Sermon transcript coming soon!

Intro: The 7.0 earthquake hit, lasted, and ceased, but the aftershocks have continued.

• Aftershocks are unsettling and life can be unsettling.
• You need a “flashlight” stowed and ready in the drawer when the quake comes, when the power suddenly drops.

This passage is about spiritual preparation.  Preparation with the Word.  You need answers.  God’s Word is there to make sane with life’s catch-22’s.

• Two verses could not be better known in the entire Bible, to describe this Word!
• However, this Word is as terrifying as it is comforting.

Our text’s central command opens up what we are dealing within verses 12-13:

“Strive to enter that rest” – “Strive…to rest” (v. 11).

• This is not counterintuitive but Christian perseverance!
• Not pushing forward in the flesh, but moving forward in faith.
• Back at verse 4, “The promise of entering rest still stands.”
  • The promise made to Moses and the wilderness generation.
  • Carried forward by Joshua (picturing Christ and grace).
  • Reiterated 400 years later by David in Psalm 95.
  • A promise alive and well for the church, from its inception to now.

What is this “rest”?  Rest now, being reconciled with God!  Rest future, which is eternal heaven!

• The warning to the church to NOT be like the wilderness generation.
• They didn’t reach “rest!”

Verse 2 is explicit about what went wrong.

• They heard “good news” – the Word of God – with no “benefit.”
• “They were not united by faith!” (v. 2).
  • Under the strong influence of God’s voice but they did not “listen!”
  • Disconnected from “those who listened!” (v. 2).

“Good news” in verse 2 [euanggelliw] is repeated in verse 6.

• The promise to enter rest remains, [Question] “So, how do you do it?”
  • You have to “receive the good news!”
  • Unlike the wilderness generation, “receive” Truth! Hear by faith!

They “failed to enter because of disobedience” (v. 6).

• Same “disobedience” Christians (Hebrew’s author included – “we”) are warned NOT to replicate!

What specifically is “disobedience?”

• Not hearing the Word! Put another way, NOT “striving to enter that rest?”
  • NOT hearing and believing Scripture!
  • Instead, trusting, embracing, holding to it, living by it!

• Complaining or murmuring against God?
  • Wishing for Egypt, for LIES the world offers?
  • Or, Going with Bible!

Verses 12-13 completes this command to “strive for rest” with another power-warning.

“Come to the Word because Word is coming to you.”

1. God’s Word is Unstoppable

The “word of God” is “alive” or “living” and “active” or “powerful” (v. 12).

• William Barclay said the Word is “instinct with life!”
  • The Word is personified as God himself is speaking.
  • God is irrepressible and so God’s
  • Word is irrepressible.

• The author is not referring to the incarnate Word (Jn. 1:1) but the revelation of God enshrined in Scripture.
  • When the Word of God speaks, God himself speaks.
  • “God so to speak is what God says!” [Schreiner].

• As God himself is living, the Word of God is living.
• There is inherent dynamism that cannot be thwarted.
• In this context denying this Word, or disbelieving this Word can prove fatal!

The evangelist, Stephen called it, “living oracles” and Peter likewise declares it “the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pt. 1:23).

• Christians readily confess that it is an inspired book, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
  • Liberals have tried to diminish its inherent power by promoting Neo-orthodoxy.
  • “The Bible ‘becomes the Word’ or ‘becomes Living’ when read by faith.

• The Bible is powerful and powerfully working whether it is being believed or rejected.
• This is the author’s point!

The Scripture is described as actively discerning believers from unbelievers.

• Opening and closing “rest” that people long for!
  • The dynamic testimony of the Word’s work throughout history bears witness to this.
  • The Word put in everyone’s hands in usable language, incites revolutions, overthrows kings and reforms governments.

• The Word has brought light to dark continents lost in witchcraft and order out of chaos (Hudson Taylor, William Carey, David Livingston – It was the Word).

Even in our postmodern and anti-authority and media-visual age, the Word Speaks.

The Battle Hymn says it well, “His Truth is Marching On!”

It operates with vitality and intention.

^ESV  Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

^ESV  Psalm 107:20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, who’s imprint is still felt.  His summary:

I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing.  And when, while I slept, or drank…with Philip and my Amsdorf [his friends], the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a Prince or Emperor inflicted such damage upon it, I did nothing.  The Word did it all.

Think of the response at Peter’s preaching at Pentecost.

^ESV  Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

The Word does what it promises to do.

Whitefield (18^th Century Evangelist) was hounded by a group of detractors who called themselves the “Hell-fire Club,” derided his work, and mocked him.

On one occasion one of them, a man named Thorpe was mimicking Whitefield to his cronies, delivering his sermon with brilliant accuracy, perfectly imitating his tone and facial expressions, when he himself was so pierced that he sat down and was converted on the spot!

Thorpe became a prominent Christian leader in Bristol.

The Word is living and active but that is not all it is.

2. God’s Word is Irrefutable

The Word of God is the Lord’s superior weapon.

• It is comparatively “sharper above or beyond” [uper] all other “swords” or “double edged blades” (v. 12; cf. Ephesians 6:17 “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”).
  • The main emphasis is penetration.
  • A sword in battle is only as good as it is able to penetrate armor, bone, and flesh!
  • A blunt blade in combat is of little use.

King Arthur’s legendary mythical sword, Excalibur depicts the emphasis a high and Sovereign weapon.

• God’s Word is the ultimate sword.

It is “two-edged” meaning full use to cut and lay open.

Principle that all must come to the word or the word will come to you.

• The accountability of Truth is irrefutable, you cannot fight it all.

In Revelation, Christ warns the church at Pergamum in this way:

^ESV  Revelation 2:16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Jesus on the other hand commends the church at Philadelphia saying:

^ESV  Revelation 3:10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

The “two-edged sword” connects back to the “wilderness generation” as an allusion to judgment.

• Israel’s unbelief at Kedesh-Barnea was condemned by God in Numbers 14.

^ESV  Numbers 14:23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

• Israel responded (like so many of us do) wanted to force their way back into God’s original plan!

^ESV  Numbers 14:39-45 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.”

However, God warned them not to go there.

Numbers 14:41-45 ESV But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, when that will not succeed? Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”

But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.

Israel “presumed” on God, going without “the ark,” in their own strength, without God’s blessing, and they got slaughtered!

• God’s Word is both a guide and a rule!
• It Wounds and Heals!

John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress called it “A right Jerusalem blade” where “Its edges will never blunt; it will cut flesh, and bones, and soul, and spirit, and all.”  “The Lord’s word hews down any and all who disobey Him” [Schreiner].

3. God’s Word is Indisputable

The discerning nature of the Word is God is not something that can be argued against.

• God is the highest court because God knows and sees everything about you.

• “Piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
• [Note] Should not be the opening to figure out the difference between a “soul” of a man and a “spirit” of a man.
• Not about being a Dichotomist or Trichotomist.

• Concern is not to differentiate a person’s “psyche” from his “soul” (or “heart”) any more than to differentiate “thoughts” from “intentions.”
  • All of these complex nuances make up the inner man.
  • The point is the inner depth that God can go and does go inside of a person!

• The wartime picture is hand to hand combat where a warrior drops his blade onto the “joint” of the assailant’s arm, opening it up to “bone.” “Laying bare the marrow inside the bone.”
  • Where is the flannel graph for that Bible scene?
  • This won’t market the a new warm-hearted Bible devotional series.

• “Open up God’s Word so it will open you!”
  • The NIV – God’s Word “judges thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
  • The Bible shines its searchlight inside of our hearts, like a torch being lit inside a dark cave, revealing what’s really going on!

• Our sinful rationalizing is stopped in its tracks!
• Root issues are pulled up in an instant by God’s work.

This is why people distance themselves from church.

• People draw away from accountability!
• Why churches stop preaching the straight up truth, not wanting people to leave!

It you don’t speak the Word, you are not really doing anything at all!

4. God’s Word is Inescapable

Verse 13 broadens the accountability to everyone!  Churched and unchurched!  Believers and unbelievers. 

• God’s Word is like a net that keeps spreading and spreading until to covers every last person.
  • “No creature is hidden from his sight.”
  • Literally, “no creature is invisible before Him” (v. 13).

• Now the accountability of God’s Word is said to be God Himself.
• God’s eyes are everywhere and exhaustive.

^ESV  Job 26:6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

^ESV  Job 28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

^ESV  Psalm 33:13 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;

In the end, all disguises will be ripped off!

^ESV  Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

^ESV  Psalm 90:8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

This reminds me of a child playing hide and seek, hiding in the closet.  When the door is opened, the child standing there has his eyes covered with his hands.  The child’s self-perception is that he is still now found but this simply isn’t true.

There were boys stealing apples in a private orchard.  It just so happened that the great American astronomer Samuel Alfred Mitchell was observing the sun through his telescope as it descended, and just as it set there came into view the crest of an orchard-covered hill some seven miles distant where Dr. Mitchell watched the two boys-one picking apples while the other stood guard making sure they were not seen!”

In A.W. Tozer’s classic Knowledge of the Holy he says,

God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones, and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.

This language is severe.  In the end, “all are naked” literally “stripped to the kernel” or without an outer garment.

• The word “exposed” is a violent wrestler’s word.
• The idea of seizing an opponent by the throat to immobilize
• Putting someone in a “head and arm.”
  • The idea of submission is here.
  • The language is being brought toward God’s eyes – “to his eyes” – to face the account or “the word” [o’ logos].
• God is never duped!

It’s been said,

“At some time other, a man must stop running from himself and his God-possibly because there is just no other place to run to.  There comes a time in every man when he has to meet God from whom eyes nothing can be concealed” Kemit Eby, The God in You

God’s word is inescapable.

“You come to the Word or the Word will come to you.”

The Inescapable nature can be viewed only as a negative but that would be incomplete and a mistake.

• God’s Word comes for you but not only to condemn.
• It also comes to save!

I served under a pastor for 11 years, who came from broken home, never really knowing his father.

• They were reunited only when he was in his mid-forties, while I was there still serving.
• They confirmed they were father and son by sharing a story they both remembered.
• They were together fishing at a river, father and son.
• The Dad in his 20’s and son probably 3 maybe 4 years old.
• The boy (this pastor) suddenly fell into the river and was immediately being swept away.
• The river being narrow, the dad knew he had one chance to save him.
• The Dad outran his son and wading in to stand at the end to the narrows, extending his arms to each side.
• A few seconds later, he caught his son with his hand!
• Saving him from death!

You might be running from God, but God may choose to outrun you!  And, catch you!

God’s hand is inescapable but instead of judgment, this can be grace!

It is still “Today” (v. 7).

There is time to believe Truth, to obey Truth.  To know “rest.”

Resting in Christ is knowing, believing, and obeying His voice, His Word.

John Milton, English poet, in notoriety second to William Shakespeare, from the mid 1600’s.

• A polemicist and civil servant of the Commonwealth of England, ultimately serving under Oliver Cromwell (military and political royalist, Protestant, during English Civil War).
  • Writing during times of religious flux and political upheaval.
  • His passion for free speech and freedom of the press went hand in hand with his vibrant faith and freedom found in Christ.

• Milton was cut from a polemical, fighters kind of cloth.
  • His paternal grandfather, a stanch Roman Catholic, expelled and disinherited his son John (Milton’s father) from the family home (in Oxfordshire) for reading an English Bible!
  • His son John Milton grew up a protestant, mentored a Scottish Presbyterian.

• Enrolling at Christ College, in Cambridge for ministry.
  • Being a radical (in conflict with his tutors, not spiritually minded enough) was expelled from Cambridge, and then reinstated.
  • Finished 2 degrees and after seven years returned home to Buckinghamshire.

• At age 30 he traveled abroad to Italy and while visiting Florence, through his academic friendships and connections met Galileo.
  • Now aged and blind, and under a virtual house arrest.
  • This encounter made an impression, as Galileo became the only contemporary whom Milton mentioned by name in his world famous work, Paradise Lost.

• Milton returned to London, but ironically, did not write this biblical epic until age 60 (1652).
  • He was now completely blind, suffering from gout, forcing him to write through dictation.
  • [Point] Milton’s young rebel roots was now through this old man’s voice speaking through this masterpiece gospel poem.
  • Meant to confront the English Tyranny of the day and to Promote Freedom found in Christ.

With this background, listen to two lines from Paradise Lost meant to lead hearers into the depth of Jesus birth!

This is the month, and this the happy morn,

Wherein the Son of heav’n’s eternal King,

Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother’s born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;

For so the holy sages once did sing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,

And with his Father work us perpetual peace.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith he won’t at heav’n’s high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid aside; and here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Principle: Christ’s incarnation meant sacrifice.  It means Free Access to Himself!

This is why Milton’s grandfather cutoff Milton’s father from his family.

• Grandfather said, choose!
• Access to Christ or Access to me!
• Milton’s Dad wisely chose Access to Christ!

Why Christ “chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay!”

• Direct access to God’s Word, is the same direct access with have to Christ!

• This is the gift we have for being Christians!  

Principle: Christmas means Direct Access to Christ!

In Luke’s account the angels announced for the Shepherds to, “Fear Not!” for the “Glory of God” had come!

Their response, tells us they understood!

^ESV  Luke 2:15-17 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”  And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

The shepherds went straight away, “with haste” to “see” the Son of God!

World leaders make it their life to block you from this experience!  The apex “world leader,” Satan himself, lives to block your Free Access to Christ.

This is the storyline of Matthew 2!

^ESV  Matthew 2:1-23 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'”[Herod Conspires to Kill Christ] Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him. “After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.[Flight to Egypt] Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[Herod Kills the Children] Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” [The Return to Nazareth] But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

“God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.  And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the son of God was a reality.  The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.  Nothing in fiction is as fantastic as it the truth of the incarnation.” [J.I. Packer, Knowing God].

What’s staggering is not just this miracle but what this miracle means.

Free Access to God, Today!

Intro:  Our text is found in Micah this morning.

• I was playing catch up on the backstory of Micah.
• Taking a deep dive into this complex little book, drove me to lean heavily on a sermon preached by John Piper (From Bethlehem in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord), December 12, 1982 (I was 10; yes the early 80’s).
  • We overlapped enough – to both credit and thank him!
  • I assure you, Micah is still a fresh Word for you this morning!

It is the Sunday before Christmas, so I want to center on Micah’s Advent Prophecy.

• “Advent” from the Latin word, “Adventus” means “coming.”
• Christmas for Christians should be a double affirmation.
  • “Hope” from our Bibles is never a wish – always a guarantee.
  • And this “Hope” for believers has a name. Jesus!
  • Hope has come and so beyond the shadow of a doubt, Hope is coming!

• Christmastime begs a double affirmation because the heartstrings are double-pulled in two directions: Joy and sadness.
• A spike of joy from present relationships mingled with the dip of sadness over lost relationships!

Joy and Sadness create normal emotion through Christmas and God’s Word offers handholds in the form of Advent Prophecy.

• Prophecy addresses both the Now and the Not yet.
• “Hope has come” and “Hope is coming!”
• This is a necessary void filler tucked away in Micah 5.

Some background on what is a largely unfamiliar book.

• Micah 1 verse 1 sets the stage.

^ESV  Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. (Mic 1:1 ESV)

• Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom: Israel
• Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom: Judah.
• Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (the Kings) reigned between 735 and 700 BC.

Times were bad!

• Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah when the enemy Assyria conquered Samaria.
• Assyria took 10 northern tribes into captivity (722 BC), while occupying Judah, and besieging, God’s holy city, Jerusalem.

Grasping this background makes sense of why this book jumps between “threats of doom” and “promises of hope.”

• Their situation warranted both messages!
• Not unlike our life struggles that God speaks into! Grace and Truth!  Truth and Grace!
• Important to see pending judgment to understand our need for hope!
• Understanding what’s wrong – so as to long for what’s RIGHT!

^ESV  Micah 1:6-7 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. ⁷ All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

• Idolatry, led to injustices, which led to stealing and oppression!
• The Sin of Greed was widespread – down to Jerusalem.

^ESV  Micah 3:9-12 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.” Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

• Rulers hate justice, pervert equity, shed blood, and take bribes!
• Priests and prophets leveraged the crowds for money.

So, “Samaria will become a heap of ruins” (1:6) and that happened in 722 BC!  In addition, Jerusalem will be exiled to Babylon (4:10) and that happened in 586 BC!

• Micah was long sense dead when Jerusalem fell!
• Idolatry, coveting, and perversion didn’t stop and their judgment came!

Still, Micah preaches “Hope.”

• Micah describes what God requires for glory to dawn over Israel.
• What does restoration look like?

^ESV  Micah 6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

• Micah draws 3 requirements for restoration – to be right with God.
• Taken Last to First!
  • Childlike dependence – “walk humbly.”
  • A heart of mercy – “to love kindness.”
  • An active life for those mistreated – “to do justice.”

• What Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not

^ESV  Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

• If promised judgments are at play here, then where is the promise of mercy?
• Micah closes his book with words leaving no doubt about God’s mercy!

^ESV  Micah 7:18-20 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

Stopping here makes Micah’s paints “Hope” to look like a Portrait without a Person!

• A storyline without a punchline.
• Broad not fine strokes.

If we are all being honest (at Christmas), we confess our own problem with false worship, called idolatry.

Our hearts are a “factory of idols” [John Calvin].

Also, being completely honest, we know we need MUCH MORE than an Old Testament warning to stir our hearts to turn away from the world and our flesh!

New Testament Christianity offers MUCH MORE.  “Hope” for the Christian comes as a Person.  The Lord Jesus.

Principle:  Hope is a Person.

The Old Testament all points to Him – and Micah 5:1-5 paints his portrait as “Hope!”

     1. Hope has come in Humility (vv. 1-3)

Micah 5:2 contrasts the littleness of Bethlehem with the greatness of the Ruler who will come out of her.

• Bethlehem is small – with a population of 300! (Up to 1,000).
  • “Bethlehem” – south of Jerusalem.
  • Meaning “house of bread” – known as a grain producing region!
  • “O Bethlehem Ephrathah” (“fruitful” for “vineyards”) differentiates this town from another named “Bethlehem” in Galilee.
  • Basically too small to count among the clans of Judah.

• We are not used to “Bethlehem” not being famous! It was OBSCURE!

Why would God do it this way?

• This is the line of David, David the Bethlehemite.
• This is real but misses the point of verse 2.
  • Bethlehem is small.
  • God chose something small, quiet, out of the way, to change the course of history and eternity.

Why does he do it this way?  So no one can take the credit!

• God is absolutely free from us!
• Unimpressed about our perceived bigness.
• Does not care about our pumps our PRIDE.
• Magnifying His own freedoms and His own mercy!

God chose to replace King Saul, sending Samuel to this little town!

• Samuel worked through the sons of Jesse “older brothers” he set his favor on the “Baby of the Family,” not the oldest – my kind of moment!
• When God chose someone to defeat giant Goliath, it was little David.
• When he chose a weapon, it was a slingshot.
  • Why? God does great work through little towns and youngest sons and slingshots and mangers and mustard seeds.
  • Why? David’s encounter with Goliath tells us straight out!

^ESV  1 Samuel 17:45-47 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

• God does not depend on man or his glory or achievement.

^ESV  1 Corinthians 1:27-31 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

• God chose a stable so no inn-keeper could say, “He chose my inn!”

• God chose a manger so that not woodworker could brag, “He chose the craftsmanship of my bed!”

• He chose Bethlehem so no one could say, “Our city constrained God’s divine choice!”

^ESV  Romans 3:27-28 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.  For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

• The divine choice of little Bethlehem where Jesus would arrive is essentially the message of justification by faith apart from works of the law.
  • Bethlehem means God does not save by our merit or achievement.
  • God saves by simple faith – faith alone!

• The humility of Bethlehem exalts a humble King!

• If Christ came in any other way, we’d say, “This is all hype and not real!”
  • A world-created King would make us skeptical!
  • This King had to be unlikely, and perfect.
  • Hope came! Wrapped in humility! 

     2. Hope will come as a King (vv. 4-5)

Any Jew, hearing Micah predict the coming ruler out of Bethlehem who would feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, would immediately think of two people:

• David and the coming son of David, the Messiah.
  • David was from Bethlehem, a ruler in Israel, and a shepherd.
  • The link between Messiah and David is a link of promise – applying to BOTH!

• With Micah’s promise over David, there is certainty!

Remember 2 Samuel 7:12-16, God said to David:

^ESV  2 Samuel 7:12-16 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'”

• This prophecy speaks to David and to David’s immediate son Solomon but doesn’t stop there! This is Christ.  A throne “established forever!”

• What’s amazing is how Micah makes this promise when Israel is sinking toward oblivion.
  • The northern kingdom is being destroyed.
  • Micah predicts the fall and exile of Judah.

When life feels like a giant contrast between your life and God’s promises, then you see how strong your faith actually is!  Or isn’t!  When life is caving in, we know how much we need God’s reassurances!

Life is filled with what’s shakable.

• The older we get the more shakable life is around us. Or, appears to be!
• Life is fragile.
  • Alaskans, as much or more than anyone in our country, know about the fragility of life.
  • The weather climate and often-harsher culture are daily reminders.
  • And, this is not all bad! Right?

• The older you get the faster Christmas’s come and go!
• Micah is like that…two centuries of terrible circumstances – this does not nullify the Word of God.

^ESV  Isaiah 40:6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

• There is nothing more firm in all the world!
• The Word is sure! – Christ is sure! 

Principle: Hope is a Person!

^ESV  Romans 15:8-9 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,  and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”

For this to matter, Christ’s rule has to translate into our daily experience!

• Jesus is our Protector (v. 4).
  • Verse 4, “He shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace” (v. 4).
  • This is a direct reference to the future millennial rule of Christ, where he will sit on the throne of David.

• This promise feeds the NOW as much as the NOT YET!
  • Christ is our Shepherd NOW and He will forever be our Shepherd.
  • Everyone in is this room needs a divine Shepherd.
    • Valleys (of the shadow of death) come NOW and this Shepherd is your Hope!
    • His rod and staff comfort NOW.
    • Promises are for TODAY.

• First: “He shall stand” (v. 4).
  • He won’t look around waiting for us to serve him.
  • He is alert, working for those who chose him as their shepherd.

• Second: “He will shepherd(s)” (v. 4)
  • What it means that He will feed his flock (v. 4).
    • He does not leave us to find our own food.
    • He leads us in greed pastures and beside still waters.
    • No want is left unsatisfied.

• Third: “…in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God” (v. 4).
  • This strength does not run out!
  • His omnipotent strength is yours to live on!
  • If you are trusting in Christ, omnipotent strength is on your side!

Walk like obedient sheep behind him and overcome every obstacle by grace and for joy!

• Finally, notice that, “he shall be great to the ends of the earth” (v. 4).
  • Every knee will bow and confess him as Lord.
  • The whole earth will be filled with his glory!

“Hope is a Person!”
“Why should you trust Christ to fill your void with “Hope?”  Because He’s the only One who can!

• Glory wrapped in humility.
• Love this Hope. Love this Person!