The Worship of Christmas

The Wonder of Christmas

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Dec. 11, 2022

The Worship of Christmas

If you have your Bibles turn with me to the gospel of Matthew 2. We’re continuing our Christmas series The Wonder of Christmas and this week we’re going to journey with the wise men to Bethlehem as we consider the worship of Christmas. Let’s read Matt. 2:1-12

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, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶ “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

It's funny what you remember as a kid. My Dad taught English and Bible Lit. at a nearby community college on Long Island back in the 70’s and I remember as a teenager who was just beginning my journey of faith being amazed at the biblical insights my dad would share with us. One of the things I remember Dad saying is how strange the story of the wise men (magi) is. I think he thought there was something off about pagan mystics following astrological signs to the place of Jesus’ birth, tipping off Herod on the way. Dad wasn’t wrong about it being a strangely mysterious account. Matthew is the only gospel that includes the account of the magi, and it does raise a lot of questions:

• Who were these wise men who came from the East, probably Babylon or Persia, to worship Jesus? They must have paid close attention to the constellations, because they saw what no one else seemed able to see: a new star signifying the birth of a king. They may have been kings, they may have been magicians, we know they were wealthy. But how did they come to understand that the star meant the king of the Jews had been born and that he was to be worshipped?
• And what about the star? Was it a real star mixed in with all the other stars so that only a student of stars could identify it? Is that why Herod and his people couldn’t just follow it for themselves? Or was it, as the pictures depict, a bright light hanging low in the sky? If that’s the case why Herod wasn’t able to see it?
• Did the star disappear when they got to Jerusalem and reappear as they started out again?
• Why didn’t Herod just follow the magi to Jesus? Bethlehem is only about 6 or 7 miles from Jerusalem, why didn’t Herod make the 3-hour trip rather than ask the magi to return to him with their findings?

Matthew doesn’t try to explain any of this, he leaves some things unexplained in his account, which tells us these questions aren’t central to the truth God wants us to get from this account.

This might be a good place to caution us about what John Piper calls a “mentality of the marginal”. Some people get so focused on fascinating but ultimately marginal questions like, how did the Red Sea split? How did Jonah survive three days in a giant fish? Is the shroud of Turin Jesus’ burial shroud? Or from this passage, How did the star appear and rest over the place Jesus was? Was it a real star? Was it an alignment of planets?

I’m not saying it’s wrong to ever think about these things or be interested in them but we need to be careful they aren’t distracting us from the lovingly meditating on the central truths of the gospel or keeping us so busy chasing shiny lights that we don’t come to the light of Christ. Just a bit of caution for people like me (and my dad) who do find these speculative questions fascination. Beware of having a mentality of the marginal!

Matthew didn’t write this so that we’d ponder the exact nature of the star, he wrote this so that we might see Jesus’ glory from yet another angle in order that we might worship him. I want to share four points to help us cherish Christ at Christmastime and all year long.

1. The reason why the magi followed the star was to worship Jesus

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, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Vv 1-2

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Vs. 11

The reason they traveled long miles was to worship Jesus. And that’s what they do: they fall to their knees and they worshipped him. Don’t pass over that quickly, that one word says so much about who Jesus is.

Charles Ray Fuller wanted to start a record company but he didn’t have the money so when he was visiting his girlfriend he noticed that her mother had left her checkbook sitting around so he stole a blank check, wrote it out to himself, and went to the bank to cash it. The problem is, Fuller wrote the check out for 360 billion dollars and then tried to cash it. For some reason the bank teller became suspicious.

360 billion dollars. Elon Musk is the richest man on earth and he “only” has a net worth of 244 billion and most of that is invested all sorts of investments, not sitting in a bank somewhere ready to be cashed. Fuller attributed to his girlfriend’s mom a net worth no human being on earth has.

Worship attributes a net worth that no human being on earth has. No angel either. Only God is to be worshipped. There are people we honor. We can pay homage to a great king or leader. But worship is a check no human being has the net worth to cover. Nothing in all of creation is worthy of worship except God alone.

Jesus was not only born a King, he was and is fully God and alone is worthy of our worship.

The wonder of Christmas is to worship Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Let’s bow our knees, let’s bow our hearts, let’s come to Jesus with hearts full of worship, not only at Christmastime, but all year round.

2. The gospel written to the Jews begins and ends with the worship of Jesus reaching all nations

Of the four gospels, Matthew was written to convince his Jewish brethren that Jesus is the Messiah. So it’s really interesting that Matthew begins and ends his account with the gospel of Christ reaching Gentiles. He closes his gospel with the Great Commission, taking the gospel to the nations, and he opens his gospel with Gentiles being the first people to seek out Jesus and the first to worship Jesus.

God never intended for Jesus to be the Savior of Israel alone, He always meant for Jesus to be the Savior of the world. Isa. 60:3 says, Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Psalm 22, which gives a prophetic description of Jesus’ crucifixion, says: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him ²⁸ for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

The Magi coming from the East represents people from every nation, tongue, and tribe coming to worship Jesus, the Savior of the world. We worship him today as we celebrate Christmas because Jesus came to save both Jews and Gentiles from our sin.

3. The star was God’s supernatural way of guiding the magi to Christ

We have no idea whether the star was a new star appearing in the heavenlies or a bright light in the sky that guided them. We don’t know if it could only be seen at night or if it could be seen in the daytime too. We don’t know God caused it to disappear for a time when the magi reached Jerusalem and that’s why Herod couldn’t see it, or because it was a new star in the constellation that only star constellation experts could pick out. We don’t know these things because Matthew doesn’t say.

The big point here is that God supernaturally placed a star in the sky (however He did it) in order to guide them to Jesus! That’s the point! The point isn’t the star, the point is Jesus!

Herod had a terminal case of mentality of the marginal because all he cared about – all he asked about – was “where?” Where was this King of the Jews to be born? Herod was a truly evil person who had members of his own family put to death, including three of his sons, just so he could hold onto his power. When he heard that there was a baby born a King, the only thing he thought about was how this king threatened his reign.

Therefore the only question on his mind was “where?” The more important question he should have asked is “who?” Who is this child who was born a king? Who is this child so important that God put a new star in the sky for? Who was this baby-king that Gentiles traveled many miles to worship and to honor?

In answer to the “where?” question the scribes quoted from the prophet Micah where God says: ⁶ “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Where? Bethlehem! But if Herod had read on he would have read: ”Whose goings forth are from of old,from everlasting.” (Or from days of eternity) - Micah 5:2

What a paradox: This newborn is from everlasting. Only God is “from everlasting to everlasting”. Herod was so focused on his own agenda that he missed what God was doing. He was deluded to think that he could snuff out the life of the eternal God and stop what God had ordained to happen from the beginning of time.

The star should have been the first sign that this child was a miracle from God. Along with where is he? he should have asked who is he?

However God did it, the star was God’s supernatural way of guiding the magi to Christ. Just as for centuries lighthouses have been used to guide ships safely through the night or fog to safe port. God to this day draws men and women to the light of Christ and the safety of salvation through faith in him.

4. The magi came to worship Jesus joyfully

¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Matt. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Matt. 2:10-11

I love verse 10 because it reminds us that Jesus came to bring joy. Look at the joy the Magi feel when they see the star again: Rejoiced…exceedingly (a whole lot!)…with great…joy. Could have said they rejoiced. Could have said rejoiced with joy. Could have said rejoiced with great joy. But they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Put it all together and you have joy quadrupled.

Joy is in short supply in the world. There’s so much unjoyful, truly heart-breaking stuff going on that if that’s what we focus on, it’s not surprising if we find ourselves joyless. The world cannot give joy. It can give pleasure and fun and it can stoke our pride, but it can’t give us joy. If we worship anything the world offers: youth, health, money, power, nature, we will have a hollow, joyless pit in the center of our hearts because it’s only a matter of time before what we worship will let us down.

Jesus came to bring true joy. The angels said they brought good news of great joy. Jesus came that all who believe in him will be saved. Saved from our sins. Saved for eternity. Saved for loving relationship with God. Saved for a new life worshiping the only One worthy of our worship: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit the Three in One. Worshipping Jesus shouldn’t be a downer, if worship brings our hearts down we’re doing something wrong! Worship should and will bring our hearts the deep joy we long for. The deeper the worship, the deeper the joy. That doesn’t mean there is no sadness – we’ll talk about that next week in a message called The Weeping of Christmas, but when we worship Jesus the deepest current running in our hearts won’t be sadness, it will be joy.

In this advent season, as we prepare for Christmas, let’s prepare our hearts to be a place of worship. Take time to clear the clutter of all the things we have going on and meditate on Jesus. Let’s not miss the meaning of Christmas by being fixated on the marginal.

Ask the band to come back up as we sing Bellows of Praise.