The Gospel of Luke 2:1-7 Jesus' Birth Foretold

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this passage here as we begin our early Christmas celebration. We are going to be looking at Luke chapter 2 starting today. And for today and for next Sunday, it'll be Christmas passages. So that's why the early Christmas carols and things of that sort. So we're going to continue now with our investigating Jesus, starting with Luke 2, verses 1-7. Now, one of the things that we have done here with this study of Luke is to have some questions to kind of get our minds thinking here.

One of the questions we left you with last week, and we'll be addressing it here, could Caesar Augustus, also known as Augustus Caesar, really command that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth? I mean, after all, he was the emperor of the Roman Empire, and that didn't include all the earth. So we'll address that.

Why would Joseph and Mary both have to go to Bethlehem from Nazareth? I mean, after all, couldn't they just send Joseph because Mary's really pregnant and all those kinds of things? So we'll look at that. Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Now, you see it in the movies, you see it on all the Christmas cards, any artwork always has her. In fact, I couldn't find a picture of the two of them traveling that wasn't with her on a donkey. But did she really ride a donkey?

Okay. Next, did Mary become the mother of God, the mother of the Son of God, or the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, or what? So we'll take a look at that. Now, Matthew and Luke are the two Gospels that give us the details about Christ's birth. They are complementary but contrasting accounts. They're consistent when looked side-by-side, but they do present some very different things.

Matthew tells us about the Magi, also known as the wise men. Luke tells us about the shepherds, and uniquely, because Luke doesn't talk about the Magi and Matthew doesn't talk about the shepherds, so those things are unique. Now, just as a matter of memorizing which is which, a memory aid, Matthew Luke 2 talks about the Magi, right? So Luke 2 talks about the lambs, or at least the lambs remind us of the shepherds, okay? And the end of Matthew is the wise man.

You can put that in there too. Now if that doesn't help you, let's move on. Okay. Matthew and Luke both provide unique but compatible accounts in the first two chapters. So these accounts of Christ's birth, first two chapters in both Matthew and in Luke, both start the third chapter with the ministry of John the Baptist. So there's a pattern that's consistent between the two of them.

Now, when going through chapter one, the conception and birth of John is the main theme of Luke chapter one. It goes from the beginning where the angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias, all the way to John being born in chapter 1. Dr. Luke's gospel is the only one to focus on the birth of John the Baptist. One of the things we'll find as we go through the gospel of Luke is Luke does have some things that overlap with some of the other gospels, particularly Matthew and Mark.

But he also has a lot of very unique material, and that's a part of it. We're at the beginning of it. Elizabeth, Mary's relative, and we don't know exactly how that relationship came about, but Mary's relative is given to finally bear a son in her old age who is about six months older than Christ.

Dr. Luke, however, began his unique pattern of reporting a miraculous conception healing or raising to life of an only son or daughter. And that began with John the Baptist. An only son. An only son. An only child. So Luke 124, and we get into chapter 7, 8, and 9, that'll report more of these only son or only daughter situations. It's very interesting. Luke is the only one who repeatedly notices that situation. This is an only son or an only daughter. And it makes you wonder, what was his family background? Was he an only son? He certainly wasn't an only daughter. OK.

Now, the other thing that, however, aside from the conception and birth of John the Baptist, there's also, in that chapter, we saw in verses 26 through 56, Angel Gabriel reveals to Mary that she is going to bear the Messiah. Gabriel also tells Mary that her relative Elizabeth would bear a son in her old age. And at that, Mary just hightails it down to spend some time, three months, with Elizabeth. Now, so let's go to the passage here. Luke 2, verse 1.

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. Now, Caesar Augustus was born in 63 BC, the same year that the Roman army invaded Israel and took over Israel and made it a part of what was then the Republic.

Caesar Augustus was the founder of the Roman Empire, as an empire, previous to that it was a republic, and its first emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD as emperor. He actually was Caesar starting in 44 So he actually reigned in one role or another for 50 years, a half a century, which is really extraordinary.

He was also the first one to have the adoption of sons, making him Caesar. Julius Caesar was the one who adopted him, but he didn't find out about it until Julius was assassinated. So that had been put in place. He was the first one to have the adoption of sons and he also did the adoption of sons on a grand-nephew who was the next emperor. It was he who put his friend Herod, the not so great, as king of Judea, 37 BC to 4 BC. So he was the guy who put Herod in place. He was a friend. to Herod until right towards the end when the two of them had a falling out. He was very proud of his many censuses. I looked that up because the proper Latin would be censi, but people don't say that, right? So he was very proud of his many censuses.

Here, for example, is his funerary inscription, a huge wall with 35 points of accomplishment. All in Latin, of course. The title of it means the deeds of the divine Augustus. And he had 35 points that he had inscribed in here. You see, they did a really great job of chiseling that all out. I mean, it really looks good, I guess. Number 8 of the 35 is where he brags about his many census takings.

So what Luke writes is correct. What Luke writes is correct. This guy sends out an edict, and boy, you're going to have a census. Now, so here in Luke 2, 1 through 3 is the start of how Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem. It's interesting, there must have been tens of millions of census documents, but we only have about a couple thousand. of them, and only from Egypt, where it's dry enough. And they use the census documents, among other documents, to stuff crocodiles in a sacred crocodile graveyard. And that's how we have any census documents at all. Crocodile stuffings.

So the first three verses in Luke chapter 2, Dr. Luke gives us the big historical context for Jesus' birth. A mandatory Roman census, ordered by the emperor himself. And the way it worked out was, Augustus Caesar says, you're going to have a census, right? Now how that happened was implemented differently by different governors and kings, depending on what was chosen.

Here's an example of a Roman census document. This was taken out of one of those crocodiles. It looks like the mobs got a hold of it, too. But nonetheless, it's preserved in Egypt because they stuffed them into the crocodile skins and then put them in very dry sand. So they lasted for a couple thousand years.

How Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem? Augustus Caesar doesn't care about inconvenience or hardship or any special conditions. So Mary is pregnant. Tough. You're going to walk. You're going to go to the place where your family came from and that's it. And no excuses. No excuses.

Taking a census was an empire-wide Roman practice. But the census was implemented locally. So depending on local customs, they would do different things. So here is the map of the Roman Empire. The part that's in green was the part that was in the Roman Empire during the time of Augustus. Some of those other colors will show later times. But the part that's in green shows the area that was under Augustus Caesar when he gave this edict, you are going to have a census.

Now, all the inhabited earth, some people will look at that and say, well, wait a minute. You got to be kidding me. I mean, there's there's aborigines. There's Native Americans, right? There's a whole Chinese and Indian culture. There's all kinds of stuff outside, all kinds of people, different people groups outside of the Roman Empire. Why could they say this?

Now, I've even read that as a criticism, indicating that Dr. Luke was incorrect. But Though there certainly were other civilizations and people groups outside the Roman Empire, the Romans themselves discounted anything as hardly worthy of consideration if it was outside the empire.

Aside from that, you have this same word used in a similar way multiple times in the Book of Acts and once in Romans. And so this pattern of writing was something that the Apostle Paul used once, but Luke used it several times in the book of Acts, referring to what's in the empire as the whole world. The whole world. So Dr. Luke was right, and he was consistent about it because he continued using that same word in the same way throughout the book of Acts. Now, so Luke 2, verse 2.

This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Now, we have records of Quirinius filling in some time places. This is the only indication. This is a Quirinius coin. This is the only indication of some kind of a here's how he looked sort of appearance. And this is from kind of a relief on the coin and taking the contrasting colors. We do have a problem. The problem, Herod died in March of 4 BC, and some would even say the 13th or the 14th, right? Get that specific. But he died in March of 4 BC, the only known time when Quirinius was governor of Syria was in 6 to 9 AD. Hmm.

So do we have a historical problem here? Did Luke oops? Right? Did Luke goof? Various ideas have been proposed to how this problem can be resolved. One idea that's been put forward and has gotten some recognition is that Quirinius must have also ruled from 10 to 7 BC when we have kind of a blank about his life in that little bracket of time. Well, he must have ruled then. Problem. We know who the ruler was during that time. So it creates a bit of an issue of having Quirinius also ruling. The best proposal, however, seems to be that the word protos should be translated before instead of first.

So Luke 2.2 would read this way. This census took place before Quirinius was governor of Syria. Now here's some reasons why it would make sense. First of all, there is no definite article before first in the Greek. So that's inserted.

But aside from that, Quirinius, when he was governor, did hold a census that was infamous, disastrous census. It was done so badly that a rebellion began that was remembered for decades. Everybody, oh, that census, for decades. People thought, oh, this is horrid.

So Dr. Luke even wrote about that census that was horrid and the rebellion that the infamous census started as recorded in Acts 5.37. So we've included this. This is Gamaliel's testimony in the book of Acts and it goes like this. When they heard this, this is the gathering of the council there, they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them.

But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, Gamaliel, as we note on the bottom there, was Paul's rabbi. He had, we have from other records, about a thousand disciples. About a thousand disciples. Very well-known rabbi. A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up in the council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time. And he said to them, men of Israel, take care of what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago, Thutis rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men joined up with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

And verse 37 is the key one. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census. The census. This is the infamous one. This is the one that after decades they remembered. The census. Oh, that one. and drew away some people after him, he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered." This was the infamous sentence, so infamous that decades later Gamaliel would speak of it and they would all say, yeah, that one.

So, Dr. Luke, being quite aware of Quirinius, disastrous census, even including it in Acts chapter 5, quoting from Gamaliel, would have been saying that the census that Joseph and Mary were under to go to Bethlehem was the one before Quirinius, and he would be making a particular point. So I believe that that is the best resolution to that question. Now, excuse me, let's take a look at verse 3. So Luke 2, 3 reads, and everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. So everyone, again some have looked at Dr. Luke's account and made this a point of criticism.

Some have thought that Luke was mistaken because the Roman census didn't typically have people going to the home of their ancestors. That was not the usual pattern. We do have one of those crocodile stuffings, one of them from a governor in Egypt that had people going to their hometown. So it was done otherwise besides this, but it wasn't the typical pattern for Roman census taking. But Dr. Luke did not mean everyone in the Roman Empire. He had already mentioned a regional name with Quirinius and being governor of Syria.

But rather everyone under Herod's rule was required to go to the home of their ancestors to be registered. Everyone under Herod's rule. Now, one of the reasons why the Jews particularly would accept this is Moses, Numbers chapter 1, that's why it's called Numbers, took a census by family and clan and tribe and reported the tribal numbers in Numbers chapter 1. So the Jews would have looked upon a registration by family and clan and tribe to be, oh, that's cool because Moses did it. And so Herod is crazy and cruel, but he's not stupid. And so he figures, hey, I will do it this way with the Jews, and they'll relate that to the tribal registration that Moses did, and they'll be OK with it.

Quirinius didn't do that, and that's why we came up with a mess. Now, let's read verses 4 and 5. So Luke 2, 4, and 5. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to 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.

So is Mary also registering? Yes. Who was engaged to him and was with child. And notice, are they married? Not yet, apparently. engaged and was with child so to Bethlehem they go Joseph and Mary by either one's lineage were both descended from David so they were both going to Bethlehem even though Mary's time to deliver her baby was imminent what if they were not both of the family and clan of David they would have had to go to different places is interesting That would have been rough.

Mary goes to one place, David goes to another, excuse me, Joseph goes to another. That would have been rough, but no, as it turns out, they're both related to David. Joseph's lineage from David is in Matthew 1, 1-17, and it only goes back as far as Abraham. Mary's lineage from David is in Luke 3, 23-38, and we'll be taking a look at that in some weeks to come. And I believe that's Mary's lineage, and I'll explain why when we get there. But all four of the Gospels say that Jesus is of the family and clan of David. The book of Acts, Romans, Second Timothy, and Revelation all point to Jesus being descended from David.

They all agree on that point. Now, Joseph and Mary would very likely have routed around Samaria. And so it was traditional, likely the path they took to go from Nazareth or anywhere around the Sea of Galilee down along the Jordan River, which by the way, the Sea of Galilee is already below sea level. Then the Jordan River as it drops, they're going farther and farther down. And then it's a steep climb up to go to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem.

They likely did not have a donkey for Mary to ride. Contrary to all the artwork and movies and everything else. Here's why. One, they likely could not afford one. Joseph likely could not afford a donkey. And you say, well, what about borrowing one? Everybody is going to their city of their ancestors, right? And so there was likely not one available to borrow. because somebody who had one that was spare and willing to do it would need the donkey to carry people and goods. So likely, we don't know for sure, likely Mary did not ride a donkey as she went the approximately four day trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Joseph, who was legally engaged to Mary, took her with him to Bethlehem, the city of David, which is right where Micah 5.2 said that the Messiah was to be born, seven centuries before. Very clear. Very clear. Even, as we see in Matthew chapter 2, even the Jewish scribes and scholars, when asked by Herod, where is the Messiah to be born, said, Bethlehem. That's it.

Now, to think about it, there's probably a few different reasons why Joseph would take Mary with him to Bethlehem, even at this inconvenient time. One reason is because leaving her back in Nazareth would be a place where she would be exposed to ridicule and worse. So getting her out of there while she has this baby That would be a good thing.

Secondly, Joseph probably knew about this Micah 5.2 passage and thought, you know, the Messiah, we know that this is the Messiah that's going to be born and he has to be born in Bethlehem. So he probably knew that as well. Thirdly, The Roman census law probably would have required that Mary go along. And matter of fact, as you read Dr. Luke's account, it seems to imply that, that they both had to register in Bethlehem.

So Joseph went up from Galilee, 700 feet below sea level, to Bethlehem, 2,500 feet above sea level, which was in Judea, about four to five days journey, likely going down the Jordan Valley first. Now here you have, and this is a half-page slide on page 3, Micah 5, 2 through 5, and I just went through the first part of verse 5. But I have some notes off to the side that I think we want to talk our way through here. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, and you might say, what's Ephrathah?

Ruth 4.11 is the first place, it's not the only place, that puts the name Bethlehem together with Ephrathah. So that's something that's repeated in the Old Testament.

Ruth 4.11 is the first one. That's to differentiate from the other Bethlehem that was only four miles away from Nazareth. So that's the other Bethlehem.

And so this is specifically to say this one, the one that's down in Judah, the one that's the city of David. And the Jews knew this. for centuries, they've been told from Micah, that's the place. Too little to be among the clans of Judah. Judah was the tribe that David came from. It's a small group. Bethlehem is not a big place, probably maybe about 3,000 people, about 800 homes at the time. Not big.

From you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel, the Messiah. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. That's deity. Before God said, let there be light, this Messiah existed as the Son of God. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Eternity passed. He is eternal deity, the Son of God.

Therefore, He will give them up Until the time when she who is in labor has born a child this is referring not to Mary but to Israel and birth pangs and That's a theme carried throughout the Old Testament continued on into Jesus talking in a couple days before he was crucified talking about the birth pangs and It's continued into Revelation chapter 12. Okay, so this is talking about Israel and the birth pangs come along with it and Then the remainder of his brethren will return to the sons of Israel, and he will arise and shepherd his flock." So what does Jesus say in John chapter 10? I am the good shepherd.

And Jeremiah 31.10 is one, it's not the only.

It's one of those passages that speaks of God being the shepherd to Israel, which he does through Christ. in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they will remain, because at that time He will be great, He will be the King of Israel, to the ends of the earth, which means not just Israel, but also over the Gentiles. So Jesus' title in Israel is the King of Israel, or the King of the Jews. His title over all the Gentile nations is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's His title, ruling over them. This one will be our peace.

And what is Christ called prophetically in Isaiah 9.6? He is the Prince of Peace. So this is very consistent with all of scripture. Every line. It's very clear.

So Micah 5.2 would have been one that the rabbis focused on. Matthew quotes it. as being a fulfillment. And so it's very clear that it was understood that way. Each point in here, each line, is quite clear. All right, let's look at Luke 2, verses 6 and 7.

And while they, Mary and Joseph, 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 inn. Alright, so while in Bethlehem Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, which they have been told to name Jesus.

But did they name him Jesus right then? No, because the tradition was you name the baby, if it's a boy, of the day of circumcision, eight days later. And you're going to do that circumcision, even though it's work, you're going to do it on the Sabbath. If that's the day it lands on.

The newborn Jesus was wrapped in tight bands of cloth, as was traditional. They would typically have olive oil and salt that they would first rub over the baby to clean the baby up, make sure the baby was well cleaned up and sanitary, and then put him in tight bands of cloth. It was a custom for a newborn baby. And they laid him in a manger.

Now, Bethlehem did not have an inn. as we are accustomed to think of one. And there's been, I'm sure, hundreds, thousands of sermons given about how very awful that innkeeper was to turn Jesus away. But they didn't have an inn. As a matter of fact, the word for inn, as we think of it, is a different word than is used here. So, not like this. Not like that. Not like those.

Now, another thing, the manger was certainly not made of wood, but of stone. Wood would have been very expensive and not lasted long enough. When they had mangers, the mangers were supposed to last for centuries. So not a wooden manger, but a stone manger, very likely.

It may even have been built into the cataluma, the inn that they were staying at. looking something like this. So the picture we have of Jesus actually shows that, but it doesn't draw your attention. It would have looked like this. They might have had straw or sawdust, something like that, on the bottom of it, and then had Jesus wrapped tightly in claws and put him on top of the straw in the manger.

So let's think about that. Physically, Jesus was born. But what happened spiritually? Or how do we put this together? Mary who had a virgin conception notice we use the virgin conception not just virgin birth as is commonly done at virgin conception as a work of the Holy Spirit nine months earlier gave birth to Jesus meaning that he was the Savior in his first coming to earth he was also to be the Christ the long-promised Messiah and both the word Christ and Messiah and by the way those are anglicized the Greek would be Christos and the Messiah would be Hamashia so those are anglicized but both of them mean anointed one both of them in his second coming to earth that would be his role so Jesus points to his first coming Christ actually points to his second coming from eternity past to eternity future he is notice that present tense he is the son of God Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders and said before Abraham was born not I existed before Abraham was born I am God does not find himself restricted by the time tunnel that we're in.

So from eternity past to eternity future he is the Son of God. The Son of God also became the eternal Son of God from eternity past to eternity future became from that point forward also the Son of Man. Son of or child of, if you see those in scripture, if it's not referring to a physical descendant means like in character and close in relationship to. Like in character or close in relationship to. So the son of God, like in character and close in relationship to God, and then he became the son of man. Like in character and close in relationship to man. Having been born, conceived, and born of Mary. Not of Joseph, but of Mary. So, as we continue investigating Jesus, we go to the questions.

Could Caesar Augustus really command that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth? When you understand that all the inhabited earth was the way that they referred to the Roman Empire, yes, he could do that. He did a lot of other things, but census was one of the things that he certainly did, even to the point where he bragged about it on his funerary inscription.

Why would Joseph and Mary both have to go to Bethlehem from Nazareth? We mentioned one is the Roman census law seems, implied from what Luke wrote, seems to require it. That's one. Two, get them out of Nazareth for this birth. That would be good. And the other reason is so that when this baby is born, Joseph is there because he's the one that understands. He's the one that understands. They may not even have had the typical midwife. Joseph may have delivered the baby. Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Probably not. Probably not. The Bible doesn't say that she did. And the indications from what we know of the culture and economy of the time Probably Joseph didn't have one even available to him.

Now, this is the fun one. Did Mary become the mother of God, the mother of the Son of God, or the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, or question mark? Now, there is one possible confusion, no, two, with saying that Mary became the mother of God.

One of those confusions is, who does God consist of? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Did Mary birth the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? No. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit were involved, but she didn't give birth to the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. So that's one possible confusion. The other thing is, did God exist before Mary conceived and birthed this baby? Yeah. So there are two possible confusions from using that.

Is she the mother of the Son of God? That's almost similar because the Son of God is the second person of the Trinity, right? And the second person of the Trinity existed in eternity past, right? So they didn't come into existence then. It is more proper to look instead at she birthed Jesus, that's the name she was told to give him. She birthed Jesus who was to be the Christ as at that point son of God and son of man. That's clear. She became the mother of Jesus Christ who was both the eternal son of God and, beginning at this time of conception, the Son of Man. Like in character, but close in relationship to.

So in next Sunday's passage, we're going to look at the shepherds, and we've got some questions for that. When the angel appears to the shepherds, and then many angels appear, do the angels sing or do they speak? Oh, okay, next week. Okay. Was the angel announcing the good news for everybody in the world or just for the people of Israel? Hmm. Is the baby said to be Savior, Messiah, or Lord? Which one? Hmm. Do the shepherds find Jesus and Mary and Joseph the same time as the Magi do? You know how all those manger scenes go?

Well, anyway, we'll take a look at that. So, come next week, as we continue investigating Jesus, and we'll get the answers to these questions. Meanwhile, let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word, for what you've revealed. We know that you've revealed these things because you love us. You want us to know the truth, and you've brought forth in this Gospel of Luke things that really matter and count. We thank you for that. We thank you that even this that we're looking at, an early Christmas celebration, is an expression of your love. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.