The Great Reversal of Bethlehem — Pastor Ricky Alcantar

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

27 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #6

"Directly addresses congregants experiencing suffering during the holiday season, naming specific forms of pain (loss, chronic pain, depression). Validates their experience while introducing the gospel's promise of hope within suffering, not just after it. The pastoral tone shifts from exposition to personal address."

Doctrinal loci· 11 surfaced

Soteriology · 8 Christology · 6 Pastoral Theology · 6 Providence / Sovereignty · 4 Hamartiology · 3 Doxology / Worship · 2 Theology Proper · 2 Bibliology · 1 Ecclesiology · 1 Eschatology · 1 Sanctification · 1

Bible citations· 14

Illustrations· 1

cultural reference · unit #2 — Introduces the sermon's central metaphor through a contemporary illustration about Abbey Road Studios. The 'walls that could talk' conceit from the documentary becomes the organizing framework for exploring Bethlehem's biblical history. Personal enthusiasm ('I'm a sucker for music documentaries') builds rapport while establishing the imaginative lens.

Theological claims· 8

Bethlehem's history reveals essential truths about who Jesus is and what kind of King he would be. unit #3
The Christmas story does not minimize or cover up life's genuine sorrow but honestly acknowledges it. unit #5
Christmas stories feature bitter characters not as entertainment but because they reflect the real suffering that Christianity addresses with transformative hope. unit #10
Bethlehem's biblical history reveals a consistent divine pattern: situations that begin in tragedy and loss are reversed by God into beauty and restoration. unit #16
Jesus fulfilled the Bethlehem pattern of the overlooked being exalted: appearing as a humble carpenter, he was actually the Lord of creation with divine power. unit #17
Jesus experienced the bitterness of unjust rejection but was vindicated in glory, as evidenced by 2,000 years of global celebration of his story. unit #18
Jesus embodied the sorrow-to-strength pattern most fully: experiencing the ultimate sorrow of crucifixion and transforming it into resurrection victory. unit #19
The wise men came to worship because they recognized Jesus as King, even without fully understanding the theological depth of his identity or mission. unit #21

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0 · Opens the sermon by situating the message within an ongoing exploration of the Magi narrative and frames the evening as pre-Christmas reflection

Well, good evening. We're going to continue our study— or not our study, our exploration of the wise men from Matthew chapter 2. So I'm going to read Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 6. And hopefully allow us to reflect just a little bit before we head into Christmas about what that means for us together.

1 · Reads the primary text aloud with a brief but significant framing statement emphasizing Scripture's nature as living divine revelation rather than mere historical narrative

So Matthew chapter 2, verse 1 through 6. This is God's word, not just an old story, the word of God. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, Where is he who was born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And then he quotes the prophet Isaiah here: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler 'who will shepherd my people Israel.'

2 · Introduces the sermon's central metaphor through a contemporary illustration about Abbey Road Studios

Now recently I saw a documentary come out. I'm a sucker for music documentaries. A documentary come out called If These Walls Could Talk, and it was about the famous Abbey Road recording studio in England and the story of how it was originally a mansion, then got kind of cleared away, and they became a classical recording space, and then was kind of made famous through a series of pop stars including the Beatles and and Paul McCartney, leading probably their— well, in my humble opinion, the best Beatles album, Abbey Road. And the documentary was kind of with the conceit that if you could talk to the walls at Abbey Road, they would have so many stories to tell.

3 · Applies the Abbey Road metaphor to Bethlehem, establishing the sermon's hermeneutical move: Bethlehem's Old Testament history becomes the interpretive key for understanding Jesus' identity

I feel the same way about the walls of Bethlehem, this small, out-of-the-way town. If the walls of Bethlehem could talk to us, they would tell us much about the child Jesus that was born that we celebrate on Christmas. Christmas. And if I could say it this way, they tell us stories that help us understand who Jesus is.

4 · Expounds Bethlehem's first biblical appearance in Genesis 35, establishing the pattern of sorrow that will be contrasted with subsequent reversal

And the first story I think the walls of Bethlehem would share with us is the story of the road to Bethlehem. Actually, the first appearance of Bethlehem in Scripture is Genesis 35, and you'd expect it to be a happy or exciting or, you know, kingly thing given how important Bethlehem is gonna be, but no, it's actually a tragic event. The patriarch Jacob is traveling and his wife Rachel, whom he deeply loves, dies in childbirth. Remember, this is the woman that Jacob worked 14 years in order to marry. And Rachel, as she's dying, names her son Ben-Oni, which means 'son of sorrow,' which is not a— that's a tough name for a little guy.

5 · Makes a counter-cultural theological assertion about Christmas's relationship to suffering

And yet, one of the things that's striking about the Christmas story and about Bethlehem is that it doesn't try to cover up the hard parts of life. The Christmas story is not just kind of a sheen we put over life to say, 'Oh, well, it's usually it's bad, but we're gonna pretend for a month that it's good.' No, life is full of sorrow at times.

6 · Directly addresses congregants experiencing suffering during the holiday season, naming specific forms of pain (loss, chronic pain, depression)

Perhaps you've lost a loved one and this Christmas is difficult because of that, or you're dealing with chronic pain or medical issues or depression. And the Christmas story does not ignore those things, but it does offer hope in the midst of that.

7 · Completes the Genesis 35 exposition by showing the reversal: Benjamin's renaming from sorrow to strength and his eventual role in redemptive history

In that story, Jacob sees his son. Imagine the son who maybe has the face or the eyes of his beloved wife, And he changes his name just slightly away from Son of Sorrow to, in the Hebrew it's very close, Son of Strength. He kind of renames his son, that out of this sorrow, this son will be a son of strength. And indeed he would be, he would be part of God's plan to save the world.

8 · Expounds the book of Ruth, presenting Naomi's catastrophic losses as the second Bethlehem story following the established pattern

The second story Jerusalem, I mean Bethlehem rather, would tell us is the city of Bethlehem itself, those walls, probably in a small house somewhere in Bethlehem, there used to live a woman named Mary. Naomi. The book of Ruth tells us about Naomi. Naomi lived there happily, it seems, with her husband and two sons, only for a famine to strike the land, and Naomi and her husband and sons leave and go sojourn elsewhere, only for her two sons and her husband to pass away. And so she returns to Bethlehem in sadness, and all she has with her—no earthly possessions—one foreign daughter-in-law named Ruth.

9 · Expounds Naomi's self-renaming from 'sweet' to 'bitter,' mirroring Benjamin's initial naming as 'son of sorrow

And you think, okay, nothing good is going to come out of this. And Naomi, when she arrives in town, she catches up with old friends and says, don't call me Naomi anymore, because her name meant sweet. Don't call me sweet anymore. My new name is Bitter. And you're like, man, that's also a tough look. You know, Naomi got back in town. That's the good news. The bad news is she's telling everyone to call her Bitter because her life's been so hard.

10 · Makes a theological and cultural observation connecting biblical Bethlehem to contemporary Christmas narratives

And again, you just see that Bethlehem doesn't try to cover up the hard parts of life. There's a reason that Christmas stories are full of crusty, bitter people. Scrooge, the Grinch, right? Why is the world so filled with Christmas stories like that? Well, because the real world is filled with Scroogey, bitter, Grinchy people. And the reason the world is filled with those kind of people is that the world is hard. Difficult things happen, and yet there is hope.

11 · Completes the Ruth narrative exposition by showing the reversal through kinsman redemption

Bethlehem also speaks to us about hope. This woman Naomi, by the end of the book of Ruth, She's gone from bitter back to being— back to sweetness because this commendable man named Boaz marries Ruth and legally becomes Naomi's son in a sense. In fact, Ruth's children with Boaz are legally Naomi's grandchildren even though they're not related by blood. Her life is reversed again from bitterness to sweetness.

12 · Expounds 1 Samuel 17 (though the reference should be 1 Samuel 16), presenting David's anointing as the third Bethlehem story

And then the last story, the final story, perhaps one you're familiar with, the story of Boaz's great— Boaz's great-grandson, or grandson rather. 1 Samuel 17, Samuel the prophet goes to anoint the next king of Israel in Bethlehem. And so Jesse, the father— this father in Bethlehem has a lot of sons. So he brings all these sons out so Samuel can examine them. And Samuel looks over son after son after son and says, 'Not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one.' Again, a tough day for the guy, Jesse's sons. They all just get rejected in a row. And finally Samuel says, 'Isn't there anybody else?' And Jesse says, well, I do have this one kid, but he, you know, and there's probably a reason he didn't invite him. He was overlooked.

13 · Continues the David exposition, emphasizing his exclusion through the detail of being left with the sheep

He was the guy that, the little guy that got left behind to take care of the sheep while the real kingly sons were being examined.

14 · Applies the David narrative to contemporary experience of being overlooked or forgotten

And maybe today you feel a little bit the same way, like Jesse's son did. You feel overlooked, like nobody really knows your story, like it's, you're going on through life, but nobody's really aware of you or caring about you.

15 · Completes the David exposition by showing the reversal: the overlooked shepherd becomes Israel's greatest king

And yet there is hope that in this little town of Bethlehem, Samuel and God look past all of the kingly people to this shepherd boy named David. And he ends up being anointed and becoming the greatest king of Israel.

16 · Synthesizes the three Bethlehem narratives into an explicit theological pattern statement

And so I hope you see in Bethlehem, if the walls could talk, they would tell of this pattern that happens over and over in Bethlehem, that things start out bad, but by the end of the story, a great reversal happens and something beautiful happens. Has come about as a result.

17 · Applies the Bethlehem pattern directly to Christ's person and work

And these stories, if they could tell, talk to us through the walls of Bethlehem, would tell us about who Jesus is and the kind of king that he will be. Jesus will be overlooked by the world. He will be a simple carpenter and then a wandering teacher, but that will hide the fact that he is also the Lord of all creation who can speak and stop a storm right in its tracks and bring people back from the dead.

18 · Applies the second dimension of the Bethlehem pattern—bitterness transformed to sweetness—to Jesus' rejection and vindication

This child, Jesus, will also taste bitterness. He'll be unjustly accused and condemned because he's preaching the truth, and he'll be cast aside by his people. And yet, 2,000 years ago, this man that they thought would easily be gotten rid of, in fact, well, there's a whole season dedicated to him every year. They weren't very successful in trying to downplay the story of Jesus. His story goes from bitterness to glory.

19 · Applies the third dimension—sorrow transformed to strength—to the cross and resurrection

And then perhaps most vividly, this child Jesus who is born will truly be a man of sorrow. His story will contain bearing a cross and being crucified on it. And yet he will not just remain a man of sorrow, he will also be a son of strength. He will rise from the dead in victory.

20 · Pivots from Christological exposition back to the frame narrative of the Magi in Matthew 2

So why then did these wise men come seeking this king? And why were they pointed to Bethlehem? And what does that have to teach us tonight?

21 · Interprets the Magi's motivation and responds to the transition questions

Well, they came seeking, as they said, 'We have come, we're seeking the king of the Jews, and we have come to worship him.' They likely didn't understand the whole story of Jesus. They may not have known all the stories of Bethlehem, but they understood one thing: the king had come. The King of all creation, and they wanted to become part of that story.

22 · Begins the climactic application by returning to the opening Abbey Road illustration and making the contrast explicit: we cannot enter that story, but we can enter Bethlehem's story

So here's the good news. Although you and I may never record a Grammy-winning album in Abbey Road Studios, although if you do, let us know, we'd love to maybe visit and check it out while you're there. Although that's unlikely, we're not going to be part of the Abbey Road story, we are part of the story of Bethlehem.

23 · Directly applies the Bethlehem pattern to believers' experience

And if you are a follower of Jesus, rejoice, because this great pattern that's present in the city of Bethlehem, from bitterness to sweetness, from sorrow to strength, from being overlooked to being known and loved, is the story of every single person who comes to Jesus as King.

24 · Continues the application to believers with eschatological assurance

And so today, rejoice that you have such a King, that your story, wherever it is right now in the middle of it, will end like all of the great stories of Bethlehem, in joy and strength because of Jesus.

25 · Shifts from application to believers to evangelistic appeal to non-Christians

And if you are not a Christian and Jesus is not your King, well, today he could become your King. Today he can meet you right in the middle of the story, wherever you are, and begin through his miraculous work and who he is to change your story from sorrow to strength, from bitterness to joy, from being overlooked to being known. That's why he came.

26 · Closes with pastoral prayer that rehearses the sermon's theological argument in direct address to God

Would you pray with me? Lord, we, we are so grateful that such a king exists that brings about such a stunning reversal. Lord, if the walls of Jerusalem, of Bethlehem, could talk, Lord, they would tell us story after story of God meeting people in difficulty and yet restoring and saving. This is the pattern of your life. This is the pattern of our life. So I pray that on this Christmas Eve, as we look ahead just over the horizon to the sun dawning and us celebrating Jesus as King, we'd remember this pattern and that even right now as we sing, you'd meet people where they are and give them hope and life in Jesus. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Nov 19, 2023

The Gift of Sex, Singleness, and Difficult Marriage

Marriage, singleness, and even difficult relational situations are unexpected gifts from God that serve as platforms for displaying the gospel through sacrificial service rather than vehicles for personal fulfillment.

1 Corinthians 7:1-16

Dec 3, 2023

How Can I Be Content With What I Have and Who I Am?

True contentment is found not by changing our circumstances or identity to match what we think we need, but by embracing where God has assigned us and resting in our vertical identity as those bought with the price of Christ's blood.

1 Corinthians 7:17-24

Dec 10, 2023

Should I Get Married

Because life is short and eternity is long, Christians must live with eternal perspective, recognizing that both singleness and marriage are gifts meant to serve kingdom purposes rather than ultimate sources of fulfillment.

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

December 24 · This sermon

The Great Reversal of Bethlehem

Jesus Christ embodies and fulfills the pattern of divine reversal present throughout Bethlehem's history, transforming the stories of all who come to him as King from sorrow and bitterness into strength and joy.

Matthew 2:1-6

Earlier in the corpus · December 25, 2022

A prior sermon on Matthew 2:9-12

You preached this same passage — 2 Matthew 2 citations in that earlier sermon. Worth re-reading before the next time this text comes around.

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

Ready-to-print leader brief with cross-references and landing-zone application. PDF available.

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

Mon–Fri scripture readings drawn from this sermon's citations.

Family table

Sunday-evening conversation card

One prompt for the table; works for kids and adults alike.

Couples

Three questions over coffee

For married members — works as a midweek check-in or a longer date conversation.

Memorize

Matthew 2:1-6

A verse from this sermon's primary text to commit to memory.

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [The Gift of Sex, Singleness, and Difficult Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1-16, 2023-11-19)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/the-gift-of-sex-singleness-and-difficult-marriage-2023-11-19)
- [How Can I Be Content With What I Have and Who I Am? (1 Corinthians 7:17-24, 2023-12-03)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/how-can-i-be-content-with-what-i-have-and-who-i-2023-12-03)
- [Should I Get Married (1 Corinthians 7:25-31, 2023-12-10)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/should-i-get-married-2023-12-10)
- [The Great Reversal of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-6, 2023-12-24)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/the-great-reversal-of-bethlehem-2023-12-24)

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