make a room for jesus

7/31/2019 Make a Room for Jesus

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MAKE A ROOM FOR JESUSGalatians 4:4

Lindsay, December 3, 2011

Pr. Ruben Dario Sanchez

And she brought forth her firstborn son,

and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid

him in a manger; because there was no room for

them in the inn (Luke 2:7 KJV).

The scene portrayed in Luke 2:7is so

familiar that it has become unmistakable.We call it a representation of the birth

of Christ,

Either with statuary

Or in a painting

Or sometimes with actorsportraying Joseph, Mary and

Jesus.

Usually the setting is quite pastoral

with Mary and Joseph watching as Jesus

sleeps in the clean wooden feeding-

trough. Sometimes there is a glowing

light emanating from baby

Jesus.

The straw is fresh

Overhead the stars twinkle inthe sky

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Nearby the cattle and the sheep

rest contentedly and the faithful

donkey (theres almost always adonkey) watches the happy

parents.

And very often the shepherds

and the Wise Men bow before

the Babe in the manger.It is a sweet and beautiful scene.

But the real problem lies in the fact

that this peaceful scene bears little

connection to what really happened that

night in Bethlehem. It wasnt very peaceful

It couldnt have been as clean

Nothing would have been as

beautiful as we make it

appear

And there is no reason to believethat the shepherds and the Wise

Men ever saw Jesus at the same

time.

But the major problem rests in one

fact: The Son of God from heaven comes toearth and is born in a stable because there

was no room in the inn.

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We hear this so often that we take

it for granted, but it does not seem right.

To help us with the fact of Jesusbirth, lets think together about three

questions:

1) Whats wrong with this picture?

2) Why does God allow it?

3)What do we learn from it?From our point of view, Jesus should

not have been born in a stablebut he was.

Surely this was not an accidentbut

a message from God to our hearts.

1) WHATS WRONG WITH THISPICTURE?

The answer is simple:

Jesus doesnt belong there

Hes the Son of God from heaven...

He doesnt deserve to be treated like a

vagabond. He deserves the best the world has to

offer.

He comes from heaven to earth

and ends up in a stable?

How can that be? God could have done better.

Think about it for a moment.

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Suppose we had all power and could

choose the time and place and manner of

our sons birth.Would we choose to have him born

outside, in a stable?

That doesnt make any sense.

Whats going on here?

Why is this happening? Why is there no room in the inn?

Lets begin with Bethlehem.

If you visit Bethlehem today, youll

find that it is a large, Arab town located 8

miles south of Jerusalem.You reach Bethlehem by driving down

a wide paved road from Jerusalem.

The situation is very tense nowadays,

and although it would not be advisable

to walkfrom Jerusalem to Bethlehem, you

could do it easily in an hour or two.

In Jesus day, Bethlehem was a tiny

Jewish town

A small village

One of the least important towns in all

of Judah.

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A few shepherds lived there, some

farmers, a few merchants, and that

was about it.

It was a small Jewish village made

famous only because it was King

Davids hometown.

Emperor Caesar Augustus prompted

by God decreed that a census be taken,so that taxes could be collected throughout

the Empire.

The census required that all Jewish

males go back to their ancestral hometowns

to register.

Since Joseph was descended from

David, he had to return to Bethlehem.

It happened that Mary was in her

final stages of pregnancy when they arrived

in Bethlehem.

I say happened because Godarranged everything so

That the emperor issued the decree at

just the right moment

And in just the right way

So that at just the right time Mary andJoseph arrived in Bethlehem

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So that they were exactly where the

prophet Micah said they would be

when Jesus was born (Micah 5:2). It all seemed to justhappen,but

what seemed to be by chance, was

actually the hand of God moving

through history to accomplish his

purposes. If God ordains it, he willmake a way.

Part of our problem in understanding

this story revolves around the word inn.

We are so immersed in American

culture that we read the text this way:There was no room for them at the

Bethlehem Holiday Inn. Or They couldnt

find a room at the Greater Jerusalem

Ramada Inn. Or the Sheraton. Or the

Hilton.

We tend to think of A nice building near a freeway exit

Three or four stories tall.

With a nice parking lot

A large lobby

A pool and a hot tub Hot showers, cable TV

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And data ports on the phones so we

can surf the Internet.

In those days travel was dirty,difficult and dangerous.

Travelers needed safety and security

from the robbers that could be found on

every highway.

An inn was simply a buildingwhere you could rest safely during the night.

Indoor plumbing was 20 centuries in

the future.

In order to properly understand what

happened, it helps to know that Lukeused two different words forinnwhen

he wrote his gospel.

One word refers to a small building

dedicated to serving travelers.

At one end of the building, people

tied up their horses and donkeys. For a fee, the innkeeper allowed them

to sleep on a rough mattress on the

floor.

This was theinnJesus mentioned

in the Parable of the Good Samaritan(Luke 10: 34).

I have traveled on the old road from

Jericho to Jerusalem, and our bus stopped at

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the Inn of the Good Samaritan,a simple

building located at the traditional site of the

inn that existed in Jesus day. Luke used a different word forinn

inverse 7that basically means a guest

room.

This inn would be even smaller

and simpler than the one inLuke 10. The animals would be kept in a stable

that was often nothing more than a

cave in a hillside to keep the animals

during the night.

It was aninnsuch as this that hadno room for Mary and Joseph and

Jesus on that night in Bethlehem.

And that brings me back to the major

point. From a human point of view,

nothing in this picture looks right.

Jesus deserved better

God could have done better.

So why did it happen like this?

That leads us to the second question.

2) WHY DOES GOD ALLOW IT?

If we believe in the sovereignty ofGod, then I thinkwe must believe that God

did not simply allowhis Son to be born in

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a stable we must believe that God

ordainedit.

Joseph and Mary were compelled (bythe census) to return to Bethlehem.

It seems clear that they arrived just a

few days before she gave birth to Jesus.

The journey itself would have been

difficult and dangerous Traveling slowly because of

Marys advanced pregnancy.

So, they arrived in Bethlehem was

turned away at the inn and the baby

was born in a stable Outdoors, in the cold

With the animals no doubt nearby.

They had no privacy

No sanitation

And very little protection from the

elements.

Why would God send his Son into the

world like this?

Charles Spurgeon offers a number of

answers to this question.

First of all,Christ was born like thisto show his humiliation. Would it have

been fitting that the man who was to die

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naked on the cross should be robed in

purple at his birth?he asks.

The answer is no.All his life he would be not much

more than a peasant.

Second, The poor and the outcasts

knew Jesus was one of them because of the

way he came into the world.Spurgeon says, In the eyes of the

poor, imperial robes excite no affection; a

man in their own garb attracts their

confidence.

Spurgeon notes that the bestcommanders are those who

Have the common touch

Who are not afraid to mingle with the

soldiers on the front lines

Who arent ashamed to get their

hands dirty in the trenches ofwarfare.

When soldiers know that their

commander has walked where they

walk,

They will follow him to the ends ofthe earth.

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The poor of the earth know that in

Jesus, they have a friend who cares

about them.Third, he was born like this in order

that the humble might feel invited to

come to him.

The very manner of his birthwas an

invitation to the rejected

, the abused

, themistreated

, the forgotten

, the overlooked, to

come to him for salvation.

Of him it was said He eat and drink

with publicans and sinners; this man

receive sinners and eat with them.Even as an infant, by being laid in a

manger,

he was set forth as the sinners

friend.

I find this an inspiring thought.

The fact that there was no room in the

inn turns out to be much more than anincidental detail.

Indeed, it is central to who Jesus is.

Is there a hint here of his upcoming

death?

I believe there is.Turned away from the inn and resting

in a feeding-trough, he was already

bearing the only cross a baby can bear

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extreme poverty and the contempt and

indifference of mankind.

In the words of Francis of Assisi,For our sakes he was born a stranger in

an open stable; he lived without a place of

his own wherein to lay his head, subsisting

by the charity of good people; and he died

naked on a cross in the close embrace ofholy poverty.

This baby lying forgotten in an

exposed stable, resting in a feeding-trough,

is Gods appointed signt

o us all.

This is a true Incarnation.God has come to the world in a most

unlikely way.

This is what Philippians 2:7 means

when it says that he made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant, being

made in human likeness.Nothing about the baby Jesus

appeared supernatural.

There were no halos

No angels visible

And no choirs singing. If we had been there, and if we had

no other information

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We would have concluded that this

was just a baby born to a poor young

couple.

Nothing about the outward

circumstances pointed to God.

Yet all of it every part of it every

single, solitary, random detail was

planned by the Father before thefoundation of the world.

To the unseeing eye, nothing looks

less like God

To those who understand, Gods

fingerprints are everywhere.3) WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM

THIS?

If we stand back and consider this one

aspect of the Christmas story, some amazing

truths emerge.

We learn something about God Something about the world.

Something about Jesus

And something about his followers.

First, we learn that God uses adverse

circumstances that make no sense at thetime in order to accomplish his purposes

in the future.

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At first glance the fact that there was

no room at the inn seems like an

insignificant detail in the larger

picture.

But it was no small detail to Mary

and Joseph.

Being turned away at the very moment

when the baby was coming must havebeen devastating.

Giving birth in a stable no doubt

tested their faith to the very limit.

Certainly it would not have made

sense at the time.Mary and Joseph no matter how

devout they were simply could not have

foreseen how this negativeturn of events

would turn about to be part of Gods plan

to bring his Son to the world.

They might have believed it, but they

would not have seen it in advance.

Life is like that we dont know

what is coming around the corner and

many things we endure make no sense at

all. Sometimes they dont make sense for

years to come.

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And sometimes they never make

sense to us.

Last week we heard about a familywere all the family got cancer.

Or not long ago the family traveling to

Oregon that lost 3 children in an accident

In moments like this, rather than try

to explain the mysterious ways of GodOr try to answer unanswerable

questions; we do better to rest on what we

know about God

That He is good and just and merciful,

that his ways are not our ways, That he makes no mistakes

And he does whatever he pleases

(Psalm 115:3).

I take great comfort in the fact that our

God knows what he is doing

And he uses everything that happensto us to accomplish his purposes in us

and through us andfor us.

Nothing is wasted.

That was true for Mary and Joseph.

Nothing is wasted not even beingturned away because there was no room in

the inn.

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Second, we learn also that the world

had no room for Christ, and it has no room

for Christ now.John 1:11 puts it very plainly: He

came to that which was his own, but his

own did not receive him.

Jesus came to his own people

And they wouldnt take him in. He came to the people who should

have known him best

And they wanted nothing to do with

him.

They should have known better. They knew he was coming

God had told them over and over

again many times in many ways.

They had ample warning.

But the rejection of Christ by his own

people was a portent of things to come.

If Mary and Joseph would come to

Lindsay, they would be turned away from

the Super 8 Motel.

And Mary wouldnt have her baby at

Kaweah Delta or Sierra View hospitals.If Jesus were born today, it would

happen in a ramshackle tenement building

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or in a field in the country or in a remote

village.

The world that had no room for himhas no room for him now.

Third, we learn that his humiliation

started early and continued to the very end.

He was born outside.

They wouldnt let Mary and Josephcome inside.

During his ministry he told his

disciples that Foxes have holes and

birds of the air have nests, but the Son

of Man has no place to lay his head(Matthew 8:20).

He owned nothing but the clothes on

his back, and when he was crucified,

the soldiers gambled for his robe.

When he died, they buried him in a

borrowed tomb.

The whole story is quite remarkable

if we think about it.

Its a miracle. But we are

worshiping today a man born in an almost

dumpster.I know thats an exaggeration, but

the point is still true.

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Jesus is more than a man hes the

Son of Godbut hes not less than fully

human either.Our Saviors birth pictured the whole

course of his life.

He was an outsider in every

sense

he came fromoutsidethis earth he was born outsidethe inn

And he diedoutsidethe city walls.

Fourth, we learn that his followers

share in his fate.

We live with him We suffer w

ith him

We die with him

And we reign w

ith him.

What happened to Jesus happens to his

followers sooner or later.

Luke 2:7 reads because there wasno room for them in the inn.

Remember, the innkeeper had no idea

that the Messiah was about to be born.

True enough, there was no room for

Jesus, but neitherfor Mary and Joseph.

Even that detail tells a story.

They are alsooutside the innwhen

Jesus is born.

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That too is a pattern for the future.

Many years later Jesus challenged his

disciples this way: If anyone wouldcome after me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me

(Mark 8:34).

And so we come to the very end of

the story.What great truth lies behind the simple

words of Luke 2:7!!!

Even the tiniest details turn out to

have enormous significance in the

Christmas story.Let me say one final time, the No

Vacancysigns were there for our benefit.

God could have made a room

available.

He could have created a hospital or a

palace in Bethlehem if he had so

desired.

The sequence of events that

unfoldedthe census,

The long journey, no room at the inn,

no crib for a bed, The feeding trough

The swaddling clothes

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All of it was planned by God even

though it all appeared to happen by

chance.God willed there would be no room

in the inn not for the sake of Jesus, but for

our sakes, that we might learn who Jesus is

and why he came.

Because there was no room in the inn,the final call is always individual.

The world has no room for Jesus.

Will we make room for him in our

heart?

The story is told of a little boy whowas chosen to play the innkeeper in the

annual childrens Christmas play at his

church.

When the night came

All the children were in their places

Nervously waiting for the play tobegin.

The girls were dressed as angels

The boys as shepherds and Wise Men.

While the little girls talked and

giggled The boys poked each other with their

shepherds staffs.

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The little boy chosen to play the

innkeeper had only one line.

When Joseph knocked on the door, he

was to open it and tell them there was

no room in the inn.

As the play began, parents and

grandparents wondered how their

children would do that night. Everything proceeded as planned

At last the big moment came for the

innkeeper.

Joseph knocked on the door.

The young boy opened it and sawJoseph and the very pregnant young

girl.

Something about the sight of Mary

touched his heart

and he blurted out the show-stoppinglines, There is no room left in the

inn but you can share my room.

Some people thought the Christmas

play had been ruined.

Others thought it was the best one

ever.

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The little boy told the frustrated

director later: I just couldnt send Jesus

away. I had to find a place for Him.

There was no room for Jesus that night

in Bethlehem.

Will you make room for him in your

heart this year?

When Spurgeon preached on thistext, he made this appeal to his audience:

Even as an infant, by being laid in a

manger, he was set forth as the sinners

friend. Come to him, ye that are weary and

heavy-laden! Come to him, ye that arebroken in spirit, ye who are bowed down in

soul! Come to him, ye that despise

yourselves and are despised of others!

Come to him, publican and harlot! Come

to him, thief and drunkard! In the manger

there he lies, unguarded from your touchand unshielded from your gaze. Bow the

knee, and kiss the Son of God; accept him

as your Savior, for he puts himself into

that manger that you may approach him.

Here is good news for the worst ofsinners.

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Though the whole world may turn

away, we can open our hearts and let him

in.

May God grant to each of us faith to

believe and an open heart to say, Yes, Lord

Jesus, there is room in my heart for you.

Amen.

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make a room for jesus

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