Luke 2: Figuring Out What God's Doing

We read Luke 2 and sit with the shocking humility of Jesus choosing to enter the world as a helpless baby. We also borrow Mary’s posture of treasuring what we do not fully understand and learn a simple way to track God’s fingerprints over time.
• New Testament reading plan built around the Gospels and related letters
• Luke 2 as a year-round celebration of the birth of Jesus
• Jesus setting aside heavenly privilege to become truly human
• Shepherds receiving angelic good news and witnessing the manger
• Simeon and Anna recognizing the Messiah and speaking hope with honesty
• “Kept all these things in her heart” as a wise response to mystery
• Writing down prayers, insights, and timely words to remember God’s work

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Transcript

Welcome And New Testament Roadmap

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, Mike here. This is the Out Loud Bible Podcast. Thanks for being here. It's an exciting time in the life of the podcast here where we recently read through the whole Bible and we're picking up again here in the New Testament. We're going to read through the all of the New Testament, not in the order that it appears in the Bible, but we're going to take a gospel and then we're going to read some other books and letters that are associated with that gospel and do that for each gospel really until we have read all of the New Testament. I hope this season of reading the New Testament here on the podcast helps you have a greater understanding and appreciation for the role of the New Testament portion of the Bible in living our life today and help to better understand a bit of how the timeline pans out in the New Testament and to help understand the context of some of your favorite verses. You might have a life verse that is in the New Testament, and it's great, but to know the context of a particular verse helps you have a greater understanding and appreciation and wisdom of how to apply that verse in your life.

Luke 2 Beyond Christmas

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Last episode we started the book of Luke, and today we're going to continue. We're in Luke chapter two today. And again, we're just going to take one chapter. We're not always going to do just one chapter per episode, but some of these longer chapters, we can dedicate a whole episode to them. Luke chapter two is up there with the most famous chapters in the Bible because it relates to the birth of Jesus, often read at Christmas time. And I know my father-in-law had a tradition with his family that uh he would read Luke chapter two every Christmas before opening presents, before getting into the day and all the craziness of Christmas, to read Luke chapter two and really remind ourselves of why we celebrate that season. Now, at the time of this recording, it's not anywhere near Christmas time, but let's not relegate Luke chapter 2 to only being read around Christmas. This is something to celebrate all year round, to remind ourselves of the birth of Christ. It's not just about like, oh, that's nice, a baby was born, and now we give gifts and we celebrate Christmas. No, we the birth of Jesus is frankly preposterous. It is ridiculous to think of how much of a downgrade Jesus experienced to become human. Okay, Jesus was born as a human, but that was not when he started. He was he existed from the beginning. He was there when the foundations of the earth were formed. Through him, everything was made that was made. Okay? And so for him to take the form of a human, a helpless baby, is is such a testament to his humility that he was able to put aside all of the riches of heaven. Colossians paints a great picture of this. Putting aside all of the riches of heaven, all the privileges of being God, he put that aside so that he could become a human and born in the most humble, unassuming way. I I assume you know the story that I'm not spoiling it here. We're going to read it here in a sec. But as I read this, and we hear it again, maybe with fresh ears, let's allow ourselves to be struck with the amount of humility that Jesus displayed by giving up the treasures of heaven to come down to earth in this way. Let's talk a little bit more about that after the

Reading Luke Chapter 2

SPEAKER_00 3:26

reading here. This is Luke chapter 2 in the New English Translation. Now, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to register all the empire for taxes. Now, this was the first registration taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David. He went to be registered with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in strips of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds nearby, living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were absolutely terrified. But the angel said to them, Don't be afraid. Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all people. Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. Suddenly a vast heavenly army appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he's pleased. When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that's taken place that the Lord has made known to us. So they hurried off and located Mary and Joseph and found the baby lying in a manger. When they saw him they related what they had been told about this child, and all who heard it were astonished at what the shepherd said. But Mary treasured up all these words, pondering in her heart what they might mean. So the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything was just as they had been told. At the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Now when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it's written, in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male will be set apart to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is specified in the law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, who was righteous and devout, looking for the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So Simeon, directed by the Spirit, came into the temple courts, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God, saying, Oh now, according to your word, sovereign Lord, permit your servant to depart in peace. Oh, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. So the child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him, and then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, listen carefully, this child is destined to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be rejected. Indeed, as a result of him, the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul as well. There is also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Fanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was very old, having been married to her husband for seven years until his death, and she had lived as a widow since then for eighty four years. She never left the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day. And at that moment she came up to them and began to give thanks to God and to speak about the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. So when Joseph and Mary had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom, but when the feast was over, as they were returning home, the boy, Jesus, stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn't know it, but because they assumed that he was in their group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they began to look for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they didn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard Jesus were astonished at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were overwhelmed that his mother said to him, Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. But he replied, Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my father's house? Yet his parents didn't understand the remark he made to them, and then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with people. Well,

Why Jesus Chose Humility

SPEAKER_00 10:33

at the beginning of this episode, I encouraged you to think of the coming of Jesus in terms of what Jesus gave up to be a human and come in this way. Why did he do that? Because the state of humans was so dire, destined for eternal death as a result of the sin nature that we were enslaved to, that the only way to save us was to become one of us and to die as one of us, yet perfect. He loved us so much that he came to us as a human, yet so humble that he came as a baby that had to learn and grow and eat. It's kind of hard to wrap our mind around. But

Keep These Things In Your Heart

SPEAKER_00 11:18

did you notice a phrase that was used twice in this chapter, and it was actually used once in the previous chapter in Luke chapter one? In Luke Chapter 1, this phrase was used regarding the people who watched Zechariah's mouth become open as he proclaimed who his son John was going to be. And twice it was used by Mary here, once when the shepherds explained all that was happening to bring them to the manger, and once right here at the end of this chapter, when he considered all of these things that boy Jesus was doing and saying, the phrase is, she kept all these things in her heart. We would be wise to do the same. It's a great phrase to describe how to respond to when things just seem too big and mysterious for us to understand right now. We live in a time, in an era where if we don't know something, we just Google it. We want to know the answers and the explanation now. But God is so much bigger than that. And the way he works, we don't understand everything he's doing right now, but he drops little clues, little tidbits here and there, little pieces of information, little things that just make us go, hmm. We would be wise to keep these things in our hearts. Because there will come a time when we can look back, and if we remember these things, if we've kept them in our hearts, we can remember, oh, that's what God was doing back then. Oh, I see. And then we can put together a trail of God's fingerprints. We can kind of follow these God's trail markers through our life and put together a sense of, oh, this is what God has been doing all along. I didn't know what it meant then, but I know what it means now. And that helps build our faith for whatever he is building in us.

A Simple Journal For God Moments

SPEAKER_00 13:09

What does this look like practically to keep these things in your heart? Well, I don't just rely on your memory. We know that that can be faulty. Write them down. I've got a journal of uh it's kind of titled, I guess, When God Shows Up. And when there's something that maybe someone says to me that I'm like, hmm, that sounds like something God would say. I don't really know exactly what it means or if it applies right now, but let me write that down. Or when God answers a prayer, I mean, that's always great to see. I write that down. Or when he is, I don't know, I just I read something in the Bible even that's like, ooh, that's good. I gotta, I gotta remember that. Or, ooh, that refers back to what I I was thinking about earlier. I write these things down. Keep these sort of things in your heart so that you can start putting the pieces together. Because listen, God wants to be known. God wants to be discovered. He's not ever going to be as obvious as he could be, because that would just blow us away. He wants to be discovered and he loves this relationship that we can have with him, where we keep leaning in and keep picking up what he's putting down and thinking about them, pondering about them, praying about them, and through this developing a greater trust and appreciation for who God is and what he's doing. What do you need to consider and keep in your heart today? Maybe you need to start writing some things down, keeping some notes, and discovering what God is doing in your life for his glory. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day.

Final Question And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Thanks for joining me here. We'll see you next time.