Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room - Luke 2:1-7

Introduction

This morning, as we celebrate Christmas together, I would like for us to think and reflect on the amazing, wondrous, miraculous and even strange story that first Christmas night was.

read Luke 2:1-7

Luke 2:1–7 (ESV)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius 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 swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Background:

A. Luke opens up this chapter by setting the scene for us. We are currently in the time of Caesar Augustus. This Caesar’s name was Octavian, who was the nephew to Julius Caesar.

1. He was the first Caesar to take on the title of “Augustus”, which means “holy” or “revered.”

2. This title was usually reserved only for the gods.

3. It was under his leadership that the citizens began to recognize the Caesars as gods themselves.

4. In fact, Sept. 23rd, Caesar’s birthday, was adopted to become to first day of the New Year for many Greek cities throughout Asia Minor.

5. Because of his leadership in unifying the Roman Empire and bringing a “peace” and stability to the empire, he began to be recognized as the “savior of the whole world.”

B. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that a king would try to establish himself as a god.

Think back to what we have just finished looking at. We had Nebuchadnezzar try to establish a golden statue to establish his position as a god.

Once again, you have a man trying to make himself god and savior.

This is the setting for the birth of Christ.

C. This Caesar, who believes himself to be god, has been given a great amount of power and authority.

Caesar’s power stretched out to even affect the lives of those in a small little village.

Caesar enacts a mandate to take a Census so the world could be taxed. Everyone is required to go back to his own hometown to be registered for this census.

D. Here we see a little bit of background on Jospeh. He and Mary were living in Nazareth at the time of the Census.

Why is this important that Luke points out that Joseph has to go back to Bethlehem? Because he was of the house and lineage of David. Luke is establishing Jesus’ credentials as David’s son and heir to the throne.

God had made a promise to David that his son would sit on his throne forever. That son, God was talking about, is Jesus Himself.

Not only that, but Bethlehem was a part of the promise of the coming Messiah.

Micah 5:2 (ESV)

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.

E. Caesar, in exercising his power and authority, is being used by God to set in motion things that will bring his own power and kingdom to an end.

Remember the dream Nebuchadnezzar had of the statue? The head of gold was Babylon. The chest of silver would be the Medes and Persians. The stomach and thighs of Bronze would be Greece. And the legs and feet of iron and clay would be the Romans. And then there was a rock that was uncut by any human hand that came and struck the statue at its feet and brought the statue down.

We are seeing here in Luke 2, the fulfillment of this rock. However, this rock isn’t coming as a military weapon, leader, or king, but as a human baby.

F. Notice, being used by God, while it is a blessing, is very often filled with hardship and suffering.

Bethlehem would be about 90 miles to the south of Nazareth.

This would have been about a 5 day journey even in the best of circumstances.

Mary is getting to the end of her pregnancy and is now going to have to travel with Joseph these 90 miles, either by walking or by riding on an animal.

This trip is going to take supernatural strength and provision to accomplish.

G. They do make it to Bethlehem by God’s gracious hand. God has supernaturally and sovereignly orchestrated all these events to fulfill all that He revealed to the prophets concerning His Son.

H. But here’s the strangest part of all, as they are there in Bethlehem, they cannot find any place for them, so they end up going to a stable. Jesus, the Son of God, the rock from heaven to bring an end to all human kingdoms, the Savior and Messiah the people have been longing for, is going to be born, not in a palace surrounded by royalty, the temple, surrounded by priests and teachers, or even in the warmth of an inn surrounded by other Israelites, but in a stable surrounded by the animals and will be laid in a feeding trough for his bed.

I. Mary will have to give birth, in all of the pain and discomfort, out where the animals were staying, separated from any family she would have had to comfort her and help her during this extremely painful time.

Andrew Peterson’s song, “Labor of Love” - It was not a silent night There was blood on the ground You could hear a woman cry In the alleyways that night On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean And the cobblestones were cold And little Mary full of grace With the tears upon her face Had no mother's hand to hold

J. And then what kind of welcome did Jesus, Mary, and Joseph receive at the time of his birth? Nothing. There was no welcome. They were overlooked and ignored as poor peasants. This is God’s Son coming into the earth. This is God taking on human flesh to save men and women from their sin! It is not a man seeking to become god, like Caesar and Nebuchadnezzar has done. This is God becoming man! And He gets overlooked and ignored.

Why? If God was able to sovereignly work through pagan kings and empires to bring Mary and Joseph down to Bethlehem where Jesus is to be born, why didn’t He plan for there to be room for Mary and Joseph except within a stable?

(Busy, Forgetful, Sinful)

We know that Bethlehem was busy and full as people were coming there for the Census. Without putting blame on any innkeeper or anyone else, things were simply just busy.

Of course, we know that if we were to consider the seventy sets of seven years that Daniel was told about, the people should have started to expect something or someone to come soon. But it might be that the people simply forgot what God had promised. We are all a forgetful people.

Super Summer - I came back on fire, thinking about how God sees every individual person and is offering them the promise of eternal life in Christ.

However, not even a week after coming back, Shari and I had gone to walmart and after leaving, I saw a man on the corner of the exit to the parking lot asking for money and he was standing about halfway into the driving lane.

I made a comment to Shari that I couldn’t believe he was standing out in the road blocking the traffic of cars, feeling quite put out that he would be in my way.

Shari gently reminded me that he was one of the people that God saw and that God was calling me to see as well as someone in need of the gospel.

God used my wife to remind me of what I had just learned and then even preached that previous Sunday morning and then so quickly forgot in the busy-ness of life because I quit trying to see where God was working and was focused on my own activity.

It also might be the sins of the people who refused to love their neighbor the way God commanded them to. As Joseph and Mary were looking for a place to stay, could it be that someone could have given up their room on the inside to allow this young pregnant woman to have a place inside? It might also have been that Joseph did not tell anyone that his wife was pregnant so it might be nobody knew of the dire need for a room.

Whatever it was, the people of Bethlehem did not prepare a room for the coming Christ because they quit paying attention to what God was doing.

But God’s purpose for coming was not to find a room within an inn, Luke 9:58

Luke 9:58 (ESV)

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

his purpose for coming was to find room within the hearts of His people. His desire is to be loved and worshipped by His people with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strength.

Let Your Heart Prepare Him Room

Have you made room in your heart for Jesus?

Not just a small little space for Him to occupy for an hour or two on Sundays, but for Him to reign as King over your entire life?

1. Have you given Him room to be Lord over your marriage as you serve and love your spouse?

2. Have you given Him room to be Lord over your children as you lead and guide your children to love and worship the Lord? Ephesians 6:4

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

3. Have you given Him room to be Lord over your job and occupation? Ephesians 6:5-7

Ephesians 6:5–7 (ESV)

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

4. Have you given Him room to be Lord over how you interact with those in need and in your fight against your sin and temptation?

James 1:27 (ESV)

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Jesus has come to be both Savior and Lord to His people and the good news of Christ will not allow us to simply relegate Christ to a small private portion of our hearts.

(Slide with Picture and Quote)

Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous devotional, My Utmost for His Highest:

Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

The good news of the gospel will transform us into people who have so yielded our lives to Christ that we will be transformed into His nature.

Have you prepared Christ room in your heart?

God and Sinners Reconciled

Of course, there is another reason why God sovereignly placed the birth of His Son in a stable and not in a palace or even in an inn. And that is because Christ has come to reconcile sinners to Himself. In order to reconcile sinners, Jesus has to be accessible to them.

Let’s read the rest of this story in verses 8-20:

Luke 2:8–20 (ESV)

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Notice, the first people God sent His angels to announce the birth of His to were the shepherds. The shepherds were the unclean outcasts of Jewish society of their day. They typically stayed outside the city limits. They were often viewed with suspicion as they received a terrible stereotype of being thieves and sinners, comparable to the tax collectors of the day.

If Jesus had been born within the city limits, there would have been a segment of society that would have no access to see Him. However, as it stands, God has made Christ available even to the worst of sinners.

If Christ was willing to step down from His throne and enter this world by being born in a stable, there is nothing so bad that anyone can do that will keep God from loving them.

Many people think they need to clean themselves up before they come to Christ. Many think that there’s no way that God could love them because of what is in their past. Let me say, Christ came into this world knowing everything that everyone has ever done and He has chosen to love you nonetheless.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus experienced the worst this world had to offer, and He still chose to die.

You don’t have to clean yourself up before you come to Him. The shepherds were not told to get their act together before going to see this child the angels told them about.

Many people will say, once I get some things in my life in order I’ll come to Christ. Listen, He already knows everything in your heart and He still chose to come and be born in a stable and to die on the cross for you. You don’t have to clean yourself up before you come to Christ. In fact, you cannot clean yourself up enough because He loves you already and there’s nothing you can do to impress Him with your good works.

Maybe you are a believer, but you have wondered away from Christ. You are wondering if He still loves you. He’s seen the stables of this world and He’s seen the stables in your heart and He has still come for you.

But let me say this, when we come to Christ, He will change us. He will do the work of cleansing us from our sin and making us right with God. But we do not have to clean ourselves up before we come to Him.

here’s a phrase that is often quoted at The Village Church in Dallas, TX, and I would like to borrow it this morning.

It is okay to not be okay. It is not okay to stay that way.

This means, It’s okay to come to Christ with all of our dirtiness and brokenness. It is okay to come to Him with our hearts looking and smelling like the barn He was born into. But when we come to Him, He will begin the change in our hearts to reflect His holiness. We will not be the same after meeting Jesus.

Look at what happened to the shepherds. After seeing Jesus, they left glorifying and praising God and telling everyone what they had seen and heard. There was a change. they could not help but be changed by their encounter with Jesus.

Come to Christ as you are because He has come to reconcile us to God. But know, when you truly encounter Him, you will never be the same because He will not leave you that way!

Conclusion