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. ~ Matthew 1:18
Today, we continue our study of the gospel according to Matthew who was the seventh disciple called by the Lord Jesus. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because they follow a synopsis. The synoptic gospels all have basically the same material and basic layout. In his gospel, the Apostle John departed from the approach of the other three gospel writers. Each of the four gospels all have a particular emphasis to them. Matthew emphasizes the Lord Jesus as the sovereign King predicted in the Old Testament. Mark portrays the Lord Jesus as the Servant of God while Luke portrays Him as the Son of Man. In his gospel, John places the spotlight on the Son of God.
It was 700 years before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth that we were given Isaiah 7:14 which reads, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Long before the Lord Jesus came, God told us that a young girl who had never had sex with a man would deliver the Son of God into this world. A virgin simply cannot be with child, this had to be a miracle of God. Interestingly, we were first told of this in Genesis 3:15 which reads, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." These words were spoken by God to the fallen Lucifer after he deceived man to take of the forbidden fruit. Without a doubt we have here a most remarkable prophecy of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. This prophecy cannot be explained in any other way other than that it is the fulfillment of the virgin birth. This concept of the seed of the woman is unique. Nowhere else in the Bible do we find such an expression.
Everywhere else in Scripture descent is reckoned through the male line. It is the seed of the man that is the line of descent and all the genealogies of the Bible trace the line of descent through the male. The father's name is given and when the mother's name is given it is only incidental, as referring to the wife of some man. This is the first Messianic prophesy in the Bible right here in Genesis 3:15. Here, right after the Fall of man into sin, God stated that the woman will have a male Seed, an offspring who will eventually crush the devil.
There are those who argue that Isaiah used a word which could mean young girl. However, Matthew’s use of this word demands it be translated “virgin.” When speaking of genealogies, it is always the seed of man referenced. Never is it the seed of the woman because we know the woman has no seed. But in Genesis 3:15, we read of "the Seed of the woman." A careful consideration of that passage reveals it was the Seed of God. Due to this, we believe the Lord Jesus to be fully God & fully Man.
In Matthew 1:18 we further read, “She was found with Child through the Holy Spirit.” Mary was a human and this Child was the product of her womb, and thus this Child was human. The Holy Spirit is God, not a human. If one then accepts the obvious interpretation of Scripture, then Mary’s Child is the Son of God. Humanly speaking there was no seed involved because Mary and Joseph had not yet consummated their marriage. The seed was of our heavenly Father and it was that Seed that determined Mary’s Child to be the Son of God.
What we have here is the most incredible occurrence which has ever come to pass in all of time. The creation of the universe pales in comparison to everything else. When God created, He created everything ex-nihilo or “out of nothing.” By the power of His spoken word, time, space and matter came into being. Everything that we see, even to the farthest reaches of the universe, came into existence at that one moment. It is an incredible thing to contemplate, but it is of far less significance to the enormity of what occurred in the womb of the teen named Mary.
In a flash as brief as the utterance of the word of creation itself, life sprung into existence in her womb. The Lord Jesus had always existed, even before creation, He had no beginning. What a paradox & yet what an event on the greatest scale. God united with His creation in that teenage womb. Amazingly, it was at the very moment of conception that a bright flash of life marked this incredible event. For Mary, there was darkness in her womb, and then there was the Light. The Light of the world had come. God stepped into our darkness and began to reveal Himself!
The God who brought all things into existence by a mere utterance limited Himself in the womb of a teen. The light of ten trillions suns combined are not as bright as the Light who created them. This same Light sparked in the womb of Mary as
“She was found with Child through the Holy Spirit.” In this Light, there is no darkness, thus there is no fear. And yet, the temple of God, pure and undefiled, was prepared in a human body of a young teenage girl. How vulnerable of God to do this.
The Light stepped into His creation in order to restore all that had gone astray. What a marvel occurred in the dark recesses of that virgin womb! The Deliverer came to set captives free!
The Light of the world had come as God’s divine beacon to rescue man from himself. The Lord God Almighty condescended in order to be among us. While I prepared for this message, I thought, “Is it that we are in darkness that we choose the darkness?” Then I thought, "No, wait… that can’t be it. In the perfection of the Garden of Eden Adam was surrounded by light and he chose the darkness. Only after making the choice did he want the light once again and that wasn’t immediate. That must be it then, without knowing one from the other we can’t know which one we want. That must be why God allowed it all to happen, and then to step in and give us a choice as to which we would choose. The genius of the Almighty!
The Light of the world came to show us the contrast. We can love the Light, or we can love darkness. The choice is ours. And sure enough, this is what the Light Himself said in John 3:18-21, while talking at night with Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus said to him, “18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
The distinction can be seen, the choice must be made, and all will pursue only one of two paths: to pursue the Light or to remain in the darkness. God created all things out of nothing.
He created something separate from Himself and yet which is contained within His omnipresence. And then He joined together with that which He created, all for the sake of frail, fallible, rebellious beings who otherwise had no hope at all.
In that stupendously marvelous act, God has given us a choice. We can continue on in the darkness, or we can come to the Light. The perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen from His moment of conception, through His birth in a lowly manger, in each step He ever took, and in each word He ever spoke. The perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in His ability to stand up under a torturous death on a wooden cross.
Yes, I know He died, He had to in order to defeat death because only life overcomes death. This is why His blood had to be shed and it was through His perfect blood that our sin was carried away as far as the east is from the west. And, through His resurrection do we see the victory which He has now shared with us who believe. The Child in the womb, the Baby in the manger, the Teacher on the mountain, the lifeless Body on the cross, is the God-Man who now stands victorious over death.
