A Moving of Heaven and Earth

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it. Tonight we will be looking at the first 14 verses of Luke 2. When I was a kid, I hated watching the news. Now that I’m pushing 30, I still hate watching the news. It seems like every time we turn on the news or read the news there is another war, another tragedy, another depressing event to be thrown into our face and very rarely it seems is there ever any good news. I think that we are all suffering from a case of a lack of good news these days. In fact, if you were to ask a handful of people, I’m pretty sure that they would tell you that they feel more stressed, more depressed, and unhappy now during the holidays than at any other point in the year. There are a bunch of different reasons as to why that may be but the underlying factor for all of those reasons is this: we live in a fallen world. We live in a world where there is sin and suffering. We live in a world that is covered with darkness and as we are going to see tonight, darkness does not have the final word. Even the darkest night must run when the brightness of the glory of God shines forth. Tonight I want us to look at 4 things: the Old News, the Bad News, the Good News, and the Great News. Before we do that, let’s open up in prayer and then we will look at Luke 2:1-14

Luke 2:1–14 NASB95

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

The Old News (Luke 2:1-4)

In verses 1-4 we see what I refer to as the old news. No news event just happens. While it may look spontaneous on the surface, there is never an action without something to cause that action and this is what we see happening in verses 1-3 and it is actually amazing what the Lord is doing in these verses even though the name of God is not mentioned here. The old news is this: Caesar Augustus, the emperor of the entire Roman empire, sends out a royal order that all of the Roman empire is to take part in a census. Verse 1 says that a census was to be taken of all the inhabited earth and that is Luke’s way of testifying to the greatness that was the 1st century Roman empire. Luke says that this took place while a man named Quirinius was governor or leader of Syria and the census requires everyone to register for the census in the city that they were from. That which sets up the birth of Christ happening in Bethlehem is this royal decree for everyone to return to their own city to register with this census. Something that I want to emphasize quickly is that the birth of Christ and Luke 2 seems to happen in fairly normal circumstances. It was normal for Caesar to issue decrees, it was normal for men and women to travel, it was normal for rulers to rule over nations, nothing on the surface seems quite out of place but what we know of the rest of the story and what we know of the providence of God is that nothing, even the most normal/ordinary events, ever happen independently from God. While life often seems to be proceeding as normal, God is always at work and it is often in ways that surprise us. What is it that God does in Luke 2? First I want you to notice that God is at work in the big things and the little things. Notice the trajectory in these first 4 verses we go from the entire inhabited world to Syria to Galilee and then finally to this tiny town of Bethlehem. God is moving Heaven and earth to get to Bethlehem and we will talk more about that shortly. The second thing that I want you to notice is that it is not by pure coincidence that Caesar Augustus decrees this census. It is no coincidence that right as Mary is about to give birth to the Savior of the world that Caesar calls for this to happen. No, what is taking place here is that God ordains through unbelieving partners to see that Christ would be born in the city of David. Have you ever thought about why it was so important that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem? It is simply because of this: God said that this would be the case. In Micah 5:2 we read this prophecy: “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” God is going to see to it that every prophecy is fulfilled and nothing is too hard for Him to do this. The Lord says in Micah 5:2, “Bethlehem it is from you that your King will come. Even though you are so small that many practically ignore you, it is from you that I will send my king and this is no ordinary king, this is One that is from everlasting!” God is true to His word and He can just as easily change the heart of an unbelieving king as He can do anything else in order to see His word fulfilled. God Himself worked it into the heart and mind of Caesar to make sure that one specific person would be born in one specific place to fulfill one specific prophecy that was made thousands of years before it happened. We need not fear the hearts and actions of wordly rulers when we understand that they are no more than puppets under the control of our gracious Heavenly Father. J.C. Ryle wrote, “The heart of a believer should take comfort in the recollection of God’s providential government of the world. A true Christian should never be greatly moved or disquieted by the conduct of the rulers of earth. He should regard every king and ruler as a creature who, with all his power, can do nothing but what God allows, and nothing which is not carrying out the will of God.” This is our Father’s world and He will do exactly as He wishes. So, we see the old news, the foundational news so let’s turn quickly to the bad news.

The Bad News (Luke 2:4-9)

When I say bad news, there are four things that I want to point to. One we have already mentioned and that is the fact that a fallen world is often led by fallen rulers. If you know anything of the 1st century Roman empire, you know that these were not what we would consider the good guys in the story. The Roman empire had a lot of good things going with it. Here at the time of Christ, the empire was going through a time period known as the Pax Romana which was a span of about 200 years of peace and prosperity. The Roman empire extended so long and far that you could travel practically anywhere in the known world and you would know someone or be in some place that spoke the same language. This was a time period where all roads are said to have led to Rome and travel became significantly easier and safer so really all of this is being brought together to give the Gospel a free pass to go wherever the followers of Christ took it. That is one of the benefits of the Lord coming at the height of the Roman empire but despite that good, there was still plenty of bad. What allowed Rome to have 200 years of peace was that it would squash any rebellion that might try to disturb that peace or disturb that kingdom. We also know from history was that Caesar was not one to give up his throne. Caesar was to be seen as a god and this means that for a Christian to say Jesus is Lord instead of Caesar is Lord, that was a death sentence. The Roman empire was ruled by wicked and sinful men and our world today is no different. The other bad news comes in the fact that pregnant Mary traveled with her fiance Joseph to Bethlehem to be registered and the time comes for her to give birth. Now Mary I don’t believe was required to make this journey but by a sheer act of providence and act of devotion to her husband, Mary decides to go despite the risk. The time comes and Mary realizes she is in labor and it is remarkable to me that in God’s perfect plan, Mary does not go into labor until she makes it to Bethlehem. There’s about 90 miles between Nazareth where they were and Bethlehem where they are going and the baby does not come until they reach Bethlehem. None of you have ever experienced the pains of childbirth but it is some of the greatest pain that a person can take without dying. We shouldn’t be surprised by this because in Genesis 3:16, pain in childbirth is a result of the fall. The bad news is that because of sin, there is tremendous pain in childbirth and sometimes, not everything goes according to plan. I remember that when Benji was born and we were first time parents and we had no idea what we were doing and there was a lot of pain and a lot of heartache. Without going into too much detail on things, when Benji was born, he had a hole in his heart that did not close like it should and so within a few hours of this baby coming into our lives, he went off to the intensive care unit and as a parent, you feel powerless. To go through hours of labor and to hardly even get to spend time with your baby was maddening. Everything would go on to be fine a few days later but I learned firsthand that childbirth is hard and not everything always goes according to plan. This goes straight into bad news number 3: Notice where Jesus is born. The Son of Man is not born in a hospital, He’s born in a barn. The King of Kings is not born in a palace, He is born in total obscurity. We read in verse 7 that Mary has the baby in a manger because there is no room for them in the inn. What we can assume is that there is no room for them anywhere because why else would Mary have this baby in a manger? Why would any parent want to have their child here? I imagine that as Joseph saw that the baby was coming that he ran from house to house looking for somewhere, anywhere for this baby to come. I know that when Eden was born, and she came much quicker than Benji did, that I knew that I was not going to deliver this baby on the side of the road. I knew that even if I had to turn into Dom from Fast and the Furious, I was gonna get Lora and I was going to get this baby to where they needed to be. From the very beginning, Jesus is rejected even as a baby. One would think that someone in the inn would have seen this young couple, struggling, at the point of giving birth and someone would have said, “Take my room” but even that doesn’t happen. The King of Kings has given His palace for a stable and His throne for a manger. What great humility is seen even at this point in the Lord’s life. The bad news is that our Lord is constantly rejected. The world is in the position that it is in because it has rejected the Lord. The last piece of bad news that we will talk about is that man cannot stand in the presence of God on his own. For man to stand before the glory of God always results in fear and trembling. We see this in verse 9 as the angel of the Lord stands before the shepherds and the glory of God shines around them and we read that they were terribly frightened. It’s one thing to be frightened, it is another thing to be terribly frightened. For a sinner to be caught in the middle of the glory of God is a traumatic experience. In order for the Gospel to be good news for you, you must first be confronted with the bad news. The bad news is that all are sinners, all have sinned before a holy and righteous God and are liable to judgement. If your sin is not atoned for, you will spend an eternity in hell. It was Martin Luther who said that the Gospel always brings fear first because man must feel the condemnation and weight of his sinfulness and it is only after that when man experiences the hope and comfort of the Gospel and that is where we get to the good news.

The Good News (Luke 2:10-11)

Let’s quickly read Luke 2:10–11 “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Tremendous fear is replaced by good news of great joy. We need to be reminded that for those that belong to the Lord, there is nothing to fear. I mentioned this last week, if God is for you, it does not matter who is against you. Remember it was John Knox who used to say that one man and God always makes a majority. The angel does not just say that he comes with a message of joy, he comes with a message of great joy. This is a message that contains the greatest news in all the world, that today in the City of David, there has been born for us a Savior, Christ the Lord! The Messiah has come! Matthew Henry summarized the angel’s message like this: “The Saviour is born, he is born this day; and, since it is matter of great joy to all people, it is not to be kept secret, you may proclaim it, may tell it to whom you please. He is born in the place where it was foretold he should be born, in the city of David; and he is born to you; to you Jews he is sent in the first place, to bless you, to you shepherds, though poor and mean in the world.” The good news of the Gospel is this: God has come to His people. On that first Christmas, God has come to His people. Immanuel, God is with us. There is no more waiting, no more wondering, no more second guessing, now has come the Savior of the world and it is God Himself in human form. Why should the shepherds not be afraid? Because the Prince of Peace has been born! Isaiah 9:6 says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” What is the good news? A Savior has come. God Himself has come to redeem His people. Lost sinners can now be made right and find peace with God. This is very, very good news, this is a reason for not just joy but great joy. As good as this news is, there is still the greatest news in verses 12-14.

The Greatest News (Luke 2:12-14)

Look again at Luke 2:12-14

Luke 2:12–14 NASB95

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

The greatest news in all the world is that the Gospel is for you. Jesus Christ came into the world to bring glory to God by saving you. Notice in verses 10-14 that we see the word you four times. I bring you good news, a Savior has been born for you, this is a sign for you, you will find a baby. This news is so great that it is not just confined to one group of people during one particular time period. If you go back to verse 10 you see that this is good news of great joy which will be for all the people. Not just the Jews, not just the shepherds, not even just the Romans, this is the blessing for the world! The savior of the entire world is here! All of this is done for us. No one forced God’s hand to save anyone. No one forced Christ to be the savior of the world. No, Christ volunteered. Christ put on human flesh and died in our place because He loves us. His love is so great for His people that nothing would stop Him from seeing to it that His people would be redeemed. If we belong to Christ, one day we will stand with the vast multitudes of the heavenly host praising God and what a day that will be. It will be a day that never ends and stretches into eternity. Imagine what it must have been like for those shepherds to be standing in that field and not just see one angel but to see a multitude of the heavenly host praising God. That word host is actually a military term and usually refers to an army so it is ironic that here now is this army of angels that come now to declare war or bring judgement but to proclaim peace! Jesus Christ has come to the world to bring peace. Our greatest need is that we would be reconciled to God and He would be reconciled to us and it is only through Jesus Christ by which this is accomplished. John Calvin said, “When He was thrown into a stable, and placed in a manger, and a lodging refused Him among men, it was that Heaven might be open to us, not as a temporary lodging, but as our eternal country and inheritance, and that the angels might receive us into their abode.” Unto us is born a Savior, Christ the Lord. Now we all must decide whether we will embrace the greatest news of all: that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners and He has come to draw mankind to Himself. Or will we embrace the bad news that we cannot stand before God and we choose to continue living as lovers of self. The Gospel is good news but it is only good news for you if you recognize who you are apart from Christ first. The Gospel is only great news for you if you come to the realization that there is something that you need to be saved from which you cannot save yourself from. Christ is Lord and Christ is Savior and if you will not submit to Him, turn to Him in faith, and repent of your sins, this good news will not be good news for you. I call on you this day if you have not already done so to accept the greatest gift of all: Salvation in Jesus Christ. It will not matter what else you receive on Christmas if you do not first receive the gift of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.