Worthy We celebrate Advent. Advent means "coming" or "arrival." It's a celebration of Jesus first coming at Christmas, his powerful presence with us today by he Holy Spirit, and his second coming in the future.

Matthew 2:1-12

1. Jesus is worthy of our attention. V. 2. "we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him" We do not know who the wise men were or why they knew to watch for the sign of the star. Best guess among scholars is that maybe they had the book of Daniel since he was exiled to the east in Babylon.

V. 4. Herod asked where the king would be born - whom did he ask? The chief priests and teachers of the Law - they knew, but were not looking. I find, we are too often like the priests and teachers of the Law. "Yeah, I know." But I am unmoved.

The real fight for us is not whether or not we know what God has done, but whether or not we are moved by it. It's not enough to know your Bible, you have to pay attention to what it says.

We always struggle with the difference between knowing and being moved. Know this, Christmas reveals the struggle we face all the time: knowing Who God is Knowing what Jesus has done and being moved by it.

Take a breath. Let your mind and heart meditate on what all this means. The eternal God has come to earth to live with us. He is worthy of our attention.

1. Jesus is worthy of our pursuit. V. 1. And V. 8-9 The wise men's attention turned to pursuit.

Matthew 13:44

Jesus is the only pursuit that is worthy. Everything else is meant to make us long for him. Marriage is beautiful, but it is not enough to satisfy your soul. Work is good, but if you think it can satisfy you, it won't and you will never be full If you think people's approval of you will satisfy you, you'll make yourself a slave

Jesus is the treasure in the field that, even if it costs me everything else, he's worth it.

1. Jesus is worthy of our faith. V. 2. V. 11. Faith brought them to Jerusalem, and faith brought them to Bethlehem. They packed some of their wealth to offer as gifts, left their country, traveled across countries to see this king. What do you think they expected? Their gifts were gold (gift for a king), frankincense (an incense - a gift for a deity) and myrrh (a spice used in the embalming process - a gift for someone who is going to die). They probably expected a king's court, a ruling family, people of power and position. They saw a young couple with their baby living in poverty.

What an unlikely king. But in faith, based on what little they must have known, they bowed down and worshipped Jesus as a baby - probably a toddler. We struggle with belief in Jesus, don't we? We know God has been good to us. He's been faithful to us in he past, but when some new struggle comes up, we are like the man whose boy suffered from seizures who looked to Jesus for healing and said, "I believe, help my unbelief."

1. Jesus is worthy of our gifts. V. 11b. 1 Peter 4:10-11 Christians are given gifts for the benefit of the church body AND for the praise and glory of God.

We offer our gifts to serve each other - and to glorify God with what he's given us. The lights will be taken down, presents unwrapped, tree boxed up or thrown out. But what we have in Jesus Christ out lasts the seasons. He is worthy.

May we give Jesus our attention, our pursuit, our faith, our gifts.