Introduction
This sermon is going to start off a little different from my usual sermons because right from the beginning, I am going to share with you a Scripture. It is found in the Book of Micah Chapter 5. Please stand as we read just one verse-verse two.
Micah 5:2 (NKJV)
The Coming Messiah
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
I picked this verse because in this verse there are two promises from God to His people.
The first promise is that a Messiah is coming. And the second promise is that you will know when He is here because He will come from Bethlehem.
Let me tell you something about a promise. A promise is an assurance that what you say will happen or what you say you will do- will come to pass. However, a promise is only as good as the one who is making the promise.
I am sure each one of us at some point in our life is a recipient of a broken promise. It was not that the promise was bad; it was that the giver of the promise was not trustworthy. And probably everyone in this room has been a giver of a promise that he or she has never fulfilled. And what does that make us sometimes? Untrustworthy!
But these two promises we just read about are God-given promises. You know the Bible is full of promises that God has given to His people, and I have never found one that did not come to pass. It is because God, the maker of the promise is totally trustworthy. Whereas you and I may falter in our trustworthiness, God is always trustworthy.
So, what does those two promises given by a trustworthy God through the Prophet Micah mean to us?
Point #1
Those two promises in Micah mean that the darkness that I previously walked in times past can be turned into light.
It was my fortieth birthday, and I decided to go get an eye exam. I had not had one in years, but I knew I saw well. I will never forget how shocked I was when the eye doctor handed me an eye glass prescription and told me to get it filled. I went to the eye glass store on West Esplanade in Metairie, and he told me to pick out a set of frames and then he did something with a felt tip pen marking the glasses. He said that’s it and come back in a week.
I came back in a week, put on the glasses, and then he told me to read something. And I was amazed. I thought I was seeing well all this time, but I did not recognize how poorly I did see until I got the glasses.
Life is sought like my eye glass story. Prior to knowing Jesus, I walked in darkness. But that is all I knew. I thought that was the only way to see life. Listen to how the Prophet Isaiah describes it.
Isaiah 9:2 (NKJV)
2 The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined. Ephesians (NKJV)
Prior to meeting Jesus Christ in August 1976 in a back room of a church, I did not know that I was a walking in darkness, the way I saw things I thought was the only way to see things.
But my friends shared Christ with Anne and me and we both accepted Him as our Savior. And what I realized that I saw things differently. There is a whole lot better way to live your life than in darkness.
And that is what I chose- I chose to live in the light, and what a difference as to how I see things. And I see people who are still living in darkness, and I wish that they can see things the way that God allows me to see them.
Isaiah described the difference as light vs. darkness. In Ephesians Chapter Paul describes it as alive vs. death.
The promise of God in Micah is no small thing. There are extreme differences between living a life in light and living a life in darkness. There is an extreme difference between being alive and being dead.
And that is what the promise God gave us in Micah: light and life.
Point #2
Those two promises in Micah mean the emptiness on the inside I experienced in times past can be replaced with joy.
Isaiah 9:3 (NKJV)
3 You have multiplied the nation
And increased its joy.
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
That promise of Micah changes me on the outside. I can see the light instead of darkness. But the promise of the Messiah also changes me on the inside. Where there was emptiness, now there is joy. Joy is an inner quality. There is one thing to feel good on the outside; but what a great thing when I feel good on the inside of me.
And you and I can have that joy because Christ sent His Holy Spirit to live within those who know Him. It was another one of those trustworthy promises of God.
John 16:7 (NKJV)
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
And then Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that the Holy Spirit when He comes to live in you brings the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:22–23 (NKJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
And that is what the promises in Micah gave me. Jesus gave me the Holy Spirit and He fills me with His Joy.
Point #3
Those two promises in Micah mean that my eternal destination of hell I once was heading for, can be changed to heaven. My ticket to hell has been cancelled, and my ticket to heaven has been stamped.
1 Corinthians 15:17–19 (NKJV)
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Paul says that if Christ did not raise from the dead, we are all still bound to an eternity in hell. Christ did indeed rise, and heaven has been opened up to us.
But I want to go even further back than Paul’s statement.
If Jesus did not come as a Savior, born in the town of Bethlehem, there would have been on cross and no resurrection to open the gates of heaven for you and me.
I am heaven bound immediately after my death because God kept His promise that He made to Micah.
Conclusion
Those two promises in Micah mean I don’t have to walk in darkness, I can walk in the light; I don’t have to be empty on the inside, I can experience the joy of the Lord, I don’t have to spend eternity in hell, I can spend eternity in heaven. Those are all the things I get out of that promise.
What did Jesus get for making that promise. Paul gives us the best description of what Jesus got because of the promises of Micah.
Philippians 2:5–8 (NKJV)
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
After seeing what I get because of the promises God made; and seeing what Jesus got because of the promises of God, I can only say one thing: Thank you, Jesus for keeping your promises of Christmas.
