'PulseXtra', December 2010, Chaplain's Chat

2/12/10

Chaplain's Chat
'PulseXtra', Winter Edition, 2010

Luk 1:30 The angel Gabriel said to Mary, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. Luk 1:31
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Luk 1:32 He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High.

Those of us who meet together in the church room for Bible Study each Thursday morning have begun to read with interest the opening chapters of Luke's gospel. This has been a very timely preparation for the coming of the Advent and Christmas seasons, when we celebrate both the first coming of our Lord more than two thousand years ago and anticipate His return at His second Advent at a time unknown.

St Luke reveals in His account not only the events surrounding the Archangel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she is to be the mother of the Son of God, and the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem, followed by the witness of the shepherds, but also his own concern to establish these momentous events in their historical setting.

We live in a time of scepticism about anything which is not discernible to the human senses of sight, hearing and
touch. Spiritual truth, because it does not appear to have material value, is perceived by many as having no
value. For Christians, who want to celebrate and proclaim the great spiritual & physical truth of the coming of the
King of kings, St Luke has provided us with a wonderful record of Christ's birth, set firmly in history. He begins
his account by pin-pointing in history exactly when Jesus came as Immanuel, God with us. There was no
calendar then as we know it today and so Luke employed an equally certain way of establishing the historicity of
Jesus' birth. Luke tells us that the birth coincided with three firmly established historic events, the rule of Caesar
Augustus in Rome, the time of Quirinius as governor of Syria, and then he narrows the window in time to the first
Roman tax census during Quirinius' authority as governor. Luk 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a
decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Luk 2:2 This was the first census that took
place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Luk 2:3 And everyone went to his own town to register. The point in
history is very precise because we know that the Roman census was every seven years.

As important as the historicity of the events is the startling truth that although it was Caesar Augustus who called
the census his immense human power was subject to the plans of Almighty God. Ceasar's census caused
Joseph & Mary to travel to Bethlehem and there Jesus was born in fulfillment of God inspired prophecy: Mic 5:2
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

Like Luke in his gospel account Micah was very precise in speaking his prophecy 700 years before the event.
There were two towns of Bethlehem in Israel. Micah specifies that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem
Ephrathah - that is the town of Bethlehem 9 km from Jerusalem.

Come this Advent & Christmas time to celebrate that God came, in Christ, to be with us as our Saviour, during
the time of Caesar Augustus, an event foretold 700 years beforehand by the prophet Micah.

Details of all the
Advent & Christmas events taking place at Holy Trinity are to be found in this edition of ‘PulseXtra’.

May you experience the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ this Christmas.

Yours in Christ

John Gulland