Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 1:18)

A few minutes ago we, both individually and corporately, declared, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary . . . "

The Apostles' Creed includes two very important phrases describing the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The Creed declares two specific statements about God becoming human. Statement one: He ". . . was conceived by the Holy Ghost . . . " Statement two: He was " . . . born of the Virgin Mary . . . "

Our theme today is the virgin birth. We will address three questions.

Question one: Why believe it? Question two: Why so much controversy about it? Question three: So what, in practical terms for you and me?

I.

Question one: Why believe in the virgin birth?

Answer: Because the Bible teaches it! And, it has been a core affirmation of the church throughout the centuries.

Our first hint of the virgin birth goes back to Genesis 3, where we meet what theologians refer to as the proto evangelion. It is the first hint of the evangel, the Good News, the Gospel.

You remember the story. God created the universe. He created humankind, male and female. He put them in charge of His creation. He gave specific instructions as to what they were to do and not do as stewards of the Garden. You remember how they were tempted, yielded to the temptation and rebelled against God's sovereignty. Sin, then as now, had its consequences, and they became alienated from God. But even at the earliest moment of human history, God addressed the tempter — Satan in the form of a serpent — declaring, "'Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel'" (Genesis 3:14-15).

Although this is not a full-blown articulation of the future virgin birth, it does refer to the "offspring" of the woman, who would challenge the evil one and crush the serpent's head. However, in doing this, the serpent would strike the heel of her offspring, who would suffer terribly in the process.

In ancient times, most references to offspring would refer to the seed of a man coming to fruition in the birth of his offspring. In this case, the Scripture is specific in giving the first clue that the One God would send to overthrow Satan's rule, the One who would be terribly hurt in the process of doing that, would be the offspring of the woman. Although I would not want to attempt to build the doctrine of the virgin birth on this one biblical reference, we certainly can see it as an early building block toward this belief.

A second Old Testament building block that would point ultimately to the virgin birth can be found in Isaiah 7. It is a well-known prophetic statement, especially well known because it is lifted out of its Old Testament context and quoted by Matthew in the first chapter of his book, which gives the story of the birth of Jesus.

There are two contexts to this Isaiah passage. One is that of the immediate time of Isaiah, when the people of Judah, centered in the capital city of Jerusalem, are under attack. King Ahaz doesn't know what to do. Isaiah tells him to keep calm, not be afraid. Ahaz is astounded at this. Terrible things are going on, and he is about to be ruined. Isaiah tells him that God will give him a sign, "'Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel'" (Isaiah 7:14). He is telling Ahaz not to worry, matters will work out.