The Birth of the Messiah: Luke 2

Today, we turn to chapter two of the book of Luke, a familiar passage about the birth of the Messiah. I used this outline with the weekly Bible study group this morning, December 23, at the Beyer House, one of the assisted living residences at Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida.

The Birth of the Messiah

Luke 2:1-7: “¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register. ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

Almost 2,000 years ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to a Jewish teenager from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and told her she would have a son who would be God's Son. He was to be named Jesus. We find the account of Gabriel’s visit in Luke 1:28-36:

“²⁸ The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ ²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.’ ³⁴ ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ ³⁵ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

Mary was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph. When Mary told him what the angel had said, Joseph didn’t believe her, but another angel appeared to him and told him (Matthew 1:20-21):

“…Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

When Jesus was born. An angel appeared to a group of shepherds and told them (Luke 2:10-12):

“…Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Afterward (Luke 2:15-20):

“…the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

The Hebrew prophets predicted the circumstances of the Messiah’s arrival with remarkable accuracy.

Micah wrote a prophecy in Micah 5:2, 700 years before the coming of the Messiah:

“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.” (In ancient times, the name “Ephrathah” was of a district in Judea, south of Jerusalem, where Bethlehem was situated.)

 

Luke tells us of the census in vv. 1-2

Caesar Augustus was never aware of his greatest and most lasting achievement, which was preparing of the way for Savior of the world. God’s timing is always perfect. A sovereign God made ready a time and a people to fulfill His eternal purpose for the redemption of a lost mankind.

Look at the first two verses of Luke 2: “¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  The “…census…” was a registration of the people. It was really a registration for taxing purposes and was the first of regular censuses to follow every fourteen years.

Next, Luke tells us that Joseph and Mary areof the "family of David" (vv. 3-4)

The family registry for King David’s descendants was kept was in Bethlehem. Going back to the ancestral city appears to be a sensitive political decision by the Roman authorities that allowed the Jews to follow their own social customs. The town of Bethlehem still exists today and is a Christmastime pilgrimage destination for thousands of Christians.

The Jewish people throughout the early years of their history kept up with their genealogy because every male child of King David was a potential Messiah. Down through Jewish history, the people looked forward to the coming of their Messiah. The genealogies would show them who might be a legitimate descendant of David to reign on the throne. Only when Jesus was born in Bethlehem did the long awaited king arrive. Joseph and Mary both were descendents of King David.

So in Luke 2—700 years after Micah’s prophecy—we find Joseph and Mary, a teenage couple, traveling from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Micah had so long before revealed was where the Messiah would appear.

The couple probably walked more than 90 miles and would have taken at least four days to reach Bethlehem. Those 90 miles were an especially difficult trip for Mary because she was in the final month of her pregnancy.

 

Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy.

Joseph had to return to Bethlehem, his ancestral home, so Jesus could be born in Bethlehem as David had been. Now the events fulfilling the prophecies were taking place because of the government’s census order.

God is sovereign in the affairs of mankind, causing Caesar to give the order that was to unwittingly serve the plans of almighty God.

The baby Mary was about to give birth to was, in the words of the apostle Paul, “…the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…” (Colossians 1:15).

Luke is careful to tell us Mary “…was pledged to be married to him (Joseph) and was expecting a child.” Engagement in the first century Jewish society was taken quite seriously. From the moment of engagement the woman was treated as if actually married and the relationship could only be dissolved by a writ of divorce. Unfaithfulness was considered adultery.

V. 7 of Luke 2 tells us that Mary “…gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

Christ Himself is the biggest miracle that ever happened. The miracles He performed in His ministry are minor in comparison to the miracle of His incarnation.

Remember, the angel had told Mary nine months earlier:“… you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:28-31).

But Mary protested: “‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin.” She was a young woman who had preserved the purity of her body. The angel responded: “…The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Clearly the literal message is that Jesus was to be born of Mary without a human father…a special person, a very special entry into the world. The virgin birth provided a sin free nature. It provides a divine and a human nature. In that body the God-man came to redeem us from sin.

Jesus would not be her only son. He was her “…firstborn…” The natural expression is that this is her first child and after Mary had given birth to Jesus she continued to bear children. The names of Jesus’ half-brothers are mentioned in Matthew 13:55, and reference is made to his sisters in v. 56.

After He was born she wrapped Jesus in “…cloths…” or “swaddling cloths” that consisted of square pieces of cloth with a long bandage-like strip coming diagonally off from one corner. The Jewish mothers of the day wrapped their newborns in these cloths to protect the baby’s fragile limbs and strengthen their backs.

Jesus was placed in “…manger…,” which was nothing more than a feeding trough or box for feeding animals. The baby is born in a stable, not in a palace; placed in a feeding trough, not a pretty bassinet in the palace of a king.

Sometimes God’s work goes on quietly in hidden places. Regardless of the surroundings at His birth, Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed of the LORD God who was brought down to Israel to deliver His people.

The apostle Paul describes Jesus for us in Philippians 2:6-7:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

On another occasion, Paul wrote this about the Lord (2 Corinthians 8:9): “…though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

 

Another fact we know is that there was no room in the inn.

The inn was not the place you would want to take your family on vacation. It included a stable for travelers to put their cattle and pack animals for the night. Most of these inns had guest rooms or apartments for travelers. They were little more than brothels. Travelers provided their own food. The innkeeper provided was hay for the animals and a fire to prepare the food on and provide warmth. Bethlehem was crowded with visitors because of the census. Mary and Joseph had to camp in the courtyard because there was no room left inside. Mary and Joseph were alone and completely dependent upon God to provide for all their needs. 

Christ came (Galatians 4:5)  “…to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” according to Paul.

Peter added that Jesus’ advent and His resurrection has given us “…an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:4).