1 Valley View Chapel December 14, 2014 I Know WHERE Jesus Was Born Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1-6; Luke 2:1-8 Introduction I came across a provocative billboard sponsored by the American Atheists Association. It is prominently displayed across the south because the Atheists association deliberately targeted the Bible belt: Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church. I m too old for fairy tales. If it weren t so tragic, I would find it more than a little amusing that she s writing to Santa telling him that she s too old for fairy tales! Some of us don t think that the biblical account of the first Christmas is a fairy tale. We believe it has stood the test of time and weathered the fiercest attacks of its critics. So we re spending the four Sundays of Advent exploring not a fairy tale but a well-documented, historically authenticated event the birth of Jesus the Son of God. Considering how important the birth of Jesus is to the Christian faith, it s amazing that we don t know more about it. Two of the Gospels Mark and John don t mention Christmas story at all. Matthew and Luke give us some details but they don t tell us all we d like to know. In this series of Christmas messages, we re exploring what we do know about the birth of Christ. We know when he was born at just the right time, according to Galatians 4:4. We know how he was born. He was born of a virgin, according to the prophet Isaiah, and Matthew and Luke. We know where he was born. The Bible in both testaments records that Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Of all the great cities of the world where the King of kings could have been born Athens, Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem why the little town of Bethlehem? The Background of Bethlehem Located about five miles south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem had little to commend it from a worldly point of view. There were no natural wonders to attract tourists. It was neither a hub of commerce nor a center of political activity. No institutions of higher learning had their campuses there. Yet the prophet Micah, writing 7 centuries before the first coming of Christ, clearly designated Bethlehem as the birthplace 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." Micah 5:2 Bethlehem would be unheard of today if Jesus hadn t been born there. Let s look at the timeless account of his birth found in the second chapter of Luke. 1
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.) 3 And everyone went to his 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 room for them in the inn. (NIV) Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. What could possibly motivate them to travel 70 miles over rough terrain so that Jesus mother could deliver her baby in Bethlehem? The answer is that the Emperor issued an order. Rome conducted a census every fourteen years. All Jewish males were commanded to return to their ancestral homes to record their name, occupation, property, and family members. God used the Roman government to fulfill Micah s 700 year-old prophecy. If the census had been taken a month earlier or a month later Mary would not have had the baby in Bethlehem. But she was in Bethlehem because God s plan had to be fulfilled. If Jesus had not been born in Bethlehem he would have been disqualified as the Messiah. God never makes a mistake. Mary Southerland said: God has never said Oops! He never stubs his toe; never drops the tray; and never forgets an appointment. If God is your Father and Jesus is your Shepherd, then a faithful care-giver is watching over every detail of your life. Everything that happened to you since we met last Sunday indeed everything that has ever happened to you - was ordered by the Lord. Did Mary and Joseph wonder: Why, Lord, now of all times, do we have to go to Bethlehem? It s the worst time for us to travel! But the Lord had a plan. He decreed it and used Caesar as his errand boy. His son would be born in Bethlehem. And he didn t consult with Joseph and Mary to see if they agreed with it. If you belong to Christ, the circumstances your life are fashioned by heavenly hands. Proverbs 20:24 was written for our comfort: A man s steps are directed by the LORD. When Joseph and Mary finally learned how all this fit together so perfectly, how their steps had been directed by the Lord in order to lead them to Bethlehem, they must have shaken their heads in amazement at the loving purposes of God. Why Jesus Was Born in Bethlehem Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? I want to suggest three reasons why Bethlehem was the perfect place for the Savior s birth. 2
3 We need to go back to the death of Rachel, Jacob s wife. Her story is recorded in Genesis 35:16-19. Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son." As she breathed her last for she was dying she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). (NIV) Rachel was on her way to Bethlehem when she died giving birth to Benjamin. With her dying breath, she named the boy Ben-Oni which means son of my sorrow. Later Jacob changed the boy s name to Benjamin which means son of my right hand. And Rachel was buried on the way to Bethlehem. Centuries later Jesus mother watched her son dying on the cross. At that moment Jesus was to Mary the son of my sorrow. But when Jesus cried our It is finished! to God his Father he was the son of my right hand. On the cross Jesus was the son of his mother s sorrow. Now he is seated at the right hand of his Father. It was near Bethlehem where Rachel called her son the son of my sorrow and Jacob called him the son of my right hand. Bethlehem was also the perfect place for Jesus to be born because Ruth and Naomi settled Bethlehem after they left the land of Moab. Their story is told in the Old Testament book of Ruth. Naomi had gone with her husband Elimelech and her two sons Mahlon and Kilion from Bethlehem to the land of Moab (present day Jordan) because of a crippling famine. While in Moab, Naomi s two sons married Moabite women. Naomi saw her husband and both of her sons die in that foreign land. With no friends and no future in Moab, she returned to Bethlehem accompanied by one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth. When the two women arrived in Bethlehem, Naomi and Ruth were financially destitute because in ancient times widows had no means of financial support. To get some food for the two of them to eat, Ruth gleaned in a field owned by a wealthy farmer named Boaz. Gleaners were the town s poor who were allowed to gather grain that had been dropped by the harvesters and every field had a small strip around the edge of the field that was deliberately left for the poor. Unknown to Ruth, Boaz was a relative of Naomi s late husband. He fell in love with Ruth and married her. Boaz provided generously for Ruth and Naomi the rest of their lives. But that s not the end of the story. Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed who had a son named Jesse who had a son named David who later became Israel s king. David was a direct ancestor of Joseph and Mary. 1,000 years later, Joseph and Mary could trace their roots back to Bethlehem all the way back to Boaz and Ruth. That is why Joseph returned to Bethlehem to be registered. The town of Ruth and Boaz was Joseph s ancestral home. Bethlehem was a perfect place for the King of kings to be born because Bethlehem was the birthplace and boyhood home of Israel s greatest king David. Yet before David was ever a king, he was a shepherd. 3
4 1000 years after David, Jesus said: I am the good shepherd. Like David centuries before, Jesus would care for his sheep. Like any devoted eastern shepherd, Jesus was willing to lay down his life for his sheep as he eventually did. David was a shepherd before he was king. So was Jesus. But one day the Lord Jesus Christ will be recognized and honored as the King of kings. The prophet Nathan predicted Jesus royal reign a millennium before the first Christmas when he said to King David: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. 2 Samuel 7:12-14 Nathan wasn t talking about David or even David s son Solomon. Neither man ruled over a kingdom that would last forever. But Christ s kingdom is forever! It is therefore perfectly fitting that the One whose kingdom would last forever would be born in the royal city of Bethlehem. Finally, Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem because Bethlehem means house of bread. 30 years after Jesus was born in the house of bread, he stood before the multitude and announced: I am the bread of life. John 6:48 The life Jesus was talking about was something far greater than mere physical life, although he is the creator of all physical life. The life Jesus was talking about is a personal relationship with God. If we could have known God apart from Christ, there would have been no Christmas. That s why there can be no personal relationship with God apart from Jesus Christ. But the One who is the bread of life also supplies purpose, meaning, and fulfillment for all those who trust in him. That s what Jesus meant when he said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 Without a personal relationship with Christ, one may have the good life but not the life that is good. It is possible to have everything you want and yet to want nothing that you have. The material world cannot fill the emptiness of soul that we all feel. For the first 25 years of my life, I sat at the table of friends, parties, pleasure and academic accomplishments. But I always left the table hungry, longing for more. In the spring of 1972, I experienced life for the first time when I repented of my sins and believed on Christ as my substitute who he took the penalty of my sin on the cross. Life didn t come to me under a Christmas tree. It was found under another tree, the cross of Christ. When I looked at that tree with an empty heart, a bankrupt soul and faith-filled eyes, I saw for the first time the purpose of the baby born in Bethlehem. He was the Lamb of God who suffered and bled as he paid for my sins because God loved me with boundless love. The bread of life has never disappointed me not for over 43 years. The bread of life gave me what could never be found under a Christmas tree: the freedom of forgiveness; the knowledge of my life purpose; and the confident expectation of eternal life in heaven. Conclusion 4
5 According to the latest figures, last Christmas Americans bought 28,497,464 rolls of wrapping paper; 16,832,362 packages of tags and bows; 372,430,684 greeting cards and 35,200,000 Christmas trees. If every present had your name on it; if you received every Christmas card; if you could gaze on every beautifully decorated Christmas tree, you d still walk away with a hungry heart because God made you that way. Jesus the bread of life was born in the house of bread so that we would never have to be hungry again. 5