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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

No Room In The Inn

Many years ago a well-known Bible teacher was invited to take part of a Christmas TV program and it was going to be a panel discussion.

So everybody was there seated around in a circle and the discussion started.

The moderator started making nice remarks about this time of year and said how beautiful the Christmas story is and how eerily the world waited for the coming of the infant Christ in Bethlehem so long ago.

Well the conversation continued around the circle until it came to this Bible teacher and he had his chance to speak.

And he said, very respectfully, I'd have to disagree with your opening statements.

On the contrary, the world was so busy with its affairs that it wouldn't even make room for him, Jesus, to be born.

Besides, no 1 even noticed, or probably would have even noticed, if God had not sent angels to announce the birth to shepherds or the star that guided the eastern kings of Palestine.

And then he went on and he said, you know, I think it's more or less the same today.

Men and women express sentimental thoughts about Jesus as they go about their affairs and their pleasures at Christmas time, but few pay any attention to the real Christ, he said, and they don't make any room for him in their lives either.

Here Jesus makes the ultimate sacrifice and condescends to this earth.

In that passage that we have read so many times before, Philippians chapter 2, 6 through 8, he being in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God.

But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant or a slave, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." So here we have the God of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth, condescending to this sinful planet to make atonement for the human race in the most humiliating way and form possible.

Yet so often we have turned this time of year away from a reflection on Jesus to a time of reflecting, now let's see, what do I want for Christmas?

Honey, why don't you just let me shop for myself?

I'm going to the hardware store later today and you can wrap it and put it under the tree.

As if the incredible gift that Jesus gave to this planet is not enough.

Yes, what the Bible teacher said on that occasion was true and it's likely still true today.

Certainly we're busy and few it seems truly have room for Jesus.

If you brought your Bibles I invite you to open to Luke chapter 2 As we read some of these well-known verses in our Bibles, Luke chapter 2.

And we'll begin reading in verse 1, Luke chapter 2 verse 1, And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be registered.

This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria, so all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, about a hundred mile journey, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary his betrothed wife who was with child.

So it was that while they were there the days were complete for her to be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

I find it hard to imagine having gone through in my own way the pregnancies of 4 children, taking my wife on a donkey on a hundred mile journey to arrive and hear her say, you didn't make a reservation?

And so they laid him in a manger because there was no room in the inn.

This was not the only place that had no room for him.

There was no room for him in the palaces of the world's kings.

And the idea that great Augustus would make room for the humble carpenter from Nazareth and his pregnant companion Mary, well that's just preposterous.

And Herod, he certainly wouldn't make any room.

Just a dozen miles from where Christ would be born, but rather than make room, He actually plots to have the young child killed when his birth was made known through the wise men.

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once wrote, alas, my brothers, seldom is there room for Christ in palaces.

How could the kings of earth receive the Lord?

He's the Prince of Peace, and they delight in war.

He breaks their bows and cuts their spears in sunder.

He burneth their war chariots in the fire.

How could kings accept the humble Savior?

They love grandeur and pomp, and He is all simplicity and meekness.

He's a carpenter's son and a fisherman's companion.

How can princes find room for the newborn monarch?

Why, he teaches us to do to others as we have them do to us.

And this is a thing which kings would find very hard to reconcile with the knavish tricks of politics and the grasping designs of ambition.

O great ones of earth, I am but little astonished that amid your glories and pleasure and wars and councils ye forget the anointed and cast out the Lord of all." Not only among kings, but notice there was no room for Christ even among the chief priests and the scribes.

It would seem as if they had missed it all together, but when it was made known to them, I imagine they laughed." If you still have your Bibles out, turn to Matthew 2.

The other account that we have of this Christmas story.

And there we read, "...when Herod the king had heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes, there they are, when he gathered the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born." Did they know?

Sure, verse 5, so they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet.

They know their Bibles, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Here Herod inquires of the chief priests and the scribes as to where Jesus should be born.

They quote the verse from Micah chapter 5 verse 2.

They knew the wise men had come and had visited and they knew exactly what the answer was yet not 1 of them notice not 1 is mentioned in any place in Holy Scripture as having visited Bethlehem for themselves Not to check out this infant named Christ or to worship him.

They said, yeah, we know the prophecies, it's right here.

Even among the seats of learning, the wise, the world's professors and theologians, how few of the most learned of religious leaders have room for Jesus.

But surely they're not the only important people we should consider.

Were there not good families who might have taken him in?

I'm sure there were good families in Bethlehem, but I don't read about these good families making room for a woman in labor or later welcoming the child.

I'm sure they were very gracious to 1 another.

On occasion they may have done charitable deeds for the poor, but the stark reality is that there was no room for Jesus among those excellent, well-to-do families either.

No more than the kings in their palaces or in the courts of the chief priests or the scribes.

Okay, okay, so maybe there's no room for Jesus among the wise, the mighty, the noble of this world, but surely there was a place for him among the common people, such as ourselves.

Now the rich in that day would stay with their friends.

The inns were a stopping point for common folk who had no other place to stay.

Yet it was precisely the inn that had no place for Jesus, was it not?

We like to comfort ourselves with the idea that common people are more charitable, more open to the gospel, but the truth of the matter is, it's held in Isaiah 53 verse 6, we all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It really is easy to understand why common folk who filled the inn that Christmas did not receive him.

And why should 1 who had enough sense to come early give up their spot for somebody else who did not plan accordingly.

I'm sure there were countless others who were also with child in a similar situation.

Perhaps there would have been a greater incentive had they had some means, but they're not.

And so no 1 shows concern or attention and Christ is crowded out.

Am I describing anybody's life here this morning?

As 1 commentator writes, Every chamber of the soul is so filled with human interest that there is little room for Christ.

And this is so simply because our time is demanded by a thousand other things, our interests drawn off in thousand other directions, and our life is crowded to the full with possessions and pleasures until, strange though it may seem, there is no room for the Savior room for the Savior except in the stable." Is Jesus in the stable of your life or is he at the core?

Until he's entered the door of your heart and reigns upon the throne of your life, You cannot regard yourself as any better than those who slept comfortably while Mary gave birth to her child in a stable.

Some may say, I have room for Christ, but I'm unworthy.

This world was unworthy for Christ, the Creator and King, to come, but still He came.

As if to make the truth plain beyond all question, He was born among sheep and donkeys.

Were there not some vile smells in the stable?

And others might say, in all honesty, I'm afraid.

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No Room In The Inn

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