Sermon Tone Analysis

Earlier this month in the Washington state capitol an atheist group placed a sign alongside a nativity scene.

The sign read, in part, "There is only our natural world.

Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Signs on busses in washington DC read "Why believe in a god?

Just be good for goodness' sake."

Bill Mahrer in his movie religulous apparently was able to find a priest who said the whole idea behind a virgin birth and other foundations of Christianity is “nonsense” and “stupid.”

These are but a few of the areas where the Christian faith is under attack and especially this time of year, during the Christmas season.

Many times the basis of these attacks center around the Christians belief in the supernatural.

There is no way around it, the Christian faith is a supernatural faith.

From God Himself, the virgin birth, the life of Christ, the resurrection, the ascencion, the miracles throughout the Bible, the Bible itself, salvation, Angels, you name it…..Christianity is a supernatural faith because of God, the supernatural object of our faith.

You cannot be a Christian and reject the supernatural.

But it’s the supernatural that’s often the focus of those attacks by the critics.

And one area we see attacked this time of year is the virgin birth of Jesus.

Larry King, the CNN talk show host, was once asked who he would most want to interview if he could choose anyone from all of history.

He said, "Jesus Christ."

The questioner said, "And what would you like to ask Him?" King replied, "I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born.

The answer to that question would define history for me."

It seems that Larry King unlike a lot of other people understands the importance of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to history and not only history, but to the Christian faith.

By the time this Christmas season is over, we will sing “Silent night” many times, especially when we go caroling next weekend.

And as we sing,    we will repeat those words over and over, “/Round yon virgin, mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild/.”

But how much thought do we give those words “Round yon virgin”?

Well that’s what we are going to look at this morning, the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Given that we are in the midst of the Christmas season it’s a great time to talk about this.

This whole season for the Christian should center on the virgin birth, this miracle of God in human flesh, this time of year when we celebrate Immanuel, God with us.

Our question this morning is, “The Virgin Birth, is it a big deal or is it outdated mythology and nostalgia that has no place in our modern world?”

Specifically we are going to look at where the bible teaches the virgin birth, and define the virgin birth---- you might not think this is necessary to define it----- but because of the perversion of truth going on out there, it is.

We are also look at some of the attacks launched against it from within and outside of the faith and explain why this is a big deal and that you can’t be a Christian while rejecting the truth of the virgin birth, it’s impossible.

And I’ll explain why that’s the case.

Pray----Dear God, as we gather together here during this blessed Christmas season, we celebrate so much.

We celebrate the birth of Jesus our Savior, your love for us, our salvation, and our love for one another.

As we talk about the miracle of the incarnation, (the virgin birth), speak to our hearts and etch your words and truth upon us all.

God bless us that we may be a blessing to you.

When we talk about the essentials of the faith, we’re talking about those truths that when you change and~/or eliminate them, you change and redefine the faith so that it no longer is possible to be what it claims, nor is it possible for it to do what it claims.

Here are the essentials.

The Trinity, the doctrine of heaven and hell, infallibility~/ inerrancy of the Scriptures, the physical resurrection, the Deity of Christ, The virgin birth, The atonement, and the return of Christ.

These are those things that when you redefine or eliminate any of them you redefine the faith and render it useless.

Did you realize that the Virgin Birth is an essential of the Christian faith and do you know why it is an essential?

While I know that we’ve talked about the essentials of the Christian faith at least a couple of times before, I am real sure that we haven’t dedicated an entire morning to talking specifically about the virgin birth, which is indeed an essential of the faith.

Read.

Matt.

1:18-24 and Luke 1:26-38.

*The Virgin Birth Defined (what the Bible teaches)*

 

When we talk about the virgin birth, we are affirming that the bible teaches that Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant and remained so up until the time she gave birth to Christ.

His birth was a miracle of God that made the incarnation, possible.

You’ve just heard the texts of Matthew and Luke and they’re clear on the teaching of the virgin birth.

Matthew 1:18 says Mary was pregnant before she and Joseph lived together and the same verse tells us her pregnancy was due to the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:25 tells us that Mary remained a virgin /until /the birth of Christ.

Luke 1:34 tells us clearly that that Mary was a virgin, while in verse 35 the angel explains to Mary that her pregnancy is due to the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

These are the facts concerning the Virgin Birth.

You might not think it’s necessary to define this.

But always---- you must define your terms or else you may be using the same words as someone else but be talking about two different things.

Take for example the Mormon teachings on Christ.

When Mormons teach about the Virgin Birth of Jesus, they use the same words we do, but don’t mean the same thing we do.

According to Mormonism, God the Father, who has a body of flesh and bones (since he was a man), came to earth and had physical sex with Mary, his own daughter and that’s how Jesus was conceived.

A very different and grotesque definition of the virgin birth and not what the Bible teaches (Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22; McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 471).

Same words, very different meaning, so always define your terms.

*Attacks on the Virgin Birth*

As we would expect, of course there are attacks on this teaching of the virgin birth by those outside of the faith.

And what you find in most cases is that these people have an antisupernatural bias.

And all that means is they believe miracles are impossible.

The virgin birth is a miracle, so of course they deny the virgin birth.

Here below is a good example from atheist Richard Dawkins. 

 

“/The Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children/.”

You see, in his worldview, belief in miracles is on a level with fairy tales and it’s left to children, unsophisticates and the uneducated.

The underlying thought being that anyone who is capable of rational thinking certainly would not believe in miracles.

---There is by some, the outright rejection of the supernatural, and that the supernatural and science cannot co-exist.

Here you have a classic example of the knowledge that God has granted to mankind being used in arrogance to reject God.

A classic example of the arrogance of mankind.

* *

And of course Dawkins doesn’t bother to deal with all of the famous scientists such as“newton, kepler, mendel, pascal, faraday, Copernicus, and others who believed in the Virgin Birth, resurrection, and raising of the dead by Christ.”

The Accounts Come From Mythology.

Others reject the virgin birth saying that this concept is nothing new and Christianity actually stole this from earlier religions and made it a creed for itself.

This is a common objection that runs rampant on the internet and in writings today and so we will briefly discuss this.~/~/~/

Those who say that this account was borrowed from mythology will tell you that great people typically had supernatural births attributed to them and that the virgin birth is but another example of that.

They may reference ancient Assyrian mythology where it is said that the wife of Nimrod gave birth to Tammuz who was conceived by a sunbeam.

There’s a similar legend in Egyptian mythology with Isis and Osiris.

There is also in India mythology along the same lines.

They may reference an ancient Chinese mother cult known as the Shing Moo.

Their artwork picturing the mother and the child looks a lot like the artwork portraying Mary and Jesus.

One legend about the Buddha claims he was miraculously conceived when an elephant entered his mothers belly.

Olympius, the mother of Alexander the Great often asserted that he was conceived by the gods.

By one account it is said that she conceived him after eating a pomegranate.

These are just a few examples of how people will assert that this type of story often goes with a great person of history and so the story of the birth of Christ is nothing new.

Without going into too much detail, let me give you four reasons why this accusation is false and so you can rest easy knowing that the early Christian church didn’t adopt the virgin birth narratives from pagan mythology.

*First*, you will find that in the case of these legends and mythology, the legend arises after the various people of history become famous.

Contrast this with the birth of Christ whose virgin birth was prophesied over 700 years in advance from Isaiah 7:14.

Concerning His birth, not only was his birth prophesied, but also his lineage, his name, and where He would be born,  was prophesied /and fulfilled/.

This is not to say anything about the hundreds of prophecies that would be fulfilled in the course of His lifetime.

There exists nothing like this in all of history.

*Second*, the facts of the events of the life of Christ were written during the lives of the eyewitnesses.

There were the brothers of Jesus, his mother, his cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, disciples, you name it.

If what was being reported was legend it would have been refuted, by eyewitnesses, and it wasn’t………  Some critics say that because the account of the virgin birth isn’t in the gospel of John we have reason to doubt it’s true.

They are right, it’s not in John, but what they don’t tell you is that right at 90% of what John wrote is not in the other gospels.

He wrote much later than Matthew and Luke and  90% of what he wrote didn’t include what had already been written.

*Third*, these legends that the critics claim are the inspiration for the VB grew out of pagan polytheism.

This is the belief that there are many gods who were powerful men with human lusts, anger, and desires with the context being sexuality and fertility.

In mythology, the gods would take part in and enjoy human sexual pleasures.

It isn’t even close to feasible that the church coming primarily from monotheism and staying with monotheism would adopt these ideas from pagan mythology at its most degrading point.

The NT writers have nothing in common with pagan mythology.

*Fourth, *consider the authors.

Matthew and Luke wrote the accounts and neither was likely to be gullible.