Advent 09 #2 - Born of a Virgin

Advent 2009 Promises Fulfilled #2

Isaiah 7:14

Born of a Virgin

Promises are interesting aren’t they

A Son wanted a new car for graduation. The Dad Promised his son a New Car if he would Read his Bible More Diligently, Bring Up his Grades, and Cut His Hair

The son started reading his Bible every day, He worked on his grades and brought them up … shortly before graduation, he said, “Dad about the grades, I know I said I’d cut my hair, but I’ve been reading my Bible and getting better grades, and you know, I think Jesus and the disciples had long hair” … and Dad said, “Yeah and they walked everywhere they went!

Two guys were shipwrecked for weeks on a raft.

One guy was more scared than the other. He started confessing sins and said “I’ve just been terrible all my life, I’ve been cruel to people. I’ve even gone out of my way to hurt people. Then he paused thoughtfully and said “I Promise …” his buddy said “WAIT WAIT A MINUTE” … don’t go too far, I see smoke from a ship off in the distance”

Well last week we saw the Promise that the Messiah would be Born in Bethlehem and that God moved the World to Keep his Promise, and in the process he Scorns those who think they are prominent that he might Bless the insignificant.

Well let’s look at perhaps the most Audacious of the Promises …

This Promises is Found in the book of Isaiah

Read Isaiah 7:10-14

Let’s Look at this Sign in three ways

1. A Sign Extended / Offered

It is Christmas and we have a gift being given here …

So, when you get a gift in the mail, or a new present shows up under the tree … you Pick the present up and you look to see who it’s from and who it’s for … who is Extending the offer?

A. The Giver – The LORD himself will GIVE you a sign. That’s a pretty good giver of a gift.

Anyone can make promises. Anyone can promise you a gift but the question is can they deliver

The Lord himself will extend, give to you the gift

B. The Gift -

What’s the nature of a gift? A gift is an expression of Love, it is unearned

This was an unearned expression of love from their loving Lord and God

And what was the Purpose in the Gift … It was …

A Sign – "oht" – a sign, military insignia, mark, or banner, miracle - there will be no doubt what the Lord is doing when he does it because the Gift he is giving you not just what is coming but HOW it is coming …

What is the purpose of the miraculous? The purpose of the miraculous was to reveal the Lord

When Moses told Pharaoh that God wanted them to let his people go, Pharaoh said “no” and then followed 10 plaques. Those plaques were progressive and they covered every part of God’s creation. God was Revealing to BOTH Egypt AND the Children of Israel that he was in charge and able to do anything

God parted the Red Sea for Israel, but also so word would get to Jericho and Canaan that God was the only true God.

Jesus made blind see, lame walk, raised the dead, walked on the water, not just as a health plan, He was Revealing who he was and what he could do

The Giver is the Lord and the Gift is a Sign, unearned

But let me say just a thing about

C. Givee – I give to YOU …

Now you should know that the pronoun “you” is plural …

God is speaking through Isaiah to A wicked King, Ahaz. But he is also speaking to all who would hear this message

But to Ahaz in verse 10 the Lord says

“Ask the Lord for a sign” …

And Ahaz swells up spiritually and says “I will not ask the Lord for a sign, I will not put him to the test” – that sounds spiritual but if GOD tells you to ask for a sign, you better ask. Perhaps sometimes we don’t want a sign because we don’t want to be held accountable to respond to the sign. We don’t go to the Word of God because we don’t want the –answer

When God says “test me” you should test him

if the Lord says “ask me” you should ask

God gave a sign then to Ahaz, a wicked King because he is a great God and wants all to be without excuse.

So we have a Sign Extended

And then we have

2. A Sign Explained

Ahaz didn’t want a sign, he could have asked, I guess, for most anything, but of course God knew what he would do and God already knew what HE himself would do. God gave US a sign that none could deny

We need something bigger than us to believe it

Hebrews 6:17 Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all arguments

And so God says …

A. A Virgin will Conceive

This SIGN a critical sign to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus Christ was born in the normal way, by the normal means with the normal parents then we are hopelessly in the same situation we were before he came

Jesus Christ is FROM Eternity. We read that last week. Jesus Christ was not BORN in the sense that you and I were. And you and I were not born like he is.

Some people think humans are laying around in Heaven somewhere waiting to be born … but that is not TRUE. we all have a beginning when we are “knit together in the Mother’s womb” as Psalm 139 says. And we COME into Being

But Jesus Christ, the Word of God, was with God and was God and all things were made by him and without him nothing was made. And then John 1:14 says That Eternal Word BECAME FLESH. He already existed in ONE Form and He took UP another Form and the sign would be that he would be BORN of a Virgin

This is that his Divine Power might be manifest and

That Divine Purity would exist in the Messiah

John 3:13 speaking of Jesus says no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came FROM heaven – the Son of Man

Jesus Christ had to be a pure vessel to be our sacrifice

Jesus Christ could not inherit sin from Mary or from Joseph and so he HAD to be born of a virgin

Don’t let anyone tell you that this is NOT an important sign

It is a Crucial Sign

Genetically Speaking a Black Sheep can give birth to a White Lamb if there is a gene in the Black Sheep for a white lamb. So then the rare white sheep could be born.

But folks, we don’t have a sinless gene in our spiritual system

There is none righteous not one

Billions of Babies born since Adam, none sinless … except ONE … Jesus, the Christ, HOW? because he didn’t come from us but he came TO us and became LIKE us.

B. A Child

A Virgin, will have a child. Now that makes news doesn’t it?

When a Virgin, shows up on the scene, verifiable, and she is with child … That’s a good sign if you can pull it off

A Virgin, with Child will

C. Give Birth

Bear a Child … Just like a promise, if the promise isn’t delivered what’s the point

A virgin to present herself and she could pretend or appear to be pregnant but if she doesn’t give birth …

But The Sign was simple to check out

A Virgin – Mary was a Virgin, she was promised to be Married to Joseph

She never would have taken this upon herself.

She was subject to being ostracized at the least and could be stoned at most for the accusation of adultery if she were pregnant outside of her promise. A betrothal was just like a marriage without the consummation. So Joseph could have divorced her as well, leading to a life of public shame and ridicule

But if it were his child, he could have quickly and quietly married her

Yet, a Virgin, with Child, they remained true to their vows, they remained promised not married, until AFTER the child was born

Not only that but that fact that Jesus was born a child shows that while he came from Heaven and he was OF heaven, he also became fully man. He went through the Human Process, he grew in amniotic fluid, he went through the birthing process. He nursed from his mother, he was fed by his parents, not by angels. He lived a Human existence. Verse 15 says he will eat curds and honey or milk and honey, he will grow in the same process of learning.

Now let me just say a word here about this sign.

Often times in the Old Testament, prophesies and instructions had both immediate and eternal messages. And so in this situation we have an immediate fulfillment and an future, eternal fulfillment. In those cases the immediate was a foreshadowing of the future as well as a proof of the future.

So, God had an immediate sign for the unbelieving Ahaz who was trusting in treaties instead of trusting in God.

And that meaning was that a woman who was THEN a Virgin, would then get married, conceive, bear a son, and his name would be Immanuel. And God tells Ahaz in verse 15 that before the child is old enough to know right from wrong, about 3-4 years old some would say, or at least by the age of 12 when Jewish boys were men, Syria and Ephraim would be laid waste and no longer a threat.

This prophesy came in 734 B.C. well, Syria was defeated in 732 B.C. and Ephraim or the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in 722 B.C.

God fulfilled his promise.

Who was the first “Immanuel”? I don’t think we have to look further than Isaiah himself.

Isaiah and his wife had given birth to a First Son, named “Shear-Jashub” meaning “a remnant shall return” … but his wife had died in child birth. He was a single Father. But Isaiah had married again and would have married a Virgin.

Read with me from Chapter 8

READ Isaiah 8:3-4 – sound familiar? Sounds just like the prophesy above, the short time … before Syria would be destroyed by the Assyrians … “But his name isn’t Immanuel” … “It’s that other long name” –

Well remember Immanuel means “God With Us”

well go back there to chapter 8 and hear the rest of what God said, why he was to name the Child … Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz – MEANS – swift to plunder and quick to spoil

If you are under attack, and God says name the boy “swift to plunder and quick to spoil” doesn’t that tell you that God is with you?

But then God says

READ vv8-10

Twice there the word Immanuel is found, once as a proper name then translated God with us but both are the same Hebrew Word Immanuel.

So there was an immediate fulfillment of the sign showing that God was with them

But There was the Promise of the Messiah coming, not from Ephraim, Israel of the northern Kingdom, but from Judah …

And God has given us a Sign

So we have no doubt

When the Messiah comes it will NOT be in the Natural way that a Virgin becomes with child

A Virgin will be

With Child

Give Birth

And thus a Sign Extended

And a Sign Explained

And finally we come back to this word

Immanuel for

3. A Sign Experienced

Jesus Christ Born of A Virgin

That we might know Divine Power

That we might know Divine Purity

And He came Immanuel that we might know a Divine Person

Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God

Aren’t you glad that the wicked King failing to take God’s invitation for a sign didn’t keep you and I from Getting Immanuel? Hallelujah

Please notice that we are not just having a fulfillment 700 years before Christ … not just A Virgin

But THE Virgin will conceive, give birth to a son, and WILL … meaning SHE will call him Immanuel. The custom was that a woman would name the Child and the Father would give it.

Thanks for the History Lesson but are we talking about Jesus here or Isaiah’s Son?

You ask GREAT Questions

Go to Matthew 1 Mary was promised to be married Joseph, she was FOUND to be with Child. Joseph was going to quietly divorce her.

But an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said …

Read

Matthew 1:20-23

Remember Isaiah’s son was seen as God with us because he was given a name that stated HOW God was going to be with them, by quickly plundering their enemies

Remember the Angel told Mary, his name will be JESUS … which means “Jehovah Saves” …

God with us … is the ONLY way that God could “Save his people from their sins” would be for GOD to Be WITH US …

Like US

Live FOR US

Die For Us

The Purpose All along was that we might KNOW GOD!

Ok Answer the Test Question Now …

What is the Greatest Purpose of the Miraculous Signs of God?

The Greatest purpose of the Miraculous of God is the Revelation of God leading to a Relationship with Jesus Christ!

What a sad thing when God reveals himself and people don’t believe

10 plaques, the Red Sea parted, Manna in the wilderness to feed them every day, Quail to give them meat. They were given the Law by God’s own hand. Their enemies were defeated before them. They were given water straight out of a Rock. And they got to the Jordan River and they were afraid to go into the Promised Land.

What’s the point of the Miraculous if we won’t enter in?

Jesus taught some people on a hillside in John 6 and when they were hungry, he feed Thousands of them by simply using a little boy’s lunch.

You would think that it would be enough … but the next day Jesus was telling them to follow him with their whole heart and lives, and many left and never followed him again.

Jesus raised Lazarus from being dead for 4 days … many were there, and many believed, but the Pharisees responded by working even harder to get Jesus

And after all the Miracles

After all the Signs

After all the Wonders

After all the Teaching

The Crowd in Pilates Courtyard Shouted “Crucify him”

I wonder is there someone here today that God has Revealed himself to you but you have failed to Follow

730 years after this Prophesy, a Virgin was found with Child; and on a night in Bethlehem, she gave birth to him and who was it but God himself, “God With US”, Immanuel.

Have you embraced him as Lord?

Has God provided for you, revealed himself to you in some area, but then when he asks you to trust him and follow him, you have failed to follow?

Are you still asking for a sign?

Why?

God Kept His Promise

The Promise to Israel was that the Messiah would come From a Virgin

The Promise to Israel was that God would come in the Flesh to Them

And the Promise to Israel in 734 BC Gave them hope because it told them that they didn’t have to fear being destroyed because the Messiah was going to come from them

The Purpose of the Sign was to Reveal the Almight

And So Israel though attacked by invader after invader trying to annihilate the Israelites and remove them from History but the Messiah was coming through them, by the Miraculous Preservation and Miraculous Progeny of God.

Let me tell you what the Promise says for You

You can Speak to your enemy, satan and all who work with him what is said in Isaiah 8:10

Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;

propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us

And You can say with

Isaiah 53:17

No Weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

Because the Promises of God Are SURE

You Can Believe

And when the attack comes

ALL His Promises are Sure

We are MORE than Conquerors

We are Led in Triumph

He Will Come for us

We Will Be Like Him

And we can Live Forgiven, Forever, and Ever in his Presence

Believe Him Today!