You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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! Father, what a child. Jesus, we worship you.
You're born the King, the Great I Am.
The one who always was, took on flesh and dwelt for a while among us, for us.
We marvel at that. We wonder at the glory and the greatness of that.
And Father, we confess how much we need it.
And how often we forget the glory of the incarnation.
Would you speak to us through your word this morning as you're already doing?
That our hearts might be a fresh turn to Jesus in wonder and worship and trust and hope and comfort and joy.
Work in us by your spirit, through your word.
We ask that Jesus would be exalted in our hearts, in our church, and in this world.
We pray in his name. Amen.
Every single birth is special, right?
No doubt about that.
Every time that I get in that hospital elevator and I'm going up to get to see a new baby and new parents, there's this energy.
I still feel this excitement in the hospital elevator of all places.
Every single birth is a gift from God.
The one who's the giver of all life.
Who's personally knit that child I'm going to see together fearfully and wonderfully and uniquely in his mother's womb.
But there are three births that I've been associated with that were extra special for me.
Every one is special, but three of the best days of my life, three of the biggest celebrations I've gotten to be a part of when my girls were born.
God's story has been marked with some really special births, too, if you think about it.
Some of them to parents who were beyond childbearing age.
Some to mothers who were suffering long and praying long because they were barren and longing for a child and then God sent one.
But this one is extra, extra special, right?
Because it is his son.
As many of our songs have highlighted this morning, we sing of it a lot this time of year.
This is the only begotten son of God being born into this world.
This we saw last week is the long awaited Messiah, right?
The Christ promised for generations to rescue God's people, the one.
And so after tracing that background of Jesus being the Christ, Matthew highlights now this morning the circumstances surrounding the child's birth.
And they are extra special because they highlight that the child is extra special.
Next week we're going to look at this same passage and notice his names that show us that he's special in what he comes to do.
This morning Matthew highlights the unique nature of his conception that shows us he's special in who he is.
This is, I'm going to read these eight verses in Matthew 1.
I want you to notice four times the unique circumstances surrounding this special child are mentioned.
This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible word that you can always trust, that will guide you right today, that will endure forever.
Matthew 1 at verse 18.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus.
Thus far God's holy word.
I promise to you that when I decided to walk through Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus for our Advent and Christmas sermons this year,
that I wasn't planning on talking about the virgin birth.
More exciting, perhaps, is Emmanuel and Jesus and what those names mean, and next week we get to talk about that.
But you just can't miss how important this is to the story.
It's not a footnote.
So I didn't want to treat it that way.
But before we get to why it's important, let's clarify what we mean by the virgin birth.
That's what it's commonly called.
What does Scripture actually say here?
Verse 18.
Verse 20.
That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Verse 23.
Verse 25.
Afterwards, yes, and there were siblings, but not before.
This teaching, this doctrine long held by the church and many of its oldest creeds, like the Nicene Creed we said together this morning.
That's longer than we're used to, right?
The Apostles Creed conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary.
Now, this teaching of the Virgin birth is actually referring more precisely to the supernatural conception.
A child conceived miraculously, not by normal means of human sexuality, but by the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary.
Dr. Luke tells us, he uses a word that highlights there the special presence of God.
But beyond that, there aren't a lot of details as to how that happens.
Just that God does it.
Because, Luke tells us, nothing is impossible for God.
We're just told that God, through the Spirit's power, directly places a child in the womb of Mary to develop then like other children.
No help from Joseph.
Joseph is taken off guard, isn't he?
During this one-year betrothal period where you were already bound to one another.
You were committed, just not yet formally married and living together.
So, what a shock to Joseph, right?
All of a sudden, a pregnancy.
An angel has to come to him, too, to explain what's going on and how he should proceed.
But why is that important?
See, this child, Joseph, has a father.
He's the eternal son of God.
Fully God.
Now also becoming fully man.
Just without sin.
There's a lot of mystery still there, isn't there?
You got some questions still, perhaps.
Yeah, but can you imagine Joseph and Mary?
How they might have felt?
But what do I tell my parents?
My friends?
We don't get much more explanation.
But I encourage you that the unique entrance of the Son of God into this world seems fitting for some mystery.
It's not repeated.
It's not like anything else we know.
It's not God taking over a human child.
Some have described it that way.
No.
This God-initiated process means, as the great Scottish theologian Donald MacLeod writes,
The human nature of Christ does not exist for a single moment except as the humanity of God.
As the humanity of God.
Wow.
What?
What's going on?
From the very first moment, fully God and fully man.
The Heidelberg Catechism explains what we mean by this in the great creeds when we say it, says it this way.
The eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took upon Himself true human nature from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary,
through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, He is also the true seed of David, and like His brothers in every respect, yet without sin.
As I've written it, we are affirming by virgin birth the supernatural, not natural, conception of the eternal Son of God.
In other words, He already existed as God.
By the Spirit of God, not in any physical sense from God's end.
In the womb of Mary, though, a real woman.
So that Jesus is born fully God, fully man, without sin.
Utterly unique, extra special.
That's what we mean by the virgin birth.
Now, while the church has affirmed this universally for hundreds of years,
in recent years, some, many even while still claiming to be followers of Jesus as the Christ,
attempt to explain this away as unscientific, or passé, out of date, beneath enlightened thinkers.
It tends to be written off alongside miracles in general.
Miracles like the resurrection?
Certainly not.
I'm going to come back to this in a minute, but for now, I just want to demonstrate that this is the clear teaching of God's Word.
Specifically, it's emphasized here in Matthew, in his account of the birth of Jesus.
You can't miss it.
But just as clearly, in Luke's gospel account that I referenced a minute ago,
which he seems to have sourced directly from Mary herself, among others.
Don't buy the modern mumbo-jumbo trying to reread the Bible to suit our commitments,
predetermined commitments and comforts.
We want it to fit the way we think.
Even when this began to be popularized, the great American 20th century theologian,
J. Gresham Machen, was defending this miracle against many who were beginning to abandon it.
But he clarified, even in that context, that wasn't the argument being made about the Bible wasn't saying this.
Machen writes,
Everyone admits that the Bible represents Jesus as having been conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.
The only question is whether in making that representation, the Bible is true or false.
Everyone agrees.
Even as they start to argue, this is the clear, repeated, long-passed-down teaching of God's word,
emphasized by Matthew no fewer than four times in eight verses.
So that's what?
Why?
Why does it matter?
Why is believing the virgin birth of Jesus so important?
Why does it matter if I believe it or not?
Well, first let me answer that by telling you one sense in which it does not matter.
Okay?
It does not matter.
It's not important as something that you must understand and believe in order to be saved.
In order to be in right relationship with God.
Here's what I mean by that.
There's not an entrance exam that you have to pass with enough right answers to get into heaven.
That's not how it works.
I feel sure that there are people in heaven who are united to Jesus,
who are covered by his blood,
who are trusting in his righteousness,
who never heard of the virgin birth,
don't know anything about it.
Probably the thief on the cross never made it to that lesson.
Yeah?
Probably didn't come up.
Aren't we thankful, y'all,
that our salvation hinges not on exhaustive and infallible knowledge,
intellectually, theologically of everything possible,
but rather on relationship with the one who himself is mighty to save.
He's the one who saves.
Not how much we know.
So you can be saved without knowing about,
therefore believing in the virgin birth.
But that said,
it's really important.
I want to tell you why.
It's not something to be considered and then just ignored or rejected outright,
except at our eternal peril.
I think this passage indicates it's important for at least three reasons that are referenced here.
At first, it builds our faith in, our gratitude for,
and our wonder at God's word.
See, if we reject the virgin birth due to some naturalistic refusal to believe that God intervenes in this world miraculously at times,
we lose so much,
a bunch of other essential miracles like the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
We're no longer believing in a divine, supernatural Jesus whom we can trust to save us.
May that never be that we would stop believing in him.
Matthew points us to the reliability of the scripture when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah, this Jesus, this Christ, he says,
is the seed of the woman promised all the way back in Genesis.
The Messiah, the Christ, promised hundreds of years before to be born of a virgin.
Now, you can read plenty of debates on that Hebrew word,
but the context is pretty clear in Isaiah,
and it is very clear in Matthew that he means a virgin.
That's part of how it's a sign.
King Ahaz, I'll tell you a little bit more about him next week,
but it's not just King Ahaz,
it's all of God's people, if you notice closely in Isaiah,
that get a sign of God's presence with them.
Emmanuel, God's with you.
Even though, to be clear, short term,
that's more a threat than a promise in Isaiah 7.
But by chapter 9, it's so much more.
We see it's not merely a child born in Ahaz's day,
although there is one,
but a child coming to be wonderful counselor,
mighty God, everlasting father,
prince of peace on David's throne forever.
Never, that's yet another child.
And now, as that promise is fulfilled
in the miraculous conception of Jesus,
our faith is strengthened
in trusting every one of God's promises in his word.
If we reject it for its miraculous character,
we're going to be rejecting God and his word as a whole.
That's really the other option.
And Professor McLeod again,
the virgin birth is posted on guard
at the door of the mystery of Christmas.
Still a mystery, even to the great professor.
None of us must think of hurrying past it.
It stands on the threshold of the New Testament,
blatantly supernatural,
defying our rationalism,
informing us that all that follows
belongs to the same order as itself.
All that follows, supernatural.
You can't read a page of any of the Gospels
with a merely naturalistic explanation
of what's going on there,
of a merely human Jesus.
It doesn't make sense.
Try it.
Read through the Gospels.
It just doesn't hold up that way.
The Bible is clear about the virgin birth.
And we must marvel and trust God.
Secondly, why is it important?
Believing the virgin birth aids our gratitude
for God's work in this world,
and specifically,
his work for our salvation.
I don't know about you,
but it makes me deeply grateful
to know that God can supernaturally intervene
in the natural processes
that he has created
for his sovereign and good purposes.
Because I live most days
in the midst of those natural processes,
and I need him to be able to show up there.
I don't want to lock him out of here,
and of my life,
and of our lives.
Especially not
when what he's doing
is working for our salvation, right?
This is the child, verse 21 says,
who will save his people
from their sins.
See, the Bible is really clear
about this sin problem
that we all inherit
all the way back from Adam.
Every person born with this problem
that we're separated
from the relationship with God
that we were made for.
And Paul discusses this at length
in Romans,
how Adam,
as the head of the human race,
when he sinned,
brought death into the world
for all men
through his sin.
Paul states it very simply
in 1 Corinthians 15.
For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ
shall all be made alive.
In other words,
we need a new representative.
Representative number one
brings death through sin,
and we need a new representative,
a new head of our race,
a new head of a new creation,
one who is not marred
by Adam's sin,
who had a different origin
altogether.
And how do we see that coming here?
The virgin birth,
with its explicit clarity
that no man is involved
in the conception of the Messiah.
It highlights the uniquely divine,
heavenly origin of Jesus.
Now I'm not saying
that it was definitively
the only way
that that could have happened.
The Bible blames
neither the male gender
nor human sexuality
for sin.
Okay?
So maybe,
hypothetically,
there's another way
besides a miraculous conception
that God could have brought
his son into the world
to be the second Adam
who remains sin-free
and brings life
in place of death.
I don't know.
Maybe.
I don't know if there's another way,
but I know the virgin conception
is the biblical way,
and that's the only one I need.
One way.
And that's the way he came.
See, God wants us
to know something.
I think there's a particular reason
we need to understand this.
God wants us to know for sure,
even if we don't know
all the details
of how that happened,
that our salvation
is about his rescue,
not our recovery.
In this supernatural birth,
God is most evidently
not picking up
something man started,
but initiating
something man needed,
right?
Just so,
just like that.
He is the one
who initiates
our new birth,
Jesus tells us
in John 3.
The new birth
that we all desperately need
if we want even
to see the kingdom of God.
New birth from above.
Born,
not of natural descent
or human decision
or a husband's will,
but born of God.
God sees our need
and he acts
to meet it
rather than demanding
that we live up
to the task,
that we figure it out ourselves,
that we get it done.
Hey,
new birth,
you have to have new birth.
Do it yourself.
Good luck.
I don't know how.
Give yourself life.
What?
I can't do that.
That's why I say
we reject
the virgin birth
at our eternal peril.
We dare not reject
the God who saves
because we can't
save ourselves.
We don't have a God
who helps those
who help themselves,
who comes along
the great processes
we've started
and kind of
fixes it all up for us.
No,
we have a God
who helps those
who cannot
help themselves.
We have a good God
who even as he sends
the one who will
accomplish our salvation
makes sure
that we know
even in how the child
is conceived
that our salvation
is in his strong
and loving hands.
It is safe with him.
You are safe with him
from any weakness
or failure in us.
Amen?
It has to be there.
We have to be able
to trust him
because we can't
trust ourselves.
I love the way
the Heidelberg Catechism
again explains
the benefit to us
of the holy conception
and birth of Christ.
Jesus is our mediator,
the one who goes
between us and God,
who represents us
to God.
And so with his innocence
and his perfect holiness,
he covers in the sight
of God
my sin
in which I was conceived
and born.
King David writes
for all of us,
doesn't he?
Surely I was sinful
from birth,
sinful from the time
my mother conceived me,
sinful from Adam,
passed down
before anyone teaches us
how to sin,
before we start writing up
a list of things
we've done wrong.
We were sinful
from birth and conception,
but Jesus was not sinful.
Specifically,
he was holy
from birth
and conception.
Holy.
And that marvelous truth
helps us grasp
this glorious reality.
would you take just a minute
this Christmas
to stop
and say,
yes,
Jesus,
thank you.
Thank you that it was
for us
and for our salvation
that you came down
from heaven
and were incarnate
by the Holy Spirit
in the womb
of the Virgin Mary.
I'm so grateful
for the reminder
of my desperate need
of such a Savior
who was conceived
not in sin
but in holiness,
who lived
not in sin
but in holiness,
who passed
to those united
to him
not death
but life.
Thank you,
Jesus.
Finally,
in all of this,
in case you
can't tell already,
what we're seeing
most importantly
is that believing
the virgin birth
helps us wonder
at Jesus'
unique person
and nature.
It's about him.
what could be
more important
than knowing
and loving
Jesus
as he really is?
That's why
you need to know
about this,
friends.
That's why it's
in the Bible.
That's why we're
slowing down on it
this morning
because we need
Jesus.
It's okay
if parts of this
remain a mystery
to you.
You don't have
to have a PhD
to know Jesus more.
Jesus is unique,
okay?
I bet you don't
know anybody else
who came here
from the Holy Spirit,
right?
It's okay
if you can't
explain it all
but as God
gives you glimpses,
they can lead you
to greater worship
of and love of
and living for
Jesus.
Remember,
that's what Matthew's
up to.
He wants to help us
understand Jesus
as the Christ.
first with his
lineage that we
talked about last
week and now
with the special
circumstances of
his birth.
Matthew says,
open your eyes.
You can know
from the very
beginning that this
is no ordinary
baby because this
is not the way
babies come.
His conception
and his birth
involve angels,
dreams,
prophecies,
the Holy Spirit,
supernatural
circumstances for
sure.
He doesn't want
you to miss that.
That's the point
of four times
highlighting this
miraculous conception.
The virgin birth
highlights that the
baby is the
promised seed of
the woman,
the long-awaited
Messiah,
the coming king.
In case we need
help seeing it,
this baby is the
son of God
and the divine
God-man.
believing the
virgin birth as
the Bible presents
it helps us to
wonder at the
incarnation of God
himself.
The infinite and
eternal word
become flesh to
dwell among us
and to share with
us his glory.
As John says it
that way,
remember this baby
is the humanity
of God.
God.
Fully God
and fully man.
Never been another
one like this baby.
Never.
Utterly unique
person.
Utterly unique
nature.
But that's who he is
and that's what it
took to save us.
Listen,
a merely human
Jesus may live
perfectly,
but that doesn't
give me
righteousness.
It just gives him
righteousness.
Just a good man
if that's all he is.
A merely human
Jesus may die a
death that is
sacrificial and
exemplary,
but it doesn't pay
for my sins.
If he's just
one man,
he just pays for
his own.
A merely human
Jesus may teach
about a theoretical
resurrection,
but that would not
give me
relationship with
him today and
my lonely pain
or hope for
life eternal
from him.
He couldn't give
that to me.
But friends,
listen,
we don't have
a merely human
Jesus.
No.
We have an
infinite,
holy,
supernatural
Savior.
Praise the
Lord.
Just marvel
at that
for a couple
minutes as we
close.
Think about
who he is.
Think about
who our
favorite Christmas
songs declare
this baby to be
because you're
going to sing
these many times
starting tonight.
Christ,
the newborn
King,
Son of God,
loves pure
light.
Christ,
the Lord of
heaven and
earth,
Lord of all
creation,
King of angels,
angels,
the incarnate
deity,
Prince of
peace,
Son of
righteousness,
the great
I
am.
Perhaps the
best description
of his divine
character is in
O come all ye
faithful,
him calling us
to come and
adore him,
adore him.
Stanza reads,
God of
God,
light of
light,
lo he
abhors not
the virgin's
womb,
very God,
begotten,
not created,
O come,
let us adore
him,
O come,
let us adore
him,
O come,
let us adore
him,
Christ,
the Lord.
Lord.
Just keep
marveling and
adoring him
with me.
This child is
God breaking
into the normal
operations of
the world in
order to save
the world and
that means that
at Christmas as
we behold
Jesus,
we see the
Lord of all
creation lying
among animals,
the king of
all of the
nations in
one tiny
town,
the eternally
spiritual being
in a tiny
body held
by a teenage
mom,
the prince of
peace in
Trinitarian
relationship in
the Godhead
entering a
family with
conflict,
the eternal
God who
exists outside
of time
waiting nine
months to
be born and
many, many
painful days to
grow up,
the savior of
Mary in
her tummy,
the one who
breathes life
into Adam,
who gives
life to the
dead,
breathes air
for the first
time himself,
the great
I am,
Yahweh,
the eternally
self-existent
one,
begins a new
form of
existence,
or perhaps
most simply
and amazingly,
God
becomes
man,
what a
special baby,
no one else
like him
for us
and for our
salvation,
come let us
thank him,
come let us
trust him,
come let us
adore him,
Christ the
Lord,
let's pray,
Jesus we bow
because you are
unlike us,
we are not
worthy,
but you are
holy,
and yet
you took
on flesh,
we worship
you,
we ask
for faith
to trust
you more,
we ask
for your
help that
the worship
of our
hearts,
the adoration
that we feel
in a moment
might be
that which
sustains
throughout
the week
and throughout
our lives,
we ask
for your
help in
that,
in your
name,
amen.
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information,
visit us
online at
southwood.org.