About this sermon
Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit and bear a son who will reign on David’s throne forever. Against liberal theology’s attack on the miracles of Scripture, the virgin birth stands as an essential doctrine: it marks Jesus as the promised messianic King, as the sinless Son of God, and as God incarnate. Nothing is impossible with God, and Mary answers his word with faith and submission: “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Sermon transcript
Amen. Please remain standing, dear friends, as we come to the Word of God. This evening I’m going to preach from a passage in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. This is Luke’s account of the foretelling of the birth of our Savior. entitled my message this evening, The Virgin Birth, An Essential Doctrine. So let us hear God’s holy word. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. She was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age.
And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Please join me in your hearts as we pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, We ask that you would illuminate us this evening by that same Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary. We ask, O Lord, that by your Spirit you would help us to see the power and the relevance and the significance of this passage of your Holy Word. And we ask, O Lord, that we might treasure this message and this truth, this doctrine, of our Lord’s virginal conception and supernatural birth.
We ask, Lord, that during this season, when there is so much focus on material things and busyness, that we might reflect within our hearts upon all that this doctrine means to us. We pray that we might be faithful as a church and as individual believers in proclaiming this important essential doctrine of the virgin birth. We pray that you would be with us now, grant unto me the grace, Lord, to declare your word with power and clarity, feed our souls through the word this evening, and build us up in our most holy faith that we might go from this place strengthened in our discipleship. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Again, as I mentioned, the title of my sermon this evening is The Virgin Birth, An Essential Doctrine.
And there’s a lot of key words you can be listening for this evening if you find that to be helpful, which are listed on your sermon outline. Well, my dear friends, if you’re familiar with the works of Dr. J. Gresham Machen, you are familiar with how he objected to a saying that was very popular in his day, but is also quite popular, I imagine, today. And that is the saying, Christianity is a life, not a doctrine. Have you ever heard anyone make a statement like that? Sometimes this sentiment is expressed in a slightly different way. Sometimes it is expressed by the saying, doctrine divides, love unites, or doctrine divides, service unites. Now besides presenting a false dichotomy, a false distinction, as if Christian living could somehow be untangled from or separated from Christian truth, these sayings express the anti-doctrine spirit of theological liberalism, also known as modernism.
Modernism or theological liberalism, today it’s called, quote, progressive Christianity, is a false heretical theology that gained domination in the mainline churches at the beginning and into the middle of the last century. Liberal theology, with its anti-doctrine emphasis, wasn’t just about attacking obscure and abstract academic debates that might take place in the ivory tower of the theological seminary, but which had nothing to do with the central truth or the vital core of the Christian life or with the daily lives of ordinary believers. No, my friends. Instead, theological liberalism, or modernism in general, was a full-frontal assault on the miracles of the Bible. And therefore, as a full-frontal assault on the miracles revealed in God’s Word, theological liberalism was, and it continues to be, an attack on the historic, supernatural, redemptive Christianity that is revealed in the Holy Bible.
And even today, you will likely find many among the liberal clergy and in the membership of mainline churches who reject core central teachings of the Bible and of historic Christianity. You would be able to find out there clergy and even members of such churches who would reject such vital doctrines as, say, the literal deity of Christ, his miracles, his death upon the cross as a substitutionary atonement for sin. Now that doctrine is often despised in the liberal denominations. And even his physical bodily resurrection from the dead is rejected by professedly Christian ministers and members of such churches. So-called liberal Christianity or progressive Christianity is thoroughly anti-supernatural to its core. And I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters in Christ, not intending to say this in a spirit of harshness or judgmentalism, but in a spirit of honesty, I would suggest to you that such anti-supernaturalism of theological liberalism is thoroughly anti-Christian.
It is my conviction that theological liberalism or modernism is of the spirit of the Antichrist and that true, faithful, Bible-believing Christians need to separate themselves from such evil anti-Christian doctrine. Now among the miracles of the Bible that theological liberalism in the churches dismisses as edifying myths, few miracles have been more under attack historically as the doctrine of our Lord’s miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and his birth of the Virgin Mary. This doctrine of the virgin birth is often mocked in theological liberal circles. Indeed, it is likely that many among the apostate liberal clergy and in the mainline churches would probably consider the doctrine of our Lord’s virgin birth to be at best an optional belief, a theory that you can take or leave as you may choose, or at worst, a silly, superstitious, outmoded, and irrelevant belief that should be discarded by today’s enlightened, intelligent Christian.
I recall as a college student I was taking a class in college on church history and I studied at a college that was not known for its biblical orthodoxy and I remember in that class we used a textbook written by a gentleman who, I believe that he, I mean, as reading this book, I believe that he accepted the bodily resurrection of Christ, but he seemed to, if I recall correctly, have issues with the virgin birth of Christ. I’m sort of like, how do you hold those two things together? If you believe that God has the power to raise Jesus from the dead, certainly God has the power through his Holy Spirit to conceive Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Well, dear ones, for those of us who believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired and authoritative Word of God, the doctrine of our Lord’s supernatural conception and virgin birth ought to be viewed as an essential, non-negotiable doctrine of our holy Christian faith, an essential doctrine of the historic, supernatural, redemptive Christianity revealed by God himself in his inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word, the Holy Bible.
And to many today, making a statement like that might sound, quote, fundamentalist. But it’s not fundamentalist in the negative sense. It is fundamental to the integrity of the biblical system of doctrine revealed in the holy scriptures. As we study the holy scriptures, we find the scriptures indicating this doctrine to be essential to a sound, orthodox understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ in particular and of the Christian faith in general. Now, It’s also a doctrine that is highlighted, of course, and celebrated during this traditional season of Advent and Christmas. Now, I want to just make a clarification. When I use the term essential, it’s always important to define our terms. When I use the term essential, I don’t mean that it is essential in the sense that there are no possible or conceivable providential circumstances where someone might be genuinely converted to Christ but either ignorant of or confused about the doctrine of the virgin birth.
We might think of circumstances where a young believer, a new believer, has just come to faith in Christ and is unfamiliar with the teachings of the Bible. All they’ve been taught is that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate, that he died for their sins and rose from the dead, and that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life, and they’ve been converted. They’re so unfamiliar with the Bible that perhaps they’ve not heard of the doctrine of the virgin birth. So I’m not saying that it’s essential in the sense that if you’re not aware of it, or if you’re ignorant of it, or confused about it, that there’s no hope of salvation. But it is essential in the sense that it is vital to the integrity of the biblical gospel, as I hope to show.
If you willingly and knowingly reject the biblical doctrine of the virgin birth, you know that the Bible teaches the doctrine, but you refuse to believe it, then there is good reason to question not only the soundness, but the genuineness of your faith. So let’s dive into our passage for this evening. And in terms of setting our passage in its context, who wrote the gospel known as the Gospel of Luke? The human author of this gospel is traditionally regarded as Luke, the beloved physician. Luke was a missionary traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. And, again, there is no good reason to reject this traditional understanding of the human authorship of the Gospel of Luke. There’s good reason to believe that, indeed, this was Luke, the beloved physician, who wrote this lengthiest of the Gospel accounts. And the Gospel of Luke was probably written sometime between 60 and 70 AD.
Now some liberal scholars try to push it later into the first century. But what’s interesting is that the same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke also wrote the Book of Acts. Acts was like volume two of his historical work. And it’s interesting that in the Book of Acts, Acts ends with the Apostle Paul imprisoned in Rome. It is very likely that if Luke was written after Paul was martyred, and Paul was, according to reliable early church tradition, Paul the apostle was martyred probably in the mid-60s. And certainly, if Luke had been written after the martyrdom of Paul, we would have expected Luke in the Book of Acts to record the circumstances surrounding the death of Paul the Apostle. But he does not do that, which indicates that Luke, the Gospel of Luke, as well as Acts, were both written before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.
If you go to the opening introductory statement in Luke chapter 1 verses 1 through 4, these verses indicate that Luke consulted many reliable sources for his gospel, including eyewitnesses. Again, he did this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And as we read in Luke 1, 1 to 4, Luke writes, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. This passage, again, indicates that Luke was a careful student of history.
The Holy Spirit used his research and skills, including his consulting of eyewitnesses, as the basis for what he records in his gospel. Indeed, I bring this up because it is quite possible that Luke got the information on the events recorded in our passage for this evening from none less than Mary, the mother of our Lord herself. Well, from our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, let’s consider some of the reasons why the doctrine of our Lord’s virgin birth is indeed an essential doctrine of our faith according to the word of God. And first of all, I would point out that the virgin birth is an essential doctrine of our holy Christian faith. First of all, because it bears witness to Jesus as the promised messianic king. Let’s take a look at verse 26. It says, now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel Here is an angel, a holy angel sent from the presence of God himself.
This angel is named. The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth. In the sixth month from what? What is Luke referring to here? In other words, the sixth month after Elizabeth, who was John the Baptist’s mother and Mary’s relative, had conceived John. In the context, that’s what this sixth month is referring to. We see that as we look back at chapter 1, verses 24 and 25, where we read, after these days, Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant. And she kept herself in seclusion for five months saying, this is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men. And then if you skip ahead to verse 36, it says, the angel Gabriel says to Mary, And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her what?
In her sixth month. So that kind of gives us the historical parameters that Luke is speaking of here in this passage. And then we move on to verse 27. We see that this angel Gabriel was sent to a city in Galilee called Nazareth. Nazareth was a city that had not a great reputation. It was a small, it was an obscure place, and yet that’s where That’s where Mary, who was prepared by God to be the mother of our Lord, resided. It says the angel was sent to a virgin, engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David. I preached this morning on Matthew 1, 1 to 17, Matthew’s genealogy of the Lord Jesus, and we saw that in that genealogy, Matthew establishes that Joseph as the legal father of Jesus, and therefore, the one through whom the messianic promises would come to pass, as it indeed demonstrates that Jesus is of the royal lineage of David.
Again, of the descendants of David. Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, and therefore Jesus was legally regarded as a descendant of King David, just as the Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament to be. And we see this royal emphasis here in Luke’s gospel as well when we skip ahead to and look at verses like 32, as the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary and reveals this great plan of God for her to be the one who was to bear the son of God. He says to her in verse 32, He will be great. He, Jesus, the one whom she will give birth to, will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him what? Will give him the throne of his father, David. and skip on to verse 33.
Notice Gabriel describes Jesus as being the one who will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Unlike King David in the Old Testament, this descendant of David, great David’s greater son, his kingdom will have no end. And, and verse 33 also mentions the fact that he will reign. So what does the virgin birth here have to do with the Messiah ship of Jesus? Well, it has everything to do with the Messiah ship of Jesus because Isaiah chapter seven, verses 13 and 14, which I read earlier in the service this evening, predicts that the Messianic son of David would be conceived of a virgin. that virgin birth was a fulfillment of messianic prophecy. That is also confirmed in Matthew’s gospel, in Matthew 1, 20 to 23, as we look there briefly.
Matthew chapter 1, verses 20 to 23. Here we read of the angel sent to Joseph, And it says this, when he, when Joseph had considered this, considered putting away Mary, his wife, because she was with child, and they had not yet come together, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, The name Jesus’ children again means the Lord is salvation. You will call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. And then notice verses 22 and 23 of Matthew chapter 1. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
And he quotes there from Isaiah chapter 7. Verse 14, behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. Now some translations like the revised standard version and some of the translators of the RSV had some more liberal leanings. It is a good translation overall but In that translation, you will notice if you read that translation, it doesn’t say the virgin will conceive, it says a young maiden or a young woman will conceive. However, the term for young woman means in the Hebrew, a young woman of marriageable age, which was assumed to be a virgin, and that’s why I believe it is in the Septuagint version, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is translated as virgin. And so we are justified in seeing the virgin birth as a fulfillment of messianic prophecy, which bears witness to Jesus as the promised messianic king.
So that’s the first reason why we should regard the virgin birth as an essential doctrine of our faith. Because it bears witness to Jesus as the promised Messiah in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. It also is essential because it bears witness to the incarnate deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is my second main point, if you’re following along in the sermon outline. It bears witness to the incarnate deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how the angel Gabriel describes the child that Mary will conceive. How does he describe this child to her? Look at verse 32 again. He will be great, and will be called what? The Son of the Most High. The Son of the Most High. This language of divine sonship points to the incarnate deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you skip down to verse 35, it also says, as Mary questions the angel, well, how can this be?
I’m a virgin. The angel answers in verse 35, the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child, it is a child, a human child, but this Holy Child is also called what? The Son of God. Again, The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is an essential doctrine of our holy Christian faith because it bears powerful testimony to Jesus as the incarnate deity, our incarnate Lord. Why was it that the Savior, the Messiah, had to be true God, fully God, as well as fully man? Well, dear ones, the Messiah had to be both true God and true man in order to be qualified to serve as our Redeemer. Our sin is so serious in the eyes of the infinitely holy God that only God himself can save us from our sins.
But given our humanity, He can only save us and represent us and substitute for us as a man. Christ’s virginal conception was the miraculous means of our Lord’s incarnation. I’m reminded of what the Heidelberg Catechism states in answer to question 35. You’re welcome to follow along there in your Trinity Psalter hymnal if you want to turn to page 800. 78 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, 878. As we look at Heidelberg Catechism question and answer 35, the question there under Lord’s Day 18 is this, What does it mean that he, quote, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary? Here the Heidelberg Catechism giving an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed and this statement in the Apostles’ Creed. What does it mean? to confess that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
The Bible-based answer is this, that the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, a true human nature, so that he might also become David’s true descendant, like his brothers in all things, except for sin. And so the virgin birth of Christ bears testimony to the fact that Jesus is true God, fully God, and fully man in one divine person, yet without sin. And on a more theological note, The virgin birth of Christ is an essential doctrine to our holy Christian faith because it was the miraculous means by which our Lord’s human nature was preserved from the stain of original sin. This is my third point in your outline. The virgin birth is essential because it was the miraculous means by which our Lord’s human nature was preserved from the stain of original sin.
What do you think it would mean if Jesus had been born in the ordinary natural manner by ordinary generation, to use the language of our Westminster divines? If he was conceived by and born by ordinary generation, what would the implications of that be? Well, if Jesus had been born in the ordinary natural manner that the rest of us were born in, then he would have inherited, like us, he would have inherited a sin nature from Adam. He would have been in the same position that you and I are in as fallen sons and daughters of Adam. And if Jesus had been born with original sin, he certainly would not be qualified to serve as our sinless savior. He would not be qualified to serve as the spotless lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
Jesus would have been a sinner just like us, and thus he himself would have needed to be saved just like us. And so denying the virgin birth of Christ is denying, as an implication, a denial of the sinlessness of Christ. And denying the sinlessness of Christ is to deny Christ as the Savior. That’s the logical implication of rejecting the virgin birth of Christ. If you look at verse 35 again, the angel Gabriel says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. He’s the Holy Child. He’s not conceived or born in sin. but he is the holy child because he’s been conceived by the Holy Spirit. Being conceived by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus himself would be holy from his conception.
Dear listener, only a Savior who is not only true God and true man, but also himself without sin is qualified to serve as our Savior. You and I need a sinless Savior to save us from our sins. Do you trust in Jesus Christ as your sinless Savior and Lord? The Gospel, God in the Gospel calls you to believe in Christ, to trust in Him as your sinless, divine Lord and Savior, and to repent of sin. Believe and repent today by the grace of God. And finally, the doctrine of the virginal conception and virgin birth of Christ our Savior demonstrates the truth that nothing is impossible for God. As the angel Gabriel assures Mary in verse 37, for nothing will be impossible with God, not even a virginal conception. God doesn’t need the aid of a man to conceive of the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary.
Dear friends, God is omnipotent and sovereign. This supernatural miracle of the virgin birth is a miracle that shows Jesus to be God and Lord incarnate. It shows him to be sinless. It shows him to be the Messiah. And it also bears testimony to the truth that nothing, nothing is impossible for our God, the true and living God. Mary is obviously convinced by the message from the angel, for look at her response in verse 38. And Mary said, behold, the bondservant or bondslave of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Oh, what great courage. What a great privilege Mary had to bear in her womb the very Son of God incarnate. But what difficulty that must have brought into her life, knowing that she and Joseph were not yet married, had not yet had normal marital relations, people would look at her and say, oh, you know, this is not good.
You had a child out of wedlock, right? No. Mary was willing to put up with that because she trusted the Lord’s word to her through the angel. Gabriel, and she recognized that nothing is impossible for God. Let us, brothers and sisters, respond to this message with the same kind of faith and submission exhibited here by Mary, the mother of our Lord. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we praise you and bless you and thank you for this time of year, When we reflect upon. the majesty and the mystery and the glory of the virgin birth, the incarnation and virgin birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. May we hold forth and bear testimony to this doctrine as indeed an essential doctrine of our holy Christian faith, and may we see the practical implications of this doctrine for the life of the church and in our lives as believers in Christ.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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