Building Bethlehem Part 3 "The Manger"
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And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Beth-lehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
(Be Seated)
Thank you for our cards and the gift, I wish I could give something to all of you, but you have my prayers for a wonderful time with your family this Christmas.
No Church Sunday
We rarely call off church on a Sunday, and we may never do it again, but considering the families that we have and the distances some travel to church, I wanted to give an opportunity for our families to spend time together on Christmas Day. What we do we need to do as a church, so none are left out.
Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th, so we aren’t going to miss His birthday. He never pointed us to His birth, he pointed us to His death.
Now, remember, during Christmas, worship the Lord Jesus. Worship Him in the Power of His resurrection. 64-1221 - Why It Had To Be Shepherd
Be sure to worship Him, with your family at Christmas.
Introduction.
Introduction.
The ultimate purpose of Bethlehem was the Birth of the Word. That is our purpose here as well.
The Apostle John tells us the story of Christ’s coming in a different way:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Jump to v 10
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
There was no room for Him.
τόπος (locus), a place; κατὰ τόπους, in various places, Mk. 13:8, &c., διδόναι τόπον, to make room for, give place to
It’s the same word as:
Neither give place to the devil.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word is made flesh where a place is made for it.
That place happened to be a manger in Bethlehem, in a stable dug by Bethlehem dwellers out of a hillside, but it was exactly where He wanted to be born.
Manger comes from the Latin word for chew or eat. It refers to a trough where horses and donkeys and cattle ate.- John Piper
The manger is dirty, not meant for babies to lay in, even during those times, yet it is exactly where Jehovah chose to incarnate.
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
I read this last week but it fits here:
He could’ve come a full man, but He chose to come a Baby. He could’ve been born in a palace. He could’ve been created in the Heavens if He wanted to.
But He chose to come, not to even a bed to be born. He went to a manger, on a manure pile, and over a manure pile He chose to be born.
It ought to be attractive. Jehovah crying like a baby, Jehovah playing like a boy, Jehovah toiling like a man, oh, it’s a great mystery. It’s a super sign to the people.
It’s God’s perfection working, making Himself, crossing His cast, making a tent and living in His tent, stretching out among us and living like we do. 60-0723 - Speak To The Rock And It Shall Give Forth His Water
The manure pile is God’s perfection working, the feed trough is God’s perfection working. Your life is the same.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Emmanuel. He was the God part, the Manger was “with us”.
In this little town, little stable, city stable down on the side of the bluff, was a cave back in the bluff, and out of there came forth through its little doors, the Prince of Peace,
born in a stable, in a little box of straw sitting somewhere, manure piled up in the barns, and so forth, but out of there came that great Prince, the Seed of the woman,
out of there came the Saviour of the world, out of there came Jehovah Himself, in a form of a man, came out of that little humble stable in Bethlehem.
Not in some king’s palace, born in royalty; but there He came from that humble place, to a manure stack down in there, and was wrapped in swaddling cloth.
Poor people! Joseph and Mary, both real poor, and here they was in this little stable. How humble God makes Himself! And then we try to make ourself something great.
Can’t you see how God humbles Himself and takes the things that’s not, that He might bring to pass His great promises.
How that little Jehovah laying in a manger, wrapped in the cloth taken off of the back of a yoke, the neck of a yoke where ox had been. And wrapped the Prince of Peace in it!
My! Who are we then? What do we deserve? If God can humble Himself like that, oughtn’t we to be able to humble ourself to become His servant, if He did things like that?
Can’t we forget our great dignities and things of this world, and pass from that, and humble ourselves before Him this Christmas?
And show Him our appreciations of that birth and that humility, by humbling our own selves and receiving His Word. No matter what the tradition says, it’s His Word that counts. That’s what He’ll take, His Word, and That only.
Now we find out, this little stable, it was there that the first noel was ever sang on earth, and it was sang by Angels. Think of it!
The first noel, not sung up there with Caiaphas, not down at some great fine church where a wonderful pastor was, but at a stable in Bethlehem, the least among all of them.
No matter how poor you are, how little or insignificant you might be, God can use you if you’ll just let Him do so. God wants you.
He don’t want you to…you don’t have to belong to some great society, some great order, some great brotherhood, or whatever it might be, that don’t mean nothing to God. God wants you!
And if you feel that you’re great, get that feeling out of you. You got to get it out. You say, “Well, well, I have a Ph.D., LLD.” That just takes you that much farther from God.
Forget the thing. Come back to God. Come back to the humility of the Spirit, and love God and take His Word.
“And if ye abide in Me and My Word in you, then ask what you will, it’ll be done for you.” God promised that. “If you say to this mountain, ‘Be moved,’ and don’t doubt in your heart, but believe that what you said will come to pass, you can have what you said.”
“He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he also. Even greater than this shall he do, for I go to My Father.” What promises!
There’s something lacking somewhere. What we try to do is twist it up and make it some great something up there, put flower and tinsel on it, and we pollute it just like the nations has done Christmas.
That’s right! If we could get the tinsel off of the things, and the humility back in the human heart! If we could bring the humility back to Christmas of what it ought to be!
Not a commercial day, not lights and Santa Claus’es! But back to worshipping the God of creation Who come in a stable and was born a Baby, God made flesh and dwelt among us!
If we could come back to that, get away from the tinsel and the big things. God don’t even deal with it at all.
You say, “Well, I belong to the biggest organization.” That takes you that much farther from God. You say, “I do this, that.” That just takes you that much further.
You’ve got to humble yourself until you see that, until, “If ye abide in Me and My Words abide in you, then ask what you will.”
What we try to do, as soon as God gives us a little shower of blessings, we try to twist it all up and get dignitaries in there that’s going to make great big names and outdo the other one. This one starts this way and that way, God leaves the whole thing.
What we need today is a fresh pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon hearts that’s humble. We need a real Christmas, a birthplace.
If you could realize that you’re nothing but a stable! God didn’t go to Jerusalem, to Shiloh, or Ramoth-Gilead, He come to a stable that was polluted.
When you let God, you become…and realize in yourself that you’re nothing but a stinking stable.
But welcome, open your doors, when these great big places and inns are turning Him away, open your doors of the manger of your heart and let Jehovah come in to that, and watch what takes place, for He is the Word.
He said, “If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you.” He is the Word. Let Him come into you, and watch what takes place. Then ask what you will, and it’ll be done for you. 63-1214 - Why Little Bethlehem
You are the manger, but He chose you as His dwelling place.
The Shepherds came rushing out of the fields prepared by generations of Bethlehemites, into a Stable meant to house the animals.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Beth-lehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Let’s go see the word made flesh.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
If an angel speaks to you and tells you to find a thing what you find will be the Word, not a man’s opinion.
Now, I heard people say, “An Angel spoke to me, He said, ‘thus and thus.’” How ridiculous sometime; and I’ve heard people say that a Angel spoke to them, and told them “thus and thus” which was absolutely contrary to the Word.
Now, how could an Angel do that? It just couldn’t be. And if God told you a certain-certain thing would happen (you say He told you that), and it doesn’t happen, then it wasn’t God speaking to you. Just remember, that’s right. God doesn’t lie. He’s not found in a lie.
When they found the Baby, what a joy it must have been to them. Because the Angel that gave them the message, they found it just exactly the way the Angel said it would be, and just in the place where the Angel said it would be. What a thing that must have been to them!
In a manger, why? See how at ease these herdsmen was in the stable? What do you think a theologian would have been in there? He’d have put a pin over his nose, and said, “Get me out of this place.” He would have been so out of place, he’d been in misery.
But, you see, it was “just at home” to the shepherd. God knows where to send His Message. Just exactly right. In this state the shepherds was in then, in their stable with their Lamb, a vindicated Message that they had heard. How beautiful! 64-1221 - Why It Had To Be Shepherd
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Now compare that with today. Just stop a minute and think. Man out adoring God, and praising Him for what they had seen, what they heard, what they knew was the Truth, with the Message that was incredible to the intellectual mind.
It was contrary to all ecclesiastical thinking, and yet it was the Truth! It’s the Truth! They believed It. And now, how foolish can the wisdom of man be!
Then saying that a Angel choir sang to them the first noel. Could you imagine that? That a shepherd that couldn’t write his name, smelling like a sheep pen, walking down the street, hollering, “Glory to God in the Highest! We know that He’s on earth!” 64-1221 - Why It Had To Be Shepherd
There may be a barnyard smell, but this is God’s promise for the day. We believe it.
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Holy Spirit is the Shepherd of our day. He’s the Messenger. Have you received His message? Has He been born in the manger of your heart? Everything we do here is for that purpose.
Sing: Let Your Word be Born in the Manger of My Heart