I don’t know about you but I ENJOY watching KIDS ENJOY Christmas. A couple weeks ago we had Daniel and Ashley over and it was so much fun to see Lydia’s reaction to our Christmas tree. I know she’s only 3 months old and like all grandfathers I may be exaggerating a bit—but it seems to me that her small eyes were glued to that tree with all it’s lights and sparkles. And—I really got a kick out of that!
The other day I got another “Christmas joy kick” out of watching the kids at the mall who were standing in line to see Santa. The expressions on their faces were priceless! Here’s one more. This week I came across a list of the ways kids misquote the titles of popular Christmas songs and as I read them I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe the way these kids “enjoyed” this part of Christmas will bring you some joy as well. So listen up. This is how some of our Christmas songs have sounded to children over the years:
- Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly
- We Three Kings of Porridge and Tar
This next one actually makes sense:
- Later on We’ll PERSPIRE, As We Dream by the Fire
- Olive, the Other Reindeer
I believe I’ve actually heard this one sung at Redland caroling events:
- Good Tidings We Bring to You and Your Kid
- Sleep in Heavenly Peas
This is my favorite:
- You’ll Go Down in Listerine
Okay—I heard you chuckle but let’s turn the tables. How well do you ADULTS know the popular songs of Christmas? Let’s do a test to see. I’ll give a disguised version of the title of some famous Christmas songs and see if you can figure out which one I’m referring to. SING OUT your answer! Think of this as a warm up for tonight’s caroling. Here’s the first one:
- Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings – “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!”
- Embellish the Entryways – “Deck the Halls”
- Nocturnal Noiselessness – “Silent Night”
- Leave and Broadcast From a High Elevation — “Go Tell it On the Mountain”
- Jubilation to the Entire Terrestrial Orb – “Joy to the World”
You may not be able to sing this one but I’ll give you a hint…C.F. should know it:
- The Apartment of Two Psychiatrists – “Nutcracker Suite”
- Okay—one more and everyone should definitely get this one: Alas, Diminutive Settlement in Israel – “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem”
That one should have been easy because we sang it earlier. Plus it’s the sermon title because it’s the carol we’re looking at today as we continue our advent study of Christ’s birth centered around the popular songs of this season. The words to this particular Christmas carol were written by a famous 19th century pastor named Phillips Brooks. Brooks was a big man six feet six nearly 300 pounds. He was known for his physical strength and God blessed his messages with a similar strength because he was reputed to be a very powerful preacher.
Brooks pastored in Philadelphia and Boston and was famous for TOPICAL preaching. Brooks believed the Bible is indeed our guidebook for faith and life and he constantly delivered messages that showed his congregations that this is true preaching on the topics of life that his people dealt with day by day showing them how the Scripture relates to the decisions we make every day.
In 1865 Brooks traveled to the Holy Land and on Christmas Eve he rode horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in order to worship at the church of the Nativity. I toured that church myself in 1994 and still remember the awe I felt to be in the place where Jesus was born. Brooks was deeply moved as well and later commented, “I remember standing in the old church in Bethlehem close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was singing hour after hour splendid hymns of praise to God…It seemed as if I could hear voices telling each other of the wonderful night of the Savior’s birth.”
Three years later, as Brooks prepared for advent services he wanted an original hymn for the children in his church to sing during their annual Christmas program. Recalling his experience that night in Bethlehem Brooks wrote this beloved Christmas carol. I don’t know about you but it’s not hard for me to imagine LITTLE CHILDREN singing that song about the LITTLE TOWN where Christ was born.
And—it shouldn’t have been hard for Jews in the first century to imagine the Messiah being born in this particular LITTLE town because the exact location of the birth of the Messiah had been foretold seven centuries earlier by a prophet named Micah. Turn with me to the book God used Micah to write in the Old Testament and let’s read that prophecy together. Now—don’t be embarrassed if you have trouble finding the book of Micah. Most people do—I do—so let me help you. Locate the Gospel of Matthew and back up 7 books and you’ll be there. I’m reading Micah 5:1-5.
Micah 5:1 – Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.
2 – “But you, Bethlehem EPHRATHAH, [By the way, that second word, “Ephrathah” singles out this “Bethlehem” from among other towns with the same name. It gives a precise “google earth” location for the birth of the Messiah. Back to our text…]
…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.”
3 – Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.
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 their peace.
Okay before we go any further in our study let’s look at the BACKGROUND of this prophecy. Micah, lived in a mid-sized down called Moresheth which was located about 25 miles south of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 26:18) and he had a tough job! You see, God called him to warn his fellow Hebrews that because of their sin the promised land would be invaded. Pagan armies would besiege their cities—even a “a city of troops” like Jerusalem. Their king would be humiliated. His face would be “…stricken with a rod.” And Micah wasn’t alone in speaking out for God during this difficult time. A better-known prophet named Isaiah, was his contemporary, as were Hosea and Amos.
By the way the Hebrew word for “prophet” literally means “to see.” That title fits because these guys SAW things that other people of their day had become BLIND to. If we are not careful we can suffer from the same kind of myopia because there is so MUCH injustice and sin in the world that after a while, we get used to it. When that happens we stop thinking of sin as sin. We begin to accept behavior that God says is unacceptable—and God gave us prophets to prod us to wake up. Even today—thousands of years after these guys preached—God has preserved their messages in His Written Word to remind us to open our eyes and ears so we don’t get so used to evil and injustice that we become callous and indifferent.
Do you remember the story of the tests scientists did with frogs and hot water? They learned that if you put a frog in water that’s at room temperature and heat it SLOWLY he will stay there until he boils to death. But if you put him in water that is ALREADY BOILING he will hop right out.
This illustrates the fact that the dangers to which we are most vulnerable are generally not the sudden, dramatic, obvious ones. They are the ones that creep up on us—the ones that are so much a part of our environment that we don’t even notice them. And don’t be mistaken! We do indeed live in a lethal environment. Our society is full of sinful ideas and ungodly values…pressures and temptations that we will not even notice unless we are very careful. This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 12:2 when he warned, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its mold.” And as I said—this is one reason God sent His prophets—to warn us that the world will influence us and not the other way around—unless we are very careful.
That’s what Micah was doing. He was commissioned to tell the people of his day that they better wake up, because due to their sin, judgement was coming. But, Micah also had GOOD news! God whispered into his ear and said, “Micah; Someone is coming Who will make things right.
The Messiah is coming Micah—and He will bring My peace to this fallen, fearful world. This is where he will be born—in a village called BETHLEHEM Ephrathah.”
Okay—with all this in mind, what can we learn about the promised Messiah from Micah’s prophecy? I want to point out two things.
(1) First, the Messiah—Jesus—would be born in an unexpected PLACE
I say this because if we were to pick the place for the Messiah to arrive the last place we would select would be Bethlehem. After all, as Micah said in his prophecy Bethlehem Ephrathah was VERY small. And it was—so small that, among the many clans within the tribe of Judah, the people who lived there were not thought of as having any significance at all. Each tribe was divided into groups of thousands and those places that were too small to get a thousand people together were put into other tribes. So, we know Bethlehem was a tiny town—less than a thousand people.
I imagine that when people heard Micah’s prophecy I they thought, “Bethlehem Ephrathah? Why Bethlehem Ephrathath? They don’t even have a decent hospital. It’s nothing but a village where shepherds live—the lowest of the low! Why not a BIG city—like Jerusalem. It’s only five miles away. Or—why not a beautiful town like Capernaum located right on the Sea of Galilee? Any place but Bethlehem!”
I’m sure they would have thought this because Bethlehem hardly showed up on the map. In my mind, it would be like telling people in the United States that the Messiah was to be born in a little town called Barclay, Delaware. And when I say “TOWN” I am exaggerating greatly because Barclay doesn’t quite make it to “town status.” We’ve driven through it hundreds of times over the years on our way to Dover to see our families and I’ve always chuckled at the size of their TOWN HALL. Their town council can’t be more than two or three guys because that’s all they could fit in there!
Well, Bethlehem was like that—SMALL—but the words “small” or “too little” in verse 2 tell us more than that because they are words that literally mean, “lowly, least, weak, or despised.” Bethlehem was so lowly that it was not even counted among the possessions of Judah. In fact, if you read Joshua 15:1-62 you will see that in the division under Joshua, it was omitted altogether.
But in spite of its size—a great deal of important Jewish history happened there.
- Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, died in Bethlehem giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. I’ve visited her tomb. It’s one of the historic sites in the Holy Land that no one disputes as being authentic. Women have come there for thousands of years and prayed that God would bless them with a son.
- Boaz redeemed Ruth from her poverty in Bethlehem.
- Perhaps most memorable—King David was born there—and now the Messiah would be born there as well.
Well, through Micah God said this would be the place. God circled the exact spot on the map. The Deliverer—the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Think of it this way—Micah prophesied DEFEAT would come to BIG Jerusalem—but VICTORY would come through the LITTLE town of Bethlehem. John Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers, put it like this, “The whole world came together to see Bethlehem, where, being born, Jesus was laid on no other ground than this only. O Bethlehem, little, but now made great by the Lord! He hath made thee great, Who, being great, was in thee made little.” Interesting play on words!
In my mind this highlights a very important truth…the fact that God seems to favor using the weak…the insignificant…the unlikely.
In 1st Corinthians 1:26ff Paul reminds us of this principle when he writes, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. Can you think of some other Biblical examples of this principle? Here’s a few.
- God chose two weak and aged childless senior adults, named Abraham and Sarah to be the source from whom an entire nation would spring.
- He used a boy named Joseph sold into slavery by his jealous brothers to rule the nation of Egypt and eventually provide a food source for His people.
- God used the tiny tear of a baby named Moses to move the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter so that Israel could have a great leader to deliver them from bondage.
- God made a shepherd boy, named David, into Israel’s greatest King.
- He used the skimpy lunch of another boy to feed 5,000 men on a hill side near the Sea of Galilee.
- He used an old rugged Roman cross to provide the way for our sins to be forgiven.
- Then He used twelve uneducated men to turn the world upside down with that message.
So you see, God does indeed delight in using the “Bethlehems” of life. He uses LITTLE towns and “little people” in BIG ways. As Paul reminds us, His is a power that is perfectly displayed in “littleness.”
Can you see how this principle applies to you and me? That means that there is no one too small—no one too untalented—for God to use to accomplish GREAT tasks in His kingdom. As Henry Blackaby says, “If you feel weak, limited, or ordinary, then you are the best material through which God can work.” I hope whenever you sing, “O LITTLE Town of Bethlehem” you’ll remember this fact and be encouraged by it!
So—the Messiah would be born in a place where people would never think to look. The hinge of history was to be on the door of Bethlehem—and that leads to another vital principle I want to point out.
You see, the fact that God used Micah to tell the world the unexpected location of the Messiah’s birth 700 YEARS PRIOR—and then moved things around so that it happened that way—well, it tells us that God is in control! He is SOVEREIGN! He is ALWAYS at work! Think of it. God moved the heart of a pagan Roman emperor, who lived 1500 miles from Israel, to declare that a census had to be taken of the entire world. And not just any census…people had to travel to their family’s hometown in order to be counted. But that’s not all. Mary was close to her delivery date and so Joseph decided to bring her along on the 80-mile journey when technically he could have gone by himself. When they finally arrived, Mary is ready to give birth so Jesus is born in that unlikely place that Micah had foretold. I mean, God orchestrated this perfectly. He made sure they were in the right place at the right time.
This is very comforting news indeed because it tells us that NOTHING can thwart God’s purposes. Even when the world seems to go wild, GOD is still in total control. Even when the nightly news makes you think otherwise God is at work. Look at history and you will see that nothing has been able to prevent His message of love for His creation from getting out—His truth from marching on. Nothing stops God’s purposes from coming to fruition. And that mean’s nothing can halt God’s sovereign plans for YOUR life—MY life. In the midst of perplexing times—difficult times—times when WE face injustice and hardship—in these times we need to remember that God is in control, and He won’t allow anything into our lives that doesn’t make us better Christians or that He can’t use to further His kingdom.
Jerry Bridges puts it this way, “Because you and I are IN Christ Jesus, HIS glory and OUR good are linked together. Because we are united with Christ, whatever is for His glory is also for our good. And whatever is for our good is for His glory.” The “train” of your life may seem out of control and you may have sighted Dead Man’s Curve right ahead, but the Engineer, capital E, still has His hands on the throttle. Remember that!
During the terrible days of WW II when Germany was bombing England, a father holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been stricken by a bomb. In the front yard of his home was a shell hole. Seeking shelter as soon as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to jump to him. The son was terrified. He could hear his father’s voice telling him to jump, but the boy cried, “Father, I can’t see you. I don’t know where to jump.” The father looking up into the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, “But I can see you! Jump!” The boy jumped because he trusted his father, even though he couldn’t see him.
In the discouragement and the despair of your life, there may be times that you may not be able to see your heavenly Father; but He sees you. You can trust Him! He is Sovereign! God is moving you toward a greater goal that He has planned for you so, if you are a child of God, never live in pessimism and despair. Never. God knows where He is taking your life. God knows where He is taking your children’s lives. God has a design. You may not SEE Him but He never takes His eyes off you.
So, God’s Son was born in an unlikely PLACE—and that shows us He can use unlikely PEOPLE—and the fact that He set all this up shows us He is in absolute control. We can learn those vital principles thanks to this carol that echoes Micah’s prophecy. But Micah tells us something else.
(2) Jesus would change our world in an unexpected WAY
Jesus would come but not to sit on earthly thrones and police the world…righting wrong with a sword. No…as Micah said, instead He would “Shepherd His flock…HE would be their peace.” All our problems, both as individuals and as a society, stem from the fact that we are fallen beings—living in opposition to our Creator. Sin is the reason this world is so messed up…the sin that separates each of us from our Holy God. To fix things somebody had to PAY the penalty for our sin and as I said last week, only Holy God become flesh could do that…that’s what Jesus was born to do. The Messiah—The Good Shepherd—came to lay down His life for His sheep. So, this King wore an unexpected kind of crown.
Let me put it this way. In a very real sense the first Christmas “tree” was the cross Jesus hung on—because the Christ of Christmas was born to pay for our sin so that our sins could be forgiven…making it possible for us to could get back what Adam and Eve lost—a personal relationship with God, a relationship through which He would be our peace as He forgives and begins to change us from within. So—the Messiah came to change the world in a different way—from the inside out instead of the outside in.
You may have heard me tell you that my Aunt Wee has pancreatic cancer. It’s a horrible disease causing great pain and it’s terminal. It has advanced such that Doctors can treat the symptoms but not the disease itself. For example, the tumor has squeezed my Aunt’s throat so that to eat her food has to be put through a blender. That treats one symptom—hunger. Another symptom of pancreatic cancer is pain—incredible pain and docs have treated that as well, by installing a “pain block” which has been very effective. Unfortunately that’s the way doctors treat this kind of cancer when it gets to this stage. They treat they symptoms. They treat it from the OUTSIDE IN.
In spite of all their knowledge, they can’t treat it from the INSIDE OUT. They can’t get to the disease itself.
Listen! In a very real sense we all have a “cancer” — because sin is IN us. It’s part of our DNA so all we can do is treat the symptoms…the things sin causes….and that’s what we do. We enact laws to make sinful actions illegal. We elect governmental leaders in the hope that they will make things better. We take self-improvement classes but in the end none of that is going to work because it’s just treating the symptom. It’s just dealing with the OUTSIDE. Jesus came to deal with the “cancer” itself. He came to bring us the only CURE. In dying our death, He made THE ONE AND ONLY WAY to have our sins forgiven so that He can then come inside of us and empower us to live Godly lives. He came to change our world in this DIFFERENT, “inside-out” way.
By the way, my aunt is a Christ-follower so she is at peace. She has already been cured!
One of the more popular laws of physics goes like this, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This law of physics applies not just to physical objects. We can also apply it to the problems we find in our world. Here’s what I’m hinting at. One person—changed from WITHIN by a relationship with Jesus Christ—one person who acknowledges the Messiah as His or Her Shepherd—that one person can change his or her world. And when that happens, like dominoes beginning to fall, the world gets better for other people.
This week I visited Al Vandevander. As most of you know Al is having a very hard time.
His wife died a few months back from the effects of Alzheimers disease. So Al has been lonely for his help mate for a long time. And Al has had several physical challenges. Age has made him feeble. Plus he’s lost his hearing and he has had repeated cancerous tumors removed—which is why he was in the hospital this week. When I visited his son Mike was there and after I prayed and started to leave Mike told me how much he had appreciated the ministry of our own John and Shirley Liming. He said, “Mark, they are amazing. They have taken dad to his radiation treatments—which kept me from having to take off work. Plus they come and visit him regularly—helping dad even when he is in one of his grumpy moods. Please tell them how much their ministry means to our family.” That’s what I’m talking about. John and Shirley let Jesus empower them to help people like Al. They have made Al’s world…and Mike’s world better. That’s how it works! When we allow God’s love to change us within—then He loves others through us—and changes the world one heart at a time.
Jesus frequently referred to this kind of impact that a Christian can have on the world.
In the Sermon on the Mount He taught that Christians can be as influential as SALT on a flavorless meal or light in a dark room. Then a few chapters later, in Matthew 13, He alluded to this again when He said, “The kingdom of Heaven is like YEAST that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
And just as Jesus says here, people who acknowledge Him as Lord can have an incredibly POSITIVE impact on our society. As Paul puts it in his letter to the Philippians, “…we can shine like stars in the universe…” What is truly amazing is that this influence can begin with just one person! When even ONE individual is changed by the power of God then the world can change.
It may seem odd—it may seem like an unlikely “Bethlehem” kind of way to change our world—but, as I said, that’s the way it works! You see, nations as a whole do not follow Jesus, but nations are made up of individuals and individuals can follow Him and when they do, nations change! The prophet Jeremiah talked about this. In Jeremiah 8:5 he refers to the nation of Israel and asks, “Why then has this nation turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away?”
Then in verse 6 he answers his own question. He says, “Here’s why. It’s because no ONE repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each pursues his OWN course like a horse charging into battle.”
So you see, nations turn from sin when individuals changed by the grace of God do. It’s as Tony Evans has put it, “If you want a better world composed of better nations, inhabited by better states, filled with better counties, made up of better cities, comprised of better neighborhoods, illuminated by better churches, populated with better families, then you have to start by becoming a better person.” Changing presidents won’t change the world—changing laws won’t do it either—no, you have to change people! When people change, things change!
A few years back I read about a young man named John Gilbert who lived in a town called Paradise, California. When John was five years old, John was diagnosed with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy. It is a disease that is genetic, progressive, and cruel. He was told it would eventually destroy every muscle in his body and in a decade or so, take his life. Every year, John lost something. One year, it was the ability to run. Another year, he could no longer walk straight. He shared that in school it was hard for him. He was bullied and humiliated until he was afraid to go. But there were moments in John’s life where kindness was shown. One year when he was just a child, he was named California’s ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy. He and his mother were ushered into a private meeting with the governor in Sacramento. The governor took out a large glass jar of candy and told John to dig in. John looked at his mom, and she said it was okay to take one piece. The governor said he was the governor, and John should do what he said. So John stuffed his pockets! Later that night, the NFL sponsored a fund-raising auction dinner at which John was a guest. Players let him hold their huge Super-Bowl rings, which slid up to John’s wrists. And when the auction began, one item especially caught his attention. It was a basketball that was signed by all the players of the Sacramento Kings NBA team. John got a little carried away about that, because when that ball was being bid for, he raised his hand. As soon as it went up, his mom flagged it down. “Astronauts never felt as many Gs as my wrist did that night,” he said. Bidding for that basketball went to an astounding amount for an item that was not the most valuable treasure on the docket. Eventually, one man named a figure that shocked the whole room. Nobody could match it. The guy went to the front and collected his prize, but instead of returning to his seat, the man walked across the room and placed the basketball in the small, thin hands of the boy who had admired it so intently. He put it in hands that would never dribble it down a court, never throw it to a teammate on a fast break, and never fire it from three-point range. John says the whole room just came undone. Every heart melted.
Well, let me ask you Christian? Have you bought a basketball for anybody lately? Have you followed the prompting of Jesus’ voice whispering in your ear to do something like this that made the world a little better? This is a great time of year to start!
LET US PRAY