BIRTH OF A KING

LUKE 2:1-7

  I. Control of the King (2:1-2)

Ps. 75:6-7 [KJV]. For promotion [cometh] neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

 7. But God [is] the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

      A. History

Gal. 4:4 [MSG]. But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.

Gal. 4:4 [GNB]. But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son. He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law,

      The story of history is God’s story. God controls the clock–the time and the seasons. At the right time in God’s determination, Christ came. Paul described it as the fullness (“time appointed of the Father” full complement; God’s exact unhurried time ) of time (critical epic-making periods foreordained by God ).

      At God’s ordained moment in history, Jesus exited from timelessness and entered into time. Jesus preexisted eternally, and God predestined Him to come to earth.

Acts 3:21. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

      B. Hand

Prov. 21:1 [CEV]. The LORD controls rulers, just as he determines the course of rivers.

Prov. 21:1 [GNB]. The LORD controls the mind of a king as easily as he directs the course of a stream.

      Caesar Augustus ruled as the most powerful leader in that known world. Yet, Caesar only exercised authority under the guiding hand of Almighty God. Caesar’s decree of taxation went out for God’s purpose in Christ at Bethlehem. Christ, the real King, came to earth that day.

Dan. 4:17b [HCSB]. This is so the living will know that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men. He gives it to anyone He wants and sets over it the lowliest of men.

Acts 17:7 [ESV]. and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

 II. City of the King (2:3-5)

      A. Bethlehem (house of bread, 5 miles south of Jerusalem, 2350 feet above sea level, rock caves)

      Jesus did not come out of Jerusalem, the city of the kings. The Good Shepherd came from the place where Samuel found a shepherd-boy after God’s own heart.

1.         Gen. 35:19 (Burial of Rachel)

2.         Ruth 1:22 (Kinsman-redeemer)

3.         1 Sam. 17:15 (Shepherd-king)

4.         2 Sam. 23:15 (House of bread)

5.         Mic. 5:2 (Obscure village)

6.         Mt. 2:1 (Fulfilled prophecy)

7.         Lk. 2:15 (Migdal Eder)

8.         Jn. 7:42 (Messiah)

      Edersheim wrote, “That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from migdal eder, ‘the tower of the flock.’ This migdal eder was not the watch-tower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheep-ground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds.”

“Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.”

      B. Book

      Joseph (a righteous man–Mt. 1:19) and Mary registered in Bethlehem as descendants of David. God, too, keeps a registry of His citizens in heaven.

Ps. 87:6 [CEV]. The LORD will make a list of his people, and all who were born here will be included.

Ps. 87:6 [MSG]. GOD registers their names in his book: "This one, this one, and this one-- born again, right here."

III. Cradle of the King (2:6-7)

      A. Stall

2 Chr. 32:28 [GW]. He made sheds to store his harvests of grain, new wine, and fresh olive oil, and he made barns (manger–LXX) for all his cattle and stalls for his flocks.

      Either a stall or a palace for Jesus’ birth represented a humiliating point of entry for the eternal Son of God.

      B. Space

      Jesus took the “low place.” Just like taught His disciples (Lk. 14:11), Jesus did not take the chief seat.

Ps. 45:8 (KJV) All thy garments [smell] of myrrh, and aloes, [and] cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

      In the summer of 1915 evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman preached at the Presbyterian conference grounds at Montreat. During the conference, the evangelist spoke one evening on the forty-fifth Psalm. After the evening service, pianist Henry Barraclough, a twenty-four year old Britisher, thought about the message. Using the outline of Chapman’s message Barraclough wrote the stanzas of the hymn Out of the Ivory Palaces.

My Lord has garments so wondrous fine,

And myrrh their texture fills;

Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine

With joy my being thrills.

Out of the ivory palaces,

Into a world of woe,

Only His great eternal love

Made my Savior go.

His life had also its sorrows sore,

For aloes had a part;

And when I think of the cross He bore,

My eyes with teardrops start.

His garments too were in cassia dipped,

With healing in a touch;

Each time my feet in some sin have slipped,

He took me from its clutch.

In garments glorious He will come,

To open wide the door;

And I shall enter my heav’nly home,

To dwell forevermore. (Henry Barraclough, 1915)

      That night in Bethlehem, Jesus took the only place made available to Him. Though a sovereign King, Jesus did not force the inn open. Instead, Jesus came to those like the shepherds who diligently went to worship Him.

Mt. 8:20. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay [his] head.

Jn. 1:11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

Lk. 19:14. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this [man] to reign over us.

      In every heart God placed an empty throne. If self reigns on that throne, that soul will become a slave. If Jesus reigns on that throne, that soul will one day reign with the King.

Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,

When Thou camest to earth for me;

But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room for Thy holy nativity.

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,

There is room in my heart for Thee.