Most of us crazy Americans believe in the Virgin Birth, according to a recent Pew survey. The others probably just think we are crazy. But at Christmas, every church and every town across the country reverently decorates their crèche with the baby Jesus conceived by the Virgin Mary. And every Christmas skeptics mock this miracle. Why—of all the miracles in Scripture—is the virgin birth so frequently attacked. Maybe it is because Christmas is about the Incarnation – the day God became man.
Joseph was a skeptic 19
First-century folk knew how babies are produced.
It isn’t a recent discovery that virgins don’t have babies.
If Jesus was not born of a virgin, who was His father?
Some believe it was an unknown lover.
Some believe that a Roman soldier had a love affair with Mary.
Joseph was the first converted skeptic.
If it were not for an angel Joseph would have divorced Mary.
Mary was a virgin 18
Matthew 1 tells Josephs version of the events
Luke 1 tells Mary’s version of the events.
Mary claimed that she “had never knew a man.”
Isaiah prophesied that the Savior would be born of a virgin. (Is 7:14)
Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit 20
In fairy tales the gods have illicit relations with women.
In the Bible the Holy Spirit creates the miracle of life.
That is a huge difference.
The Virgin Birth is not a myth, it is a miracle.
Jesus is the Savior 21
He will save His people from their sins.
The cradle was the first step toward the cross.
At the Cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Millions have been “saved” by Jesus.
Jesus is “God with Us” 22-23
His name is “Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
His name is “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
The Virgin Birth explains how Jesus could be both God and man.
It explains how Jesus did not inherit a sin nature. (Hebrews 4.15)
If untrue, Mary and Joseph are nothing more than con artists.
The Christmas story is the story of a radical new beginning in God’s relationship with the human race. When I hear how God became man, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ a tingle runs down my spine, this is the good news of the ultimate miracle. The basis of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God, not the son of Joseph. And if this miracle be true, then we should come before the manger and worship Him as the shepherds and wise men did so long ago.
How do I know the Virgin Birth isn’t a myth?
The magazine, Popular Science writes: “It’s that time of year again when all rational human beings shake our heads in amusement at those crazy, miracle-believers and their improbable stories. Flying reindeer? Walking on water. St. Nicholas’ ability to ingest mass quantities of cookies without succumbing to diabetes,” the virgin birth and other impossible myths.[i]
It turns out that in 2013 three-quarters of us crazy Americans believe in the impossible myth we call the Virgin Birth, according to a Pew survey.[ii] That was down to 66% in 2014.[iii] The other 33% probably just think we are crazy. But at Christmas, every church and every town across the country reverently decorates their crèche with the baby Jesus conceived by the Virgin Mary.
And every Christmas, skeptics mock this miracle. Why—of all the miracles in Scripture—is the virgin birth so frequently attacked. For us Christians it’s really not a problem. After all, if God created the universe, what’s the big deal about a virgin birth? Maybe it’s because any miracle, no matter how small is an indication that there is a God, and that is just not acceptable to a skeptic.
Christmas is not just about shopping and mistletoe, eating turkey and drinking egg nog, presents and magnificent Christmas displays; it is about the Incarnation – Christmas is about the day God became man. Matthew 1:23 says that Jesus is “Immanuel, the God who is with us.”
That’s sensational. If true, it is staggering! Every human ever born had a human father and a human mother and to suggest that Mary was the mother of God is a stunning and fantastic claim. Joseph himself was a skeptic.
Joseph was a skeptic 19
“Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately.”
He pondered on these things. First-century folk knew every bit as much as we do that babies are produced by a relationship between a woman and a man. They probably understood it better than we, being country folk! When Joseph heard about Mary’s pregnancy, his problem arose not because he didn’t know the facts of life, but because he did.[iv]
Now here’s an interesting tidbit. In 1955, a woman shocked the world, scandalized the church and divided the medical profession by her claims that her daughter was virgin born. It turns out that there was a lecture by geneticist Dr. Helen Spurway about spontaneous parthenogenesis, in which female guppies could get pregnant without the male. She suggested that perhaps it was also possible in humans. Are virgin births possible? In guppies, yes, because the female may be able to produce sperm as well as ova.[v] Out of that context, one woman claimed her child was virgin born. Before the era of DNA testing, doctors had no way to disprove it, and the woman became an overnight sensation with headlines reading, “Child born without a man!”
Medicine has come a long way since then! Today we know that for a human embryo to develop successfully it needs genetic instructions from the male sperm cell, and the only way to get that is from a human male. But it isn’t a recent discovery that virgins don’t have babies.
Joseph knew that. He wanted to end the relationship with Mary. He didn’t know who the father was, but in his mind, Mary must have been playing around and lying to him. That lends some credibility to the story of the virgin birth. Joseph was the first converted skeptic.
If Jesus was not born of a virgin, who was His father?
The Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal religious scholars made news in 2016 when they cast doubt the His miraculous birth. Voting with multi-colored pebbles, these pundits decided that Mary must have had an unknown lover.[vi] Some believe that Jesus was the illegitimate child of a Roman soldier who either had a love affair with Mary, or raped her.[vii]
I suppose that is possible, but neither, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Joseph, Mary, or any other disciples ever thought that. The Pharisees intimated it, the Jews circulated it, but the rumor of an affair was never taken seriously until the nineteenth century. There is not a shred of ancient evidence, even by the harshest enemies of Jesus, that his mother committed adultery. Quite the opposite is the case.[viii]
The Jews had a habit of ostracizing or stoning those who committed adultery, but Joseph did not respond that way. And he wasn’t the only one. Cousin Elizabeth when she heard about the pregnancy said, “Blessed are you among women!” That’s not a normal Hebrew response to rape or adultery!
Joseph was on the spot. Imagine how he felt? In a situation where the love of your life has ruined your future, there is only one reasonable response: End the relationship. If it were not for an angel that came to Joseph in a dream, he would have left her. He was a converted skeptic.
What is the evidence for the virgin birth? How does one research a first-century woman’s virginity anyway? Are we brain dead because we believe in the Virgin Birth? Some people say that the evidence for the Virgin Birth … is so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of faith. One man calls it the “entrance myth” to go with the resurrection, the “exit myth.”[ix]
There are four biblical facts I want to review quickly: #1
Mary was a virgin 18
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke chapter 1:26-34, we have Mary’s version of the events.
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
The way the Bible tells the story, Mary was clearly a virgin. Mary was puzzled. She didn’t get it! She had never known a man. And here is why that is such an important point. In the book of Isaiah, 1000 years earlier, the prophet predicted that the deliverer would be born of a virgin.
“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). The second biblical evidence is that
Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit 20
“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
There are those who say that the virgin birth is a fairy tale, and that there are other stories in pagan literature of how Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka, Horus was born of the virgin Isis, Mercury was born of the virgin Maia and Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia.[x]
Jesus, they say, is just another in a long line of myths. Let me see if I can get you to see one huge difference. The other stories are about the gods coming down to earth and fornicating with women. The Bible is about the Holy Spirit creating the miracle of life in the womb. In the retelling of Jesus birth, God did not stoop to a human level to sexually impregnate Mary. He simply said the word, and life was created. He simply slipped out of heaven and took on the form of frail human flesh. The Virgin Birth is not a pagan sexual myth, it is a divine Miracle.
Mary brought forth a Savior 21
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Here is the problem we Christian’s have if Jesus wasn’t Virgin born. If Jesus was not Virgin Born, then He is not God in the flesh. And if He is not God in the flesh, then the Bible is a myth and Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the Apostles all knowingly lied to us, and the worst of it is that a Jesus who was not Virgin Born, could not live a sinless life or die a substitutionary death for you and me. If there is no Virgin Birth, then there is no Salvation, and those of us who believe are still lost in our sins!
The cradle was the first step toward the cross. At the Cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and made it possible for us to be saved. To be saved, you must trust Him. Jesus was crucified on the same day that the Passover lamb was killed. His death and resurrection created a revolution in the world system. Hundreds came to trust him at first, turning into millions and billions.
And every one who has genuinely been saved will tell you: Jesus saved me! He transformed my life. He gave me hope and a new lease on life.
And the Bible gives us this wonderful message of hope:
Jesus is “God with Us”
In our text today, Matthew 1:22-23, it says, “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Isaiah 9:6 further identifies Him: “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The Virgin Birth explains how Christ could be both God and man. It explains how Jesus did not inherit a sin nature like the rest of us of humans have from Adam. Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4.15), “holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners” (7.26), thus he “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5.21).
If the virgin birth is untrue, then the story of Jesus changes greatly; we would have a sexually promiscuous young woman lying about God’s miraculous hand in the birth of her son, raising that son to declare he was God, and then joining his religion. But if Mary is nothing more than a con artist then her son Jesus should not be trusted.[xi]
Instead, the Christmas story is the story of a radical new beginning in God’s relationship with the human race. When I hear how God became man, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ a tingle runs down my spine, this is the good news of the ultimate miracle. The basis of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God, not the son of Joseph”
And if this miracle be true, then we should come before the manger and worship Him as the shepherds and wise men did so long ago. We Believe in the Virgin Birth and sinless life of Jesus the Messiah.
[i] https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/ladybits/scientific-miracle-theories-marys-virgin-birth#page-2
[ii] https://www.livescience.com/42175-virgin-birth-why-we-believe.html 2013
[iii] https://www.christianpost.com/news/fewer-americans-believe-jesus-was-born-of-a-virgin-study.html
[iv] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-virgin-birth
[v] https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,861693,00.html
[vi] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1994/december12/4te018.html
[vii] https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/december-2016/assault-virgin-birth/
[viii] https://jamestabor.com/best-evidence-mary-was-not-impregnated-by-a-roman-soldier/
[ix] https://albertmohler.com/2011/12/14/must-we-believe-in-the-virgin-birth/
[x] https://www.spectator.co.uk/2007/12/do-you-believe-in-the-virgin-birth/
[xi] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-virgin-birth
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