Sermon Tone Analysis

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.