Throw Away Your Nativity

This is the big takeaway from this. When I was reading this, I thought, here's the takeaway. The birth narrative of Jesus is one of the strongest evidences of the reliability of scripture, okay? For me, when you read stories or accounts like this, it proves the Bible's true. Here's what I mean. If you and I were going to write or rewrite or retell the story of a king, you would embellish the story to have all these things that you would expect to come from the birth of a king, right? You would have golden envelopes sent to the high society of the day, right? That's how you have it. You'd have dignitaries and kings and queens and princes coming to this man's birth. You'd have huge parades and golden trumpets by people throughout the land. You'd wrap him in royal garments because he's not any king, he's God's son. He would be placed in an elaborate crib with gold and diamond. But you have none of that. In fact, none of that's recorded because God's showing us he came in humility. No better shelter than a stable. No cradle a lion, but a manger. And no protective guards, but animals. And once again, it shows us the character of God.

And by the way, this is why God hates pride. The reason God hates pride so much is because it's against his very nature. I'm your host, Adam French, and I want to welcome you to The Ground Jesus Podcast. This is our special live recording. I'm here with Robbie and Candy, and we're excited. We're only eight days away from Christmas. Yeah, eight days away from Christmas. Eight days away. A live recording. We have people here from all over. We said we got Rome, we got Chicago, Rome, Georgia. Rome, Italy, it's big time. It took a flight here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rome, Georgia, Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, Chicago. Rome, Georgia, Chicago. Who else? Atlanta. Atlanta's here. Chattanooga. Exington, Kentucky. Chattanooga. Chattanooga. And White House. And White House. White House.

Tennessee. White House, Tennessee, yeah. Tell them a little bit, this back story. Tell them a little bit about the new music, because Adam actually came up with this idea for those who just heard the music. Tell them a little bit about the story of the music. So, Robbie and I are obviously 90s kids, so we're into the hip hop scene a little bit. So, we said, hey, what if we could create a hip hop sound also with an Eastern culture sound? And so, a guy on staff, who was it? Connor. Connor on staff, we went back and forth, and he actually created the intro music. So, the intro music specifically has an Eastern sound and a hip hop sound. A hip hop, yeah. Any hip hop fans growing up? Anybody? Okay, yeah. Wow, that was a lot of hands. Yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, that was a cool addition we had. So, today, we're gonna do something different, as usual, and I had this plan, but felt like, we're gonna do murder. I just didn't know if anger and murder was the right thing to do for the live recording. Although, it could have been good

in the Sermon on the Mountain. So, that episode will air in a couple weeks. So, we'll do this episode, and then we'll have a Q&A for the next episode. Tell you a couple cool stats. I was looking up online. Guess how many episodes we've done on the podcast up to this point? This is episode, guess what? Think anybody knows it in the crowd? Anybody know? Anybody got a guess, bro? How many episodes so far? Guess what episode this is? 140, okay, 140. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So, we've been at it for three years. Okay, watch this. If you, as ChachuPT, thank you for this, if you listened, on average, 45 minutes, let's say, 50 minutes an episode, give or take, it would take you three and a half days listening around the clock, 24 hours a day, to listen to all of them, yeah. So, you can catch up on your Christmas break, is what you're trying to say. Catch up on your Christmas break, yeah. If it's any episodes, feel free. Yeah, so the podcast, the highest we've ever been is number five in all Christian podcasts in the country.

We average between 80 to 120, roughly, on Christian podcasts, and that's out of thousands and thousands of podcasts. That's pretty cool. You guys listened, so thank you for that. We put a lot of work into this. We really love it. The goal of the podcast, obviously, when we started, was to get people to love Jesus and love the Bible. That's literally what we're trying to do. Yeah, we show you all the insights, but that's what we're trying to do, is get you to fall in love with the Bible. And you know, from an Eastern culture, you're not reading the Bible for information or facts and figures, you're reading the Bible for intimacy with a person. That's literally what it is. And so, before we go further, I think it's important for us to introduce the behind-the-scenes crew of the Forgotten Jesus podcast. So, just so you know, we have Robert Hutchison. Robert's, look, and he's doing what he's doing every week. He's taking notes already on the podcast. He's not even looking at us. No, let's give Robert Hutchison a hand. Yeah, we got Robert Hutchison, my right-hand man. All things. Yeah, Vivian's back there too. Vivian Pena on the back.

Everybody loves Vivian. She's Candy's stand-in. When Candy's out, Vivian's in. We have Ben O'Neill, who stood in and helped us get our merch. Ben O'Neill, all things, Vivian and Ben do all things Question. If you're at home and you do groups with the podcast, that's those two. And then Jeremy Brown, the new addition this year. Everybody knows Jeremy Brown. He's the one who shared Christ with me in college. And now he's, and then Chris Clapp, unfortunately, Chris, who's been with us for years and years. Chris got sick, of course. And Chris's wife, by the way, was on The Voice. If you guys know, they made it to the top three. Deck of Hearts is his wife. So they made it to, yeah, they made it to the top three, which is pretty big on The Voice. So he was flying back from California and he got sick. So Chris, we love you, you're in spirit. So, all right, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna basically in the next 35, 40 minutes deconstruct and reconstruct your entire Christmas story. Okay, I just figured that would be great for us. Just be prepared. Ruin Christmas for you. I didn't say ruin Christmas, but basically,

yeah, some people, you did, every guy, tell you, yeah, anyway. You're never gonna be able to see Christmas the same again. Okay, so go with me to Luke chapter two, Candy. We're gonna start at Luke chapter two. If you have Bible, you can join with us. Luke chapter two. Now, the interesting thing about Christmas is for a preacher, pastor, who preaches the word of God, Christmas is actually the hardest time of the year for a pastor because you only really have four chapters to preach from. And one of those chapters is genealogy. So you really have 3 1⁄2 chapters to preach from. If you count Isaiah, Old Testament, Micah, Zechariah, maybe Revelation 12, maybe, but you're really only pulling for 3 1⁄2. So for 20 plus years now, I've been preaching Christmas. So I try to find creative ways to look at the same story in a fresh perspective. But Luke chapter two is one of those two chapters. So Luke chapter two, one of those 3 1⁄2 chapters. So Candy, we're gonna read verses one and following, and obviously, I'll stop you soon, but let's just read starting in verse one. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. The first registration took place while Canarius? Canarius. Canarius was governing Syria.

So everyone went to be registered each to his own town. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the family line of David to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. Okay, so up to this point, we have a couple of things. One of the things about Luke, you know he's a doctor, so Luke is always giving us insights historically to prove the reliability of scripture. That's what Luke's. Have a question. Already. I have a question. Okay, there you go. Candy's got a question already. Okay, go ahead. I think, this is kind of like a statement and a question. So like, I think it's important to also say who we think Luke got his information from. Okay, that's good. Who did Luke get his information from? Mary. Mary, yes. Luke is, you know, so you have two guys

who are with Jesus, Matthew and John. You have two guys who are not with Jesus. We think Mark was probably with, here's a little fun fact, Easter egg for Mark. In Mark chapter, I think it's 13 or 14, maybe 14, you have that account, you remember this account? I don't wanna go through it because we'll never get back, but you know that account where it says when they came and arrested Jesus, there was a man who lost his shirt and ran away naked. You remember that account? It's kind of a bizarre account, like just plugged in out of nowhere, like they're arresting Jesus, and then this random guy gets his cloak taken and runs away naked. Some scholars believe that's Mark putting himself in his own gospel. Interesting. Yeah, we don't know for sure, but that's a cool insight. So Mark was not with Jesus. Mark got his information from who? Pop quiz, anybody know? Peter, yes. Luke got his information from who? A lot of people, right? Luke even says at the beginning of the gospel, he says, I'm gonna write an orderly account based on eyewitness investigation or interrogation of people.

Luke has insights from Mary that you wouldn't otherwise had, and Luke was a companion of Paul, so just know, and Luke was a doctor. So when you want to know like precise words or specifics of the gospel accounts, always go to Luke. So Luke's gonna include a lot of these details, right? Okay, Caesar Augustus, we know that was a real person. Quirinius was a real governor of Syria. There was a real registration. Again, this is another reason, and again, I've gone back and forth. Some of these things you don't know, so you have to speculate but this is the reason why, and then it's in the time of Herod. read in Matthew 2. So you put all these things together, and I think this is how I come up with Jesus was born in 5 BC, roughly 5 BC into 4 BC, because remember, Herod the Great dies when? Herod the Great, this is a document found, you look it up on Google History, he dies in 2 BC, okay? This is why Jesus can't be born zero, remember, he can't be born zero, because, well one, there is no zero, but he can't be born at zero, that was an after-the-fact addition to a calendar looking retroactively. So Jesus is born 5 BC, or 4 BC, so he's two years old or under two when Herod sends the decree before he dies,

you see what I'm saying? So that's how the math works out. So again, this is a timestamp, you're timestamping, this is a real event of people. Now, I want you to notice something about this account. I want you to notice, what's fascinating to me is that the birth narrative of Jesus is so brief. You ever notice that? The brevity of the birth narrative of Jesus. Now, ladies, I don't want to offend anybody, but we live in a day and age where women like to give long explanations today of the birth of their children. And I'm okay with that, but honestly, I don't understand a lot of the terms, French, like these women use sometimes. Like, the baby was breached. I'm like, I don't know what that means, right? Like, what does that mean? That means upside down, like coming out the wrong way. Or? What'd you say? I was a breached baby to be honest. Were you? Yes, I was breached, hon. Wow. You didn't know this about your own kids? I'm even a breached baby. Our kids weren't breached, but I was. Oh, you were?

I was like, wait, Robby, this is surprising. Surprising. I was like, okay. Yeah, no, I was a breached baby. Okay, who knew? Okay. Mom had to have a C-section, yeah. Wow, okay. Well, okay, or some ladies will say the cord, umbilical cord got wrapped around the neck, yeah, or came out, you know, headed the wrong way, or the head was the wrong way, or the baby cried, or the baby was hungry, we had to feed the baby. We hear this today, I'm not down in this, but this is the reality. They give you a big giant, when you get, like, first time, I remember Josie, they gave me a big old book all about the whole process. I'm like, this is like seminary class. Wow, they gave you a book? Yeah. What city, is this Prairie or Tennessee? It's Prairie. They're way ahead of Prairie or Tennessee. They give you an instruction manual. I remember it. I remember it. You remember this? I remember the big book. I read it, you know.

Okay, watch this. Okay, let's compare that. This is fascinating. This is all we get about the birth of God's son. That's all we get. In fact, you can't, there's nothing else in the Bible. Let's read it again. Look at verse seven. Read it again. Verse seven, this is all we have of the birth of God's son. Read it out loud. Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger. That's it, that's all she says. And she gave birth to God's firstborn son. And here's the point of that I wanna make, which I thought, I was thinking about this today. When the God of the world comes in to the creation he created, he doesn't come with a spectacle. He doesn't come with flashing lights and signs and symbols and, you know, I mean, you think the God of the universe should come with fanfare and elaborate parades and parties. No, in a sense, God is showing us something about his character right out the gate. What is he showing us? He arrives quietly in a cave, swaddled in a manger, which sets the stage for the ministry Jesus would have.

Think about Jesus. He is the epitome of humility. Think about this. Jesus comes on earth. He didn't have a home that he owned. He never owned a home. Jesus didn't have a coin to tell a story. He borrowed a coin. He borrowed a house to have the last supper, the Passover meal. He borrowed a tomb to be buried in. He borrowed a boat to preach. He had nothing. And yet, the Bible says, obviously, he had everything. Okay, so right out the gate, and this is the one thing I want us to see when we read the Bible. You wanna slow down enough because the challenge is you read these stories, and we're gonna read these, and I'm gonna show you three things in a minute. We're gonna show you how they didn't have a donkey. That's the first problem. So whenever you see a nativity scene, you're gonna say, what is that donkey doing there? And some of you need to go home and take him out, okay, when you go, I'm sorry, I'm blind, I'm blind. Number two is, we're gonna. Those lights just got ruined. And Chris, yeah.

Front yard. Yeah, number two is you're gonna know that the wise men on camels were not there either. So now you're removing four people from your nativity scene. And then finally, we're gonna ask, what does it mean when they had no room in the inn? And we're gonna realize there was no inn back then. But we're gonna talk about those three things in a minute. But here's. I have a question. Okay, go ahead. Okay, why do we only have the nativity story in two accounts? Matthew and Luke. Like, don't you think like it was important enough to be in Mark and John too? That's a good question, actually. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, why? You know what I mean? You know what we love about Candace? She asks questions that I'm never thinking or prepared to answer sometimes. There has to be a reason. It's like, this is like the biggest moment in history. The biggest, like all of heaven and earth and creation is waiting for this moment that Jesus Christ is born. Right? The incarnation. This is a really big deal.

And so I'm like, why do we have only two accountants? Yeah, what do you think? I have an idea. I just have an idea. I have an idea. I think it goes back to what you were just talking about because thinking about the context of the culture there, he was born into a honor-based religion, right? That the whole, everything was based on honor, right? It was honor and shame. He rose to leadership by, it was a, that's interesting when you think about that is, holiness was like a spiritual competition because you're trying to show everybody your spiritualness and that's how you became honored, right? And a lot of times it was older men, anyway. So I think- Monk phylacteries. Yeah, you could go through- Castles, all that. All of that. It's an honor-based system. And so he doesn't come to reform it. He comes to reverse it. So maybe that's why, just how you're, the way you let off, that's the whole time I was thinking when you were talking is he came into humility to show that it's not based on this honor or shame system. You either rose to honor as a religious leader

or you were shamed because you fell away. But Jesus came to show us that it's a covenant relationship that is a slow walk of humility with the Lord. So maybe that's why, because he did, like you said, didn't want to make a big deal out of it because if it was a king or if this was a story of a king, it would have been trumpets and all these things, by the world standard, by the honor system of that time. And so Jesus is saying, no, that's not what I came for. So, I mean, that's kind of my thought, but you may have went somewhere else. Yeah, no, I would say, you know, that question is actually a very Western question, I think, in a sense. I mean, it's very, and it's not bad, but it's just the way we think as Westerners. I was asking myself the question, would an Eastern Jew Hebraic person ask that question? Probably not, and here's why. We're really big on origin stories, and I'm not against origin stories, but the Jewish culture was not, they didn't focus on how Jesus came as much as the fact that He came and what He did, okay? And I'll show you an insight, I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but if you think about some of the most, the most debated section of all of Scripture is Genesis 1 through 11. That's the most debated.

In fact, if you talk to your friends, all they want to debate you as a Christian is Genesis 1 through 11. You know, if God's God, then who created, if God created everything, who created God? These kind of questions. Or were Adam and Eve real people or fictitious characters, symbolic, metaphorical? Those are kind of questions. Yeah, the Tower of Babel, the flood, was it a worldwide flood? Did Noah build a real ark? These are the kind of questions people have, okay? If you notice, when God decides to pin the origin of the world, it's really only in two chapters in the entire Bible, and it's really in one chapter, because one and two are actually the way Genesis works. Genesis 1, God tells the story from His perspective. Genesis 2, I think I got this right, Robert fact-checked this, but I think Genesis 2 is from man's perspective. It's the same story in Genesis, you can go back and read it, told from two perspectives, okay? So really, you have one chapter dealing with the origin of the world, how God created the planets and everything. That bothers us as Western American Christians. Why?

Because we want the full story. We want to know. We want the details. We want to know the details. We want to know, okay, what planet was first? Was it Pluto? Okay, wait, is that even a planet? You know, I mean, those are kind of, where was Saturn? How did you put the rings around? Is it gas? Those are the kind of questions we ask. So the point I make with telling this is, when God decides to explain the creation world, He shares it in two chapters. Now, let's parallel that, let's compare that with God's creation of the tabernacle, okay? Think about this. How many chapters in the Torah are dedicated to the tabernacle, the building of the tabernacle, the construction of the arrangements, the furniture, the way you act, how do you prepare yourself? Guess how many chapters are devoted to that? Anybody want to take a guess? How many? 21. 21. Roughly.

21, 22. You ready for this? So two compared to 21. What is God saying to us? God is more interested not in how we came here, but how you have a relationship with Him, okay? So I don't know if that answers fully, but I think for Jesus, and you gotta understand, too, when you're writing these gospel stories, they're not writing on a word processor with endless pages and endless paper. They're writing on papyrus and scrolls and vellum, and so it takes a lot. lot to write one page or one section, so they're real meticulous about what they include, okay? Does that make sense? Yeah. Totally. Okay. Let's fix the misconceptions. I'll give you three big ones. Here we go. The first one is this. This is the one that got me in trouble when I first got to Long Hollow. I thought I was helping the church. Actually, I almost lost my job. Robert, I tell you, we got more emails about this one early on because I just thought I was helping. I'm like, hey, did you know there's no donkey in the story of Jesus? And people really were mad because I'm ruining it.

We can't say- Girls were crying. Little kids were crying. Oh, my gosh. We can't say 100%. We can't say 100%, but I'm going to go ahead and- In all likelihood, there was no donkey. I'm going to say all likelihood. Now, we'll tell you this, and Doc knows, and a couple others who went to ... Anybody went to Israel with us? Anybody been to Israel? Okay. Y'all remember. Someone could have let them borrow a donkey. They were there on the bus. Because I like to go to Israel and ask this question to the tour guide just out of the blue. I don't like to- Was he laughing when you asked him? Yeah. No, he did laugh. One of the guys laughed. Elias and all of them laughed because they're like ... I'm like, hey, I always set up by saying, hey, I want to ask you a serious question. I ask it live. I want to ask you a serious question. I got a lot of flack for this back home. Did Mary and Joseph have a donkey when they came from Nazareth down to Bethlehem? They laughed. They're like, of course not.

I'm like, really? Say that again to the mic. Hold on. What is it? And I give them the mic. Because here's the point. Okay? I was thinking about this today. How have we added the donkey? I'll ask you. How did they add it to the story? I got an idea. I don't know for sure, but I got a suspicion. Why do you think the donkey was added to the story? Does it have something else to do with a donkey being included in scripture? No. No? I think I know. What was that about? Well, because like when he- Rides on a donkey? Uh-huh. Okay. No, that's a good question, but that's not- That was, yeah. I think it's because of where they stayed. I think people ... See, here's the thing you got to realize. We read the Bible in what Marty Solomon calls, we read it, what's called the lullaby effect, right? It's like when you hear lullabies, you know we talk about this before in the podcast,

but you hear lullabies so often you don't realize they're really not good lullabies. London Bridge is falling down. That's a bad thing, by the way. Bad. Go read that. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. I mean, the guy falls apart. He's broken. I mean, it's bad. We sing these songs to our kids and we don't know what we're singing, okay? But what happens is, the principle there is you sing them and hear them so often, you're just kind of lullabied into just not ... So that's the challenge for us when we say, particularly anybody who's been a Christian for a long period of time, is you have to constantly try to look at ... This is what I try to do every time. I try to put aside all the presuppositions, all the training, and I want to read this fresh as if I'm hearing this for the first time, okay? And I think what happened is, people assumed that Jesus was relegated to the stable with the animals, so surely a donkey ... And then I think it just became bigger in the story. Now, I did hear there was ... Somebody said this recently, there was a gospel that wasn't included in the Bible that had something about a donkey, but it wasn't written until like the second or third century. So it's rejected. Okay. Why don't they have a donkey? Here's why. Because Mary and Joseph didn't have any money, okay? They were middle to lower class. They didn't have a lot of money. Remember, how old is Mary at the time she's betrothed to Joseph? How old is Mary, scholars believe, on the low end, how old was Mary, do you think?

Fourteen. Fourteen. Fourteen. That's hard to wrap your mind around. Fourteen. That was not uncommon back then. On the high end, 16. Yeah. Okay? Anybody have a 14 or a 16-year-old? We have a 15 and a 17-year-old. So could you imagine a 14-year-old girl not only having a baby, but traveling by foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem, okay? So the journey would have taken, in a normal scenario without a pregnant woman, three days. So we can assume the journey was probably four to five days with bathroom stops or resting and she's walking. That might be another reason why the donkey got included, because people are thinking, how could this woman have gone on foot? They must have been built different. I don't know. Terrain was rough. Women were tough. You know what I'm saying? Like you would think she would have rode on something. Whenever he asks this question again, people add it in to make it more important. Those women were tough back then. What did you say? They didn't sleep. They didn't sleep. What?

Nothing. Nothing. What did y'all say? I think he was trying to say Mary was tough. No, I'm saying Mary was tough back then. Mary was tough. No doubt. Josie was doing the Cupid Shuffle the night, was it the night before or the week before? The Cupid Shuffle? The night before. Is that a dance? That's... I don't know what the Cupid Shuffle is. How do you know this and you don't know that? What is the Cupid? I don't know. You don't know the Cupid Shuffle? What is the Cupid Shuffle? In between, we'll have to show them. I gave up dancing when I became a Christian. To the left. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm playing. Okay, I'm about to say. You got me worried for a second. I'm about to say. Okay. Okay, so the journey took about four to five, okay, let me show you why I don't think they have a donkey, and for those who have heard this before,

this is just review. So go with me to Luke chapter two, and shortly after Jesus was born, they go to the temple, okay? Luke chapter 221, Kandi, you wanna read this? 221? 221, and they go to the temple, and I want you to see what happens. When the eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived. By the way, his name is Yeshua, which is connected to Joshua, Yoshua, which his name means what, anybody know? Salvation, his name, which is why, when he goes to Zacchaeus, and he's got a play on words, when he says, hey, today salvation has come to your house, truly this is the son of Abraham, what he's saying is a play on words. Not only are you born again, or not only are you experiencing salvation, but I'm here. So wherever Jesus goes, salvation is. Okay, keep going. And when the days of their purification, according to the law of Moses, were finished, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Just as it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is stated

in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves are two young pigeons. Okay, Adam, go to Leviticus 511. I wanna show you the cross-reference here, but we said this before, but just for context. So they are good Jewish, a good Jewish man and woman. They're gonna follow the law, which says on the eighth day, you're gonna serve. By the way, I had a discussion in one of my dGroups today about this with his friend who was Presbyterian, or could be Catholic, but he was saying to him, he is, I think Southern Baptist or Protestant, but he said, or not the nom, he said, his friend came to him and said, hey, if you really wanna know what's going on, you need to go study baptism the way it's supposed to be done. And he said, what are you talking about? And he said, you're supposed to sprinkle the children. He's telling him. So he came to me and said, well, what's my response? And I told him, just so you know, so Catholicism, take Catholicism with a sprinkling. Catholicism is, and this is just a high way to look at, what Catholicism did is they took the practices of Judaism and kind of repackaged them. There's a lot of, I could talk a lot about this, but I'll just show you one of them. So in the Old Testament with the Jews,

what they did for entrance into the community was circumcision. What Catholicism did is, cause I was sprinkled as a little bit, anybody sprinkled as a little baby in here? Again, I'm not throwing shade at Catholicism, I'm just telling you what it is. So when I became a baby as an infant, they brought me into the priest and they sprinkled me with water because that was, quote, circumcision, the new circumcision into the church of God, right? So they sprinkled me. Little sidebar here, when we went to Greece, we found out that, did you know for the first two centuries, two and a half centuries, the Catholic church baptized by a merchant, did you know this? Baptized, the Catholic church baptized by a merchant. There's an early church document called the Didache, which was a rule to follow for the early church. It was kind of like a comment, it was like a church rule book, like how to do certain things. And in the Didache, it says you shall baptize by a merchant. My theory is if the commentators in the New King James would have just translated this verse. So what they did is they translated it as baptizo, baptism. They just transliterated it. So they didn't translate it, they transliterated it.

Baptizo, baptism, same word, okay? If they would have translated the word, they would have translated it as immersion. That's what it means, that's what the word means, to immerse. It's a picture of taking a cloth, a white cloth, putting it in a red bowl of dye, and the very dye penetrates the fibers of the cloth so it consumes it, that's what baptism means, right? So the Catholic church, according to the Didache, said baptized by a merchant. However, if you don't have a constant water supply or living water, then you could, the exception, sprinkle. Well, then we know what happened. Third, fourth century, what happens? The exception becomes the rule. And now it's convenient, I get it, okay? So the same thing happens here. Leviticus 5.11 says this is the rule. On the eighth day, you shall bring your son and bring him to the temple to offer a sacrifice for him with circumcision, okay, to purify him. And this is not the rule, this is the exception. What's the rule, Leviticus 5.11, read this. But if he cannot afford two turtle doves and two young pigeons, he may bring two quarts of fine flour. No, no, I'm sorry, read 10, read before us. So what you're supposed to offer is one lamb or ram for the circumcision.

This is talking about a bird, I think. Oh, I was gonna say, he will prepare the second bird as a burnt offering according to the regulations, and this way the priest will make atonement on his behalf for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. Okay, so yeah, I'm just referencing, I just have the note here from her. So if you go back in the beginning of the chapter, it says when you bring your son to circumcise, you shall offer a lamb or a ram. That's the expectation. The exception was if you couldn't afford. or a lamb or a ram, what could you offer? Two turtledoves, two birds. The birds were cheaper, okay? A ram was like $1,000, the birds were like 10 bucks. So we can deduce, this is how you investigate the text. We can deduce that Mary and Joseph, they're not bringing any boy here to the Lord. They're bringing God back his son. They'll sell the farm. They sell everything they have. This is my point. If they had a donkey, they would have sold it. For it. They had to. That's good. We don't have any money. Oh yeah, we're riding in a Cadillac out front, but we don't have any, that ain't gonna work with God.

They didn't have any money. So you assume they didn't have that. Okay, so the donkey was not present. Number two, the wise man. It's in Pentecost 5-7, just so you, it's there. Okay, read it, I had the reference wrong. But if he cannot afford an animal from the flock, then he may bring to the Lord two turtledoves or two young. If he can't, see what he says? If he can't afford from the flock. Okay, let's hurry up because we're already, once again, this happens every time we record, by the way. Okay, we're gonna speed up. Number two, the wise men did not come, this one messes people up, but I'm gonna show you from the text quickly how I got this. But the wise men did not come when Jesus was an infant. So the wise men were not there. They came earliest, a year and a half. The latest, two years. I'm gonna show you why. Okay, go to Matthew 2-9, and I think we recorded, Robert, you can link it in the show notes. We recorded a whole episode of how I think, this is a fascinating study, of how I think the wise men who were actually astrologers, they looked at the stars to determine certain things, were actually descendants of Daniel 500 years before

when Daniel in Daniel chapter seven, I think, or nine, is put over in charge, actually two, he protects them, and then he's put over in charge of the astrologers. And I think he disciples them. It's a wonderful discipleship picture. He disciples these astrologers, and they pass it down 500 years later to go witness the birth of God's son. So it's cool, and so you can look that. But let's do Matthew 2-9. After hearing the king, they went on their way, and there it was, the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. Side note here. I think I do this in the podcast when I talk about this, but this is not a normal star, by the way. There's a couple reasons. I got five, six reasons why. Number one is the star doesn't rise and fall, and number two is the star doesn't leave. So this is a supernatural star, by the way, just sidebar, because it says they saw the star, and it moves, okay? So it's a supernatural star, I think. Okay, keep going, verse 11. Entering. No, when they saw. Oh. Verse 10. Sorry, go ahead. When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.

That's important. Okay, entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. That's the line. We'll come back to it. And then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Okay, that's it. So here's the thing. You got a couple things right here. Verse 11 says they entered the what? The house. The house. You see that in the text? The word house is paedion in Greek. It comes from the Hebrew word that means literal house, like the Beit Adonai, the house of the Lord. It's a literal house. The house, why do I say that changes from the birth story? Because when Jesus was born, he wasn't born in a house, he was born where? In a cave, okay? Or in a portion where the animals were. So they have since moved into a house in Bethlehem, okay? So that's the first clue. The second clue is the linchpin. What does it say? Entering the house, they saw the what? The child.

The child. That is the Greek word for lad. I said this Sunday. Is it lad or young boy? It's the same word Jesus says, let the little lads, Greek, come to me, the children come to me. So Jesus is not some infant wrapped in swaddling clothes anymore. He's a little boy running around, and so it shows me we can assume he's probably one and a half to two. Now, one part of the story. When Herod sends the decree out, if Jesus was an infant, he would have just said kill all newborns. That'd have been very easy. But he doesn't say that. He says kill what? Children. Two and under. Two and under, okay? So we assume Jesus is a little boy. Now, the gifts confuse people, because people think how many wise men came? They think three based on three gifts, right? Three, based on the three gifts, okay? But the problem is you don't make a 600 mile or 800 mile journey with three people. It's a long journey from Babylon.

Coming from Babylon, coming from the east. They had an entourage, okay? They had an entourage. So we assume three, but it's probably more than that. And they bring three gifts, and I'll just quickly talk about these. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So these gifts are gonna do two things in the life of Jesus. They're gonna affirm his identity, and they're gonna fundraise. their exodus or their departure from Bethlehem. So the gold frankincense and myrrh talk about Jesus being gold, king, what is frankincense? I don't know, you tell us. Yeah, it is. So frankincense, what does frankincense symbolize? What's that? That's myrrh, that's good though, that's myrrh. You're getting ahead. So frankincense was a picture of prayer, which anytime, by the way, anytime you see anybody burning frankincense, the altar of incense in the tabernacle was a picture, this is cool. God always gives visuals, remember? So anytime you burn incense, the smoke rises and that was a picture of the prayers of the people going up to God, that's what incense was. So incense was a picture of the priesthood because only the priest could do that.

So you have king, priest, and what is myrrh? Bombing, or death? Death, okay? So you have Jesus' identity here, you have king, priest, and sacrifice. They're telling this, you don't give a baby, myrrh was like what you wrap a dead body, you put the dead body in to reduce the smell, myrrh was the smell. What are you doing giving a kid that, a baby that? Hey, we're here, bring that little boy over here, Jesus, here's some death oil, you know what I'm saying? That's literally what it is, it literally was. Was it worth money, I mean? That's what it is, watch this. So what do, I mean you just talked about the sovereignty of God, I preach a whole mess on this, but think about this. So how does God in his divine plan, let's just back up 30,000 foot view. This is the beauty of God, okay? God says, all right, my son's gonna be born 454 BC. This is the beauty of God. How am I going to, one, confirm and affirm his identity for his parents? So Mary and him knew about Jesus, but after this point, it says she treasures in her heart, which means, all right, she's starting to realize what's going on. By the way, this is a little pet peeve of mine,

but the worst song, and don't get offended by this, but my worst Christmas song is, I do this joke all the time, I'm in the car with my kids. Mary, did you know? Of course she knew, of course Mary knew, what are you talking about? She definitely knew, right? Anyway. That you'll be, of course she knew. I think it just means like. I know, it's a cool song, I get it, but. Yeah. Theologically inaccurate. Okay, anyway, anyway, okay, if we're gonna ruin them all, we're gonna ruin everything, okay. So just don't hang out with Robbie during Christmas season. I actually love Christmas, by the way. I actually love Christmas. Okay, so think about God. God has to decide how am I going to confirm the identity of my son and bankroll the departure of the first family of my son, and he says, I know what I'll do. I'll start all the way back in Numbers with the Balaam prophecy of a star or a scepter rising, and that'll be the first sign for them. And then I'm gonna fast forward to Daniel, and Daniel's gonna give a prophecy of the exact date. So now you have the way of how to get there. Then you have a date.

Daniel says 70 weeks of seven, 77s, right? So now, or 70 weeks. So now you have 490 years, so then he gives the date, and then he says you're gonna disciple these guys, and for 500 years, you're gonna pass this down so that when the moment comes, when they need the money the most, because they have no money, you're gonna travel 700, 800 miles with gifts that you're gonna give, which Mary and Joseph will sell to fund their departure to protect the life of Jesus so he can be raised in Nazareth and die on the cross for our sin. Isn't that cool? That's how God works with the salvation. Thank you. Money shot. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, the final one, no room in the end. Okay, this is the big one. We're almost done, but I wanna finish with this one. Guess how many people lived in the town of Bethlehem? Take a wild guess. At the time of Jesus. I think I might know. Anybody have an idea? Anybody wanna take a wild guess? That's a good guess. 200 is probably Nazareth, that's a good guess. What'd you say?

1.5 million. Hey, that's a really good guess. A little high, but that's a good guess. 500. That's what I was gonna say. 500 people. Now, you're getting that because you heard me say about, there was about two million people that went to Jerusalem for the Passover, one to two million. So, they came from all over. But in Bethlehem, it was only 500 people. In fact, scholars think when the babies that were killed, there's probably 20 babies killed by Herod. There wasn't a lot of people in the town, right? So, you have a really small town and a small city compared to like Jericho and Jerusalem. Now, the question is, what does the word in mean? Because we read earlier, they had no room in the what? The inn. In the inn. Now, what do you think of when you think of inn? Anybody wanna take a wild guess? What do you think of when you think of an inn? The Holiday Inn Express, right? That's what we think of. That is not what this is. Now, in the culture, you gotta remember, there was a nomadic culture. So, they were always moving. And so, they needed places to stay

for Passover and the other festivals. So, they would travel from all over. Some of the bigger towns did have inns, in a sense, but they were really like hostels where you would stay over on a journey, you know, in a big room. But Bethlehem, according to archeologists, there was never any big inn where you can do this in. So the question then becomes, what is the inn? The Greek word there is the word katalima, is the Greek word, and it's actually better translate, the CSB gets it right, guest house, or guest room, sorry, guest room, little side here. Most Jewish homes in the first century, guess how many rooms they had in the house? This is a little sidebar here. Guess how many rooms they had in the house? One. Normally. And I'll prove it to you. Remember when Jesus says, no one lights a lamp and places it under a basket. Can you quote this, Candy? But rather on a stand. Anybody like to see a Candy quote? We like to put her on the spot and she gets it. So that it gives light to all who are in the house in the same way that your light. Okay, so it gives light to all in the house. How in the world?

Okay, let's go to your house. I got one little big lighter, okay? If I stand in your house with a big lighter, is it going to give light to all in the house? Never, because you're in one room. That's how, you gotta look at the context. Jesus says when you light a lamp, it gives light to all in the house, assuming there's one room. Some people had one room and then they had a guest room off, if you had some money, you had a guest room off of the main room. So the main room was like living room, kitchen, gathering, but then you had the guest room where people would stay. So what they're doing is they're trying to find a guest room that they can stay for the census. Now, the only other time that word katalim is used in the Bible is one time in two different chapters. It's the same account, two different chapters. Mark and Luke, okay, watch this. It's in what? Where did you find the word guest room used again? It's the upper room. Yes, the upper room. No, not, yeah, the upper room where they have the last supper. That's a guest room. So same context, different area. So the guest room was a part, remember they say go find a guy in the city, Luke 22,

go find a guy in the city, he's gonna be carrying a water jug, and stop the man and say, hey, I must come to your house. The guy's like, come on, and he brings him and puts him in a guest room, okay? So that's the kind of room. That's not where they're staying because they tried to get in the guest room, but they won't let him in the guest room, and so it says they were resorted to another area that had a manger, and the manger gives us the clue. So the question then becomes, why in the world do you, this is the question, why in the world do they turn away a pregnant woman who just made a four, five-day journey, okay, in a hospitality culture that you would think would normally, I mean, if somebody comes to your house, hey, family members, we just got here, you know, your cousins are here, oh, by the way, my wife's pregnant, what do you say? We don't have any room. You say, take my what? Take my bed. That's what you do. I'll sleep in the garage, because the manger isn't like a garage. So the manger, so they have a house, guest room, and then most families had another section, sometimes in a cave, sometimes added on, mostly in a cave, where the animals stayed,

and when it'd be cold outside, they'd pull the animals inside to keep them inside. The animals were kind of like pets. They loved them because they helped them, and they did work, okay? So that's where Jesus and Mary, just where Jesus is born, in this little cave. That is where the animals stayed, but the question is this, I want you to think about this. Who in the world, in a hospitality culture, shame and honor, would not give their room up for a woman who's having labor pains about to deliver? Think about this, why? Why? That's a good question. I thought about this a lot today, and yesterday, too. Why? There's only two reasons. In my mind, there's only two reasons, okay? Bless you. There's only two reasons, okay? Because in any other scenario, you would give up your spot for a pregnant woman, period, unless there's two reasons. Number one is this. You don't wanna be associated with the scandal of this couple, that's the first one, or secondly, you don't want to be unclean from the birth of the child, and I'm gonna lean to the second more than the first.

Again, this is speculation. We don't know for sure, but this is my assessment. The first one is this, the scandal of the birth of Jesus. What am I talking about there? What's scandalous about Jesus' birth? The fact that she was pregnant. Yes. And they're not. Yeah, yeah. Joseph, I know you're not gonna believe this, but God got me pregnant. You know, it's like, come on. Some girl says that. He believes it. No, I know that, but I'm saying. At first, he didn't. At first, he didn't believe it. He considered it, though. Yeah, he considered. Which I think, anyway, that's a whole nother thing, but go ahead. He considered it, but. God had to convince him. God had to convince him in a dream, yeah, okay? But he's all in now, but that doesn't mean his family believes, and that doesn't mean her family believes. So there was a stigma around. By the way, that's what I preached a couple weeks ago. If you remember, in the sermon,

I talked about the genealogy of Jesus with Rahab and Ruth. truth and all these outcasts, you know, all these people who are not supposed to be there because the point of that is Matthew's building the case that, no, this is how God works. God's always in the business of taking people with scandal and background and questionable past, and he brings them into the family of God. Why would Mary...you see what I'm saying? Because Mary was being questioned for her past. Okay, so that's the first reason. It still seems so pretty heartless, even if, to me, like, even if somebody has done something in the way that culture says they shouldn't, let's say, and someone shows up on your doorstep in need, like a young woman who's pregnant. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm like, who cares if you're going to be unclean? Or who cares if...you see what I'm saying? Like, it's like... Well, it's hard for us to understand because we're so far detached from the culture, but it's a shame and honor culture. They were all big on shame and honor, which proves into why they acted like they did, and they wore these phylacteries and these long robes and tassels. And Jesus said, your tassels hang on the ground, but your hearts... So that was their culture. So they didn't want to be around anything that would ruin their reputation, definitely not some woman who's living in adultery. And you have to remember, back then, if you committed adultery, you could be stoned as a woman to death. So according to law, Joseph had the right, if he wanted to, to stone her to death, according to the law. I still think it's a little bit of a stretch just because, like, if the journey was so far, you think they would have known?

And thinking about how communication was at that time, I mean, you'd think word would have traveled. That's my thing. No, that's what I'm saying. There's only two options. I'm not leaning toward this one. Yeah, I don't know about the first one because... No, I'm not leaning toward this one, but that's the only two options. It's like they would have already known by then. I have a hard time thinking they would have known. It's just a life of rejection. Okay. The second one makes more sense, okay? According to Leviticus 12, and I'll just summarize it for time, Leviticus 12 says that after a woman has a child, she is ceremonially unclean for seven days. Ceremonially. So what that means is in that culture, it was the same thing. If you touch the leper or if, you know, when Jesus would touch or heal certain people that were outcasts, when you came in contact with a tax collector, remember they said this man eats with sinners, he's an outcast. So you're supposed to sequester yourself for seven days and then you come back, you're ceremonially cleansed again, okay? So could it be, and this is my theory, I think Jesus was not born on December 25th. I don't think so for a number of reasons. One, the shepherds were in the field. They wouldn't have been in the field in the winter, which was December. April makes more sense to me. But this is, again, speculation. But I think Jesus was born at or around Passover, April, okay?

This would make more sense to me. So why would a group of townspeople not welcome a pregnant woman who's in need, just traveling? Hey, listen, I'm about to have a baby. Sorry, ma'am. We're, you know, park's closed. Sorry, too much. Who in their right mind would do that? Unless, unless they know if this woman comes in and is around us and has a baby with blood, the whole house is unclean. And it's full, so they don't have extra room. So you can't get away from her. I mean, it doesn't make any sense to our culture. But that seems to me like the logical reason. But like Candy said, the hypocrisy, now watch the message here, the hypocrisy that Jesus was born into was prevalent in that day. That people, even in his birth, this is what hit me today, they're still rejecting him because of a law, and they miss compassion and love. You should have love. They miss it. Well, you know, the Bible says we could. No, a man's dying here. You know, help him. So you see the point here. And so, who in their right mind would force this woman to be out with the animals and not be welcomed in? It's such a picture of we are supposed to pursue God with this private humility, not the public honor. We keep going back to that. But I think if you think of the culture of that time, everything's about honor

and ceremony unclean. That's what they were worried about, right? You're saying they were worried about, we would be shamed. We can't be a part of what's happening. So Jesus, which eventually, what is he going to do? He's going to come against... You're not going to say this yet, later? Okay. So anyway, I don't want to... No, no, no, go. I don't know where you're going with all this. I'm almost done. I'm almost done. But he's going to come against this publicly all through Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The Sermon on the Mount is saying, no, we're supposed to have a private walk of humility. That's what the Christian life looks like. It's a private humbling of your heart. Not so that we can seek, you know, any sort of recognition from people, but so that we can have this rest with him for our souls. They always think in the South, we talk about soul food. And you think about, why would you... They both said, mmm. I like some good soul food. That's some good old Louisiana folks right there. Louisiana has good soul food. But when you have soul food, what does it mean? Like, you eat till you're full, and then somebody can bring a cake. It's not because you don't want dessert. It's...

I'm satisfied. I'm full. That's what happens when we consume the word of God and we fixate our lives on scripture and on the word. It fills our soul. And we don't want what the world, it don't matter how good it tastes, I don't want that, I'm full. That's good. So good. Because you're feasting on the word and you're not bottling and fooling with the world. And it's no accident that Jesus was laid in a manger. Okay, that's the next thing I was, that's literally what I have on the notes. Okay, you tell them what the manger means. No, no, no, but wait. See, the joke in our house is, Candy gets insights in the word, this is true now, and she'll say, I'm telling you a little secret, but you can't take my. I'm like, you can't take my stuff. And I'm like, I'm not gonna take it, and then I preach it next week. But anyway. And I'm like, it's all already been said. I give you credit for it when I take it. Yeah, the first time, but not the second time. What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours, babe. Yeah, okay.

Well, have you ever thought about this? What do you think about Joseph had to serve as a midwife? Mm. Because there is no room for them, so you know ain't nobody helping her. No, there ain't nobody helping her. Except Joseph. No. Joe, it's me and you, babe. Yeah, I mean, literally, you don't think about that. That's good. You would have been done. I would have been done. You would have been passed out. I get weak on blood sometimes. He gets very weak. Yeah, I get very weak on blood. He would have been like. Robby, are you there? I don't know how Adam would have been, but Robby would have been done. I think I'll, you know how Robert would do. No, I'm okay if anybody else is bleeding, except for my children. Robert wouldn't have been needed because Ruthann can have a baby in a car. This true story, Robert, can we tell this story? Fun fact. Robert is my hero. Robert was trying to get his wife to the hospital,

literally, and driving to the hospital, she says, pull over. Robert delivers the baby in the van. No, Robert, Robert Hutchison, yes. Yeah. I was gonna say, Ruthann did most of the work, but Robert was right there. You get three of them, Robert. You get three of them, Robert. I was just there and didn't pass out. That's half the battle for me, Robert. Robert, Robby would have been. No, the manger. Okay, let's just say this. Okay, yeah, go ahead. But I just find that interesting. Real quick, we're almost done. I mean, I got two things that we're done. The manger, I'm gonna save the cloth for Sunday. You have to tune in this Sunday for the cloth, but the cloth has a three-fold thing. It's unbelievable, but the manger. The manger is a feeding trough. This is how we know they were in that section with the animals, not in the guest house, not in the regular house. They were in the place the animals were, and the manger is another word for feeding trough, if you had animals, you know, feeding trough. But the way we understand it is a dog bowl,

a big dog bowl, okay? So if you go to my house and Rig and Ryder as a baby are in a dog bowl, you're like, all right, something. That was the sign. The sign was not the swaddling cloths. I mean, that was part of it, but the sign was you're gonna find him in a dog bowl, and what God is saying right out the gate is this is no ordinary boy. This boy is going to feed your soul, just like manna was good for the body, but manna's a picture of the soul. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from this boy. That's right. He's gonna feed your soul. So that's another little cool thing there. Here's another little crazy insight here. You can write this down, look it up later. Did you know Jesus's life is bookended with a cloth and a cave? Nate, you're gonna like this. I don't know what to do with this, but boy. Where'd you get that, hon? Yeah. You hear that on Watson. I got that from the Holy Spirit. I eat candy. Anyway. Yeah.

I did get this from her, but think about it. What do you talk, you say it, then. What do you mean by it? What do you think it means? I think it's interesting. Well, for the most part, I was gonna say, I mean, he's obviously, we think, born in a cave, and he's gonna be laid to rest in a cave. There's no room for him in the end. There's also no tomb for him in the end. Like, there's, it's just there. In the end, that's good. In the E-N-D, end, end, yeah, I got that, I got that. And then he's wrapped in swaddling cloths on the front end, which you'll hear Sunday, is actually grave clothes. And then this is where they bring the spices, too. They wrap the dead body in, because they were nomadic. They brought the spices, too. Oh, wow, look at you, man. I'm telling you, I need to do this. This is the kind of thing that gets me thinking. I was like, there's gotta be more here. So I started, I didn't have time today, but you can do this if you have the insights. Come teach us, because I want to learn. But you think about it. His whole life is bookend, and it shows us this is not an ordinary boy. Every human being is born to live.

Jesus was born to die. He was born to die. Aren't you glad? And I said, listen to this. I heard this on a song today, and it was so good. I told you, but you might have already forgotten. But it says, it says. Forgotten. Jesus. It said that Jesus, it said something to this effect about Jesus's first breath is the beginning of conquering death. And I thought, wow. Like, the moment he breathes his first breath out of the womb, it's the beginning of him conquering death. It's good. I think that's really, that's what is so fascinating about all of this, if you think about it, especially right now. be the point and the encouragement for everybody here is to literally go back and read those accounts in Matthew and Luke right now while we're in this Christmas season because it happens so fast and before we know it it's gone and we miss so many things because we hear the stories every year and it's kind of routine but it's like go back and read it afresh and ask the Lord to show you something new you know and just sit in it and just be amazed at the wonder of it and all the things that Jesus did for us I mean like it's such a big deal I love it. It's powerful. What you were saying too, I'll say this one point, is that we should be living with the end in mind with eternity in mind yeah that's how we should be living it's a picture of the Christian life if we're living just for ourselves and what we can get in this life and it's it's all gonna fade away

but if we're living with the end in mind it changes how we operate the things that we do the people we invest in yeah Jesus is just preaching a sermon just by his birth yeah well here's what here's a takeaway this is a big takeaway from this that I was reading this I thought here's the takeaway the birth narrative of Jesus is one of the strongest evidences of the reliability of Scripture okay for me when you read stories or accounts like this it proves the Bible's true here's what I mean if you and I were going to write or rewrite or retell the story of a king you would embellish the story to have all these things that you would expect to come from the birth of a king right you would have golden envelopes sent it to the high society of the day right that's how you have it you'd have dignitaries and kings and queens and princes coming to this man's birth you'd have huge parades and golden trumpets by people throughout the land you'd wrap him in royal garments because he's not any king he's God's son he would be placed in an elaborate crib with gold and diamond but you have none of that in fact none of that's recorded because God's showing us he came in humility no better shelter than a stable no cradle a lion but a manger and no protective guards but animals and once again it shows us the character of God and by the way this is why God hates pride the reason God hates pride so much is because it's against his very nature it's against who he is that's why he rejects pride or repels pride and attracts humility and gives grace to the humble because that's who God is all right I think that's enough it's for tonight we go on but but but we got to stop so I think that's enough to finish our yeah yeah thank you so much for tuning in with this live and those who will tune in with this later and learning more about it subscribe and like if you haven't described this right we're almost at 500 4.9 star reviews on our podcast which is pretty good I think but but if you haven't subscribed or liked or sent the podcast yeah yeah subscribes the big one if you could subscribe to get your phone with you now you can subscribe like share helps us get the Word of God out and help us learn about the forgotten Jesus you