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, 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.”

Matthew 2:1-2 (NKJV)

 

Little is known about the wise men.

Some traditions said they are from Persia or even China. The only one reason they travelled so far was to worship Jesus, whom they called the newborn King of the Jews. They were led by a supernatural star across the desert to Bethlehem. It was a journey that took them some three years to complete. Even though Jesus is to be worshipped as the King of the Jews, the worship of the wise men from the east signifies all nations coming to worship Him as the King of Kings.

Worship and mission go together.

God wants to make His name known to every tribe, nation, and tongue. In other words, our worship will lead to mission and our mission will lead to worship. However, we need to bear in mind worship is the ultimate purpose of the church, not mission. Mission is how we bring others to worship with us.

The mission of the wise men was to worship Jesus. The mission of Herod was to kill Jesus. This reflects two basic approaches people have towards God. Some will open their hearts to receiving Jesus and others will harden their hearts against Him.

What sort of heart do you have towards God?

Worship is only difficult when we do not understand or cannot understand how much God unconditionally loves us. When Jesus has His rightful place, your heart is uncluttered and free. This opens the way to genuine and unconstrained worship where we give of ourselves without fear of losing anything — for in Christ, we have found much more than we surrendered.