JESUS IS GOD WHO WAS BORN IN WEAKNESS: Micah 5:2

Good morning, and welcome to the Preaching Ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and it is our joy to be able to study the Word of God together.

In an article in Seeds to Oaks, Peter was a devoted Christian with a demanding

job and a family to care for.

Despite his busy schedule, Peter had made it a personal mission to volunteer

at his local homeless shelter.

His commitment extended beyond the occasional holiday service.

He dedicates a few hours of his time every week to serve meals,

provide companionship, and offer a listening ear to those in need.

Peter's actions reflect a deep understanding of the power of small steps.

While he may not be able to solve homelessness single-handedly,

he knows that his consistent presence and care can make a world of difference

to the individuals he serves.

Through Peter's consistent presence at the shelter, he developed a friendship

with a homeless veteran named Mark.

Over time, Mark's life began to change. With Peter's long-term encouragement

and support, he sought help for his mental health struggles,

secured stable housing, and eventually found employment.

Mark's story illustrates how one person's commitment can inspire positive change.

Many of the shelter's guests have expressed how Peter's welcoming and non-judgmental

attitude has made them feel valued and respected.

These small gestures of kindness have restored a sense of dignity and belonging

in the lives of those who often felt marginalized.

I'm sharing Peter's story with you to demonstrate that God often used small

and weak things, to bear great fruit,

overcome great odds, and do amazing things for His glory, even when we ourselves

do not always see the fruit of God's working through us. Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for Your Word and Your truth.

We thank You that You are God and You are Lord.

Lord, we pray that your word would teach us today.

Your word would encourage us and strengthen us.

Show us how we are to love you. How do we are to love others and minister to others in your name?

We so often feel weak. We so often feel like we're not making a difference.

And it is true. By ourselves we're not, but you are strong. You are not weak.

And we put our trust in you, our Lord, our Savior, and our God.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we ask this. Amen.

Please turn with me today to Micah 5, verse 2, where Micah prophesied,

Micah 5:2

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrata, 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.

There are three major truths that I see God teaching us today from this verse.

The first truth that I believe God wants us to know is that God shows His strength through weakness.

The Six-Day War was fought between June 5th and June 10th, 1967.

Between the state of Israel and the neighboring countries including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

Also known as the June War, the Six-Day War was won in an ongoing series of

tense interactions between Israel and neighboring states.

Relations between these countries had not normalized following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The relatively small Israeli state quickly gained the upper hand in the war by using airstrikes.

Israel attacked preemptively as tensions increased, effectively destroying most of Egypt's military.

This was followed by a rapid and effective ground offensive into Sinai and Gaza Strip.

Largely defeated, Egypt asked for assistance from Syria and Jordan.

Israel successfully seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan,

than go on heights from Syria in the days that followed.

In total, the land area under Israeli control tripled in the Six-Day War.

Israel succeeded in the Six-Day War through the use of smart tactics,

including preemptive airstrikes.

I'm using this historical account to explain that just as the small Israeli

army overcame the large Egyptian,

Syrian, and Jordanian militaries over and over again in the Bible,

God demonstrated His mighty strength and power through weakness.

Tiny armies defeat giant armies. A small boy defeats a giant.

Single prophets sent to preach repentance to mighty empires,

which then humble themselves before God.

And kings and empires change their decrees to follow God's will.

God used tiny, insignificant Bethlehem to bring us the Savior of the world.

In Micah 5, God, through the prophet, proclaimed, But as for you,

Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

I want you to notice in this verse that Bethlehem was basically a tiny village,

not even big enough to be considered a clan of Judah, not even significant enough

to be catalogued in the book of Joshua when they were listing cities.

Why was this so important? In ancient Israel, power came from the clans,

especially from large, powerful clans with lots of fighting men and money.

Usually, a ruler got put into power initially because he was backed by a powerful and wealthy clan.

We see this with Saul and David. And although they had the anointing and kingship

by God through the prophet, they still had to have the support of the clans to become king.

It is very similar for politicians today who need a lot of money,

power, and votes from their power bases to get into political power.

But the very idea of a ruler coming out of Bethlehem was ridiculous because

he would have no power base, and Bethlehem was weak, and it was small.

For prophecy to be fulfilled, the Messiah needed to be from Bethlehem,

because King David was from Bethlehem, and the Messiah had to be from the line

of David to fulfill prophecy.

However, I also believe that God chose Bethlehem for the Messiah because a ruler

out of that village would have to rely solely upon God because he would not

be getting his power support from anywhere else.

Please turn with me to Luke 1, verse 35, where the angel Gabriel told Mary that

Luke 1:35

God Almighty, the Most High, would miraculously intervene into human existence.

And here's what the angel said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

The act of Almighty God coming to earth to save His people was an act of extreme

power and might, And yet God did not come on the clouds of heaven with legions

of angels, which He had promised He will do in the future.

Rather, the Son of God was born as a little baby in an insignificant village to a nobody girl.

Christ Himself saved the world, not with great armies and physical power,

but in a manner so ridiculous, riddled with weakness and shame,

dying on a cross as a criminal and as a traitor,

abandoned by most of His followers and by the people of God.

The way God works is so upside down and backwards from the way the world does

things. God shows His strength through weakness.

But through weakness, God broke the power of death and sin forever.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, For the word of the cross is foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:18

to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

What can we, you and I, learn from this truth? We can learn that God shows His strength in weakness.

Humanity has always been impressed with big things. Big buildings,

big armies, big companies, big bank accounts, big cities, big countries,

big ministries for us in the Christian culture.

Today, much of the world's powers are keeping an active watch on China and what

that country may do in the future.

Mainly because China has the largest army of any country on earth.

When we look at people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos with their huge bank accounts,

and their large companies,

there is a tendency of looking at them with a bit of awe that somehow they are

more important than us because of their wealth and power.

Yet the creator and sustainer of the entire universe who has power and resources

of cosmic proportions has chosen to show us his Almighty power in little Bethlehem,

where God Almighty was born in the flesh as a little baby.

Later, Jesus Christ, God made flesh with sacrifice on the cross in shame and

in disgrace, so that all who believe in Him can be right with the Father.

Jesus told the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9-10,

2 Corinthians 12:9–10

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

And then Paul responded, Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my

weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses,

with persecutions, and with difficulties.

For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

As believers in Christ, you and I must rethink our perspectives of what power and importance is.

Because we're not going to be able to do that. what is counted as power and

strength in the world will eventually pass away. But God and his kingdom is eternal.

If you're listening to this message and you are going through trials in your

life and you feel powerless and weak, or maybe you're sick, or maybe you're

struggling with various temptations, know that weakness itself is not bad.

Rather, it's an opportunity for us to rely on and trust in our God,

Jesus Christ, who is in no way weak.

And if you trusted in Christ as your only Lord and Savior, in the power of the Holy Spirit,

Christ, Almighty God, dwells in you and His power to work in you,

to rise above your situation and to joyfully live a Christ-imitating life in

the midst of your trials is absolutely unlimited.

Paul taught Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, verse 6-7, For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power,

2 Timothy 1:6–7

love, and self-control, or a sound mind.

First off, we have learned from God's word to Micah that God used little Bethlehem

to be the place in which the king of kings would be born so that God could show

his mighty strength and weakness.

The second truth that God is teaching us is in Micah 5, verse 2.

Micah 5:2

And that is, out of Bethlehem will come the ruler of Israel.

Let's continue on in Micah 5, verse 2. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrata,

Micah 5:2

too little to be among the clans of Judah. And here's where we are now.

From you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

I want you to notice that it was prophesied in this passage that there would

be one who came out of Bethlehem who would go forth for God to be the ruler of Israel.

There are two observations I want to show you from this part of verse 2.

The first observation is that God used the whole Roman Empire to bring about

the Son of God being born in Bethlehem.

Let's look at Luke chapter 2 1-7 where Luke recorded, Now in those days a decree

Luke 2 · chapter mention

went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken while Quirinius was the governor of Syria.

And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.

Joseph also went out from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth,

to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of

the house and family of David,

in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.

While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth,

and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid

him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.

Jesus the Christ was born in Bethlehem. But when God Almighty conceived him

in Mary's womb, Mary was living in Nazareth, a city in Galilee,

not Bethlehem. Please pay attention to this.

This is no small matter.

The only earthly reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not in Nazareth

was because Caesar imposed a census on the entire Roman Empire,

which caused all people to go back to the town of their birth in order to be registered.

And thus Joseph had to take his wife Mary and the unborn child to Bethlehem

because of Caesar's law.

This census law was a massive undertaking with massive upheaval for the entire empire.

And it's my belief that it all happened and it happened right at the time that

it did because Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem in order to fulfill this prophecy.

God orchestrated worldwide events using evil people and evil leaders and millions

of people to make sure that his son was born to be king of Israel.

This goes to show us that small events that seem so insignificant in the perspective of the world,

such as a baby being born in tiny Bethlehem, can actually be an event that is

so important in the history of the cosmos that everything in the universe hinges

on this little baby being born at the right place and just at the right time.

And this leads us to the second observation that I want you to see,

which is although the prophecy of Jesus being born, living and dying and rising

to the dead has been fulfilled, Micah's prophecy has not been completely fulfilled yet.

In Matthew 24, verse 29 to 31,

Matthew 24:29–31

Jesus foretold, But immediately after the tribulation of those days,

the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars

will fall from the sky and the powers of the heaven will be shaken.

And then the Son of Man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the

earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the

sky with power and great glory.

He will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together

his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other.

One day, hopefully sooner than later, Christ will return on the clouds of heaven,

leading the host of angel armies, and they will destroy all opposition to Christ's

rule over Israel and ultimately over the whole world.

Christ will send His angels to gather all of us who are His elect or chosen ones to be with Him.

There are two applications that we as Christians can learn here.

The first application that we can learn is that God has and can and will use

anyone, including evil empires and nations, to accomplish His will on earth.

It is easy to think that governments or companies control our nations.

And yet God is completely sovereign

and He is in control. God works all things for His good purposes.

The second truth that you and I must trust is that Christ will return and He

will be ruler over Israel and from Israel over the entire world.

Christ ruling the world from Israel is an event that's going to happen.

The question is, are we ready for Him? when He comes.

Not only was the Messiah foretold to come out of Bethlehem to rule Israel,

and the identity of the promised Messiah is God Almighty who came to dwell with His people.

This past October my wife and I took our boys home to Canada to see my family.

I think they were nervous at first to meet their grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins.

You see, before meeting my side

of the family, Jonathan and Paul always heard about them as my family.

But our boys had no context to know or have a relationship with my side.

But when we went there and the boys were overrun with their numerous wild cousins

who were just like them, I believe something in them just clicked.

So much so that the boys no longer see our Canadian family as my family, but their family.

Jonathan recently told us that he wanted more than anything for Christmas was to go back.

To Calgary, to his family, meaning that Jonathan and Paul are realizing that

their Canadian side is part of their identity, part of their origin.

And this concept of origin and identity is what Micah was getting at.

It was the Messiah's origin, and thus his identity that Micah was prophesying about.

Look at this with me in verse 2. From you one will go forth for me to be ruler

in Israel. Here's what we're focusing on.

His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

The phrase going forth meant origin or an event that is the beginning,

a first part or stage of subsequent events.

Meaning that although the ruler will be a man, His origin is from the days of eternity.

The Christ is the one who never had a beginning and the only one who has ever lived forever.

There is no other being that has lived forever except God.

In John 1, verse 1-2, John wrote, In the beginning was the Word,

John 1:1–2

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

John commented in John 1, verse 14, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among

John 1:14

us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 9, verse 6,

Isaiah 9:6

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government

will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, and here it is,

Eternal or Everlasting Father.

Prince of Peace.

What can we learn from this last part of verse 2?

We, you and I, must, and I mean must,

believe and trust the central and foundational truth that the baby Jesus,

the Christ, that we celebrate on Christmas every year, is the one and only God

Almighty come in the flesh, fully God and fully man.

My friends, if we don't believe this truth, we have nothing. And I mean nothing.

The whole Bible is centered and focused on this truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and God.

We cannot push this truth aside and call ourselves Christians.

There are so many denominations and churches that are waffling on this doctrine.

Jesus is God whose origin is from all eternity.

And I'm so grateful that here at Dillingham Raven Church, we hold dearly to

this most foundational and precious truth.

And I encourage all of you, cling to this truth because without trusting in

the truth that Jesus truly is the Son of God, the only God, Yahweh,

we have no life within us.

What is it that God is teaching us today? The first truth that God through Micah

has shown us is that God used little Bethlehem to be the place in which the

king of kings would be born.

So that God could show his mighty strength in and through weakness.

The second truth that God has reminded us of in this passage is that Jesus had

to be born in Bethlehem in order to fulfill Micah's prophecy.

God orchestrated worldwide events using evil people and evil leaders and millions

of people around the world to make sure that his son was born to be king of

Israel and be born at the right time.

Lastly, we have been taught that the foretold coming Messiah,

the baby Jesus that we celebrate on Christmas is the one and only God Almighty,

come in the flesh, fully God and fully man.

I want to encourage all of you that the weak and tiny baby Jesus born in a tiny, weak Bethlehem,

is the God of the universe, and He is your Lord, who will return in power and

might to set all of creation right again according to His will.

I also wish to encourage you, or give you courage, that although in our human

flesh we may feel weak against the temptations, against the trials of this life.

God is not weak. Rather, God Almighty demonstrated His power in and through weakness.

And Jesus was and is victorious.

And in Christ Jesus, as we trust and surrender to Christ as our Lord God,

He will work through us and He will transform our weakness with the very power

of God for the glory of God.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you.

Thank you for your love and your mercy. Thank you that you loved us so much

that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, to atone for our sins,

and to bring us into an amazing and wonderful relationship with you.

Thank you for the truth that you now dwell in us and work in us,

Lord, and work through us. And one day you're coming back.

And Lord God, we pray that myself and all who are listening,

all the church here in Bush, Alaska

and elsewhere, that we are clinging to the truth of who Your Son is,

that he is one with you, Father, one with the Spirit,

one triune and Holy God. Thank you, Father.

May we trust you. May we cling to you. May we live according to your ways.

As we do so by faith, you will work through us, and we are so glad that it is

you working through us and not us.

May we surrender, and may you work on our behalf.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.

I will leave you with a blessing from Romans chapter 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and may the Lord bless you.