Let us now go to Bethlehem

It was an amazing night. Frederick Speakman, in his book The Salty Tang, put it like this, “It was silent and yet there was music. It was dark and yet there was light.”

Bethlehem almost missed it

No room!

Down the hillside from the small village was a group of common shepherds. While the big event was transpiring unannounced in Bethlehem they had a surprise visit from heaven itself. After the angelic announcement of the Messiah’s birth and the praise song of the heavenly choir, the shepherds said one to another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us” (). And they came. And they found Him. Then they “returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told them.” ().

Nestled on the top of a Judean mountain

six miles south of Jerusalem

Bethlehem has had a long and memorable history

It is first mentioned in scripture when Rachel died there and her heartbroken husband Jacob buried her

()

It was Bethlehem where Ruth, the Moabitess, fell in love with Boaz, the Lord of the harvest ()

It was in this same village that David as a boy tended the sheep of his father and where he was anointed

king by the prophet Samuel ()

It was Bethlehem, centuries before the coming of Christ, that Micah foretold would be the birthplace of

the coming Messiah ().

As we walk through Bethlehem today it is still a small village on the side of the same hill.

Fifty thousand residents

Palestinian-controlled West Bank

Tiny streets

over one million visitors each year

The cave which rests underneath a large Byzantine Greek Orthodox church which has stood since 530 A.D.

It was built over the site of the structure built by Helena, Constantine’s mother, in about 325 A.D.

Waiting like every other city in the world the coming of the Prince of Peace

Let’s go to Bethlehem and while there ask ourselves a question

is my life a Bethlehem?

What do we mean?

Bethlehem is a place of potential, providence, and privilege.

Our Lord longs for each of us to become a Bethlehem in our own right

A person of potential, providence and privilege.

Bethlehem is a place of potential

Of all the places for Messiah to be born, God chose Bethlehem

Micah it was “little among the thousands of Judah” ()

Bethlehem reminds us that the small shall be great and the last shall be first

God brings strength from weakness and brings the base things of the world to value and to nothing the things that are valued

Perhaps you feel insignificant, little among those around you

You, like Bethlehem are just the person God can use

God doesn’t see us for what we are but for what we could become.

Simon Peter’s first encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ

The Lord looked at him and saw him not for who and what he was, but for who and what he had the potential to become.

He said, “You are Simon (a small pebble) but you shall be called Cephas (a rock)” ()

potential to become. He said, “You are Simon (a small pebble) but you shall be called Cephas (a rock)”

(). Jesus saw the potential that was in his life.

Jesus saw the potential that was in his life.

The undisputed leader of the Jerusalem church.

As the Lord looks into your life and my life He sees us not for what we are now, but for what we could become.

God did not come to Caesar’s palace to be born, nor to Herod’s court

Very quietly, almost unannounced and somewhat incognito, He arrived in a seemingly insignificant little town, but a place of tremendous potential.

God is reminding us today that, even though we may seem somewhat insignificant in the eyes of the world, in His eyes we have potential for greatness.

Bethlehem is a Place of Providence

Place Foretold

Centuries before Christ’s birth

Prophets foretold - Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the promised Messiah

Herod asked the chief priest the location of the King Messiah’s prophesied birthplace. He quickly replied, “in Bethlehem of Judea”().

Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, 70 miles and several days journey to the north? Bethlehem is not simply a place of potential, it is also a place of providence.

God still works in the affairs of men by His own design and sovereign will.

Luke begins the story of the Christmas narrative by saying, “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” (). But in reality there is so much more behind that verse.

The decree was not issued by Caesar but by God Himself!

At just the right time He used a Roman decree to move Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

God is still at work in our world today

Daniel reminds us that “the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men” ()

Solomon says, “The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord” ().

The Jews of the first century world could not see it.

They were oppressed by an invading government to whom they despised paying taxes.

They were inconvenienced and incurred unexpected expenses in order to travel to Bethlehem to register for the Roman tax.

They must have wondered, “Where is God?” And all the while it was the hand of God’s providence behind the whole affair in order to get them to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem reminds us that God fulfills His word

What He promises He performs no matter how insurmountable the obstacles may seem to be

It is a place of providence as well as potential.

Bethlehem is a Place of Privilege

The hand-picked city to cradle the Son of God

Why not Jerusalem?

It was the seat of religious power.

The hope of the world is not in religion

Why not Rome?

It was the center of political power.

This very chapter could be a Bethlehem moment for you!

You too could awaken to a brand new world

The same Christ born in Bethlehem could be born again in you

Paul puts it this way, “My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (

Phillips Brooks. He was pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia in the nineteenth century. In 1865 he made a personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Unlike the one I made recently, it took Brooks several weeks on board ship instead of several hours on board a jumbo jet. On Christmas Eve he made his way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by horseback. The scene and experience were forever etched in his mind. Back home in Philadelphia during the Christmas season of 1868 his mind was flooded with memories of the earlier Bethlehem Christmas. He sat at his desk and the words began to flow from his pen to the paper. He penned the words that night that we believers have sung for over a century now known as “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Thinking of Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks put it this way — “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. ”Yes, the hopes and fears of all the years were met in Bethlehem that night.

Christina Rosetti put “that night” in the following poetic language:

That night when shepherds heard the song of angelic hosts caroling near,

A deaf man turned in slumbers spell and dreamed that he could hear.

That night when in the cattle stall slept mother and child in humble fold,

A cripple turned his twisted limbs and dreamed that he was whole.

That night when o’er the new born babe a tender mother rose to lean,

A loathsome leper smiled in sleep and dreamed that he was clean.

That night when to the mother’s breast the little king was held secure,

A harlot slept a happy sleep and dreamed she was pure.

That night when in the manger lay the Holy One who came to save,

A man turned in the sleep of death and dreamed there was no grave.

What shall be our gift to him?

What shall I give him poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd I’d give him a lamb.

If I were a wise man I’d do my part.

What shall I give him?

I know…I’ll give him my heart!

And when we do, we too, become a Bethlehem, a place of potential, providence, and privilege