CHRISTmas Worship

Although Christmas is tomorrow, I was reminded in scripture that not everyone has pure motives toward the King, even at this time of year. CHRISTmas should be a worship celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. Furthermore, the gifts we bring should not only be a token of our love to friends and family, but they should also be a reminder of the gifts that the Magi brought to Christ in Bethlehem. However, just as we see with King Herod in Matthew chapter 2, the same is true today. Not all who claim to worship the King come in pure worship with pure motives. Even at Christmas....

1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east^[b] and have come to worship him." 3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ^[c] was to be born. 5"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
6" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'^[d]"
7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." 9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east^[e] went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On 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 of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

In this passage we find that as soon as word began to spread about the birth of Christ, Herod began to plot. In v.8 he asked the Magi to report back to him the location of the baby Jesus so he too could go and worship him. The catch however, is that he had no intent to truly worship Jesus and the Magi knew it because they were warned in a dream. Now granted, most people today aren’t as blatantly opposed to Christ or as jealous and threatened as Herod was. But there are many today who are posers at Christmas. They go through the motions and maybe even sing the carols and yet they are not pure in their motives. They may come to church, watch the play, laugh at the kids and sing the songs, but their heart is not truly worshiping. Friends, this is dangerous because the act of worship is not meant to be an “act.” It needs to be a sincere expression of a heart after God and anything else falls short. So ask yourself; Are you earnestly seeking after God with all your heart, soul and mind? Are you bringing your absolute best to lay down at his feet. Remember, it’s not about the gifts of gold, incense and of myrrh. What Christ really wants is You! This Christmas let’s bow our hearts before the King and give Him our everything.