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The Gospel Truth
Phillips Brooks, the famous 19th century pastor of Trinity Church in Boston, was cursed with a liberal theology but blessed with a beautiful oratory. He was an excellent speaker and writer, and the author of one of our most beloved Christmas hymns, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” I think he wrote more than he knew when he penned, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” “Hopes” and “fears” are exaggerated at Christmas. There is more happiness and celebration and there is more anxiety and depression. If you are one of the happy, you will appreciate this message. If you are one of the depressed, you desperately need this message. Prophets preach promises. Listen to the promises of God from Micah. They are stunning in their accuracy. They are encouraging in their relevancy. They bring hope to hurting hearts longing for a greater taste of the good news of Jesus Christ. God promises to bring victory out of defeat. Micah was a small town, southern preacher. His sermons were dark clouds with silver linings. He predicted his nation of Judah would be besieged by superpowers Assyria and Babylon. Assyria would “smite the judge of Israel” in 701 B.C., while Babylon would utterly crash and burn Judah in 588 B.C. God allowed defeat to be the order of the day for his people “until the time when she who is in labor has born a child.” The spectacular birth of a special child would be the signal of victory. Yet when Jesus was born, Israel was still under the thumb of a foreign power. But even Rome was under God’s control. God, who holds the hearts of kings in his hands Proverbs 21:1), ordained the census that made Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem. And there, as prophesied by Micah centuries before, Jesus was born. God is at work in the circumstances of defeat to bring you ultimate victory. The foreign powers of death, disease, and discouragement may be invading your life. But, Micah promises us, God is in control. Better than Muhammad Ali, God plays a mean ropea dope. It often looks like his people are losing. But it is all part of a master plan. All who trust in God’s promises in the Christian gospel will be victorious in the end. God promises to bring greatness out of insignificance. The Georgia Department of Transportation recently decided to remove over five hundred cities from the new state map. I read this week they are reconsidering after outcries from towns like Cloudland, Hickory Level, and Wildwood. Blakely couldn’t have been far behind. Haven’t you ever looked at a particular map of Georgia and found no mention of our home town? That’s what it would have been like to live in Bethlehem in Micah’s day, and Jesus’ day. Though it had enjoyed it’s heyday a millennium earlier as the birthplace of King David, Bethlehem had fallen on hard times. It was insignificant, left off the map. Yet Bethlehem is the exact place God chose to bring his son into the world, “One who will go forth for me to be ruler.” What does this mean? It means there is no insignificant part of God’s plan. You may not be on the map. You may not be quoted in the newspapers or television. You may not have accomplished anything famous in life. If not, you are exactly where God can use you greatly. 1 Corinthians 1:26ff. The most significant thing you will ever do is believe the prophecies of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The most significant thing in this world is a true Christian, in faith and practice. Remember in the end, it will not matter who is on the map of Georgia, but who is in the book of life! God promises to bring strength out of weakness. Micah made what many may have considered to be a faux pas in this sermon. Though he promised a “ruler,” he did not specifically use the term “king.” And in going forward to describe the person and work of the promised messiah, he referred to him as a “shepherd.” People in Micah’s day wanted a strong, politically savvy king. The prophet promised a simple, smelly shepherd. In Jesus’ day the messianic expectation was still for a power hungry and power wielding king to crush Roman rule and restore Israel to earthly glory. But consider what God gave in response to the prophet’s promise: a spuriously pregnant girl married to an impoverished carpenter who came to the insignificant city of Bethlehem to give what little money they had to the government. They probably could not afford a room in the inn. This was the way “she who was in labor has borne a child.” Furthermore, the child grew up to be a nobody in this world. Almost nothing is know about his first three decades of life. Only the Christian gospels record specific episodes of his three years of ministry. He gathered a flock of 11 to 120 souls, weak by crowd standards. At the end of the day, Jesus was executed on a Roman cross, the greatest symbol of helplessness and weakness in the world. Weakness? Not so, according to Micah. “He will arise ... in the strength of the Lord.” No person has ever been as strong as the Lord Jesus Christ. No human is stronger than the one who has received the spirit of Christ by grace through faith. Accepting the prophet’s message of birth and resurrection leads to your new birth and eternal life. Nothing is stronger. God promises to bring peace out of war. In Micah’s age there were wars and rumors of wars. So it was in Jesus’ day, also. It is so in our time, and it will be so until the end of time (Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7). But Micah promised “this one will be our peace.” The angel promised peace when Jesus was born (Luke 2:14), yet Jesus later denied that peace was his immediate mission (Luke 12:51). As long as there are human beings on earth there will be selfishness and sin. And as long as there is selfishness and sin there will be strife and war – war between nations, war between families, even war within families (Luke 12:51). Frankly, there is little we can do to stop international and interrelational wars. But, you can stop the war that is raging in your own soul. Come to the baby born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread.” Come to the man who presented himself as “the bread of life” (John 6:35). Come to “this one will be our peace,” the peace of God that comes through obedient faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).
Then, when you feel you are being defeated, you will know that you are a winner in Christ. Then, when you feel insignificant and small, you know that you are part of the people that matter most to God. Then, when you feel weak and without hope, the joy of the Lord will be your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Then, when war is raging all around you, Jesus Christ your shepherd and lord will give you peace (John 14:27).
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