Sermon Tone Analysis

The Dilemma of Belief.

Have you ever had those moments when you wondered, “Is this really true?”

Maybe life has gotten difficult.

Maybe you have come to the Derailment of your hopes and dreams like Joseph, Mary’s husband, when he found out that his betrothed bride was pregnant after all his time and hard work preparing a place for them to finally come and live together as husband and wife.

For whatever reason, you came to a place where you have heard what God has promised, but life is so hard you wonder, “Is God really there?

Are His promises really true?”

Today, that is what we want to talk about, that Dilemma of Belief.

The passage we are going to look at today is Luke 2:1-7.

Most translations say, more accurately, “there was no room in the Inn.”

Now, we do not have more details provided for us, but we may assume that if there was an inn, a place for travelers to stay, there my have been an innkeeper.

Here is a dramatization of what it may have been like for the innkeeper.

Innkeeper

Dilemma of Belief

When Jesus was born, the Jews had been waiting for more than 400 years to hear from the Lord since the last of the prophets.

While many of the people of Israel were waiting for the Lord to fufill His promises, and send the Messiah to deliver them, I wonder if some struggled with Belief?

Did they face the Dilemma of Belief?

If I believe the promises, why is God not at work?

Why is life so hard?

Why are we still under Roman rule?

Yet, if I do not believe, then why would God ever help me?

I imagine many would have struggled with belief, like the Innkeeper as portrayed in the dramatization.

Why would they struggle when God gave so many prophecies, so many promises?

Let’s consider why they may have struggled with the promises.

It had been around 1000 years since God promised to David that he would have a descendent that would reign forever.

1000 years.

That is a long time.

Where is this descendent of David?

It was over 700 years since the prophet Micah predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

It was over 650 years since the prophet Isaiah who foretold,

Where was this descendent of David who would reign?

Where was the peace He would bring?

The Righteous judgment?

Where was the gathering of Israel from the Nations?

Why were the Nations not coming to Him in submission?

It had been over 600 years since Jeremiah prophesied that this descendent of David would be the LORD our righteousness.

Where was this Messiah that would do what is right and just, and provide safety?

Where was the One who would be a righteous savior?

It was around 570 years since Ezekiel prophesied the One who would shepherd his people.

It had been over 500 years since the prophecies from Daniel, where the Lord foretold the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Messiah’s, David’s Descendent’s Empire.

It had been over 400 years since Malachi prophesied about the forerunner for the Messiah, and then the coming of the Messiah.

Where was this messenger?

Where was the Lord’s coming?

These were the prophecies on which they hung their hopes.

However, it had been so long.

And now, as an example of their bondage, they had this census.

People had to travel to the homes of their ancestors to be registered.

Another demand from the Romans.

Another hardship for the people who were looking for relief as foretold, but still not seeing it in sight.

If God promised to send the Messiah, to gather his people, to punish the nations who persecuted them, to give His people peace and care for them like a shepherd cares for his sheep, why were they still suffering under Roman rule?

Why was there so much injustice in the land?

How, in light of the difficulties of daily life, could they believe the promises when it seemed like God didn’t even know He promised to do something?

What Helps the Dilemma of Belief?

I think they were just like you and me.

When we look at the pressures of the moment, when we look at the situations we are dealing with in the here and now, it is sometimes hard to believe the promises God has made to give us peace, to be with us, to never leave us, to cleanse our hearts from sin, to give us a new heart and a new mind, to give us strength for today, to give us hope for tomorrow.

What did they have to help them in their Dilemma of Belief?

What would help this innkeeper?

The Past

Prophecies and promises Fulfilled in the Past

God told Noah it would rain and flood the world.

- 120 years later, it happened

God promised Abraham he would have a descendent and a nation coming from him.

- 25 years later, there was a son, 600 years later there is a nation.

God promised Abraham his descendents would be enslaved in another country for 400 years, and come out.

About 600 years later this is fulfilled.

God told Joseph he would rule over even his own family, and he did 20 years later.

God foretold the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, and it happened just as he said.

God promised Moses he would lead Israel out of Egypt, and he did.

God promised that the Israelites would be saved and they would never see the Egyptian army again at the Red Sea, and it happened!

God promised food from heaven while they were in the wilderness, and he provided for 42 years.

God promised that whoever would look on the Bronze serpent after being bitten by a poisonous snake would not die, and they lived!

God promised to deliver Jericho, and he did.

God told Gideon he would conquer the Midianites, and he did.

God foretold Saul being king, and he was.

God foretold David being king, and he was, years later.

God foretold the punishment Israel would face for leaving Him to worship idols, and it happened.

They were taken into captivity.

God told Jeremiah they would be in captivity 70 years, and they were.

God foretold through Isaiah that Cyrus would allow the Israelites to return to Israel (long before Cyrus was on the horizon), and he did!

God did foretell the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires and they came about just as he said!

God foretold the famine for hearing the word of the Lord, and they were in it.

God has given prophecies of what would happen, and over half of those prophecies have already been fulfilled, just as he foretold!

In fact, they were fulfilled literally as He said they would be.

Even when we are going through times of difficulty, we can look back through God’s word and see that He has always been faithful to carry out what He said He would do.

Sometimes it is years, even hundreds of years before it happens, but it does happen, just as He says.

For the Innkeeper and the Jews of his day, they had all of these promises and prophecies fulfilled to which they could look back and believe.

For us, we also have the benefit of Christmas!

All of the promises concerning Jesus’ coming which have been fulfilled!

Luke wrote his gospel, researching and giving historical details so we could know that these things did happen, and they happened just as God foretold!

The Lord came upon the virgin Mary so she would conceive, and give birth to the Son of God.

He sent the angel to tell Joseph that this child was to be Immanuel!

And now finally,

To us, sometimes it seems like God is moving so slowly, if at all.

We live in the moment.

We look for everything now.

God lives in eternity, and has a whole plan that will work out for His glory figured out.

He knows the right time and place for all things.

And so, as Paul wrote in Galatians,

At just the right time, they were in Bethlehem, to give birth to Jesus, just as was prophesied!

And he was born to the virgin and called Immanuel, just as God prophesied through Isaiah.

Because we can see how God has been at work, we can take hope in Him fulfilling the rest of His promises.