What I Believe About Christmas: God kept His promise to raise up a Shepherd King who secured my peace forever.

The Most Wonderful Time of the year!

I love my daughters to death. They are so beautiful and give me and everyone around them so much joy, especially around July when they start playing Christmas music. They are blatant with it at first. I will hear subtle sounds of bells or someone dreaming of a white Christmas coming our of their room. By October they are not hiding it any longer. We have been listening to Sovereign Graces Christmas Album, “Prepare Him Room” for over a month now.

My girls are not the only ones to do this. This year, I made note to my wife that Walmart began putting Christmas trees and decorations up before Halloween. Amazon was celebrating Black Friday deals long before Black Friday. It’s as if our culture cannot wait for it to be the most wonderful time of the year.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. It is festive and filled with holiday tradition. We look forward to decorating the house, special meals, and of course seeing the kids get excited about Christmas morning. It seems like, for about four weeks, people try to be happy, even for one another. They appear to try to maximize the idea of peace.

There is some confusion in our culture about peace. True peace is not limited to four weeks out of the year. Genuine peace cannot be bought. And the real peace that Christmas offers does not come from Santa Clause. The peace everyone is looking for, the long lasting, eternal giving peace that Christmas provides, is found in the birth of the Messiah.

When the world went dark God promised he would send a light into the world. When world broke under the burden of sin, God promised he would send someone to restore the world. When the world came under the rule of the prince of darkness God promised he would send the prince of peace.

This morning I want to open up one of God’s promises about that relates to Christmas morning. I want to do this because I am convinced that the peace that everyone longs for during Christmas can be had all year long, and once you know the true meaning of Christmas, you can live in a peace that surpasses all understanding. In Micah 5:1-6, you see that

God promised to raise up a Shepherd King who would secure peace for His afflicted people.

To get a better picture of what afflicts your peace, I want to show you a contrast between two kings.

A Conquered King: The Shame of God’s Judgement (Micah 5:1)

God expects his people to live in a way that honors what he honors and love what he loves. Toward the end of the book, Micah tells Israel what God expects from them.

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

The reality is, this was not a reality in Israel at the time.

Micah was a prophet who lived in Judah 750-700BC. Israel was divided into two kingdom's, north and south. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom Israel and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. Both violated God’s covenant and rebelled against his Torah. Micah was called by God to declare Israel’s sin and transgressions. He says as much when he says he was filled

Micah 3:8 (ESV)

...with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Their peace was ruined by sin.

Micah begins with accusations and warning in the first two chapters. He accuses the leaders of idolatry, covetousness, and perverted justice. In Micah 1:6, God says that he will beat their images into pieces and lay waste to her idols. Israel’s leaders coveted other people’s houses and fields and would seize them illegally (Micah 2:2,3). The leaders would become wealthy by exploiting the poor through theft and greed. This led to severe injustice. The prophets who were charged with God’s word and keeping Israel’s integrity intact, became corrupt by taking bribes which led to perverted justice (Micah 3:9-11). Idolatry, covetousness, and perverted justice always leads to ruin.

This is no way how God’s covenant people are to act toward each other, nor is it pleasing to God. It was a direct violation of his Torah and Covenant. For 500 years God warned his people that if they remained in their wicked ways he would bring his judgement.

Chapter 3-4, God says that Israel will be overcome first by Assyria then led into exile by Babylon. Micah prophesied in the days of Isaiah the prophet. They were contemporaries. He was around to see Assyria overcome Samaria and take ten tribes of the northern kingdom into captivity in 722BC. Jerusalem would fall sometime later.

In Micah 5:1, the prophet says,

Micah 5:1 HCSB

Now, daughter who is under attack, you slash yourself in grief; a siege is set against us! They are striking the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod.

Assyria is the seige that is laid against them. The prophet Isaiah likened the Assyrian army to a rod (Isaiah 10:5, 15, 24). The judge is the king. To strike the king on the face is to utterly humiliate him. He is so defenseless that he cannot protect his face. He will be helpless and treated like a criminal, and led off to captivity as a slave. As one commentator put it, “The venerable king has become but a whipping boy.”

Sin ruins peace because it brings the shame of God’s judgment.

Israel’s king was a conquered ruler. His sin brought humiliation and shame for him and his people. It brought exile from God and scattered God’s sheep away from their Good Shepherd. That is what Jesus saw when he came to His people. He had compassion on them because they were scattered like sheep without a shepherd.

This might describe some of you this morning. Some of you may be letting sin ruin your peace. Some of you may be wondering outside the pasture of God’s fellowship. It is likely you have put his word on a shelf and you stopped praying, which means you’ve stopped talking to Him. Something has captured your attention and turned your heart away from Him. Maybe it was the enticement of pleasure. Maybe you are angry with God because you don’t like his will for your life. Whatever it may be, whatever has replaced God in your heart is an idol, and that idol is ruining you peace. It is a conquered king, God’s word strikes you r idol on the cheek and it has no defense. I implore you this morning to lift your eyes up to the hills and se where your help comes from. It comes from the Lord. There is a better King. God promised to send a Shepherd King who will give you everlasting peace.

A Shepherd King: The Splendor of God’s Promise (Micah 5:2-4)

There is a tension in Micah. The book is broken up into three sections. Micah moves back and forth from God’s judgement to God’s hope.

At end of chapter two, there is a poem that assures Israel that though things are bleak, God will save a remnant of his people. He will be there Shepherd and care for them.

Micah 2:12–13 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. He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.

Further on in chapter 4, the temple will be destroyed, but God promises a better temple. He promises to exalt his temple and fill it with his presence and he will fill his new Jersualem with His people. The nations will come to his New Jerusalem and bring peace to all the earth.

In chapter 5, he promised a special king, from the line of David, who will rule the New Jersualem. He will not be like the old king. He will not lead his people into idolatry. He will not lead his people into ruin.

Where is the splendor in God’s promise?

Splendor is another word for magnificence or glorious. In verse 2-4, there is a special glory about God’s work to bring a Shepherd King that speaks to his character and keeping his promises. How he does this makes Christmas all the more remarkable.

Micah 5:2–4 ESV

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. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 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.

The splendor of God’s promise is

God uses the little to magnify the great.

In God’s economy of life on earth, He notorious for doing things that appear upside down. Paul best explains God’s ways like this:

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 ESV

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

God use the little to magnify the great so that no human being can boast before God. As if, God needed your help to get something done.

Think back to when God called David to be king. God sends Samuel not to booming Jerusalem, but to Bethlehem to see Jesse. Samuel is ready to anoint Jesses’s oldest son who is tall and strong, one who looks like a warrior king. God says, no. I want the youngest not the oldest. I want the smallest boy not the biggest man to be my king.

He is doing the same thing in verse 2-3. Bethlehem is not Jerusalem. It is small insignificant community of a few hundred people. Yes, it is the city of David, but it does not carry David’s pomp. Keep in mind, his sons departed from the word of God, even Solomon. Furthermore, in verse 3, there is only going to be a remnant of people that God will use to rebuild a strong nation. David’s kingship and Israel looks dismal to you and I, however, in God’s eyes, it will be perfect.

God takes what is broken down, disregarded, out of the way, and does a monumental work it. The Messiah, Suffering Servant, Son of Man, Shepherd King will be born in an out of the way quiet community. He will be born of a fourteen year old virgin girl of all people, in a barn in a barn of all places, whose first bed will be a feeding trough. Even the Messiah will appear little insignificant.

Two things I want you to consider from this. First, the splendor of God using the little and insignificant to magnify the great is wonderful news for you and me. We are broken down, disregarded, out of the way, and not worthy of His eyes to look upon us. And yet, God chooses to use you to joyfully advance his kingdom by making much of Jesus. You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to be ivy league educated and super-model beautiful to be accepted and used by God. Your insignificance is amazing in the hands of God.

Second, the reason he does it this way is so that you will see the splendor of His greatness. You cannot boast when you are insignificant. You can only boast in God.

The splendor of God’s promise is he will send a Savior Shepherd King.

God promised long ago, from the ancient days, that he would send a human Messiah. A messiah is a savior. This special savior will be a shepherd king who will rule over all Israel and the world (Micah 5:2).

In Isaiah 9:6, Micah’s contemporary, said that a special kingly child will be born.

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

A couple of chapters later he says that this savior shepherd king will come from King David’s linage.

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

The shoot refers refers to the line of David. The Messiah will be a son of David and according to Micah, he will be installed as a King. He will be a savior shepherd king who will secure your peace in three ways.

The Messiah King will shepherd in the strength of the Lord (Micah 5:4)

Isaiah says that the Messiah will be filled with the Spirit.

Isaiah 11:2 ESV

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

The Messiah king will be ruled by the Spirit in wisdom and might. He will not be like the previous kings who were prone to human weaknesses making them foolish and vulnerable. The Messiah King will not be like David’s previous sons who trusted in military might and treaties with foreign nations. He will be endowed with Yahweh’s strength and trust God’s strength. No being, human or otherwise will be able to defeat his strength.

The Messiah King will shepherd by the authority of the Lord.

He will not rule by his own might but by the “name” of the Lord. God’s name is representative to his authority. You can think of young David when he fought Goliath. He approached the giant saying

1 Samuel 17:45 (ESV)

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Just as David depended on God for strength and the authority of his name, so the Messiah King will be given his strength and authority to rule.

Theologian Von Groningen notes, “As a shepherd King, he will have the authority to lead, feed, protect, and exercise authority over his own. As a shepherd, he will be invincible: David protected his flock from the lions and bears; the ruling shepherd will be endowed with the strength and authority to protect his flock.” He will secure your peace because he will be able to provide for your every need and care for you like no other has ever cared for you.

The Messiah King will shepherd as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The last part of verse 4, indicates his reign will be extensive, universal, and forever.

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.

All the nations will come under his rule. Everyone will submit to His authority. He will have no equal in power. His people will live securely. The prophet Zechariah describes it as

Zechariah 14:9 ESV

And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Your peace is secured because there will no longer an enemy to threaten you. The result of the Shepherd King’s strength, authority, and universal rule is his kingdom will be characterized by peace.

The Security of Your Peace (Micah 5:5-6)

The problem with Micah’s context was false prophets were deceiving the people. They spoke peace while the ignored their sins. Assyria was a horrible enemy who was at their door step. Their peace built up on deception is only a veneer of prosperity. Micah promises that the Shepherd King will be their peace. He will utterly destroy the enemy with more than enough strength. That is the point of what he means when he says seven and eight princes of men. It will be an overwhelming victory.

Who is this promised Shepherd King?

He is the one we celebrate at Christmas.

Jesus is the promised Shepherd King who would secure peace for His afflicted people.

When Jesus was born, magi came from the east to worship him. When they arrived in Jerusalem they asked King Herod the whereabouts of the child. Perplexed about the whole thing, he quickly asked where the Messiah was to be born.

Matthew 2:5–6 ESV

They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

The magi found Jesus in Bethlehem. Unimpressive, insignificant, and born in obscurity, the Shepherd King was raised in a carpenters home with is mother Mary and several brothers and sisters. He began his ministry as the Good Shepherd who had compassion on his people. he came to gather his sheep, feeding them the bread of life and offering himself as the living water. He laid his life down for his sheep to protect them, and to secure their eternal life, never casting them out of his kingdom, never allowing any of them to be snatched out of his hand.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd King who secured your peace by defeating your greatest enemies, death and sin. He defeated death and sin by dying on a cross to atone for your idolatry, your covetousness, your perverted justice. He takes your sin and the wrath that comes with it, removing it from you and in turn giving you his righteousness. This sweet exchange enables you to stand in the presence of the Holy God who now sees you are a righteous adopted son or daughter. He secures your salvation by giving you His Spirit and promise you will have a new resurrected glorified body.

This is the meaning of Christmas. Jesus is the your free gift of salvation. he is your Good Shepherd King who invites you into his kingdom. You must repent of your sin and ask for forgiveness. You must invite Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, that is you must confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. All who reject Christ will perish in hell forever. But all those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved from the wrath of God.

Death is coming for everyone. For Sir Francis Newport, death came quickly with fear and trepidation. He felt hopeless as he slipped off into eternity. His atheism gave him no peace. When Jesus died, his last words were, “It is finished.” Three days later he rose from the grave conquering the power of hell, taking the sting away from death, being the peace to you that surpasses all understanding.