Many years ago when I attend Pastor School and Conference in Hammond, Indiana I was supposed to book a hotel room for another pastor and myself. The idea was to share the room and the cost. Well I waited just a bit too late… and when I called the recommended hotels there were no rooms available. I tried more hotels than I can remember but there was no room in the Inns. So I checked out a hotel on the outskirts of Indiana just bordering Chicago. It looked nice, the description sound nice, the price was right and they had a room. It was bit out of the way but close enough to Chicago to try their Deep-Dish Pizza. You can’t talk about iconic Chicago cuisine without including deep-dish pizza. Personally; know what they are raving about.

Anyway when we arrived it didn’t look like the brochure… The manager was not at the desk and it took a few times ringing the bell before a tall gruffly beard guy came to the desk with a cigarette in his mouth and asked us to sign his register book. All the time talking to us the man never missed a puff of smoke while the ashes were landing on the floor and very near the register book. I’m thinking we are going to have a fire before we ever get to the room. Well after we settle. I asked if they had internet; “never heard of it”.
We got to the room lugging our bags. I just wanted to crash in the bed but that didn’t happen. When I opened the door we were stunned with the smell of smoke & mildew and none of the windows would open. It was bad.

The bathroom went from bad to worst. The toilet seat was broke so when you sat down it shifted… The mirror was there but it was so clouded it was worthless. The hot water faucet had half a handle and the beds were terrible. The décor looked like it hadn’t been renovated since the Eisenhower administration and I say that because his picture still hung on the hall wall. We made the best of it but in the morning there was no hot water for a shower. That was it…I called the desk and the manger complaint all you pastors are going to that conference and getting your showers at same time so it isn’t my fault. The thing can only make so much hot water. The only good thing in our room was the television which wasn’t even an issue since we were classes all day and the conference at night and were too tire to watch it. Yes, that was bad real bad but…

How much worse it must have been for Mary and Joseph when they arrived in Bethlehem with a baby on the way. There were people waiting for a place to stay to sign up for Rome’s new taxes. When it came to Mary and Joseph there were no rooms in the Inn. I can imagine Joseph pleading with the manager of the inn, telling him of Mary’s condition and their desperate need for a place where she could give birth to her child. But “there was no room for them in the inn. I am sure they would have been happy with our defunct room.

Today, 2,000 years later, millions of people still have no room for Jesus. Although they participate whole heartily in the festivities of the Christmas they keep Him out of their lives. They have a NO VACANCY sign in their hearts. That seems to be the climate of the world today. What was the climate of the world like when Jesus was about to be born? Let’s consider it’s

I Significant History vv. 1-5

1. The then known world wasn’t thinking about preparing for the king of kings. This virgin born son of God but rather a human Emperor named “Caesar Augustus”. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. His name was really Octavia. In Julius’ Caesar will Octavia was to succeed him in leading the Roman Empire.

2. He was actually the First Roman Emperor of the World Empire and usually the first is the greatest like “Washington” etc. Many historians believe that he was the greatest of all the Roman emperors. He brought Rome to a period of peace uniting the empire together. However, to do this you need money and lots of it. So the people of that time were being heavily taxed, and faced every prospect of a sharp increase to cover expanding military expenses. To do this Caesar Augustus called for a census “that all the world should be taxed”. ”

a) History confirms this taxation and the timing of it. (The Works of Josephus)
b) Scripture confirms this taxation and history reaffirms this. (Acts 5: 37)

3. It was a busy time in the Judean village, but the excitement had nothing to do with the upcoming birth of Christ. The crowds had gathered to take part in this unwanted census. They didn’t know that Mary was about to deliver the Savior of the world. In such a time, and amidst such a people, a child was born to a migrant couple who had just signed up for a fresh round of taxes, and who could not find a room anywhere.

Joke: Zig Ziglar tells about his brother who was traveling & came to a hotel and asked for a room. The manager told him that they were fully booked & there were no rooms available. Ziglar’s brother said, “Now, be honest with me. If the President of the United States walked through that door right now & requested a room, would you have a place for Him to stay?” The manager replied, “Well, if the President needed a room, we’d find one for him.” Ziglar’s brother said, “That’s great. I know for a fact that he’s not coming, so I’ll take his room.”

4. Is not the God of the universe able to provide a place for His own Son? God gave it all to man and man could not find a place for Him. Certainly the God who created it all could of. Let me suggest to you in the second point… that God used this situation for a very signification …

II A Very Signification Connection vv.4-7

1. Christ was born in Bethlehem, in Hebrew this means “The House of Bread” the literal meaning of the city’s name. Bread is one of life’s most common things. God wanted to identify with the common man. God wanted His Son available to all. Jesus was not born in the house of royalty nor in the house of riches, nor in the house of celebrity. Jesus was not born in Jerusalem, or in Rome or in Athens or Alexandria. Jesus was not born in any political, commercial, cultural, educational, or socially significant city of the day.

2. When Micah, the Old Testament prophet, foretold the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, he emphasized its lack of significance to the world.
“But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel: whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

3. His cradle was a manger, an animal’s feeding trough in a lowly stable. There is no human so low that he or she is outside the reach of the love of God! Christ was born in Bethlehem to satisfy our spiritual hungry. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger.” (John 6:35) (John 3:16)

IV A Very Signification Purpose vv. 8 -11
1. A signification purpose we see in these verses “Shepherd” in the same country watching over their flocks. His birth was announced to shepherds, the common man, but not to King Herod. The simple men were the humblest and meekest. Note these were first to hear the greatest news!

2. Many of the “shepherds of Bethlehem raised the sheep or lambs for the temple sacrifices at “Jerusalem”. They were preparing the most precious spotless lamb for the coming sacrifices. This was where “David” was tending sheep when “Samuel was told by God to go to “Jesse, the Behtlehemite, for I have provided me a King among his sons (I SAM 16:1)

Remember God called for the “Passover Lamb Exodus 12:5 “Without spot or blemish a male of the first year. God was depicting his son born on the fields of the “Passover Lambs” as His Lamb His own precious son. Remember “John the Baptist declare Behold. God’s own son was born in the confines of the Passover lambs.

4. Jesus was born to die. He became the supreme sacrifice to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. It was all in Gods’ timing for He would send His son to redeem the world. And the child who was born was called, among other things, Emanuel God with us. Mark 10:[45] For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Conclusion: vv 12-16

I’m not sure whether the Inn keeper was a hero or a villain… I know that his response was the response of preoccupation. He was a busy guy. Never had his inn been so full. Never had the demands on his time been so pressing. And he wanted to take care of all the guests who had come. He wanted to be a good innkeeper that night. It was a time of making money for him. That is simular to what happens today, isn’t it? Is there room in your life for Christ? We all know Jesus is the reason for the season!

But folks, unless you’ve accepted the gift that he’s given—unless you’ve received Jesus, known him as friend and Savior, unless you return the love that he has so graciously lavished upon us—then you’ve missed the real meaning of Christmas.