Away In A Manger
Luke 2:1-7
We are going to be in Luke chapter two this morning, continuing our verse by verse journey through Luke’s gospel here. Incredible book. You know, as we always say around here, we just want to be a church that soaks in God’s Word. We want to be a people who week by week look at the Scriptures, look to God’s Word to us, God breathed, able to equip us, profitable for training us in righteousness, able to actually make us full and complete, equipped for everything God wants us to do. This book is what will change us. We’re going to drink it up today as we always do, verse by verse for all that it’s worth.
Last week, my family and I went on family vacation. It was fall break for my kids. And so we decided to head down to the beach. It was my dad’s 65th birthday, which is a big one. Congratulations, dad. Happy birthday. You know, that’s the Medicare milestone. It’s an important one to celebrate, to make a big deal of. So my three sisters and I took our whole families down. It’s a big crowd. There’s 25 of us in all. 15 of those are children, the oldest of whom is 13. So, we make a lot of noise. We’re loud. The condo where we stayed, I’m sure they don’t want us back. But we had a lot of fun. It was an incredible week. We enjoyed the perfect weather. I enjoyed the beach, enjoyed a lot of fun memories together through all of the days. But my favorite part, by a mile, was actually the start of each day, for a couple of reasons. Number one, all the kids were asleep, so it was quiet. But number two, I got to watch the most glorious sunrises day after day after day. Our condo was on the Atlantic side, so we were facing the east and able to see the sunrise. And the way our particular condo was aimed, the sun would rise right in front of our eyes, right out the window. So I’d wake up and it would be dark, pitch black outside. But I’d open up the blinds, I’d grab my Bible and a cup of coffee, and I’d sit down and I would just sit and enjoy my time with the Lord, but also enjoy the sky as it would slowly change from black to that slight midnight blue, and then slowly but surely watch the sun rise. And family, it’s glorious. I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve seen the sun rise over the ocean, but in every sense of the word, it is majestic. It’s a beautiful display of God’s glory. It would move from black and then midnight blue to just a red glow, and then it changed to pink, and you’d get some orange in there, and then suddenly it would start to turn yellow. You could feel the sun coming, and then all of a sudden the bright sun would just burst through. And in every way possible, it would just kind of take your breath away. I would leave our condo just as the sun was finally about to come up and walk down to the edge of the pool area, the pool deck, where I could not see any of the buildings, not any of the man-made stuff, but just look over the ocean, look at God’s glorious skyline, and watch Him as He displayed immeasurable glory before my eyes. And it would take my breath away. My wife would come out. She made it most mornings. She’d come and stand by me, and we’d hardly speak at all. We’d just enjoy this glimpse of God’s great creation. Probably many of you have seen this, right? These glorious views that sort of remind you of your own smallness in light of God’s eternality, His infinitude, how big He is. These moments of glory, these glimpses of glory that take our breath away are the feelings I want you to have in mind as we approach our text this morning.
We’re here in chapter two of Luke, and after five weeks of studying this book, our main character in our story is finally about to appear. Jesus is going to be born today. That’s right, today is Christmas in October. We’re going to celebrate the advent of Christ, the coming of Jesus right here this morning, and it’s a story we’re all very familiar with, right? I don’t expect you to find any new details that you haven’t heard before as we read through these first seven verses of chapter two. Luke is going to narrate for us a story that we have become well acquainted with in our culture. If you’ve grown up in the church, of course you’re acquainted with it, but even outside of the church, our entire society celebrates Christmas for a month out of every single year. It’s the biggest holiday on our annual calendar as people living in our modern age. There are decorations that will go up, there are songs that will be played, there are special drinks that will be sold at Starbucks. It’s a most wonderful time of the year. You know, it’s a great time of year. We know what happens here. We’re familiar with the details, but I think sometimes we can be so familiar with the story that we can miss out on the glory that happened that day. The birth of Jesus is no ordinary birth. It wasn’t just another day in human history. This moment that we’re going to read is without question one of the most glorious moments in all of human history. There are enormous, huge, gravity-filled theological truths that are playing out in this passage before our eyes that we need to stop and consider. So that’s my goal this morning. I want to do something very simple. I want to read this text. I want to look at the details of Jesus’s birth that you’re already familiar with, but there in the familiarity, I want to pause and consider how big this moment actually was. I see four enormous, glorious realities playing out in the birth of Jesus that I’d love to show you and help you be awed, help you stand in wonder and worship as we rightly should when we see this passage. That’s my goal, four points.
Picking up in verse one, chapter two of Luke, “In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” There it is, family. Again, I told you a story that you’re familiar with, the birth of Jesus, the most famous birthday in all of human history. And on the surface, it really doesn’t look that glorious, right? This is a pretty humble and modest birth, a poor Galilean family having to birth their first child in a barn, place him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn. So why do we celebrate this moment? What’s glorious about this moment? What are the big things playing out that we need to see if we’re going to worship at this moment, as we rightly should? There are four reasons why this is amazing, stunning, and glorious.
The Birth Of Jesus is Glorious Because It Marks the Start of an Eternal Plan of Redemption
Number one, the birth of Jesus is glorious, because it marks the start of an eternal plan of redemption. An eternal plan of redemption, right here in verse seven, where Jesus is born in this humble stable, where he’s swaddled and placed in that manger. This moment is not a random, ordinary birth. This was not happenstance, this was not a coincidence. God’s not reacting to anything. God wasn’t bored up in heaven and looking to spice up His life and decide to come down. He wasn’t stressed and needing to come down here on earth to solve a problem. This birth was not a random event or an unplanned event at all. Scripture’s clear, the coming of Christ, and every single bit of His life was part of an eternal plan of God that was established before the foundations of the world, to accomplish a perfect redemption for his people. Before Adam and Eve were created, before creation happened, before the beginning of time that we have recorded in the pages of Scripture, way back there in eternity past, God decided in perfect harmony with Himself as the Trinity, to make the world. He decided to make us, make creation, make the world and everything in it. He decided to create Eden. He decided to create the animals and the plants that would live in Eden. He decided to plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He decided to create the serpent. And way back there, before anything had happened, He already knew the problems of temptation, of sin and of the fall that would one day separate His people from Himself. He knew all this. He’s not surprised by anything. He’s a sovereign God who knows everything. And way back there, according to his wisdom, according to His purpose of His will and all insight, He set a plan for our redemption in Jesus. Before anything had happened, He decided that one day the Son, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal word of God through whom everything was created, would become flesh. He would come and dwell among His people. He’d be born in human form. He’d begin to live a life of perfect righteousness that would one day be offered as a sacrifice for our sins, laid down on the cross, all to provide redemption for his people. And as Jesus is arriving right here in verse seven, what we’re seeing in this little town of Bethlehem, away in that manger on this silent holy night is the eternal plan of God finally beginning to unfold in the fullness of time here in human history. This is not a random birth. This is the eternal plan of God playing out before our eyes. It’s huge. This is what we know in systematic theology as the covenant of redemption, a word that may be new to you. You probably haven’t studied covenantal theology, but we’re going to be theologians today. We’re going to learn some truths that are really important for us to hold. The covenant of redemption is that agreement that God made with himself to secure redemption for his people through the blood of Jesus. It was decided on before anything had happened. We see glimpses of it all throughout the Bible. Psalm 110 gives us this prophetic glimpse of Jesus’s words to the Father before time began. You see in Luke 22 and in John 17, Jesus referencing this plan of redemption as it was made before time began. You see dozens of references to the fact that Jesus was sent. He didn’t just show up one day. He wasn’t just born. He was sent down by the Father to accomplish this plan. All throughout the Bible, we see this truth, but I want to drive it home by showing you the place where I see it most clearly. I want you to understand how big your salvation is, how big of a moment it was when Jesus came to be born on this holy moment. And the place where I see it most clearly is Ephesians chapter one. If you have your Bible, go ahead and flip there if you don’t mind. We’re going to read verses three through 10. It’s a little bit of a lengthy passage, but I think it’ll help us to see this point very clearly as Paul is trying to help the church and the Christians there in Ephesus stand in awe of the enormity of their salvation. And this is what he says there. Ephesians chapter one, verse three, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him, when family, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” God decided that you would be a holy person, blameless before Him, cleaned up, forgiven of your sins before the foundation of the world. It goes on in verse five, “In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him [Jesus], we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth.” Jesus did not come without premeditated thought. This was totally premeditated. This was an eternal plan of redemption finally playing out in human history. Don’t miss the glory of this moment. God had ordered all of human history for this moment. Everything that came before Jesus is pointing to Jesus and prepared the floor, so to speak, prepared the table so that we could understand who Jesus was and what He had to accomplish. And everything that happened after, Jesus is pointing back to Him. This moment is the center of all of human history when according to His eternal plan, God sent Jesus to provide redemption for us. Don’t miss it. It’s not an ordinary birth. This is not a random moment. It’s the culmination of an eternal plan finally unfolding in human history. This is why we can worship at the incarnation of God. This is why we can worship at the nativity. This is why we’re going to see, as we move into the next passage, an angelic host, a host of angels is going to come down and sing glory to God in the highest because they know what’s playing out. God’s doing something enormous when Jesus came. It’s a glorious moment because it marks the start of God’s eternal plan of redemption.
The Baby Jesus is God Himself
The second reason this is glorious, why we should worship here at the manger, is that the birth of the baby Jesus is God Himself. It’s not just a man. This is God. The baby lying in the manger is God Himself. We can and rightly should worship at the manger because Luke 2 is displaying for us the glories of what we know in theology as the incarnation, God putting on flesh and coming down into His creation. As the main character is arriving in this story, as Jesus is finally showing up, remember, we’re calling this series Encountering the True Jesus. And the true Jesus, as He’s finally appearing here, we are seeing one of the central doctrines of our faith, the divinity of Christ. This baby is not just a man, He is God Himself. That’s an incredibly important belief for us, that’s become, in a lot of ways, under assault in our modern society. I don’t know if you’ve looked around lately, but many people living around us, our entire culture in some ways, tries to explain away the fame of Jesus, explain away the rapid rise of Christianity across the face of the globe, by just saying that Jesus was nothing more than a good teacher. Sure, He was a good teacher, he had some good things to say, he taught us to love our neighbor, he taught us to turn the other cheek, that’s why he’s famous, his message was good. That’s why this has caught fire and spread across the world because Jesus was a good teacher, maybe even a prophet, but the whole God thing, that’s crazy. That’s just a myth that the disciples made up after the fact. He wasn’t actually God, He was just a good teacher. Jesus never claimed to be God himself, the disciples just made it up afterwards. They covered historical Jesus with this myth, and that’s why people call him God today. This is what modern society, with its materialistic worldview, believes in so many ways.
In fact, while I was on vacation this past week, I met a guy who has this belief. We had some car problems, not what you want to have when you’re traveling for seven hours with your three kids and your wife. We made it down to Florida just fine, but I took a day during the week to go and get the car fixed. It was having some engine problems, which is a big deal. So we went and found a mechanic, and as I’m sitting there, he was so gracious, a sweet guy named Jim fixes it, and he doesn’t make me wait at all, he just pops the hood and I stand next to him and we chat as he fixes the issue. But as we’re talking, he asked me what I did. I told him I was a pastor, which always brings up interesting conversations with folks. But as we talked, initially he was saying he was a Christian but as we talked more and more, he eventually told me that, well, he doesn’t believe the whole God thing. He doesn’t believe we need an explanation of how the world works anymore. We have science to explain those things. And yeah, Jesus has some good things to teach, so He’s a follower of Jesus, but not a follower of Jesus as God, just a follower of Jesus as a good teacher. And he’s not alone. There’s a modern movement which is moving to show this. But what terrifies me is how this idea that Jesus is not God is actually creeping into the church family. Ligonier, a great organization, just released an important theological study that they release every two years called The State of Theology. They ask a series of questions about what Christians believe to about 3,000 Americans to try and discern what America believes about the core truths of the Christian faith. They ask you to agree or disagree with 30 to 45 different statements. And this is one of the statements. “Jesus was a good teacher, but he was not God. Do you agree or disagree?” The right answer is you should disagree. He was a great teacher, and He was also God. In America, among 3,000 US adults who responded to the survey, only 36% of people disagreed. 53% either agree or strongly agree that Jesus was a great teacher, but He is not God. The majority of Americans don’t agree with the divinity of Christ. What’s terrifying is on their website, you can go look at this yourself and you can divide the results down into a subset to just see evangelical Christians. As expected, the number of those who disagree does rise considerably. 53% of evangelical Christians disagree with that statement. But family, 44%, more than four out of 10 people who define themselves as evangelical Christians agree with the statement that Jesus is a great teacher, but He was not God. Family, this is not a small issue. The divinity of Jesus that this baby here in Luke 2 is God Himself is not ancillary to our faith. It’s not out there on the fringes. This is core doctrine. This is first-tier, closed-handed, vital to our faith beliefs. To stop believing in a Jesus who is God is to stop believing in the Jesus of the Bible. And to stop believing in the Jesus of the Bible is to stop believing in a Jesus who can save you. So here, as we’re starting Luke, as we’re trying to encounter the true Jesus, I want to, as much as possible, get that number to zero here at Emmaus. If you’re here this morning and you would agree with that statement, I want to try as much as I possibly can to persuade you that you’re wrong, that Jesus was, in fact, God.
Five Reasons We Can Be Confident That Jesus Is God
It Is The Clear Teaching of Scripture
So here’s a mini-sermon within the larger sermon. Here are five reasons we can be confident that Jesus is God. These are five reasons we can have confidence that Jesus is, in fact, who He said He was, God Himself. Number one, this is the clear teaching of Scripture. To those who would say the Bible does not really say that Jesus was God, let’s be clear, the Bible’s 100% absolutely firm on this teaching. Jesus was not just a man, He was God incarnate. Fully God, fully man. To reject that is to reject the authority of the Scriptures. Here are three places we see this. John chapter one is probably the clearest place. John, writing about Jesus, says this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That is a perfect translation of the Greek. He was with God in the beginning, and He was God. There’s no article there. Did you know Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the divinity of Jesus? And in their Bible, they insert an article there that’s not there in the Greek. Their Bible, if you go read it, says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. They reject the divinity of Jesus and have to make up a new Bible in order to persuade it, because the Bible’s clear on this issue. Jesus is God. Verse 14 of that same chapter says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We’ve seen His glory. Jesus is God. We also see this in Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. Paul writes these words, ”Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient, even to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Family, he’s clear there. He was in the form of God, but He took on the form of man. He was up there having equality with God, and He came down, incarnated Himself, humbled Himself to become Jesus walking among us, but without any question whatsoever, He is clearly God. You also see this in Colossians chapter one, where Paul writes this, “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation, for by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. He’s before all things, in Him all things hold together. He’s the head of the body, the church, He’s the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent, for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” And you might say to yourself there in the first verse, “Ah-ha, it says He’s the firstborn of all creation, therefore Jesus was born, He was created, except the problem is Paul’s word. The word there doesn’t directly imply creation, it implies rank and authority, that He is sort of the firstborn child, He has inheritance over all things. And Paul goes on to say in the very next verse that He wasn’t created, He created everything else, “everything visible and invisible, was created by God through Jesus.” He’s not a subset to God, He is God himself. All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him. These are just three; there are dozens more. Hebrews chapter one, 2 Peter chapter one, John chapter 20. The clear teaching of Scripture without any question whatsoever is that Jesus is fully God.
It Is The Testimony of Jesus Himself
The second reason we can be confident that he was God, this is the clear teaching and testimony of Jesus himself. There are those who say, “Well, Jesus never claimed to be God Himself.” Nope, won’t work. He did, multiple times on multiple occasions. I will grant you that He was a little bit implicit about this; He wasn’t always super explicit, but there are two examples, at least two, that I think are super clear that I want to show you. First one, John chapter eight, verses 48 through 59, if you’d like to go study it later. I won’t read it all for the sake of time, but in this passage, the Jews are accusing Jesus of being a demon. That’s how you do all these miracles. You have demonic powers. You’re possessed by the devil, that’s how You’re doing all these wonderful miracles before us. Then they’re trying to trap Him and convince all the other Jews to not follow Him. The leaders ask Him a question. If He thinks he was greater than Abraham. You know, Abraham, the father of all the Jewish people, “Do you think You’re greater than Abraham?” And Jesus replies in verse 58, and says this, “Truly, truly, before Abraham was, I am.” That is an astounding statement, for a lot of different reasons. Number one, Jesus is using present tense verbs to describe Himself in the past. Who can do that? Not you or me. But He’s saying, I was there. Before Abraham ever was, I was there. And on top of that, He directly associates the personal name of God given by God to Moses at the burning bush, Yahweh, which means I am. He uses that there, which was never uttered by the Jews. It was viewed as too blasphemous to say out loud, and here He’s using it to describe Himself. He’s ascribing divinity to Himself, family. And if you think that’s not really what He was saying, just read what happens next. The Jews knew that’s what He’s saying, because they proceed to try to kill Him right afterwards. They pick up stones and try to stone Him. Without question, He ascribed to Himself divinity. You also see this in John 17, verses four and five, Jesus praying to God the Father says this, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work You gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify Me in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed.” He’s showing He was with God in divine glory there before creation even began, family. Jesus said he was God. Be clear on that.
Jesus Once Revealed His Divine Glory
The third reason we can be confident is that Jesus once revealed his divine glory. When He was walking among us, incarnated in flesh, for the majority of His life, Jesus looked just like me, just like you. He just looked like a human, had skin on, had flesh. He looked just like one of us, but at one moment, all the divine glory inside of Him came bursting forth. We know it as the moment of transfiguration. It happened on the mountain of transfiguration. It’s recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; Matthew 17, Mark nine, Luke nine. It was seen by three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, who didn’t tell anybody about it because it would have been scary until after He had resurrected from the dead, and then it all finally made sense. But this is Luke’s account, Luke chapter nine, verse 28, “Now about eight days after these sayings, He took with Him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as He was praying, the appearance of His face was altered, and His clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”Family, humans don’t do that. That’s the ancient of days from Daniel chapter seven. That’s the rider on the white horse from Revelation chapter 19. That’s Jesus revealing His divine glory here on the earth, showing Himself to be God himself. God the Father came down in a cloud at that same moment. Jesus is just hanging out with Moses and Elijah. Who does that? Jesus does because he’s God.
Jesus Was Crucified For Claiming To Be God
The fourth reason we can be confident that Jesus is God is that Jesus was crucified for claiming to be God. To all those who would say the disciples just made up this claim that Jesus said he was God, nope, not true at all. It wasn’t just the disciples who heard Jesus say it, it was the Pharisees and religious leaders as well. In fact, that’s why they had Him crucified. They didn’t believe He was actually God. They thought he was a blasphemer, so they wanted to kill Him. But the crucifixion was absolutely based on Jesus making the claim that He was God. This sort of begins in John chapter 10, verses 30 through 33. Jesus said these words, “I and the Father are one.” There’s another divine statement. “After that, the Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you going to stone me?’ And the Jews answered him, ‘It’s not for good works that we’re going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself God.’” They knew that He was saying that He was God. I think you see it most clearly in John 19 where they give Pilate the reasons why they want Him crucified. They’re trying to get Him crucified there on the day when He was crucified, and they have to give the Roman governor, Pilate, a reason to do it. He’s the only one with the power to do so. And he says this in John 19, seven, “We have a law, and according to that law, He [Jesus], ought to die, because He’s made Himself the Son of God.” Jesus claimed it, they heard it, and they had Him crucified because of it. Don’t be confused. Jesus said He was God.
His Disciples Suffered and Were Martyred For It
The fifth reason we can be confident that Jesus is God is that His disciples suffered and were martyred for it. There are absolutely those who claim it was all just a hoax. Jesus wasn’t God, He was just a man, and the disciples fabricated the whole divinity thing. They faked His resurrection. They made up these claims after the fact just so they could be famous and live these great, glorious lives. Which sounds dramatic and scandalous to our ears. It kind of tickles our desire for the fantastical, right? So a lot of people like that argument, a lot of people reject the divinity of Jesus because of it. The only problem with it is history. The disciples didn’t enjoy easy lives. They did become famous, but they didn’t enjoy easy lives at all. Excuse me. They faced enormous ridicule and persecution for their beliefs in this life. Many of them were ultimately martyred because of them. In the face of all those trials, they never once recounted for a moment the claims that they were making. That Jesus really was God, that He really did resurrect from the dead. Their lives and their faithfulness of their lives, even in the face of persecution, actually became the greatest evidence for the conversion of a man named Josh McDowell. You might be familiar with him. He was a former agnostic who tried to disprove Christianity and the divinity of Jesus, and he was converted in the process. And this is what he wrote concerning this point about the disciples in his book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, “On the day of the crucifixion, they, the disciples, were filled with sadness. On the first day of the week, filled with gladness. At the crucifixion, they were hopeless. On the first day of the week, their hearts glowed with certainty and hope. When the message of the resurrection first came, they were incredulous and hard to be convinced, but once they became assured, they never doubted again. What could account for the astonishing change in these men in so short a time? Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their lives lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day, and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence, and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication that they were trying to foist upon the world that simply wouldn’t make sense.” Don’t miss it at all. The testimony of the Bible, the testimony of Christ, the faithfulness of the lives of the disciples in the face of the persecution they faced all tells us the same thing. That baby lying right here in verse number seven in that manger is not just a man, He’s God himself. It’s why this moment is glorious. It’s why we can worship as we do and sing the name of Jesus in church, because we’re not being blasphemous to God. Jesus is God. At the name of Jesus one day everyone will bow because Jesus is God Himself. We worship here at the manger because this little baby is God Himself.
The Birth of Jesus Shows Us God’s Power
This brings us to the third reason the birth of Jesus is glorious. It shows us God’s power. Here in Luke two, in the details of Jesus’ birth, we are catching an incredible glimpse of God’s sovereign power on display, especially here in verse four as Joseph and Mary make this journey down to Bethlehem. Where are Joseph and Mary from? They’re from Nazareth. That’s where they live. That’s where Jesus will grow up. That’s where He will start His ministry. That’s why He will be called Jesus of Nazareth. That’s His hometown up there in northern Israel in the region known as Galilee. However, that’s a bit of a problem because Jesus can’t come from Nazareth because God had revealed in the Old Testament through the prophet Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. In fact, the Pharisees were rejecting Jesus as Messiah because they thought He was born in Nazareth. They didn’t know this little detail that Luke is giving us here in chapter two, that He was actually born in Bethlehem. So how does God get Mary and Joseph down to Bethlehem? They live in Nazareth. It’s 100 miles away. How does God ensure that this prophetic glimpse from the Old Testament there in Micah 5:2? This was the prophecy given, “But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old, from ancient days.” So how does God make sure that prophecy is fulfilled? What does God do to pull it off? He’s sovereign, He can do anything. He controls the hearts of men and all of human history. How does he providentially pull this off? Does He put it in Joseph’s heart to go on vacation? It says his family seat was there in Bethlehem, so he could have put the desire in his heart. It’s Aunt Muriel’s 65th birthday. Let’s go see Aunt Muriel. He and Mary could have gone for that. Or was there a carpentry convention? Could God have scheduled an event that Joseph wanted to go be a part of there in Bethlehem? Is that how He could have done it? He could have, but He didn’t. Luke tells us what happened. Verse one, “A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” That’s how God got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, by putting it in the heart of the most powerful man on the planet to issue a decree for the entire world to go have a census so that Mary and Joseph would end up in this city. You probably don’t know your detailed Roman empire history. I didn’t either. I had to study this this week as I was preparing. But Caesar Augustus is one of the most famous emperors in all of Roman history. In fact, he is celebrated as one of the greatest leaders in all of human history. He reigned from 31 BC to 14 AD, and he had so much strength. He consolidated the Roman empire with so much power that they enjoyed peace through his entire reign and for about 200 years after he left office. He was the first and the greatest of the Roman emperors. His birth name was Octavius. That was what he was called as a child. But the Roman Senate actually renamed him Augustus, which means the supreme one, the magnificent one, because he was so strong and such a powerful leader in his time. Strongest, most powerful man on the planet, ruling over the strongest, most powerful empire on the planet at that time. But don’t miss it. This great, majestic king is totally subject to the King of Kings. God is flexing in this passage. He is showing what Proverbs 21 tells us to be true, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.” God’s in control of everything. He can do whatever He wants. There’s no power that threatens His control. There’s no one that can thwart His plans. God’s in complete control. The birth of Jesus is just demonstrating the power of God. It’s glorious because of that. No one holds history but God. He’s the one and the only sovereign, which is an important truth for all of us to remember. Only when we remember God’s power can we ever experience peace in our own lives. We are threatened by 10 million different things every single week. Car problems when you’re on vacation, germs, hurricanes, diseases, disasters. It’s easy to feel lost and anxious in this world, family, but don’t miss what’s in front of your eyes in this passage. God is in complete control. You can rest easy. He’s wide awake. He’s never met a problem that stumped Him. He’s never been surprised by anything. He’s got the whole world in His hands, and He’s showing that right here in this passage. Caesar Augustus is not in charge. Joe Biden is not in charge. God alone is ruling this world. We can rest in Him. It’s glorious. This birth of Jesus is glorious because it’s showcasing God’s sovereign power.
The Birth of Jesus Shows Us God’s Love
And lastly, the fourth reason we can worship here at the manger is because the birth of Jesus shows us God’s love. The birth of Jesus is glorious because it shows us God’s love. This is where we’ll end. The most important reason for why we should marvel, worship, and glorify God for what’s happening here in Luke chapter two is that this is without question a glorious demonstration of God’s love for us. We’ve seen that this baby is God incarnate. We’ve seen that He has come not randomly, but on this mission from God, eternally planned from before time began. We’ve seen that it was enacted in a demonstration of God’s power. But what I want you to see with me here as I explore one final question is why? Why would God do this? We know He came to offer redemption, but why would He want to offer redemption to this world? The Bible is clear. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all like sheep gone astray, each one of us turning our own way, the Bible says. God has given us a beautiful world to enjoy, beautiful beaches to go and walk upon, an enormous ocean that somehow incessantly produces waves. Apparently the moon does that. Doesn’t make any sense to me. He has given us glorious sunrises to behold, a great, enormous creation to enjoy. And He’s clearly revealed Himself in creation. The only response we should ever have as people is to worship and glorify Him, and yet we set ourselves up against Him. We don’t want a Lord over our lives. We want to be our own gods. We want to deny the authority of this book and have our own opinions and our own ideations be authority over it. We set ourselves up in opposition to His right rule. So why on earth would He want to redeem us? The answer is incomprehensible, but we find it all over the Bible in dozens of different places. But I want to look in Galatians chapter four, verses four and five, where the apostle Paul, in a book where he’s explaining and defending the gospel, says it this way, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Right there are two phrases back to back. That’s the why of why Jesus came. And it’s really the why behind the why. Yes, Jesus came to redeem us. Without a doubt, that’s why Jesus came. He came to die on the cross for your sins. He came to provide a perfect redemption for all who were separated from God, to forgive them, to remove the wrath of God from them, to redeem them from under the law. That’s absolutely true. But why did He do that? So that we might receive adoption as sons. Don’t miss it. God loves you. It’s incomprehensible, it’s unimaginable, but that’s why He sent His son to redeem us, because He wants us close to Himself. He wants to adopt us like a father and have us be near Him. God did not just send Jesus to keep you out of hell. Salvation is bigger than just being removed from the punishment of God. God wants you with Him. He justified you so that you can have peace with God, Romans chapter five says He wants you, he wants relationship with you, he wants eternity with you. He sent Jesus on this mission because for some incomprehensible reason, He saw us, loved us, chose us, and decided to adopt us before the foundations of the world were laid. This is the glorious good news of the gospel. This is the core message of Christianity, the biggest reason why we should worship here at the side of this baby in the manger, the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him might have eternal life. That there at the manger, Christ began to live a perfect, sinless life, fulfilling every requirement of the law for you. And one day He would sacrifice that life upon the cross as a perfect substitute for you. He would take your place. He would bear the wrath of God, justly deserved by every sin you would ever commit, and He would propitiate it in full for you. He would declare those amazing words, “It is finished” for you. He would remove every bit of obstacle that stood between you and God because of your sin, for you. All so that you, through faith by believing in His name and the finished work that He accomplished on that cross, could receive the free gift of grace and be justified before the eyes of God and have peace with God so that we could be adopted as His sons. Some people view the cross of Christ as divine child abuse. How could a God kill his son for his other children? The only way you can hold that is if you don’t understand your sin. If you don’t understand what it means to violate the glory of God, to live a life of rebellion against Him. He is supremely sovereign, which means every offense you have against Him is supremely heinous. And all the horrors of Calvary, and all the pain Jesus endured is meant to show us just how big the gulf was that lay between us and God, how wide the separation was, how huge the holiness of God is, and how true the justice of God is that required a sacrifice for those sins. But praise be to God, in Jesus we have it. We have a full and complete redemption. The great why of the manger is found in the great why of the cross. Jesus did it because he loves you. And He wants you close to Himself as his child forever. It’s Romans 5:8, what we see there, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Right there in that manger, we see the greatest gift of love the world has ever known. Jesus, the son of God, on an eternal mission to redeem. A display of great power, but most of all, a display of great, incomprehensible, unmerited, undeserved, immeasurable love that He has for us. God in love, coming running for his children.
Some of you have never worshiped Jesus, not the true Jesus at least. You’ve resisted Him, you’ve pushed off the true Jesus as a myth, as a fairy tale too incredible to believe. Perhaps you’ve sat in churches, perhaps you’ve sung to Jesus, but it’s never been this Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. And today perhaps if by the power of God you have seen Him, and it’s not just a baby sitting in that manger anymore, it’s suddenly God himself, and you’re seeing Him as more magnificent than you’ve ever seen before. That’s called regeneration. That’s called God turning blind eyes into seeing eyes and allowing you to be able to see this Jesus as the great redeemer of your soul. The Bible’s clear, no one comes to the Father unless the Spirit draws Him, that we’re not able to utter Jesus is Lord unless the Spirit is within us. The Bible’s clear, your sin separates you from God and will result in your eternal punishment forever. But through Jesus, through the true Jesus, through faith in His name and what He accomplished for you on the cross, you can be forgiven immediately through faith. Through repentance and belief in this Jesus you’ll be redeemed; you will be saved. The Bible is clear, it’s just two things, repentance and belief. It’s turning from believing you don’t need a Savior and turning to Jesus and receiving this free gift that He’s done. Salvation’s not of works, there’s nothing you can ever do to earn your place in God’s eyes. Even your best day is polluted with sinful motivations and sinful actions, but in Christ we have a perfect Redeemer, a salvation of justification through faith alone. So believe in this Jesus, let His blood be a covering for you. In Jesus we have a great savior, church. Here in Luke chapter two we’ve seen how it all began. Christ has come for His people. God Himself is swaddled there in that manger. The eternal plan is unfolding and salvation is running for God’s people. In great power and in great love, the Redeemer is finally here.