Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent 2009 Promises Fulfilled #1

Micah 5:2-5

*Born In Bethlehem*

Promises … Christmas is a season of Promises

The Toy that promises to make your children happy

The Exercise Equipment that promises to take off those pounds just by being in your house

The Jewelry that promises to make her love you

The Dress that promises to make you look beautiful, thinner, and more successful

The Shoes that promise to make you faster

The Golf Clubs that promise to make you better

The car that promises to save you enough money on gas to pay for all of the other empty promised items you bought

Well as we move into Advent Season … celebrating the Advent or COMING of Jesus Christ … Jesus Christ came as a fulfillment of the Promises of Scripture.

Some people have said the Bible contains 30,000 promises, which is quite a stretch since only 31,101 verses in the Bible.

Dr. Everek Storms took it upon himself to count the Promises of the Bible.

He found 8,810 promises in the scriptures.

He broke them into 8 categories

God the Father made two promises to the Son

Two promises were made by evil Spirits

Nine Promises were made by the liar, satan

Some promises came from Angels

290 promises were made by man to God

991 promises were made person to person

7,487 promises, 85% are promises made from God to Man.

Can we believe the promises of God?

The most outlandish and audacious promises that God made are concerning his son who could come as the Messiah …

We will examine some of these promises this month …

Read with me

Micah 5:2-5

The Angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to give birth to the Messiah …

In Matthew 1:21 the Angel appears to Joseph and tells him the same, that the Son born into their family will “save his people from their sins”

That is the promised Messiah

But Joseph was in Nazareth, in Galilee but the Messiah … was to come from Bethlehem

Can we Trust God with the promises he makes?

Look at the Messiah … to keep his Promise

*1.

He Moved the World*

What did verse 2 in Micah 5 say?

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah …

* *What did God do to keep his Promise?*

Luke 2:1-4 - In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

God said his Messiah, his Son, would come from Bethlehem …

He chose Mary and Joseph to be the family which would raise the Messiah … But they lived in Nazareth …

No problem,

The World is under the rule of a pagan emperor

No problem

And so God used the Emperor’s own pride … take a census, show the world how great your rule is, fill the coffers with new Tax Money …

Oh and In the Process

That insignificant little girl in Nazareth and her Promised carpenter groom, of course they will have to go to Bethlehem, such an inconvenient journey because little Mary happens to be with Child … not just any child … The Messiah … the one who will save his people from their sins

* *Why did he move the world?*

out of you will come for me …

This wasn’t about Mary, this wasn’t about his people, this was about God

He is a Promise Keeper

He is Faithful to his Word

And because he IS …

* *What Happened when God moved the world?*

… One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times(or from days of eternity).”

Because God Moved the World and kept his Promise

A way was made for Israel’s new ruler, one who was born, fresh, a newborn, yet was as old as eternity …

God Moved the World

And though he used the Ruler of the World

*2.

He Scorned the Prominent*

Jesus was not born in Jerusalem

Jesus’ family did not appear on Herod’s doorstep and ask if they had room for him

Jesus’ family didn’t show up at Solomon’s porch, the entrance to the Temple and see if the priests would make room for him …

Why not?

Was it that they wouldn’t have believed he might come or exist?

No … it was BECAUSE they knew but refused to bow to him, refused to honor him

How do I know?

Because, we see their response when they DID get news.

It’s only a few miles from Jerusalem

Yet months after his birth, when the Magi appeared in Jerusalem looking for the one born the King of the Jews, Herod wasn’t happy, Matthew 2:3 says he was “Disturbed” … He called for the priests, surely they would know … and surely they did, they quoted from Micah 5:2 … they knew the Messiah was coming to Bethlehem.

So surely, they all rushed down to Bethlehem …

No, the Priests stayed in Jerusalem

And Herod tried to have Jesus killed …

The Messiah would come from “Beth – Lehem”

Which means “house of bread” … but Herod, the Priests, were too proud to come to the Bread of Life …

“Ephratah” – means “fruitfull”

But though Jesus the Bread of Life came to make our barren lives fruitful … yet

God always scorns the one who is prominent in his own mind, because he doesn’t think that he NEEDS the fruitful bread of Heaven

Psalm 10:4 in his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God

God scorns the proud

We cannot come to God in pride

James 4:6 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

Proverbs 15:25 – The Lord tears down the proud man’s house but he keeps the widow’s boundaries intact

Proverbs 16:5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart

Proverbs 18:12 Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor

In Order to keep his Promises

God Moved the World … Literally

And he scorned the proud because he’s not going to waste his time on those who are only interested in themselves and have no room for him …

But he moved the world and scorned the prominent in order …

*3.

To Bless the Insignificant*

Bethlehem … just a small village in the great Tribe of Judah … who would notice Bethlehem when Jerusalem was so close … but this phrase “out of Bethlehem” … wasn’t a statement of Geography but of Sociology

Why would the Messiah come OUT OF the Peoples of Bethlehem the most insignificant population of people you could have dreamed up for the Messiah, when he could have come from Jerusalem, if not Rome or Athens

Why would the Messiah come from such an insignificant population?

Well, why would the King of Kings come out of a Human Trappings …

Certainly not worthy of the Lord of Heaven and Earth …

* *A.

Rise and Stand*

The one who has GONE FORTH From Eternity

Who has been going forth for eternity