A Baby Maker Series

Men are trying to have babies. Some are experimenting with the idea of surgically implanting an

embryo into the male and then surgically removing the child when it is grown enough to love on its

own. But there are things even more bizarre. In 1978 science writer David Rorvik wrote In His

Image. It is about an American millionaire who goes by the code name Max. He wanted a child

created from one of his body cells. In other words, he wanted to be cloned. He found a willing

scientist and set up the lab, and the attempt was successful. Max is now the proud father of a son

make in his image. He is a carbon copy of his father, and has only one genetic parent.

This stirred up a great controversy that went all the way to the U.S. Congress, but nobody knows

if it is was a hoax, or if it was true. Nobel Prize winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg said of cloning,

"There is nothing to suggest any particular difficulty about accomplishing this in mammals or

man.." In other words, it may very well be a reality that a man has had his own baby. Hoax or not, it

reveals just how desperate people become to reproduce. There are so many infertile couples who

want babies that they have created a whole new world of baby making science. Not a day goes by

that there is not a baby conceived outside the human body. In vitro fertilization is conceiving of a

baby in glass. It is often called a test tube baby.

The first such baby was born on July 25, 1978 in England. Until Louise Brown was born every

human being had begun their existence deep in their mother's body, but Louise began in a glass dish.Yes Solomon, there is something new under the sun. But he was right in that the ingredients are the

same and the process the same. They had to have a mother's egg and a father's sperm in that dish or

she never would have been born. The dish was merely an artificial womb. All life demands an egg

and a seed, or fertility and verility. This is true for those born into the family of God as well. In our

last message we looked at fertility and the need for the proper soil for sowing the seed. Now we

want to look at the second element which is-

II. VIRILITY.

All the fertile eggs in the world will not produce a baby without seed, and so fertility and virility

are the twin elements that must come together to make any baby possible. Vir is French for man, and

virility means masculine and manly vigor. In the spiritual realm it applies to both sexes for in Christ

all are part of the bride of Christ and can reproduce.

When we looked at fertility we looked at the nature of the people Paul preached to. They were

the synagogue people who loved the same God and the same Bible that Paul did. They were open to

new light on the Messiah and so were fertile soil. Now we are focusing on the seed which must

penetrate that fertile soil to bring forth babies for the kingdom of God. Fertile soil will not

necessarily bring forth fruit without vigorous effort. When Paul found fertility he still had to

demonstrate virility. He had to go through tough labor to bring forth new life.

We look at verse one and it sounds like an afternoon stroll in the park as Paul passed through

Amphipolis and Appellonia. But it was not so, for it was 33 miles from Philipi to Amphipolis, and

this was a journey taken after Paul and Silas had been beaten and spent the night in prison where

they were up most of the night. Like so many mothers do, Paul gave birth to babies for the kingdom

in the middle of the night. The Philippian jailer and his family believed in Jesus and were baptized.

It was a hard night and after some refreshment in the home of Lydia they took off for a new

adventure. It was just like the old stories of the women who would be working in the fields. Her

baby would come and she would lay down in the grass for a brief rest after her delivery, and then get

up and keep on working. This is what we see Paul doing in the realm of having babies for Jesus.

After 33 miles to Amphipolis they had another 30 miles to Apollonia, and then another 37 to

Thessolonika. It was a hundred mile journey. This is not much in our day but it was no small effort

for Paul, and it took the better part of the week. Paul had to spend three Sabbaths in reasoning and