Parkdale Grace Fellowship Sunday AM, December 21, 2014

Worship Christ the New Born King Matthew 2:1-12 (The outline of this sermon is borrowed from John Piper’s sermon titled “We Have Come to Worship Him”)

Matthew 2:1–12, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” 3When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ” 7Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” 9When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way." If you take Jesus Christ out of Christmas what is the meaning of Christmas? What is it that the world celebrates at Christmas? What is the point? It is meaningless. What is it that makes Christmas meaningful? Our society is desperately seeking to do something during the Christmas season that will make it meaningful: parties, decorations, gifts, concerts, candles, special music, special food—all the trimmings for a great party—but why? What are we celebrating? I want to draw our attention to several important truths that are taught in this historical event of the Magi visiting Christ the new born King; let’s take a look at the first Christmas for truths that help to give meaning and significance to Christmas. Matthew 2:1–2, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”" The first truth is that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, therefore we are to worship Him. The wise men make it very clear in verse two whom this Christmas story is really about: "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" Christmas is about a newborn child destined to be King of the Jews. Verse 4 makes clear what the magi really mean by "King of the Jews." It says, "When [Herod] had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ [Messiah] was to be born."

2 Messiah means the long-awaited God-anointed Ruler, who would overthrow all other rule, and bring in the end of history, and establish the kingdom of God and never die or lose his reign as King of all kings. (John Piper)

Herod had been called "king of the Jews" for almost 40 years. But no one ever called him Messiah. Herod understood what these magi were saying: these fellows were not searching for a mere, ordinary, human successor to Herod’s throne. They were searching for the final King, to end all kings—a King who would deliver Israel from Rome and all other enemies. And, of course, that is the last thing Herod was looking for. So he calls for the Jewish religious leaders, asks them where the Messiah was to be born, and they quote from the prophet Micah (Micah 5:2). Matthew 2:6, "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." It is too bad that the scribes stopped there. It is too bad that they did not continue and quote more of Micah’s prophesy to discover exactly who it is that is to be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 continues to say, "Whose origin is from long ago, from the days of eternity. . . . 4And He will arise and shepherd His flock [His believers who follow Him] in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they shall dwell secure, for then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth." (several translations blended) So this king, the Messiah does not come into being for the first time in the womb of his mother Mary. "His origin is from long ago, from the days of eternity." He is God, for only God is eternal. And this King’s kingdom would not be limited to Israel. The prophet Micah said, "His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth." That's the first truth of Christmas we learn from this passage—Jesus was born a king—King above all kings, and this is why the wise men declared, “[We] have come to worship Him” And it leads us to the second truth in this text about the Messiah. Jesus is to be Worshiped not just by Jews, but by all the Nations of the World. Notice that Matthew’s Gospel does not tell us about the shepherds coming to visit Jesus in the stable. Here the focus is on foreigners coming from the east to worship Jesus. Verse 1: "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “where is He who has been born King of the Jews?'" These wise men are believed to be from the area of Babylon (modern day Iraq). They were court magicians or astrologers or wise men not from Israel but from the East. They were gentiles. It is significant to notice that Matthew's Gospel portrays Jesus, both at the beginning and ending of his Gospel, as a universal Messiah for the nations, not just for Jews. At the end of Matthew the last words of Jesus are, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." (Mat. 28:18-19)

3 All the political leaders of the world in the Bible days and still today are failing to bring any real peace and lasting stability to the world. God promised that He would send the Messiah, a powerful leader who would take over and rule the whole world in righteousness, prosperity and peace. He would bring to an end all wars, He would end all poverty, and He would bring to an end violence, crime, sickness and disease on earth. This is what our world longs for. We are unable to accomplish world peace, worldwide health, and prosperity for all people. But there was born into this world on Christmas day a Savior who is the fulfilment of God’s promise for this world, He will accomplish all of these things. So Matthew reveals to us that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, that King and promise-fulfiller, the Desire of all Nations, not just King of Israel (Haggai 2:7). The right response to this King is to submit to His rule and authority and to worship Him. The trouble is that the world rejects Jesus and instead the world is trying to solve our own problems ourselves, but we are failing miserably. The Muslims of the Middle East are trying to rule the world their way; the Americans have their ideas of how the world should be ruled; Vladimir Putin in Russia has a different plan; Green Peace have their own agenda, as do the homosexual community, the first nations people, the Pope has his ideas, and Rick Warren has his own five step P.E.A.C.E. plan. But the Bible makes it clear that there will be no peace on earth until Jesus Christ establishes His Kingdom and is worshipped as God and Creator by all the nations of the earth. This includes us today. He was born to be our King. Let us, like the wise men, worship Him. So the second truth we learn is that Christmas is a time in which we are reminded that Jesus is to be worshipped by all the nations of the earth. Therefore we must go into all the world proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ has come. The third truth we learn from the wise men is that god directs the movements of the universe in order to make His Son known and worshiped. Matthew 2:2, 9 "“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” …9When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was." Often the Bible confounds our understanding and stirs our curiosity about just how certain things happened. How did this "star" lead the magi from the east to Jerusalem? And how did that star go before them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and how did it stand precisely over the place where the baby Jesus was as verse 9 says it did? We do not know the answer. Many have tried to explain it using the alignment of planets or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights.

4 We just don't know how the star worked. Just like we don’t know how the Red Sea parted and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived in the fish and how the sun stood still at Joshua’s command, or how Jesus turned water into wine and walked on the water. But what we do know is that there is a God who controls the universe and He did all of those things so that we would know Him and worship Him and experience the joy that comes from knowing and worshipping Him. What is obvious concerning this matter of the star is that it guided magi to the Son of God to worship Him. Stars are not living, thinking beings—the only way a star could guide the wise men was if someone was directing the movements of the star. There is only one Person who can control the movement of the stars, and that is God Himself. So the lesson in the story of the wise men is plain: God was guiding these foreigners to Christ for one supreme purpose—to worship Him. And God accomplishes it by exerting influence and power on the universe in order to get it done. This is instructive for us. The emphasis the Bible places on our worship of God makes it clear that the highest purpose of mankind is to worship God—and it is as we begin to truly worship God that we will begin to find our greatest joy and sense of fulfillment in life as we are doing what we were created to do. If you want to find joy and fulfillment this Christmas, make worship of Christ the focal point and priority of all you do. How important is it that we worship Jesus the Messiah? It is so important that God maneuvered the stars in the sky to get foreign wise men to Bethlehem so that they can worship Jesus. And the wise men would have travelled for at least one month to arrive in Jerusalem and they had only one purpose for making this trip—to worship the Christ. Then after fulfilling that one purpose they would return home. Our supreme purpose in life is to worship the King and the supreme purpose of Christmas is to worship the King. This is God's design. His desire is that the nations—all the nations—worship His Son. Matthew 24:14 says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This is God's will for everybody in your workplace, and in your neighborhood and in your home—He desires everyone to worship His Son. At the beginning of Matthew God calls worshipers to come and worship. But at the end of the Gospel He commands us to "go and tell", which was another form of worship that brings great joy to our hearts. The magi came and worshipped. We are all to come and worship Christ the King, but once we have beheld Him we are to go and tell others to come and worship. But in it all, the purpose of God in calling us to come and worship and to go and tell is that all the nations would worship Christ the King, and in doing that, all the nations would experience the joy and peace of God.

5 The magnifying of Christ by all the nations is the reason for the season …no, it’s much more than that, it is not just a seasonal thing, it is the supreme purpose of mankind…it is the reason the world exists…to worship Him. Come let us worship Christ the King. So let me conclude with the fourth truth in this story. What does this story teach us about worship? Worshiping Jesus means joyfully honoring the authority and greatness of Christ with sacrificial gifts. First, the magi acknowledge the authority of Christ by calling him "King of the Jews" in verse 2: They said, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" Second, the magi honored the greatness of Christ by falling down before him in verse 11: "And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped 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.” Third, it was with joy that they honored Christ. Look at verse 10: "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy." Think about what this verse is saying. This is a quadruple way of emphasizing their rejoicing. It would have been much to say they rejoiced. More to say they rejoiced with joy. And even more to say they rejoiced with great joy. But even that wasn’t enough to describe their emotion, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy! And what was all this joy about? They have been travelling for at least one month in search of the Messiah…and the appearance of the star confirmed that they were almost there. True worship is not just honoring the authority and bowing before the greatness of Christ; it is doing this joyfully. It is entering into that time and place of worship with thanksgiving in your hearts and praise in your mouth. It is doing it because you have come to see something about Christ that is so desirable that being near him to humbly bow before His authority and declare His greatness is “overwhelmingly compelling and joyfully fulfilling”. (John Piper) It has been said that, “God is not worshiped where He is not treasured and enjoyed. Are you just going through the motions or are you treasuring and enjoying Jesus? Praise is the expression of joy. Not to enjoy God is to dishonor Him. To say to Him that something else satisfies you more is the opposite of worship. It is sacrilege. “…Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. There is a name for those who try to praise when they have no pleasure in the object of their praise. We call them hypocrites.” (John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters, Multnomah Publishers, 2003) p. 22-23) Do you need God to create in your heart a joyful desire to worship the Lord?

6 And the fourth part of the example of worship given by the wise men is that we worship with sacrificial gifts. “And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (vs. 10) Worshiping Jesus means joyfully honoring the authority and the greatness of Christ with sacrificial gifts. God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything (Acts 17:25). So the gifts of the magi are not given to help God out or to meet God’s needs. God doesn’t need anything. It would dishonor a great king if foreign visitors came with royal care-packages. Unknown to these magi, that very night Joseph and Mary were going to have to flee with their baby to Egypt where they would live for about seven years and these gifts were God’s provision to provide for the needs of this family for seven years in exile. Nor are these gifts of the magi meant to be bribes. Deuteronomy 10:17 says that God takes no bribe. They were not trying to get something from God. How are our gifts to God considered worship? Sacrificial gifts intensify our desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting increases our desire for God. When you sacrificially give a gift to Christ like this, it's a way of saying, "O Lord, the joy that I desire from You is not the hope of getting rich with things from You. I have not come to You for Your things, but for Yourself. “And I now sacrifice things in order that I may increase my desire for You and demonstrate, by offering up my things to You, that I enjoy You more, and desire You more, than I desire my things. “Lord, by giving to You what You do not need, and what I could have enjoyed, I am saying, 'You are my treasure, not these things.'" That is what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. This should be our motivation in giving gifts at Christmas—as an expression of love for God—as a sacrificial act of worship—a declaration that Jesus is my treasure, not these things. Don’t give with the expectation of getting things in return—give in order to increase your capacity to enjoy Christ more. Give especially to those who cannot give in return. And so may God take the truth taught us by these wise men and waken in us a desire for Christ Himself. May we say from the heart, "Lord Jesus you are the Messiah, the King of all the earth. All nations will one day come and bow down before You. The Father directs the course of the universe to ensure that You are worshiped. Therefore, I joyfully bow beneath Your authority and declare Your greatness, and offer my gifts to say that You alone can satisfy my heart, not these." If you are experiencing a lack of desire to worship this Christmas let us make that a matter of prayer this morning, that God would increase in your heart a desire to worship Him.

7 Copyright © 2014 by Parkdale Grace Fellowship Permission: You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.