The Virgin Birth
Notes
Transcript
Merry Christmas! We continue to celebrate the Birth of our Savior this Christmas season. Last week, we looked at the incarnation of Jesus. We established that it is essential for us to believe the doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Jesus being fully God became fully man and dwelt among us.
It is incredible that the God of the universe came and dwelt among us. He came to be with us.
He walked this earth like we walk. He faced temptations that we face. He conquered sin and he conquered death!
Today we look at the Virgin Birth of our Savior.
Doctrine: a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Birth are essential doctrines of the Christian faith.
Battleship vs Cruise Ship
Randy and I talk about the church a lot. He recently said to me is the church a cruise ship or is it a battleship.
Cruise Ship Vs Battleship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship exists to serve the comfort of the passengers; a battleship exists to accomplish a mission.
Cruise ships ask, “Are you happy?” Battleships ask, “Are we faithful and effective?”
Cruise ships are staffed to meet preferences; battleships are staffed to meet threats.
Cruise ships avoid storms; battleships are sent directly into them.
Leadership & Participation
A cruise ship exists to serve the comfort of the passengers; a battleship exists to accomplish a mission.
Cruise ships ask, “Are you happy?” Battleships ask, “Are we faithful and effective?”
Cruise ships are staffed to meet preferences; battleships are staffed to meet threats.
Cruise ships avoid storms; battleships are sent directly into them.
Discipleship & Growth
A Cruise ship church focuses on comfort and convenience; a battleship church focuses on formation and readiness.
Cruise ships entertain; battleships train.
Cruise ship discipleship asks for minimal commitment; battleship discipleship calls for sacrifice and perseverance.
On a cruise ship, faith is consumed; on a battleship, faith is exercised.
Mission & Risk
Cruise ships are designed to keep people safe; battleships are designed to send people into danger for a greater cause.
Cruise ship churches often fear disruption; battleship churches expect opposition.
Cruise ships circle familiar waters; battleships are deployed to contested territory.
Cruise ship churches protect their image; battleship churches pursue the lost regardless of the cost.
The Incarnation of Jesus and the Virgin Birth are doctrines that equip us for the battle. What sets our faith apart. What do we believe about Jesus?
I long for our adults and students to be well equipped with solid doctrine for the battle that lies ahead.
Turn to Matthew 1
One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis is this.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
-C.S. Lewis-
C.S. Lewis says you can either write Jesus off as a lunatic, madman, something worse, or he truly is Lord.
18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
19 So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”
24 When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her
25 but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named Him Jesus.
For us to grab ahold of this passage we have to understand some things about the Hebrew customs of this time.
Young girls would have their parents find their spouse for them and then they would enter into a contract to be married.
You have to understand that when I say young, I mean like 12, 13, 14 and if you had not been married by 15 then you were considered to be getting married later in life.
Now students can you imagine if you would allow this custom to take place for you today?
Your parents would pick your spouse for you and you would enter in to a contract to be married to the person that your parents pick for you.
So after the contracts had been signed then the couple would be considered married but they would not live with each other.
The individuals would continue to live with their parents for the period of a year.
This time of waiting was to show faithfulness to the one that you were pledged to be married too.
Now if the wife became pregnant during this time period then it would show unfaithfulness to her husband and he could stop the marriage because she was unfaithful to him.
After the one year waiting period, the husband would then go to his faithful bride’s parents home and lead her back to his home where they would begin living together.
18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
So first we as Christ followers continued to establish that Jesus was God in flesh and he was fully God and fully man. The next piece of Christianity is that we believe that Jesus was born of a virgin.
She was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
This is a piece that would not make sense to many of the believing Jews at the time.
They were awaiting their Messiah or Savior to come but now Jesus comes through the virgin Mary!
So the Jews would have had a problem with this.
The Greeks could have accepted this no problem.
Their gods were believed to be having sexual relations with women and having children.
This fact actually hurts the narrative unless you understand the whole of scripture.
Matthew should have left this out if he was trying to gain popularity. Matthew puts this in because it is truth.
The Jews did not anticipate this piece of the story and perhaps they were waiting for their king to ride in and save the day.
When you see the prophecy of Isaiah 700 years before Christ came
14 Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
They knew he would be born of a Virgin, but this could be interpreted that this would just be the first child of the family.
Little did the Jews know that this truly means born of a Virgin because of the Holy Spirit.
Last week in John 1:2
2 He was with God in the beginning.
we saw in the beginning the word was with God. Jesus has always existed.
18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
The word birth here in Greek means Genesis or beginning
If we do not believe in the virgin birth then Jesus is not eternal.
Jesus would have been created as a result of relations between Joseph and Mary but the story tells us that it was not that.
If Jesus was conceived like every other baby then Jesus would not be eternal God.
The virgin birth solidifies John 1:2 that Jesus was with God in the beginning.
Side note:
The virgin birth does something else for us. It brings us to the truth that new life happens at conception
The Virgin birth shows that life begins at conception.
If the virgin birth proves that Jesus always existed and the difference between the virgin birth and all other births is that other births bring new life,
Then the difference between the virgin birth and and all other births is that conception took place.
It would follow that at the moment of conception new life is born.
If you believe that new life begins at conception then you can’t be ok with abortion
19 So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
(Video)
Joseph finds out that this woman who is pledged to be married to him is pregnant and he says he does not want to disgrace her publicly so he decides to do the right thing and divorce her quietly.
He decides to deal with it rightly.
So students in essence Joseph did not want to post this all over social media so he decided to do it right and take care of this quietly.
20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.
Joseph starts to ponder these things and then he falls asleep.
In the middle of his sleep an angel shows up and appears to him. The angel tells Joseph to stick with Mary because the baby inside of her is conceived by the Holy Spirit.
We all know this has got to be just as it says it is an encounter with an Angel.
Joseph is facing the biggest public ridicule of his life.
His wife is pregnant and they have not even been together.
This is not something that Joseph would say well I kind of feel the Lord is telling me to stick this out.
This is black and white here and he sees the angel in the dream and the angel tells him to stay with Mary.
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”
24 When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her
25 but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named Him Jesus.
Notice something else here. Look back up at verse 15
15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob,
16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.
and notice how in the genealogy of Jesus Christ that it says the father of all the way down and then we get to right before Jesus and who is the last person it leaves us with. It leaves us with Mary. Verse 16 Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary.
The Virgin Birth is essential to the Christian faith.
Conclusion
No need to make this stuff up.
If Matthew had made this up it would not help
So the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin does not help the story unless you understand the entire story. This actually hurts the narrative. The Jews did not need Jesus to be born of a virgin and it was not something they were anticipating.
The only reason Matthew puts this in to the story is because it is true.
Matthew tells us that an Angel appeared to Mary and an Angel appeared to Joseph.
If you read the story in it’s entirety and you see scripture as a whole you know that the Savior would come from the seed of a women and that Isaiah prophesied that He would be born of a virgin and that Jesus has always existed from the beginning.
If you read through the Genealogy of Jesus Christ , we come to this place in the message where we say the story line of Jesus does not fit for him to be just a good moral man.
Jesus is the prophesied Savior.
Jesus is Lord.
The virgin birth changes what Christmas is about.
We can’t say Jesus was just a good person and he knew how to give good gifts so we are going to be like Jesus and give good gifts.
No the belief in the virgin birth changes everything about Christmas for those who believe.
All of history centers around Jesus.
The belief or doctrine of the Virgin birth lets us know that Christmas is not about you.
Jesus is the center.
Jesus is either Lord or he is not.
There is no middle ground in this deal.
When you determine where you are it will change how you live.
Jesus is Lord and you are not.
Many question how did God almighty come in the flesh and born of a virgin.
God loved you so much that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life.
God’s message of love for you that God himself came in the flesh to die on the cross and defeat sin and death for you.
Cruise Ship VS Battleship
Mormons Believe
Jesus Was Created and Progressed
Jesus Was Created and Progressed
Mormons believe Jesus existed pre-mortally as a spirit being.
He was the firstborn spirit child of Heavenly Father.
Jesus progressed to godhood through obedience.
Christian belief:
Jesus is eternally God, not created (John 1:1–3).
Jesus Is the Spirit Brother of All Humans (and Lucifer)
Jesus Is the Spirit Brother of All Humans (and Lucifer)
Mormons believe all humans existed as spirit children before birth.
Jesus is believed to be our elder brother.
Lucifer (Satan) is also considered a spirit brother who rebelled.
Christian belief:
Jesus is not a created being and not the same category as angels or humans (Colossians 1:15–20).
