Please take your copy of the scriptures. Now, if you would turn to our New Testament reading, Luke chapter 2. In chapter 2, we’ll resume our Mark study in a number of weeks, but there are times where it’s We have the collective focus on certain themes, and it’s good not to ignore those themes when that is the case.

And so turn to Mark chapter 2. I’ll be reading verses 1 to 7. Please give her full attention. This is the Word of our God. Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. 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.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. May he add his blessing upon his word at this time. Let’s pray and ask his blessing upon the preaching and hearing of the word. Let’s pray.

Dear Father God, we pray once more. that as you spoke even the world into existence and as you brought light out of darkness, that you would speak to us through the reading and the preaching of your word and that you would shine the light of your truth upon the dark corners of our hearts and bring light and truth and through the gospel, that you would further conform us more and more to the image of your precious and only son, our savior, and that you would bring glory to your name. Bless now, we pray, the preaching of your word We pray and ask all these things in Christ’s name and all God’s people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.

Well, we have only a few more times to meet together for worship in 2024 this year, 2024 and every week. If you’re a regular, know we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ, his birth, his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. It’s good to do to celebrate the birth of our Lord, God himself taking on flesh and dwelling and living among us with his people, entering into his creation to satisfy all that was needed to accomplish redemption for his people. We, as God’s people here in this congregation, celebrate this Jesus every Lord’s Day. So if you’re a visitor, please come again next week and every week as we remember and rejoice and revel in the glory and wonder of all that Jesus has done to fulfill the hopes and fears of all the years.

We come this morning, as I said, to Luke chapter two, and we see in this familiar passage, and it is a familiar passage, God’s powerful control on full display. God’s keeping his covenant promises. And it’s beneficial at times, as we say often, to look with fresh eyes on a familiar passage. In fact, the more familiar, the more freshly we should seek to look at these passages. It is a truly weighty and glorious passage, not merely a passage to fill greeting cards at this time of the year or for the wall hangings that we may have on our walls. And far from reminding us of that TV Christmas special, right, that we all saw when we were younger, or traditional sentimentality or mere emotionalism, this passage should captivate us. It should stagger us. It should evoke in us a response like, even remember, the Queen of Sheba was breathless before the wisdom and greatness of Solomon in the temple that he had built. This passage should overwhelm us to know not just that God had entered creation to save sinners, but that the second person of the Holy Trinity took on flesh and began his work to save you, to save me. And that’s true, you know, precise and special care was taken for God to save his people by God to save. And that includes you, brothers and sisters, if you are his, if you’ve named the name of Christ, place your faith upon him for your eternal life. We see this in God’s word, we see this God’s control, his character are manifested in this passage. We see God’s control and character on display here, first in the conditions of Christ’s birth, and then the context of Christ’s birth, and then the care of Christ’s birth. And these three truths, we learn a lot about the Christian life therein. Because this is your story, dear Christian. And that is something in which to rejoice and to give praise. We need always to be reminded that our faith isn’t something that’s only relegated to once a year on a cultural calendar or just for the Lord’s Day at the beginning of every week, something that doesn’t impact the rest of our lives. Your faith is something that defines who you are. The truth of the gospel and your union with Christ defines every aspect of your life. And this is important because we all have those times, right, when we are disoriented or shaken by the surprises of life. Things happen and we wonder, what’s going on? Why is this happening, Lord? Why is this happening now? Why is this happening again and again? Why, Lord? At some time or another, we’ve all asked questions like these, these kinds of questions. And perhaps even now you’re in a situation where you’re asking these kinds of questions. God’s Word, particularly this text, this passage this morning, is here to give comfort and instruction and to encourage you in those questions that you may be asking and surely have asked at some point in your lives. The first point that we’re going to look at is the conditions at Christ’s birth, the condition and people of his birth. If you were a faithful Jew in the first century, at the time of the birth of Christ, and you were thinking about your country and your nation, you would know that it’s not the high point of that nation, nor in the history of your country. Recall that 1,000 years before Jesus was born, Israel was what? The greatest kingdom in the Mediterranean world. David was king, and then Solomon reigned after him. Israel was at peace from her enemies. and emissaries were coming to them from Africa and from the Far East. The king’s wisdom was sought throughout the world. This is not the case around the time of the birth of Christ. Not only had Israel suffered the division of the northern and southern kingdoms, But a Syrian had taken over the northern kingdom, and even the members of the southern kingdom are exiled. And there’s no kingdom of Israel left at all at this point. What is Israel in the first century? Israel is what? It’s a subservient client state of a pagan Roman oppressor. If we were faithful Jewish people living in the land of Cain and living in the land of Israel at the time of the birth of the Lord Jesus, We would be lamenting. We’d be lamenting the fact that God, to God, the fact that pagans are ruling over us, pagan polytheists. They don’t believe there’s one true God. They’re immoral, according to biblical standards, unspiritual pagans ruling over us, and they’re reigning, the people of God. And Luke delights when he tells, remember, Theophilus and all those early Christians that were hearing the gospel at that time of God’s display of his sovereignty in the birth of the Messiah and the fulfillment. Again, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus that night. Luke 2 verses 1 to 3 once more tell us, in those days the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. It all went to be registered each to his own town. So God displays his sovereignty. You see, when he has the Roman emperor, the most powerful person in the world at this time, and his representative, Quirinius, do his bidding, follow his command, right? So right up front, Luke is saying, they may feel like pawns in the hands of the powerful Roman empire and its government, but in fact, Caesar Augustus is just God’s tool to accomplish his plans. Even as the psalmist declared long ago, Right? Our times are in God’s hands. And the Spirit through Luke is showing us. He’s showing us that very thing. God is sovereign, and he will use the most powerful empire on earth to accomplish his plans because he rules over all. Is that a reminder that we, here and now, and even believers across time, need? Yes, it is a reminder. Indeed, it is in our darkest times. our deepest questions. God is in control. He is sovereign. He reigns. And the most powerful man on earth is a pawn in the hands of our sovereign Lord. Do not fear, brothers and sisters. God reigns. Life seems to be in chaos. He rules. It seems as if the world is spinning off its axis. God still reigns, right? Evil howls and wickedness rages and roars and growls. Nevertheless, God reigns. He is in control. He rules and reigns. Even if anti-Christian forces seem to win the day, God reigns. He wins. We must have a posture of trust, and we must know who God is if we are to have hope and assurance amidst all the things that life seems to overtake the truth in righteousness and good. And in all the pains and strains and losses and crosses in life, God is sovereign. He’s in control, and he’s good. He’s not a capricious God. He’s a good God. Think of God’s people in the first century under pagan Roman rule, the depression and the sorrow, the sense of defeat. That’s the condition of Christ’s birth. That’s when God put his great control of all things, his sovereignty on full display. And then we see also this sovereignty displayed in the context of Christ’s birth, and that is in Bethlehem, right? You see this described in the next two verses. Joseph 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 so you’re familiar with, we just heard in our Old Testament reading, Micah chapter five, verse two, telling us that the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem. Well, what will God do to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem so that the Messiah will be born there? Well, he’s got a Roman emperor and he’s got a governor that he will use, Quirinius, and he brings those in charge to say, the best way to do this census thing, this tax thing, is to get people to go to their hometowns and register there. That’s the best way to accomplish this. And so Joseph and Mary go all the way from Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem so that the prophecy is going to be fulfilled. And so when you ask those questions that I mentioned earlier, Lord, why do you have me here? This is painful. I don’t wanna be here. Remember that God had no problems getting Joseph and Mary to where they needed to be. He worked it out, all of it, ultimately, for his people. And if you were his, then he worked it out for you, even 2,000 years before you were born. So know for sure, with certainty, that God will accomplish his plan. There’s no thing that can get in the way of that plan. God is sovereign over all. He is sovereign in all of life, in all of our times, in all of our places, and all the circumstances of our lives are in his hands. We must remember and affirm and believe. We must trust him when he tells us this, and we can trust him. Trust him, brothers and sisters. Trust him if you doubt. Trust him if you wander. Trust him. He’s in control of everything. in your life, your time, your places, just like he was over the context of the birth of the Messiah, and the incarnation, and the birth of Christ. And also displaying God’s sovereignty is the care of Christ’s birth that we see next, the care that was taken. Again, read and see with fresh eyes in verses six and seven. And when we do, we see the startling nature of the birth of Christ. It stands out to us. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. So look at this context in which Christ is born. It reminds us of the greatness of God’s love towards us in the gospel. We have a peek, if it were, as it were here, into the very heart and character of God We see something of his grace and his condescension to us in our Savior. We have rebelled against him by action and by nature. We chose a piece of fruit over his word and his rule. We have worshiped ourselves in our desires rather than worshiping him. And in order to rescue us, the very people who he rejected, he prepares his son to be born, not in glory, but in humility. Not in a palace of gold and silver, but in a feeding trough of unclean animals. Imagine, not clothed in silk and baby garments, but wrapped in strips of cloth, wrapped around him to keep him warm like a peasant. In this passage, we’re seeing God humbling himself in the humbling of his son for our sakes. That’s the gospel on full display. It’s a glorious picture of what God does for us in the gospel. Whatever was needed, he accomplished. Whatever the cost, he pays. Whatever he has to bear, he bears. The Savior, from the very moment of his birth, begins to personally experience the humiliation that we experience because of our sin, which he does not experience because of his sin, because he has no sin. But he accepts this experience of humiliation because he’s living for us in our place. every tragedy that his people experienced because of sin, he experiences. And every disappointment and discouragement that his people experienced because of sin, he experiences as well. Every rejection that his people suffer, he suffers. He accepted the just consequences of our sin. He lived in humiliation all of his life. so that he could crown that humiliating life with a humiliating death because of the greatness of God’s love for people in rebellion against him. That’s the gospel. That’s the gospel, and we see it shown here. We see it shown in the character of God’s, also the character of God’s humility, right? The character of God’s humility. That might sound odd or off or strange, but it’s right to say that in this passage, we see the humility of God. God humbles himself in the humbling of his son for the sake of his people, for our sakes. And so when he calls us to humility, he’s not calling us to do something which he himself hasn’t already done. This is why it’s possible for us, not in our sinful selves, but by his Spirit, to what? To act in love and humility towards people who’ve acted plightfully or unloving towards us. And he says what? He says, see how I, the God who brought this world into being, will humble myself before sinners who wish that I didn’t exist because of my great love for them. When we consider that, it becomes much less difficult, much less of a struggle to humble ourselves before persons who treat us unfairly. Look to your God and King. Reorient your thinking, and your living, and your acting, and your praying. Never sacrifice in anything you do a proper perspective of these things, of the gospel, and the posture that’s required of those who’ve been shown so much love and forgiveness themselves. Never think this word and your faith are merely out there. They touch the very things of life. They are your life. The Lord lived before you and for you. And he lives even now for you as your great prophet, priest, and king. This is great encouragement, dear Christian, in living the Christian life. And in all of it, we see kind of an irony that you may not have focused on or seen quite glaringly, and we don’t hear that often. Very often, especially in familiar texts, we miss this very thing. And I want you to see one last and very glorious and important point in this passage as we close. And that is the sheer irony of God’s sovereignty displayed in the condition, the context, but especially the care of Jesus’ birth. It’s not just the timing of the incarnation that’s surprising, though it is. or just how God gets Mary and Joseph to the right place for the incarnation, which is, but it’s the very manner of the incarnation, which should shock us, which is surprising to us. God’s power displayed, right, in weakness, in weakness, in defeat, it would seem. And, you know, think if you’re reading those verses, those words for the first time, the word of the angel to Mary from chapter one. Greetings, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. If we’d never read this before, we would’ve been shocked to hear just after the words of the angel, greetings to you, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. And that very same Mary was gonna hear next or later, there’s no room in the inn. Those don’t seem to go together or float together or follow or fit. Greetings, highly favored one, Sorry, no room for you, but there’s a cattle stall out back. Don’t mind the smell. We would never imagine that when the angel said, he shall be great, that he should be called son of the highest, that it would be said of him, they laid him in a feeding trough for the cattle. Those don’t seem to go together, right? I mean, the circumstances seem to go against the power and comfort of God’s words of blessing and promise and favor. I’m with you, I’m with you, the Lord says. I’ll never leave you or forsake you. You should be called the son of the highest, but there’s no place for you to spend the night. Maybe lay him over there where the cows eat. We understand the uniqueness of this, of course, in redemptive history, as we know the full picture of all that God has done in the climax of his work. But think about this. Isn’t this the very way that believers Isn’t this the way it is with all believers in all generations, this very same principle? The Lord says to you, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. But we still hear from the doctor. We’re sorry there’s nothing we can do. It’s another rupture. It’s another lump, another image on the MRI. We’ve done all we can for you. Or I’ll never leave you or forsake you, the Lord says. But we hear, we’re sorry. We know this will devastate you and your life and your family, but we’ve got to let you go. And on and on, the blows seem to come throughout our lives as fallen people with other fallen people in a fallen world. And in our weakness and in our flesh, the circumstances seem to erase, to obscure, to obfuscate and erase the blessing and the promise. When those situations come, you want to say, Lord, I wish I could just have an angel come to me and tell me that you love me and that you care for me. Because if that would happen, oh, then I would believe. Then I would believe. I wouldn’t be here hanging by a thread like a loose tooth in life, trying to figure out why this is happening to me, what is going on in my life. But think about it, brothers and sisters. If you’ve tuned out, come back to me and think about this. Yes, an angel had come to Mary and Joseph. He had come and told them of the Lord’s blessing, but they were still there in life hanging on by a thread in the circumstances in which God had placed them. And maybe even right now, some of you may be thinking that your circumstances show that God’s promises can’t be true for you. But remember, dear Christian, Remember, 2,000 years before that thought ever entered your mind, God showed a young family in circumstances that you wouldn’t wish on anyone, that those circumstances did not contradict the truth and power of his promises to them. It’s true, God did not display the power of his promise in the midst of warm and delightful circumstances. He displayed the power of his promise in the worst circumstances you could imagine. You might think that circumstances can ruin your life. They can overpower you and crush you and ruin your life. You might think that your circumstances have already crushed and ruined your lives. But circumstances can’t ruin your lives, dear Christian. What can have a destructive impact on your life is the way that you respond to circumstances when they come in your life. Because in this passage, God is showing us there is no circumstance where his power cannot be displayed. There’s no circumstance where his promises are damaged or negated or obfuscated or corrupted. Listen to him in his word. Trust him. Believe what he says concerning you. And when those questions keep coming and harassing your mind and your spirit, we must remember to ask this, right? We respond, how? Lord, how can I glorify you in this? How can I glorify you in this? We may not know the reason we go through things on this side of glory or even in eternity. We can ask that question, how can you be glorified in this, Lord? I don’t get what you’re doing, but I know that you want me to know you more and that you want me to love you more. You want me to glorify you more. So Lord, even in this, how can I do so? How can I know and love and glorify you even in this circumstance? And Lord, in it all, whether I’m a victim or I’m a perpetrator, show me my sin. Show me what you have to teach me. I know you want me to know my need and my dependence more. I know you want me to know the necessity of the gospel more, and my need for mercy and grace more and more. As the line goes, Lord, you fill up my cup. I lift it up for more, more of you, more, Lord. Then mostly in the circumstances, ask God to show you your Savior in the circumstances you’re going through, the gospel of grace in that very circumstance. We don’t know whether we’ll know again God’s purpose or what he’s doing until we get to glory. But he knows we’re to trust him that he is sovereign and that he is good. Nothing happens outside of his control and we beg him whether we know it or not. Show me yourself. Help me to live for your glory. Show me my sin. Show me the Savior. Bear yourselves in those times, in those places, in those circumstances to your Savior on Jesus. Beg Him for the strength that you need. Beg Him for the faith that you need. Surrender to the only one who can sustain you and provide that very thing that you need. And we have to believe God’s Word in all circumstances, even when we don’t understand them. And when we do, His power is always displayed in our weakness. Never forget, brothers and sisters, today and always, let us never forget that it is the Christ of Christmas who was held and wondered over. He is the same Christ of Easter, the same Christ who holds you, his people in his arms and provides for you in all of your lives. Let us praise him and thank him and glorify him in all of our lives. Amen.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your word. We pray that you continue to reveal to us the depth of what you’ve given us. We feel that we are so weak and shallow and foolish, Lord. We confess again, we recognize that we are finite, Lord, but we thank you that you have condescended to tell us the truth of what we need to know. So Lord, help us to believe. We pray what you say concerning these things and all things. Help us to glorify you as we seek your will, as we seek to faithfully carry out lives flowing from hearts that have been made new. that have been touched and have been united to Jesus Christ, our Savior. We ask this all in his mighty name. Amen.