A lot is made in our culture of leaders. We look up to leaders, we have high expectations of leaders and don’t hesitate to criticize a leader that does something that we don’t agree with. We talk a lot about leadership, but there are times when even leaders need to be followers, and we all need to be followers of Christ.
S. I. McMillen, in his book "None of These Diseases," tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst.
To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower." Today we are to be looking at a group of guys who were most likely leaders in their culture and yet they knew when to follow and when to stop and listen to God. Along the way we are also going to see a comparison to a heart that won’t worship or obey God. All of the language is correct, but the actions don’t match.
Matthew 2:1-12, “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, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the 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 rules of Judah; for our to you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from the the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and 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. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worship him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gives of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
We’re continuing today to go through our series on Worship. We’re looking at what worship is, because it is so much more than just singing. It is more than a watching a performance or performing. Worship is something that we do with all of our lives. Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.” Worship is something that we do with our whole lives not just with singing on a Sunday Morning.
The word “worship” comes from the old English word for “worth-ship” it comes from the worth of the thing that is being worshiped. Hopefully you have spent some time this week with our devotional guides looking at the worth of our creator. When we understand that we were created by Him that should help us to understand that we were created for Him. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” We were made for God and the logical next step of that is that we would then obey God.
Let’s begin with looking at a definition of Obedience: it is compliance, submission, obedience rendered to anyone’s counsel. Obedience is something that should mark our lives when we turn our hearts to God. When we give our lives to Him, when we say that He is our Lord, capital “L” the Lord of our lives, then it makes sense that we should follow Him. The problem is that we don’t always do that, but most of us know that, most of us are sorry about that. The bigger problem is when we confess Him with our lips but we don’t follow Him with our lives, but we become so blinded by pride, that we don’t even care, that we think we are good enough just as we are, because sometimes we follow Him, and in everything we do we take His name. We’re going to see in this passage that you can use the language, but your actions are still completely wrong.
We’re going to start by looking at the wise men. Let’s be honest at the start. There is a lot that we do not know about the wise men. We don’t know how many there were, we assume three but that’s because of the number of gifts. We don’t know their names. The traditional names that you may know are Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar come from a Greek manuscript written about 500 years later. We don’t even know where they came from. We just don’t know a lot about them.
But there are some things that we can take an educated guess at. Listen to what we are told about them again, “During the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.” We’ll start by looking at the word “Magi” it comes from the Old Persian word magus which refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. This means that they were priests, and this caste of priests specialized in looking at the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology. The religious practices of this caste led to other derivatives of this term and ultimately we get our word “magic” from it. But these were not magicians, they were priests who specialized in astronomy. We are also told that they came from the east, which would be consistent with our assumptions from the word Magi because the Zoroastrian caste was from Persia.
So we don’t know a lot of facts about them, somethings we know are really and educated guess. But there is one thing that we do know about them. We know that they were willing to stop and listen to God. Look at what they said, “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.” Here’s an important question for everyone to know the answer too. How does God speak to you? For these priests I believe that they were looking for Him to speak through the stars. Why? Because that’s what they were studying.
I expect God to speak through His word, through prayer and through people. So I try to spend a lot of time with and in all three. God is able to speak to you if you will listen for him. Look at Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who come to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Let me ask you a question, how do you seek God? Could it be said that you do so earnestly? See too many times I think that we take God for granted. The only time we really seek God is when things are hard.
Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background.
One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
Too often that answer is true of us. We don’t seek God until we are figuratively suspended upside down 40 feet in the air. We know that God is with us always, we just take Him for granted. Sometimes we don’t hear from Him because we’re not really seeking Him, and sometimes it’s because we don’t like the answer that we hear. We’re praying and listen sometimes God is silent, but sometimes He’s giving us an answer that we don’t like, so we ignore it and keep asking for the answer that we want. But God is sovereign, when we ask He gives us His answer and it doesn’t change just because we keep asking.
The magi were looking for God and they were willing to listen to what He said. But more than that, they did not just listen to God they were willing to follow what He said. They said, “We saw His star in the east and we have come to worship Him.” From what they saw they felt the call of God to come and worship Him and they followed that call. They didn’t fully know what it meant but they came any ways. The journey would have taken them months and been a great expense and discomfort but still they came. I love what the Psalmist says in Psalms 129:20, “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.” That is the type of faith that pleases God, a faith that is willing to listen to Him and then do what He says.
They acted on their faith and there are some lessons that we can take from their journey. The first is that following God begins with a step of faith. It’s not just the literal steps that I’m talking about here but the intellectual ones. They weren’t sure where they were going, notice that they were still asking for directions when they enter our story. I also wonder if they knew exactly what the birth of Christ meant. Did they understand that He had come for the whole world? Notice they said the “King of the Jews.” Now that was a proper title for Jesus, but I wonder if they knew that He came for them too. I wonder if they knew that He came to save us for all time? I don’t know if they did, but I do know this, Hebrews 11:6 says “God rewards those who earnestly seek Him” and these men went seeking God, and they found Him.
But at this point we also begin to see a tragic comparison. These men would have been from Persia. They were priests of a different caste, but their question came to King Herod, he was the ruler of the Jews, he had Jewish blood in his veins and access not just to all of the Jewish writings but also to all of the Jewish religious leaders and experts. If anyone could have found the answers about God that he was asking it would have been Herod. But he doesn’t find the answers that he was looking for and I believe it’s because his heart isn’t right as he begins his quest.
Look at verse 3, “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” His first reaction when he heard about Jesus was to be disturbed, why? Because he was the king of the Jews and he was worried about His position. His view was on himself, his worth was based on himself, the object of his worship was himself. It was all about him. In his life and everyone else’s, notice it says that “and all Jerusalem with him.” This was because when Herod was unhappy, he had a habit of making people suffer and making people dead until he was happy. He made himself not only the object of his own worship but everyone else’s and the worship wasn’t good because he wasn’t worth very much. He was just an earthly king, and Jesus is the King of Kings the eternal King.
I would be tempted to give Herod a break, maybe he didn’t know just like the magi didn’t know but read the next passage. “When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born (see it? The Christ, the Messiah, he knew who was coming). ‘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.”
What a great promise? The Messiah was coming, God on earth to shepherd His people. This was a promise that applied to Herod, it was the type of promise to make the magi cross the desert, but to Herod it was a threat. He rejected this news and thought about what he could do to stop Christ, because he was more concerned about his position then that of God. Worship is when we realize who God is and who we are and we respond accordingly. We’ve defined worship in our devotions as our love and adoration express in an all that is within me response to the vision of all that God is and does. But the response of Herod was, “I don’t want that, I want what I’ve got.” Too many people respond the same way. God does something in our lives and we don’t trust him, or respond to Him the way that we should. We say, “But wait a second God, I’m in charge here, I know what’s going on, just leave everything to me. God I know what you said, but I’m the one who’s here I have a better handle on this situation. Listen this is what you need to do. This is a response, but it’s not worship. It’s not responding to all that God is, it is responded to all that we think that we are. In this response we may use the name of God but the person that we are actually lifting up is ourselves. The wise men may or may not have known exactly what the star meant, but they were seeking God and when they found Him, they responded by following what He said, they had the faith to cross the desert and they had the faith to persevere through the hidden dangers along the way.
It is one thing to set out on a journey and face the dangers that you know are ahead. For the Magi, it was the heat of the desert in the day, and the cold of the night. It was the bandits on the road and the storms ahead. But then the came to Jerusalem and the King of the country, a country noted for its religion, the king of the country was a secret enemy. We don’t know that he plotted against them directly, but he would have used them to commit the greatest of evils.
Often when God calls us to do something, we know that it is a journey that we have to take. Maybe God is calling you to a new job, maybe to get involved in a ministry you’ve never been involved in. A change in your family. All of these things are changes and all of them are a journey. While change happens in a moment, transition takes longer and there will be times of danger and discomfort. Some of the dangers along the way we can anticipate, we can see them, and we make that decision to do it anyways because we are focused on the one we are following and He is worthy of our obedience. But this is more than that because there are also going to be difficulties and hardships that we can’t see, that we don’t know about, the secret is to persevere through them. To keep going even when things were harder than we could have thought, when things happen that we didn’t foresee. Do you want a comforting thought? You may not have foreseen it, but God did. God knew what was coming. You think when Herod set out his secret plot to find where Jesus was He went, “Oh no now what do I do? We may not see it in advance but God does, so we keep following Him, listening to His voice and doing what he says. If we will do that the journey will go well. Not without difficulties, but well.
These things couldn’t stop them or change their focus because they had set out to worship. Their focus wasn’t on comfort, or fame, or riches, their aim was to worship the King. That’s what they said, “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Many times when we get into trouble, it’s because our focus is wrong. The mission of our lives is to bring honor to the King to worship Him. We do that by telling others about Him. This time of year is a great time to invite someone to church if not on a Sunday, then Candlelight, or the musical. Invite them to something, share our devotionals with them. Do you realize that is an act of worship. We worship by singing, by giving glory to God with our voices or instruments. And yes, we worship God by giving, by giving to others and by giving to Him.
That’s how it was for the magi and there’s a couple of things that I want us to see as we close. The first is that they gave their gifts with generosity. This is an important aspect of a worshipful life that I think is often overlooked. Theres a couple of things that can throw our focus off. In this story a lot of times we look at what was given, and at the meaning of the gifts. Gold was the symbol of a King. Frankincense was used by priests. Myrrh was used to prepare a body for death. Many people believe that these gifts were symbolic of the life and death that Jesus was to experience. I believe that is true but the thing I really want us to see is the cost of the gifts, these were expensive and well thought out gifts. The Magi didn’t just make a journey to see the “King of the Jews” but the worshipped Him with lavish gifts when they got there. Do we do that with God? Many times we think about giving as a duty. Well I give God 10%. Many times we limit giving to money. But it is so much more than that. We are supposed to give to God and the people around us with generosity. It should mark our giving and our lives. When we give at church we are giving to a king, and when we give to others we are children of the King.
You say, “But wait a second that costs something.” Yep, but here’s point number two. Worship always requires sacrifice. We give our attention to God because we focus on Him and respond to all that He is. We give Him our stuff out of love. We obey what He tells us to do. Not just the 10 Commandments, but we do what He says in life. We forgive those who hate us. We pray for our enemies. It’s easy to pray about our enemies, but we to pray for our enemies. That is a sacrifice, but God tells us to do it, so we do and when we do it is obedience and worship.
The result is, worship changes us. We are the people that we are. Pop psychology will tell you that you have to learn to accept yourself and love yourself. Some people will say that you can’t change who you are so just accept it. But we serve a God who is in the people changing business and when you meet Him it does change you. Remember Isaiah in the temple. Looking up at God he knew how small he was. But God didn’t leave him there and when we come to God He doesn’t leave us there. When you worship God, when you really give Him everything in worship, then He will take who you are and begin to change you from the inside out.
So they came, they worshipped Him. It was the end of this journey, but not the end of their journey. This side of Heaven we never reach the destination where we are done listening to God. We go through one journey and He takes us on another. The magi gave their gifts and then look at verse 12, “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” There were still dangers, still problems, but God was still with them and they were still listening. Something had changed though. Do you see it? They came because they saw a star, they listened to what they heard God saying through the star. But now they have a direct connection. An angel comes and talks with them. Would you like a direct connection with God. Maybe you’ve been taking this journey of life alone and you would like to take it with God. All it takes is following Him. You don’t have to cross the desert, all you have to do is come forward and pray.
