Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with some of the younger kids after church; we were looking at the Nativity scene on top of the piano, and they were remarking on the fact that it had been moved from the organ to the piano.

One of them pointed out that the Wise men belonged on the piano, and the Jesus and His parents and the shepherds belonged on the organ, because they weren’t at the manger that night; they were on the way.

Two things stand out to me about that conversation—first, I am immensely grateful to God that we have such Biblically-literate children here at Bethel!

To have a conversation with a six-year-old child who understands the Scriptures well enough to discern the details of the Christmas story to that level is a mark of godly parenting and faithful teachers—and is an immense blessing from God to our church.

But the second thought that came to me was about the Nativity scene itself—as long as we are talking about making it accurate, we need to add a couple more figures to it in order to tell the whole Christmas story.

We need to add a couple of Herod’s soldiers as well.

The passage that we read earlier in our worship is usually “swept under the rug” at Christmas time—we want pictures of Baby Jesus snuggling in a bed of hay and beatific angel cherubs fluttering in the air around Him.

We don’t want pictures of soldiers holding swords dripping with the blood of murdered children.

But we cannot escape that part of the story—Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents is as much a part of the story as the shepherds and wise men (and more a part of the story than the innkeeper, who doesn’t actually appear in the accounts!)

But we need to hear this part of the story as well, because a great part of what Jesus came to do is to rescue us from wicked rulers like Herod.

We cannot miss the connection that is made for us here in the Gospels: That the wicked King Herod planned and executed his crime based on a prophecy that promised the coming of a RIGHTEOUS king!

That the murder of those children took place in a town that was promised to be the birthplace of a king who would crush the head of Satanic tyrants like Herod!

Compare the evil, treachery and bloodlust King Herod in the Christmas story with the power, holiness and righteousness of the Ruler promised in Micah 5, and you will see that

The KINGSHIP of Jesus Christ far EXCELS every other RULER in this world

We need to feed on this truth—we need to rest in it and affirm it in the face of leaders in our day who make Herod’s crimes look like a drop in the bucket.

Historians tell us that, estimating the size and population of Bethlehem and the surrounding region, Herod (who was technically not a king but a governor) probably had somewhere between fifteen or twenty baby boys murdered.

(In comparison, our own Governor has enthusiastically presided over the murder of over 154 thousand children in the Commonwealth since he took office in 2015...) I tell you the truth, King Herod will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for the tidal wave of innocent blood our rulers celebrate and defend.

Micah himself, who wrote the prophecy Herod read, was himself no stranger to wicked tyrants.

As he writes God’s warning to Jerusalem and Judea in the years before the Babylonian armies destroyed the city, he warns the people that their greed and their scandalous worship of other gods was bringing down God’s judgment on them.

And as part of that warning, Micah indicts the nation’s rulers for their their role in fostering that wickedness themselves:

Micah 3:9–12 (ESV)

9 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, 10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 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.” 12 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.

The promise of a righteous Ruler that we read in Micah 5 is made while the people are ruled over by leaders who detest justice, who take what is straight and make it crooked, who build their cities on blood, who openly take their perks and their bribes while grinding their subjects into the dust.

(Sound familiar?)

The religious leaders are no better—they “teach for a price”—they’re in it for the money, the fame, the influence.

And if the price is right, they’ll even abandon the faith altogether and dive into the occult, “practicing divination for money...” In another place, Micah accuses the religious population of his day: Micah 2:11 “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!”

In the midst of the utter failure of leadership that Micah saw in his day, God spoke a promise that the day would come when He would send a better ruler—one who would rescue His people from the corrupt, perverse, wicked and apostate rulers that were dragging the nation down into judgment.

And we need to hang on to those promises today, don’t we?

Because in one sense, things haven’t changed all that much since Micah’s day—we watch every day as the rulers over us despise justice and make crooked what is straight, who build their power on the blood of innocent children, who happily line their pockets with money they borrow from our grandchildren’s children in the form of gargantuan spending bills that they have no intention of ever repaying, who will stop at nothing to take away any privacy or liberty you have if it threatens the expansion and consolidation of their power.

So here on this Sunday before Christmas, let us take some time and fortify ourselves with some of the promises of what kind of Ruler was born in Bethlehem on that day.

There is no shortage of treacherous and untrustworthy rulers that demand our compliance today, but Christian, you have a more excellent King.

The Kingship of Jesus far excels every other ruler of this world--

I.

He is worthy of all your ALLEGIANCE (Micah 5:2)

Micah 5:2 (ESV)

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 coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

We love to point out (and rightly so) that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem—King David’s hometown—was a glorious fulfilment of this prophecy, as well as the promise God made that the Messiah would be a direct descendant of King David.

But when Micah makes a point of saying that Bethlehem is “too little to be among the clans of Judah”, he’s saying that this ruler doesn’t have some high and mighty pedigree from some big important city where big important people live--

He is a HUMBLE King (5:2)

Even the most arrogant and treacherous scoundrel of a politician understands how important this is, right?

Tell me—how many political ads have you ever seen that feature the politician bragging about being born with a silver spoon in his mouth in one of the most exclusive wealthy communities in the country?

“Hi, I’m Senator Bedfellow, and this is the mansion I grew up in here in Marin County, California...” No—they’ll take the good senator and put him in a flannel shirt and sit him in the back of a pickup truck with a shotgun under one arm and a basset hound under the other with a prepared speech about growing up dirt poor on the wrong side of the tracks, right?

Because they know that people want humility in their leaders.

And so they’ll manufacture boatloads of humility ahead of the midterms in order to get your vote!

But unlike those proud and arrogant Congressmen with hands full of blood and eyes full of lust and lips full of deceit who want you to believe that they are humble and honest, your King, Christian is pure and honest and true.

He is a King who truly understands the unnoticed folks from the backwater towns because He grew up unnoticed in a backwater town, and He has never forgotten where He came from—even today, exalted above all rule and authority and possessing eternal glory and honor at the right Hand of the Father in Heaven, He is a King who is meek and lowly of heart, and will bring you rest for your soul when you come to Him in faith!

He is a humble king, and

He is a FAITHFUL King (John 5:19, 30; cp.

Hebrews 10:7; Luke 22:42)

Notice carefully what God says about the Ruler He is sending—that He “shall come forth for Me One who is to be ruler in Israel...” The wicked and worthless rulers of Micah’s day were always “looking out for Number One”—just like far too many of our so-called “public servants” today.

It seems that far too often their notion of being a “public servant” involves the public serving them!

But Christian, you have a more excellent King, don’t you?

Because Jesus Christ came to this earth for His Father—to represent Him and act on His behalf, to always and only honor God in everything He did.

As Jesus said in John’s Gospel:

John 5:19 (ESV)

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

John 5:30 (ESV)

30 “I can do nothing on my own.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

He is a king who completely fulfills God’s purposes:

Hebrews 10:7 (ESV)

7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’

”

Even when it means that He would voluntarily choose to be tortured to death on a Cross:

Luke 22:42 (ESV)

42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Can you imagine one of our so-called “public servants” saying something like that today?

“I am going to honor and serve Jesus Christ with everything I do in this office, even if it kills me!” Don’t look for that kind of statement anytime soon!

Look instead to your more excellent King, Jesus Christ, who is utterly worthy of your allegiance as the perfectly faithful King!

The kingship of Jesus Christ far excels every other ruler in this world.

He is more worthy of all your allegiance than any of the faithless and grasping and pompous rulers over us in this world.

The rulers and authorities over you try to make you believe that they will guarantee your safety and your health and your economic security and everything else if you just do what they say, if you follow all their demands without questioning.

And over the past couple of years in particular we have found that they are utterly incapable of delivering on any of those promises to protect or care for us, haven’t we?

In light of their dismal track record, we are tempted to look to the future with anxiety and live in fear—but Christian, you have a more excellent King:

II.

He is worthy of all your TRUST (Micah 5:4)

Look at verse 4:

Micah 5:4 (ESV)

And 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.

This Ruler is a King who will “shepherd His flock in the strength of YHWH”—a reference to earlier in Micah where God describes Himself as the Shepherd of His people:

Micah 2:12 (ESV)

I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.

You have a more excellent King than any other ruler in this world--

Your LIFE is secure in Him (v. 4)

See where this security comes from—your King can guarantee your security because “He shall be great to the ends of the earth”—in other words, there is no other authority that can challenge Him!

There is no enemy or adversary or rival power that can threaten your security, because your King has been given all authority and power over every kingdom of this earth!

When you “dwell” in Christ—when you live in Him and trust Him and look to Him for your security, there is nothing that can ultimately dislodge you from His care!

No matter what difficulties or griefs or heartbreaks come at you, nothing will separate you from His love and protection!

The King whose birth we celebrate on Saturday is worthy of all of your trust, because only He can guarantee that the life you live is secure in Him, and at the end of verse 5 we see also that

Your PEACE is secure in Him (v.

5; cp.

Ephesians 2:14; Romans 5:1)

A good king ensures that his people live in peace—he subdues all of His people’s enemies and sees to it that the kingdom lives free from harm or trouble.

As we read in 1 Kings 5, for instance, when King Solomon had “rest on every side, there is neither adversary nor misfortune” (1 Kings 5:4).

But in the best of cases, that peace only lasts while the king lives.