WWUTT 2267 O Little Town of Bethlehem (Luke 2:3-5)

2 ,000 years ago, the most powerful man in the world made a decree that sent Joseph and Mary down to Bethlehem where the

Savior of the world would be born. But this powerful man only made that decree because God decreed it, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God that we may comprehend with all the saints how wide, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we are working our way through the birth narrative of Jesus, picking up today where we left off yesterday.

So let me read once again in Luke 2 verses 1 through 7. Hear the word of the

Lord. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

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, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 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.

Now yesterday as we began this chapter, we focused mainly on verse 2, this mention of Quirinius as the governor of Syria.

And we addressed that myth that is held by many skeptics who doubt Luke's legitimacy as a historian or a storyteller because he mentions

Quirinius as the governor of Syria. The skeptics will say there's no way that Quirinius was governing

Syria at this particular time. But we considered those details yesterday and came to understand there's no reason for us to doubt

Luke's accuracy and his meticulousness to details. You can listen to that episode from Monday.

But shame on me as we opened up this chapter that I did not mention

Caesar Augustus. I mentioned him by name, but gave no details about him. How do we start?

The first sentence of Luke chapter 2, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Who was this guy? Well, surely, you know, he was a great and powerful emperor of Rome, perhaps the greatest emperor of Rome, for Rome doubled in size during the time of his reign.

Now, Caesar is also considered, well, Augustus anyway, he is considered the first emperor of Rome, since Rome was a republic before Caesar Augustus, much like the

United States of America is a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy, even though that word gets thrown around a lot, especially during an election season.

You need to exercise your right to democracy and get out and vote, which we do need to do.

If you're an American, please vote this coming November. It is very important, but we are not a majority rule.

You know, you'll hear people say our democracy is under threat and we need to protect our democracy.

Well, no, we're a constitutional republic. The majority does not select the president of the

United States. The president will be elected through the process that is referred to as the electoral college.

I'm not meaning to give a civics lesson here, but all this just to say that Rome once operated in a very similar fashion.

And just like the United States of America has a Senate, so Rome also had a

Senate. And it was the Senate that appointed Augustus to be the emperor.

They changed his name, in fact, because he was not born Augustus. He was born Gaius Octavius.

Augustus means revered one. And since many of his decisions, the things that he accomplished in war and in battle, his brilliance, his economic smarts, the wealth that Rome was accumulating at this time, all of this is what made people revere

Augustus. So that's why they gave him that name, revered one. By the way, our month of August is named after Caesar Augustus.

Some people saw him as being godlike. It's unclear as to whether Caesar himself saw himself that way.

We know there were other Caesars that did view themselves as gods. We're not sure that Augustus thought so, but he was not a

God -fearing man nonetheless. It's not like Augustus was intrigued by the

God of the Hebrews or anything like that. Nonetheless, God uses this man, the most powerful man in the world at the time, to make a decree that would result in the fulfillment of prophecy of Mary and Joseph traveling from Nazareth down to Bethlehem to fulfill what had been said by the prophets.

In Micah 5, 2, 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.

How do you get this couple who live in Nazareth, a hundred miles north of Bethlehem?

How do you get that couple to go from Nazareth down to the city of David? Well, God had already had all of this planned out from before the foundation of the world that through the most powerful man in the world at the time,

God would move in his heart to issue a decree that would lead Joseph and Mary to travel from Nazareth down to Bethlehem so that Jesus, the

Messiah, would be born there. And also he being of the line of David, he would be born in the city of David.

He being the heir to the throne of David, the people knowing that this

Messiah who is going to come, he will come in the lineage of David. He will be the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David.

God accomplishing all of this in this decree that Caesar Augustus puts forth.

Now he's a very, very powerful man. And so whatever he decrees is to be done in his empire.

But there's a decree that's even higher than his, and that's God's decree. And Caesar only makes this decree because God made his first.

And so it's a way of showing how God and his providence uses the people that are set in place, even governors and rulers of the most powerful kingdoms on earth to accomplish what

God has willed. So that's a little bit about Caesar Augustus, who sends out this decree that all the world should be registered.

And Luke talks about which registration this was. The first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Now, as I had mentioned yesterday, censuses took a while to complete. It's not like, you know, this happened all in the span of one year.

As a matter of fact, it probably took several years. And we also know from what Luke will later say in Acts chapter 5, that this particular census was filled with problems because there was a rebellion.

There was a revolt among the Jewish people. That certainly would have delayed this census from being accomplished quickly.

Joseph and Mary end up living in Bethlehem for some time. So they don't just travel down there, get registered, and then go back to Nazareth.

Remember from what we read in Matthew chapter 2, that when the Magi come to Bethlehem and visit

Jesus, he is nearly two years old at that particular time. So they'd been living there for a while.

And perhaps it was even Joseph's intention that they would just stay there. We don't know that for sure, but maybe it was.

Maybe Joseph had said, you know, this registration's taking a long time. We've already come all this way. We have family here.

We've set up shop here, maybe quite literally, since he was a carpenter and had just picked up his trade again.

So he decides as a family, we're just going to remain here. But then we know that Herod wanted to kill all of the baby boys in Bethlehem from the age of two and under and in the surrounding region.

And so Joseph and Mary, along with the Christ child, they up and flee down to Egypt to get away from the wrath of Herod.

And then coming back into the promised land, they find out that Herod's son, after Herod had died, his son is ruling on the throne.

Joseph doesn't want to go back to Bethlehem, just four miles away from the capital city, from Jerusalem and from the palace where the

Herods lived. So they go back up to Nazareth and settle there. And that's a fulfillment of prophecy.

Matthew says in chapter two, because Jesus will be called a

Nazarene. And so again, God working even through Herod, through Herod's tyrannical purposes to accomplish those things that God had set forth from the beginning, that he had decreed from before the foundation of the world, before Caesar Augustus decreed it,

God had decreed it. And so we see how he works in his providence to accomplish his will.

That would even lead to the salvation of mankind. The savior of the world,

Jesus Christ would be born so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

He was not just a savior to the Jewish people. He's a savior to the whole world, Jew and Gentile.

As the apostle Paul says in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

Jew first, because that was to whom Jesus came. And then also to the

Greek, the message of the gospel going out into all of the world, Jew and Gentile alike.

We are reconciled to God and to one another through faith in Jesus Christ. In obedience to this decree, everyone goes to his own town for the registration.

And Joseph went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called

Bethlehem. Now, that surely would have triggered in somebody's mind.

Well, Theophilus being the guy who is addressed at the beginning of this letter. Oh, he's going down to Bethlehem.

And so Theophilus is putting these pieces together. I remember the prophecies that were made in the Old Testament about that being the birthplace of the

Messiah. So look how God had providentially worked these things out that the Savior would be born there.

Since Joseph was of the house and lineage of David, then the one who is going to be born to Mary and Joseph will be the rightful heir to the throne of David.

So he goes to be registered with Mary, his betrothed. And it says here at the end of verse five, who was with child.

So she's already pregnant before they leave Nazareth and come down to Bethlehem.

Now, like I said, this was a journey of about 100 miles. So it would have taken perhaps six days, the span of time between two

Sabbaths to travel from Nazareth all the way down to Bethlehem. The way that we picture this, you've seen all the paintings and illustrations and everything else.

We picture Joseph and Mary on a donkey. She's like eight, nine months pregnant, really close to giving birth.

And they're traveling this distance all the way down to Bethlehem. And they get to Bethlehem while she's in the throes of labor pains.

All of a sudden, she goes into labor and she's feeling the pains. And Joseph has quickly got to find a place so that he can get his wife there and get her set up all comfortably and everything because she's about to give birth.

So he's frantically going around looking for a place to stay. He goes to the local Bethlehem motel and he knocks on the door of the innkeeper and the innkeeper opens the door.

What are you doing bothering me at this time of night? Joseph says, hey, my wife, she's pregnant. She's about to give birth.

Please, we need a room. We need some place to stay. The innkeeper says, don't you know there's a census going on?

There's no room anywhere. I don't have any room. There's no place for her to stay. I'm sorry. You should have made your reservation months ago.

And he shuts the door. But Joseph is insistent. He pounds and he pounds. The innkeeper opens up again.

What do you want? And Joseph says, my wife. Okay, fine. I do have a place.

The stable. That's the best I can give you. You can go out to the barn with the animals and hey,

God help you. Maybe we'll call a midwife or something. I'll get her on the horn. She'll come and help you out.

Something to that degree. And so they go to the barn. It's too late in the middle of the night for anybody to come and help.

Joseph's got to be the one to deliver this baby. Mary sets herself up and right there with the cattle lowing and the donkeys braying and the sheep watching on.

She gives birth to the savior of the world in the middle of a hay filled barn.

Is that kind of the way that you picture all of this happening? Well, none of that is true. This is the most common myth of the

Christmas story. It's the way your nativity set at Christmas time is even set up to depict this, right?

That the savior of the world was born in a stable. And all of this is extrapolated from a misreading of a single verse.

It's just Luke 2 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 end.

So because of a misreading of this one verse, we have this idea of Joseph and Mary getting to Bethlehem while she's in the throes of labor pains.

There's nowhere for them to go because everything is full. So the innkeeper, there's no place for them in the end.

So we insert this innkeeper into the story. He tells them, hey, you can have the stable out back. And therefore the savior of the world is born in a barn.

But none of that is accurate. Look again at the previous verse. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

This was not a last minute arrival in the middle of the night. With Mary in the throes of labor pains, they had been there for a while.

Joseph did not drag his wife nine months pregnant on this hundred mile journey from Nazareth down to Bethlehem.

They got there. And when they arrived there in Bethlehem, they would have been staying with family.

Remember, this is where Joseph is from. This is his lineage. It's his heritage. Already we've read about Mary coming down to the hill country of Judea and spending time with Elizabeth, who was a distant relative.

And so same sort of thing here with Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem. They weren't like strangers in a town that they had never been to before.

Nobody knew who they were. There was nowhere for them to stay with anybody. They would have been staying with family.

They were in a home. Jesus was actually born in a home, not in a barn.

Now, he was born in a peasant's home. It was certainly low class, this being a little shepherd's town.

But he wasn't born out back in the stable. What is the inn?

What is the reference to the inn? Well, we might think of an inn as being like a motel, like I mentioned. But the word inn can describe any place of lodging that is not one's home.

Keep in mind that the New Testament was written in Greek, only later to be translated into English.

And the Greek word for inn is kataluma. It's commonly translated guest room.

The word comes up again in Luke 22 11 to describe the upper room where Jesus and his disciples had their last supper.

Same word is used there for the upper room as is used here in Luke 2 7 for inn.

There were no commercial inns in first century Bethlehem.

So misunderstanding the word inn has led to many to insert this character in the

Christmas story that Luke never even mentions, an innkeeper. And I'll see this every single Christmas. I will see some video or something of a pastor dressing up as an innkeeper and talking about what it was like to turn away this this girl, this pregnant girl.

I didn't know. I didn't know that she was pregnant with the savior of the world. You know, you'll hear that kind of narrative from the innkeeper.

I think that John Piper even wrote a book about this, didn't he? He's got I picture him.

I've seen this video. I know I have. I picture him sitting in a chair and reading a book that he wrote from the perspective of the innkeeper or something like that.

Maybe I'm misremembering that. But he's a common character in the Christmas story, even though Luke never mentions him.

Now, doing this is certainly not heresy. Usually the lesson to this becomes like like how we need to love our neighbor.

The moral of the story is often that we we have a Christian duty to help those in need. And if we don't, well, we could very well be rejecting the savior himself, just like the innkeeper did on that first Christmas night.

But there are better ways of telling others to love your neighbor without adding to the

Bible or turning the gospel into a tale of moralism. The Christmas story is not a story about how we need to help those in need.

We are the ones in need. And Jesus is the one who came to us to help us in our need to fulfill our need, our need for a savior.

We who had sinned against God and were deserving of the wrath and judgment of God. Jesus died on the cross, taking our sin upon himself so that we would not perish under God's wrath, but that by faith in him, we have the forgiveness of sins and we become adopted sons and daughters of God.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, sent by God to this earth to reconcile us to our creator.

And God had set forth all of these things from before the foundation of the world, even decreeing that Caesar Augustus would put out a decree that would send

Joseph and Mary from Nazareth down to Bethlehem to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophets that Jesus would be born in the city of David.

All of this by God's sovereign rule, not by Caesar Augustus' sovereign rule, but God who rules over all, who even moves men in their times and places to where God needs them to be to accomplish his purposes.

And so he has done through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let's finish there.

We'll come back to study more of the Christmas story tomorrow. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have decreed for us, that though we had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, you sent your son to die for us, that we might be reconciled back to God.

I pray that we would put our trust in Christ as savior, that we would follow you all our days.

We're pursuing holiness today, desiring to be like the one who was sent for us, who gave his life for us, who purchased us by his blood, that we would become sons and daughters of God.

May we live today to please our Father who is in heaven. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.