Sermon Tone Analysis

In his book, Living with Eternity in Your Heart, Mark Buchanan writes about what I call the “Christmas Paper Blues.” It’s what happens on Christmas morning.

Mark says that he even saw it in his children when they reached the age that Christmas morning became the “Day of Getting.”

There were mounds of gifts beneath the tree, and his son led the way in that favorite childhood (and, more subtly, adult) game, How Many Are for Me?

But the telling moment came Christmas morning when the gifts were handed out.

The children ripped through them, shredding and scattering the wrappings like jungle plants before a well-wielded machete.

Each gift was beautiful: an intricately laced dress Grandma Christie had sewn, an exquisitely detailed model car Uncle Bob had found at a specialty store on Robson Street in Vancouver, a finely bound and gorgeously illustrated collection of children's classics Aunt Leslie had sent.

The children looked at each gift briefly, their interest quickly fading, and then put it aside to move on to the Next Thing.

When the ransacking was finished, his son, standing amid a sea of boxes and bright crumpled paper and exotic trappings, asked plaintively, "Is this all there is?"

That’s it!

The Christmas Paper Blues.

We adults still experience it too.

We get to the end of the unwrapping and ask, “Is this all there is?” Now we might not way that out loud, but the chances are good that we feel that way.

In a very real way, that question is more than the avaricious cry of an unsatisfied, pampered pouter.

It is the longing cry of every human heart.

At the end of desire lies a vast desert of unsatisfied longing which will always feel empty at the end of our frenzied gift - opening, and want to ask, “Is this all there is?”

BACKGROUND

And in a strange kind of way, that question really is what Christmas is all about.

For centuries the Jewish people, 5, “Is this all there is?” Yet, it was never asked completely in despair.

In the back of every Jewish heart was a hope.

They had a promise from God: A “soul-satisfier” would be born; a deliverer would appear; the Messiah would come.

Many of the prophets talked about that day when the question would be answered.

Isaiah told us that a virgin would conceive and bring forth a son who would be named, “Emmanuel, God with us;” David, the Psalmist alluded to his own offspring who would “be blessed and come in the name of the Lord,” and the prophet, Micah, even specifically noted the town in which this hope would be born when he wrote:

“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.”

Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.

And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; And this One shall be peace.

Now the immediate context of this scripture was the oppression of the Jewish people by the Assyrians.

The prophet Micah is prophesying that a deliverer would come to put down the Assyrian threat, but his prophecy must be contemplated beyond his immediate time.

God intended this to also apply to the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

I know this because the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to quote this passage of scripture in Matthew 2:6 in reference to the Messiah.

He condenses it a bit writing: ‘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.’

”

NEED

Wow! Quite a leap isn’t it?

To believe that the great omnipotent God would stoop to such a humble birth in such a humble place, and do it all to deliver people who, for the most part, care so little for Him.

It is a pretty incredible proposition, yet it is exactly what the Bible teaches.

A humble infant King can deliver you from whatever hopelessness you face and give you a reason to really celebrate Christmas.

This little infant King can deliver you!

And I know that, when we hear this, we receive it in different ways.

Some of us doubt.

We find this “God becoming man” thing too much to swallow.

Or, even if we claim to believe it, we leave it on the level of theory and don’t allow it to get down into our lives where it can bring to us the miraculous life of faith God intends.

Listen!

God meant for you and I not just to live a meaningful life; He intended for us, because of this infant King, to live a miraculous life.

He wants to bring a delivered life.

I know you think that you’ve been so often defeated by that sin that besets you that there is no hope; I know you believe that God must have given up on you and you may even doubt that you are saved.

You are wrestling with doubt, and I want you to pay attention.

I want to tell you why you can fully trust that this King can deliver you, even if you doubt.

And then there are those, not who doubt, but who pout.

They’re not questioning whether God can deliver, they are angry that He hasn’t delivered in the way they expected.

They know He promised to provide, but they struggle with the fact that they are still, well . . .

struggling.

The sickness they thought would be healed is still there; The financial need they hoped would be handled is greater than ever; the job they had expected to arrive is nowhere to be found and their experience has left them bitter.

They’re expecting a disappointing Christmas because how do you celebrate this baby as your provider when He doesn’t seem to be providing.

Listen!

God does provide, but you must see how His provision is meant to work.

You see, you can trust this infant King to deliver you for at least three reasons:

DIV 1: BECAUSE OF THE POWER HE HAS

EXP

Todd Agnew writes:

In the first light of a new day no one knew he had arrived

Things continued as they had been while a newborn softly cried

But the heavens wrapped in wonder knew the meaning of his birth

In the weakness of a baby they knew God had come to earth

It’s beyond our imagination to think of it, but the idea that God came wrapped in flesh is so true.

This infant King possesses all power, and yet His arrival is so quiet.

How like God that is.

In fact, His humble beginning accentuates His power.

Micah writes, 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.

Jesus wasn’t just born poor, he was born in obscurity.

He was born in the “little town of Bethlehem.”

Micah says that “though you are little among the thousands, yet out of you shall come forth to Me “The One.”

This in itself is an example of the merciful grace of God!

He allows the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem because He is making a statement.

In the time when Micah wrote this, the nation of Israel was on its heels.

The grand power of Solomon was gone.

Through compromise after compromise, the people of Judah had given away their standing and had finally been reduced to abject captivity.

They were the smallest of the small and the weakest of the weak.

But God’s prophet has a message for them!

Great things happen through the small things that God uses.

Bethlehem, the smallest of the small would give rise to the greatest of the great.

God, Himself, wrapped in humanity would come out of this humble town.

The sheer audacity of such an event only makes God’s power more awesome and the Messiah’s coming more blessed.

His humble beginning accentuates His power.

And, then, His Heavenly origin validates His power.

Micah says that this Ruler coming out of Bethlehem was to be extraordinary.

In fact, he makes a curious statement.

He says that this Ruler is One “Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”

Literally, it can be interpreted, “Whose goings out are from of old, from days of eternity.”

Micah tells us here that this Messiah did not originate from earth.

He has been around “from the days of eternity.”

John, the Apostle would later write, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

His heavenly origin validates His power.

But that is not all.

Not only does his humble beginning accentuate His power and His heavenly origin validate His power, His delivering promise focuses His power.

You really have to understand the situation of Micah’s audience.

They were scattered and defeated.

Many of their brothers and sisters were still away in captivity.

Micah says, in 5:3, Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.

These captives would return in the divine timing and providence of God.

His power would be revealed in deliverance.