Life of Christ -1

Wednesday The Life of Jesus-1

December 20, 2023

More than two thousand years have passed since Jesus physically walked the earth.

Daily life has changed in countless ways, and our understanding of the New Testament world has continued to develop and evolve over the centuries.

Inevitably, our traditions and assumptions about Jesus have influenced the way we view people and events in Scripture.

Only by unpacking the biblical narratives in their context can we begin to grasp the culture, history, landscape, and spiritual climate in which Jesus lived.

Let’s begin our journey through the life of Jesus at its natural starting point: His birth.

The Nativity is one of the most revered events in human history and is still celebrated by billions of people around the world.

Recorded primarily in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ arrival fulfilled thousands of years of messianic prophecy and set in motion God’s plan for the redemption of humanity.

Jesus was born at a strategic time in human history.

The Roman Empire had risen to power about twenty years earlier and its first emperor, Caesar Augustus (also known as Octavian), ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity throughout the Mediterranean world.

However, the empire encountered resistance in the small strip of land known at that time as the nation of Israel.

The Jews in Israel had seen their hundred-year monarchy fall to Roman general Pompey in 63 BC, landing them under Roman occupation and birthing a movement of messianic idealism.

The political and religious environment in Israel certainly made daily life diffcult and dangerous, but it also set the stage for the Messiah’s arrival—in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4)

Galatians 4:4–5 (LSB) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Before the video, let’s read…

Luke 2:1–20 (LSB) Now it happened that in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was going to be registered for the census, each to his own city. 4 And 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, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was with child.

6 Now it happened that while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest room.

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 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. 11 For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “And this will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

15 And it happened that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it marveled at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary was treasuring all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as was told them.

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We have heard several things that many have never heard.

Let’s sift through them.

1. Do you think that most of Mary’s pregnancy was spent in Bethlehem? Does this make a difference?

If Mary traveled late in her pregnancy, it seems she would have gone against conventional wisdom of the time.

How do we translate that into our behaviors today (barring specific guidance from God)?

If she had been in Bethlehem for a long time, the inn part doesn’t make sense.

2. Thoughts about Luke 2:7. Not an “inn” but an “upper room” (Greek: katalouma). Only other uses: Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11. Does this change the account of the birth of Christ and how you understand it?

Mark 14:12–15 (LSB) And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?” 13 And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ 15 “And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; prepare for us there.”

Luke 22:8–13 (LSB) And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” 9 And they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare it?” 10 And He said to them, “Behold, after you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. 11 “And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ 12 “And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.” 13 And they left and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

CBL Word Studies: A compound noun of the verb kataluō (2617), “to unloose,” kataluma has the derived meaning of “place of unyoking, rest,” hence a “lodge” or “inn” (Blass and DeBrunner, Greek Grammar of the New Testament, p.59). In this sense it is used in Luke 2:7. In the only other New Testament occurrence in Mark 14:14 (and the parallel passage, Luke 22:11) it takes the meaning of “guest room” or “dining room,” namely a room in someone’s house made available to Jesus and His disciples to celebrate the Passover meal.

3. It is suggested that many family members helped with the birth of Jesus. Thoughts?

It seems there would have at least been a midwife.

If there were other relatives, SOME might have been there — BUT there was shame attached to this birth.

What Did Satan Think of the First Christmas?

This is a piece about Christmas, from a perspective you may never have thought of.

First, bear in mind that there is more going on in this universe–above us, underneath us, in the spirit world surrounding us–than any of us can ever imagine.

God is always at work. The hosts of Heaven are constantly serving Him in ways unknown to us.  But we must not forget that so is His arch-enemy also at work, as well as his minions. Satan is constantly on the prowl seeking whom he may devour.

We see this throughout Scripture.

Now, Satan is the enemy is all that is good.  Anything that would honor God, bless people, and spread the gospel, Satan works to sabotage.

But God is not stymied by Satan. The Heavenly Father loses no sleep worrying about him.  Satan’s doom is settled, his fate is sealed, his days are numbered.

“On earth is not his equal,” said Martin Luther about the devil in His majestic anthem A Mighty Fortress.  Granted, you and I are no match for Satan.  But in Christ we are more than conquerors.  This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith in Christ. (Romans 8:37 and I John 5:4)

God is constantly handing the devil defeat after defeat. We see it in life, we observe it in the world about us, and we can see it demonstrated in Scripture time and again.

Case in point:  The First Christmas.

First, understand that Satan is a created being. He shares none of the attributes of Almighty God—not omniscience, omnipresence, nor omnipotence—meaning that he is limited in knowledge and space and power. When it comes to predicting what God is going to do next, he has to rely on what he can figure out, what he remembers from the timeless past when he resided in Heaven as a favorite angel, and what he reads in Holy Scripture.

Since the Holy Spirit does not enlighten his understanding, satan sees as the world sees, not with the mind of Christ. Once we understand this, a hundred puzzles fall into place.

Satan did not know God’s plan which involved the cross.

The Apostle Paul pointed out that had the enemy known what God was up to, he would never have crucified Jesus. One might say that God pulled the wool over the devil’s eyes and fooled him. On that first Easter Sunday morning, in the middle of the weekend celebration going on in hell (or somewhere!), an imp rushed into the presence of his satanic majesty. The demon breathlessly announced that the tomb was empty, the body gone, and the soldiers looked like they had seen a ghost. Satan spewed out his champagne and cursed. He had been had and he knew it. He had played right into God’s hands and was defeated.

Satan was often fooled in Scripture.

Sometimes in biblical history, we see that the Lord manipulated Satan, as in the cases of Job and Joseph. Sometimes, God gave him a good comeuppance as at Mount Carmel when Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal in a fire-calling contest. At other times, the Lord used subterfuge to fool His enemy. Christmas is one of those times.

And here’s the story….

–Satan knew some things about the birth of the Messiah.

Satan can read. He knew from Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. What he did not know was the timing of the Savior’s birth. So, in another of his endless efforts to thwart the purposes of God, Satan pulled in demons from around the world to concentrate on the Holy Land, specifically the region around Bethlehem. That’s one reason for the ubiquitous demon-possession in the New Testament. The devils practically outnumbered the citizens. They served as Satan’s spies, and were charged with keeping an eye out for godly young couples about to have babies. Satan was lying in wait for the Messiah.

–So, God proceeded to fool Satan.

The first thing God did was to choose a man and woman not from Bethlehem, but from Nazareth, far to the north.

Secondly, He saw to it that the woman’s purity and morality would be in doubt.

The devil can count; he knows it takes 9 months to make a baby.

However, he had no way of knowing of Gabriel’s visits to Mary and Joseph or of the miraculous conception of this Baby. If he had heard anything about this young Nazarene couple, he quickly discounted them, certain that the God he remembered from Glory would never deign to use obvious sinners for so holy a role.

Then, quietly, God slipped the Holy Family into Bethlehem.

The third thing God did was to arrange to move Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem in time for the birth, but not so as to draw attention to themselves. When Caesar Augustus put out a call for a census of the Empire, God had put it in his heart. “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1)

Mary and Joseph were among thousands returning to their ancestral homes for the census. Perhaps the roads experienced a primitive form of gridlock. With Bethlehem’s few inns and available homes filled, the young couple took the only thing offered, a stable. ” She brought forth her firstborn son and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) If the devil’s imps were vigilant, they would have dismissed the young family camping out in a barn for good reason.

And that’s why Satan couldn’t find Baby Jesus.

The God whom Satan remembered from Heaven resided in a level of glory unimagined on earth. Satan was unsure of a lot of things, but one thing he knew: God in Heaven would not have His Son born in a barn.  We can assume he had told his demons to keep an eye on the finest homes in the most luxurious surroundings with the most outstanding parents. But, the Lord fooled him.

“God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” (I Corinthians 1:27) This is a basic lesson of spiritual warfare which historically Satan seems incapable of grasping. To this day, no carnal mind believes it.

Simply stated, Satan’s eyes were blinded.

When Jesus was born, God enlisted a welcoming committee of the lowliest people on the planet—shepherds—primarily to reassure the young parents that all was well.

Satan had no way of knowing angels had appeared to these sheepherders that night, no means of hearing their clues on how to identify the Baby. And this will be a sign unto you: you will find a Baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger. (Luke 2:12) No one noticed or cared when a small company of ragtag shepherds ran breathlessly through Bethlehem village looking for—what else? —a stable.

Then God funded an emergency trip.

After Joseph had moved his little family into a house in Bethlehem, a delegation of foreign visitors arrived. These “magi from the east” created no small stir in Jerusalem as they naively announced their search for the one “born king of the Jews.” (Matthew 2) From the gifts they presented, Joseph was able to finance a sudden trip to Egypt made necessary when murderous King Herod sent soldiers on a search-and-destroy-mission for the babies of Bethlehem. As they slaughtered infants in the area, Satan–he who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy–would have fumed to learn that the objects of his wrath were already out of town, slowly making their way toward Egypt where they would remain until Herod’s death. Eventually, when the Holy Family re-entered the country, they moved back home to Nazareth where Joseph opened his carpentry shop.

Satan had lost Jesus.

He came so close!  “We had him there in Bethlehem,” he must have said to his demonic gang.  “And we let him slip through our fingers!  Curses!”

And Jesus lived in anonymity for the next thirty years.

Jesus grew up with a normal Jewish childhood in Nazareth. He was not a “Superboy in Smallville,” amazing the hometown folks with his miraculous deeds and inspired teaching. Had he done so, Satan would have heard the talk about the boy wonder and come calling. He heard nothing because there was nothing to tell.  The young Jesus must have been similar to hundreds of other godly and faithful young men in Judaism, indistinguishable from all the others.

The first the devil learned of Jesus’ identity was the day the Lord stepped into the waters of the Jordan and waded out to John the Baptist. Nudged by the Holy Spirit, John called out, Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  And that’s how everyone learned that the Messiah was Jesus from Nazareth.

Jesus’ baptism was His coming out.

The gloves were off. God in Heaven was announcing, “There He is, devil! Do your worst. We’re ready.” The game was afoot; the battle was joined. That’s why Jesus’ baptism was followed immediately by forty days of testing, tempting, and battling Satan in the wilderness.  It must have been an awful six weeks.

Satan fought Jesus every day of His three-year ministry.

It all came to a head one day three years later on a hill outside Jerusalem. For a couple of days, Satan reveled in his victory. Against all odds, he had defeated the Lord of Heaven and stymied His plan.  What were the chances?  The team was tearing down the goalposts, the fans were pouring out onto the field, when suddenly, they learned: The game was not over.

On that first Easter Sunday morning, an imp came running in to the celebration, all out of breath, announcing, “He’s gone!  The tomb is empty!  And we don’t know where He’s gone.”

I can imagine Satan spewing his champagne across the room as he slowly realizes he has been “had.”  He played right into the hands of the Almighty who had planned this from the beginning.  Satan meant it for evil but God meant it for good.

We’ve won.  Christ is victorious.

Our Gospel is solid. Our salvation is secure. Our hope is anchored in the Rock of Ages.

It’s all good from here on in.

Ever since that day, we who stand in the pulpit talk about the importance of the blood of Christ, the centrality of the cross of Christ, the absolute necessity of the gospel of Jesus Christ by which people are saved.  The cross was a stumbling block to the Jews and sheer foolishness to the Greeks, but to us on the inside, it is the very power and wisdom of God. (See I Corinthians 1:23-24).

4. Thoughts about the manger being in a “lower area” of the house — perhaps even a cave.

Interesting, but not consequential in my mind.

5. Had you ever thought about the social status of the shepherds? Their role in providing “perfect” lambs for sacrifices in Jerusalem.

If it is as suggested — the shepherds raised lambs for sacrifice, then, regardless of their social stature, their appearance at the manger of the Lamb of God is of consequence.

READ: Matthew 2:1–18 “1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” 3 And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he was inquiring of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: 6 ‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A LEADER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’”

7 Then Herod secretly called the magi and carefully determined from them the time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.” 9 Now after hearing the king, they went their way; and behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, was going on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. 10 And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And after coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi departed for their own country by another way. 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and departed for Egypt. 15 And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”

16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, 18 “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE WAS REFUSING TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”

6. Your understanding of when the “Wise men” visited Jesus (maybe 2 years later).

7. Thoughts: (Matthew 2:16) Herod killed boys 2 years and under.

When we slow down and contemplate the many details surrounding Jesus‘ birth, we begin to see the miraculous story unfolding in new ways.

• Has placing yourself inside the narrative—by way of the culture, history, landscape, and spiritual climate—led to any fresh insights about Jesus’ birth? What difference (if any) do these insights make to you?

God sent His Son in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4).

Already read: Galatians 4:4–5 (LSB) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

He intentionally chose the method of Jesus’ arrival, the time and place He would grow up, and the people who would raise Him—all for the purpose of saving humanity from sin and death and reconciling us to himself.

• What can God’s intentionality teach us about His care for us and the kind of relationship He desires to have with us?