Christmas: Jesus is Born

Merry Christmas. If we've never met, My name is Josh. And I'm glad you're here this morning. I'm glad you're here this morning because we get to do what we do every week, which is come together as a community of believers and seekers and honor God and worship him and talk about his Word. And this week, we get to do that in the context of the most pivotal moment in history, the birth of Jesus.

So if you have not completed your Christmas shopping yet, it is kind of almost too late. So just a quick sociological study here. This has no bearing on anything, actually. It's just interesting to see by raise a hand, how many of you have completed all of your Christmas shopping. That's pretty good.

That's pretty good. How about those of you who have not completed all of your Christmas shopping? All right, now, how many of you have completed all of your wrapping at this point? And how many of you are the people who always wrap everything the night before? Hey, don't worry.

We're not judging you out loud. There's more than one way to do it. So. Yeah, again, just kind of interesting to see everybody's got a strategy. It's okay.

It's okay. I'm excited to share some things with you that have been going on here that are just worth celebrating. Last week was a big week for Christmas activities here. If you showed up for Whitewater Eats, you know, there were a ton of people out in the foyer sitting down, sharing a meal with each other. It was a great time.

On top of that, we had a almost 200 people show up for Jingle Jam in this room. That's our biggest jingle or our biggest jam night ever. Yeah. We had 75 students show up to our one night Christmas party. And six of those students were students who have never been here before.

We had. If you weren't here, many of you juice come to the first service. Last week we had four baptisms in our second service, which brings us up to 104 baptisms this year.

And then we hit a significant watermark in attendance last week. And I'm not the guy that chases all the numbers all of the time, but this is a significant watermark. We had the highest Sunday morning attendance on a non holiday. So not Christmas or Easter, the highest Sunday morning attendance that we have experienced since COVID We have new people serving and giving. We have more and more people getting involved in disciple making.

We have new groups being formed. And all of this is just, I deeply believe, is a gracious outpouring of God's Blessing and an answer to all of these prayers that we've been praying together as a family. So thank you for praying. I hope that you continue to pray. We've been praying together through that prayer card.

If you don't have one, we need to get another stack of those out at the door. They're not there today, but I'll get them back out now. On top of all this, we have some awesome stuff coming in at the first of the year, some work that God's been doing behind the scenes that's gonna make a major impact on our local community. And I can't wait to tell you about it as this starts to unfold. This is all God.

Beautiful to watch as God is being faithful to our prayers and obedience. So it's a great time to be a part of Whitewater right now. I just want to take a minute and thank God for what he's been doing and ask him to bless our conversation today and teach us. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we praise you for all that you're doing that we can see, and all the stuff that looks good and all that you're doing that we can't see, or all the things that we see that don't look good but are good.

We praise you for whatever you're doing because you are good. You are worthy of our praise. Would you speak through me today? Would you help us to grow and learn from your Word in Jesus name? Amen.

Luke 2. Starting in verse one, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

So right out of the gate, in verse one of chapter two, we see this author, Luke, doing exactly what he said he set out to do in chapter one. If you were here two weeks ago, you'll remember that we pointed out that Luke is writing this account of the life of Jesus and that his study is being funded by a guy named Theophilus, and his very clear aim is to write an accurate historical account of what actually happened. We read this in Luke 1:1:4. He said, Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who, from the first, were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught.

Luke is writing all of this, and we should be reading this remembering that he is talking about real people in a real place, at a real time. This is not allegory. This is not figurative. This. This is not hyperbole.

This is an account of what actually happened. So Luke says that this story he's about to tell us actually happened. And it happened at a very specific time in history. It was during the first registration while Quirinius was governor of Syria. He does this again in chapter three and lays out all the people that were in power.

He's doing this on purpose. It's very significant to notice that God's sovereignty is on display in all of this. His rule and power over all things is on display here because he leverages the Roman government, even Caesar himself, to accomplish exactly what was prophesied through the prophet Micah nearly 700 years before this moment. We read that in Micah 5, 2. It says, but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

See, the fact that Mary, a girl from Nazareth, which is about 80 to 90 miles journey and a week of traveling from Bethlehem, gives birth in Bethlehem is very significant. She's from Nazareth. She gives birth in Bethlehem. It's significant because God leverages the most powerful person in the world at the time, Caesar himself, to make this decree and to disrupt Mary and Joseph's life in a way that makes it so that the prophecy is fulfilled and Jesus is born in Bethlehem. How else is Jesus to be born in a city where he does not live, in a time where there are no cars, no trains, no airplanes?

I want to point this out for two reasons. First is that even world superpowers, who seem to be making decisions by their own will, for their own purposes, in this case to tax the people, are not above the sovereign reign of God. No one is above the sovereign reign of God. And second is this. Remember that we're Talking about actual real people here, Mary is pregnant near full term, and now they have to travel to Bethlehem.

Imagine how disruptive and frustrating this would have been for them in the moment. To put this into context for us today, when things get disrupted in our lives and go away that we never saw coming, a way that seems like a burden or a frustration, is our first inclination to pray and ask God to change things? Or just to get frustrated with why God would let this happen when we don't understand it? Or is our first inclination to pay extra close attention and ask God what he's doing, how he wants us to respond? See, the Bible doesn't tell us how Mary and Joseph did respond other than they went.

I don't imagine that they thought to themselves, this will be a fun road trip. I don't think they thought this was an exciting plan at all. Instead, I imagine them thinking, are you kidding me? Now, on top of all the drama that we've been experiencing over the last several months, on top of morning sickness and getting the nursery ready and putting that stupid IKEA crib together and painting the room, on top of all the judgment and all the shaming, now we have to travel to Bethlehem. I gotta take my last week of vacation days to go pay taxes, and right before the baby's coming.

See, I don't imagine at all that they saw this as God perfectly putting things into place. Regardless, they were obedient and they made their way on this journey, likely on foot, to Bethlehem. Now, there are a few things that we probably have in our heads about this story that may or may not be true. First is we don't know exactly how long Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem. They could have been there, some commentators say, up to months ahead of this.

I think the prevailing Western version of this story is that they showed up kind of at the very last minute, and that's why there was no room for them. That's why they had to stay in a stable. But the Bible doesn't actually tell us that. I spent a lot of time weeding through several different commentators and opinions and thoughts and preachers and all the different arguments that they made for when Mary and Joseph made it to Bethlehem and why there was no space for them. One of the things that most often gets pointed out is the word for the inn.

There was no room for them in the inn. That word is argued among Bible nerds and they disagree on what it means. Now, I won't belabor all the arguments, but some say that Mary and Joseph showed up to kind of like a roadhouse, like a hotel of sorts, and that they showed up there last minute and because of the census, there was just no space. But that word for inn isn't the word for a guest house or a hotel. It's the word for a guest room.

In fact, the only other time this word is used in the New Testament, it's the word that's used to talk about a different room, the upper room, where Jesus and his disciples borrowed a room for the Last Supper, where communion happened for the very first time. Now, I personally find it very likely that Luke intended some specific parallelism between these two moments. The night before Jesus would be crucified and the moments before he would be born. But I don't know for sure.

I think there's a more significant problem at play and a much bigger question in this story, though. See, in the first century, Jewish hospitality was deeply rooted in cultural and religious traditions and expectations. To them, to care for strangers was an expression of obedience to God. It was an expectation. In their culture, strangers who were traveling were often welcomed into homes.

They would come into the center of town and sit in what for someone to come out and say, hey, do you want to stay at our house tonight? They would feed them and take care of their needs and feed their animals and shelter them without any expectation of pay. Rejecting or mistreating a stranger was socially and spiritually frowned upon. Now, hosting traveling relatives on top of that was considered an even greater obligation than hosting strangers. Hosts often prioritize their guests comfort over their own comfort.

In fact, if food was scarce when you were hosting someone, it was not uncommon for the host to go without eating just so that the guests could eat. And we read that Joseph was from Bethlehem. These are his people, so he should have been lovingly welcomed into the home of one of his relatives. I mean, think about this. Your house is packed, and Joseph and his pregnant wife show up and you're like, yeah, sorry, there's no room to crash in the basement.

Like, this doesn't make sense at all. And Mary is pregnant. What culture on the planet, when some young girl walks up and is having contractions, says, sorry, there's no space for you here. The best I can figure is that shame has something to do with the fact that there's no room for them to stay. I don't know if it's their own shame that causes them unwillingness to invite themselves into their relative's home.

Maybe they saw the potential of bringing shame on the home of their relatives because of what looked like an illegitimate child inside of Mary's belly. Or maybe it was embarrassment from Joseph's family. They have heard this news that this is not Joseph's baby. They didn't come to the wedding and so they know this does not all add up with the math. Maybe it was an embarrassment for them.

I don't know. The Bible doesn't say. What I am sure of is that just like we talked about last week with the shepherds, God's pattern, His way of doing things is to use the lowly things, the despised things, the unexpected things, the weak things to accomplish his work. This all shows us just what kind of God he is, how he intends to work in this world and who he wants to partner with. The fact that Jesus was born in lowly accommodations and placed in a manger for a bed is a mark of what Jesus entire life would look like moving forward.

We've read this the last two weeks. Philippians 2:6 8 Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

In Luke chapter 9, Jesus says this himself. He says, foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head. He chose a life of humility, of poverty, of obscurity, and of servanthood. He told his disciples too in Mark chapter 10 whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man, Jesus, God's Son, even Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

That's insane that the co Creator of the world says, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. No other God talks like that. This is so significant. Even his death was sacrificial in every way and he was once again wrapped in cloths and placed this time in a borrowed tomb.

God chose this story. He chose this story. This is not happenstance. They didn't dumb luck themselves into a bad situation. They didn't get there too late.

God chose this story to be the story of how he came to this Earth as Emmanuel. And so there was no room for them. And God's Son was born in a humble place and slept in a feed trough. Because our God is the God who chooses to work with and through the humble and lowly. No other religion, no other God is like this.

And while this physical reality of real people in a real time, in a real place, going through real situations, while that's happening, there's also something just as real going on in the spiritual realms. The Bible tells us when Jesus is being born, Mary and Joseph can't see it. And it isn't very often that the Bible gives us a parallel picture of what's happening in the spiritual realm while something is happening in the physical realm. But the birth of Jesus is one of those times that we get parallel stories going on. It's a real activity that's playing out in the spiritual realm that there is a heavenly war being waged between God and his angels and Satan and his demons.

And we read this in Revelation, chapter 12. Now, before we read this, we have to understand that the Book of Revelation is an intimidating book. It's full of imagery and symbolism and apocalyptic language. It also isn't linear in the way that we watch one of those really predictable movies. The timeline just plays out in perfect sequence.

We certainly don't have time to work through all the complexities of the Book of Revelation. But one of the things that the Book of Revelation does is. Is show us these little snapshots, these little popups, these little peeks into the windows of realities that are happening in the spiritual world that correspond with things that are happening in the physical world. So Revelation 12 opens with two characters that serve as a sign, a symbol, a representation of real things. The first sign is a woman who's crying out in the pains of childbirth.

This woman represents Mary, the mother of Jesus, but it also simultaneously represents all of God's people. All through time, both before Mary and after Mary, there's a higher level of what's going on here that's significant because there are multiple stories happening at the same time through this symbolism. The second sign, there's the woman and there's. The second sign is a great red dragon. The dragon represents Satan, and the woman is about to give birth to a child, which, of course, is Jesus.

And the dragon is waiting there with mouth open, salivating, waiting to consume this child that's being born. So the dragon tries to consume the child, but the child is protected by God and taken away. The dragon's frustrated and angered by this, and there Are at least two times in the Bible that we read of that we know of that Satan attempted to kill Jesus and was unable to do so. The first was when King Herod found out that there was a new king that had been born and he made an edict that all of the Hebrew babies to and below would be killed. So God comes to Joseph in a dream and warns him that this is happening.

And Joseph is obedient and takes Jesus and Mary and they flee to be refugees in Egypt. And God saves Jesus. He takes him away. The second time that Satan tries to kill Jesus and thinks that he did win is on the cross. In fact, Jesus physical body is actually killed.

Satan thinks that he is one, but God then resurrects him and takes him away up into heaven. Once again the Father saves Jesus. And then we hop to verse 7 of Revelation 12 and this gives us the depiction of what's going on in the spiritual realms now. War arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.

And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. Let's skip ahead to verse 12. It says, Therefore rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Satan is gone from heaven.

We can throw a party. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. On those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. I said it.

On week two of this series, the birth of Jesus launches a cosmic war. This is the declaration of war when Jesus shows up. This sounds crazy, it sounds like fantasy, but this is the spiritual reality that exists beyond our physical, physical reality. It's also the fulfillment of what we read in Genesis 3, the curse that comes on Satan. Following the moment that Adam and Eve choose sin, God says to the serpent, he says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So after Satan is unable to kill Jesus, Revelation tells us that the dragon goes off to make war with those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus Church. That is us. That is us. Satan went off to make war and still continues to make war with us.

He's already lost the heavenly war, so he is waging war against us. Well, Merry Christmas, Josh.

Thanks for ruining our Christmas vibes. This sure doesn't feel very Christmassy. Does. Doesn't feel very warm and fuzzy and silent nightish. But the reality of Christmas is that the coming of Jesus kick starts a cosmic war.

It's a war that is now only being waged on. Not only being waged on earth in general, it's being waged in our community, it's being waged in our church, it's being waged in our homes. It's being waged even in us. Satan is making war with those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Satan is ravaging and stealing and killing and twisting and deceiving and destroying everything he can because he knows his time is.

Is short. He knows that he is already lost. He knows his plan is to disrupt and destroy everything he can on his way down. Tell me you don't see this in our world today. All the anxiety, all the depression, all of the division, all of the anger, all of the infighting.

Satan is leveraging everything in his power, power to disrupt everything he can, cast every doubt he can and block as many of us as he can from placing our faith in the One who came to offer us salvation. But there is more church. There is still great hope in the coming of Jesus. It's important for us to understand that the Nativity is not the end of the story. The cross is not the end of the story.

Even the resurrection is not the end of the story. For reasons we cannot understand, because God is God and we are not. He has chosen not yet to take that final blow, to take Satan out forever. And in the meantime, in our season of warring and waiting, he hasn't left us in silence. He has offered us salvation.

He has equipped his children with the Holy Spirit and with his word. He has given us his armor for this fight, and he is calling us to put it on. Join the fight. Be his hands and feet. Be light in the darkness.

Be salt for this world in the middle of the waiting and the warring. And every time we step out in faith, another battle is won. Every time we look at a colleague who won't stop complaining about and we say, what does it look like for you to go and invest and love in your spouse? A war is won. Every time we stand firm against temptation and say, not today.

A battle is won. Every time another Person far from God gives their lives to him and is baptized in these waters. Another battle is won. Because the Creator God of the universe is on our side and his power is in us. Because Jesus came, He lived a perfect life.

He died a sinner's death. He took on our punishment on the cross. He was resurrected on the third day and he gave us His Holy Spirit, the very same power that raised him from the dead to make his dwelling not only among us, but in us. How fantastic is that?

And after all the wrapping paper is torn off and thrown in the trash after 93, three stops playing all the Christmas music after Christmas time has faded. After the new Year is here and established, we the church are still God's Plan A for bringing shalom to this world.

Through the Holy Spirit. Christ is now in us. We are the light of the world. We are the hope of the world. We are the ambassadors of reconciliation.

So as we land this plane, just a couple of thoughts. First, I think it's so significant that this major disruption in Mary and Joseph's life is a pivotal moment in history. Every day we are encountering beautiful, significant and pivotal things that look like hurt and trial and exhaustion and hardship and whatever you're going through today, consider for just a moment, maybe this is a pivotal moment in your story. And if you are willing to let God work in this moment, then it may create a beautiful opportunity. And if you are unwilling, this moment might just pass you by.

Imagine a church full of people who embrace disruption as an opportunity to practice faithfulness. Let me say that again. Imagine a church full of people who embrace disruption as an opportunity to practice faithfulness because we're not God and we don't know what he's up to. Imagine all the things that God wants to do through us if we would just fix our eyes on him rather than our circumstances. For some of us today, it's time to stop begging God to change our situation and start asking him what he wants to do with us through our situation.

Second, if you're listening to this message today and you have never submitted to the Lordship of Christ, never submitted to God's career, then please don't let today go by without at least talking to someone here. I know you have questions. I know this isn't easy. I know you have baggage. But start the conversation today.

Help. Let us help you take a step toward Jesus. There's too much at stake. There's too much on offer here. Our team is gonna be here.

They're gonna sing this beautiful song called Noel and the word Noel just comes from a Latin word that means to be born. To be born. Birth takes time. Birth is painful, it's messy, it is gritty. And it is the perfect analogy for where we are in this season.

And if we're unwilling to walk that path of birth, of grinding and waiting and hurting and suffering and struggling, we will never get to hold the beauty of birth in our hands.

That's what's at play today. This is our opportunity today. So as we sing this song, to be born, be born. May it be about the Christ Jesus himself being born, and may it be further and greater and better, bigger, about rebirth in us, whatever that looks like. So as they sing, just sit, meditate on these words.

We're gonna have a team of people praying over here at the bottom of the ramp. If you want to come and talk to them, don't hesitate. And if you think for a second that anyone's watching you going, oh, they got problems. They're going over to pray. No, we are sitting here rejoicing to our Father that another one has not given into the lies of the enemy and is willing to lay that down to just go pray.

That's what everyone's thinking.

Noel, be born in us today. Lord.