Christmas Timeline

Tradition

What traditions do you have as a family that you either started how about any that were passed on to you?

(Answers) (A Christmas Carol, Christmas Tree, gift giving, food)

Why are they a tradition? Do they represent something? Does it still have the original meaning?

(Answers)

We are preparing to enter into the Christmas season. It is a time of year that is steeped in traditions, and culturally these traditions vary and mix depending on the where you are. Some mix for the better others, well they just clash. As we look at our traditions and I would even say customs, do we know why they were started or what they may have represented? As we look at Christmas traditions we see how they can change in just a few years or even a hundred years.

Why do we celebrate Christmas? The first celebration can be traced back to approximately to 336 AD, known as Feast of the Nativity it grew and spread through out Christendom. The message of the birth of Christ and the Joy that we celebrated has been often mixed in and added to traditions of people in different cultures as they came to know and believe the Gospel. Hear my heart, traditions are not a bad thing, but often they are handed to us, and like a game of generational telephone it changes. (Think Ignorance and Want with The ghost of Christmas in The Christmas Carol, and of course the CC is allegorical)

2000 years later we are still look back to that wonderful night and revel in the glory of God’s work at the birth of his son Jesus. This is not an allegorical story but rather a historical recounting and in the Gospel of Luke we see Luke very carefully layout the history of Christmas. Christmas where we partake celebration of God taking on flesh and dwelling among man answering the hope of man that existed since the events of Genesis 3.

Hope

So as we approach this Christmas story I want to us to look at it from the stand point as one who does not have 2000 years of hindsight, but to look at the story as Luke is telling it.

The people of God had been holding on to hope “Hope” from Genesis Chapter 3. if you remember the fall of Adam and Eve. They defied the command of God and became subject to death, and because of their fallen state were the cast out of the garden with a curse.

Since then we see that God desired to have a relationship with his creation, and we waited with hope for the time that He would to restore our relationship to with him. God Promised that he will send an heir of the line and throne of David that will rule over all forever.

So go ahead and open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 2:

As you are opening your Bible to Luke 2 I want to lay just a little ground work, from Luke Chapter 1

Luke is writing for a purpose

As a historian:

Luke 1:1–4 CSB

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

As we study Luke’s Gospel we can observe the audience that he writes is not Jewish but a gentile audience. This is to give a gentile a better view and understanding of what has occured.

With that in mind could someone read Luke 2:1-6 for us.

Luke 2:1–6 CSB

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

History

Timing

In those days- (King Herod died 4 BC) Idumean King (Edom) - viewed in a very negative light. (Herod renovated the temple)

Caesar Augustus - Gaius Octavian the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar / Augustus means revered or honored- the idea of the divinity of the emperor is reinforced. 31BC to 14 AD Caesar Tiberius his heir

Quirinius governor in Syria (Conflict here is that the census extra biblical resources A.D. 6, but this is too late in compared to the narrative account of Matthew), however Luke mentions the first registration, this would indicate there were multiple. Registrations were enacted about every 14 years, and unlike the immediate world that we live in it took years. (Opposition often has an argument from silence, it was not mentioned therefore it did not happen)

Travel

Nazareth to Bethlehem - this Census was established by man by used by God fulfill scripture (Micah 5:2)

(Autumn/Winters in Iraq)

Hope

1 Samuel 16:1 CSB

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have selected for myself a king from his sons.”

Earthly King

They hoped and desired for for an earthly king. By many accounts they were correct if (only partially). God promised that the house of David would last forever (2 Samuel 7:13,16)

Yet we see that the Kingdom split after the death of Solomon

The northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC and now that land is called Samaria occupied by outsiders that intermarried with the jewish inhabitants and were considered most detestable by those in Judea.

Then Judah fell in 587 BC to Babylonians and much of the population was exiled in 3 waves and the temple was destroyed in 586BC and the exile lasted 70 years.

There were the rise and fall of the Persians, Greek, Ptolemaic Kingdom, and Seleucid Empires and now the Roman Empire occupied the land.

Caesar was an anathema to the Jewish people. It was claimed that Caesar was a god and the very coins and his image on them was a violation of the 10 commandments.

Heavenly King

As they were expecting an earthly king, what they forgot was the God was their King. This was the issue we see in Samuel 8 when Israel demanded a king.

They would reject a heavenly king because their focus was upon their current circumstances and what they wanted. This was also for the fulfillment of Isaiah 53 that a servant would come and suffer for his people.

By the way in Israel today Isaiah 53 is not part of the public reading of scripture. It is simply skipped over.

Application

Sovereignty of God gives us Hope

Hope is not a wish. I hope the Browns could manage to hold it together and make it to the playoffs and win the superbowl. That kind of hope is a fleeting one that is dependent upon men who cannot promise to deliver with any assurance. Rather when we speak of the hope that we have in Christ, we have an assurance of what we hope for in the promises of God.

In our present and uncertain time we should be the beacon of hope, as a light of the world. With the speed of life already way too fast and busy compounded with the speed and irregularity of military life we need to cling to our hope in Christ.

The hope of the people of Israel during this time was for an earthly king, but what they recieved was their heavenly king, and missed the greatest work of God in their midst.

As we begin to enter into this Christmas season, I want us to take some time and look at the hope that we have in Christ. Do you have a hope in Christ if you do not, lets have a conversation. For those of you that do have hope in Christ, what does that look like? Is our hope like that of Israel for a solution to our earthly kingdom problems, or a recognition that Christ is our heavenly kingdom.

Questions

What challenges do you face that cause you to hope?

What do you hope for that only God can do?