The Christmas Babe

“The Christmas Babe”

December 8, 2013

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.”

One of the reasons I love the Word of God so much is because it is raw and real and relevant. Who would have expected the pure and innocent Son of God would come from such a background? Who would have thought there would be whispers of divorce and scandal at His birth? We even have a statement of His mother’s sexual activity. WOW! That just blows the prim and proper away! Those who want a surgically pure and idyllic Savior don’t get it. He is real. He is human. He is relevant. And the Bible is painfully truthful.

Last Wednesday, after our Truth Project meeting, I was watching TV and an advertisement for a program that was to come on after Duck Dynasty came on advertizing the ‘real truth of the Bible’. One scholar said that Mary being a virgin was a mistranslation. I thought that was an ignorant and foolish thing to say.

Only a willfully ignorant fool would believe such a thing. If you are ignorant of God’s Word and kind of want to not believe it – you might believe that. You might convince yourself and others that the lie is the truth and the truth is a lie. But the Word is pretty clear – almost embarrassingly so. And Mary’s virginity is not mentioned just one time in one Book of the Bible – it is stated repeatedly. Mary herself, when she was notified by an angel that she was to give birth to the Savior, asked,

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34)

Mary was a virgin and she DID get pregnant by the Spirit of God. God, who created by fiat, by speaking creation into being, by creating something out of nothing, would certainly find placing the seed of God in a virgin womb an easy thing to do. The angel’s response to Mary upon her question of “How is this possible” was, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

And so it happened just as the angel said and the Word of God prophesied. A baby was born in a stable that was to change the world. He was a part of God, Himself. This morning I want to take a closer look at that babe lying in a manger. What does God’s Word reveal about Him?

First of all, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says,

“...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.” Matthew 1:20

Let’s read Luke’s record of that event again.

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, hand he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”