hear me carefully in the contrast of death and life is the picture of redemption that is proclaimed in the birth of Jesus our God was not responsible for the massacre of those children but he was responsible for sending one into the world who could by his own life and death make it possible for those who die physically to live eternally in the death of the babies and the birth of Jesus is the picture of why Jesus had to come into the world in the first place until we see our Lord’s birth against the backdrop of the massacre in Bethlehem we

will never realize why it is so important for him to come he came to rid us of the ugliness of sin and there is no picture of the ugliness of sin like the infanticide at Bethlehem even today in our culture when we read of little children being tortured our hearts become angry and we are filled with sadness because it represents the ugliness of the world of sin in which we live and here is this picture of Bethlehem and the birth of the baby who would put an end to all of that ugliness the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ what a wonderful

promise it is concerning Jesus that one day he will make it possible for God to wipe away every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death nor sorrow nor crying and there shall be no more pain for the former thing will have passed away in Jesus you find life in the world of sin it is the tale of death and the story of Christmas highlights that as it’s centered in the little city of Bethlehem I want to read to you a very familiar portion of scripture but it’s important that you have this in mind as I speak today it’s Luke Chapter 2 and

verse one 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 when cinius was governing Syria so all went to be registered everyone to his own City Joseph also went up From Galilee 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 and so it was that while they were there