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The Wise Men Help Us Worship
Matthew 2:1-12
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - Dec. 19, 2012
*Does God care how we worship?
-- Of course He does!
So we need to know how to worship the Lord, and the Wise Men can help us get there.
1. Church, if we are going to worship the Lord, first we must go the distance to seek God.
*That's what the Wise Men did in vs. 1-2.
Here Matthew says:
1.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
2. saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.''
*These men had been searching for the Lord long and hard.
They had probably been on the road for two years, and had come 400 to 500 miles on camel or on foot.
All of that effort: Why did they do it?
-- From a human point of view, the wise men already had everything they could have wanted: Education, wealth, power, prestige.
*They certainly had prestige, because they were ushered in to see King Herod in Jerusalem.
We also know that the Wise Men had great wealth, because they were able to give great treasures to Jesus.
These men had everything the world could offer.
But there was something missing in their lives.
*They had a spiritual hunger that drove them to the highest goal.
They were seeking the King of Kings: Seeking to find Him, seeking to know Him, seeking to get close to Him, seeking to worship Him.
And this is the greatest goal we can ever have in life.
*But with all of that effort, they still had not found Him.
It would have been so easy for them to give up.
I can imagine lesser men whining, "Two years?
-- My feet hurt!
I'm getting tired of this! Let's go home."
*But the Wise Men didn't give up!
They kept on searching for the King of Kings.
So in vs. 2, we see them asking: "Where is the King?"
And when they kept on searching, they found the King.
So will we!
God promised that we would in Jeremiah 29:13, where He said: "You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart."
*The Wise Men finally found the real King in Bethlehem.
Aren't you glad that we don't have to go to Bethlehem to find Him?
But where are we going to find the King of Kings?
Where is the right place for our worship?
Jesus tells us in John 4. In this Scripture, the Lord was trying to lead a lost and lonely woman to living water, to salvation, to Him.
*Jesus showed her that He knew all about her 5 husbands.
He knew all about the way she had wrecked her life.
So she knew Jesus was somebody special.
Then maybe out of curiosity, or maybe trying to change the subject away from her sin problem, the woman asked Jesus about the proper place of worship.
*Listen to the story starting in John 4:19:
19.
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.''
21.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22.
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.''
*Jesus was saying: "Let Me tell you where the real place of worship is.
It's not in Samaria, and it's not in Jerusalem.
The real place of worship is in your spirit, -- in your heart."
*Sure, God wants us to come to church whenever we can.
But just because your body is here doesn't mean your heart's here too.
The real place of worship is in your heart.
And that's where we have to go the distance.
God says, "You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart."
*One of my greatest joys as a pastor has been leading children to the Lord.
And one of the most memorable times was a 7-year-old boy named Ryland.
Ryland had been talking to his dad for several weeks.
And that little boy was seeking the Lord with all his heart.
*I went through the plan of salvation with Ryland.
We talked about how serious our sin problem is, but how much God loves us anyway.
We talked about how Jesus Christ came to die on the cross for our sins, how He rose again from the dead, how Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with us, and how we must place our faith in the Lord to be saved.
Ryland only had one question, and it was a good one.
He didn't understand the word "faith", and he wanted me to explain it to him.
The best way I can understand faith is trust.
Faith is putting your trust in God.
And it helped that Ryland was standing right in front of his dad as we talked about it.
*I am sure that the Lord gave me the idea to ask him: "Do you trust your dad?" "Sure," he answered.
"Well, trusting God is kind of like that.
What if your dad told you to fall back right now, and he said, "It will be O.K. Ryland, -- because I'll catch you."
Would you do it?"
*Ryland firmly answered, "Yes."
Then I explained: "You can't see your dad.
But you heard him tell you, 'It's O.K.' And said he's going to catch you.
We can't see God, but he has spoken to us in his Word.
He told us that he loves us and died on the cross for us and rose from the dead.
So we can trust him to forgive us and give us eternal life.
We can let our whole future fall on Jesus Christ."
*Then I asked Ryland if he wanted to trust in Jesus as His Lord and Savior.
And he said, "Definitely!"
Ryland went the distance that night!
He called on the name of the Lord.
He prayed to receive Jesus.
He opened his heart to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
He went the distance.
And if we are going to worship the Lord, we must go the distance to seek God.
2. But we must also follow God's guidance.
That's what the Wise Men did.
They followed the guidance of God.
[1] Sometimes God guides us with His great power.
*This is what God did for the Wise Men first through a miraculous star, and then through a God-given dream.
In vs. 2, when the Wise Men got to Jerusalem, they asked, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.''
*God apparently turned that star off for a while, because the Wise Men were stumped when they got to Jerusalem.
But then in vs. 9&10:
9.
When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
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