Worship and Myrrh

So the wisemen of Christmas were led to Jesus by God’s use of nature (a special star), the Word (a king was born), their desire to meet the new king, and the use of two entities of God’s making – “church” (the temple) and “government” (Herod), although both were offensive to Him.

The wisemen came to Jesus and brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Such makes me think of any given Sunday worship service for any of us.

1. During the week we should be amazed by creation, by nature, by the activity of an ant or the work of a barn swallow, by a sunset, or by electricity. Nature screams, “God!”
2. During the week a verse should touch us.  For the wisemen it was Number 24:17.  We should daily be in the Word and let it impact us.
3. During the week we should be preparing and moving toward worship of Him as the wisemen gathered up goods, an escort, and sought out directions in order to come before Him.
4. During the week the wisemen encountered other so-called Christians (priests at the temple) who were indifferent, self-righteous, and/or even doctrinally wrong, yet God used them to give a spiritual nudge (they noted that Jesus could be found in Bethlehem).
5. God used the government to move them forward.  Having encountered such indifference by the “dead church”, they might have packed it for home, but the government directive helped turn them to the little church across the tracks.
6. As the “day” of worship approached, God gave clear leading and encouragement – the star reappeared.  Saturday is important for prepping for Sunday.
7. They came to “church”, the little house with faithful Christians – Joseph and Mary.
8. They came to Jesus and bowed in humility, honor and thanksgiving.  How we need to prepare ourselves prior to our worship hour in a similar way.
9. They opened gifts for Him – Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  Our worship service should include the same gifts be given to Him:

Gold speaks of His majesty, His glory, His worth, His greatness, His value.  This is about a king – the King of kings – who is enthroned on high and receiving adoration by all of Heaven!  Oh, we ought to overflow with excitement, honor, worship and praise for He is worthy!  How we ought to “lift His name on high!”

Frankincense reminds us that He is personal and approachable.  This is about the ministry of the priest bringing offerings before God.  That means we should pray, read His Word, and give offerings – all of which are a sweet-smelling fragrance to Him.

Myrrh is associated with death, doom, and danger.  Myrrh points to the ministry of a prophet.  The ministry of preaching is about declaring God’s will which is that all men are to be Christ-like.  As not one of us is there nor will we ever be there, every sermon should cause discomfort.  If God’s Word is not convicting or troubling, we are either not listening or not alive.  God’s word is telling us to put off (Colossians 3:5) or put to death (Col. 3:8) the natural ways and put on the ways of God (Col. 3:12).  The prophet’s ministry was about fire and brimstone, about a holy God offended, about God calling men to come out and be separated.  The myrrh ministry is the pulpit declaring the whole truth and nothing but the truth (II Chronicles 18:15) which should be unsettling for every single person present.

A good church service is people moved by God, who are bowing before God, giving gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

10. After their worship, God gave those wisemen directions and they obeyed.