The Birth of our Savior

Our Savior is Born

150 Expository Sermon Outlines 63. The Birth of Christ (Luke 2:1–17)

Without Christ, we would have no Christmas. Each year the entire world pauses to remember His birthday. The story of Christmas never grows old. His birth changed all history.

Read- Luke 2:1-7

Mary gave birth to her firstborn son.

Why does Luke mention Jesus as her firstborn son?

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Firstborn

Firstborn. Term used in the Bible to describe a family’s oldest son (Gn 22:21).

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Biblical Relevance

firstborn points to the fact that one is born first, entailing obligations and rights.

The firstborn was the heir of the family and upon the death of the Father or when the father could no longer fill out Fatherly roles due to incapacity.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Superiority of Rank

Jesus as “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15 ESV)

• Jesus as “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5 ESV)

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Firstborn and Birthright

As firstborn, Christ is heir of all things (Heb 1:2) and the head of the church (Eph 1:20–23; Col 1:18, 24; Heb 2:10–12).

Hebrews 1:2 NASB95

in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

What is so miraculous about Mary’s birth of Jesus Christ?

The virgin birth of Christ.

Christ was supernaturally conceived in the womb of a virgin without the participation of a human father.

There are critics who like to dispute this and make the argument that it was not supernatural and that it’s some sort of mythical form taking from old pagan legends.

Pagan Parallels. The major pagan source is Greek mythology. Those who follow this theory argue that the early church first propounded the belief that Jesus was the Son of God and then proved it by using Hellenistic parallels. In Greek mythology Zeus as well as the other gods bore many children by human mothers, including Perseus and Hercules.

These offspring were also men of heroic proportion. In addition, there were tales of the miraculous births of great historical figures, such as Plato (whose father was Apollo) or Alexander the Great (whose father, Philip of Macedon, was kept from consummating his marriage until the child, conceived of Zeus, was born).

Interestingly, the church fathers often used these stories in their polemic against their Greek opponents to show that the idea of the virgin birth was not really so incredible to the Greek mind.

However, the differences between the pagan and Christian forms are too great. For one thing, the lustful promiscuity of the gods starkly contrasts with the spiritual simplicity of the NT.

Also, the concept of “virgin” hardly has any stress. In all cases, it is a physical union between god and human versus the spiritual conception of Jesus.

The same is true of the birth of Buddha, for the oldest records state that the entrance of the “white elephant” (representing the spirit of childbirth) into Gautama’s mother took place in a dream, and the story of an actual virgin birth is post-Christian.

As for the Persian myths of the birth of Zoroaster or the birth of Mithras from a rock, there is no concept of a virgin birth. Babylonian tales do involve the goddess-mother Ishtar, but again virginity has no emphasis and is actually doubtful. In conclusion, while there are slight analogical similarities between the virgin birth of Jesus and pagan parallels, one cannot establish any genealogical connection. The source of the doctrine is found in historical event, not literary parallels.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Virgin Birth of Jesus. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 2124). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

The word VIRGIN in the old testament sometimes refers to it as a young, unmarried girl.

The only one that the NT interprets as a reference to a virgin birth is in (Isa 7:14 , Matt 1:23)

Immanuel means “God is with us”

In the NT, the book of Matthew uses text that refers to a virgin birth.

Matthew 1:18–25 NASB95

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Is the virgin birth of Christ important to our belief?

Do we have to believe in the virgin birth?

We must, with an astounding YES.

To deny this doctrine is to open the door to denying anything clearly affirmed in the Bible.

From the book The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, 136 Reads...

“If the virgin birth of Jesus is untrue, then the story of Jesus changes greatly; we would have a sexually promiscuous young woman lying about God’s miraculous hand in the birth of her son, raising that son to declare he was God, and then joining his religion. But if Mary is nothing more than a sinful con artist then neither she nor her son Jesus should be trusted. Because both the clear teachings of Scripture about the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life and the character of his mother are at stake, we must contend for the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.” (The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, 136)

To deny the virgin birth would mean Jesus Christ was born from a biological mother and father. Having a biological father would have invalidated Jesus deity.

If Jesus wasn’t born through a virgin conception by the Holy Spirit then

He could not have been the Son of God while at the same time being the Son of Joseph.

It would mean since Jesus was born with a biological father, He could not have been a sinless man. He would have inherited the original sin

Every person born of man has inherited Adam's sin nature (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:17, Romans 5:19 )

And we know Jesus was not born in sin, He had no sin nature (Hebrews 7:26).

It would seem that the sin nature is passed down from generation to generation through the father (Romans 5:12, 17, 19). The Virgin Birth passed over the transmission of the sin nature and allowed the eternal God to become a perfect man.

By rejecting the virgin birth would also mean to reject the

1. Deity of Jesus

2. The sin nature of man

3. The inspiration of the Word of God.

The denial of the virgin birth is contradicting and against the Christian faith. God is all-powerful. Jesus is God. The Bible is God's Word. These are key points in the Christian faith, and they make a virgin birth a very simple matter.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;

11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is bChrist the Lord.

He is Savior, Lord and Christ—that is, deliverer, master and anointed king.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace among men bwith whom He is pleased.”

The heavenly host give praise to Christ the newborn king. Giving glory to God in the highest, in heaven, above all else, and peace among men on this earth to whom He is pleased. Who are the people on this earth who has and will have this peace?

WHO IS SIMEON

He was a man living in Jerusalem who offered a prayer and blessing to the infant Jesus. The text or anywhere in the Bible does not describe much of who he is but the next few verses make a great description of this man.

Luke 2:25-26 Simeon isn't described how he looks externally, but how he looks internally. He is described spiritually because this is what God is more concerned with in our life. He cares about the inward life not our outward appearance.

1 Samuel 16:7 “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

How are we living inwardly that is acceptable to God?

OUR SALVATION

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

Simeon calls this baby, God’s salvation.

If this was translated in Hebrew it would read...

For my eyes have seen, your Yeshua

Jesus is our salvation

Salvation is a person, not something you do.

Jesus never said, follow my example because that is the way, the truth, and the life.

He said I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE

Jesus never said follow my teachings, he said FOLLOW ME!

Later on Peter said...

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Except for the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our gift. He is our salvation.

Note: Yĕhôšûaʿ (meaning YHWH salvation or YHWH saves/has saved, is the Hebrew name pronounced as Yeshua, and its English spelling is “Joshua.” Iesous is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name, and its English spelling is “Jesus.”

So the names “Joshua” and “Jesus” are essentially the same; both are English pronunciations of the Hebrew and Greek names for our Lord.

For examples of how the two names are interchangeable, see Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8

Remember: Changing the language of a word does not change it’s meaning. Just as we call a set of pages bounded together a book, in Spanish it would be a Libro, in German, it would be a Buch, In Chinese, it would be a Shu.

In the same way can refer Jesus as “Jesus” or “Yeshua” or “Yesu” (in Mandarin), it doesn’t change who He is. In any language his name means “The Lord is Salvation”

Luke 2:34–35 NASB95

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

We know there were those who were against Jesus. Even his own people of Israel would reject him and eventually kill him.

Jesus and his words would cut through like a sword, penetrating their hearts. There would be those who listen and follow him and those who would oppose him.

Even til this day, the name of Jesus causes division, anger, and hate.

Mention His name in a the news or on a public tabloid/newspaper and people would go nuts. Let them know that we follow Jesus and watch them call us all sorts of names like bigots, racist, homophobes, and haters. They ignore us, yell at us, curse at us, and call us hateful people.

They cannot stand the light, and love the darkness and want to continue to walk in it.

Jesus knew that, that’s why he came here to divide the nation.

He says later in...

Luke 12:51-53

Luke 12:51–53 NASB95

“Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

My question to you is, which side are you on?