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And It Came To Pass

Luke 2:1  "*And it came to pass in those days, that there went out aa decree from Caesar Augustus, that all bthe world should be ||taxed." [1]

 I.  Prediction

          A. Announcement

          B. Arrival

II. Proclamation

          A. Authored

          B. Authority

III. Provision

          A. Absolute

          B. Assessment

Introduction:  We are at the last Advent Sunday before Christmas.  This is a special week all around the world.  People everywhere know that Christians are celebrating that Jesus came into this life in the same way we all have since Adam and Eve gave birth to their children. 

Yet His birth was not at all like anyone else’s birth.  His birth had been predicted to happen in just the way that it did happen and unless someone told somebody else that Jesus was alive, people didn’t catch the light.

There is no accident or happenstance in the way God brought Jesus into this world.  The prophets were instructed in how to give predictions of Jesus’ birth so that any who read the prophecies would know the truth of Jesus’ first advent or coming.

The apostle Paul told Timothy in his second letter and second chapter and fifteenth verse, “Study to shew thyself japproved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” [2]  So today we will divide or dissect the first verse of Luke chapter two which accounts the birth of Jesus.  Matthew chapter one also contains the account of Jesus’ birth from another perspective.  The genealogies in Matthew and Luke break apart as paternal and maternal sides divide.  Each of us has two sides from which we became one.  Luke seems to tell more from the side of the story pertaining to Mary while Matthew seems to give more attention to Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father.

At exactly the right time when the world was ready for Jesus, God sent Him.  We all have specific things that God ordains for us and He alone knows the time and the place that we will arrive where He has chosen for us.  Does that mean that we have no choice in our own lives?  No!  What it does mean is God already knows the decisions we will make and He arranges the events for His glory and our good.  He does that because He loves us.  When we decide to love anything or anyone else more than we love Him, He lets us have our way.  Some never truly abandon their worldly desires for God’s will.  He even knows which of us will and which of us won’t.  All things do work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  Sometimes other people get caught up as we learn from their wrong example.

Surely you have heard people stupidly say something like, “It will all work out for the best.”  I say that is stupid because some believe it is simply a matter of luck or destiny or something else that can have a label put on it.  It will work out for God’s glory and our good.  Therefore it will be the best thing.  It is a matter of faith in God’s will.  I’m still getting there slowly but He will not give up until I have arrived.

I fuss and I fume and I want to know why and it keeps going wrong in my opinion after I’ve finally accepted His will again and again.  I consider some things to be aggravations even though we learn here in this one verse that if God allows it, He will use everything He allows for His glory and our good, even taxes.  There is much truth to be accepted even in one well memorized verse of scripture.

Scripture:  The scripture today is Luke 2:1.  Please stand if you can for the reading of God’s Word.

Prayer:  Please be seated.

Message:  Luke chapter one is about John the Baptizer or as we call him, John the Baptist.  Chapter two abruptly begins with that little word “and.”  So in conjunction with the one who would proclaim the Savior, there were other prophesied things being fulfilled,

It came to pass.  What came?  It came.  What was it?  It was that which had been predicted from before the beginning of this universe.  It was the advent or coming of Jesus Christ.    What did it the advent do?  It came.  Why?  To pass!  Now it is history.  The Second Advent will come.

Have you ever had someone tell you when something hard was happening,   “This too shall pass?”  I expect Preacher Jack has heard that quite often.  The truth of the matter is this; there is nothing in this world that is here to stay.  Everything is meant to pass.  Even faith will pass when we have God in our sight.  We will one day have no more need for Hope when we have finally received that which we have waited so faithfully for.

What about school?  Why do we go to school?  To stay?  We go to pass from one assignment to the next until we finally graduate and are ready to pass to other things.  Nothing in this life is meant not to pass.  When the right requirements are met, God allows us to pass to the next thing until we are with Him eternally.  The only thing that will never pass away is love.

So IT was the beginning of God’s announcement that Jesus would soon arrive.  It happened in those days not just any days.  That was Jesus’ arrival time.  Nothing would or could happen until it is God’s speed or God’s timing for it to happen.  In those days it happened.  It didn’t happen when man thought it would.  Jesus’ second coming won’t either.  Only when God allows in the days He ordains will it happen.  That was the way it was then and the way it will always be because God alone is God.

There is a comma after the word days.  Something else was happening.  What was happening to coincide with the greatest event the world has ever known?  The world’s most powerful leader of the time sent out a decree or a proclamation.  Though Caesar Augustus had the authority to make the order, he had no idea that his proclamation would be the thing that would fulfill the prophecy of Jesus being born in Bethlehem.  Caesar’s motive was money.  But God is the author of this book and God had something way more valuable in His mind than money.

Caesar was considering how to provide for his kingdom.  Like today the government has no way of providing for itself so the people who are supposed to be served by government have to pay for government.  When God provides He creates the thing that we need as well as the reason for the need.  God’s provision therefore is perfect and absolute.

So what’s the deal with taxing as the reason Joseph and Mary had to make the trip to Bethlehem?  We have a thing called the census.  Every so many years the government sends out forms or requests so that we all provide information about ourselves and our families.  Back then I suppose Caesar didn’t even have the US Postal Service.  Everybody had to go to their place of origin; the place where their family started.

So it was more than going somewhere to give up some money.  People had to go and give up information about themselves.  We don’t like government interference now but it was actually much worse back then.  Yet if it had not been the way it was at the time it happened the prophecies would have been different.  Things happened the way God prescribed them to happen even as one man thought he was in control.  We can take comfort in that!  Leaders only think they are leading but it is God who is pulling their puppet strings.

So back then it was more than going to pay taxes.  People went to give assessment of themselves.  Nowadays to give assessment of your property the county sends out someone to look at your stuff and then you must verify their findings and put whatever they missed on the list.  When we make intercessory prayer for others we ask God to consider not what the person has but what they need.  People in the church are not supposed to be assessed on how much stuff they have but how much love they need.

Jesus was sent at that perfect prescribed moment in time when things had gotten to the point that the world was bowing down to man’s law and not God’s law.  What do you think about that?

Prayer:  Let us pray.

Invitation:  Be patient because what we hear now will hear again Wednesday evening if God allows us to be here.  It is worth hearing again this morning.  Please keep your Bible open and follow along as we hear Luke 2:1-20.

Glory to God in the Highest.  Let us sing unto The Lord…


* [Before the account called Anno Domini the fifth year]
a Acts 17:7. So Acts 16:4. Eph. 2:15. Col. 2:14.
b See Matt. 24:14.
|| Or, enrolled. Heb. 12:23 marg.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Lk 2:1). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
j See Rom. 16:10.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ti 2:15). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.