Conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary

We Believe… The Apostles’ Creed 5

A message by Jeffrey Westbrook

Crossroads International Fellowship

28 March, 2004

Text: Luke 1:35 – “The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (NASB)

Intro: • Series recap

· Today’s topic: the virgin birth

· Joke: When she was very young, Janine’s grandmother had presented her with her first little children's Bible, in an easy-to-read translation. Now, a decade later, the elderly lady was ready to spend a few sweet moments handing down the big old family Bible, in the time-honored King James Version, to her only grandchild. Understandably excited, the youngster was asking a number of questions, both about the family members whose births and deaths were recorded therein, and about various aspects of the Scriptures themselves. Her grandmother was endeavoring to answer all the child's questions in terms she could understand, but the one that caught her completely off-guard was this sincere inquiry: “Which Virgin was the mother of Jesus? Was it the Virgin Mary, or the King James virgin?”

· Importance of the Virgin Birth –

o One of the foundational doctrines of our faith

o It wouldn’t have made it into the Creed if it weren’t important

o According to Bible scholar & teacher Dr. Don Ackerman, it is one of the five fundamentals of the Christian faith.[1]

o If we believe what we say we believe in this line of the Creed, it should affect our lives. Helmut Thielicke: “If it should turn out to be more than a fairy tale, then the whole course of the world would naturally take on a meaning different from that which I had previously imagined. My personal life, too, would center on themes completely different from those that I had formerly held to be true. My bank account would get a quite different (and very much lower) priority, while the market value of daily prayer and a little bit of love for my neighbor would suddenly skyrocket.”[2]

· The controversy of the virgin birth

o Questioned only for the past 150 years; previously unchallenged

o Challenged by both non-Christians and liberal Christians.

o Interestingly, criticized more in the middle part of the 20^th c.; less in the past 25 yrs. “In the advent of new, staggering advances in biotechnology and in vitro fertilization, somehow the virgin birth doesn’t look so strange as it used to look to radically skeptical scientific intellects.”[3]

o Many skeptics feel such a doctrine is unworthy of modern man’s belief

o Even some Christians struggle with this doctrine. Thielicke: confesses that many Christians feel uncomfortable about this line in the Creed[4]

o We’ll look at the objections to it as well as the reasons why to believe it.

Thesis: Today we’ll answer four important questions about what we mean when we say that we believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.

I. What do we believe the virgin birth is?

A. We believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost & born of the Virgin Mary.

1. “This says that the man Jesus did not originate from human intervention, but that God Himself entered the realm of history through him.” (Thielicke)

2. “That whole complex of divine intervention, of miraculous conception, of the unique birth of Jesus Christ in which the God of heaven and earth intersected our space-time reality, took on our flesh and dwelt among us in our human nature.” (Duncan)

B. Breaking it down

1. Jesus didn’t have a human father

a. Joseph was actually His stepfather

b. The male reproductive aspect was supplied directly by God, so God is Jesus’ Father in more ways than theologically; He is the Father of Jesus’ human nature as well as His divine nature.

2. God intervened directly into this world by His Spirit (the Holy Ghost).

a. That is what makes it a miracle; God putting His oar in, so to speak.

b. Therefore, Jesus is fully divine.

3. Jesus’ birth is different from every other birth ever – the only instance of a virgin birth. He is unique.

4. On the other hand, Jesus was born of a woman, so in that sense, He does have something common with all of us.

a. He is also fully human.

b. He has shared with us what it means to have a body of flesh; to be tired, hungry, thirsty.

5. Jesus is fully God & fully man

a. Not half-God, half-man

b. That was a heresy in the early church; the Athanasian Creed addresses that issue:

c. “For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood; Who, although he is God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God; One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ…”

6. Jesus is sinless; He was born that way

a. He is called “the holy offspring” (NASB; “holy child” in newer NASB; “holy one” in NIV) in Luke 1:35

b. He was born without the taint of sin, because He didn’t have a father who was a descendant of Adam

c. This is essential for His mission as savior of the world (see below)

II. How, do we believe, it happened?

A. Not like Greek myth, not contrary to science (these are two common criticisms)

1. Greek myth

a. Stories of a god (especially Zeus) having flings with mortal women & siring children (Hercules, for example)

b. The god had sexual relations with the woman

c. The god was “just visiting;” he always went back to Olympus when he was ready to; he wasn’t coming to become personally involved in the human race; just coming to sate his own lusts

2. This is nothing like that

a. God didn’t have sex with Mary – hence all the emphasis on her being a virgin.

b. He wasn’t just visiting; He was entering the human scene by the work of the Holy Spirit and in the person of Jesus in order to become personally involved with the human race and its needs

3. Not contrary to science or the laws of nature, either

a. The laws of nature tell us what happens in nature, all things being equal. In other words, provided there is no outside interference (from outside nature). They don’t tell us whether there will be any outside interference (illustration of the coins in the drawer and the thief (C.S. Lewis, Miracles)[5]

b. Any miracle, including this one, is a case of outside influence: God acting on nature from outside it.

c. It is outside the realm of science to tell us whether miracles can occur; it only tells us what will happen provided no miracle does occur.

B. So what did happen?

1. “What exactly took place when the Holy Spirit conceived the human life of Jesus Christ within Mary’s womb? How could the God who is without limits somehow ‘shrink himself’ to become a microscopic speck inside Mary’s womb?” (Pritchard)[6]

2. Honestly, we don’t know. It’s a miracle.

3. The key to what we can know about it lies in the word “overshadow”

a. Greek word – episkiasei (episkiasei)

b. “That same verb was used in the Greek translation of Exodus 40:35, “Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” Psalm 91:4 uses the same word in a poetic image to describe God “covering” his people: “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” These images give us some idea of what happened. God “overshadowed” Mary with his personal, intimate presence that completely surrounded her just as the cloud surrounded, covered and filled the tabernacle. And this “overshadowing” protected her from all harm. She was a virgin before her conception and after her conception. Only God could have done this.” (Pritchard)

C. How could He be fully God and fully man?

1. God put on humanity like putting on clothing.

2. He added the human nature to the divine nature. He didn’t stop being God, or change the way He was God (God is the same yesterday, today, & forever). He added the human part.

3. Illustration

a. Shirt represents deity of Jesus

b. Suit coat represents His humanity

c. When you put on the suit coat, you still have on the shirt. The shirt is still there; it doesn’t come off just because the coat goes on.

d. Shirt does become harder to see; the coat covers it up. “That explains why many people didn’t know who Jesus was. His humanity ‘obscured’ his deity. They saw him wearing his ‘coat’ of humanity and assumed that was all there was. But as John 1:14 says, ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us.’ Christ, the living Word, ‘put on’ humanity the same way I put on my coat before I came to church on Sunday morning. He was always God but he ‘added’ humanity through the Virgin Birth.” (Pritchard)

III. Why do we believe that it happened? (evidence for it)

A. The Bible says it did

1. “You cannot believe Jesus as He is intended to be believed by God while rejecting His Word. And so a believer who truly believes in Jesus Christ will also believe His Bible, and the virgin birth is taught in the Bible.” (Duncan)

2. You can’t pick and choose the miracles – or the doctrines or passages of Scripture – that you like and reject the ones that don’t suit you.

a. “The Bible doesn’t present the life of Christ as a kind of “pick your miracle” cafeteria where you can pick this miracle and reject that one. The story of our Lord’s earthly life comes to us as a seamless whole. We either take it all or we reject it all. There is no suitable middle ground option. So the question becomes—do we believe the Bible or don’t we?” (Pritchard)

b. It’s the mistake so-called scholars of the Jesus Seminar make

c. Where do you think Christian-based cults come from? Often from someone picking and choosing parts of Scripture to accept and others to reject

B. The internal evidence of the story is compelling

1. The story of C.S. Lewis at Christmas time: His window was open at the University. A skeptical faculty member who was a friend and acquaintance was visiting him in his office and below them there were carolers singing Christmas carols. And some of the carols that they were singing were about the virgin birth. This friend shook his head knowingly to C.S. Lewis and he said, “Aren’t you glad that we know better than they?” And C.S. Lewis said, “Pardon me? I’m not sure what you’re speaking of.” He said, “Well, aren’t you glad that we know that virgins don’t have babies?” C.S. Lewis paused for a moment and said, “Don’t you think they knew that too? Isn’t that the whole point?” (as quoted in Duncan)

2. Some contemporary “people seem to have an idea that belief in miracles arose at a period when men were so ignorant of the course of nature that they did not perceive a miracle to be contrary to it. A moment’s thought shows this to be nonsense: and the story of the Virgin Birth is a particularly striking example. When St. Joseph discovered that his fiancée was going to have a baby, he not unnaturally decided to repudiate her. Why? Because he knew just as well as any modern gynaecologist that in the ordinary course of nature women do not have babies unless they have lain with men…. St. Joseph obviously knew that… a virgin birth is contrary to the course of nature…. When St. Joseph finally accepted the view that his fiancée’s pregnancy was due not to unchastity but to a miracle, he accepted the miracle as something contrary to the known order of nature…. Belief in miracles, far from depending on an ignorance of the laws of nature, is only possible in so far as those laws are known.”[7] (Miracles, pp. 73-75)

3. “In both accounts—Matthew’s, which is from Joseph’s perspective, and Luke, which is from Mary’s perspective—you have an almost catastrophe happening. The announcement to Mary that she is pregnant does not leave her saying, “Yipp-e-e-e!” She’s troubled. She’s perplexed. She’s worried.” (Duncan)

4. She’s not excited about being the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, the hope of the Jews for nearly 2000 years; she’s not thinking about her child being God; She’s upset that she’s pregnant. She knows that that’s not natural.

5. “The way that this is recorded is not the way it would be recorded if you were trying to make up a story and then import it back onto the actual events. Mary is upset about this. She is not dancing in the streets singing Christmas carols. She is upset by it.” (Duncan) And the same is true of Joseph.

IV. What do we believe is the significance of the virgin birth?

A. Easy to think it’s not that important

1. This doctrine sometimes seems to fall under the category of “nice but doesn’t matter”

2. That’s mistaken thinking; why would it be in the Creed if it’s not that important?

3. In truth, there are several implications

B. Biblical authority

1. “Since both Matthew and Luke explicitly teach the Virgin Birth, immediately we are faced with a major question: Will we believe what Scripture plainly teaches?” (Pritchard)

2. As said earlier, you can’t pick and chose the parts of the Bible you like

3. Thomas Jefferson is said to have actually cut up his Bible, keeping only those parts that didn’t go against his beliefs. But as Christians, we must allow the truth of Scripture to dictate our beliefs, not our beliefs to dictate what parts of Scripture we believe.

4. We have to acknowledge here the popular “theologian,” Mel Gibson, in an interview last month with Diane Sawyer, was asked if he believes every word of the Bible is true. He answered with an immediate and unequivocal yes. He said he believes every word of the Bible. Then he added, “You have to believe it all. Either you believe all of it or none of it.” “God bless Mel Gibson. That’s one reason the Virgin Birth matters. It’s a question of biblical authority.” (as quoted in Pritchard)

C. Evidence for miracles

1. Do we really believe God can and has worked miracles?

2. If we believe in the God we say we believe in (God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only son, our Lord), then it shouldn’t be a big deal that he can work miracles

3. If God can do this one, “The Grand Miracle”, then surely He can do this one.

4. But if we refuse to believe this one, then why would we have reason to believe that the other miracles happened?

D. Evidence for the deity of Christ

1. “The Virgin Birth forces us to confront what we believe about Jesus Christ. Who is he? Where did he come from? At issue is the supernatural character of our Lord. Is he truly the Son of God from heaven? If you answer yes, you’ll have no problem with the Virgin Birth. If you answer no, you’ll have no reason to believe it. Is he just a prophet, or is he “more than a prophet?” Is he a great teacher and nothing more? Was he a martyr who died for his cause? Was he a revolutionary who never intended to start a religion? Is he a divine leader who came to teach us about God? Or is he God incarnate, the Lord of Glory, the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior? (Pritchard)

2. “The Virgin Birth forces us off the fence about Jesus. It tells us that we can’t be neutral and we can’t say that the stories of his birth don’t matter. The fact that this is a miracle and a mystery doesn’t let us off the hook. Those with an anti-supernatural bias will have no use for the Virgin Birth, and they will explain it away. But those who believe in a supernatural Christ will find the Virgin Birth a mysterious miracle that, instead of destroying their faith, actually makes it stronger.” (Pritchard)

3. This child was really Immanuel in the fullest sense – He was indeed “God with us;” and he was really Yeshu’a like no one else – “God saves”

E. Fulfillment of prophecies

1. Matt. 1:22-23 – states it explicitly that the virgin birth fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy

2. Prophecy made about 700 years before Jesus’ birth

3. So we believe that an omniscient, omnipotent God can make prophecies long before events happen and then fulfill them. Of course. It only makes sense, if He’s really omniscient & omnipotent

F. Evidence for Jesus’ humanity

1. Jesus has a human mother; He’s fully human

2. Didn’t just appear on the earthly scene; wasn’t created out of some special heavenly substance

3. Went through the birth process like everyone else (the conception was different)

G. Evidence for Jesus’ sinlessness and therefore ability to save us

1. He met the conditions for being the Savior

a. He must be a man. Another kind of being couldn’t do it. He had to share our humanity.

b. “He must be an infinite” being, in short, God. “A mere mortal could not bear the infinite price that must be paid for our sins.” (Pritchard)

c. He must be a perfect, sinless man, completely innocent of all wrongdoing. “A sinner could not die for the sins of others.”

2. The Virgin Birth made all this possible – fully man, fully God, completely sinless. Therefore, the one and only being in existence who fits the job requirements.

H. Evidence of God’s love for us

1. In contrast to the Greek mythological gods who came and went on their own whims; Jesus was God incarnate for the long haul. He came to save us; for our benefit

2. Jesus “loved, literally, until it killed Him.” (Thielicke, p. 84)

3. No greater love…

4. Words of the song – “He gave His life, what more could He give, O how He loves you and me!”

Conclusion

· Can you be saved and not believe the virgin birth? – Yes, it’s not mentioned as a requirement for salvation in the Bible. But not believing it leaves you with some major flaws and gaps in your faith (see significance section)

· I hope you all do believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, and that you see the significance of this doctrine for us.

Conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary

We Believe… The Apostles’ Creed 5

(Summary Outline)

Text: Luke 1:35 (NASB)

Introduction: the importance and controversy of the virgin birth

Thesis: Today we’ll answer four important questions about what we mean when we say that we believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.