I love to sing, and so I want to start out this sermon by having us all sing the first 2 verses of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.
“O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!
Above your deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sins and enter in, be born to us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!”
You know, as great a song as that is, Bethlehem wasn't much to talk about in the days of Jesus. Back then it was a obscure village that would not have impressed us. One of my sources says: ''At the beginning of the first century AD, Bethlehem was a village with not more than a thousand inhabitants: a small set of houses scattered along the side of a ridge and protected by a wall that was in a bad state of repair…''
(http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/first-journey-bethlehem-basilica-of-the-nativity-holy-land)
So, Bethlehem wasn't much to look at.
But it was the city God chose for the birthplace of Christ.
But why?
He could have chosen Jerusalem, or Hebron or an of a number of other impressive cities, but He didn't He chose Bethlehem. As it said in the prophecy of Micah 5:2 "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."
Now notice the prophecy says “Bethlehem Ephrathah.”
Seriously? Do we sing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem Ephrathah?”
Of course not. So why would Micah call it that?
Well, because there are 2 Bethlehems in Israel.
One is way up north just a few miles from Nazareth where Mary & Joseph lived.
And the 2nd one is about 75 miles south of Nazareth… and its proper name is “Bethlehem Ephrathah” (which is precisely what the Prophecy declared).
God was being VERY specific as to which Bethlehem was to fulfill the prophecy.
But what difference would it make?
Why would God even care which Bethlehem Jesus was born in?
Luke 2:11 gives us part of the answer. The angels declare to the shepherds:
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
You see, Bethlehem was the city of David: it was where David had been BORN.
And it was in Bethlehem that David was ANOINTED the King of Israel by Samuel.
And therein lies the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah.
Jesus was the promised Messiah!
And many of the OT prophecies declared that the Messiah was to be of the line of David.
Isaiah 9:6-7, for example, says: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on DAVID’S THRONE and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever...”
The Messiah was to reign on David’s throne. And everybody in Israel knew it.
When the Angel appeared to Mary to tell her she would bear the Christ, he declared: “(Your child) will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID.” Luke 1:32
The Messiah was to be the “Son Of David” sitting upon his throne.
In Luke 18:39 (A blind man) cried out “SON OF DAVID, have mercy on me!”
And when Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time (Palm Sunday) Matthew 21:9 tells us that “the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the SON OF DAVID! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’”
It was ingrained into the thinking of Israel that the Messiah (this promised King) would be of the line and of the Kingship of David. And God drove that truth home not only by prophecies that declared that He’d be of the line of David but also by His very choice of the birthplace of Jesus.
As the angels declared: This was Bethlehem, the city of David.
Now that alone should impress us.
To think that God would put that much forethought into choosing the birthplace of Jesus.
But as they say on TV…
“But wait… there’s more.”
I believe there was another reason God chose this Bethlehem for Jesus’ birthplace.
I believe God chose it because of what its name meant.
If you study the Bible for very long, you begin to realize God’s big on names and their meanings. Throughout the Bible, people and cities are renamed because of a message God wants to give us. For example:
Salem is renamed Jerusalem
Jacob is renamed Israel
Simon is renamed Peter
Now I’m not going to go into what each of those names meant, but there was a meaning in the names that drove God to choose the names He gave them.
In the same way, I believe that choosing Bethlehem for Christ’s birthplace had a lot to do with the meaning of its name.
Does anybody know what it’s name meant?
(House of Bread)
Really? Why would that be important?
Well, because Jesus is the BREAD OF LIFE
Jesus declared: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35
You see, Jesus’ birth was more than just an historical event. It was more than just a cute story that God put at the beginning of the Gospels to entertain our kids at Christmas. Jesus’ birth was the beginning of an earth shaking change God wanted to bring about in our lives.
Jesus came to be our BREAD of life.
But now, what does that mean?
ILLUS: Did you realize that In America alone people eat about 34 million loaves of bread per day. And that's not including all the rolls, bagels, croissants, pitas, doughnuts, and dozens of other kinds of bread we also consume. As Americans, we are so blessed with so much food that we hardly begin to realize how important just a single loaf of bread can mean to some people.
Down through history, bread has been the main staple of food. In fact, it’s been called the “Staple of Life”. Bread was what most folks depended upon to just survive. That’s what Jesus was referring to when He said:
“Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4
Jesus was saying: you need to bread to survive… but you need the Words of God even more.
Back in the Old Testament, God set the stage for what Jesus came to offer us by saying: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me; hear me that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”
Isaiah cried out: “Come to the waters of life.
Come and eat the bread that is real bread.
Come and eat and drink and be satisfied."
And when Jesus came, He came to satisfy that hunger and thirst Isaiah spoke of.
But what is this hunger that God says we have?
What is it that we need that only Jesus can satisfy?
I gave this a lot of thought, and I could easily preach another hour just on the longings Jesus could take care of in our lives. But I settled on 3 central ones for us focus on this morning.
The first hunger is our hunger to be accepted.
When I was a young man I had a hard time being accepted in school. I had a few friends, but for the most part, no one invited me to the parties, no one wanted me as part of their little groups. It hurt. I felt rejected.
And there many people who feel that way about God as well.
They feel there is no way He would ever accept them.
They view God as some kind of cosmic judge.
Have you ever been to courtroom and seen a judge presiding over the court?
Would you ever think of approaching the bench and sticking out your hand “Hey, Jack. How’s it going?” Of course you wouldn’t. If you did, you’d face a stiff fine and maybe some jail time. The judge is not there to be accepting of you. He’s there to pass judgment and pronounce sentence.
But now, the Baby in the manger… that’s different.
Have you ever noticed what happens when someone brings a baby to church?
Everybody crowds around the mother and does thing they wouldn't do with ordinary people. They make faces and do weird sounds. Why do they do that? Because babies don’t reject you.
They might cry. But, if you do your thing right, they gurgle and smile, or at least look at you like you've said or done something significant.
You’re safe doing things like that around a baby, because they accept you.
That’s why John 3:16 is so popular. It speaks of God accepting us. Repeat it with me.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
But the next verse says “For God did NOT send His son into the world to CONDEMN the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:17
Jesus came to earth as a baby because He came to satisfy our hunger to be accepted by God.
The 2nd Hunger I can think of is the hunger for forgiveness.
ILLUS: I've had times in my life when I've been (say) standing in the shower, and all of a sudden – into my mind – comes the memory of something I've said that I wish I hadn't. Or of something I've done I wish I could take back.
Have you ever experienced that?
There’s a pain and a heartache to realizing that we've messed up in our lives.
A sadness that is overwhelming.
A hunger to be forgiven.
ILLUS: One of my favorite stories tells of a true story of a Tent Revival that was held years ago. A large crowd had come and filled the tent. There was lots of singing and praying and the preacher gave a powerful and convicting sermon. There was a feeling that God was there that night.
But when the sermon was over most of the folks left… except for one lady sat towards the back. Alone. It was obvious she’d been in tears through most of the sermon, and the preacher went over to her and asked if she’d like to talk.
She said that she wanted to become a Christian, but she was afraid she’d sinned too much for God to ever forgive her.
Well, the preacher had never encountered anything like this before and he wasn’t quite sure how to answer her. But then a thought occurred to him. He asked her if there was any Scripture that she knew from the Bible. Maybe they could begin with that.
“Oh yes,” she said. “I do remember one.” And then she proceeded to quote John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only FORGOTTEN son...”
Well, obviously she’d misquoted the verse.
John 3:16 says He gave His only “begotten” son.
Somehow she’d gotten it mixed up and only remembered it as “forgotten.”
But suddenly, the preacher knew how to answer her need. He asked her “Do you know why God forgot His son?”
“No” she replied.
Then he said “God gave His only forgotten son… so that He could remember you.”
God loved you so much, He gave His only forgotten Son.
Jesus was born in such a way that you might think He was “forgotten”.
He was born in an obscure village. Born in a barn. Laid in a feeding trough. Honored only by rough, common shepherds.
You might be forgiven if you believed that God had forgotten His son.
But the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were deliberate.
God did all this deliberately.
He did it so that you and I could understand that He was reaching down into our world. He was becoming LIKE us so that He might take us by the hand and lift us up out of the shame and guilt of our sins.
Philippians 2:6-8 says that, though Jesus was “… in very nature God, (He) did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Why did He humble Himself to become like us?
So He could die for us.
So that His blood could cover our sins.
Jesus came to earth as a baby (becoming “like us”) so that He could satisfy our hunger for forgiveness.
Lastly, the 3rd hunger I can think of is the hunger to not be afraid of death.
Death is real.
I’m going to die. And you’re going to die.
Unless Jesus comes again beforehand… we’re all gonna die!
We don’t have a choice in this matter.
And lots of people are afraid of death.
But the birth of Jesus spoke of HIS death because was born… to die.
Someone once contrasted the scene at the manger with the scene at the cross:
• There was no room for them in the inn, so they laid him in a wooden manger.
• Now there was no room for him in the hearts of men, so they hung him on a wooden cross.
• And a bright star came and stood over the place where the child was.
• (As Jesus was on the cross) darkness fell over the whole land from the 6th to the 9th hour.
• Joseph and Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, where no baby had ever been laid before.
• Now Joseph of Arimathea, being a good and righteous man, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and wrapped him in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb, wherein no man had ever been laid before.
• And all the shepherds came and adored him and went back praising and glorifying God.
• When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
• One of the wise men brought myrrh as a gift for the baby Jesus.
• Now Nicodemus brought myrrh as an ointment for the body of Jesus.
• The last thing the angels said to those shepherds on the hillside was,
“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”
• And the last thing Christ said to his disciples in that upper room was,
“Peace unto you. As the Father has sent me, so send I you.”
Almost everything about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem spoke of His ultimate destination… the cross. Because that’s why He came. He came to die… but then to rise from the dead.
Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Jesus came to die, so that He could defeat death… and free us from our fear of death.
ILLUS: That’s part of the reason God used baptism as the way for us to respond to His gift of salvation. It’s an image of death, burial… and resurrection.
Romans 6:4-5 says “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”
In our being raised out of the watery grave of baptism, God is declaring: you may die and be buried – but the grave will not hold you. It doesn’t have the power to keep you in the tomb. Baptism declares that when Jesus returns He will call us by name and we shall all rise from the dead to live again with Him.
The grave WILL NOT hold us.
Because Jesus came to satisfy our hunger to not be afraid of death!
CLOSE: I want us to close this sermon by singing the last verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
“How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”
That last verse says it all: Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.
As I was preparing for this sermon I ran across a thought by another preacher who noted that bread has its limitations. I can eat bread and it won't satisfy YOUR hunger. In order for your hunger to be satisfied, you've got to decide to make the decision to reach out and take what God has offered. It's only in that way that YOUR need will be met.
We believe that so strongly here at this church that we offer an invitation at the end of every service.
INVITATION
