"Larry King, the former CNN talk show host, was once asked whom he would most want to interview if he could choose anyone from all of history. He said, 'Jesus Christ.' The questioner said, 'And what would you like to ask Him?' King replied, "I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me'" (From Just Thinking, RZIM, Winter 1998. Cited by ChristianAnswers.net).
We already have the answer to that question in God’s Word and the virgin birth of Jesus did define history. Luke the historian documents this defining moment in Luke 2. Jesus is one of three kings in the history of the Biblical account of His birth.
There are three kings in the Christmas story that Luke the historian documents in order to persuade us to worship the King of kings.
First, There is The King Who Exalted Himself
The first king mentioned is more like a footnote by Luke the historian in Luke 2:1. Luke is not treating what Caesar did as a footnote because it was insignificant in history but because of what God did was supremely more significant. This was Caesar Augustus. Gaius Octavius was born in 63 B.C. That’s who Caesar Augustus was before the name change. Gaius Octavius was the nephew of Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Caesar noticed his nephew’s military ability in his Roman army. Unknown to Gaius Octavius, Julius Caesar made him heir to his financial and political fortunes upon Caesar’s death. When his political rivals in the Roman senate assassinated Caesar 44 B.C., Gaius Octavius at age 19 became the new Roman ruler. In honor of Julius Caesar, Octavius took the name “Caesar” making his name Octavius Caesar.
Two years later, the Roman Senate deified Julius Caesar making Octavius “the Son of God.” So now he was Augustus or the Sacred One or Caesar Augustus who founded the Roman Empire. He also made himself the Roman Emperor and accepted the worship of his citizens as god.
Caesar Augustus was a very powerful man. When people worship you as a god, you can speak and your empire obeys. That is what Caesar Augustus did in Luke 2:1, 2. He ordered the subjects of the Roman Empire to register to pay their taxes by going back to the town of their ancestry. So in response millions of Roman citizens returned to their hometowns. Luke chronicled this world event in Luke 2:3: “All went to be taxed, every one into his own city.”
Caesar Augustus had no idea he was a pawn in the hand of God. Caesar Augustus unknowingly was fulfilling a 700 year-old prophecy, which predicted Jesus, must be born in Bethlehem of Judea. That prophecy is recorded in Micah 5:2: “But you Bethlehem Ephraim, though you are little among the thousands of Judah (there were probably only 500-600 residents in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth), yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler of Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (or eternity).”
There are two supernatural elements to this prophecy.
1. The Messiah who is to be born in Bethlehem has to be eternal or God. He has to be God and Man or the God/man.
2. The Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem when Mary his mother and Joseph his foster father lived in Nazareth.
Nazareth was several weeks of journey away from Bethlehem and Mary was full term ready to give birth to the Savior. There has been no preparation by Joseph and Mary to travel to Nazareth. Maybe they were unaware of the prophecy or maybe because Joseph’s carpentry business was only eking out a livelihood for Joseph and they just could not afford to go. Rather than just slap this trip on a credit card, they decided to stay home. This dilemma leads us to the next King in the Christmas story.
Next, There is The King Who Rules the Universe
In the Christmas story, God is exercising His rulership. I am referring to God the Father, the king of the universe. The psalmist praised God’s sovereignty in Psalm 103:19: “The Lord has prepared His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all.” God rules over the kings on earth, which included the most powerful ruler on earth who was worshiped as a god, Caesar Augustus.
Why did The King of the universe cause the Emperor of the Roman Empire to decree all of his citizens to travel to the cities of their ancestors to enroll to pay taxes? Why did Caesar Augustus set the entire Roman Empire in motion? Luke 2:4 records the answer. So “Joseph” would have to go back to Bethlehem because he and Mary were of the linage of David. God caused Caesar Augustus to put millions on the road so God could fulfill His 700 year old prophecy and get Joseph and Mary to the birthplace of the Messiah.
In Luke 2:3, God is infinitely above us ruling and overruling the affairs of kings and nations. In Luke 2:4, God is intimately involved in our personal lives.
Proverbs 21:1 describes what God did: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord’s, as the rivers of water: He turns it where so ever He wills.” Do you have someone you are burdened for and it seems he or she is as hard as a Caesar Augustus? Are they beyond the power of God? No!
Listen to Paul’s statement Philippians 2:13 that is similar to Proverbs 21:1 but is not limited to kings: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
There is a great scene in the 1995 docudrama film “Apollo 13″ based on the actual flight attempt to land on the moon. Astronaut Jim Lovell is sitting in his back yard staring at the moon. Jim Lovell was soon to pilot the famed Apollo 13 spaceship all the way to a lunar landing. As he sat in his suburban backyard, however, Lovell was thousands of miles away from his destination. While staring at the moon, Lovell closed one eye and extended his hand in front of him. The captain then extended his thumb up into the air. The camera switched to Lovell’s perspective and showed us the captain’s ability to make the moon disappear behind his thumb.
Mark Robison (@ wildwoodmark.com) said there are two possible explanations for Lovell’s disappearing moon trick:
1. The disappearance of the moon was an optical allusion created by the close proximity of the finger to the eyeball. In other words, it was a matter of perspective.
2. Tom Hanks has an extremely large thumb! In other words, his thumb is bigger than the moon.
Which is the correct answer? Do you have a problem this Christmas that you have allowed to look bigger than the Creator and Ruler of the universe because that problem has consumed your thoughts and vision?
The same God who moved an entire Empire to help one poor couple can also move in your life or someone else’s life to accomplish His will.
Last, There is The King Who Humbled Himself
While Caesar Augustus ruled from his throne in Rome, Jesus lay in a feeding trough for animals. While Caesar Augustus exalts himself, God will eventually abase him. Apparently, Caesar’s wife was not convinced Caesar Augustus was a god, for she poisoned him to death, at least that is one theory.
What is true is what Jesus would later say, “Whoso exalts himself shall be abased. He that humbles himself shall be exalted.”
The birth of Jesus is one to the greatest examples of the humility of one abasing himself. When God the Son came to earth to become incarnate man, he did not go to the philosophers at Athens, political leaders at Rome, or even the religionists at Jerusalem. He came to the small village of Bethlehem. Bethlehem did not even have a stoplight or Wal-Mart.
Jesus, the Son of God, was not born and laid between satin sheets in the Emperor’s palace or Herod’s temple or a wealthy landowner’s mansion, he was born in an animal’s stall with the smell of manure.
But the greatest humiliation of God the Son was for Him to become not just man but a servant of man according to Philippians 2:5-11 in order to go the cross and die for our sins.
Jesus Himself said, “The Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give Himself a ransom for many.”
When He was born in Bethlehem, the angels announced His birth not to Caesar Augustus, Herod, or the High Priest of Israel, but to lowly shepherds, who were the lowest in society. Only lepers were lower than shepherds.
Shepherds were not allowed to worship in the temple because they were unclean (literally and ceremonially). Literally, they may not have bathed in weeks. Ceremonially, they handled dead animals. Ironically, shepherds are the first to worship Christ. Prejudiced religionists rejected shepherds but God did not.
Later the shepherds will be the first witnesses of Christ. The shepherds, however, were not allowed to witness in a court of law in Israel. But God chose shepherds to be His first evangelists.
Jonathan Edwards was one of America’s premiere preachers, pastors, and theologians. Yale University houses 26 large volumes of his many books and sermons. He would spend 15-16 hours a day in his study counseling, studying and writing. He led the First Great Awakening. He preached one of the most powerful sermons of all times, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That sermon is a literary masterpiece. It used to be required reading in American literature textbooks. He read his famous sermon to his Northampton congregation. He read it so if there were any results, God would get the glory and credit and not him because of the way he dramatically delivered the sermon without notes. Edwards also wrote a book about why the unsaved should not partake in the Lord’s Supper. And for that reason, he was voted out of his church by a vote of 200 to 23. A good reminder that the majority is not always right.
After he was voted out the church, the church asked him to stay and help until they could call another pastor. He humbly became their interim. When he eventually left a friend asked him how he was dealing with this rejection. His reply will help you if you are hurting because of the cruelty of people, even God's people. He replied: “My happiness in God is beyond the reach of my enemies.” God had not rejected Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards humbled himself like Christ and God has since greatly exalted him.
1. We can exalt ourselves like Caesar Augustus but God resists (fights against) the proud. Remember the Broadway hit: Your Arms Too Short To Fight God.
2. We can trust the King of the Universe with our lives and circumstances. If He can manage the machinery of the entire universe, rest assured He can run your life.
3. We can follow the example of Christ who humbled Himself and God exalted Him to the right hand of His eternal throne. From there He receives all who come to Him in faith.