LESSON: Matthew 1.18-25

SERMON TITLE: Virgin Born

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. When a small boy came home from Sunday school, his father asked him what he had learned that day. (1)
    1. "The teacher told us about the children of Israel escaping from Egypt," the boy replied, "and when they came to the Red Sea they pumped up their inflatable boats so they could get away from Pharaoh's soldiers."
    2. "Now, wait a minute," said Dad. "Is that the way it really happened?"
    3. The little boy replied: "If I told it the way she did, you would never believe it."

MAIN BODY:

  1. Why is it so hard for some people to have faith in and accept the virgin birth?
    1. Some people believe in astrology.
      1. What is more difficult to believe that the solar system controls life or God.
      2. Some people spend a lot of money consulting astrologers.
    2. Some people believe in tarot.
      1. Life is determined by the turning of a card.
      2. What is more difficult to believe that the tarot cards tell your future or that God proclaims the end from the beginning?
      3. Some people spend money consulting the cards.
    3. What is more difficult to believe in the spirit world or the world of the Spirit.
      1. Some people sit in darkened rooms attentively listening to the spiritualist and hoping to hear voices from the dead.
      2. They often hear what they want to hear.
      3. Some people send a lot of time and money consulting the cards.

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    4. Some people believe in gods of wood or stone, silver or gold.
      1. They pray to their gods.
      2. They offer sacrifices to their gods.
      3. Some people spend a lot of time and money consulting the gods.
    5. The virgin birth is a source of contention and disbelief.
      1. Thomas Jefferson is reported to have said:

        2. "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." (2)

      2. J. S. Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, NJ, has written:


        3. "In time, the virgin birth account will join Adam and Eve and the story of the cosmic ascension as clearly recognized mythological elements in our faith tradition whose purpose was not to describe a literal event but to capture the transcendent dimensions of God in the earthbound words and concepts of first-century human beings." (3)

      3. Jeffrey Hadden, reveals the results of a survey of 7,441 Protestant ministers published in the PrayerNet, Newsletter (4)


        4. A poll of 7,441 Protestant clergy showed a wide variation in belief. The following ministers do not believe in the virgin birth:

        American Lutherans 19%
        American Baptists 34%
        Episcopalians 44%
        Presbyterians 49%
        Methodists 60%

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      4. Pope John Paul II in the "Immaculate conception defined by Pius IX," notes: (5)


        5. A 1999 British survey of 103 Roman Catholic priests, Anglican priests, and Protestant ministers/pastors found that about 25% do not believe in the Virgin Birth. Yet, 97% of the same group do not believe the world was created in six days, and 80% do not believe in the literal existence of Adam and Eve.

  1. In contrast we have the declaration of Jesus birth by Matthew.
    1. Lesson: Matthew 1:18 through Matthew 1:25 (NRSVA)


      2. 18Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.

      When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

      19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

      20But just when he had resolved to do 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 as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

      22All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

      24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

    2. This is not simply a young woman as some theologians would have you believe.
    3. This is not just the birth of a great teacher as some would have you believe.

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      4. C. S. Lewis, who was a professor at Cambridge University and once an agnostic, has written: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'Im ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I dont accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse." (6)

      C. S. Lewis adds: "You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (7)

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  2. Why do we humans being find it so hard to believe?
    1. Modern science can now easily fertilize a human egg by in-vitro fertilization.
    2. We have developed the capacity to clone life.
    3. If we acknowledge that God is the creator of all life, how difficult is it to mate the divine sperm with Mary's ovum in her womb?
      1. This is what is meant when the biblical account says:
      2. 20But just when he (Joseph) had resolved to do this (to put her away quietly), an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
      3. 20b"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
    4. Do these remarkable human achievements assist us in making a decision in favor of God's capacity to achieve God's purposes?
  3. We also need to be very clear on the liabilities and the benefits of the virgin birth as it relates to our daily and future living.
    1. Denial brings penalties (and I include significant passages of scripture that lead to this conclusion).
      1. To deny Christ is to be denied before the Father in heaven.
        1. Matthew 10:32-33, NRSVA

          2. 32"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

      2. To be ashamed of Christ will lead to Christ being ashamed.
        1. To be ashamed (means to dishonor, to discredit, to disgrace) of Christ leads to being ashamed when he comes.
        2. Mark 8:34-38, NRSVA


          3. 34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

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      3. Rejection of Christ can actually result in murder.
        1. Acts 3:11-16, NRSVA


          2. 11While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's Portico, utterly astonished. 12When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

        2. Denial of Christ can result in faithlessness
        1. 2 Timothy 2:11-13, NRSVA


          2. 11The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; 13if we are faithless, he remains faithful--for he cannot deny himself.

      4. Denial opens the way for personal exploitation
        1. 2 Peter 2:1-3, NRSVA


          2. 1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. 3And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

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      5. Denial is the result of lying which is the spirit of antichrist and leads to the ultimate destruction that the antichrist will suffer.
        1. 1 John 2:21-25, NRSVA


          2. 21I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.

    2. Acceptance brings benefits
      1. Part of the chain of divine history and purpose.


        2. George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 499.

        For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
        For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
        For want of a horse the rider was lost,
        For want of a rider the battle was lost.
         

        1. The chain includes:
          1. Creation
          2. Fall
          3. Birth
          4. Restoration
        2. If you don't have one you have nothing.
      2. Accomplishes what Adam did not do through the second Adam.
      3. Establishes the Messiah, God with us.
      4. Overcomes sin and the devil.
      5. Reveals the true nature of God.
      6. Provides for adoption into the family of God.
      7. God becomes the divine parent.
      8. This opens the door for the development of:
        1. Peace
        2. Contentment
        3. Personal growth
        4. The full attainment of all that was included in God's concept of men and woman and children.

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  4. When you intelligently and sensitively consider the alternatives, which one would you prefer?


    5. ILL William T. Ellis in Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (8) writes:

    To paraphrase and update Billy Sunday a bit: "If you had to get into heaven on the testimony of your [Metro-maid], could you make it? If your getting into heaven depended on what your [favorite waitress] knows about your religion, would you land? If your husband had to gain admittance to heaven on the testimony of his [administrative assistant], could he do it? If [the boss'] salvation depended on what [her employees] tell about her, would [she] get there?"

CONCLUSION

    1. Jesus Christ is the divine-human
    2. Have you fully accepted him?


      3. 1. Alex A. Sternberger, "LaughLines," Presbyterians Today, September 1997, 5. Quoted in Homiletics, "Jesus, Prince of Egypt," December 20, 1998. (Used with permission).

      2. Thomas Jefferson, 1823, (http://www.religioustolerance.org/virgin_b.htm)

      3. J. S. Spong, "Born of a Woman", Page 45 (http://www.religioustolerance.org/virgin_b.htm)

      4. Jeffrey Hadden, reveals the results of a survey of 7,441 Protestant ministers published in the PrayerNet, Newsletter, 1998-NOV-13, Page 1. Cited in Current Thoughts & Trends, 1999-MAR, Page 19.

      5. Pope John Paul II, "Immaculate conception defined by Pius IX," at: http://www.cin.org/jp960612.html

      6. Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity, New York: the McMillan Company, 1952 pp. 40-41

      7. Ibid

      8. As quoted in William T. Ellis, Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (Philadelphia: Winston, 1914), 168.

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