Unto Us

Sermon Transcript

On August 5, 2010 a mine collapsed in Chile, trapping 33 men 2300 feet underground, and 3 miles from the mine’s entrance. For the next 69 days, multiple nations and people prayed and worked together to try to figure out how to rescue these miners, until, on October 9 of the same year, a drill broke through to them, which would eventually enable each man to be removed through specially designed rescue capsules. An ABC News report from that day says that “Word of the drill’s success prompted cheers, tears and the ringing of bells by families in the tent camp outside the mine.” They heard good news of the rescue their loved ones needed, and they rejoiced.

 

We’re gathered today on December 24, the day we call Christmas Eve, a day on which many Christians gather to remember the birth of the rescuer all people need. We have already sung tonight that “Long lay the world, in sin and error pining…till he appeared,” and in Luke chapter 2, he appeared. And when he appeared, both the angels who announced his birth, and the shepherds who heard the good news of it, rejoiced, because in the birth of Jesus, God has sent us the savior we need. How do we know that from this story of his birth? We know that because of where he was born, and because of what the shepherds heard and saw.

 

Where he was born

 

Luke chapter 2 begins with a pretty straightforward narrative telling the story of Jesus’ birth. The Christmas story may seem like a fairy tale to many, but far from beginning his account of it with words like “once upon a time,” Luke begins the way a historian does: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. That’s the Caesar Augustus, the one in our history books, born Gaius Octavius, also known as Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, the victor at the Battle of Actium, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. So the first thing we can say about where Jesus was born was that he wasn’t born in Middle Earth or Wakanda or a Galaxy far, far away; he was born in the real world, the same world in which Caesar Augustus reigned, and the same world in which you and I now live.

 

And in that real world, at this time, best historical estimates are that this was in the year 4 B.C., so 2029 years ago, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world be registered. “All the world” doesn’t mean the whole globe as you and I think of it; the Romans would often refer to their empire as the world, and so Luke uses the term in its conventional sense to mean the whole Roman Empire. Included in the Roman Empire at that time was the Jewish people, the people with whom God formed a special relationship when he promised their forefather Abraham that he would bless Abraham, and that in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The Jews too, then, were ordered to be registered in this census.

 

But our story focuses on two specific Jews who were introduced earlier in this book: Joseph and Mary. Like we have polling places to vote, they had census places to be registered, and Joseph’s was in a city called Bethlehem, here called the city of David, to which Joseph reported because he was of the house and lineage of David. When it comes to big names in the Bible and in Israel’s history, David’s is right up there with Abraham’s. David was a descendant of Abraham, and the greatest king in Israel’s history. And God promised David that after him God would raise up one of his descendants to rule on his throne over a kingdom that would never end. The blessing God promised to Abraham would come through the king God promised to David.

 

And then the promise got more specific through the prophet Micah, one of the prophecies which was read for us earlier this evening. Bethlehem was the hometown of David, and in Micah 5 God said that from Bethlehem in particular would come forth one who is to be the ruler in Israel, the promised descendant of David. He said that under this ruler God’s people would dwell secure, and he would be their peace.

 

That’s all in the Bible before Jesus came, and before this book of the Bible was written. On top of that, though, earlier in this book an angel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to conceive, bear a son named Jesus, and that the Lord would give to him the throne of his father David. In other words, an angel already told Mary that the child to be born to her was the promised child of David, and now what do we find? Right around the time of his birth, when Mary was with child verse 5 tells us, she happens to end up in Bethlehem, King David’s hometown, the very place Micah said the promised ruler would be born. Mary didn’t plot everything out and make plans to get to Bethlehem at the right time, and Caesar Augustus certainly wasn’t trying to fulfill any biblical prophecies when he called for the census. But Mary isn’t the ruler of her own life any more than Caesar Augustus is the true ruler over all the earth. The Most High over Mary and Augustus is the true God, the creator and ruler of all things, and he made sure, through the decree of Caesar Augustus, that Mary and Joseph made it to Bethlehem when the time came for her to give birth.

 

And when she got there, verse 7 tells us there was no place for them in the inn. Here don’t picture a mean innkeeper who turns away this poor pregnant woman. Picture instead a house of one of Joseph’s relatives, a house in which the family lived on the second floor, and on the first floor there was a guest room, here called an “inn,” and next to it a manger, where the animals slept and fed. So instead of the mean innkeeper, picture the apologetic family member: “Hey so we’re glad to have you guys, but with the census and all, the house is packed, and we already promised the inn to your Uncle and Aunt, so I hate to do this to you, but would you mind staying in the manger with the animals?” On the human level that’s probably what’s happening there, but the thing to notice is that even when they went to Bethlehem and there was no room for them in the inn, God made a way for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem.

 

And God always makes a way for his purposes to be fulfilled. This story didn’t show up in the history books of Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius, or any other Roman historian, because from the perspective of the Roman Empire, this was a big nothing burger. Some kid was born in some house in some town—no big deal. Even to Joseph and Mary, they were just obeying the orders of their emperor. But from the decree of the most powerful ruler in the world to the small, ordinary obedience of two of his people, God was accomplishing his purpose to bring the promised child of David into the world, who would bring peace to his people and blessing to all the peoples of the earth. When we look at the decisions of rulers in our world today, or the seemingly mundane decisions we make every day, it’s hard to detect what God is doing. Kids, how many days of your life go by where you feel like nothing big is happening? But even on those days, we can know that God is working it all together, from the decrees of rulers to boring days, to accomplish his gracious purposes in Christ Jesus, and that in the end, it is those purposes that will prevail.

 

If you ever look at a SEPTA map of all the different train and bus routes, it’s a bit much to take in, even with the recent simplifications, but what it shows you is how all the bus and train routes work together to get people from point A to point B. God doesn’t give us a map like that of how each event in the world and each decision in our lives is moving things to his appointed end. Instead, he calls us to trust him, that because he’s in the conductor’s chair, all things will move to his appointed end, and he gives us stories like this to show us how he did move Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, through their willing choices and the willing choice of their emperor, so as to bring the savior we need into the world in fulfillment of his promise. We know God has sent us the savior we need first because he was providentially born in the place from which God promised that savior would come. But we also know because of what the shepherds heard and saw.

 

What the shepherds heard and saw

 

So verse 8 tells us that in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them, with a bright light from the Lord shining around them. The shepherds respond the way humans normally do in the Bible when they encounter angels: They were filled with great fear. But the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Then the angel tells them how to identify this savior: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

 

Now we know the angel had already told Mary the child to be born to her would be called the son of the Most High, who would receive the throne of his father David, and we already know he was providentially born in Bethlehem, the very place God said the promised king from David’s line would come, but now the angels take all the guesswork out of identifying who this child is: Unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. First notice that the angels say to the shepherds that unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior. Usually we only say that to parents: Unto you is this child born. But here the angel goes to insignificant shepherds and says unto you this child is born, because this child was born a savior for all the people, including the insignificant shepherds.

 

And notice that unto us is born a savior. The angels don’t say unto you is born this day in the city of David a teacher. Jesus certainly did teach, and he taught better than anyone before or since, but think back to those men in the Chilean mine—was their greatest need a teacher? No doubt they did get some teaching; scientists from NASA even advised them on how to survive underground, but more than a teacher, they needed a savior. Notice also the angel doesn’t say that unto you is born this day an example—no doubt Jesus was an example to us of godly living, a greater example than any before or since. But the Chilean miners couldn’t dig themselves out of the mine; an example wouldn’t do them any good. And finally, the angels don’t say that unto you is born this day in the city of David a therapist. Jesus is the wonderful counselor, as we saw in the prophecy from Isaiah read tonight, a greater counselor than any before or since, and no doubt those Chilean miners needed good counseling during and after their experience, but therapy isn’t what got them out of the mine.

 

And as glorious a teacher, example, and counselor as Jesus is, neither a good teacher, a good example, or a good counselor are what we need most. We need a savior, and the angels say that’s exactly what God has sent us in Jesus. Rather than being underground, Romans 3:9 says that we are all under sin. The enemy from which we most need to be saved is not a bodily disease, an enemy political party or nation, or anything else outside ourselves. The enemy from whom we most need a savior is sin, the enemy that lives within each of us from the moment we were conceived. It drives us away from the God for whom we were made, so that we seek and serve other things God made: Money, work, a family, pleasure, and we become enslaved to them. When faced with the choice to serve those things or serve God, we have all chosen such things, and so have disobeyed his commandments, and we cannot now save ourselves. Go ahead; try to just start loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself, and see how long you can convince yourself you’re actually doing it. Kids, don’t you feel this inside you? Your parents and teachers have defined obedience for you, they’ve given you consequences for disobedience, and still your heart seems drawn like a magnet to disobedience at times. We can’t save ourselves because we are slaves of sin, and we can’t save ourselves because our sins have rendered us guilty in God’s sight, and deserving of his judgment. No good we do now can delete the wrong we’ve already done. Much as I love the Home Alone movies, the bird lady in Home Alone 2 is wrong: Good deeds can’t erase bad deeds, and they don’t count extra on Christmas Eve.

 

But fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. God has sent us the savior we need. And this savior was not only born. This savior lived—he lived the life of perfect obedience as a human that we should have lived. Then this savior died—he died the death that our sins deserved when he died on the cross. And then this savior rose again, defeating the enemies of sin and death, so that we could be free from both the power and the penalty of sin. And this savior will come again, to give death its final defeat, to raise his people from the grave, and to finally free them from all their enemies, that we might rejoice before him for endless days to come.

 

The angels know that’s what’s coming when this savior is born. In fact, elsewhere in the Bible we read that when those prophets like Isaiah and Micah were saying a savior-king was coming, the angels longed to look into it (1 Peter 1:12). This savior is so glorious that the angels, who didn’t even personally need his salvation, longed for his coming, and now that he’s hear, they not only announce his coming; they rejoice in it! We read in verse 13 that a great multitude of them praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” The birth of Jesus is good news of great joy for all people, but the only people who will benefit from that news, the only people who will receive peace with God and one another through it, are those with whom God is pleased, and amazingly, the first people we see with whom God is pleased, who benefit from this news, are not the priests, or the Caesar; it’s the shepherds who heard the word of the Lord, and believed it. And we know they believed it because look at verse 16: As soon as the angels go away, we read that with haste they went to see their savior. They began to reorient their lives around him. If you hear this good news of a savior but it doesn’t change you to reorient your life around that savior, it won’t be good news for you in the end. But whoever you are, however insignificant you may feel, however sinful you are, if you repent and believe this good news tonight, Jesus will save you and give you peace with God. If you’d like to consider what that would mean for your life, please do come grab me after the service.

 

The angels believed this good news, so they went and saw the child, and sure enough, there he was, just as the Lord had said through the angel: Wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, and what then did the shepherds do? They returned, verse 20 says, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. They joined the song of the angels praising God because of the good news of great joy they’d heard, that to them, and to all the people, there was born that day the savior they needed, and then they saw that savior himself, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger.

 

What causes you to praise and glorify God? Good health, a good family, a good job, a good Christmas gift kids? Certainly if you have these things, God deserves your praise for them, but what about for the good news, that unto us, lowly us, sinful us, is born a savior? Brothers and sisters, Jesus is the savior we need more than anything else. Let us join the angels glorifying and praising God for this good news we have heard. If you find that rejoicing is lacking in you, pray that God would give you a deeper sense of your sin, of just how hopeless your condition is apart from this Savior, and then keep listening to this good news of great joy until it penetrates your heart and leads you to rejoicing. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory…but purer, and higher, and greater will be, our wonder, our transport, when Jesus, we see, no longer wrapped in swaddling cloths, but coming himself on the clouds with his angels, in the glory of his Father. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.