Amen. Please be seated. And if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 2 this morning verses 1 through 7. This evening we'll have occasion to read on the rest of the story in Luke 2.
But this morning the first seven verses, and we turn of course to the gift of God's son. God became human to bring humanity back to God. And in this passage, let me invite you to listen for when God did this and where God did this and how God did this. Luke wants us to see and rejoice in God's sovereignty and God's providence and God's humility in the gift of his son.
Here now the Holy and Inspired Word of God, Luke chapter 2. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Cornelius was governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David.
To be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in slobbling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. Amen.
This is God's Word. May he write it on our hearts. Let's look to him in prayer. Oh Father, glorify your son by the work of your spirit through your own Word.
Bless us, we pray, with hope and peace and joy. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. Amen. In December 2011, an astonishing event happened at a college basketball game between North Carolina and Texas.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams did something unexpected. Now you need to know who Roy Williams is. He's one of the best college coaches ever. Three national championships.
He took nine teams to the final four in his career at both Kansas and North Carolina. That's fourth all time in NCAA history. And he's one of only a couple of coaches. He's the only coach in NCAA history to have led two different programs to at least four final fours.
He's already been inducted into the basketball hall of fame and he's recently retired. But here he was on the floor coaching his players when during a timeout wearing suit and tie as old coaches used to do, old school, seeing a wet spot on the floor. He grabbed a towel bent down and wiped the sweat of his players off the floor. Now there are ball boys for that.
There are court attendants, custodians, assistants, players. It's not the typical thing for a multi-million dollar hall of fame head coach to do. And the crowd, seeing it, first began to murmur. And then as they observed what was really happening got louder and louder until they applauded.
Because one while in the world of basketball, so high, stooped so low to serve, it delighted those who saw it. Well this Christmas we have such a sight of Jesus. May our hearts burst with pleasure at him. I want you to think about the passage before us in terms of the timing of the birth of Christ and the place of the birth of Christ and the manner of the birth of Christ.
And what that teaches us in the first place in verses one to three, the timing of the birth of Christ. It reminds us of God's sovereignty in his and our lives. When was Jesus born? Notice the language.
In those days verse one a decree went out from Caesar Augustus. Then all the world should be registered. It happened in the days of Caesar Augustus of Rome. And verse two, this was the first registration when Corinius was governor of Syria.
So it happened in the days of this mysterious Corinius. And so just pause for a moment here. Sometimes people will say, you know it doesn't really matter whether the Bible has the details correct. What really matters is the spiritual meaning of the story.
It's not whether the facts are correct. It's the spirit of the story. But Luke is not only a good physician, he's a good historian. And he paid careful attention to detail in chapter one.
He notes at the very beginning of the letter that he did his research in order to put together an orderly account of the things that occurred among them. He interviewed eyewitnesses and he wrote a chronological account of the events. So one of the things he does is he roots the story of Jesus in history because God rooted Jesus in the history of humanity. It happened in a real time, in a real place.
And it matters that it did happen. It matters that God really came to earth, was born into a human family, walked among us, suffered, died, and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins that we might have eternal life. It matters if it really happened. It matters that it's not just some fairy tale we tell ourselves in delusion because we just wish it was true.
Paul will make this point with regard to the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. If Christ didn't actually rise from the dead, our faith is futile and we're still dead in our sins because we don't have life in a living savior and we don't have forgiveness of sins by his being punished in our place. No, we're just to be pitied more than all for believing such foolishness if it didn't happen in time and history. But it did.
And that's what Luke says. And he tells you exactly when it happened. And the fact of this, what it does is it points us to the sovereignty of God in history and over the kingdoms of this world. Because when did this happen?
It happened when Israel was at a low ab and Rome was a rising tide of might and power. When Israel was but a client state governed by a pagan Roman empire, when Israel could barely govern their own affairs without oversight from their overlords in Rome, when Israel hadn't had a descendant of David on the throne of Israel for 500 years, then it is that God came to his people and this great David's greater son was born into this world. When God's people were at their weakest, then God showed himself strong on their behalf. And it happened in the days of Caesar Augustus.
Who's that? Well, he's famous, isn't he? He's the great nephew of Julius Caesar. When Julius Caesar was killed, Caesar Augustus was the major inheritor in his will.
And this Caesar called for a census. He wasn't the first one to do such a thing. Most of them did call a census for two main purposes, of course, for money and for the military. They wanted to have a list of the people so they could tax them and they wanted a list of the men in their kingdoms so that they could draft them into the army if necessary.
But whatever Caesar's purposes in the census were, Luke is reminding us that God had his own purposes. Ralph Davis says, it's as if God says, let's make Caesar Augustus useful. Well, how can we make him useful? Well, he can, God can, because Proverbs 21 is true.
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and he directs it like a water course wherever he pleases. Where did God direct the heart of this king? Well, to call a census. To call a census.
And so Caesar was a tool in the hand of God. That's because the most powerful institutions in men in the world are but we might say pawns in the hands of a sovereign God who rules and reigns on behalf of the work of saving his people. And that's so important, right? What God promises, he fulfills what God intends to do, he accomplishes and he does it, even making use of the mightiest empire in its day and the most powerful man in that empire.
He's reliable that way. And not everything in life is reliable, but God is reliable. So J.C. Ryle draws this observation from the passage, let us ever rest our souls on the thought that our times are in God's hands.
He knows the best season for sending help to his church and new light to the world. Let us beware of giving way to over-anxiety about the course of events around us as if we knew better than the king of kings when relief should come. And so I just put it to you, are you waiting on the Lord in your life? Are you seeking something from him, trusting in him for something in the future?
You need to know that he knows what he's doing and what he is doing is good and good for you. And he knows when it is best to do it. Martin Luther had an anxious friend named Philip Malen who was always worrying about something and Luther had to say to him, cease Philip from trying to govern the world. God governs the world.
Do you remember in the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17, he needed a place to hide out from Ahab. He was on the run, he was being persecuted and hunted. And so he was living by the brook east of the Jordan and Ravens brought him bread and meat. And it says in 1 Kings 17 in the morning, bread and meat and bread and meat in the evening.
And he drank from the brook. So we might say everything seems fine. But then after a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. And we might say everything didn't seem so fine.
Then God sent to him a widow in Zarefeth. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold a widow was there gathering sticks and he called to her and he said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, and bring a morsel of bread in your hand. So you can imagine he's thinking everything's fine.
She's got water amidst a drought. I'm thirsty. I'll be satisfied. How about a little food with that?
And then she said, as the Lord, your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a jar and a little oil and a jug. And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. It's the last of the food. Everything's not so fine.
And all I just said to her, do not fear, go and do as you have said. But first, make me a little cake of it and bring it to me. And afterward, make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.
So everything will be fine. God will provide in his own way at his own time, Elijah says. And she went and did as Elijah said, and she and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent.
Neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. What was the point of that? Well, the king of kings has his own time for all his purposes. His own time for Jesus, his own time for a widow and his own time for you.
He's sovereign and he's reliable and we can depend upon him at just the right time God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem us. That's the first thing. But now I want you to think about not just the time of the birth of Christ, but the place of the birth of Christ, where he was born. And it points us to God's providence again in our lives versus four and five.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed who was with child. So Mary is betrothed to, married we might say, certainly more than engaged in the way we think of it. They were committed in a public ceremony to be husband and wife, though Mary hadn't yet slept with him and hadn't consummated the marriage yet, as you know, but she's with child by the power of the Holy Spirit. And she's living, and Joseph is living in Galilee, a little town called Nazareth.
And it's way up in the north. But we know from the Old Testament prophet Micah, Micah chapter 5 verse 2, that the Messiah is not going to be born in Nazareth. He's going to be born in Bethlehem. So you ask yourself, how do you get, well, the Virgin Mary, pregnant, nearing the time of delivery to travel some 90 miles, whether on a donkey or a mule or on foot, to get her to go to Bethlehem, that the prophecy might be fulfilled?
How do you do it? Well, if you're God, you order the events. I mean, he is God and heaven above and on the earth below. He orders all things in heaven and earth.
He governs the affairs of men. And so God simply uses the most powerful person in the world in that day, humanly speaking, and the most powerful kingdom in the world in that day as his pawn to do his will. So Augustus decrees a tax, and he mandates that each should return to his own hometown. Now historians have looked and said, we can't find a universal tax like this with a call to return to your own hometown across the entire Roman Empire.
And that's true. But this was done specifically in Israel. And at one time, years after, you could even go and look at the collection they had gathered by the tax as it had been laid up in the treasury of Rome. So this hadn't been done in the rest of the Roman Empire, but in Israel, it was commanded that all report to their hometown or the city of their family.
So Joseph says to Mary, sweetheart, I know you're due soon, and I know it's a long way. You can imagine the conversation. But we have to travel. At least it's to a family reunion.
Alright, let's go. And so it is fulfilled. Micah chapter 5 verse 2, but you, O Bethlehem Ephritha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah. You're just a tiny little town.
You're not even a clan. From you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from a old from ancient days. I mean, as far as the Roman Empire or Emperor knows, he's doing exactly what he wants to do. He's doing his own bidding, right?
He's thinking, I'll figure out how much I can get in tax and how many men I can draft into my army. He has no idea that he's actually serving the purposes of the kingdom of God on earth through a baby who's about to be born. But Luke is telling us, God is in all the details. Alright, everything's happening just as God has planned and purposed.
And why does that matter? Well, of course it matters for our salvation, that it wasn't left to chance or fate or to lock or any such nonsense. But it also matters for our own lives, right? That God is concerned for every detail and part of our lives.
God's care over us is just as extensive and comprehensive as his care over the birth of his own dear son. You remember how Jesus put it, are not two sparrows sold for a penny. And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father in heaven. But even the hairs of your head are numbered.
Jesus is saying, well, just like sparrows don't fall apart from the will of God. So even the hair on your head doesn't fall out apart from the will of your heavenly father. He's concerned about every detail of your life. This is why the Psalmist took such great comfort in Psalm 139.
He said, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. We are to take comfort in God's providential government of the world. As the wonderful Heidelberg catechism puts it in its first question, what is your only comfort in life and in death? Answer, that I am not my own, but be long with body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
Do you have that comfort? God knew just exactly where He wanted His son to be born. He moved the heart of a king to call for a census in order to move an eight month pregnant woman to travel 90 miles, maybe by mule, just to get Jesus where He wanted Him. Don't you know, just like with Jesus, God is working all things together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
And so we see the timing of the birth of Jesus, Joseph, God's sovereignty in our lives and the place of the birth of Jesus shows us the providence of God in our lives and then the manner of Christ's birth points to the humility of God, not as verses 6 and 7. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. Mary it says gave birth to a son.
In circumstances of course no mama would ever wish for. And they arrive evidently so late in Bethlehem, the end is already full. Now this was no end like a motel six. I mean, this is probably some kind of caravan house for travelers and it's all filled up.
There's just not a spot for them to lay down and Joseph doesn't have means. He's not wealthy. He can't secure something nice. But there is a stable.
There's a stable probably attached perhaps to the house as would often be the case so that the animals would have shelter up close to the home. And that's where the animals were. The sheep and the goats and the donkeys and the mules making noise and fouling the hay. Strangers coming in and out to check on their animals and Mary delivers Jesus amidst it all.
And she lays him not in a bassinet, but in a manger. And a manger is a feeding trough for animals. So Jesus here is born we might say into the lowliest of conditions of poverty, not in a hospital, but in a stable, not among princes, but among the beasts of the earth. And again, you understand that this is not a coincidence.
This is no happenstance. This is a deliberate choice of the almighty God and creator of all things to humble himself and in humility and in that humility. We are reminded that God cares for us. To what lengths will he stoop or to what lengths will he go from what height will he stoop to care for us.
I mean, when we had turned our backs on him through sin, he did not turn his face away from us. He determined to rescue us by becoming one of us to be born in the lowliest of conditions that he might sympathize with us in sorrow and suffering and to be rejected by his own creatures nailed to a cross and die for our sins. And so it is that there's no one he cannot relate to. His humility points to his sympathy.
He is flesh and blood like us, yet without saying, but true man and true God, he can sympathize with all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances. He can sympathize with children. He was after all the first born son, the oldest child in the family of Mary and Joseph. He undoubtedly faced the rivalry and jealousy of his brothers as happens in families.
And he bore the weight of responsibility in his own family. He had his family didn't take him seriously. I mean, late in his life, his family thought he had gone mad, crazy, and out of his mind. He can sympathize as well with those who've lost a parent or have need to care for a widow.
By the time that Jesus is an adult male, Joseph is absent from the story. We don't know what happened to him along the way. The Bible just doesn't answer that question for us, but Mary is alone as Jesus goes to the cross. And when he dies, he has the responsibility of caring for the elderly parent, the mother who's a widow.
And he turns to his friend, John, and Jesus says to his mother, woman, behold your son. And then said to John, behold your mother, he knows how to sympathize with those who've lost a parent. And he knows how to sympathize with those who are caring for a widow. He could also sympathize with those who are misunderstood.
I mean, he was a sinless child. And so you'd have to imagine the circumstances as a sinless child being raised by sinful parents. I'm not saying they were unloving, but they were finite and fallen. Undoubtedly, there were occasions where he was disciplined by his parents for the false of his siblings through no fault of his own.
Most parents with multiple children have read a situation and disciplined improperly, one who was not at fault. And surely with fallible parents, misunderstanding situations is making assumptions that he had fallen short of God's law when he had not or such. Surely he, we might say, suffered at the hands of parents, parents he himself created. And he can also sympathize with those who work for a living.
I mean, as best we can assume, he grew up as the son of a carpenter. That word may not have the exact specific meaning that we tend to put on the word carpenter. It probably has a broader meaning of a builder, of some kind of construction worker of some kind. But in any case, perhaps Jesus made things and sold things and labored for days wages and worked with his hands and negotiated with clients and dealt with unsavory types in business.
He can sympathize with you. He can sympathize with those who grieve. He grew up and went to the tomb of his friend Lazarus and wept. He shared the grief of his family and the murder of his cousin John the Baptist and he can sympathize with those then who suffer.
He faced going to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane as our sin-bearer, prepared to encounter God in all his holy justice. And he said, if there's any other way, Father, make it so. But not your will. I'm not my will, but your will be done.
In that garden, he suffered anguish such that he he sweated great drops of blood. And then he suffered cruelty. The hands of his creatures, they mocked him, they spat on his face, they pulled his air, they glistered his back, they stripped him naked, they hammered nails through his extremities, they pinned him to a post and thrust a spear in his side. And in the end, he was abandoned by his closest friends to face his deepest pain.
So I said, all of us, in his humility, there is sympathy, whatever we face, whatever pain, sorrow, loss, weakness, poverty, humiliation, abuse, abandonment. Jesus understands us from the inside out. He gets us. And so he can help us.
He was already God, but he was not already man and he became man without ceasing to be God in order to help us. Vailed in flesh, the God had seen, hailed the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. And because he became fully man, he can save man fully. If Jesus had not been a man, he could not have died in our place and pay the penalty that was due to men to mankind for our sins.
It was humanity's sin that sinned humanity must pay the penalty. Jesus must be human to die our death in our place. You contemplate that this Christmas. You feel unworthy of his sacrifice.
You are. That's the point. Consider then the first people to find joy in him. Who were they?
A poor carpenter, a teenage bride, surrounded by animals. And as the story will continue in will read tonight, shepherds. Not the pleasant shepherds you see depicted in a sentimental Christmas card, but dirty people, smelly people. I mean shepherds aren't elite.
They weren't even really liked by regular people. They were the outcasts in society. Remember it was King David the youngest child who was sent out to tend to the sheep. Partly because they were always ceremonially unclean and couldn't attend the temple.
They were outcasts. Partly because shepherds as a group had a reputation for taking what didn't belong to them either by stealing others sheep or pastoring them on other people's land. And so the law courts considered shepherds unreliable and forbade their testimony in court. They were the lowest in society.
Poor outcast round-on, distrusted, considered unreliable. And so it is that if the message of salvation had come first to the elite, to the upper crust, the humble would have doubted it was for them. But because it came to the humble, the only thing standing in the way of the upper crust. The only thing standing in the way of their salvation is human pride.
Are we too proud? To be saved by a God so humble? Are we too proud to be humbled by Him and shown our need? We will never enjoy Him until God shows us that we ourselves spiritually, morally, are poor and needy, weak and sin-sick and that He is not too proud to stoop down and rescue.
But you know the joy of knowing Him. Let's pray. Father, we give you great thanks that you are a God who is high but who dwells with the lowly and the contrite of spirit. A God who rescues and saves.
And we need you. Teach us this week of celebration. Teach us our need for the baby born in the major and crucified and risen. In His name we pray.
Amen.