Father, we just praise you. Thank you for being such a thank you for being such a great Father, for adopting us as your very own children. What an amazing thing. We just thank you for that. Help us to just even understand that and how you feel about us and how much you care for each one of us. And Holy Spirit, we just thank you for being our guide and our counselor and our teacher. And I ask you to teach us this morning just to share something with each of us that will encourage us and that will just help us in in our everyday life. And Jesus, we just praise you for coming, for being our Savior, for being our Lord, for being our friend. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, this morning I'm excited to start kind of looking toward Christmas Eve. And we're going to do that by taking a fresh look at how Jesus was born. Now, this is a story that we all know, but may not really know, because it is a Jewish story that we look, I mean, just kind of naturally, we look at this story through Western eyes. And what actually happened that night that Jesus was born might surprise you. But it is richer and it's an even more beautiful story than we may know. The Gospels were written by four different men. They're Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They wrote their accounts from their perspectives. Now they were inspired by God, but being inspired by God in writing the Bible doesn't mean you're knocked into a trance and God grabs your hand and you wake up and he's written something. You know, he spoke through you, but you still wrote with your perspective and with your personality and with your life experiences. It's like if Susan and I go to a movie together, um, the way we're wired, we're gonna see things differently. You know, and so if you ask us independently after the movie, uh we're gonna share different things about it. You know, we we might draw different details, notice different things. Susan might notice the exotic place that the spies ran off to, or, you know, and I might notice the car that the that they they drove. It's just gonna be different things based on our interest and how we're wired that are going to impact us differently. The Bible writers are the exact same way. The way they're wired helps them to notice different things. And so they write about different things. Now, this doesn't make the Bible less credible, it actually makes it astoundingly credible. Like in the Gospels, where four different people with four different perspectives would tell the same story four different ways. It's an amazing thing. Matthew's perspective is he was previously a Roman tax collector. Mark was a close friend of Peter's, Luke is a doctor, John is a fisherman. They all recorded the things they thought most important and the things that impacted them. So John starts his writing kind of pre-creation, if you will. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then he jumps right to the baptism of Jesus. Mark begins his writing with the baptism of Jesus. Well, really, John the Baptist, and right into the baptism of Jesus. But Matthew and Luke, thankfully, they wrote about the birth of Jesus. One of them wrote about the Roman King Herod's reaction to Jesus' birth and the wise men bringing gifts to the child, and he actually itemized these gifts. Now, can you guess who that was? It was Matthew, the one who had been a Roman tax collector. Okay, that's what I mean from writing by, you know, from their perspective. Who else but an IRS agent is going to itemize each gift? But Matthew did. Now, which of the four gospel writers would have been most likely to have noticed and wrote about the actual circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth? If you guessed the doctor, you're right. Understandably, it was the doctor who shares most of the Christmas story, Luke. I say all that because there is a perspective and a context when anyone writes anything. And when reading God's word, that perspective and that context enables us to see how the Bible is not an archaic rule book. It is actually a love letter that is filled with beauty and it's filled with life. I think we're going to find the context surrounding Jesus' birth in three simple things. Why they went to Bethlehem in the first place, what a typical home was like for a typical Jewish person in Jesus' day, and then just how amazingly God works every detail together. Well, you might know why they were in Bethlehem. Luke writes about it in Luke 2, starting in verse 1. He says, In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while I knew this yesterday. Corinius, how's that, was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own town to register. 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. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Okay, so the reason that Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem is that a census was required by the Roman government, and everyone returned to their ancestors' hometown. Bethlehem was the hometown of King David. And Joseph was a direct descendant of David, not just any kind of descendant, because David had different sons, but Joseph, Mary's husband, was a direct descendant of Solomon. So he was from the royal lineage of King David. And so they left and they traveled to their home of their ancestors. And it was not just Mary and Joseph, who lived in Nazareth, had to travel to Bethlehem. Everywhere, everyone in the whole country had to travel to the home of their ancestors. So people who lived in Bethlehem that weren't from the lineage of David would have had to leave and go to another city from their ancestors. Another way to say that is that night in Bethlehem, everyone that was in that town was related. It was a large family reunion. Joseph's parents and grandparents and brothers and cousins and all their extended family were there with them that night in Bethlehem. That was the atmosphere that Joseph and Mary traveled to. They were also there long before Mary went into labor. Luke goes on. He says, while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. 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. And so they traveled ahead of time into this loving family reunion, but somehow they end up in a manger. How does that happen? Well, this is where the unique context of Jewish culture is so important. And specifically what a Jewish home was like in that day. Now I know that doesn't sound very Middle Eastern, but we were actually right along the Nile River, which uh starts in Lake Victoria in Uganda and uh and then winds through the the Middle East. But a friend and I were walking, it was a very remote village, and he was from Uganda, and there's a a home there, which uh in this village was about a 15-foot circular hut, and the family's out there, and so we started uh talking with them, and they invite us in their house. And in their culture, just like in Jesus' culture, it's a real sign of respect and honor for you to go into someone's house. And that's why Jesus so often invited himself into people's houses. You know, it wasn't that he was being really forward, it was that he was showing them value and showing them honor by coming into their home. So this home was a 15-foot circle uh made of bricks that they had cut just off to the side. They would cut the bricks and make it uh themselves and had a thatched roof with a hole in the middle and a fire pit in the middle of this room. And in this room, I say this room, but this room is their house. You know, there's no bathrooms, there's no bedrooms. A house is a single room. And there were five of them that lived there, really six, but five people. There was the two parents, uh, three children, and a goat. And and the goat is not really incidental to the story. Because for this family, like most families in that village and in Uganda, the goat represented all of their physical possessions in the world. This goat. It would give them milk, eventually it would give them meat. But that was what they owned was this goat. And so during the day they tied up the goat outside where one of them was, and at night they brought the goat inside. Because there's a lot of predators, you know, and so that way a predator couldn't take the goat, a thief couldn't take the goat, and so at night, all five of them and the goat slept inside in the one-room house. This is how the common people in Jesus' day lived. Not in round huts, but in one-room rectangular homes. They didn't have bedrooms, they didn't have kitchens, they didn't have indoor bathrooms, and most common people's primary possessions were a few animals, and they would take those animals into their single-room home every night. At night, outside, usually right outside the front door, they would have a stall or a pen or a stable, and the animals would stay there during the day. But uh in the evening, they would bring all of them into the house, and they would place them at one end of the family room that was kind of set up for the animals. Part of that one place was called a manger. Um, we have a similar setup at our house. See, our our animals, and according to Susan, most valuable possessions, are these two sissy dogs that we own. And they slept on our bed for a long time, but that got kind of annoying. And so Susan, to be nice to me, bought this little pen, which is really a plastic fence, and put it in this one corner of our room. And so now when we go to sleep, we put the dogs in there with uh they're on this comfy little bed and um and they have water and all that, and they stay in the pen. Now, the manger in a Jewish home served that same purpose because they were all gonna sleep in the same big area. But it was a place where the animals would be down at one end, and it was one of two things. Sometimes they would have two kind of timbers, not a fence, but just two timbers, and the animals would learn that they stay on the other side of those timbers. Um, a few feet that they had dug out and was sunken down enough, and the animals would know to stay there. And in that space, they would have a manger. And what a manger was wasn't a stable or a stall. It was actually a a small area that's either carved out of the floor or built up on wood, just big enough to hold enough hay for the night for the animals. They want them to have enough, but they didn't want them to eat too much because the first thing they do in the morning is clean up and then put the animals out. And so that's what a manger is. It was an area either carved out of a depression or depression carved out on the floor or built up with wood that would hold enough hay for the animals to eat at night. There's a story in the Old Testament. It's in Judges chapter 11. A man named Jephthah, he makes a vow to God. He was in a big battle and he says, God, if you give me a win here, I'm going to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of my house in the morning. And it was a rash vow. Um, but the reason he made that vow is because his animals lived in his house. And he assumed that the first thing that would come out of his house in the morning would be an oxen or a goat or a donkey. Um it just illustrates the fact that the common people of that day lived in a one-room home with their animals at night. Um, Jesus makes mention of this in Matthew 5, verse 14. He says, You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. The typical Jewish family lived in this one-room house where everyone lived, the whole family, no matter how big, and if they owned animals, there was a manger at the end of that room where the animals would stay. Now there's an exception to this, and that's if the family could, they would add a guest room. Um, and it's really a reflection of how hospitable the culture, the Jewish culture was, was so family-oriented, and uh and hospitality was such a big thing that if they could, they would make a guest room. And even though they needed the room, obviously, they wouldn't use that room. They would reserve that room for guests. There's a lady in the Old Testament that saved this room just in case a prophet would come through the city and they would have a um have a place to uh to stay. And there's a specific Greek word for this uh room, and it's catalyma, and it means a guest room. Luke uses this word twice. The second time is in Luke 22, starting in verse 10. It's it says Jesus was getting ready for the Passover and what would become the Lord's Supper. Um, he replied, as you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, the teacher asks, Where is the guest room? The word there is Catalima. Where is the guest room? Where I may eat the Passover with my disciples. He'll show you a large room upstairs, all furnished, make preparations there. The only other time Luke uses the word catalima is in Luke chapter 2, when he just describes Joseph's family's guest room in Bethlehem being full. Now that's a word that in a lot of translations is tr is translated in. You know, and that's where we get that part of the story. There was no room at the at the inn. But there was also a specific Greek word for in. It's a Pansion. Susan tells me that's like an Italian word. You know, it's a word that's been transliterated. It's still used today in Armenia and Turkey and uh Italian to mean a small hotel. And so Luke, again, who has written all these, this entire account, he tells the story of the Good Samaritan. And you'll remember that there was a man that was beaten, the Good Samaritan comes along and he takes him to an inn. That word in Luke is Pantheon. That's the word for inn. The proper translation in Luke chapter 2, when Luke the doctor is telling the story of Jesus' birth, is guestroom. The guest room was full. And so we go on with the story. 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. Now the reason this is important is that it flows in perfect context with the Jewish culture. Mary and Joseph would stay with their relatives in Bethlehem. In the town, they were surrounded by family and by friends. They got there plenty of time ahead, plenty of time to prepare. But there were so many relatives coming at the same time for the census that the guest rooms were all full. You know, in fact, they there had to be much bigger families. The one or two of them would take up a guest room, and Mary and Joseph's for just two people. You know, so their relatives invited him to stay in the main house, in the main room with them. There'd be a manger in that room, because that's where they brought the animals in for the night. And that manger would be the perfect place to put soft hay and lay a newborn baby to sleep that was wrapped up snugly for the night. It's a pretty good bet. That particular night the animals slept outside. Matthew reinforces that they were in a house, not a stable. In Matthew 2, verse 9. After they heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened the treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. That's the itemized gifts I was talking about. Okay, two other really quick things that hopefully we'll like maybe bring this uh together, and hopefully this will end up uh um not ruining a few traditional Christmas stories and uh and songs. And I really mean that because the main points are all right, you know, and and and really what we'll see is not that that's wrong and this is right. It's like the tree of life versus the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What we'll see is that the story is even more beautiful than we often tell it and and and understand it. Um but one of those things that in Jewish culture, swaddling clothes, you know how Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth? Now I've always heard that that was just because it was all of a sudden and nobody's prepared, and they wrap him in rags practically, because that's all they had, and it's just the opposite. Just the opposite is true. Ezekiel describes an uncared for baby. In Ezekiel 16, 4 says, On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped and wrapped in cloth. See, a loved-for, cared for baby was handled exactly like Jesus was. He received the perfect loving care from parents who were prepared for his birth, who had loving family and friends and relatives and help all around them. You know, the humbleness of the story of Jesus' birth does not come from sad circumstances. It comes from the fact that the creator of all the universe would be born as a human child on this earth. That's the humbleness of the story. The fact that Jesus was born to a common couple in a common home just demonstrates more of his character. The story that Luke tells in the proper context of Jewish homes and Jewish customs is actually a beautiful story of a beautiful birth that fulfilled so much hope and so much prophecy. You know, in Jeremiah 23, 5 it says, For the time is coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David's line. He will be a king who rules with wisdom, he will do what is just and right throughout the land. And in Micah 5.2, it says, But you, O Bethlehem Ephertha, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. So Jeremiah from David's line, Micah, born in Bethlehem, the Messiah, the Savior, was prophesied from the lineage of David to be born in Bethlehem. And where are Joseph and Mary that night? In the middle, in Bethlehem, in the middle of a family gathering of the lineage of David. It's amazing. It was not a frenetic, unplanned experience. It was a night that had been planned for since the beginning of time. It was in fact a beautiful night that was beautiful in every way. It was filled with peace and with joy and with love. It was really the most beautiful night anywhere ever. So we'll stop there. And if the worship team will come up, we'll get ready and we'll sing one more song together. In fact, let's stand, we'll get ready for that. So the next thing that happens that Luke tells about is that the angel comes to the shepherds who are just outside of Bethlehem. And he says, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. And see, the exciting thing is that you are all people. You are all people. This story really is for you. It's just another beautiful expression of God's amazing love for you. How he's not upset with you, how he's not mad at you, how he's not given up on you. How he loves you. As hard as it is for us to understand, he loves you like he loves Jesus. And the reason this night in Bethlehem happened was so it was so the process could begin of us each getting reconnected with our loving Father. And that happens when we accept that gift, when we put our faith in Jesus. God's Spirit connects with our Spirit and He fills us and transforms us. He starts changing us from the inside out. If you've never done that, you can do that today. I want to finish with a uh with a prayer. One thing about Christmas is though it's such a beautiful time, and it is about joy, peace, and love. What comes with it sometimes are time pressures and financial pressures. So hopefully when we're here today, this morning, hopefully when uh next Sunday, then on Christmas Eve, if nothing else, we can just absorb some of the joy. Be filled with God's presence. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. We thank you for uh right now I thank you for your son and for the beautiful way that that you sent him to earth. I just praise you and thank you and for that. And Father, I thank you for every single person here. I know that we all have different things going on in our lives and we need different things from you at this time. And would you bless each of us, Father, whether it's health or whether it's it's family, or whether we just need encouragement, whether it's it's financial, faith, worry, any of those things, God. You know you see each of us, you know our names. God, would you please give each of us everything that we need? And again, we thank you for this time of year. I thank you so much for your beautiful son that was born as such a beautiful baby. It's in his name we pray. Amen.