Matthew 1:18-25
The Supernatural in the Birth of Jesus
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds on the supernatural elements surrounding the birth of Jesus, drawing primarily from Matthew 1 and Luke 1. He systematically unpacks the supernatural conception, the supernatural person of Christ (God-man), and His supernatural mission to save His people from their sins. Martin argues that denying the supernatural aspects of Christ's birth undermines the entire framework of salvation, concluding with a strong call to abandon self-help religion and embrace the enfleshed God for salvation, while also urging believers to renewed wonder and gratitude.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 12 sections · 66 min
- The World's Christmas vs. The Bible's Supernatural Birth 0:04
- Three Headings: Conception, Person, Mission 4:49
- The Supernatural Conception: Matthew's Account 6:20
- The Supernatural Conception: Luke's Account and Unique Nature 9:55
- Defining the Supernatural Conception 15:10
- The Supernatural Person: Emmanuel, God with Us 18:33
- The Supernatural Person: The Eternal Word Made Flesh 22:15
- Defining the Supernatural Person: God and Man 31:36
- The Supernatural Mission: Jesus Saves from Sins 45:33
- Application: Exposing Self-Help Religion 53:04
- Application: Wonder, Gratitude, and Praise for Believers 60:38
- Closing Prayer 64:21
Key Quotes
“The supernatural intrudes itself upon us as a dominant element in both birth accounts of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“The rescuing of lost men and women, boys and girls from their sins, is such a mammoth undertaking that God alone can effect that salvation. It will be supernatural from beginning to end.”
“When you and I can, with these little minds of ours, comprehend the constitution, of the person of our Redeemer, when we can fully grasp it and fully encompass it with our gray matter, then I'll believe you when you tell me that you just fit the Atlantic Ocean into your water pitcher that sits on your dining room table this afternoon.”
“He is either the eternal Word who came into this world by Mary's womb, or he is a demented egomaniac, unworthy of respect, let alone worship and adoration.”
“The only Redeemer of God's elect is our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures in one person forever.”
“He did not cease to be what he had always been when he began to be what he never had been.”
“The facts we've considered this morning expose the sham and the worthlessness of all fix-yourself-up religion.”
“I'm not climbing to heaven on a moonbeam. I'm going to heaven on a ladder made of the flesh and blood of the incarnate God.”
Applications
All listeners
- Recognize that the facts of Christ's supernatural birth expose the sham and worthlessness of all 'fix-yourself-up' religion.
- Be prepared to either dismiss the birth, life, and death of Jesus as irrelevant nonsense and be your own savior (and live with the consequences), or accept God's estimation of your sin and His provision in Christ.
- Accept God's estimation of your sin rather than your own or the world's, because it is with God's estimation you will have to deal on the day of judgment.
- If you see yourself as a sinner, embrace the hope that God in love has come down to us in Christ to take us to where He is.
- Blow away all the mist of trying to get on the crest of the Christmas spirit and milk a little sweetness out of the season, and instead recognize your need for an enfleshed God who became an impaled God.
- Turn away from all self-help religion and go to Jesus, asking Him to save you.
- Let the facts of Christ's supernatural birth excite you to wonder, gratitude, love, and praise.
- Do not let the Christmas season pass without pausing to think deeply about the mystery of the supernatural conception, the supernatural person, and the wonder of His supernatural salvation.
- Embrace Jesus as He is revealed in the gospel, love Him, serve Him, and be more devoted to Him than ever before, so that others may know of His glory, grace, and salvation.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 234 paragraphs, roughly 66 minutes.
The World's Christmas vs. The Bible's Supernatural Birth
The following message was delivered on Sunday, December 22, 1991, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The vast majority of us are gathered here on this, the Lord's Day, because it is the Lord's Day. And we know that as it is His appointed day, it is both our privilege and our duty to obey the injunction of Scripture, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. However, it's clear from the many things most of us passed in driving to this place,
in terms of the unusual light arrangements on people's houses, decorations on their lawns, and if you pass by any stores, shop decorations, that as we meet on this Lord's Day, at His own command. And we will be at His own command. And we will be in the midst that we do so once again in the midst of that madness called the Christmas season. And while there are yet some remnants of connection between the Christmas season and the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in the world's celebration of Christmas,
a connection we see occasionally in a creche on someone's, in someone's front lawn or in some public building, or in terms of some of the carols that are still sung that have a little more biblical content than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. And there are even in some of the artwork that is, there is in some of the artwork seen in Christmas cards, a connection between Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Yes. There are at least remnants of that left.
However, there is in all of the world's consideration of Christmas, whether there is or is not much connection with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a studious attempt to ignore, to distort, or flatly to deny the elements of the supernatural which stand like mountains. And this is what the Bible repeats in the Bible's account of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, by the term supernatural, I mean that which is above and beyond the natural,
ordinary patterns of God's working in His world. The supernatural is present when God sets aside His own instituted, ordinary means of doing things and to show that they are just that. His instituted means, controlled by Him, He can suspend them, set them aside, and work in a way totally apart from those ordinary means. And when He does that, you have the miracle or the supernatural.
And it is my assertion that when we turn to the two gospel records which give us a birth account of Jesus of Nazareth, that the supernatural... The supernatural is not simply there on the fringes, alluded to and hinted at and suggested, but the supernatural intrudes itself upon us as a dominant element in both birth accounts of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if that is so, and I trust to demonstrate that it is, then any contemplation of the birth of Jesus... ...of Nazareth is far removed from the Bible and therefore far removed from reality
unless the supernatural element has front, center, stage in our thinking, in our conscience, in our religious experience, in our prayer, everything that pertains to our relationship to the One born in Bethlehem's manger. And therefore I want to speak to you this morning on the...
...subject of the supernatural in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Three Headings: Conception, Person, Mission
And I propose to do so under three headings. The supernatural conception, the supernatural person, and the supernatural mission. And I think some of you can already see the relationship between those three. The result of the supernatural conception is...
...that there was constituted a supernatural person who was given the name Jesus at his birth.
And the conception which resulted in that person was to the end that he might accomplish a supernatural mission. Even the mission of saving men from their sins. And the mission can only be accomplished by that unique supernatural person. And he is...
...constituted that supernatural person by means of the supernatural conception.
So that these three things, though distinct, are utterly inseparable, in fact... ...of Scripture, and no one can know the fulfillment of the supernatural mission of Jesus
apart from dealings with that supernatural person. And there would be no such person apart from...
...the supernatural conception.
The Supernatural Conception: Matthew's Account
So we begin, then, with the supernatural conception. When we take up the biblical record, what do we find? Please turn now to Matthew chapter 1.
Matthew chapter 1. And without any poetic embellishment, without answering the hundreds of questions which men have and continue to raise...
...about so many things pertaining to the birth...
...records found in Matthew and in Luke, the Spirit of God moves Matthew to write, "...the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.
This is the way it happened. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, before there was any consummation of the marriage, before there was any two-one flesh, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." So that in the very first of the account of the birth of Jesus, the supernatural breaks in and rises up before us like a mighty mountain.
God's saying, if you stumble upon the supernatural conception, read no further.
Everything that follows is predicated upon this supernatural conception. It is a natural event. A woman who has had no sexual intimacy with a man, in the marvel of God's ordinary way of producing children, that there should be as the fruit of that union of the husband and the wife, the amazing process of conception, which, though understood and analyzed in the rest, is still to the one who beholds it something that he's tempted to call...
a miracle. That, quote, miracle is God's ordinary way. But in this case, she is found with child not because of a relationship with Joseph, surely not because she was loose with a Roman soldier, as some have blasphemously asserted, but she was found with child having conceived by a unique, once-only operation of the Holy Spirit, never preordained, previously done, never subsequently done. The Holy Spirit impregnates Mary.
Natural, intrudes upon us like a mountain, and yet it's set forth in such a matter-of-fact way. The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. Mary, betrothed to Joseph, is found with child of the Holy Spirit. And when Joseph becomes aware of this, and he's just troubled, wondering what to do, all he knows is that Mary, is with child, and he wants to act righteously and sensitively to her.
The Lord appears unto him in a dream, verse 20, and what does he say? He explains his own action. Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She has undergone a supernatural conception.
The Supernatural Conception: Luke's Account and Unique Nature
God says this is what happened. The angel echoes into Joseph's ears that that is precisely what has happened. There was a supernatural conception. And the same emphasis is given to us in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, in the passage read in your hearing, verse 26.
The angel appears to a virgin in Nazareth,
sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin. In the full, strict, technical sense of that word, a woman who had never been sexually intimate with a man. And it says the virgin's name was Mary. Not just her name, but underscoring.
It was indeed a virgin. And the angel speaks unto her in verse 30, Fear not, Mary, you have found favor with God. You shall conceive. You shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son.
Then the angel tells her something about the uniqueness of that son she will bring forth. And Mary responds in verse 40, 34. Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? How shall this thing be, seeing I have not had sexual intimacy?
I am a virgin. How can it be? How can it be that I shall bear a son? Never in all of my life.
The most godly, knowledgeable Israelite would surely be aware of the unusual intervention of God in the birth of Isaac, through whom the promises made to Abraham found their next stage of fulfillment. And God did an amazing thing. Romans tells us Sarah's womb was as good as dead. She passed through the menopause.
She was post-menopausal. She was post-menopausal for years. And it says Abraham's body is as good as dead. Male hormones had shut down or what?
I don't know. But it said he could naturally father a child as much as a dead man pulled out of the morgue. Dead womb. Dead husband.
What did God do? God performed the miracle of making Sarah pre-menopausal. Causing an egg to drop down that could be fertilized by a sperm and revitalizing Abraham. Ah, but you see, there is a miracle.
It was God doing a miracle that his ordinary way of conception might occur in the case of Isaac. But never was it that God himself came to a womb. And by the Holy Spirit effected conception without the two-one flesh union. God had intervened and opened closed wombs in answer to prayer.
The godly mother of Samuel. And in the case of her own cousin Elizabeth, she had the nickname Aaron. It was a reproach in Israel to be barren. And her nickname was Barren.
And Ohar must have cut it when she'd hear people refer to her as Barren. Who's coming to tea? And God had done an amazing thing. Though they were well advanced in years.
And the hint is that she was probably post-menopausal. And a very similar miracle occurred in which God marvelously quickened the womb of Elizabeth. And made it capable of receiving the sperm of her son. The sperm of her husband Zacharias.
And God brought about the birth of John the Baptist. Miraculous intervention. But, but, but, but, but. God used his ordinary law.
Once he elevated their powers. That that law would be effective. But here, totally unique. And Mary's conscious of that.
How shall this end? I know not a man. And the angel answered and said, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee. And the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.
Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. In a unique way. In which no one else can be designated Son of God. By the operation of the Holy Spirit.
In the mysterious, hidden, dark, silent depths of Mary's womb. God did this. God did this most amazing thing he had never done before. Had never done since.
God himself effected in Mary's womb. The act of conception. Now with no obscure, mysterious, or ambiguous language. Both Matthew and Luke record the facts of a supernatural conception.
Defining the Supernatural Conception
And when we try to think of them in their simplest, most biblically accurate way. What should our perception of that supernatural conception be? Well let me state it in two very simple propositions. Number one.
That a woman named Mary. Who had had no sexual intimacy with any man in general. Or Joseph, her husband to be in particular. Will conceive a child in her womb.
That's what God announces. That a woman named Mary. Who's had no sexual intimacy with any man in general. How shall it be seeing I know not a man.
Or with her husband to be. Joseph in particular. He's ready to put her away. Because he knows.
That whoever is the father of that child. He's not. So the scripture makes it clear. No sexual intimacy with any man in general.
Or Joseph in particular. Yet the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon her. And she will conceive a child.
In her womb. And the second thing that the passages make clear is this. That this conception will be the result. Of the direct agency of God.
By the Spirit. Without any human intervention. Of any kind whatsoever. The conception will be the result.
Of the direct agency of God. By the Spirit. Without any human intervention. Of any kind whatsoever.
She was found with. Child of the Holy Spirit. Not the Holy Spirit. Using the Holy Spirit.
Plus the Holy Spirit. Period. The power of the Most High. Shall come upon thee.
That which is begotten of thee. Shall be called. The Son of God. What is the conclusion we are driven to.
In the light of this biblical material. Simply this. That the conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. Was a super.
Natural. Conception. That weaving into the fabric of our salvation. The first strands of it in space.
Time. History. God says. The Savior.
Is supernaturally. Conceived. Follow me closely. If we stumble at the first thread.
That is pervasively. Supernatural. Conceived. In the first thread.
That is pervasively. Supernatural. Conceived. In the first thread.
That is pervasively. Supernatural. Conceived. In the first thread.
Supernatural. Will stumble all along the way. For the rescuing of lost men and women. Boys and girls from their sins.
Is such a mammoth undertaking. That God alone. Can effect that salvation. It will be supernatural.
From beginning to end. And therefore. When God breaks into human history. To bring the Savior among us.
He does so in a manner. That announces. The whole framework. Of that salvation.
It will be a supernatural salvation. From its beginning. To its end. And so.
The Christmas story. According to the only place. Where we can learn it. If we let it speak.
Its own message. It points us. In its opening paragraph. To the fact.
The Supernatural Person: Emmanuel, God with Us
Of a supernatural. Conception. But then. Secondly.
It is. Supernatural. Conceived. In the first thread.
That is pervasively. Conceived. In the first thread. That is pervasively.
Conceived. In the first thread. That is pervasively. It points us.
To the supernatural. Person. Conceived. In Mary's womb.
The supernatural. Person. The identity. Of that person.
Is clearly established. Before. He. Is born.
It is established. At his conception. In Matthew 1. It is established.
That this person. Conceived. In Mary's womb. Will be.
Not other. Than God. Now. With us.
Which. Truth. Is. Embodied.
In. That. Particular. Name.
Assigned. To. Him. By.
The. Prophet. Isaiah. Emmanuel.
Verses. 22. And. 23.
Of. Matthew. 1. Now.
All. This. Is. Come.
To. Pass. That. It.
Might. Be. God. With.
Us. Emmanuel. That. Unusual.
Name. Pointing. To. This.
Utterly. Unique. And. Unusual.
Reality. Which. Is. Reflected.
In. That. Name. God.
Is. Now. With. Us.
With. Us. By. The.
Super. Natural. Person. Who.
Is. None. Other. Than.
Emmanuel. God. Now. With.
Us. Not. With. Us.
In. His. Omni. Presence.
Alone. Or. With. Us.
In. His. Immediate. Presence.
Dark. Damp. Borrowed. To.
God. With. Us. With.
Us. Humanity. That. He.
Is. A. Supernatural. Person.
Is. Clearly. Asserted. In.
Matthew's. Gospel. He. Is.
Emmanuel. God. With. Us.
He. Is. God. With.
Us. In. His. Ordinary.
Presence. God. God. Is.
Unique. In. Us. God.
In. His. Presence. God.
With. Us. God. With.
Us. Heaven. God. With.
Us. Him. Because that's what people will make Him in their esteem and their affections. No, before there was any esteem or any affections directed to Him, before He is even formed in the womb, the announcement is made. He shall be called. He shall be designated who and what He is. He is the unique Son of God.
The Supernatural Person: The Eternal Word Made Flesh
The eternal Word, the eternal Son, now made flesh. This is borne out by John chapter 1. I want us to turn over, not to another birth record, but to a pre-birth record of this supernatural person. John 1 in verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. You hear the echoes of Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning that God was not simple in His own mysterious being, that God, within that God there are different persons, for lack of a better term.
We use the term persons. In the beginning God created, and that God who created according to John 1.1 is the God who exists not only as the Father, but as the eternal Word. In the beginning not the Word became, but the Word was. And the Word ever was with God, and the Word ever was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not. Anything made that hath been made in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now look at verse 14.
And the Word, without ceasing to be anything, He had always been. Eternal God, the Word became, doesn't say the Word minus essential deity. God can no more on God Himself. It's impossible.
The Word, in terms of all that He had ever been, the Word became something He had never been. He 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. Now, what do these passages tell us then about the constitution of His person?
Here we encounter the incomprehensible, the profound, the impenetrable. And as I reflected on it again this week, and sought to do some extensive reading on the matter that I had not done before in some books that have been sitting on my shelf, I was struck again with the fact that no wonder Paul said, The great is the mystery of godliness, He who was manifested in the flesh. When you and I can, with these little minds of ours, comprehend the constitution, of the person of our Redeemer, when we can fully grasp it and fully encompass it with our gray matter,
then I'll believe you when you tell me that you just fit the Atlantic Ocean into your water pitcher that sits on your dining room table this afternoon. You kids say, Pastor, that's ridiculous. You can't put the Atlantic Ocean in a water pitcher and fill up or empty the ocean into one water pitcher. No, you can't.
And neither can you take the... You can't take the ocean of the immensity and the magnitude of this mystery and fit it in your little pitcher head.
But hold whatever you can and then behold the ocean with wonder and with praise and adoration and worship. For as someone said, faith and wonder in worship may swim where reason may only wade.
Wade it as far as you can go and then swim in wonder. In worship. In worship and in praise. But as best we can state it in the light of the biblical materials, what do we say about this supernatural person, Emmanuel, God, with us, called Son of God, the Word made flesh?
Well, let me again state it in two simple propositions. Number one, someone came into Mary's womb who existed from all eternity. Someone. Someone came into Mary's womb who had existed from all eternity.
Who was that someone? The Word. The beginning was the Word.
He has no origin. He existed from all eternity. The self exists.
One of the fundamental platforms on which we stand in all biblical religion. God does not prove His existence. God does not explain it. God does not bother to answer our silly little questions.
He just breaks it upon us on the opening words of Genesis. In the beginning, God. Self-existent, self-contained, self-fulfilled from all eternity. For as long as God was God, the Word was the Word.
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. The Word became flesh.
Son. Urgent. The Word was in the womb. Jesus came.
He died. He lived. He is alive. Make me whole!
Man is a being of the world. into Mary's womb. Though there was a real conception, and though there was all of that which, if we could have examined it under a microscope, would have matched the development, prenatal development, conception, implantation, the development of all of the various systems, there would have been nothing to indicate that there was anything there but an embryo. But we know from Scripture the eternal world.
You say, how can you explain?
I've fallen straight myself in wonder. That's why the Bible can speak about God not making His Son in the world, but sending Him into the world. Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.
God sent forth His Son. The Son existed before He was sent forth. He is the eternal Word. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.
Romans 8.4. And Jesus was conscious of His preexistence. John 17.5.
Father, glorify Thou me with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was. What could be plainer? The man kneeling. Lifting up his eyes to heaven.
In John 17, if he were kneeling, it says he lifted up his eyes. It doesn't say he kneeled. And he prayed, Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the foundation of the world. Either he was a demented egomaniac or he had personal existence from eternity with the Father.
And there's no middle ground.
So don't say he was noble. He was a noble humanity and great teacher. No! He is either the eternal Word who came into this world by Mary's womb.
Or he is a demented egomaniac, unworthy of respect, let alone worship and adoration. Not to speak of following His words and His teaching. That's why he could say again in John 6.38, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
He didn't say I have existed. I came down from heaven. He said I came down from heaven. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
I, I was a person, existing, conscious of my existence, came down. I went from one place to another with a distinct purpose, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Someone who existed from all eternity is none other than God the Son, the eternal Word, the second person of the glorious, mysterious God, who is one. One in three and three in one.
Defining the Supernatural Person: God and Man
And as you think of the biblical account of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, fasten your faith on this simple statement, someone came into Mary's womb who existed from all eternity, then match it with this second statement. Someone came forth from Mary's womb who had no existence until the supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit. You say, Pastor, you're really getting me confused. You say someone came, and now you say someone didn't exist.
Follow now, I hope I have proved from Scripture the first one. Someone came into Mary's womb who existed from all eternity. Someone came forth from Mary's womb who had no existence until the supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit. And that's true because what happened is the eternal Son of God in Mary's womb took to himself a true humanity, a real human soul and a real human body were taken, not in heaven, but in Mary's womb.
And so joined to the eternal Word that from the conception onward, I say it reverently, there was an alteration, a mode of existence introduced that hitherto had never, never existed. It existed in the mind of God, in the purpose of God. There were little foreshadowings of it. The angel of Jehovah, with good reason many believe, those are pre-incarnate.
Pre-incarnate manifestations of the second person of the Godhead, but that one of the persons of the Godhead should take to himself a true human soul and a human body, so unite them to himself, never to be separated from them for all eternity. This is something that never existed until the conception in Mary's womb. So what came out of Mary's womb? Well, it says,
What she brought forth, her firstborn son, and laid him in a manger, what she brought forth was the God, the man, what the theologians call the theanthropic person, taking the two Greek words, theos for God, anthropos for man, and they put the two together, theanthropic, primed in one person's natures, yet one person, and that,
not just for a year, two, ten, thirty, but forever and forever, never, never to going back to being just the unincarnate word, never shedding that humanity, but forever joined to it. What a marvelous mystery of God's redemptive activity.
There's a beautiful statement of this in the Shorter Catechism. What are some of the benefits of the Shorter Catechism and any good catechism? This is one of them. It takes great truths and states them with precision.
And question 21 of the Shorter Catechism is, Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? And the answer is, The only Redeemer of God's elect is our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures in one person forever. That's it. And you go beyond that and you're speculating.
Fall short of that, and you don't have the biblical doctrine of who Christ is. The Redeemer of God's elect. God saw that the only one who could redeem us was this supernatural person. This person, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures, joined in one person and that forever.
The supernatural person. Someone came into Mary's womb who existed from all eternity. Someone came forth from Mary's womb who had no existence, until the conception that is the God-man, Christ-Jesus. That's the result.
A supernatural person who is, on the one hand, just as much true man as though there were no element of divinity present. Think of it. As much a man as though there were no element of deity or divinity present. That's why the Bible's careful to emphasize, the Lord could have caused to be conceived in Mary's womb, an eight-month fetus,
to give her a month to get used to that and get prepared for birth. No. That which is conceived,
all the multiplication of cells that form the limbs and the blood system and the brain, He passed through every stage. Therefore, the Bible says, when they had to make their journey to Bethlehem, she was great with child. And when the time, when the time, when the time, when the time for her to be delivered came, she was able to mark out her nine months on the calendar like any other mother. And when she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in rags and laid him in a manger and tried to think how I could make this clear to you kids.
Suppose there was a little Hebrew boy out taking a walk that night with his daddy before he went to bed and the crowds are milling. Remember, there was no room in the ordinary hotel in the town. So they had to go into what was probably, a cave where they would keep the animals. And there in the silence of that cave, she brought forth her child.
And if this little boy was walking by and saw some candlelight coming out of that cave and stopped to look in, what would he have seen? He would have said, Hey, daddy, look, there's a young mother in there with a little baby that have been no halo to say, Oh, look at the halo around his head.
Well, look at that little baby, ma'am. How long you've been born? Oh, two hours. Look at him, daddy.
He looks six months old. That's the way most of the pictures present. No, he would have looked in there and said, boy, dad, that's something. Imagine having a baby in the stall there with the cows and the goats.
That's something in the daddy. And as they start walking away, the little piercing whale of an infant. Oh, listen, daddy, baby's crying. All the little boy would have seen is a baby, only a baby, just a baby, nothing about him that would indicate that it's anything other than an ordinary Hebrew young woman's baby.
That's what you would have seen. And as he grew up, if he stumbled out in the parking lot, scraped his knee, he had to come running in for a bandaid. Like any kid, he didn't scrape off half his kneecap and didn't bleed. So people look, he didn't bleed.
He must be something special. No, no indication. That's only found in what's called the apocryphal gospels. People who took their fancies and wrote all this nonsense about Jesus doing all these weird things as a little boy that would mark him out as no, there was nothing about him that would give you.
Any hints, but that he was an ordinary man except it began to be evident very early. He was no ordinary child, then ordinary. Yes, but no ordinary. As he grew in wisdom, grew in stature, amazed the doctors of the law and the teachers and the temple.
And then Mary pondered, pondered, pondered, reflected on the visit of the angel, the announcement of her conception by the Holy Spirit, that what she was bringing forth was the son of God, the heir of the throne of David, Jesus, who would save his people from sins. And his Mary and Joseph compared notes. Surely they knew. Yes, everything about him seems to be ordinary Hebrew child.
Yet there is at work in him and manifested in him something that goes far beyond it. He never fought with his brothers and sisters, never snatched their toys away, was never impolite, never failed to express good manners. Never failed to express proper and appropriate social decorum. But in terms of blood coursing through his veins, development of his mind, of his body, of his spiritual and social graces, the scripture says he continued to grow and go on in advance in wisdom and stature in favor with God in man, just as a true man,
as though no aspect of divinity were present. Yes, but then we must balance it with this second statement. He is and was and continues to be just as much God as though no aspect of humanity were present. Just as much God as though no aspect of humanity were present.
That's why Hebrews 1 6 says when he brings his first begotten into the world, he said, let all the angels of God worship him. Why? Because thou shall worship the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He is afforded the worship of angels.
The angels themselves said unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Messiah, a Savior who is Christ, Messiah of the Lord. It is none other than Jehovah incarnate. And although veiled, yet there are hints given early, some months later, there are those hints that this is no ordinary child. What did Joseph and Mary feel when the Magi came when Jesus was a young boy, probably 18 months or so old, and they've come all the way from the east, following a star and receiving guidance by the word of God.
Then they fall down and they do homage to him. They worship him. They knew that this was no ordinary boy. Yet everything about him indicated he was an ordinary boy.
Well, he was just as much God as no aspect of humanity were present. And therefore that worship was received by him with the good pleasure of God and is recorded in Scripture. And when he grows into manhood, he does things which even his fear said only God has a right to do that. He forgave a man his sins.
And they said, Who can forgive sins but God only? Little did they know that. They were making the confession of his Godhead long before the disciples did. Demons confessed it.
What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before our time? They recognized in him the judge of the world, the God who would dispose of them in hell in the day of judgment. You see, he did not cease to be what he had always been when he began to be what he never had been.
Is it fast even now talking double talk? He didn't cease to be what he always had been, God, when he began to be what he never had been, true man. He takes up the manhood, but in doing so, he loses nothing of his Godhood. It is veiled.
The exercise of many prerogatives of it are voluntarily restrained, but none of the essence of it is relinquished, for God cannot be God if he changes in any facet of his life. He cannot be God if he changes in any facet of his life. He cannot be God if he changes in any facet of his life. I am the Lord.
I change not. If he were to change, he'd have to go from something good to bad, or bad to good, or from something good to something better, and in any case, such a being would not be God. God is essentially and only good. He can't improve.
And being good, and being God, He will never cease to be anything less than that, and He is the fullness of life. all goodness and therefore he cannot increase to be something more than he always has been and if we can just take hold of those two simple statements we have the heart of the biblical teaching the one who came to mary's womb is just as much god as though he had never taken humanity he is just as much a man as though he were not the incarnate god but then very quickly now these
The Supernatural Mission: Jesus Saves from Sins
two birth accounts not only point us in the direction of a supernatural conception leading to the constitution of a supernatural person but they make it very clear that he came on a supernatural mission and that mission is clearly identified with his personal name you see because we live in a totally different social structure with different backgrounds such things as names have a totally different when we're picking names we're either thinking of some uncle or some friend or something that rhymes or sounds good with our last name but rarely do we think of the name as being the distillation
or the embodiment of the character we hope will be manifested in the child or the destiny of the child or something connected with the child's past but not so in the hebrew setting the name had great significance when god changed many often changed their names to indicate that jacob becomes israel prince with god no longer heel snatcher supplanter always finagling and wheedling and maneuvering and jockeying to get his way but he now wrestles with god and is overcome by god and made mighty with god and god says that other name will never do we've got to make him
israel now prince with god well in this passage we read both passages both to joseph and to mary the spirit of god through the angels said the same thing she shall bring forth a son matthew one twenty one show call his name jesus four that personal name a common name but he should be given that maine man in here so clearly the significance of that name will find its on holding its realization call his name jesus or he's just a第一 people from their systems same thing is given
to us in Luke 1.31, and in Luke 2.10, the Savior is Christ the Lord. And Jesus simply means Jehovah saves, or Jehovah is salvation, or Jehovah save. And so, though many in that
day had that name, and many subsequent to our Lord would have it, in Him alone does that name find its truest, highest, noblest, valid expression. He is what He is, that He may do what He's come to do. And what He came to do was to rescue His people, what? Not from the tyranny of Roman rule, not from the inequities of the system of Roman slavery, not from the horrible emptiness of Roman paganism as a social movement to elevate society. He
shall save us. He shall save His people from their greatest enemy. He shall save them from their sins, not rescue them in, but rescue them out of and away from their sin. He in His own person will do this work, and the emphasis in the original is clear. He it is, not His church,
His ministers, and certainly not people themselves with His help. He shall save us. He shall rescue His people from their sins. It is that shall effect this supernatural mission, this mission of rescuing people from their sins. A real salvation effecting
real deliverance, doing it in what I like to call kingly grace and royal pardon. He'll do it as the one who sits on the throne. He'll do it as the one who sits on the throne. The Savior, according to the angels, is Christ the Lord. And He saves in the way of becoming
our sovereign, and He becomes our sovereign in the way of saving us from our sins. But you say, Pastor, why did it have to be a divine human person to do the saving? You've said that the conception led to the constitution of the supernatural. The supernatural person, and that it took a supernatural person to effect that supernatural mission. That's right. You see, if He were not God with unoriginated, uncreated deity,
there would be no power to rescue a whole multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue and nation. Only God can have an arm strong enough to rescue man from his sin. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can do
it. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can
do it. And He can do it. And He can do it. And He can do it.
Only God has unlimited power. Only God has godlike grace and pity, which it will take if any of us is going to be spared the terrible fires of hell. It will take more than man's love. It will take divine love and divine power to be operative.
And therefore, the Redeemer must have all the virtue and power of unoriginated, uncreated Deity. deity but if he's to rescue us he's got to come where we were if we are ever to be credited with a perfect righteousness in heaven someone in our condition must perfectly obey the law if we're to be rescued from the just desert of our sins and the punishment which justice demands someone must bear that punishment in our condition on our behalf in our place and that's why the scripture tells us he partook of flesh and blood he partook of the likeness of sinful flesh paul says to what
end that he might condemn sin in the flesh that is in his own flesh that he might bear our sins peter says in his own body up to the tree that he might in romans 5 19 by his obedience effect the righteousness for us it had to be a a a human condition for the redeemer that he might in that condition keep the law on our behalf in that condition he might die on our behalf in that condition he might gather up a whole reservoir
of what it means to be in the human condition and carry that reservoir of felt experience up into heaven that he might be a sympathizing high priest for in that he himself had suffered being and thank god our saviors both perfect in a he's talking on that supernatural mission to save the people
Application: Exposing Self-Help Religion
well we've considered the biblical material that points us to the supernatural conception constituting the supernatural person who is here to effect the supernatural mission. Now then, in my closing words of application, I want to ask and then answer the question, so what? What's all this say to me? Well, I want to make just two focused words of application, and the first is this.
The facts we've considered this morning expose the sham and the worthlessness of all fix-yourself-up religion. You hear me? The facts, we've been looking at facts this morning, historical data by credible witnesses who heard Mary's story. These facts expose the sham and the worthlessness of all fix-yourself-up religion. Now, the world today is full of fix-yourself-up
religion. People who undergo rituals and feel they're all right. People who are committed to the work of God. People who are committed to the work of God. People who are
told, look inward to yourself. All of this glut of Eastern religions, dressed up in all kinds of fancy terminology, showing up in corporate boardrooms, where Eastern meditation is cloaked in all kinds of euphemisms, and the thing that it has in common with all other self-help religion, it needs no God among us. You have all the God you'll ever need within you. Just let it out, tap into it, lock into it, get adjusted to it.
Release it. All of this nonsense, it makes mockery of the manger. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see? Hail the incarnate deity? With men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel? If the
help you need to be rescued is within you, why would God subject himself to such indignity? If self-help is in you, then screw it. Mysteriating in Mary's womb, side the idea of unbounded mind in a little womb. Listen to the jokers on Channel 13, spewing out their
self-help, fix-yourself-up pop religion under the name of pop psychology, hour after hour.
My friend, listen, you can't have it both ways. Be prepared to walk out of here today and say everything pertaining to the birth and life and death of Jesus Christ is irrelevant nonsense. I'll be my own savior. But remember, you got to be ready to live with the consequences. The
consequences of finding, if you're honest, you can't be your own savior. There's a God-shaped hole in you that only God can fill. And death is coming and judgment will follow death and you'll meet that risen Christ on the throne. And then, my friend, it'll be all over. The only other
alternative is to say, oh God, if you went to all that trouble to effect that supernatural conception, resulting in the constituting of that supernatural person who in turn lived that supernatural life and died that horrible death and underwent that supernatural resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God, then God, you must take my sin very seriously. If you went to all that trouble to deal with it righteously and justly. And my friend, you better accept God's estimation of your sin rather than your own or the world's because it's not your sin. And if you think that it's with God's estimation, you'll have to do in the day of judgment. And once a sinner
begins to see what he really is as a sinner, then what I've preached this morning is not detached theological abstraction. You say there's hope for me. How could it be? I, who have defied God and disobeyed God and lived in indifference to God, how can the likes of me into his presence? The
message of the manger is that God in love has come down to us in the person of his love. And God has come down to us, having come down to us where we are, that he might take us to where he is. I was listening to a sermon of A.W. Tozer's the other day, and one of his many striking
statements, he said, now there are people that want to think themselves to God. He says, you can as well think your way up to God as you could climb to the moon on a moonbeam. Well, I've really got my head going. I said, can you picture this poor guy sees a moonbeam and says, oh, I'm going to climb to the moon. I'm going to get up on a moonbeam. Oh, I'm slipping off. I'm going to get up on a moonbeam.
How ludicrous to think you could climb to the moon on a moonbeam. He says, you can no more climb to the moon on a moonbeam than you can think your way to God. But then my mind got going. I said, yeah, but suppose there were creatures on the moon. And they had the ability to take out of the bowels of the moon's surface the kind of materials that would make the most unusually strong advanced aluminum titanium ladder of some kind. And they could actually make a ladder that could stand the stress of reaching from the moon to earth.
And I could climb to the moon, put on a suit that would give me oxygen. But I could climb to the moon on a ladder made of substantial stress restraining or stress maintaining metal. And you know, that's the gospel. You can't climb to the moon on a moonbeam. Nice wispy thoughts about God and heaven. No, no. But God has come from the moon to us. And that ladder is his son who had the substance of real flesh and blood.
And he is that ladder. And that's a biblical imagery. Henceforth, you shall see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. I'm not climbing to heaven on a moonbeam. I'm going to heaven on a ladder made of the flesh and blood of the incarnate God.
The flesh and blood will embody in which he affected my salvation. Oh, my unconverted friend, it's time to blow away all of the mist of trying to somehow get on the crest of the Christmas spirit and milk a little sweetness out of the season. Your situation and mine needs much more than that. It needs an enfleshed God.
An enfleshed God who becomes an impaled God upon the cross.
Application: Wonder, Gratitude, and Praise for Believers
Jesus saves you from your sins if you'll go to him and have dealings with him. Turn away from all your self-help religion and say, Jesus, Jesus saves. Jesus, will you save me? That's the great message. And the last is to you, the Lord's people. When's the last time these facts excited you to wonder, to gratitude, to love, and to praise?
Oh, don't let the Christmas season pass. And be so taken up in the legitimate concerns of making the family happy and bellies filled and closets full of clothes and boxes full of toys that you don't pause to think the supernatural conception. Oh, the mystery of it. That supernatural person. Oh, the mystery of his being, the God-man. Oh, the wonder of his supernatural salvation.
It was a hymn writer by the name of. E.L. Schlecht. I wouldn't know him if he was raised from the dead and stood before me. But I know him in his words. He caught something of the wonder of it. He wrote, My God, my creator, the heavens did bow to ransom offenders and stooped very low.
The body prepared by the Father assumes and on the kind errand most joyfully comes. Oh, wonder of wonders. Astonished, I gazed to see in the manger the ancient of days. The angels proclaiming the stranger forlorn and telling the shepherds that Jesus is born.
For thousands of sinners the Lord bowed his head. For thousands of sinners he groaned and he bled. My spirit rejoices. The work, it is done. My soul is redeemed.
My salvation is won. Dear Jesus, my Savior, thy truth I embrace. Thy name in thy nature, thy spirit and grace. And trace the pure footsteps of Jesus, my Lord, and glory in him whom proud sinners abhorred.
My God is returned to glory on high when death makes a passage then to him. I'll fly and join in the song of all praise through his blood to three who are one in the essence of God. And I'm personally convinced that one of the mysteries that will stretch our minds through all eternity as God will let it out little by little by little is what happened.
What now baffles us. How can God take to himself a true human soul and body? And God this. Until God and the man is man and two distinct natures yet united in one person forever.
How can God die? He cannot. And yet Jesus bows his head and dies. Oh, my friend, don't get hung up trying to press the Atlantic Ocean into your water pitcher.
Embrace him as he's revealed in the gospel. Love him. Serve him. Be more devoted to him than ever before.
Closing Prayer
That others may know of his glory. That others may know of his glory. That others may know of his grace and salvation. Let us pray.
Our father, again, we stand amazed and even filled with a sense of holy confusion. And yet we feel comfortable with that confusion. For it reminds us that we are but creatures and sinful creatures. We whose minds are dark and dim.
And yet we bless you for the revealed mystery. And that faith may lay hold. May God not allow us to be subject to the lies of shame and gabbage. Our friends, we have the power to heal and save.
We're going to take that fresh and good life. We're going to take a new version of our lives. We're going to be good. We're going to be good.
and we pray for your people that we would be filled with a renewed sense of how much we owe to him who though being rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be rich seal your word we pray to our prophet and to your praise we ask in Jesus name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is expounded to introduce the supernatural conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit and the naming of Jesus and Emmanuel.
This passage is expounded to detail the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary, emphasizing her virginity and the Holy Spirit's role in the conception.
This passage is expounded to establish the pre-existence and deity of Jesus as the eternal Word who became flesh.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive
If this spoke to you, hear also…
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Narratives and Names of Christmas
Matthew 1:18-25
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Supernatural in the Birth of Jesus
Matthew 1:18-23
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Christmas, The Biblical Message of (1983)
Matthew 1:18-25