WHY WE BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH
Isaiah 7:14New International Version (NIV)
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[a] a sign: The virgin[b] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[c] will call him Immanuel.[d]
INTRODUCTION:
We will continue our mini-series on the birth of Christ in preparation for our Christmas celebration.
Last week, we talked about the Old Testament prophecy of Micah on the birth of Christ regarding the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ on His Humble beginnings, on His rise to Kingship and His existence from Time eternity.
We ended our message on the significance of the divinity of Christ.
Because Christ is God, he has the power to deliver us from the dominion of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of light.
Indeed, Christ is the reason for the season.
But you see, the problem in our culture nowadays is that many people do not believe in the deity of Christ anymore.
They doubt in the divinity of Christ, and of course, question the virgin birth of Christ.
Doubt is a normal experience common to all people, Christians and non-Christians alike.
To doubt means to lack confidence, to have apprehensions and hesitations regarding a certain belief or statement.
Even those who have been Christians for a long time have to struggle with serious doubts and occasionally wrestle on the basic Christian doctrines that have been handed down to us from generations.
Our culture is changing and people are changing as well in the way they think.
They look at something more tangible to believe in.
They don't want to believe in something they have not seen.
Plus the fact that many Christians have not been fully grounded or established in their Christian faith.
They have no time for Discipleship classes and no time to study our Christian beliefs in depth.
We are reminded of the man whom Jesus met in Mark 9:24 "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
This man was trying hard to believe in the healing power of Christ, but somehow, he was being hindered by his overwhelming doubt deep within his mind.
He was struggling and inwardly wrestling emotionally with what he has been taught concerning the miracles that he was facing at that moment.
And many times, we experience the same thing.
We know that there is a God who created everything we see but we do not believe on the reality of things we cannot see and touch and feel.
We want to believe on things we can only see and proven by science.
There is no element of faith and trust anymore in our culture.
That is why there is a struggle or a conflict going on in the our minds whether to believe this doctrine or not.
When we entertain and adhere fully to these doubts and apprehensions, they become our obstacle to further spiritual growth.
And so, what do we do when we are being overtaken by doubts?
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us on the importance of nurturing our faith.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."
Faith means firmly believing with our hearts on things we have not seen.
We are assured of its reality regardless of our preconceived ideas.
And so, today, we will try to study and explain the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ in the hope that we will grow our faith.
Why we believe in the virgin birth of Christ.
Let me quote to you from the Church of the Nazarene statement of faith regarding the virgin birth of Christ.
It said in Article II, "We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead; that He was eternally one with the Father, that he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and manhood, are thus united in one Person very God and very man, the God-man."
There we have the word "incarnate".
What does that mean?
According to the Wikipedia, the Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that the second Person of the Trinity, also know as God the Son or the Logos (Word), "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of Mary.
Incarnation means God became flesh to provide the means of our salvation.
Belief in the incarnation of Christ therefore is to believe that Christ is fully God and fully man.
In our study for today, we will look at the Old Testament passage from the Book of Isaiah that says: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14(NIV)
There are three things we will study in this verse.
Firstly, we will study the SIGN FROM THE LORD, secondly, we will proceed to talk about the VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST, and lastly, the NAME OF CHRIST, Immanuel.
1. THE SIGN FROM THE LORD. "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign."
The first thing we can learn from this verse is the word "SIGN".
That word "sign" means an indication, an evidence, or an authentication from the Lord so that they can believe the message.
For instance, in the Old Testament, during the time of Daniel (Daniel 5) while he was an exile in Babylon, there was a hand writing in the wall that suddenly appeared instantly when King Belshazzar was hosting a banquet for his guests.
Daniel interpreted the handwriting as a sign from God that his days as king were numbered and brought to an end.
He had been arrogant and his heart was hardened with pride.
And so, the Lord brought judgment upon him that very night.
The king was slain and the sign was fulfilled.
The sign was an authentication that the Lord has spoken and the people must not doubt God's message.
We need to ask the Lord for a sign if we want to hear him speak to us.
But of course, these are not necessarily be a handwriting on the wall.
Signs from God can differ from one person to another.
The important thing is we grasp the significance or the meaning of the sign in our lives.
Isaiah 7:11 (NIV) " "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."
Those words: "deepest depths" and "highest heights" talk about the highs and lows of the Christian life.
Sometimes, we are happy and sometimes we are sad.
Sometimes, we feel so depressed, but other times, we are so joyful and vibrant.
Our emotions vary from day to day in the way we face and handle different circumstances or problems confronting us.
But Isaiah said to ask the Lord for a sign regardless of how we feel that day.
Our feelings may vary, but God does not change.
He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
He never changes.
He is always there at our side waiting and watching our every move to guide and protect us.
That sign of the Lord in your life can be anything such as a form of a rainbow, or an angel appearing in your dreams, or a Scripture verse that suddenly popped up in your mind.
That sign can be in a form of a flower blooming, or a person that you have just met.
God's sign in our lives will always assure and encourage us to wait and pause so that we can listen to His will being revealed in us.
Remember the incident I shared to you several weeks ago regarding Hezekiah who was sick?
He earnestly pleaded and prayed to God for healing.
He waited for the Lord and received an answer that he would be healed.
But he asked for a sign and Lord gave him a sign.
We can find that in 2 Kings 20:9 (NIV) " Isaiah answered, "This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?"
We all know that he asked for the shadow to go back ten steps and it was granted to Him.
His heart was at peace and he received his healing.
In the same manner, God gave Israel a sign that the coming birth of the Deliverer of Israel will someday come to pass.
That sign from God is the virgin birth of the Savior.
The purpose of the sign is also spoken of in Isaiah 38:7 (NIV) " "'This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised:"
Whatever God has promised, he will fulfill it and never delay.
Many times, we doubt God's promises because we are always in a hurry to seek for a quick resolution to our problems.
We always act in haste not willing to wait for a little more time.
We don't realize that waiting is part of our character development especially to grow our patience and long suffering.
But God said "I am going to give you a sign so that you will believe and not doubt. Just wait and it will come to pass."
This is the sign of Christmas.
And after 650 years of waiting from the time of Isaiah, God fulfilled the prophecy by giving us Jesus born of a virgin in that little town of Bethlehem so that we will have hope in these dark times.
And after more than 2,000 years since the birth of Christ, the prophecy of the Second Coming of Christ is yet to be fulfilled.
But the signs of His coming is all around us.
There is so much wisdom in waiting on God and watching for His next move, isn't it?
When we wait on God, we develop a life of faith and we learn to trust in His promises.
When we wait on God, we learn to commit and follow His leading upon us no matter how long it takes us to get to our destination.
When we wait on God, we avoid the tendency to manipulate the situation in order to reach a desired outcome.
When we wait on God, we learn to surrender to God's will and we get a grasp on how to walk in step with His purposes.
Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate Christmas this year, we had to learn to wait on God for all areas of our lives.
We must step back in leading our lives and instead wait on God and watch Him move miraculously.
This Christmas, we must watch him move over your family.
We must watch him move over our physical ailments.
We must watch Him move our our relationship.
We will be surprised at the many more blessings we will receive each year because we have learned the value of waiting.
2. THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST. "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son."
The second thing we can learn from this verse is about the virgin birth of Christ.
The virgin birth shows the uniqueness of Christ because no one else came into the world in the same way as Jesus Christ.
The miraculous nature of His birth, his life and His public ministry all showed that He is of heavenly origin and not from below.
According to the Bible Dictionary, "The virgin birth of Christ means that Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit without the agency of a human father and born while Mary was yet a virgin."
These verses from Matthew will explain the virgin birth in clarity.
Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV) 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: 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[b] 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,[c] 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”[d] (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.
Here are the facts from the story:
1. Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.
2. But Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit before they came together.
3. Joseph discovered the truth about her pregnancy but did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He instead planned to divorce her quietly.
4. But the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream urging him to take Mary home as his wife and explaining to him how this virgin birth came about.
5. The angel also revealed to him the main reason for the virgin birth in order to save the people from their sins.
6. When Joseph woke up, he obeyed all that the Lord commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
This is the miracle of the virgin birth that has lost its meaning during the Christmas celebration.
The natural tendency nowadays during Christmas is the rush hours, the gifts, the super sales, the big discounts, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday, all to attract people to buy more.
And so, the more money you have, the more gifts you buy.
And the more gifts you buy, the more exhausted you get.
And the more exhausted you get, the less time you have for church.
No wonder, we have lost our focus on the true nature of Christmas.
We had to be reminded that Christ was born of a virgin in order to save us from our sins.
So, what is the significance of the virgin birth of Christ?
That He is fully God able to forgive all the sins of the entire world.
If He is not God, and just mere man, he could never pay for his own sins.
But praise God, Jesus was born of the virgin so that He has the power and authority to bring salvation to the lost humanity from the past, present and future generation.
So, I encourage you to study carefully this historic Christian truth regarding the virgin birth.
There are a lot of people who deny and doubt the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Larry King, the CNN talk host show 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?"
Larry King replied, "I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me." (taken from Just Thinking, RZIM, Winter 1998.)
In short, people are only interested with history and not with the person of Jesus Christ.
And it is with the knowledge concerning the virgin birth of Christ that would define history for all of us.
If only he would look at the pages of the Bible, he would have discovered the truth about the virgin birth.
Because for us, the virgin birth of Christ would define our faith and our core Christian belief on our salvation.
That means, if we are not sure about the virgin birth of Christ, we will not be sure of the divinity of Christ either, and not sure of our salvation.
And so, as we celebrate the Christmas season, it is important for us to strengthen our doctrinal belief on the incarnation of Christ.
We firmly believe that Christ was born of the virgin Mary.
For without the virgin birth, there is no Christmas and no Savior to save us from our sins.
So, what about you? What do you believe about the virgin birth?
We believe even if we have not seen Christ face to face and we are blessed.
John 20:29 (NIV) "29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We are blessed even if we cannot understand the virgin birth because we believe.
We are blessed even if we cannot understand the trinity because we believe.
We are blessed even if we cannot understand the new birth because we believe.
Brothers and sisters, faith is what we need in this world.
Faith is like a muscle that in order for it to grow, we must always use this.
It starts small and with daily cultivation, it will grow and expand.
The more we study God's Word, the more our faith will grow and the more we will learn a lot of things in our Christian life.
So, let us grow our faith.
Let us grow our trust and confidence on God's Word.
So far, we have learned about the sign of Christmas.
Secondly, we have learned about the importance of the virgin birth this Christmas.
3. THE NAME OF CHRIST. "And will call him Immanuel."
The last thing we can learn from this verse is regarding the name of Christ.
It is said that His name will be called Immanuel which means "God is with us."
It means we must not give up because He is always with us.
God dwelt among us in His Incarnation.
And His name has a lot of spiritual implications to all of us.
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we have spiritual rest and refreshment in the midst of our spiritual struggles and heavy loads.
We don't give up.
"He will satisfy the weary soul and will replenish our energy." (Jeremiah 31:25).
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we will never get discouraged and fainthearted with the situations all around us, despite of the mass shootings, the wars and the terroristic activities.
Hebrews 12:3 (NIV) " 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we don't give up when temptations seems overwhelming and sin is crouching at your door.
We endure it to the very end.
1 Cor. 10:13 (NIV) " 13 No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we don't give up even if it seems our prayers have not been answered.
We keep on and persevere in faith.
Luke 18:1 (NIV) " Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up."
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we don't give up even if the devil will hurl many fiery darts of doubt upon us.
We withstand in the evil days.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day…in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:13,16).
Because His name is Immanuel, we don't give up even we could feel the insurmountable and relentless pressures all around us.
We endure afflictions and hardships.
"But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger . . . (2 Corinthians 6:4–5).
Because His name is Immanuel, we don't give up even if others will revile you or persecute you because you are trying to be faithful to Jesus.
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account (Matthew 5:11).
Because His name is Immanuel, we don't give up when the field the Lord has assigned you to is hard and the harvest does not look promising.
Someday, we will receive a great harvest.
"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Because His name is Immanuel, we don't give up when you labor in obscurity and you wonder how much it even matters.
God always sees you in secret.
"Your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:4).
Because His name is Immanuel, God is with us, we don't give up even we have been waiting for a long time for the situaiton to change and we are so exhausted.
Someday, God will renew your strength.
"Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30–31)
We need to endure to the very end because God is with us.
That is why we believe in the virgin birth.
That is why we celebrate Christmas with gladness.
Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV) " 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
END.....
"Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.
And we look all around us and we see all those unnecessary and terrorist inspired mass shootings, this time in San Bernardino.
We get discouraged and fainthearted with the situations.
But don’t give up. God is with us.
We must “take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7).
Many times, you feel your soul weary from long battles with persistent weaknesses.
Don’t give up, God is with us. He has promised.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:8–9).
Don’t give up when you have failed in sin. Don’t wallow. Repent (again), get your eyes off yourself and back on Jesus, get up and get back in the fight. Because God is with us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9); if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
Jesus knows your works (Revelation 2:2) and he understands the war (Hebrews 12:3). “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19).
Don’t give up.
“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints” (Revelation 14:12).
________
But before we go further, let us erase some misconceptions regarding the virgin birth.
This is taken from The Meaning of the Virgin Birth by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir.
1. The virgin birth does not mean that Jesus was born in a manner different from any other child. He was born in exactly the same way as you and I. He was a normal child with normal delivery and normal upbringing.
2. The virgin birth does not mean that it was merely a miraculous conception as in the case of Sara or Elizabeth who were past age. Mary was a young woman, perhaps in her late teens, as was the custom then.
3. It does not mean that Mary was also conceived and born without the original sin as taught by the Roman Catholic church regarding the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. No, she was very much as sinful as every one of us in need of a Savior.
Luke 1:46-47 (NIV) "
46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
4. The virgin birth of Jesus means that Mary did not have any sexual relations with his earthly stepfather Joseph or anyone else.
5. The virgin means that Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit without a human father.
There are a number of people, however even Christians who do not believe in the virgin birth of Christ.
In fact, more and more churches are abandoning the historic faith of our fathers in order to provide an intellectual, politically and socially acceptable gospel.
They considered the virgin birth as non-essential to the faith and fail to grasp its significance.
They could not even fathom how this miracle has occurred.
But the truth is, there are many things in this world that we cannot explain but requires a tremendous amount of faith to accept these by heart.
For instance, we cannot explain fully the doctrine of the Trinity.
There is one God but eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.
To look at it differently, the Trinity means God is One in Essence and Three in person.
"How can three persons be one at the same time?", they asked.
It blows their mind beyond comprehensions and so, they chose not to believe.
But this is when our faith becomes fully operational.
We have to believe this wholeheartedly because the Scriptures say so.
