Well, for a few moments this
morning, I'll direct our thoughts to the chapter we read in the
gospel according to Matthew and chapter two. I really want to
consider for a short time the visit of the wise men. By way
of a text, perhaps to just focus our thoughts, I'll read verse
11. So Matthew two and verse 11. And when they were come into
the house, 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. Well, as we come to Christmas
day, I wonder if we can, for time, just focus our minds on
the most important aspect of this day. I wonder what is our
focus when we come to Christmas time, to Christmas Day. What
are we all really thinking about? What are we focused on today? Perhaps We find it difficult
to take our minds from the other things we're hoping to do today. Perhaps we've got meals to plan
and guests who are coming and we want to organize the house.
Perhaps we have presents we've opened or presents we hope to
open and we're thinking about what we've received or what we
hope we will receive. And we're focused on these other
things which we hope to do. Nothing wrong in that in themselves. But is that all we're thinking
about? It's good for us at the beginning of Christmas Day, first
thing in the morning today, to now come together to remind ourselves
of what the main thing of Christmas is. To remind ourselves what
it really is all about. Really today should be a day
of worship. It should be a day when we focus
our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we worship God because
of what He has done. That is what Christmas is. It's
the coming of Jesus Christ. And our response to that coming
should be an attitude of worship. And I wonder, as we've come this
morning, if that was our desire, that we want to worship the Lord. Well, we read about in Matthew
chapter two, these wise men. And really, that was their aim
as they traveled to find Jesus. They wanted to see Christ. They wanted to see Jesus. And
they would not give up their journey and they would not give
up their searching until they'd found him. This was their focus. They were willing, it would appear,
to travel many miles to find him. They were not locals. Some think they'd come from as
far as Persia or Iran that we think of today. They would have
come across difficult terrain. They would have come across deserts,
places where there wasn't much water, vegetation, and food.
They would have traveled a hard journey. And for a time, they
had times of disappointment as well. After the difficult journey
and after the hardships of seeking, they came to Jerusalem, were
disappointed to find He wasn't there. Finally, they come to
Bethlehem. You see, they were willing to
go to great lengths to find Jesus, willing to do hard things to
finally find the Savior, because they wanted to see Him themselves
and they wanted to worship him. That's why they came. They came
to Herod, we read to begin with. Where is he that's born king
of the Jews, they said? Where is he? We've seen his star
in the east, and this is why we want to find him. We are come
to worship him. Well, is that our desire too? Is that our attitude this morning,
to worship the Lord? I want to think of this under
four headings briefly this morning, this attitude of worship of the
Lord Jesus and what that can teach us today. Firstly, as I've
alluded to already, they wanted to find him. They wanted to see
him. They sought him diligently. They kept looking up to the star.
to see which way it was guiding them. They kept traveling. They didn't give up and turn
around. They kept going even with the disappointment of not
finding him in Herod's palace. They kept going as far as Bethlehem,
to a strange place. It wasn't a rich home. It wasn't
a palace. It was a home that looked like
any other home. It was a family that outwardly looked like any
other family. But they kept going until they
came to that place and to those people because they so much wanted
to see Jesus Christ. I wonder if we are like them
this morning. Perhaps we've had all the excitement
of the buildup to today. We've had all of the school productions
and the school parties and the gatherings and the buying of
presents and we've had all the excitement building up to today. But do we desire with them that
today and in the coming days, this Christmas, we might find
Jesus. We might see Jesus. That was their real concern.
They wanted to see Him. And in seeing Him, they wanted
to receive that blessing that very few people up to that point
had had, of actually beholding the Saviour. Of actually beholding
God with men. And they wanted to worship. And
they wanted to bow down and present their gifts. This desire is seen
in other people in the New Testament. It's here right at the beginning
of Jesus' life. You can think of another occasion
when some people from Greece came and they wanted to find
Jesus. They came to his disciples and
they asked this question, Sir, we would see Jesus. You see, that was their focus.
They were with the disciples, wasn't that enough? They were
in the area or even in the house where Jesus was. Wasn't that
enough? No. They wanted to see Him. They
wanted to hear Him. They wanted to know Him. If you think, the sentiment is
recorded in the Old Testament as well. Just one example, there's
a character called Joe. And Job comes to this point where
he feels that God has abandoned him and he asks this question,
oh that I knew where I might find him. Job, you've got lots
of friends around you, you've got many advisors. No, no, that's
not what I really need. I want to see him, was his concern. You see, it was God focused,
it was Jesus focused. Jesus wasn't found in the palace.
Jesus wasn't found in Herod's family, though he was a king,
he was found in Bethlehem. You see, the Lord Jesus isn't
found in the grandeur and in the materialism and in the things
of the world. If we're looking for him in all
of the glitz and the glamour of the outward performance of
things in the world. If we're looking for him in the
celebrities and in the impressive things that other people follow,
we won't find him there. We won't find him in the popular
places. We'll find him in Bethlehem. That is, we'll find him in a
humble place. Where do we find the Lord Jesus?
We find him in the Word. We find him in this Bible. He's
there when we read about him. He's there when we seek Him and
pray to Him. He's there when He comes into
our hearts and reveals Himself to us. He's not in all the outward
things around us. He comes to us, into our hearts. It's a humble place. But He humbled
Himself to this place, that we might find Him, that seeking
Him, we might know Him. our concern or two. Where is
he that is born King of the Jews? Is this our prayer? That actually
I might know the Lord Jesus. Perhaps you know people who know
him, who say they are Christians and you think, why are they a
Christian? Why are they different? What
do they have that I don't have? And why don't I have that? And
you're looking around and you're looking for the enjoyments and
the pleasures and the things around you. Isn't Jesus in Christmas? Isn't Jesus in all of the things
around us that the world's doing today? No, the Lord Jesus is
to be sought in the Bible. The Lord Jesus is to be sought
as we pray. And he doesn't come in amazing,
grand ways that we might expect. He comes and lives in our heart. And that makes the change. And
that's the difference. So they wanted to see him. Is that our prayer too? Secondly,
when they did come to him, what was their worship like? What
is worship? Well, the first thing they did
when they came to him finally in Bethlehem was they fell down. They fell down. now these were
wise men they were probably very important in the area that they
had come from and yet they came to a young child don't know exactly
how old he was in these accounts it may be that he was older than
just newborn but they came to him and they bowed down, they
fell down in front of him their worship was an act of humility
they humbled themselves in front of this child, the Lord Jesus. And you see, that's an important
thing for us to remember as we come to worship the Lord this
morning, that an act of true worship is an act of humility. We humble ourselves because we
worship another. It's an obvious fact, isn't it?
If we're lifting up one then ourselves are coming down. In our own estimation, we are
lower than the one that we're worshiping. And here they fell
down in that outward performance of true worship. Is that what
our worship is like? Is that what our worship is like?
You see, many people, even in the Christian world, say that
they worship, but there's not much humility in their worship. decrease in our own estimation
as we realize that we're unworthy that Christ has come into this
world we're unworthy to have a savior to give us eternal life
but yet he has come and there he is and when we realize that
we fall down and worship the Lord when we consider what Christmas
really means if you really thought about that What it really means,
God, eternal God has come to be amongst us. Eternal God has
come to live in this world. Eternal God has come to commune
with us, to talk to us, to care for us. And the eternal God has
come to die for us. So that all our sins and all
what we have done wrong can be taken away. and we could go to
heaven. When we think of that wonderful
truth, and we didn't deserve any of it, and we didn't earn
any of it, He came because He loves us. He came because He
would save His people. Doesn't that make us fall down? That's what worship is. It's
an act of humility. So, I hope that that's our concern. We're so proud. We're often very
proud even of our religious life. May today be a day of worship
when the Lord Jesus is lifted up and not us. So, they fell
down. But also notice, thirdly in their
worship, who it was they worshipped. They came, they saw the young
child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshipped
him. They worshipped him. Notice this
very important point. When they went to Jerusalem,
they didn't worship Herod, as great and powerful a king as
he was. When they came to Bethlehem, they didn't worship Mary, as
blessed and good as she was. They worshipped him, the least
expected, you could say, the child in the room. not the king,
not the parents, the child but they worshipped him now of course
there's an important doctrinal point there that we don't worship
Mary we worship the Lord Jesus Christ, Mary was very blessed
but she was a sinner herself, she was chosen of God as the
mother of the Lord Jesus, we don't worship her we worship
the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God But you see, it was him. It was him. And they worshipped
him in sincerity, I'm sure. And in sincerity from their hearts. It wasn't just an outward performance. Though there was an outward element,
they fell down. But it wasn't just an outward
performance. It was from their hearts. It was heartfelt. So in our worship today, as we,
as it were, fall down, do we lift Him up? Do we lift Him up? Not just today, but every day,
because worship isn't something just for an hour in the morning.
Worship isn't just something which lasts for a little while.
I've done my act of worship and now I'll get on with my life.
Worship is an attitude. Worship should be a lifestyle.
that we live in an attitude of worship. We live day by day in
an attitude of, not me, not me, but Christ. Christ has done all
that I need. Christ will help me through the
day. Christ will bless me. We worship Him who is able to
do that. The angels came, didn't we? We
sang together and the herald angels sing. What did they sing?
when they came to the shepherds. Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth and goodwill towards
men. The blessing to men. But glory
to God. Because He has come. Because
He has worked out this wonderful plan. Because He has now come
to this world. Glory to God in the highest. Our worship is Christ. centred. It must be because he
has come. So they fell down, they worshipped
him and then finally in their act of worship they brought these
gifts. They opened their treasures and
presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. You see their worship was heartfelt
Their worship was an act of humility. Their worship was an act of lifting
up Christ. But there was also these presentations
of gifts. The gold and frankincense and
myrrh. Now, there's symbolism in those gifts. Gold, the sign
of regal, of being a king. Frankincense, an incense, the
sign of God with us, this incense which was Burns in the act of
worship in the tabernacle, in the temple. And then also myrrh,
which was used at a time of burial, a way of anointing someone who
had died. Again, an indication of suffering
and that Jesus would die. You see, there's symbolism in
the gifts, but just looking at the mere fact here that they
did present gifts. You see, their worship cost them
something. These weren't cheap. It wasn't
something they just picked up at home and thought they'd bring
along. It would cost them something. And they wanted to present them
to show their devotion. To show what they thought of
the Lord Jesus. To show that they honored him
as a king. And they would give him these gifts. You see, where
is he that is king of the Jews? They acknowledge him as a king
and they want to bring these gifts. It's an outward acknowledgement
of that. It costs them something, their
worship costs them. So, this morning, our worship,
is it an act of humility, an act of bringing us down? Is it
an act of lifting up Christ throughout today? And does it cost us? Does our worship cost us anything?
Does our Christianity cost us anything? Or is it just for a
short time? Are we just going to think about
Jesus today on Christmas Day and then forget about Him until
next year? Or do we just think about Him
on Sunday and then forget about Him during the week? Or is He
our thoughts? And is He our Savior and is He
our God every day throughout the week? Because if He is, and
we truly desire to live in this attitude of worship then that
will cost us something it will cost us time as we seek to serve
him it will cost us pride as we have to humble ourselves and
worship the Lord Jesus it will cost us uh... it will cost us
effort as we want to give our time and our service of the Lord.
It may cost us reputation. That other people will wonder,
well, why are you a Christian? Or why are you doing this? Or
what does Jesus mean to you? And they may not think as much
of us anymore. You see, true worship will cost
us something. True sacrifice costs us something. But I'm sure these wise men never
complained of that. I'm sure the wise men never,
didn't go home on their way and say, well, I wish we hadn't bothered
taking that gold and that frankincense and that myrrh, it wasn't worth
it. It was just a child, it wasn't worth it. We could have kept
these things for ourselves. Could have sold them and made some
money. I'm sure they never thought like that. Because they received
a greater blessing than what the gold and frankincense and
myrrh could ever bring. They stood in the very presence
of God. They saw the young child, the
Savior who had come. They had the privilege of worshiping
Him in that place. And they went on their way, I'm
sure rejoicing that God had chosen them to receive that blessing. You see, the cost was far outweighed
by the blessing of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And you this
morning may be thinking, to be a Christian is a great cost.
what I might have to give up, what people might say about me,
what a future which is so uncertain, and you say, it's not worth it.
I can tell you the blessing of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ
will far outweigh anything that we may have to give as it were. And it's a privilege to give
anyway, as it was theirs to do. The King of Kings was before
them, and they presented their gifts. So you see, as we come
to this day, and as we now go into the day and the other things
we hope to do throughout the day, I do hope that we will not
forget all that we've considered and read and sung together today,
but that we will go remembering that the true essence of this
day is that the King has come The centre of this day is that
the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to Bethlehem, came ultimately
to save his people. came to the cross to die that
we might live, came to take away all our sins and bring us into
a loving, permanent, eternal relationship with God, came to
take us to heaven when we die, came that we might be with Him
forever and forever. Remember that that is what this
day is. And therefore, as we go through
the day, may we go through it with the attitude of the wise
men. that we might fall down, that
we might worship him, and that we might present our gifts of
worship before his feet. May we truly seek and truly find
and truly worship him this year. When Mary was told of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Her response of these wonderful and
glorious things was to burst into song. And I hope that we
can join with her in this worship today. My soul doth magnify the
Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Saviour. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. I hope we can say
that. He that is mighty hath done to
me great things, and therefore come, let us adore him. Well, may the Lord be with us
throughout the day. May the Lord keep those of us who are traveling
safe and bless us with his presence at this time. Amen.