The wise men came with a specific purpose to worship Jesus. We will look at three lessons we can learn from this passage, especially on worship.
1. Worship is faith-full
2. Worship is sacrificial
3. Worship is obedient
1. Worship is faith-full
Notice the nature of the journey they took. We know they are Magi, meaning magician. Those days the term had a different meaning though. These were the scholars of their day, who understood the ancient wisdom.
There is an ancient tradition that believes the beginning of the Magi was actually Daniel. While he was in Babylon, he began an order of scholars, who studied the stars and dreams and their meaning. We do not know if this is true though.
We do not know where these Magi’s came from, or how many of them were there or how long it took for them to travel to Jerusalem. All we know about them is what they did from the time they arrived in Jerusalem to the time they left by another route.
As they were preparing for the journey, they must have been asked,
“Where are you going?”
“Well, we do not really know.”
And so, the follow-up question, “Do you know how long it is going to take there? When are you going to get back?”
“Well, we do not really know.”
It seems to me for wise men, they did not know much. All that they knew is that they had a sign from God that the King of Israel was born. They had so little information to go on, which most of us would have ignored. They were willing to go on a very expensive, dangerous, and a difficult journey.
This is an extra-ordinary step of faith just like Abraham. God told Abraham to go, and he went, without knowing where he was going. And because of the step of faith, God blessed all nations of the world through him. Because of Abraham, Jesus was born.
Application:
If you are going to worship God in Spirit and in truth, it begins with a step of faith.
You may not know everything about God, but as you take the step of faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth, in the process you will learn quite a lot of who God is.
Faith and worship is not based on where you put your hands. Some worship leaders think that if you do not put your hands up in a certain position, you are not worshipping. I like to say, worship that is based on faith is not based on the position of your hand, but based on where your feet are. In other words, if God tells you to go, you go, even if you do not understand it and does not have a logical explanation.
You could rationalize your way out of all kinds of obedience, but these wise men did not. They took a step of faith.
PONDER:
Can you make statements like these wise men?
They went to Herod to find out about this new born King. They followed the sign and went where it was logical for them to go. The Prophecy said He was going to be born in Bethlehem, but beyond that they did not know anything. And when they come, they asked them, “Where is He who has been born the King of the Jews?” They did not ask, “Where is the King born or have you heard about Him?” There was no shadow of doubt; they knew for sure that the King of the Jews had been born. Their question was not “Has He been born?” but “Where is He?” i.e., we know He has been born, because we have faith.
Do you have that kind of faith? That you know in the depths of your heart that Jesus is Who He claims Himself to be in the Bible? Are you willing to take a step of faith to do something He calls you to do – leaving your comfort, security, the position and prestige you have and go to a place of no reputation? Where are you willing to go in order to worship the only begotten Son of God?
2. Worship is sacrificial
These men not only took a step of faith but also a step of sacrifice. Those days travel was expensive. We do not know how many Magi’s were there. We know they were leaving their jobs, families and whatever they were doing, and were willing to pay the price. They were willing to sacrifice their time.
The gifts they brought were very expensive. For them, worship meant sacrifice. They could not worship without giving.
ILLUSTRATION 1
At the church I used to go to, they had the bulletin in which they outlined the order of service. It was not like the ones how other churches had with hymn numbers, message, and names of the people who are at the door or reading the passage, etc. Instead the program said, “We worship in song. We worship in giving. Worship opportunities during the week…etc.” This was how the announcements section was. We worship in the study of God’s Word. We worship in prayer. In other words, it is a worship service and every aspect of service is intended to worship.
ILLUSTRATION 2
I was having a discussion on giving. You may not have heard me speak much on it, but if the Bible spoke on the topic, I would speak, if not I will not. So once I was having a discussion on giving. In some churches this is a problem. We were talking about how when some people want to put in one rupee coin, they put it in quietly, or rupee ten, you put it in…but if you have rupees one thousand, you want to make sure that you pull it out and flap it around the offering bag, making sure the note is in a good condition and then you drop it so that it falls lightly on the plate, so that everyone can see it on top. “But it isn’t just the money that we put in, if you have given your heart to Jesus, when the plate comes along, you throw yourself in!”
In other words, if we belong to Jesus, then everything we are belongs to Him. What we give is just a token of everything He has given to us. It is worship. So you can do this with joy and not to show it to anybody.
ILLUSTRATION
I cannot help but be reminded of the life Soren Kierkegaard, who believed that faith in Christ resulted in sacrifice and they cannot be separated. Suffering, Sacrifice and Faith were united. They could not be divided. He rejected this easy Christianity, a State church, where you are automatically a member of a church if you are the citizen of his home country. Kierkegaard did not like this. If you are doing this automatically, you are not a man of faith at all. True faith sacrifices and hurts and suffers. Towards the end of his life he wrote more on this subject, and brought persecution upon himself and all kind of ridicule. Even in the last month of his life, he knew he was going to die, he actually collapsed on the street one afternoon, and he was carried off to a hospital. He was in excruciating pain in the hospital and the doctors could not figure it out in the 19th century. While he was there he would not allow any official church representative to visit him, including his own brother Peter, who was a minister in the Lutheran church. The only person who would come regularly was a pastor from his church, but he did not receive communion from him since he was part of a State church. He said, “I cannot receive comfort from somebody who is part of the organization that I have stood against.” And he died in that situation, refusing to receive comfort.
Kierkegaard said this,
“What does God really want? He wants to have souls that can praise, adore, worship, and thank him-the business of angels. That is why God is surrounded by angels. Because the sort of beings of which there are legions in ’Christendom,’ the sort who for 10 rixdollars will roar and trumpet to God’s honor and praise-that sort of being does not please him.
No, the angels please him. And what pleases him even more than the praises of angels is this: When, during the last lap of this life-when it seems as if God transforms himself into sheer cruelty and with the most cruelly devised cruelty does everything to deprive a person of all lust for life-when a human being nonetheless continues to believe that God is love and that it is from love that God does this-such a human being then becomes an angel.
And he can certainly praise God in heaven, but of course the time of instruction, schooltime, is always the strictest time. It is as if a person had the idea of traveling the whole world over to hear a singer with a perfect voice: That is how God sits in heaven and listens. And every time he hears praise from a human being whom he has brought to the most extreme point of weariness with life, God says to himself, ’Here is the voice.’"
The wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Gold: It is a gift proper for a king.
Frankincense: it is a good gift for God, as incense is part of common worship throughout the world.
Myrrh: it was the most unusual. It was the common embalming agent, it was a gift fit for a corpse.
In giving these gifts, they were demonstrating a prophetic understanding of Who Jesus was and the reason that He came. Jesus was the King, God, and the Lamb of God, Who would die for the sins of the whole world.
These were thoughtful, prophetic gifts. There was no last minute shopping for these wise men. They thought, “What is it that I can give that would be the most significant statement of my faith in Jesus? What is the best expression of my love for God?”
ILLUSTRATION:
There is a program in the US called “Good Morning America.” This was about 10 years ago, there was a lady named Jone London, who did a segment on Christmas Gifts and made some suggestions about the list: “You may want to include these in your list:
• Jaguar 220 – this is a specialty car where only 220 are made a year. If you need one, you could put a down payment of about $80,000, i.e., about Rs. 40,00,000! During the time of delivery, you can pay the remaining $507,000. Yes it is a $ 587,000 car!
To go with your new car, you can get a new car wax that will make your car shine. It only costs $3,700 for an 8 ounce can! Yes, it is a super expensive wax for your super expensive car!
• When you get home from taking a drive, you need to go to the toilet! And Jone London is recommending a gold plated, jeweled toilet seat! It’s about $3,700!
What kind of gift are you planning to get for your family this year?
• If you are a grandparent and want to get one of those pacifiers to your grandchild, there is a pacifier available for only $8,000, for those who are especially doting on your grandchildren.
These are I think ridiculous gifts for people who have too much and do not know what to do with what they have. What are we willing to give to Jesus this season?
True worship is faith-full. True worship is sacrificial. Finally, true worship is obedient.
3. True worship is obedient.
At the beginning of the description of the Magi’s, the Bible says in verse 2, “Where is the one Who has been born the King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”
To me that is an extra-ordinary kind of obedience. They did not get Scriptures or a prophet come to them and give a word, or a dream or a revelation from God. All they had was a star that did not seem to belong where it was and based on that they took this journey. It was an extra-ordinary step of faith and obedience.
Verse 12 says, “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Immediate obedience! No delay, no commiserations, no discussion or panel decision making process, none of these things. They just went back another way.
True worship is obedient.
They came to worship Jesus. What did Jesus say obedience? He said, “I have not come to do My own will. I have come to do the will of Him, Who sent me.”
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, and Jesus as the Son of God sees all and understands all. For Him faith is different. Jesus does not need to have hope because He sees all things.
Is there anyone who has sacrificed as much as Jesus has? Our gift is based on our possessions. When Jesus saw the woman taking 2 mites, He announced to everyone else because she gave out of poverty. Later someone else comes in and gives a lot of money and they honor this person. And Jesus said, they are giving out of plenty, what they have given is just pocket change. That is nothing. But this woman has given much more than any of them.
Jesus had all things and He gave it up to come. He gave up everything – all power, all glory, all honor, and all possessions. He was one with the Father, yet He laid all of it down and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Jesus sacrificed everything. He was faithful in everything and He was obedient in everything. These men who worshipped Him, worshipped with the same attitude.
When I think about Jesus and the sacrifice that He made, I cannot help, but be reminded of the fact that Jesus became a little baby.
ILLUSTRATION
I remember when my daughter Marisha was born. After all the pain that my wife through, as soon as the doctor put the baby on her tummy, my wife Vini was filled with tears of joy. As I looked at my daughter, I saw how tiny she was. I put my pinky down next to her hand. Her whole hand would just take the knuckle on my pinky. And each time I get my pinky close to her, she would grab my pinky. Each time she did that she grabbed my heart and she has not let go of it since then. There is something very powerful about the image of a baby. It touches our hearts.
Someone said, God couldn’t become bigger to impress us. If He showed us His nature as He really is, He would just scare us off, as He did in the OT. The only way for Him to really communicate to us was to become small enough that our hearts would be touched and open to Him, that we would be moved by His innocence, simplicity, and even His neediness. He, upon whom the entire universe was dependent, became dependent upon the care of two human beings. One of the most profound truths and awe of universal history – God became a little baby. He was born in a manger.
Jesus willing to worship the Father became weak so that we might become strong. Jesus willing to show His commitment to His Father sacrificed everything that He might become like us. Jesus willing to be obedient unto the Father became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross. This is the Jesus that calls us to worship God in Spirit and in truth.
