The Gift of Worship
The Four Themes of Christmas
Matthew 2:1-23
Harry Stoliker
December 14, 2008 EBC
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On Tuesday morning during Q.T. I was asking God to show me something
fresh from Mt. 2. It is so familiar a passage that the challenge to
my dull heart was great. This week I was talking to a preacher friend
of mine about this challenge: preaching the Christmas message year in and
year out. We agreed that the more familiar a passage is to our ears, the
more of a challenge it is to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in a fresh way.
Yet, the problem in on our part, not on the part of the ever fresh, ever living
Word of God!
So, I buckled into my mental helicopter and began flying over the terrain
of Matt. 2. Back and forth I went, observing the details of the visit from
the magi to the young Messiah. There are basically three mountain ranges
in this chapter. The first is the Visit of the Magi (V.1-12),
the second is the Escape to Egypt (V.13-18), and the
third is the Return to Nazareth (V.19-23). Is that all I
can see, I asked myself? Can I just see the bare facts of the text.
Can I see any more patterns, themes, major truths other than the ones that
obviously mark out the paragraph structures? Oh, Spirit of God open my eyes to behold
wonders in the text!
Then, as is so often the case, my eyes were opened to behold wonderful
things in God's law! I could see that all the material in the Christmas story was
developed around 4 themes. I'll call them The Four Themes of Christmas.
I determined that this is going to be the way I will think about Christmas
from now on. From now on, whenever I preach about Christmas I will preach
in some way to develop further these Four Themes of Christmas
because they are the structure given to us for this topic in Scripture.
Here they are:
- The Identity of Messiah
- Prophetic Fulfillment
- Providential Protection
- The Gift of Worship
Why didn't I see this earlier in my life! The Bible has the undeniable fingerprint
of being written by the All-Wise Holy Spirit who knew exactly what He was
doing. Let's build our thinking around these 4 themes right from the text. Follow
along closely.
1. The Identity of Messiah: All of Chapter 1 is aimed at pinpointing
the identity of Messiah. It begins with the genealogy, which is designed
to tell us that Messiah is truly of the lineage of King David. How could
he be the Son of David without being in the lineage of David?! Next, the virgin birth
is designed to identify Him as divine, not merely human. "…through the Holy
Spirit" and "Immanuel" point to that identity.
His identity is further revealed in Chapter 2. V.2 "Where is the one
who has been born king of the Jews?" Herod asked the chief priests
and teachers of the law where "the Christ" was to be born in V.4.
The prophecy from Micah 5:2 that is quoted in V.6 tells us that a
"ruler" would come out of Bethlehem, who would also be a 'shepherd'
of my people. V.15 speaks of the words of the prophet Hosea and identifies
Messiah as God's son. "Out of Egypt I called my son." The chapter
ends with another precious identification of Messiah as "a Nazarene."
V.23
Son of David, Virgin Birth, Immanuel, King of the Jews, Christ, Ruler, Shepherd,
Son of God and Nazarene.
This is exactly what the world needs today: the true identity of Jesus to
be proclaimed. We have his identity and we should proclaim it with
all our might.
2. Prophetic Fulfillment: The Christmas story is fraught with fulfilled
prophecy. How many prophets' writings are mentioned? Micah (2:6);
Hosea (2:15); Jeremiah (2:18). We know Isaiah prophesied that
a virgin would give birth to a son. Every other area of his life was prophesied
about as well as His birth.
Prophetic fulfillment tells us so much about God!
- It tells us that God has a plan from all eternity.
- It tells us that God controls history.
- It tells us that God is sovereign to bring about His own eternal plan.
- It tells us that God is kind to foretell and then to fulfill because it gives us proof of His existence and power.
- It tells us that God is a self-revealing God, who chooses what and when to reveal his plan. Fulfilled prophecy is an enormous blessing to us!
3. Providential Protection: What we see here is that God is down in
the details of life! God was down in the details of the Christmas story,
protecting His Son from the evil, murderous plans of jealous men.
When the magi came from the east they weren't in tune with Herod's
political jealousy and love of power. They just walked into town and
began asking everyone: "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?"
How well did that go over? Look at V.3 "When King Herod heard this
he was disturbed; and all Jerusalem with him." "There's a new king in town
I don't know about?!" thought Herod. Then with signs of a growing and dangerous paranoia
about protecting his throne, he begins a course of lying and murder in order
to try to find and kill the Messiah.
Why was he so troubled? Because he didn't have the lineage to be a
true Jewish King and he knew it. He was an Idumean – an Edomite; his
mother was from Arabia. The Romans thought of him as a Jew and appointed
him king but the Jews never accepted him as one of their own. They
saw him as at best only a 'half-Jew.' Talk about a rival, true Jewish King
having been born made him desperate.
God enters the picture with providential protection. In 1:20 God protects
Mary from social rejection by telling Joseph in a dream to take her as his
wife. In 2:12 the magi are told in a dream to go home to their country by
an alternate route so that Herod doesn't catch and kill them. In 2:13 Joseph
is told to go to Egypt to protect the Child and his mother because Herod
was going to search for him to kill him. Then we see Herod's mad, indiscriminate
infanticide played out in Matthew 2:16 "Then Herod, when he saw that he
had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the
male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under,
according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men."
Herod was no match for God's providential protection. God will protect
His own people from any and every evil of man that has not been specifically planned
by God Himself for the good of His people. Psalms 118:6 "The Lord is on
my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Psalms 56:4 "In God,
whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to
me?"
Providential protection means God is involved and controlling the details
of your life!
4. The Gift of Worship: What can you say to these three great
themes or pillars of Christmas so far?! The identity of Messiah,
Prophetic Fulfillment, and Providential Protection….
The only good response was shown to us by the magi in Mt. 2:11 "On
coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down
and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts..."
A. They might have given him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh, but the most
important gift they gave him was the gift of worship. What is gold
compared to worship? What is frankincense compared to worship?
What is myrrh compared to worship? They were gifts suitable for a King,
yes, but this King wants more, he wants your worship. He wants
you to bow down in worship. Your worship is the highest, most valuable thing
you can give to King Jesus. Do you want to give King Jesus a gift this Christmas?
Then give him worship.
B. Herod had told the magi that he wanted to come worship the King too, but
he was lying. He only wanted to come murder him. V.8 "As soon as you find
him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." Herod never intended
to worship; the magi traveled far from their home country to come
and worship. The magi were serious about worshipping Messiah. They had paid
and continued to pay a price to worship Messiah. God had guided them
to Messiah by an amazing star because they wanted to worship Messiah. Did
you come to worship Messiah this morning?
C. What does it mean to worship Messiah? Do you grasp the meaning
of worship? Normally, we are quick to define worship as "proclaiming
the worth of God" – proclaiming His "worth-ship." Are you satisfied with
that definition? Is it good enough? If you are not satisfied with it, how
would you improve upon it? We might ask ourselves "How can we truly worship
Christ this Christmas if we can't even define what worship really is?"
Sometimes people think that worship is just coming to an 11:00 a.m. service
once or twice a month. Sometimes people think worship is singing some choruses or
songs before the sermon. They say "I really felt God during the worship in church
today, then the pastor preached a good sermon." Confused understanding of what
worship really is makes for very immature Christians.
D. What is worship? Let me define is in several ways:
1. Worship is "awe-full yielding!" Worship is falling in awe
before God and yielding everything about myself to him. My will, my heart,
my emotions, my resources, my life. Worship is being stunned at the God-ness of God
and then falling down to yield him the "you-ness" of you! Worship is the
greatest level of admiration of a thing. The clearer you see the majesty of
God the more thoroughly you will yield all of yourself to His glory
and control. Are you in awe of God this morning? If you are, you are worshipping.
2. Worship is deep self-surrender. When you worship something
you give yourself over to it. It controls you, masters
you, consumes you. If you are worshipping Christ this morning,
you are surrendering to him rather than resisting and fighting him.
You can't come to church and think you have worshipped God today if you have
heard the voice of God and you are still resisting His voice. That
IS NOT worship. Are you deeply surrendering to God as your master this morning?
If you are, you are worshipping.
3. Worship is commitment to God. If you come to God and He reveals
His God-ness and majesty to you and you make vows to him to surrender
your life, you better follow through and make good on it. Psalms 50:14 "Offer
to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High."
Ecclesiastes 5:4 "When you vow a vow to God,
do not delay paying it, for he has no plea sure in fools. Pay what
you vow." True worship is carried out throughout your entire week.
Life is worship. Every minute of the day ought to be an act of worship.
Romans 12:1 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship." You carry your body everywhere you
got every day. Worship should be taking place wherever your body is. Are
you determining to be committed to God this morning? If you are, you are worshipping.
4. Worship is profound trust in God. If we are drawn into the
awesome God-ness of God, yielding our lives and becoming consumed and
controlled by His majesty, we will find in our hearts a profound trust
in God as Father. Trusting God as Father is at the heart of worship. Father
loves to be trusted by His children. Trust is an expectation that
Father will always act in a way that is consistent with His eternal love
for us in Christ. Romans 8:32 "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him
up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"
Jeremiah 32:40-41 "I will make with them an everlasting covenant,
that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me
in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good,
and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my
soul." Are you trusting Father implicitly this morning? If you are,
you are worshipping!
5. Worship is the purest form of covenantal love for God.
True worship is the stirring up of covenantal love. It is stoking the fires
of love with God. Jer. 31:3 God says: "I have loved you with an everlasting
love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." Worship is
telling God you love him, it is thanking God for loving you. 1 John
4:10 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent
his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 Jn. 4:19 "We love because
he first loved us." He entered into an eternal covenant of love
with us and put love in our hearts for him. Romans 5:5 "…and hope does
not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Are you telling God you love him
this morning for putting his eternal love on your undeserving soul? If you
are, you are worshipping.
Are you giving Messiah the gift of worship this morning? This is the gift
he wants from you. Awe-filled yielding – Deep self-surrender – Determined
Commitment – Profound Trust – Covenantal Love. Give Him this gift every single
day of your life!!!
Let's pray, H.