Worship the King!
“Pure worship expresses adoration and reverence without making petition…strictly speaking, worship is the occupation of the soul with God Himself” (Wycliffe Bible Dictionary). Because God is sovereign, because Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, we adore Him no matter what! We worship God even if we get no benefit from it – but O, my friend, what benefit we receive when we truly worship Him!
There are some men in the Bible who exemplify the above definition of worship – the magi. What position these men actually had – wise men, astrologers, kings from eastern countries – we may not be sure about. We do know, however, that these men had traveled some distance for one reason, to worship the King.
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." 3 And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 And they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, 6 'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a Ruler, Who will shepherd My people Israel.' " 7 Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them the time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and make careful search for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, that I too may come and worship Him." 9 And having heard the king, they went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. 10 And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:1-12)
There are four things from the magi’s example that I would like to emphasize about worship.
1. They came expecting to worship the King.
"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him."
These men were not wandering aimlessly across the countryside. These men had a very clear objective, a very distinct purpose, and a very precise goal: they had come to worship the King. Too often we just walk through life not being sure about what it is we are here for or are trying to accomplish in life. There is much for us to learn from these wise men. If we are to realize all that God has accomplished for us in Christ, we must, like the wise men, set out with our minds and hearts expecting to worship the King each and every day.
2. They came prepared to worship the King.
And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The fact that the magi had brought gifts to present to Jesus proves even further that they had come expecting to worship Him. They weren’t caught off guard when they encountered Him, they weren’t found standing before Him empty-handed. Now, we may not have gold, frankincense and myrrh to present to Jesus but we do have something much more valuable that He desires in our worship of Him, ourselves. In the book of Romans, chapter twelve, verse one, we are told to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Each and every day we must prepare ourselves to worship the King. The most practical way to do this is to heed Romans 12:1 and present our bodies to Him as a living and holy sacrifice. When we wake up in the morning we need to offer up to Him every part of our body (mind, eyes, ears, mouth, hands, stomach, feet, and everything else) to be used in a way that will be honoring and glorifying to Him.
To truly worship God we must be worshipping Him with our entire being and this can only happen as we begin to see the magnificence and worth of the One who redeemed us. Even though we can’t explain His magnificence we realize that He has allowed us to partake of His glory and as a result we worship Him with our entire being. A.W. Tozer says it well: “We can admire without worshipping but we cannot worship without admiring…we can honor what we do not worship but we cannot worship the one we do not honor…we can only worship that which fascinates us. The old poet said, ‘In our astonished reverence, we confess Thy uncreated loveliness.’ There is an astonishment about reverence. If you can explain it, you cannot worship it. You may admire it, you may honor it, but there is a mysterious fascination that carries the heart beyond itself and then we are nearer to worship…Worship seeks union with its beloved, and an active effort to close the gap between the heart and the God it adores is worship at its best…The primary object of church attendance is not to relax – it is to offer worship, which belongs to God…heaven exists to worship God…the health of the world is worship…If there is anything in me that does not worship God, then there is nothing in me that worships God perfectly.”
Worshipping God doesn’t happen without a conscious effort on our part; we must come to Him daily with expectation and preparation to worship Him.
3. If we are to worship Him, we must obey God and not man.
And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way.
To truly grasp the significance of this, look back at verse seven and eight: Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them the time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and make careful search for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, that I too may come and worship Him." Herod had no intention of worshipping the King, quite to the contrary! He had every intention of killing the King! When Herod asked the magi to inform him of their discovery they probably agreed to do so – until God told them otherwise. They probably realized what they might suffer from Herod’s hands if caught but they knew there was a higher authority that they would answer to one-day, God Himself – the very King that they had come to worship. Worshipping God requires us to obey Him even if it is not the popular thing. We are faced with choices every day – to please man and ourselves or to please God. Worship happens when we make the choice to please (obey) God no matter what.
4. Worship will cost us.
When we begin to see all that the magi did and went through to worship the King, we realize the sacrifice that these men made. Their coming to worship Christ the King cost them time, comfort, and possessions. They may have lost friends and family who did not understand or agree with what they had set out to do. Their worshipping God through obedience could even have cost them their very lives. However, the sacrifices that they made paled in light of the benefit which they received – they got to see and behold the King of kings! They may not have realized the full significance of it then but that day would come!
Let me close with a prayer from Richard Baxter, Puritan Pastor:
“May the living God, who is the portion and rest of the saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving Him, and delighting in Him, may be the work of our lives.”
By God's Grace ~ Through God's Word ~ For God's Glory!
Chuck Long
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