Introduction
This teaching turns our attention toward the events leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, drawing primarily from Matthew 1 and Luke 1 (with attention also to Luke 2). The aim is not merely to admire a familiar Christmas account, but to see it as real history, an account filled with human faith and action, and even more, filled with the sovereign hand of God. The Lord is never late and never early; He is always precise. Even when we would prefer He move faster, Scripture trains us to recognize that God’s purposes unfold in perfect timing.
Christmas is not sentimental nostalgia. It is the arrival of the Savior of the world, Christ coming into the world to save sinners. He would be born in Bethlehem, grow into manhood as the God-man, teach and love with perfection, and then give Himself for us on the cross. He also came to establish His church, and by His grace we are brought into that body where we stand equal before God, redeemed, belonging to Christ, and carried toward a future filled with hope. When the world feels heavy, believers are called to look with “eternal glasses,” remembering that suffering is not the final word and that God’s promised end makes present hardship endurable.
The coming of Christ also means reconciliation. In our sin, we were not neutral toward God; we were at enmity with Him. We could not pay our debt or heal the separation. Jesus came as Mediator, reconciling us to the Father, giving us a future and a hope, and making us sons and daughters by grace. The truths sung in “O Holy Night” capture the heart of this: Christ teaches love, brings peace, breaks chains, and declares even the oppressed and enslaved to be brothers. The gospel announces that the Lord has come, and that His name is worthy of praise forever.
Module Content
To recognize God’s perfect timing, we begin with history, because God was arranging the world, leaders, nations, and circumstances, to bring forth Christ exactly as promised. If you pay attention to the movement of history, you begin to see how the Lord shapes outcomes that no human council could ultimately control.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, Israel existed under the shadow of the Roman Empire, ruled by Caesar Augustus. Yet Augustus did not begin as “Augustus.” He was born Octavian, the great-nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar had no direct heir, and so he adopted the young Octavian, publicly making him heir to the throne. Octavian was only seventeen when this happened, young, inexperienced, and suddenly tied to the future of Rome.
Within months, the political earthquake struck: Julius Caesar was assassinated (44 BC), stabbed repeatedly by conspirators from the Roman Senate, including Brutus, someone Caesar had once spared. The Senate feared Caesar’s rising authority. Rome had been a republic, and they resisted the drift toward dictatorship. But their violent solution did not produce the stability they expected. Instead of restoring the republic, the assassination created a vacuum. The people, unsettled by uncertainty and conflict, began to long for a singular ruler, a dictator, an emperor, a king.
A turbulent struggle for power followed. Rome’s leadership was temporarily divided among three rulers in a coalition, marked by violence, unrest, and bloodshed. One of the key figures was Mark Antony. Eventually, Antony and Octavian pushed the third leader out, and what followed looked like a political attempt at peace: Octavian’s sister, Octavia, married Mark Antony, functioning as a kind of bridge between rival powers.
But the alliance fractured. Mark Antony pursued a relationship with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, and divorced Octavia. The personal betrayal became political rupture. Antony and Cleopatra joined forces and gathered what appeared to be an unstoppable military power. The world assumed Octavian could not withstand them.
Yet at the Battle of Actium, the outcome reversed expectations. Octavian’s strategy succeeded in a way that surprised observers, and Antony and Cleopatra ultimately took their own lives. With that, Octavian became sole ruler and took the name Caesar Augustus. “Augustus” means “majesty,” and the irony is hard to miss: the man called “Majesty” would be reigning when the true Majesty, the Lord Jesus Christ, entered the world in humility.
Even as Augustus consolidated power, the years preceding Christ’s birth remained unstable and difficult. Augustus sought ways to display and strengthen his authority, including toward the Senate and other political forces. One of his chosen tools was a census, an empire-wide registration intended to support taxation and to demonstrate that his rule reached into every corner of Roman life. It was a declaration of dominance: everyone must comply; everyone must be counted.
Yet the sermon draws us to see what Augustine could not see: behind the decree of a pagan ruler stood the Lord God Almighty. The emperor believed he was securing his kingdom, but he was unwittingly serving the purposes of God.
Luke records the matter plainly:
- Luke 2:1–3: “A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered… so all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.”
God used that political order to move real people to a real place at the exact moment prophecy required.
The reliability of this account has been mocked at times, with critics claiming there was no evidence for details such as Quirinius governing Syria at the relevant time. But archaeology repeatedly has a way of humbling doubt. Coins and inscriptions have surfaced supporting the historical framework Scripture provides, including evidence related to the registration described. Again and again, when competing claims are tested, the Word of God stands.
The spiritual point is not mere intellectual triumph. The deeper issue is that many resist Scripture not because evidence is lacking, but because hearts are darkened and people prefer to continue in sin rather than submit to God. Nevertheless, God confirms the trustworthiness of His Word, and He calls His people to rest in it.
The world into which Jesus came was dark. Historical accounts describe widespread wickedness, crime, lawlessness, and dangerous travel conditions. Roads could be lined with robbers. Heavy taxation harmed livelihoods, increasing poverty and instability. Yet in the midst of this darkness, God was still arranging His plan.
Augustus, through strength and centralized rule, brought a measure of peace and stability to the region. Even the census created administrative order. And in times of chaos, people often become desperate for rescue; the human heart longs for a leader, a deliverer, a savior. That longing existed across the empire, and it echoes even in our own day.
But the Lord’s purpose went beyond Rome’s politics. The census required people to return to their hometowns, and in God’s design, this became the means of moving a young couple, Mary and Joseph, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was about ninety miles away, a demanding journey of several days on foot, and it led them to Joseph’s ancestral town at precisely the right time.
This was not random. It was prophecy fulfilled:
- Micah 5:2 foretold that though Bethlehem was small among Judah, from it would come the ruler in Israel, One whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
So God’s sovereign hand can be traced through political upheaval, military conflict, imperial decrees, and the ordinary burdens of travel, each thread serving the arrival of the Messiah in the exact place and moment God had declared.
This leads to a sobering comparison. Caesar Augustus held immense earthly authority, yet his position is “eternally meaningless” if it ends without reconciliation to God. Scripture’s warning stands: what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? By contrast, John the Baptist, raised up by God for his role in preparing the way for Jesus, suffered greatly and even died violently, yet eternally he is with Christ. Better to be used by God knowingly and willingly than to be used unwittingly while remaining far from Him.
The sermon then anchors God’s sovereignty in Scripture:
- Daniel 2:20–21 declares that wisdom and might belong to God; He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.
God is sovereign over history. Yet His sovereignty does not erase human choice. We are responsible creatures; we have real wills, and love requires true choice. Still, God’s purposes will be accomplished. The question becomes personal: will you be part of God’s will willingly, or will you be carried along unwittingly? God calls believers to lives that glorify Him and serve His kingdom.
And now the message turns toward the human faces in this divine plan: two young people, Mary and Joseph, lovers of God, called into something astonishing. Yet their calling will not be comfortable. The sermon cautions against a shallow assumption common in modern Christianity: thinking God’s blessing is proven by ease, health, and financial security. Scripture does not present the normal Christian life as trouble-free. Difficulty is often one of God’s tools to produce good fruit.
Mary and Joseph’s path will be demanding, grueling, gritty, and filled with testing. Their faith will require trust, obedience, and action at a level they have not known before. Their hearts will face sorrow, and the prophecies surrounding Jesus will not be painless. The Lord’s perfect timing does not mean a painless process; it means God’s purposes are sure even when obedience is costly.
Closing Prayer
Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word and for the gift of Your Son, who entered this world in humility as a baby in Bethlehem and grew to become the perfect sacrifice for us at Calvary. Teach us to see Your sovereign hand in history and in our own lives. Forgive us for doubting Your timing, and strengthen us to trust that You are never late and never early. Make us willing servants, used knowingly and faithfully for Your glory. Conform us from the inside out into the image of Jesus Christ, and help us to endure dark times with eternal hope. We praise You and honor You in Jesus’ name, amen.