UNUSUAL CHILD

 

Dec 1 – An Unusual Child

 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: 

 

This is a work of the Lord.  Creator of the Universe.  God of the ages.  Jehovah Jireh is going to provide.  This is a sign for all.  You will not miss this.  When man refuses to take responsibility for our own actions and ways.  God will provide a way.  Ahaz would not believe or ask the Lord.  You have not because you ask not.  The Lord gives signs to point to something He is doing.  He did not want you to miss His will.

 

The virgin will be with child:  This was going to be a supernatural event.  Nothing like this has happened in history and it will not be repeated or duplicated. 

 

Why is the Virgin Birth Important?

 

1. One reason for Jesus' virgin birth is that it identified Him as the Messiah.  Isaiah     prophesied that a virgin would be with child.
   
   
2. Another reason for the virgin birth is that having a biological father would have annulled Jesus' deity. He could not have been the son of Joseph and the Son of God at the same time. Every person born of man has inherited Adam's sin nature (Romans 5:12,17,19). It was only as God that Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice for sin, so it was the Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus (Luke 1:35).
3. The virgin birth is also a picture of our role in salvation: acceptance. Joseph had no part whatsoever in the conception of Jesus. Mary's role was passive; she merely accepted God's gift. As Ephesians 2:8-9says, the work of salvation is done by God alone. Neither holiness nor salvation can be brought about by the effort of man.
4. Those who reject the virgin birth also reject the deity of Jesus, the sin nature of man, and the inspiration of the Word of God. Therefore, a denial of the virgin birth is antithetical to the Christian faith. God is all-powerful. Jesus is God. The Bible is God's Word.
5. It is the see of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent

 

And will give birth to a son.  His gender was known.  Jesus would carry the heir ship of His family.  As a male He would have the glory of the family and the right of the first born.  It was predicted that the Messiah would be male.  First,

 

1.      Jesus Christ had to come as a man to rule on the throne of David, the first king of Israel.

2. Jesus Christ became a man to reveal the Father (John 1:14, 18). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (literally placed His tent among us). No man has seen God in all His glory except the very unique, special Son who has a special relationship with the Father, and He has clearly explained Him. The writer of the New Testament book of John declares we have seen, touched, and held the very Son of God who became a man to reveal the Father (1 John 1:1).

3.      Jesus Christ had to become a man to redeem mankind. Jesus had to have a body in order to pay

4.      the penalty for sin (Hebrews 10:1-18). Without the shedding of blood there is no removal of sin. Jesus had to be a man to pay the penalty for sin, but He must be God to satisfy God’s perfect demands for sin.  Therefore, Jesus became a man to rule, to reveal, and to redeem.

And will call him Immanuel. There is no name more significant than "Immanuel". This name, which Matthew refers to in his Gospel (Matthew 1:23), was first given to Jesus by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before His birth (Isaiah 7:14). Matthew tells us, means "God with us." Jesus Christ is Immanuel, "God with us," 

The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, Immanuel, "God With Us," takes on a whole new meaning. For in the person of baby Jesus, God is "with us" not merely to bless us. Nor is He with us in the sense that He is going to merely work through Jesus to help us, protect us, and guide us. No-the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay is "God with us" because He is God.  St. John the Evangelist under the inspiration of the Spirit would write the perfect commentary on the Christmas events. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; and all things were made through Him and apart from Him nothing was made which was made...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-3, 14).

The true message of Christmas is one to stagger the imagination: The Second Person of the Trinity, the only begotten Son of the Father, the eternal Word, our Creator wills to clothe Himself in our nature, and to become man, our brother, one of us. God Himself lies in the manger, completely human, completely Divine.

 

The Lord has done this.  It is His work,  What we need to do it live in the reality of this and consider what we have heard as we celebrate communion.