#8 Lu.
2:1-7 THE BIRTH OF JESUS AT
Introduction:
In our previous text Luke gave us a brief view of John
the Baptist as he grew from
infancy to adulthood. He grew up
in the hill country of
preached
to the people as they came to him out of the cities.
In our text today, Luke again leaves off talking about
John and tells us about the birth of
Jesus.
I.
The decree from Caesar Augustus
V. 1, "And it came to pass in those days, that there
went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world
should
be taxed." The expression, "in
those days" refers to
the days very shortly after the
birth of John the Baptist.
Elisabeth gave birth to John and very
shortly thereafter
Caesar Augustus made a decree that all of
the world should be
taxed. Caesar Augustus was the Roman caesar who ruled the
The Greek word that here is translated "taxed" in our
verse
actually carries a much broader meaning than just
taxes. When you are moving from another language to
the
English it is often difficult to find just one single English
word that carries the idea that
the word carries in the
original
language. For instance, this Greek word
speaks
primarily
of a registration or an enrolling of one's name on
a list. When registering on a list of this kind for
the
government,
one had to do more than just to register his
name. He had to report what he had accumulated in
the way of
material
possessions. Such a registration
required by a king
was usually for a twofold
purpose. It was for the purpose of
taxing
the people of their possessions and for the purpose of
determining
who was available for the army. It would
be
somewhat
like filing an income-tax report and registering for
the draft at the same time.
Under ordinary circumstances, such a registration order
would
apply only to a certain nation or a certain region.
But this particular registration required
by Caesar Augustus,
Luke said, was for the whole world. Luke was speaking, of
course,
of the whole Roman world, the
V. 2, "(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius
was
governor
of
This was not the first registration or
first taxation. Such
registration
and taxation of property was quite common in
that day. But this was the first world-wide
registration of
this kind. It was the first world-wide taxation
program. I
say, "Taxation." As I said earlier, it was both for the
purpose
of taxation of property and also to compile a list of
men so that the emperor could
know just who was available for
his army.
V. 3, "And all went to be taxed, every one into his own
city." The reason that this order required every man
to
return
to his own city where he was born is that this is the
place
where there was a record of his birth was kept.
Even
in that day in that part of
the world, whenever a child was
born, the name of the child and
family tree of that child was
entered
into the records of that city. This was
true even in
the smallest village.
Now ordinarily a king did not require a man to return to
the place of his birth in order
to be taxed. Ordinarily the
king would just required all
people living within a certain
region
to register and pay taxes right where they lived. But
for some reason, Caesar
Augustus decided right at this
particular
time that he wanted every man to return to the
city where he was born and where
the record of his birth was
located. Apparently he wanted the new records of each
man to
be compared with his old birth
records. I am not sure just
what benefit this would be to
the caesar, but I am sure that
God was behind his decision because this
would be of special
benefit
to God. It would solve a problem for
God. We'll
talk more about this problem
later.
II. The problem and the solution to the
problem
V. 4, "And Joseph also went up from
city of
is called
of David:)." Joseph, you are aware, was by this time
married
to Mary who was carrying
Jesus.
The first three months of Mary's pregnancy Mary spent in
the home of Elisabeth and
Zacharias. But just before
Elisabeth gave birth to John, Mary left
and went back to
His birth. Shortly after she returned to
Joseph married and began to make a life
together there in
There was, however, something wrong.
There was
something
badly wrong. Joseph and Mary were living
in
said that the Christ-child would
be born in
of
she was living far away from
the place where the prophets of
God had said that He was to be born. The weeks began to roll
by. The weeks turned into months. The time was getting
close
when the child would be due, and still Joseph and Mary
were not in
How in the world could her child claim to
be the Christ if He
were not born in
would
be born. I'll tell you what it looked
like. It looked
as if the prophets of God were
going to be wrong this time.
It looked as if there was no way in the
world that Jesus was
going
to be born in
like He would be born right
there in the city of
where
Joseph and Mary lived.
But just at the right time there came a messenger from
people. It was probably also disturbing to Joseph and
Mary.
The message was that Augustus Caesar had
ordered all men to
go back to the city where they
were born and register there.
I am sure that Joseph did not want to make
a trip back to
delivery
time.
You see it just so happened that Joseph had
been born in
the city of
said that the Christ would be
born.
But that still did not altogether solve the problem.
According to secular historians, the edict
from the caesar
only required Joseph to go to
It did not require his wife, Mary, to go
with him. If she
should
not go with him, the Christ-child would still be born
in the wrong city. It all hinged on whether or not Mary went
with Joseph.
Verse 4 said that Joseph left
the orders of the caesar, and started south toward
to register for the
taxes. It might seem strange to us here
in
south. When we go south we say we are going
down. Only when
we go north do we say we are
going up. Yet even though he
was headed south, it is still said that he
went" up" to
because
it was an uphill climb from the city of
Verse 5 tells us that Mary went with him. I am not
certain
just what prompted Mary to go. It is
certain that
she was getting very near to
the time for the birth of her
child. Perhaps Joseph asked her to go or told her to
go.
Or, perhaps, she just could not bare the
thought of having
this child born at a time when
Joseph was so far away. But
for whatever the reason, Mary
went with Joseph to
V.
5, "To be taxed with Mary his espoused
wife, being great
with child." Even though
Mary was great with child she went
with Joseph to
You talk about being taxed! This
must have been a very
taxing
trip for Mary! She was great with child! She was
ready
to be delivered!
V. 6, "And so it was, that, while they were there, the
days were accomplished that she
should be delivered." I just
do not know what in the world
this poor woman is going to do.
Here it is time for her to be delivered
and she is so far
away from her obstetrician. Furthermore after he is born,
her pediatrician is nowhere
nearby. What in the world is
this poor woman going to do?
Well, I'm sure that was the least of her worries. One
of her chief concerns was
getting a place to stay. She and
Joseph could not get a decent place to get
a room in which to
stay. At first, it seemed they would find no place
at all.
V.
7, "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."
one inn or motel in this little
town. They were not at all
accustomed
to this many people in this little town looking
for rooms. By the time Joseph and Mary got to the inn
all
the rooms were already
taken. There was just no room
available
for them ---or for anybody else---in the inn.
The poor manager of the inn did the best he could for
them under the circumstances
without miss-putting his own
family. I am sure that there were many others that he
had to
turn away altogether. He was not able to give them a place
at all to sleep. But he, of course, could see that Mary was
great
with child and, out of compassion, he offered her and
Joseph about the only place he had
left. He carried them to
the stable where the animals of
the guests were kept and he
offered
to let them stay in the stable with the animals. I
suppose
in our day, the equivalent would be to say, "I'm
sorry. We just don't have any rooms, but we do have
a
covered
parking area. You can stay here in the
parking area
if you would like."
It certainly wasn't much. It
wasn't clean. The odor --
-the odor would knock you for a loop. But it did have walls
and it did have a roof. And it had hay on which Joseph and
Mary could sleep with some degree of
comfort. It might itch
a little bit, but they could
make it. It had troughs where
the food of the animals was
put. The animals ate out of
these
troughs. One of the troughs could serve
as a bed for
the baby when He was born. So......they took it. It wasn't
much, but it beat staying out in
the weather where they would
have bear the heat in the
daytime and the cold air at night.
Up in this higher elevation, it could get
pretty cold at
night. Furthermore if it rained or stormed or hailed
or
whatever,
it would really be nice to be inside.
So-------
they took it.
I do not know how many days Joseph would need to stay in
town in order to take care of
the business of registering,
but it apparently did not take
Mary long after they got there
for Mary to get her business
taken care of. Her child was
born there in that stable. She wrapped the little fellow in
swaddling
clothes and she made a bed for Him in one of the
feed troughs. She made Him as comfortable as she could and
I
am sure that she just thanked
God for His blessings including
this stable.
Now I do not know who attended Mary during the
childbirth. It could have been Joseph, himself. I suspect
that the inn-keeper put them in
contact with one of the mid-
wives
in the local area who assisted her.
But the child was born. And not
only that, He was born
in
would
be. The problem of getting Mary out of
into
solve. But it was no problem at all for God. God solved the
problem
just as easy as pie. God got Mary to the
right place
and He got her there at the
right time.
III. An even greater problem and the
solution to that
problem
The problem that was not so easy for God to solve was
the problem of getting lost
men, women, boys and girls to be
saved. In order for God to save people, God had to
cleanse
them from their sin. He had to cleanse them from every sin.
If even one single little itsy bitsy sin
was left unforgiven
and uncleansed,
that person would go to hell. He, or
she,
would
then have to suffer forever and forever.
There was but one way that God could cleanse man from sin
and take him to heaven. In order for man to be cleansed from
his sin----in order for man to
be saved----God had to send
His Son from heaven to this earth. He had to send His Son
from heaven to be born in human
flesh. There might have been
other
ways that God could have used to get Mary to
at the right time, but there
was no other way to save man
other
than for God to send His Son Jesus to this earth. Acts
among
men whereby we must be saved." In
John 14:6 Jesus
said, "I am the way the
truth and the life; no man cometh
unto the Father but by me."
Not only that. Not only did God
have to send His Son to
the world to be born in human
flesh, but His Son also had to
die for man in order that man
might be saved. God knew from
the very beginning that Jesus
would have to go to the cross
and suffer for our sins in
order for us to be saved. He
would
have to shed His blood. Without the
shedding of blood
there
is no remission of sin. He would have to
suffer. He
would
have to suffer the full penalty of our sins.
In order
for us to be spared from
suffering for our sins in the fires
of hell, God's Son, Jesus
Christ, would have to suffer in our
stead
on the cross. We have sinned and
somebody is going to
have to suffer for our
sins. We are the ones who haves
inned,
but God sent His Son to suffer in our stead so that we
might
not have to suffer for our sins. That is
why Jesus was
born in human flesh. As a human being He could suffer. He
could
suffer to the same degree that we would have to suffer
if we never sought forgiveness
for our sins. He would have
to suffer enough that He would
be able to substitute for all
who would trust in Him for
salvation.
So this child is born in
that a way is provided that man
might be saved. Because this
child
was born, because He died on
He arose from the grave, a way of
salvation is provided for
all mankind that all might be
saved. John 3:16 says, "For
God so loved the world that whosoever
believeth in Him should
not perish, but have
everlasting life." Jesus said,
"Come
unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your
souls,"
Mt. 11:28, 29.
People in
Jesus Christ. People in
trust
in Jesus Christ. People in
anywhere
else in the world can be saved if they will trust in
Jesus Christ as Savior. But what is so very important to us
is that people right here in
this congregation this morning
can be saved if they will trust
in Jesus Christ as Savior.
You can be saved if you will trust in
Jesus Christ as Savior.
In Acts
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved."
Now that ought to mean something to you.
What it means
is that even though you are
guilty of sin, you do not have to
go to hell. That is good news. God sent Jesus Christ to be
born in
to die on
to you this morning and is
telling you that you can be saved.
You can be saved by asking Jesus Christ to
save you and by
trusting
Him to do it. But if you do not trust
Jesus Christ
you will go to hell. If you refuse to trust Jesus Christ,
thinking
that you can be good enough all on your on to make
it to heaven, you will most
certainly go to hell. Even if
you have good intentions and
plan to trust Jesus some day, if
you keep putting it off and
putting it off, you will still
very likely go to hell. You must trust Jesus while you are
still
alive in this world. That is why it is
so important to
trust
Him today. That is why it is important
not to put it
off any longer. That is why it is important to get this
matter
settled with God while you have the time.
Conclusion
So I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going
ask every unsaved man, woman,
boy and girl in this service
this morning to call on Jesus
right now and trust Jesus as
your Savior. I am going to ask you to all bow your heads
and
if you know that you are lost
and in danger of going to hell,
I am going to ask you right now right
where you are to trust
Jesus Christ to save your soul. Ask Him to save you and
trust
Him to save you. I am going to ask our
musicians to
come forward and be prepared for
the invitation hymn and
while
they come, I am asking you to turn your heart to the
Lord and trust Him to save your soul. If there are those who
have already been saved and you
wish to come in this
invitation
to present yourself to this church for membership,
would
you get your heart ready to come while we pray.
Let us
all pray.