Jesus Is Worthy Of Extravagant Worship (Matthew 2)
Introduction
Last week we opened up the Gospel according to Matthew asking the question about Jesus, “who is this man?” Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector, one of the twelve, answers that question by showing us in Jesus’s human heritage that he is the son of Abraham, the son of David, the Messiah. But he also declared that he is Immanuel, God with us, born of the Holy Spirit through the virgin. He is our God come to save us from our sins. Fully God, fully man.
This morning, we get one more birth story that puts Jesus’s identity on full display as the peoples of the earth are led by God to come and worship his Son. Before Jesus had done anything or said anything or gone anywhere, the nations are falling at his feet in worship.
But while some exalted Jesus, others wanted him dead. There is clash of power from his birth. The promised Genesis 3:15“seed of the woman” had come to crush the head of the Serpent, but not without suffering himself.
My prayer this morning is that God’s Word would awaken wonder and affection for Jesus as we see that:
He is worthy of our extravagant worship
just because of who he is.
but also worthy of our worship because of what he does.
Our God identifies with us in our suffering in order to save us.
Jesus Is Worthy Of Extravagant Worship…Just Because of Who He Is
English Standard Version Chapter 2
2 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,
Jesus’s birth was rather obscure and unknown, in small town Bethlehem, in an off the path cattle stall. Though virtually no one in the world knew that God the Son just showed up in his creation, there were a few that God took special care to showcase what he was doing: poor shepherds and foreign maji (Greek for wise men).
This is not something we should overlook by the familiarity of the story, but something that should stir wonder and awe. God chose who he would reveal this moment to and it gives us a taste of his intentions. That is, God intends for all peoples and all classes of society to know and worship this child.
Herod was the Roman appointed king of Judea, but God didn’t announce the news of Jesus’s birth to Herod. Instead, he set a unique star in the heavens that drew pagan wise men from the East to come worship Jesus.
They came and spoke with Herod.
Herod was powerful. He was known as Herod the Great because he is responsible for much growth and prospering in Israel in his time, including many building projects in Jerusalem and in the Roman empire like the temple. However, Herod ruled ruthlessly, killing his wife, multiple sons, and other relatives who seemed to be threats to his power or Roman rule, which will be evident in this story.
Who were the maji? Maji carried a range of jobs (astrology, study of ancient writings, pursuit of wisdom or magic) but it had typically referred exclusively to priests and experts in mystery in Babylon and Persia. (ESV STUDY BIBLE)
These maji, said to have come from the East are likely from Persia or Babylon in this class of people. This means that they would have traveled a great distance at great cost and risk to come to see Jesus. At least 40 days travel on camel back and likely with a large party for safety. This is a huge journey.
Assuming that everyone knew what had happened, they asked the king, “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.”
This is crazy. They don’t ask, “Do you know anything about a king being born around here? No, they are certain. The king of the Jews was born. Where is he? We want to worship him.
“We saw his star.” Who is this man who has “a star”? A unique star that appears in the sky to announce him. The nations are showing up to worship this king because of a star.
We don’t know exactly what the maji believed that made them search for the star, but perhaps they are operating under an expectation of the OT prophecy of Balaam: “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel (Num 24:17). If you remember, Balaam had tried to curse Israel, but was given a word from God about the future king who would rule over all.
What’s amazing to me is that while God clearly condemns astrology in Scripture (Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Isa. 47:13–15), he seems to break the mold here to “speak the language” of some Gentile peoples to draw the nations to his Son. https://www.crossway.org/articles/who-were-the-magi-and-why-did-they-worship-jesus-matthew-2/?srsltid=AfmBOoo6tJL0fpBTUjQu7VkDEUCLe2CPW_cGCQg6wVi3TghiCv_8DAX6
For the maji, this star was good news worthy of dropping everything for. Behind the star was hope of a king who would rule the nations from Israel. So, they packed their bags and left everything to come follow him.
Full Circle: Just think of this. Around 2000 years before God called another man Abraham to leave his people in the East and come to this land on hope of a promise that God would form a people through whom he would save the world. Jesus, the son of Abraham, was now drawing Abraham’s people to himself!
Who is this man born in Bethlehem 2000 odd years ago? The promised king worthy of leaving everything for to come worship him.
But worship was not the only response. Look at verse 3:
English Standard Version Chapter 2
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
We don’t know if Herod and Jerusalem had seen the star, but assuming they did, along with this bizarre news from distant travelers, they were troubled. What’s going on? Who is this child?
Herod felt threatened. This a time in history where every position of rule was somewhat shaky, so this news stirred up a lot of troubling talk about what was going on.
So Herod called all the chief priests and scribes, the leading religious authorities both Pharisees and Sadducees, Jerusalem’s wise men as it were, to inquire about where the Christ would be born.
In unison, these groups pointed to an OT prophecy with clarity and certainty. “We all know the answer to that question.” “Bethlehem of Judea.” Pointing Herod to Micah 5:2: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are 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 of old, from ancient days.” God ordained the coming of this king “from ancient days” to be born in lowly Bethlehem and he revealed it to one of his servants 700 years prior. Don’t skip over this. Marvel with me at God’s wisdom and foreknowledge.
After hearing this Herod summoned the wise men “secretly” to learn more about the star and when it appeared.
English Standard Version Chapter 2
8 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.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way.
It seems like Herod is trying to keep all of this on the down low. He didn’t want any more stir up in Judea, so he couldn’t risk going himself. Further, we learn later that he had no intention to worship with them. Rather, he had a dirty deed to do which must be discreet. He wanted the child dead. So he lied and sent them on to bring him news of him so that he could kill the child.
Now, Bethlehem was 6 miles south of Jerusalem. Verse 9 says:
English Standard Version Chapter 2
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. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
The star took them to Jesus’s house! Who is this man? The world doesn’t know him. But God does. His eye is on him. The Father’s love for the Son is on full display right here. He led these men right to him with a supernatural star like he had led his people with the pillar of fire or cloud with Israel in the wilderness. It’s like God is saying, “Look! I’m not showing this to many people. But look! Here he is. My only Son. The one I promised I’d send. I’m gong to save the world through him!
Look at the response of these guys: 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. These guys were freaking out. They recognized the grandeur of the moment as all their energy was about to be fulfilled. There journey wasn’t for not. They were about to meet the king they came to see and worship.
Oh church, I want to get giddy like this over the opportunity to get close to our king Jesus. Would we never consider our devotional life and communion with God to be a chore, but something that stirs great joy and gladness like it does for these men! They wouldn’t even get to talk to him. Jesus was a little baby or toddler. But they couldn’t wait to see him!
English Standard Version Chapter 2
11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother,
Just imagine this moment. They walk in and see Jesus on Mary’s lap. It’s just an ordinary day for Joseph and Mary, trying to figure out how to be parents, but in walk strange men from the East who are bright eyed and giddy with excitement. And the moment they see him look what they do:
English Standard Version Chapter 2
and they fell down and worshiped him.
What a moment. So ordinary. In a house. A child with his mother. But this was a holy moment as the nations represented in these few men have come to worship Jesus.
The temple was in Jerusalem, but the true temple of God, the true God had come in the form of a man and he was being worshiped not just by the Jews but also by the Gentiles.
This is probably a little while after the Shepherds had come and seen Jesus announcing the angels message. Doubtless, Joseph and Mary continue to marvel at what is happening.
English Standard Version Chapter 2
Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
These men knew virtually nothing of this child. They only heard that he was the promised king. But they had faith that he was king and they gave everything to get to him just because of who he was. They surrendered their bodies in prostrate worship and now presented their wealth in worship as well. They surely did not yet understand the divine nature of this child, or the particularity of his work of salvation, but they had faith that this child was king and worthy of their worship, their energy, their money, and all honor, so they bowed before him and presented gifts to Jesus.
I imagine them asking, through an interpreter perhaps, “what is his name?” and hearing for the first time the name of their Lord from his Joseph and Mary, “his name is Jesus.” I imagine them repeating his name quietly with wonder and bowing again before their king. Then, one by one, they pulled out their gifts and perhaps uttered a few words, “All hail King Jesus.” I imagine their joy, like the Shepherds, in being able to go home and tell their family and friends and leaders that they got to meet the King and tell them his name. I imagine Joseph and Mary telling them the stories of the angels announcements and the miraculous virgin birth and shepherds who had come, and the wise men sharing about their studies of the coming king with Joseph and Mary and of the star that led them to Jesus.
What an incredible moment.
This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the Messianic Psalm 72:10–11, which says, “May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!”
These great and wealthy leaders fell down before him and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Their faith was accompanied with action. They searched for him and found him and when they did they give him their love, obedience, and sacrificial gifts.
Who is this man? Before he done anything, he is the king of Kings and Lord of Lords; God enfleshed, the one worthy of our worship and offerings.
The one Herod tried to kill is the one he ought to have given his life and energy to. And so should we.
This little worship gathering led by the maji of the East gives us a foretaste of heaven where the Father and the Son are worshiped by all peoples of the earth.
The Apostle John saw a vision of heaven and recorded these words: Revelation 4:9 that “the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.””
And in Revelation 5:9, They sang this song:
English Standard Version Chapter 5
“Worthy [is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the Lamb] to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!””
Jesus is the center of heaven’s worship and so should it be now on earth. Even before he had done a thing, the rich and poor, the wise and the simple, the weak and the strong, the Jew and the Gentile come to worship at Jesus’s feet and offer him gifts, and so should we.
We sang earlier the words “you are worthy of it all.” He is truly worthy of our entire being, giving up our body and soul, our wealth our wisdom, our strength and blessing.
My mom told me a story growing up of a mountain village in remote Haiti, where she and a team often traveled on mission. In one instance, as the team was leaving the village and on the way back down the mountain, a woman ran to catch them shouting in her language. “Tell me his name again. What was the name of the Savior? Please tell me the name!” When they understood what she was asking their hearts rejoiced as they shared with this desperate woman, “his name is Jesus.”
Church, Jesus is worthy of it all. He is worthy of our worship.
Jesus is worthy of all our worship, simply because of who he is. But he is also doubly worthy because of what he has done for us.
Our God identifies with us in our suffering in order to save us.
In the rest of this chapter, Matthew highlights in Jesus’s life three fulfilled prophecies that show this.
The Scriptures reveal that Jesus, the one worthy of our eternal worship, identified with his people, Israel, and with all of humanity, in our suffering, coming as a poor and despised refugee. He belonged to an oppressed people group and was hated throughout his life. He is called the man of sorrows. All of this in order to save us.
Out Of Egypt
The first is in Verse 12 and following.
Matthew 2:12–15 “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.””
This is another important moment in Jesus’s story revealing what Jesus has come to do.
Dreams: I just want to note for a moment the significance of dreams in God’s relationship with man. There are 4 dreams recorded for Joseph and one for the maji. This is divine protection and leading.
I want to encourage you to ask the Lord for holy dreams and when something seems particularly unique in a dream, don’t ignore it. With community, discern if the Lord is speaking to you. God has given Kate and I several specific prophetic words to people through dreams, showing us details things we could never know otherwise. God has also given me warnings and encouragements and direction through dreams. I’d be happy to share with you some of those another time.
Joseph is given specific instructions to go to Egypt and stay until directed and Joseph did exactly as directed.
Fathers: Father’s, husbands, lets be like Joseph. Let’s be men who listen to God and do as he says for the sake of our wives and children. Joseph is a marvelous example to us.
But the most important thing in this section for Matthew is that he fulfills this prophecy from Hosea 2:15:“out of Egypt I called my son.”
“This was to fulfill”. This phrase is extremely common for Matthew because one of his main objectives in his Gospel is to show his readers that Jesus is the fulfillment of both the prophetic promises about the Messiah but also the prophetic promises for God’s people, Israel.
“Out of Egypt I called my son.” Matthew is quoting Hosea who recounted God’s faithfulness to Israel, identified as God’s son, in the exodus out of Egypt.
But Matthew declares that Jesus not only identifies with his people being displaced and eventually called out of Egypt but fulfills this story as the true Son of God, the last Adam who would lead a final exodus out of the world and the kingdom of darkness.
The Holy Spirit reveals to Matthew in Jesus’s life, that he is repeating and fulfilling Israel’s history as a new representative of God’s people. Jesus has an exodus out of Egypt like Israel, Jesus is tested in the wilderness 40 days and nights symbolic of the 40 years Israel was tested in the desert. But where Israel failed, Jesus overcame. Jesus passed through the Jordan in baptism (symbolizing his future death and resurrection) leading the way into the New Promised Land, the Kingdom of God.
But we must not overlook this fact. The path to glory was a road of suffering, which should shock all of us. Our God entered his creation in order to suffer with us.
Jesus was a refugee. He experienced the suffering our world experiences in order to empathize with us, but ultimately to rescue us. This is such an important word for all those who are in our country as refugees and feel that pain of unfamiliarity and unsteadiness. Brothers and sisters, let’s be praying for our foreign brothers and sisters and the many minority peoples in our city and nation right now who feel a lot of fear with all that is happening in the nation with deportation, etc.
Weeping People
Now, look at verse 16, where we see another Scripture fulfilled in Jesus as Jesus identifies with a weeping people.
Herod, having been deceived, grew furious devised a plan to find and kill Jesus. He had all the male children in Bethelehem and surrounding area killed. This is brutal.
Matthew says that in this story is fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah,
English Standard Version Chapter 2
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Jeremiah recounts the deportation to Babylon and the brutality of that invasion and the grieving that followed, but Matthew, revealed by the Holy Spirit, shows that it had a greater fulfillment in Jesus the true son of God who like the people of God was pursued unto death. Satan and all of his followers wanted Jesus dead his whole life.
God promised in Genesis, right after the fall into sin, that he would raise up a people who would be the means of salvation to the world. The offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Jesus was that particular offspring come from Israel who would destroy the works of the evil one. So, the devil and all of his angels, along with every human aligned with him make war with him. If you are hated in this world for your faith, know that the Lord was first hated and its because of this spiritual war that’s raging.
Finally, an Angel comes to Joseph in a dream again. Go back to Israel. Warned in a dream again to stay away from Jerusalem. New king who was wicked.
Third Scripture fulfilled.
Despised Nazarene
Matthew says in verse 23 that they went to live in Nazareth in order to stay away from the wicked Archelaus. This also was ordained by God in order to fulfill the Scripture that he would be called a Nazarene (despised town).
This is not a direct quote from Scripture. Rather, Matthew is drawing from prophecies like Psalm 22:6 and Isaiah 53:3; 49:7; Dan 9:26) that reveal that he would be despised and rejected.
Nazareth, as we learn later was seen in the time of Jesus as a good for nothing town and group of people.
Again, Jesus is identifying with his people who were despised by the world and oppressed.
Don’t let this be lost on you. Jesus was God with us, the promised king, worthy of all worship and submission. But he was poor, a refugee, despised, and rejected. This will largely foreshadow Jesus’s entire life.
All of this, he did in order to redeem his people and all of humanity.
This morning, if you are suffering, if you feel small in this world and hated, know that your God has lived this. He is not aloof to your suffering, but what coming to redeem what was lost by our sin.
Jesus is the forerunner of a new humanity, come to reconcile us to God, to lead us into the promised land and his kingdom.
Hebrews 2:14–15 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
The incarnation of God is crazy, revealing the reckless and sacrificial love of God for us. He came to deliver us from our sin and suffering.
Nothing can get in his way of saving us and fulfilling his plan to save his people from their sins. His purpose was not just for Israel but for all the peoples of the earth because he is a human like all of us.
Church, we have every reason to put our faith in this Jesus. No matter where you are or where you come from. He is our Creator and thus knows you intricately, but he is also our human brother in every respect and knows your frame.
So, doubly so, he is worthy of our worship and our trust today. Let’s come again to him in worship and faith.
Discussion:
What does it look like for you to joyfully cast your crowns before the Lord today?
For me and my household, it looks like sitting at his feet each morning and night to listen to him. It looks like taking a close look at our budget and seeing where we can give more to making Jesus known. It looks like looking closely at our calendar and family rhythms and considering how we can invest more time in making disciples of Jesus and reaching the lost and serving the poor.
I want you to get practical like the maji did, preparing for their journey, carefully packing their gifts for the king. What treasure do you want to give to Jesus today?
What suffering do you need to see Jesus identifying with today in order to bring life and comfort and redemption?