WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.799 Well, good morning, everyone. And let me add my welcome. My name is Graham. I'm the pastor 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:09.400 here at the church, and it's just so wonderful to see so many folks out with us. And how 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:14.560 good was that to watch the Nativity? Love the wise men running around the stage. That 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:20.320 was my personal highlight. But fantastic to celebrate the birth of Christ. It's just such 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:28.400 an incredible season. I wonder what the first Christmas song this year was that you heard. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:36.000 I was walking through, I think it was Cameron Toll the other day, and I heard on the sound 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.100 system, whatever it was, I heard Mariah Carey. Is that how you say it? Carey? I don't know. 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:45.239 Her song that she's been living off for years and years and years, and I dread to think the 00:00:45.239 --> 00:00:50.179 royalties that she makes every time we hear and play that song. Her song, All I Want for 00:00:50.179 --> 00:00:56.659 Christmas Is You. I wonder what you first heard. Little known fact about Mariah Carey, which 00:00:56.659 --> 00:01:01.419 I'm sure will massively appeal to those of you here today like me who are really into 00:01:01.419 --> 00:01:07.840 organizing, right? Planning is your thing. How about this? In 2010, Mariah Carey gave birth 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:15.179 to twins. Gave birth to twins, and here's what appealed to my sense of planning. Four things, 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:24.759 okay? She gave birth at nine o'clock on a Monday morning, I think. She gave birth on her wedding 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:29.939 anniversary, which I think was pretty cool. Number three, she instructed the midwives to play the 00:01:29.939 --> 00:01:36.640 music from her 1995 live tour in the background as the birth was going on, and she instructed them 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:41.760 four to deliver the babies at the precise moment when her favorite track came on, at the end of the 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:48.180 track when the crowd applauded her so that her babies would come into the world with applause. 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:54.780 And the thing about Mariah Carey is that that happened exactly how she planned it. Now, of course, 00:01:54.860 --> 00:02:00.100 there's give and take. You can't plan everything, can you? But for her, that's exactly how it happened. 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:04.480 How about that for a planned birth? Does that appeal to your sense of organization? And on the dot, it does 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:10.020 to me. And I wonder if you think about the original Christmas story, and you think to yourself, 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.400 I really wish that Mariah Carey was there back in the first century to give Mary and Joseph a few 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:24.280 tips as how to plan a birth. Because we look at this story, do we not? And we see, in contrast, 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:33.340 a birth that is ruled by absolute chaos, that is ruled by randomness. What is going on? I'll give 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:43.180 you two reasons why I think for us this looks chaotic. Okay, here's the first one. Talk about bad timing. 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:51.439 Because there is a king on the throne. He's ruling over that region where Jerusalem is. And he's not just 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:59.340 any king. He's King Herod, the guy who's got a track record of paranoia, of outbursts, of anger, 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:11.060 of murder at the slightest with any rival to his throne. So talk about a bad time for a king to be born. 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:17.960 And talk about a bad place. I mean, Mary and Joseph aren't from Bethlehem. They are from Nazareth. 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:25.340 And so this inconvenient census has meant that they have had to travel all the way from Nazareth to 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:32.400 Bethlehem, a huge journey at the best of times, let alone with a heavily pregnant Mary who's about to 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:40.099 give birth imminently. So they are not enjoying the comforts of a home birth. If it's to travel a huge 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:47.819 way for Jesus to be born. And so we look at that and we think to ourselves, surely that is utter chaos. 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:49.840 Utter chaos. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:04:02.840 And yet standing behind this birth is a God who is in control of every single detail. And he's not just 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:09.740 like a grand master chess player who's a few moves ahead of his opponent. Actually, the Bible would say 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:17.660 this God knows the end from the beginning. And what a comfort today as we live at a time 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:25.519 when the future feels so fearfully uncertain. And I wonder if you've come in here today fearful 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:32.460 about what the next days and weeks and months might hold. Does it not feel that as a society that 00:04:32.459 --> 00:04:39.259 we're in this kind of pandemic game of snakes and ladders? And we were so making our way up that 00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:46.620 board, rolling high numbers for so long, and perhaps we've just hit the snake and we've started 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:55.779 to slide down. And the thing is, we've got no idea how big the snake is. Well, this is a loving invitation 00:04:55.779 --> 00:05:01.719 to come and know the God who's in control of all things. And so here is a birth that's happened 00:05:01.719 --> 00:05:08.879 precisely and profoundly in the right place at the right time, according to the good eternal purposes 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:15.359 of the God of the Bible. What we've been doing as a church family in the run up to Christmas is we've 00:05:15.359 --> 00:05:21.439 just been journeying with Matthew. And we've been thinking about how Matthew, one of Jesus' 12 disciples, 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:27.959 a historian, has recorded these details so that his generation of Jews and every generation ever since 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:33.620 will know about this man Jesus, know who he is, know how he was born, know about his life, know about his 00:05:33.620 --> 00:05:39.180 death, know about his resurrection. And so Matthew wants us to know certain things about the birth. 00:05:39.459 --> 00:05:43.920 We've been thinking about the fact that this is not just a random event, that Matthew keeps using 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:51.879 this word fulfilled, as if to say this is going down exactly how God planned it. And in terms of 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:59.620 the birth, we might look at it and see chaos, but Matthew looks at it and sees and says glorious. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:06.020 It is glorious because he sees in the birth of Jesus the very fulfillment of everything that God 00:06:06.020 --> 00:06:12.500 had promised about the birth of his king. Now, what is it that Matthew sees as being fulfilled? That's 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:21.220 a question we've been thinking about. Today, really quickly, is all about the place. Now, if you've 00:06:21.220 --> 00:06:25.819 got the Bible open in front of you, and the words will go on the screen as we go kind of through it, 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:31.680 Matthew focuses in on Bethlehem. If you've got the text here, you see Matthew references Bethlehem 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:39.040 four times in these short verses, four times. Five of them if you include verse 16 of Matthew chapter 2. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:47.520 So Matthew thinks it's really important that his readers know where Jesus was born. Let me give you 00:06:47.520 --> 00:06:52.140 a couple of things to notice about this. Let me tell you firstly why it was hugely fitting 00:06:52.140 --> 00:06:59.200 that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And we'll pick it up if you've got it there in verse 5 of chapter 2. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.140 Events happening after Jesus was born. 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:10.279 And after Herod has summoned the Jewish religious rulers and asked them if they know the whereabouts 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:19.379 of this birth. And they reply, in Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet 00:07:19.379 --> 00:07:27.740 has written. Now, the prophet that they are quoting there is a man called Micah. He's a contemporary of 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:36.560 Isaiah. He's God's messenger roughly kind of 700 BC. And what's important is that Micah in his short 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:44.160 letter is addressing the people of God when they are behaving terribly and when the Assyrian army, 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:52.079 their enemy, is advancing mightily. And all the way through the book of Micah, as he brings his, 00:07:52.079 --> 00:08:00.279 God's word to his people, the appeal is as Assyria gets bigger, as the enemy comes to the forefront, 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:08.819 the answer is not to be scared. The answer is to trust in this God. And particularly to trust in the 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:16.240 king who God will raise up for his people, who is everything that the current king in Israel isn't. 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:25.220 And this king will come from Bethlehem. Now, you read around in this, historians generally agree that 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:31.220 you're looking at a town with most likely under 1,000 people. Some even put that it's something 00:08:31.220 --> 00:08:39.600 more like 300 people. So this is a very small place. And truth be told, there ain't a lot happening in 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:46.159 Bethlehem other than sheep. It's all that kind of happens in Bethlehem. Nobody's booking a jet two 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:51.540 holiday to Bethlehem. That's the kind of idea we're meant to get as we read Matthew 2. This says a 00:08:51.540 --> 00:08:59.440 little town of no renown. But what is significant about Bethlehem is that this is the birthplace of 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:06.420 King David. This is the birthplace of the king par excellence in Israel. The king who God said was a 00:09:06.419 --> 00:09:14.299 man after his own heart. And he was born in Bethlehem. He was from this place. And so when God says, 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.379 it's from Bethlehem that my king is going to come, it's almost as if he's saying, there's a new and 00:09:19.379 --> 00:09:24.679 better David on the way. There's a new and better David that I'm going to raise up for my people. 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:29.419 And so the question is, how is he new and better, this king that God is going to raise up? 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:37.199 He's new and better because of who he is. Everything about this birth speaks of lowliness. 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:46.799 Everything about it screams humility and service and giving yourself in sacrifice for others. 00:09:48.379 --> 00:09:52.699 And in a week where there have been big questions surrounding our leaders and how they have used 00:09:52.699 --> 00:09:58.480 their power and their influence and their position and their privilege to flaunt certain rules, 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:06.840 God's king is the opposite. He is the one who laid aside power and position and took on a lifestyle 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:16.600 that Bethlehem perfectly embodies. This is God's king. The way of God, the way of the kingdom 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:21.860 is radically different to the way of the world. Now talk about, we always talk about, don't we, 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:32.360 the people who never forgot their roots. How true of this Jesus? How true of this Jesus? 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:37.419 This is who he is, the servant king born in Bethlehem. And this king's origins, do you see, 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:44.659 his beginnings are from ancient of times, says Micah. So in this king is found a wisdom that 00:10:44.659 --> 00:10:50.120 surpasses humanities. In this king is found a love that excels anything you and I have ever 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:59.060 known. How new and better? Well, secondly, because of what he will do. God's people who know all about 00:10:59.060 --> 00:11:06.840 division and inviting and soon will know exile in the context of Micah. God is saying that this king 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:13.799 that he will raise up will bring about restoration and unity. He will be the one that gathers his people 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:23.599 from all over the world. And he will be their shepherd. It's the most incredible description 00:11:23.599 --> 00:11:30.639 that we get of Jesus, of this God, that his life will be about binding up people's wounds, 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:36.559 about protecting them from ultimate harm, about providing for their every need, 00:11:36.959 --> 00:11:42.219 about leading them to safe pastures, about giving direction for their weary souls. 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:49.060 And so that is why, if we're here today, that's why we sang earlier on, 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:57.040 O come, O come, all ye unfaithful. Because how many of us here today do not feel that we can honestly 00:11:57.040 --> 00:12:04.340 say that we have life sorted? And yet this king has come to give his life for us. This king has come 00:12:04.340 --> 00:12:12.200 to serve us, not to be served. This is who God's king is. And I wonder if those words about who the 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:19.200 shepherd will be are just the ones that you need to hear today. This is who Jesus is. 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:28.020 And thirdly, because of what he will be. Those who come to him, he will give them rest for their 00:12:28.020 --> 00:12:36.020 weary souls. And his greatness will be known the world over. Do you see that? As outsiders, 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:43.559 foreigners, people from all over the world will come to see the greatness of this God. And how true 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:48.439 is that of us here today? If you want to see the fulfillment of this all these years later, look at 00:12:48.439 --> 00:12:55.240 the church. People from all over the world, all sorts of different people. Here today will just be a 00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:59.939 microcosm of what God has done. People from all over the world, different ages and stages, doing 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:08.520 different things. And yet united by this one thing that we love the king who served us. And it's a joy 00:13:08.520 --> 00:13:13.800 to worship him. And all of a sudden, you see with that background, you understand what role these 00:13:13.800 --> 00:13:19.820 magi from the east are playing in this story. Because it does seem, doesn't it, just a bit weird. What's 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:26.400 going on here? Until you understand that here is the people of the world coming in to worship God's king. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:37.079 This bunch of pagan astrologers, right? They ain't amateur stargazers. This is what they do. They're pagan 00:13:37.079 --> 00:13:42.659 astrologers. They know the stars. Likely there was a comet that they followed. Again, if you want, so we don't 00:13:42.659 --> 00:13:48.199 have time to do that this morning, but if you want more information on the historicity of that, I can recommend 00:13:48.199 --> 00:13:54.439 some cracking resources for you. But this is what they are seeing. There's something going on in the skies that's 00:13:54.440 --> 00:14:00.680 drawing their attention. But more than that, why have they come? It's explicit in the text. They have 00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:07.720 come not to inquire about God's king. They have come not to admire God's king. They have come to worship 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:18.160 God's king. See what's going on. Mike is saying that God will raise up for you a greater king from 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:24.399 Bethlehem. And Matthew has written this down and he's exclaiming to us, this king that God promised 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:34.039 from Bethlehem is here. He's here. And God is saying to a weary world, what do you make of my king? 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:41.699 And secondly, let me just tell you why it was hugely revealing that Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem. 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:50.960 So with the child Jesus and his parents, they're in the house in Bethlehem. Matthew records two reactions 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:58.560 to Bethlehem's king that happened back in the capital. The first is from King Herod. There's a new 00:14:58.560 --> 00:15:06.180 king on his patch. There's turf wars going on here. This is an all-out worship war. There's a rival to his 00:15:06.179 --> 00:15:14.139 throne. And Herod reacts to the news with hostility. No way I'm sharing it with him. This king. 00:15:16.339 --> 00:15:22.099 Herod reacts with hostility. And the other reaction from the religious rulers is apathy. 00:15:23.579 --> 00:15:26.459 Because here's the thing, when Herod asks them, do you know where the king, 00:15:27.539 --> 00:15:30.099 God's king is going to be born? They don't shrug their shoulders. 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:37.340 They don't say beats me. They know the answer. Did you notice that? They know where this king is going 00:15:37.340 --> 00:15:42.259 to be born. You're looking for the perfect panel for the Eggheads Christmas special, Christmas birth. 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:49.840 These are your guys that you want on your team. They know the answer. But it means absolutely nothing 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:58.519 to them. So we've got three reactions here. Herod reacts with hostility. The religious gurus act with apathy. 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:07.759 And the magi, the ones who shouldn't have got this, but did. They react with worship. 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:17.379 Here's sometimes what I see in my social media feed. People post pictures of things, different textures 00:16:17.379 --> 00:16:25.220 of toast, or a chart with different strengths of coffee. And it's safe to say, which one are you? 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:30.320 You ever seen these kind of things? Which one are you? Here's what I want to do. I want to take that 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:35.779 and superimpose it on Matthew chapter 2. And this is what Matthew invites us to do here and say, 00:16:36.420 --> 00:16:43.340 friends, which one are you? Which one are you? Is there war against this king in your heart today? 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:50.779 The natural inclination of all of our sinful hearts that I don't want this king. I'm not sharing with 00:16:50.779 --> 00:16:55.759 this king. If that's you here today, would I lovingly plead with you. Do you know who this king is? 00:16:56.539 --> 00:17:02.639 Have you read the scriptures for yourself? It seems to me that would be a very logical thing to do, 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:08.779 to read about this man, Jesus. Are you like King Herod? Is there a war going on in your heart? I don't 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:17.259 want this king. Is there apathy going on in your heart? Maybe you've been coming to church for years. 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:23.099 You know the verses. You could rhyme them off top of your head. You know how church works. You know 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:27.640 how to look happy. You know how to raise your hands at certain points. But let me ask you, 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:32.980 is he your king? You know, I remember playing football years ago during my time at uni with a 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:38.539 ton of boys from the Western Isles of Scotland. And they knew the Psalms way better than I did. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:44.539 They could quote them like that. They knew their Bibles inside out, but they had absolutely no interest 00:17:44.539 --> 00:17:51.659 in Jesus. You know, there's a world of differences in there between knowing facts about Jesus and 00:17:51.659 --> 00:17:57.700 really knowing him and trusting him as your savior and your king. You know, one of today's the day 00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:04.119 when God, by his Holy Spirit, would take what you know and would just make it click in your mind and 00:18:04.119 --> 00:18:10.440 in your heart. And you get the king from Bethlehem and who he is and what he's done. 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:20.440 And this is the shepherd king that God is promising. And the thing is, this birth that started here with 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:26.820 rejection in Jerusalem, 30 years or so later from this moment, the shepherd king would find himself 00:18:26.820 --> 00:18:35.580 back in Jerusalem. There he would know rejection. The shepherd king whose life has been one of service, 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:42.720 the shepherd king whose life had been one of love, the shepherd king who knew rejection in Jerusalem 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:46.939 at the start of his life would be back. And he would know rejection in Jerusalem at the end 00:18:46.939 --> 00:18:54.460 of his life as the shepherd king willingly lays down his life as the sacrificial sheep. 00:18:55.419 --> 00:19:03.919 He goes there fully intent on laying down his life on the cross. He takes the punishment that you and I 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:13.920 deserve for our sin against this holy God. He takes our place. And in him, we get his grace. We get the 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:22.779 love of God. And that's who this king is. And so do you see how it was hugely fitting that Jesus was born 00:19:22.779 --> 00:19:29.860 in Bethlehem? And do you see how it was hugely revealing that he was rejected in Jerusalem? This birth in 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:38.939 Bethlehem, the world screams chaos, chaos. And yet Matthew writes it down and he presents it to us and he 00:19:38.939 --> 00:19:47.059 says, glorious. Let me just read to you the words of the final song that we're going to sing as we close 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:53.959 our service. And let's just reflect on this as we head into this week. And let's maybe just reflect on 00:19:53.960 --> 00:20:02.980 everything that we've heard and seen and heard and sung today. Here is, O little town of Bethlehem. 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:12.420 The words of Philip Brooks writes this, O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray, cast out our sin 00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:20.960 and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell, 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:29.000 O come to us, O Lord Emmanuel. Let's pray. 00:20:33.539 --> 00:20:39.759 And so Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for today. The sense of celebration, the sense of joy. 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:45.120 O Father, would you help us though in the midst of all of it to not miss the significance 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:52.719 of your king who was born in Bethlehem. Father, for us, those of us here today, Lord, who perhaps feel 00:20:52.719 --> 00:21:01.559 far from you, Lord, would you draw near. For those who are feeling the hardness of life at this time of year, 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:09.819 Lord, would you draw near and bring comfort and peace. And so Lord, may in all the uncertainties that perhaps 00:21:09.819 --> 00:21:14.960 the next weeks and days and the future holds, Lord, Lord, would you remind us today gloriously 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:21.339 that you are the God who is wonderfully in control of all things. And we thank you that you hear us 00:21:21.339 --> 00:21:24.579 because we pray in Jesus's wonderful name. Amen.