GETting READY FOR HEAVEN! Matthew 2:1-12
How are you doing in getting ready for Christmas? Is your card list longer this year? Do you think there are more presents to buy? Do you have all the decorations up? We get ready for Christmas in different ways. Do you find big crowds where you want to shop? Do you battle eating because of the Christmas parties and dinners? We may begin to wonder if we’re doing all that we should to get ready for Christmas. A little girl was feeling the pressure of Christmas preparation in her home. She became a bit grouchy one evening, and so her parents sent her to bed early. When she said her prayers that night she said, “And Lord forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us.”
One said “When Christmas is over; it’s all over except for the returns and exchanges. In our business, on the day after Christmas we remove every hint of Christmas from the store.” Is that our attitude that is just a ridiculous spirit of money-making? When it’s over, it’s over. The word “worship” occurs three times. “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” “As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” “And they worshipped him.”
Herod was determined to do away with Jesus. The wise men were intent on worshiping Him. They worshiped the Lord with their circumstance, their consideration, their confidence and their Cash. They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” These men were worshiping the Lord. What does means to worship Christ to us today? It has been said that Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. As we worship and serve the living Christ in this life, we are being prepared for Heaven and a place is being prepared for us.
1. WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR circumstances.
We worship in our time in prayer and reflection of the word of God. It continues as we take time to give thanks to the revelation that God has given. That’s precisely what these men did. This was no pleasure trip for these men. They put considerable effort and time into their quest to find and worship the newborn King. It meant leaving their homes and families, taking a leave of absence of possibly nine months from their jobs. They did have a travel guide. They saw a star! God used the Star to make his Son Known and Worshiped. This is His Great Goal in all Things, that His Son be known and Worshiped. How did this "star" get the wise men from the east to Jerusalem? It does not say that it led them or went before them. It only says they saw a star in the east and came to Jerusalem. How did that star go before them in the little five-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as it did? How did a star stand "over the place where the Child was"? Concerning this matter it is the star that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding to the Son of God to worship him. There is only one Person in Biblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality in the stars, God himself. This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. His aim is that all the nations worship his Son. At the beginning of Matthew we still have a "come-see" pattern. But at the end the pattern is "go-tell". The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell. If we really want to worship the Lord, we need to take the wise men as role models. When once we get that revelation from God, we have a choice. We can foolishly reject it or we can respond wisely, investing time and effort to respond to a revelation from God. It may mean revising your schedule, marking out specific time that you’re going to invest in worshiping and serving the Lord in response to the revelation you have received from His word. God is ready to meet you whatever your circumstances.
2. WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR consideration
The wise men also worshiped by questioning His location and about His person. They were no different than King Herod, except that Herod had no thought of worshiping the newborn king. When Herod heard about it he called together the religious leaders and asked “where Christ was to be born?” Micah 5:2: In Bethlehem. Herod secretly talked with them “and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.” He then sent them to Bethlehem to find the child and report back to him so that he might “go and worship him.” It doesn’t say they obeyed the king; they simply listened to what he had to say. They took their lead from God’s guiding star. Not only did they take the time and make the effort, but they continued to ask questions about Christ. They evaluated the meaning of all that was happening so that they would have a clear sense of His Person. Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and should be honored as Such. "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" It’s about a newborn child destined to be King of the Jews. Now, in itself that would not be a very great thing. Herod had been called "king of the Jews" by the Senate in Rome for almost 40 years. But no one called him Messiah. Messiah means the long-awaited God-anointed Ruler, who would overcome all other rule, and bring in the end of history, and establish the kingdom of God and never die or lose his reign. We don’t know how the wise men got their information that there was such a king coming. But it is clear that Herod got the message. They are searching for the final King, to end all kings. Worshiping Jesus Means Joyfully crediting Authority and Dignity to Christ with Sacrificial Gifts. There are four pieces to that definition of worship, and all four are grounded in this text. 1st, we see the authority of Christ by calling him "King of the Jews." 2nd, we see dignity to him by falling down before him. Falling to the ground is what you do to say to someone else: you are high and I am low. You have great dignity and I am lowly by comparison. 3rd, we rejoice in these attributes of authority and dignity. We cannot keep away from the feeling that true worship is not just recognition to the authority and dignity of Christ; we need to do it joyfully. 4th we give thanks with sacrificial gifts. God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything. So these gifts are not given by way of assistance or need-meeting. It would dishonor a ruler if distant visitors came with splendid care-packages. The gifts are a passionate desire for Christ himself. It is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. This desire I now deepen and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, ’You are my treasure, not these things.’" If we intend to respond positively in our worship, we need to be serious about studying the word of God. You don’t know anything worth knowing about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit that isn’t proclaimed and described or explained in the Bible. Are you serious about worshiping God? Do you want to come closer to Him and get ready for Heaven? Invest time every day in the thoughtful study of His word. Emulate the wise men. Ask questions. Seek answers. He is worth your consideration. In JER 29:13, the Lord says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” God doesn’t reveal Himself to anyone who is simply lazy and indifferent. If you really want to know the Lord, you need to have a heart that is in pursuit of God.
3. WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR confidence
Do you desire happy endings? “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.” The wise men had confidence they had found the Lord. They followed the star. They worshiped the Christ child! Do you have confidence in God? Do you have confidence in His word? Do you worship God with all your heart? Do you sense His evidence? If we believe in God, it says He believes in us. When we know that we believe in God and He believes in us, then it is that we can believe in ourselves. When we worship God our faith in Him is deepened, our confidence in His control is solid.
Worship is our central tie with God. This is the one thing we do in this life which will continue in Heaven. Our worship of God draws us closer to Him and prepares us for unending activity throughout eternity where we will join our voices in singing. Matthew does not tell us about the shepherds coming to visit Jesus in the stable. His focus is immediately on foreigners coming from the east to worship Jesus. Matthew’s Gospel portrays Jesus at the beginning and ending of his Gospel as a universal Messiah for the nations, not just for Jews. Here the first worshipers are wise men not from Israel but from the East. One of the repeated prophecies was that the nations and kings would, in fact, come to him as the ruler of the world. So Matthew adds proof to the messiahship of Jesus and shows that he is messiah, a King for all the nations, not just Israel. confidence gives us to singing in praise to Him.
4. WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR cash
The wise men gave their gifts to the Lord. “Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” They gave the gifts to Him. They presented Him with gold, because He is the wonderful King. They gave frankincense because He is the great high priest. They presented myrrh as a foretoken of His death. As soon as the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord told Joseph to “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.” I would wonder if the cost of their journey to Egypt and their stay there until the death of Herod was covered by the gifts of the wise men? If so we could say the wise men funded the first missionary venture for Christ. They provided the resources so that the Christ child could be safe and grow up and do His divine role as teacher and Savior. We provide for that venture to go on by our checkbooks and our time. We bring our tithes and offerings to support and continue the ministry of the Lord in this church. That’s what these men were doing, and that’s what we are doing if we are really worshiping the Lord with our cash. Wise people today are those who worship Jesus. Now, how can you tell if you are really worshiping God? How can you be sure that Christ is preeminent in your heart and life?
Jesus is Troubling to People who do not Want to Worship Him and He Brings out Opposition for those who do. In this story there are two kinds of people who do not want to worship Jesus, the Messiah. The first kind is the people who simply do nothing about Jesus. He is a nonentity in their lives. This group is represented by the chief priests and scribes. They told him what he wanted to know then back to business as usual. The sheer silence and inactivity of the leaders is overwhelming in view of the magnitude of what was happening. The inactivity on the part of chief priests is amazing; why not go with the Wise men? They are not interested. They do not want to worship the true God. The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus is the kind who is deeply threatened by him. That is Herod in this story. Today there are two kinds of opposition that will come against Christ and his worshipers. They are full of Indifference or hostility. Are you in one of those groups? Let this Christmas be the time when you reconsider the Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him.
It’s really simple if you contemplate the four Cs we have been considering. First, you can tell by your circumstances. You can look at your time schedule or date book and see how much time you are investing in the Lord’s work. The second way you can tell is by examining your consideration. Am I really engaged in thinking through my faith while reading and meditating on the scriptures? If we are doing that on a daily basis, we can be sure that we really are wise persons because we’re worshiping Christ in our thought. Then we ask do I have confidence in Christ for my life? Do you think that you can run your life better than the Lord can? Or do you think that He can run your life better than you can? Finally, if we really are serving the Lord, we’ll worship Him with our Cash as well.
Mark Littleton put it well when he said, “We don’t call them wise for nothing. No desire for glitter; they waited for that one morning star. No hunger for sweet cakes and wine; they reached for the true bread. No pearls cast before swine; they placed their treasures carefully by the pink, trembling toes of the King. No lust for personal glory; they came for Him alone. We don’t call them wise for nothing. Can God call us wise for less?”
When you get to the bottom line of this passage of scripture, there are really only two attitudes we can have toward Christ. Those two attitudes are represented in Herod who wanted to destroy Christ and in the wise men who wanted to worship Christ. The difference is whether or not you know Him in your heart. If you’re not confident that you know Christ in a personal way, we have good news. Christ died to pay for your sins. He freely offered up His life so that you might find your way home to Heaven. Everything that you need to have done to go to Heaven has been done. Everything, that is, except for one thing, and that is for you personally to receive what Christ did for you. When you say, “Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying on the cross for me; I trust in You as my personal Savior,” in that moment, God gives to you eternal life and you find yourself getting ready for Heaven!
