My favorite definition of worship is: “to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission”. Worship of Christ involves your affections AND your will.  You give him your love, and you surrender to him.  Worship is highly valuing Christ.  It is considering him to be of great worth to you, or considering him to be a great treasure.

Worship is not just singing a slow, quiet song we call a worship song!  It CAN be expressed by that. But it is essentially an attitude of your heart, that manifests itself by outward expressions and the priorities you choose.  If YOUR HEART worships, then God is pleased with your singing, and giving and serving, and everything else you do that flows out of that. But if your heart is not in worship, then nothing else matters.  King Herod SAID he wanted to worship Jesus, but his heart was in a completely different place!

In this story certain men worship Jesus, and others do not. Herod was desperate to kill him.  The wise men were on a mission to find him and worship him.  People were either overjoyed at the news of his birth or greatly troubled about it!

AW Tozier said the most important thing about you is what you think about God.  We could say, “The most important thing about you is what you think about Jesus”.  What you think about Jesus will determine whether you find in him all you ever wanted, or you indifferent, or even antagonistic toward him.  What you think about Jesus will determine what you live for and give yourself to.

Either you will follow him or not.  Either you will love him or you will not.  Either you will worship him or you will not.  Either you will see him as worthy of all that you are, or you will not.

But IF Jesus is God, come to us in human flesh, if he is “God with us”, if he is ruler and king, if he is the perfect manifestation of God’s love, if he our Savior from the curse of sin and the brokenness of this world, then the only right response to him is worship!  The only appropriate response is to adore him, and thank him, and bow before him, to worship him from the innermost part of your being,  to give him your humble adoration.

There is a simple chorus we sometimes sing that goes like this:

I love you Lord, and I lift my voice. To worship you, Oh my soul rejoice! Take joy, my King. In what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

Very simple words, yet there is something about the glory and majesty and power, and the love of Jesus Christ, that calls forth this kind of worship from our hearts.  To those who love him, he is wonderful, desirable and glorious.  He is compelling!!  He HIMSELF calls forth worship from our hearts.  

When Paul saw Jesus, even though he was an avowed enemy of Christ, he immediately fell at his feet and said, “Who are you Lord and what do you want me to do?”.  He was captivated, awed, spellbound.  When you see him, you fall at his feet.  Perhaps you literally fall to your knees before him, but certainly you bow the knees of your heart.

The wise men in this story saw Jesus as utterly worthy of their worship and their gifts.  They saw him as someone to adore and to bow down before.  My prayer this morning would be that  each one of us would move toward this same attitude of worship. But first I want to deal with some of the details of this well known story.

There is so much mystery about this story!  We know the wise men came to present Jesus with their gifts.  But we don’t know how many there were.  It doesn’t say there were three. Their may have been two or ten.  And we don’t know specifically where they were from, except that they were from the east, probably from Babylon, or Mesopotamia.  

Tradition says they were kings, but the Bible says they were Magi, or wise men.  We do not fully know why they were considered wise men. They were men who paid attention to the stars.  We might consider them astronomers or astrologers.  They were likely philosophers, thinkers, men interested in finding the answers to the big questions about life.

Even though we associate them with Jesus’ birth, they did not show up the night Jesus was born.  They saw “his star” the night he was born, but they had to prepare for this trip and travel for months to arrive.  We know from Herod’s calculation that Jesus was no more than two, by the time they arrived.

And there is mystery about how they got their information about Jesus.  How did they know he was coming as king of the Jews?  It is possible that they learned this from the Jews who had been in exile in the east.  Possibly they learned about the coming Christ from the prophecies of Daniel who predicted a coming king and a kingdom that would never be destroyed.  

And the thing we would really like more explanation about is the star!  We don’t know exactly what this star was.  Was this some kind of natural phenomena, such as an alignment of planets that made a very bright star?  Or was it a supernatural star, especially placed by God in the sky, just to lead these men from the east?  I lean toward the supernatural explanation, mainly because it says in verse 9 that after they left Herod’s palace, “the star they had seen went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was”.  I don’t think regular stars do that.  Even more amazing, somehow these men knew this star was “his star”, (they told Herod, “We saw HIS STAR in the east)..  They knew this was a star uniquely for Jesus Christ.  It  was a sign that he was born, AND it marked his place of birth.

But with all the mystery and the unknowns, the MAIN THING WE ARE TO KNOW is they came to worship Jesus.  They told Herod.  “We have come to worship him”.  And later in the story when they “went into the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, they fell down and worshiped him”.

This story is included by Matthew, to contrast the attitude of eager worship from these men from the east, with the closed hearts of the Jews, the lack of interest from the Chief Priests and Scribes, and the  to the out and out hatred of Herod.

Verse 3 says, “When Herod heard of this coming king, he was disturbed, or troubled, as was all of Jerusalem”.  This was bad news to him!  And it was not received well throughout Jerusalem.   

When (Herod) heard this “He called together all the high priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, because that is what is written by the prophet: O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, because from you WILL COME A RULER who will shepherd my people Israel”.  Jesus came  to give his life for us but he also came to rule!

Herod hated the thought of Jesus ruling!  That is why he was motivated to slaughter all the babies under two years of age. He wanted no one to threaten his power, and his own will.  There’s an old rock song, “Jesus is just alright with me” A lot of people think that...so long as he doesn’t interfere with what I want to do!  When they find he wants to be Lord, they don’t like that Jesus anymore.

“Then Herod secretly called together the wise men, found out from them the time the star had appeared, and sent them to Bethlehem.  He told them, “As you go search carefully for the child. When you find him, tell me so that I, too, may go and worship him”.  

Herod, of course, wanted to kill Jesus, NOT worship him! The easiest way for him to do that, would be for the wise men to come back and tell him where Jesus was.  If they didn’t do that, Herod also had another strategy.  He tried to determine how old Jesus was, by asking WHEN the star had first appeared. He would later use this information in a mass murder of all the male children in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger, thinking Jesus would die too.

It’s interesting that the Jewish leaders clearly understood the prophecies about Jesus and the place of Jesus’s birth.  They ALSO heard that the wise men were in Jerusalem looking for him.  But they did not go and seek him.  They seemed content with their head knowledge of scriptures about the Messiah, but their hearts were not inflamed with love for him, or joy in finding him, or desire to worship him.

This happens to many people who grow up in the church.  They know quite a bit of information about Christ, but have never bowed their hearts and lives before him.  He never REALLY means anything to them.  Their affections are absorbed by the daily affairs of life, or getting along in a career, sports, acceptance by friends, or plans for the future.  They know the stories and facts about Jesus but do not adore him, love him and worship him.  If this in any way describes the condition of your heart, come to Jesus Christ and worship him!  Set your heart on him, as your supreme love.

Only one group of people mentioned in this story have an appropriate response to Jesus. That is the wise men!  God’s own people, do NOT worship him. The high priests and the scribes do not worship him.  Herod does not worship him.  It is foreigners, Greeks, Easterners, Gentiles, people from pagan backgrounds!  These are the ones who see his worth and come and bow down before him.    

Two important lessons here.  One: No matter how pagan or ungodly, your background, you too can come to Jesus.  No matter who or what you have worshiped in the past, you can become a worshiper of Jesus.  Jesus said the one who comes to me I will never turn away.  

Two: The worshipful hearts of the wise men stand in sharp contrast to all these others.  Today, all around us, are many who place very little value on Christ.  They are not moved to love him or worship him.  So, like the wise men, your love toward Christ, your joy in Christ and your worship of Christ should stand out in stark contrast to all the people around, who do not bow before Christ.   

Regardless of what others do, set your heart on Christ as your most precious possession.  Let him be the focus of your life, the one you love, the one you adore, the one you give your heart to, the one you pay attention too, the one you are devoted to. The one you want to serve.  Even if that looks extreme, compared to the response of most of your family and friends and the world around you.

From the wise men we see a demonstration of what worship is:

*A profound inner sense of the worth of Jesus Christ.  That is what  drew these wise men from the east to Jesus.  They saw his worthiness.  They intuitively knew he was worthy of all honor and power and glory and blessing and praise.  He was worthy of them following his star.  He was worthy of them leaving their homeland and their duties and routines of life and coming and falling at the feet of Jesus!  He was worthy of the most costly gifts.

There is something intrinsically about Jesus that beckons us outside our small narrow, self-focused lives, and challenges us to follow HIM, as the Lord of all.  There is something about his authority and power, his love and compassion, that captures our hearts and compels our obedience and loving devotion.

*Worship of Christ, changes your priorities in life.  Indeed our worship of Christ is shown by our priorities.  When the wise men saw the star of Christ, they put all their other plans on hold and followed the star.  If you worship Jesus, it WILL change your plans.  It will interrupt your life.  When you get married it changes you life! When you have baby it changes your life!  When you come into union with Jesus Christ it has to change your life and your priorities and plans.  A genuine encounter with Jesus will lead you to give all the plans of your life over to him!  Everyday you wake up and offer yourself to him, to follow his promptings and leading.

*Worship is intentional.  You choose to be a worshiper.  You choose to follow the star.  Worship of Jesus isn’t something that happens by accident.  You decide to value Christ above all else!

*Worshipers find great joy in Christ. The star led them and “until it stopped over the place the child was.  When they saw the star they were ecstatic with joy”.  The NIV says “overjoyed”.  This joy in Christ is so important to our worship. Indeed we worship him by finding our joy in him.  No one will worship Christ for long who does not find their joy in him.  We worship that which gives us joy.  Finding our joy in someone or something is nearly the same thing as worship.  It is SO important that you enjoy the Lord!!  Rejoice in the Lord!

*Worshipers are always looking for ways to show their love and honor to Christ.   After they went into the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, they fell down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasure sacks and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Hudson Taylor said, “Well do I remember how in gladness of heart I poured out my soul before God.  Again and again confessing my grateful love to him, who had done everything for me, who had saved me when I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation, I besought him to give me some work to do for him, as an outlet for love and gratitude”.   Worshipers are not saying, “Oh, no, what do I have to do now for Jesus!”  They are looking for an outlet for their love and gratitude.  Oh that I could do something to show Jesus my love.

What is it about Jesus that compels our worship?

*We find in him the only One who could save us from our sins.  From the sin of Adam onward mankind has lived in the misery of sin and with the guilt of sin on his conscience.  We were born into this life, fallen and broken people.  That is not just a doctrine, we have seen and felt the effects of sin in our own lives!  There is a cry in our hearts for something better, to be clean, to be forgiven, to be made whole.  Jesus is the answer to that longing.  

The angel told Joseph, “Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he is the one who will save his people from their sins.”  He is worthy of your worship for taking your sins upon himself.  He is worthy of your worship because he releases you from the misery and guilt of you sin.

*We find in him the only One who could redeem us from the law. Galatians 4:4 “But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law and thus to adopt them as his children”.  Christ was born of Mary, to redeem you from under the Law and to adopt you as his children. There is a big difference between being under the yoke of the law, and living as sons and daughters of God.  

Jesus bought your freedom from the law so you could live in the liberty of the Spirit.  We are not led by laws but by the Spirit! We should love him and worship him forever for releasing us from bondage to the Law.

*We find in him Ruler and King and Hero.  “O Bethlehem...from you WILL COME A RULER, who will shepherd my people...”.

Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son a given and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the growth of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will rule over his kingdom, sitting on the throne of David… from this time onward and forevermore!”.

Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of Lords!   We are not worshiping a good teacher.  We are worshiping the One who will rule the nations in righteousness and justice.  

There is something within us that longs for things to be made right.  One of my favorite lines from any Christmas hymn is “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail”.  Christ will make that happen.  We do not see all things subject to him yet but that is our destiny!  

We worship Christ as the victor, the victorious one. Your fears are not victorious, your troubles are not victorious, your enemies are not victorious, those who wish you hurt you or harm you are not victorious.  Jesus Christ is victorious over you life and your eternity.

Nothing can ultimately harm us.  Nothing can ultimately work against his kind and good purposes in our lives.  He is Ruler and King and we worship him as that.  

*Perhaps the greatest reason of all to worship Jesus is because of his love for you.  Someone wrote, “It was love that led him to exchange his throne of glory for the manger of Bethlehem.”  He came into this world to give himself for you!  Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.  That is the kind of love Jesus has for you. There is no other person or thing that is worthy of our worship, like he is.  “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

I grew up hearing a song that said, “No one ever cared for me like Jesus.  There’s no other friend so kind as he.  No one else could take the sin and darkness from me.  Oh how much he cared for me.”  There is so much talk about love in our world, yet who can find a love that is true and faithful to the end. I heard a quote once that stuck with me, “Christ is your best friend...and at times your only friend”.  Paul found that kind of love in Christ.  He was driven by that love!  “The love of Christ compels me”.  When you find someone who loves you like Jesus, you want to follow him, you want to love him back, you want to worship him.