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CHRISTMAS IS BETTER THAN YOU THINK
(Micah 4:1-7)
SUBJECT:
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
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I. CHRIST BRINGS TRUE PLEASURE.
A. Micah is in the middle of his second
sermon. In chapter 3 he has taken the leaders of
INTRODUCTION:
Judah to task for their utter failure. Having forfeited
A. What does Christmas mean to most people
the covenant blessings they seek happiness in
today? What is the average person looking for when
whatever they can find. First, they turned away from
it comes to Christmas? The answer is not hard to
God and turned to idols. Then, when their false gods
guess.
failed them, they turned on each other. And then they
1. People are looking for pleasure. It’s about
foolishly turned away from God’s Word, the only
rejoicing. That’s the purpose of the colorful sights
thing that could have saved them. And so all that is
and mirthful sounds of our Christmas celebrations,
left is judgment, summarized by the last verse in
not to mention the tastes of the all the delicious meals
chapter 3: “12 Therefore because of you Zion shall
and treats, or the aromas of pines and scented candles
be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap
and baking. It’s the entertainment of parties and
of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded
holiday movies and specials. It’s about pleasure.
height.”
2. And people long for peace. It’s about the
So it comes as quite a surprise that Micah
hope of reconciliation. Families gather at Christmas,
then declares in 4:1: “It shall come to pass in the
and some of those gatherings can be a bit strained,
latter days that the mountain of the house of the
even painful. We hope that somehow the magic of the
LORD shall be established as the highest of the
holiday season will bring us together, will smooth
mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
over or cover the conflicts and bring peace.
and peoples shall flow to it….” “In the latter days”
3. And let’s not forget about prosperity. Who
refers to some unspecified time in the future. Verse 7
would doubt that Christmas is about the retailers?
ties this to the work of God’s messianic King. So this
There was in the media very little attention to
is referring to the coming of Christ…Christmas!
Thanksgiving: it’s all about Black Friday. Of course
When all of Adam’s race had failed, God would send
there was not a word about whether more people
his own Son to accomplish it.
were thankful this year than last, but there were
That explains why people keep seeking
serious discussions about this year’s kickoff to the
pleasure, peace, and prosperity, and these blessings
holiday spending season compared to last year.
keep eluding us. We cannot accomplish them. We are
Let’s face it, for most people, Christmas is
all a part of that broken race, and everything we
about pleasure, peace, and prosperity. Of course
produce is flawed, broken like us, and terminal. And
pleasure cannot be sustained, peace is often fleeting
that’s why Christ’s coming at Christmas promises us
and fragile, and prosperity fades: our toys wear out or
real and lasting pleasure.
break or become obsolete or go out of style.
B. Now I hate to report this next truth to you,
B. Here’s a more helpful question: Why do
because it’s so terribly painful and alarming, but we
people seek pleasure, peace, and prosperity? I submit
must face it. The truth is that we are so broken we
to you that it is because these have been lost. If we
don’t even know what true pleasure is. We think
never had them, we would not miss them. These
pleasure is momentary experience. “If it feels good,
unfulfilled desires are echoes of something we
do it,” was the guiding principle of my generation.
instinctively knew we had, but which has been lost,
But we are so broken that we actually equate pleasure
and we deeply desire their restoration. The Bible
with sin. We often take pleasure in disobeying our
declares that Jesus Christ has come to restore what
Maker! Something is terribly amiss. No wonder we
was lost, to bring true treasures that make all the
are so unhappy. We don’t even know what pleasure
things people eagerly seek today pale by comparison.
is. We would scarcely recognize true pleasure if it
There is nothing inherently wrong about celebrating
washed over us.
Christmas: enjoying the pleasure, seeking peace with
What is true pleasure? Micah tells us in verse
others, or exchanging gifts. But let’s not miss the
2: “and many nations shall come, and say: “Come,
point: It’s about Christ. Jesus is exceedingly greater.
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the
Christmas is better than you think.
house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his
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ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem.” Did you catch it? True
pleasure is to know the Lord. It is to know your
purpose before him and walk in his ways. That’s true
pleasure. That brings lasting joy and gladness with no
regrets. That you doubt this demonstrates how
terribly corrupted your heart has become. There was
a time when this was known. In the Garden our first
parents delighted in nothing more that to walk with
the Lord in the cool of the day. But the moment they
broke faith with him, all of that was lost, and they hid
from him in shame and misery.
Jesus came to restore us to our sanity, to give
us new hearts and minds that delight in the Lord and
his ways. People long for worldly pleasure and seek
it in Christmas. But Christ came to bring joy and
gladness. Christmas is better than you think.
Christ brings true pleasure, and…
II. CHRIST BRINGS TRUE PEACE.
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broken down. Micah is writing about Jesus: “3 He
shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide
for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war anymore….” We
are not yet to the culmination, to the fullness of this.
Presently Jesus is only calling individuals from the
nations, individuals who will come to him, who will
cease hostilities against the Lord and submit to his
kingdom. And it is the company of the reconciled
that serve as peacemakers in the world.
You know that old hymn by Horatio Spafford,
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say,
(say what?) It is well with my soul.
C. Do you see it? That restoration of our
primary relationship, the fundamental reconciliation
with God becomes not only the fount of inward peace
with God but also the foundation of peace with
others. If you find yourself irritable, crabby, hard to
get along with, it is undoubtedly that you have
neglected your relationship with God. If you do not
have a continual fount of peace and gladness flowing
from the Lord, then you will not have a solid
foundation for relationships with others, and you will
always struggle with conflict and brokenness.
Christ came to bring true peace: The angels
announced to the shepherds: “Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace among those with whom
he is pleased.” (Luke 2:14) Christmas is better than
you think. Jesus came to bring reconciliation and
peace. And thirdly,
A. Micah reminds us of the political situation
of his day (and truly of every day): “3 He shall
judge between many peoples, and shall decide for
strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war anymore….”
The political situation of all nations and every nation
is war. It is insatiable covetousness and continual
conflict. It may not be a hot war, only a cold war, or
a trade war, or a border war, but it’s war. And even
when it’s not open conflict, it’s not real peace: it’s
only a truce.
James could just as well be addressing nations
as individuals: What causes quarrels and what
causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your
III. CHRIST BRINGS TRUE PROSPERITY.
passions are at war within you?” (4:1) Why is peace
with others, lasting reconciliation so elusive? It’s
A. Micah also instructs us about real wealth,
because there is no peace within. We are not
what true prosperity is like. “4 but they shall sit every
reconciled in our primary relationship, reconciled to
man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one
God, and so we have no real peace. And no peace in
shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of
here means no peace out there.
hosts has spoken. 5 For all the peoples walk each in
B. And that’s another reason why Christmas
the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of
is better than you think. Jesus accomplished what
the LORD our God forever and ever.” Micah was
none of us could do. He has made reconciliation with
still living in the Old Covenant, a fleshly or physical
God possible by atoning for our sins and offering his
covenant. God’s favor and blessing were expressed
own life to God to fulfill all righteousness for us. The
in physical ways. When God’s people were faithful
dividing wall that kept us from God has now been
and kept covenant with God, then they would know
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these benefits of political peace and safety, and of
material prosperity. So Micah here expresses the
restored prosperity of the Old Covenant kingdom
blessings when God’s messiah comes.
Christ brings true prosperity. But it cannot be
found in any of the goods and treasures of this world.
Why not? Because this whole age and this old
creation are passing away. They will not endure. You
have no lasting share in this world. Nobody does.
You cannot keep it, any of it. Nobody can.
B. Do you really believe that? Really? Do you
live with only a light hand holding all of your stuff
knowing that you cannot keep it? Peter sobers us with
this reminder: “11 Since all these things are thus to
be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in
lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and
hastening the coming of the day of God, because of
which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved,
and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13
But according to his promise we are waiting for new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells.” (2 Peter 3:11-13)
That explains why the stuff of this world is so
bitterly disappointing. It doesn’t last. And your body
won’t last, either. I looked in the mirror this week
and scarcely recognized myself. What happened to
that good-looking young guy I used to see there?
Don’t laugh; go look in the mirror yourself!
C. Christmas is so much better than you think.
You cannot last here, and nothing will endure, but
Christ will make you immortal. And he will give you
vast wealth, an unimaginable inheritance in the life to
come. Peter also writes that God has made us alive
in Christ unto “an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who
by God’s power are being guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1
Peter 1:4-5)
With everything in me, I want to urge you to
prepare for that reality. Turn your worldly assets into
treasure in heaven, as much as you can. Travel light
through this world and put all you have into God’s
everlasting kingdom.
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will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a
strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in
Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.”
If you didn’t recognize it, that’s what Christ is
doing today. He is assembling the lame, and
gathering those who have been driven away, those
whom he has afflicted. That’s us. We are the lame,
wounded by sin, cast away and afflicted by God’s
righteous judgment for our sin. And he is gathering
us as a remnant to be his very own, beloved people,
immortal now and fabulously wealthy in the age to
come!
Did Jesus have this prophecy of Micah in
mind when he told that parable of the wedding
banquet in Luke 14? None of the invited guests came
to the feast. They were too tied up with this world.
“Then the master of the house became angry
and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and
crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant
said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and
still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the
servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and
compel people to come in, that my house may be
filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were
invited shall taste my banquet.”’
Christ is gathering his people for the banquet.
He compels you to lay aside your useless pursuit of
this world, its false pleasures, fragile peace, and
fading prosperity, and find true and everlasting joy
and reconciliation and wealth in him. And his hope is
so vastly and incomparably superior.
Come to Christ, the Babe in the manger, the
Son of God and Son of Man. Come to Christ: for
Christmas is much better than you think, because
Christ is better than you can imagine!

CONCLUSION
I love what Micah says in verses 6-7: “6 In
that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the
lame and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted; 7 and the lame I
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