So we are in the fourth Sunday in Advent. We've
mentioned that of our sermon series, El Peace,
the Greek word for hope. Hope from small beginnings.
The one thing, and we're actually going to jump
into it after, so we have the pauper service,
the last service of the year, next Sunday, which
is where we have a lot of meaningful kind of
reflections on the year, and it's an extra special
service, not to make him more nervous, and I'm
sure he is, but this will be Evan Concher's debut
sermon here at Munster Church as he walks through
all of that, so that will be exciting for all
of us. But one of the things we're going to do
the following week is we're going to... Kind
of do an overview of the minor prophets. We're
going to look at a word, chesed. So we're going
from Greek now to Hebrew. We're going to go into
the steadfast love of God. And it's found very
specifically in these minor prophets, which I
always find fascinating that we kind of lean
into those in Advent. And I wanted to kind of
continue that in the beginning of the new year
before we get to our epic Lent sermon series.
And we'll get to that later. But God always seems
to work in the scriptures in ways we wouldn't
really do it ourselves. And I think that that's
important to just state in the beginning, God
does things we wouldn't. I think that's kind
of a no -duh statement, because we're wrought
with sin, and so we struggle to do things for
our own vanity, our own name, our own praise.
God doesn't do that in that same way. God is
big, we are small, and we walked through kind
of this advent journey seeing how God does things
a little differently and how God brings hope.
Jeremiah was hope through waiting. You had Malachi,
hope through refinement. Last week was Zephaniah,
hope through restoration. But today, through
Micah, we meet another stunning truth about hope.
That God loves to bring his greatest works in
the smallest of... Which is, I think, should
be a very comforting thing because he works through
us. And my hope and my prayer is that we don't
think ourselves so big that we think God should
use us because we're so awesome. But because
we are small and God is big, he works through
us, through the church. But you see, Micah is
speaking into a world of political instability,
spiritual decline, and widespread... fear. Now
for some of us, I just defined where we live
today, but that's not who Micah was talking about.
He was talking about a nation that was raging
inside and out, the people trembling, Jerusalem
being vulnerable, hope seeming distant. Micah,
this prophet, is speaking into that. And as much
as we've talked about it, a lot of us would have
said, no, come as a king conquering Rome, you
know, establishing yourself. We want the revelation
Jesus because we know what that is. We've read
that. That's not how he comes. God speaks not
of a mighty city or a powerful king or a strong
army, but he speaks of Bethlehem, this little
nothing town in the book of Micah. God's rescue
for you and me begins where nobody would expect
it. Nobody had that on their Messiah bingo card,
if you will, because small beginnings often reveal
an even bigger God. So let's look, as we have
done the last three weeks, hope from the past,
Bethlehem and God's pattern. Of choosing the
small. So we're going to be in some of that weird
as we read. We're going to be in the A and B
part of a verse. So if you're in like an A and
a B part of verse. It has to do with clauses
in a verse. Let me nerd out just a little bit.
So if a verse is a little bit longer. And there's
different clauses in it. Sometimes you put in
A. And you only read that. And then B. Forget
I said it. Doesn't matter. I'll just read it.
Okay, so 5 to A. But you, O Bethlehem, Epaphra,
who are you too little to be among the clans
of Judah? Micah draws immediately to Bethlehem.
And Bethlehem's insignificance. Bethlehem wasn't
anything special. It was not a special town.
I was thinking, what town could I kind of liken
it to as you go down I -65, but I don't want
to offend anybody, so I'm not going to mention
one, Rensselaer. It's really insignificant. No
one really talks about it. It's not a major city,
not a political capital, not even large enough
to be counted for a military census. No one really
cared. Yet Bethlehem carried deep covenant meaning
because of one name. For a cup of coffee in a
conversation with Pastor Jim, what name brought
Bethlehem significance? Who said that? Nikki,
man, you still don't call those in. We can almost
like buy a Starbucks with how many you've gotten
right. Okay, David. Maybe that wasn't that hard.
Bethlehem, David, Messiah. That is probably where
I should have put coffee on. The smallest place
comes the birthplace of the greatest king, God's
greatest king. And is that not God's pattern?
God works this way. This is not an isolated moment
of the way God works. This isn't a blip on God's
radar. He chooses Abraham, right, an elderly
wanderer. He chooses Moses, a stuttering exile.
He chooses Gideon, the weakest of his clan. He
chooses David, the forgotten youngest son, hanging
out with the sheep. He chooses Israel, the smallest
nation. The theology that we hold to calls this
the condensation of God. And we don't look at
condensation here as a negative. The way he stoops
low to accomplish his saving purposes. We can
draw this from question answer 26 of the Heidelberg
Catechism. Why confess that our Father will turn
to my good whatever adversity he sends me? Why?
Because his power is made perfect in your weakness
and in my weakness. Small beginnings do not deny
God's power. They display them. Hope from the
past tells us God's greatness is revealed in
smallness. So looking back, that's what we see.
That's how we engage it. But let's go to the
present. Where's our hope for the present? Well,
a shepherd king who stands and strengthens. Now
we're going to go to the be part of verse 2.
Micah 5, verse 2, be. From you shall come forth
for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose
coming forth is from old, from ancient days.
Micah points us to a ruler who was both human
and eternal. Born in Bethlehem, yet from ancient
days. This ruler is not only going to be sovereign,
who not only is sovereign, he's going to be a
shepherd king. And he will stand and shepherd
his flock in the strength of the Lord. What does
this mean for us? What does this shepherd king
mean for you and me where you find yourself today?
December 21st, 2025. What does the shepherd king
mean for you? First and foremost, the shepherd
king stands. He does not flee. He does not fail.
He does not forget his people. And as we learned
a year ago from the book of Revelation, he stands
with his church. With his disciples. With the
broken. And with the weak. With the scared. And
the anxious. He stands when we fall. Second,
he shepherds. He guides. He protects. He feeds.
He restores. His leadership is not distant in
some far away place. In a galaxy far, far away.
No, he is right here. Intimate. Closer to you
and me than our two front teeth. He stands. He
shepherds and he strengthens. Micah says he shepherds
in the strength of the Lord. It's not human strength,
my friends. It's not the strength you and I have.
It's not political strength. It's not military
strength. This is why Jesus can say and doubles
down on it when he is here on earth. My sheep
hear my voice. I know them. Maybe you need to
hear that today. That Jesus knows you. And maybe
we have two different reactions to that. We go,
man, that feels so good that Jesus knows me.
And I just need that. I need to rest in that
today. Or maybe you're over here going, oh no.
He knows me. He sees me. He gets me. And we can
have a really aversive reaction to that because
of the things we've done. My sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me. So let me ask,
church, family and friends that are here today,
church online, virtual, are you following the
shepherd? Are you following a shepherd that stands
and shepherds and strengthens you when you're
down here and lifts you up or up here and he
can bring you down? Are you standing with him?
Are you accepting his shepherding? Are you living
and breathing in his strength? Because I don't
know about you, in a world of instability, I
thank God that he stands. In a world of fear,
I thank God that he protects. In a world of just
pure exhaustion, I thank God that he strengthens.
Is that not our L piece for the day? Our L piece
for the present, our hope? Your hope today is
not based on your own power, your own wisdom,
or your own resources. Thank God they're based
on a shepherd king. How are you following the
shepherd? What does this look like moving forward?
Hope for the future? He shall be our peace. So
we're going to go to verse 4 and 5. And he shall
stand. And shepherd his flock in the strength
of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the
Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure. And
now he shall be great to the ends of the earth,
and he shall be their peace. When the Assyrians
come into our land and treads in our palaces,
then we will rise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men. So, April, leave that
up there. Take out the word Assyrians. What is
plaguing you today? Is it the unknown? Is it
a fear? Is it a sickness? Is it family turmoil?
Is it a broken relationship? Is it issues in
your job? Is it just the fear that the kids are
home for the next 10 days and you have no idea
how to handle it? What is it? What Assyrians
are coming your way that you don't have the confidence
to face knowing you have someone greater than
you standing with you, standing for you, shepherding
you, and strengthening you? Micah shifts from
Bethlehem to the end of the earth, to the end
of your and my earth. Messiah's rule is not just
local and temporary. It's universal and eternal.
He shall. Be your peace. He doesn't just bring
peace. He doesn't just promise peace. He doesn't
model it. He doesn't have it on a felt board
and go, this is how peace works. Paul echoes
this truth in Ephesians 2. For he himself is
our peace. And I don't know about you. All of
a sudden it's 247. And for the third day in a
row, you're up. Your mind starts downloading
your days, your hopes, your fears, your anxieties,
all the things, and you just can't fall back
asleep. Right? Jesus doesn't say, well, pray
these prayers, right, and this will manufacture
peace in your life. No, he says, I am your peace.
The reason why he gives us peace is because he
is our peace. Church, I need you to understand
that. I need you to get that as we walk through
this next season of Munster Church, highs and
lows, anxieties, and all the things, we stand
on someone who literally is our peace. That unknown,
that walk that you're going through, that walk
we're going through, we don't know what it's
going to look like. We have no idea what it's
going to look like after all the pledges come
in. We have no idea what the future for Munster
Church looks like. But our peace is the person
we look to. Jesus the Christ. Because I know
for a fact there are some of you looking into
crazy unknowns. And you need hope. For some of
you, even through the rest of this year, you're
scared. Next year, you're scared. You're excited.
You're anxious. You're D, all of the above. We
need peace in all of that. And that is the future
hope. Remember, he doesn't just bring peace or
promise peace or model peace. He is our peace.
We need to recognize that and recognize that
his reign has come, is still here, and will come.
Back again. The reign of Christ is unfolding.
Micah is pointing to us that all nations will
see his glory. Then it was in the person of Jesus.
Now, watch out, it comes in you and me. The nations
will see the glory through the people of God
and the church. So what is that posture? What
should we be looking like? Well, every knee bowed.
Every tear wiped away, every name praising the
Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ. We'll look
around and we will see the weird things. We will
see things that we can only explain by going,
man, God had a hand in it. The earth will be
full of the knowledge of the Lord and he will
use the church. I see it, I feel it, I read it
in here. That is you and me. Hope for the future
reminds us that what began in Bethlehem will
culminate in the new Jerusalem. But to get there,
we have to go to Golgotha first. We have to go
to the cross. The great double down. Not you,
not me. Our blood not shed, but Christ's. The
cross -shaped advent. Advent points us backwards
to his birth, forward to his return, but to the
cross. Eternal redemption. Micah's prophecy of
Bethlehem leads directly to the manger, the manger
to the cross. Remember that lyric I used to start
this? I celebrate the day by relying K. You were
born to die so one day I could pray to you to
save my life. It was said of none of us here,
none of us that Linda Boonder has worked with
over the last 30 some years, none in the 155
years of Munster Church has that ever been said
of. It's been said of Jesus Christ. Micah 5 speaks
of beginnings. The cross speaks of completion.
Christ came in smallness so he could give us
his fullness. Bethlehem leads to Golgotha so
redemption can lead to resurrection. Friends,
that's the hope of Advent. The resurrection of
the life to come. The one who came in weakness
is the one who reigns in victory. So where do
we go from here? Let's land the plane this morning.
What do we take with us this week? One, do not
despise small beginnings. If you think you're
in a small place right now, stay present. God's
going to choose to use that. God loves to work
through the small, the overlooked, and the ordinary.
Two, trust the shepherd king. Why? We've already
talked about it. He stands, he shepherds, and
he strengthens. And three, hold fast to the future.
The one who came will come again. Bethlehem reminds
us that hope is not loud. It's not flashy. It's
not dramatic. Hope often starts quietly in a
manger, in a small town, in small steps of faithfulness.
Yet we see time and time again in God's word,
it grows. It grows into something. This Bethlehem
small town hope turns into the salvation of the
world. So as we all come together in a couple
days to celebrate the born salvation, we know
he is our peace, he is our hope, he is our peace.
Let's pray.