The Birthplace for the King

The most wonderful time of the year is quickly approaching!

I am pumped to be able to be with you tonight for the first Wednesday service! To top it off it is also my favorite time of the year because its Christmas! There are so many things to love about Christmas from the colder weather to cozy fireplaces to spending time with family and of course the presents.

One of the most memorable Christmas’s that I can remember was when I was about 10 or 11 and like I have told you before I really wanted to be musically talented all throughout my life. So with that in mind, what do all guys want that is a musical instrument whenever they are young? Obviously a DRUM SET!

I woke up excited because I knew Santa was going to bring me my drum set that I have been waiting for forever!! When in reality i had only been waiting for it only a couple of weeks. I woke up and ran down the stairs but honestly I think little 10 year old Corey actually jumped from the second story of the house all the way to the bottom floor of the house because I was so excited. I look by the tree and by the wrapping of the present there was only one logical explanation of what was under the tree that day. I GOT MY DRUM SET!!! What were my parents thinking!!! They gave their 10 year old son one of the loudest instruments ever and there is no possibility of silencing them. Also under the tree there were some drum training videos to learn how to play the drums. Like any 10 year old kid I don’t think I ever took the cellophane wrapping off of the DVDs and i just started banging away on the new drum set. That was one of the most memorable Christmas presents I can remember as a kid mainly because it was not soon after I got them that my dad soon made me take them outside to the shop and that was the only place I could ever play them. I don’t really know why they didn't want to hear my beautiful rendition of Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” drum solo.

That was a great gift that I recieved that day but yet that Gift did not change my life. It may have changed my parents hearing abilities and possibly scarred my dogs life for ever but that one gift did not permanently change my life. I wish I could say that because of that drum set I am the lead drummer in an awesome band but that is not what happened.

There is one gift that drastically changed all of eternity and time but at the time of the announcement seemed more like a nightmare than a gift.

Tonight we are going to obviously look at the Christmas story but we are going to look at the story as if you were a character in the story. Because most of the time when we think of Bible stories you want to think that the characters are your parents age or grandparents age. That is not anywhere close to the age of most of the characters in the Bible.

With that in mind let’s dive into Luke chapter 2.

[Luk 2:1-7 NLT] 1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

Whenever we think of the first Christmas we always think of the perfect scenario where everything is perfect. There might be a slight bit of snow falling with Christmas lights all over Bethlehem. We do not think of a nightmare at all, however the first Christmas for sure had to have felt like the worst night ever rather than a blessing.

1. “The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but a baby, and before that a fetus in a woman’s body.” – C.S. Lewis

Let’s give a little background information about this story. We have Mary and Joseph who are engaged to be married and they were most likely planning their wedding before their entire world got turned upside down. During biblical times arranged marriages were a common occurence and the arrangement would typically happen when the child was very young. Whenever they grow to the age of 12-15 the couple then becomes engaged to marry one another and would get married after about a 2 year engagement. So what this says is that Mary was around 12-15 years old when an angel appeared to her and explained to her that she would become pregnant with the savior of the world.

So Mary was around your age whenever the story of Christmas began. But that isn’t the only issue with the Christmas story but only the beginning. Joseph then could have Mary stoned or killed because she is pregnant while they are engaged to be married. They also have to deal with the ridicule and harassment of people that are see them for the first time. Mary also had to deal with the possibility that Joseph would remain engaged to her because he had the right to have her killed.

Thankfully that is not how the story played out and Joseph remained with Mary throughout the whole process which allowed for the Prophesy to be fulfilled.

1. Prophesy Fulfilled

1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.

Jesus’s birth fulfilled numerous prophesies! To understand the importance of this we must understand what a prophesy is in the first place. What is a Prophesy?

A prophesy is a prediction about the future that must come true. In scripture there are many different prophesies and a majority of them have already happened.

The major thing to understand about prophesy is that a prophet would speak these prophesies to people and if what the prophet was saying came true then they were deemed a prophet and if what the prophet said did not come true then they were either burned alive, beheaded, or people would throw large rocks at them until they died.

So with that in mind when biblical prophets spoke it came true or else they would not be considered a prophet any longer.

There are 3 major prophesies that are revealed and completed in these four verses.

The first one we will look at is that Jesus must be born in the family line of David. This comes from the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 9:7 ESV

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah prophesied that King David’s kingdom will reign forever and ever. This is a very bizarre thing to hear from a prophet since there has never been a kingdom from one family that has lasted more than a couple hundred years.

Isaiah is prophesying that David’s family will remain on the Throne of Israel forever and ever. This is impossible unless the man taking over the throne is eternal.

Jesus is the king whose kingdom will never end. Jesus is in the line of David through Joseph being married to Mary. If Joseph would have left Mary the moment he found out that she was pregnant Jesus would no longer be considered to be in the lineage of David.

This also shows the faith that Joseph had to continue the engagement with Mary but Joseph plays a vital part in the entirety of the prophesy.

The next prophesy that is completed is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Micah 5:2 ESV

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

The savior of the world must be born in one of the smallest cities in Israel Bethlehem. What is crazy about this being fulfilled is that Mary and Joseph were not living in Bethlehem whenever she was pregnant.

They were actually living 70 miles north of Bethlehem.

For Jesus to be born in Bethlehem a drastic event must happen for them to journey 70 miles while Mary is pregnant.

What was that event that made them make the journey?

Caesar ordered that everyone be registered in their home city and Joseph’s home city was Bethlehem. Caesar’s important census helped fulfill this prophesy.

These prophesies allowed for the most important event in the entire world to take place. An event so important that it changed how we date years.

2. The Savior is Born

5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.

While they were there it just so happened that it was time for Jesus to be born.

What a coincidence right?

This one birth changed everything. This is when God entered the earth in human form. The perfect person came down to earth for the sole purpose of dying. So many times whenever we think of Jesus we think of him as being God and completely unlike us.

Whenever we think of Jesus we do not think of him dealing with certain things that we deal with. Jesus got hungry and thirsty. Jesus also got tired and took naps. Jesus was also tempted just like we are tempted to sin except Jesus was tempted by Satan himself.

But Jesus was completely God. He was not 50/50 but rather 100/100. Jesus was unlike us because he was perfect. Jesus did not have a sin nature like us because his whole purpose of coming to the earth was to save us from our deserved punishment of God’s Wrath.

3. The Birthplace for a King

7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

This is where the Christmas Nightmare takes place because Jesus was born where????

A manger because there was no rooms available for him in the inn or Hotel. Jesus was born in a stable for all of the animals not a place built for the king.

I always think of the owner of the inn as being a bad guy but lets take a moment and put ourselves in his shoes. What exactly is happening at this moment.

Remember that there is a national census being taken where every one has to return to their native land. That means that this little inn is getting the most business that it has ever gotten. People are coming left and right to Bethlehem and the only place for them to most likely stay is in the inn.

So the owner could either let Mary and Joseph stay in a room and kick someone out or turn them away. But wait there’s more to this story.

During those times people got around on camels and donkeys so when they got to their destination they had store their animals somewhere out of the weather and also to feed and water them. So most inns had a stable of some sort out back which was normally a cave that was in the side of a mountain.

Not the typical wooden barn stable that we typically see. So the inn manager offered them the opportunity to stay in the stable behind the inn. Could you imagine staying in a barn or much less the Savior of the World being born in one?

How many of you have ever been in a horse barn or on a farm in general? Whats the first thing you have to watch out for when walking on a farm? Poop!

This is exactly what Jesus was born into a place full of horse, donkeys, sheep, and of course poop.

Then Jesus was laid in the manger. Whenever I was little I thought a manger was the best bed that anyone could stay in. You’ve heard of a Serta Mattress before I was like man I want a manger! Little did I know that a manger was actually a feeding trough for all of the stinky nasty animals that have came from all over Israel.

Then Jesus was wrapped in Swaddling clothes and again I thought like that has to be the best cloths around if that what Jesus was wrapped in as a child. But all that was were torn up pieces of cloth that Mary used to keep Jesus warm.

Jesus who is and was born Savior of the world was born in a stinky, wet, barn stable. Could you imagine if people knew who Mary was about to give birth too. How would people respond? Would the whole scenario be different? Would people begin giving up their personal rooms for Mary?

These are questions that we do not know but what we do know is that Jesus was born in humble circumstances in order to be our sacrifice for Christ. In the next couple of weeks I want you to begin thinking about his birth but also his purpose for coming to this earth was so that he could be our sacrifice.

How has Christ changed your life? Was he just a man or is he your savior?