The Significance of the Nativity Narrative

We were going to start the Advent sermon series last week but I was afforded the opportunity to go and watch as Lyndsey, our granddaughter, was baptized. I thank you for allowing me that freedom. I got to see our son baptize our granddaughter, it just doesn’t get better than that. Today we are going to look at a large chunk of Scripture; and . It is a very familiar passage that is usually read on the Sunday before Christmas but I wanted to begin looking at the birth of our Lord early to seek out its significance for us today. So let’s go ahead and pray then we will read.

We are not going to look at the part of Scripture where John the Baptist is announced and born nor are we going to look at the announcement to Mary or to Joseph. Let’s begin reading at 1And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 4Joseph 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, 5to be registered with Mary, his betrothed £wife, who was with child. 6So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7And 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. 8Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And £behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill£ toward men!” 15So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17Now when they had seen Him, they made £widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. 21And when eight days were completed £for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), 24and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Sometime after the 33 days required for Mary’s purification and Jesus’ presentation at the Temple for sacrifices to be made on His behalf we read in 1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” 3When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’” 7Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”9When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

I can remember while growing up, from the time I could remember until I graduated from high school and left home the entire family; my mother, father, brother sister, me and our grandmother would gather in the living room of our home in the shadow of the Christmas tree, with the light flashing and my mother would read that story to us. My mother did it because my father didn’t read very well. But we would sit in anticipation of the birth of Jesus. I don’t know if the excitement was because we knew that as soon as the story was read we went to bed and tried to sleep because we knew what was coming the next morning. I would like to think that my excitement was because of the birth of the Savior but most likely it was because I knew I was gonna get stuff the next morning. To be totally honest I think that is where most of our excitement during the Christmas holidays is born. Not necessarily in getten’ stuff but in the opportunity in seeing loved ones and sharing time and memories with them. We almost live out the holiday like that is the purpose of the birth of Jesus. We know it’s not but we still sometimes live like it.

If I am going to hurt your feelings anywhere in this sermon that is probably the spot and perhaps I’m just preaching to myself and it doesn’t apply to you. If that is the case then praise God and forgive me. But I do have to ask you this morning; what is so important about that story? How does the birth of Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd, King…fit into our lives today and everyday between our yearly celebrations of Christmas? Through the last almost 8 years we have explored the Scriptures finding many reasons for Jesus the Christ coming into the world as the unique God/man. First and foremost He came to save His people but in doing that He was our representative in obedience to the Father. Where Adam failed and disobeyed, Jesus obeyed perfectly. He came to be the perfect substitute for our sin. He took upon Himself what we deserved because of our own sin. Only One who had experienced everything we have experienced; trials, temptations, just life in general yet without sin could be a substitute for us. He came to be the One Mediator between God and men. Because we are separated from God we are in need of One to stand between representing God to man and man to God, only One who is fully God and fully man could do that. He came to be our perfect example and pattern for life. says “those who abide in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” We are being conformed into His image. With His resurrected body we see Him as the pattern for our redeemed bodies at the resurrection. The fact that Jesus humbled Himself and became a man without relinquishing His deity is important to us because of all that I mentioned and much more but why is it important that He came as a baby; why is important that we know that? Obviously it is, because it is in God’s word in two of the four Gospels. So let’s see if we can flesh out the importance.

The first thing I want us to notice in the narrative of the birth of our Lord is that God does what He says He is going to do. The best place to start with this is in the beginning and I really mean in the beginning. In God planted a garden and placed Adam in that garden to tend to it. He told Adam he could eat of any of the fruit in the garden except for the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because on the day he ate he would surely die. In the serpent came along and tempted Eve who ate the fruit and gave some to Adam and he ate it. We talked about that a minute ago. I’m not going to tell the whole story but then in God’s judgment on the serpent He said this to the him: 15And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” I have no doubt that Adam and Eve did not understand what God was saying at the time but as redemptive history began to unfold God’s people began to understand that what God was saying was that He would send a Savior to make things right between God and man. This is known as the proto-evangelium or the first gospel. God is going to redeem His people. We see in that this Son that is born to Mary is from the house of David and God had promised in and that the eternal king would come from King David’s family. In Matthew tells us that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was according to what God had said in . Look at how the gospel is proclaimed to be fulfilled in 11For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. God indeed sent One to redeem His people. We could go through all the Old Testament prophecies like 14Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Or 6For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We can see in this narrative and the other passages that God indeed does what He says He will do. Bringing this back to the question: “Why is the narrative of the birth of Jesus so important to us?”, let me ask another question. Would you say that what has happened is a pretty good indicator of what will happen? If God has brought all the prophecies about the birth of One who would make all things right between God and man to fruition, and we are just talking about the birth not to mention His life and His death and His resurrection, don’t you think He is going to finish what He started? The One who brought Immanuel into the world to be born as a baby is the same One who says that we are saved to the uttermost, forever and for always. He is the same One who said that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He is the same One that said that we would be raised up in the last days and made to stand in victory, as more than conquerors. I could go on but the importance of the narrative of the birth of Jesus the Christ is that we can be sure that God is going to do what He says He will do and we can rest in that for eternity.

The second reason that the narrative is important to us is that Jesus fulfilled all the law. (I preached those two verses for four weeks last December) says: 4But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Simply enough Jesus was responsible for the keeping of all the law of God and in our narrative of the His birth we can see that the law of God was kept. 21And when eight days were completed £for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus. According to God’s covenant with Abraham all of the sons born to the Jews had to be circumcised on the eighth day. Also according to the law every first born that opened the womb was to be the Lord’s and a sacrifice had to be made for him after the days of purification for his mother which of a male was 33 days. 22Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),24and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” This may not sound important to you but if the law of God had not been kept perfectly then we would not have a sacrifice that was sufficient for all time. He would not have been the perfect sinless sacrifice able to take all of our sin in our stead. We are all born under the law and unable to fulfill the law and Jesus did it for us and His righteousness was placed in our account as if it were our righteousness, just as if we had kept the entirety of the law of God. The narrative of the birth of Jesus is important to us because we can know that our Savior’s perfection is accounted to us for justification.

This next point is the one that to me is most important, in the narrative of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ we see the work of redemption in the lives of all nations and every social class. It had been prophesied in Genesis, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 1 Samuel, Daniel and the minor Prophets that God would draw all peoples (Jew and Gentile) to Him through His Messiah. In this narrative we see people who were outside of the commonwealth of Israel coming to the King born in Bethlehem. 1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” I know we sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are” but we don’t know how many and they were not kings. They were magi probably from Persia and a part of the priestly caste of the Zoroastrian religion. Wherever they were from and whatever their religion it is most certain that they were not Jewish but pagans. But these non Jewish pagans had been led by God through a star to find the king of the Jews. When God informed them they sought out the King. We don’t know much about them but we do know that when they came to know Jesus they bowed down and they worshiped Him. They must have been men of learning and wealth based on the gifts they brought and the fact they were called wise men. But we also see men of low estate being called to meet the Savior, king of all the world. Shepherds were informed by a multitude of angels singing praises to God that the Savior was born in Bethlehem, the City of David. Shepherds were the second lowest class of people in Israel, the lowest being tanners because they handled dead bodies. Shepherds were often outcasts especially around the cities. But God saw fit to make sure the lowest on the social rung were the first to receive notification of the birth of the Savior. We can know from what we see in the narrative of the birth of our Savior is that He came for all men and women. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, educated or ignorant, it makes no difference. When God reveals the savior to you, you will seek Him out and worship Him.

Finally one last thing then we will go. When the magi went to Herod to find the new king Herod’s plan was to do away with him and most likely with the Magi. God warned them not to go back to Herod presumably because they knew there was a new King. Herod went on to try to do away with the new King by killing all the babies of Bethlehem but God warned Joseph to go away with the child. When you seek to follow Jesus, when you seek the King and give your allegiance to Him there will be trouble. The enemy will seek to silence you, marginalize you, even destroy you. But rest assured our God will deliver you. Just like He preserved His Son He will preserve His adopted sons and daughters as well just like He did by warning the Magi. In the narrative of the birth of our Lord we can know that we will have tribulations but our God is greater than the trials.

Why is the narrative of the birth of Jesus important? We can be assured that what our God says He will do, He will do. We can know that our Savior’s perfection is accounted to us for justification. We can know that He came for all men and women. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, educated or ignorant, it makes no difference. When God reveals the savior to you, you will seek Him out and worship Him. In the narrative of the birth of our Lord we can know that we will have tribulations but our God is greater than the trials. As I said the enemy will seek to silence you, marginalize you, and even destroy you. But rest assured our God will deliver you. Just like He preserved His Son He will preserve His adopted sons and daughters as well. In the narrative of the birth of our Lord we can know that we will have tribulations but our God is greater than the trials. Let’s pray.