Worship the New Born King

Matthew 2:1-12

Key Verse 2:11

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Today we would like to think about Jesus, the object of our worship. At the outset of his gospel the Apostle Matthew introduced Jesus as God with us. If Jesus is indeed God then he is the object of our worship. 

In the passage for today Matthew shows us an example of worshiping the Lord Jesus, the new born king. So let us think about the worship of our Lord Jesus. We would like to think about it in three ways: first, the purpose of worship, second, the means to fulfill the purpose of worship, and third, the way of worship. 

First, the purpose of worship

The purpose of worship is to be like Jesus and to live like Jesus.  

It has been said, “You are what you worship.” By definition worship means reverent respect for and devotion to an object of worship. 

We can categorize all the objects of worship into two categories: the Creator and the Creation. All worshipers can fall into either of these two categories: there is no single exception. 

Matthew says that Jesus is God with us. So the worship of Jesus means the worship of God, not the worship of creation. Before we talk about the worship of Jesus, let us think about the worship of something or someone else. What will happen to those who worship the creation? We know the answer: we will be like what we worship. By definition the creation is limited. Money is limited. People are limited. All that have been created are limited. So if you go after the creation you are bound to be limited. 

This is a huge problem. Why? It is because man cannot be satisfied with what is limited. You can try all the good looking things or people of this world. Still you will remain unsatisfied. Then when your life in this physical body is over you perish; you are shut out of the eternal presence of God. It is not so with those who worship our Lord Jesus. 

Just in case anyone is unconvinced on this point, I would like to ask everyone to read Genesis 1:27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Here, we are told that God created man in God’s image. By definition God is not limited; his name represents perfection without a limit. This indicates that we are endowed with the potential to grow to God’s level. And God is infinitely great. This means that all the days of our life, we are called to scale all aspects of God’s true greatness. And deeply imbedded in our inmost being is the deep desire to be like our Creator and to live like our Creator. This we call the chief end of man’s life.

This is where the worship of our Lord Jesus becomes necessary. This is what constitutes the purpose of worship. And it constitutes the purpose of our existence. And the purpose is for us to be like Jesus and to live like Jesus. Our life is going to be fruitful in proportion to the degree in which we come to know Jesus, be like Jesus and live like Jesus; the degree of your satisfaction will be in exact proportion to the degree in which you are like Jesus and live like Jesus.  

In the passage the Magi came to Jerusalem and publicly announced their purpose of coming: We have come to worship Him! Today I welcome all of you in Jesus’ name. I thank God for all of you, for like the Magi you set aside other priorities of your life, and came to worship the new born King. May the Lord richly bless your desire to worship Him! May the Lord inspire you to carry this desire all the days of your life, so that as you know Jesus Christ better and worship Him, the Lord should fulfill the purpose of your life to the fullest extent. 

Second, worship as a means to fulfill the purpose of our life

In the key verse the Magi said, “We have come to worship him.” What did they mean by “worship him”? What they did in the passage answers the question: that is, by saying they came to worship him, they meant that they came to meet the King of the Jews in person; they came to dedicate themselves to the king even for a few minutes; they came to express their thanks and adoration to the King. 

The key here is to secure a “personal encounter” with the King! So let us stop for a moment and think about the experience we call “a personal encounter with Jesus”. For a personal encounter with someone, the first thing you need to secure is “your”: you must bring yourself. You need to be there “in person”. You need to be present in the presence of God who is with us. 

A couple of years ago I visited the White House in Washington D.C. The tour company put us in a tour bus. After about a half an hour drive from the Washington UBF Bible center, the bus stopped in front of the White House. Then the tour guide let us get off the bus. The woman pointed to a building in front of us and said: “This is the White House. Mr. George Bush is working inside.” Then she asked, “Does anyone want to go inside, shake hands with the President of the U.S. and take a picture with him?” Everyone said, “Yea, we’d love to.” Then she said “No. You cannot. You need an appointment with him. Plus you need security-clearance. None of us have an appointment. None of us have security clearance. So let’s go to see Abraham Lincoln.” So we couldn’t meet Mr. Bush –no personal encounter with the President.

The same thing can happen to church goers: you can come to a worship service at a church. But it’s possible that you do not have any personal encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus. You might meet a lot of people, listen to good music, eat pizza, and that’s it. No personal encounter with the Risen King. 

Why do we need this personal encounter (or fellowship) with Jesus? We have already figured out the answer that is, to fulfill the purpose of our life which is to be like him and to live like him. How can we resemble anyone whom we have not even seen? 

As of last Oct. 9, 2007, I and my wife Rebekah celebrated our 35^th wedding anniversary. Through our life together we became a lot like each other. I am a lot like Rebekah and she is also a lot like me, not just outwardly but inwardly. But we both admit one thing: both of us married in the Lord. So between Rebekah and me Jesus has also been with us in our relationship. So in the context of marriage I had fellowship with the Lord, and Rebekah had fellowship with the Lord, since He was also with us. Our 35 years of marriage life has been a long journey of worship, the struggle to come to know our Lord Jesus better. 

Essentially then worship is to get ourselves exposed to the presence of God. It is to open ourselves up to Him, so that he would shine upon us that as he bestows his love upon us we can all receive His healing. In our fellowship Him, we can listen to him. We can then go out and struggle to obey His will. In this way as we worship Him in adoration he works in and through us, so that we would be like him and live like him. 

In the Bible history numerous worshipers show us that as they worshiped the Lord, the Lord transformed their lives, so that by the time they finished their life’s journey here on earth they all developed Godly character. Through God’s grace they could transcend themselves and the world. Thanks to their worship they came to be like God and lived like God. Abel, Enoch, Job, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, and Mary Magdalene, are but a few examples. 

When we examine the life of the saints in the Bible we find one thing in common: in the business of their life’s journey, they secured quiet moments with God the Father. 

In case of Moses, once he went up to Mt. Sinai. There he spent time with the Lord forty days and forty nights. This fellowship was so intimate that he  didn’t even drink; he did nothing but fellowshipping with God. As a result as he was walking down the mountain his face became so radiant that people could not look at him straight. So he had to put a veil on his face. 

David is another example. He went through many challenges. As a king of a nation and a general of the Lord’s army, he had to fight battles after battles against the hostile nations. Yet every once in a while he went up to the Lord’s temple and spent quiet moments in worship to the LORD. Expressing his experience in worship, David says in Psalm 131, “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.” Further he said in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.“ In this way he withdrew so much joy of his soul through the time of worship that he says, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Psalm 84:10 

When Jesus came to this world, through his public ministry, many found Jesus as the true object of worship. By engaging themselves in the act of worship they fully fulfilled the purpose of their lives. One example is found in what Luke 7:37-38 describe: “When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” One thing that truly amazes us is what our Lord Jesus said of this woman: “Your faith has saved you: go in peace!” It was through her act of worship that she heard the voice of our Lord Jesus directly. She had a personal encounter with the Savior of the world. Worship is the means to fulfill the purpose of our life. 

Third, the way of worship 

Where is the one who has been king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and we have come to worship him! 

As I mentioned Matthew is the first book of the New Testament Scriptures. The first message Matthew brings about Jesus is to say Jesus is Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us’. After presenting Jesus as the object of worship, immediately he introduces the Magi who came to show us the example of worship. 

Obviously where there is the right way there is a wrong way. And the Magi knew what it meant to worship the new born king. In view of the passage there are a few critical points which we must remember in coming to worship the Lord.

Commitment to come to meet him in person. The Magi made a decision to come to meet him. So let us make a firm decision to come to know Jesus and meet him as our Lord and serve him all the days of our life. 

Persistence: the Magi persistently followed upon their decision. 

Bible study as the way to know Him: It was through the study of Micah that the religious leaders could lead the Magi to meet the King. The Bible is the final expression of God’s will and purpose for us. So Bible study is essential to knowing him and worshiping Him. 

Self denial (warning against ego-centrism): King Herod was disturbed at the news of the new born king. He killed a lot of babies for fear of losing his position as the king. Self-centered people will never learn to worship Jesus. Indeed self-centeredness is the great stumbling block to knowing the Lord and worshiping the Lord. 

Zeal vs. Apathy: the religious leaders came to the knowledge of the birth of their King. But they did not do anything upon hearing the blessed news. Why? Maybe it was because they must have thought that they already knew what they needed to know. They became proud. They became content. But we must remember that worship is a journey – the journey to God’s infinite perfection. All the days of our life we need to exhort one another to have the great zeal to worship the Lord.

Preparation vs. laziness: King Herod and all Jerusalem with him were greatly disturbed at the news. This indicates that they did not prepare themselves for the occasion. But the Magi prepared themselves. The Magi were proactive in greeting the new born king. Likewise in order to know and have fellowship with the Lord daily we need to make our hearts and minds ready each and every day

Sense of value: Magi brought gifts to the new born King. They brought their best gifts, for in those days gold, incense, and myrrh were expensive items. How could they sacrifice so much for the Lord? It is because they met the true object of worship who is Jesus. Having Jesus is like possessing the whole universe and everything in it. So when one accepts Jesus he realizes that Jesus has already made him truly rich, so he gives to the Lord and his people sacrificially. By the same token those who do not have Jesus are like the universe with a black-hole; because they have such a huge emptiness inside of them, in order to fill the emptiness they hold onto all sorts of worthless things in this world. But the more they pile things up, the emptier they become. But, the Magi found Jesus as the Savior of the world; they brought gifts to the Lord. In this way they became partners of our Lord Jesus, in bringing the good news of great joy to all peoples on earth. 

In conclusion, let us read the key verse once again. “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

In this passage we can learn that worship is the end purpose of man’s life. Worship also serves as the means to fulfill this very purpose. Thank and praise be to our Lord Jesus who came to save us from our sins, and lead us into the presence of our God, the king of eternal glory.

One word: Worship the new born king.

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