Many people today are feeling the growing itch for significance. No one wants to be ordinary. We want our lives to matter and to fulfill a larger purpose. We want to change the world for good, not just watch from the sidelines. Our hunger for significance is rooted in a deep need to feel valued, and the dissatisfaction that comes from accumulating stuff and an endless parade of casual relationships. We want to feel known and to know that our lives count. We’re hoping our lives will be truly worthwhile.
The word insignificant describes someone or some place as unimportant, trifling or petty. We consider a place insignificant when it is thought to be too small to be important. We can treat a person as insignificant when he holds a minor position in an office or has little influence in the community.
Our attitudes to people and places are shaped by the baseless comparisons people make. Many people struggle with feelings of low self-esteem and feel their lives lack significance.
The message of Bethlehem at Christmas is that no person and no place is insignificant. Wherever Jesus is born, there is significance and value.
More than 700 years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Micah told of the coming of the Messiah. Micah spoke of a king who would come to rule over his people and said that the Messiah would make his appearance at Bethlehem.
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. (Micah 5:2).
1. NO ONE IS INSIGNIFICANT
We treat many things as insignificant. We tend to neglect things that are small as if they have no worth and we forget that size is no guarantee of importance. The Mona Lisa is a small painting but extremely valuable. Rare postage stamps that are less one square inch in size, have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Diamonds are small but are extremely valuable.
Bethlehem is a small town located just five miles from Jerusalem. In the minds of many people, Bethlehem was an insignificant town. They looked down on Bethlehem. Even today we sing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and the emphasis seems to be on the word “little.”
Actually, Bethlehem had a great history. Bethlehem had a strategic military and economic location. Rachel, Jacob’s wife was buried there. Caleb, the faithful spy, founded the town of Bethlehem. Ruth, the Moabitess, became Boaz’s wife at Bethlehem. King David was from Bethlehem. There was no reason for people to look down on Bethlehem.
Yet, people looked down on Bethlehem. Jerusalem was the capital city. It had prestige and ranked with the great cities of the world. People expected God’s great events to take place in Jerusalem. But Micah said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem.
At times, we have a twisted sense of values. We don’t glamorize small towns and villages; we pay attention to big cities. Yet many people who have made great contributions to society have come from little villages.
Sometimes we look down on people. The Jewish people of that day looked down on shepherds. In many ways, they were considered social outcasts and religiously unclean. But that’s not how God viewed they shepherds. The angels appeared to the shepherds with the joyful announcement.
Worse than looking down on places and people, we may belittle ourselves. We tell ourselves, “I’m no good! God can’t use me! I’ll never amount to anything!” We treat ourselves as insignificant.
Bethlehem was small, but it wasn’t insignificant. God chose Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus and God still uses people and places the world calls insignificant to accomplish his purposes.
Bethlehem, though you are small, God chose you. God is still choosing people the world thinks are small. No one is insignificant to God.
2. JESUS’ BIRTH GIVES US SIGNIFICANCE
The prophet said, But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one. . .
God chose insignificant Bethlehem as the birthplace of the King of kings. God chose what the world belittled and overlooked, to be the location of the Savior’s birth. Bethlehem never had a greater son. Bethlehem could boast of Jacob and Ruth and David but someone greater than all of Bethlehem’s illustrious citizens, was born that night. Micah said, out of you will come one. What a person came out of Bethlehem that night!
I. One who always existed.
Micah said, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. The life of Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is simply where the eternal Son of God received a physical body. There never was a time when Jesus did not exist. Bethlehem is where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14). Jesus is the only one who lived before he had a human body.
Ii. A ruler
Micah said, But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.
Micah said a ruler would come, one who would govern and who would reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus came as king. He did not have the trappings of royalty, he didn’t experience the pomp of a king’s birth and he didn’t have the comforts of the palace. Yet he came to rule and reign.
The angel told Mary, He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. (Luke 1:32 33).
The wise men recognized this and they asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? (Matthew 2:2).
When Jesus came, he established a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom in the hearts of men and women. There’s coming a day when he will literally rule over all the earth and at that time, he will rule and reign supreme.
Iii. For me
Micah said, Out of you will come for me one . . . The purpose of the coming of the Savior was not just for our good; Jesus came for the benefit of his Father.
Ultimately, Jesus was born, not simply for our good, but for God’s good and glory. That’s why at Jesus’ birth, the angels said, Glory to God in the highest. . . Through the birth of Jesus, glory was given to God the Father.
But Jesus did come for us as well. God receives glory through the coming of Jesus by what Jesus did and continues to do for us today. The angels told the shepherds, Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2;11).
What made Bethlehem significant? It was the fact that Jesus was born there. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem gave insignificant Bethlehem a permanent significance.
It is the birth of Jesus in your life that will give your life significance. Jesus was physically born at Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Today, Jesus wants to be born spiritually in your life. He wants to come in and take up residence as Lord and King.
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