Astonishing Christmas Facts (Luke 2:1-21, Jeff Kliewer)

Christmas Announcements and Ministry Updates

All right. Good morning. You guys are the on-time crowd. The majority will come in after the music starts, so good job being on time. Yeah, that's how you do it. So tonight we are going to have a classic hymn sing.

I know Jack likes the old school hymns. There's like a resurgence of old school hymns. Tonight, six o 'clock, right here, and we'll sing Christmas carols, all of that. So please do come. Also, feel free to bring cookies, if you want to bring cookies, because I like cookies.

Next, I'm going to call on Eileen to come on up and give us an announcement about the collection that we're doing for Options.

Good morning and Merry Christmas. Let me just thank our harpist. Where'd she go? Oh, beautiful. I came in and I didn't see you sitting there, and I heard the music, and I thought we were playing a CD or something, and I looked over and I was like, so beautiful.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. So I spoke last week. I don't know if some of you may have missed it, but I just wanted to kind of put the request out there again. I know it's Christmas and everybody's busy, but Options for Women, we're going to be doing a collection drive from now until January 9th.

They have quite a bit in need right now. This is immediate stuff that they're in need of. So if you have a chance when you're out and about and you're doing your last minute shopping, if you could maybe just pick up a few things and then just drop it off in the back of the church.

I was going to try and put a little baby crib, but unfortunately when I went to get it, it's broke. So if you could maybe just leave it on the bench or by the bench, then I'll just be sure to be collecting that and taking it right over there to try and meet their needs as immediately as possible.

Yeah. I'll just read the verse that I have here. There are flyers in the back on the table if you want to grab one on the way out so that you have it on you. You can snap a shot of it or take a shot of the screen right now if you want to.

Psalm 139, 13, for you created my most inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. Such a beautiful, beautiful verse to speak of how God has known us from that very moment of creation and we really want to help options meet these women where they are and hopefully save their babies and save them as well in the process.

So thank you and once again,.

Merry Christmas. All right. On Christmas Eve, which would be Friday, Friday night, we have two services. One is at 2 30 in the afternoon and the other is at four o 'clock. So it's going to be a blast.

Please come to a Christmas Eve service. Also, check with your leaders. If you're part of like a prayer ministry or a community group, it might be on break until the new year. So don't just show up without checking with the leader of those kind of groups.

And we are also having a New Year's Day brunch at 11 o 'clock. So Kimberly will be organizing that. If you would like to be a part of that, check with Kimberly or you can just come. But it helps if you let us know that you're coming as well.

So New Year's Day. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. So Father, it is such a good thing to join together to hear your word, to sing praise to your name. We were made for this, Lord. You're the creator of the heavens and the earth and you made each of us, as we read from Psalm 139, you knit us together in our mother's wombs.

Lord, you're the creator of life. You gave us life and you gave us breath so that we could praise you. And Lord, as we begin to think about Christmas and we contemplate how Jesus came into the world, born to a virgin, how he lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserve, rose from the dead.

Lord, we pray that we would be able to worship you this morning, for you are worthy. Help us to sing in spirit and in truth. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would just come and fill this worship service, that we could feel your presence and know you more.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand.

Born King, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies, with angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Harp the herald angels sing, glory to the new born, Christ the angel come, offspring of the virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh, Lord God and Son of God, sons of earth, angels sing. Sing with me this next part, King of heaven, come down. King of heaven, come down. Let your glory reign, shining like the day, King of heaven, come.

King of heaven, come down. Let your glory reign, shining like the day, King of heaven, come. Lord Jesus, we are grateful and thankful that you, the God of the universe, the God of all creation, King of kings and Lord of lords, chose to come to this earth because you loved us so much.

We welcome you, Lord Jesus, to this place. We are thankful that we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. God incarnate, here to dwell among your people, to save them from their sins.

A starlit night, a king is born in Bethlehem. Our journey long, to seek the light that leads to the hallowed manger ground. He felt in the silent age, four hundred years, can he be found? But broken by a baby's cry, rejoice in the hallowed manger ground.

Born to bleed, a crown of thorns would pierce his brow, and we beheld this offering, exalted now, the king of kings. Praise God for the hallowed manger ground. Amen.

Praise the Lord. The Bible tells us when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. In the ascension of Christ, he sent forth his Holy Spirit and gave spiritual gifts. And that ability comes from God, so we thank God for that.

And all of you who believe in Christ likewise have spiritual gifts. Let's pray now for him to help us in the preaching of the word. So, Father God, we thank you so much for the gifts of the Spirit that are in us who believe in Christ.

We thank you most of all for Christ, that gift from heaven, the baby born, laid in a manger, who is Christ the Lord, the gift of a sacrifice for sins. God and flesh dwelling among us, O come, O come, Emmanuel.

Lord, we thank you so much that you have come and you are coming again. Pray now, Lord, that you would help me preach as I ought, as one who speaks the oracles of God. And I pray that your Holy Spirit would carry me along to do that, because I know I cannot do that in myself.

In any natural ability, there is nothing in me, Lord. It's only by your Spirit. So come and help me now and help the hearer to believe and to receive the good news of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Seth and Erica are twins. They're home from college this Christmas. It is Christmas morning, 2021. The family gathers in the morning, not as early as they used to. When Seth and Erica were little, they used to start at about 6 30 in the morning.

Remember that, parents? But now they're in college, so they start more like 9 30, 10 30, 11 30. They're college kids. Well, before they begin to tear into the presents, the dad does what he's always done.

He opens his Bible to Luke chapter 2. Do the same with me now. Luke chapter 2. You can also find it on a phone. Follow along that way. We're using the ESV, English Standard Version. We're going to read Luke 2, 1 to 21.

Picture this family as it was their tradition, reading this passage every Christmas morning. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them, but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Well, as the mom in the home listened to her husband read the Christmas story, she was delighted to have her family back together again. But looking at Seth and Erica as the story was being read, it looked like their eyes were glossing over.

Maybe they were just sleepy. Their heads were droopy. They didn't seem to be listening. She wondered, what was Seth thinking? Seth was looking at the pile of presents by the tree. And he wasn't paying attention to the story, because all he could think was this pile of presents looks to him like a steaming hot pile of privilege, capitalist greed, selfishness, and the traditions of Christianity passed on.

See, he had learned that from a professor at college. And Erica, she was looking at the nativity scene, and all she could tell was that the little baby in the nativity set looked really pale, really light-skinned, and she didn't think Jesus had that light of skin.

Her math teacher had told her that math is racist, and she should look for racism underneath the systems of everything that she's taken for granted. So Seth looked over at his mom, and all he could think was this poor housewife, this birthing person who can't understand the theories that she's learning at college.

How could she be expected to? She didn't go to college. She doesn't get it, but our generation does. And Seth, he looked over at his dad, and he thought, he's a carpenter. What does he know? What could we ever learn from a carpenter?

He doesn't get it. This scene plays out across America year after year, in recent years, and will play out again five days, six days from now, Christmas morning. You know, many people in this culture have looked at the millennial generation and thought, how hopeless.

Look how they're being indoctrinated. Look at the theories that they believe. This country's never going to stand. You know they said the same thing about my generation? Gen X? I was a Pearl Jam, Nirvana kid.

No, no, not yay. No, that was the bad part. This was before. And they thought of Generation X, that there was no hope for that generation, because that generation was embracing the newest things and was leaving behind the old traditions.

But guess what? Many Gen Xers turned away from the lies and believed the truth. And guess what? The millennial generation, who everybody loves to pile onto, is just as able to hear truth and receive it.

Because no matter what theories are brought to the fore, there's fads that come in. You realize that, right? What's a fad today, 20 years from now will be forgotten. I remember in the 1980s, they were talking about how climate change would ruin the world.

That one keeps recycling. Should be underwater by now. But the fads come and go. I will tell you something this morning that never changes, and that is facts. I commit to you this morning that I will not import my own traditions, my own sentimentality.

My goal this morning is to tell you nothing but truth. And that would mean that the facts that I share need to be verifiable. Some of the things that we just read in the Christmas story are absolutely astonishing.

And I don't blame anybody here if you're sleepy. And good thing, I didn't see anybody's eyes glazing over. Everybody seemed to be listening to the scripture. That's a really good sign. But even so, it's possible that hearing, you may not have the context for what you're hearing.

And so my job this morning is to go through Luke chapter two, and I want to show you some absolutely astonishing, mind-blowing, undeniable facts in the Christmas story. And if these things are here, then the story, which seems to some like just something sentimental, something we do every Christmas, is actually true.

And then in the end, we'll see the power of what that means. So look now with me. Luke chapter two, we read, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Recognize this is the Roman Empire. Caesar Augustus is now ruling over Israel. So Israel is a conquered, oppressed people. If there was ever an oppressed people in the history of the world, it's the Jewish people.

They were held in captivity in Egypt and made to be slaves. One pharaoh tried to kill all the baby boys. Coming out of Egypt, time and again, there were people that sought to pretty much commit genocide against the Jews over and over again.

Haman, the wicked Persian, tried to do it. When Jesus was born, Herod killed all of the Jewish baby boys in Bethlehem. And we know that this didn't stop. In the 70s AD, Rome wiped out Jerusalem. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and the Jewish people were kicked out of Spain.

In 1942, Adolf Hitler tried to kill and did kill six million Jewish people. They are the subject of persecution like no other people. They are oppressed. And yet, because they are the chosen people of God, they still exist to this day.

In 1948, they were given their homeland back, and so they are in Israel. And that itself is a miracle, an undeniable fact of history. But notice, these events recorded in verses two and three are historical.

They take place when Quirinius was the governor of Syria. Verse three, and all went to be registered each to his own town. Now, the first Christmas fact that some people miss is right here in verse four.

Look at Luke 2, 4. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

So the eyewitness account in Luke chapter one, verses one to four, tell us that Luke set out to write an orderly account, interviewing the eyewitnesses. So Luke talks to Mary, why were you in Bethlehem?

How did this come about? And she tells Luke, this is how Jesus was born. We had to go there. The Roman government sent us there to register. It's a census. And it seems all well and good, but did you know that there is an astonishing Christmas fact that lies behind those events?

Turn with me to Micah chapter five, verse two. Micah five, chapter five, verse two. I was that college student back in the early nineties, and a professor had convinced me that I shouldn't really believe the Bible.

It's just man-made tradition. And my faith began to crumble until one night I said, God, if this book is really from you, show me why I can believe it. And I let the Bible fall open, and I looked down at the page.

I was a freshman in high school, and the Bible was open to Micah five, two. And when I read these words, I realized that what I had been taught is not just the sentimental message of my parents. It's actually true.

Here's why. Micah five, two was written more than 700 years before Jesus came to earth. And it tells the exact location where the Messiah had to be born. That's an astonishing fact, because there are many cities in the world.

I was born in Seattle. Where were you born? Somebody? A lot of Philly, Jersey? Beijing? No? Where? Anybody born in Guatemala? China, Korea? We have people born all over. Raise your hand if you were born in Bethlehem.

Where's all the Bethlehem born? Don't tell me you were born in Bethlehem. You'll ruin my illustration. What's that? Bethlehem, PA. Wonderful. I love it. Different Bethlehem. Let's look at Micah five, two.

That was a good one. 700 years before. Now, some will say, well, maybe Christians came along later and added these words to the Old Testament prophets. But recognize in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered along the Dead Sea in Israel.

And they date back to prior to the time of Christ. The entire book of Isaiah, Daniel, the Psalms. I've seen them with my own eyes when they came to the Franklin Institute. The Dead Sea Scrolls predate the time of Christ.

So, Christians couldn't have added this later. Micah five, two. Let's read it. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

We could spend a lot of time on how Jesus had an existence before he came. He's always been God. He came into the world. But what we need to focus on right here, the astonishing fact that nobody can deny is that Micah foretold the very birthplace of the coming Messiah.

It is a Christmas fact. Go back to Luke two. And we'll find the second Christmas fact in verse six. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. I want to focus on that word time. Of course, it refers to the fullness of her pregnancy.

The time had come for her to give birth. But at what time in history was Mary pregnant? And what bearing does that have on the truth claim of the Bible and the authority of this book? Turn with me back to Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 to 26.

Daniel was a prophet. You know him because he was thrown in a lion's den. You guys all know that story, right? And God miraculously preserved his life. Well, the reason that they were in a foreign land in Babylon and then Medo-Persia, the reason for that is they had been captured and taken into exile for 70 years.

And while Daniel was in exile away from Jerusalem, God spoke through him the words of this prophecy. Follow along if you can. Daniel nine, 24 and following. 70 weeks. Here, the Hebrew word for weeks is seven.

Seventy sevens. Somebody good at math? What's 70 times seven? 490. Are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Something very significant is going to happen in 490 years. From when? What's the starting point of this prophecy? Verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

So, follow me now. There will be a decree from the Persian king to allow the Jewish people to go back to Jerusalem to restore it and build it, right? That's the starting point. History records that at 444 BC, Artaxerxes, the Persian king, also known as Darius, gave a command, a decree for the people of Israel to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

There's no debate historically among historians that this took place in 444 or 445. That's where the debate is. BC. Now, using the Hebrew calendar, which had 360 days in a year, if you were to take 444 BC and trace forward 70 times 7, it comes to the year 40 AD.

But look more carefully at the prophecy. Verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, Messiah. That word anointed one is Mashiach.

In the Hebrew, it means Messiah. They're looking for an anointed one. Until then, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. That's 49 years. That's how long it took to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, okay?

Then it says, then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled time. Another 62 times seven years must pass. And so now we're to a total of 69 sevens or 483 years. You didn't know you were going to math class this morning, did you?

And by the way, math is not racist. Math is good. And for 483 years from 444 BC, we arrive on the Hebrew calendar, which Daniel was using in the year 33 AD. 33 AD, the year that Jesus Christ was crucified.

What does it say in verse 25? Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. Verse 26, and after the 62 weeks, we're up to 483 years, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.

The anointed one, only mentioned a few places, Daniel seven, Daniel nine, a few other places called the Messiah, Mashiach, the anointed one. Here we are told that at a certain point in time, he will be cut off.

What does it mean to cut off the Messiah? It means that he will be killed. He will be cut off and to have nothing means he will be buried. Daniel prophesied the cutting off and the burial of Jesus Christ.

And he gave undeniably the exact time of his death. Now, the point of the Christian message is that Jesus would come born of a virgin, that he would live a sinless life. Now, this is very important. It wouldn't have been possible for Jesus as a baby to die for our sins.

He was innocent, but he hadn't actively obeyed the law. He needed to be tempted in every way that were tempted, live a full life of a man, and by that active obedience, and then his passive obedience, going to the cross, he would atone for our sins.

So for a man to be cut off in 33 AD, he needed to be born 30 some years earlier, back to Luke 2 .6, the time. The time of Luke 2 .6 is no coincidence. At that time, there's no calendar. There are different calendars, but no standard one worldwide.

We only know referent points, such as a decree of a king in 444. But when Jesus was born, time was cut in half. Time itself began to be measured by the coming, by the birth of Christ. Here in 2021, we say the year is 2021, but what does that mean?

It means that time itself is measured from when Christ came. We are 2021 years removed from this event. Time itself is measured by him. Well, somebody skeptical will say, we don't call it BC and AD anymore.

BC before Christ, AD, anio dominion, year of our Lord. We don't call it that. We say BCE and CE, before the common era and common era. And yet, what remains the historical point that divides BCE from CE in your nomenclature?

It is still the birth of Christ. It is the decisive moment in history when God came to the world. And every time a pagan says, when he writes a check and puts the date on the top, that this is the year 2021, he confesses the standard, the set point of history, which is the coming of Christ.

The Gregorian calendar, based off the Julian calendar, all of these things take as their reference point, the center point of history, the birth of Christ. That's an undeniable fact. It's an undeniable fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and the prophet Micah said he would be.

It's an undeniable fact that the time of his birth was such that he would die in 33 AD, and Daniel said that this would be the case. And it's an undeniable fact that we live in the year 2021, which is a measurement from his birth.

Amen? Facts. Number four, the virgin birth. We read on in verse seven, and she, claiming to be a virgin and rejected by her people because she wound up pregnant, they didn't want to believe it. She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

Turn with me to Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, for the fourth astonishing Christmas fact. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is what is called the Great Isaiah Scroll. The Great Isaiah Scroll is complete.

All 66 chapters survived, and it predates the time of Christ. So it includes Isaiah 714, and this is what the prophet said in Isaiah 714. Now, interestingly, the prophet Isaiah said, ask for a sign. God wants to give you a sign, and the wicked king Ahaz was like, I'm not going to ask for a sign.

I don't want a sign. I think that's how he said it. He just has that like arrogant attitude, like he's not going to listen to the prophet. So then in 714, he says, God himself is going to give you a sign, and he's not just giving it to Ahaz, the wicked king.

He's giving it to you who are here this morning, hearing the word of God, you listening online. This is the word of God. Isaiah said it more than 700 years before. These are the words of the prophet. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive. Did you hear that? That's an astonishing fact that Isaiah said this hundreds of years before the claim was made. Before Mary claimed to be a virgin, giving birth to a son, and was rejected by her people on account of that.

The prophet said that this would be the case. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. When Amber played that, the harp, O come, O come, Immanuel.

The name Immanuel means God with us. What does it mean that a virgin would give birth to a son? Why? Well, it's a sign because no one in the history of the world has replicated this miracle. But it also means that there is one who stands between holy God and sinful Jeff.

And the one to bridge the gap between a holy God and a sinful man must be fully human to identify with me and fully God to identify with him. In the virgin birth, Christ came but did not inherit the sin of Adam.

All of us alike inherit the sin of our forebear, Adam. And like Cain who killed his brother, and everyone who descends from Adam and Eve, we have sin, but not this one. He is the unique one who has no sin.

Born to a virgin, sinless, and then lives a perfect life to bear that out. And offer himself. He is more than a man. He is Immanuel, God with us. The fourth undeniable, astonishing fact is that Isaiah prophesied a virgin birth hundreds of years before it came to pass.

Anybody astonished yet? That's four. Five, just turn a couple pages in Isaiah. The same prophecy goes on for pages. But in chapter 9 verse 6, we have a fifth astonishing, astonishing fact. And that is the deity of Messiah.

The word deity means that he's actually God. Now put this in context, context for a minute. What did the Israelites bring to the world? What did they understand that the nations did not? That there is only one God, Yahweh, their true God.

And all the idols of the nations are just man-made. And made-up conceptions of God are false. Israel said Yahweh is the one and only true God. The Shema of Israel, Deuteronomy 6 .4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

There is only one God. So consider this, that even though this is definitionally a monotheistic people, and Isaiah himself in chapters 40 to 48 will clearly say that there's no gods beside Yahweh. There's only Yahweh.

Every other God he mocks for their idolatry. You make an idol out of wood, and then you bow down and worship it. You have to carry it on a donkey, and yet you worship it. Isaiah mocks any other God besides Yahweh, and look what he says in Daniel 9 .6.

I'm sorry, Isaiah 9 .6. We already did Daniel. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. Pause there. This is the humanity of the coming Christ, the virgin-born one. He's going to be a child like us.

Grow up a son. But what kind of son? It says, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. That means he's going to be the Messiah, the promised ruler, the one Micah saw, the king, the ruler of the world.

And his name shall be called, imagine Isaiah writing this, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Christians claim that Jesus is more than a prophet, more than a man. He is God in flesh, tabernacling among us.

Dwelling among us. This claim is remarkable that God himself, the creator of the heavens and the earth, came into a virgin and was born into our world and dwelt among us. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Unbelievable. I mean, that's the boldest claim that anybody could make, that God who made the world has walked the same streets that we walk. He walked the streets of Jerusalem. That's what we're saying.

And we recognize what a big claim that is. And it was borne out by the fact that when he rebuked a hurricane, it got quiet in a word. And he multiplied bread and fed 5 ,000 with a few loaves and fishes.

And he opened blind eyes and he raised the dead. And he walked on water. Yes, this one demonstrated that he's not an ordinary man. But what's astonishing about this, to prove that it's not just mythology, to prove it's not just Christian tradition, it's not just the sentimental thing that we do every year, to show that it's true, the prophets foretold it.

And Isaiah said in chapter nine, verse six, he shall be called El Gabon, almighty God. He will be called God. This child, this son who will rule the world is in fact God. The prophet foretold it. And that is astonishing.

Back to Luke two, astonishing facts, the birth place, Bethlehem, the time foretold 483 years in advance. Time itself now measured by him, the virgin birth, his claim to be God. When he says, I am who I am, it's backed by prophets who foretold this.

Number six, the Messiah was heralded by shepherds. Look at chapter two, we'll pick up in verse eight again. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. You guys know the story, right? How many of you have shepherds in your nativity scene?

But why? Why would God choose shepherds, stinky shepherds who take care of their sheep out on a hill as part of the Christmas story? And it becomes a significant part from verse eight, all the way to verse 20, when they're returning, glorifying God.

Why shepherds? It's a symbol, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. We're like sheep. He leads us by green pastures and by still waters and restores our soul. He leads us with his rod and staff, and we fear no evil because we have a good shepherd.

How good is our shepherd? How good is the shepherd who leads us? If our God is our shepherd, how good is he? So good that he became a lamb to lay down his life for the sheep. See, the shepherd metaphor is rich with meaning.

Understand, in Micah chapter four, verse eight, this is a chapter before the place of Jesus's birth is foretold. Bethlehem, Ephrathah. Ephrathah is the particular region within Bethlehem, which is already a small town.

It's the agricultural region just to the east of the city. Eusebius said it's one Roman mile east of Bethlehem. That's what the historians say. That's where the shepherds were. In Micah chapter four, verse eight, we read these words.

Oh, you and you, oh, tower of the flock. Tower of the flock. Hill of the daughter of Zion. To you shall it come. The former dominion shall come. Kingship, kingship, easy for me to say, for the daughter of Jerusalem.

Micah 4, 8 says that this place called Tower of the Flock, Mictel Edel, just a mile outside of Bethlehem, would be the place where the kingship comes, where the former dominion shall come. When the shepherds watched the flock, they took great care.

And these particular shepherds in Mictel Edel, a mile outside of Bethlehem, were raising a particular kind of sheep. Google this later because some might doubt me. Google pictures of Mictel Edel today.

Bethlehem. To the east, the agricultural region, Bethlehem Ephrathah. You will find that there are towers of the flock. There's more shepherd towers right there on that hill than anywhere else in all of Israel to this day.