Jesus' Birth in Bethlehem, Part 1

2000 years ago, the creator of the universe.

The eternal God, entered human society as a baby, the creator of the universe, put on humanity on a night like every other night in Israel with no fanfare. Child was was a night like any other night but it wasn't a child like any other child will the holidays. That seems to form every December and with the extra distractions that have not lit up in 2020. I think you'll find today's message especially encouraging as John MacArthur cuts through the clutter and draws you into the profound significance of Christmas. Thanks for being here on grace to you as John launches his study called the promise of Christmas John over the years you have taught dozens of sermons on Christmas and by way of introduction to this study on the promise of Christmas. Let me ask, what is it you come away with. When you go through the story of Jesus birth. What aspects of the Nativity constantly amaze your interest you more than any others. All the elements of the Christmas story all the features of it and everybody knows them. You know from the baby in the manger in Bethlehem and the shepherds and the wise men inherited and all the the death of the babies and all those kinds of things are all part of the drama, but the overwhelming reality of Christmas to me is the incarnation, it is that God became man that the eternal son became human flesh was having conversation yesterday with some of the guys at church and they were so we want to do some pictures of Jesus for a children's book and they said we wonder whether we should show his face or we shouldn't never show his face because we don't know what you really look like. In some people might be offended if we try to know, make the face of Jesus, so maybe we could have the back of his head.

Or maybe we could leave some sort of vague kind of art that does this. Characteristics are indistinguishable and I said you want to do that he came so that you would see he was human.

You don't want to veil his humanity through he veil his deity.

But he did not want to veil his humanity.

Of course we know you don't know exactly what he looked like, but children need to look at a book and see his face, and they need to see expressions on his face. Whatever those expressions are as you tell the stories for children, let them see that he was a real person.

He was a real man.

I think that's so very important that to me is the this essential reality of Christmas is God in human flesh comes into the world for the sole purpose of dying in our place and then rising again to provide salvation for us.

The promise of Christmas comes from a verse by verse exploration of the book of Luke, you don't want to miss it. Were going to be looking at this promise in just a moment. That's right, and friend.

I think these verse by verse lessons will give you a renewed appreciation for the amazing birth we celebrate this month so look with John MacArthur now at the promise of Christmas, I would invite you to turn with us to the word of God. Luke the gospel of Luke and chapter 2. This familiar and wonderful chapter that describes the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surely this chapter is the most widely known chapter in the Bible because it tells the story of Christmas this chapter the story of course has been the source of songs and carols and cards and celebrations and gifts in books and dramas and pageants since it occurred very familiar story and yet I think we're going to be seeing it in some profound and rich, and perhaps unfamiliar ways as we come to grips with its great truth 2000 years ago, the creator of the universe. The eternal God, entered human society as a baby, the creator of the universe, put on humanity, the Lord of heaven came to live on earth on a night like every other night in Israel with no fanfare, no celebration by anybody. A child was born. It was a night like any other night but it wasn't the child like any other child. This child was the Lord Jesus Christ God and man fused together and indivisible oneness. This birth was so monumental that it became the high point of history, the peak, the apex all history before this birth is BC before Christ. All history since his A.D. anno Domini Latin for the year of our Lord the birth of God in human form then is the most important moment in all of history. Let me read to you the first seven verses of chapter 2 which in plain and simple and clear language describe this great event came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all were proceeding to register for the census every one of his own city and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from or out of the city of Nazareth, to Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child and it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the in very familiar words behind these simple straightforward un-embellished words of narrative, offered with delicacy and reserve unmistakable meaning and significance. There is the profoundest event in the history of the world. But as I said that that the story of Jesus is generally familiar to anybody who knows anything about Christianity, and many people who don't know very little about Christianity. Sadly, the worldwide celebration of the birth of Christ, which is called Christmas has become so cluttered and so confused with paganism and personal indulgences as to obscure the simple clear reality of the birth of God in human form the world celebrates the birth of Jesus in December for all the wrong reasons for the expression of self-indulgence, materialism, partying, social events of all kinds, but largely misses the point, as we know the real significance of the birth of God in human form is overlooked, treated trivially overshadowed by everything else that's going on and I suppose it's a fair question to say how can you take such a simple story as we just read in seven verses and come up with such a complicated celebration. How do you get from the account of Luke in the account of Matthew. How do you get from those accounts to what we have today.

Well, I'll give you little bit of history might find it interesting about the middle of the fourth century by at the time of the establishing of the great world Empire of Rome under Constantine the Bishop of Jerusalem wrote to the Bishop of Rome and asked him to determine the actual date of Christ's birth. While no one knows the actual date of Christ's birth.

The fact of the matter is we don't even know for sure the actual year of his birth, but the Bishop of Rome sent word back to the Bishop of Jerusalem that it occurred on December 25. By the end of the fourth century, that is been accepted by the church was really put into the church fiat church law became the regularly accepted data celebrate the birth of Christ. Most scholars would tell you today if not all of them that the bishop didn't know the day of Christ's birth because we don't know the date of Christ's birth December 25 is purely arbitrary, but he didn't do it for purely arbitrary reasons. He was a fairly shrewd guy and he had a reason for putting the celebration of the birth of Christ. On December 25.

Here was his reason for centuries before Christ was born the month of December had been an occasion long-established and still being celebrated at that time as a pagan festival of significance. In fact, most boisterous pagan revelries were celebrated in December, it marked the winter and great celebration was held in anticipation of the coming spring.

Everything around was dark and dreary and trees were without leaves and things didn't grow. And in the midst of winter they put on these great celebrations for the hope of the return of the sun. The return of the strength of the sun, bring back the spring and make things grow and warm up the cold feasting was part of it.

Parties were part of it adorning your house with evergreens anticipating those deciduous trees and plants that would soon bloom even adorn their houses with mistletoe exchanged gifts. There was a general merrymaking held at that time of the year by the pagans. This was all part of their traditional pagan celebration of the bishops idealize this is such an orgy. This is a this is sort of like current eval in our modern world.

This is the worst of the of pagan decadence celebrated the bishop's idea was let's take the birth of Christ, and put on the same day. Around the same time to coincide with all the ancient festivals and all the wild winter revelries and that way we will bring us sanctifying influence into the celebration and draw the attention of the people away from those things that they're engaged into more spiritual pursuits and start making them think about the fact that God came into the world in human form was a nice thought but sanctify the celebrations by imposing on the same data celebration of the birth of Christ. Well, needless to say, the heathen festivities never missed a beat. They kept on going at the same pace. They were always going at and the church which frowned on them and wanted to change them finally accepted them and let them be assimilated into the celebration of Christmas so that today. Christmas is a conglomeration of all that is distinctively Christian in biblical and all that is distinctively pagan to the Romans.

For example, this winter December festival this feasting orgy was called Saturnalia, named after Saturn, who was the God of agriculture. He was he who presided over the planting of crops and during the time of celebration of Saturnalia giftgiving was the most popular custom as we get that from of the most common gifts of the Saturnalia were small idols, small deities, small gods of into a replicas of the Roman gods made out of clay sometimes marble and sometimes silver candles were used extensively in their idolatrous celebration and evergreen branches were given to friends to hang on their houses and sometimes trinkets were placed hanging on those evergreen branches forerunners to what we know today is Christmas decorations and trees in the really barbaric North lands among the Norsemen.

A similar winter festival was held and it was called. You'll Yuletide as we refer to it. It was in honor of the gods Odin and Thor are involved feasting, music, drinking to drunkenness from horns in Persia. Fires were kindled to the God myth raw.

If you know anything about legend you know myth raw was believed to be the God of light and so at this time of year when the daylight was briefer than other times and the winter was on them.

They would pray and celebrate the God of light in anticipation of the sun in the spring and summer in England. It was the Druids who gathered the sacred mistletoe and they made their live sacrifices to their many gods mistletoe by the way was venerated by the, the English, it was venerated by the Druids was venerated by a lot of pagans in pre-Christian times, the Druids, for example, gathered mistletoe during their December celebration. They had some priests that we get the few white clad priests and they would march to a sacred oak tree with a large entourage where the mistletoe would grow and then they would have the chief priests climbed the tree he would go with a golden sickle. He would cut the plant, which would fall from the tree and be caught in a cloth so as not to be defiled by touching the ground, then to white oxen were sacrificed and mistletoe given to the people to be hung in their homes. Now the mistletoe was supposed to be an emblem of peace and an emblem of good fortune, and whenever the tradition of the Druids was whenever an enemy passed under the mistletoe. You had to embrace the enemy and it was supposedly a little ploy to try to help people reconcile hints kissing under the mistletoe, which is some deviated form of that original embrace. Adding to that you know you and have the drama of the crib or the crash, the manger scene, which was popularized by St. Francis in the 13th century, the 300 years after that. Martin Luther, of all people brought tree into his house at the season of Christmas and decorated with candles. He said he put the candles on it to simulate the starry sky glittering over the stable where Christ was born. But long before pagans had used boughs of evergreens decorated with trinkets to celebrate their own pagan holidays in Holland. There was a favorite saint by the name of St. Nicholas. This is a white bearded bishop of Asia minor was believed to have appeared around December 6, riding a white horse leaving gifts for good children and leaving switches for the parents of bad children and he would leave one of the other on the porch.

The Dutch called St. Nicholas center close, which we get the derivative Santa Claus caroling started in the 14th century, along with gestures and musicians and mummers and is still a mummers parade of things in Philadelphia people wearing all kinds of masks and crazy garb. Eight hour feast that all comes from 14th century partying now stockings where they come from well, it was believed in Holland that St. Nicholas when he was dropping his switches and is good stuff on the porch. On some occasions through coins down the chimney and they just happened to land in some stockings hanging there to dry out of that came the whole idea that Santa Claus comes down the chimney and fills your stacking. While the old bishop might've had a good motive for what he did but it didn't help putting the birth of Jesus Christ on the same day as all the rest of this only served the clutter. The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ with a whole lot of unrelated pagan elements for the moment back to the text for the moment in Luke's history. The curtain has fallen on the story of John, the curtain fell on the story of John, momentarily, in verse 80 of the end of chapter 1. Speaking of John, who was just born just circumcise the child continue to grow to become strong in spirit grew physically, grew spiritually and lived in the deserts of the wilderness, the Judean wilderness in the south of the land of Israel lived there until the day of his public appearance to Israel is public appearance to Israel will be taken up in the third chapter of Luke will meet John the Baptist again as he was known in third chapter of Luke, but we don't know anything about what happened from the eighth day when he was circumcised and his father Zacharias gave a great song of praise that ends the chapter, we don't know anything about his life from the eighth day of his circumcision until he began his ministry. All the rest is contained in one verse.

All we know is you grew physically, grew spiritually, lived in the wilderness. That's all we know, but all@we know God was preparing him to be the forerunner of the Messiah, to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Messiah. So the curtain falls at the end of chapter 1 on John we don't need him again until he is an adult, the curtain rises in chapter 2 on the birth of Jesus. We've already gone through the birth of John. We've already heard the enunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary. She told him that he told her, I should say that she was going to have a child that the child would be born to her as a virgin and that that child would be the son of the most high, the son of David, he would rain on the throne of David, forever and ever, his kingdom would have no end. She asked chapter 1 verse 31 to 35. How is that going to be since I'm a virgin and the angel Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit the most high God the Holy Spirit would come upon her overshadow her and that would be placed in her womb which was actually a miraculous creation of God so that she would become pregnant without a man.

She then is a virgin and she is ready to bring forth the Messiah, the son of David, son of God. As we come to chapter 2 in the curtain rises on the birth of Jesus Christ. Now Luke does a wonderful thing here. Simple, straightforward, unembellished language, that's important. It's uncluttered. It's marvelous and it's clear but it's clear as it isn't as simple as the languages what's going on here is profound and far-reaching. Now everybody and Israel knew some things about Messiah everybody in Israel knew the Messiah would come and be king that he would come and he would be in the line of David and he would rain on the throne in Jerusalem and he will establish the glorious king over Israel. They knew they would come with a rod of iron.

The psalmist said they knew some things about Messiah and one thing that was absolutely explicit about Messiah was recorded by the prophet Micah in the little book of Micah chapter 5 verse to the prophet Micah said the Messiah would be born in a village called Bethlehem. Originally in Genesis 35 called Ephrata but came to be known as Beth left him which means house of bread. The Jews all knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. At least that's what the Old Testament said well Luke in writing this passage never quotes Micah doesn't refer to Micah but he shows us how God orchestrated the birth of Messiah in Bethlehem in explicit fulfillment of that prophecy and what really was an amazing work of God, because if things are just gone on. Normally, Jesus never would have been born in Bethlehem, he had to be by word of the prophet and the veracity of the word of the Bible was at stake. But God did some mighty working to make it happen. And exactly and precisely on time.

Joseph and Mary were only in Bethlehem for a matter of days. It had to be exactly the days when that child was born. Luke makes us understand this without ever quoting Micah because he knows his readers know that passage he gives us here some profound insight into the fulfillment of Micah 52 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem now as we come to the seven verses in the morning to give you the first of the gives us three settings are.

He gives us a world setting.

He gives us a national setting with Israel and gives us a personal setting, and all three of these are very important in identifying the nature of the Messiah in identifying the fulfillment of prophecy in identifying his role to the world. He is to be the Savior of the world, and it's important to understand the setting in the world when he comes he is coming as the Messiah to Israel. It's important to understand the prophetic Scriptures that related to Israel and he is coming as the Savior of every individual who puts their trust in him and it's therefore important to understand something of the personal circumstances of Joseph and Mary so we go to see the setting for the birth of Christ. The whole story of the birth of Christ is in verse seven, the first part she gave birth assault. That's all just she gave birth. Unembellished, but what is coming together at that moment involves the world the nation and Joseph and Mary personally is wonderful to see the Savior came to save the world and how he and his own birth is literally involving the world, he came as the fulfillment of Jewish scriptures and it shows here how he fits into the Jewish anticipation because of Old Testament prophecies and he comes to redeem individuals who for the most part are common and humble by Joseph and Mary, we see that in the personal settings of the world setting a national setting personal setting. Sadly, I have to send its common knowledge. The world has largely rejected him. The nation Israel has largely rejected him, and among the lowly and the humble and the needy. Few have believed in him and been saved that continues to be true. Let's pray father. We acknowledge that you are the omnipotent, sovereign God who rules all the affairs of men and accomplish his purposes.

No matter what, we know that you can move the mind of the king who doesn't know you and doesn't know about you to do your will. Even Satan is your servant, and all men are subject to your sovereign providence and power father how we see your hand in this immense immense event baby born God in human flesh how you moved to make history set the scene.

We give you praise and glory that you, the God of creation, the God, the sovereign of history are the sovereign God of our hearts we know and love through Jesus Christ, we thank you that we have come to know you personally that you are our personal God, you live in us you love us, you bless us, you forgive us. You fill us with peace and hope and joy you have given to us the promise of eternal bliss in heaven with you, God. We are in all of your greatness and of your grace. Help us Lord to worship you.

God's sovereign power, God of history, we thank you for this most monumental of all moments in history when your son and our Savior was born Jesus would save his people from their's. His name and this is grace to you with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. John is Chancellor of the Masters University in seminary in Southern California today. He kicked off his study titled the promise of Christmas. Well, if you're still looking for a special Christmas gift for family and friends. Let me recommend the MacArthur study Bible with 25,000 detailed footnotes by John that can help anyone understand the meaning of Scripture and with every Bible you purchase, you will receive a free copy of the book one foundation. It's a special limited supply volume that commemorates grace to use 50th anniversary to place your order. Contact us today. Call toll-free 805 five grace and you reach our customer service staff Monday through Friday 7:30 AM to 4 o'clock Pacific time and again just call 855 grace you have a number of styles of binding to choose from with the MacArthur study Bible, including premium goatskin and again with every MacArthur study Bible purchase will send you a free copy of the book. One foundation to make sure your order arrives before Christmas. Ask for second day shipping when you call today 855 grace or order online again. Be sure to choose second day shipping our web address is TTY.org that's TTY.org and thanks for remembering that we are listener supported many people like to support our Bible teaching ministry with a year-end gift to help give believers in your community and beyond access to verse by verse teaching that changes lives. You can mail your tax-deductible donation to grace to you. Box 4000 panorama city, CA 91412 or call 855 grace or go to TTY.org now for John MacArthur and the entire grace to you staff, I'm Phil Johnson encouraging you to be here tomorrow for another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on wasting