We Have Come to Worship Him (2024)

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in thedays of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,saying, 2 "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For wesaw His star in the east and have come to worship Him." 3 WhenHerod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem withhim. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of thepeople, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has beenwritten by the prophet: 6 'AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, AREBY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALLCOME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL."' 7 ThenHerod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exacttime the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said,"Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have foundHim, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him." 9 Afterhearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they hadseen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood overthe place where the Child was. 10 When they saw the star, theyrejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the housethey saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to theground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, theypresented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Andhaving been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, themagi left for their own country by another way.

There are at least five truths that Matthew wants us to see inthis story about Christ and worship 1) Jesus is the Messiah, theKing of the Jews, and should be honored as such. 2) Jesus is to beworshiped not just by Jews, but by all the nations of the world, asrepresented by the wise men from the east. 3) God wields theuniverse to make his Son known and worshiped. This is his greatgoal in all things - that his Son be known and worshiped. 4) Jesusis troubling to people who do not want to worship him and bringsout opposition for those who do. 5) Worshiping Jesus means joyfullyascribing authority and dignity to Christ with sacrificialgifts.

1. Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and Should beHonored as Such.

Verse 2 announces clearly whom this story is really about:"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" It's about anewborn child destined to be King of the Jews. Now, in itself thatwould not be a very great thing. Somewhere alive in America todaythere are probably three or four children or young people under theage of 18 who are going to be President of the United States someday. But nobody really cares about this, or sets out to find themor honor them.

But verse 4 makes clear what the magi really mean by "King ofthe Jews." It says, "Gathering together all the chief priests andscribes of the people, [Herod] inquired of them where the Messiahwas to be born." Herod had been called "king of the Jews" by theSenate in Rome for almost 40 years. But no one called him Messiah.Messiah means the long-awaited God-anointed Ruler, who wouldovercome all other rule, and bring in the end of history, andestablish the kingdom of God and never die or lose his reign.

We don't know how the wise men got their information that therewas such a king coming. But it is clear that Herod got the message:these fellows are not searching for a mere, ordinary, humansuccessor to me. They are searching for the final King, to end allkings. And, of course, unlike Anna and Simeon in Luke 2, that isthe last thing Herod was looking for. He didn't even know thesimple Scriptures about where the Messiah was to be born.

So he asks the scribes, and the one text that they focus on isMicah 5:2,6 "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no meansleast among the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come forth aRuler who will shepherd my people Israel." Now that doesn't soundvery extraordinary either. The reason is that the only purpose forwhich the scribes quoted the text was to answer Herod's question:Where? And the answer is Bethlehem.

But what if Herod had asked them, "Who?" They might have read onin Micah 5: "(2) His goings forth are from long ago, from the daysof eternity. . . . (4) And He will arise and shepherd His flock inthe strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORDHis God. And they will remain, because at that time He will begreat to the ends of the earth." So this king is not just cominginto being in the womb of his mother Mary. "His goings forth arefrom long ago, from the days of eternity." Or, as John's Gospelsays, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,and the Word was God" (John 1:1). And this king would not belimited in his realm to Israel. "He will be great to the ends ofthe earth."

That's the first truth and this is why worship is on their mind!And it leads us to the second truth in this text about theMessiah.

2. Jesus is to be Worshiped not just by Jews, but by all theNations of the World, as Represented by the Wise Men from theEast.

Notice that Matthew does not tell us about the shepherds comingto visit Jesus in the stable. His focus is immediately onforeigners coming from the east to worship Jesus. Verse 1: "Nowafter Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod theking, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is Hewho has been born King of the Jews?'"

So Matthew's Gospel portrays Jesus at the beginning and endingof his Gospel as a universal Messiah for the nations, not just forJews. Here the first worshipers are court magicians or astrologersor wise men not from Israel but from the East - perhaps fromBabylon. They were gentiles. Unclean. And at the end of Matthew thelast words of Jesus are, "All authority has been given to Me inheaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all thenations."

This not only opened the door for us gentiles to rejoice in theMessiah, it added proof that he was the Messiah. Because one of therepeated prophecies was that the nations and kings would, in fact,come to him as the ruler of the world. For example, Isaiah 60:3,"Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness ofyour rising." So Matthew adds proof to the messiahship of Jesus andshows that he is messiah - a King, and Promise-Fulfiller - for allthe nations, not just Israel. For us, not just Jews.

3. God Wields the Universe to Make his Son Known and Worshiped.This is His Great Goal in all Things - that His Son be Known andWorshiped.

Over and over the Bible baffles our curiosity about just howcertain things happened. How did this "star" get the magi from theeast to Jerusalem? It does not say that it led them or went beforethem. It only says they saw a star in the east (verse 2), and cameto Jerusalem. And how did that star go before them in the littlefive-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as verse 9 says it did?And how did a star stand "over the place where the Child was"? Theanswer is: We do not know. There are numerous efforts to explain itin terms of conjunctions of planets or comets or supernovas ormiraculous lights. We just don't know. And I want to exhort you notto become preoccupied with developing theories that are onlytentative in the end and have very little spiritualsignificance.

I risk a generalization to warn you: people who are exercisedand preoccupied with such things as how the star worked and how theRed Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived thefish and how the moon turns to blood are generally people who havewhat I call a mentality for the marginal. You do not see in them adeep cherishing of the great central things of the gospel - theholiness of God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, thedeath of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying workof the Spirit, the glory of Christ's return and the final judgment.They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack with a newarticle or new tape or book. There is little centeredrejoicing.

But what is plain concerning this matter of the star is that itis doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding magito the Son of God to worship him. There is only one Person inBiblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality in thestars - God himself. So the lesson is plain: God is guidingforeigners to Christ to worship him. And he is doing it by exertingglobal - probably even universal - influence and power to get itdone. Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire so thatthe census comes at the exact time to get a virgin to Bethlehem tofulfil prophecy with her delivery. Matthew shows God influencingthe stars in the sky to get foreign magi to Bethlehem so that theycan worship him.

This is God's design. He did it then. He is still doing it now.His aim is that the nations - all the nations (Matthew 24:14) -worship his Son. This is God's will for everybody in your office atwork, and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23 says,"Such the Father seeks to worship him." At the beginning of Matthewwe 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. But whatis not different is that the purpose of God is the ingathering ofthe nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in thewhite-hot worship of all nations, the reason the world exists.

4. Jesus is Troubling to People Who do not Want to Worship Himand He Brings out Opposition for those Who do.

This is probably not a main point in the mind of Matthew, but itis inescapable as the story goes on. In this story there are twokinds of people who do not want to worship Jesus, the Messiah. Thefirst kind is the people who simply do nothing about Jesus. He is anonentity in their lives. This group is represented by the chiefpriests and scribes. Verse 4: "Gathering together all the chiefpriests and scribes of the people, [Herod] inquired of them wherethe Messiah was to be born." Well, they told him, and that wasthat: back to business as usual. The sheer silence and inactivityof the leaders is overwhelming in view of the magnitude of what washappening. And notice, verse 3 says, "When Herod the king heardthis, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." In other words,the rumor was going around that someone thought the Messiah wasborn. The inactivity on the part of chief priests is staggering -why not go with the Magi? They are not interested. They do not wantto worship the true God.

The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus isthe kind who is deeply threatened by him. That is Herod in thisstory. He is really afraid. So much so that he schemes and lies andthen commits mass murder just to get rid of Jesus.

So today these two kinds of opposition will come against Christand his worshipers. Indifference and hostility. Are you in one ofthose groups? Let this Christmas be the time when you reconsiderthe Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him.

So let me close with that, the fifth truth in this story. Whatis worship in this text?

5.Worshiping Jesus Means Joyfully Ascribing Authority andDignity to Christ with Sacrificial Gifts.

There are four pieces to that definition of worship, and allfour are grounded in this text.

First, I see the magi ascribing authority to Christ by callinghim "King of the Jews" in verse 2: "Where is He who has been bornKing of the Jews?"

Second, I see the magi ascribing dignity to him by falling downbefore him in verse 11: "After coming into the house they saw theChild with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground andworshiped Him." Falling to the ground is what you do to say tosomeone else: you are high and I am low. You have great dignity andI am lowly by comparison.

Third, I see the joy in these ascriptions of authority anddignity in verse 10: "When they saw the star, they rejoicedexceedingly with great joy." Now this is a quadruple way of sayingthey rejoiced. It would have been much to say they rejoiced. Moreto say they rejoiced with joy. More to say they rejoiced with greatjoy. And even more to say they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.And what was all this joy about? - they were on their way to theMessiah. They were almost there. I cannot avoid the impression thenthat true worship is not just ascribing authority and dignity toChrist; it is doing this joyfully. It is doing it because you havecome to see something about Christ that is so desirable that beingnear him to ascribe authority and dignity to him personally isoverwhelmingly compelling.

And the fourth part of the definition of worship here is that wedo our ascribing with sacrificial gifts. Worshiping Jesus meansjoyfully ascribing authority and dignity to Christ with sacrificialgifts.

Now we have learned in this series on worship that God is notserved by human hands as though he needed anything (Acts 17:25). Sothe gifts of the magi are not given by way of assistance orneed-meeting. It would dishonor a monarch if foreign visitors camewith royal care-packages. Nor are these gifts meant to be bribes.Deuteronomy 10:17 says that God takes no bribe. Well, what then dothey mean? How are they worship?

The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in muchthe same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ likethis, it's a way of saying, "The joy that I pursue (verse 10!) isnot the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not cometo you for your things, but for yourself. And this desire I nowintensify and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope ofenjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do notneed, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and moreauthentically, 'You are my treasure, not these things.'" I thinkthat's what it means to worship God with gifts of gold andfrankincense and myrrh.

And so may God take the truth of this text and waken in us adesire for Christ himself. May we say from the heart, "Lord Jesusyou are the Messiah, the King of Israel. All nations will come andbow down before you. God wields the world to see that you areworshiped. Therefore, whatever opposition I may find, I joyfullyascribe authority and dignity to you, and bring my gifts to saythat you alone can satisfy my heart, not these."