I Believe in the Virgin Birth

Introduction

What would it take for you to believe in something that seems impossible?

Would simply someone’s word be enough?

Friend’s word: I will give you 1 million dollars if you do my homework for a year.

Parent’s word: I will give you 1 million dollars if you obey everything I say for a year.

President’s word: I will give you 1 million dollars if you obey all the laws of our country for a year.

Our trust in someone’s word is normally dictated by how much power we believe they have to actually do what they say they will do.

Now if we believe that God is all powerful and he is the Father Almighty as we talked about a few weeks ago, then surely we can take him at his word right?

Yet, one of the biggest struggles we face today is to trust God’s word.

If you think thats not you, check yourself with these questions. . .

Do you ever get worried or anxious about the future?

Do you ever get stressed with all the things on your plate for the day?

Do you ever do things you know are wrong just to fit in at school and with your friends?

Do you ever disobey any of the clear commands God’s gives in the Bible?

These are all the result of a lack of trust in God and his word. This occurs because we seem to forget the character of God. . . forgetting that he is holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, good, loving, righteous, and gracious.

Tonight, we are going to study the doctrine of the virgin birth and see why we must believe in this teaching as Christians. . . .but we will also see that a teenage girl named Mary was faced with a challenge of believing in an impossible message from God and needing the grace of God to give her the faith to trust God’s word.

Key Point: God’s grace in Christ will give us the strength to trust in his word and live as his servants.

The Testimony of Scripture : Luke 1:26-38.

Luke 1:26–27 ESV

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.

Notice who sends Gabriel to Mary. . . God did. God is the one who initiated this relationship with Mary and this plan to send his Son to earth to redeem his people from their sins.

God is always the one who initiates a relationship with us. This is how it has always been. Praise God!

Luke mentions that Mary is a “virgin” twice in these verses to emphasize the truth that Mary had not “known a man.”

Luke 1:28–29 ESV

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.

Gabriel gives Mary a joyful greeting and calls her “O favored one.” The word means to “bestow favor or honor.” God had chosen to show grace to Mary and place his unmerited favor upon her.

Contrary to the Roman Catholic Church who translated this word in Latin to mean “full of grace,” Mary is not a bestower of grace, but one who has received the unmerited grace of God. Also, the word is in the passive tense to emphasize that this is something being done to Mary. . . something Mary receives.

There is no greater comfort the Angel could give to Mary than to tell her that the Lord is with her. This truth confirmed that God had showered Mary with his grace and favor.

Yet, Mary was confused and wondered why she deserved such a greeting from the angel and favor from the Lord.

Little did she know that God had big plans in store for her. For Mary would be the conduit that brings the Son of God to the earth to redeem us all from our sins.

Luke 1:30–33 ESV

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.”

The angel calms Mary’s fears and tells her she has no reason to be afraid because she has found favor with God.

Why did Mary find favor with God?

The text does not tell us much about Mary prior to this scene, but we know that she is not sinless because she confesses that the Messiah that will be born from her womb is God, her savior (Luke 1:47).

We should then say that Mary found favor with God because God freely chose to bestow favor on someone who was undeserving (GRACE!).

After comforting Mary, the angel describes why God has visited her: she will bear a son!

Luke lists many characteristics of Jesus in verses 31-33. Also, notice the number of “wills” that are used to assure Mary that all of these things will come to pass by the Lord.

Jesus will be. . .

Great, and called Son of the Most High.

Jesus is God’s only Son, which demonstrates his deity in being one with the Father.

He will be given the throne of his Father David and reign forever.

Jesus is also fully man being one of David’s sons. His kingdom will have no end. This also points to Jesus being The Christ!

Luke 1:34–38 ESV

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.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Yet, there is a problem. . . Mary is like. . . “What you talking bout Willis?“ how do you expect me to bear a child when I have never been intimate with a man??” It is impossible for a virgin to conceive a child, so how is this going to happen?

The angel sits back and is like. . . Mary, Mary, stop worrying, God’s got this. . .

He says that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the most high will overshadow her.

What does this mean?

The Holy Spirit will arrive and envelop Mary’s womb and the power of the Most High will cover and protect her.

Just as the Holy Spirit “hovered over the waters” in Genesis 1:2 in the creation of the universe, the Holy Spirit will overshadow Mary and bring about new creation and a new humanity through the birth of Jesus.

Essentially, Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive a son through the miraculous power of God.

Expound on this. . . the incarnation. . . God became a baby!

Demonstrates the dignity of human nature.

Demonstrates the dignity of our physical bodies.

Demonstrates the value of life from conception to death.

God became an embryo!

“Therefore” -Gabriel says that since Jesus’s brith will miraculously occur through the Holy Spirit, he will be “holy-the Son of God.” Since Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit he will not be tainted with original sin. Jesus will be holy, completely morally pure.

And since he will be conceived of the Holy Spirit, he will be the Son of God. He will be God in the flesh, fully divine.

The virgin birth of Christ confirms that Jesus is divine and is the long awaited Messiah as it fulfills the prophecy given about Jesus 600-800 years earlier in the book of Isaiah 7:14.

Just in case Mary still had questions as to how she would conceive a son without being intimate with a man, Gabriel tells her another miracle God has done in the life of her cousin Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, who was barren, and advanced in years, is now is six months pregnant and will bear a son.

How can these things happen? (For) Because nothing is impossible with God!

There are many people who doubt the historicity of the virgin birth because it defies logic and science. . . but if we believe that God can supernaturally speak the world into creation with his word, and if we believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead, then the virgin birth should be a given.

Mary responded with faith trusting that God will do what he promised and offered herself as God’s servant.

Why the Virgin Birth matters to us.

1. The virgin birth allows for Jesus to be born fully human and yet without sin.

Even though Jesus is fully human, he is a unique human and is the last Adam and new beginning to the human race.

Even though it is possible that God could have kept Jesus sinless through normal human conception, his virgin birth makes it undeniable that he was not tainted with human sin and he is both fully God and fully man.

2. The virgin birth highlights the miraculous nature of God’s redemption.

Jesus’s virgin birth makes our redemption possible because it confirms that he is fully God and fully man. . . .

Conceived of the Holy Spirit signifies Jesus’s deity.

Born of the virgin Mary signifies Jesus’s humanity.

It demonstrates that our salvation does not come from us but it solely comes from God alone.

Jesus had to be fully human to save us. . .

Since it was man that sinned, it must be man that pays the penalty for sin. (Romans 5:18)

The penalty of sins involves the suffering of both body and soul.

Only one who lives in full obedience to the law can satisfy God. Christ has obeyed in our place. (Romans 5:19)

His humanity had to be sinless humanity. Otherwise, his death was only for his sins. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He had to be free not only from actual sin but also from original sin.

Jesus had to be fully God to save us. . .

Only God can survive the wrath of God.

Only God could provide an infinite payment for infinite wrath during the finite time on the cross.

Only God can provide atonement for all. If Jesus was merely a perfect man, he could have died in the place of just one sinner.

Only God can satisfy God. The creature cannot merit salvation before the Creator.

Only God can be a mediator to God. A mediator between God and man must himself be God if he is to bring men to God. Something less than God could not do it. 

3. The virgin birth shows us that God is at work, even in the messiness of our world.

He does not simply erase the mess and start over, but works through the messiness of the world to bring about his beautiful masterpiece.

If God can bring the Son into the messiness of this world through a genealogy of a prostitute, an outcast, an enemy of God, an adulterer and murderer, then know tonight that there will never be a point where your life is “so messed up” that God can’t fix you, cleanse you, redeem you, and renew you into the image of Christ, in whom you were created!

But for this to occur. . . we must respond to the truths of the virgin birth. . .

Do You Believe?

Our response should imitate Mary’s response. . . faith in the words and promises of God.

Mary questioned how God would do this miraculous thing, but once Gabriel gave her the way God would accomplish Jesus’s birth and affirmed it with a demonstration of God’s power in that he already does the impossible. . . she believed the word of God.

She then demonstrated her faith by offering herself as a servant for the Lord to use her how he saw fit.

This must be our response tonight.

Believing in the virgin birth really boils down to whether you trust God or not.

Every sin you commit stems from a lack of trust in God and his word.

What are you struggling to trust God with tonight?

Fitting in with your friends at school?

Finding a fulfilling relationship with that guy or girl you have a crush on?

Figuring out where you are going to college?

Believing that a relationship with Jesus and his church is really all you need?

If God is all powerful and can do the impossible, then surely he will keep his word and help you overcome and figure out these things.

If God created life out of the emptiness of nothing in creation, created new life out of the emptiness of a virgin’s womb, and created resurrection life out of the emptiness of a dark tomb. . . then surely he can give you life transformation through the Holy Spirit as well.

But, like Mary, you have to trust him, you have to put your faith in his word, you have to make up your mind that his word and promises are true. . . that he really was born of a virgin, he really lived a perfect life, he really did die on the cross for your sins, and he really did rise from the grave.

And once you’ve trusted in him, you must demonstrate your faith by becoming his servant and seeking to live for him and not yourself.

you must say like that teenage girl, Mary, said 2000 years ago, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. . . let it be to me according to your word.”