Well, lots of fun. Something
about hearing children's voices declaring the truth of our great
God. It just stirs my heart. What
a great encouragement to me. So, hey, if you have your Bibles
with you, open up to Luke chapter 2. We're doing a little bit of
a series this month on worship. And today I wanted to talk to
you, as it's a little bit of a Christmas Sunday, obviously,
about who do we worship. Who do we worship? And so we've
already read kind of one of our texts from Luke chapter 2. That's
where we'll start. And so I'm going to be talking
about this morning again as we continue our time of worship.
Who do we worship? We'll be focusing on worshiping
the person of Jesus Christ. And we'll be looking at a few
selected texts this morning to give us some snapshots of the
life of Jesus Christ as it's on this Sunday that we have the
privilege of worshiping him here before Christmas. So why don't
you pray with me and then we'll dive into our time together.
Father, thank you so much for that holy night, night divine
when Christ was born. Thank you for our children singing
out those truths this day that would remind us of the truth
of the gospel. I pray God that you would be
with us throughout this message, that you would remind us who
it is that we worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his
name we pray, amen. Well, I don't know about you
guys, but I love this time of year for so many reasons. But
one of the reasons I love this time of year is it's just a lot
of fun being a parent. And it's fun being a parent with
a bunch of kids who are really excited about Christmas. And
one of the things I've enjoyed doing is just asking them, hey,
what do you want for Christmas this year? And getting different
answers has been kind of humorous and a lot of fun and entertaining
as they shout out different things that they want, some reasonable
requests and some that are just outlandish. Like a horse in our
backyard or something like that, right? But listen to some of
these dear Santa letters written by children around the country
dear Santa Please give me a doll this year I would like her to
eat and walk and do my homework and help me clean my room Thank
You Jenny Dear Santa, thanks for the race car last year. Can
I have another one, only this time one that is faster than
my best friend's race car? Ricky. Dear Santa, I wish you
could leave a puzzle under the tree for me and a toy for my
sister. Then she won't play with mine
like she did last year. Merry Christmas, Cassie. Dear
Santa, you can send me one of everything from the boys' section
of the Sears catalog, but nothing from the girls' section. I can't
wait for Christmas to come, Kent. Dear Santa, what should I leave
for your reindeer to eat? Do they like cookies, too? My
mom won't let me bring hay into the living room. Your friend,
Sandy. Dear Santa, please give me a
tank, a jet fighter, 20 green soldiers, and a bazooka gun.
I'm planning a surprise attack on my brother, so don't tell
anyone. Dear Santa, how will you get
into our house this year? We don't have a chimney, and
my father just installed a very expensive security system. And last, dear Santa, could you
come early this year? I've really been super good,
but I don't know if I can last much longer. Please hurry. So my question to you this morning
is, what is it that you want for Christmas? We talk about
what Christmas wishes our kids may have. And I just want to
ask you this morning as an adult, as a young adult, if I were to
ask you the same question, what do you want for Christmas this
year? What is the one thing you could
ask for one thing for Christmas this year? What would you ask
for? This may be surprising to you.
But if you are in Christ, you already have received that one
thing, that greatest gift that you could ever imagine asking
for in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is your Christmas gift. And no matter how long you try
and how hard you try to think up of some outlandish gift that
would just really blows your socks off, you'll never get any
better than Jesus Christ. Have already repented of my sins
and have by faith trusted in Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior
But if I could ask for one thing this year I would ask for what
David asked for in Psalm 27 just listen to it Psalm 27 for one
thing Have I asked of the lord that
while I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the lord
That I may all the days of my life gaze upon the beauty of
the lord and to inquire In his temple. In fact, this is exactly
what jesus challenges the rich young ruler with this same idea
this one thing that was missing from his life in mark 10 21 jesus
Looking at him loved him and said to him you lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have and
give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come
and follow me. Similarly, Jesus told Martha
that only one thing was missing in her life and that was that
one thing that was necessary. Luke chapter 10, 38 reads, now
they went on their way. Jesus entered into a village
and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had
a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened
to his teaching But Martha was distracted with much serving
and she went up to him and said Lord Do not you do you not care
that my sister has left me alone to serve tell her then to help
me But the Lord answered her Martha Martha you are anxious
and troubled about many things but one Thing is necessary mary
has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her
In addition to all this paul made it abundantly clear that
he was very interested in just one thing in philippians 3 13
and 14 brothers. I do not consider that That I
have made it my own But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind
and straining toward what lies ahead I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What I'm trying to say is that
all those familiar texts in the Old and New Testament remind
us of really that one thing we need in life. And that one thing,
if you don't know Christ, is to know Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior, to turn from your sins and to turn to Christ
who alone can save you. If you're here this morning and
you are a Christian, then that one thing I would say is maybe
to learn to worship Christ for who He really is. For if you've
already received Him as your Lord and Savior and repented
of your sins, then it may be you've become so familiar with
Jesus Christ that you just take Him for granted. And so in the
Bible, we've been studying a little bit on this series about worship. And we've talked about what is
true worship. And we talked a little bit last
week about how do you worship. And so this morning, I just wanted
to remind us about who it is that we worship. We've been talking
about how that word worship has the idea of bowing down before
a deity or even laying prostrate before our King. That the word
worship also means to labor, or to serve. And I guess what
I'm trying to say that the one thing that I'm asking of the
Lord today is that one thing that is necessary is that we
would worship Jesus Christ. for who he really is. I'm asking
God this year for the Christmas present of being so overcome
with joy in worshiping Christ for who he is. I wanna worship
Jesus. I wanna be consumed with him. I wanna give my life to him. I want to work for him. I want
to adore him with all that I am And all that he wants me to be
this year i'm asking for one thing for christmas. I want to
learn to worship Christ and so in order to help you do that
if that might be your request as well That you would worship
jesus for who he is. I want to give you seven snapshots
If I can this morning from the life of jesus from god's word
that explains why it is that he deserves your worship And
the first is found there in the reading that we did earlier in
the service of Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 20 And I would say
it this way number one worship Jesus as the divine Baby now
I want you to notice here that Jesus was born and this is your
first blank if you're taking notes there in your outline that
Jesus was born in a specific city Look again at verse 4 where
we read, And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town
of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. And so we're reminded here in
this verse that Jesus, the Christ, the divine baby was not just
born anywhere on the planet. He wasn't just born anywhere
in Jerusalem. He was born in a specific city. He was born
in Bethlehem. We understand from our Bible
that in the Old Testament, the prophet Micah prophesied just
to that fact. In Micah chapter 5, in verse
2, you could read, But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are of too little
to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for
me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is
from old, from ancient days. And so we understand from God's
Word that Jesus, the Christ child, was to be born in Bethlehem.
But not just any Bethlehem, it was to be the Bethlehem Ephrathah. Interestingly enough, the Book
of Mormon teaches in Alma 7.10 that Jesus was born not in Bethlehem,
but that he was born in Jerusalem. But notice Micah is very specific
in his prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah. That is to distinguish it from
another Bethlehem which existed in Galilee to the north. This
Bethlehem where Jesus was born in Judea was about six miles
from Jerusalem. I've been there a couple of times,
been to the Church of Nativity. I hope that we get to go again
with our Israel trip in April of this year. It's an exciting
place to be. It's just a real city outside
of Jerusalem where you can go and see the place, best we can
tell, where Jesus was born. Many of you know that name Bethlehem
means house of bread. House of bread, probably due
to the fact that that area was well known for their grain production. But it's still pretty neat to
think about the one who was born in the house of bread Became
the bread of life that he who was born in Bethlehem Would be
the bread of life that would feed and sustain us for all of
our lives and for all of eternity And so we understand that one
of the reasons that we should worship Jesus is because he was
born Exactly where the Old Testament taught us that he would be born
and that one day we know that he would have a fruitful ministry
that word Ephrathah also Could could be translated as fruitful.
So it means fruitful So there's this fruitfulness from that area
and isn't it interesting to know that Jesus obviously had the
most fruitful ministry of any man who has ever lived But not
only do we see this about the divine baby that he was born
in a specific city But we see in this same text here in Luke
2 4 that he was born into a specific Family he was born into a specific
family. Notice it says here that he was
born of the house and lineage of David and so if you'll remember
King David was from Bethlehem, do you remember that back from
first Samuel chapter 16? Why don't you turn there with
me if you will just real quick first Samuel chapter 16 because
we're gonna look at another text close to it but but it was David
that God had chosen to be a the king of israel and it was his
lineage that would be uh be where the divine child jesus christ
would be born into that lineage and so in first samuel 16 1 the
lord said to samuel the prophet who was ministering to israel
at that time how long will you grieve over saw since i have
rejected him from being king over israel fill your horn with
oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the
Bethlehemite for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. And if you remember how the story
goes, he goes to Bethlehem and he goes there to Jesse and his
sons and looks at each one of the sons and realizes that none
of these are the one that is to be anointed that day to be
the future king of Israel until they find David who's out in
the field shepherding the sheep. And so Just as david was from
bethlehem and his family lineage was from bethlehem That it was
prophesied that it would be the soon coming king jesus who would
be that davidic king In fact turn with me if you will to second
samuel chapter 7 And we understand as you turn there that it is
true if you if we had time to look at the lineages this morning
Which we don't but if we did it is true that both joseph and
mary were both descendants of david And therefore they were
both required to return to David's hometown of Bethlehem in order
to be registered. And so obviously Joseph is Jesus's
legal father and then Mary is his birth mother and then we
know Jesus was Given by the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless both
of them were technically descendants of Bethlehem who went to Bethlehem
to be registered on that day and in 2nd Samuel 7 12 we read
a little bit about how Nathan the prophet told David that he
would have a son whose kingdom would last forever and so this
is what we call the Davidic covenant or the promise that God makes
With David about his lineage and one that would sit on his
throne forever. Look at 2nd Samuel 7 12 when your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your offspring
after you who shall come from your body and I will establish
his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom forever Now, if you took time to look
at the Davidic covenant, you realize some of these promises
are to Solomon who would build the Lord's house there after
David. But then a lot of these promises are transferred past
Solomon to Solomon's lineage to Christ himself. I mean, certainly
Solomon's kingdom did not last forever, but we know that Christ's
will, in fact, skip down to verse 16. And your house and your kingdom
shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established
forever and so there's the promise there of the fact that David
would have a son who would have a son who would have a son that
would one day be king over Israel and reign forever and so Jesus
ought to be worshipped because he's the baby born in Bethlehem
because he's born as a baby into this specific family the family
of the house of David and we could also say See here in your
outline that he was born with a specific purpose Turn back
to your New Testament place there in Luke chapter 2 Luke chapter
2 and we're reminded that Jesus was was born with a very Specific
purpose as we would expect verses 10 and 11 and the angel said
to them fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that
will be for all the people of the for unto you is born this
day in the city of david a savior who is christ the lord and so
we understand from these verses that the purpose of the birth
of jesus christ was to be the savior of the world that's why
he came to bring the good news of the gospel to all who would
believe in him to every man every woman every boy every child from
every color or every nation that would turn to christ that they
could be saved. This was the good news of the
gospel of why Jesus came. I mean, how could this not be
good news? You and I deserve hell because of our sin. The
consequences of our sin lead us to eternal damnation and the
fires of hell forever. That's what the Bible teaches.
That's what Jesus teaches in the New Testament. And yet Jesus
comes as this baby to offer good news of great joy. The fact that
you and I don't have to suffer the consequences of our sin,
but rather you and I can experience the glories of heaven. And it
all comes through this baby, this divine baby, Jesus Christ. I mean, we all experience in
this life the effects of sin and the effects of sickness.
But we also know that at Christmastime we can glory in the baby Jesus
because we know that he comes to offer great hope of an eternal
nature. We could also say here that Jesus
is born to be worshipped. He is born to be worshipped. Look at verses 13 and 14. They're just outside of Bethlehem.
There are lots of fields, even today, where the tour bus stops
and says, hey, this is one of those fields that might be a
field like this where the angels came on that special night. And there in verse 13 we read,
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly
hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest. and on earth peace among those
with whom he is pleased and so jesus deserves to be worshipped
because he brings peace into the world because he is the one
who the bible says here that for this reason that we ought
to give glory to god in the highest in other words there's no greater
glory that you could give to god who is in the heavens because
this god who is in the heavens is now present on earth And he's
present on earth in the form of his son, Emmanuel, God with
us. And this kind of peace, a lot
of people talk about this verse and they enjoy this verse, even
secular culture might kind of quote this verse. And when they
think about this verse, they think, oh, well, we'll have peace
in the earth. Our world is at war. I prayed during our pastoral
prayer for all of the killings and the terror going on in our
world. And so the world receives a verse like this and they say,
yeah, of course we want peace. We love the baby Jesus because
he's going to bring peace to earth. Well, I don't think that
that's the kind of peace that this scripture talks about. I
think it's talking about having peace with God. the idea that
god sits in the heavens and that he's holy and the fact that we
on earth have sinned against god and because of that we deserve
his wrath and his judgment and so the good news of this verse
is the fact that you can now have peace with god that while
you are an enemy of god because of your own sin that you can
have peace with god in fact hold your place there and turn with
me to romans 5 this is the kind of peace i believe that the angels
are trying to teach and sing and celebrate about on this very
night. It's the kind of piece that we talk about when we think
about justification, the idea that we are declared righteous,
even though we're sinners, so that we can have a relationship
with God. And it's done through God's sovereign
grace that he does this. And here's what here's how Paul
writes about it in Romans 5, 1 and 2. Therefore, since we
have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ through him we have also obtained access
by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope
of of the glory of God. Notice again in Luke 2 the glory
of God is about the peace of God between the highest God of
the heavens and those of us who live on earth. In this passage
in Romans 5 the peace of God is talking about this holy God
who now justifies us by faith and so we see the glory of God
as if we would have never seen before if we didn't experience
the peace of God Through Jesus Christ. And so next time you
read Luke 2 or hear somebody talk about Oh peace on earth
and goodwill to men Think about it this way. It's not just about
Oh, everybody's gonna have peace like green peace Alright, but
the idea is it's peace offered to all who will repent and believe
in in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can experience the greatest
peace ever offered by having your soul restored in a right
relationship with God. That's what we ought to be thinking
about this Christmas season. That's what peace on earth means
and it comes through this baby Jesus of which the angels sang
about that night. And I love how when these shepherds
came back to Luke 2, how in verse 19 it says but Mary you know
they came and told them what they had seen and what they had
heard but Mary treasured up all of these things pondering them
in her heart and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising
God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them
and so they they just returned maybe to that field where the
angels had come and just I believe worshipped Jesus that they came
praising God the text says Exalting him for giving this greatest
gift ever given as I was reading through this some this week I
found a poem in a commentary written by Martin Luther kind
of on this idea about worshiping Jesus Christ the newborn babe
in the manger listen to what Martin Luther wrote Ah, dearest
Jesus, holy child, make thee a bed soft, undefiled, within
my heart that it may be a quiet chamber kept for thee. My heart for very joy doth leap,
my lips no more can silence keep. I too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song glory to god in the highest
heaven who unto man his son hath given While angels sing with
pious mirth a glad new year to all the earth So I just appreciate
the theology articulated by martin luther the reformer to remind
us that this is why we come to that very night in our hearts
and in our minds and as we read luke to to worship Jesus Christ
even as a baby. Now that's the first snapshot.
I want you to see these other snapshots will get a little shorter.
I'm just kind of sticking around Christmas will be a little longer
and then we'll pick up some steam here. All right, but look at
the second one. I find very interesting worship Jesus not only as the
divine baby, but check this out worship Jesus as the Christ child. So turn with me to Matthew. chapter
2, if you will. Matthew chapter 2. And I want
to talk to you for a moment about not only do we worship Jesus
as the baby, but we worship him as the Christ child. The next
blank there in your outline, we're talking here about the
child who was sought after. The child who was sought after. You know the story well here
in Matthew 2, Let me read for us one through nine 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 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 When Herod the
king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and
assembling all the chief priest and scribe to the people. He
inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him
in Bethlehem of Judea for so it is written by the prophet
and you Bethlehem in the land of Judah may are by no means
or least among all the rulers of Judah for from you shall come
a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. Then Herod summoned
the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what was the time the
star had appeared. 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. 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. Now, what I want to just point
out to you here in these verses is the fact that these wise men.
from the east sought out jesus and they sought out jesus because
they wanted to come and worship him these wise men took the time
and the energy and the cost to leave their place and to come
and to traverse from afar these wise men couldn't sit back and
do nothing these wise men came to worship Jesus Christ and notice
that their worship required pursuit it required Sacrifice it required
great work Some say on this text that this star that they followed
with either a comet or a supernova They give this explanation to
try to explain some type of natural Phenomenon that would explain
kind of what happened here, right? I don't believe that this was
necessarily a comet or a supernova. I believe that it was a supernatural
phenomenon, the supernatural presence of God himself, the
Shekinah glory of God leading these wise men to come and to
worship. Notice the word that's used to
worship this child. In fact, I would say secondly
here, the child who was to be worshipped. That's your next
blank, the child who was to be worshipped. So we're reading
through Matthew 2 again, this account, no longer are we referring
to Jesus as the baby, but rather as the child. And notice verses
10 and 11, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy. 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. And so here we again notice that
the word child is used, which is a different word from the
word baby, which was used in Luke chapter 2, that signifies
that Jesus was older than an infant and could have been as
old as two years old. somewhere between infancy and
two years. He may have been a little toddler,
if you will. And also notice at this time,
Jesus isn't there at the stable or in the manger, but rather
he's in a house, which shows that some time has passed between
when the shepherd showed up on that night and when the wise
men actually came many months or even a year or two later.
And these wise men came not to make Jesus king, they came to
worship him. as the king of kings and the
lord of lords and so they brought these three gifts the gifts of
gold which is certainly a gift that would be given to a king
they brought the gift of frankincense which is a gift that has been
called the incense of deity, suggesting that maybe Jesus is
God. And they also brought myrrh,
a perfume given to emphasize his humanity, often mixed with
other spices to even prepare a body for burial, possibly to
hint at Jesus's death. And so these wise men come to
offer these three gifts of gold, which would have symbolized Jesus's
royalty, to offer frankincense, which I think would have emphasized
Jesus's deity, and then to offer myrrh, which would emphasize
Jesus's humanity. So notice that these came to
worship Jesus. And I just find that interesting
because it's something about, like, coming to the divine baby
that's born. You kind of get that picture.
That's what we think about as Christmas. But I don't know about
you, but I've got, I've had some toddlers. I've got one right
now and I don't necessarily think it just kind of changes the picture
of my mind that Jesus was receiving worship not only as the baby
and not only as the man on the cross, but to some degree we
can worship him as the child. He was he was the Christ. Child and what we're seeing is
that throughout jesus's life every facet of it He is still
god and he deserves to be worshiped and there's one other marker
in the bible that points to a reason I think that we could worship
jesus even as a child and it's found in luke chapter 2 verses
41 through 51 and here we're talking about this next blank
here the child who was one with his father the child who was
one with his father. Look at Luke 2 starting in verse
41. This is a familiar story to you, but I want to make a
special point here. Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every
year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old,
they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended,
as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.
His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the
group, they went a day's journey. But when they began to search
for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they
did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him.
After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among
the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And
all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his
answers. And when his parents saw him,
they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son,
why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have
been searching for you in great distress. Here's the verse I
want you to take note of and he said to them. Why were you
looking for me? Did you not know that I must
be in my father's house and they did not understand the saying
that he spoke to him spoke to them and he went down with them
and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them and his mother
treasured up all these things her heart and Jesus increased
in wisdom and stature and found favor with both God and man now
this passage is definitely a helpful description of true Christian
theology because this statement this verse 49 if you will look
at it again where Jesus said to them why were you looking
for me did you not know that I must be in my father's house
this this statement is the first time in Scripture that any individual
had ever claimed God as his personal father. The fact that Jesus says,
I must be in my father's house is a marked statement. And here
we understand that this statement is claiming that Jesus and God
are one. And the way it makes this claim
is this, the Jews viewed God as the father of all in a creative
sense, They viewed God as father of Israel in an ethnic national
sense, but no one ever had the audacity to claim God as his
father in such a personal and intimate way. And so by this
statement, Jesus at age 12 is giving a huge theological lesson
here, has huge implications. In making this confession, Jesus
is making it clear that his first priority is to do the will of
his heavenly Father. He also lifted himself up above
the human realm. He was not, in the ultimate sense,
Joseph's son or Mary's son. He was the Son of God. which
in the Hebrew understanding put yourself on the same plane with
your father. Listen to what John MacArthur
writes in his commentary on this, quote, In Jewish culture, son
denoted more than just a male offspring. A young underage child
was considered a boy. Only when that boy had become
an adult was he a son in the fullest sense It was then that
he became equal to his father under the law and in terms of
adult Responsibility which by the way was at age 12 as I'm
assuming you know that from the bar mitzvah and other messages
that we've talked about. And so MacArthur goes on to say
that it would be at that time he would become equal to his
father under the law and in terms of adult responsibility and received
privileges his father had reserved for him. Son, in this more technical
sense, came to mean equal to or one with. So at this point in history,
when Jesus Christ, this child, who is now becoming this young
man at age 12, claimed that he must be about his father's business,
that he must be doing what his father had called him to do,
I must be in my father's house, is really the first statement
of Christ himself, not at the inauguration of his ministry,
which happened at age 30, but it was at age 12 that Jesus claims
to be God. And thus I'm saying deserves
to be worshiped. Jesus is to be worshipped as
a baby Jesus was to be worshipped as a toddler Jesus was to be
worshipped as this 12 year old child who's becoming a man and
let's move on and look at a third snapshot of Jesus if we can number
three worship Jesus as the god man worship Jesus as the god
man turn with me if you will to Luke chapter 7 Luke chapter
7 and we'll just look at a few verses here some of these will
be familiar stories and we won't have time to look at each account
carefully but in Luke chapter 7 we read about how the God-man
deserves our affection. So that's your next blank there.
The God-man deserves our affection and in Luke chapter 7 verse 47
is the story about the sinful woman who was forgiven and one
of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him and he went into
the Pharisees house and he took took his place at the table and
behold a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned
that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisees house
brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind
him at his feet weeping she began to wet his feet with her tears
and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet
and anointed them with the ointment. Now if this isn't worship, I
don't know what is. This sinful woman who many would
believe to have been a prostitute came into this place that she
should have never come into a Pharisee's house that would have typically
normally never left this, never let this low life even enter
into his presence. But maybe because Jesus is there,
this woman is allowed to somehow come in and begins to bring out
this expensive oil. and begins to weep and to wet
his feet with her tears and to wipe his feet with the hair of
her head and to kiss his feet. We see here a beautiful picture
of worshiping Jesus as the man, the God-man that he was. Jesus
was this woman's greatest desire. She didn't care about protocol.
She didn't care about dignity. She didn't care about what others
thought about her, what others knew about her past. She just
needed to be with Jesus. And I'm telling you, I feel like
we've lost a little bit of that aspect of I'm desperate to be
with Christ. We talk about him formally. We
study our Bibles about what the Bible has to say about him. But
then we all get a little scared when it comes to showing some
emotion about our love and our devotion and our desire to worship
Jesus Christ. We all could learn a lesson from
this prostitute this morning about showing some real affection
and some real heart for who he is And this god man deserves
our worship. She understood that and she brought
it to him Secondly, we could say that this god man desires
to forgive Jesus actually desires to forgive us. He doesn't cast
us out of his presence saying I want no part with you Not for
the repentant sinner. He would say that to the unrepentant
pagan, right? But to the repentant sinner who
comes with a heart that's been broken and affected by the truth
of who Christ is, Jesus longs to forgive. Skip down with me
a little bit down to verse 47, where we read this. Therefore,
I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved
much but he who is forgiven little loves little and he said to her
your sins Are forgiven the fact that jesus could say that is
another sign another marker pointing to the fact that he is god Only
god can forgive sins Only god can say your sins are forgiven
you only god could reconcile god with man and jesus being
being God, right? The second person of the Trinity
tells her just that. And so he longs to forgive her
because she had sinned much. He forgave her much and notice
in verse 50. He says your faith has saved
you go in peace. And I think again, he's saying
they're partly, you now have peace with God. You have been forgiven.
Your sins have been washed away. Now, Jesus loves to forgive the
repentant sinner. A third point we can make here
is this, the God-man who does not turn away our worship. If you'll jump back up to verses
44 and following, we read this, then turning toward the woman,
he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house,
you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with
her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss,
but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my
feet. You did not anoint my head with
oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. You see the
contrast here? And which one do you wanna be
in this picture? You want to be the one who Christ
came in and you didn't really pay him a whole lot of attention.
You didn't offer him nice gestures of hospitality because you want
to be appropriate. You want to be dignified in your
approach and in your life and in your spirituality. Or do you
think maybe what we're learning here from this text is that Jesus
desires to be worshiped as this God man. He does not turn away
our worship. He receives worship from this
woman. If he wasn't God, he would not
have allowed her to dote on him like she did. But because he's
God and because he's declaring to be God, he receives her worship. And in the same way, Jesus will
receive your worship today. See, the temptation is some of
us don't feel worthy to come in and make a mess out of ourselves
at the feet of Jesus because we know ourselves too well. We
think, well, I have no business coming in to the holy place of
God to worship him. Have you seen what I did this
week? Have you seen the depth of the sinfulness of my own heart
and maybe the outward display? I don't feel like I'm worthy
to come in and to worship Jesus like this. Well, Jesus desires
that you would come. He does not turn away any repentant
sinner. He receives your worship. And
so we have an opportunity just to look at this snapshot from
the life of the God-man and maybe to be moved and be motivated
to worship Jesus as the God-man. Let's look at a fourth snapshot
of Jesus if we can. Number four. Worship Jesus as
the atoning sacrifice turn with me to Matthew 27 we want to worship
Jesus here at the place of his death on the cross as he offered
his life as the Atoning sacrifice and we could say it this way
there in your next blank. We worship Jesus as the atoning
sacrifice because He gave his life That's what Christ did. He gave his life for you and
for me so that we could be forgiven. And we read about that here at
the crucifixion scene starting in verse 45. Now from the 6th
hour, there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour.
And about the 9th hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying,
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is my God, my God. Why have
you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing
it said, this man is calling Elijah. Another, and one of them
at once ran and took a sponge filled with sour wine and put
it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said,
wait, let's see whether Elijah will come for him. And Jesus
cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. My friends, this is exactly why
we worship Jesus. He did come as the divine baby.
He came as the Christ child. He was divine in all of his teaching
and all of his doings in Galilee and Judea. But let's not forget
he came to die. And this text teaches us part
of the reason that we worship him is the fact that he gave
his life. I mean, we were all as human
beings created in the image of God, but we were not all guaranteed
salvation. Not every person alive goes to
heaven just because they're a nice person. The only way to heaven
is by knowing Jesus Christ and believing that his death accomplished
God's fulfillment of righteousness, which was required of you. That
you and I could never, ever, ever get to heaven on our own
because none of us are worthy. Yet jesus who never sent who
was the divine christ Offered his life and died this death
so that we could be made new God created you In his image,
but christ recreates you into the image of himself that you
could become a christian that the old has passed away Behold
the new has come and so when jesus did this this is where
salvation in a sense was accomplished for everyone who would repent
and believe in Christ. Secondly, we could say here under
this point is we worship him as this atoning sacrifice because
he tore the veil. He tore the veil. Look at verse
51. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from
top to bottom. and the earth shook and the rocks
were split. I love that, that imagery of
the veil that was in the Holy of Holies where one priest could
only go once a year all the way back to the time of the Levitical
priesthood, that now that tail has been ripped in half from
top to bottom. And usually when we think about
that, we think about the fact that now we have access to God
through Christ. I think that's how we should
think of it. We have access to God. Christ has entered into
the Holy of Holies as our high priest. But sometimes I'd like
to think about it also is the fact that the veil has been ripped.
Now God's presence comes out. It's about us going in through
Christ, but it's also about the fact that God's presence in a
sense is more readily available to us in the person of Jesus
Christ, where we are no longer required to go in the old covenant
to the temple three times a year to make sacrifice. Rather, we
in our own hearts, through biblical worship, are able to fall on
our face before God and worship Him at any moment, at any place,
with a heart that has been transformed. This is the beauty of the cross.
And not only this, we read also in verses 52 through 54, because
he truly was the son of God. And those verses just talk about
how the centurion, after watching all this stuff go down, after
watching Jesus's persecution and suffering, after watching
him die, after reading about how the bodies of the saints
who have fallen asleep were raised and walked around for a little
bit, and the earthquake happened, and there was darkness, and then
there was light a little bit earlier in the text, the centurion's
kind of sitting back and he says, truly, this was the son of God. Every time I read that I just
think man, that's just awesome to see this this Roman centurion
affected by the death of Christ on the cross where he too possibly
became in that very hour a Believer it's a centurion took it and
he realized that Jesus truly was the Son of God This is what
should happen to you and to me over and over again every time
we think about the cross and Every time we sing songs in our
worship about the cross, we should be thinking, you know what, truly,
he is the son of God. This is precisely why we at Placerita
sing so many songs about the cross. We sing songs about the
cross because we're not singing about this universal God. We're
not just thinking about this nice person, Jesus, who came
to offer peace to the world, again, from the world's mindset.
We offer Jesus who came and died on a cross for your sin and for
mine. So that when we sing songs about
the cross, these are the pictures that I'm thinking about. I'm
thinking about the fact that truly he was the son of God,
which gives me great hope and great motivation for worship.
When I see Christ for who he really was, a fifth snapshot
here would be this worship Jesus as the resurrected savior. worship
him as the resurrected Savior there in Luke chapter 24 and
Luke chapter 24 after the walk to Emmaus where he shared with
those brothers on the road. He comes back to talk to his
disciples a little bit in the end of Luke chapter 24. We read
here about how the resurrection the resurrection opens our minds
the resurrection opens our minds Luke 24. 44 then he said to them
these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with
you that Everything written about me in the law of Moses and of
the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled then he Opened their
minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them Thus it is
written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise
from the dead It's the resurrection that gives us great hope. We've
talked a little bit about the crucifixion, but let's never
mention the crucifixion, but also thinking about the resurrection.
It was only Jesus who was raised from the dead as the savior of
the world. And it's through the truth of
the resurrection that God, through his son, Christ, opens our minds
to the truths of what the scripture teaches. Not only does the resurrection
open our minds, but we can also say that the resurrection motivates
us to do evangelism and to do missions. Look at verses 47 and
following we read, and that repentance and forgiveness of sin should
be proclaimed in his name to all nations. So here's Luke's
version of the great commission, right? The idea that we would
take this gospel of the resurrected savior beginning in Jerusalem,
the end of verse 47, Verse 48 you are witnesses of these things
and behold I am sending the promise of my father upon you That will
be the Holy Spirit but stay in the city until you are clothed
with power from on high It's the message of the resurrection
that causes us to want to worship Jesus and one of the best ways
that we could worship Jesus this Christmas season is by telling
others His resurrection it's by telling others it's by go
tell it on the mountain, right? It's the idea that we would go
and tell others about the risen Savior and you know one that's
just hard to do It's just, it's just hard for us to focus on
that this time of year. It's hard to focus on it throughout
the year. Why? Because we're a little bit scared
and it can be difficult. And there's an enemy that opposes
this message. Just yesterday, we had the desire
to give a few Christmas cookies and other things that Lisa has
been cooking to some of our neighbors. And so we try to do this every
year. We'll take that, you know, just a few plates of Christmas goodies
to the neighbors. And this year we had a special
track that we were going to use. So here's the plate, here's the
track on top, and we're excited about doing this. And so we used
the wagon, all right? So I grabbed the wagon, I put
a couple kids in the wagon. We're just loaded up with these
plates with cookies. and we're heading to the first
house and we're just gonna work our street. I mean, we're working
it, all right? So we're out here and I'm pulling the kids and
then first thing I know is we get up to the first house and
I stop, we're about to knock on the door and I turn around
and all the plates All the plates are just scattered
at the bottom of the wagon. Here's some fudge. Here's some
brownies. Here's some cookies. Here's one
of my kids eating a big piece of fudge. And I'm thinking, oh
man, this isn't going to work. This isn't going to work. And
so I come home. I got, I got a little frustrated. So I came
home and said, honey, we ain't doing this. This ain't working. She's like,
no, you can do it. I've been praying for you. Cause she was, she was
getting ready. We were about to head somewhere. So she was
like, in prayer. She wanted to come with me, but
she said, hey, I'm praying. Now you get back out there and get
out these cookies. So I go back out a second time. This time
I just took like one plate, you know, at a time and we'd go deliver
one. We'd come back and get another plate. We'd go back for a second
installment and do it. But I'm just saying, it's just
hard, right? It's just, it's just tough. It's
tough to share the gospel. But you know what? When I start
thinking about the resurrection, I just think about, man, I'm
just a wimp. I mean, I'm just a wimp when it comes to sharing
the gospel with my neighbors. But you know what? I want to
worship Christ as a resurrected Savior. And I want the resurrection
to motivate me and give me great reason to worship him by telling
others. And so our third little point
here would be this. The resurrection is the reason we worship him.
Notice what we read here in verse 50, then he led them out as far
as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And while
he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into
heaven and they worshipped him. There's that word again. They
worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And
they were continually in the temple blessing God. And so the resurrection that's
the reason we worship him. He is ascended into heaven. He
sits at the right hand of the father. We come to worship the
risen Savior number six worship Jesus. The returning king turn
with me to the end of your Bible Revelation chapter 19 this would
be a reference I believe to the second coming when Jesus returns
on his white horse And here's what your next blank says he
is returning to To judge the earth and to make war with the
devil. So we worship Jesus throughout
his life Well, guess what his life's not over. He's the risen
God God man Jesus Christ in heaven who is returning and in Revelation
19 11 through 13 we read then I saw heaven opened and behold
a white horse the one sitting on it is called faithful and
true and righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes are like
a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he was and
he has a name written that no one knows but himself he is clothed
in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called
is the Word of God and so part of the reason we worship Jesus
as we know he is returning to judge the earth. He's coming
to make war with the devil, with the Antichrist, with the world
system, and he will set up his kingdom. Now, I don't know about
you, but right now I kind of feel like everything is still
in session at court. And it's kind of like the judge
hasn't made his final statement yet. So it's kind of like the
world offers all their arguments, There's current history that
offers all of its reasons and rationales while the church is
why the church is losing today. But there's one day where the
judge will render his verdict and he will say enough. This
is the way it is. And so part of the reason that
I worship Christ is I know that day is coming. Jesus tells us
about that day. And so we know that our judge
wins he gets it, right? It's him who's on the throne
not somebody from the un or a president of any given nation We worship
jesus as the judge because we know he's coming back secondly
We read here. He is returning as the king of
kings and the lord Of lords verse 14 and the armies of heaven arrayed
in fine linen white and pure were following him on white horses
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down
the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron He will
tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of god the almighty
On his robe and on his thigh. He has a name written king of
kings and lord of lords so we know from what scripture teaches
us that he will rule the earth with a rod of iron he is the
king of kings and the lord of lords every knee will bow down
and confess jesus christ as lord that's another snapshot hasn't
happened yet but it's coming soon when we can be motivated
to worship Jesus for who he is. And then this last picture would
be number seven, worship Jesus as the eternal lamb. Turn with
me to Revelation 21, 22. Revelation 21 22 your next blank
is this the light for all eternity is the glory of God and the lamp
is the lamb Revelation 21 22 and 23 and I saw no temple in
the city for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the
lamb and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it
for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb
i love reading revelation 21 and 22 to try to get my head
a little bit around what heaven's like and while there may be a
temple talked about and discussed in old testament prophecy and
even in new testament prophecy while there may be a temple in
the millennial kingdom in the eternal state there is none The
ultimate temple is not a building But get this the ultimate temple
is jesus christ. He is the temple That's why he
said in john 2 19 destroy this temple in three days. I will
raise it up We worship jesus for he is the light of all eternity
He is the eternal lamb. He provides all the light that
we could ever need The redeemed people, next blank here, the
redeemed people from every nation will dwell in heaven's light. Verse 24 reads, by its light
will shine, will the nations walk and the kings of the earth
will bring their glory into it. and its gates will never be shut
by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring
into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean
will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or
false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of
life. Only the redeemed will understand
what it means to really worship a risen savior who will return
as king and whose light will burn for all eternity. The focus
of heaven will be on the lamb, Jesus Christ. What I'm trying
to say to you is this, as we think about who we worship, as
we think about sometimes it's asked, I've been asked before,
maybe you have, Adam, when you're worshiping, what are you thinking
about? When you're worshiping up there
up front and your eyes are closed, what are you thinking about?
Well, I want to be careful to say this. I try to never picture
God in my mind because God is spirit and he doesn't have a
body. And we're told there about not making any graven image.
But I do picture Christ. And the reason I picture Christ
is because he was a real man. We're told that he had flesh
and blood and he's returning for his For his own and so I
would say this as the take home for this morning there. You got
four little things It's this when you worship think of jesus's
life When you worship as we sing songs and worship as a lifestyle
throughout your life think of snapshots of Jesus's life. It may be him as a baby, it may
be him as a toddler, it may be him as a boy, it may be him as
a man, but think of a picture in the New Testament of what
Jesus said and just kind of replay that in your mind. A second thing
I think about is when I worship is I think of Jesus's death.
I try to place myself there, if you will, and I'm not talking
about some weird way, like, you know, I'm transporting myself
in time. All right. I'm just talking about just what
I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about the fact, you know, he was a real
man. He bled and he died like those were real nails, like he
suffered on the cross. And so as we're singing songs
about the cross, I'm just trying to thinking and I'm trying to
picture Jesus hanging on the cross for me. And I think about
when I think about Jesus, when I worship him, I think about
Jesus's resurrection. I don't just stay there on the
cross. I don't just stay there if it's all gloomy and morbid
that he died and he died. But I think about the fact that
he was raised again, that the stone was rolled away. that he
came out, that he was glorified, that he ascended into heaven.
Now think about his glorified state. And I just think about
that. And then lastly, when you worship,
think of Jesus's return. Think about the fact that he's
coming back, that the story's not over, that all that has happened
to Jesus hasn't yet happened in real time and real space,
but will happen in the future as he returns and as we worship
him for all eternity. Well, I hope that your request
of what you want for Christmas this year would be similar to
what I mentioned at the beginning. If there's one thing that I would
ask of the Lord for this Christmas is that I might worship him.
the person of Jesus Christ for who he really is. Let's pray
together. Father, thank you for this morning.
Thank you for the reminder of the person and the life of Jesus
Christ. Thank you that we have a risen
savior who has accomplished redemption for us. I pray that throughout
the rest of this week, as we think about Christmas every carol
that we sing, every verse that we read, every get together that
we have, that we would talk about why we worship and who we worship,
the God man, Jesus Christ. May you be treasured in our hearts. May you be worshiped with our
affections. May our minds truly understand
you in a deeper way as we seek to be those who would worship
you in spirit, and in truth, and it's in Jesus name we pray,
amen.