The Virgin Birth is Essential to Faith
Christmas 2022 • Sermon • Submitted
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Next Sunday right after our intentional prayer time, we will have our annual business conference. You are invited to stay after service next Sunday. We will celebrate all the Lord has done this past year and look ahead to what the Lord has for us next year.
It is Christmas time! Who is excited for Christmas?
Today we jump in to our Christmas series
What better way to jump in to this series than a clip from the classic Christmas movie Home Alone.
(Show the Clip)
This part cracks me up a little bit. How do you really forget Kevin?
Some of you mothers may be saying that this time of year has you running all different directions.
Those of you who are single moms or single dads at this time of year you are saying I get how she forgets Kevin. I can’t keep up.
I am trying to get all my hours of work in, get the kid to all the games, concerts, shows, I am trying to get some shopping done, trying to pay the expensive bills of winter so I can relate and if it was up to me to pack for Paris then I might would forget Kevin too.
Some of you might Amen that one.
Let’s think through this just a bit
They would have had to forgot Kevin when they left the house.
There was a time when you did not have go through security or show ID to get on a plane, but they would have had to forget Kevin as they were getting out at the airport.
They would have had to forget Kevin when they were checking bags at the airport.
They would have forgotten Kevin when they were boarding the plane.
Kevin would have been forgotten when they were passing out the tickets. They would have had an extra.
Mom and Dad are in 1st class and all the kids are not. Don’t you think someone would have said hey I have an open seat next to me and Kevin is supposed to be here. (Some of you siblings are saying nope, I would just sit there quietly and not say anything)
Here is the point. When you start asking these questions it kind of ruins the movie. You ever sit next to someone that ALWAYS ask these questions in movies. You who are movie enthusiast you like the plots and you like to get lost in the story and believe the make belief right.
It is not fun if you have a realist setting next to you saying there is no way that could ever happen, no way, That’s not real!
To enjoy the story line of Home Alone, you have to believe that they really forgot Kevin. If you don’t believe they forgot Kevin then everything in the plot falls apart.
This is a movie for entertainment.
When it comes to real life, there are facts and truths inserted into the stories lines that make it harder for us to believe that something actually happened.
It is these facts or truths that contradict the narrative and make it harder for us to believe. Handle properly these facts and truths will often make the story more believable.
This week we are looking at the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.
Doctrine: a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.
The Virgin birth is essential doctrine in the Christian faith.
Turn to Matthew 1.
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?
My friend was here on Wednesday night and his son is 15 and we were picking on him about choosing a spouse. I told him he could let his parents pick his spouse for him. His response was no. I said do you trust your parents to pick your spouse. He was like no.
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 picked 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.
it was discovered before they came together that 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!
This is the part that does not help support the narrative at first, that is until you fully understand what is happening here.
The Greeks could have accepted this no problem.
Their gods were believed to be having sexual relations with women and having children.
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.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
Jesus was not created. Scripture tells us he was with God in the beginning.
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 scripture tells that this was not the case.
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.
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.
This shows the realness of the story. Joseph has feelings. His wife pledged to be married to him is pregnant and he is going to divorce her 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.
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.
Jesus is the prophesied Savior. Jesus is Lord.
The virgin birth changes what Christmas is about.
It tells the story of God’s love for you and I. His love so much that God the Son came to earth for us. Jesus was not created. He has always existed. He came, was born, died on the cross and rose again.
All of history centers around Jesus. The belief or doctrine of the Virgin birth centers us a Christmas.
Jesus is the center.
Jesus Lord
Where are you in your life?
Do you believe Jesus is Lord? Do you believe that Jesus is Immanuel that is God with us? Do you believe in the Virgin Birth
This belief changes everything.
God loves you and I so much that he personally came as fully God and fully man to be born of a virgin just as scriptures says.
Colten playing Home Alone at my moms house.
He started by putting chocolate syrup over a chair in the living room. He moved from that to he found some syrup all over one of my moms bar stools at her counter.
This kid was all in.
This morning I asked Amy which kid was doing this and Colten said at least Nana is protected from robbers.
We laughed.
Kids are all in.
Kids accept the Virgin Birth. They believe. Do You?