Or, A Christmas Call to CondescendLuke 2:1-7 December 12, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

There have been a lot of babies born under the sun. There have been a lot of important people born. There have been a lot of incredible stories surrounding births, even ones we read in the Old Testament. Yet there is only one only-begotten child of the Father, there is only one virgin-born son, there is only one Christ, one Savior of men, and one birth story gloria in excelsis.

I can’t imagine how many times I’ve read or had read to me the birth of Christ in Luke 2. My dad read it every Christmas morning before we opened presents, and that custom continues in our house. Linus nails it in the Charlie Brown Christmas special (reciting Luke 2:8-20). It has been embellished in our collective imaginations through nativity artwork and cartoons, adding animals and condensing days into one silent night. But we will not overreact to the excellencies that came down to earth. It will take our glorification to give glory to God in the highest that He deserves. In the meantime, we try.

I am not preaching these advent messages because you must celebrate the month of December in a particular way per se. But for good reasons, and in light of the flow of godless propaganda, in masked and maskless stores, it isn’t whether or not we’re thinking about the season, but how we will exalt and embody the grace and truth of the Word become flesh.

In our series so far we’ve considered Mary’s faith when Gabriel foretold her virgin pregnancy, followed by Mary’s praise in response to Elizabeth’s recognition of her blessing. Though it has only been half a chapter, forty weeks have passed since Luke 1:26 as we enter Luke 2. As in the previous messages we’ll consider the passage, some theology, and a use.

The Birth of Christ – Luke 2:1-7

For however familiar the words are, there are some significant questions that turn up in this paragraph, let alone the mystery itself of the eternal God born into time and laid in a manger.

Caesar Augustus is well known. His birth name was Octavian, nephew turned adopted son of Julius Caesar, and he was the first to don the title of Emperor from the senate (27 B.C.) as well as demanding recognition as Dominus et Deus, “God and Lord” (Sproul). Through him Roman rule expanded, and what is most needed for empire building and consolidation? Money (not more soldiers per MacArthur). How do you get that much money? Taxes. How many taxes can you get? You need to know how many people there are whom you can make pay.

So a decree went out…that all the world should be registered, enrolled for a census, put on a list for the purpose of taxation. The well-known KJV (“that all the world should be taxed”) jumps the translation gun.

There is also some question about this census taking place during the time when Quirinius was governor of Syria. The Jewish historian Josephus doesn’t record a census under such governorship until AD 6 (also mentioned by Luke in Acts 5:37), though there’s good reason to think Jesus was born around 6-5 B.C. (which, yeah, could have been helped by better dating from the start). But Luke had collected eye-witness accounts, and Luke was helped by the Spirit. Either he meant that this was before that other well-known census by Quirinius, or maybe Quirinius governed twice. We can work with it either way.

That all went to be registered, each to his own town (verse 3) lead Joseph to travel to Bethlehem (verse 4). Each’s own town could be birthplace, hometown, place of family property holdings. The key was, this is where you got counted for paying your taxes. Apparently Joseph didn’t have any family remaining there with whom they could stay.

Joseph went from Nazareth to the city of David, which sometimes refers to Jerusalem (as in 2 Samuel 5:7), but here refers to Bethlehem (again in 2:11), the p[...]