A Decree from Heaven
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History
History
This morning:
I want to look at what lead up to the birth of Jesus
Tonight:
I’ll tell the entire story according to the gospel and talk about what followed the birth of Jesus
Nothing in the Bible is wasted information
1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
Before we get into what the decree was we should know how Cesar Augustus was:
Originally Gaius Octavius
Born September 23rd 63 BC
Side thought the fact that our entire calendar is based on BEFORE CHRIST
Anno Domini- in the year of the Lord
Gaius Octavius’s dad died when he was 4 years old and His mother’s Uncle was Julius Cesar
His Uncle adopted Him at the age of 18 and was
His uncle Julius was assassinated and after a power struggle he was named the sole ruler in 31 BC
What we now know as the Roman empire, starts at his accession
During his Reign as Augustus or “exalted one”
During this time the Roman empire nearly doubles in size
The timing of God is always perfect and the Birth of Jesus was no exception
Paul explains it this way:
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
The fullness or the completion:
The word Paul is using is used to describe a ship that has everyone in place
You have the rowers, the soldiers and sailors in the correct place
God had orchestrated the birth of Jesus so everything was in place
nothing was forgotten
We don’t know why he chose this specific time but we have some ideas why it makes sense :
Rome ruled over Israel at this point, they were ready for a messiah to come and save them, they had a sense of urgency for his coming
During the time of Jesus’ life it was relatively peaceful times, Rome united much of the world within their empire, people could move about freely
They built roads for ease of travel, which proved to be instrumental for later spreading of the gospel
Greek culture dominated the Roman empire which created a universal common language to communicate through
Everything was being staged and prepared for the the spread of the gospel
Since the Roman empire is doubling in size:
Caesar Augustus trying to taken inventory of who all he had rule over
1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
When Caesar made a decree, there was no questioning it:
Rome was not in the habit of recording or reporting for public record
In fact there is very few times that this happened in their history
Coincidence?
I’ve heard estimates of 4-5 million and upwards of 46 million pretty big difference there
We can only speculate
We don’t know for sure but it grew eventually to much bigger
Cesar wanted to find out how much money they could get from the people
He tells everyone go back to where you’re from and register your family
Basically like telling the whole city of Los Angeles to go move at once
3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
All went to be registered, no one excluded
If you think Wal-Mart is crowded now
Imagine business shutting down
Work being suspended
Schools being shut down
Not getting paid
Packing up your entire family to walk back to your old stomping grounds
You want to talk about an inconvenience
But God was clearly at work
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
In order for that prophecy to be fulfilled he stirred up an entire empire of people to get Mary Joseph to the place they needed to be
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
Literally Joseph went UP:
Uphill
The journey that they embarked on to Bethlehem I would be willing to bet that most people today would have a hard time making
It was anywhere from 70-90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem depending on the route taken
Ran into people on the pacific crest trail
They were going about 20 miles a day(in shape people)
5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
At this point Mary is very pregnant
Having to sleep in different towns
Bathroom breaks along the way while the entire empire is on the move
Just getting passed by the fit family that do that for fun
Or the nobles all riding on donkey’s kicking dust up in your face as they passed you
I can see Joseph getting anxious about getting there on time
Trying to push the envelope
Clearly nothing about this trip was easy for them
I believe Mary was as tough as they come
Tough enough to watch her firstborn son be hung on a cross and crucified in front of her
I think Jesus even learned how to be tough from His mom,
He knew it wouldn’t be easy as he prayed if there be anyway to let this cup pass but he said never-less not my will but yours be done
A word of advice for men in the room don’t try an encourage your wife by telling her “well Mary walked 70 miles while she was pregnant”
It won’t go over well, don’t ask me how I know
So they finally make it to the town of Bethlehem which means house of Bread
Which Jesus refers to himself in John 6:35
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
After all the trip and the chaos and the journey, they come to Bethlehem to find out that there’s no room for them to stay or even be comfortable:
I’ve seen this depicted as a inn keeper telling them no but he’s got a place out back that they can stay
But Joseph had to seek out shelter for them
They finally end up in cave in town
I’ll talk more tonight about what that looked like
but finally she gives Birth to Jesus
14 And the Word became 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.
After 400 years of silence we see between the old and new testament
Going back to 700 years prior of the foretelling of the coming Savior
To moving nations, tribes, tongues and people to one event
The Incarnation of the living God, humbling himself taking on the form of a man for You
God has been moving nations and circumstances and situations all so that He could get Jesus to you
GOD WILL MOVE NATIONS TO GET YOU WHERE YOU NEED TO BE
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Thoughts there, another translation is plans
Plans for you:
God has a plan and purpose for you
We can be outsiders and not cooperate with his plan
We can choose to do what’s comfortable or what we want to do
But God has a better plan
Thoughts of peace and not evil
He want’s to give you a better future than you can even imagine
I had my own plans, I backslid
When I say backslide I mean that God was an afterthought
I knew God loved me I knew he saved me but
He was an afterthought and I was in charge of the program
I soon realized that His ways are not my ways and his thoughts are not my thoughts
When I made a simple change, it was simple but at the time it wasn’t easy:
Nothing about Joseph and Mary’s journey was easy
But it was better than anything they could’ve imagined
God is waiting on us to be apart of His story
He’s moved nations and people for you to be here
Choose to be apart of his story today
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
