Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.
Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one, into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. Notice that, Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, we're gonna talk about that in a minute, those two words, swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now, we talked two weeks ago as we've been watching God's plan to send his lamb, as we would call it, into the world. We talked about the Garden of Eden, how that, obviously, the Lord sent him into the world. That, obviously, the Lord said that out of her seed shall come.
That means that a man was not involved. It was the woman's seed. That means it had to be a virgin-born savior that would one day die for the sins of the world. That was promised all the way back in the book of Genesis. Now we find here in Luke, chapter 2, that we find, obviously, the accumulation of the promise and then now the provision of it. Now listen, when man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, that was Adam and Eve, God made a promise that a redeemer would come.
And when this redeemer came, that he would be the savior of sinners. All through the Old Testament, God worked to bring this to pass. Do you have any idea how many times Satan tried to stop that seed from being born? All the way back, obviously, we talked about when the first born were judged by Pharaoh, and he was going to kill all the first born children, how God protected the seed. We know how, obviously, when Jesus was in the womb of Mary, that Caesar Augustus put out this decree, and everybody was going to be taxed, obviously, later on. And then we know how they were looking, and looking at the seed, looking for a pregnant woman, looking for this Messiah that was going to be born.
Satan, all through time, had always tried to stop that seed, to stop the lineage, to make sure that that bloodline could not continue. But everything that Satan did, God already had a plan because he promised it in Genesis. God promises something. He always fulfills it. He always provides for it. He never says or does or promises anything that he does.
He never says anything that he doesn't carry through with. Wouldn't it be great if everybody was like that today? Wouldn't it be great if in Washington everybody was like that? But guess what?
Excuse my North Carolina expression, they ain't. Every sacrifice, every ritual, every time of Jewish worship, everything God did was moving specifically toward the moment that the Lamb of God would enter this world. I was, as I was digging into this message, I came across this passage, and I wanted to read it to you, and I know you're familiar with the story. But in Genesis chapter 22, beginning in verse 6, we find something interesting here. This is a broken hearted father named Abraham. And he is walking up a mountainside with his son, Isaac.
Now listen to me. If Abraham would have killed Isaac, that day, we believe that the seed leading to the Savior would have been broken. It's odd that God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, when that would have killed and stopped the seed. But Abraham's walking up the side of the mountain with Isaac, and obviously he never told Isaac what was going on. And we've always preached about that, how Abraham was going up and Isaac had gone with Abraham to sacrifice many times. And they had the wood, and they had, you know, stuff to build a fire, and they had everything that was needed for a sacrifice, but they didn't have a lamb like they normally used. And you can imagine as Isaac and Abraham are walking up to the mountain, they had everything needed for the sacrifice, but they didn't have a sacrifice. So you can imagine that it looked a bit strange to Isaac, we're going up here to sacrifice something, but Dad's gonna do the sacrificing, and the only other thing here is me.
Let me read you in verse 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. Now Isaac's starting to get the hint. When Dad starts putting the wood on you, you got a problem. I think my Dad was always very scriptural, that's why he always beat me with a paddle, because the Bible says that he laid the wood on Isaac. Now I'm gonna tell you something, I had a dysfunctional family, my Dad's a preacher, any preacher's dysfunctional, trust me. But we were preaching for a pastor in Delaware one time, and that man gave me a gift, and guess what he did? He was a craftsman, a woodworker, he built a paddle, and with holes made my name on that paddle, Daniel, and gave that as a gift.
Do you think I'm joking? My entire childhood I was beaten with that paddle. Who gives a child that kind of gift? You fast forward a few years, I went to full-time evangelism for 10 years, guess where I preached four different meetings? For that same pastor. You say, what did you say? None of your business what I said to him.
I just told him where he could put that paddle, but anyway we'll talk about it later. Listen to this, and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father, and he said, here am I my son, and he said, behold the fire on the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, listen to this, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You see as was signified, then look at me, in order to keep the lineage from ending, God had to provide his own lamb to Abraham that day. And listen to me dear friend, that was a sign in a picture that all those years later on a rough cold night in Bethlehem, that God would once again provide the lamb that he promised. Now I want you to notice a couple things in this passage, and we'll kind of go through a few verses of this chapter very briefly this morning, but I want you to notice number one, the place of this provision.
The place of this provision. Remember, this is providing what was promised. God promised that there would be a lamb, a redeemer, a savior coming. And remember, we're talking about behold the lamb, we gotta follow this through scripture, and now we find that this is the fulfillment, the provision of that promise. Notice the place, if you would look at verse four of chapter two, and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.
Look at me, number one I want you to notice this, the planning of that place. It was in Bethlehem. And I want you to know the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem instead of Nazareth was no accident. That was the plan of God. You say preacher, why?
Look at me. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were not from Bethlehem. They were from Nazareth. Let me read you a verse out of the book of Micah, chapter five, verse two. But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. We find here the savior Jesus was prophesied that he would be born in Bethlehem. That's why when Jesus was termed the Messiah and called himself the savior, people didn't believe it because he was from Nazareth. But he wasn't born in Nazareth. He was born in Bethlehem.
Dear friend, look at me. Everything that God did to organize those events to make sure that Jesus was born in Bethlehem was part of the plan of God. I want you to notice secondly the providence of that place. The providence of that place. Do you know that Bethlehem is 70 miles south of Nazareth? Where Joseph and Mary lived, Bethlehem was 70 miles south. Now, in order for Jesus to have been born in the right location, and by the way, he had to be born, like I told you, in the right location, or everything that had been prophesied would have been false, and everything would have been mixed up, and everything would have been botched so it had to happen the way God had promised. Remember what I said. When God makes a promise, he fulfills it.
Every last little jot and tittle. So they are 70 miles away from Bethlehem. And so obviously there is a pagan emperor named Caesar Augustus. And he all of a sudden, he lives thousands of miles away.
Did you hear me? Caesar Augustus lived thousands of miles away. Here's Joseph and Mary 70 miles away from Bethlehem. And this pagan emperor, a person who was not saved, a person who was not a believer, obviously, who had nothing to do with God, God used him in forming a decree that everybody should be taxed, and because he formed that decree all these thousands of miles away, here's a couple, Joseph and Mary, who was pregnant with a child, and it didn't involve the man at all, and that's just strange in its own sense, and now they had to travel 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem because a pagan person thousands of miles away made a decree that they should be taxed. What are the odds?
Dear friend, you mark her down. God's providence. God will make sure that all the circumstances come into line according to his will.
You want to talk about providence? We ought to get about a hundred of you up here on the platform and talk about how you got saved. We ought to talk about how you are down and low and in the gutter and everything else and doing stuff in your life that you absolutely should not have done and knew better and you had no hope and you had a dead end and all of a sudden God brought some person or some circumstance or some set of events and God's providence was staring you in the face. Dear friend, you ought to get up and shout hallelujah to God today because of his providence.
He made sure he delivered the lamb and through his providence you've been delivered. You know it may not mean much to you but it does teach us this. Now listen, this is good. I'm excited about this one. That's a cue. It means amen should be approaching soon. I wrote this down. I'm excited. I'm almost afraid to read it to you. This might not mean much to you but listen to this. It teaches us that Caesar may have been ruling but God was overruling.
Am I the only one excited about that? Caesar might have been ruling and he might have called for the tax and he might have done all that but God is always overruling because he's the head. Let me tell you something.
Barack Obama, he might be ruling as president and we might have a mayor or a governor and we might have people that think they're ruling but listen to me dear friend. God is overruling. The providence of that place.
I want you to notice number three, the poverty of that place. The Bible says that our Savior's entrance into the world was anything but glorious. The Bible says that when this young couple arrived at this inn and it could have been one of two things. They didn't have motels like we did back in those days normally. It would be a person's home or a person's residence and sometimes they had numerous places for people to stay and sometimes they didn't.
Inn's in those days were nothing but people's homes and when they arrived they found out that there was no room. So here's the Savior of the world being born through supernatural circumstances cannot even find a place to be born. The Bible says that they discovered that there was no place for them to stay and so they found refuge in a stall or small area used to house animals. When Mary delivered Jesus as we can tell from Scripture we believe that she placed Him in a feed trough. What a glorious way for the Savior of heaven to be born.
That means this the same God who made a universe and all the treasures, all the diamonds, all the gold that has been found inside of it. The Savior who created it all had nothing and had nowhere to even lay His head and was placed in an animal stall to be born. Now you say preacher why is this significant? Because His humble birth signified the kind of life that Jesus would live the entire time He was here on earth. Do you know at one point in His ministry Jesus did not even have any place to call home?
Matthew 8 verse 20 tells us that. There are times in His ministry the Bible says Jesus had nowhere to even lay His head. There are times in His ministry that He did not even have enough money to buy bread. You say preacher why is this so significant? Because that means this the God who made everything and could have had anything chose to live a life of poverty.
Why? To show how much He loved us. You say preacher why is that significant? Oh let me read you a passage of Scripture.
2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 says this and I talked to you about it last Sunday. Yet for your sakes He became poor that ye through His poverty might be rich. Let me tell you why He lived a life of poverty so you and I could live a life of wealth. You say preacher I'm not wealthy.
If you're saved you are. You have and possess something that He had to give His whole life for. The poverty of that place. You see the place that He was born was a picture of the life that He would live. It was a picture of sacrifice so that you and I could be blessed as we've been teaching in Ephesians with all spiritual blessings. I want you to notice fourthly the picture of that place. The pictures of that place. There's two things I want you to see. We have others but for the sake of time this morning. We are told that Mary wrapped her baby in swaddling clothes. Let me tell you why I believe this is significant. You know people sometimes in those days wrapped their children in strips of cloth and it would sometimes help strengthen their limbs and it would provide protection for their children.
Oftentimes they would do that. But when the Bible says that Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes listen to me. These were strips of cloth that were the same ones used to wrap dead bodies and prepare them for burial.
Anything clicking in your mind? You know what the Bible says? The Bible says that Jesus was born to die. Even in His birth what He's wrapped in is a sign that that birth was nothing but an opportunity that He would one day through death deliver our souls. You know what I like about the fact He was wrapped in swaddling clothes when He arrived? He was wrapped in swaddling clothes when He left and those clothes were left behind. Swaddling clothes. Another reason that we believe Jesus was wrapped this way is because those clothes were a sign to the shepherds that were coming.
Now listen to me. Obviously when the shepherds were told by the angel to go and look for the Savior they were told He would be wrapped in swaddling clothes. Now that wasn't common clothes for babies to be wrapped in. But let me tell you out of the providence of God He was wrapped in swaddling clothes so that the shepherds would know when they found that child. Then we're told that she took the baby and placed him in a manger. Now this word obviously refers to a feeding trough as I told you. But let me tell you what's interesting and everything I believe in the Bible is a picture of something.
Are you all starting to get this? Almost every story we bring out there's something significant, something out of the past, something from the future. God is so planned and so providential that everything has a reason. Jesus was placed in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. Do you think it is any coincidence that the Bible calls Him the bread of life in John chapter 6 verse 35? Here He is born in a place where you would feed animals and yet the person that was placed in that trough is literally the bread of life.
I don't believe it's an accident. He came to satisfy the hungry souls of dying men. By the way that's why it's appropriate that He was born in Bethlehem. Do you know what the name Bethlehem means?
It means house of bread. Anybody else appreciate how God plans everything out? Let me tell you lastly I want you to see the promise of that place.
The promise. I'm glad that personally that Jesus was born in a manger and not a palace. I'm glad He was born in humble surroundings and not in the opulence of wealth.
You say preacher why? What does that matter? Do you know if He had been born in a palace the shepherds who we will talk about in just a few minutes they would not have even had access to Him. If He had been born in a palace. Do you know that because He was born in poverty and humble surroundings look at me He is much more approachable to the common man. If He had been born in wealth and royalty and opulence the average person like you and me we wouldn't even feel that we have anything in common with Him. We wouldn't feel that we could even approach Him but He was born in humble surroundings as a sign that He loves and died for all men.
It doesn't matter your wealth, your color, your clout in society. He loves you and He died for you. He was born humble.
Listen to me. He was born humble because He is humble. He wasn't born there as a sign of humility. He was born there because of humility.
A humble savior. The place of that provision. Secondly I want you to see the people of this provision. I want you to look first off at verse 8 of chapter 2. The Bible says and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. So we see the shepherds mentioned. Look at verse 15. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said one to another Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
Notice that they made known abroad the saying. Look at verse 18. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart. Now I want you to notice about the people surrounding this provision. Notice if you will number 1 I want you to see their occupation. Verse 8 tells us that they were shepherds. Now that means this their work was dirty and hard. Being a shepherd required for you to be away from home for long periods of time. They were often crude men. They were often vile men. And shepherds in these days were known for their sinful lives and evil ways. Shepherds were often considered unclean because of the duties of their occupation and they were not allowed in the temple. That's why I told you if Jesus would have been born in a palace or some royalty shepherds would not have even been allowed to approach them. Now you say well this is kind of odd. I mean obviously these men were considered the lowest of the low in that day. I mean it may have been these very men.
Listen to me. These very men might have tended to the lambs that they used in the proper sacrifice in the temple but they weren't allowed in the temple. That tells you what religion will do for you. That's what religion does. Religion says I'm better than you. The Bible says God loved us. Religion says I'm better than you. That's why you need Christ not religion. You know it's amazing that these shepherds, these men that were vile and filthy. Obviously if there's a shepherd here today it means back in these days listen to me. Isn't it amazing that they were the first men that heard the glad tidings of Christ. It was these men who received the message of peace from the angel.
What a blessing. Listen to me. Men might not care about you and family might let go of you and people might disappoint you and others might look down on you but the Lord loves you for who you are. Their occupation. Secondly I want you to see their obedience. In verse 15-16 we find this that as soon as these men heard word of the Savior's birth they left their sheep on the hillside and they ran to the town of Bethlehem. Now these were shepherds.
Their entire wealth, career, paycheck, everything came from those animals. And the Bible said as soon as the angel came and gave them the glad tidings and told them that the Messiah the Savior was going to be born in a manger in Bethlehem. The Bible says they immediately left their flocks and went. You know that ought to be the reaction of every one of us when we get the gospel the first time? It ought to be our reaction every time we hear God's word preached. We should be willing to leave behind and obey if that's what God wants. Anybody else in the house want to say amen to that? That's a tough one but I'll say amen to that. It's tough for this guy to be obedient.
I know it's tough for you too. Their occupation, their obedience, I want you to notice thirdly their obligation. The Bible says as soon as they were told the message and as soon as they realized the magnitude of the things they had experienced. Listen the Bible says in verse 17-19 that they began to spread the news abroad.
Look at me. Listen I want you to get this. That means this. They are told about the Messiah coming to save. They experience it and then they share it. You know what you and I are supposed to do? We hear the gospel. We hear the message of Christ. If we accept it then we experience it and what we ought to do after that is to spread it abroad.
I guess I need to move on to something else. That's a bit convicting isn't it for all of us. Number three. We've seen obviously the place. We've seen the people. Number three I want you to see the praise surrounding his provision.
Now this is interesting. Preacher it seems like kind of fancy words. I'm just teaching you the Bible.
That's all I'm doing. The Bible teaches itself. As long as I share the Bible you'll get it.
I want you to notice this. Look at verse 9. And lo the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, talking angel to the shepherds, fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord and this shall be a sign unto you.
Remember ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And both those things were a sign to the shepherds that this was the Messiah. Verse 13 and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men.
Number one. I want you to see there was heavenly praise. There was heavenly praise.
Now right under that I want you to notice this. First there was the heavenly appearance. In verse 9 we are told that suddenly the angel of the Lord appears above those shepherds. Could you imagine how shocked and surprised they were when an angel showed up? I would have loved to have been there wouldn't you?
I might have been a little bit scared myself. Number two. There was the heavenly appearance. Number two there was the heavenly announcement. That means as soon as the angel showed up to the shepherds in verse 9 then in verse 10 through 12 he gives them the announcements. And by the way as the angel begins to speak he shares with these shepherds a message from heaven that had been waiting 4,000 years to hear. Do you realize all this that God has done all these years has finally brought them to this place.
The first people to hear the message that we have been waiting to hear for thousands of years was these nasty old shepherds. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. you
