I know that we have thought about these Magi more or less directly several times now. But as I was meditating on the chapter this week, I felt led to amplify something which we’ve only passed over a couple of times. “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we and are come TO WORSHIP him.” After Herod interviewed these men, he told them to report back to him, because he too wanted to worship. We don’t need to spend even a moment on Herod, because he had no real desire whatsoever to worship. But when the wise men found the royal cottage there at Bethlehem, “they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and WORSHIPPED him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”
Do you know how to properly worship the Lord? In my message last Wednesday, I pointed out that pastors cannot avoid the fact that they are sinful human beings – saved by the grace of God – but sinners nevertheless. They may honestly say, “Ye must be born again,” because they have proven that fact for themselves. But when they counsel, exhort or rebuke, they are often dealing with subjects in which they have gotten poor grades themselves. In that light, do you know how to properly worship the Lord? I would like to think that I do, but I suppose that only the Lord really knows whether it is true or not. I have gleaned and gathered a few points about the worship of the Lord from what we see in these men. I may need to re-learn these principles myself, but I’m fairly certain that I am not the only one.
You probably don’t need me to illustrate this – But the world of religion is as confusing, confuzzled, chaotic and contradictory as any other pseudo-science. Earlier this week I turned on the TV, just before bed, and was flipping through the channels. I bumped into some movie which was obviously set in India. In the short time that we were watching the main characters were traveling to some sort of “holy place.” When I first saw it, I pointed out to Judy that it had a big cross in the court-yard – in India. But then we met the woman who was in charge, and she had the Hindu Tilaka or Bindi on her forehead. There is so much blending of religion with religion, faith with fiction, and error with truth. Is the Mormon a true Christian, when he believes that Lucifer is the brother of Christ, and that almost anyone can become an equal to Christ? Does he worship the same Christ that you worship? Does the Protestant modernist who denies the deity of Christ, worship the same God as you do? Does the Catholic worship Christ, while saying his prayers to Mary? Does a Christian evolutionist worship the God of the Bible? Maybe these are extreme and obvious examples, but what about the so-called lesser distinctions?
Before these Magi could worship the true Messiah, they had to find Him. Perhaps that should be looked on as an allegory of seeking the truth. If anything less than the true Object of worship is worshiped, then there has been no true worship.
Are you absolutely sure that who you are worshiping is worthy of your worship?
In a sense our worship of the Lord is our business and ours alone. But usually when we hear those words, the idea is, “Leave me alone, I don’t really worship, and I don’t want you pestering me.” But it is essentially true, while there is a corporate worship of God, its true meaning begins personally. For example, we are together here this morning to uplift and venerate the Lord Jesus Christ. And even though we may unite our voices in singing hymns of praise, it is common to see a few people not singing. And even those who do sing, may not really be paying any attention to the words, or actually feeling what the words express. And we can also worship the Lord in preaching and hearing the Word of God. But it may be rare that everyone is paying attention to what is being preached. There is such a thing as public worship, but its true value lays in the participation of the individual – you.
These wise men, in their desire to venerate Christ, were not like the modern evangelist or church leader. As they spent a few minutes with Herod and perhaps with some of the Sanhedrin or the high priests, they didn’t encourage any of them to join them in their search for the Messiah and their worship of Christ. Perhaps the things that they were experiencing, the ignorance of the people in the city, the attitude of the king, the indifference of his counselors, made them think twice about the sincerity of these people. Perhaps they could recognize that the hearts of these people were not pure, and that despite what they were saying, they didn’t have any interest in really worshiping the Saviour. Under conditions like that, there was no reason to invite them to join them in their search. Those sorts of people had no business in the worship of the Lord, and so the wise men were not going to encourage them to pretend.
The word is indeed Biblical, however as you might expect, it has a mixed meaning – good and bad. “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and DEVOUT, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. “DEVOUT men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.” Cornelius was “A DEVOUT man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.” “But the Jews stirred up the DEVOUT and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.” Paul actually had to argue with the devout people, both Jews and Heathen, in Athens.
Despite the negativity which might be a part of this word, I think that it still applies and should apply to us. We ought to be sincere in our worship of the Lord. And I think that the word goes a step beyond simple sincerity. At least in my mind it involves devotion and spiritual integrity, reverence and spiritual respect.
Can you imagine the emotions that were running through the Magi’s hearts as they determined what house it was where the Saviour lay? The star and the Holy Spirit gave them confidence that they had found the right place. So they knocked on the door, or they called out, or rang the bell, or whatever was done in that society. It appears that Joseph answered. How did he react to seeing these strangers, dressed in their best robes, and with their hands so full? Was everyone apprehensive, shy, humble, fearful, excited, stuttering, stammering? Did it take much explanation before the visitors were admitted? Were they prepared to argue or push? Eventually the door was opened wide, and they stepped in – hurriedly? cautiously? tentatively? When they saw the young child with his mother, they devoutly fell to their knees.
Whatever native pride they possessed, it wasn’t present at that moment. There was no arrogance – no feelings of self-importance. Even though this was a mere child, they did not consider themselves to be superior to Him in any way. They had no right to demand or expect anything from this King. They weren’t expecting any reimbursement for their expenses. They weren’t even supplicants, begging for salvation or spiritual blessings.
And they worshiped only one of the three people in that house – the young child, the Messiah, the King. I’m sure that without being disrespectful to either Joseph or Mary, it was to Jesus they were drawn. After their knees hit the floor, did they pray? I can’t say. After they knelt did their mouths fill with words of praise and did their hearts rise to heaven? From this verse, I can’t for a moment think that there were any words of praise for Mary or Joseph. They worshiped the young child – their king, their Messiah – their Saviour.
There can never be any room for the worship of anything or anyone but the Saviour. We may have respect for our parents, some of the elders in our church, even for the pastor. But when they are gone – and even before they are gone – only the Lord deserves our worship.
The worship of the Lord is worth the long distances that are sometimes required. Sit down and talk with Brother Chris Martenson, or the Zeweniuks about the privilege that you and I have to worship the Lord with the convenience of a local, local church. You and I may have been surprised to see Brother Berg last Sunday, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been. That man drove about 200 miles over two mountain passes with ice and snow on the roads. He joined us in our worship of the Lord through two short church services and then drove back home. I don’t say this in his presence, and I don’t say this to puff him up. I say this because he is an illustration of these wise men, who sacrificed time and money to travel all that way to worship the Lord. And none of those wise men thought much about what they had sacrificed.
Then there were the gifts that they brought – gold, frankincense and myrrh. There are a lot of preachers who try to make much of some spiritual implication in those gifts. I tend to shy away from that sort of thing, but I do have to wonder about this particular selection of goods. Gold, of course, is something that we can understand – one of the world’s great standards of wealth. There may be more valuable things, but gold ranks up there close to the top. I read one man’s sermon outline in which he said this gold represents our substance, our goods, our material wealth. If we really wanted to spiritualize this gift, we could say that those men were giving of themselves – the best of themselves. Worship must be more than fancy words in sermons and in song; it’s more than verbal piety. And it’s more than coins and checks too – it is our very soul and heart.
Our English word “frankincense,” I am told come out of the French language and means “pure incense.” I’ve also learned that there is a modern frankincense, and then there is the classic variety. The frankincense which these men gave to their Saviour came from their part of the world. It was relatively rare and quite expensive. Comparing translations and using the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, we learn that frankincense was one of the proscribed ingredients in Jehovah’s worship. For example, it was a special blend of pure incense that the High Priest carried, when he went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. It might be allegorically argued that this gift was being given to the greatest and highest of High Priests in preparation for the day that he would be presenting his own blood before the Father on the Mercy Seat. Beyond that, this kind of preacher likes to speak of the incense as the humble, reverent, godly prayer of the saints – that is – his worship. Revelation 8:4 – “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”
The third gift, the “myrrh” was also used in various kinds of incense, and it was also native to the land of the East. The word is used sixteen times in the Bible, in both testaments. Dictionaries talk about myrrh’s bitter flavor, but frankincense may not have been very tasty either. Myrrh comes up two more times in the life, or shall I say, in the “death” of Christ. Nicodemus and Joseph took down the body of our Lord from the cross, and myrrh was one of the spices used to prepare his body for its entombment. And then not long before that, while Christ still hung upon the cross, myrrh was mixed into the vinegar which was offered to the Lord to ease his pain, but of course He refused it. These things encourage the allegorists and spiritualizers to make myrrh speak of sorrow and suffering. In giving this to Christ the wise men were prophesying about His passion and death, some say. And others take it to mean that the saint is going to find that his own service for Christ and his worship of the Lord is not always going to be easy. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you – sprinkling you with myrrh.” The Lord Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”
Considered together, the worship of these men, involved expense and self-sacrifice. They gave to the Lord of what they had. They gave what was native to themselves and their homeland. If you gave me a pound of frankincense, I might be a little nonplused and unimpressed. Perhaps even more so with a couple of bags of myrrh. But it meant something to Joseph and Mary, and ultimately it meant much more to Jehovah.
What have you given to the Lord lately? Your pride? Your time? Your energy? Your wealth? Has your worship cost you anything? If it hasn’t, was it really worship?
We see the gifts of the Magi, but is there anything else that proves their devotion? I mentioned obedience; where is their obedience. Verse 12 – “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.” I intend to come back to this subject tonight, but at this point let’s say that God gave them special orders, and they carried them out. They might have argued, “but we gave our word to King Herod to return to Jerusalem, and you have taught us to always keep our word.” But did they give Herod their word? We’ll leave that question for the moment. The more important point is that somehow God spoke to them, and whether or not they liked the command, they instantly obeyed.
But consider this – After seeing their Saviour, and being overcome by Him and with the Holy Spirit, what likelihood was there that they wanted to stay in Bethlehem, and to call for their families to join them? There isn’t an answer to that question, so it is moot. The point is that their God ordered them home – and home by a different and probably more dangerous route. And they obeyed. Their worship would have been a waste if they had returned to Herod and told him where Christ was. Their worship might have been nullified if they had remained in Bethlehem and drawn the attention of the government to the place where the Saviour could be found. Their worship was accepted and enhanced because they obeyed the voice of the Lord.
For us, and from our perspective, our worship must begin at the cross. Because God will not accept the prayer, the honour, or the worship of a wicked man. Ye must be born again, before you can choose to come before the throne of grace with songs of true worship. Repent before God, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.