O Little Town of Bethlehem

INTRODUCTION

Merry Christmas! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.

If you’re like my family, maybe you’ve been watching some Christmas movies this past month.

We’ve been watching some the classics, popular ones, and even some deep cuts.

We watched “Jingle all the Way” the other day…the Christmas movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger that was filmed in MN. Rember that one?

Not good.

We’d always watch Christmas movies and specials growing up when I was a kid as well, and one that we would never miss was “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

And I was thinking this week about Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree

(Show Image of Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree”

Charlie Brown is tasked by his friends to go and get a Christmas Tree for their Christmas play, and he infamously gets this little, humble tree.

And his friends ridicule him and laugh him off the stage for not understanding the modern meaning of Christmas.

Because the modern meaning of Christmas is Christmas cards with a photo of your perfect family.

And decorating the tree…and expensive outdoor lights

And piles of presents…and the hustle and bustle…and on and on.

But Charlie Brown, exasperated by it all, famously yells out, “Does anyone know what Christmas is all about?”

And then his friend Linus reads him the Christmas story from Luke 2 in the Bible.

Because in real Christmas story, in Scripture, we see that Christmas is actually a humble story, like Charlie Brown’s humble tree.

GOD CHOOSES THE HUMBLE & SMALL THINGS

Let’s start taking a look at the Christmas story, and then I’m going to take you back even further in time to a prophecy about Christmas.

Matthew 2:1-6

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So Jesus, the Son of God, was born to Mary & Joseph in the town of Bethlehem.

The angels sang at his birth, and the shepherds came to visit him

We’re going to join the story as the Magi (also know as the Wise Men) are coming to visit him from the East.

(Matthew 2:1-6) – NIV

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 when it rose and have come to worship him.”
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 Messiah 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 shepherd my people Israel.’”

So these Jewish scholars are quoting (to King Herod) a prophecy from the Old Testament that predicted where the Messiah was to one day be born…

…and I actually want to take our time today to study that Christmas prophecy

Micah 5:2a

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So I want you to go backwards in your Bible now to the Old Testament…to 700 years before that first Christmas.

We’re going to read the words of Micah the prophet who prophesied to both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah.

And we’re going to study his prophecy about Christmas.

Let’s start with the beginning of verse 2

(Micah 5:2-5a) – NIV

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,


Go ahead and keep this open, as we’re going to keep walking through this.

You are at a Bible Teaching church where we help you understand the Bible.

This is a rich passage, so I want to show you 4 different things from it.

Here is the first one:

4 THINGS WE LEARN FROM MICAH’S CHRISTMAS PROPHECY:

#1: God chooses the humble and small things

We see right in verse two that the Messiah will come from this tiny village of Bethlehem, which is small among the clans of Judah.

It was just a tiny town, and still was 700 years later on that first Christmas when Mary & Joseph came to register there for the census.

So why Bethlehem?

Why did God choose this tiny little town, out of all the cities in the world for the Savior to be born?

Bethlehem wasn’t on a “Top 10 Cities to watch list.”

No skyline.

No palace

No Culver’s even.

Why not choose Jerusalem? Or Rome? Or Athens for the Messiah to be born on Christmas?

Because that’s what we’d do!

If one of us were put in charge of scripting out how the Savior should come to earth, we’d run a massive social media campaign, ads would be all over TV with a countdown clock to the Savior’s birth on Christmas, and then we’d probably do a livestream of the birth right from Times Square.

But God’s way is different.

He chooses the small, the humble, the quiet.

He chooses a tiny village in the back corner of the Roman Empire.

And God does so because then none of us can boast or take credit

No one was saying, “Well, of course He chose Bethlehem, we’re the most powerful city in the world”

And what’s neat is that Bethlehem already has a history of being a humble town chosen for great things.

In fact, let me tell you a story: In the Old Testament, Israel’s first King was a man named Saul.

And Saul started out as a humble shy King, but over time grew incredibly prideful and self-reliant.

And so God decided to choose a new king to replace King Saul

And so God sent the prophet Samuel to find the chosen new King.

But God didn’t send Samuel to a big city, but to the tiny village of…Bethlehem.

To the family of Jesse.

And Jesse lines up 7 of his 8 sons for Samuel to look at.

And everybody (including the prophet Samuel) thought it was going to be the biggest, strongest son…but it wasn’t.

And it wasn’t the next one in line either, or the next.

Till finally Samuel says, “Do you have any other sons?”

And Jesse says, “Yeah, well, there’s the youngest…who’s out in the field tending the sheep”

And that youngest, who was humbly tending the sheep, was David.

The same David that would, not long after, defeat Goliath, not with a sword, but a slingshot.

And one day become Israel’s greatest King.

See, this is God’s way…over and over again.

Choosing Bethlehem.

Choosing the small, the humble.

And so know this Christmas that no matter how small you feel, God can use you.

In fact, you might even be His first choice.

You’re never too young, or too uneducated, or not pretty enough, or whatever you keep telling yourself…for God to use you

I want you to ask God this Christmas, “God, how do you want to use me?”

And trust that He wants to use you, no matter how small your influence is right now.

Your life is not insignificant when you place it in the hands of our Mighty God.

THE MESSIAH IS GOD

Let’s keep studying this Christmas Prophecy

Micah 5:2

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Let’s start at verse 2 again, and I want to show you something in the second half of verse 2. But we’ll start at the beginning of it again.

(Micah 5:2) – NIV

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.

So this is a fascinating prophecy.

God tells the prophet Micah that this coming ruler, this Messiah, isn’t just a special king, but that his “origins are from of old, from ancient times”

This is the 2nd key thing I want you to see:

4 THINGS WE LEARN FROM MICAH’S CHRISTMAS PROPHECY:

#1: God chooses the humble and small things

#2: The Messiah is God

In fact, a lot of the translations say that the Messiah is from everlasting.

In other words, He has always been.

Micah is saying this Messiah is going to be born, but He didn’t just start as a baby. He’s always existed.

Which isn’t something you could say about any baby born ever, except this one.

And Micah can say that because Jesus is one of the 3 equal persons existing in the one true God.

This is called the Trinity (The Father God, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit), all equally, one God.

And I doubt the prophet Micah probably could have even understood the meaning of what he was prophesying to the people when he uttered those words.

But there it is…in the Bible…700 years before it happened…that the Messiah would be immortal. He would be God.

And this is really important for today because lots of times I think people think of Jesus just as a great teacher…or an important historical figure

But the Bible says in many, many places that He was the Son of God.

Fully human, and yet fully God…existing from ancient times.

And so know that when you read the words of Jesus in the Bible, it’s not just the teachings of another great teacher from history, but the teachings of God Himself.

That’s really important.

LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS

Let’s keep reading

Micah 5:3

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Verse 3 now

(Micah 5:3) – NIV

3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned
    until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
    to join the Israelites.

(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

So Micah now tells his listeners that the people of Israel…will suffer much until the time “she who is labor bears a son” (that’s Mary…bearing the son of God, Jesus on Christmas)

And indeed, in history, that is what happened…Israel suffered…for centuries

No long after this prophecy was uttered, the northern people of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians.

The southern Kingdom of Judah, a century later would be taken captive by Babylon…

And then…even when they were sent back, they were controlled by Persia, and then conquered by Alexander the Great & Greece, and even after they got their freedom back for a while after Hannukah…then the Romans just came in and took them over.

In many ways, the Israelites felt like Micah said, like they were abandoned by God.

But when Jesus came on Christmas, he brought with Him a deep freedom (a spiritual freedom) to His people.

They would no longer feel abandoned because God Himself walked among them. Emmanuel.

One of Micah’s contemporaries, the prophet Isaiah once prophesied the same sort of thing, and he said that when the Messiah comes it will be like this:

(Isaiah 9:2) – NIV

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.

Jesus is the light in the darkness, and that’s the 3rd key thing we see here in this passage

4 THINGS WE LEARN FROM MICAH’S CHRISTMAS PROPHECY:

#1: God chooses the humble and small things

#2: The Messiah is God

#3: The Messiah is the light in the darkness

And that’s what happened. A light dawned on the world.

And this is still true today.

No matter how dark your world feels right now…

…and some of you had a dark year.

Maybe you’re out of work.

Maybe a relationship (or a marriage) fell apart

Maybe you lost a loved one this year.

No matter how dark your world feels right now…

Jesus can bring the light to your life.

That’s who He is.

Let’s keep reading more about this Jesus

Micah 5:4-5a

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Verse 4 now

(Micah 5:4-5a) – NIV

4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.
5 And he will be our peace

(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

This is who Jesus is.

He can be your shepherd…who will walk with you…even through the valley of the shadow of death.

He doesn’t just shout encouragement from the distance.

He steps into the darkness with you and turns on the light

GOD’S WORD IS TRUE

And there’s one more really important thing I don’t want you to miss about this passage, this Christmas prophecy

And it’s this:

4 THINGS WE LEARN FROM MICAH’S CHRISTMAS PROPHECY:

#1: God chooses the humble and small things

#2: The Messiah is God

#3: The Messiah is the light in the darkness

#4: God’s Word is true

I want you to think about this really hard.

This prophecy was made 700 years before Jesus came to earth that first Christmas

We even have ancient manuscripts with this prophecy written down from well over 100 years before Christ (in the dead sea scrolls)

So in other words, this wasn’t written after the fact to make it look like it fit with the Christmas story.

You can literally look at the ancient documents written before Christ.

So think about this.

THE BIBLE ACCURATELY PREDICTS:

Jesus will be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)

And that he wouldn’t just be a regular great ruler, but…

That He would be God (Micah 5:2)

Thirdly, it predicts…

That Israel would suffer in the centuries before the Messiah’s arrival (Micah 5:3)

…and that happened.

Then, fourthly, it predicted that this Messiah wouldn’t be some great military leader (like many thought), but..

That He would be a shepherd to his people (Micah 5:4)

And that this Ruler…from the little town of Bethlehem of all places……that…

The Messiah’s greatness would reach to the ends of the earth (Micah 5:4).

And ALL OF THAT happened….just like the prophecy said it would…

…because this is the Word of God.

And there are hundreds of other prophecies in here like this one that were fulfilled in Jesus.

GOSPEL

And if that’s true, the question is will you believe what the Bible has to say about the true meaning of Christmas?

Because that’s what Charlie Brown wanted to know in the beginning (what is this actually all about)

The Bible says that the reason Jesus came to the humble and little town of Bethlehem…to be born in a lowly manger…was to come and save the world.

That’s why we call him our Savior.

Well, save the world from what?

From sin.

Because we all sin…no one in here is perfect.

And the Bible says that because God is Holy, there must be justice, punishment, for our sin.

And that punishment is separation from God… (who is Holy, Good, perfect)…and that separation is in hell.

Which is hard to say, and no one likes to talk about, but if we really want to understand the true beauty and miracle of Christmas, we have to understand what Jesus really saved us from!

He came…on Christmas to save us!

Well, how did he do it? How did He save us?

He came, he grew up, he loved, he taught, but ultimately he Saved us by giving His life for ours on the cross.

And by dying on the cross, He was taking our place.

He was taking the punishment that we deserved.

And the Bible says, if we believe in that, we can be forgiven, saved.

(John 1:12) – NIV

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

So what that is saying is that when you believe that Jesus Christ died for you…

…and you ask Him to be YOUR Savior, and the Leader of YOUR life…

…you can have your past forgiven.

…In your present, you can have peace and love and belonging through a relationship with Jesus

…and in the future, because you’re a child of God…you’ll spend eternity, not in hell, but in heaven with Him.

But it takes humility to receive that.

Because remember, God works with the small and the humble…like the little town of Bethlehem.

In fact, in that great Christmas Carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, the 3rd verse says this:

but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive Him still,
the dear Christ enters in.

To be meek…is to be humble…to say that you need help.

And if you can tell God today, meekly, that you’ve sinned, and that you need Him, and then invite Him in…

…I promise you, Jesus will come in…and change your life…for now and for forever.

And if you’re ready to truly come to truly accept Jesus as your Savior, I want to give you that opportunity today.

Let’s just have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head.

If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the Leader of your life…to accept His gift of Eternal life…

In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand

No one’s going to be looking at you at all, that’s why we had everyone close their eyes.

But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…that moment where we press the button.

To say, “God I want to come into your family”

If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven.

I invite you to raise your hand where you are right now

The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.

Repeat after me

Dear God

I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.

But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place

And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.

And now I commit, to following you, with my life.

If you made that decision today, I’m going to give you some next steps at the end of the service, but for now, let’s worship our God.