Why Jesus Was Born, Part 2

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. Good to see you. Glad to again have all of you here. Appreciate you being in attendance. Yes, we've got people from far and wide here. We have people from the east who told me they came from the west, people from the south coming from Big Sandy, and some of the others, I'm not sure where everyone came from, but I'm thankful to have them here.

I want to go ahead and finish the topic that I began two weeks ago regarding the birth of Jesus, regarding the time that, as we described back here a couple of weeks ago, very special time, time in the family of God, when the Father, and at that time the Word, had concluded together that they would intervene by sending Jesus to this earth. Of course, we also pray for Him to come this second time. But it's important for us to recognize that as He came the first time, that was truly an important time. It was significant, as we also explained. It may be somewhat confused as far as the world today, because whenever you see a nativity scenario, they do have all of the different things that the Bible mentions kind of in one area or one scene. And yet, that's not exactly what is accurate or correct. That gives a false image. It gives a false impression. But clearly, the coming of Jesus to this earth was an important, maybe the most important activity that had occurred on earth up to that point in time, some 2,000 years ago. And so we want, and as I mentioned, Luke 2, verse 39, is a verse that you can read and you can wonder about. And I hope to be able to cover a little more with you today, regarding the chronology of the Gospel accounts of the miracles, the absolute miracles that God had to perform to bring Jesus to this earth the first time. Now, clearly, his intervention will be a miracle, as we look forward to that here in the near future. But it was a miracle back. It was fulfilling prophecy after prophecy that had been given either in Micah or in Jeremiah. There were prophecies in Isaiah that needed to be fulfilled, and clearly all of that came to pass. It came to pass because God was orchestrating that by miracles and through his messengers, through his angels.

In many cases, you see them interacting with the individuals that would be directly involved in Jesus' physical birth. So I'd like to, again, just give you what I believe is a chronology. We can start here in verse 39 because, actually, Luke 2.39 says, when they had finished everything that they were required of the law of the Lord to do at the temple, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now, that's a statement that you read in Luke that, in a sense, if you think, well, you know, how did all the things that occurred in Matthew, where do they tie in?

Because there's a little bit of an incident about some magi from the east who show up, and there's an incident about, you know, Jesus having to flee to Egypt and ultimately then return to the land of Israel. You know, where does that come in? Because Luke doesn't really explain that. He doesn't cover all of that. Actually, you have to say that verse 39 particular, because it says, regarding the things they finished at the temple, and then ultimately they ended up in Nazareth. And that's true. Ultimately, they did. But there were a lot of things that were going on, and I'd like for us to go through that, as we also did explain last time. You know, really, the account of Jesus being sent to this earth begins in John 1. In John 1, you read through an explanation of the existence of Jesus prior to Him ever coming to earth.

You read how He was with the Father. It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word, in verse 14, became flesh and dwelt among us. That's really talking about an existence prior to coming to the earth as a small child, a little baby boy. And yet, I'd like to look in 1 John, because John also wrote this short epistle. He actually starts 1 John in pretty much the same way. And we can read a few of these verses to set the stage for the chronology that I will go through here between Luke and Matthew for the remainder of the service.

But here in verse 1 of 1 John, chapter 1, he says, We declare to you what was from the beginning. This was the Apostle John, an individual who was very close to Jesus Christ. I believe, just in reading what John had to write, that he had to be gifted by God to be able to understand, or to write, or perceive the things that he did. He was clearly stated to be the disciple that Jesus loved. I can't imagine he didn't love all of them.

He surely did. But he designates. And as we read about John, we know that there was something unique, something special that Jesus saw in John. Because John was able to perceive things that it seems that the others just didn't get. They saw some things they just didn't see near what you would hope. But here in 1 John, he says, We declare to you, and of course, this was written sometime after, even his Gospel was written, We declare to you what was from the beginning.

What we have heard and what we have seen with our eyes, and what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of life. This life was revealed. And that's what he explains in John 1. The life was revealed. He came to this earth in a fleshly form. It says here, this life was revealed, and we have seen it. We testify to it. We declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

And we declare to you that we have seen and heard what we have seen and heard, so that you may also have fellowship with us. See, he tells us what the purpose of that revelation was. To be able to understand the divine family. To understand the relationship the Father and then the Son have together.

A relationship that he tells us we can also be a part of. Of course, that's yet in the future, as far as when we would enter into or actually receive that sonship in the family of God. But he says you can have true fellowship with the Father and with the Son. And he says we're writing these things so that your joy may be complete. That ought to be something that just thrills our heart.

To know that God has chosen to give us understanding of His plan and purpose and He desires for us to be a part of His divine plan or His purpose and family that He is going to bring about here in the near future. So, I'd like for us to go back to Luke chapter 1. Because in Luke you have the miracles. In a sense, you see some of the beginning of the miracles of Jesus being sent to this earth. Knowing God the Father and knowing Jesus Christ our Lord is what enables us to embrace eternal life.

We live this physical form. We are in the process of being tested and tried. We, as we've had mentioned already in services, we need to maintain a first love. We need to maintain an excitement about what God has called us to. But we also want to grow in our understanding of how it is that God chose to work out so many of these miracles and how they're explained. Here in Luke chapter 1 verse 26 and then down through verse 38.

You see a section here where the Archangel Gabriel has been commissioned by the Father to come and talk to Mary. It says in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Elizabeth was pregnant with the individual that we see in the Bible described as John the Baptist. He was a cousin of Jesus. In the sixth month, he was going to be six months older than Jesus would be. It says in the sixth month Gabriel, an archangel, was sent by God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin who was engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, greetings, favorite one, the Lord is with you. And she was perplexed by these words and wondered what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said, don't be afraid, Mary.

So here you have divine intervention. Here you have God sending a very top-level servant. We see revealed in the Bible three archangels. Lucifer, of course, lost his role. And yet Michael and Gabriel are both designated in the Bible as archangels and servants of God and faithful. He said, don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and now you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor, David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall never be an end.

Now clearly, as Jesus came to the earth in this form, human form, he didn't achieve all of those things that are stated about him. He came, in a human form, to be a sacrifice for sin. He came to redeem us, and as we mentioned last time, even his names. Emmanuel, meaning God, is with us, and Jesus, meaning having come to save us from our sins. See, he came for that purpose. He was a humble servant in that way, and he lived out a short life, at least relatively short as we think of life today, 30-some years, and then died.

Willingly, never deserving that, but accepting his shed blood for me and for you, so that we can be bought back, so that we can be ransomed and redeemed from our sins, and then we are to live a life that is acknowledging the need for repentance, and fully drawing closer and closer to the one who so dearly desires for us to be a part of his divine family.

But here you see a section that, again, is a miracle where God had sent a servant. He had sent his Archangel Gabriel to Mary to tell her what was going to happen. If we look over in Matthew 1, we went through the genealogies that you find in Matthew 1 and in Luke 3 last time, and so I'm not going to go through those.

But we not only find, I think chronologically, and there are a number of different harmonies of the Gospel, many of them quite accurate. In this regard, to show that these things were happening, you know, in a sense, sequentially. And here it says in Matthew 1, verse 18, down through verse 25, Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way when his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And so this is again just another description of what it was that they were learning. And her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her privately. But just when he had resolved to do that, again God intervened. Again, God chose to send a servant and a messenger. Doesn't say this was Gabriel, although it may have been, but I guess that would simply be a guess. In Gabriel had been sent to talk to Mary, but an angel was sent in this case to talk to Joseph and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary to be your wife.

For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. For he is to save his people from their sins. And he told Joseph that, well, this is to fulfill what you're familiar with from the Old Testament in Isaiah, that the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.

And in verse 24, when Joseph awoke from the dream, or from his sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took her as his wife. So that was the beginning of God intervening in human affairs in sending the Savior to the earth, letting Mary know what was going to happen. Now, unbelievable. You know, she would certainly be able to verify that, well, there's no way that I can be pregnant. There's no way this could happen. And yet God has told me, miraculously, it is going to happen.

And then he also sent a servant to Joseph and to tell him, don't worry about this. This is of my design. This is of significance. This is a part of what has been promised all along. And so we drop from there, or we go back into the book of Luke, chapter 2. See, those were introductions, and there's more information. And again, I know many of you are very familiar with this. And yet, in sequence, or in a chronology, I'd like for us to just read through this story and put these in a chronological order, which I think makes a great deal of sense.

In Luke 2, starting in verse 1, it says, In those days a decree went from Emperor Augustus that all the world would be registered. And this was the first registration, taken while Carineus was governor of Syria, and all went to their own towns to be registered. And Joseph went from the town of Nazareth, so this is where he and Mary lived. They already lived there. We're going to find them eventually returning there, but they lived there. And because he was of the house of Judah, because he was a descendant of David, he went to the city of David called Bethlehem.

Now, that was about a 60-mile travel. It didn't take just a... it's not like all of us. If we want to go 60 miles, that takes about an hour, depending on traffic. It didn't happen like that. It took much longer, probably days, to be able to travel from Nazareth down to the city of Jerusalem and then beyond to Bethlehem, which was eight or ten miles outside of where Jerusalem actually was.

And he says, because he was descended from the house of David, he went to be registered in verse 5 with Mary, to whom he was engaged, and he was expecting a child.

And so he had made this trip. He had taken his very pregnant wife on a trip.

I certainly don't expect that he was just haphazardly doing that, but he was going down, I'm sure, very carefully, and he was going to an ancestral home.

He undoubtedly had relatives who lived there in the area.

He had people that he could go and even talk to and perhaps live with.

And what we see in verse 6 is again a little different than, I think, many people's impression of when Jesus was born, but it says, while they were there.

Now, that would indicate that they got there. It wasn't a haphazard thing. They had not just immediately got pulled in and were wondering where to go, what to do, how they could be even anywhere housed.

It says, while they were there. And I'm going to again say, and if you've read the article in the Good News that really goes into this much more deeply than I can today, if you read that and you realize that he was coming to a relative's house, they were there, they were awaiting the birth of this child. It says, you know, whenever you look at the other ways that Luke uses this word.

And so, what we find is that Jesus was born, and Mary and Joseph, of course, were there.

They did place him, and at that time in the area in Jerusalem, it was very common for the houses to have an area where people lived and to have maybe a chamber, a guest chamber, that was a part of the home, and then even the lower part of it was where the animals were.

And so, you know, it became a needful for them to be able to move at least part of this activity of the birth of this child out into an area where a manger would be.

And so, you know, we find in verse 8 a miracle taking place right at this time when Jesus was brought into the world. In that region, there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. See, that again is a verse that we have often read, and perhaps even wondered, well, what time frame is that even talking about? And yet, I think almost everyone that you read about, when if you read different commentaries, different statements about this, you know, they would signify, well, the shepherds wouldn't be in the field in December. They actually wouldn't even be there in November. You know, they would be out of the field prior to that time. September or October would be the latest that they would actually be there. But it says in verse 9, and actually this is going to tell us exactly which day. If you wondered which day was Jesus born, I can tell you it was not December 25th, but it tells us which day it is. And we can read this in verse 9, An angel of the Lord stood before the shepherds. And so again, God intervenes. He sends a miracle, sends messengers, and He says, The glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds, and they were terrified, and yet an angel said, Do not be afraid. For see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people. He says, To you is born. And here it tells us which day Jesus was born.

This day, that's what it says. I'm not trying to tell you anything the Bible doesn't say. It says, This day, whatever day now, doesn't say that that was Tuesday or Thursday or Sabbath or Sunday. It just says, This day, in the city of David, a Savior who is the Messiah of the Lord, to you this day, or is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is the Messiah of the Lord, and this will be a sign for you. You are to find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a babe manger or crib. So they were going to go find, and the term child here, I think is referred to probably in your New Came James as a babe, this was a tiny infant, a tiny, tiny little baby. And so in verse 13, suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And so God sent to identify to the shepherds, you know, the Messiah has been born, I want you to go and acknowledge. And so he miraculously caused them to know that they saw the angelic hosts, they were given all kinds of encouragement, you know, that this is what you're going to do. You are right here outside the city of Bethlehem, you're just a few miles away from where this is. They were in the hills right around Bethlehem. And so it says when the angels left in verse 15, the shepherds said to one another, we've got to get to Bethlehem. We're going to go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made known to us. And so they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. And when they saw this, they made known what had been told about them or about the child to them and all who heard it. And so that they just talked to Mary and Joseph, see that's commonly the idea, and yet that's not the case. They talked to many people, many people who were around that area, says all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds had told them. And it says Mary treasured these words and pondered them in her heart, but the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

And so again, the angelic presence is significant. It's important for us to remember the miracles that were involved in bringing about the birth of our Savior. You find in continuing a chronological sequence in verse 21, they were there in Bethlehem. They were several miles outside of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was where the temple was. And so in verse 21, after eight days, so when Jesus was eight days old, we know exactly where He was. It was time to circumcise the child. He was named Jesus, which is when they officially gave them the name that they would have on the day when they were circumcised. After eight days, when He was circumcised, He was named Jesus, the name that was given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. See, that's, you know, what we find as far as the first few days of Jesus' life. You know, He was in Bethlehem. He was later brought to the temple. And then, chronologically, verse 22, when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. And so when you look to see, well, what kind of time frame? You can read this in Leviticus 12. But in the first few verses of Leviticus 12, it shows that Mary, having given birth to a male child, would have a period of 40 days total where she would then come to the temple and offer the child to the Lord, in a sense, receive a rite of purification.

And then, you know, we can see what else happened. It says in verse 24, they offered a sacrifice according to what was stated in the law. And so that, again, is described back in Leviticus 12, which I'm again not going to read through for the sake of time. And, of course, having been brought to Jerusalem, here, 40 days after His birth, we know where Jesus was. You know, He was still there around Jerusalem. He was in Bethlehem. He had been brought there to the temple to be circumcised and named. He later, essentially a month later, was brought back for this purification in what you read in verse 25, on down through about verse 35. Is it Simeon? Again, miraculously, by God's direction, there was a man who was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. And it had been revealed to him that by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. So he knew he was going to wait there. God had revealed that information to him. You're going to wait. You're going to be here whenever Jesus shows up on the scene. And of course, this is what Simeon mentions to Joseph and Mary.

He says, in verse 29, Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

And so Simeon's interaction with Mary and Joseph took place at the time when Joseph and Mary had brought Jesus, were bringing him to the temple in this rite of purification. You also find God sending Anna. In verse 36 of prophetess, Anna, it says in verse 37, she never left the temple, but worshipped there with fasting and prayer day and night. And at that moment she came and began to praise God and speak about the child of all who were looking for the redemption of Israel.

She again was sent by God to verify who this was. The shepherds were sent to verify who Jesus was, that he had been born this day, whatever day that was, that he had been brought into the world, that the Savior had been granted to come in human form. From here we can go back to Matthew 2.

Again, I'm not going to read on down into verse 39, which we read earlier, because as you'll see, verse 39 is a summary of the fact that following what they did at the temple, ultimately they were back in Nazareth. But there are a number of things that yet have to happen. Here in Matthew 2. Matthew 2, you see, something that took place, in a sense, after this time that we've described the first month and a half of Jesus' life are described there in His activity in and around Jerusalem. And then in verse 1 of chapter 2 of Matthew, it says, in the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This was not right at this day when Jesus was born, but it was after He was born in Bethlehem. Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem asking, where is the child who is born King of the Jews? For we observed His star at its rising, or in the east, and we have come to pay Him homage. To here we find individuals that were wise men, they were astronomers, astrologers. You see them in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar, or in the court of Nebuchadnezzar back in Babylon, where Daniel was. Had a bunch of wise men around, individuals that advised the king, who studied astronomy and mathematics. These were the type of individuals who were sent. And yet again, they were some distance away. They were even out of the entire area. And so it had to take a good amount of time for them to travel. And it doesn't directly even say, when did they start? When did they see that? But if it took them several weeks to get there, it doesn't show. But you can say, well, it probably took a while to get there. Apparently, they didn't know exactly where they needed to go, except they needed to go to the land of Judah.

They didn't seem to know that they needed to go to Bethlehem, because they asked. And of course, Herod is in a rage, and all Jerusalem is in a rage. And they called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, well, in Bethlehem. And in verse 6, quoting out of Micah chapter 5 verse 2, it says, "...you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you you shall come a ruler who is to rule or shepherd my people Israel." So this is what, certainly the Jewish individuals were aware of. Apparently the wise men were not aware of exactly where they should look. But when they got to Jerusalem, and they're searching around, and they're asking Herod, and he's convening his knowledgeable folks. Now this is taking time.

It says in verse 7, "...Herod secretly called for the wise men, and learned from them the exact time when the star appeared." So it didn't happen today. Didn't happen yesterday. It happened some time before to indicate that they were to make a journey that was going to take some weeks for them to be able to journey to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem after they find out where they should go. But Herod wanted to know exactly when, and from what we're going to read later, we're going to conclude that he may have been told, well, you know, it was a few months ago.

It may have been several months ago, but at least we were shown that we needed to head that the king. We want to worship, and we're coming to worship this king of the Jews. So in verse 8, he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "...Go and search diligently for the child when you have found him, bring me word so that I may worship him too." He didn't want to worship him. He hated him. He hated the fact that a potential threat to his authority was rising. And of course, we're going to see, you know, we've seen horrific things happen in our own world here in the last day.

Now, some pretty horrific things are going to happen here as well. And under the same spiritual influence, I am sure. Because you see that in verse 9, when they heard the king, they sent out, and ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising, or in the east until it stopped over the place where the child was. Now, I know there's certain discussion about whether astronomically that somehow happened, and that may have occurred, but it seems more likely to me, you know, the star was an angel. We see reference to an angel representing, or a star representing, an angel in several different places. Revelation 1, 20, I believe, is one of the verses. But there are others even that indicate that. But apparently, this star is able to go to the right spot.

So it would appear that God was pinpointing some few months after Jesus was born, and then this star was guiding these wise men to where He was. And when they saw the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. They were excited. They were thrilled.

And brethren, we should be thrilled to understand more about our Savior and our King, and about our relationship with Him, and with His Father, our Father, that is willing to guide and direct us if we are truly on fire, if we have not lost our first love, but if we are excited about what He is able to do, because He can do unbelievable things, remarkable things. They were overwhelmed with joy, and on entering the house.

And of course, this is indicating that they were in a home somewhere. Again, as I've mentioned to you, I believe that likely it would be in a home of a relative, that they were in a house.

They came and saw the child, and this word that is child is a little different word that's used back in Luke, and it indicates an infant. Not a babe, not a newborn babe, but an infant.

He says, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they knelt down, and they worshiped Him. They paid Him homage. And then offering their treasure chest, they offered Him gifts of gold, in frankincense, and myrrh. Now, of course, it's obvious they were offering these gifts out of worship. They were offering the gifts to the baby. They were offering a gift to Jesus. They didn't get there and then exchanged gifts among themselves. That's again somewhat of a misconception that people have, and yet here clearly they were coming, and their whole reason for giving the gifts was to show respect, to show appreciation and gratitude and worship of who it was that they were sent by God to signify. Actually, the shepherds came to acknowledge originally when He truly was born that day, but some months later, you know, the wise men came. They offered Him gifts, and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road in verse 12. So again, God intervened, helped them to see there's no reason to go back and talk to Herod. You know, Herod is really not out to any good, and so I don't want you to go back.

And so then you find, again sequentially after they had left in verse 13, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph. See, now this was not the first time that that had happened. We read about Him being told about Jesus and about Mary, and that you need to accept, you know, this child, you need to accept your wife. You know, this woman is a very special woman, but the baby that she is going to bear is even more special, far more special. And so after they left, Joseph again, had an angel come to Him and say, get up and take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt.

And remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

And that had to be troubling news. I mean, they'd already heard some, you know, some unusual things in the past from an angelic intervention, a miracle. But this miracle, in this case, with angel coming to Him and telling Him to flee to Egypt, Joseph got up and took the child and His mother by night and went to Egypt.

He immediately did what the angel told him in this case. And again, if you look on a map, you'll see that Egypt is not right. It's close, but it would again take days or weeks to get there.

And so, you know, you say it says, Joseph took him and took the child, took Mary by night and went to Egypt. They remained there until Herod died. And again, trying to determine exactly when Herod died is not easy to pinpoint. But certainly, you know, that had to be some time. You know, sure, it didn't just happen the next day, but probably weeks or months, maybe a year later.

And so this was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet that out of Egypt, I have called my son. I believe that's in Hosea 11, verse 1. And apparently, this was the only time Jesus was ever out of the land of Israel. You know, we see his life growing up in Nazareth. We see him being around the temple in Jerusalem. We see him in the Jordan. Perhaps, I guess, he could have been in another country on the other side of the Jordan. And yet, even part of that was a part of Israel at the time because of settling of the Israelites. And so going to Egypt was, you know, a time when he would be out of Israel. And of course, then you read in verse 16 of an unbelievable massacre. An unbelievable massacre that Herod orchestrates under Satan's influence. And Herod was, you know, he was an irrational individual to begin with, but he certainly was able to perpetrate this. And when you read verse 16, you realize that as he was determining who it is that he ought to get rid of in order to try to get rid of Jesus when he is just an infant. It says, you know, that he considered going back a couple of years.

Year at least. Maybe into the second year. Talks about two years old or under being the male children that he ultimately then slaughters because he doesn't want to have the threat.

And of course, we read about this in Revelation 12. And maybe I will go back and read that right now.

Revelation 12, we find John being given inspiration.

Starting in verse 4, it says the dragon. And of course, this dragon, as we'll see down in verse 9, is identified as Satan the devil, the deceiver of the whole world. In verse 4, it says, the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. For she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness. Of course, this is a certain reference to what happened back at the time of Jesus. He was sent into Egypt. And in this reference in Revelation, it's talking about something where a certain protection would be provided, even under this kind of circumstance in our description of Revelation 12. So to go back to Matthew 3 again, we can read about what it was that Herod had come up with. And Herod was truly a ruthless individual. He had ruled the area around Jerusalem and Judea. He was subject to the Roman rulers, and yet he was extremely brutal and ridiculously angry at this point, thinking that another threat to his throne had been born.

And when Herod realized, and I'm sure again this didn't just take a day, it probably took several days, maybe weeks, for him to realize what it was that it happened. The wise men had tricked him, and he was infuriated. In verse 16, he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. So he had gotten information about when did you see the star, how long ago was that, was that yesterday, was that last week, was that some months ago, which it would appear to me, surely it had to be some months ago, that they had seen that.

And yet he was going to be sure, or try to be sure, by slaughtering the male children in Bethlehem. And in verse 17, then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rama, an area just outside of Bethlehem, wailing in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be consoled because they are no more.

You know, terrible distress. And I don't know what the numbers would be, you know, depending on the population, depending on the number of little boys that would fit the category of a year or two years. And under, you know, Herod was willing to slaughter them. He was willing to try to get rid of this threat to his authority. And yet, I'd like to just read to you a little bit about how, you know, under the influence of Satan, I would believe that Herod was doing this. Out of Robertson's word pictures, it describes how ruthless what a despicable character that Herod was. He says, those familiar with the story of Herod the Great, mostly out of Josephus, can well understand the meaning of these words whenever you read that Herod became infuriated.

And he just became completely out of control and into the actions and thoughts. Herod, in his rage over his family rivalries, not just in this about Jesus, but in his rage over his family rivalries, and jealousies had put to death his two sons by his second wife, Miriam. And Miriam herself, an Antipater, another son, and once his heir, besides the brother and mother of Miriam and her grandfather, John Hichrenus. He'd slaughtered his whole family, his children, his second wife, many of her relatives. He had made will after will and was now in a fatal illness, and his fury was great over the question of the Magi.

And he showed his excitement, and the whole city was upset and afraid because the people knew only too well what he could do in a rage over the disturbance of his plans. The Roman historian, Macrobius, notes that Augustus has said that it was better to be Herod's sow than to be his son. For the sow had a better chance of life since in Israel no pork was eaten, and Herod didn't eat it either.

See, that's a ridiculously sad commentary on the ruthless individual who was the ruler around Judea at the time when Jesus was born. And, of course, Herod would die, and of course, even as this indicates, he had some type of fatal illness. And so, even though it doesn't directly tell us how long this occurred, or how many months, or weeks, months, even year, could have occurred, this is what was happening. And following that, in verse 19, we can sequentially, at least chronologically, when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph.

Again, Joseph has a dream. An angel intervenes. An angel helps Joseph to know what he should do. This angel said, Get up and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who were seeking the child's life are dead. And so, again, this didn't take place just momentarily. It was something that took months and maybe a first year or two of Jesus' life.

We really don't have any record of Jesus' life, except what little we have in the book of Luke. We have a little bit that we'll go over to in a second, but here you find him as a very, very tiny child being taken to Egypt and waiting there for Herod to die and for his actually his heirs to be kind of put in position because there were different of his sons that actually started ruling different sections of Israel at that time.

And it says, Joseph got up and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel, but when he heard that Arclos was ruling over Judea in the place of his father, he was afraid to go there. So he realized that this son of Herod was also a threat. He appeared to be at least maybe not as bad, but certainly ruthless in his activity.

He also knew of others and actually the individual, I think it's Herod Philip, who ultimately was ruling in the area around Capernaum and Nazareth, which where Joseph was ultimately going to go. And so even though Joseph was concerned, after being warned in a dream, he did go away to the district of Galilee and there he made his home in a town called Nazareth.

So that what had been spoken to the prophets would be fulfilled that he's called a Nazarene.

This is where Jesus spent a number of years. We don't know what age he was when he finally got there.

He was what would appear to be months, maybe a year or two old, before he ever got back to what we read here in Luke 2. Luke 2 verse 39, where he says that they returned to Galilee, to their town of Nazareth, because a lot of intervening things happened there in the first few years of Jesus' life. And it says there, the child in verse 40 grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom and the favor of the Lord was upon him. The favor of God was upon him.

And then we see in verse 41 a section that starts talking about Jesus when he's 12 years old.

And we really don't have anything from about year 1 or 2 to 12, but when he was 12, of course, it's interesting to see his parents were going to Jerusalem every year for the festival of the Passover. And when he was 12, they went up as usual to the festival. And of course, ultimately, when he was in the temple talking to the doctors of the law and amazing them with the unbelievable answers that he was able to give, you know, he was able to be, he surely must have been a marvel as far as a young child. And yet, when they found him, it says in verse 51, they went down with him. He went down with them to Nazareth and was obedient to them.

So he wasn't trying to be, you know, awful in his activity, but he was in his father's house.

He understood what the father's plan was. He understood what it was to exist prior to that human existence. He understood what it was that he was here to do. That he had come to be the suffering servant who would offer his body and blood as a sacrifice for our sins.

And so, you see Jesus in verse 52 increasing in wisdom and in years in divine and human favor.

From there, you see a gap until he's entering into his ministry about age 30.

So you don't have, I guess we've read pretty much everything we have in the Bible about Jesus' birth, about his traveling out of state or out of country, out of Israel into Egypt, coming back, eventually settling in Nazareth, and then growing up there at age 12, going to the feast in Jerusalem, and then growing and living in Nazareth throughout the remainder of his childhood.

So I think it's fascinating whenever we look at the accounts that we have to be able to see a chronology that in my mind makes a lot of sense. It makes sense to know what it was that God was doing and how many miracles, how many miracles that he was performing to be able to rescue Jesus from the catastrophic action of Herod, be able to bring him back into the area of Nazareth where he would grow up as the son of Joseph, who was a carpenter or builder. He would learn that trade. He would be very familiar, very familiar with that trade and very, I'm sure, familiar with the town, familiar with many of the people, familiar with the Sea of Galilee, because it wasn't too far from there. But we read about that a lot more whenever you get into the ministry of Jesus. But I hope in going through this that we can clearly see that when we read John 17, and this is what I started with two weeks ago when we first discussed this, and what we read in John 17 is that as Jesus prayed to the Father, saying in verse 1, Father, the hour is come, glorify your Son, so that He may glorify you, since you have given Him authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. So here He's actually talking about His disciples. He's talking about those of us who understand the calling of God and a drawing that He provides for us to be drawn to Jesus Christ. And then He tells us in verse 3 that this is eternal life, that you truly know, that you know God the Father, the one true God, that you know you, the only true God, and that you know Jesus Christ, whom He sent into the world. See, those are important. We don't want to lose our first love, as we've had mentioned earlier, but we want to truly identify with the motivating factor in our obedience and our responsiveness to God is an appreciation and a gratitude, a love for, and a true joy in worshiping the one who came to this earth as our Savior, Jesus Christ.