Born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit

Good morning. We are in our third week of our series, “The Apostles’ Creed.” If you remember, you cannot find the Apostles’ Creed in the Bible. Nate said you can’t be saved by reciting it. Then why are we studying it? Pastor Jonathan said last week that our world is full of people that don’t know what they believe. Pastor Vance said we are using the creed to explain some very important doctrines in the Bible to explain what it is we believe.

I want to start today off by us reading the creed together.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

and born of the virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic* church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Last week we learned about Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord.” This week we are going to be studying “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”

That’s right; it’s Christmas in July!!!! If you were to talk to my family or our church staff, they would tell you I love Christmas. On November 1st, the Christmas music starts to play in the office. Now they will probably roll their eyes at you too. Let me explain. When you hear Christmas music you probably have some songs you think of.

The Builder Generation probably thinks of a nice Nat King Cole song

The Boomer Generation probably thinks of the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas or Charlie Brown Christmas.

The Xer’s a little Mariah Carey.

The Millennials were rocking to Taylor Swift or Kelly Clarkson

But I LOVE Christmas Dubstep!! For those who don’t know what that is, think, “Let it Snow” with some “boots and pants” thrown in. If you still have questions about it, come see me after the service, and I will introduce you to the greatest Christmas music.

Back on topic:

Let’s open our Bible to Luke 1:26-37 As opening talk about favorite Bible

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”[1]

Why does the virgin birth, conceived by the Holy Spirit, really matter? Now I am a geek and love to dive deep into all aspects of a subject until I reach the foundation. I love all the data around a subject. There are so many cool doctrinal themes to work through here but we are going to focus on three.

He must be born a Man (Human)

He Must be Infinite Man (God)

He Must be an Innocent Man (Sinless)

These first two have a fancy name. Hypostatic Union, which means both fully man and fully God 200%. This is usually our eyes glass over because we have no idea how a person can be 100% one thing and 100% another thing at the same time. My mind goes to the minotaur. The Greek mythology creature had a body of a human and a head of a bull. Or some of the creatures in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia tales of creatures that looked like animals but had a nature like humans. But that is not what we are saying about the hypostatic union. God is not restrained by the impossible, instead, that is his playground.

Jesus is fully Man.

Let’s dig into that first. Jesus started his human life in the womb just like every other human since Eve first gave birth, just like you and me. He had to eat and drink to live. The creator of the water had to rely on water to live. He had to use the restroom like you and me. He loved, cried, slept, and was tempted just like you and me.

Why is that so important? We are sinful by nature because of the curse from Adam and Eve. Romans teaches us that the wages of Sin is death and we need a substitute to receive those wages. The problem is only a human can substitute for another human. So if Jesus wasn’t fully man he wouldn’t be able to be our substitute for our sins.

Jesus is fully God.

Jesus was there in the beginning. John 1:1-3 says this.

John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made[2]

The Word is Jesus. And through these verses, we see that all things were made through him.

When we look through the doctrine of Christology, many theologians call the time that Jesus came to earth as the Humiliation of Christ because the God whom all things were created came down to his creation and became flesh.

Jesus had all the attributes of God. He was Eternality, Mercy, Goodness, Omni, Grace, Righteousness, Self-Existence, Sovereignty, and Transcendence.

Why is this so important? Because only God could take on the sins of a whole world. No man could handle the weight of so much sin. Think about it. We, as the world, come up with new and exciting ways to sin on a daily basis. No single man can take on that weight. We need God to do that.

Jesus must be an Innocent Man (Sinless)

Let’s look at Matthew 1 where we can see the genealogy of Jesus.

Matt 1:1-2

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,[3]

Here you see where the father had a son, then the son became the father and had a son. That pattern continues until verse 16.

Matt 1:16

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. [4]

We see Jacob was the father of Joseph, then the pattern breaks. It says Joseph was the ______ husband of Mary, whom Jesus was born. The Bible here is trying to reinforce that the father of Jesus was no man. Why is this important?

Earlier I said Jesus was in the womb just like everyone since Eve gave birth. And that is true, but he was not conceived like everyone since Eve gave birth. Let’s go back to Luke 1:34-35.

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

We can see here that after Gabriel told Mary she was with child, Mary was very confused because even as a young woman, she knew what it took to be pregnant, and she hadn’t done those things.

Gabriel told her the Holy Spirit would come over her and the power of the most high would overshadow her. Here we clearly see Mary was a virgin and the Holy Spirit is the one who conceives Jesus in the womb of Mary.

So why is a virgin birth important to Jesus being sinless? Because ever since the first sin of Adam and Eve a curse was placed on them of a Sinful nature and it passed on to all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. So, if we were to look at our genealogy, we would go all the way back to Adam and Eve, and we all have received that curse of a sinful nature.

Jesus, on the other hand, was not conceived of a Man; instead, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit so the curse does not affect him. Instead, he was perfect. He knew temptation but knew no sin.

Many theologians call Jesus the last Adam. Jesus lived the life that we were meant to live but couldn’t because of our sinful nature. This is one of the things that should give us hope in this crazy world. Living the Holy life isn’t impossible because God living inside of us has been through it, too, and knows what it is like and gives us strength.

Have you seen the commercials from He gets us? They are awesome. They show the real world around us, and they encourage us that Jesus went through what we are going through, and he gets us. Show Video

When we put all of this together, we see we live in a fallen world. In fact, the world has fallen since Adam and Eve first sinned in the garden and has needed a savior.

Because we are fallen, we try to look toward ourselves for the saving. Walk into a bookstore and you will see all the books on how to fix yourself. Depressed, bored, sad, broke, there are whole sections for that. We spend our time and money trying to fix ourselves but the hole is still there. We need a savior.

God didn’t leave us to our own devices he has a plan. In Gen 3:14-15

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.” [5]

We see here where God first preaches his plan for a savior. Throughout the Old Testament, we see prophecies about the Savior and all are completed with Jesus.

Gen 22:18 Abraham’s offspring will bless all nations

Num 24:17 A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel

Isaiah 11:1 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.”

Jeremiah 23:5-6 “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land … This is the name by which he will be called: the Lord our righteous savior.”

Isaiah 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[6]

God isn’t passive. He is always moving around us. He has a plan for your life. You have a purpose that was appointed by him! He loves us.

He gets us because he walked the earth just like us. He wants to be in a relationship with us. He actually likes us.

Tell the story of coming back from a camp and telling Chris that God not only loves her he also liked her.

The thing about God is nothing is impossible with Him. The God who created a universe out of nothing. The God who was born of a virgin and lived a life as man and went through this broken world like you and loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. Today in your circumstance, you might be thinking. You are in an impossible place. My marriage is too far gone. Listen, nothing is too far gone with God. There is hope in God! Maybe you are struggling with an addiction. And it has its claws in you and won’t let go. And you are ready to give up because you have tried everything, and it all failed. Nothing is impossible with God. Let go and let God.

In our example today, God took a little virgin girl and told her she was going to have God. What? A virgin girl was going to give birth to the creator of the Universe. Nothing is impossible with God.

Including your salvation. No matter how far you think, you are from God. No matter what you have done. No matter how many times you have messed up. Where you have been, you think God could never love me. Nothing is impossible with God.

Today we see we have a God that not only loves you but likes you. A God that pursues us even in our mess. A God that has a plan for you, yes you. A God who came to earth as a perfect man. Born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. Who took on your sins and took your place in death so that you could be saved.

My question for you is, do you know him? Has there been a time in your life that you know that you can’t live up to God’s perfection and you can’t fix that? You can’t be good enough, you can’t be nice enough, you can’t be a good enough husband. You can’t be a good enough mother. You can’t be a good enough son or daughter.

What did God do? He created a plan for you. He stepped out of Heaven and came to this earth. He was 100% man, 100% God, and lived a perfect, sinless life. He died on the cross in only way he could, because he was the sacrifice and took on the world’s sin. He died and rose again, so that we could be forgiven and so we could have life.

Do you know this Jesus? If you don’t I want to give you this opportunity.

Everyone bow your heads. As we pray I want you to ask this question. Do you know Him, if you were to die today would you spend eternity with him? If your answer is, I’m not sure, I’ve been a pretty good person, I go to church. That is not the right answer. The answer is Jesus. How do we know Jesus? The Bible says we confess with our mouth that Jesus is lord, he is our King. We have to believe in our hearts that God has raised us from the dead like he raised Jesus so that we can be saved. If you want to know Jesus as a savior I want to lead you in a prayer.

There is nothing magical about what I am going to say. I’m just guiding your conversation with God.

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I have messed up in my life and I have fallen short of what you want for me. God I am thankful that you love me so much that you sent your son to come to earth to die for me. Your son Jesus was buried and rose again three days later proving he is God. Today I acknowledge my sins and I ask you to forgive me and come into my life and to be my savior and Lord. Amen

The Bible says that if you had that conversation with God then you have been forgiven and made whole in his sight. You have now been made a new creation. Your old live has been buried and your new life has now begun.

Another part of God’s plan for us is that he doesn’t want us living this life alone. He has you in this church full of Christian brothers and sisters that want to walk with you through the ups and downs. So if you made this decision today in a few seconds we are going to stand and sign a song and I want you to come up to the front and share with one of us up here so that we can celebrate with you. And also start walking with you in your new life.

This time upfront is also for everyone else. Are you in the middle of an impossible circumstance? Come forward and let us pray for you while we give over to God.

Let’s stand and sing.