Title: “The Miracle of the Manger” Scripture: Luke 2
Type: Christmas Series Where: GNBC 12-31-23
Intro: A wife said to her husband, “Shall we watch the six o’clock news and get indigestion or wait for the eleven o’clock and have insomnia?” One wag put it, “The evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’--and then tell you why it isn’t.” We live in a world filled with tragedy. If there’s anything this hurting world desperately needs, it is good news. Not only the world in general, but individuals need good news because their lives are strewn with suffering and sorrow. The Christmas story as told by Luke offers not only good news, but the best news in the world: The angel told the shepherds, “I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Now, you’re right, today is the week after Christmas, but I was sick on Christmas.
Prop: Exam. Luke 2, we’ll see 4 Insights into the Miracle that Took Place in the Manger.
BG:1. Last year we were in Poland at this time. Everything was closed due to it being Epiphany. Celebration of Christmas goes on for much more than one day.
2. I have been preaching a series this year: Miracle of the Moment, Message, and now the Manger.
Prop: Let’s look at Lk 2 so as to see 4 Important Insights into the Miracle that Took Place in the Manger.
I. The Miracle of the Manger: How Silently He Came.
A. The Manger Demonstrates How Silently the Savior Came.
1. Christ Came Silently to a World that wasn’t seeking Him.
a. Erwin Lutzer has said: “The manger scene is often depicted as a quaint and heart-warming moment. But it wasn’t. It was ugly, dirty, and poor. When Jesus entered our world, He could have been born in a palace, but He chose to be born in an impoverished, ordinary, and very humble way. And though there was no place for Him at the inn, there was a place made specifically for Him and Him alone—the place where He would save us—the cross of Calvary.
b. And so a census goes out and the young couple are forced to comply with Rome’s demands and walk 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem so they could be registered so the Empire could tax them. Although Bethlehem would have been but a small village, its population would have swollen with hundred if not 1000’s of poor peasant, indistinguishable from Mary and Joseph, all silently trudging towards this little village a few miles outside of Jerusalem.
2. Powerful People Rarely Do Anything Silently.
a. In this passage as well as in Matthew’s we see several prominent politicians were listed. Mt. 1 mentions King Herod. 40 years prior Mark Anthony had appointed this Idumean pretender as Tetrarch and king over the region of Judea. He was nothing more than a pawn and puppet, but his self-importance and his cruelty were legendary. Luke introduces us to “Quirinius”, the Roman appointed governor of the region of Syria where he would remain until 12 AD. The “big cheese” we are introduced to by Dr. Luke is none other that Caesar Augustus, the Emperor of Rome.
b. Illust: Who was this Caesar Augustus? He was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. His name was actually Octavius. “Caesar” came to mean emperor of Rome. “Augustus”, however, was a title of deity that he bestowed on self with Senate approval. See how little has changed in 2000 years? Politicians think they are gods and they want your money!
B. What Insights Do We Gain from Considering How Silently Christ Came?
1. Although His people were looking for a loud and powerful political deliverer, He didn’t come that way. He came silently. The overwhelming impression of the nativity scene is one of silence: the silence of the sleeping God-Child; the silence of Mary and Joseph gazing upon the child with tenderness and wonder; the silence of the animals looking on, curiously; the silence of the worshipping shepherds who leave the jubilation of the angels in the hills behind for the silence of the stable. The silence, too, of poverty, of weakness, simplicity, and humility.
2. The Political Leaders Luke mentions in this account
a. I want you to consider the names of those three powerful politicians: Herod, Quirinius, Caesar Augustus. They were pretty big deals in their day. They had a lot of people bowing down and kissing up to them. They made a lot of noise in their day. But you know what? I don’t hear a lot of people talking about them today. They’re barely mentioned anymore. They made a lot of noise in their day but they are as silent as the grave today. Jesus, however, came pretty silently, but He is still being proclaimed today.
b. Illust: I’ve had the privilege to preach in many States and many countries. Never once when I’ve said Herod, Quirinius, or Caesar Augustus have I seen people break down in tears of repentance or see their lives changed! However, the true King, Who came so very silently, the Lord Jesus Christ is known today in every nation and the Bible says that one day, every single person who is or has ever lived is going to bow the knee to King Jesus! (Rom. 14:11).
C. Application: We are reminded of how silently the Savior came when we sing v.3 of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”
II. The Miracle of the Manger: How Shockingly Ordinary Was His Coming.
A. The Manger Demonstrates How Shockingly Ordinary Was the Savior’s Coming.
1. People often Attempt to Look for God in the Miraculous but we find Him more Frequently in the Mundane.
a. Illust: In the UK a protocol is followed at a royal’s birth. At least one royal doctor, but often two, attend the birth. A royal birth is announced via a bulletin placed on a golden easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed bulletin, which is commonly brought out the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. The baby is then wrapped in a blanket provided by famed weavers GH Hurt & Sons. A special Christening gown that has been used by over 60 royals during over the past 165 yrs. A 41 gun salute is fired from either Hyde Park or Wellington Barracks.
b. There was nothing more mundane than Christ’s birth in a cave and being laid in a manger, a feeding trough. Bethlehem was a few miles outside of Jerusalem,
c. just off of a very important trade route w/ caravans and travelers. Certainly, there would have been an inn in Bethlehem, and a cave nearby where weary travelers would have stabled their livestock. Due to the census and all of the travelers and the slower pace of the pregnant Virgin, the in was already full.
2. Christ’s coming was boringly ordinary to the untrained eye.
a. GK Chesterton, Heretics. “There is no such thing as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person,” G.K. Chesterton says in his book Heretics. He is commenting on Lord Byron’s claim that humanity is divided into two tribes: the bores and the bored.” “We are a world obsessed with the extraordinary. We are the era of heroes, of Chosen Ones and Marvel superheroes and underdogs with secretly fantastic powers who rise to save the day. Everyone wants to be the hero; nobody likes to be the helpless, nameless civilian who gets saved. We worship the extraordinary and shun the ordinary as boring. The problem, of course, is that most things are disappointingly ordinary, and we spend most of our time—being bored.” (E. Germann, 7-20, Clarifying…)
b. Richard Foster has said: “Many of us today live in a kind of inner Apartheid. we segregate a small corner of pious activities and can then make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our live. We have become so accustomed to this way of living that we fail to see the contradiction in it. The scandal of Christianity in our day is the heresy of a 5 percent spirituality. We overcome this modern heresy by first, by turning ordinary experiences of life into an opportunity for prayer; secondly, by seeing God in the ordinary experiences of life; and third, by praying throughout those ordinary experiences.
B. What insights Do We Gain into Christ’s Shockingly ordinary coming?
1.Luke Gives us an Important Insight into the Reason for Christ’s Shockingly Ordinary Coming.
a. a. V.7 – “because there was no room for them in the inn.” Although this is the literal recollection of events. I think in some ways its metaphorical for the reception our Savior received during His life and even to this day. There was literally no room in Bethlehem. However, later in His life, there would be no room for Jesus in the religious world of the Pharisees or Sadducees. The religious elites scorned Him. The political elites scorned Him. Today Christ is often scorned from the Courthouse to the Statehouse to the Schoolhouse and everywhere in between.
b. Illust: Story is told of a packed elevator full of exasperated shoppers on Black Friday in early 1990’s. Having waited in a long line for hours got to the floor where the special deal was being offered by the department store, only to realized: The store was out of the promised offer! The irate shoppers crammed selves back into the elevator to hurriedly leave in order to continue their frantic quest. Tempers were raw. People grumbling. Finally, one exasperated individual angrily exclaimed: “If I could get my hands on the guy who started this holiday, why, I would kill him.” Instantly, the elevator became embarrassingly silent. A single voice from the back of the elevator said: “We already did.” There is still no room for Christ in our lives today.
2. No One Expected God to Come to Earth in this Shockingly Ordinary way.
a. v. 7 – Look at the 1st portion of the verse. We sanitize the manger scene because it is so ordinary and mundane. The Christmas cards we send each other look so nice. The manger (literally crib – like corn crib) was most likely a rough-hewn stone trough. Swaddling cloths were strips of used and worn-out clothing. On the Hallmark cards the manger scene looks like Chip and Joanne have just finished building the manger. The cute donkey standing to the side seems to have had a shampoo and pedicure! No friends, it was messy. It stunk like a sales barn, and it was ordinary!
b. Illust: Pastor Richard has shared how he came to Christ in a 7-11 Parking lot in Lubbock, TX. I came to Christ, 40yrs ago this month in the tiny kitchen of my parent’s rented home in Marion, IN. The miracle of the manger is that Majesty inhabited the ordinary.
C. Applic: Read (“Away in a Manger” v.1) Isn’t it interesting that Jesus was born and laid in a borrowed manger and when He died, He was laid in a borrowed grave. (Lk. 23:50-53)
III. The Miracle of the Manger: How Personally He Came.
A. The Manger Demonstrates How Personally the Savior Came.
1. The Miracle of the Manger is the Person the Manger Held. Illust: In the 2nd v. of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, Charles Wesley grasped this truth as clearly as any non-canonical author.
2. Only God could redeem. Christ did not send an angel. An angel could not have redeemed creation. In the incarnation, the Word not only became flesh but He “dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Notably, this phrase is the same one used in the Greek to mean “pitch a tent,” and it is closely related to the Greek word for the ancient Israelite tabernacle, which was itself a tent (see Ex. 26). Here we have the first indication in John’s gospel that Jesus is the new tabernacle/temple for the people of God. If we want to meet our Creator and worship Him, we must do so in Christ.
B. By Coming as a Baby God personally entered His creation.
1. Illust: The Scottish author George McDonald once said of the incarnation: “He came as a baby to make a woman cry.” What’s more personal than that? The most human reaction after the discomfort of carrying a child for 9 mo, and then going thru the pain of labor, when a mother meets her healthy child for the first time, she often cries! It’s the most human of emotions. When Mary looked into the eyes of her Baby she saw her Creator and Savior.
2. John 14:9 Jesus said, “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father.” Christ, although wrapped in flesh in the incarnation, still clearly demonstrated the Father. Illust: Last week we were babysitting our granddaughter Sophia while her parents were at a work party for David. Now, I think Sophia looks a lot like her mother, especially in her eyes. But at one moment when I was on the floor playing with her she gave a look that transported me back 30 years! It was as though I was looking at David. I could see her father in her! When we look at Christ, we see the Father in Him and He in the Father!
C. Applic: Christ Himself came. No angel. No created being. No prophet. Eternal Son of God.
IV. The Miracle of the Manger: How Humbly He Came.
A. The Manger Demonstrates How Humbly the Savior Came.
1. Christ’s Coming Was a humble coming. (READ HARK THE HERALD ANGELS v.3)
a. Illust: I once heard Erwin Lutzer say that “Christ was the only person in all of history to choose where he would be born.” From eternity past the Trinity decided the time and location of Christ’s coming. It would not be a palace like Versaille or Buckingham. It wouldn’t be the capitol of the empire, Rome, or even the capitol of Judea, Jerusalem.
b. The manger of Bethlehem serves as a reminder that our Lord was born in poverty, humility, and simplicity. “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for you He became poor although He was rich, so that by His poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). It is this radical gift of love and Divine example that can assist us in overcoming the Culture of Death, which seeks to distract our gaze from the holy Babe and Redeemer with worldly noise – individualism, deception, dissent, materialism, secularism, lust, and greed.
2. The Birth of Christ was Just as Planned as His Crucifixion.
B. The Humiliation of God is the Central Doctrine of Christianity.
1. The Humiliation of God is a Central Feature of Christianity.
a. Historian Bruce Shelley has said that Christianity is the only religion that has at it’s central doctrine the humiliation of God. Not in Islam. Not in Buddhism. Not in Judaism. Those all have impersonal God who stand far off and cannot be known.
b. Here we see the humiliation of God in His birth, and certainly we see the humiliation of God in the crucifixion of Christ. It was Augustine who said: “God has humbled Himself, but man has remained proud.” Friend, can I ask you, are you proud in your heart towards God today? (Do you say: “I don’t need Him?” Of course you do. Illust: A friend of mine once said: “Chris, Christianity is a crutch for weak people.” My reply was, that’s correct, and every single one of us is broken!
2. Why Did Christ allow Himself to experience humiliation.
a. The wonder of God’s righteousness initially came to us in that manger. Jesus Christ embodies the heights of exaltation, and the depths of humiliation. As the eternal Son, He is the most high God; as Son incarnate, He was meek and lowly of heart (Matt. 11:29). As God, He does all things for His own glory; as man, He did all things for the glory of His Father (John 8:49–50). Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man. The eternal Son of God became the man Christ Jesus to be the Mediator of the covenant of grace.
b. Jesus became man in order to bear the curse of God for sinners. The astonishing fact is that “the Son of God . . . was pleased in the fullness of time to become the Son of Man.” God did not have to save us. Yet God the Son became the man Christ Jesus to save His people from their sins. We have already seen that His mother was poor and that the circumstances of His birth showed “more than ordinary abasement.” His conception and birth are astonishing facts that should lead us to marvel at His glory even in His humiliation.
c. Applic: Christ came and experienced a lifetime of humiliation. From birth in a cave to death on a cross. Experienced all so you and I could be reconciled.
Conclusion: Oct. 14, 1987, 18 mo Jessica McClure fell 22’ into an 8” wide well in Midland, Texas. Her mother went looking for her as soon as she realized she was missing and was horrified to hear her daughter’s cry coming from this deep, dark shaft of a well. Fire fighters and other rescuers soon swarmed on the sight. News media arrived and for hours the attention of the nation was riveted on that field where desperate attempts were being made to rescue that little girl. That little girl didn’t need anyone to give her some ideas on how to live a happy life. She was doomed if someone didn’t save her from certain death. The most important news that desperate mother could hear in that situation was, “The rescuers have reached your daughter and she has been saved!” What if reporters had instead walked up to distraught mother and first said: “I just heard on the evening news that it’s going to be sunny and warmer tomorrow.” Big deal! That’s nice news, but it’s not important when your child is lost down a deep well. You could have reported to her, “They just said on the news that the economy is on an upswing.” Wonderful, but trivial compared to the only news that mattered to that mother. When someone is lost and within hours of death unless they are saved, the only news that matters is that a savior has come who can rescue that doomed person. That’s why the good news that a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord is the best news in the world, because it deals with the most important issue of all, namely, where a person will spend eternity.
