Two Sons of God
Luke 2:1-7
I want to take you back to a time in world history when two men claimed to be the son of God. There was a short time in the long history of earth when there were two sons of God among us.
We read about both in the Christmas story. In Luke chapter 2. The first son of God was a man we call Caesar Augustus. He was born in 63 BC. His birth name was Gaius Octavius.
Octavius’ famous great uncle was a man by the name of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was so famous and so powerful that he had a month of the calendar named after him. Remember him in the hot summer days of July. But even more than having a month named after him Julius was so highly esteemed that people called him a god.
Of course, running around having people call you a god and getting a month named after you and letting people worship you doesn’t always work out. Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.
When the Roman authorities investigated Caesar’s will they discovered that he had named his grandnephew Octavius his son and heir. Suddenly, this 18-year-old became head of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen and to top it off he became the son of god. I mean if his adopted father was god then Gaius Octavius was the son of god.
When Octavius came to power he decided to changed his name from Gaius Octavius to Caesar Augustus. Augustus means the mighty one - the Illustrious one. And while he was being humble, he decided that since his father had named a month after himself why shouldn’t Caesar Augustus do the same since he was the son of the god Julius. And so now you can remember Caesar Augustus on those lovely summer days of August. Two months back-to-back: July and August, Father and son, god, and the son of god.
Meanwhile at the other end of the Empire when Caesar Augustus was 63 years old a baby was born in the obscure village of Bethlehem in the backwater Roman province of Palestine. Nine months before the angel Gabriel had appeared to a 14-year-old girl by the name of Mary. She was told that she had found favour with God and that she would have a baby boy. She was to give this child the name Jesus. And… wait for it… The Angel said: He will be called the Son of the Most High. He will be called the Son of God.
And so, for the next 14 years we have two sons of God on earth. Caesar Augustus and Jesus Christ. I don’t know of any other period in human history when this happened. Do you think this was just a strange coincidence? Or is it possible that God Most High predestined this so that all future generations might see that there is always in every generation a Christ and an anti-Christ. Truth and Error are aways close at hand.
And you can’t always tell who the real son of God is by outward appearances. Caesar Augustus was born into power and wealth. Jesus was born into humility and poverty. Augustus was born the son of a world-famous ruler. Jesus was born son of an unknown carpenter.
Augustus lived a long and sickly life. Jesus lived a short and robust life. Augustus died at age 76, his body was cremated and sprinkled on the Field of Mars in Rome.
Jesus died at age 33 at the hands of another Caesar, his battered body was laid to rest in a tomb just outside Jerusalem. Three days later He rose again by the power of God. Proving forever who the real son of God is.
Tonight, we celebrate the birth of the Real Son of God, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, our Saviour and Lord.
