Introduction:
John 8:41 - "You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father--even God."
Why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ (and why it matters) (Matthew 1:18-25):
- It is the Straightforward Teaching of scripture.
- It is Certainly Possible with God.
Luke 1:34 - How will this be, since I am a virgin?
Luke 1:37 - Nothing will be impossible with God.
- It is Essential for Salvation.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:08-01:10
Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter one.
01:12-01:18
And for today and on Tuesday night, Pastor Taylor and I will be talking about divine intervention.
01:19-01:20
So what is that?
01:20-01:22
What does that mean, divine intervention?
01:24-01:25
Well, it just simply means this.
01:26-01:35
It's when God shows up in the world, causing or preventing something from happening.
01:36-01:37
We say that's divine intervention.
01:39-01:49
And there are some people that deny that there's any divine intervention and anything that looks like divine intervention is explained away.
01:51-01:57
When I was in community college, I took an ancient history class.
01:58-02:01
And this was before I was saved.
02:01-02:07
But I remember in this history class, They were talking about the events of the Exodus.
02:08-02:14
And the professor was systematically just denying every single thing that happened, like with the plagues.
02:16-02:24
They said, "Well, the Bible says that God, "through Moses turned the water into blood, "but it wasn't really blood.
02:24-02:36
"It just looked red because it was an unusually "high iron content in the water suddenly." And they went on and on, they talked about the frogs.
02:37-02:38
Do you know how they explained the frogs?
02:40-02:45
It was an unusually high mating season for frogs.
02:48-02:59
Like I said, this was before I was a Christian, but I remember sitting in this class going, I think it takes more faith to believe what the professor's saying than to believe what God said.
03:00-03:11
But there's some people that just deny that there's any divine intervention, we wanna intellectualize it, and we wanna explain it away in the name of science, which isn't really science.
03:13-03:17
And as people do, we swing to the other end of that spectrum.
03:17-03:21
Some people see everything as divine intervention, right?
03:22-03:24
Like, you're not gonna believe this.
03:25-03:27
I went to Pantera Bread today.
03:28-03:30
I got the last Cinna Crunch bagel.
03:32-03:33
That was a God wink.
03:35-03:36
Please don't use that term.
03:39-03:41
And look, do I believe God's sovereign over everything?
03:42-03:50
Absolutely, but I do think sometimes there's just a danger of reading hidden meaning into every little thing.
03:52-03:53
Well, what does the Bible say?
03:55-03:58
The Bible says that divine intervention is a real thing.
03:59-04:00
You wanna proof text?
04:02-04:08
Genesis through Revelation. Okay, don't look now, but there's your proof text.
04:08-04:54
But today what we are going to look at is what is the ultimate example of divine intervention, and that is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. That the Bible says that God who created everything, God became a man. And the Bible says that he became a man through a woman who was never with a man. Let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to proclaim God's Word, and I will pray for you to believe what He said. Let's just take a moment and pray.
05:00-05:43
Father, as we turn to your Word, I pray that your Holy Spirit meet us all where we are, because there are some people that are sitting here that maybe they've heard this story 10,000 times. Father, I pray that we would look at it with fresh eyes. And I'm sure, Father, there are people that are listening to this, whether sitting here now or in the next service or listening to a podcast later, that they don't believe what you actually said. And I pray, Father, that you would once again prove that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ, that Father, you would do something supernatural.
05:46-05:52
That it would be, maybe for those who doubt, Father, maybe it would be a divine intervention for them.
05:53-05:55
Father, glorify your name through your word.
05:56-05:58
We pray in Jesus' name.
05:58-06:01
And all of God's people said, amen.
06:01-06:03
Let's look at Matthew chapter 1.
06:03-06:05
We're going to start in verse 18.
06:05-06:12
It says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ "took place in this way.
06:14-06:22
"When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph "before they came together." Let's stop there for a second.
06:23-06:27
It says here that Mary was betrothed.
06:28-06:33
Now in those days, a wedding was a little different than the way we do things today.
06:33-06:36
There are actually two stages of a Jewish wedding.
06:37-06:40
The first stage was called the Kedushim.
06:40-06:44
That's the engagement or the betrothal.
06:45-07:00
And what happened in this stage is the families would actually come together and they would draw up a contract so that the couple was legally married, but they had no contact with one another.
07:01-07:04
for a significant period of time.
07:05-07:05
Why?
07:06-07:07
Well, it was to prove a couple of things.
07:09-07:16
First, it was to prove the faithfulness of the wife that she wasn't pregnant.
07:17-07:25
And it would also prove the commitment of the husband as he was setting up a place for them to live.
07:26-07:31
But you see, this was much more serious than engagements in our culture.
07:32-07:36
Or it's just like, oh, we don't wanna be engaged anymore, I'm gonna give you your ring back.
07:36-07:43
It was much more serious because to break off an engagement in this culture meant you had to get a divorce.
07:46-07:48
You needed a divorce to end the betrothal.
07:49-07:51
But the second stage of the Jewish wedding was the chuppah.
07:54-07:55
And what was that?
07:56-08:06
Well, at an unexpected time, the groom would come back to receive the bride and have the wedding.
08:08-08:10
And their weddings were seven days.
08:10-08:12
You've been to some weddings you thought were long?
08:13-08:19
Seven days of wedding and wedding feast and wedding reception.
08:20-08:22
And I know you're thinking, did they have a cookie table?
08:23-08:23
I don't know.
08:24-08:25
I don't know.
08:26-08:28
The Bible doesn't speak to that.
08:32-08:35
But it says they were yet betrothed, okay?
08:35-08:42
So it's important to understand that Mary and Joseph here were in the first stage of the Jewish wedding.
08:43-09:02
Look at verse 18, the rest of it, it says, "Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit." Look, I gotta admit, that was a tough one.
09:03-09:09
For Joseph, you're gonna see here in a second, but that would be tough for any man, really, if you think about it.
09:10-09:32
You're engaged, you're excited, and your bride-to-be says, "Hey, I need to tell you something." "What?" "I'm pregnant." "Why?" And you know the first natural question you have.
09:33-09:35
Well, who's the father?
09:37-09:40
And she's like, "You're not gonna believe this.
09:41-09:45
"It's God." Oh, oh.
09:46-09:47
Oh, okay.
09:47-09:48
Well, that explains it.
09:49-09:50
Look at verse 19.
09:50-10:05
It says, "And her husband Joseph, being a just man, "and unwilling to put her to shame, "resolved to divorce her quietly." Okay, so Joseph was like, okay, we were engaged, we're gonna get married, she's pregnant.
10:07-10:10
There's only one course of action, and that's divorce.
10:11-10:13
But you see, in those days, you had two options for divorce.
10:13-10:22
You could do the public option, which you could understand, a man who felt betrayed would go for that, right?
10:23-10:27
Like, oh, okay, you're gonna mess around on me while we're engaged, okay.
10:28-10:30
You're gonna embarrass me, I'm going to publicly embarrass you.
10:30-10:32
You can see why men would take that option.
10:36-10:38
Joseph, what does your Bible say?
10:38-10:40
He was a just man.
10:41-10:45
There was a private option where you could just have two or three witnesses.
10:46-10:52
It was done in secret, the divorce, and no one needed to know.
10:53-10:55
And Joseph was a just man.
10:55-11:00
He obviously loved Mary very much, and he decided, he goes, "I'm gonna do this quietly.
11:02-11:07
"I'm not gonna shame her." The Bible says he resolved.
11:09-11:10
He resolved.
11:10-11:14
Like, okay, this is what has to happen.
11:14-11:15
It's over.
11:17-11:24
And at this point, you would think, Man, it would have to take a message from God himself to change Joseph's mind.
11:26-11:28
Oh, good, because that's what he got.
11:28-11:29
Look at verse 20.
11:29-11:50
It says, "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.
11:55-12:05
So Mary's condition was confirmed and God spoke to Joseph in a dream through an angel.
12:06-12:06
Why?
12:06-12:08
Well, these were the days before Maury Povich.
12:12-12:13
Look at verse 21.
12:14-12:17
says, "She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.
12:20-12:24
For he will save his people from their sins." So interesting here.
12:25-12:30
You know, one of the exciting things about having a baby is naming the baby, right?
12:31-12:33
Well, this wasn't Joseph's baby to name.
12:34-12:40
God says, "Here is what you're going to be calling this child." God told him the name.
12:40-12:47
And if you know your Bibles, when God names someone, the name defines the person, right?
12:48-12:58
God's not looking at a list of popular baby names and saying, "Well, I'll just pick one from that." God names someone with divine purpose.
13:01-13:06
You're gonna call this baby Jesus, which means Jehovah saves.
13:09-13:15
So Mary was told that God would deliver a baby through her and Joseph was informed of the fact.
13:16-13:25
And Matthew reminds us that we were all told about this a long time ago, back in Isaiah chapter seven and verse 14.
13:25-13:26
Look at these next couple of verses.
13:28-13:41
Matthew says, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets." Again, Isaiah 7, 14, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel.
13:44-13:47
Emmanuel, that's a compound word.
13:48-13:54
It's not really a name as much as it is a description or a title.
13:56-14:04
Emmanuel, Emmanuel means with us and El is the power name of God.
14:07-14:15
So this child means God is literally physically with us.
14:18-14:24
Look at verse 24, it says, "When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
14:26-14:33
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
14:35-14:37
And he called his name Jesus.
14:40-14:41
So Joseph was obedient.
14:41-14:46
He didn't know her until after Jesus was born.
14:47-14:53
That dispels the perpetual virginity of Mary myth that some churches hold on to.
14:55-15:00
And he gave this child the God assigned name.
15:03-15:06
This is the ultimate example of divine intervention.
15:08-15:15
And like we said at the top of the message, some people, they deny that there's any divine intervention at all.
15:15-15:30
They wanna explain it away when it looks like God intervened in worldly affairs, and unsurprisingly, the virgin birth gets explained away a lot.
15:31-15:40
You're like, "Well, how do people explain away the virgin birth?" Well, people say, "You know, Joseph was the father.
15:41-15:50
And Joseph and Mary had relations before the wedding was finalized as they were not supposed to do.
15:51-15:55
And this story was just a big coverup." Like, "Oh no, she's pregnant.
15:55-15:57
What are we gonna do?" "Oh, I know.
15:58-16:06
We'll just tell everybody that God did it." It's nothing new, right?
16:08-16:15
I wish that I could tell you that, yeah, there is a bit of an issue on the front end, but eventually it went away, but that's not the case.
16:16-16:41
Because you see, even when Jesus, as an adult was doing ministry, John 8, 41, Jesus was having an exchange with the Pharisees, And Jesus said, "You are doing the works your father did." And they said to him, "Look at this, we were not born of sexual immorality." What do you think they meant by that?
16:43-16:47
I think that they intended for that to be a burn on Jesus.
16:47-16:50
Like, "Oh, oh, you're telling us about daddy.
16:52-16:59
We weren't born of sexual morality, parentheses, like you were.
17:00-17:02
We have one Father, even God.
17:05-17:17
I wish I could tell you that after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the issue kind of went away and people embraced what the Bible actually says about the virgin birth, but it's still an issue even until today.
17:20-17:25
I was looking up the latest statistics on this 'cause these kinds of things fascinate me.
17:28-17:37
They said the most recent that I found, 34% of Americans do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, 34%.
17:39-17:43
That's one out of three people just don't believe it.
17:43-17:59
And that was shocking to me, but that wasn't near as shocking as what I saw in another poll that said 66% of clergy expressed doubts about the virgin birth.
18:00-18:01
You know what clergy is?
18:02-18:10
Those are people that are supposed to be standing up, representing God, speaking the word of the Lord.
18:11-18:14
That's what a clergy is supposed to be.
18:17-18:22
But two thirds of them said, "Eh, I don't really believe.
18:23-18:34
I don't really believe this, that Jesus was born of a virgin." You're like, "Oh, I know, you're talking about like, these are fringe people, right?
18:35-18:43
A wackadoos, you know, snake jugglers or whatever you call them." Oh, I wish I could say that.
18:44-19:02
I wish I could say it was just the fringe weirdos, but I read an article about an extremely well-known pastor, I'm not gonna say his name, but somebody that has a huge popular following among people that would call themselves conservative evangelicals.
19:03-19:22
He said this, he said, "If somebody can predict their own death and resurrection, "I'm not at all concerned about how they got into the world." This pastor said in a Christmas sermon at his church, which draws somewhere around 50,000 attendees every week.
19:24-19:46
This pastor said, "Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus, it hinges on the resurrection of Jesus." You see, so many people like this pastor, They think that the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, it's just a minor issue.
19:46-19:49
It's really not that important, is it?
19:51-20:03
And I would suggest to you of everything that you celebrate this Christmas, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is the most important point.
20:05-20:07
Like, well, can you defend that?
20:08-20:13
I want you to write some things down, why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and why it matters.
20:15-20:16
Are you a little skeptical?
20:19-20:22
I'm just gonna tell you why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
20:22-20:26
Number one, it is the straightforward teaching of Scripture.
20:30-20:52
Look, if we're going to read the Bible straightforwardly, if we're going to understand what God said as God presented it, it says that the Savior, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, it says that he was born to a woman that was never with a man before he was born.
20:56-21:05
I watched a video this past week of this preacher, and I use that word very loosely.
21:06-21:11
But this video was, his sermon was about denying the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
21:13-21:16
And this pastor was scoffing at Matthew.
21:18-21:34
And he said this, "Matthew based the virgin birth story on a mistranslation of scripture." Is it time out for a second?
21:37-21:38
Just time out for a second.
21:39-21:41
I would love to sit down with this pastor.
21:44-21:47
I don't wanna ask him about the virgin birth, I know what he thinks about that.
21:48-21:49
You know what I'd like to ask him?
21:51-21:53
I'd like to ask him why he got into ministry.
21:55-22:02
Did you really get into ministry to stand in front of people and say, "This is why God's wrong"?
22:02-22:05
Was that your dream about going into ministry?
22:08-22:10
To deny the word of God.
22:14-22:25
Anyways, he said that Matthew was basing the virgin birth story off of a mistranslation.
22:26-22:26
Like, what does he mean?
22:27-22:36
Well, here's the thing, like, okay, in Isaiah 7:14, The Hebrew word is a young woman.
22:37-22:40
That's what a young woman, this is the sign of young woman.
22:40-22:50
And when they translated the Hebrew to Greek, they took a Greek word for this translation and that word means virgin.
22:51-22:54
So he's saying there was this mistranslation from the Hebrew to Greek.
22:54-23:03
It went from young woman to virgin because of the words And that is a really popular argument among foolish people.
23:07-23:25
I'm sure you've heard it, but people say, "Well, you know, Isaiah 7:14, virgin, "could mean maiden, it could mean young woman." Okay, Hebrew scholars, do you know what else that word can mean?
23:28-23:29
Yeah, it could mean virgin.
23:31-23:32
Shocker.
23:35-23:38
But look at Matthew's commentary on the issue.
23:38-23:40
Look at verse 18 again real quick.
23:40-24:04
Matthew's commentary, it says, "Before they came together," and then jump down to verse 25, "But he knew her not." Like Matthew was making a point that she was never with a man when she was pregnant with Jesus.
24:06-24:08
I think Matthew knew what he was talking about.
24:10-24:16
And by the way, this reference to Isaiah 7:14, you're like, what's the original context of the passage?
24:16-24:19
Well, the short version is this.
24:19-24:24
Israel was afraid Syria was going to wipe out Israel's royal line.
24:25-24:47
And God says, "No, no, no, here's a sign "that the royal line's going to continue." Well, let me ask you this, if virgin, if the word virgin in Isaiah 7:14 just means young woman, then what kind of a sign is that?
24:50-24:51
God's like, "Here's a sign.
24:53-24:54
"A young woman will have a baby.
24:59-25:01
That would be like, some of you aren't on board yet.
25:01-25:04
It would be like if God says, I'm gonna give you a sign.
25:04-25:08
In 2024, a teenager will wear Crocs.
25:09-25:10
(congregation laughing)
25:11-25:13
Now you get it, right?
25:14-25:15
What kind of a sign is this?
25:16-25:24
I don't know if you noticed, but you can go back to the children's wing after service, but young women give birth all the time.
25:24-25:27
That's not really a sign, right?
25:27-25:29
Here's your sign, a young woman's gonna give birth.
25:29-25:30
(gasps)
25:32-25:34
No, this sign has to be something unique.
25:34-25:45
This sign has to be something unlike anything else, which would be a virgin giving birth.
25:47-25:53
Now look, I totally get why people believe the Bible.
25:53-25:54
I get that.
25:56-25:58
The Bible has satisfied the greatest minds in history.
25:58-26:09
People that have taken an honest look into what the Bible says, verifying it with science, archeology, history, looking at fulfilled predictive prophecy.
26:09-26:11
I get why people believe the Bible.
26:11-26:12
I totally get that.
26:15-26:20
I also get why people don't believe the Bible.
26:21-26:28
because when somebody doesn't want God speaking into their life, they don't wanna hear anything that God has to say.
26:28-26:31
So I get why people would reject the Bible.
26:33-26:35
But do you know what I don't get?
26:36-26:38
Maybe you can explain this to me sometime.
26:40-26:45
I don't get why people choose to only believe parts of the Bible.
26:46-26:47
I just don't understand that.
26:50-26:55
because faith in God necessarily means believing in what he said in his word.
26:59-27:12
But you know, if you don't wanna trust God, but you don't wanna outright deny the Bible, you're gonna try to intellectualize it by trying to reinterpret what are very clear passages.
27:16-27:24
In other words, If you don't wanna believe the Bible, don't try to make it say something else.
27:27-27:28
He said what he meant.
27:29-27:35
And what he said is the Savior was born to a virgin woman.
27:35-27:36
All right?
27:37-27:38
So it's a straightforward teaching of Scripture.
27:39-27:40
That's just what it says, all right?
27:41-27:53
Number two, why I believe in the virgin birth Jesus Christ, it is certainly possible with God." You're like, "I don't know.
27:53-27:55
I don't know, Pastor Jeff.
27:55-28:09
The story seems a little far-fetched." I'm like, "How do you think Mary felt?" I don't think anybody thought it was more far-fetched at first than her.
28:09-28:09
Like what?
28:10-28:10
What?
28:10-28:10
I'm...
28:11-28:12
She believed.
28:13-28:15
I gotta tell you, that had to have been shocking to hear.
28:18-28:23
Luke 1:34, this was Mary's response when she was told this.
28:24-28:30
She says, "How will this be since I am a virgin?" You know that word virgin can mean young woman.
28:32-28:34
And Mary's like, "How can I be pregnant?
28:34-28:38
"I'm a young woman." Oh, we already talked about that.
28:39-28:41
You see how foolish that argument is there, right?
28:43-28:44
Look at Gabriel's response.
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Gabriel's response, Luke 1:37, he says, "Nothing will be impossible with God." And my friends, that's just theology 101.
28:55-28:58
God can do anything.
28:59-29:00
He can do anything.
29:03-29:04
And he always does what he promises.
29:06-29:08
I love the story of C.S. Lewis.
29:08-29:16
He was sitting in his office with an unbelieving friend, and there were carolers down in the street below singing their Christmas carols.
29:16-29:22
And there was a song they were singing that mentions the virgin birth.
29:23-29:33
And C.S. Lewis's unbelieving friend was like, "Aren't you glad now that we know better?" And C.S. Lewis is like, "What are you talking about?
29:33-29:39
"What do you mean?" He goes, "Well, we know better now, you know what I mean?" And C.S. Lewis was like, "Now you're gonna explain what you mean.
29:39-29:50
"I don't understand what you're saying." And his unbelieving friend says, "Isn't it great that now we know that virgins don't give birth?" And C.S. Lewis pointed to the Carolers.
29:50-29:57
He goes, "You don't think they know that?" He goes, "That's the whole point." Right?
29:58-29:59
That's the whole point.
30:00-30:01
Yeah, they don't.
30:01-30:03
Virgins don't give birth.
30:07-30:11
unless God shows up and miraculously makes it happen.
30:14-30:25
So for these people, especially these preachers that wanna deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, it's astounding to me because, do you believe that Jesus Christ resurrected?
30:26-30:32
Do you believe that he fed 5,000 men plus women and children with the two little fishes and the five little loaves of bread?
30:32-30:37
Do you believe that Jesus walked on water and he healed the sick and he evicted demons.
30:37-30:40
And we believe that Jesus did these miracles.
30:43-30:51
But I would suggest to you that a man who performed so many miracles, it would only make sense that he also had a miraculous entrance into the world.
30:53-31:12
If Jesus had a human father, if Joseph was Jesus' dad, Well, not only would that make the Bible untrustworthy, but we wouldn't have any explanation for the supernatural life that Jesus lived.
31:15-31:17
Do you believe in a virgin birth?
31:17-31:21
I would say, well, it's certainly possible with God.
31:24-31:28
And then finally, number three, it's essential for salvation.
31:29-31:31
Why do I believe in a virgin birth?
31:31-31:33
because it's essential for salvation.
31:36-31:44
Understand that Jesus Christ had to be fully God and fully man at the same time.
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He had to.
31:47-31:47
Why?
31:49-31:53
Well, it was man who brought sin into the world.
31:55-32:00
So a man had to bear the punishment for sin.
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But he also had to be God to be a sinless and perfect once and for all sacrifice that would save all who would believe.
32:18-32:23
So if Jesus just simply had two human parents, then he was just another human being.
32:24-32:30
Oh, and that really popular preacher that was sort of poo-pooing the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
32:31-32:40
Remember the guy who said, Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus, it hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.
32:40-32:48
My response to that is, if Jesus Christ wasn't fully God and fully man in the manger, he wasn't fully God and fully man on the cross.
32:50-32:56
And if Jesus Christ wasn't fully God and fully man on the cross, then the cross means nothing.
32:57-33:02
and Jesus was just another martyr cut down in his prime.
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Now, the virgin birth isn't some peripheral doctrine.
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It's central to who Jesus is.
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And the sacrifice of Jesus only has power if Jesus is who the Bible says he is.
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Our worship team would make their way back up front.
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Listen, your sin has separated you from God.
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We're all born with it.
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We're sinners by birth and we're sinners by choice.
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And the bad news is trying to be good can't help you.
33:55-34:25
because you still stand condemned. Feeling sorry about the wrong things you've done can't take away your sin. And doing good works and being religious isn't going to make up for it. What you need is a divine intervention. And thanks to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
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That's exactly what we got.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, we believe your word.
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And yeah, there's parts of your word that maybe we can't wrap our brains around because we've never seen it personally.
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that we don't know somebody that these things have happened to personally.
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But God, we trust you.
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And we believe that it went down exactly as you said.
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Father, we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, because you've said that, because you're certainly able to make that happen, Father, and because we believe that the same God-man in the manger is the same God-man who was on the cross.
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So Father, I just wanna pray specifically for those who maybe are on the skeptic side, because if the statistics are anywhere near true, there are a lot of people that would just flat out deny what you've clearly said.
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Father, I pray that they would wrestle with who Jesus is, and they'd wrestle with what Jesus has done, and they would truly understand why that had to happen for our salvation.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 1:18-25
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is so consistently denied?
Why is believing in the virgin birth an important doctrine to embrace? What are the implications if Jesus was just naturally Joseph and Mary’s son?
Breakout
Pray for one another.