Why no Room in the Inn - Part 2

This Podcast is made available by Vision Christian Media. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation to Visionathon today at vision.org.au At our Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah wonders why we don't always seem to have room for Christ. With encouragement to keep Jesus first in our lives, here's David to introduce the conclusion of his message, Why No Room in the Inn. I don't know when we made that decision, but it couldn't have been made at a more important time because with all that's going on in the world these days, Christmas is so important.

My wife and I have a little ongoing discussion about this. We decorate our house real early. We have palm trees up and down our driveway and we light them up in the early days of November. People have asked me about that and I said, you know, this year we need Christmas more than we have ever needed it in the past. The story of Christmas is the story that can get us through these difficult times because it's the story of a God who loved us so much that he did not even spare his own son, but sent him here to provide hope and light and love for all of us. So whatever you do, don't diminish Christmas because of the COVID thing. Make Christmas bigger, better, brighter, longer, and light up the world around you with the message of hope that comes from the coming of Christ in Bethlehem. Today we're going to finish up what we started yesterday as we conclude our discussion of why there was no room in the inn.

So with that in mind, let's get started. We understand life in terms of days and minutes and hours and months and years. God in his experience knows nothing of that. God does not live in time. God created time. God lives outside of time. In God and in his perspective, everything is in the present. Everything is in the now.

It is only humans who are linear. We see things looking back and looking forward. God does not see that. God sees everything in the eternal present. And God who is eternal on that particular day determined for his eternal being to be confined for a few years in time.

It's an amazing thought. Eternity becoming time. God who eternally existed with the Father chose for a few years to come down and be confined in the boundaries of time that pressure us every day of our lives. We know that pressure perhaps more during this season than any other time of the year.

We're mindful of schedules and times and events and parties and deadlines, and when the stores finally close for the last time, it's an eternal scar in the minds of men all over the country. But God knew nothing of that. God lived above time. God lived beyond time. But on that night, God was willing as the eternal Son of God without giving up his eternality to come and be born into humanity and for the years he walked upon this earth to live in the boundaries of time. Micah the prophet who gave us the prophecy concerning the birthplace of Jesus in Micah 5 2 says it this way. Yet out of you Bethlehem shall come forth to me the one who is to be the ruler in Israel, now watch this, whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting.

Please hear me. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he did not begin. He had always been. On one occasion as an adult, Jesus spoke to some leaders and he said an astounding thing. He said before Abraham was, I am. And they were confounded by that. How could he, Jesus in his 30s, be older than Abraham?

But they missed the whole point. What Jesus was saying was that before he was born in Bethlehem, he eternally existed. Jesus did not come to begin his existence in Bethlehem. He came to begin his existence in humanity, having had existed for all eternity. There never has been a time when Jesus did not exist, nor will there ever be a time when he ceases to exist.

He is the eternal son of God, but listen to me, the eternal son of God determined for our benefit, for your benefit, for all of our benefit to come down here in his eternal being and confine his activities to the days and months and hours and years of time as we know it. What a magnificent occasion when deity invaded humanity and eternity invaded time. And then thirdly, not only did deity invade humanity and eternity invade time, but royalty invaded poverty. How rich is God? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and wealth in every mine.

How much richer can you be? He created it all. He owns it all. We may think we have a piece of the action, but we're just stewards for a short period of time. The ultimate owner of everything and all the universe is Almighty God. If you believe you own some of it, somehow we need to connect in the next 150 years and see how you're doing.

Because we only have it for a short period of time and then it goes back to the owner or back to the next steward. God owns it all. He owns everything. And heaven is the place that is significant of his wealth. And the Bible says to us in 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9 that because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes, that we through his poverty might become rich.

Wrap your mind around that verse for a moment. That not only did deity invade humanity and eternity invade time, but royalty invaded poverty. On that day, the God who had lived in the unrestricted confines of heaven, adorned in the royal robes of deity, came to be born as one of us in a stable, in a manger. He became poor, says the scripture, that through his poverty one day we might be rich. The unmeasured word of creation was coming to talk with shepherds and fishermen on Galilean hillsides and shores.

And the light that once had blinded a wandering people in the wilderness was reduced to the little flicker of life in the breast of a baby. Heaven's throne was about to be removed and turned into a wooden manger. And the one who sat upon the throne would shortly know hunger and cold and would assume the life of a servant. God was about to be born in Mary. And because he was willing to humble himself and become a man, because he was willing to become a man even to die, because through his death we have life. He who was once in the throne room of heaven, surrounded by the accouterments of wealth, came to be born to a peasant woman. So poor were Joseph and Mary that when they went to the temple to offer their sacrifice, they had to bring a turtle dove, which was the least sacrifice anyone could bring to worship. And in his birth he found as his bed a trough for the feeding of animals. And his first guess, the despised, shepherds from the hillside. Think of his wealth and think of his poverty. He came down here to be one of us and he didn't start in the middle class nor in the upper class. He started at the lowest echelon of human experience so that no one would ever feel that they were too insignificant to come and receive him as their savior.

And then this magnificent occasion in this little verse of scripture we read at the beginning of our message is set off against the most amazing thought in the whole story. The eternal one who invaded time, deity who invaded humanity, royalty who invaded poverty, came to be born and the scripture says there was no room for him in the inn. There was no room for him in the inn.

The eternal God, the wealthy one, the rich one came to be born and they could find no place for him. As you know because of Herod's decree everyone should go to their own town for a census. The little town of Bethlehem was overrun with aunts and uncles and cousins many times removed. The scene was a cross between a great family reunion and a business convention and even with the makeshift inns and hotels that had sprung up overnight there just wasn't enough room for everyone to have a bed. Late coming travelers coming to Bethlehem would surely see the no vacancy sign flashing off and on.

Once again my friend Frederick Beatner who writes about this particular moment in history summarizes it. He said as the time drew near for the birth of the Lord the city of Bethlehem was literally bursting at the seams with all the people registering for census. Mary and Joseph dutifully headed off to Bethlehem but when they arrived they found no welcome and no one willing to accommodate them. It was as if someone had hung out on all of the inns and hotels a no vacancy sign and as the time drew near for the infant son to be born the only lodging available was a stable adjacent to the inn. Someone has suggested you think there were crowds in Bethlehem?

Just suppose they knew what we now know. What would the crowds have been like then? If they had known what we know that this one who was being born in their midst was the eternal son of God you talk about no vacancies. Back in the 1800s a woman by the name of Emily Elliott a Sunday school teacher was trying to teach her children the real meaning of Christmas and she wrote the words to a Christmas carol that we don't sing enough but the words go like this. Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me but in Bethlehem's home there was found no room for thy holy nativity. Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang proclaiming thy royal decree but of lowly birth didst thou come to earth and in great humility.

We're into split screen images in our culture today. Put this up on the screen of your mind. The Lord Jesus in heaven seated next to his father in royal regalia. A baby in a stinking feed trough born to a peasant woman surrounded by sheep and shepherds. Only God could have written a story like that. We would never in our wildest dream have ever imagined this magnificent story and this missed opportunity. Why was there no room in the inn? I wrote a little book for Christmas called Why the Nativity and one of the questions in the book is why was there no room in the inn? I mean let's face it friends if Almighty God could create a unique star from a distant galaxy to invite wise men from the east. If he could do that I mean couldn't God find just one vacant room for his son to be born? You would think so. Or God build a new hotel.

Whatever. We don't know all the reasons but there's some things we can say. The Lord of creation chose to enter this world quietly. It was by heavenly design that he came into the world not in the relative comfort of the inn but in some farmers seedy shed.

A homeless birth was part and parcel of a homeless life. One day many years later when Jesus was an adult someone had come to him and said Lord we'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said in Luke 9 58 foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

His words bear a touch of sadness. The life of Jesus was a long road that began in the stable and led to the cross and finally of course to an empty tomb. Accepting humanity's rejection even in his birth Jesus sent a message of love to the world.

We would not afford him as much as a cramped closet. We had no room for him no time to stop and worship no interest in a peasant child but that same child for whom we had no room came here to find room for us. He would one day reserve accommodations for each of us who would put our faith in him in the end that awaits us on the eternal shores of heaven. And before leaving on that final journey Jesus one day said to his disciples and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there ye may be also. Where is Jesus now? He is in heaven making rooms for us who found no room for him. He is the magnificent savior of Christmas. And he asks us now who listen to this story and experience it every year if we will find room for him. Let's don't be too hard on the innkeeper.

Let's don't be too judgmental on someone who was just in the course of life as he knew it carrying out the merchandising of his day. When we apply that to our own hearts we have to ask ourselves this question do we have room for him? Do we have room for the one who left heaven and all that entails to come and be a part of us and ultimately to go to the cross and pay the penalty for our sin?

You know it's a question we have to ask to those who may never have trusted Christ in the first place but it's also a question we have to ask ourselves as Christians. I've been so mindful of that this year. We as Christians who are committed to Christ maybe in church every Sunday if we are not careful we can buy into the intensity of lifestyle of our day.

Get so caught up in the external things that there's never any quietness. Somehow God needs to send a spiritual snowstorm into our life to shut everything else out so that we can concentrate on the one who we say we love. One of the favorite hymns of the young people of our church and of young people across the nation. And I say this because there is a resurgent among young people to go back into the hymnody of old and find hymns that have great lyrics and then give them a new tempo and a new setting.

And that hymn is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was written by a man named Robert Robinson who accepted Christ and to his life at the age of 17 under the preaching of a great evangelist by the name of George Whitfield. Robinson was deeply in love with the Lord and he entered the ministry to give his life to Christ in service. But Robinson was an honest man and he had to face up to the fact that while he had a great love for Jesus he wasn't a very dependable follower of Jesus. He would go off into long periods of sin and rejection and then he would feel guilty and he would be broken about it and he would come back to the Lord.

We all know what that's about don't we? Many of us have been on that journey at one time or another. Perhaps some of you in that journey right now you love the Lord, you know the Lord knows that you love him but somehow your life just hasn't measured up recently to all of the things you know are a part of your walk with Christ.

Well that's the way this man was. Sometimes he felt nothing at all for the Lord even though he knew that in his heart he had accepted Christ. One day he began to write out his thoughts about his life as you would write in a journal and he ended up writing out the words to this hymn, Come Malfound of Every Blessing. And part of the words to the second stanza of that hymn go like this, prone to wander, Lord I feel it. He was saying, Lord I have this propensity to wander and to get away from you.

All of us understand that we know that even though we love God and we worship Christ that we get caught up sometimes in the cultural pressures of every day and they pull us away from the intimacy that we desire with our Lord. That's what he was going through and he wrote all those words down over a period of time. He really got away from God to the point where he came to the conclusion that he had sinned away the day of grace in his life and that God wouldn't want anything to do with him anymore because of the way he was living. And he was so terrified by it all and it was so internalized in his spirit that he just decided to run.

You have to stop for a moment and ask about the intelligence of anyone who thinks they can run away from God but this is what he tried to do. He just ran, he just filled his life with travel and he would just go from one place to the next barely having enough to sustain himself but just not ever wanting to stop long enough to think about what was wrong between him and God. One day in his journeys he found himself on a stagecoach and there was only one other passenger on the stagecoach, it was a young lady. And of course if you've seen the old western movies you know that in stagecoach you don't sit in rows facing the same way, you sit together, one person here, one person here and you have to sit looking at each other wherever you're going. Well this young lady was so full of the joy of Jesus she just couldn't keep quiet about it and it was the last thing in the world that Robert Robinson wanted.

He did not want any of that. If you've ever been out of fellowship with God you know you don't want to go to church, you don't want to be with Christians, you don't want to read your Bible, stay away from me, leave me alone. Well she couldn't help it, she was so filled with the joy of the Lord she just bubbled over and over the trail he couldn't shut her up. Back in those days they used to have their devotional times not only in the Bible but in hymn books and she had her hymn book with her and she was reading this hymn and she said to him, Robert I want you to look at this hymn that I found that's meant so much to me and tell me what you think of it and she turned the hymn book around and gave it to him and it was the hymn he had written. Come thou fount of every blessing prone to wander Lord I feel it and she noticed the tears coming down his cheeks and she thought he had just gotten blessed by the hymn when in reality Almighty God had used the hymn to once again say to Robert Robinson, you may have walked away from me but I have never walked away from you.

And the message of Christmas is that very message. He came from heaven to be one of us, he loves us, he forgives us, he welcomes us back. No matter where we've been or what journey we've been on away from him, if he is our savior and if God is our father, his arms are eternally extended outwardly to us, telling us to come home. And I happen to believe that Jesus is the hound of heaven and he will send a woman to a stagecoach with the right hymn at the right moment to bring somebody back to him who he loves. Has the thought ever crossed your mind that perhaps this message, this moment is just for you?

If you feel it in your heart, it's probably true. Amen. Amen. What a wonderful thing it is to preach the gospel at Christmas time because that's what Christmas is all about. It's the coming of Christ to be the savior of the world. Now it's Friday so I need to encourage you to get to church on the weekend if your church is open and I hope it is. And we'll be there for you on television one way or the other. We'll see you over the weekend and we'll be right back here on Monday for the next edition of Turning Point. Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor, Dr. David Jeremiah.

We'd love to hear your story of Turning Point's impact on your life. Please write to us at Turning Point, post office box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Ask for your copy of David's 365 day devotional for 2021.

It's called Strength for Today. It's filled with biblical truth for each day of the year ahead and it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet. Or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries so you can access our programs and resources. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hoop Fleet. Join us Monday as we continue the series, Why the Nativity. We're on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.