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Does your list of people to give gifts to this Christmas include Jesus?
On Tuesday, we saw from the three gifts of the Magi that the most important gift we can give to Jesus is to surrender ourselves 100% to Him. To accept His gift of Salvation; to allow Him to be the King of our lives, to give our lives as continual living sacrifices to Him, to continually seek to be more like Him. After that, however, what do we possibly have that Jesus would want?
These three gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh weren’t the only gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus… Check out this text from Matthew 2: “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.” (vs. 2 NKJV).
The ultimate gift brought by the Magi was their gift of worship.
Worship. It’s such a common word amongst followers of Christ. But what does it truly mean? How can our worship be a gift to God?
To answer these questions, we once again need look no further than the Magi of old.
First of all, let’s take a close look at these familiar verses: “’Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled…And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea…’” (Matthew 2:2-5a NASB)
Notice here that the Magi, who had been following a star, must have lost sight of said star; because when they arrived in Jerusalem, they had to ask. Also notice that Jesus’ birthplace wasn’t shrouded in secrecy. The chief priests and scribes knew where He was to be born: In Bethlehem of Judea! Which would lead us to the question: If they knew, why weren’t they part of the nativity? By contrast, we know that the Magi came from a long distance, for they, “saw His star in the east”. Thus they chose to make a long and treacherous journey to worship Baby Jesus, while His own people wouldn’t even go in person!
Friends, we can get other people to do lots of things for us, but we can’t let someone else worship Jesus in our stead! And this gives us the first clue into what our gifts of worship should look like. Just like the Magi chose to travel so far, chose to sacrifice the comforts of home and persisted, even when they lost track of the star, our worship must also be volitional and intentional. We can’t just sing along with a couple songs we hear on the radio. We can’t just accompany the family to a Christmas Eve service. Our gift of worship to the Christ child needs to be something that we long to give, something that we may even sacrifice to give.
But their story doesn’t stop here, and from the rest of the story, we can glean two more important aspects of a worship that is acceptable and pleasing enough to God to be considered a “gift”: “After hearing the king, they went on their way; and behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on ahead of them until it came to a stop over the place where the Child was to be found. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” (Matthew 2:9-10 NASB)
Here we once again see an example of the Magi’s worship being persistent and volitional, for they continued on their way; and when they once again saw the star, just the act of finding what had been guiding them filled them with great joy!
Is our worship of Jesus filled with emotion? Do tears of great joy sometimes squeeze from our eyes? When they do, do we wipe them away, hoping no one will see and put a steel clamp on our emotions? If we do, we are not truly giving the gift of worship to our Saviour and King. True worship, as demonstrated by the Magi, results in emotion!
“And after they came into the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary; and they fell down and worshiped Him.” (Matthew 2:11 NASB). Here we see the culmination of a trip from the “East”, one that may have taken them, personally, away from their homes for perhaps even as much as two years! They didn’t send anyone in their stead, and even after the disappointment of losing sight of the star, they continue on in their personal search for Jesus. And then the pinnacle of their trip: They personally fell down and worshipped Jesus! The Magi’s worship was personal!
Just like the Magi of old, we can give Jesus the gift of worship this year by being intentional and volitional about our worship, but allowing our worship to be emotional and personal!
What will you sacrifice this year in order to truly worship Jesus as the Magi did? Can we each resolve to follow in the footsteps of the Magi of old and give Jesus the gifts of worship that is intentional, volitional, emotional and personal? For when we do, we are giving Jesus a gift that He will cherish forever.
There is one other gift we can give to Jesus that the Bible says actually “pleases” Him… Join us on Saturday for, “Pleasing God: The Most Important Gift, Part 4”.
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
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