Naming the Savior - Luke 2:21 - April 10, 2022

 Luke 2:21 Naming the Savior

Good morning! Today is Palm Sunday, the warning shot across the bow of pastors across the world that next Sunday is Easter! You better get ready!

In truth, on Palm Sunday we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on the foal of a donkey walking on the cloaks of His followers spread on the road and palm branches waving and shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

This is the beginning of what is often called Passion Week or Holy Week where the New Testament describes daily accounts of Jesus ministry in and around Jerusalem culminating with His death of Good Friday and His Resurrection Easter Sunday.

We’ve spent the last few weeks focusing on Jesus’ birth that we celebrate at Christmas and in the week to come we will remember His death on Good Friday here Friday at 6:30, and His Resurrection Easter Sunday at Sunrise-ish 7am.

Today I’d like to focus one a day that happened somewhere in between Christmas and Easter, a significant day, as significant as the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, the day that Jesus was given His Name. Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 2:21, page 857 in the pew Bibles.

21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Let’s pray.

So Mary and Joseph, in obedience to the Law of Moses, specifically Leviticus 12, eight days after Jesus was born had him circumcised and officially named Him Jesus.

It was significant that Jesus was circumcised.

Circumcision was a seal of the covenant between Yahweh and Abraham, that God would make Abraham a great nation and that all the world would be blessed through his offspring which was Jesus.

For the Jewish people circumcision was symbolic of the putting off of sin and for Jesus to be circumcised, even though He had no sin, was a token that He belonged to God’s covenant people. He took on the emblem of the purification of sin so that He would be like His brethren in every way except for sin itself.

Galatians 4:4-5 says,  …when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Jesus lived His earthly life in complete obedience to the Law, there was no sin in Him, and now He lives as a fulfillment of that Law for us who have faith in Him.

So His circumcision on the eighth day was significant. In this first earthly act of obedience for us He shed His first drops of blood, and on His last, on the cross, He would shed streams of blood for us.

But what I’d like for us to focus more on today is the significance of the naming of the Savior.

Back in chapter one and verse 31 that angel Gabriel announced to Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus.”

Matthew 1:20-21 records the angel announcing the same to Joseph in a dream. 

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The first of three points, of course, is that naming the child, “Jesus,” was an act of obedience.

So something to note here for you language nerds. The way we pronounce “Jesus,” is not the way the First Century church did, it’s not the way Gabriel did, and not the way Mary and Joseph would have either. “Jesus,” is the English pronunciation of the Greek name, “Iesous,” which is actually the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name, “Yeshuah,” which, in English, we pronounce, “Joshua.”

That doesn’t mean that we should start calling the Lord Jesus, “the Lord Josh,” nor the Lord Yeshuah. What it does mean is that there is meaning in the Name of Jesus that was assigned by the Lord God when He instructed Mary and Joseph about what to name their Son.

Naming the Savior, “Jesus,” was a word of prophecy.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

The Name, “Jesus,” no matter how you pronounce it means: “Yahweh is salvation.”

When we think of Joshua, in the Old Testament, he was the leader of Israel after Moses and led Israel from the wilderness into the Promised Land. The Lord Jesus followed that pattern by leading His people out of the wilderness of sin and into the promised land of His kingdom through faith in Him.

Jesus’ Name is in complete harmony with His work, Yahweh is salvation.

Naming the Savior was an act of obedience, a word of prophecy, and also a promise fulfilled.

Yahweh is indeed salvation, it is by faith alone in the Name of His Son Jesus that we are saved.

There’s a great story in Acts 4:5 after Peter and John had healed a lame man in the Name of Jesus… 

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

There is NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED!

No amount of good deeds, nor religion, no name of any other god or prophet has the power to save people from their sin, only the Name of Jesus.

And to call on His Name is to believe all that He said, to trust all that He did, and to obey all that He commanded. 

There is power in that Name!

Philippians 2:4 says,

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

All that we believe and confess is summed up in that one Name.

If we were to stand before God and he were to ask us: “Why should I let you into my kingdom?” The answer is: JESUS.

All that we do we do in that one Name: JESUS. The early church turned the world upside down with the Name of Jesus even if it cost them their lives. But it didn’t matter because all that we take out of this life is that one Name: JESUS.

You can line your coffin with silver and gold but it won’t go with you, all that we take with us beyond this life is the Name of Jesus.

Without the Name of Jesus, Christmas is just for Santa and trees and presents, without the Name of Jesus Easter is just bunnies and eggs, without the Name of Jesus we are among men most to be pitied, without the Name of Jesus we are all bound for destruction.

What name has ever been given that promised more and disappointed less than the Name of Jesus? He is all we need!

In His Name we have new life, new purpose, new hope, a new family, and a new home, His home, God’s eternal kingdom. All because of the Name of Jesus!

Amen.

Angels and Shepherds pt 2 - Luke 2:8-20 - April 3, 2022

 Luke 2:8-20 Angels and Shepherds pt 2

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2, verses 8-20, page 857 in the pew Bibles.

We read this text last week and talked about the angels and their message and this week we are going to focus on the shepherds and their response. So let’s look at our text again.

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Let’s pray.

Last time I started off with the reminder from Scripture that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. That’s found in James 4:6, and in 1 Peter 5:5 which are both quotes from the Greek version of Proverbs 3:34.

Our text here shows us that God is serious about his issue. The angel of the Lord, accompanied by the heavenly host of angels was sent to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay keeping their sheep… They didn’t go to the king of Israel, at the time Israel had no king just a Roman governor, they didn’t go to the High Priest at the temple in Jerusalem, they didn’t go to the Sanhedrin, the ruling class of the Jewish people. They went to shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks at night.

Have you ever wondered why God would choose shepherds to be the first recipients of the Good News of great joy that was for all the people?

I’m not going to pretend to give you a definitive answer as to why God chose shepherds, but it think that there are some things, some common themes that might lead us in the right direction.

I think the first hint is found in Psalm 23:1, 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

The Lord chose shepherds maybe because He is a shepherd, Jesus said in John 10 that He is the Good Shepherd, 1 Peter 5:4 calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd, and Hebrews 13 calls Jesus the Great Shepherd of the sheep.

Choosing shepherds is also consistent for the Lord. Have you ever heard of King David? 

The angel Gabriel told Mary back in chapter one of Luke that the Lord God would give her Son the throne of His father David. Do you remember what David’s occupation was before he was anointed king? He was a shepherd… from Bethlehem… where these shepherds were… in these same fields…

Shepherds were not high on the social scale, it was a trade you were born into not one you aspired to. Shepherds were considered ceremonially unclean and their work kept them away from going to the Temple for weeks at a time so that they could be made ceremonially clean. This was a humble profession and is a clear demonstration of God opposing the proud but giving grace to the humble.

I think God may have chosen shepherds, men of low position, so that we all could identify with them. Paul wrote about that idea in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

I think probably every Christmas sermon ever that had to do with the shepherds said these same things.

But I’d like to look a little closer at what the shepherds did and if they were really chosen so that we could relate to them in their humility, maybe we can learn to follow their example as well.

First of all, to start out, what were they doing? 

They weren’t meditating and plumbing the depths of their understanding of the universe, they weren’t glowing in the dark and levitating, they were just out there doing their job and God shows up. They were doing their daily routine and the angel of the Lord appears to them. Again, there’s nothing mysterious about this, it just reinforces that it wasn’t the wise and the learned and the worthy that God chose to speak to, just ordinary guys doing ordinary things. And if God chose to use ordinary guys like them, then there’s hope for us.

Last week we talked about the angel proclaiming the Good News that the Savior had been born in Bethlehem. Then the heavenly host shows up and declares what the results of the Good News would be: glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom God is pleased.

And at this proclamation of the gospel, what do the shepherds do?

The very first thing they did was they believed the message. They believed the gospel, the Good News. They believed what the angel said, that a Savior had been born to them in Bethlehem. 

Verse 15 says, When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

Faith was the first step in their journey, it was by faith that the shepherds sought out the baby in the manger. But they didn’t just have faith, they didn’t just believe the Good News and then just go back to what they were doing. Their faith prompted action.

16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

They ran into town, found Mary and Joseph and the baby, but that wasn’t their only action. When they got there they told everybody there what the angel had said, they shared their story.

17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

There we get another glimpse into Mary’s personality. It may have been Mary that told Luke all of these details, she was still alive when this Gospel was written.

Mary, Luke, the shepherds, they are all doing the same thing, sharing their story, how God interrupted their normal with the News of great joy that shall be for all the people. And where the angel was the first evangelist, the shepherds followed in his footsteps.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The angel had told the shepherds about the Good News of great joy that shall be for all the people, but how were all the people supposed to find out about the Good News of great joy? It was through them!

The shepherds, just like a baby born of a virgin in a manger, were God’s surprising vehicles of grace. The shepherds went back to their fields, back to their families and friends and told them all that they had heard and seen, they testified to all that God had done, they shared what they had witnessed.

The shepherds are not unlike us. Think about when you came to faith in Christ Jesus. Most of us were going about our ordinary, just doing life when God interrupted. Like the shepherds we believed the Good News that a Savior had been given to us, and like the shepherds we must act on that faith and tell others what we have heard and seen. 

That’s how evangelism works! No one is going to hear the Good News of great joy that shall be for all the people if those who have experienced it don’t tell them.

People are not lining up at the door just to hear me preach the gospel, hungry to hear about sin and salvation, but our friends and families, our coworkers and classmates need to hear our stories of how God interrupted our normal with the gospel. If God could use those guys to tell the world about His Son, He can certainly use all of us!

So let’s pray for opportunities to tell our stories, and let’s always be ready with an answer for the hope that we have within us so, like those shepherds, we too can be surprising vehicles of God’s grace.

May his Name be ever praised!

Amen.

Angels and Shepherds part 1 - Luke 2:8-20 - March 27, 2022

 Luke 2:8-20 Angels and Shepherds part 1

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Today we are going to look at verses 8-20, that’s page 857 in the Pew Bibles.

Before we look at our text, I want to share a thought that kept rolling around in my brains as I was studying this text. It’s just the simple phrase, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” It’s a phrase found in James 4:6, and in 1 Peter 5:5 which are both quotes from the Greek version of Proverbs 3:34. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

What we are going to read now from Luke’s Gospel is a demonstration of that truth.

So we pick up right where we left off last time. Mary and Joseph had made their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem and since there was no room for them in the inn they were forced to stay in a manger where Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son, Jesus.

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Let’s pray.

There is a constant temptation when studying Biblical historical narrative, which is what we are doing by the way, there is a constant temptation to allegorize everything, to turn every story into an object lesson or make the characters into simply symbolic figures that we can gain wisdom from or learn some moral lesson from. But if you remember what Luke’s purpose in writing this Gospel it was to give his readers certainty about the things that they had been taught through his well researched and orderly account. 

Luke wasn’t dealing with object lessons, he was dealing with reality. 

With that in mind we can look at the reality of what Luke recorded and learn from the examples of those that he described.

I’m glad that it isn’t Christmas. Christmas comes with a lot of pressure, pressure to get it all in before December 25. All those candles and poinsettias need to be out of here before the Sunday after Christmas! Seeing as how it is March, we can slow down and examine these nativity texts and dig a little deeper that the traditions allow.

So let’s examine closely the characters in this account, the angels and the shepherds because there are lessons we can learn from both and examples that we can follow even today.

This week we are going to look at the angels.

8 And in the same region [near Bethlehem] there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

This was not the first time an angel had appeared to somebody in relation to the birth of Christ, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and told him that he and his wife would have a son that would prepare the way for the Lord, that same angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive and bear a Son by the Holy Spirit, and now an angel, possibly the same angel though the text doesn’t say, appears to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay…

The difference this time is that when the angel of the Lord appeared the glory of the Lord shown around them. There they were out in the dark fields at night, living in a land of deep darkness and on them light has shone, the light of the glory of the Lord and they were filled with great fear. Who wouldn’t be?

But the angel says, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that shall be for all the people.”

Now there is a word in English that means to bring good news, do you know what it is? To evangelize.

That is actually from a Greek word, the Greek word that the angel uses that’s translated, “I bring you good news…” euangelizo. 

To evangelize is not to convert or convince, it’s not to sell somebody something, it’s to proclaim the good news. The angel is the first evangelist, proclaiming the good news to the shepherds.

In our day, our culture thinks that to evangelize is to bring bad news that makes people sad, that makes them feel guilty, when the truth is that it’s exactly the opposite.

The angel says, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The good news of the angel did have a hint of bad news, the good news is that the Savior has been born, the bad news is that people need saving, but good news there is a Savior, He is Christ the Lord!

This is the first time in Scripture the phrase Christ the Lord is used, the first time those words were linked together. Maybe because we have read these words so many times we don’t think of their significance.

Luke uses the word, “Lord,” twice before this time in our text. Once describing the angel of the Lord, and then to describe the glory of the Lord. In both cases Luke means the same thing, the Lord is Yaweh, he is talking about God. Here in verse 11 the angel says, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Christ the Lord, Christ is THE Lord, Christ is Yaweh, Jesus is God!

Jesus is not a created being, He is not an angel, he is God, equal with the Father and equal with the Holy Spirit, he is Emmanuel, God with us!

The angel continues and says, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Being wrapped in swaddling cloths was not out of the ordinary but lying a baby in a manger certainly was. Bethlehem was not a big town, it would not take the shepherds long to find the only manger in the village that had a baby in it.

In verse 13 the angel is joined by an army of angels and what they say is not without significance either.

“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 among those with whom he is pleased.’”

What’s interesting about the song this heavenly choir sings is that it’s the result of the gospel that they are describing. 

The first angel declared the good news that will bring great joy to the people, which was: unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. 

The army of angels said here are the results of the good news of the coming of Christ the Lord: it results in the glory of God in the highest AND there will be peace among those with whom He is pleased on the earth.

This peace is not the kind of peace that the world necessarily wants, peace and prosperity are the goals of our culture, but that is not the kind of peace that the angel army was talking about.

They meant a different kind of peace, peace with God. Romans 5:1 declares that peace with God is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. By faith in Jesus Christ the Lord our guilt is removed from us.

The baby in the manger would later die on the cross and it is through His death that we gain life. His death reminds us that there is bad news, that because of our sin we are separated from God, His enemies, and we are under His wrath. 

Romans 5 goes on to say… 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Justified by His blood, saved from the wrath of God, reconciled to God by the death of His Son, and saved by His life… Rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Is that you? I pray that it is. If it isn’t yet, it can be now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!

Amen.

History, Prophecy, and Providence - Luke 2:1-7 - March 20, 2022

 Luke 2:1-7 History, Prophecy, and Providence

Good morning! Turn with me again to the Gospel of Luke. Today we are going to look at Luke chapter 2, verses 1-7, that’s on page 857 in the pew Bibles. This might feel a bit like Christmas even with Easter on the horizon.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Let’s pray.

Every Christmas Eve we read this text. 

Luke 2 continues on with accounts of shepherds and angels all the parts that make up our manger scenes. We read these things and think about the birth of Jesus and Mary and Joseph and stables and inns sings songs about this wonderful time. It’s all very sentimental, it just isn’t Christmas without it, not to mention singing Silent Night and trying not to burn your hands with the hot wax from the candles!

But the author of this Gospel, Luke, the faithful physician, included the details of our text this morning for much greater reasons than just stirring up our emotions and feelings of sentimentality.

Do you remember when we talked about Author’s Intent Statements? Do you remember what Luke’s intent was in writing this Gospel? 

Luke’s intent was to give Theophilus certainty about the things he had been taught about what Jesus began to do and teach by carefully researching Jesus’ life and ministry and carefully recording those accounts.

So when Luke records these words in chapter two his purpose is far greater than to stir up all our merry and bright feelings about the Christmas season.

What Luke describes here in these few verses is much more than that, the details that he includes have a much greater purpose.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

Why would Luke include these details? It’s simple really. 

Caesar Augustus was a real person, Quirinius governor of Syria was a real person. They both existed and it is recorded in secular history. 

Quirinius served as governor of Syria twice and took a census both times, this one and one around ten years later. These are historical facts because Luke’s account is historical fact, this account was real not fantasy.

These historical facts are confirmed by historians outside of the Bible, the Roman historian Tacitus, who was not a Christian in the least confirms Luke’s timeline, Josephus, a Jewish historian, not a follower of Christ, confirmed the record of His life and death and resurrection and the existence of a great following that declared Jesus to be God.

Luke includes these details not to weave an engaging story but to establish historical fact, to anchor this most important narrative to the world’s historical record.

The second reason that Luke includes these details concerns the fulfillment of prophecy.

You’ll remember from back in chapter one when the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will bear a son she responds, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Luke says again in verse five of chapter two that Mary and Joseph were still not yet married. 

This was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 that messiah would be born of a virgin, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The first prophecy about Messiah was in Genesis 3:15 when God speaks to the serpent, and it shows that Messiah would be a human not an angel.

[And God said] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

In God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 it shows that Messiah would be a Jew and not a Gentile since He would be Abraham’s offspring. Luke established already that Joseph and Mary were Jewish and here again in verse four when he records that they were both descended from David which is itself a fulfillment of 1 Samuel 7:1-17. 

Genesis 12:1-3 says: Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

According to the prophecy of Micah 5:2-5 the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

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. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.

All of these facts, all of these details recorded by Luke are included to establish their historicity, that they are tied to recorded history, and that they are in fact fulfillments of prophecy. God had already established that this was how it was going to go, He had told His people that it would through the prophets and He is proving Himself to be faithful to His Word.

And that brings me to the third reason that Luke includes these details, that in them God displays His attributes, not the least of which is His providence.

JP Lange records it this way:

“God manifests all His attributes in sending His Son: His power, in making Mary became a mother through the operation of the Holy Ghost; His wisdom, in the choice of the time, place, and circumstances; His faithfulness, in the fulfillment of the word of prophecy (Micah 5:1); His holiness, in hiding the miracle from the eyes of an unbelieving world; and especially His love and grace (John 3:16). But, at the same time, we see how different, and how infinitely higher, are His ways and thoughts than ours. His dealings with His chosen ones seem obscure to our finite apprehension, when we see that she who was most blessed of all women, finds less rest than any other. God brings His counsel to pass in silence, without leaving the threads of the web in mortal hands. Apparently, an arbitrary decree decides where Christ is to be born. Still, when carefully viewed, a bright side is not wanting to the picture. God as the Almighty carries out His plan through the free acts of men; and without his knowledge Augustus is an official agent in the kingdom of God.”

Augustus Caesar unknowingly became an official agent in the kingdom of God. This is an introduction to a concept that seems to be lost in our vocabulary: divine providence.

Joseph and Mary, were it not for divine providence, would most likely have stayed in Nazareth, had the baby, gotten married, raised a family, and grew old together, and the prophecies would have failed.

God the Father used Caesar and his decree to register everybody so he could further tax them to move Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so the prophecy would be fulfilled.

That is divine providence. Providence uses what seems to be negative to bring about a positive. 

Another stupid decree from the stinking government that forces Joseph to trek some eighty miles with his very pregnant fiancée to Bethlehem only to find that there is nowhere for them to stay forcing them to have their baby in a cave with the donkeys, the most humbling conditions… Divine providence.

All of those negatives working out for God’s greater positives. 

2 Corinthians 8:9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

And Philippians 2:5-11, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so 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.

History, prophecy, and providence. Luke records these details because this account was real, not a fantasy. 

God’s Word is true, Jesus is alive, and we can trust in Him.

Amen.