Christmas Morning

Luke 2:1–7 NIV

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

The Christmas Story starts out with the gospel author Luke giving us the historical setting in which the messiah was born

He was born in the shadow of Cesar Augustus.

There was an inscription found on a building dated back to 9bc, listen to what it says

“The most divine Cesar, who we should consider equal to the beginning of all things, for when everything was falling into disorder, Cesar picked it up….(long quote)…Cesar has put an end to fighting and is Savior, having become God manifest, Cesar has fulfilled all of the hopes of previous times… and at the celebration of the birthday of Cesar, has been the beginning of Good News ”

This is the same Greek word that we use for Gospel, before there was a gospel of Jesus Christ, there was a Gospel of Cesar Augustus. Within this inscription is also a command to celebrate Cesar’s birthday, with a 12-day celebration called advent…So there is a lot of New Testament language found in the inscription, and I want you to understand that if you were a Jew at this time this was the kind of propaganda that you heard all the time.

He was called the cosmic savior

Heavens Shining Star

The God Augustus

You’d have to worship this guy or be severely punished

You could not escape this

Communities formed that worshiped Cesar called Ekklesia, which is the Greek word for church

As I give you all of this history, you may be wondering, why is there so much language that is applied to Jesus?

Because the whole point of the Christmas story is to force you to choose

Even this morning on Christmas. We have to ask who is our savior?

Luke tells us that during this reign of Cesar Augustus, there is this baby that is being born that will make all of the difference.

Luke is setting up a conflict by 2 kings, 2 kingdoms

It is in this setting that we hear about a child being born

We hear that they are going to Bethlehem…which is the city of David, and a descendent of David is having a child

Micah 5:2 NIV

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though 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.”

Luke is trying to tell us that on Christmas day, a counter revolution was born..

There was already a king of the new world…Who had this sort of false good news…he already had a false and thinly held peace…He already was a savior...

But God in his brilliance challenges the powers of the world with something as weak and innocent as a child

That Jesus is a counter king to all of the kings of the world

That this is good news!

Because somehow this child would bring true peace

Somehow this child would bring true forgiveness

Somehow this child would bring real transformation...

So Luke in the birth narrative of Jesus…Isn’t just telling a story

He is asking a question:

Who will you put your faith in?

Who will you trust?

Cesar Augustus …Savior of Rome

Or this little baby, born in the lineage of David and in the town of David

Luke 2:8–14 NIV

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

The passage tells us the first group of people that God decided to share the good news with

In many ways this moment will define Jesus’ ministry & it will define the kingdom of God

See if you and I were God…We might say…Okay angels…There is an established religious elite in this village, go to them because when you go to the pastors and the priests of the town, then everyone will believe it

Instead of going to the religious elite, The angels went to the lowly shepherds

This is really one of the first places that the Kingdom of God is defined.

The kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom. It doesn’t play by our rules of power, fame and money.

God doesn’t make special trips to see the most prominent people in the town

Rather he allows the lowliest people in society to see his Glory!

These angels further define the kingdom of God

Their first words were do not have fear

But to have Joy

In their world, They had Cesar Augustus to deal with and Rome bearing down on them

But they also had the tyrant king Herod

We find out in Matthew’s Gospel that a birth announcement of a new king was a threat of the greatest kind.

That king Herod would kill all children under the age of 2 just to try and stop this king from gaining power

So living where these shepherds lived…This announcement would have been fantastic and thrilling and scary all at the same time

And theses shepherds were just ordinary people who worked hard every day

Because Christmas isn’t just about this battle between two kingdoms

It is Also, God stepping into ordinary life with his own people!

Lastly: Luke doesn’t want us to forget that there is a battle happening between two kings...

V13 & 14 talk about a vast army of heavenly angels singing this hymn

Luke 2:14 NIV

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

What we don’t realize reading this in 2022 is that these angels were plagiarizing…But doing so to make a point

See whenever Augustus entered a city…A massive number of Roman Legionares would shout at the top of their lungs

Glory to God in the highest of heaven and peace on earth to whom his favor rests...

God didn’t want his people to miss it...

Even though he came into ordinary life..to ordinary people

He is the true king!

Luke 2:15–21 NIV

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

It is unclear how deeply the Shepherds and Mary and Jesus knew what was happening...

They were celebrating, so they knew this was a joyful occasion

I mean they just heard a divine birth announcement

They saw the child...

They became missionaries...

But could they really understand that this moment would be the turning point of the entire world?

That a king who would overshadow Augustus would be born and they get to witness it

That this king would be born of a virgin

and that God himself would come into the ordinary.

Could they understand that laying in this manger is the actual place where heaven meets earth?

Out of Faith that this boy was who the angel says he was...

Mary and Joseph gave him the name Jesus

The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew name Joshua which means “Yahweh is our salvation”

Christmas Response

In Christmas we find that Jesus comes to ordinary people

In Christmas we find that all fear is unnecessary

In Christmas we find that heaven meets earth in a manger

In Christmas there is a lingering question…which savior do you want?