I saw this online interview with a young musician who was living his dream because he was able to play music for a living. And he said several times, you know, I'm so thankful, I'm so blessed to be able to do what I'm doing. I was born for this. And it was encouraging to see this young man who had a purpose in his life, a purpose for which he was talented and motivated. And it got me to thinking, what's your purpose in life? It might be the thing that you make a living from, but it might not be. What's the thing in your life for which you would say, I was born for this? Do you know? Jesus knew what he was born for. And the accounts of his birth and his infancy give us some indication of it. This morning I'd like to read to you from two passages of scripture. They're very familiar passages of scripture at this time of the year. One is the account of Jesus' birth from Luke chapter two, and then the other is the account of his infancy from Matthew chapter two. First from the gospel of Luke, this is God's word. In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Cuneus was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea. to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him, and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. The angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And then sometime after that took place, Matthew records this. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed in all Jerusalem with him. When he called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ 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 be the shepherd of my people, Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed, and on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. Our Father, this Advent season, as we've been considering the purpose for which Jesus has come into the world, Lord, in Him, would you confirm our purpose in life? Generally, the purpose for which you've called us in Him. And Father, give to us grace as well that specifically we might know and discover the task, the purpose to which you've called each of us through Christ our Lord. Amen. Why did the Son of God come into the world? Well, throughout this Advent season we've looked at several reasons why he came. We saw that he came to be with us. That Isaiah the prophet had said that his name should be called Immanuel, which is actually a Hebrew phrase that means literally God with us. We saw as well that he'd come to teach us. He came teaching as one who had authority and not as their scribes and teachers of the law. The writer to the Hebrews had told us that in the past, God had spoken to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in the last of these days, he spoke to us in his son. And we saw last week that he came to heal, that there were numerous and varied accounts of every kind of healing that Jesus did. But you know, it's interesting as you think about it. He could have done all of those things without becoming a human being. He could have taught. He could have healed. He could have even been with us. He was with Moses on the mountain. So why the incarnation? As Anselm asked it in the 12th century, why the God-man? And the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth and his infancy give us, I think, a hint of the answer to that question. There's a hint in the sign the shepherds were to look for. We're told that while Joseph and Mary were there in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son, and she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And the angels, when they had announced the birth of this savior who's coming to the world to lowly shepherds out in the environment surrounding Bethlehem, said to them that they should look for a sign. The sign was a baby swaddled in claws and lying in a manger. It's a kind of an odd scene and what makes it odd is the manger, a manger's an animal's feeding trough. Pretty ordinary for the baby to be swaddled. We still swaddle babies today. Shortly after Arnie was born, the Doors texted me a picture of him. Have you seen a picture of him yet? He's a cute little guy. He's got enormous cheeks, really big cheeks. And he had, if you saw the pictures, he had that hospital blanket that's been around since I don't know what, like 1950 or something like that. It's a white hospital blanket with maroon and aqua stripes on it, right? And they've been around forever. And I can remember when our firstborn was born, they taught us how to swaddle him in that, how to wrap him up tightly. That's been going on for centuries, millennia. And so it wasn't odd that the baby was wrapped in cloths. It was odd that he was in a manger, that was peculiar. But what's really odd is that it was called a sign. Because signs in the Bible are things that point to something beyond themselves. See, if the angels had said to the shepherds, and we're gonna tell you something to look for that's a little odd, You're gonna see a baby lying in a manger, but they didn't say it was odd, they said it was a sign. And it raises the question, a sign of what? What's it telling us? What's it pointing us to? If we could answer that, maybe we could answer the purpose of his coming. We could answer why the incarnation, why the God-man. And so Luke gives to us a hint of this sign, but that's not the only hint. We have a hint as well in the gifts that the Magi brought. We're told that on coming into the house, they saw the child. They were looking for the one who was born the King of the Jews. And they found out that he would be somewhere in Bethlehem. And so they go to see him and were told that on coming into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and they worshipped him and then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And this wasn't, you know, if you read the gospel accounts, this wasn't a wealthy family. These were pretty extravagant gifts. And the words here are all familiar to us if we know the biblical account. Only two of them do we probably really have any kind of experience with. Probably most of us. So, you know, gold. Everybody knows what gold is today. Gold is much more common than it used to be in the ancient world. And everybody's got gold jewelry. Your computers probably have gold in them. You know, you just have, you have gold around you. And we've got some idea of what incense is. It's used for all kinds of things today, from just a fragrance in the house to relaxation. But the gifts had significance. See, because they had come to see the one who had been born the king of the Jews. And gold was a gift that was fit for royalty. You know, one time in ancient Egypt, it was actually illegal for anybody but Pharaoh to own any gold. Not that it would do you any good if you found it in your field, right? You couldn't eat the gold. You couldn't trade it upon pain of death. So all the gold that was found was Pharaoh's. they recognized this one as the king. They said, where's the one who's been born king of the Jews? And gold was a fitting gift for the king. And incense, while we use it for many reasons today, and in many ancient cultures, many modern cultures, incense is used for worship. In Israel, incense was used for worship. Had the Magi divined from the Hebrew scriptures that they had that this child was more than a human being? I think they did, because they said, where's the one who's been born King of the Jews? We've seen his star in the east, and we've come to worship him. King Herod, Herod the Great, was a very paranoid man. He probably really didn't like that there was someone else that he didn't know about being called the king of the Jews He was the king of the Jews But it probably really disturbed him that this king was so great that they'd come to worship him And we're told that's exactly what they did that on Coming into the house and seeing the child that they bowed down and they worshipped him and the incense was a fitting gift for one who would be worshipped. What brought myrrh? What is myrrh? We don't have experience with myrrh. I remember years ago, it was kind of a joke, right? That little kids, they'd say, well, they brought gold and incense and smurfs, right? Remember those little blue guys, smurfs? They said that because they had no idea what myrrh is. Do you have any idea what myrrh is? Myrrh is an aromatic resin that's extracted from a very thorny bush. It grows in Arabia, it grows in some areas of North Africa, and you gotta get in there and slit the still living plant, and then the resin will bleed out, and then you collect that resin, and it's a costly substance. Why'd they bring myrrh? Does that tell us any? The thing about the purpose that the Son of God became man, why the Son of God became man. Well, you know, we look at those things and we might look at the hints, but you know, Jesus tells us the purpose for which he's come. He tells us that in several places. John chapter 12, as Jesus leaves Bethany and he enters Jerusalem for the last time, he says this, and now my heart is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. See, Jesus had begun telling his disciples all the way back in Matthew chapter 16, We read there that from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. You see the purpose for which Jesus came? What's your purpose in life, do you know? You know what Jesus' purpose in life was? You know why he came? He came to die. Oh, He came to be with us, but that didn't require the incarnation. He came to teach us, but that didn't require the incarnation. He came to heal us, but that didn't require the incarnation. But to die, that required the incarnation. God is immortal. God cannot die. And so God became man. Because the wages of your sin is death. And because God is holy, he can't simply overlook sin. You know, nor, my friends, let me tell you, nor would you want to live in a universe where He did so. Everybody thinks it would be wonderful if sin was overlooked, as long as it's their own sin. But when you look at the atrocities in the world, if you think about sin committed against you, well, then maybe you're not so crazy about the idea of sin just being dismissed and overlooked. But God is holy, and He won't just overlook sin. And so God became man to receive the wages of your sin. And in doing so, to offer you peace with God and eternal life as a free gift, which is received by faith, by trusting in him. The Magi brought to him gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. You know where myrrh is most mentioned in the Bible? It's mentioned in the Song of Solomon. You know when someone of lowly means would ever have the smell of myrrh surrounding him? There'd only be two times in the course of his being here. And only one of them would he smell them. The one was his wedding night. The other was his funeral. Myrrh was a burial spice. And Christ didn't come to marry. But he did come to die. And then in Luke's gospel, we read, this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. It's a sign. Put out of your mind the European images of the wooden feeding troughs that we so often see in our creches. Trees were much too rare, much too costly to be used for animal feeding troughs. Animal feeding troughs were hewn out of soft limestone. And this picture of a baby found wrapped tightly up in cloths and lying on a limestone bed looks an awful lot like the picture of him 33 years later when he's wrapped up in burial cloths and laid on a limestone bed in the tomb of a rich man in the hillside. You see, of all of the things that the Son of God did among us, none of them absolutely required his incarnation save one. Charles Wesley put it this way in his magnificent hymn. He said, "'Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine." God became man so that he could die. so that he could pay the debt for your sin, so that you could be reconciled to God. That's why he came. That's the truth we proclaim in the supper that we observe today, that his people are called to share in. Can I ask our elders to come forward to distribute the elements of the supper?