Please take a Bible and go to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 2. Be looking at verses 1 through 7, leading up to our text. For nearly 70 verses, we have been told about the coming of the Messiah. The angel proclaimed it to Zachariah and to Mary, saying that she would give birth to this promised one. And songs of praise were sung about heaven's gifts. But our text today, announces the arrival of this promised one. The advent of the King of all is described here for us, but not in the way that many would think. With that, let me pray one more time for us. Blessed Father, your word is indeed a light, a light for our path, a lamp for our feet. Light our way as we come to Christ. As he is described in this passage. Open the eyes of our hearts that we would know Christ. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. If you are able, please stand for the reading of God's holy word. 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, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because it was of the house lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son. wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. We praise the Lord for his holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative and sufficient word that is enough for us. Please be seated. Let me ask you a question. What Christmas hymn begins? Hark how all the welkin rings Glory to the King of Kings. Do you know? It's Hark the Herald Angels Sing. But it didn't used to be called that, nor did it begin that way. The way that just mentioned here a moment ago. When Charles Wesley originally published this hymn in 1739, it was called A Hymn for Christmas Day. Later, the eminent preacher, George Whitfield, changed it. And he made the first line what we are familiar with. Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. And much to Wesley's disapproval, it stuck with the title being altered along with the first line. Today, it is one of the most Well-known Christmas hymns, both in the church and outside of it. But do we believe the theology of the hymn? Does it affect our lives? It's one thing for us to sing it. It's another for us to confess it. The doctrine bound up with this hymn is directly linked to our texts. Because Wesley's words speak of a newborn king. Who did not simply come to give us something to sing about during this time of the year, or merely to stir up sentimental feelings. This newborn king came to change everything. Everything about you, everything about me. This world, our destinies. This newborn king came to do what we cannot, to save. And His coming leads us to ask ourselves some questions. What will we do with Christ? How will we respond to Christ? What impact will Christ have upon our lives? We may have asked ourselves those questions a thousand times. But we need them to be asked to us again. Knowing three things about Christ from this text. Will help us to address these questions. Questions about what will we do with Christ? How will we respond to Christ? What impact will Christ have upon our lives? The first thing to consider in this text is how Christ is the sovereign king. We left off at the end of chapter one with Elizabeth giving birth to baby John and Zachariah praising the Lord for it because John would be the forerunner to Christ. He would prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus. Six months later, Mary's due date was approaching. Those six months were no doubt difficult. Besides the normal struggles that came with pregnancy. Mary likely faced social pressure. Few would have believed her story about the Holy Spirit coming upon her. They would have concluded that she had been unfaithful to Joseph. Or that the two of them had sinned. In coming together before officially married. Her pregnancy would have been difficult on multiple levels. And then verse one, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus. His original name was Octavian. He was Julius Caesar's nephew. And when he came to the throne, he was the most powerful man in the world. He was the ruler of the Roman Empire. And where Joseph and Mary lived was under his control. Much of the known world was in his hands. And his name, Augustus Caesar, meant majestic king. He thought of himself as divine. As a god incarnate, a holy lord sent to bring good news. One first century inscription of Augustus said that he was the savior of the world. His decrees were thought to be from the celestial realm. What was his decree here? It was a census. In verse one, people were to be registered as part of the Roman Empire. For what purpose? A census was normally taken for one of two reasons. To count the number of eligible soldiers to fight in war, of which Jewish men were not allowed to do. for tax purposes. This census served to give a basis for raising more money for Rome. Caesar's taxes were already steep. This would make it worse. We might think that our bank accounts are a bit pinched because of Christmas presents. end of year bills or rising inflation. We don't know the half of what it means to struggle financially, at least not in comparison to these folks under Augustus Caesar. And yet we learn very quickly in this text that people obeyed him. They did what he called for them to do with this decree. And with the decree, verse three, all went to be registered, each to his hometown. Can you imagine that's us here? Going to our hometowns to be registered? Go back to where we were born? Stand in line and show our faces to local authorities? What if you were born in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico? You didn't have to pack your bags and go. All on your own time. All because this king wanted to squeeze a little more out of his subjects. What do we learn here? Think about it from three different angles. First, money. Surely we can say something about the greed of men. Why did Caesar have this census? Because he wanted people to show him the money. He wanted to line his pockets with a few more pennies. Don't forget, the love of money is the root of all evil. That is something for us to remember, especially at Christmas, given how commercialized and monetized it has become. Money will eat your soul away. That's something we learned. From another angle, we learned about reliability. The reliability of the Christian faith. Did you notice how Luke intentionally cited people and events in his day that could have been checked for historical accuracy? Luke surrounded the birth of Jesus with real people, Augustus Caesar and the governor, Quirinius. And he situated the birth of Jesus amidst real happenings, a census that one could have verified. Luke was not trying to pull a fast one, spin some propaganda. It was simply reporting history about real people and real events because Christianity is real. The birth of Christ is not some made up story to foster niceness or benevolence in society. The virgin birth of Christ, as described in the Gospels, is a true event. Deny it and you've got to deny the Bible. Deny the Bible and whatever you replace it with will not ultimately make sense of reality. And it will leave you without hope. Better to trust the reliability of Christianity. As given in the scriptures. Money. Reliability, but about a third one, third angle. We learned that Augustus Caesar was not the true sovereign king. He may have claimed greatness. His decrees may have been followed, but he was not the sovereign king. Caesar was merely an actor. In God's production. The Lord himself was the sovereign king. who is standing behind history and orchestrating events so that the Messiah would be born in a particular place of God's choosing. Mysteriously and yet truly, God moves in the hearts of rulers without violating their will to bring about His will. The Roman emperor served God's agenda. Not the other way around. Remember that. In 2025. When looking at the political landscape. Remember that God is sovereign. In our text. Caesar's registration was how Joseph and Mary ended up in Bethlehem. Which is exactly where God wanted them to be for the birth of the Messiah. More on that in just a moment. But here's the mind boggling thing. Are you ready? Who is directing this history? Who is the one ordering these events? Who is taking Augustus's decree and showing that it was actually his decree? God. And who was the child growing in Mary's womb? As she stepped out her door to go to Bethlehem. Whose hands were pressing against her belly. Whose little feet were kicking. Whose body was stretching her stomach. Jesus Christ. the incarnate God. The greatest of profundities is found in this. The one moving in Mary's tummy in some puzzling and amazing way was the mover of history. Jesus in utero was the sovereign king A lot more can be said, I know. But in Christ, the incarnate God assumed our likeness. And he was born as a baby. And his fingerprints are all over the history recorded here. I cannot fully explain how the infinite God can put on the finite. How the pure God can enter the womb of a sinful woman. How the immense God can become a tiny zygote. How the giver of life can depend upon Mary for life. How the hands that move history were held in Joseph's arms. I cannot give you all those answers. It is beyond us. But thankfully, we do not have a Christ we can fully explain. Otherwise, he would not be worthy of our worship. He would not be worthy of our wonder. And yet here are some comforting words. The same incarnate God who is sovereign at his birth, Is the same incarnate God who is sovereign now? And his fingerprints are all over your life. Do you see it? Do you trust him? Even with the seemingly impossible. A children's writer tells the story of a man who regularly took a train to work. One day, the train was running a bit behind schedule. The train was going unusually fast to make up some time, and many of the passengers were scared to death and thought an accident might happen at any moment. And the man himself, who frequently rode the train, he also was scared, filled with fear. But at that moment, he noticed a little girl, four years old. She seemed unafraid. So he asked her, aren't you scared? She admitted. When she took the train, she was frightened from time to time, but not today. So he asked her, why? Why aren't you afraid? She replied, Because today, my daddy is the driver. Her father was the engineer. And all her confidence was in him. She felt at peace because she knew that he was in control. Do you know that about Jesus? That today, right now, you can be at peace because Jesus is the driver. He is the sovereign king. We live in such a chaotic, unpredictable, hard world. Isn't it comforting to know who Jesus is? The newborn king. Who is the sovereign king. What will you do with Christ? Will you bow before him? Will you trust him? Will you give him your heart? Today and every day. Jesus is the sovereign king. But he is also the promised king. We live in a time when. People make promises, but they don't keep them. We just came out of the election season. Promises were made. Some of them probably won't be kept. We understand that. We've seen it before. Maybe you remember from your American history class, the president saying a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard, and then the Great Depression happened. Or, read my lips, no new taxes. And then there were taxes. Of course, we can be just as guilty. We make promises and sometimes we don't keep them. Husbands. What's that honeydew list going for 2024? Kids. Did you keep your word to clean your room? All of us struggle to fulfill our promises. But that is not the case with God. He always keeps his word. He may not do it on our timetable or in the way we think it should be done. But his promises never fail. How do we know? It had been 400 years since God had spoken to his people. The Israelites. The prophet Malachi prophesied. to the returned exiles around 450 BC. That was the last time. For centuries, God had been silent. He had not spoken through a prophet. And the Jews wondered, would God keep his word? Would the promised king ever come? They were under the thumb of Rome. And the Romans were the most powerful kingdom to walk the earth. Many doubted whether God's word would happen. But Luke gave the first signs that fulfillment was breaking into time. Look at verse four. Joseph also went up from Galilee to 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 is with child. From those verses, notice some details that are easy to overlook. Joseph and Mary were in Nazareth together. We don't know when she told Joseph about her pregnancy. As mentioned a few weeks ago, likely it was before she left to go visit Elizabeth, but we don't know that for sure. Regardless of when she did tell him. The two of them were still together. Matthew chapter one tells us Joseph contemplated divorcing her quietly because he thought that she had been unfaithful. But an angel came to him and confirmed her story. The child within her is from the Holy Spirit. Many months later, after the angelic visits, the two were found journeying. to Joseph's hometown together. And it makes sense why they would be together. This was Mary's first pregnancy. She did not want to go through delivery without him close by. It is a little window. Into their relationship. Joseph loved her. Mary loved him. But the trek to be registered would not have been easy. Nazareth was around 90 miles from Joseph's hometown. And the journey would have been largely uphill. Not a piece of cake for a woman nine months pregnant, even if she was riding on a donkey of some sorts. Any of you ladies want to sign up to do that? Nine months pregnant, make that kind of journey? I'm sure you wouldn't. Where were they specifically going? They were going to Bethlehem. What do you remember about Bethlehem? And Naomi and Ruth, they were there. David was from there. Bethlehem means house of bread in Hebrew. And then you have this promise in Micah, chapter five, about a promised one who will be born in Bethlehem. This promised one would not just be any old person. He would be the promised king. 2 Samuel chapter 7 spoke of one who would come from David's line and build an everlasting kingdom. Ezekiel 34 spoke of a shepherd. It's described as my servant, David, and this shepherd will feed and lead his people. This shepherd will even lay his life down for the for his people. Jesus's birth in Bethlehem and the Joseph's family highlights how he is the fulfillment of ancient promises about a king come to save. He's the greater David. He's the one that all of God's promises find their yes and amen in because he's the promised king. Why does any of that matter? I'll tell you why. There will be times in your life. Like when you are in a hospital bed. Facing a difficult diagnosis. Worried sick about a loved one. Grieving the loss of someone close to you. Uncertain about the future. There will be days when life is unbearably difficult. And a nagging thought will come into your mind. Does God care? Is he fateful? Can I trust him? In this text, you are learning. Of course, you can trust God. He kept his word. In Christ, he came into this world to save sinners. What will God not do for you? I want you to respond. Christ's birth. All your hope is to be in him. All your joy, all your confidence. All your trust. Because God keeps his word. Joseph and Mary registering in Bethlehem shows you that. Maybe Jesus shows you that. And yet. It could be that you need more assurance this morning of Christ's trustworthiness. Because of things that have happened in the past or are occurring right now. And you're struggling to rest everything in your life on Christ. How about this? Christ is the sovereign king. He is the promised king. But he is also the humble king. And seeing his humility endears the heart to Christ. And causes us to trust in him more and more. Seeing his humility endears the heart to Christ. And helps us to trust Christ more and more. How do we see Christ's humility? Look at verse six. And while they were there, the time came for Mary to give birth, which was probably not their plan. Mary probably planned to have baby Jesus in Nazareth. But God's purpose is trump ours. And he has his reasons for doing so. When his plans replace our plans, it is always for the good of his people. In Bethlehem, look at verse 7. She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. Probably need to remove from our minds this idea that Joseph and Mary went to the local Motel 6 in Bethlehem only to have the angry innkeeper slam the door in their faces. It's not exactly how it happened. The word for inn doesn't mean hotel. Luke chapter 22, verse 12, the term is used to describe a large guest room in a house. Where folks could sleep and on the other end was a place for the animals. All under one roof. But because of the census and the increased number of people staying in Bethlehem, the guest room of the house that they were staying in was packed. And so they had to overflow into where the animals were normally kept. And at some point. Labor pains were felt. Mary's water broke. And baby Jesus was born. And there were cries. He was bound up tight with everyday cloths. And they laid him in a feeding trough for animals. Do you see the humility? This whole passage has been setting up the kingship of Christ. He's the newborn king, the sovereign king, the promised king, the Davidic king, the messianic king. But he was born. That is humbling in and of itself. God assumed flesh and came through a birth canal with amniotic fluid to poor teenage parents in an animal shelter. And it was not wrapped in regal attire, but in strips of tattered fabric. He's not laid in a stately bed. But in a place where the sheep ate. In flesh, God came not with pomp and show. But in weakness and humility. What does that say about you and me? How bad must our circumstances be? If God must stoop this low to save us, how weak we must be. If God would have to clothe himself in this kind of weakness all to redeem us. Amongst many things. Christmas shows us just how pitiful we really are. I know that is not how we typically think of Christmas. But it is true. My situation is so bad. I am so sinful. I need Jesus to condescend to a makeshift cradle. Even more, I need Jesus to condescend to a cross. The manger for a throne. and thorns for a crown. I am such a sinner. I need Jesus to be born and to die for me. That's what this scene says about me and about you. Do you believe it? Do you feel your sinfulness? Will you say to Jesus, I, I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin, I am. Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me. And yet, what does this nativity scene say about Jesus himself? Well, he humbled himself. He made himself low by being born and in lowly circumstances. As an infant. In an animal shelter. Wrapped in ordinary cloths. And in a feeding trough laid in it. All of these are signs of the humble king's arrival. Then years later, we have nails. A spear. And a cross. All signs of the humble king's work. Which leads us to ask, why would Jesus do this? Why so much humility? Christ was the sovereign king, the promised king, the king of kings and lord of lords. Why did he descend? Into the depths of humility. Why did he go all the way to the bottom? One Christmas hymn says it this way. Thou who was rich. Beyond all splendor. All for love's sake. He became as poor. That's why. As Charles Wesley said in his hymn. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. And he did it. Because of love. Love led Christ to the incarnation. To Mary's womb. To Bethlehem. To being born in lowliness. To a manger. And then love led Christ to carry a cross. To be crucified. To suffer for us. to endure our curse, to breathe his last. He is the humble king. What will you do with Christ? Will you trust him? How will you respond to Christ? Will you trust him? What impact Will he have upon your life? Will you trust him? Will your life show that you trust him? By obeying his commands. Why can you trust Christ? Oh, he's the sovereign king. The promised king. The humble king. Considering his humility. Meditating on his love. Will produce trust in your hearts. Don't you trust him? You have all the reason to do so. Just think about Christmas. And his cross. Let's pray. Blessed father. What do we say in view of such a passage? That takes us to the heights of theology. Father, how your son came into this world incarnate, very God, a very God, begotten, not made. The sovereign king, the promised king, the humble king. Oh, help us. To trust Christ. With everything. Today. Even now. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.