A Shocking Birth
Series: Beginnings of a Legacy
December 6, 2009
This morning I want to quote from one of the great theological minds of our time… Dr. Seuss! As a kid, (I don’t know about you), but I used to love reading his books and especially looking at the pictures… books like “The Cat in the Hat”, “Green Eggs & Ham”, “The Foot Book” and other classics. With Christmas coming up, I want you to gather around & listen to what Dr. Seuss writes in one of his best books… “On Beyond Zebra”… I think he’s hit on some pretty profound spiritual truths here! READY???
“Said Conrad Cornelius O’Donnell O’ Dell, my very young friend who was learning to spell…The A is for Ape, the B is for Bear, the C is for camel, the H is for Hair… the M is for Mouse, the R is for Rat… I know all 26 letters like that. Through to Z is for Zebra, I know them all well, said Conrad Cornelius o’ Donnell O’Dell. Now I know everything anyone knows from beginning to end, from the start to the close, because Z is as far as the alphabet goes. Then, he almost fell flat on his face on the floor when I picked up the chalk and drew one letter more. A letter he had never dreamed of before. And I said, “You can stop if you want with the Z and most people stop with the Z… but not me! In the places I go, there are things that I see that I never could spell if I stopped with a Z. I’m telling you this cause you’re one of my friends, my alphabet starts whwer your alphabet ends.
My alphabet starts with this letter called “YEZZ”, it’s the letter I use to spell “yezzametezz”. You’ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found, once you go beyond Z and start poking around. So, on beyond Zebra explore like Columbus, discover new letters like ‘wum’, which is for ‘wumbus’… my high spouting whale who live high on a hill, and who never comes down till it’s time to refill. So on beyond Z, it’s high time you were shown, that you really don’t know all there is to be known!”
(That’s all we have time for this morning, but if you want to hear the rest of the story, you can see me afterwards and I’ll arrange for you to have a private reading around bedtime!)
So let’s go on this journey this morning alright? It’s a journey “Beyond Zebra” because it’s the only place you’re going to find the true Christmas! On that very 1st Christmas, God added a new letter to our alphabet when He engineered the virgin birth. Just like we’ve been given 26 letters in the alphabet to spell words with… we’ve also been given certain mental slots or categories where we put all the knowledge and experiences in life. For example… when I say the word ‘dog’… you automatically file it away in your ‘dog slot’ and a mental picture flashes in your mind of a basset hound, or a bull dog, or maybe some famous dog like the Taco Bell Chihuahua. But when I say the word, ‘wumbuss’ or ‘yezzametezz”… you don’t have a slot like that because (unless you’ve read the book)… you don’t know what one looks like! When it’s outside of our known parameters… that’s when we have to go, “Beyond Zebra”. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is out there… beyond Zebra!
It was an historical event in a category by itself! It never happened before or since… and will never happen again!
It started out normal enough… but it quickly got out of hand! Let’s read about it in Matthew 1:18-25…”Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, being a just man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. 20 As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us).” 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded. He brought Mary home to be his wife, 25 but she remained a virgin until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.” -Matthew 1:18–25 (NLT)
Matthew declares 3 ways that the virgin birth impacts my life… and we need to think about these 3 things this morning. 1st of all, the virgin birth…
1. It guarantees my SALVATION
I think it’s pretty amazing how matter-of-factly Matthew states the most stunning news of all time… ”Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.” -vs.18 He takes only 1 verse to say something that would send shock waves through human history.
Notice he’s not trying to explain how it happened, He doesn’t go into elaborate details, or try to hype it in anyway… He just says…”This is how it happened…take it or leave it…but nonetheless…it’s true.” Matthew spends the previous 17 verses laying out Jesus’ human genealogy… but he only takes 1 verse to explain His DIVINE genealogy. As the Son of God… Jesus ‘descended’ from heaven in a miraculous, ‘beyond Zebra’ act of the Holy Spirit.
You say, “Well, why was it so important that the woman that Jesus was born through…be a virgin? I mean, what would be so bad about Jesus being conceived by a man like the rest of us?” I can answer that question with 2 simple words… SIN NATURE. See, everyone of us is born into this world with a predisposition an inclination to do wrong. If you don’t believe that… try going just one day without having 1 wrong action, or even 1 evil thought. Have you ever tried that? C.S. Lewis said that, “We don’t know how bad we are, until we try very hard to be good!” It’s true! That’s why David said in Ps.51:5 “For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me”.
The “sin nature” is the reason Jesus had to be conceived by the H.S., and not by a man. See, somehow the sin nature (that started with Adam and Eves fall) is passed on at conception. It’s a part of our DNA… so when you cut out the ‘human’ part of conception… you also short-circuit the transfer of the sin nature. If we’re to have any chance whatsoever of being saved from our sin… then we need a “Sinless Savoir”. Of all the major religions… none of their leaders ever claimed to be without sin… not Muhammad, not Buddha…not the Pope. That’s because only Jesus was born of a virgin! Listen…I need a ‘Sinless Savior” because I can’t trust in someone who’s in the same predicament as I am! Since I’m a sinner, I need someone who’s standing on higher ground. It’s like the tragic story I heard in the news of a grandmother who was taking care of her 2 yr. old granddaughter when the toddler fell into the swimming pool. Even though the grandmother didn’t know how to swim… in an attempt to save her, she jumped in after her. Hours later not 1 but 2 bodies were found at the bottom of the pool! Listen… when you’re drowning, you need help, but it has to come from A… Someone who’s WILLING to save you and, B… Someone who’s ABLE to save you! When it comes to sin… Jesus meets both requirements!
Why’s the virgin birth so important? Because without it, Jesus wouldn’t be sinless. And no matter how great of a prophet, or teacher, or miracle worker He is… He couldn’t save me! Mary was a still a virgin during her engagement to Joseph…so she was moral, godly girl… but more importantly…if Jesus had been born any other way… He wouldn’t be God, and He wouldn’t be able to save sinners like you and me! That’s critically important to my salvation!
The 2nd benefit of the virgin birth has to do with the way Joseph responds to the news of Mary’s shocking pregnancy… The virgin birth…
2. Changes my DIRECTION
Matthew 1:19 tells us that… Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."
Now, as you can imagine, when Joseph found out that Mary (his fiancé, the love of his life), had apparently been ‘sleeping around’ and now was pregnant… he wasn’t a happy camper! I imagine his reaction was a lot like Tiger Woods wife when she found out that the ‘Tiger’ had been on the prowl! And then to make things even worse, she comes up with this ‘lame brain’ excuse that GOD made her pregnant! “Right Mary! God got you pregnant! Wow… that’s a new one!”
According to Matthew 19, Joseph was a ‘righteous man’. The Hebrew word for a “righteous” there is tsaddîyq. Joseph was a tsaddîyq. In otherwords, in Jewish culture, he was known for his uncompromising obedience to the Torah, the law of Moses.
• He didn't eat unclean food.
• He didn't mix with the wrong kinds of people.
• He didn’t keep his carpentry shop open on the Sabbath to make a few extra drachmas.
Joseph was a “righteous man”… It was more than a statement about his character… it was a position he held in his community; it was his identity! Everybody knew this about him. Nobody invited Joseph over to have “ham sandwiches” with tax collectors and prostitutes! He was what young men in his day aspired to be. Just like today little boys want to be an all-stars…an Israelite boy wanted to grow up to be a tsaddîyq. It meant you were admired…looked up to. You were a SOMEBODY! And that was Joseph. But now he has a big problem… a problem that threatened to ruin his reputation in a town where reputation was everything!
Anybody here who was raised in a small town? You know what it’s like then. See, in a small town everybody knows everybodies business. And if they don’t… they’re going to find it out! Well, Nazareth was a small town! See the problem?
Now the “Torah” (to which Joseph lived to the letter) had some very clear instructions about what to do with somebody in Mary's condition. A section in Deuteronomy 22 covers marriage violation. If a woman ‘pledged to be married’ is unfaithful, it says: "She shall be brought to the door of her father's house, and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge this evil from among you." The Torah was clear. Joseph's reputation as a tsaddîyq was on the line! His fellow tsaddîyqim would have told him this sin must be publicly exposed and punished.
But Joseph couldn't bring himself to do that. He loved Mary too much, and besides, she’d never acted crazy, or lied about anything before this! It was out of character for her! Can you imagine Joseph's struggle? She seemed to be sincere. “But an angel came to her and told her that she would be impregnated by the H.S? That’s a little too much to swallow!!” So he decides to do the only thing he can think of…divorce her quietly. See, a ‘betrothal’ or ‘engagement’, was a legal act in that day, so to end it, required an “act of divorce”. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but at least this way he could minimize her embarrassment, and maintain his status as a righteous man.
But he still wasn’t at peace. So, one night as he’s agonizing over his decision, he falls into a fitful sleep. In his dream, an angel comes to him with a message. “Joseph, “don’t be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Now, as if having an angel show up in your dream wasn’t enough, the angel starts to PROVE to Joseph that his claim was true! He quotes a verse that Joseph would have been very familiar with…It comes out of Isa.7:14… “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel!”
There are 2 very important words that Isa. uses in that verse to proof who Jesus is. The 1st one is the word, “virgin”. Critics attempting to disprove the virgin birth try and point out that that’s a mistranslation of the Hebrew. They say, that the Heb word used here is the word, “almah’, and merely means ‘young woman’. And that if Isa. wanted to communicate the idea of a virgin birth, he would have used the word, ‘betulah”. (which also means ‘virgin’). However when I looked into it, I discovered that all of the latest and most detailed linguistic studies show that to use the word ‘betulah’ would be wrong, because it could also refer to a widow or divorced woman who was NOT a virgin. (i.e. Deut. 22:19; Joel 1:8). The word ‘almah’ on the otherhand is ALWAYS used to describe a ‘virgin’, and it’s never used to describe a non-virgin! In fact, ’alma’ occurs 6 other times in the Old Testament (Gen. 24:43; Exod. 2:8; Ps. 68:25; Prov. 30:19; Song of Sol. 1:3; 6:8)… and every time it’s talking about a virgin.
So when Isa. uses the word ’alma’ in 7:14 he’s making it very clear that the woman who would bear the Messiah would indeed be a young woman who never had sexual relations with a man. Besides that, why would the angel quote Isa.7:14 if he didn’t intend to prove that Mary was that woman? I mean, it wouldn’t be very convincing if he said to Joseph…”Joseph… the “divorced or widowed’ woman will be with child… and bear a son!” Joseph would have said, “Huh? So what? How does that relate to my situation?”
So, the when the angel quoted Isaiah 7:14, he was confirming that the birth Isa. predicted was the virgin birth of Jesus Christ 100’s of years before it happened!
The other word that Isa uses in 7:14 is the word… “Immanuel”. Anyone know what Immanuel means? We just sang it this morning! It means “God with us”. In otherwords, Isa and the angel are telling us that the baby this ‘virgin’ is going to give birth to… is none other than…. God Himself! Whoa! Talk about a dream! Joseph wakes up a with a start and says to himself…“Wow! I guess it’s true! She really did get impregnated by God! That is SO beyond Zebra!”
Now, I’ve always kind of wondered why God couldn’t have told him that ahead of time! Have you? I mean, why did God make Joseph squirm and stress out, when He could have saved him all that anxiety by letting him in on the secret earlier? And then I thought, “Well, maybe ‘anxiety removal’ wasn’t God's #1 goal for Joseph.” In fact, maybe ‘anxiety removal’ isn’t God’s #1 priority for you and me either! Maybe… struggling between what he thought a righteous man ought to do, and what a righteous man REALLY does…are 2 different things!
Maybe compassion is more important than appearances. Maybe Joseph was being prepared by God to come to a new understanding of what it really means to be righteousness! >>> If you're confused, disoriented or uncertain about something this morning …it might not be because you've done something wrong, or God doesn’t hear your prayer. Maybe you're about to grow! Maybe what you need to do is wait on God and trust that He’s is going to do something in your life, that you don't even know about yet!
The angel says, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife." What does Joseph have to be afraid of? Well, for starters… he’d be afraid of losing his reputation. He’d be afraid of what everybody would think about him. He knew about his own doubts when Mary told him about the angel. He could only imagine what the towns people would do and say!
• He’d never be invited to their homes,
• They’d never give him their business,
• And he could kiss goodbye to the admiration and respect that people had for him…
If he committed himself to this baby—it would be the END of his reputation, his business, his relationships…all trashed! It was an enormous sacrifice! Isn’t that OUR problem sometimes? We wonder, “If I really commit myself to Jesus…what would people think of me? What would my family think? How about my Mom & Dad? Or my work associates? Am I risking the lose of their respect and gaining their ridicule?
From that day on…when Joseph looked into people's eyes it would never be the same. They’d never look at him again with the same respect they used to have. But when he looked into the eyes of his baby boy, he knew he’d done the right thing. I can’t help but think about the millions of people who’ve given up everything for the cause of Christ. They’ve given up their status, their possessions… even their lives. But Joseph and Mary were the 1st people to do that! Incredibly courageous people! When Joseph made the decision to wed Mary, he thought it was the end of his being known as a righteous man. He had no way of knowing that the child he would adopt, would bring the human race a new kind of righteousness.
A righteousness that isn’t based on appearances, or man-made rules…or religion, or works. It’s a righteousness that changes the heart! I know so many people who go to church and do the ‘religious thing’ out of duty… they just kind of ‘endure’ Sunday mornings! No wonder the world thinks Christianity is boring… there are a lot of ‘boring’ Christians out there! I don’t know about you, but I come to church, not because of some kind of guilt complex, or obligation… I come because I WANT to! I really want to meet with God, and worship His Son! Ask yourself this morning…”What’s it costing me to follow Jesus?” My reputation? Some business? Certain peoples acceptance? Anything? If it’s not costing you anything…maybe you’re not really following Him! The virgin birth proves that Jesus is God and that changes everything!
The 3rd way that the virgin birth effects me is that…
3. It requires my ACTION
Matthew doesn’t actually record any detail of Joseph’s immediate reaction, except to say that when he woke up…he obeyed the angel’s instructions: “Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” (1:24–25).
You can imagine how amazed, relieved, and grateful Joseph must have been once he realized what the Lord had told him. Not only could he go ahead and gladly take Mary as his wife with honor and righteousness, but he had the privilege and honor of being allowed to bring up God’s own Son.
It wasn’t long after the angel’s announcement that Joseph and Mary were married, but Matthew makes it clear that Mary remained a virgin until after Jesus was born.
By the way, in case you wondered, references like Matt. 12:46; Mt.13:55–56 and Mark 6:3 prove that Mary wasn’t (as some claim) a virgin her entire life… because Jesus had ½ brothers and sisters. They were step brothers and sisters…because they all had the same Mom, but Jesus had a different Father!
Joseph followed through on God’s command and named the baby “Jesus”, proclaiming that He was to be the Savior. The name Jesus lit. means…”deliverer”. You know, when you follow through on what God tells you to do… it always turns out right. In fact, if you’re wondering what God wants you to do, don’t expect any new instructions, if you’re not obeying what He’s already told you to do! Joseph was an amazing guy! He was a righteous man, because his religion went further than just talk… he put it into action.
Now listen…the amazing fact of Jesus’ supernatural birth is the only way to explain the perfect, sinless life He lived while on earth. A skeptic who denied the virgin birth once asked a Christian, “If I told you that child over there was born without a human father, would you believe me?” The believer replied, “Yes, if he lived as Jesus lived.” Christ’s virgin birth helps us make sense of the entire story of His person and work. His extraordinary conception and birth, is an amazing reality that we should never take for granted.
