Good morning again, everybody. Good morning. I don't know about you, but a lot of those songs really stir not only a lot of good memories, but have a lot of truth in them. One in particular that was interesting that was sung for me today was Hark the Herald Angels Sing. What's interesting about that, from my perspective, is the two people who wrote it. You have Charles Wesley, who is a Gentile, brother of John Wesley, and they wrote a lot of hymns together. The music was composed by Felix Mendelssohn, who is a Jewish believer in Jesus. Jew and Gentile united under the Christ that we worship. They came together and put that song together, that hymn. And that really stood out to me quite a bit. He is the Savior of all men. All. He's come to save both Jew and Gentile. And it's just interesting that every time we sing that song, you know, there's further proof that it happens. You've also noticed that over the years, you know, I've kind of done different Christmas themed things. So I did the two genealogies of Jesus. I did Revelation chapter 12 and the Nativity. We did the Emmanuel prophecies. We did love in Christ alone. I think Matt's trying to exhaust me of any possible Christmas message, but I'm here to tell you, not today. Not today. Before we go and look in the Word, let's go to him in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we praise you and we thank you for coming into this world, for saving us as sinners, for loving everyone, Jew and Gentile, every tribe, every nation, every tongue, Lord, we thank you that you came in, that you took on flesh, and you're able to empathize with us and our weaknesses, and you understand us completely. You died for us, you rose again on the third day, and you provide hope. Lord, we thank you for being the light of the world amidst all the darkness. Lord, we thank you for who you are, what you do, and what you said you're going to do, and the work that you do in each and every believer. Lord, we love you and we praise you. We say hallelujah, and it's in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we begin, you guys are familiar kind of with a lot of the various different passages in the New Testament that talk about Jesus's birth. Today we're going to spend most of the time in the Old Testament, but we're going to look at some things in the New Testament. So as we begin, if you could turn with me please to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. Now this usually gets read a bit around Christmas time, but for reasons that I'm going to explain, when this particular instance happens, Jesus is a toddler by this time. He's about two years old. So verse one, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and we have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet. And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. When you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him." We all kind of know the story, you know, that the wise men went on, they gave him gifts, so forth, and they're told to go a different way. Then in verse 16 of Matthew 2, When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and he sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the Magi." So this is kind of how we know that Jesus is somewhere, was a toddler at this point when the Magi show up. What's interesting about this is, look at verse 3 again. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled all Jerusalem with him. Do they want Jesus to come the first time? Doesn't look like it, does it? What about the second time? We all believe Jesus is coming back. What did Jesus say? When I come back, will I find faith on the earth? I would posit to say the vast majority of people really don't want him to come back. They just want it to be something in the future. A nebulous idea that we can just kick down the road all Jerusalem with him. Now Herod realizes, okay, the king of the Jews is here. What's going on? Well, now let's get religious. Let's go ahead and get the priests, get the scribes, the people that know. Let's get the theologians. Let's kind of find out what's going on. They saw the star. They saw the star. It's not like it was only shown to a select few. Everybody saw it. And then they quote, from the prophet Micah, from the Hebrew prophet Micah. That's how they determine where he's going to be. See, God leaves things upon this roadmap. almost like a mosaic or a puzzle that comes together at just the right confluence of moments. That happened the first time and it's going to happen the second time. But there are things that occurred at the first time that Jesus came that we can look at that will replay when he comes back the second time. Notice again here we see all Jerusalem, all the people. They're troubled. They're not happy and joyous that the Messiah showed up. Not at all. Also keep in mind when Jesus was first born, you had a emperor, formerly Octavian Caesar, then Caesar Augustus, when they renamed him. A man proclaimed to be God, demanding worship. What are you going to get the second time Jesus comes? You're going to get a man proclaiming to be God, demanding worship. He had everybody come together for a census. Why? Because that's how you're going to get economic control. You're going to see, for taxation purposes, economical purposes, control over the whole Roman Empire. That's what this so-called God-man wanted. What do you see the second time Jesus comes with this man proclaiming to be God, somehow tied in with 666 and worship? The right to buy or sell. The right to buy or sell, economic control. Stuff that happened when Jesus came the first time is going to happen the second time. Let's look at the star, this prophecy. How did the Magi know? Well, they're from what would have been the Medo-Persian Empire at the time. They would have studied under Daniel. And Daniel was given his famous 70 weeks prophecy. But the star prophecy goes back a bit further. If you could turn with me please to the book of Numbers chapter 24. So in Numbers chapters 22, 23 and 24, we have this episode where Balak, the son of Beor, is the king of Moab and he basically wants a prophet that he calls a prophet. The Bible calls him a seer. It doesn't use the Hebrew word Nabi for a prophet. It uses a different word for him, for soothsayer or seer. And he wants Balaam to curse Israel over and over again. So in Numbers 24, first of all, let's look at verse 9. Actually, we'll back up in verse 8. God brings him out of Egypt, for he is for him like the horns of the wild ox. Sounds very reminiscent of Genesis chapter 12, doesn't it? The blessings on Abraham. But let's look ahead now to verse 15 as Balaam is continuing to speak. He took up his discourse and said, The oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, so the student Hebrew El Elyon, who sees the vision of the Almighty, El Shaddai, falling down yet having his eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel, shall crush through the forehead of Moab and tear down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be a possession. Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession. While Israel performs valiantly, one from Jacob shall have dominion and will destroy the remnant from the city." A star is going to come forth. A star is going to herald the arrival of this upcoming king. This upcoming king and biologically this upcoming king is going to come from Israel, more specifically from the tribe of Judah. This star came proclaiming Jesus' birth. You had astronomical signs in the heavens. Something that was out of the ordinary when he showed up. And the people were troubled. The nations were against them. Keep in mind, at the time Jesus showed up, the one person who could predict and choose who his parents were going to be showed up in an occupied country to a poor family of a despised ethnicity at the time. As a son of God, he could have chosen his parents. We don't get to choose who our parents are. We don't get to choose what family we're born in. He did, and that's who he chose to go. The star coming forth from Jacob. And a scepter shall rise from Israel. Balaam realizes that a king is coming. He said, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. In other words, it's going to be at a point in the future. This is over a thousand years before the arrival of Jesus on the scene. And God is laying all this down, showing people that yes, a Messiah is coming. But the other one that they looked at and how they determined, okay, so we got this, we got a Messiah King coming, but where is he going to come from? Where will he come from? Please turn with me to the Hebrew prophet Micah. For those of you who have read Micah, You probably know where I'm going to go, but we're going to start in the first verse, first of all, before we go to that section. So Micah, the Hebrew prophet Micah, his name is a shortened form of the Hebrew word Micaiah. Micaiah. Micah's name literally means who is like Yahweh, who is like Yahweh. So very similar to Michael, which would be Mikael in Hebrew, it means who is like God with L, but then when you have the ending, the Yah ending, who is like Yahweh. So in verse 1, the word of Yahweh, the word of the Lord, which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Yotam, Jotham, Ahaz, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Where this gets important is Micah, his period of prophesying overlaps between three kings. And he also gets to see, in his lifetime, the ten northern tribes get carried away into captivity in 722-721 BC era. He is contemporary with Isaiah. That gets really interesting because if you think how Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, and Micah is contemporary the same. Isaiah told a bit about who this Prince of Peace was going to be. Micah tells us where he's going to come from. Isaiah has access to Jerusalem and the king. So the political structure, the religious structure. Micah, on the other hand, he's a small town guy. He doesn't have access to the same stuff, but the same Lord works through both of them. So let's jump ahead to Micah chapter 4. Who is like Yahweh? The other thing that goes on in Micah and Isaiah's time under these kings, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, along with the tail end of the Northern Kingdom, they had great economic prosperity at that time. We can even see it from the archaeological records. But their spiritual depravity, that was something else. They had the balls, the Asherim, the false goddess, God worship. Babylonian things, Assyrian influences, all sorts of things. Yahweh was not the true God among them. As I've stated many times, God never sends prophets when times are good. There's no need for them. But when times are bad, He raises up voices to try to correct people. And I would say the same thing is true for the church today. God doesn't raise up people getting a voice to turn them back to the Word, turn them back to the Lord when times are good. In Micah 4, verse 9, so again, keep in mind, over the reign of these three kings, the impending Assyrian captivity is about to happen. It starts, first of all, with Tiglath-Pileser III, and he starts tightening up the vice grip, so to speak, economically. And then you have Shalmaneser after him, and then they start taking land. And then finally in Sargon II, the ten tribes go in. Then Sennacherib. Now the clamps are closing in on Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time. And Micah has this to say when he thinks about this in Micah chapter 4 verse 9. Now why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you? Or has your counselor perished? That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth. Writhe and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth. For now you will go out of the city, dwell in the field, exile, go to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There, Yahweh, the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. Now many nations have assembled against you, who say, let her be polluted. Let our eyes gloat over Zion. For they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. They do not understand his purpose. For he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion. For your horn I will make iron, your hoops I will make bronze, that you may pulverize many peoples, that you may devote to the Lord their unjust gain and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth." So with this background, again, keep in mind they are the ones currently going through this period of punishment, so to speak. They are the ones getting squeezed economically. They are the ones getting squeezed militarily. Why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you? Well, the Northern Kingdom... It's funny, if you guys have ever read Kings or Chronicles, either of those books, you can just see dynastic changes and so on and so forth. Well, the world has the Game of Thrones. The Bible has already told that story thousands of years before. That kind of TV show, when you see like the upheaval and you can see the assassinations, the violence, everything that occurred all the way through. But now, is there no king among you? Answer? Was there a king, a Jewish king from the line of David when Jesus came? No, there wasn't. You had Herod. What's interesting about him is he was not ethnically Jewish. He was Idumean from Edom. And he was educated under Rome and they installed him as a king. You got a guy that's not even native and not of Davidic descent. And once he dies, Caesar Augustus is like, yeah, we're not going to have a king in Judah anymore. We're going to make Tetrarchs. We're going to split it up and can't have that kind of thing happen. Is there no king among you? Well, the northern kingdom, they changed kings and dynasties so many times, some only reigning as much as six days before they were assassinated and deposed in the days leading up to the Assyrian captivity. The Babylonian captivity, you had what? Josiah. And then a decline, exile. Has your counselor perished? That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth. You will go out of the city, dwell on the field, go to Babylon. There you will be rescued, for the Lord will redeem you. Now many nations have been assembled against you." Notice many. At the second time, when Jesus comes back, what does the book of Revelation and Zechariah say? All nations will be gathered against Jerusalem. So forth. In Micah's time, you had the Assyrians that came down from the northern tribes. Babylon will overtake Assyria, becoming the predominant world empire. When Jesus came the first time, Rome was the major world power on the scene, subjugated all the nations. And under Augustus Caesar, again, you had Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. Well, it's in those days that the Prince of Peace is going to be born. Let's look ahead to Micah chapter 5. Now keep in mind, if you look at this from the Hebrew Bible, chapter 5 verse 1 is going to be verse 14 of chapter 4, and their verse 1 of chapter 5 is going to begin with verse 2, which is what we looked at that was quoted in Matthew. We'll look at some of that, but chapter 5 verse 1, But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Therefore he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has born a child. Then the remainder of his brethren will return to the sons of Israel, and he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the name of Yahweh, of the Lord his God. And they will remain, because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth. This one will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, when he tramples on our citadels, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight leaders of men. They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod at its entrances. And he will deliver us from the Assyrian when he attacks our land and when he tramples our territory. Okay, so smiting a king or ruling authority, basically hitting somebody in the face like that is an incredibly insulting thing to do in the ancient Near East. That was basically a way to say that you show no regard for the authority, the royalty of the king. Think of our king when he came the first time. He gave his cheek to the smiters, smitten on the cheek before the crucifixion. But as for you Bethlehem Ephrathah, That's interesting. So Bethlehem in Hebrew, you know, Bethlehem means house of bread. Bethlehem, the house of bread. What did Jesus say about himself? I am the bread of life. Coming from the house of bread. Ephrathah means fruitful. Too little to be among the clans of Judah. So this fruitful house of bread is going to produce this Messiah. too little to be counted among the clans of Judah. If you guys remember, back in the Judge's Bible study, towards the end, I had to mention, because there's multiple towns named Bethlehem, Bethlehem in Judah. If you remember even further back to the Ezra and Nehemiah study, when Nehemiah is listing a lot of the cities that they're going to repopulate, Bethlehem doesn't even warrant a mention. It's that small. Insignificant. What did I say about Jesus earlier to the parents that he was born to? The insignificance of it. But Micah says, So whoever this king is, he pre-exists time as we know it. Days, minutes, seconds, hours, those kinds of laws that we're bound to as the passage of time occurs, this guy is going to be outside of it. Somebody transcendent outside of the creation. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. In other words, it's a deific statement. This person is a divine being, the King. Jesus is God. Therefore he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has born a child. Then the remainder of his brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God, the Lord his God." That's interesting itself. Jesus' name in Hebrew is Yeshua, literally means Yahweh is salvation. Micah, who is like unto Yahweh? Who is like Yahweh? the majesty of the name, the Lord his God. Jesus' own name is basically pointing again to salvation in God. They will remain because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth. This one will be our peace. Again, when you think of Isaiah prophesying contemporary with Micah, again, One who's going forth from old, you know, Almighty God, Prince of Peace. The government will be upon his shoulders. Those titles and names. One to the religious establishment and the people of the major metropolitan areas like Jerusalem. Another, Micah, to the small towns. Moresheth, the insignificant. This one will be our peace. We think of, again, a little town of Bethlehem, or a way in a manger, some of these other things. They weren't that well off back then. They're going to exile in Micah's time, and then after Jesus came, 40 years or so after the crucifixion, what happened under the Roman general Titus, later emperor, Jerusalem fell. Isaiah chapter 11 predicts that he's going to regather Israel as a nation a second time. That's interesting. First time Babylonian captivity, second time. Notice nowadays largely Israel is in unbelief. Jews today largely are in unbelief of their own Messiah. But one day they will see him, as Zechariah tells. But Micah continues after this one who's going to be the peace. He says, Again, go back to Genesis. One of the promises of God to Abraham was the land. The land is the Lord's. But curiously, it talks about the Assyrian. It doesn't say the Assyrians plural, the Assyrian singular. In Michael's time, you had, again, the impending Assyrian invasion coming in, the overtaking of the ten northern tribes. then Assyria pretty much drops off the scene when Babylon takes over. When he says, when the Assyrian, the singular. Again, there's another guy coming that's going to be proclaimed as God, much like how Caesar did at Jesus' first coming. And he's going to have military, economic, political, clout behind him to the point where he's going to go after that land, but he's not going to stop there. He wants the whole world. He wants to be worshipped as God. But this one who's going forth from long ago, from the days of eternity, The Prince of Peace is coming back. We look at Christmastime now, we know he came the first time, but he is coming back a second time. Some of the stuff that played out the first time that he was around will play out the second time he's around, when he comes back. You think about it, when he went to the cross, That was preceded by the Last Supper, right? And you had the twelve that were there. You had one that betrayed him at the time. But then he goes to pray in the garden before going to the ordeal. What happens there? All the apostles, you know, nap time. Couldn't you even stay up one hour? Look at Matthew chapter 25 when Jesus comes back, the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. What does he say about that in regards to his return? Nap time. They're all asleep. Even the wise ones are. The Assyrian is coming. What's interesting when you look at the Old Testament, there are so many titles for Jesus. So many titles, descriptions, like the branch, the Messiah, the star, the scepter, the Lion of Judah, so on and so forth. But the bad guys got a lot of titles too. The bad guys got a lot. I think Micah is not only looking at his own time with the incoming Assyrian invasion, but I also think he's looking ahead at a singular, using a title of the Assyrian. Now that doesn't mean that I think that the Antichrist is going to come from a particular geographical region, but I do think that it's Micah's way of saying, hey this guy is going to come. And if you look at the whole Scripture, whether it's Micah here, whether it's Zechariah chapter 12 through 14, whether it's Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, it begins to kind of form a mosaic that you can look at. Much like the first time, all these prophecies that told about when Jesus came the first time, the star coming out, the Prince of Peace coming, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, Each little piece presents like a puzzle that comes together as a mosaic for our Prince of Peace. In closing, I'd like to go back to where Joe had read earlier in Luke chapter 2. Joel read what happened when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, when this Prince of Peace that Micah prophesied came from. In Matthew we saw everybody was troubled. The king, so the political establishment, the scribes and the priests, the religious establishment, they didn't want him to come back. But there were people who did. There were people who did. Let's jump to verse 25 of Luke chapter 2, the type of people that wanted this Prince of Peace who was born in a manger to come back. Verse 25, There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and his parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, Then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him. Simeon blessed them, said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years. She had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of 84. She never left the temple, serving day and night with fastings and prayers. At that very moment, she came up and began giving thanks to God, continued to speak of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." Interesting. It's individuals, individuals here and there, They may not have been in the political establishment. They may not have had the theological education. They may not have had the economic status. But they're waiting for their Lord. They were faithful in what it is that they were called to do. Simeon was informed that he wouldn't die until he got to see the Messiah. Anna, serving faithfully, I can't imagine what this must have been like as a young woman getting married and then only having her husband for seven years, probably not having any children, and then being a widow from there on out. But she never left the temple, serving day and night with fasting and prayers. And in the next verse, she came up and began giving thanks to God. So my question to all of us, myself included, when I look in the mirror, Are we giving thanks to God? Are we being faithful? Are we praying? Are we not only looking back at Jesus when he came the first time, but are we looking ahead to when he comes the second time? We realize how insignificant the first coming might have seemed to a lot of people. And then we think of how insignificant a lot of the world may treat the fact that Jesus might be coming back. In this day and time, my prayer and my encouragement for all of us is we stay in the Word. We understand the kind of people, Simeon, Anna, what they did, how joyous they were to behold their Prince of Peace. How joyous are you when you behold the Prince of Peace? Be faithful. Be in prayer. Be thankful. He is coming back. He was opposed the first time. He will be opposed the second time. But again, what did Micah say? He's going to take care of it and he will trample all the enemies underfoot. The Lord can't lie. He knows how the outcome is going to play out. Micah, who is like Yahweh, who is like our Lord Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh is salvation. So in these days, be encouraged, keep in mind, Jesus is our salvation. And it's to Him we look, and to Him be all the glory, praise, and honor. Amen?