The Casted Out King

But nonetheless, Luke chapter 2, that's where we're going to be at this morning.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

So we already have the reading of God's word, and what we're doing here is through this Advent season, it's been called the uh sermon series has been called Breaking the Silence.

And what we've been looking at is that the people of Israel, God's people, had experienced silence, perceived silence for over 400 years.

It had been over 400 years since a prophetic voice was prominent in the land of Israel for God's people, declaring his promises, declaring his word.

And so there had been this silence.

And now, after 400 years, and we see in this coming about of the birth of Jesus that silence being broken, where we have visitations from angels, we have people prophesying, we have all of this noise being created.

And finally, we're gonna hit kind of the climax of that noise being created in the cry of an infant.

And we get to see Jesus being born, the voice and word of God breaking into our human experience.

And we're gonna look at what that means for us today, because what's challenging with any part of the Bible is understanding it in a context for us today.

This is a book of antiquity.

When we try to understand it in its original context and then put it into ours today, there can be challenges and difficulties we don't really understand, or maybe we don't uh uh feel the same pains or emotions that these people felt because we can't relate to the circumstances and things that they were going through.

And one of the parts of the Christmas story that I think is even harder is that we get caught up in all of like the movies, the pageants, the different things that we see, and it's really not the Christmas story, the way that the Bible lays it out, right?

It kind of all happens in this one beautiful night, and it's all magical and everything, and you get to have this like moment where you have Jesus and uh Mary and Joseph, and then the shepherds and the wise men, and then all these other people kind of come at once, and the timeline's all jacked up because that's not actually how it went about.

The way that Mew and I typically perceive the Christmas story is not really how it happened.

In fact, just kind of fun fact, right, is that it's believed that the wise men didn't actually come until about two years after Jesus was born.

Uh, because we see that the king wanted to kill all children to and under once he had heard that the wise men had come to see this newborn king, right?

And so we think that they came much later in his life, and the timeline can get kind of messy, to say the least.

So, what we're gonna look at is to try and unpack this story found in Luke 2, 1 through 20, the best we can to understand it in its true context and form.

And so when we look at the very first section of this passage of scripture, we're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 7.

And what it says here, the way that I would summarize this passage of scripture is this that Jesus is born by a cast-out mother.

Jesus is born by a cast-out mother.

Now, when we right when we dive into this section of the text, what we're gonna notice first and foremost is the power that Rome has.

Right?

Caesar Augustus is the ruling emperor of Rome, and he declares for the whole world to be registered for taxation.

So he makes this authoritative decree that he wants the whole world to be registered so that they could be taxed.

And this demonstrates, right, this opening sentence demonstrates the scope of his authority and power.

You see, it was actually Caesar Augustus himself, whose name Augustus means holy or revered.

He was the first emperor, and he was the one who made, uh, not the first emperor ever, but the one who made great strides and actually creating a space where the Roman emperors were made into gods.

And so he was the leader of that, making strides to say, no, these emperors are more than men, we are actually gods.

So to think of his um personality type, right?

To think of his arrogance that he would hold, that he would actually be the one to make strides to ensure that the Roman emperors were viewed and revered as gods.

Now, little did he know that he actually wasn't a god, he was just simply a pawn, right?

To bring about the word of God promised to his people.

You see, we have Jesus and Mary, they are in Nazareth, which is about three to four hundred miles, or I'm sorry, about a hundred miles, three to four days' journey on foot away from Bethlehem.

And they get this decree sent to them that they have to be registered for the purpose of taxation.

Now, what we see though is that if we understand the Old Testament prophets and what was sold about Jesus, about this coming Messiah, we see in Micah 5, 2 this.

It says, But you, O Bethlehem, Ephratha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, it is from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

So Caesar Augustus, he he thinks that he's this powerful God.

He's just a pawn in the hand of the living God who is bringing about his decreed promises, so that we can have total confidence and evidence that this child who is being born is the one whom God promised would come.

You see, no one in their right mind would travel three to four days' journey, a hundred miles, possibly on foot, this late of term in their pregnancy.

I mean, we have to remember, Mary's 12, 13, 14.

She's late into her pregnancy.

We don't know exactly how late into her pregnancy she is, but she's late enough.

And women, you know, if you've gone through pregnancy, that there is no way in this world that you would be up for making this journey unless you felt that it was your life on the line.

You had to do this.

And then think about Joseph, right?

This young, ignorant laborer.

He has this fiance who's a teenager, and he says, honey, we've got to go.

We've got to travel a hundred miles, three to four days' journey to be registered.

You see, this was the sovereign hand of God.

This was his sovereign hand using the wills and motives of men to bring about his plans and his purposes.

You see, they had to be registered in Rome for the purpose of exploiting their poverty.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Rome wants to squeeze out every bit of resource and wealth that they can.

And so Caesar Augustus has made this decree to all the world, where even these poor people in Nazareth have to make this journey just so that they can be registered, so that Caesar Augustus, so that the political empire can know they exist, to know that they have resources, and to know that a portion of those resources should be theirs.

So they get up and they start this journey.

But it wasn't simply just because of this, this decree that came from Rome.

This was because God foreordained that Jesus was both going to be born out of Bethlehem and born from the line of David.

If we see in Jeremiah 23, 5, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Joseph ventured toward Bethlehem with Mary because he was actually from the line of David.

It was that birth family that was caused to be actually registered in the city of Bethlehem.

And so they get up and they go.

See how the mighty hand of God is orchestrating every aspect of this messy birth to show us without any hesitation that this baby was the coming king who he had promised for us.

And it says, as they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Jesus to be born.

So we don't know how long they were there before this moment happened, but we can understand that they were there for some period, and then here comes the birth pains in Mary.

And when we see this, it says, time for him to come and be born.

The very first thing that we have to wrestle with is the fact that Joseph and Mary could find no mercy or hospitality in the midst of such dire circumstance.

I was thinking about this.

Think about this situation.

So there's an inn.

If we understand the way kind of inns worked back in those days, they were kind of built in this rectangle, right, of really just glorified stalls.

And in the middle of that rectangle would be some type of courtyard where most people traveled by animals.

So horses, maybe camel, donkeys, so forth like that.

They would keep their animals in that courtyard, and that's where they would feed them and care for them as they were staying in the inn.

And so you have young Joseph and you have teenage Mary who's pregnant and experiencing birth pain.

She's in labor.

She comes up to a place and she is able to find no mercy or hospitality.

They say there's no room for her in the inn.

And now we don't have explicitly in the text, but my mind starts to wonder like, what happened?

Did the innkeeper go stall to stall and say, look, this is the situation.

There's a young teenage girl who's gone who's giving birth.

Can she come into your space?

Can you give her any sense of hospitality, any sense of mercy or care?

And he went room to room to room to room, and each one said no.

Or did she never make it that far?

Did she just simply go to the innkeeper, and because he didn't want to create a scene or disturb his guests, he said, Look, we're all fool.

I'm not gonna ask anyone on your behalf if they can help you.

But you can have the courtyard.

You can have that place in the open middle where we keep all the animals and beasts.

You see, we have to wrestle with the narrative of this story.

This young girl, this young man who's seeking some sense of help and care in one of the most desperate times that a woman faces, and then receive no mercy, no genuine hospitality, and then we have to wrestle through the conditions of which Jesus is actually brought into the world.

I mean, this place was probably a mess.

If some of you I know in this uh church actually keep animals and they're just filthy, right?

Animals are filthy, and you have to clean up after them.

So imagine an inn full of people with their animals.

And then he says, here, go.

You can have this space.

And then without getting too graphic, just think of the mess of birth.

Birth is astronomically messy.

I've been on the business end of that stick.

I'm just telling you, it's messy.

And you have Joseph.

Who knows if there was a nurse, if there was a doctor, who knows who was available?

This young boy who has no idea what to do.

We don't have anything explicit in the story, so we're only able to read into it through our imagination.

But what I'm trying to paint the portrait to you for is that there was no genuine sense of help for them.

And the conditions were beyond our imagination wretched.

And so Jesus is born to what?

A cast-out mother.

No, sorry, we can't help you.

We can't provide care for you.

The king of all creation is born in filth and chaos and placed in a beast feeding trough.

You see, the one who is robed in glory and splendor is now wrapped in just torn fragments of cloth.

The one who has never known tiredness now closes his eyes and rests.

The one who has never hungered or thirst now cleaves to a mother's chest in utter dependency.

And the one who had eternally existed breaks forth into the finiteness of this world with a cry of human experience.

This is the birth story of Jesus.

You see, ultimately, we need to see Jesus born to an outcast teenage mother and father in the worst conditions of circumstances.

And then we see verses 8 through 15.

What is even kind of makes the story even more strange is the fact that the announcement of the king's birth is made to a casted-out people.

And so it says that in the same evening that Jesus was born, they are going to make a birth pronouncement, right?

Heaven is getting ready to make a birth pronouncement about the king of all creation being born.

And what does God sovereignly choose to do?

Make it to shepherds in the middle of a field.

Imagine that for a second.

Like grasp your thought process for just a moment and see that the king of all creation had just been born in such dire circumstances, and then heaven's going to take the effort and energy to make this supernatural announcement, and they make it in the middle of a field to a group of shepherds.

If we just think about the events transpiring here.

You see, we already have the horrid conditions of this birth, but now God sets out to supernaturally declare that the Messiah has come and his audience is just shepherds.

Shepherds.

Now, some of you, because you've watched all these different Christmas movies and been to pageants and so forth, might not understand the weight of what this is.

You might just think, well, what's the big deal about a few shepherds in a field?

When we understand shepherds in their right context, according to the culture and time, what we'd have to see is that shepherds were actually considered, as far as like the social scale of people, they were just above lepers.

Why were shepherds out in the field?

Because they weren't allowed in the city.

You see, they were despised by the good and respectable people of their day.

They were regarded as thieves and cast out, banned from normal society.

The Mishnah, the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions, known as the Oral Torah, states that shepherds were under a ban and cannot observe Israel's ceremonial laws.

This is who the God of all creation sovereignly chose to make Jesus' supernatural birth announcement to.

And what does the angel declare to these shepherds, these outcast people, these wretched citizens?

He says, Born to you is Jesus Savior Christ Lord.

Born unto you.

You outcasted people, you ones who aren't even allowed to participate in the ceremonial laws of God's people, you who are not allowed to enter in through the city gates, you who have to stay outside of resource and community, who have to be removed from any sense of fellowship, you, Jesus Savior, Christ Lord, has been born.

Now, this is the only time in the gospels that these titles of Jesus are made in one definitive statement: Christ, Savior, Lord.

The angels are definitively stating who this baby is.

If you had any question or any doubt, with this proclamation from heaven, we can rest all of our worriedness, all of our hesitation.

And the angel declares to these band of outcasts that they can have hope because Jesus has been born to them.

And then it says, and a multitude of heavenly hosts filled the sky and began praising God.

When we understand this multitude, right, it literally means innumerable.

The sky was filled with angels, so many that they could not be counted.

Now, who knows if this was something that was so cosmic that uh it was beyond the scope of the shepherds themselves.

Maybe the shepherds themselves were gifted by God to be able to see this cosmic experience.

We don't really know, but what we do know is what they did see, and what they did experience was the sky being filled with angels who just began praising God.

And after the angels left, the shepherds got up and ran into the city of Bethlehem.

They wanted to find this baby that they said, you can go find him.

This day he's lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes.

You can go find him.

And then as soon as the angels left, they get up and they run into the city to try and find him.

You see, they were probably about a mile or so outside of the city.

And it's believed that they were only that close because they were probably caring for the animals that were going to be used in temple sacrifices.

And so they needed to have an easier access to this resource that they could provide the laws of which they were not even allowed to participate in.

So they just get up and go.

Verses 16 through 21, we see this that good news begins to bring great joy.

And so this the shepherds get up and they seek out Jesus.

Imagine these shepherds running into the city, almost seeming hysterical, right?

And they run and they say, Listen, listen, we just were visited by angels, and this is what we were told.

Have you heard anything about a birth tonight?

Have you heard anything about someone being in labor tonight?

Is there anything that you can help us understand?

We're trying to seek out this one.

Do you know anything?

And then imagine, right, the curiosity sparking in each person that's within earshot of these shepherds who are trying to find this baby lying in a manger.

People are questioning and wondering what they're talking about.

And they go and finally they discover Jesus.

And they tell Mary everything that they had heard and seen.

And think about what comfort it finally brings Mary, who's sitting in the midst of filth, trying to care for her newborn baby.

Imagine she's thinking, What in the world, God, are you doing with me?

This is the condition?

This is the life that you've chosen for me.

This is what I have to go through.

And then these shepherds, these outcast people say, No, no, Mary, listen, an angel just told us this is how we came and found you.

Says that she treasured it in her heart.

And then all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them.

The news that what they have heard and seen bring comfort and assurance to a new mother, and joy and wonder to a people.

And so here's kind of the main idea I want to focus on for this passage of scripture this morning: is this the gospel demonstrates for us that Jesus came for casted-out people.

Everything about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus shows that he came out for the people.

Shows that Jesus came for the people you and I could probably never imagine having a part of our lives.

Let me say that again.

The gospel shows us one thing.

Primarily, that Jesus came for the people, you and I could probably never imagine having a part of our lives.

Not only in the narrative of his birth, but in the very actions of his life and ministry, he demonstrates this.

Jesus would grow up to be ridiculed, doubted, accused, shamed, and eventually murdered, in part because of the extent at which he strived to make this evidently clear to his people.

If we look at this story in Matthew 9, 10 through 17, says this.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

You see, Jesus makes one thing very clear here in this statement.

The very ones who can never be a part of your society, who you despise, who you fear, who you disagree with, who you can't imagine ever bringing into your life, those are the ones I'm here for.

Those are the ones that I'm here for.

The life and ministry of Jesus would be filled with the pursuit of the outcast.

He would never demonstrate an absence of love for them.

He would not allow them to be pushed farther out into the marginalized poles, but would fight to bring them intimately near to himself.

He would know them intimately in his own experience as one who would be perpetually casted out.

This is what the gospel shows us.

This is what the life of Jesus demonstrates for us.

This is what every aspect of his work tells us, because the fact is you and I were the outcasts of heaven.

Many of us fall under this false arrogance or pride.

We think because we're gifted, because of where we grew up, because of how we look, because of our work ethic, whatever it is that we think that we have that earns us some merit in society, in culture.

I'm telling you now, none of our culture's merit awards earn you anything in heaven.

You were the outcast of heaven.

And Jesus came to get you.

But our story is this when it comes to this particular subject, some of us add offense to the gospel to keep the outcast out.

Some of us, in our zeal for the truth of God's word or our overzeal for proclaiming truth, we actually add offense to the gospel to keep the outcast out.

Listen, the gospel is fundamentally offensive.

It doesn't need your assistance in making it offensive.

1 Corinthians 1.18 says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

What he's saying there in that letter says it's foolish.

The gospel itself, the message of the cross, is utter foolishness to those who are perishing.

We don't have to add offense to the message of the cross.

And sometimes people do reject us and what we say because they're fundamentally rejecting Christ.

And we do suffer unjustly.

But many more times people get angry not because they're offended by Christ, but because they're offended by our insensitivity toward them as people.

You see, we must contend to live lives and speak words that do not add to the offense of the gospel, creating a farther separation between an outcast and their only hope.

But we do that intrinsically all the time.

And the way that we live our lives and the coarse jesting that we participate in.

And the social media posts are shares that we don't really need to.

We take positions and stances in all different aspects of our life that actually create and add offense to the gospel that's so unnecessary.

And what they're really rejecting is not Jesus, they're rejecting you.

I love this statement out of 1 Corinthians 1, 22 through 24.

It says this, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Paul made it radically clear.

He doesn't have to add anything to the gospel.

And that's a fight.

I'm telling you, as a pastor, as a Christian, it is a fight to keep the message of the gospel to its most simplest form.

Christ crucified.

But so many times we want to Christianize people who aren't even saved and regenerated by the Holy Spirit yet.

Old pastor of mine, he used to use this phrase all the time.

He's like, why do you get mad at a dog for barking?

We have non-believers acting like non-believers.

Duh! We have to be committed.

We have to fight and contend to preach Christ crucified alone.

So some of us add to the gospel to keep the casted out.

But some of us remove the offense of the gospel to bring the outcast in.

And this is equally condemning.

Some of us remove the offense of the gospel to bring the outcast in.

I'll say this, like I said before, to the other people.

The gospel is fundamentally offensive.

If we seek to remove its intrinsic offense, we lose it all together.

You see, at Missio, we want to be known by a couple of things, right?

Number one, one of these things that we want to be known as, or as a place where it's okay to not be okay.

This is a place where it's okay to not be okay.

This is a place where we can be filled with those people who we can't imagine ever being a part of our lives.

We can be filled with them.

And that's okay.

But on number two, the gospel demands that we don't stay that way.

For every single person in this room and every single person God ever brings into this church, the gospel demands change.

Change in conformity to Jesus the Son of God.

Transformation that we bear his character and image more clearly in our physical body.

And for these people who seek to remove the offense of the gospel, to bring the outcast in, look, when you're doing that, you're not winning them to Jesus.

You're winning them to a social club.

You can't remove this truth that the gospel demands transformation, that the gospel is a message that declares there is a king and you have to submit to him.

You see, if we try to remove the offense of the gospel to bring the outcast in, we are not saving them.

We think we're loving them, but ultimately we're affirming them in the very thing that condemns them.

You see, we can't mistake or better yet twist love for affirmation.

Love is without condition and should be freely given to all.

There should be no one who has to earn our love as Christians.

No one.

Our love should be freely given the way that we have been freely given to us.

But affirmation, affirmation of people in their sin is standing on the banks of a lake and yelling to a drowning victim, you're fine.

You're fine.

And this is what the church thinks that it has to do.

The church thinks that it has to talk, remove language of sin, remove language of hell, remove language of God's wrath out of our conversation, out of our pulpits, but we can't erase it from the scriptures.

This is the truth of the gospel, and it has to be equally preached.

Because it is only then that can we actually concede the gospel for what it truly is.

It's Christ crucified in our place, bearing the weight of God's wrath and judgment for us, and we can have hope.

So the gospel conviction for us this morning is that Jesus was crucified outside of the city so that the casted out could be brought near.

Jesus was crucified outside of the city so that the casted out could be brought near.

Now look, I really believe that in this narrative of his incarnation, of his birth, we see very clearly from the beginning, Jesus came for the casted out of our culture.

He's born to a cast-out mother.

He is birth pronouncement, is proclaimed to a cast-out people.

And then he finds himself in his life and ministry, eating at table, communing and fellowshipping with those who are the casted out of his culture.

And in his final scene, as he's declaring to all that he is the coming Messiah, what does he do?

He picks up his cross and he marches outside of the city gates so that he could be cast out on our behalf.

You see, they couldn't crucify someone inside of the city.

It was filthy and disgusting.

To crucify someone inside the city would soil and stain all of culture.

And so they marched him out, outside of the gates, and they hung him on a cross.

Hebrews 13, 11 through 12 says this for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp, so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

You see, when we see ourselves as shepherds, when we see ourselves as the casted out of heaven, the beauty of the gospel becomes so much more clear to us.

Because we are able to see that Jesus became the casted-out one to bring us who are outcasts near.

That we would be like the shepherds.

Good news of great joy that we would bring to the casted-out people of our culture.

Imagine the shepherds as they left, after the angels had left, and they got up and they ran out and they said, Look, you have to hear what we just experienced.

You have to hear there's a Messiah, there's a Savior that was born this day to us.

Where is he?

We need to find him.

And people's curiosity was sparked.

And they wondered and they sought him themselves.

But we as New Testament Christians, what do we get to say?

Look, look, the grave is empty.

We've experienced the risen, resurrected Lord.

Come and hear this good news of great joy.

You don't have to suffer anymore.

You who are outcast of our culture, you who are trotted down, you don't have to be this way anymore.

You can be brought near through this good news of great joy that Christ the King was crucified in your place and he rose from the dead.

Come.

I mean, imagine if we actually lived this way.

Imagine how diverse our church would be.

Imagine the reflection of the kingdom of God that would be filling these chairs.

But we don't want to go to them.

We don't want to bring good news of great joy to them.

It's so uncomfortable.

But the gospel demands and compels us to do this very thing.

And another story of Jesus is talks to his teaching on uh through a parable, and he states how there's this feast that was set up, this banquet that was made, and all these people were invited in.

And the day of the banquet comes, and they don't show up.

And so the host of the party tells all of his servants to just go out everywhere and tell them that there's a table made, that they can come and eat and drink.

And we're the ones who are supposed to be sent out with this good news of great joy.

We're the ones who are supposed to be setting the table and having it laid open, and we are supposed to go to our neighbors, our coworkers, the people in our city, and declare to them there's a seat waiting for you.

There's a seat waiting for you with the finest wine, with the choicest affair.

Come and eat your fill.

But no, we live behind locked doors and full tables because we refuse to make a seat for one more.

Our first thought is not, if we're honest, how can I bring them into my home?

How can I share my life with them?

How could I set a table for them to feast?

How could I bring good news of great joy to them?

No.

Your first thought is, I could never do life with that person.

Your first thought is I could never be in community with that person.

We have to change the way that we think, church.

We have to see the gospel for what it really is.

And it's a calling of the outcast to be brought near.

Right?

One of our uh uh it's it's crazy to me how like Hollywood begins to tell the story of the gospel unknowingly.

And one of our most favorite holiday movies, I'm sure it's yours too, is Home Alone, right?

And it's crazy what little Kevin's able to do in both movies.

He makes a place at the table for the outcast, he brings good news of great joy to the outcast.

Because that creepy neighbor that everybody, you and you all have that creepy neighbor on your street, right?

The one who you just you kind of create this whole backstory on and you think about like how weird they are, and you never really want to go talk to them.

And Kevin does that.

And in Home Alone 2, he does it to the homeless woman in Central Park.

But it's insane how even Hollywood tries to tell the narrative of the gospel unknowingly.

Our chairs should be filled with those creepy neighbors that we're actually really scared of.

Our church chairs should be filled with the people that are moving into our community that we are wondering how could we ever do life?

How could we ever have anything in common?

How could we ever have these people into our home?

If we're gonna hear anything about the message of Christmas this morning, let it be this Jesus came for the outcast, and he sends us to bring good news of great joys to the casted out people of our culture.