(Focal passage LUKE 2:1-20)
We are going to be looking at the traditional Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel. Many songs we sang this morning (in church) go right along with our lesson – about the shepherds, the angels, etc. I remember as a child growing up, our family’s Christmas tradition was to gather on Christmas Eve night. My dad would play the harmonica and we would sing Christmas carols. They would always read out of the Bible, the Christmas story. We would have our hot chocolate and cookies and all sorts of treats. We would always open up one present on Christmas Eve and the rest we would open up on Christmas morning. That was our Christmas tradition. So, getting in and reading the Christmas story was important and usually it was in Luke Chapter 2, in this passage. So, it is a very familiar passage.
While we all know and love this story, what I want you to understand is that this is NOT the beginning of the Christmas story. You say, “Well I know that, Chris, because this is Luke Chapter 2. You have to go back to Luke Chapter 1.” Well, even if you go there or to Matthew 1 where it talks about the angel visiting Mary and Nazareth and so forth – even that is not the beginning of the Christmas story. Where does the Christmas story really begin? You have to go way back. How far back do you have to go? All the way back to the book of Genesis. Did you know that?
Long before the shepherds, or the wise men, or Mary and Joseph, or even the baby Jesus (all those characters that we see in the nativity scene), long before any of them, you had four other characters. The opening scene of the Christmas story does not take place on a hillside outside Bethlehem, or in a stable or even in a small house in Nazareth. The four characters that we are going to see at the very beginning of the Christmas story are in a garden.
The four characters are, of course, God (you cannot see God because He is invisible; He is Spirit; He is there but you can’t see Him); you also have Adam and Eve and the serpent. Do you remember that story? Genesis Chapter 3. Something terrible has just taken place. It is represented in this picture here by the apple (we will talk about that in a minute). We all know the story. Adam and Eve had just sinned against God. They both violated God’s one rule, which was, not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was not an apple tree! It was a one-of-a-kind type of tree. The bottom line is that they could eat of ANY other tree in the garden, including an apple tree, but they could NOT eat of THAT tree right there in the middle of the garden. One rule! How would you like to live in a world where there was just one rule?
So, this has just taken place. They just violated this one rule. The first sin ever committed in human history has just happened. They ate of the forbidden fruit. And right after they sinned, they felt guilt and shame. In fact, Genesis 3:7 says, “Their eyes were opened.” The result of their sin was that they knew they had done wrong. They attempted to hide from God. But you can’t hide from God, can you? No, but they tried to.
Eventually God confronted them and cursed them for their transgression. It is right in the middle of God’s condemnation of the serpent that God makes this statement; and this is the beginning of the Christmas story: “And I will put enmity [discord, trouble, hostility, hatred] between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He [this Seed of the woman] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
God is talking to the serpent in the garden. We find out later in the story as we read through the Bible that the serpent is Satan. Satan is the evil one. He is the one who tempted Adam and Eve to sin, so he gets judged first here. God is going to raise up and empower the Seed of the woman, one of Eve’s descendants, a male descendant (because it says “He” and “Him” here), to destroy the evil one. He will be a human being. This Person is going to “bruise your head.” This statement is a bit mysterious but we find out later what this means – “Yes, you [Satan, the serpent], may temporarily cause harm to this One that God will send, but you are going to get dealt a death blow.” God promises to send One who will right the wrong that has just been done here in the garden.
Now, we do not understand all the details about this. More about this gets revealed over time. God reveals more and more about this Person. We find out through the prophets in the Old Testament that He will be a Savior and a Redeemer of fallen humanity. The people of Israel will later refer to this Person as their Messiah King. I find that term “Messiah” very interesting. It first appears in the book of Leviticus and it means “anointed one.” In Leviticus it is the anointed priest. In the Old Testament, specifically in the nation of Israel, there were three types of people that got anointed. One was the priest (Leviticus). One was a king – kings got anointed. Another that got anointed were prophets. So, which of these is this Messiah, this anointed One, going to be? Is He going to be a king, a priest or a prophet? We find out from the book of Hebrews that He will be ALL of the above. But for the longest time they viewed Him as a King. So, throughout the Old Testament you will hear the term, “Messiah King.”
We fast-forward in time now in the Christmas story about 3000 years to the time of Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah is addressing King Ahaz who is having a crisis of faith and he makes this prophecy: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This prophecy had both what we call a “near” and a “far” fulfillment. The near fulfillment for King Ahaz had a historical setting, something for him. What is more significant for us is the far fulfillment, which we find out 800 years later in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew points out that His name will be Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Isaiah’s prophecy had its ultimate far fulfillment when the Holy Spirit came into Mary, who was a virgin at the time, and she became pregnant with God’s holy offspring. What we find out here is that this Person that God will send as Savior and Redeemer, as the Messiah King, will not only be a human, but He will be God with us. He will be God Himself. Thus, the term “God-Man.”
But God is not finished with His revelation of this coming Messiah who will defeat the evil one and redeem fallen humanity. People are eager to know when and where this is going to take place. The “where” gets answered by lesser-known prophet Micah in a later prophecy: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for Me One who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” (Micah 5:2). Now we know that this anointed One, this Messiah, this King is going to be born in Bethlehem. So, now we know where He is going to come. We still do not know when. We will find that out later. But we know where.
So, you think about this from a human standpoint (suppose you had never heard this story before). You say, “How is God going to fulfill this prophecy?” Well, logically you think He will just choose individuals from Bethlehem to bring this Person into our world, right? It seems the most feasible. But no. That is not what He does. Instead, He chooses a young couple who lived some 90 miles north in the town of Nazareth. Why would He do that? What is He going to do to get these people that are living in Nazareth down to Bethlehem to fulfill this prophecy? The answer to that question comes in our passage today in Luke Chapter 2.
READ Luke 2:1-5.
So, Mary and Joseph have been chosen by God to be the earthly parents of the Promised One. God’s plan includes the entire civilized world at that time. V 1 says, “that all the world should be registered.” This is all the known civilized world, the Roman Empire, at that time. So, God’s plan involves the entire civilized world and it involves the actions by the most powerful man in the world – an unbelieving, Gentile, pagan ruler, the ruler of the Roman Empire – Caesar Augustus. God’s plan is initiated by a census taken so that the Roman government can assess taxes properly across its vast empire. Each person is required to go back to his hometown in order to register. So, Joseph makes the long journey south to his hometown known as the “City of Bread” or Bethlehem.
What you need to understand is that only the head of the household, the man, in this case Joseph, was required to register. But we just read in this passage that Mary goes with Joseph to Bethlehem. She makes the long difficult trip over rough terrain despite being well into her pregnancy. Why? Some have conjectured that Joseph doesn’t want her to be left alone in Nazareth. There’s a lot of negative gossip going around about her and her pregnancy, right? She might be mistreated. Perhaps. But I really think that by this time – this is what I personally believe based on what I have read in Luke Chapter 1 and Matthew Chapter 1 – that by the time this happens both Mary and Joseph know the importance of their child. I believe God has revealed to them that their son must be born in Bethlehem. And so, Mary travels with Joseph to Bethlehem.
Luke reveals to us, he pinpoints the date of Jesus’s birth with a statement in v 2. It says, “when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” So, the edict by Caesar that we just read here goes out somewhere between 7 and 4 B.C. The actual journey would have taken place sometime later. It takes a while for all the events to play out – maybe a year or two later.
The last thing I want to mention about the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem – it would have taken several days on foot, perhaps a week or longer. Most pictures depict Mary and Joseph traveling alone down to Bethlehem. But more than likely they would have traveled with a group because there was safety in numbers. There were a lot of bandits and bad people roaming around with evil intentions, even back then.
So, they finally make it to Bethlehem. We pick up the action in v 6…
READ Luke 2:6-7
There was no room in the local inn because of the increased number of travelers going to Bethlehem due to the census. The only accommodations they could find were in a shelter made for cattle and sheep.
The first physical image the Gospels provide us of this One that we know later as Jesus is that of a newborn baby. The long-awaited Savior does not arrive on the scene as the people had expected. I don’t know what specifically they expected, but they had this grandiose idea of the Messiah King. Maybe they thought He was going to come down with the angels from heaven and announce, “I’m here!” Whatever they thought, it probably was not THIS. They had this big idea of the Messiah… “He is going to come someday and it is going to be great!” And when the day finally came, it was not quite what they expected.
By the way, this expectation that the Jewish people had of their Messiah coming; their believing it was going to happen but not knowing when – that is very similar to our waiting for Jesus to return today, isn’t it? We believe that it will happen, eventually, someday. We believe the prophecies that He WILL return, but are we really prepared for that day?
Despite the fact that the Messiah King had long been anticipated by God’s people, when He finally did come, they had no room for Him. And as a result, their King, their Deliverer was Himself delivered in a shelter used for livestock. His first bed was an animal feeding troth. Amazing, isn’t it? You couldn’t make this up!
He comes and He is in this shelter for animals, whatever that looked like. It was certainly not the Holiday Inn. It certainly was not a nice house. It certainly was not a palace fit for a king, was it? And it certainly was not clean. God often works in ways that run contrary to our expectations, doesn’t He? God’s ways are not our ways. With God we should expect the unexpected. Just read your Bibles. How often do we see God at work in ways we never could have predicted? We are like, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming!”
The event that the Jewish people had waited centuries for finally does arrive – Yeahhhh!!! And yet nobody in Bethlehem is aware of the significant birth that has just taken place in their little village. So, let’s pick up the action in v 8. This special event has happened. Here He is! The townspeople are all sleeping in their beds completely unaware of what has happened.
READ Luke 2:8-9
“In the same region” – somewhere around Bethlehem, somewhere in that area. The KJV of v 9 (which I grew up with) says, “they were sore afraid.” What does that mean? It means that they were really scared. They were terrified.
READ Luke 2:10-12
The thing that strikes me most about this part of the Christmas story is to WHOM God chooses to make the announcement of Jesus’s birth. To SHEPHERDS! There again, it is not quite what you would have expected, is it? God sends His holy angel to announce this sacred birth to a group of unknown, unnamed, seemingly unimportant shepherds in a field outside the small village of Bethlehem. Shepherds had a bad reputation. They generally were despised for several reasons. First, these keepers of sheep were viewed as dishonest and unreliable. Because of the nature of their work, they were regarded as ceremonially unclean. Shepherds were not even allowed to testify in courts of law. As a class they were quite low on the social ladder. How interesting that God chooses to announce the birth of the Savior to these dregs of society.
Notice the setting for God’s big announcement – a dark rural Judean hillside. Not a crowded convention hall in a major city. Not a palace. Not a temple. Not some huge gathering of important dignitaries. All that are present on this night for God’s wonderful news are a handful of shepherds who are watching their sheep. That’s all! Not quite what you would have expected, is it?
But, as you might expect, the shepherds, at the sight of this angel, are terrified. That generally is a normal human reaction to seeing an angel. So, the first thing the angel says to them (based on their reaction) is, “Don’t be afraid. I bring good news. And here is that good news… are you ready? Today in Bethlehem is born a Savior for you. He is Christ the Lord. He is the Messiah. He is the Deliverer you have been waiting for. And just to show that what I am saying is true, here’s a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.” That is not something you see every day! Being shepherds, they knew where the places with mangers were located. There were probably several places in Bethlehem. So, they set out to go look. They will know when they are in the right place – it will be the one place where there is a baby in a manger!
This is certainly great news, isn’t it? It is the news that God’s people have been waiting to hear for centuries! But this news is SO big, SO exciting that heaven at this point literally cannot contain itself.
READ Luke 2:13-14
The one angel making the announcement is now joined by many angels. The angelic host sings out their praises to God with unbridled joy. A heavenly brilliance lights up the night sky. Can you imagine what that looked and sounded like? This is an incredible scene! You can just imagine.
During the Christmas season we hear a lot about “Peace on earth and good will toward men,” don’t we? That phrase comes from this passage. V 14 says, “On earth peace among those with whom He [God] is pleased!” So then, the million dollar question is “Who is God pleased with?” It is not everybody. Who is God pleased with? Who is peace going to come to?
Well, the answer to this question is actually in the Bible and it is part of the Christmas story. It is found in Romans Chapter 5, that great Christmas passage… “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is a specific promise for a specific people, right? I don’t know if you have ever thought about that before. It is not a blanket promise for the entire world. It is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “Through Him [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).
God is pleased with those who recognize His Son Jesus as the promised Messiah, as the Savior, as the Deliverer and place their faith in Him (according to Paul). These are the recipients of the peace on earth that God promises. Those who have been justified by faith have peace with God. We hear a lot about peace, hope and joy at Christmas, don’t we? These themes are all over our Christmas cards and in the Christmas markets and shopping venues – peace, hope and joy for this Christmas season. But those can come only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Well, the angels leave and it gets quiet. The countryside once again is dark. Things return to normal.
READ Luke 2:15-17
The shepherds leave their flocks in the field (there is no evidence they took their sheep with them) and they hurried over the hill to Bethlehem to see this Savior who had just been announced to them. When they find the baby, everything is exactly as the angel had said. So, they know they are in the right place. They tell Mary and Joseph what the angel had revealed to them about their baby boy.
READ Luke 2:18
What I want you to see here is that the shepherds don’t just tell Mary and Joseph. They are telling the good news to anyone who will listen to them. They can’t help themselves. You know how it is whenever you receive some good news. You can’t keep it to yourself. You have to share it with somebody! And just like those shepherds here in this passage, God expects us, the ones who have been recipients of His grace (of the peace, love and joy and hope that we have received because we belong to Him) to share that good news with others, just like the shepherds. These shepherds are a model for us.
READ Luke 2:19
What could all of these things mean? John Walvoord in his commentary talks about Mary reflecting on this momentous event in history. He says that “Of all the women of Israel, SHE was the mother of the Messiah!” That was a deep thought for Mary and now it is underscored further by all the things the shepherds are saying. What an amazing thought as she ponders all the things the angel told the shepherds about this promised One. I love it that Mary is a ponderer. She really thinks deeply about these truths that she is hearing and how it relates to her – “What is God trying to tell me? What is God trying to teach me?” This is one character trait I love about her.
READ Luke 2:20
“Well it’s time to go back to work!” You talk about anti-climactic. You just experience this tremendous event and now it is back to the sheep. The shepherds returned to their field and flock glorifying and praising God. That is what I want you to see. That is the appropriate response to hearing news of God’s salvation through His Son, isn’t it? The angels earlier that had been out on that hillside had the same response. They glorified and praised God. Later in Chapter 2, you meet a person named Simeon who will have this response in the temple when he sees Jesus. He glorified and praised God. The paralyzed man that Jesus healed in Luke Chapter 5 had this response. He went away glorifying God. The crowds have this response as they witness their Messiah approaching Jerusalem riding on a donkey. They glorified and praised God. The Roman centurion at the cross, filled with awe, declares, “Truly this was the Son of God!” And then the disciples, how can we forget them? After Jesus ascends into heaven, we see them going into Jerusalem as Jesus instructed them, going down the hillside, down the Mount of Olives glorifying and praising God.
So, as you reflect on what Jesus Christ has done in your life, what will be YOUR response this Christmas season? Let me share a great Christmas verse with you. It comes from First John Chapter 4. This is what it says:
“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Isn’t that a great verse?
The Christmas story really began back in Genesis Chapter 3. It continued on through the Old Testament, through the Prophets, as they announced what this Messiah would be like. Then it continued through the Gospels as God interacts with us in human form on a mission – the life of Jesus. He eventually died for our sins. That was His mission, wasn’t it? He died to redeem sinful humanity. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, paying our sin debt, we stand forgiven.
Isaiah 9:6 ties the idea of forgiveness directly to the Christmas story-- FOR unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is GIVEN.
Forgiveness, right through the Christmas story. Here is a Christmas idea: wrap yourself up and give yourself to God!