THE DAYS OF CAESAR AUGUSTUS || PS. SHANE WILLARD

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] it is the night of our dear savior's birth long live the world and sin and every pioneer [Music] rejoices beyond the [Music] glorious [Music] us [Applause] [Music] is [Music] when christ was born truly hit hardest to love one another his glorious love and his gospel is peace change for the slave is a brother and in his name [Music] [Applause] us praise his [Applause] [Music] the [Music] divine when christ was born [Music] alive [Music] divided when christ was born merry christmas to you all it's so good that you're with us tonight i just want to wish you and your family and your loved ones a merry wonderful joyful christmas tonight we have such a blessing our good friend shane willard is sharing the word with us this is a christmas message that you need to share with your friends this is a message you need to listen to and i we so rejoice that shane was able to share this message with us god bless enjoy thank you for watching hi my friends your friend shane willard here i have some thoughts about christmas as we enter into the christmas season um as always we take time and celebrate the birth of jesus christ and anytime i bring anything i want a couple things to happen i want jesus to get bigger the cross to work better the resurrection to be central and scriptures to get bigger not smaller in luke chapter 2 we have luke's account of the christmas story and what we're going to find is luke's account of the christmas story has an interesting historical backdrop to it and i'd like to tell you that story today and then re-read luke's account understanding some of the history underneath the story in luke chapter 2 verse 1 it says in the days of caesar augustus there went out a decree that all the world should be taxed in the days of caesar augustus so jesus comes into the world in a certain place at a certain moment at a certain time in a certain environment with a guy who said that he was god in flesh there was so much propaganda around caesar augustus in the days of caesar august there's one roman historian a guy named virgil this is what he wrote about caesar augustus that caesar augustus was god in flesh fully incarnate the only way for the world to be saved was through the name of caesar augustus does that sound familiar in some of the language the only name in which men can be saved is the name of caesar augustus now in the christmas story there are some main characters there's a guy named julius caesar julius caesar was amazing he combined the whole world under one rule he um he invented the salad he also he he also was the guy that said he was god in flesh so so when rome thought about julius caesar they didn't think about a man they thought about a man who was the fullness of god incarnate it was julius caesar of course julius caesar ends up getting killed by being stabbed in the back by his best friend that sort of hurt his god claims the idea was is that if you were actually god and flesh you should have seen that coming so we're going to talk about that in just a second so julius caesar combines the whole world under one rule he has a great nephew named octavius octavius rescued julius caesar from behind enemy lines in a place called gold julius caesar was so moved by this that he adopted octavius as his son now the idea is is that if julius caesar's god now octavius is the son of god and as the son of god he should be worshipped now when octavius took over the empire after the death of julius caesar he took on the name caesar augustus the third main character is a guy named herod the great now herod the great was a guy that took the side of julius caesar in a civil war between julius caesar and pompei this worked out great because julius caesar ended up winning the civil war and he rewarded herod the great as the token king of all of israel and so the main character so far is you have god in flesh the son of god and flesh and a king put in charge of an entire nation by god and flesh and the son of god in flesh now herod the great dies in around 4 bc and julius caesar and caesar augustus the whole roman empire they reward herod the great and his sons by dividing the israelite kingdom in between three jurisdictions the judean region in the south the galilean region in the middle and then the the um the northern region and they put a guy named archelaus in charge of the south haird antipas in charge of the galilean region and a guy named philip in charge of the north the reason is is they were the three surviving sons of herod the great here the great was a maniac an absolute maniac one story says that he had a dream that his sons were going to try to take over the kingdom from him so he woke them up the next morning and he took them swimming in the family swimming pool and he drowned them and they were 8 9 and 11. this guy was a lunatic he was also a genius he figured out how to move a mountain to give 10 years of drinking water without another drop of rain in the desert this guy was absolutely a genius maniac and so they figured well if his three kids could survive him they could lead so archelaus in the south herod antipas in the in the galilean region and philip in in the north now in 22 a.d archelaus had made such a right mess of judea that caesar replaced him with a guy named pilate yep that pilot so you have herod the great you have caesar augustus you have julius caesar and you have the three sons of herod now pilate was called the eagle and herod antipas was called the fox can you see later why when jesus said things like foxes have holes and birds have nests but the son of man doesn't have a place to lay his head remember there's this one time it says they said to him they said herod's trying to kill you and he says you tell that fox exactly where i am see this was the days of caesar augustus and what was going on in the days of caesar augustus well just some quick facts that you could find in any roman history book as a matter of fact it was just a terrible time to be alive there was a guy named germanicus germanicus was a roman general 50 years before jesus he conquered the west side of the empire by slaughtering everyone of a different race who would not agree to be slaves this was the days of caesar augustus a guy named pompey took 12 million slaves in the days of caesar augustus a guy named titus conquered jerusalem and took 500 people a day as slaves for amusement the history books tell us that he would nail people to crosses in weird formations just to keep his soldiers occupied and not bored in the days of caesar augustus there was a guy named cassius cassius enslaved 30 000 people from a region called magdala that's where mary magdalene is from and he famously made an edict that all women of that region were roman property so it was not illegal for a roman soldier to rape any woman from that region because roman soldiers need their property this was the days of caesar augustus maybe the most famous story was of a roman general named varus varus in 14 a.d crucified 2 000 people in one day in a place called cepherus because there was rumors of a messianic uprising in other words there was rumors of someone walking around galilee claiming to be a new kind of king to free israel from the oppressive regime of the roman empire so varys went in under the authority of caesar and he slaughtered the lot two thousand crucifixions in a day they lined the streets of cephas up with the crucif with the crosses so that people could observe what happens if you cross caesar which leads to this question who was 14 years old in 14 a.d and where was he from he was from nazareth nazareth is like a kilometer away from cephas which leads to this question where do roman generals get their crosses from they don't walk around with them they had to employ the local carpenters to make the crosses in order to fulfill the crucifixions which leads to this question how many cr how many crosses do you reckon jesus had to make in his life before he was put on one it this was then followed up in 1880 he burned emmaus to the ground that this this made heron antipas approach caesar and say listen man your general is out of control please if you if you'll just trust me i'll keep these galilean peasants under control but you've got to get the military out of here for a little bit because they're being too cruel and caesar agreed to do this can you see now why years later like 12 13 years later when another galilean rabbi is walking around the galilean region and he's claiming to be the son of god and a new kind of king why people were trying to figure out a way to throw him off of a cliff you can't have news like that getting back to caesar they might send varus back in to destroy us this is the days of caesar augustus so who was ruling the roman empire there's a group of people called the caesars julius caesar the first caesar he was known as being god in flesh and then of course his great nephew a guy named octavius took over that was caesar augustus he was the son of god a guy named tiberius he ruled during jesus's earthly ministry and then of course there was caligula who was known for debauchery and terror then there was a maniac named nero who used to impale christians with wooden sticks through the rectum with the goal of going through both holes at once he would cover them in tar and set them on fire to keep his backyard a light then there was a guy named vespasian who died of a head woman supposedly resurrected they they knew him as the anti-christ and then there was titus he's the guy that conquered jerusalem and destroyed the temple and then of course there was the famous domitian the beast who comes from land and sea who built four churches ekklesias to his honor the main center mercantilism in outside of ephesus a place called the agora and he made a rule before you can buy and sell you have to give an offering just for the divine privilege of having the son of god rule you and so from 7880 to 92 a.d before you could buy and sell in the roman empire in ephesus you had to take the mark of the beast this guy was performing incredible economic oppression on people who would not call anybody else god these were the caesars in the days of caesar augustus so in the days of caesar augustus he ruled the whole world he was the first person ever to unite the whole world the idea was is since julius was god then augustus was the son of god who would rule the world and since he was the son of god who would rule the world he should be worshipped this is a quote from the roman historian virgil this is what it says that in caesar augustus was the incarnate divine life in flesh the one of only salvation can come to the earth but through the name of caesar augustus his accomplishments were engraved on monuments and hung in churches they were called ecclesias to his honor they called him according to virgil the one who was to come in order to bring salvation peace on earth and goodwill to all men this was the days of caesar augustus does this language sound familiar to us they said he would establish a kingdom of peace that would free men from all fear that was according to virgil as well so if you're paying attention the propagation the propagation of the imperial cult or the propaganda around augustus caesar was he would bring peace on earth and good will to all men and free men from from the from the world of fear and he would be a supplier of bread for all people this was the days of caesar augustus and of course there's a backstory to that in 44 bc a strange star appeared in the sky this happened to coincide with julius caesar's death and funeral now think about it if you're a primitive person you don't know the world's not flat you've never seen a telescope in your life you do know where every star is because that's that was your compass that's how you got around and a guy who says he was god gets stabbed in the back by his best friend and then at his funeral it just so happens that a comet comes so close to earth that it lights up the day and night sky according to roman history it lit up the day and night sky for seven days obviously a bit of an exaggeration because they're trying to get the meaning that julius caesar was god now astronomers today know exactly what happened a comet came close to earth they've actually named it caesar's comet it's in a rock song from the 70s but back then think about how you would think if you were them you would think that just proves that god died and that julius caesar has taken his place amongst the council of the gods and of course octavius jumps on this and he says see that proves that my dad was god and now he is sitting at his rightful place in the counsel of the gods in the sky so here's what happened caesar augustus institutes a 12-day celebration of his birth the idea was is that since i'm god i should be worshipped and since i'm god i should be worshipped primarily so he institutes a 12-day celebration of his birth because one day isn't enough it went from december 19th to december 31st every year and it was called the 12 days of advent it was called the advent of caesar augustus if on the first day of christmas might this kind of stuff and of course what they ended up doing is they ended up changing new year's day to january 1st the reason is is they wanted the new new year's day to coincide with the end of caesar's 12-day birthday celebration this is matthew chapter 2 verse 1 and 2. after jesus was born in bethlehem in judea during the time of king herod magi from the east came to jerusalem and asked where is the one being born king of the jews we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him now remember caesar augustus verified his deity as the son of god because strange stars appeared in the sky at his father's funeral now how do you get word about that from spain to india with no internet no electricity no printing press and town cries are highly unreliable here's what they did because back in those days people in rural areas struggle differentiating between actual news from the government and fake news now we're way past that today but they struggled with that then and one of the ways you could know that it was actually from the government is they would put government propaganda on money the reason is is the money would find its way around the empire and so that caesar augustus put out an advent coin it was legal tender in the roman empire and on the head side of the coin was caesar augustus and on the tail side of the coin was a giant star and around that giant star it says god saves us caesar augustus god saves us remember there's this one time that they were trying to trap jesus and treason and so they they asked him what about taxes to caesar and jesus goes i don't have a coin on me anybody got a coin i need a coin and somebody there said i have a coin and jesus goes huh whose image is on the coin they said well caesar's which was a little bit of jewish kung fu because the second command was don't carry idols around in other words ah you're trying to trap me but i'm not the one carrying the image of somebody who says he's god right if i were you i would keep caesar what is caesar's and i would keep god's what is god which was the sort of a jewish rabbi's way of wow like just absolute kung fu but one of the things we learned there is that in the kingdom of caesar he puts his image on money and people were commodities but in the image of this christ he puts his image on people and the money is the commodity two totally different things and so these wise men from bethlehem are like hey caesar has a star so does our guy and they come to jerusalem looking for a guy he says hey we've got to remember what it goes on to say it says and all of jerusalem was disturbed by this of course they were why because they didn't want to be rabble rousers around making caesar come in with the military but there was another group that says we want to be free from that military regime this was an amazing this was more than just two teenagers trying to convince everybody they didn't do anything this is an in-your-face confrontation to the oppression of the roman empire in the days of caesar augustus during advent augustus offered forgiveness of sins and second chances to people who would give an offering of incense to him they were commanded to say the advent slogans all around the empire caesar is lord no other name on earth by which men can be saved caesar is lord there'll be peace on earth and good will to all men this would have been this would have been clamoring around all the villages of the empire during the 12 days of advent according to the historian ethel bert stolfer in his book christ and the caesars this is what he says the entire empire would have been quaking with the advent slogans caesar is lord they said he would be a multiplier of bread for all people and they changed new year's day here is an account from a stone tablet in prien outside of ephesus of the roman senate trying to explain why they changed new year's day here it is because providence has set all things in most perfect order by giving us augustus whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit all humankind by sending him as a savior both for us and for our descendants and that he might end war and arrange all things well because he sees or by his appearing has surpassed all previous benefactors and leaves posterity no hope of another surpassing what he's done a name above all names and because the birthday of the god augustus was the beginning of the good news good news gospel for the world that came by reason of him so words like good news and salvation and savior and all mankind this was propaganda around caesar now what's the problem with that well the problem is is that he didn't rule with peace but with fear he got followers by forced confession he sent military and you either converted or you died it was incredibly effective he financed his kingdom through excessive taxation of the poor and the afflicted by one historical estimate the people of galilee are paying 87 percent taxes 50 of their fish 30 percent of the grain 12.5 percent to caesar himself just for the divine privilege of having god rule you the romans roads taxes and the temple taxes this is an unbelievably oppressive way to live in the days of caesar augustus now what i'm going to do is i'm going to read luke chapter 2 with that as the backstory and watch it come to life here we go in those days caesar augustus issued a decree that the census should be taken the entire roman world this was the first census that took place while corinthians was governor of syria and everyone went to their own town to register so joseph also went up from the town of nazareth in galilee to judea to bethlehem the town of david because he belonged to the house of david and he went there to register with mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child and while they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn a son and she wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them another sermon for another time and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby watching over their flocks at night and an angel of the lord appeared to them and the glory of the lord shone round about them and they were terrified but the angel said to them do not be afraid for i bring you good news hang on a second where have we heard that before good news was a specific word around what caesar was bringing to the world now this angel is using the same language about somebody else i bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people for today in the town of david a savior has been born to you he's the christ he is lord like the angel is just using the roman propaganda that they were using to prop up caesar he's going no no no no no i've seen how this ends and there is someone to benefit all humankind and there is someone to bring peace on earth and there is a savior and his name is christ and he is lord so the next time in the christmas season you sing a song like oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him he's the christ he's the christ he is lord may it not just be a mindless hymn that we sing but may it remind us that we are building a throne for the one who gets the last word this is a sign to you that you'll find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger and suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising god and saying glory to god in the highest and on earth peace good will to all mankind so that's my best effort at explaining what happened but anytime you open the bible you want to ask two questions what happened and what's happening in me right now because of what happened here's my question for all of us is in our life who's our lord does the narrative of our life show the world that caesar is lord or the christ is if someone looked at the narrative of our life would they go jesus is lord or would they go caesar is see caesar ruled by violence jesus ruled by peace caesar ruled by by ruling christ ruled by serving christ submitted his liberty and power to the higher ethic of love caesar caesar ruled by excessive taxation and trusting the government to take care of everything jesus ruled by instilling love as the highest ethic and trusting us to act in love to our brothers and sisters so if somebody looked at the narrative of our life what narrative is being told the narrative of caesar or the narrative of christ so what's this mean it means that jesus is lord and he gets the last word caesar doesn't get the last word jesus does anger doesn't get the last word jesus does because anger belongs to the narrative of caesar lust doesn't get the last word jesus does because that belongs to the narrative of caesar lies don't get the last word jesus does unforgiveness doesn't get the last word jesus does feeling disheartened doesn't get the last word jesus does cancer doesn't get the last word jesus does pain doesn't get the last word jesus does greed doesn't get the last word jesus does failure shame divorce cruelty none of those things get the last word that's the message of christmas that hope has flooded into our current situation and our life is not simply repeat of yesterday because we never know what god might do to our today that fundamentally changes everything and these things don't get the last word they belong to the narrative of caesar but there's a better narrative so a couple of questions what's oppressing you right now what are you tempted to say this gets the last word and i would urge us to change how we think about that the word for that is repentance let's say this way is jesus lord or is the oppressor is jesus lord as the oppressor i would ask a third question is there any person right now that we're actively through our actions or inactions oppressing and maybe one way last way to think about this today is if the message of your life was on a coin what does it say if the message of on your life was passed around as a coin what would people who observe your life if we weren't allowed to tell them that we were believers would the narrative of our life say obviously jesus is lord or is the narrative of our life telling the narrative of caesar i bless you my brothers and sisters to let jesus get bigger the cross work better the resurrection to be central scriptures get bigger not smaller i hope in listening to this brief thing that the christmas story has come more alive to you than ever before that hope has invaded the world and the narrative of caesar never gets the last word may we show that truth to the world around us every single day merry christmas everybody

Channel: RiverCity Christian Church

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Id: Z3LgPSZuBM0

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 20 2020