God Promises the King (of Peace)!

[0:00] If you would please take out your Bibles and go to, excuse me, Micah chapter 5. There's a Bible in the chair in front of you.

[0:11] You can go, starting in the Old Testament, it's actually page 660, 660 Micah chapter 5. This is a prophecy of Jesus to come, Micah chapter 5.

[0:23] We're going to study verses 2 through 5 this morning. Micah chapter 5, 2 through 5. Again, page 660 in that black Bible.

[0:34] Micah chapter 5, verses 2 through 5. A prophecy of Jesus, of His coming. And I'll say coming, realizing that the prophets saw one coming, and then we later find out in church history, there was two comings.

[0:53] There's this first coming at the incarnation, then there'll be a second coming at His glorification. Micah chapter 5, starting in verse 2. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

[1:18] 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.

[1:31] Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will rise and shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh His God, and they will remain.

[1:48] Because at that time, He will be great to the ends of the earth, and this one will be peace. I googled the following question a couple weeks ago.

[2:05] In recorded human history, how many years of peace has there been? Now this is Google. Take that in stride. So Google defined war as an active conflict that has claimed more than a thousand lives.

[2:21] Okay. Of the past 3,400 years recorded human history, humans have been entirely, have been in peace, at peace entirely, for 268 years of 3,400 years.

[2:38] So that means 8% of recorded history there's been peace. That's unreal. And by the way, this is for free.

[2:51] There's also fact that more wars have been fought for non-religious reasons than religious reasons. People say to you, oh, there's been more wars for other religions.

[3:02] There's true, religious wars, but there's more wars for non-religious reasons than for religious reasons. That's a fact. 8% of peace.

[3:15] And that's just 3,400 years of recorded history. Even after Jesus' first coming, there still has been war.

[3:29] And yet he was called the Prince of Peace. Because we wait for the day when the Savior, born of a virgin, will come to bring total peace. As he reigns over the whole world in peace, he'll rule with an iron scepter and there will be peace.

[3:48] So from Micah 5, verse 2-5, I titled this message, Christmas message, God promises the king, in parentheses, the king of peace.

[4:00] The king of peace. God promises or promised, since we're looking back, he promised the king of peace. God promises the king.

[4:14] He promises the king of peace. God promises the king of peace to come. He came to bring us peace with God. God. And he'll bring peace to the whole world.

[4:32] He promised the king of peace that he would come. And he came. And he brought us peace with God. Now. And soon he'll bring peace to the whole world.

[4:45] As I said a few moments ago, the prophets, when they saw the future, they just saw the future all encompassing. And then later on, it was shown, revealed, in a mysterious way, there's gonna be two comings of Christ.

[4:57] But here you see that both of these comings, this first and second, are merged together here in this prophecy from Micah 5, verse 2-5. And from this passage, we'll see how God promises the king to come in seven ways, with the seventh way gonna be kind of the climax of the passage.

[5:21] God promises the king to come in seven ways. Number one, he comes as a ruler. And verse 2. And you'll see a ruler of humility and a ruler of power.

[5:37] Look at verse 2 again with me of chapter 5 in Micah. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah. Now stop there. This ruler will come out of humble means. Too little to be among the clans of Judah.

[5:51] This is the small city of Bethlehem, David's hometown. He was a homeboy there, hometown of a good old boy there in Bethlehem.

[6:03] Humble means. And that's how Jesus first coming, he was a ruler of humility. He humbled himself, taking on flesh. But then notice the next part of verse 2.

[6:17] A ruler of power. From you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. He'll rule Israel. It says his goings forth are from long ago.

[6:30] This phrase, his goings forth, is like a military connotation. Speaking of the kingly activities of the Messiah in terms of power, in terms of might.

[6:41] So he'll come with the power and might of David. He'll be even greater than David. So notice again, the merging of this king who will come, how he will be both a ruler of humility and ruler of power, his first coming and his second coming.

[7:01] So he comes as a ruler, number one. Number two, he comes as a punisher. The first part of verse 3. He comes as a punisher. The first part of verse 3.

[7:12] Therefore, he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has born a child. He will give them up. Israel was abandoned by God for her grave sin.

[7:26] But a ruler will come who will end this period of separation. When she who is in labor has born a child, this has to do with the sufferings of Jerusalem for their sin as a woman suffering through childbirth.

[7:42] In other words, Jesus' coming marks the time when he as the king ends separation between God and man because of our sinful ways.

[7:56] And he can end the separation that you may have with him that you may have with God because of your sin. I mean, you think about the things in our world, even now, today, the evil, the war, the pain, the suffering, the hunger, the murders, the stealing, the strife, the rapes, the fights, the backbiting, the money grabbing, exploiting of people, arrogance and false religions, all because people are sinful.

[8:22] People do wicked things to other people. But God will judge. When Jesus returns, he'll vindicate both himself and his people.

[8:35] He will send the king to rule over and then he'll punish mankind. He'll bring disciplining for the sin that comes about of mankind when he comes again.

[8:49] So he comes as a ruler. He comes as a punisher. Number three, he comes as a gatherer or punishing or discipling. Sorry, I didn't put that in there. He comes as a gatherer. He comes as a gatherer.

[8:59] Notice, he's gathering his remnant. The second part of verse three, then the remainder of his brethren will return to the sons of Israel. The remainder.

[9:12] Those who share a common national heritage with the ruler. The hope of the prophets of the Old Testament was the reuniting of the divided nation of Israel, of both the north and the south, coming back together.

[9:30] There was Judah in the north. Excuse me, there was Israel in the north and Judah in the south. And there was a prophecy of how the two nations would come together as one and be Israel once again.

[9:44] So the remnant here is specifically faithful Israel. And yet, as we've been looking through John's gospel in John chapter 10, if you remember, Jesus talked about how he will gather other sheep that are not of this fold.

[10:02] Other sheep, Gentiles, who bring them in to make one fold with one shepherd. Remember that? So he's gonna, he's gonna be a gatherer.

[10:13] He's a ruler. He's a punisher. He's a gatherer. Here's number four. He comes as a shepherd too. He comes as the shepherd. The first part of verse four.

[10:25] And he will rise and shepherd. He will rise and shepherd in the strength of Yahweh and the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God. Shepherd.

[10:37] He'll guide. He'll bring care. There's a sense of compassion. Notice the, the both, the punisher but also shepherd.

[10:50] He comes to judge sin but also to be merciful and compassionate. the king will properly perform what the Israelite king so often failed to do.

[11:08] He lovingly cared for his own. He lovingly cares for his own. Is he a warrior? Yes, he's a warrior. Yeah. But he's a shepherd.

[11:20] He's gentle. Notice, he would shepherd in the strength of Yahweh. Carrying out the regal duties in God's strength and also shepherd in his majestic name.

[11:34] These are parallel statements when the prophet Micah says this. So he, he embodies God's strength. He embodies the very majesty of God.

[11:48] And of course, as we've seen, again, John's gospel, where do we see the ultimate display of the majesty and glory of God at the cross. We see it at the cross.

[12:00] As we see God's majesty, as we see God's glory. Ruler, punisher, gatherer, shepherd. Number five, he comes as a secure, as the secure, excuse me.

[12:16] The middle part there of verse four, and they will remain. The word here, remain, means to dwell, excuse me, or remain securely, to live in safety and security.

[12:34] Jesus is our protection today. He's our secure today. And when he returns, he'll be our final secure. Notice how you see, again, this merging of both the first and second comings of Christ.

[12:50] He's our protection, our secure of our salvation today, and he will secure our salvation in returns. Because then we'll always be with the Lord. Ruler, punisher, gatherer, shepherd, secure.

[13:07] Number six, he comes as the leader. The last part of verse four, because at that time, he'll be great to the ends of the earth.

[13:22] To the ends of the earth, his greatness will be over the whole earth. Is that not true today? Already? Do you not see the greatness of Jesus and of the gospel going forth and people responding to him even today?

[13:38] Yeah, we see that. So there's an initial fulfillment of this prophecy that we see already. The benefits of his reign extends over the whole earth.

[13:51] And the benefits of his reign will extend over the whole earth when he returns. Because then he'll physically reign and he'll rule. He'll be the peace that's so needed in our world.

[14:06] This messianic prophecy, it came like a light in a dark place. A king would bring lasting security whose influence would extend over the whole earth leading with his greatness.

[14:20] What a leader Jesus is. A shepherd, a gatherer, a secure, a punisher, a ruler. This is who Jesus is and then notice how it ends here the prophecy of Micah 5 starting in the first part of verse 5 and this one will be peace.

[14:40] Number 7, he comes as peace, as our peace. Truth, peace comes from Jesus. Universal peace because he is the prince of peace.

[14:57] He brings peace with God because of his work on the cross for us. Therefore, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5, verse 1, and he'll bring final peace at his return as he rules with an iron scepter and there will be no more war.

[15:18] So here's this finale. Here's this climax. Talking about him being a leader, the secure, the shepherd, the gatherer, the punisher, the ruler. Here's the climax when the prince of peace conquers the world and he conquers the wills of humans, every human.

[15:36] We will finally experience everlasting peace. And today, you can have peace with God through this king, through this king of peace.

[15:49] You can have peace with him. I normally don't end on a different passage and yet it flows right in here to Micah chapter 5, a page or two over in your Bible or flipping it up a few times in your device on chapter 7 of Micah.

[16:06] Look at verse 18. Micah chapter 7 verse 18 says, Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession?

[16:20] He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot.

[16:31] Yes, he will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You want to have peace with God? Come to Jesus and he will take your sins and cast it into the depths of the sea.

[16:47] God will have compassion on you if you repent and trust Christ. There is the gospel. Here, even in the book of Micah, you see the call to come to Jesus and he'll give you peace by taking your sins and throwing them into the depths of the sea where he chooses to not remember your sins anymore.

[17:13] What a great God. God promised the king of peace to come. He came to bring us peace with God and he'll bring peace to the whole world.

[17:29] Good time for us to remember this. Christmas. And everybody knows this, right? I just want to make sure we all know. Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. I'm not going to be a shepherd out there in 35 degree weather watching my flocks at night.

[17:42] No, no, no, no. Nor were they. We all know that. It's probably sometime in July. But we celebrate it now, December 25th. Let it be a time where we remember God's grace towards us in this king, this king of peace.

[17:56] And may we praise God and give him thanks for being gracious to us. So let's pray and let's thank him. Father, thank you that through Jesus we have peace with you because you've taken our sins and thrown them into the depths of the sea.

[18:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. You've trended under your feet our iniquities. You've shown us compassion all because of your grace.

[18:37] Father, thank you for being so gracious to us. Thank you for being so kind to us.

[18:50] We pray that we will reflect upon this truth, these truths from your word. Not just this day, but over this week and over this new year that comes.

[19:07] Reminding ourselves of this great gospel, this mysterious, wonderful truth of the gospel. in Jesus' name, amen.

[19:43] of Jesus' name. Amen. I hope to make more on the other described us of the gospel.