God Does What He Wants • Luke 2:1-20

55:23 Teaching begins

Notes

Christmas reminds us that God is sovereign. He makes decisions and carries them out and no one can stop Him. He does what He wants with all power.

Christmas reminds us that God uses all that sovereignty and power to be absolutely good.

I hope when we’re done everyone will be very happy about God’s sovereign goodness.

I’m reading in Luke 2.

1. These scriptures remind you that God is sovereign.

A. Sovereign means not under control from outside. A sovereign person could make decisions and no one can unmake them or destroy them. It means absolute power.

B. We talk about people or nations being sovereign in that they can determine for themselves alone what they are going to do, but even that is relative. One sovereign person will clash with another. There can’t be two absolutely sovereign beings.

C. There is only one sovereign. Paul says 1 Timothy 6:15 He (God) who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

2. God is sovereign over nations and rulers.

A. Here in Luke 2 we see God making the ruler of the world do His will without even knowing it.

B. It reminds us that God is sovereign over rulers and nations. They don’t feel it, they don’t acknowledge it, they deny it and reject it. So what? It doesn’t affect God’s sovereignty in the slightest.

C. Getting Caesar to call for more taxes is not even the impressive thing. This passage is not about the most powerful man in the world.

3. This passage reminds us God is sovereign over individuals to fulfil His own purposes.

A. The main focus of God is getting a pregnant woman to Bethlehem to have her baby. She doesn’t live in Bethlehem, she lives in Nazareth.

B. God sovereignly determined where His Son would be born. God has made specific promises into a paper trail so you can see the fulfilment is not random or chance because it goes beyond probability.

C. That baby can’t be born anywhere else. And it is most improbable that a woman in her ninth month would say, omigosh! I have to get to Bethlehem! I have to help God out!

D. You know what she’s thinking? Why does it have to be this hard? Why couldn’t we wait a couple of months to pay the stupid taxes? What a pitiless government. Please, God, get rid of the Romans. There is no tingle that wow! It’s the sovereignty of God! This is the most pleasurable thing in the world! I love being nine months pregnant riding on a donkey! God didn’t even ask her permission. He doesn’t have to. He is God and He is making her do His will whether she feels like it or not, for His own purpose.

E. He is also not depending on anyone to fulfil His word, He Himself is doing it. He is absolute sovereignty with absolute power over nations and individuals.

4. God uses His sovereign power to be good to the lowly.

A. God didn’t choose Caesar Augustus or any mighty or wealthy family to bring His Son into the world.

B. He chose the Jews, the people He chose, the one people group no one would choose.

C. He chose the family of David, and within that family He chose a poor relation. He’s a carpenter. They are having to make do with staying in a stable. They can’t buy their way out of a tough situation, get a nice place to have a baby. It’s any port in a storm. God chose to bring His Son into a poor family.

D. Not only that, God decided to reveal this momentous event to sketchy people, lowlifes.

1. He didn’t tell Caesar Augustus.

2. He has angels appear to shepherds. They had a reputation like cowboy tradesmen today. I know there are good plumbers out there, and construction guys. But generally speaking shepherds had a reputation like that of bus drivers today. Not nice. Not highly regarded. No one you would entrust with valuable news. Guys who are not looking for God, not the spiritual type, just everyday joes. Lowlifes.

E. Why did God choose a poor family and choose really low people to tell that the Son of God has been born? Because that is well-pleasing in His sight.

1. Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.

2. James 4:6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

3. God enjoys being absolutely good to people who know they don’t deserve it, because they are absolutely thankful. He knows, and you know, He is absolutely good. I’m okay with that. He’s okay with that, it’s true.

F. God is good to the lowly because He Himself is lowly. He’s humble. He’s the Most High and He has spent nine months as a developing baby. Our God has the patience and endurance to become like us. God as a baby! He decided to become a perfect substitute for us, to die for us, to redeem us to God, because He is absolutely good.

G. That’s why the angels give God glory in the highest. He uses His sovereign power to humble Himself to be absolutely good to sinners.

5. God is sovereignly, absolutely good today, right now.

A. The angel says to the shepherds, “Today is born for you a Saviour.” All those promises that were future are made current. Right now your sins can be removed from you forever. Right now you can receive eternal life. Right now you can be born again as a child of God. Your future is certain, you have peace with God right now, in your lifetime.

B. All the promises are current today as they were then. They can be fulfilled in your lifetime, right now.

C. Christmas reminds us that God is the Lord of time.

1. Jesus fulfilled Passover at Passover. He fulfilled Pentecost on the day of Pentecost.

2. After Pentecost there is a long time when no festival happens. Then there are more festivals to be fulfilled: Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles.

3. Just as He was on time with the first coming of Jesus, He will also be on time with the second coming of Jesus.

4. God deliberately withheld the exact time of His coming. Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” But He has given us many signs to watch for. Luke 21:28 But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

5. Christmas shows us that God is very concerned with timing and very precise. God is not going to be sloppy and indifferent about the second coming of Christ into the world. He wants us expectant and waiting and looking for His coming.

6. So what?

A. To really enjoy God’s sovereignty you have to be aware that you don’t deserve any blessing from God.

1. Is there anyone here who deserves blessing from God?

2. That means, “God, I have done this good thing, You owe me satisfaction and happiness.”

B. To see if you qualify for God to bless you, you have to ask yourself some questions. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever hated someone in your heart? Have you ever stolen something? Have you ever been sexually immoral? Have you ever used God’s name in a curse?

C. If you answer yes to any of those questions I’m sorry. God doesn’t owe you blessing. He owes you condemnation and punishment. You are in deep trouble, unless you allow God to bless you though you do not deserve it.

D. God blesses you anyway because God decided to bless you out of His goodness.

1. No one can say it’s unfair, you don’t deserve it, because He is the Most High and it’s His decision alone. You can’t outvote God. You can’t rebel against Him and take over.

2. No one has the power to take away His blessing because God has all power. What He gives, He protects, and no one can take it.

3. God’s blessing doesn’t depend on your deserving it, so if at some point in the future you find you don’t deserve it, it doesn’t affect God’s blessing.

4. Everything rests on the fact that God chose to bless because He is sovereignly good, the burden doesn’t rest on the undeserving person.

5. Psalm 138:8 The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; do not forsake the works of Your hands. God is intimately involved in your life to accomplish what concerns you. You can rest that your business is His business, and He will take care of your business. You can’t rush God. It’s not wise to go faster than He is going. You can pray, please do all Your good will for me, and you know He will do it.

E. All the sovereign blessings of God are wrapped up in Jesus. That’s why we celebrate His birth. Receive Him and you receive everything that God has for you, now, and in the future. I hope you enjoy God’s decision to bless you.

Let’s pray.