Our Bible reading today, this morning, is in Luke chapter 2, and reading from verse 1 to verse 20. Luke chapter 2 from verse 1 to verse 20. Mark and John don't dwell on the birth of Jesus, but Matthew and Luke do, and here is a section out of Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, reading in verses one to 20 of Luke chapter two. Our focus will be on the seventh verse this morning of this chapter about the birth of Jesus, but we read verses one to 20. Let us hear God's word. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea. to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 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 among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Responding to the birth of Jesus. Quirinius, born in 45 BC, died in 21 AD. He progressed through the ranks as many other Romans did. And by the age of 30, he was appointed to be a governor in Crete. He had served in lower roles and ranks. He had distinguished himself in battle. And at the age of 30, he was appointed, as many other Romans were, to be a governor. Born into a rich family in a town outside of Rome, he was well-educated and well-prepared for his future role. As governor of Crete, he took on a tribe from the Sahara Desert and he defeated them. And this won him great favor and applause in Rome. He received subsequent honors. He became governor of Galatia, governor of Asia. The emperor trusted him greatly and appointed him to be the tutor of his grandson and future emperor, it was planned, but Gaius Caesar died wounded in battle. And so eventually, Quirinius, next in command to the emperor, was appointed as the governor of Syria. And at this particular time, the emperor decided on a taxation and Quirinius was fulfilling the wishes of the emperor in organizing the registration for this taxation. This taxation was going to be memorable within the land of Israel because there were riots, not so much over the fact that they were being taxed, But because of the nature, the new nature of this taxation, rather than people paying in kind the taxation, a new form of paying for the tax had evolved. And it was taxation by coin. The issue that Jewish people had with these coins was that the coins had the head of the emperor on it, And the wording around the emperor's head was that he was divine. And so riots broke out across Judea, not because of the taxation itself, but because of the mode of the taxation. The high priest calmed the waters, arguing that if they didn't calm down, Herod, whom they hated even more than the emperor, would be returned to rule over Judea. And it was that controversial taxation that brought Mary and Joseph down from Nazareth down to Bethlehem. And we want to think of the events there this morning and about responding to the birth of Jesus. And I encourage you to open your Bibles and read with me our text again in verse number seven. Luke chapter two and verse number seven. And she, that is Mary, gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. We want to highlight the three personal pronouns in this verse and draw from them three responses to the birth of Jesus. We want to think of her and we want to think of him and we want to think of them and see how we're to respond to Jesus' birth by welcoming by imitating and by minimizing aspects of his birth. Let's think first of all of welcoming the humanity of Jesus. She gave birth to her son, the firstborn. We're to welcome the humanity of Jesus, her son. Our catechism, our confession uses that phrase, of her substance. Emphasizing the real, the true humanity of Jesus. Jesus was her son. He shared in Mary's humanity. He partook of her nature. He was her son. He didn't begin life as Adam and Eve began life in the Garden of Eden as adults, but he began life on earth where you and I began our life, partaking of the nature, the humanity of his mother. She gave birth to her son. The true humanity of Jesus can be minimized in our understanding and thinking by various factors. One perhaps is the previous verse in this passage. It's a technical phrase announcing the birth of an outstanding person. The time came For her to give birth is used of John the Baptist in chapter one. It's used of the birth of Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament in Genesis 25. This phrase indicates that someone special is going to be born, and this phrase can perhaps minimize our belief and appreciation and acceptance of the true humanity of Jesus, but it's emphasized in this phrase. She gave birth. to her son. We can minimize the understanding and appreciation of the true humanity of Jesus by many of the traditions which have grown up around the birth of Jesus. The early church fathers, some of them, would have suggested that the birth of Jesus was a painless birth for his mother. They used images of the light from the stars of nectar being taken from the flowers, of Eve being made from Adam, and they applied this to the birth of Jesus here, none of which is in the text. What is being emphasized for us here is the real, the true humanity of Jesus. She gave birth to her son. But alongside this emphasis on the humanity of Jesus is being emphasized the dignity of this one who has been born. This phrase, the firstborn, is set at the end of the phrase. With the definite article, she gave birth to her son, the firstborn. And when we dwell on this phrase, we begin to appreciate that the one who has been born here is more than human. This phrase, of course, has been used in the sense that Jesus was the first child which Mary had. Chapter 8 of Luke's Gospel mentions his brothers. There were other children born to Mary after Jesus and so, in that sense, he was the firstborn. but also in the sense of the Old Testament's emphasis on the firstborn having the place of privilege and special inheritance and carrying on the family name. This is emphasized in verse number 22 to 25 when they come to the temple to offer this sacrifice because Jesus was the firstborn male within the family. The firstborn male within the family had special honors and privileges which the other children did not have. So in that sense, Jesus' birth was also significant. He was the firstborn. But in the wider Bible usage of this phrase, we recognize the significance of this term. In Exodus in chapter 4 and verse number 22, Israel is called the firstborn. Out of all the nations, God had chosen this people to be his special focus of his love and of his grace. They were the firstborn among all the nations. And now here, Jesus has been born and he has been called the firstborn. He's the choicest of the choicest, the first of the first. He is privileged. He is special in God's eyes. This phrase is also used in Colossians chapter one on two occasions in verse 15 and in verse 18. He's called the firstborn of all creation. Colossians 1, 15. That is, He is the supreme man among all mankind. He is the ideal man, the man that men were meant to be and intended to be, the Spirit-filled man, the firstborn of all creation. And then in verse 18 He's called, the firstborn of the dead, in the sense that Jesus is the beginning of the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, what people will be like, redeemed by grace in that new world. Jesus is the firstborn. The phrase before it is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead. Jesus is the start of that new age, that new world of glory and everlasting life. And so when we think of this phrase, it used within the whole of scripture, it emphasizes the dignity. the glory, the supremacy of this one who has been born. He is, yes, her son. He's bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. He has real, true humanity, but he's also the firstborn, the supreme, the glorious, the outstanding son of God. And we welcome the humanity of Jesus. We are fascinated, or our nation is fascinated with reality TV shows. Millions of people devote their evenings to following this adventure. And perhaps one of the fascinations with reality TV shows is that we see these celebrities stripped of all that covers them, all that is extra in their life, and they just appear to us as ordinary men and women. They're without their luxurious houses. They're without their fast cars. They're without their fashion clothes. They're without their beauty treatments. They're just ordinary men and women. And here's the son of God in this moment, in this verse. She gave birth to her son, the firstborn. We're hearing the humanity, the true, the real humanity of Jesus. And coming to our world and coming to our world and beginning as we began our life, her son. And we welcome that humanity of Jesus. We welcome it because it means that he will go on to experience all that we experience the joys and the sufferings, the disappointments, the dark times, the opposition, the rejection, being let down by his closest friends, the loneliness. in following God, we welcome the humanity of Jesus. We recognize that wherever we will travel, however low we will go, however hard life will get, he will always be there and always be able to say, I fully understand what you're going through. We welcome the humanity of Jesus. and we welcome His humanity because He has come as our Savior. He's beginning life where we began life, to live our life all over again, but to live it perfectly, to keep God's law perfectly on our behalf, to be our Savior, to provide for us that perfect righteousness which you and I, however old or young, receive as we place our trust in Jesus Christ, the Savior. We welcome the humanity of Jesus because he's beginning life where we began to live it perfectly in our place. The early church fathers said some good things and one of the great statements which they had was that what was not taken could not be redeemed. They were emphasizing the true humanity of Jesus, that he came right down to our very place instead, because what was not taken, if he was less than man, what was not taken could not be redeemed. But he becomes man, her son. She brought forth her son, and we welcome that humanity of Jesus. Secondly, let us imitate the humility of our Saviour and we're moving on to the second phrase, the second pronoun, wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. The phrase the firstborn might raise within us the anticipation that this baby is going to be incredible, that this baby is going to do something wonderful and outstanding. Here's the firstborn of all creation. But rather there is something being done to this child. This child is passive in this moment. This child is humble in this phrase. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. It's not something that he does that's been emphasised, but something that's been done to him. He's been cared for. He's been looked after. He's been nursed at the very start of his earthly life, and we know how significant this is. We understand in the whole teaching of Scripture that the incredibility of this statement here, she wrapped him. and swaddling cloths. The humility doesn't lie in the swaddling cloths that this was some lower class of clothing. The humility doesn't lie in the idea that she tore strips of her own cloth to provide this blanket for Jesus, an idea that we're to reject. The humility of Jesus lies in what the Bible says about God. that he is the one who wraps himself in glory. Psalm number 93 verse 1, he is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on strength. Psalm 104 verse 1, you are clothed with splendor and majesty. This is how Jesus was before he came. He was wrapped in majesty and strength and splendor, but now that very one has come down into this world. And Mary wraps him in swaddling cloths. The next phrase is the same, isn't it? Laid him in a manger, in this feeding trough of the animals where the cow would put its nose, where the pig would put its snout, this freestanding manger or feeding trough or attached to the wall. And again, the humility of Jesus is emphasized by those Old Testament ascriptions of what he had laid. Psalm 102 verse 25. God the Father says to God the Son of Old, you laid the foundation of the earth. This was the great entity which Jesus laid with skill, with precision, with perfection. This is what he does. He lays the foundation of the earth. Think of that. sorting out the stratosphere, sorting out the right amount of oxygen in the air, separating the land from the sea, filling the sea with fish and the air with birds and the land with animals. Think of him laying the foundation of the earth. And that very one is laid by another in a manger. We welcome the humanity of Jesus And we're to imitate the humility of Jesus. Hyper-independence is a characteristic of some people where they will not allow anyone else to do anything for them. And there's probably an element and a strain of that in all of us, this hyper-independence, that we are so self-sufficient, that we want to live within our own abilities, that we will not trust anyone else, that we will not share with anyone else, that we will not allow anyone else to serve us, this hyper-independence. But Jesus is challenging. that approach. He's allowing Mary to wrap him in cloths and to lay him in a manger. Jesus is the great wrapper. Jesus is the great one who can lay incredible things, but he allows this humble little known woman to wrap him, to lay him in the manger. And as we think of that, we're being challenged to imitate the humility of Jesus and to let other people serve us. Part of our problem with letting other people serve us is that we can do the job better than them. Perhaps you're a brilliant cook and Mexican wraps is your speciality and you go down to Mary or John's house and they're making tea for you and here it is, Mexican wraps and the wraps are poor quality and the ingredients are oozing out the base of the wrap. But in imitating the humility of Jesus, We let others, even when they're not as good at doing the job as we are, serve us. Perhaps you're precise about setting the table, but you let the young people set the table on occasions and allow them to serve you. But perhaps for others of us, it's rediscovering the wonder of serving Jesus that this phrase challenges us with. Here is Mary, and we are amazed at this, and we wonder at this, and recognize the honor that was given to her to wrap Him in cloths, to lay Him in the manger. But Jesus reminds us that that same honor is offered to us As much as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you have done that service to me. That you and I can, like Mary, serve the Lord Jesus by serving His people. that by providing coffee at various church gatherings, we're providing coffee for Jesus and his people. By giving someone a lift to church, we're giving Jesus a lift to church in his people. By phoning someone who's not been at church for a while, we're really serving Jesus in his people. We're to imitate the humility of Jesus. by allowing others to serve us and by rediscovering ourselves the wonder of serving others. And thirdly, we're to minimize the hardship of Jesus. The last phrase, because there was no place for them in the end. Minimizing the hardship of Jesus. All kinds of opinions have been expressed about what this actual place was. Many people think it was a cave outside of Bethlehem, and the Church of the Nativity has been built over that cave outside of Bethlehem, and if you go on a tour of Israel, you will be directed there, a place where perhaps animals were housed at a time. Others think it was a guest room, and this is the margin reading in the English Standard Version, a guest room. It would be the idea of a normal house in Bethlehem, one third of it being the guest room, the middle third being the main family room and then half a wall and into the stable and in the manger over the half wall Jesus would have been laid because there was no room in the guest room. And this idea is interesting because the same word is used of the room at the Lord's Supper and it shows a kind of beginning and ending of Jesus in a guest room. But the normal translation here is the inn, the hotel, the definite article is before it, indicating that it was a well-known place, the Bethlehem Arms, it might have been. But there was no room there. And so they were taken round to the rear of the building where the animals of the lodgers were housed. And it was there where Jesus was laid. Why was he put there? Was it because there was no room in the inn? Was it because Joseph and Mary looked like foreigners? They were from Nazareth. They had come down that long journey. They looked poor, perhaps, and the innkeeper wondered if he would ever get his money from these prospective lodgers. Was it because they weren't yet married? They were betrothed and there were some morals still in Bethlehem and they were denied a room for whatever reason the focus is on. They weren't provided this rest, this luxury and there is a hint of reproof, isn't there? That here was a woman about to give birth and she's being denied the comforts and the rest and the warmth which he really deserved. But it's all anticipating the rejection of Jesus, isn't it? The hardship which he will have in his life, that in many other times there will be no place for Jesus. In the town of Nazareth, he'll be put out. In Gadara, they'll want him to leave the city of Jerusalem. He'll be crucified outside the city. The hardship of Jesus is anticipated here in this closing phrase, there was no place for them in the end. One of the big debates within our nation is about immigration, and a key element in that debate is about there being room for immigrants in our country. Is there room for them in our hospitals? Is there room for immigrants in our schools? Is there room for immigrants in our towns and in our cities? And that debate will go on, and some people say, yes, there is. Other people are very adamant, no, there isn't. But the greater point being addressed to us here is about there being room for Jesus. This word place is used 40 times in the Gospel of Luke, used in a whole variety of contexts. And so it's challenging us. Is there room for Jesus in all the places of our life? In all the areas that we live and operate, do we have room for Jesus? We castigate the innkeeper or the people of that time for not having place for Jesus. But the challenge for us is, do we have place for Jesus in every area of our lives? In our homes, is there a place for Jesus? For Jesus, a dominant place, a controlling place, an influential place for Jesus in our homes. Some families have agreed not to shout in their homes, to demonstrate the place that Jesus should have in their homes. Is there a place for Jesus in our marriages? to love one another, to respect one another, to sacrifice for one another. Does Jesus have a place in our marriages? Is there a place for Jesus in our work? When our boss is not there, we will continue to work hard and give our pound of flesh. Is there a place for Jesus in our hobbies? When we're relaxing, when we're engaged in what we really enjoy, Is Jesus still the controlling power in our life? And so we've thought today of welcoming the humanity of Jesus. We've thought about imitating the humility of Jesus. We've thought about minimizing the hardship of Jesus. He wasn't given a place then. but let's give him the place in our lives now. But why was he born? This word place is interesting, not only by its many uses within the gospel of Luke, but in this time, in its last use. It's used for the last time in chapter 23 and verse number 33. This is the first time the word place is used. And in chapter 23 verse 33, that's the last time this word is used. And the reading there is, when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him. And we can see the connection between these two uses of this word place. The first time it's used in 2-7, there's no place for Jesus in the inn. The last time it's used in 23-33, there's the place. The place of a skull where they crucified him. And the uses of this word in those two occasions seems to be conveying this message that there was no place for Jesus in the inn. His place was not to rest. He didn't come for luxury and for ease. His place, chapter 23, verse 33, was the cross, the place of death and redemption and satisfaction. As we think of Jesus coming into this world, we want to respond to Him by welcoming by imitating and by minimizing his hardship. I hope you have a really great week, time with your family, time of great love, but also a time of thankfulness and worship to God in sending his son. Shall we join together in prayer? Let us pray. We bow down to worship and praise you, Lord in heaven, for sending your son into this world. God in heaven, we praise you that you sent him forth, that he came down, that one prophesied over the ages. You fulfilled your faithful promise to your people. We bow to worship you, Father. We praise you. We thank you that you sent forth your son into this world. We thank you that He came, that He came willingly, that He came to fulfil your purpose, that He knew all that lay before Him and yet He came to do your will and to finish the work that you gave Him to do. Fill our hearts with gratitude, we pray, Father in heaven. Fill our hearts with thankfulness and praise unto you. Fill our hearts with that awareness that we cannot save ourselves, but that there is full and eternal salvation in your Son, Jesus Christ. And help us, O God, we pray, by your grace, by your Spirit, to follow the Savior in whom we trust, Help us to be like Him. Help us to be more like Him. Help us, O Lord, to be servants of Yours and servants of one another. Now may grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit rest on and abide with you all. Amen.