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make you into a great nation. I'm going to bless those who bless you. I'll curse those who curse you and all the nations will be blessed because of you and it's even more amazing that God would do that with Abram and then continue just to protect and fashion and form his people all throughout history and he'd prophesied that one day his Messiah, his once forever king, the king of everything would come and would rule and reign over Israel and bring peace to the earth and finally in the fullness of time in salvation history, we know that Jesus was born sometime before these Magi arrived and yet nothing up until this point has told us that any Jew came looking for him. The only ones that are mentioned here in the Matthews account are the Gentiles, these non-Jews, these Magi. Magi usually referred to this class of men who advised kings, they advised royalty, usually through their study of dreams and stars and magic. It was a pagan thing, astrologers, diviners, that sort of thing. If you recall back to the Old Testament, the men who were asked to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the book of Daniel were also known as Magi. So these are the kind of guys that we're talking about here. These particular Magi, like I said, they come from the east, maybe Babylon, maybe Persia, we can't be certain. They came from a distant land and they've been drawn by this lure of the star. In the Middle Ages this tradition arose that because there were three gifts presented to Jesus in the home there, that there were three wise men. But we don't know that for sure, there were just three gifts. We have no way of knowing that, we're not told. Then the story kind of grows through the Middle Ages and now these Magi, based on scriptures and Psalms that they were reading in the Middle Ages, they've now elevated these Magi to kings. And so then we get songs like our three kings from Orient land. We don't know that they were kings, it's just the Middle East tradition, we're medieval tradition, we're not sure. The story even kind of goes further back in tradition. Some have supposed that maybe these were descendants of Noah's three sons. One was white, one was black, one was brown, they were given names, Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior. And again we've got no evidence for any of that at all. So if you've heard any of those things, that's not what we read in the Bible. All we know is that these men were Magi, they were wise men, likely astrologers from some far off land and something amazing had happened to lead them to believe that the promised Messiah, God's chosen king of Israel, was born. And they've left their land at great expanse, maybe traveling a great distance because they want to meet this king, they want to worship him. And even more amazing than that, God places this star in the sky to guide them to Jesus. We saw that in verses two and nine of the text that Kelly read earlier. This king of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem. And this was foretold by God. It was prophesied that this would happen in verses five and six of chapter two. We read the prophecy there. The history of God and his interactions with his people, the Israelites right throughout, that they knew in the writings of the Old Testament, this was clear for them. God was going to send a Messiah. He was going to be born in Bethlehem. And yet, none of the Jews were looking for it. God promised to raise up a king who'd rule his people forever to usher in this time of peace. And if you keep reading through Matthew chapter two, you'll have a look and see that there's prophecies about this Messiah in verses five and six, also in verse 15, which we haven't read yet, verses 17 and 18 and verse 23. Have a read of that during the week. Read the whole chapter and you'll see the prophecies are clear. This king was important to the people of Israel. And yet, in some amazing way, it was important to these magi as well. And that kind of raises a question for us, doesn't it? Why did nobody else come looking for the king? You know, if this king was prophesied, if this was part of God's plan, his salvation plan, if this was in the scriptures, why did nobody else come looking for the king? Either star is unusual, so unusual that it could be seen from distant lands and off to the east. And yet, nobody comes asking for this king. As far as we can tell, it's just these pagan astrologers who have any idea that something amazing has taken place in Bethlehem only a few years ago. Doesn't stop there. I think there's one more amazing thing about that is God warns the magi after they visit Jesus. Kelly read for us in verse 12 there, God warns them, go home by another route because it was dangerous to go back to Herod. He wasn't a happy man. He wasn't a kind man. He wasn't a good man. And God warns the magi to go back by another route. God protects them in sovereign providence so that they can return home with the good news. Clearly, all of that tells us that something of great significance, something quite extraordinary has taken place. This is not your average birth. The birth of Jesus at Christmas is significant. It's amazing. That's the kind of the scaffolding that holds up everything else that we discover this morning. Notice the three significant gifts that the magi present to the baby Jesus. Look at verse 11 there. It says, on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary. They bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And again, at face value, it kind of seems like a dodgy gift. You don't give that to kids. That first gift of gold, it's strange for a baby. He's a little boy, maybe two years old, have some precious medals. That'll go great with your toddling. In the ancient world and in many places today, gold is actually a gift fit for a king. There's a significance in that, that this gift of gold reveals something to us about who Jesus is, or at least who the magi thought that Jesus was. And I think because they'd had the truth revealed to them, who Jesus actually is, he is the king. The gold signifies that Jesus is the king of everything. We read that prophecy earlier in chapter two verse six, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you're by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. It's clear, isn't it? Even in their own prophecy, there's this indication that a king would come, a ruler. Jesus is God's promised king. He's the ruler who was said to come to shepherd God's people of Israel. We see that confirmed for us in the life and ministry of Jesus, don't we? If you read any of the gospel accounts, if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in the New Testament, as you read these accounts, you'll see Jesus confirm time and time again that he is the king of everything. He heals the sick, he casts out demons, he commands nature with the word, that furious storm be still and it obeys. Not only that, he raises people to life. And then later Jesus would claim of his own life to his disciples that he would die, he'd be crucified, he'd be buried and then three days later he would rise. And we know history tells us that happened. Jesus did die at the hands of those Romans on that cross. He's buried three days later, he rises again victorious over sin and death. And this is attested to, it's witnessed, verified by a number of eyewitnesses, in one case over 500 eyewitnesses at the same time, claimed to see the risen Jesus. Dylan was saying our auditorium is, is been getting close to bursting at the same, if you'd fit about 300 people comfortably in here. So add another 200. Imagine that, 500 people all at the same time saw the risen Jesus, claimed that it was true. It happened. Jesus is God's promised king. Only the Messiah could ever live up to those audacious claims. So that gift of gold is significant. The second gift there, that gift of frankincense, it's another strange gift for a baby. Most of us have a sense of what incense is. It's that smelly sticks that you light and the, the smoke comes up and it smells all aromatic. Trying to figure out what, what does this mean? What does this reveal or tell us about Jesus? Well, I think it's less about making the baby smell nice or covering up dirty nappies in the nursery. It's more about what was incense used for in this particular time period. Incense was used in the temple. It was symbolic of, of God, of, of being in relationship with him, of praying to him, of speaking to him. It's a picture of relationship and access. It would burn in the temple and as that smoke would rise up as the smell of that was, was pleasing, it would remind people of their prayers going up to God and of being able to, to bring those prayers to him because of the relationship that they had with him. What this tells us about Jesus is, he makes us right with God. We have access to God through Jesus. We can come into his presence because of what Jesus, our King, has done for us. And so that's another reason why Christmas is exciting for us. Earlier in Matthew chapter one, verse 21, when that angel of God appeared to Joseph, to Mary's husband in the dream, he said to Joseph, she, Mary will give birth to a son and you're to give him the name Jesus because he'll save his people from their sins. Jesus is the King of everything who makes us right with God. That's why he came to save us from our sin. That leads us to our third gift, the myrrh, again, a weird gift for a kid. In our culture, perhaps it might be the equivalent of giving a tombstone or a grave headstone to baby Jesus. Myrrh was an embalming spice that was used in preparation of bodies for burial and it signifies, as the wise men are giving it to Jesus, it signified how Jesus would restore us, the actual way in which he would make that possible. It signifies his death, his laying down his life so that we might live. If you're familiar with the words of Jesus, he said it plainly in Mark 10, 45, he said, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Maybe that's why most people missed it. Maybe that's why it was just the magi that are coming looking for the King and the Jews missed it because this is not the way a King comes. Kings come in fanfare and pomp and ceremony and with an army, they don't come as a baby to a faithful Jewish girl and a faithful Jewish carpenter in the middle of Bethlehem, some backward town. That's not the King that many would expect and that's probably why they missed it. I hope you're starting to see the significance of those gifts. They seem a bit dodgy at first, but upon reflection they're highly significant gifts, not to mention they were expensive. Some scholars have speculated these gifts may have helped fund Joseph and Mary's exile to Egypt as they awaited Herod's death. If you have a little look further on in Matthew chapter 2, verses 13 to 15 tells us that after the wise men leave, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream again and warns him, you have to escape to Egypt. Take Mary, take Jesus, escape to Egypt. Herod's searching for the baby and he's not wanting to worship him as he told the wise men, he actually wants to kill him. So God warns Joseph in this dream and they become refugees in Egypt, they become exiles. In verses 16 to 18 you can read about the tragic events that took place in Bethlehem and the surrounding area after as Herod orders the killing of every boy two years old and under. It's a tragic story and yet God again in this amazing providence and sovereignty, he protects Mary, Joseph and Jesus as they head off to Egypt as refugees there. The significance of these gifts from the Magi wasn't in their value but what they revealed to us about Jesus. That's the thing we need to take away from that this morning. Jesus is the king of everything who makes us right with God by dying in our place for our sins. That's what these gifts tell us about Jesus. They reveal something about his identity, his mission and how he accomplished that mission on earth. Significant gifts. Then I mentioned there was three responses we need to look at and these are going to go pretty quick. Let's just have a look at the text again. I'm going to read it out and try and identify the three responses in the text as you hear it read. 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's been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly. He found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and he said, go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him report to me so that I too may go and worship him. After they'd heard the king they went on their way 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 returned to their country by another route. Skip down to verse 16. When Herod realized that he'd been outwitted by the Magi he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and in its vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he'd learned from the Magi. I wonder as that was read out just now as you listened along maybe read it along with me. The three responses jump out to you there. Firstly the response of Herod, he was troubled mostly because there's a new king in town and he's worried about his reign. He wants to hold on to power as long as he can. He wants to be the king. He doesn't want some other king to depose him or to kick him off the throne or to set the agenda for his life. No he's living large, he's loving calling the shots. So he's troubled. He rejects Jesus. In actual fact as we read in the text there he was actively opposed to the work of God in that tragic events of the killing of all those kids because he's trying to kill the king. He's trying to thwart the purposes of God. I wonder if that's our response this morning. Probably not because you're here in church. That's a pretty overt rejection of Jesus to actively oppose the work of God in that way to actually kill all those kids. It's awful, awful. But I wonder sometimes if we think about it as we're reflecting on Advent as we're preparing our hearts for the celebration of that Christmas day. Is there any way like Herod in us where we still want to be the Lord of our life? We still want to be the king and call the shots in the way in which we set out our lives rather than coming under God's sovereign plan. Maybe there's an area in our life that we know that God has been leading us as we've been journeying with Jesus, has been walking as disciples. Yet there's this one little area that God just keeps bringing to our attention, talking to us about, calling us to obey. We're holding back because like Herod we don't want to get off the throne. It might not be as overt as Herod was in that outright opposition to the will of God. But we can do that in little ways as we hold back from God, as we don't give Him everything and surrender our lives to Him. The second response we see there in verses 3-6, the religious leaders. These were the ones that Herod called to answer the question, tell me about this prophecy. When is the king meant to be born? Where? What's happening? And these religious leaders assemble. They knew all the prophecies. They knew the facts. They'd been to rabbi school. They'd been through the Torah school. They knew all the details about God's coming Messiah. But when He came, when He actually arrived, they didn't receive Him. I wonder too if maybe we can be a little bit like that at times. We can give an intellectual ascent to Jesus, but yet not know Him, intimately as our Lord, as our Savior. It's one thing to come to church. It's one thing to read the Bible and hear the Christmas story. But it's another thing to actually examine the evidence and to believe in Jesus. It's not just facts that we need. It's relationship with the king. And He offers that freely to all who would believe. The final response that we could have is the Magi. Verse 11 and verse 12, we see that they humble themselves. They worship the king. And in response to recognizing the majesty and worth of Jesus, they overflow with joy and generosity. That word, their worship, they literally fell face down, prostrate before this baby boy. That's a weird sign, isn't it? People don't do that. It's weird. There's something odd about that. But not when we understand who Jesus is. He is the forever king. And these Magi had put their faith in that. They believed that. And they were overwhelmed and worshiped Him. They humbled themselves before the king. Out of that overflow of awe and wonder, that worship and joy, we see their generosity and the gifts, the significant gifts that they gave. But not only that, when God speaks to them, they obey. God warns them and says, go back another way and they obey. That's a good response to have to Jesus. Worship, surrender, obedience. It's the response of a disciple, of a child, of God. It's the right response to the king. And I guess that leaves us as we finish up this morning is, what's our response this Christmas? It's something that we need to think about. Pray through, examine as we go through this advent season. We have a response to make, to this king, to the one we celebrate and give thanks for every Christmas. Jesus is the forever king who makes us right with God by dying for our sin. He invites us to worship and obey. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do just want to thank you for these gifts of Christmas. Thank you for Matthew's faithful account that helps us to understand these things, to see the amazing significance, not just of this time period in salvation history, but Lord, the significance of these strange, mysterious gifts that were presented to the boy Jesus. Father, we pray in response to what that reveals to us about who Jesus is, about what he has done for us. Lord, that that would bring us to that point of decision, that we might have a response. We can't be faced with Jesus and not respond. We either reject him like Herod and continue to live life as the king of our own lives, making our own way and trying to do that as best we can, in opposition to your good and perfect plan for our, for our lives. Well, Lord, maybe like those religious leaders who knew lots of things about Jesus, they'd heard the stories, they'd read the Bible, and yet still they failed to surrender, to humble themselves in faith and to receive that gift of salvation that the king offered. Lord, we thank you for the response of these magi. Thank you for the reminder of what it means to worship, to surrender, to overflow in generosity and giving because of what you have done for us in giving us that greatest Christmas gift. We pray that you'd lead us in our response in Jesus' name. Amen.