Who Was Conceived by the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary

We’re continuing our series on how the Apostles’ Creed summarizes important truths in scripture. We’re not studying the creed, we’re studying the truths that the creed points to in the Bible. When we recite the creed together, in just a moment, I’d like us to stand together and recite it, I know we’ve seen the video, but today let’s all participate.

When we recite these I believe statements, we’re boldly rejecting all other narratives, all other explanations for why the world is the way it is, and we’re saying, this is the why the world is the way it is. We’re rejecting the world’s idea that everything happened by chance, and that there’s no meaning. We’re saying there’s a reason why death happens, why there is sorrow in life, why there is brokenness all around. And we are also saying why we have hope. We’re saying there’s a solution, and we’re not it!

Let’s recite the creed together.

So why is the world the way it is? It is because we’re living in the brokenness that came as a result of the fall into sin. In the beginning, in the first two chapters of the Bible, &2, we read that God created everything, heaven and earth. We’ve studied this truth already.

After God created something, we read, “and God saw that it was good. He created light, it was good. He created plants and trees, it was good. He create animals, it was good. He created human beings, it was very good.

But then there was sin. Adam and Eve, the first two human beings God created, chose to disobey God. He warned them what would happen if they disobeyed, but they believed the serpent, and plunged all of humanity into a path of sin. They exchanged the glory of God, for sin.

But God demonstrated a key character trait in the beginning. He is an initiator. God initiates, he starts. God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, exist in perfect loving harmony. They lack for nothing, at all. They perfectly honour, glorify and love one another, so perfectly that though they are three persons, they are one being.

It is out of the overflow of God’s goodness, love and power, that God created the universe. God initiated it, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in a perfectly timed, perfectly set dance—C.S. Lewis.

But notice what happened after Adam and Eve sinned. God initiated the conversation. God provided the first sacrifice, providing clothes from animal skins for Adam and Eve to cover their shame.

But God also promised to initiate a way, a final and total solution for sin. He promised that one of Eve’s offspring would crush Satan and sin, forever.

So now we fast forward through history to Luke chapter 1. Do we still use the phrase fast forward? I know that’s what we used in the days of VHS and cassette tapes. Who has no idea what I’m talking about. Is it skip now? Okay, skip to Luke, but first we have God initiating and preparing for Jesus incarnation. God initiated by telling Noah about the flood, and telling him to build an ark which saved believing Noah and his family. God initiated and called Abram out of Ur. God initiated and saved the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

God initiated by raising up judges, and then the kings. And God initiated by sending his Son.

And here, in , we have the Trinity present, initiating, just as in creation, now present again, in a new creation: the means of salvation. God the Father sends Gabriel, the messenger (angel), to the virgin Mary.

We have the Holy Spirit present, conceiving the Son, in Mary. We won’t look at the Holy Spirit this morning, we’ll look at him later, when we profess our belief in God the Holy Spirit. I suppose we could look at Mary, but we won’t do that either.

Take a moment to think about the Trinity. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Working together in perfect love, perfect harmony! The Trinity is available to us all. There is no one, nothing to stop the Trinity to connect with you.

Look at the Trinity in how God interacts here, in , initiating, just as in creation, now present again, in a new creation: the means of salvation. God the Father sends Gabriel, the messenger (angel), to the virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit conceives, the Son is present as the baby.

We need to connect ourselves to Genesis here. John does just that in his gospel when he wrote, in the beginning. This is a radical act of God. Not radical on his part, but seemingly radical on our part! God enters into this very broken, very sin-filled world. He takes on the very nature of humanity.

He breaks into our self-focussed, self-help deluded attitude. He says, no! You can’t do it. It is impossible. Several times in the Old Testament, God tells the people, “Stop, just stop. Stop your sacrifices. Stop trying to work your way in, stop trying to buy your way in. I don’t need your sacrifices. I don’t need your lambs and bulls.

“Those things were supposed to be the outward expression of an inward reality. They were supposed to show that your hearts were besotted with me. That your whole focus in life was me. But it isn’t. You give of your gifts, in exchange for a blessing here, a sense of peace there. You think you can get stuff in life by doing something.

Those things were supposed to be the outward expression of an inward reality. They were supposed to show that your hearts were besotted with me. That your whole focus in life was me. But it isn’t. You give of your gifts, in exchange for a blessing here, a sense of peace there. You think you can get stuff in life by doing something.

“That’s not how it works. I want your heart. I want to hear you say, ‘You God are my heart, my life, my soul, my strength. Even if I lost everything, all my money, all my family, all my treasures, my home, my very life, but could still have you, nothing else would matter. In you I find my joy, my delight, my hope, my strength.’”

But it is impossible. No matter how hard you try. I dare you. Try to be perfectly obedient to God. You’ll fail before this day is over.

We cannot save ourselves. It is impossible. Our God is the God who overcomes the impossible.

Mary asked the angel. “I get it, God wants me to give birth to his Son. But how. I’m a virgin?”

She’s right. This is impossible. Virgins can’t get pregnant. “How can this be possible, I’ve never been with a man.” But God is the God of the impossible.

God created everything, all that you see, all the blood in your body, the blood that’s taking the oxygen from your lungs, and sending it to all the cells in your body. To prove his power, his ability to have Mary conceive a son, he told her that her relative, Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age.

Think about that. A post-menopausal woman got pregnant. Not only that, she was already 6 months along, and God said she’d give birth to a son. Lots of times in the OT he does this. Sarah couldn’t conceive, but then God opened her womb, and like Elizabeth, she had a baby, instead of pushing a walker, she was pushing a pram, a stroller. He did that for Hannah, for Rachel.

We know from

That’s what God does. He initiates. He inserts himself into the story, your story, my story. He knows the reality we’re dealing with! And he provides the way.

And God answers Mary’s question with the most powerful words we need to hear this morning, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Did you hear that? Nothing is impossible for God. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, took on human flesh by being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. God initiates, God does the impossible.

So let’s put this into our Faith formation building blocks.

Belong. How shall we, who belong to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who initiates, who dives in, who gets involved, how should we respond? How should we interact with each other, who also belong to God, and who belong to each other?

We ought to be super optimistic! We should be super confident in God. Culture isn’t very optimistic. Culture is angry, people criticise, mock, tear down, on social media. But we are filled with the God who intervenes! We are filled with the Spirit! We have great news to share! God has saved us from our sin by sending His Son! God does the impossible. He created everything, there are no limits to God.

We need to know and understand how God is at work! How he’s interested in you. How he’s interested in me. How he’s interested in us, Maranatha! Look at what is happening starting tomorow! We’ll have, like a bazillion kids here. I am expecting God to work in and through you. Through the crew leaders, who get to know the kids, who make them feel at home. I’m expecting God to show up powerfully in Josh who, with David will be opening each session, and then ensuring, with Sam, who’s worked tirelessly in the background, that everhthing happens as it should. I’m expecting God to initiate something powerful in those kids, through us. Through the amazing snack providers. Through the incredibly gifted volunteers and interns, through Maranatha, through Westside Community Church! God is the God of the impossible, so I’m expecting great things! I’ve seen God do many great things in you! I expect God to do even more!

I’ve seen many great things in you! I expect God to do even more!

And we need to let God’s power settle into us, giving us hope. God initiates, God moves, God can do the impossible. God already did. We were dead in our trespasses, but God, in his mercy, put our death, our sins, on his Son, Jesus. Jesus willingly took this onto himself. Jesus paid our sins, as one who was born a perfect human, who was also perfectly divine. He was able to bear the eternal punishment we deserve. We should be super hopeful. God can heal our bodies. God can immediately fix whatever is obstructing us. But God’s timing isn’t our timing. God makes everything perfect in his time. God is taking you, and you, and you, and me, and through our present circumstances, he’s changing us to become more and more like Jesus. We need to stop tying to help him do it, we simply need to trust him to do it! We must trust his answers, sometimes he doesn’t heal. Sometimes he doesn’t fix relationships right away. Sometimes he seems to take forever—it was what, some 4000 years between the promise to Eve and the coming of Jesus? But God did it. We have seen healing in this life. We have seen death. We’ll see more of both until Christ comes.

Then, God

And finally, God calls us and equips us. What do we do with the knowledge that God can do the impossible? It begins in our minds. We need to remind ourselves that God is the God of the impossible. That God initiates. The words of are familiar, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (). But listen further: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will let praise him, my Saviour and my God” ().

We have to remind ourselves of God’s power. We have to conquer our thoughts of fear, of hopelessness and anxiety. I saw a thing on Facebook: “Not once in the Bible does it say, ‘Worry about it, stress over it, or, figure it out.’ Over and over it clearly says, ‘Trust God.’”

‘Trust God.”

God initiated salvation, from the beginning, and delivered on that with Jesus’ incarnation. He chose to use an impossible path, so that we would know, beyond doubt, that we can’t figure it out, we can’t save ourselves. God initiated salvation in you. God is involved, God is beside you, beside me.

Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be: let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee; changed from glory into glory, 'til in heav'n we take our place, 'til we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Amen.