1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock,
and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 4th
Sunday in Advent is taken from Micah 5:2-5 and is entitled, “Our Newborn King,” dear brothers and
sisters in Christ.
2.
The
Book of Micah is a little-known portion of the Word of God, but if there’s any
part of Micah likely to be known to the average person, it’s that which
foretells the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). It was
the part quoted by the chief priests and teachers of the law at the time of the
birth of Christ, as recorded in Matthew 2. Jesus had already been born in
Bethlehem when the Magi came to Jerusalem seeking him; and Herod, who had not
the slightest idea where Jesus might be but worried about any budding pretender
to the throne, asked the priests and teachers: “Where is the Christ to be born?”
They replied in Matthew 2:5-6, “In
Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet has written: “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 be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
In their response the priests and teachers combined Micah 5:2 and
5:4 and predicted that the coming divine King of Judah would be born in
Bethlehem.
3.
Micah
5:2 says, “2 But you, O
Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from
you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is
from of old, from ancient days.” Here
Micah names the place where Christ was to be born seven hundred years before He was born there. But, after
seven hundred years there was little likelihood that one in the line of David
could be born in Bethlehem. The odds were against it. No members of the family
of David were living in Bethlehem any longer. They were scattered. There was
one family in the line of David living in Nazareth; but Bethlehem must be the
place where the Son of God was to be born, according to Micah.
4.
The
circumstances which led up to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem are so familiar
to us that we may not realize how remarkable they were. The record in Luke’s
Gospel gives us some of the details: Caesar Augustus signed the tax bill which
moved Mary out of Nazareth. If that little donkey on which Mary rode had
stumbled and Mary had fallen, Jesus would probably have been born somewhere
along the route. But, that little donkey couldn’t have stumbled, because seven
hundred years earlier Micah had written that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
The little donkey got her there on schedule; it was timed from eternity.
5.
Micah
says, “From you shall he come forth for
me.” The words for me indicate
that this One was coming to do the will of the Father and to accomplish His plan. Micah also says, “Whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” Jesus’ birth, the
Incarnation, has to do with His humanity. He clothed Himself in humanity when
He came to Bethlehem. But His existence was before His birth. Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah, verifies
this: “… Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). And he has
more to say of this coming one: “For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given …” (Isa. 9:6). When Isaiah wrote
“unto us,” he was not thinking of the United States; it was Israel that he had
in mind. “A child is born”—that’s His humanity. “A son is given”—not born,
because this speaks of His divinity. The “child” was born in Bethlehem, but the
“Son” was “from everlasting.” In
Proverbs 8:23 we find, “I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” “Set up” in this
verse means “anointed” and could read, “I
was anointed from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.”
Before there was any creation, He was God; but into creation He came, at the
appointed time, into a little town, Bethlehem.
6.
The
Lord Jesus said in John 16:28, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into
the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” His
goings forth have been of old. He is the everlasting God. He told the Pharisees,
“… Before Abraham was, I am” (John
8:58). Christ appeared many times in the Old Testament. Go back to the
creation. In John 1:3 we read concerning Christ, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made
that was made.” He was the Creator. In the Garden of Eden He was the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He was the Word
of God. He was the communication from God to man. We find Him in pursuit of man
throughout the Old Testament. You see, what Micah is saying here is of
tremendous significance. Although He was born in Bethlehem almost two thousand
years ago, His goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.
7.
We
have been considering His preincarnation; now let’s look again at His
incarnation, His humanity. When God came to Bethlehem, He got something He
never had before, and that was the name of Jesus.
He received a humanity, and Jesus was His human name. He was YHWH. That is the
name of deity. He’s Jesus now, and He’s a Savior. He came out of Bethlehem to
save. Remember, the angels said to the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and
they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
But His name was to be Jesus. He can’t be Jesus unless He is Emmanuel, which
means “God with us.” He must be a man
to take our place, to be our representative, to die a substitutionary death.
8.
Micah
5:4-5 says, “4And 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. 5And he
shall be their peace.” Here the Lord
Jesus is depicted as the Shepherd who feeds His flock. He’s the Shepherd to the
church, and He’s also the Shepherd to the nation Israel. The One who was born
in Bethlehem, the One who was rejected, will feed His flock. I can’t think of
anything that sets Him forth more wonderfully than the figure of the shepherd.
It speaks of His care, His protection, and His salvation. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who will lay down His life
for the sheep (see Ps. 22); He’s the Great
Shepherd who keeps His sheep even today (see Ps. 23); and He’s the Chief Shepherd who is coming in glory
(see Ps. 24). His entire ministry is set forth under the office of a shepherd.
9.
In John 10:10-11 Jesus
our Good Shepherd says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of the
Lutheran Hour writes that last Friday a thief and a shepherd entered Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut. First-grade teacher Victoria Soto had gone on record
as saying she loved her "little
angels." When the shooting at Sandy Hook School began, she showed
exactly what those words meant to her. Rather than trying to save herself, she
hid the children in the classroom closet. When the gunman entered her room, she
didn't hide. Victoria Soto, teacher and shepherd, looked the
murderer in the eye and said her students "were in gym class." Victoria Soto died, but all of her
children lived.
10.
Today the media is calling Victoria a
"hero." Without question that word describes the young teacher. But
she’s more than a hero. She’s also a caring shepherd,
who gave up her life to save her children, her flock. In the next few
days we will be celebrating the birth of God's Son, our Savior. More than 2,000
years ago Jesus entered this world to confront and conquer sin, death and devil
-- the thieves who had stolen the souls of humankind. Common sense says Jesus
should have run away from those enemies, not toward them. That's not what Jesus
did.
11.
Read through the Gospels and you will see a
description of the conflict that took place between the Good Shepherd and the
thieves. You will hear how, in a seemingly one-sided battle, those well-armed
and up-until-that-time undefeated forces of evil laughed at God's Son, mocked
Him, rejected Him, tortured Him, and saw Him nailed to a cross. Anyone who was
there that day would have said the Good Shepherd had lost, and the thieves had
won.
12.
Of course, last Friday Dec. 14th those
same folks would have said first-grade teacher and shepherd Victoria Soto had
lost. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Take a look at
the procession of first-graders who left Victoria's classroom, and you will
know the shepherd won the great victory. Similarly, stand at heaven's gate and
see the hundreds of millions of souls, once doomed and damned, which have been
rescued by the Savior's sacrifice.
Jesus our Good Shepherd has won. His
resurrection from the dead has defeated death and devil, has sent sin scurrying
in defeat. The Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep and because
He did we are saved. Amen.
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