The Gift of Frankincense
The Three Gifts December 15, 2024 John 1:1-18 Notes
In John 1:1-18, the apostle John bore witness of Jesus as the Son of God who came into the world that we might believe in Him and become children of God. The Magi’s gift of frankincense points to Christ’s divinity. We can believe John’s witness that Jesus is the Son of God.
Audio
Good morning, church. It's good to see all of you here this morning. We welcome you to part two of our series entitled, “The Three Gifts.” “The Three Gifts” is based on the Magi, the wise men who came and brought these three gifts. They traveled far from the East and brought these gifts to Jesus.
Last week, we talked about the gift of gold. Today, we'll discuss the gift of frankincense. Speaking of traveling, I wonder if any of you are traveling this Christmas. Anybody traveling to go and visit parents or grandparents or others? Yeah, I see some hands going up around the room.
You'll be traveling. There's someone that always connects us together. It's the matriarch or the patriarch, somebody that we have to go see at Christmas. We pack our stuff and then we also bring our wrapped gifts and we travel. The Magi traveled to see Jesus.
Now, I'm not traveling this year. People are coming to my house. That's the way it goes lately; my children and my grandchildren will descend upon our house on Christmas Eve. I kid around; we love our family. They will descend upon our family on Christmas Eve like a cloud of locusts.
I have ten grandchildren; they will eat everything that we have and then they will depart. Then, they will leave. But we love it and we're happy that we have our family coming to see us. Maybe, you don't have someone that you're traveling to see, or maybe no one's coming to see you this Christmas, but what I would say to you is that Someone has traveled.
His name is Jesus. He traveled from heaven to earth to be one of us and so, invite Him to your house this Christmas. If you've never invited Him into your life, this is the season above all seasons to consider doing so. Would you invite Jesus? He traveled to connect us to God, and He's the one Who can connect us to the Father.
Now, our theme comes from Matthew, chapter 2, verse 11. It says, Matthew 2:11 (ESV) “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Last week, we discussed how gold is a gift fit for a king.
Now this morning, we'll talk about how frankincense, which is a gift fit for the Lord, how it's a gift fit for God himself. What is frankincense? Frankincense is an aromatic resin tapped from the very scraggly but hardy Boswellia tree. What they do is they slash the bark.
The first few times they slash it, it begins to form a resin-like tears that drip from it and they are white. But, as they continue to slash it in this process, it begins to form these yellow exuded resins that bleed out and harden. It’s from this that they gather and form many of the perfumes that we use today. Even from ancient times, they used it in perfumes and in incense. The Western name for this resin, frankincense, literally means incense of the Franks.
We believe it was first introduced to Europeans into the Western world by the French who had gone on the Crusades to the Middle East and they brought this frankincense back. Thus, it's been named after them. It's the incense of the Franks. In Jewish temple worship, frankincense was considered a valuable and sacred substance with very specific use. One of its primary uses was it was part of the recipe for the sacred incense that was burned on the altar of incense in the holy place, right in front of the curtain, in front of the Holy of Holies.
It represented the prayers of the saints that went up to God and so, the priest kept this burning all the time. You can read about that in Exodus 30:34-38. It symbolized the prayers of the people rising to God (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8). The sweet-smelling smoke represented the presence and favor of God. It discussed how this frankincense recipe of incense represented the prayers of the saints. It was also included in the grain offering and in the sacrificial offerings.
It was part of that offering in Leviticus, chapter 2. You can read about that. It was restricted for special use. In other words, it was considered holy to the Jews. You couldn't use frankincense in your mixture.
You couldn't go to the temple and get the sacred recipe. No, that was not allowed. It was considered holy, which means set apart for God. We see that frankincense was a very unusual, not ordinary gift to bring to a baby shower.
Just like gold was a gift fit for a king, this frankincense was a gift fit for the Lord Himself. That's what we're talking about today. We're in John, chapter one, verses one through 18. Here, we see that the apostle John bore witness of Jesus as the very Son of God, as God Himself in the flesh. As we look at the text today, I think we can look and consider how we can consider who Jesus really is,
that He is the Son of God. He's God plus humanity in one person, the perfect representation and the way to know God personally. As we look, I think we can give God, we can give Jesus the gift of frankincense by worshiping Him for who He truly is. So let's dig in.
We're going to look at three ways we can do that today. But first, let's read the text, and then we'll dig in. John 1:1-18 (ESV) 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” This is God's word. Amen.
We're looking for three ways on how we can give Jesus the gift of frankincense this Christmas. Here's the first:
1. By recognizing Him as the divine Word of God.
Those first three words in John chapter one are the same three words as the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Surely there was no mistake on John's part. He was connecting his Gospel with the very origin of all things.
This Word that he speaks of was there before the beginning. “In the beginning,” he says, “was the Word” and so, he gives us this amazing claim, what he's talking about here is Christ’s deity, that He is divine, that He is God, of very God. Notice the way he talks about Him. First of all, he uses “In the beginning” to connect it to the book of Genesis.
Then, he describes Him as the Word. The Word. What an unusual way to talk about Jesus, that He's the Word. We see it in verses one and all through here. He says He was the Word, “In the beginning was the Word…”
So, He is there at the beginning. “...and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” which speaks of the mystery of the Trinity: the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. He's with God, but He also is God. So John, among the four Gospels, has a clear purpose.
If we consider Matthew, Matthew's purpose is clearly that Jesus is king. He makes more quotations from the Old Testament prophets to prove that He's in the line of David and deserves David's throne. That He's the king. That's Matthew; Mark sees Him as a servant.
He's a doer. He's always doing miracles and He does them “immediately” as the favorite phrase of Mark; he sees him as a servant. John sees Him as God.
Luke sees Him as the Son of Man, so He sees His humanity. But, John says He's God. He's God. He's with God, and He is God.
He calls Him the Word. Such an unusual phrase. Notice that he refers to the Word as a He. Verse 2, “He was in the beginning…”
That's in the masculine singular. This Word is a person. Who is this person? Well, we have to work all the way down to verse 14 to get a glimpse. Verse 14 says, “...and the Word became flesh.” The Word became flesh.
Those three words. Well, that's Christmas, isn't it? That's the Christmas story right there. God, the second person of the Godhead, Christ became human.
He took on humanity. He became flesh. Who is He? What's His name? Well, we have to go to verse 17 to finally hear His name.
John keeps us in suspense. And then in verse 17, he says that His name is Jesus Christ. That's who this Word is. He is Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, God Himself in the flesh. The Word, “Logos,” is the word in the Greek that we find translated as “word.”
It's an interesting word, “Logos.” It's where we get the word logic. It's also the word that all of our studies are based on. If you think about it, biology is bios, theology, theos, and logos is the study of God.
So all of those words that you studied in school, all those studies that have “ology” at the end comes from the Greek word “Logos;” literally a word about or the study of. Why call Jesus the Logos? Well, it was meaningful for John to do this both to his Hellenistic audience, his Greek audience, as well as his Jewish audience when he was speaking to the Greeks. The word, Logos, was rich in the philosophies of Plato,Socrates and others among the Greeks. They saw the Logos as the primary rational explanation of all things.
So, to talk about the Logos was to talk about why we exist. And it was describing our existence. And then for the Jew, the word Logos had the sense of God himself, that somehow it was the embodiment of God. In John's Gospel, he says He is an eternal word because he says,1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…” He's an eternal word.
Then he says that He's a divine word - “...the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”Then he says that He's the creative word - Verse 3, “All things were made through him.” How many things were made by Him?
All things. All things were made by Him. He seems to be harkening back to Genesis even more, because “In Him, verse four, was life.” So he's the source of life. Who?
The Word. Who's the Word? Jesus. He's the source of life and this life, he says, is the light for all men.
So he's the source of light as well. This, too, I think, harkens back to the book of Genesis. Because we see in Genesis 1:3 (ESV) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Perhaps, if we were to read Genesis chapter one through the lens of the book of John, through the lens of the New Testament, we could read in Genesis chapter one and see the whole Trinity:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
This Jesus, in Him is life and in Him is light. God said, “Let there be light.” Jesus is that creative member of the Godhead. He's the source of all things. This is what John is teaching us about Jesus.
When I think about this, I think about His claim for divinity. I remember when He was talking to the disciples and He was talking about how He would soon be going and leaving them, but He would come again and not let their hearts be troubled. And then we hear Philip say, ‘Well, if You just show us the Father. Could You just pull back the curtain and let us see the Father?’ And he says this to Philip.
He says, in John 14:9 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.” If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. Do you want to know what God looks like? Read the Gospels. He looks just like Jesus.
Do you want to know how He thinks? He thinks just like Jesus. Do you want to know how He feels? He feels just like Jesus. Do you want to know God?
He's the light, the revealing light that reveals who God is to man. That's what John is teaching us today. Have you ever heard of the theory in physics, spelled out by an acronym T O E?
Have you heard this physics explanation for life? It's called the Theory Of Everything: T O E. The Theory Of Everything. It's a theoretical framework in physics that aims to unify all fundamental forces and particles in the universe into a single, all encompassing explanation.
They're looking for an equation that would explain our existence, that they could somehow write out a mathematical explanation. The Greeks called this the Logos, the explanation for everything, the source of everything, the reason for our existence. I think John is telling us that Jesus is not the theory of everything. He's the real deal. He's the true light.
He is the explanation for everything. He is the reason for everything. Giving Jesus the gift of frankincense means to give Him recognition as the eternal creator. Life, Light, Son of God, that he is God, of very God. Have you given Him the gift of frankincense?
You can do it this Christmas by recognizing who He is. Now here's the second way we can give Him this gift. The first is to recognize that He's the divine deity, that He's the Word of God. The second is:
2. By believing in Him as the only true way to God.
He's the mediator between God and man. We're down to verses 5 through 13. Let's unpack them together. Last week in Matthew, we talked about how there's a war for your worship. There's a war between two kings. King Herod,
who's the false king, who was not born King of the Jews. He was appointed. He was a puppet king under the Romans and then King Jesus, who the magi came seeking.
The one born King. He's the one born to the line of David. We still have that warfare in worship today. Will you worship the worldly King Herod, or will you worship the spiritual heavenly king, King Jesus? Now, in John, we see another war going on here.
It's not for our worship, necessarily. It's for our belief. What will we believe? We see it beginning in verse five, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
So there's a war between light and darkness. There's a war. Light here is symbolic of God's revelation as opposed to man's blindness to it or God's righteousness, the light, man's sinfulness, the darkness. So we see a war for what we will believe and then as we keep reading here, he takes a little break, talking about Jesus for just a moment.
John the gospel writer, John the Apostle, gives us six, seven and eight verses talking about another John. This is not John the Apostle, the author of the book. He's talking about John the Baptist here in verse 6 “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”
He's not talking about himself, he's talking about John the Baptist. 7 “He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” He's talking about how John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus, that he came to prepare the way for Jesus' arrival. But then we see in verse nine, the true light, the genuine light, the real light, the source of all light.
He's coming into the world. He says that He gives light to everyone if you'll open your eyes. He's coming into the world. He was in the world.
He came. Do you believe that this one named Jesus actually existed historically? What year is it? The year's almost over, right?
How do we number our years? Well, the one Who interrupted history, so that even our date is based on how He interrupted history, that over 2024 years ago, this One came. He came into the world, and He was the light of the world and the world was made through Him, the creator.
John's restating his point from earlier. He's the Creator. The world was made through him and the world did not know him. And we're not talking about, like the Earth, we're talking about the people of the world. Here comes the Creator.
They didn't know Him. Verse 11, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” In other words, He came to the Jewish people born to the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem. He came to His own people, and His own people did not receive Him. They rejected Him.
But then, verse 12 says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” Is that you, have you received Him as your Lord and Savior? “...who believed in his name…,” have you believed in the name of Jesus? What's His name mean? What's Yeshua mean? It means “God's salvation.”
Have you believed in Him? If you have, you've received the right to become the children of God. He's the mediator. The only way to be right with the Father is through Him.
He came into the world to be the light of the world so that people would know the way to God, yet so many rejected Him. It says, in verse 13,
13 “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” He's the only true way. It points to our rebirth in Jesus. He's the only way. It says in John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.” He says, the way to the Father is not through a philosophy, it's through a person. It's not a path, it's a person. If you want to know the way to the Father, it's through Jesus. He's the mediator.
He's the go between, between God and man. If we flipped over a couple more chapters into chapter three, we would encounter a man named Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus at night, probably to keep it quiet because he's an important man and he wasn't sure about who Jesus was. And so I've titled chapter three of John, “Nick at Night.” So Nick comes.
Nicodemus comes at night to talk to Jesus. He says, ‘Rabbi, we know you're a great teacher, you're a great man and God is with you.’ Jesus just looks at him and cuts right through all the flattery and right through all the “muckety muck.” John 3:3 (ESV) Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
He just cuts right to the quick and Nicodemus is flabbergasted. What am I supposed to do? Go back into my mother's womb and be born again? How am I going to do this?
Jesus says to him, ‘You claim to be a teacher in Israel and you don't understand a spiritual truth like this? I tell you the truth, you must be born again of the Spirit.’ He continues to teach Nicodemus and He says to him, John 3: 14-16, 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
He gives him this beautiful verse that we heard the children quote just a little while ago. It was their “prove it” verse, right? John 3:16-19 (NKJV) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So, He gave him that verse, but then He kept on going. He says, “…He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Here's what Jesus says. People are blind, not because they lack sight, but because they love darkness. There's a war between light and darkness, between truth and lie
and the world loves darkness. But those who have received and believed in Jesus love light. He's teaching this to Nicodemus. I wonder, do you ever ask questions like, I wonder what happens to Nicodemus because he just kind of disappears?
Well, until you get to the end of the Gospel of John. Then, Nicodemus shows up again. Where does he show up? He shows up at the cross. He and one of his best friends, Joseph of Arimathea.
They're both Pharisees, they're both influential men that serve on the board of directors for the Jews, the Sanhedrin, if you will. And they go after Jesus is crucified, they go to Pontius Pilate and they ask permission for his body, because his body would have been thrown down there in Gehenna, down there on the trash dump, along with the other criminals who had no one, if they had not intervened. They went, took His body, cleaned His body and bought expensive spices. They wrapped His body in linen and put Him into the tomb that had never been used. Very expensive. It had been hewn out.
This tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Do you know what I think? I think Nicodemus came to the light. How else would he have put at risk his reputation and everything to join in this moment of taking care of the body of Jesus? I think we'll see old Nicodemus in the light someday.
That leads us to the third way that we can give Jesus the gift of frankincense. The first is to recognize His deity. The second, is his position as priest and mediator. And here's the final one:
3. By worshiping Him as the incarnate Son of God.
By worshiping Him as the incarnate Son of God. What does incarnate mean? It means in the flesh. In the flesh, incarnate. We are looking at verses 14 through 18
now. I've said this before the Word became flesh, there was a point in time where the Son of God was not. He had not yet taken on humanity. We might be seeing glimpses of Him on occasion in the Old Testament scriptures where He appears. Perhaps, He was the one who appeared to Abram and told him that they were about to have a son named Isaac. These are called “Christophanies,” appearances of the preincarnate Christ before He comes in the flesh.
There are many places. I don't have time to discuss them, but there are many places where I believe the preincarnate Christ appears,because there never was a time when Christ was not; He's eternal. But, there was a point in time where He became flesh.
In other words, He took on humanity and so, He's the God man: 100% God, 100% man, joined perfectly together in one person. There's no one like Him in the whole universe. His name is Jesus and He's the Christ.
”The Word became flesh.” That's the shortest part of any Christmas story in the Bible. It's a three-word Christmas story. Word became flesh and He dwelt among us. In other words, in the Greek, it has the idea that He pitched His tent here, He tabernacled among us.
This is John speaking. We've seen His glory. We saw Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. We saw Him walk on the water. We saw Him heal the sick.
We saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead. We saw Him. We saw Him in His glory, the glory of the only Son, the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about Him. Verse 15
is talking about John the Baptist again, verse 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) Make up your mind, John the Baptist, was He before you or after you? John says that I, being clear as I can, He's both.
He was after me, but He was before me as well. What does he mean? Well, John the Baptist is the cousin of Jesus, born to Elizabeth. We know in the story of Luke, that Elizabeth was six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel told Mary, “This is a sign to you, your relative Elizabeth has been pregnant for six months.” Mary goes to see her
and when she goes to see her, John the Baptist, who is in the womb of Elizabeth, leaps for joy at the presence of Mary coming with Jesus in her womb. So, that's where we get our idea that John the Baptist is six months older than Jesus. So he says that He came after me; that's my cousin.
Jesus came after me, but actually He came before me because He's God. That makes sense. Now, Johnwas being very clear here. I don't know why you were so confused. Verse 16.
”For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” All this back here was from Moses. But grace and truth, they came through Jesus. No one's ever seen God
but the only God, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom at the Father's side, He has made him known. If you want to know God, you have to know Jesus. There's no other way. He's the one Who took on humanity. He's the one Who took on our situation.
Philip declared Him and got His question answered. Strangely enough, Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born, declared His coming in such a way. He says, Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us.” He's God taking on our situation.
He's God with us. 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah saw this. Even the centurion at Jesus' crucifixion was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. Notice what he says in Matthew 27:54 (ESV) When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
This is who He is. This is Jesus. Do you ever have trouble trying to figure out why there's so much suffering in the world? Or maybe you have a friend who's an agnostic or maybe even an atheist
and that's their thing that keeps them, they say, from believing in God. They say, ‘Well, if God's all powerful and he's all knowing and he's all good, why are there starving children? Why does a hurricane come and destroy western North Carolina? Why?’
I'm not here today to crack the code for that. It's a tough, tough conversation to have. It's called the problem of evil. If God is good, why is there evil in the world?
Perhaps another sermon. We can consider that. But here's, I think, a window into the answer for this and it's this, that He didn't just leave us in our suffering situation, but He took on our suffering. Look what John Lennox says.
He was speaking at Oxford when he was talking about what he believes about Jesus and the problem of evil. He says, “If it is actually true that Jesus is, as I believe Him to be, the Son of God, then we can ask the question, “What is God doing on a cross?”
And the answer comes back at the very least. God has not remained distant from our human suffering but has become part of it.” So what's God's answer to our suffering? It's God on a cross.
The shadow of the cross overshadows the cradle. This baby came to die. This baby came and took on flesh, took on our suffering, took on all of our sin, all of our separation. And He offers His righteousness, His eternal life and His sonship so that we have the right to become children of God. That's the answer to the problem of evil.
It's the Logos. It's the “Word became flesh.” It's Jesus. Let us worship Him. Let us believe in Him.
Let us recognize Him for who He is. He is God, of very God. He has become one of us in His humanity. He's the go between and the mediator between God and man. Let's pray.
Lord, I pray first of all, for that person that's here this morning that has yet to give You the gift of themselves. They haven't recognized You as the Son of God, as the Savior of the world, as the light of the world, as the source of life. They haven't recognized that, nor have they received and believed in You. Is that you, my friend?
I'm praying for you right now. I believe the Lord Jesus is knocking at your heart's door through His spirit. He's calling you to Himself. Would you say yes to Jesus today? Would you pray with me right where you're seated?
Perhaps you're watching in the next room or you're watching online. He's listening. Would you respond? You can pray like this. ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner.
I've chosen my own way. But today I want to follow You. I believe that You died on the cross for me and that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that and I receive You now as my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of my sins and make me a child of God.
I want to follow You all the days of my life.’ If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, the Bible says He will save you and adopt you into His family. Others are here today and you've made that confession of faith and you are a follower of Jesus. But you're going through a season right now and I want to pray for you as you go to your Christmas festivities this year. There might be someone missing at your table that was here last year and you're grieving but we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
I pray for you. I pray right now that the joy and the presence, the real presence of Jesus would be so full in your life that you would experience His grace and His mercy. Especially now. Oh, we pray it all in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. Merry Christmas season to you. We got a couple more weeks together in this wonderful holiday, and we're doing a series together called the Three Gifts. If you missed. Last week, we dug into why it was that the first of the three wise men gave Jesus gold and the depth of that meaning.
And this week, we're dealing with the second gift. And this is a Christmas story you're likely familiar with, but maybe you've never really considered the why. Why those things? Why did they bring gold, frankincense and myrrh? Does it have any theolog value?
Does it mean more? How do I apply it to my life? What does all this mean for me? And I really do truly pray that today as we dig into the scripture together, that you'll really see how this impacts your current life. How it's not just something to know, it's something to do.
And we're digging into this gift of frankincense. This is probably the weirdest one of them all because you're likely not very familiar with this particular thing. Thing myrrh is maybe equally so. And I'm curious about something. These magi.
Part of the story is that they traveled very far to get there and that the star appeared and they began to follow it sometime after and came to see the young Jesus. And the question is, and I imagine I know the answer is, are you traveling this Christmas? And what are some of the reasons for that? Myself, I'm traveling two people still. Some of you have gotten to the place in your life where people come to you.
I'm not there. And you know what? Honestly, I don't want to be there anytime soon, because if I'm there, it means some people have gone to be with the Lord. So I'm thankful that I get to still travel this Christmas. But some of you are in that new phase where they all come to you because you are what connects the family.
And so traveling this season is great. Some of you, though, may feel a sense of lack or maybe disappointment because you don't really have anywhere to go this Christmas. Maybe your family so far or so many people are with the Lord now that it's not happening. But this is the wonderful thing about this story, is that Jesus, the son of God, the God of the universe, traveled to you. That he came to us.
That's what the word immanuel means, is that God has come to be with us. We didn't have to go to him. And here's the great news. We couldn't do it anyway. We could not bridge the gap between us and God.
But he did, and he did it for us. That's what Christmas is all about. And that's certainly what this one gift is all about. Now, I want to remind you, this is our theme verse for these three weeks. Matthew, chapter two.
It says, going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now, the Bible says that the wise men, the magi, gave these gifts. And these are not ordinary. They weren't ordinary in that day either.
You might be thinking, oh, maybe they just gave weird stuff back then. No, these were weird then, too. These were gifts for a king, gifts for a God, and gifts for a lamb, a sacrifice. These are very weird gifts to bring to a baby shower. I wouldn't bring these to a baby shower if I were you.
They make no sense. Maybe the gift of gold, maybe. I mean, most parents would be like, I'm good with that. But the others don't make any sense. What is this frankincense?
I want to give you just a little bit on this, and then we'll really dig in to. How do we apply this? Today, frankincense comes from slashing. And you can pull up some of these images as I kind of come through. This is called the boswellia tree.
And the way in which you get frankincense, this is fascinating. I feel like God just does things all throughout his creation to point to himself. In order to get frankincense from this tree, you have to slash it and allow it to bleed. And you have to do it several times. You keep slashing those areas until eventually those white teardrops become yellowish.
And then, you know, it's ready, and then you collect it for this very valuable fragrance. These trees are native today in Yemen and Somalia and a few other places. They're used in incense as well as many perfumes. The Western name, frankincense, is very, very basic. It may not make any sense to you, but you hear frank incense.
It's really just that. Did you know we called the French at one point the Franks? So this is French incense. Why do we call it that? It's not from France?
Well, because during the French Crusades, they started bringing this back to Europe from the Middle east, and it became the word that this thing was known by. And so what does this mean? What is this about? Why this particular perfume? Just so you know, this thing has such an incredible past.
This Frankincense goes all the way back to the book of Exodus. Frankincense is the primary ingredient that's used as a special offering on the altar of incense in the holy place. You can find this in Exodus chapter 30. It symbolized this prayer. It symbolized this rising of God's people.
You can read about this in Psalm 141 and Revelation 5. It's all over the Bible starting in Exodus 30. The sweet smelling smoke represents the presence or favor of God. It's part of their grain offering. You can see that in Leviticus chapter 2 as a burnt part of their memorial.
But here's the really interesting thing I think about it, is that it was restricted for sacred use. It was not allowed to be burnt in your home. Now we don't have this. Now you can buy frankincense and just light it up. Go have fun.
But this was not the nature of the early people of God. This was specifically for temple worship. So you couldn't smell frankincense anywhere. You could only smell it in the temple of God. So what a cool gift to bring.
And they're not alone in bringing this gift. You can go. There's several places I found this week. I didn't feel like showing you every bit of those. But there are several times where people brought incense to worship a God.
Both in Judeo Christian culture as well as Greek and Roman culture. So when they bring this gift, church, don't miss this. When they bring the gift of frankincense, they are saying he is God or at a minimum, he is a priest unto God. But most would agree this is a gift for a deity. For the Jewish mind, frankincense is an appropriate gift for God or his priests.
So how do we give that gift? What are we to do with this piece of scripture? We're going to be in John chapter one, one of the most important and influential scriptures in all of the Bible. The apostle John here bore witness that Jesus is the son of God who's come into the world, that we might believe him and know him and become the children of God. And that the gift of frankincense really points to this very thing or frankincense's that God Christ is.
So we're going to dig in on three ways the text helps us offer Jesus this gift back in frankincense. So let's read. We've got a few verses together. John, chapter one, verse one through 18. It says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. And without him was not anything made. That was made in him was life. And that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Now there was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about that light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light which gives light to everyone.
Was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him. Yet the world did not know Him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Amen. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God and the Word. This is the Christmas piece of the story. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory.
Glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. This is God's word. Amen.
What a wonderful piece of Scripture and one of the most powerful places to spend some time together. Today we're going to give back Jesus the gift of frankincense for our part this morning together. First, by recognizing him as the divine Word of God, that he is the divine Word of God. John purposely begins his letter with these two thoughts. First in the beginning.
So that every Jew in the audience would go, huh? Because I don't know if you know this. This is how it starts in Genesis, chapter one, in the beginning. So John does it again to say, y'all better tune in. I'm about to tell you about this man that was here from the start, is here now and is here forevermore.
It's all made for him, through him and by him. Buckle up. That's what John's saying to the Jewish audience. But then he throws another word in the midst. That's not just for the Jews.
It's for the Greeks and Romans listening in. He throws this word in Logos. He says in the beginning Was the word. This word Logos in Greek philosophy is basically the principle of reason. It's like why we think what we think and know what we know.
It's the essence of life, even. I mean, this word Logos, they've been unpacking it, at least in Jesus time, for centuries, trying to figure out what is it all about. Why do we have rational thought? Why does man know good from evil? And they're working all of this stuff out under the term Logos.
Logos. We still pass this on today. Do you know almost everything we study in this life, we talk about the word Logos. Here's how I know this. Anything you've ever, ever studied ends with ology.
That comes from Logos, biology, theology, eschatology, you know, archeology. You go anywhere, it's going to have ology on the end. Because Logos has so impacted our language. John is saying to the Jews, the Greeks, the Jews, the Gentiles, all of us today, he's saying, y'all need to listen in. Because Jesus is basically the reason for it all.
It's for him, It's. It's about him. John's gospel. Christ is this eternal word. He says in the beginning was the Word.
He's this divine word that God was with God and was God. He's this creative word. It says, don't miss it right here in the beginning, that through him all things were made. Paul says, and in the later point, that all things were made for him through him and by him, that not only did he make it, but he made it for himself. That's a careful thought for you.
That's not the whole of my text today, but guess what? He made you for himself. He didn't make you for whatever purposes you've designed for you. They may fit in the very area in which God has designed you, but they may not. He's made you for himself.
And it goes on to say, he's the life, he's the light. Genesis 1. In fact, this is a repetition. I think John has so studied Genesis 1 here and said, I'm going to deliver a message to the people that they can't miss. That in the beginning Christ was there, and that in the beginning he was the life behind it.
This goes right and that he was the light. This goes right to Genesis 1:3. It says, God said, let there be light, and there was light. I have no doubt John is being careful with the themes, careful with his wording. John believed that Christ was divine.
He believed that Jesus not only claimed this about himself, but that this is true for him that he understood Jesus to mean I am the Messiah, the Son of God, the Divine One, come to seek and save. John 14:9 in fact expresses this. Well, Jesus said, I have been with you so long and yet you still do not know me. Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father if you're itching, Church, if you're itching lately?
Gosh, I just want to know God. I want to see Him. I want to understand Him. Look to Christ Jesus. This is what the Word teaches us, that he is the image of the invisible God.
In fact, he's this wonderful thing that people have been trying to figure out lately. You may have heard this term, if you like studying certain categories, like physics, if you like to study certain things in science. Some of you are into that kind of stuff. I'm just on the fringe of everything. I'm a little bit interested in everything and I don't know much about anything.
Alright. That's kind of where I'm at. I like to dabble in a lot of things and physics was something I liked in school and I started hearing somewhere in college this idea of the toe. You ever heard of this? The Theory of Everything.
In physics, it's a well known category, the ToE, the theory of Everything, where they're trying to build a framework that aims to unify all of the forces and particles and everything in the universe into this single all encompassing explanation. And they're having trouble with this. They're having trouble with this even though they know. And this is what's so fascinating about our world and about science, is that the things that we think up here still make sense out there. And that's wild if you really consider it.
The idea that somehow we can know a thing. This is what Einstein in fact says is the most surprising or most incomprehensible mystery of the universe. Most incomprehensible mystery is this, that the world isn't incomprehensible. How is it that we can understand this stuff that makes no sense? The Theory of Everything is really trying to get at it.
It's an aspirational goal. Here's the good news. John is telling us. We know it. The Theory of Everything.
Do you want to know it? The reason is Jesus the Sustainer. Also Jesus. I heard a comedian recently say, how is it in fact that these particles know I'm Jonathan and these particles know I'm air? And that makes no sense, as he says, how do they know not to fly apart?
And how does my skin not to know, to become air. And some of you are scientists and you're like, well, there's reasons for that. But a lot of this is crazy, right? And that we're on this thing that's spinning around while it's also spinning around and why are we not flying right now? There's a lot going on and the science behind it is so very, very specific.
If things were off just by minutiae, if we were just a little bit closer to the sun, we would not exist, we would die. It's just really fascinating. Some call this intelligent design. But I think the more careful thought is this, that Christ Jesus created it. And it's for him, he is the theory of everything.
Do you recognize this? If you recognize this, then you have to give worship to him. That frankincense for you, the gift of frankincense for you is to say, I am not God. I'm not even close. I was never intended to be the God of my life.
He is the Lord. And here's the great news. He so loves me and you. He's not a poor father. He is the perfect father.
He's the perfect parent. He is an all loving, all merciful, all just, but all grace. God, he cares deeply for you. Better than you could care for yourself. Because let's be honest, there's been some times in your life where you were like, I need to help me, I need to take care of me.
And you went down a road that did not help you at all. Admit it, you know you've done some self care that wasn't self care at all. During ended up taking you down a dark path. I need to be in this relationship with this person. And that person almost wrecked your life.
You know this. But Christ Jesus loves you. So give him what he's due, offer him back this gift of frankincense, saying, you are God and I am not. And if that is true, then you, Lord Jesus, run my life, give me guidance, you tell me your purpose, and I will follow it with all my heart. Here's the second.
The second way. By believing in him as the only true way to God, as the only true way to God. Now this one is just counterculture. And I got news for you. I don't know if you've begun to observe this.
The Bible is just counterculture. Now, the first century, not everything that the apostles, not everything that the disciples said was counterculture. Nowadays, almost all of it is. And you can look at that and say, well, this thing is archaic. This thing is messed up or you can say we live in a foolish culture.
I would argue the second. I'd argue it till the day I die. This culture we live in is crazy. Up is down, down is up. Just look around.
Here are the arguments. They're not smart arguments. They're arguments from feeling rather than facts. And so this one in particular is a heavy load. He is the only way.
In fact, John says he is the true light unto men. That means there are no other lights. He gives light to everyone. The one who's coming into the world, he is the true light. And there's this battle again between your worship, will you worship the world and as he puts it, darkness, or will you worship the true light who has come into the world?
This light, guess what? No matter how you slice it, when it shines in the darkness, it wins. Verse 5 says, the light shines in and the darkness cannot overcome it. Has not, will not, cannot. He's the true light and all who receive him.
Verses 11 and 12. All who receive him have been made children of God. So here's another counterculture. We are not at all different in any way in the eyes of God. We make much of gender and identity and race.
And all these things are not at the heart of my topic today. But in God's eyes, he says, those who receive Jesus are my kids. Period. You are co heirs in the inheritance of Christ Jesus. Doesn't matter your background, doesn't matter what you look like.
You are sons and daughters of King Jesus. All those who receive and believe and those who do not have decided to follow and lead and stay in darkness. This is a really crazy thing that you would see the light and say, I like it better over here. I got news for you. None of you, truly none of you love being in the dark.
Not a single one of you. Now you could say, well, I'm a tough guy. No, you're not. You do exactly what I do at night and I'm a tough guy. But there are nights where something stirs as I'm leaving my upstairs.
I'm like, I'm talking to Jesus in that moment, like, what are we doing? What was that that I just heard? I hit the light switch. I'm about to go down my steps and something goes, what do I do? I'm not crazy.
I turn the lights back on. Maybe I'm a coward, but this is who we are. This is who we are. Humans. What we can't see is scary.
This is true in life, what you can't see. The future is somewhat intimidating because you don't know what's coming. This is similar with darkness. What would it look like that you would choose darkness? John says, when you've seen the light, the light is Christ Jesus.
He has come. Christmas tells the story of his birth. Easter tells the story of his death and resurrection. We celebrate this every week as a church because we have seen the light. And we make much of this we celebrate week in and week out through the Lord's Supper that Christ was crucified, raised, and we serve him.
That's why we do it. We don't simply do it because we like the way that grape juice tastes. Those little pieces of bread that I don't know, I hope they're good. That's irrelevant. It's completely irrelevant.
We celebrate it because he has been our sacrifice and walks with us today. He is the true light, and he's the only true light. I could argue until I'm blue in the face about this. There's a lot of places I could go. One of the best places is later in the book of John, where Jesus himself says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. I mean, I've heard scholars try to dissect that and figure that out. It's hard to slice no one except through Christ.
There's this wonderful story in John, chapter three in this same book where Nicodemus comes. He's a known teacher, a known Pharisee, and he comes at nighttime to see Jesus. There's reason for that. He's scared. He's scared of persecution.
He's very interested in what Jesus has to offer. A way to remember that for your kids is say, Nick at night. That's how I always grew up hearing it. John 3 is about Nick. At night he comes and he says, hey, Rabbi, you're teaching with a lot of authority and it's hard to say.
When I look at your ministry, it's hard for me to not say that you are sent from God because of the things you're doing seem of God. And Jesus could respond to that. But as Jesus often does, he says this. I don't want to Misquote it. John3.3 says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
I don't know if you feel a little bit like me and Nicodemus here. I show up just saying, it seems like you're of God. It seems like you're working as of God. And he says, you need to be born again. What are we Talking about Jesus.
Like, I can understand Nicodemus position. And Jesus is heavy handed with him. I don't know exactly why, other than the fact that the end of the story, it seems like Nicodemus comes to faith. I'll give you some reasons for that. But this is a fascinating thing that he would say to a rabbi, to a pharisee, a teacher of the scriptures.
He would say, you need to be born again. And the guy's like, wait a minute, how can I go back into my mom's womb? That makes no sense. He said, you ought to know the scripture is better than this. You need to be born again of the spirit of water and of the spirit, he says.
And then he finishes with this, and I want to read it for you. Our kids just did a fantastic job with this. John 3, 16, 19. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. Oh, to look at the light and say, I like the darkness better. That's a scary place. Some of you may have made that decision in your past, but you don't have to continue it.
He is the only way Nicodemus received, it seems, this challenge from Jesus. You need to be born again. You need to understand that God is worshiped by spirit and truth. He is worshiped by, as the Son of God says here, and that he tells Nicodemus a wonderful piece of information. He tells him that story of Moses where he lifts up the serpent on a stick in the wilderness.
That was a picture of me. That the Son of man will have to be lifted up and everyone will have to look on it and believe to be saved. What is he saying? That the serpent on the sticks which healed the people of God, then they had to look on it to be healed. Now he's saying, I will be that raised up for all men to see.
And those who look on me and believe will be in the light and not in darkness. This is world changing. Nicodemus seems to believe this. You can go hunt for this yourself. But in John 19, we see this Nicodemus.
We see a Nicodemus. We don't know if it's the same one, but I think there's reason to believe it's probably the same. Helping Joseph of Arimathea prepare the body for burial. This is in John 19. It would seem to me John wouldn't mention a nicodemus that he's not mentioned before.
Unless he's trying to help us see. Hey, guess what? Old Nick at night, he may have not figured it all out, but he's figured enough out that he was there helping bury the Lord. Here's the third way. And this one I saved.
I did good this week, y'all. I saved time because this one's my favorite point. I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite. It's all God's word. It's all a blessing.
I really love what he has to say here to close it. And the third way that we bring the incense, we bring our gifts back to the Savior, is by worshiping him as the incarnate Son of God. This final section, the Word became flesh, is the Christmas in three words. This is Christmas in three words. The Word became flesh.
Emmanuel, God incarnate. This is Isaiah's prophecy come true. Matthew 1:23. God with us. Isaiah 7 says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Then notice John tells us that he's the only son of the Father, the only begotten Son of the Father. This is a wonderful, wonderful thing, that Christ Jesus became a man. This is, I believe, what sets apart Christianity in so many ways. There is a lot of world religions.
I don't know if you've studied many of them. There are so, so many. And historically, there's even more that aren't even followed anymore. There are so many things to believe. People throughout history have known there was something beyond themselves.
This is the general truth of man, is that we always have recognized there's got to be something more. And we've hunted all over the place. But this story that God says, you people are broken, but I love you enough to do something about it, I believe is uni. The incarnation is the beginning of the process of Christianity that is unique. And the resurrection concludes it.
Oh, there's no doubt about this church. If he did not raise, then we are a silly people. What are we doing in here if he did not raise? But he did. He came, he died, he raised.
That's the story that begins at Christmas. This is this wonderful thing that God has done for us after Christ's resurrection or Christ's crucifixion. I Should say even the Romans, some of them were filled with awe. I would remind you of this Matthew, chapter 27:54. The Centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake that took place at his death.
They were filled with awe and said this. Truly this was the Son of God. The veil tore. A lot goes down that day on Golgotha. And you and I got the opportunity to be free.
But a lot happened historically that day too. Even ancient historians outside of the Jewish and Christian texts say there was an eclipse, there was an earthquake. You can go to several other people that argue for this outside of the Bible. They don't point to Jesus, they don't pin them together. But for us, we can go.
I'm not surprised. There was an eclipse and the temple is destroyed. Not long after this event in time, some decades later, Jesus ends temple worship.
This is a fascinating thought and I think the greatest answer for people in your life. This final thought is the greatest answer for people in your life that say, what about evil? This thing we call theodicy, it's a hard thing. I don't deny this as being a difficulty. When you say, why did my child die?
Why did my loved one pass? Why am I sick? What have I done wrong to deserve these things? Why is there hardship in my life? Why would there be?
And I heard recently one atheist mentioning this, and it is a hard thing. Why is there this bug out there that will eat the human eye? Why does that bug even exist? Why would God allow such a bug to eat the eyes of little children? That's graphic, huh?
And that was the point of his argument. That's terrible. I can't believe in a God that would allow such a bug. And fair enough, that's a hard question. Let me ask it a different way.
What if there is no God? Does that bug still exist? This bug that eats the eyes of humans still exists regardless of if you think there's a God or not. So now you just have to say, well, by chance my eyes have been eaten out. And there's no end game to this.
There's no justice beyond this place. There's no hope beyond. There's just suffering in this world and that's it. Now I get it, that's hard. I get it, it's hard even among Christians.
But at least I can honestly say I don't totally understand all the things about God. But I know this. He's got an eternal plan. And if I trust him, even when things go terribly wrong, he gives me Peace and comfort and shows me and lights my path. He's a true light.
Not just holy, but he's also a true light to me. I like what John Lennox says about this. If you're not listen to anything he's said. A brilliant man, a mathematician at Oxford. He says, if it is actually true that Jesus is, as I believe him to be, the Son of God, then we can ask this question, what is God doing on a cross?
And the answer comes back, at the very least, that God has not remained distant from our human suffering, but has become a part of it. You want to know what God's up to in human suffering? He joins you in it. That's what he's up to. And yeah, there's a lot of brokenness and a lot of pain in this life, which the Bible teaches us will one day end.
But during that season between, God is with us. That's the story of Immanuel, that's the story of Christmas. That God is not somehow separate from our hardships, but is deeply aware of them. He is, Hebrews says, able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses because he has in every way been like us, but without sin. You get it?
The incarnate Son of God is the greatest news for anybody. I don't know all of the reasons why God allows suffering, but I do know this. He wasn't so separate from us that he said, I don't want any part of it, and just ended it. No, he said, I will come. I will take on human flesh and make myself one of them.
Hungry, sleepy. All of the things that make us human. All of the temptations, though he was not sinful. All of it, and yet perfect. Have you given Jesus the gift of frankincense, recognizing him as the incarnate Son of God?
What good news, I ask, will you give him this gift? Will you give him this gift? First, understanding he is God and I'm not. He's the only way. And I can't responsibly tell people they're going to be okay.
I can't. I have to say no. I love you. And I love you enough to tell you Jesus is the only way. And thirdly, no matter what's going on, here's what I know for sure.
God is with us. He's with us. And it didn't end at resurrection. He sent his Holy Spirit to comfort and encourage us. The spirit of Christ, the Bible says, is with us.
Do you believe this church? Let's pray now. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much. That you are a good God. That you are a loving God.
And that though we can't understand everything about who you are, and certainly we can't understand everything about your plan, here's what we know for sure. That you became one of us. That you would take on the sacrifice that was necessary for justice. What an incredible thing. That you are both judge and savior.
That you are both. The persecution or the prosecution, I should say the prosecutor and the defendant, you're the one. Now, certainly in one sense, Satan is the prosecutor coming in and saying, look, these people, they're too far gone. But you say, no, I have saved them. I've set them apart.
I've endured the cross that they might be free. What a wonderful thing this morning. God, we just. I pray that you would help us and challenge us, embolden us to believe this. That we would truly be people of the Word of God.
That I just pray, God, that each and every one of us individually, that people would know us as Bible people. That we just truly believe the words of God. When he said in the beginning, the Word became. And the Word was with God, and the Word was the light, and the Word is God, and the Word was life and the Word became flesh. That we would take that at face value and say, I believe it.
That the word of God is true. Not only in its purpose, but it's true in my life. God, I pray that you would do this in your people. As we interact over this season with different family members, with different friends, that people all around the world right now are somewhat willing to hear about Christmas. I mean, they're at least willing to look at some lights and kind of think about some things.
Maybe just the beauty of it all, but that God, in the midst of that, we would be people of truth. That we would first honor you with our lives because you are God and we are not. That we would honor you by telling others he is the way and he loves you and he's already done this for you. Would you believe and understand? And God will set his purpose before you.
He is the light and he's not left you in darkness. God, help us to trust you, knowing that in all things, God, you are with us. You say that in the very end of your great commission, all authority has been given to me. And behold, I am with you always until the very end of the age. Thank you for your word.
Thank you for that promise. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.