22 Dec Christmas worship

Matthew 2:1-12

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.

Imagine it’s your birthday party. Everything is well planned to make this party an occasion to remember. Family and friends come with gifts. It is a special occasion for everyone, except one person. Your family and friends seem to have a lot of fun enjoying one another’s company, but you are ignored. They happily exchange gifts with one another, but they do not bring you any gifts. While everyone seems to be having a good time at your birthday party, no one seems to care that it is your birthday party. How would you feel? This scenario takes place every Christmas. Our culture loves to celebrate Christmas. Companies take out lots of their resources for Christmas functions. Families spend lots of money buying gifts and Christmas decorations. Individuals going away on a holiday trip. But there is one notable exception. Jesus is left out of Christmas celebrations. The guest of honour is ignored. As Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Boxing Day, and family get-togethers are happening, we lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas. So, what is the real meaning of Christmas? That’s what we are going to talk about tonight.

Let me ask you some questions. How many of you love Christmas? For you, Christmas is the best time of the year. Let me see your hand. How many of you don’t like Christmas? Let me confess. For many years, I was like the Grinch. I hated the Christmas season, and I wanted to ruin Christmas for the people around me. Why? Because I had a lot of bad past experiences that happened during the Christmas season. Let me share one with you. It was my first Christmas at Bible College in Dallas Texas. At that time, I stayed in the school dormitory, and I shared a room with two other people. I stayed on the 7^th floor, and there were 16 rooms on the 7^th floor. So, if everyone was present, there would be more than 40 people on my floor. Imagine this. For two weeks, there was only me on the whole 7^th floor. And I could not go anywhere. I did not have a car, the public transport was not accessible, and all my friends went back home to celebrate Christmas with their families. So, I called my parents crying, “I’m so lonely. Can I please go back to Sydney?” And my parents panicked, “Go back tonight. Look for a ticket right now. Come home.” So, I looked for a ticket, and it was $3000. I called my parents again, “I don’t want to spend $3000 just because I am lonely.” So, I stayed. While everyone else was having so much fun celebrating Christmas, I literally spent Christmas, New Year, and my birthday on my own. It was terrible. Different people respond to Christmas in different ways. What’s terrible news for some people is good news for other people. In our passage for tonight, we will see three different responses to Christmas. And these three responses represent three responses people have toward Christmas. Let’s look at the story together.

The story

How many of you have heard the story of the three wise men who came to see baby Jesus at the manger? I hate to do this to you but whoever told you that story lied to you. Why? Because the wise men never came to the manger. Look at it carefully. Matthew 2:11 – 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. Matthew tells us the wise men did not come to the manger; they went into the house. The wise men started making their way to Jesus after Jesus was born. And there were no airplanes or bullet trains at that time. It took them several months to get to Jesus. By the time they got to Jesus, Jesus was already between one to two years old and lived in a house. So, the next time you see a nativity set with the wise men in the manger, you can take out the wise men’s pieces and hide them elsewhere.

One quick question. Kids, yell out the answer immediately if you know it. How many wise men were there? Three? Wrong. The wise men brought three gifts, but Matthew never says there were three wise men. In those days, making a long journey was hard and dangerous. For safety, you needed to travel in a big group, especially if you were carrying expensive items. So, there were at least more than 10 people on this journey. Some of the parents are thinking right now, “Why is Yosi ruining Christmas story for my kids? What is he going to say next? There is no Santa Claus?” That’s a different sermon for a different time. What we know of these wise men is that they came from the East. They were most likely astronomers, people who were experts at reading stars. Astronomers were the leading thinkers of those days. They were the intellectuals. They saw the stars of the king of the Jews rise, and they made their way to worship him. But they did not know where to find Jesus. So they went to Jerusalem, where the palace was. Since they saw the stars of the king of the Jews, they assumed that the king must be born in the palace.

When King Herod heard about the wise men and the birth of the king of Jews, he was very troubled. Why? Because Herod was the appointed king of Israel. The birth of another king of the Jews was a threat to his kingship. History tells us that Herod was an extremely cruel man. Herod was obsessed with power. He had his wife killed because he thought she was conspiring against him. And to be sure, he got rid of her brother and mother too. A few years later, he had three of his sons killed for the same reason. Herod would not tolerate any threat to his power. Augustus, the emperor of Rome said, “It would be better to be Herod’s dog than to be Herod’s son.” So, when Herod heard the wise men say that the king of the Jews was born, he immediately felt threatened. Then he gathered all the Bible scholars and said, “I heard that the king of the Jews was born. Tell me where he was born. I must find him.” And the Bible scholars immediately knew the answer. They replied, “You can find him in Bethlehem. The prophets write that the king of the Jews will be born in Bethlehem.” But that’s it. They told King Herod the answer, but they did nothing else. This is strange. You would think that when the Bible scholars heard about the birth of the king of the Jews, they would immediately go to Bethlehem to find him. Because the Jews had been waiting for this king for hundreds of years. But they were not even interested in going to see. They answered Herod and they went home. It shows us that religious people were often the last people to receive Jesus.

So, Herod summoned the wise men and said, “My theologians told me that the king of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem. Why don’t you check it out and if you find him, let me know so that I can worship him as well.” But he did not mean it at all. Herod was saying it just so that he could kill Jesus. We know this because later when the wise men did not return, Herod killed all the boys under two years old in Bethlehem. So, the wise men made their way, and the star that guided them earlier appeared again. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great joy. And look at what happened next. It’s bewildering. Matthew 2:11 – 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. Can you imagine that scene? The wise men, the leading intellectuals of those days, fell down and worshipped a little boy. I don’t know if you’ve been around a two-year-old. I don’t have a two-year-old, but I heard they are called ‘terrible twos.’ One thing for sure is I’ve never met a two-year-old who makes me want to worship them. I’ve met some who make me want to spank and scream, but not worship. Yet these influential people of their days worshipped two-year-old Jesus and brought expensive gifts for him.

I love what J.C. Ryle, a 19^th century Anglican bishop of Liverpool wrote in his commentaries on this passage. “They saw no miracles to convince them. They heard no wise words out of his mouth. They saw nothing but a newborn infant on the lap of a poor woman, but they worshipped. No greater faith than this can be found in the whole volume of the Bible.” Of course, he was wrong about Jesus being the newborn infant, but he was right about everything else. The wise men did not witness a single miracle or hear a single sermon of Jesus, but they worshipped him. That’s remarkable. And when they were about to leave, God warned them through a dream to not return the same way they came to avoid Herod. And they obeyed. That’s worship. If we return the same way we came, we have not worship. True worship changes us. If worship does not change us, it is not worship.

The responses

There are three possible responses to Jesus according to this story. The first response is hatred. This is the response of King Herod. The moment King Herod heard about Jesus, he felt threatened. Why? Because Herod wanted to be king. He wanted to sit on the throne. He wanted to be the one who ran the show. And Herod understood there can only be one king. It was either him or Jesus. That’s why Herod was determined to get rid of Jesus at all costs. Here is what Herod understood about Jesus. Jesus is king. And if we believe in Jesus, everything in our lives must revolve around him. The one thing we can’t do with any integrity is to say, “Nice sermon, Yos. I like what you say about Jesus. Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ,” and go home and have our Monday to Saturday unaffected by it. If Jesus is king, Jesus must be our priority. He must have the right to control our lives. He gets to decide what is right and wrong. He has the authority to demand anything from us. I’ve heard it explained this way. In every heart, there is a throne and a cross. If we are on the throne, Jesus must be on the cross. If Jesus is on the throne, we must be on the cross.

Here is the reality about every individual in this place. We do not want anyone to tell us what to do with our lives. We want to choose for ourselves. Kids, don’t you just hate it when your parents tell you what to do? “Screen time is up. Turn it off and do your homework.” “Five minutes.” And five minutes later, “Screen time is up. Turn it off and do your homework.” “Five more minutes.” It is always five more minutes. What is that? It is you trying to be the king of your lives. We do not want another king because we are the king of our lives. Then along comes Jesus and he says, “I am the King. I have the right over your life.” And when we hear that, the little King Herod in our hearts says, “No you are not. Nobody tells me what to do.” It might be a whisper, but it’s there deep inside our hearts. So, the question is, who is sitting on the throne of our lives? Is it Jesus? Or is it us? Christmas is saying to us, “Make a choice. Either you make your life revolve around Jesus, or you have nothing to do with Jesus.” Herod replied, “I am the king. I call the shots. No one is going to tell me what to do.” That’s why he tried to kill Jesus.

The second response is indifference. This is the response of the Bible scholars. They immediately knew the answer to Herod’s question, yet they were unmoved. They knew about Jesus, but they were not affected by what they knew. Here is the warning for all of us. We can know the Bible and miss Jesus. There is a big difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone. Let’s be honest. How many of you have Instagram-stalked someone? Raise your hands. If your hand is not raised, you either live in a cave or you are a liar. Here’s what happens. Because of social media, we are drawn to believe we know people we do not know. Our culture is built around the lives of others we don’t really know. But we talk about them like we know them. “Did you hear what he said? I cannot believe he said that to her. What a meanie. Did you watch that reel on Instagram? She posted this on her TikTok account.” We live in a society that would have us know about without knowing. The sad reality is there are many of us who know about Jesus without knowing Jesus. We know lots of stories about him. We can tell others how Jesus fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. We know lots of information about Jesus, but we are not moved by what we know about Jesus. We can be so familiar with the Bible but miss Jesus.

Listen to what Jesus says to the religious leaders of his day. John 5:39 – You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. Jesus is saying, “You study the Bible in vain. You think that by studying the Bible you will have life. But it is I that give you life. The Bible is pointing you to me. But now that I am here, you won’t come to me to have life. Your knowledge of the Bible is useless.” Husbands, it would almost be like you reading a book about dating your wife, while you are on a date with your wife. The book says, “The number one rule in dating your wife is when you are out on a date with your wife, you must give her your absolute attention. Do not get distracted by other things.” And you are like, “This is so good. This is life-changing. Where is my highlighter? I need to highlight this sentence”, while your wife is sitting in front of you. “Babe, will you put that book down?” “Don’t disturb me. I’m trying to learn how to date you here.” That’s what’s happening. The religious leaders have become experts on who Jesus is but refuse to come to Jesus. So, listen. Reading and knowing the Bible is not enough if it doesn’t lead us to worship Jesus. Bible knowledge does not equal to relationship with Jesus.

The third response is worship. This is the response of the wise men. When the wise men saw the stars, they made their way to Jesus. They travelled for months just to get to Jesus. They left comfort and security to worship Jesus. And when they saw Jesus, they offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They honoured Jesus with expensive gifts. Worship always involves commitment and sacrifice. Now, I am not saying that we can only honour Jesus with expensive gifts. But here is what I am saying. Worship that cost us nothing is empty. God will not accept leftovers. It’s like this. How many of you have ever re-gifted the gift that you received? Don’t raise your hands. Re-gifting is simply people giving you something that you don’t want. So, what you do is you rewrap that gift and use it for your MC Kris Kringle. In other words, you keep what is good for yourself, and you give the leftovers to someone else. That’s what we do to God. We often give God repackaged worship, the leftovers. But that’s not the attitude we should have toward Jesus.

Let’s get more personal. For most of us, our offerings to God involve no sacrifice at all. Our offerings hardly cost us anything. When we give to God, we always give after everything else is taken care of. Am I right? Do we shop less because of our offerings? Do we travel less because of our offerings? Do we invest less because of our offerings? No, we don’t. We just give leftover money. So, are we giving God our best or our leftovers? Because listen. What we give God reveals the condition of our hearts. It reveals whether we worship God or not. Let me put it this way. One day a chicken and a pig decide to start a business together. The chicken says to the pig, “I have a good business proposal for you that will guarantee success. Are you interested?” The pig replies, “What kind of business?” The chicken says, “The bacon and egg business. It is a guaranteed success. Everyone would want it for breakfast.” And the pig replies, “Wait a minute. That’s not fair. For you, that would be a contribution. For me, it’s a sacrifice.” Do you see? The chicken contributed eggs. That’s about it. But bacon, that’s a whole different story. The pig must commit all it has. The pig must die to produce bacon. That’s a sacrifice. So, the question is, are we egg Christians? Or are we bacon Christians? I know it sounds weird, but it makes the point. And here is the point. Who or what do we worship? Because we always give our best to the object of our worship. Listen. True worship comes from the heart that is willing to give up everything for the sake of Jesus. So, what do our offerings say about us? Do we give God our best? Or do we give him our leftovers? When we truly worship Jesus, we give him our best. And we do not give begrudgingly, but we give with exceeding joy.

The question is, what makes our hearts want to worship Jesus? What makes us want to give up everything for the sake of Jesus? The answer is Christmas. What is Christmas all about? Christmas is about God coming to us in the person of Jesus Christ and giving up everything for our sake. Why? Because God looked into the world he had created, and he saw us sinking. He saw us making a big mess of our lives because we rejected him as our king, and we wanted to be kings for ourselves. We were losing control of all things, and he came to us. That’s the meaning of Christmas. God left his throne, came to earth, humbled himself, became one of us, lived the perfect life we could not, and died the death we should, all for our sake. God in Jesus became vulnerable. He became weak. He became fragile. The infinite became finite. The immortal became mortal. The almighty king became a helpless babe. Why? So that when we see what it costs God to have us, our hearts are drawn to worship him. We see his infinite beauty and we are captivated by it. The only natural response when we see what Jesus is willing to give up for our sake is to fall down and worship him. Seeing Jesus give up everything for our sake enables us to give up everything for his sake.

My question for you tonight is, do you know Jesus? And what I mean by know is not knowing about Jesus but truly knowing Jesus. Do you have a relationship with him? Do you see Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? Do you believe that Jesus gave himself for you? Because that’s what Christmas is all about. That’s why the wise men rejoiced exceedingly with great joy when they met Jesus. Christmas is worth a joyous celebration. This is better than our favourite soccer team winning the league. This is better than us getting a new car or a new toy. This is the King of the universe who has come to save us from our sins forever. If you have yet to put your faith in Jesus, today is the day. There is an invitation for you to put your faith in him. You might say, “But I don’t think I’m good enough for God.” But that’s the point of Christmas. No one is. That’s why Jesus was born. You will never be good enough for God. That’s why Jesus came to do what you cannot do on your own. All you must do is accept Jesus into your life and you are good in the eyes of God. In one act of faith, you receive Jesus’ perfect record. You are forgiven of all your sins, you are cleansed, you are made new, and you are covered in Jesus’ perfection for eternity. This is the good news of Christmas. So let us worship Jesus with great joy.