Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Ranking History’s Giants And Why Jesus Still Leads
A data scientist’s list says Jesus ranks first in history, but the real question is why that still matters to a modern listener juggling holidays, headlines and doubt. We start with the tension between fleeting fame and durable significance, then trace the thread from a bustling Bethlehem to an ancient promise in Micah that quietly set the stage for a birth that would outlast empires. Along the way, we ask why scholars who knew the prophecy didn’t make the short walk to see, and whether we risk the same indifference when the season turns loud and hurried.
From there we focus on one compact line: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” Each word carries weight. “Born this day” insists on history, not myth. “City of David” ties hope to a real map. “Saviour, Christ, Lord” stacks identity, mission and authority into a single claim: rescue has arrived, promise is fulfilled and God’s rule has drawn near. We explore the virgin conception as the miracle beneath the manger, the joining of true humanity and undiminished divinity that makes sympathy powerful and salvation possible. We also address scepticism head-on, showing why the gospel writers anchored the story in verifiable contexts rather than fable.
To ground the theology in lived experience, we share a moving testimony from a man who found faith behind bars, discovered peace under injustice and may soon be exonerated. His words cut through seasonal noise: grace does not erase pain, but it redeems it with purpose. That’s the heart of Christmas—God does not send a committee or a manual; he comes himself. If you’ve heard the story a hundred times, this is a fresh walk down a short road from knowing about to seeing for yourself.
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Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Here we go. Now, this will be interesting for some of my listeners. Um, still following along the same theme. I am slowly leading into Christmas and the understanding of it. So I'm hoping that you'll stay with me. I've called this sermon, Who is the most important person in history? Now, following on from last week, this is in God's eyes, with the exception of yourself. Okay, now I will explain this as I go along, right? But realistically, like I was talking about last week, you out of the eight billion people in the world, you are the most important person to God. And um I am the most important person to God. My wife is the most important person to God because he's no respecter of persons. Okay, we all equal in the eyes of God. So now to help answer this question, I've looked at this from a you know statistical purpose and also from a global worldly perspective. So it'll be interesting to see how you feel about this. Right? Now, we had a computer scientist called Stephen Skikander and a Google engineer called Charles Ward. They developed a system that ranks historical figures in order of significance. Their research produced a book called Who's Bigger? Where historical figures really rank? Now to establish this significant ranking system, they assess more than eight hundred thousand names, calculated scores of celebrities and people with great achievements or uh gratuitous, and then they factored in how long and how long ago some of these people lived, right? So give you a like out there on Pluto type thing to start with, Britney Spears and Aristotle. Now, just as Google ranks pages, the authors examine Wikipedia and other sources, for instance, they compared the influence of yo Britney Spears, okay, and Aristotle. Now, everybody knows that Britney Spears is a pop singer, so more people will know about Britney Spears, her influence is not likely to endure for more than a hundred years, right? You'd never doubt it, but anything's possible. But Aristotle was a man for the ages, okay? And so if I just mentioned the name Aristotle, people would have to look it up and find out who he is, but find he was quite significant. But then again, if I mention Britney Spears, everybody knows about Britney Spears and they know bad stuff about Britney Spears, but they won't really know how much of an influence she had on the pop culture. So now this is the rankings according to this, okay. These are the top ten most influential people in history, right? Now, some of these you'll agree with, others you won't, but you can do your own research and look at the depth of it and try and come up with the perspectives. But this is the ratings, okay? Now, Jesus is number one. Now I'm not saying that because I'm a Christian. This is what this report clearly highlights that Jesus is number one. Strangely enough, Napoleon was number two, Muhammad is number three, William Shakespeare is number four, Abraham Lincoln is number five, George Washington is number six, Adolf Hitler is number seven, and Aristotle he sits in at number eight, Alexander the Great is number nine, and Thomas Jefferson is number ten. Now these are a few other notable names that turned up on the list, all right? Just so you know that this is genuine, but by all means, like I always say, do your own research. Now, Martin Luther, he was number 17, Joseph Stalin was number eighteen, and Elvis Presley was number sixty eight. He ends up sandwiched between Socrates and William the Conqueror. But here's one more which is outside the the realms. You may be looking for it, you may not be, but Virgin Mary, okay? Virgin Mary was a person chosen to carry our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the Messiah. She was 128 on the on the most influential or most important person in the world. Now, in saying that, just considering what the Pope announced about Mary, maybe he knew her ranking. Now just remember, don't shoot the messenger, please do not do that. Do your own research. But just recently, the Pope was downgrading the importance of Mary in relation to the Catholic Church. All right. Now, reflecting on Psalm 139. Okay, now sometimes we don't appreciate the good news until we see it against the backdrop of bad news. Sometimes it takes a year of disaster, or in my family, this has been four very challenging years. So we need to be always able to wake up to the goodness of God. That's the most important thing. The coming of Christ to the world is the best news the world has ever heard. But I as I have heard from many people and pastors having heard it a zillion times, if that's a number, we may be tempted to let our minds wander and say, What's for dinner? Or perhaps, what are we doing for the holidays? But I would like to focus on one verse of scripture that brings us to the heart of Christmas. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. That's in Luke two eleven. There are four parts to this verse, and each one teaches us something important about why Christ came to the earth and what his coming can mean to each and every one of us. Now, first you got to look at the prophecy of his coming. Notice the simple phrase born this day in the city of David. The city of David is not Jerusalem, okay, it's Bethlehem, which is six or seven miles or I don't know, four kilometers, something like that, south of Jerusalem. I've yet to travel there, but have been told by many it's something every Christian should consider at least once. So let's put it on our bucket list and see how many of us actually get there. Now, looking at the topographically and historically, today Bethlehem is an Arab town under Palestinian control, but when Jesus was born it was a tiny Jewish community. See, modern Bethlehem is a bustling, busy town filled with thousands who jostle each other as they walk the narrow streets. See, the majority of the industry of Bethlehem is tourism, where there isn't a war going on, and the most important site is the Church of the Holy Nativity in the center of the city, built on the traditional site of Jesus' birth. Having been first constructed on that site seventeen hundred years ago, but in saying that, then built upon, added to, and restored many times over the centuries because it's always getting destroyed for a pro variety of reasons. Now, look at this. In 1865, a Boston pastor named Phillips Brooks, I thought that was an omen, Phillips, Pastor Phil, Phil, whatever, Brooks, visited the Holy Land at Christmas time. Upon his return, he wrote a Christmas carol, which his choir director set to music for their Christmas concert in eighteen sixty seven. And we still sing that today. Can anybody tell me what it is? Shout out. Now still we see ye lie above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by. He wrote it that way because a hundred and forty years ago Bethlehem was still a tiny village, a quiet and peaceful place. Bethlehem is called the city of David because David grew up here along with his father, Jess, and his seven brothers. In fact, David tended sheep in the field outside the village, just as the shepherds were doing the night the angel appeared to them. Is this all starting to come together now? There is one other fact that you need to know. Seven hundred years earlier the Lord had spoken through the prophet Micah and declared that a Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Here is the exact scripture from Micah five two says this, but you Bethlehem Ephraimes through 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 of old, from ancient times. Notice the phrase through you are small among the clans of Judah. The prophecy came from the Lord in seven hundred BC when Bethlehem was a tiny, inconsequential village. No one would ever have named it on the top ten vacation spots in Israel. If you went there you would find a few small houses and that's about it. When Jesus was born, the Jews knew that the Messiah would be born there. Matthew two tells us that when the Magi came to Herod in Jerusalem, they asked Where is he who is king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. Now that's a good question. Where is the Messiah going to be born? Herod gathered his theology council and asked them the same question. They replied by quoting Micah five two. You can find this episode also in Matthew two six. That's what I mean by the fact that the Jews knew God had been told seven hundred years before exactly where Christ would be born, there was no secret about it. None at soever. Just as a little side note though, I've always been fascinated by the fact that even though the Magi had suddenly shown up in Jerusalem, and even though the theologians knew where the baby was to be born, and even though Bethlehem was only a few clicks down the road, south of Jerusalem, as far as we know, not one of them cared enough to investigate for themselves. They were totally indifferent to the birth of the Messiah. They missed the most important event in world's history because they couldn't be bothered because what comes out of Bethlehem, eh? Now, point number two, the reality of his coming. Now let's look again at the text. The angel says here, unto you as born this day in the city of David. Now just focus on the three words. Born this day. See, there's two aspects to this truth we need to mention. The first is that there was no miracles associated with the physical birth of Jesus. Even though we often speak of the virgin birth of Christ, it's important to remember that the real miracle took place nine months earlier when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary with the result that although she was a virgin, became pregnant. That was an enormous miracle that has never been repeated in history anywhere in the world. Across the centuries, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ has been considered a foundational doctrine for Christians of virtually any denomination. You see, both Matthew and Luke plainly ascribe the conception of Jesus Christ to the action of the Holy Spirit. Matthew uses phrases such as through the Holy Spirit and from the Holy Spirit, he described what happened. Luke, on the other hand, added an intriguing, you know, like an interesting aspect or an interesting phrase when he reported that the angel Gabriel's words to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_00:And that's in Luke 1 35. The verb for overshadow speaks of the direct personal presence of God.
SPEAKER_01:What is the significance of Jesus being begotten of the Holy Spirit? Since Jesus was born to Mary, we know that he was truly human. Since he was conceived through the Holy Spirit, we know that he was more than a man. The virgin birth was God's way of denouncing a world that Jesus was indeed his son. Now we go on with the birth of the virgin birth. The Son of God entered the human race, taking upon himself all aspects of true humanity, yet remained sinless and without surrendering any aspect of his deity. Thus the babe in the manger was truly almighty God from heaven. He was truly God and yet fully man at the same time, deity and humanity joined together. That's one of the reasons I didn't want to put the other message in there that was being done earlier. So this is what I want to focus on. So now we get to now we get to the nitty gritty, alright? Hope I get through all of this. So what role did the Holy Spirit play? Though some means unknown to us, during the overshadowing, he created within the womb of Mary the human life of Jesus Christ. It is a pure miracle of the highest order. No one can explain it or duplicate it. Nothing can be compared to it, but no other birth has been or ever could be or is likely to be. Although Luke gives no details, we may safely assume that the delivery itself was normal in every way, or at least as normal as any birth could be under such trying circumstances. From time to time we read of women giving birth in strange places in a car, in an aeroplane, at the mall, at a restaurant, sometimes alone, sometimes attended by a very frightened husband. Such instances are normal births that happen in extraordinary circumstances. The birth of Jesus falls into that category, a true event that took place in a normal way in a very abnormal situation. Second, it's important to remind ourselves that the phase this day means that it really happened. Francis Schaefer used to talk about lower story truth and upper story truth. The truth is made up of the facts of history, the who, what, when and where of events is really happened at certain times in places to a particular person. So you've got to take that all into consideration when we're looking at this, how important it is this aspect of it. Well, if you look at what um is said by Francis Schaeffer, he puts it this way Upper story truth refers to fables and stories like the fables of Aesop that everyone knows aren't true, but are meant to teach religious truth. Many people today read Luke 2 and call it upper story truth. It's simply too fantastic to believe, or so they say. One professor called it theological fiction, that is, a story made up by the early church to explain the uniqueness of Jesus. Some of you may have heard about the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars who used colored pebbles to vote on whether or not the gospel stories about Jesus are true or not. When they came to the part of the story of Jesus, they voted 24-1 against the biblical account of virgin birth. Wow, they got that totally wrong. But this should not surprise us since there have been always been skeptics who attack the biblical record. Notwithstanding those attacks, the Christian church has always professed its belief in the literal truth of the virgin birth. You know, the ancient creeds put it this way conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, this is one truth that has always been believed by all Christians. Wherever we use Francis' term, the birth of Jesus is a low story truth because it really and truly happened. So when we read unto you is born this day in the city of David, let us remember that it points to something true, an event that really happened, not a legend or a myth or a nicely told fairy tale. To put it into contemporary terms, the virgin birth is not like Lord of the Rings. Tollican's or whatever his name is book is justly famous and the movies are breathtaking, but the story is not meant to be taken as history. Everything about the Bible accounts of the birth of Jesus is true, including the central truth that there really was a baby born in Bethlehem who really was the Son of God. And there is a third result of his coming. This I find quite profound. If we come to the climax of the verse and it says, A Savior who is Christ the Lord, here's an interesting fact that comes from the Greek text of Luke 2. When Luke wrote his account, he did not use any article to describe who Jesus is. The readers of this article described who Jesus is. Each word is vitally important. And means one who delivers his people.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. See one who delivers his people. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So what we what we find from this is that we now need to look at um other aspects in relation to this. It's a cinnamon of God. We desperately need a savior, don't we? It's a question. When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to Joseph, he said, Give me the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. That's Matthew 1 21. Now, just bear with me a little bit. I want to try and put this in some sort of perspective. A few months ago, I read this article about a prisoner who received a revelation knowledge from reading just this passage of scripture, not knowing the actual content of the book or the Bible that he was reading. This is just a quick summary of that article. This man was the oldest of five children. He came from a single parent family seeking self-esteem and acceptance. He joined a gang as a young man. When he dropped out of school in the ninth grade, he could not read or write. He got into serious trouble when he was 17. He was arrested, tried and convicted of first degree murder, sentenced to life in imprisonment. He has now been behind for 19 years. Now this is the this is the spinny part of it. This is the comment relayed to a visiting pastor who subsequently relayed it to his congregation. Let's just call him Joe for the purpose of this example. He stated that many had given up on him, but God never did. See, he was told that he would never amount to anything, but God said otherwise. He was told that he would find death in prison, but instead he found eternal life. Investigators reached the Discovered DNA and other fingerprint evidence that evidence proves he did not even commit the crime. He may soon be completely exonerated and released from prison. God looks after his people without any shadow of a doubt. How does he feel about his nineteen years behind bars? Now this is definitely someone who is listening to the word of God. He said, I have been overwhelmed by the grace and the mercy of Christ. I've been given a wonderful piece that surpasses all understanding. I am absolutely convinced that had I not come to prison, my life would have been completely devastated beyond repair. It's now been nineteen years of incarceration, and these years have been the most refreshing and enlightening years of my life. I am truly blessed beyond words. Wow. Only the grace of God can enable a man to talk like that. He goes on to say that he is writing a book about his story called Saved by the Cell. That's why Christ came to be a Savior for everyone who will turn to him. He is the Savior, He is the Lord, He is the Christ, the one sent from God. This is the heart of Christmas. God loves us enough to send His only begotten Son. Think of it this way. He didn't send a committee, He didn't write a book, He didn't send a substitute. When God got ready to save the world, He sent the best that He had, His one and only Son. And in sending Jesus, He was really sending Himself. This is the stupendous truth of Christmas. Emmanuel with God. Now, I'm going to continue on with this as we get further into this, but it's just awesome to be able to listen to testimonies like that. Until next week, bye for now.
