Born of a Virgin
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The choir just sang a fun song. It is a song that has roots as a West Indies Carol. It has that calypso feeling. It is a spiritual that has been around since the 1800’s. The words are simple and quite biblical. The virgin Mary had a baby boy, and they called Him Jesus.
The song comes from a compilation of both Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories. We will look at how Luke recorded the story of young Mary and what she was told about the miracle to be.
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Have you ever thought about why there was a virgin birth and why it is important? Was the birth of Jesus really this incredible miracle? I want to help you see that it is important by looking at the providence of God, the perpetuality of God, and the passion of God.
The Providence of God
The Providence of God
The word providence has to do with a manifestation of divine care or direction. When one speaks of the Providence of God, it is the understanding that God is providing care and guidance to His people. When we look at the providing care and guidance of God, we can see that He is faithful, trustworthy, believable, and that He carries out what He says.
The Bible contains over 2500 prophecies. According to Biblical scholars, over 2000 of them have already come true. 400 prophecies were about Christ and all of these have been fulfilled in Christ. Just with this understanding, we can see that God’s word can be trusted. So if God’s word says in a prophecy like that a virgin will give birth to a son and will be called Immanuel, we certainly believe it. Scripture supports it.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
When that same verse is quoted in the Gospel account of Matthew some 600 years later, and it is part of the announcement of not only what it is about to be but comes to fruition, we can believe it as well.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:2
However, let’s take this a step further. Once we believe that scripture is true and that we can find it trustworthy, we can see the benefit of using scripture to understand other scripture.
In addition to the previous verse mentioned in , the Old Testament spoke of a Royal Son who would be uniquely related to the Father.
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
Isaiah
This tells us a few things about the promised Messiah. He would be born. He would be given. He would be the greatest ruler ever. His kingdom would be established on the basis of justice and righteousness. It would be a lasting kingdom. The only way this could take place would be for the Messiah to be directly related to God because only God is just and righteous. The rest of us fall short of the glory of God.
There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.
As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
This is because of the Fall of Man that is described in . Sin was passed down to mankind through Adam.
Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
Another indirect way that Scripture supports the virgin birth in found in the listing of the genealogy of Jesus found in .
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Matthew records Joseph as the husband of Mary but that it was by Mary only that Jesus was born. The pronoun in Greek for “whom” is feminine singular, which indicates Jesus was born of Mary only and not of Mary and Joseph.
In the Providence of God, not only does He use scripture to support the virgin birth, He uses scripture to declare it. This is shown in when Mary hears this news and questions the Angel of God to determine how this can be.
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Luke
Sometimes we don’t get the specifics in scripture, but we certainly get the declaration. Matthew supports this in his Christmas narrative:
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Also, a very careful study of the
So why should we celebrate the virgin birth? Because in the Providence of God, Scripture supports it and Scripture declares it. There is another area found in the perpetuality of God.
The Perpetuality of God
The Perpetuality of God
Just in case you did not know, perpetual means continuing or enduring forever. It means everlasting. From Scripture, we know that God is from everlasting to everlasting.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
God recognized that in order for His salvation to be perpetual, He needed something that would be lasting. God knew that Jesus would have to be born of humanity to redeem humanity, but born of God to reconcile with His holiness. The virgin birth confirms both the humanity of Jesus and His Deity. The fullness of God yet the fulness of mankind. We call this INCARNATION.
For the incarnation to happen and have a lasting effect, Jesus had to be born in a way that way that was not linked to the seed of Adam. One writer put it this way: “The incarnation was the way which Christ took on humanity. The word means ‘in flesh,’ and the method of the incarnation was the virgin birth” (Charles Ryrie).
The Passion of God
The Passion of God
God used the virgin birth so that His mercy, love, and grace could be revealed. In other words, the virgin birth provided an opportunity for us to experience the passion of God.
God provided His Son as a way of access for sinful mankind to approach an “un-sinful” God. A way of access for the unholy to become one with the Holy.
Through the virgin birth, God revealed Himself to mankind.
John
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
Through the virgin birth, God provided for us an example for living.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
Through the virgin birth, God provided a sacrificial atonement for our sin.
Hebrews 10:
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’ ”
First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Through the virgin birth, God destroyed the works of the devil.
1 John
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Through the virgin birth, God enabled Jesus to become a merciful and faithful High Priest.
Hebrews
Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.
Through the virgin birth, God fulfilled the promise of a Son to sit on the throne of David forever.
Luk
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
The great 20th-century preacher Adrian Rogers said, “You see, if there was no virgin birth, there would be no sinless Christ…no atonement …no atonement, no forgiveness… no forgiveness… no hope of heaven… no hope of heaven, we would all die and go to hell.” He goes on to say, “Thank God for the virgin birth. If you take away the virgin birth, the whole house of Christianity collapses like a house of cards.”
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy.
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy.
And they said His name was Jesus.
Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yes Believer!
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.