Advent Week 3 - 2012 Series

Today is the third Sunday of Advent

The whole reason for the Advent was to initiate the new covenant and to save the lost.

Explain relationship and use of husband/divorce language in Bible

Matthew 1:18-25

“18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

“19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

“20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’

“21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

“22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).

“24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.”

The virgin birth or better said the virgin conception

"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'."

The news for Larry King is that this fact not only defines history but it defines the present, and it defines where you and I are currently living and making decisions, and, it defines eternity as well!

John MacArthur says, "The virgin birth is an underlying assumption of everything the Bible says about Jesus. To throw out the virgin birth is to reject Christ's deity, the accuracy and authority of Scripture, and a host of other related doctrines that are the heart of the Christian faith. No issue is more important than the virgin birth to our understanding of who Jesus is. If we deny Jesus is God, we have denied the very essence of Christianity."

Thomas Jefferson, however came down on the other side of faith and is quoted as saying, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

In 1820 Thomas Jefferson retired from politics and at the age of seventy-seven, sat down to edit the New Testament for the second time. He purchased six Bibles—two in English, two in French, and two containing both Latin and Greek—and cut them up, creating a second edited version of the New Testament, in four languages.

In this book, he kept the words of Jesus and some of his deeds, but left out the miracles and any suggestion that Jesus is God. The virgin birth is gone. So is Jesus walking on water, multiplying the loaves and fishes, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Jefferson’s version ends with Jesus’ burial on Good Friday. There is no resurrection, no Easter Sunday. Jefferson called this version “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.”

A poll of 7,441 Protestant clergy showed a wide variation in belief. The following ministers do NOT believe in the virgin birth: American Lutherans 19%, American Baptists 34%, Episcopalians 44%, Presbyterians 49%, Methodists 60%, Millard Erickson says, "Next to the resurrection, the most debated and controversial event of Jesus’ life is the virgin birth."

Now listen, if you think people today struggle with the virgin birth check out poor, old Joseph that we read about in Matthew chapter one …

First, Mary has had an encounter with Gabriel and has been told at least three things …

She’s been told that the Holy Spirit is going to perform a miracle on her and that she will have a baby even though she is still a virgin.

She has been told that this baby will save His people from their sins and she must name Him Jesus.

She has been told that her relative, Elisabeth, who is aged and barren is also going to have a baby and she is now in her sixth month of pregnancy.