Luke 2:1-5 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 Quirinius 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.
Things are not always as they appear.
Jesus said John 7:24 "Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” So the truth is often beneath the surface or above what we see.
Bob Pawson and I in Shop Rite yesterday morning with the cashier named Joseph. He never heard of Mary and Joseph and Jesus being born.
In this scripture we are given a number insights into the World and Local Political Situation that Jesus was born into. It was not pretty. In fact the whole landscape politically, spiritually, economically that Jesus was born into was in great need of a Redeemer.
One of the things I pray you will see this morning is that God was ruling, overruling and working through the situation of the world at the time of Christ's birth. This is one of His Ways. His Ways are above our ways.
He works in our lives in a similar way. So often we look for escapes, for solutions and He desires to bring us through it and actually accomplish His Will through the things that are against us. He is God. He can do that. He does that. Jesus' death is the greatest example of surrender to the Will of the Father. His birth also had that element of surrender, especially for Mary and Joseph.
We look at the less than perfect or adverse situations in our lives and ask God to improve the circumstances or to change them, when often He rides out His purposes upon them! I love this verse: Galatians 4:4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
The time and circumstances were just what God wanted.
Not the best circumstances for this young couple humanly speaking but nevertheless God's perfect will for them and the world! Think about that in regards to your own life today. Your importunity is God's opportunity to show Himself Mighty on your behalf by riding out His purposes in your life on the very thing that is against you.
We know about this Census.
Caesar Augustus: the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar.
While the empire enjoyed peace under his rule it was an empire. Citizens had rights. Occupied territories such as Israel had little rights and they were subject to taxes which is part of what this census was all about for them. We also know now that it was used by the LORD to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so Jesus would be born there to fulfill the scriptures and God's purposes.
But for Joseph and Mary especially this trip was a hardship. It was also God's will. 2 Timothy 4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...
God will work through hardships to accomplish His Will and make you more like Jesus. Think about how Christmas affected Him.
That first Christmas was glorious but for Mary and Joseph it was difficult to say the least! And that 80 mile trek on foot was for the purpose of registering to pay taxes... or was it? The immediate often does not give the whole story. Take a few steps back, let some time pass and we see God's purposes and even if we still do not see them we have His peace. Often the very things against us are tools God uses to accomplish His purposes.
Fanny Crosby's view on her blindness:
"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."
If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind...for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour."
And talking about this Christmas season: there was a poor pastor in New York City named Clement Moore. He didn’t have any money for presents for his little girls. And because he didn’t have any money, he wrote them a poem, and that was their Christmas present. In 1823 he wrote it for his daughters. And that poem is, “Twas the Night Before Christmas, and All Through the House.”
Then there was a church in a little village in the Austrian Alps.
The organ broke down before the Christmas Eve Service.
The assistant Pastor Joseph Mohr had written a poem and decided those words might make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. The one problem was that he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Gruber.
Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a musical setting for the poem. It no longer mattered to Mohr and Gruber that their church organ was inoperable. They now had a Christmas carol that could be sung without that organ.
On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.
Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived in Oberndorf to fix the organ in St. Nicholas church. When Mauracher finished, he stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took copies of the music and words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers — the Rainers and the Strassers — heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire.
It soon spread all over Europe and then around the world.
Today it has been translated into 300 languages and will be sung in Christmas Gatherings all over the globe.
And it was because she was poor and didn’t have any nice bed for her little Boy, and she didn’t have any clothes for Him, but she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger [Luke 2:12-16]. And that’s why the Bible says, “We have a great High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” [Hebrews 4:15]. Anybody comes to a stable. Anybody bow at a manger. Anybody look on this Christ Child. “Draw near with boldness that you may receive grace to help in time of need” [Hebrews 4:16]—the hand of God back of the providences of life.
There were enemies of Jesus...
And what good can we say about that scoundrel Herod? Under the pretense of worshiping Christ he has a plan to kill Him. When he is outwitted by the Wise Men he goes on an infanticide rage and kills all the baby boys 2 years of age and under in Bethlehem and the vicinity. Horrible! Beyond words/ beyond comfort...
There were challengers to Jesus
Caesar Augustus...
1. Behind What Appeared To Be An Emperor Wielding His Power Was God Accomplishing His Will.
Caesar Augustus was doing his thing and God was doing His on the actions of a power hungry emperor.
Caesar Augustus was a piece of work. This great nephew of Julius Caesar as well as his adopted son. He was a nefarious man.
We can get depressed as we look at the rulers of this world. Crooked politicians make us sick. In the New Testament, the Caesars and Pilate and Herods were mentioned to show how God carried out His plan in spite of them and at times through them! There is no looking to these men for solutions for we are part of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is different from all others.
Today, the will of God may be happening in your life without you knowing it. He may have you right where He wants you, even though it is most uncomfortable.
The power plays of individuals in places of authority may inflict pain for a season but the trials they produce develop wonderful things in our hearts. We tend to trust the LORD more in the fire.
Today there are things God is doing through the struggles of your life that you do not understand.
Think about this Caesar Augustus - Augustus "of the gods"
Caesar Augustus was a man attempting to be a god.
He lived in a palatial palace.
Jesus Christ is God. He became a Man.
He left heaven to come to earth so He could die on the cross.
He died and rose again and His Father has exalted Him and given Him a name that is above all names.
Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
He not only taught this. He exemplifies it.
2. Beyond What Appeared To Be A Great Inconvenience Was God Getting Mary and Joseph to Make the Trip To Bethlehem.
The census proclaimed... Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem, a trip they would not have made with her in that condition if they could get out of it. God used the decree to have Jesus born in Bethlehem.
So often we look on the surface of things. The night Jesus was born really was not a Silent Night. It was a profane night in Israel as many other. Hard working people were inconvenienced by this census and they were not happy. A foreign government had imposed its law and edict on the people and they had to respond.
We walk by faith not by sight. If we walk by sight in the Christian Life we will get all messed up.
Often we think of faith as God meeting our needs, answering our prayers but it is more than that. It is surrendering my will to God's will. It is believing that God is in control even of what appears to be a major inconvenience.
context of walking by faith in II Corinthians 5 is facing death.
Learning to rest when things go awry.
Our example is Jesus on the boat when the squall broke out.
Loll's flat in Haiti on the way to the airport.
The Sovereign Hand of God upon our lives, ruling over events in human history.
History really is His Story.
When Micah said, seven hundred fifty years before, that the Child shall be born in Bethlehem, the decree from Caesar Augustus sent the holy family from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that the word of the prophet might come to pass according to the commandment of the Lord. All history is that history: back of it is the moving, sovereign, Hand of Almighty God.
Jacob prophesied over Judah, his son, Genesis 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah.
It was through the line of Judah that David was born, then Jesus. Jacob said these words 1,850 years before Jesus was born. 1,000 years before Jesus was born David was given the promise by God that his throne would last forever. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise.
3. Above What Appeared To Be A Disappointment in Finding Lodging That Night was God Having Jesus, His Son, being born in a stable and laid in a manger.
I doubt if Mary and Joseph as they did the best they could that Christmas night in Bethlehem had any idea that that scene would become something that artists would paint and churches would set up to remember how Jesus came into the world.
The sight, the sound and the smell of the manger. A filthy place.
The Creator with the Creation.
It was such a display of humility.
It was prophetic of how He would be treated.
They were simply doing what was necessary.
Sometimes what we need to be doing is just staying the course, continuing to walk faithfully with the LORD.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Mary and Joseph handled the lack of a room with grace and dignity. They were a picture of submission to God's plan.
Luke 2:6-7 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Leaders wield their power, Inconveniences come, Disappointments take place. God is in control and is doing things we could never imagine.
Don't try and figure Him out or see His purposes right away.
Do what Mary did.
Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Trust in the LORD. Walk faithfully with Him and He Will Open All the Doors You Need to walk through as you journey to heaven.
T
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