Oh Little Town of Bethlehem - Part A

Nothing happens that is not anticipated by a Sovereign God. God is just flat in control of history. And number two, not only does God anticipate events, but He arranges them, often against the odds, to show His power and to show that He has a plan. God is never caught off guard, and His plans never fail.

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All right, we're in Matthew 2 as we begin today's teaching with Skip. Probably the most famous village in the whole world is a little town in the Middle East called Bethlehem. Most everyone that I've ever known who's wanted to go take a tour to Israel wants to go to Bethlehem for obvious reasons. However, most people when they go there are a bit disappointed with Bethlehem.

It's not what they anticipated. It's not the little town of Bethlehem that is in the songs, and one of my vivid memories of going to Bethlehem was on Christmas Eve many years ago. We took a church group, we decided to have Christmas in Israel, and so for Christmas Eve we went to Bethlehem in Manger Square where people from all over the world come. But I was disappointed.

I was disappointed because you have to go through airport security monitors to get into Manger Square, there's metal detectors, there's armed guards with M16s, there's tanks, armored vehicles. And, you know, to sing, oh little town of Bethlehem with warm fuzzies in your heart when that's going on around you, just, it was tough to do. The town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born, the whole world has heard of Bethlehem for one reason, and that is that Jesus was born there. Now, I know some of you are thinking, the sermon title is A Little Town of Bethlehem.

You're like a few weeks too late on this, Skip. Christmas is done, we put away our nativity set, and so I want you to sort of unpack that in your mind and get Bethlehem back on the table. Because we're going to look at in this series, Against All Odds, the fact that it was predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. So let's begin with Micah chapter 5, one verse in that book in that chapter, verse 2, where the prophet says, 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. And then Matthew chapter 2, the familiar story in verse 1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet.

Now they quote Micah chapter 5, verse 2, But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young child.

And when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also. And when they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. Now as we look at these predictions, especially this one in Micah and how it's reiterated in Matthew, there are two basic things to discover. Number one, nothing happens that is not anticipated by a sovereign God. Nothing happens that is not anticipated by a sovereign God. God is just flat in control of history. And number two, not only does God anticipate events, but he arranges them, often against the odds, to show his power and to show that he has a plan.

So just those two truths should be enough to bring joy and rest to your hearts. Now we are told in Matthew that wise men came from the east. The word wise men, or the words wise men, come from the translation of the Greek magoi, or magi.

Magi. Now I don't think any group in the Christmas story has suffered more than the magi. And that's because of a song that was written in 1857, became very popular and it's sung every Christmas season, we three kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar. And so we have seen in our mind's eye three kings coming from the east with their gifts. But first of all, they were not kings. They were magi. They were spiritual advisors.

They were king makers, not kings. Second, they were not three of them. We think there's three because they bring three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Or as one child thought, it read gold, frankincense, and smurfs. But it doesn't say there were three of them. In fact, they usually traveled in large groups. It was probably an entourage of people from the east with these three gifts. That is why King Herod was troubled. Also, they didn't come from the Orient as we know it. They came from Parthia, or ancient Iran, northeastern Iran. So if you were to concoct a Christmas song that would be more accurate, I suppose it would be we huge entourage of Parthian astronomers from Iran are bearing gifts we traverse afar. But that would never pass the songwriting committee now, would it?

So we have that song. Originally, the magi were Zoroastrians. Have you ever heard of that term? It's a religion that worships a single god. It's an ancient religion, but it is still practiced in some places today. And the single god is a Hora Mazda. That is what they call that god. It might be interesting for you to know that the words magic or magician come from the term magi.

Because of that background, because of that religious background, the mystery religious background. But also the word magistrate comes from the word magi. And that is because this religious group had an enormous clout in the political field. They worked for the courts of ancient kings. In fact, in Nebuchadnezzar's court in the book of Daniel, the magi were very, very prominent. They were the highest ranking officials in Babylon. And you may recall that Daniel becomes the chief of the magi. He interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar the king, which saves the life of all the wise men of Babylon, the magi of Babylon. And because of that, Daniel is promoted to be the head or the chief of the wise men of Babylon.

And that's probably why they are here in this story. Why else would people travel hundreds of miles from the east to come to Judea, to Bethlehem, to find the king of the Jews? What would they care about a Jewish king? Unless a Jewish prophet had primed the pump and tipped them off with his prophecies that a Jewish king would be born.

And that's why I believe they're there. I think it's directly to the influence of Daniel. But the key element in the story is not the wise men. The key element is the prophecy that the Jewish leaders tell to Herod. Now in this prophecy, and we're going to unpack it, the one in Micah and the one that is given a free rendering in Matthew 2 by the religious leaders, there are four details that were anticipated at the birth of Jesus Christ by this prophecy. And first is the place that Messiah would be born, the place of Messiah. In verse 4, when Herod gathered all the chief priests and scribes, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And so they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. Now at this point they are quoting from Micah chapter 5, which we read. But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah.

Notice how specific the prophecy is. This is Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Now if you're an astute observer, you're thinking at this moment, wait a minute, it says Bethlehem in the land of Judah in Matthew. But back in Micah it says, but you Bethlehem, what's the word?

Is it in front of you? Micah 5, 2. But you Bethlehem Ephrathah.

It's a hard word to say, isn't it? But you Bethlehem Ephrathah. So what does that mean?

Why is it rendered one way in one place, one way in another place? Ephrathah was the old ancient term for Bethlehem. There was a town next to Bethlehem called Ephrath.

It's still there today. You can see it and visit it. So in old days it was called Ephrath or Ephrathah or Bethlehem of Ephrathah, but it's in the land of Judah. So when the scribes answer, they're just saying Bethlehem in the land of Judah.

Why so specific? Well here's what's interesting. There wasn't one Bethlehem. There were two Bethlehems in Israel. One was Bethlehem in the north, six miles from Nazareth. The second was Bethlehem in the south or Bethlehem of Judea.

So the specific prophecy is important. He's not going to be born in that Bethlehem, but the one way, way down south. Whenever you want to discover the identity of the Messiah, you have to begin with his birth, where he was born. Several years ago, somebody came on a midweek Bible study, a Thursday night Bible study to our church saying that he was Jesus Christ. Well I didn't know this until an assistant pastor who met this man first ran up to me, big eyes going, this guy just came in who says he's Jesus. I said, I'd like to meet him. I've always wanted to meet Jesus. So I walked up to him, put my hand up, I said, I'm Skip.

He goes, I'm Jesus Christ. So I said, well I have one question for you. Where were you born? He said, Philadelphia.

I said, there's the door, get out. Because the Messiah was predicted that he would be born not in Philadelphia, but in Bethlehem of Judea. That's what the prophet said. Now you might ask, well what is the probability of someone being born in Bethlehem in the last 2,000 years? To answer that question, you need to take the average population of the town of Bethlehem from the time of Micah the prophet, who uttered the prophecy, up till modern days and divide that by the population of the earth from the time of Micah up till modern days. You kind of take those averages and you'll get the odds.

So that would be 7,150 divided by 2 billion to round it off, or 2.8 times 10 to the fifth power. Roughly, conservatively, you have about one chance in 100,000 that anyone's going to be born in Bethlehem. So when you make a prediction like that, you have one in 100,000 chance. However, when you add other details to the prophecy, you narrow the margin that it could be fulfilled. For example, what are the chances that somebody being born in Bethlehem would be of the lineage of King David?

Now you have fewer people. And what are the chances that somebody born in Bethlehem from the lineage of King David ride into Jerusalem on a donkey later, as the prophets predicted? And then, what are the odds of a person being born in Bethlehem from the lineage of King David who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey be also betrayed for 30 pieces of silver?

And you just keep layering those predictions on and you narrow the margin exponentially that it could ever be fulfilled. Now, this is a prophecy by Micah in the Old Testament. Micah chapter 5 verse 2. Micah was, get this, a seventh century B.C.

prophet, which means he predicted the place Bethlehem 700 years before Jesus was born. Well, fast forward 700 years to Joseph and Mary, and they've got a big problem. The big problem is they don't live anywhere near Bethlehem. They live way up in Nazareth, 70 miles from Bethlehem of Judea as the crow flies. 92 miles the ancient route would take you.

So you've got a problem. How is God going to get a couple living in Nazareth down to Bethlehem of Judea? It's a lot easier if they went to Bethlehem in the north, it's only six miles away, but it's specific.

It's Bethlehem of Judea. Well, fortunately, we have a God who loves to play chess. And everybody on the chess board is not a king, queen, or a rook. They're all pawns to him, and he moves them around. Even if they call themselves a king, on God's chess board they're pawns. Proverbs 21, 1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he moves it wherever he wishes. And so God is calling the shots. And what does God do? It's as if he steps into the throne room of Caesar Augustus in Rome and puts something in his head that was very unusual.

You know what that is because you know the Christmas story. Luke chapter 2 says, In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Carinius was the governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register.

So we have a law given by Caesar in Rome that everyone has to register. No exceptions. So now we have the problem solved. How else are you going to get a pregnant woman in her third trimester to walk a hundred miles? Or to ride a donkey a hundred miles?

Nobody's going to do that. But there were no exemptions, so she and Joseph went from the north down south. Here's the grand truth behind that. Caesar may be ruling, but God is overruling. Okay, Caesar is not in charge. God is large and in charge.

And he's just moving the pawns on the chessboard as he wishes. Now the key issue is were these actual prophecies? In other words, were they written before the time of Jesus? I bring that up because there are folks who will say, Well, Jesus fulfilled supposed prophecies, but those were written after the fact.

Now if you can discover they were written after the fact, now you have a fraudulent document, and the Bible is not to be trusted. So two questions play into this. Number one, was there adequate time between the recording of the prophecies in the Old Testament and the recorded fulfillment of those prophecies in the New Testament? Second question, were the New Testament accounts of Jesus accepted as being fulfilled prophecy by the Jews who were closest to those events?

And the answers are yes and yes. You see, there is a 400-year gap between the final prophecies of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. A 400-year gap.

During that 400 years, something very significant happened. The canon of the Old Testament was codified, meaning the list of what our biblical books of Old Testament Jewish Scriptures were codified, were systematized, and were regarded as this is the Bible. These are the books of the Bible. So by the time Jesus was born, the books, including the books that contain all the predictions about the Messiah, were already part of Jewish Scripture.

Something else to add to that. We have the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. You've all heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These are documents written 200 years before Jesus was born and amazingly preserved in caves in Israel until 1947.

That's when they were discovered. So now we're able to dig those scrolls out of the ground and look at a freeze-frame picture of Judaism 200 years before Christ. And we have all of those books of the Old Testament, including the ones that had all the prophecies written about the Messiah.

So that's why I say yes and yes. Something else. When we get to Matthew chapter 2, it's pretty obvious that the Jewish leaders expected the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem because when Herod says, hey, where's the Christ going to be born? They said, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus says the prophet. So they had already interpreted it to mean our Messiah when He comes is going to be born in Bethlehem. All of that to say the Jewish expectation was that the Messiah would be born in this place. That's the place of Messiah. The town from King David, Bethlehem. Let's look at another detail, the person of Messiah.

Notice the question. When Herod gathered the chief priests and scribes together in verse 4, it says he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. We refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ. I hate to break it to some of you. Christ is not His last name. I've heard people actually think that. They think that H was His middle initial and Christ was His last name.

And that's not the case. Christ is an English word from the Greek word Christos, which is a word from the Hebrew word Mashiach, which simply means Messiah or the anointed one. The anointed one. Now what does that mean to be an anointed one? Christ, Messiah.

Who is that person? The original meaning of Messiah or anointed one is to smear with oil. To anoint was to smear with oil. That is because if you had a priest, a prophet, or a king, and you would designate them as chosen for their respective offices, there was a little ritual where they would be taken, oil would be poured on them and they'd smear it on their face. That was called the anointing. And so you had these people in the Old Testament anointed to be a prophet, anointed to be a priest, anointed to be a king, but the Old Testament kept pointing to one who would come, a deliverer who would come, a messiah who would come, an anointed one who would come. And Psalm 45 says he will be anointed above his fellows. He is the anointed one. No wonder then when Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth and opens up the scroll, remember the story from Luke 4, opens it up, stands up there and he reads from Isaiah 41, the familiar text, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He closed the scroll. He put it down and he said to the audience, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. That concludes Part 1 of Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Against All Odds. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can connect you and many others with the truth of God's word with a gift to keep these messages going out around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. This ministry exists to connect you and many other people around the world to God's word and to equip you to live abundantly in Jesus Christ. I want to personally invite you to join in that important work today.

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