Server Outage Notice: TheSeed.info is transfering to a new Server on Tuesday April 13th
| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Stephen 't Hart > Christ the King is worthy of our worship | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Book of Praise: 2014 ESV Greeting Hymn 21:1-6 Nicene Creed Hymn 24:1,4,6 Prayer Read: Matthew 1:18 – 2:12 Hymn 20:1,4 Text: Matthew 2:2. Sermon: Christ the King is worthy of our worship Hymn 45:1,2,3 Prayer Psalm 72:10 Blessing
|
Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew could have told us a better story. In Matthew chapter 2, soon after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are introduced to some mysterious men, wise men, from the east. But in the telling of this story, Matthew leaves out so many details! For a start, he doesn't tell us how many wise men there were. (Tradition has it that there were three, since three gifts are mentioned – but we don’t know that.) Further, Matthew doesn't tell us their names. (Tradition has it that they were three men named Melchior, Balthasar and Caspar. Tradition also says that they were three kings – they were not – and that they came from India, Egypt and Greece.) We also do not know what happened to these wise men once they had seen Jesus and returned back home again. (Once again, tradition will tell you that they were later baptized by Thomas, that their bones were discovered by St. Helena of Constantinople about 300 years after their death and that they are now to be found in a Roman Catholic cathedral in Germany.) But tradition does not help us much. Not if we want to know the facts, that is. So Matthew could have told us a better story. He could have filled in the details that we would so much love to know.
But, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel Writer Matthew wasn't concerned with telling us a better story: what Matthew intended to do was to tell us the best story. The True Story concerning the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The true story that this Jesus had come to save His people from their sins; that this Jesus is Immanuel, God With Us; and that this Jesus is therefore worthy of our worship.
I preach to you the Good News concerning the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ under the following heading:
Christ the King is worthy of our worship.
The Story of the Wise Men leaves out a lot of detail that has since been filled in by tradition, myth and fantasy. But what Matthew 2:1-12 does do is it emphasizes what these wise men had come to do.
In Verse 2 they asked,
“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.”
And Herod, in verse 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.”
And verse 11,
“And going in to the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him.”
Matthew’s focus on the story of the wise men is on worship! This would have been striking for those who first read Matthew’s gospel. It is commonly believed that Matthew wrote his gospel with Jewish Christians in mind, Jews who knew the Old Testament prophecies concerning our Lord – and Jews who had also learned from birth that there is One God, and that He alone is to be worshipped. But now Matthew says that it is Jesus who is to be worshipped. And why should He be worshipped – even as a little Baby? Because, as Peter would later confess concerning Him in Matthew 16:16,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And so right from the beginning, right from the time that we first read about the birth of Christ, He is presented to us as the Son of God, being Himself true God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and is therefore the One who is truly Immanuel, God With Us. So as we read and hear the Story concerning the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ again today, let us be instructed not to see this as simply “a nice story”, even “a nice children’s story”, not to get all sentimental over this little Baby in a manger, but receive the Christ as the One whom we must worship! To receive our Lord Jesus Christ as “God of God, Light of light, True God of True God, begotten, not made, and of one substance with the Father.” (Nicene Creed).
It is, still, a striking story to read of these wise men from the East following a star from their home country to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem, where they saw and worshipped our Lord Jesus. These Wise Men are sometimes referred to as kings, but they were not kings; they were Magi. Now Magi is actually a Greek Word which in turn comes from the language of the Persians. There was a tribal group of Persia who were known as Magi and it is reported that these people had close connections with the Jews, particularly with those who had been sent into exile in Babylon. Now these people were a part of the Parthian Empire, meaning that they were independent of Rome and so the Wise Men were able to openly ask about the King of the Jews without fear of Herod or others from the Roman Empire punishing them for this. It is very possible that these Magi were a part of the Magi people – and that would mean that they most likely came from what is now known as Iran. But the name Magi was used more widely for those wise men and counselors who studied the stars, who practiced astrology and also interpreted dreams. So perhaps they came from Iran, but it is also possible that they came from Babylon, that is Iraq, or somewhere else east of Israel.
And while they were in their own country to the east of Israel, they saw a star, a special star. A star like no other. A star that somehow told them that a King had been born, the King of the Jews. “We saw his star” they told the people of Jerusalem in verse 2,
“We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
“We saw his star.” How did they know this? How could they be so sure that the star they saw in the sky was the star to announce the birth of the King of the Jews? And what caused them to believe that this was a King to be worshipped as God – and a King whom they should worship?
Clearly, these wise men could not have concluded this from their study of the stars alone. The LORD must have revealed this to them, perhaps through prophecy already given, perhaps through a dream or special revelation, perhaps with a combination of both of these things.
The Bible speaks of a star in connection with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. In Numbers 24, the heathen prophet Balaam was directed to curse God’s people but instead the LORD caused him to bless them and to prophesy in Numbers 24:17,
a star shall come out of Jacob;
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel...
And the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 60:1,
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
And Isaiah 60:3,
And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
But while these prophecies should have been enough to cause the people of Jerusalem to take notice when the Wise Men from the East came looking for the King that was born, it is less likely that the Wise Men themselves had used these prophecies to conclude that it was his Star that had come up in the east, the Star to announce the birth of Jesus Christ.
So how did these wise men know that Jesus, the King of the Jews had been born, and what gave them reason to seek Him out that they might worship Him?
It is possible, of course, that the LORD Himself simply informed them, whether by way of a dream or in another way. However it is also likely that these wise men knew something of the God of Israel – and that they had even heard of the ancient prophecies that a King was to be born in Israel. The Magi were well educated people and they kept careful records of things through the ages. Many of the Magi, therefore, would have heard of another Magi that had come from Israel – the prophet Daniel. And you may remember that in Daniel chapter 2, the king of Babylon had a dream and he called the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell him both its dream and its meaning. None of these people could tell the king his dream and so the king was ready to have them all killed. But then Daniel spoke up and he asked the king to wait, so that he might ask the God of Heaven to help him know the dream and its interpretation. And then it says this, in Daniel 2:26-28.
26 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” 27 Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.
And this God in heaven did reveal what would be in the latter days. The dream that Nebuchadnezzar had was of a statue with a head of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet a mixture of iron and clay. This statue was an image that represented the kingdoms of the world. One kingdom would follow another, until a stone that was cut by no human hands struck the image to become a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And then explaining this further, Daniel said in verse 44,
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.
Now we can be confident that the wise men whose lives were spared would have heard of both the dream and its interpretation. The God of heaven would set up His Kingdom, a kingdom that would be like no other, a kingdom that would stand forever. And perhaps Daniel had the opportunity to say even more to these wise men, these Magi – and if Daniel did not, then certainly the God-fearing Jews in the Dispersion would have done so. For the LORD had told His people that One would be born of the line of David, that the Government would be upon His shoulder, that His name would be called
“. . .Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6,)
These Magi, therefore, may well have been living in the anticipation of the coming King of the Jews – just as the faithful people of Israel were doing. But whatever it was that they did, or they did not, know or understand, when the star appeared, they knew that the King of the Jews had been born. And so they travelled to Jerusalem to seek out that King that they might worship Him.
However when they got to Jerusalem, things were not as they anticipated.
“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.”
But there was no new King in Jerusalem. And what was more, it appeared as though no one could help them find Him! And then, as the Wise Men kept asking around, word about these strange men from the East reached the ears of King Herod himself. And Herod and all Jerusalem with him were troubled.
Herod was troubled because a new King of the Jews was the last thing he wanted. Herod was the King whom the Roman Emperor had placed over Judea and Jerusalem. King Herod the Great was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau and he had schemed and killed his way to the position he held as king over Judea. Herod was a cruel, bloodthirsty tyrant, an ever increasingly wicked king who would get rid of anyone whom he thought might be a threat. He even killed his own wife and three of his sons out of the fear that they might turn against him. Wanting to kill the Lord Jesus, and killing the baby boys of Bethlehem, were therefore all in a day’s work for Herod. Herod did not want to worship the Lord Jesus: he wanted to be rid of Him! Herod wanted the title “King of the Jews” for himself and for him alone. And as a result of that, he would soon die in his sin and Herod would lose it all.
But now, when Herod first heard that the Wise Men were seeking the King of the Jews, he called for the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders of Israel, and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. And so they answered Herod and told him what the prophet Micah had written 700 years earlier. Matthew 2:5,6.
“In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
'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.”
And so the Wise Men, the Magi, went on to Bethlehem. And as they did so, the star that had led them to Israel went before them, traveling from North to South, until it stopped at the house where the Lord Jesus was. And then it says in Matthew 2:10,
“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”
The star led them to the same place that God’s Word, His prophecies of long ago, had said. It led them to the place where the Son of God, the King of the Jews was to be found. And the Wise Men rejoiced.
And so they found Him, and they fell down and they worshipped Him. Jesus, the King of the Jews, the One Whom the prophets of Old had spoken of, the Great Immanuel, was there. And the Wise Men, the Magi, believed that this was the Promised King. And the Wise Men worshipped Him!
And then they gave him gifts fit for a king: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold, the gift for a king; frankincense, the gift for God, since incense was used in sacrifices to God; and myrrh, an expensive ointment used for burial. And with these gifts we are reminded of another prophecy, Isaiah 60:6,
All those from Sheba shall come;
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.
So the Wise Men gave their gifts and they worshipped the King. And then, having been warned in a dream, they avoided Jerusalem and returned to their country in another way.
But what is the meaning of all this? Why did the Holy Spirit cause Matthew to write about these Wise Men from the East, how they followed a star, how they were directed to a little house in Bethlehem, and how they worshipped Him there? What is the message that we should take from this?
In the first place, we see here that Christ the Saviour was born the King of the Jews! He did not take this upon Himself, but He was the One of whom the prophets had spoken. Even as a little child, a child that could not walk or talk, He was and remained the Son of God. This Jesus, whose birth we celebrate today, is your Saviour and Your Lord. And He is worthy of your worship also.
But more than that. Our Lord Jesus was born not just to be the Saviour of Israel, not just to be the King of the Jews, but to be the Saviour and the King of the whole world! With the coming of the Wise Men to worship our Lord Jesus, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of another prophecy, Isaiah 49:6,
6 he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
The Wise Men came from the ends of the earth to worship the Lord Jesus. But the time would come when Gospel concerning the Saviour would go out to them! After He had died on the cross and been raised from the dead, the Lord would tell His disciples – and His church also –
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
For that is what Christ had come to do. That was why He was born.
Brothers and sisters: do you worship the Lord Jesus? Do you receive Him as your Saviour and your Lord? Do you also want the nations, the gentiles, to worship Him? Is that your passion in life? And does it bother you when our Lord Jesus is not worshipped, when a Christ-less Christmas is celebrated by so many today? From the story of the Wise Men coming to worship the young child Jesus we learn that Christ the King is worthy of your worship, and He is worthy of all worship. And so let us sing together,
Let every creature rise and bring
the highest honours to our King,
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud amen.
(Book of Praise, Hymn 45:3, Jesus shall reign.)
Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Stephen 't Hart, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2024, Rev. Stephen 't Hart
Please direct any comments to the Webmaster
