“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!”

Is worship important to you? The worship of God is important to God. Worship is one of the three main purposes of the church. We define in our constitution the purpose of this church in this way. The purpose of the Palermo Christian Church is to glorify God through worship, evangelism and edification. We seek to bring the lost to Christ. We seek to help one another in the faith. But at the core, we do so out of hearts that worship God.

So what is worship? I am not going to give you a theological definition. I am not at this point going to point you to the Greek or Hebrew languages. I am going to help you define worship at a basic level.

Worship is what happens after we ask this question: Is God worth it? Is God worthy of it? The “it” is anything that is before us.

If we ask the question, “Is God worthy of this hour of time that we are spending together?” those who answer “yes” are here. Those who answer “no” are elsewhere. Those who answer “yes” but are out fishing and showing by their actions what they believe in their heart.

If we ask the question, “Is God worthy to be obeyed?” then those who answer “yes” will obey. Those who answer “no” will not obey.

We have seen this played out. God is worthy to receive our worship because he created us. Jesus is worthy to receive our worship because he was the lamb that was slain. The angels thought God was worth it. The elder’s thought Jesus was worth it. For they said, “Worthy are you O God, worthy is the lamb that was slain, to receive glory and honor…”

But on the human level, God’s worth is defined by our actions.

I want to relate to you this account from Matthew 2. We are going to go into this passage and ask several times this question, “Is Jesus worth it?” Is Jesus worth our worship? This passage is very familiar to all of us who have been in church for a while. But as we look more closely at this, my prayer is that we will see how this question, asked over and over again, can help us see our true worship of God.

Let me read the text.

Matt 2 “1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

The question we want to ask today about the Magi is the same one I want you to walk out of here asking yourself: “Is Jesus worth it?”

Let’s look at the Magi and what we know about them. Then we will come and look at their trip. Then we will ask the question, “Is it worth it?” “Is Jesus worth it?” Then we will close.

What do we know about the Magi?

First, let me start with what we don’t know.

1. We don’t know how many are in the group. Traditions have put the number from two to twelve. The “three kings” or “three wisemen” come from the fact that three gifts were given. Did each person give one gift or where there three gifts given by a number of people? We don’t know.

2. We don’t know for sure where they came from. In the Bible, the word “magi” signifies people who were into spiritualism and the occult. They were people who tried to get messages from the dead, a practice the Bible specifically says is wrong.

According to Herodotus, the father of history, who wrote about 500 years before this story, the Magi were members of the Persian priestly caste. They specialized in astrology (the study of the stars), dream interpretation and magic. They believed that an Magi was someone who had supernatural knowledge ad ability. Sometimes they used it to practice magic and sometimes to interpret dreams. Some believe Daniel would have been part of this group. His ability to interpret dreams was supernatural.

So what do we know?

We know that they travelled a long way to see Jesus. This was probably a trip of about 900 miles through dangerous and tough conditions. This would be like traveling from Palermo, Maine to Fayetteville, North Carolina or from Palermo Maine to Toledo, Ohio. This would be on the backs of camels. It would be a trip of several months.

We know that the trip was triggered by a star. I had always imagined that the Magi followed the start to Jerusalem, but I can’t find it in the text. It says that they “saw his star in the east.” It does not say they saw it on the entire journey. King Herod asks them in verse 7 to tell them the exact time the star appeared. If it appeared for days and days, then that would be hard to do. But when Herod goes to kill the children in Bethlehem, he kills all who are two or under. Why two years old or under? Because that would have been the time that the Magi told him. He may have lengthened it a little in case they were off, but two years would be the maximum time for the trip.

So what triggered this idea of the star? The Jewish people of Jesus day would turn to Numbers 24:17 “17 “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a sceptre will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.”

The rabbi’s of Jesus day saw this star that would come out of Jacob as a sign of the Messiah. The Magi saw this because they ask, “Where is he who is born king of the Jews.”

There was a man in AD 130 whose name means Bar Kosba. The name probably means “son of a young ram.” He changed his name to Bar Cochba, “son of the star” when he led a Jewish uprising. By taking that name, “son of the star”, he was claiming to be the Messiah. When the uprising failed, the rabbis called him Bar Kosiba, “son of the lie”.

These Magi saw this star in the east. They may have heard through Daniel and others about the star that would come out of Jacob or Israel. If you knew that, where would you go?

You would not go to Bethlehem. You probably didn’t even hear about it. It was a small village about ten miles from Jerusalem. You would travel to Jerusalem, the capital and prominent city in Israel. The star of Jacob would certainly either be in or known by the people who lived in Jerusalem.

So the Magi come to Jerusalem. Nine hundred miles following a star based on one phrase out of one verse in the Old Testament to find a baby that was not a king, but who might become one when he is older.

We know one more thing. They came to worship that baby.

The Greek word for worship has the picture of falling prostrate to the ground as a sign that the one before you is greater than you. You would do it for a king. And they did it for Jesus.

This is the question for you and I today. “Was the trip worth it?” Based on seeing a star, reading a verse, making a nine hundred mile trip just to see a baby, was it worth it?

Some of you grandparents out here have made the trip with less information. You have travelled hundreds of miles, spent lots of money, endured long lines in the airport, just to see your grandchildren. You might not have fallen down to the ground before them, but if anyone was to ask, you would say, “It was worth it.”

How many miles would you travel to meet Jesus? How many verses in the Bible would it take for you to read to follow Him? How much information would you need to take that step towards Jesus?

The answer to that would be the answer to the question, “Do you worship Jesus?” The Magi would have told you that the time, the travel, the distance, the expense were all worth it. How do we know? They did it.

When we are sitting in our easy chairs, the warm wood fire going, the cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate in our hands and the dog lying contentedly at our feet, we often hear the voice of Jesus saying, ‘ Come to me.’ We listen and then we say… ‘It’s not worth it tonight. The service at the church, the neighbor in need, the wife or children who Jesus is prompting us to get up and get involved with, are all drowned out and we say to Jesus, “I hear you calling, but it isn’t worth it. Another time may be.”

Or we listen and say, “Jesus, you are worth it.” So we get up and do want our savior asks. We come to Him and he leads us where he wants us to go.

I don’t’ know if you are aware of this or not. But God often spoon feeds us. He calls us to do one thing and when we are ready to do it, he gives us more. The Magi come to Jerusalem and ask around about this one who is born King of the Jews. Notice the text in verses 3-9.

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ 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.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He 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.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

When they followed Numbers 24:17, God gives them Micah 5:2. The baby is not going to be born in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem. So they head to Bethlehem and what happens? The same star reappears right over the house where Jesus was.

The Magi were overjoyed. Talk about GPS! Talk about good directions. God was in this trip! He confirmed it to them in Jerusalem with the Micah 5:2 passage and he reaffirms it here in Bethlehem with the reappearance of the star.

11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.

Was the trip worth it? Certainly it was for them. To come and bow down before this child was worth the time, the energy, the effort.