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Welcome to the 3rd week of Messiah Season.
We three kings of orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star.
Myrrh is mine its bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, Sealed in the stone cold tomb
Oh, star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright.
Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide with thy perfect light.
Happy Messiah Season! We are challenging you to do more than just keep the WORD Christ in Christmas. We are challenging you to make Messiah the focus of this season.
3 gifts
3 Gifts came to the Messiah by way of the Magi. Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh.
Last week we talked about the gift of gold. The gift of gold revealed that messiah was conquering king and last week we looked at many prophetic promises of Messiah being a conquering king.
Today we are going to talk about the gift of Myrrh
Light the Myrrh
Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.(NIV)
A Gift of Myrrh
Myrrh is an expensive spice, used for making perfume, incense, medicine, and for embalming & anointing the dead. A very strange gift for a young child. (you may start to notice an aroma in the room. We are diffusing myrrh right now)
The word myrrh comes from an Arabic word which translates into “bitter”. It was used to cover bitter tastes and smells and replace them with a sweet taste and fragrance.
The Magi’s gift of Myrrh prophesied the Death & Burial of Jesus.
Myrrh shows up 2 other times in the story of Jesus.
Mark 15:23 (NIV2011) Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.
It was offered to Jesus while on the cross. Jesus refused the drink laced with Myrrh, it would have lessened the pain. When Christ refused this painkiller he embraced the full price of the Cross… our salvation.
John 19:39 (NIV2011) He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.
Myrrh was brought to the tomb to embalm the body of Jesus.
The Magi’s gift of Myrrh prophesied of the Death & Burial of Jesus. Why else give a child the gift of embalming fluid?
The gift of Myrrh is in agreement with Messianic prophecy. There is a major theme among the 300 plus prophecies that Messiah will be a Suffering Servant.
Isaiah 52:13-15 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him– his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness– so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.(NIV)
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.(NIV)
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.(NIV)
Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.(NIV)
Messiah is a Suffering Servant
This prophecy declares Messiah to be a servant who must suffer… That through His suffering the lost would be found, healed, restored, and saved.
This amazing passage from the Hebrew Prophet was written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It is found in the Tanakh or Jewish Bibles today, though it is left out of the weekly synagogue readings.
When Jewish people attending a synnogague would hear Isaiah 53 read aloud, they would become angry and wrongly assume it was from the New Testament. Reading these words from the Old Testament, will cause you to picture Jesus as messiah in the New Testament.
There are many prophecies that go along with the Suffering Servant dialogue.
Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.(NIV)
Messiah would spend a season in Egypt. As a young child he became a refugee in a foreign land. But… what was Jesus’ family running into Egypt for?
A massacre of children would happen at Messiah’s birthplace the prophet Jeremiah declared.
Jeremiah 31:15 This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.”(NIV)
And a massacre of you Hebrew boys occurred. “King” Herod had young Hebrew boys killed because he was trying to find and destroy the messiah.
Isaiah 53:3 says the suffering servant would be rejected by His own people.
But so does Psalm 69:8 I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons;(NIV)
Messiah is a Suffering Servant
Deuteronomy 18:15 tells us Messiah would serve His people as Prophet.
Isaiah 9:1-2 prophecies Messiah will specifically bring light to the area of Galilee. Galilee is not where you would go look for a king, but you would go to Galilee to look for a humble servant.
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,(NIV)
Isaiah 61:2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,(NIV)
In Luke 4 Jesus quotes this passage and declares that on that very day he had fulfilled it.
Messiah would be betrayed by someone he shared bread with..
Psalm 41:9 “Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”
Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and that the money would be used to purchase a potter’s field.
Zechariah 11:12-13 “…So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.”
Messiah would be falsely accused.
Psalm 35:11 “Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.”
But silent before his accusers.
Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
He would be spat on and struck.
Isaiah 50:6 “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”
And hated without cause.
Psalm 35:19 “Do not let those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; do not let those who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye.”
Psalm 69:4 “Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.”
He would die with criminals. He would be numbered with the transgressors and even pray for the trangessors.
Isaiah 53:12 “..because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Messiah would be given vinegar to drink.
Psalm 69:21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
His hands and feet would be pierced.
Psalm 22:16 “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.
Zechariah 12:10 “They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”
Messiah mocked and ridiculed.
Psalm 22:7-8 “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
And soldiers would gamble for His clothes.
Psalm 22:18 “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”
His bones would not be broken.
Exodus 12:46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.”
Psalm 34:20 “he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
He would be forsaken by God.
Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”
But He would pray for His enemies.
Psalm 109:4 “In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.”
He would die and be buried with the rich.
Isaiah 53:9 “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”
This suffering servant messiah would be a sacrifice for sin.
Isaiah 53:5-12 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…”
Not only the sin offering but also the High priest… Messiah would be our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 110:4 – “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
Now I just listed A LOT OF PROPHECY about messiah. We haven’t even scratched the surface of the over 300 prophecies and promises of Messiah.
The science of probability calculates that the chance of any one man having lived to fulfill 8 of these prophecies is…
1 in 100,000,000,000,000
Jesus isn’t 1 in a million… He’s more than 1 in 100 Trillion
That’s just 8 prophecies fulfilled. My mind can’t understand 100 Trillion… I can’t explain the probability of fulfilling all of the prophecies.
Jesus the Messiah, the Christ fulfills every one of these prophecies.
The gift of Myrrh
The gift of Myrrh prophesied from the beginning of his incarnation story, that Messiah would be a suffering servant.
How should we live in light of this suffering servant? If we are to really keep Christ in Christmas, we ought to serve others.
Do we want to just play word games this holiday season… “keep Christ in the word Christmas.” Or do we want the let the suffering servant, messiah, transform your life.
Lord make me a servant!
Can we serve each other? Can we love like Jesus loves?
John 13:34 (NIV2011) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
What thing to ask of us Jesus!?
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU… Think about how Jesus has loved you.
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, SO YOU MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER… Are you loving others at the same level that Jesus has loved you?