The Birth of Christ

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The child would be of the seed of Abraham (Gen12:1-3)

Genesis 12:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

The child would be from tribe of Judah (Gen49:10)

Genesis 49:10 NASB95

10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

The child would be from the line of David (2Sam7:1-17)

2 Samuel 7:12–13 NASB95

12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

2 Samuel 7:14–15 NASB95

14 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

2 Samuel 7:16–17 NASB95

16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

The child would be born of a virgin (Isa7:14)

Isaiah 7:14 NASB95

14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

The child would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David (Mic5:2)

Micah 5:2 NASB95

2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”

Filling in some information on Joseph and Mary (Mt1:18-25)

Matthew 1:18–19 NASB95

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

Matthew 1:20–21 NASB95

20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:22–23 NASB95

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Matthew 1:24–25 NASB95

24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Mary was the wife, though they had not consummated the marriage.

She at the time would be considered an “espoused wife”

Bible study tools has this to say about that:

( 2 Samuel 3:14 ), to betroth. The espousal was a ceremony of betrothing, a formal agreement between the parties then coming under obligation for the purpose of marriage. Espousals are in the East frequently contracted years before the marriage is celebrated.

Caesar Augustus picture inserted here

The world in which Jesus was born into:

Caesar Augustus (v.1) was born as Gaius Octavius (aka Octavian), named after his father; Grandmother was sister of Julius Caesar.

Octavian was adopted by Julius Caesar and made official heir (45B.C.)

After the murder of Julius Caesar, Octavian ruled along side Mark Antony and Lepidus in a very violent world at that time.

Octavian rose in power and pushed Lepidus out of the picture and for 13-years he co-ruled with Antony but they both were rivals to each other (until 31B.C.), just a quick side note, Antony was married to Lepidus sister.

In 31B.C. Antony rose with help of Cleopatra mass armies and armament against Octavian. Octavian with more troops and a better strategy was able to defeat the armies of Antony and Cleopatra. So by 27B.C. he was sole ruler of the empire.

It was at that time he took on the title Caesar Augustus.

Augustus means: Sacred, exalted, majesty, venerable. He replaced the Caesars and ushered in the time of Emperors (defined as: a sovereign ruler of great power and rank, especially one ruling an empire).

No longer was Rome a republic ruled under a law, they were an empire ruled under a Caesar.

The world in which Jesus was born for decades had been wrecked, damaged by the wars,battles, destruction, brutality and immorality.

Will Durant whom I do not think I have used before said this, it is lengthy but great information.

“The lusty peninsula was worn out with twenty years of civil war. its farms had been neglected, its towns had been sacked or besieged, much of its wealth had been stolen or destroyed. Administration and protection had broken down; robbers made every street unsafe at night; highwaymen roamed the roads, kidnapped travelers, and sold them into slavery. Trade diminished, investment stood still, interest rates soared, property values fell. Morals, which had been loosened by riches and luxury, had not been improved by destitution and chaos, for few conditions are more demoralizing than poverty that comes after wealth. Rome was full of men who had lost their economic footing and then their moral stability: soldiers who had tasted adventure and had learned to kill; citizens who had seen their savings consumed in taxes and inflation of war and waited vacuously for some returning tide to life them back to affluence; women dizzy with freedom, multiplying divorces, abortions, and adulteries.”

This is the world in which Jesus was born. Now, Augustus did bring good from all the chaos

He brought peace after decades of war

He brought unity that lasted until year 345A.D. when Rome fell, but this peace, this until did last for several hundred years, years known as the Pax Romana, a time of building, improvements, making the movement of people, ideas easier.

This is the world in which Jesus, the Savior of the world was born into.

The Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1–2 NASB95

1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Luke 2:3–4 NASB95

3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,

Luke 2:5–6 NASB95

5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

Luke 2:7 NASB95

7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Anything stick out to you in this passage?

Who was the decree to go out to(v.1)?

All the inhabited earth

Who had to register according to (v.3)? Where did they need to go to register?

Everyone, and they needed to go to “his” own city.

Why did Joseph have to go to Bethlehem (v.4)?

He was of the house and family of David.

The days were completed for Mary to give birth (v.6). Now look at (v.7) notice the pronoun used, what is it?

“She” -third person singular, active indicative (something proclaimed, public quotation)

A few small points want to grab from this passage before we close this morning.

We have a historical time that this happened.

During the time of Caesar Augustus (31B.C-14A.D.)

During time Quirinius was the governor of Syria (51B.C.-21A.D.)

We know who was impacted “everyone” but that does not include women for they were not counted, only men were. This is not the first census taken, they were common before this for taxation purposes. But it is the first under Quirinius, which means it had been sometime since the last census.

Augustus, like Pilate after him, claimed the power, but we know it was only as allowed by God

John 19:10–11 NASB95

10 So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

God used Augustus to fulfill prophesy

Micah 5:2 NASB95

Final point, Jesus was born. It says “she”-third person singular. It appears that Mary brought forth the child on her own. There is no midwife or anything noted at all.

Morris said: “That Mary wrapped the child herself points to a lonely birth.”

The most important event in the world, the birth of the Savior was presented by Luke in a very understated manner.

(summary) It was a perfectly orchestated time of God who used worldly people to set the stage for the coming Messiah. While Luke makes no fanfare of the birth itself, after the birth we will see much more detail.