God’s Orchestration of Christmas
(Luke 2:1-7)
1. This story broke this week from the United Kingdom: " LONDON (Reuters) – Gone are the days of shepherds in tea towels and tinsel-clad angels. Britain’s competitive parents are forking out on luxury pashmina shawls and velour dressing gowns to make their child the star of the annual nativity play.
The rise in so-called "manger chic" has seen parents spend up to 150 pounds ($250) on arctic fur throws for children cast as sheep and ivory bridesmaid dresses for angels, according to department stores group Debenhams.
"The amount of money that some parents want to spend on their child’s nativity play appearance would enable Baby Jesus to leave the stable and check into a five star hotel," said spokesman Ed Watson.
Intense competition for places at good schools, concern about the future state of the jobs market and a drop in handcraft skills like sewing among time-pressed parents appears to be to blame.
But Debenhams is keen not to encourage the trend.
"While we applaud parents for wanting to do their very best for their children, we feel certain that the story of The Nativity can still be told using very simple materials," Watson said.
2. Some people simply seem to ignore the tone of that first Christmas.
Main Idea: It may seem like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were at the mercy of innkeepers and emperors, but, in retrospect, the birth of Jesus amplifies God’s control and involvement in the entire matter. God is strong and in control.
I. The DECREED Decree (1-3)
1. Augustus thought it was HIS idea
• Proverbs 21:1, "The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases."
B. But GOD sets the times
• Galatians 4:4-5, " But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
• Daniel 9:25-26a, "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ’sevens,’ and sixty-two ’sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ’sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary." Date of crucifixion April 3, AD 33.
[Note: for documentation or more info, see the DVD, "The Star and the Census" from Vision Video].
• The Annunciation (Luke 1:26) "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth…"
• If we are using the Civil Calendar to determine the timing -- and the text could mean a variety of things -- including 6 months from the appearance of the angel to Zechariah -- that would place the date close to the traditional date of the Annunciation, March 25; it is this dating that leads some to believe that Jesus was born 9 months later, roughly December 25.
• This year, March 25 was the 8th of Tevet, December 25th the 29th of Adar.
• We cannot tell in Scripture, because Temple sheep were led through Bethlehem year round for sacrifice.
• Quirinius was not necessarily "governor" (administrator, commander) there, as most versions translate it, but rather the de facto ruler, in charge of Syria’s defense from 7 B.C. on. ‘ηγεμονεu’οντοs
C. God is PRO-ACTIVE and Can Make Things Happen
II. The PREPARED Family (4-5)
Luke 2:4-5 reads, "So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child."
A. Yosef Ben DAVID
David lived a thousand years earlier; it is often thought that, had David’s line been honored, Joseph could have been king in Israel.
B. Miryam BAT David
• Human being like the rest of us, but descendents of David; distant relatives
• Yet Miryam was a godly woman of great faith and humility; so was Yosef.
C. ESPOUSED
• explain Jewish marriage procedure
• Jesus was Mary’s firstborn, not only born…according to Matth. 13:55, Jesus had four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and sisters.
• God had no problem creating this scenario; from an outsider’s perspective, it looked random. So often God’s ways seem random.
• Does your life seem random to you? Mine does to me.
Like the game Mousetrap, if we are in the middle of it -- the guy falling through the bath tub, for example, it doesn’t make sense. But we are part of a process. Maybe we will raise a child that will raise a child that will marry a woman with a child from a previous marriage, and your grandson will influence him and he will then become a missionary or evangelist. Who knows how it all works?
III. The PROPHETIC Circumstances of His Birth (6-7)
A. If God Prepared All This, WHY Such A Birth?
"He was despised…" (Isaiah 53a) with Matthew 2:23, "So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ’He will be called a Nazarene.’"
B. No Place in the INN: Rejected
"….and forsaken of men…" (Isaiah 53b)
C. Laid in a MANGER: He Became Poor
" …for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Cor. 8:9
D. Pictures His Choice to HUMBLE Himself
"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:4-11).
• The Christian ethic is not to take advantage of others, or look out only for our own interests.
• This is why we need to practice manners and courtesies, and teach them to our children.
• Rudeness, if you think about it, is a refusal or a blindness as to how one’s behavior affects others
E. But why did God the Son humble Himself?
1. Reason one: He loves us
2. Reason two: He enjoys seeking and saving that which was lost
3. Reason three: The Son seeks to glorify the Father and Spirit
4. Reason four: God’s attributes of holiness, justice, love and mercy are all focused like a mighty prism upon the cross… thus all history revolves around Calvary
5. So Christmas was the beginning of something big. Something really big, namely, God’s nature. Something so big, in fact, that we will be investigating His grace and Who He is throughout eternity future, and we will never get bored, never come to the end. And for us, it all begins with Jesus.
Conclusion
1. Do I believe that God still is on the throne?
2. How has God used things in my life that I did not understand at the time, but for which I could later see a purpose?
3. It seems Joseph died before Jesus’ ministry began. Joseph never saw the reason for some of these hardships. Could it be that some of our hardship may not make sense during our lifetimes, but might have purpose is God’s long-term scheme?
