Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Over the past 2 weeks, Pastor Siya has been leading us through this Advent series

Preaching firstly on our need - concerning the Fall and the subsequent curse of sin and death that resides on every one of us

so much so, that our every thought and every deed is sinful and set against God

and none are righteous at all, not even one of us

And then last week he preached on the promise - that even though Isaiah 59 spells out how thoroughly wicked mankind is…

so much so that our sin has made a separation between us and God

and God has suited up to come in vengeance against us and our sin…

effectively God is at war with sinners

yet there remains a promise of a Messiah and undeserved salvation

Today it is my task to preach on the Announcement of the arrival of that Messiah, the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ

Text

Outline

The Illusion of Peace

The Announcement of Peace

The Embrace of Peace

1.

The Illusion of Peace

Luke 2:1-2 “1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.”

Each of the 4 gospels tell the same story, but each writer has a unique style and writes for different reasons and purposes

John, for example, is an evangelist.

He tells us in his gospel that he is writing so that people would believe in Jesus and be saved

Matthew is more particularly concerned with showing the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah

So Matthew begins his gospel account with the genealogy of Jesus, showing that He is the descendant of Abraham and David

And he regularly says things like “…so that it would be fulfilled” or “as it is written” to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah

Mark, too, is written for the purpose of showing fulfillment - that Jesus is the Son of God, but in a more narrative, storytelling style

and a fast one - Mark likes the word “immediately”

Luke - Luke is a historian.

He tells us at the start of his gospel that his aim is to write an orderely account of everything, based on eyewitness accounts, so that Theophilus may have certainty about the things he has been taught

Who was Theophilus?

It seems likely he was an influential Greek Gentile and either a non-believer...

and that Luke wrote his gospel and Acts to convince Theophilus that Christians were not a threat

or

he was a new convert and Luke’s writing is for the instruction of new believers

The important and clear thing is that Luke is writing an orderly, historical account of the events surrounding Jesus, His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His continuing reign even after ascension,

based on eyewitness accounts,

and the purpose is to give certainty that the events took place in human history.

That being the case, it is easy to see why Luke begins the account of Jesus’ birth with a historical time stamp

This was during the reign of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus

More specifically, this was during the time when Caesar Augustus gave a decree that the whole world should be registered in a census.

And this was at the time when a man named Quirinius was the governor of Syria

Now for all you history nuts, you’ll get a kick out of knowing that historical records do in fact show that:

the Roman Emperor at the time of Jesus’ birth was in fact Caesar Augustus, who was emperor from around 30BC to 14AD

and that at the time the governor of Syria was Quirinius

and they did actually conduct a census around this time - something that they generally did every 14 years or so

and there were a few reasons for doing this

there were possible military reasons for drafting young men into compulsory military service

it could have been for taxation purposes

it could have been an ego thing, to know the number of people in the empire

probably it was a combination of these and more

Caesar Augustus was an interesting guy, and this was also a very unique time in Rome’s history, and obviously, world history

The day before Jesus was born, Caesar Augustus was the most powerful man alive

His birth name was Gaius Octavian, and he was the grandnephew and later adopted son of Julius Caesar

During his reign as emperor, the Roman Empire was at its peak

Caesar Augustus united all Roman territories under his rule, which stretched from Britain all the way to Asia, and incorprated parts of North Africa

which really encompassed most of the known civilized world (which is why Luke speaks of all the world being registered)

Augustus set up a massive system of decentralized government to oversee the whole empire,

Allowing captured territories, like Israel, to be ruled by their own kings with their own customs and religions - as long as they paid a tax and swore allegiance to Rome

He began massive building and infrastructure programmes,

The Colosseum and the Pantheon were built in this time period

and over 80,000 km of roads were built - making travel through Rome much easier

He reformed and strengthened the military

until then, Roman soldiers were paid by their generals, which made soldiers more loyal to their generals than to Rome

Augustus paid them from state treasury, and was strategic about which territories and at which places they were posted

all of these things of course, which would have been served by the reasons I gave earlier for conducting a census

The most significant thing about his rule, though, was that under his leadership, Rome experienced that period in history known as the Pax Romana - the Peace of Rome

There was peace in the world

Peace within the united Roman Empire

it was a prosperous time, and Roman culture flourished

and Augustus himself was revered for it

He was hailed as the one who had brought peace to “all the world”

and he was given titles like “savior”, “lord”, “sovereign” and even “son of god”

One ancient inscription even read “Divine Augustus Caesar, son of a god, imperator of land and sea, the benefactor and savior of the whole world.…”

and he gave himself the title “Dominus et Deus: Lord and God - which is why the early church suffered the way it did under Roman persecution… they refused to worship the emperor

The census itself was a symbol of his lordship and sovereignty over the empire, as every household would have been required to take oaths of allegiance to the emperor.

It’s under these circumstances then, and at such a time, that Joseph and Mary must now make the 160km journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, without an Uber, even though Mary was pregnant

They had to go to Bethlehem to fulfill their obligation to the state, because the rules of the census was that each man was to be registered in his place of birth

And Luke points out and reminds us in the text that Joseph went to Bethlehem “because he was of the house and lineage of David”

And so it was that Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when the time came for Mary to give birth

And we see in verse 7 the most significant birth in all history - that of the Lord Jesus Christ, God with us, God in flesh

The Son of God, born in the small town of Bethlehem

wrapped in cloth

lying in an animal’s feeding trough

which was probably in a cave or outside shelter, because there was no place for them at the inn or guesthouse

a sign of the hardship and rejection that Jesus would suffer throughout His human life

There are a few things to note and highlight here before we take a look at the Announcement of Jesus’s coming

Firstly, note that although Caesar Augustus is called sovereign lord by his subjects, and exercises sovereign control and authority over the “world” as they knew it…

it was only an illusion of control, an illusion of authority

Caesar Augustus thought he was exercising his free will and wisdom and authority,

by not only instructing the census to take place, but by even uniting the Roman territories, building the infrastructure and achieving the Pax Romana

but really, Caesar Augustus was unknowingly acting under the sovereign Lordship and control of God

Augustus is the most poweful emperor in history and the most powerful man on earth, yet he is acting out the decree of God

It was no coincidence that his decree to get every man registered in their home town should come at this time, with Mary being pregnant

but it was decreed by God and prophesied by the prophet Micah much earlier that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem:

Micah 5:2 “2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

Caesar August, for all his titles of sovereign, savior, lord, even son of god… was in the end just a pawn in the hand of Almighty God

God sovereignly orders time and history, and it was God who ultimately set the stage for the birth of the real Son of God, and the only true Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ…

… here in Bethlehem as He decreed

Even the Pax Romana itself, Casear Augustus’ greatest achievement,

was meant by God to create the environment under which,