A short while back we started a series on the Creed by comparing the modern Hillsong version to the old Apostles Creed which I’ll repeat now;
On the left is the final verse of the Hillsong version where we sing we believe in the virgin birth.
On the right is the old Apostles Creed.
Parts in green compare favourably, parts in orange have a warning as we covered last time.
Today we are going to focus on number 3, the Virgin Birth. As mentioned last time, do not confuse the Virgin Birth of Jesus with the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary which is quite frankly heresy.
The Virgin Birth is a foundational Bible message which is why it has come under such attack through the ages. You need to believe this message if you want your faith to stand strong otherwise you are in danger of falling away !
Fully Human, Fully Divine
The Virgin Birth is the only explanation for both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus and the reason that he alone can save us. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. God was his Father and Mary was his mother.
⁃ Because Mary was his mother, there was a part of him that could be tempted, just like us, he was not immune. He had to wrestle with temptation just like we do. In the desert, he was able to overcome temptation because of the Word of God, fasting and prayer and the Holy Spirit who had come upon him at baptism and led him there.
⁃ Because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit he was the Son of God and fully divine. This is how we know that Jesus’s death on the Cross can save us, because God himself has paid the price for our sins.
At Christmas we repeat the story of Jesus’s birth every year. What a wonderful message it is. If this message doesn’t make you happy, nothing will !
I was so confident that we would have already listened to the story before I even spoke that I didn’t plan to read the entire passages from Matthew or Luke. Instead we’ll focus on the announcement by Gabriel concerning the Virgin Birth. People might say that back in those days the people did not have the science to know that a virgin birth was impossible but it is clear that Mary knew the facts of life.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.” Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1:26-35
Mary didn’t have the science but she knew Biology 101.
Many people today are misinformed unlike Mary. Everyone has a father and a mother and nothing we write in law can change that. Likewise everyone is either male or female, that also cannot be changed.
Remember, everyone has an X chromosome but
- Female - XX
- Male - XY
Therefore being male, Jesus had the X and Y chromosome. Males always inherit their X chromosome from their mother and their Y chromosome from their father. So Jesus’s Y chromosome was from His father who is God.
But being God, did he have something different ? We shall come to that later.
But we might find ourselves asking the same question as Mary - how can this be ? We also need to listen and believe the Angel. We need to receive the Christmas story like children who easily believe it. That’s why it is good to children tell us the Christmas story as we do here at PCC.
If you have trouble believing the Virgin Birth as recorded in the scripture, I want to give you 3 extra proofs to help you believe;
- The Old Testament Prophecies
- The Days of Noah
- John’s testimony
Old Testament Prophecy
As we’ve heard last week, Isaiah prophesied the Virgin Birth about 600 BC.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Immanuel means God with us. Jesus is the Son of God. There is no other way that this could have come to happen than by the Virgin Birth.
However, the Lord himself promised the Virgin Birth in the Garden of Eden.
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:14-15
Note the distinction between the Serpent’s offspring and Woman’s offspring.
Do not be deceived, the Devil is your enemy.
The Lord doesn’t give the game away at this point but with hindsight we can see that the scripture is talking about Jesus who is both the Son of God and the offspring of Mary. Jesus is the Woman’s offspring who will crush the Serpent’s head.
This is describing the hostility that exists between God and the Devil which we can see in our world today. Whenever someone is hostile towards Jesus, you can easily tell who their father is. Likewise when someone loves Jesus, you can easily tell who their Father is.
The Days of Noah
Notice these verses from Genesis tell of the devil’s offspring. In fact, that describes all of our condition before we were saved, that is why we must be born again. However, it also prophesied wicked relations between the spirit world and our world. This is why we are to have nothing to do with idols or the occult. This happened for the first time in Genesis 6.
When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. So the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God would sleep with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.
Genesis 6:1-4
If anyone doubts this story, they should check the news because it is going on in the world today.
- Woman who is in love with a ghost now wants to have babies with him - NZ Herald
- Woman calls off wedding with ghost after he 'kept disappearing' - New York Post
- Amanda Large Teague says she married and divorced a Haitian pirate ghost who inspired Jack Sparrow - The Washington Post
You might think this is just a reflection on the state of journalism today and is just plain ridiculous but there is a very serious side.
Jesus said
For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37-39
I do believe that because Jesus is tying together end times, the days of Noah and marriage that he is referring to the type of marriage we see in the days of Noah. In other words, something wicked and not the kind of marriage between man and woman that God blesses.
The Devil knew what God was saying when he cursed the Serpent. He knew that meant there would be a Holy Birth and that the Son of God would crush him. This is why he tried to corrupt the world in Noah’s time and why it brought God’s heaviest judgment. This also explains the actions of the Pharoah, of Goliath, of Haman and all the others in trying to wipe out the royal line. The Devil wanted to prevent the royal Holy Birth. It shows that we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against evil principalities and powers, the Devil himself.
If we look at our world today, and we see people still worshipping idols, trying to gain power from the spiritual realm, seeking the fountain of youth we can easily believe the story of Noah is true. It is a negative proof but it does show that there can be relations with the spiritual realm proving a Virgin Birth is possible.
John’s Testimony
These days we can test a persons DNA by taking a blood sample. So if we want to test the DNA of Jesus, then we would want to examine the blood from his death. If we could test his blood, I’m sure we would find the XY chromosomes. But would we find something of the divine nature of Jesus ? I believe « Yes ! ».
John was at the crucifixion and he gave this testimony;
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out immediately. And the person who saw it has testified (and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth), so that you also may believe. For these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, “ Not a bone of his will be broken.” And again another scripture says, “ They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”
John 19:33-37
What John says is an accurate testimony and I quote;
Crucifixion typically resulted in death through one of two ways. The first way was hypovolemic shock. The prolonged rapid heartbeat resulting from hypovolemic shock can cause fluid to gather in the area around the heart. This is called pericardial effusion.
The second way death often occurred during crucifixion was due to asphyxiation. This simply means the person is unable to breathe in enough oxygen to survive. Crucifixion victims typically had to pull their weight up with their hands or wrists that were nailed to the crossbeam along with pushing up with the feet or ankles that had another nail through them. Over time, the ability to push up to breathe would end and oxygen flow would be restricted. This asphyxiation can also result in the buildup of fluid around the heart.
In either case, the account of John is quite accurate. The Roman executioners saw that the other two crucifixion victims were still alive and broke their legs so they would no longer be able to push themselves up to breathe, resulting in death within minutes. In the case of Jesus, they saw He had become unconscious and likely was already dead. To confirm, a spear was shoved into His side, likely under His ribs, that ruptured the pericardial sack, resulting in a flow of both blood and water.
But is John trying to convey something other than medical facts about Jesus’s death ? Much of the Gospel of John has themes of water. Baptism by immersion in water. Water into wine. Water at the Well. Streams of living water flowing from within a believer.
Water is essential to life (a person can only live without water for 3 days) and was there at the very beginning.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
Genesis 1:1-2
Water represents Spirit and Eternal Life in the Bible.
We sing that song « There’s a river of life » based on what Jesus said as recorded in John’s Gospel.
On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘ From within him will flow rivers of living water.’” (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 7:37-39
This eternal life comes from God the Father. When we are born again, God becomes our father too.
Later on John tied everything together by using water again in his testimony about Jesus;
For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.
1 John 5:7-8
The Spirit and the voice from heaven at his baptism was a witness (Spirit and Water) and the blood and water at the Cross were a witness. Both of these were events John personally witnessed.
Some say this is a statement about the trinity but I think John is also giving evidence of the fully divine, fully human nature of Jesus - a proof of the virgin birth.
The personal testimony John gives in 1 John 5:7-8 is in the context of proving to his audience that Jesus is fully human to counter the false teaching of the Gnostics that denied God had come in the flesh. Gnostics were saying that Jesus was only Spirit, that God had not come in the flesh. This view is what John says is Antichrist. So when John gives testimony of seeing blood and water come out of Jesus side, he is giving testimony of the humanity of Jesus (the blood) and the divinity of Jesus (the water). This is what I believe is a proof of the Virgin Birth !
With all that in mind, read the story of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. I would also like to add that it is one of the greatest things in life to witness the birth of your child. I recommend every father should be at the birth of his child.
God the Father was present at the birth of his Son.
This is a story of wonder. No evil thing can encroach at this moment in time. There is a host of angels, the forces of darkness are held back. There is sound of trumpets. A heavenly star. Animals are gathering, the Creation is watching. The Father is there in this holiest of moments and there is a great peace we can sense as we read the story trusting in the truth of it like children.
