1. THE BUZZ IN BETHLEHEM Matthew 2:1-18
Sermon Introduction
THE BUZZ IN BETHLEHEM
Matthew 2:1-18

2. Of all the little towns in all the world why did Jesus have to be born there?
1. TO FULFILL PROPHECY OF HIS BIRTH Matthew 2:4-6
2. TO IDENTIFY WITH DAVID Matthew 20:29-31

3. 3. TO PROVE A POINT
4. TO FULFILL A PROPHECY OF TEARS Matthew 2:16-18

4. Why does Matthew connect the event with Jeremiah 31?
C. Bouwman:
But her selfishness received expression in the name she gave to her first-born: "she called his name ‘Joseph’, saying, ‘May the LORD add to me another son.’" With the birth of Joseph, her tears were stopped, her grief was turned to gladness, but she was not quickly content.

5. For the sake of her own name, she wanted more
For the sake of her own name, she wanted more. Rachel continues to have a self-centered focus oriented around herself as a mother.
She is not a woman living with a perspective of faith and a heart oriented to the glory of God, but rather with her eyes on herself.

6. It’s not that Rachel couldn’t be comforted, but that she REFUSED to be comforted.
This happens when we get so wrapped up in trying to make life work here and now that we forget the bigger picture, ie – God is at work through the joys and trials to conform us to the image of his son

7. INSIGHTS
Children were what Rachel lived for -Gen 30:1. She weeps inconsolably when the thing she lived for was taken from her. This is how we recognize our idols – we are inconsolable when it is taken away.
Rachel weeping is a metaphor for all of us when we fail to view life from the eyes of faith by seeing God’s design and glory in our everyday activities.

8. We understand: Israel’s wailing at Ramah was not the cry of faith, but of unbelief. God had announced a return, and that’s why it was not for Israel to wail in self-centered pity on the assumption that this is the end of her offspring, that her youth would disappear in exile.

9. Why does Matthew say this event of the Christmas story fulfills what Jeremiah said.
The character of the weeping is what is similar. Yes, despite the differences, the character of their respective mourning remains the same. Each is wrapped up with themselves and so refuses to be consoled; none is open to the comfort of God’s promises.

10. In Bethlehem was weeping, but there was no appreciation that here the seed of the serpent was bruising the seed of the woman in an effort to kill her offspring. Here was no active faith, no eye for what God was doing in obtaining redemption. That’s why they wept, and that’s what we have to learn from Matthew’s use of the quotation from Jeremiah.” C. BOUWMAN

11. WHY DO WE REFUSE TO BE COMFORTED? UNBELIEF
Because of our sins
Because of sins committed against us
Because of our circumstances

12. Sacred Romance
When we are caught in the socio-drama of our smaller stories, blind to the true story we need to ask,
"I wonder what God is up to in all this?"
The process of our sanctification rests entirely on our ability to see life from the basis of that question.

13. HOW TO FIND COMFORT
When we value the reality that every moment is a God moment; that He wastes no moments, but works in them for our own good – not necessarily our ease-, then we can find some consolation and comfort.

14. The big picture is that God is at work to conform us to the image of his son. God is like an artist who takes pains with his greatest work. C.S. Lewis

15. 5. TO IDENTIFY WITH HIS MINISTRY
BETHLEHEM = “HOUSE OF BREAD”
God doesn’t send answers, He sends “Bread”
Jesus weeps so that our tears can come to and end. He lives, dies and rises again so that He might be the bread of life for us.