Good morning. It is great to be able to
worship with you this morning. There are I look and I I see
faces that I have not met. And I'm glad that you're here.
I don't know if you come here regularly, if you're visiting.
Whatever it is. We are so glad to be able to be
together for worship. We sung a song just now of going
to heaven, and that's encouraging.
That's. And it's because of the promise
that has been given us by God and also the sacrifice that
Jesus made for all of us, that we're even.
We even have that kind of hope. And we're going to talk about
Jesus this morning, specifically about his birth, as we dive into
Luke Chapter 2 around this time. But there are many who reflect
upon the birth of Jesus. And for those who believed Jesus
was real but really don't believe in him being the Son of
God or him being the Messiah, well, it gives us an opportunity
to share the good news about Jesus and try to enlighten
others about who he, who he was and who he still is.
And when we look back to what the scriptures say about the
birth of Jesus, we're reminded of the humble beginnings of the
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords on this earth.
We see the Son of God become flesh, and we also see
prophecies fulfilled that are surrounding his birth.
I am not here this morning to dispute when Jesus was born.
In fact, I don't believe the Bible doesn't tell us what day
He was born. I do not believe he was born on
December 25th, and there are various reasons for that.
But we're not going to get into that.
We're just going to talk about when he was born.
According to Luke's account in Luke chapter 2 this morning, his
birth, though, it's important enough for us to talk about
because it is extremely significant and it has an impact
upon you and it has an impact upon me, it has an impact upon
the entire world. And I want to focus on what Luke
portrays in chapter two of his gospel of the birth of Jesus and
look at a couple of events that surround it.
And so basically this is going to be an expository study of the
1st 21 verses of Luke chapter 2. That's going to be our direction
this morning and kind of divide into two different sections this
morning. So let's begin with the
narrative of this as Luke portrays this beginning in verse
#1. And it came to pass in those
days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be registered. This census first took place
while Kuradius was governing Syria, so all went to be
registered everyone to his own city.
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 to be registered with
Mary, his betrothed wife who was with child.
This is a it's this is quite an interesting scenario and an
occurrence surrounding the birth of Jesus and where he would be
born. And so Luke says that it was
during Mary's pregnancy that there was a decree about paying
taxes. And part of that criteria is
that you had to go back to the place of your family in order to
register with the census that was ordered.
Well, specifically we're looking at Joseph right here because
Joseph was from the lineage of David.
So because of that, he had to go back to Bethlehem during the
census because that's where David was from.
And so they make this journey from their home in Nazareth all
the way down there to Bethlehem. And this journey was about 70
miles. It was about a three day
journey. And now, Mary, if you ask me, I
don't think Mary had to go, and that's my humble opinion.
Remember, she was pregnant. I don't think she was too close
to a full term because of the wording from Luke several verses
down within the context here. But I'm sure she felt the
effects of her pregnancy, such as maybe sickness or maybe
fatigue. And honestly, I'll be.
I mean, I'm at a disadvantage to understand all the difficulties
of some of the inconveniences of what you mothers have gone
through while being pregnant. But I think that's a factor
about Mary making this journey with Joseph all the way down
there to Bethlehem while she was pregnant.
So why do you think she made the trip?
Why did she go with Joseph? I could kind of brainstorm some
ideas of why she went. One thing is that maybe she
didn't want to be away from Joseph during the pregnancy.
Maybe she wanted her. Maybe Joseph wanted her to come
along just to be with her with that kind of companionship.
I think there's another plausible reason why Mary made
the trip knowing she was bearing God's son.
Perhaps she knew of the importance of one of the
prophecies about the Messiah and that was written back in Micah.
In fact Micah chapter 5 and verse two says this about this
prophecy of Jesus. 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.
Who's goings forth are from old, from everlasting.
This prophecy about how the Messiah will come, he says it's
going to keep the Messiah is going to come from Bethlehem.
And if Mary knew this, she would know that she needed to be in
Bethlehem for this to happen. And so they make their way down
to Bethlehem because of the census.
Now this census, it affected many people at that particular
time. It meant that there was a lot of
people who had to travel to the city of their family during this
time. And that meant that Bethlehem
was being filled with visitors from all over.
And that would have posed a challenge to try to find a place
to stay for some of those people who were traveling.
And perhaps most of the visitors, maybe they stayed with
their relatives who were still living there.
And so that and so Mary and Joseph, what are they to do?
Where are they going to stay? Well, this brings us to the next
part here in Luke chapter 2 in verses 6 and seven, where it
says so. It was that while they were
there, the days were completed for her to be delivered and so
and she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him in
swaddling clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no
room for them in the end. I do want to say something here
about what we generally see around this time of year and the
scenes that we that we see about where Jesus was born.
That's not quite what I see from what Luke shows here in our
narrative. And let me break it down this
way. I don't think Jesus was born off
somewhere in a barn because of what Luke says.
The word here for in is it's the Greek word cataluma.
And Luke uses this word the same word later on in the Gospel when
Jesus referred to a guest room and the context of that passage
there in Luke 22 and verse 11. When Luke uses it there, the
context is when Jesus and the disciples, they're trying to
find a room in order to observe the Passover, and so this was
the upper room. Consider this too though.
The Greek word for like a motel or hotel or in can be seen again
in Luke's Gospel, and specifically Luke chapter 10,
verse #34. In that particular context, you
have Jesus giving the parable of the Good Samaritan.
And what did the Good Samaritan do to that man who needed help
who had been beaten on the roadside?
Well, he took him to an inn, and the inn is a different Greek
word. I'm not going to pando Chian.
That's my best guess of how to pronounce that Greek word.
And then he paid the innkeeper Pando Chiai to care for that
man. And since Luke was familiar with
the proper term for inn, why didn't he use it in the account
of the birth of Jesus here in Luke chapter 2 then?
Well, the probable answer is that Joseph and Mary did not
attempt to stay at an inn or a hotel, but the Bible states that
there was no room for them in the cataluma, which would have
been better translated as a guest room.
And so Joseph and Mary probably stayed with Joseph's relatives
in Bethlehem. But because of the large amount
of people coming into town, the house would have been crowded
and the cataluma or the guest room was full.
And so Joseph and Mary would have had to stay in the lower
part of the house. And historically, the upper
level served as a guest chamber, while the lower level served
kind of like the living quarters or or the dining area as well.
It kind of had multiple purposes there on that lower, lower
level. In fact, there are often times
that the more vulnerable animals, they would be brought
in at night and placed in that room in order to do 2 things.
Number one, protect them from the cold and #2 protect them
from theft as well. And so when morning came, the
animals would be let out and then the lower level would be
cleaned. And this is where the major
comes into play. Mary likely gave birth to Jesus
in the lower level of a crowded house in which some of the
animals had been brought in for the night, and she then wrapped
Jesus in swaddling clothes and laid him in a major or feeding
through at that time in that place.
So Luke says Jesus was born the Son of God has come from heaven
and is now on earth in the form of flesh.
And Joseph and Mary both knew of his importance and how happy
they must have been seeing that newborn baby and seeing the
promise being fulfilled in this very important child.
Perhaps relatives from upstairs came down to share the wonderful
and precious moment of the newborn king.
But there was gladness. There was a joy going on with
this family. But that's not the only joy that
was happening during this time. Not only were they the family
rejoicing, Heaven was well aware of the birth of Jesus, of the
birth of the Son of God. In fact, you continue on in
Luke's narrative. We come to now the second kind
of scene within our study, and it says here, beginning of verse
#8. Now there were in the same
country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And behold, an Angel the Lord
stood before them, and the glory of the Lord, and shone around
them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then 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. For there is born to you this
day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord,
and this would be the sign to you.
You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a
Manger. Honestly, this is one of my
favorite scenes surrounding the birth of Jesus.
It really is because you've got Luke takes us just outside of
Bethlehem. He takes us to a field, and when
there and as we see the scene of this field, we see the sheep.
The sheep had laid down to rest for the night.
We see the shepherds. They're there resting, keeping
watch over the flock. And what was a peaceful night
suddenly turned into something that absolutely frightened these
shepherds. An Angel appeared and there was
a light shining around them. And this light was no ordinary
light. It was the glory of the Lord.
And I think if you or I were there, I I think we would have
been maybe as as afraid as these shepherds were thinking.
What is going on? We've never seen anything like
this before. Notice the Angel told them right
away. Don't be afraid.
In fact, I've got some news for you.
And not just news. I've got some great news for
you, but not only for you. This is good news for everybody.
In fact, it's good news to you, and it's good news to me as
well. What these angels were about to
tell these shepherds out there in that field.
So you see the significance of the birth of Jesus because he
was born. It's wonderful news to us just
as the angels proclaim, because the angels declared 3 things
about Jesus, the one who was just born.
They proclaimed 3 things about Jesus being Savior, Christ and
Lord, and that holds huge significance.
And I want to break that down for just a moment about those
three different characteristics surrounding Jesus.
When we speak of Jesus being our Savior, it is relating to Jesus
being our deliverer or our protector.
And so the Angel who spoke to Joseph said this about Jesus as
we rewind the clock a little bit here in Matthew chapter one.
The Angel said here in verse #21 and she will bring forth the Son
and you should call his name Jesus.
And here's the reason why, for he will save his people from
their sins. The truth is, you and I, we need
that deliverance. We need to be delivered.
But why? Why do we need that in our
lives? From what do we need to be saved
or delivered from? Well, the answer is that all of
us need to be saved and delivered from the punishment
that our own sin deserves. That's what we need salvation
from. And that's why Jesus died on the
cross. He bore the punishment of all of
our sins and thereby saving us from punishment and delivering
us from having to bear God's justice upon us.
And you could be forgiven, but justice will still be satisfied
in what you need. And what all of us need is to be
saved from justice. And we need someone to deliver
us from the punishment that we deserve.
And Jesus does that for every single one of us.
And isn't that good news? That's wonderful news.
That's news we need to hear. That's news the shepherds needed
to hear, and that's news the shepherds needed to spread
abroad after they had heard that.
And in addition to that, the Angel declared Jesus not just
being the Savior, but also being the Christ.
Christ is not Jesus's last name. It is a title.
It's a title for what he stands for.
It's a quality of him, and it's impactful for all of us.
You see the Greek word for Christ as Christos, which
literally means anointed. 1 And Christos is the Greek word for
Messiah in Hebrew. And so when the angels announced
Jesus birth and that he is the Christ, what they're literally
saying is that God's anointed one, he's just been born.
And So what does that mean? What does it mean that a person
has been anointed? Well, in the Old Testament,
there were people who were anointed.
There were people who were set apart for various roles, and
they were important roles. That's why they were set apart
for various things. You got, for example, you had
prophets, you had priests, you had kings.
They were all anointed to do some special purpose.
Under the Old Law, they were set aside for a particular role.
But when you look at Jesus, Jesus was anointed as well.
He was set apart to be the savior of all but with him the
title of Christ or or the anointed one is more than just a
title or a role. In fact, Jesus was devoted to
the service of God by performing the will of his father.
He has been separated from all other humans for this very
purpose. In fact, Paul writes about it
here in Philippians chapter 2. The first part of this begins
with verse #5. It says let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God, did
not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no
reputation. Taking the form of a bondservant
and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself.
And became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the
cross. Therefore God has highly exalted
him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of
those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. As Paul points out here, Jesus
was faithful to his purpose, being obedient to the Father,
And Paul points out here specifically obeying to the
Father, obeying the Father to the point that he willingly was
sacrificed on the cross and he was sacrificed because of you
and for me. He was anointed for that purpose
and that's why he's the Christ and that's why they announced
He's anointed for a purpose there to those shepherds in that
field. He used the answer for sins of
all people. And the third thing we see the
angels announce about Jesus, they announce that he is the
Lord. And the Greek word for Lord is
curious, which can mean Sir, It can mean master, or it's a title
or respect. But in reference to God, it's a
title that refers to one who who is in supreme authority.
And so the Angel said that Jesus, this tiny baby that was
born in Bethlehem, was the Lord. He was the one in supreme
authority. Now that could have been
shocking to some people. How how in the world can can a
baby have this type of authority?
Well, Jesus is just not someone who comes along and just is with
us or or offers us suggestions. No, He's He's not just someone
who gives advice. He's not someone who just comes
along and encourages his Father, his followers, and he He does
these things. We know when we read about his
examples and we read about his teachings in the scriptures of
how He is with us, how He is our perfect example.
But really that is only the beginning of His power and His
authority. In fact the Bible tells us of
Jesus as being the supreme authority or or supreme
sovereign of the universe, whom as we just read every knee will
bow because He is Lord and that His name is above every other
name as we just read. That's the one who was born in
Bethlehem so long ago. That's why this good news is
being proclaimed to the shepherds in the field.
You look here in Colossians chapter one and verses 15
through 18 says he is the image of the invisible God, the first
born over all creation. For by him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible with the Thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers. Paul says All things were
created through him, and for him he is before all things, and in
him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the first born from
the dead, That in all things he may have the preeminence.
And so we see these great things about Jesus.
We see His supreme authority and what wonderful truths they are.
And that's who was born. That's who was born.
Yes, the angels had great news for the shepherds and for all
the world that Jesus, the Son of God, is here.
He said, This is whom you've read about regarding the
prophets of the prophecies of Messiah.
And they say now he's come and he was going to bring salvation
to all. Jesus is our answer and Jesus is
our hope. And don't don't ever take away
the significance of his life and his birth and his death and his
resurrection. And right on the heels of this
announcement, other angels joined in to shout these
praises. I love, I love this scene.
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the
heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
This Angel that that, I mean just just seeing.
First of all, being afraid of just seeing this one Angel.
But now all these other angels just join right in and this
great song of praise because of Jesus coming into the world.
Oh what a scene they break out in this wonderfully heavenly
choir. They express several things
here, They said First of all, God is to be glorified for the
gift of his Son. That's one thing they said, and
this was an act of love from God to us.
Don't forget that God's love for you and I, that this happened.
In fact, John wrote about God's love here in John chapter 3.
For God so loved the world. Well, how did he show that to
you and I? Well, he gave his only begotten
Son. But whoever believes in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him might be saved.
And so we see God's desire for us all.
He doesn't want us to perish. He wants us to live, He wants us
to be saved. And that's why the announcement
of Jesus from the angels of sort of so important.
But the second thing we see is that peace as they proclaimed
will now come as a result of the purpose and mission of Jesus.
Because where sin creates separation, horrible things.
We who believe in Jesus and obey the gospel of Christ, oh we
could be reunited with God and have peace with God and all.
We desperately seek that with him, because without Jesus to
intercede for us, that would not be possible to have this type of
peace with God. And so, after hearing the
praises from the multitude of angels, the shepherds, they're
no longer afraid. They know this was big.
They knew this was important. They knew of the significance of
this baby that had been born in Bethlehem.
And so they take action. And they say it says here and
verse #15, as we continue on with Luke's narrative here in
chapter 2, so it was when the angels had gone away from them
into heaven that the shepherd said to one another, Let us now
go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass,
which the Lord had made known to us.
And then continuing on, and they came with haste, found Mary and
Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger.
Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying,
which was told them concerning this child.
Good news spreads fast, doesn't it?
That's exactly what happens. This is the best news that they
ever heard or will ever hear in their lives.
And they had been eyewitnesses to God this, or actually the Son
of God being born and how he would be the answer to their
sins. No wonder they spread this news
as far as why they as they could.
People needed to hear the Messiah is here, This is whom we
were looking for. He's here.
And then continuing on in the narrative here in verse #18.
And all those who heard it marveled at those things which
were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. And then moving on in verse #20,
then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for
all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told
them. And when 8 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. Thinking about the reaction that
they all had and the joy that came from seeing this child,
understanding the significance, I think we would all do the same
thing of how they reacted. Spreading this news, glorifying,
praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen.
We would do that. We do that this morning,
understanding God loves us and God sent His Son.
We follow that same pattern, glorifying and praising God.
Because God sent His Son to die for you and me.
Aren't you thankful? And isn't that wonderful?
That's why we gathered gather to worship Him and praise Him and
magnify His name. Because of such a loving Father,
a wonderful Father, and a wonderful Savior that we have in
Jesus Christ that ends our study.
But I want to offer what the Lord's invitation is to you,
understanding what He's done for you and the significance of
Jesus Christ. Have you accepted Jesus into
your life? Is he your Savior today?
If he's not, he needs to be, because he is the only answer
for your sin, the only answer. And you could come, as the Lord
invites you to come, to believe in his Son as the Son of God,
believe that he did die upon the cross for your sins he was
buried, and believe that he was resurrected on the third day.
And then repent of your life, that is, make a change in your
life, that you're going to live a life devoted to God, and also
confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and then also be
baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
Those people did that in Acts chapter 2.
You know what happened to those people who followed those things
and obeyed? There in Acts chapter 2, the
Scripture said that the Lord added them to his church, and
the Lord will add you to the church when you obey the gospel
of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing God did
for you and a wonderful thing Jesus did for you.
If you haven't taken advantage of that, do it and do it today.
Be saved. Maybe.
If you have taken advantage of that, but maybe, maybe you made
mistakes, maybe you feel like you need to rededicate your life
to Christ. And if that's the case,
understand God is so loving. He is.
He always gives second chances. He's always going to forgive.
And consider that so we offer you this chance to make things
right, or to become a Christian. Consider your life as we stand
and as we sing the song of imitation.
We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church
of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
If you would like any additional information or you would like to
receive a free Bible correspondence course by mail,
please e-mail us at info@churchofchristbakersfield.com.
Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.