Worship Programs

Theme:

“Hope of Earth, Joy of Heaven”

Fourth Sunday in Advent - December 22

H e a v e n  o n  E a r t h!

GET READY FOR HEAVEN!

Matthew 2:1-12

Are you getting ready for Christmas?  It seems as though there is so much more to do each year, doesn’t it?  The greeting card list seems longer this year.  There are more presents to buy.  We want to get the latest decorations, twinkling icicles outside and musical ornaments inside.  We’re getting ready for Christmas in various ways.  We’ve doubtless been out battling the crowds in malls and parking lots.  Perhaps we’ve also been battling the bulge at Christmas parties and dinners.  It’s a wonderful time of the year, but it does get somewhat hectic, and we may begin to wonder if we’re doing all that we should to get ready for Christmas.

A minister waited in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant worked quickly, but there were many cars ahead of him in front of the service station. Finally, the attendant motioned him toward a vacant pump. "Reverend," said the young man, "sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip." The minister chuckled, "I know what you mean. It's the same in my business."              A father was approached by his small son who told him proudly, "I know what the Bible means!" His father smiled and replied, "What do you mean, you 'know' what the Bible means?" The son replied, "I do know!" "Okay,” said his father. "So, son, what does the Bible mean?" "That's easy, Daddy. It stands for 'Basic Information Before Leaving Earth.'"         

A little girl was feeling the pressure of Christmas preparation in her home.  She became a bit grouchy one evening, and so her parents sent her to bed early.  When she said her prayers that night she said, “And Lord forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us.”  She seemed to have caught something of the spirit of the time, as she sensed how hectic it can become. 

Of course, the merchants get ready for Christmas in a commercial way.  They study the market and order sufficient merchandise and arrange for advertising.  One businessman said, “When Christmas is over, it’s all over except for the returns and exchanges.  In our business, on the day after Christmas we remove every vestige of Christmas from the store.”  Regrettably that’s the attitude of many people; it‘s just a crass spirit of commercialism.  When it’s over, it’s over. 

Have you seen that cartoon titled, “Christmas commercialism?”  It depicts a storefront with Santa Claus and jingle bells and a grumpy-looking proprietor standing at the door.  Mary and Joseph are standing outside in the cold, and the proprietor says to them, “Sorry, we don’t have any room.”  Sadly, for many folk, commercialism has excluded Christ from Christmas.

There’s really nothing wrong with having a good time in the celebration of Christmas.  The Gospels seem to indicate that Jesus loved to party.  In fact, He often was the life of the party!  But beyond the fun and frolic of the holiday season, the heart of our celebration is when we come to the place where we worship our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, as did the wise men of old. 

You probably noticed as we read from the second chapter of Matthew that the word “worship” occurs three times in this passage.  In verse 2, the wise men ask, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”  King Herod picks up on that and says in verse 8, “Go and make a careful search for the child.  As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”  Herod, as we know, had no intention of worshiping Jesus. 

Herod was determined to do away with Jesus.  The wise men were intent on worshiping Him.  They worshiped the Lord with their time, their thought, their trust and their treasure.  The integrity of their worship is noted in Matthew 2:11, where “they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”  It’s obvious that these men were worshiping the Lord.  And we ought to give thought to what it means to worship Christ.  Our focus ought to be on worshiping the Lord all year round, particularly when we consider that worship and praise of the Lord will be our main occupation in Heaven. 

It often has been said that Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.  When Jesus had prepared His disciples to carry forth His mission, He then said to them, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).  As we worship and serve the living Christ in this life, we are being prepared for Heaven and a place is being prepared for us.   

1.  WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR TIME

Authentic worship surely begins with the investment of our time in prayer and meditation of the word of God.  It continues by taking time to respond affirmatively to the revelation that God has given.  That’s precisely what these men did as we see in Matthew 2, verses 1 and 2.  “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” and inquired of Him.  “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

This was no weekend excursion for these men.  They put considerable effort and time into their quest to find and worship the newborn Christ.  It meant leaving their homes and families, taking a leave of absence of possibly nine months from their jobs.  They had no Triple-A Triptik or travel guide.  But they had a star!  If we really want to worship the Lord, we need to take the wise men as role models, put forth the effort and spend the time to respond to God’s revelation. 

Joan Sustead put it this way in verse: 

I could have gone; I saw the star and wondered at its light;

I felt a longing in my heart before I slept that night. 

I could have gone; they bade me come and join them on their way;

The morning sunshine beckoned me, but business called that day. 

I could have gone; and yet it seemed that only fools would go,

leave everything they knew to find a Babe they did not know. 

I could have gone; I was too wise, yet not so wise as they. 

When such a star calls in the night, only a fool would stay. 

When we receive a revelation from God, whether it comes in a star or a spoken word, whether it comes in reaction to another person; however it comes, once we get that revelation from God, we have a choice.  We can foolishly reject it or we can respond wisely, investing time and effort to respond to a revelation from God.

Perhaps we’re getting a revelation from God right now, and God is asking, “Are you a wise person?”  If you’re a wise person, you will spend effort to make sure that you are in touch with the living Christ.  It may mean revising your schedule, marking out specific time that you’re going to invest in worshiping and serving the Lord in response to the revelation you have received from His word.

2.  WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR THOUGHT

The wise men also worshiped the Lord by inquiring as to His whereabouts and about His person.  In that regard they were no different than King Herod, except that Herod had no thought of worshiping the newborn king.  When Herod heard about it he called together the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where Christ was to be born.  They replied with the prophecy recorded in Micah 5:2.  Then Herod covertly called the wise men “and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.”  He then sent them to Bethlehem to find the child and report back to him so that he might “go and worship him.” 

Verse 9 of our text says, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way . . .”  It doesn’t say they obeyed the king; they simply listened to what he had to say.  They took their lead not from the jealous monarch, but from God’s guiding star.  “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”  Not only did they take the time and make the effort, but they continued to ask questions about Christ.  They analyzed the meaning of all that was happening so that they would have a clear sense of His Person.  When at last they saw the child, “they bowed down and worshiped him.”

We can take a lesson from that.  If we intend to respond positively in our worship, we need to be serious about studying the word of God.  Consider this: You don’t know anything worth knowing about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit that isn’t proclaimed and described or explained in this Book.  Are you serious about worshiping God?  Do you want to come closer to Him and get ready for Heaven?  Invest time every day in the thoughtful study of His word.  Emulate the wise men.  Ask questions.  Seek answers.

In Jeremiah 29:13, the Lord says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  God doesn’t reveal Himself to anyone who is merely passive and indifferent.  If you really want to know the Lord, you need to have a heart that is in pursuit of God.  The Lord “rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

3.  WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR TRUST

Do you prefer happy endings?  Matthew 2:11 relates, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”  The wise men trusted the Lord.  They followed the star.  They worshiped the Christ child! 

Do you trust God?  Do you trust His word?  When you worship God, when you seek Him with all your heart, do you sense His affirmation?  If we believe in God, we soon sense that He believes in us.  And when we know that we believe in God and He believes in us, we then find that we can believe in ourselves. 

When we worship God our faith in Him is deepened, our trust in His guidance is assured.  Worship is our vital link with God.  It is the one thing we do in this life which we know will continue in Heaven.  Our worship of God draws us closer to Him and prepares us for unending activity throughout eternity where we will join our voices in singing, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

4.  WORSHIP THE LORD WITH YOUR TREASURE

 The next thing the wise men did was to give their gifts to the Lord.  They presented their offerings to Him.  “Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”  Notice that they gave the gifts to Him, not to the parents but to the Christ child.  They presented Him with gold, and we can presume that it was because He is the perfect King.  They gave frankincense, probably because He is the great high priest.  We are left to wonder if they presented myrrh as a foretoken of His death.  So He is the King and high Priest who is going to be the Savior.

As soon as the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord told Joseph to “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.”   Do you suppose that the cost of their journey to Egypt and their stay there until the death of Herod was covered by the gifts of the wise men?  If so, it may be surmised that the wise men financed the first missionary endeavor in the Early Church.  They provided the resources so that the Christ child could grow to manhood and fulfill His divine role as teacher and Savior.

Christ-followers who truly worship the Lord do so with their checkbooks as well as their time schedules.  And so, we bring our tithes and offerings to support and sustain the ministry of the Lord in the church.  That’s what these men were doing, and that’s what we are doing if we are really worshiping the Lord with our treasure.

Wise people today are those who worship Jesus.  Now, how can you tell if you are really worshiping God?  How can you be sure that Christ is preeminent in your heart and life?   It’s really simple if you contemplate the four Ts we have been considering.  First, you can tell by your time.  You can look at your time schedule or date book and see how much time you are investing in the Lord’s work.  The second way you can tell is by examining your thought life.  Am I really engaged in thinking through my faith while reading and meditating on the scriptures?  If we are doing that on a daily basis, we can be sure that we really are wise persons because we’re worshiping Christ in our thought.  Then we can ask, am I trusting Christ in my life?  Do you think that you can run your life better than the Lord can?  Or do you think that He can run your life better than you can?  Finally, if we really are serving the Lord, we’ll worship Him with our treasure as well.

Our time, our thought, our trust and our treasure will be involved if we are people who are wise in worshiping and serving the Lord. 

Mark Littleton put it well when he said, “We don’t call them wise for nothing.  No desire for glitter; they waited for that one morning star.  No hunger for sweet cakes and wine;  they reached for the true bread.  No pearls cast before swine; they placed their treasures carefully by the pink, trembling toes of the King.  No lust for personal glory; they came for Him alone.  We don’t call them wise for nothing.  Can God call us wise for less?” 

When you get to the bottom line of this passage of scripture, there are really only two attitudes we can have toward Christ.  Those two attitudes are represented in Herod who wanted to destroy Christ and in the wise men who wanted to worship Christ.  The difference is whether or not you know Him in your heart.  If you’re not confident that you know Christ in a personal way, we have good news.  Christ died to pay for your sins.  He freely offered up His life so that you might find your way home to Heaven.

Everything that you need to have done to go to Heaven has been done.  Everything, that is, except for one thing, and that is for you personally to receive what Christ did for you.  When you say, “Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying on the cross for me; I trust in You as my personal Savior,” in that moment, God gives to you eternal life and you find yourself getting ready for Heaven!