Prophecies about His Birth - Sermon for Feb 1, 2009

THE PROPHCIES OF HIS BIRTH
ISAIAH 7:14
FEBRUARY 1, 2009

The other day a woman had eight babies at once. She was supposed to only have seven but apparently there was an eight one stowed away in there somewhere that the ultra sound didn’t pick up. Eight kids at once. And now it turns out that she had six kids before that to go from a family of two to a family of eight and the instantly to a family of fourteen is simply amazing. The birth of one child is drama enough. The coming birth of a child is something that people wait for with great anticipation. Even to the point of parents asking right after a couple gets married when they can expect to be getting grandchildren. And once conception has happened there are months of getting ready. Trying to figure out names and colors for the nursery. Trying to organize the baby shower, doctor visits and all kinds of tests. Some people even start making plans for future schools and setting up college fund accounts. The mother is given tons of attention and as the due date gets closer schedules of grandparents and friends are rearranged so that they can be a part of the whole big event. Then the day finally arrives and what ever else was going on, no matter how big, it all comes to a screeching halt as the mother is hauled into the delivery room and the birth takes place. After the event there is much celebrating and in the days or weeks that follow there is usually a big baby shower and friends and family pitch in to help in any way that they can as adjustments are made in the family. The anticipation of and the birth of a child are a big thing in our lives. But they are nothing compared to the anticipation of The birth. The birth of God among humanity. The anticipation for that birth was over the top and the events of that birth although in normal circumstances were astounding.

It all started at the beginning, where most things start. It begin with a promise, a promise of life. We have all heard that quote from someone I can’t remember that a baby is the promise that life goes on. Well this particular baby would be the promise of eternal life for everyone who would believe in him. Man had fallen on hard times. Hard times that were his own fault. Man had made a really bad decision to disobey God and as a result fell into sin, lost his property in the garden and got kicked out into the streets East of Eden. Everything was lost. The Garden property was the least of it. Man now had developed a terminal disease called sin. He was going to suffer for years and then die of it. The image of God, his righteousness that had been put into him at creation was gone, and without it he was going to die forever, there was no hope, nothing he could do it about.

And then God, his creator stepped in and said that he was going to send a child to save him. A child that through his suffering and death was going to give him a transplant. He was going to take out the sin of man and transplant his righteousness, the righteousness of God back into him. We hear unfortunately today of the possibility of babies being born for the purposes of providing organs for transplant. In other words babies full of spare parts. In a sense that is what this child of the promise of Genesis 3:15 was going to be born for as well. He was going to be the second Adam who would save us by dying for us and giving us his holiness and righteousness. This was a baby that was to be born for the purpose of dying so that we could once again be united with God. Through this Child man would once again be able to have that same relationship with God that the first Adam had in the garden before the fall. As I said this promise was given to our first parents in Genesis 3:15 when God said that he would send a Savior from the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head as Satan struck his heal. That promise would later be expanded upon and further explained.

In Isaiah 7:14 we get some more information on how this child would be born. Isaiah says, “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.” Isaiah very clearly prophesies that the mother of this promised child will still be a virgin when she gives birth to him. And of course we see in the New Testament that Mary the mother of Jesus is a virgin when she gives birth to Jesus. In Matthew one we find, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means God with us.” We hear a somewhat expanded account in the gospel of Luke where we read, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The Virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

The virgin birth of Jesus has been debated about for years, but Scripture is very clear that this is the way it was. Some people totally disregard the doctrine and say well why is it important anyway? But the fact is it is important for a number of reasons. One if she wasn’t a virgin then Jesus had a human father and therefore was not the Son of God. He was just a man. Without the virgin birth there is no Christ, there is no Savior. Secondly without the virgin birth Jesus is born in sin. Therefore he is not sinless and not God therefore he is totally useless as a Savior and even if he does die on the cross he dies for his own sins and not ours. So the virgin birth was of upmost importance. Jesus is yes born of a human mother and takes on her flesh, but he is also pure and sinless and is the Son of God. That is the only way that he can be our Savior. As a human he can identify with us and put himself under the law and die for us. As God he can live the perfect life and in his death defeat Satan, sin and death and rise from the dead declaring victory. So the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah is very important and we see that Jesus does just that through Mary.

Another very specific prophecy about his birth is that he would be born in Bethlehem. We read in Micah 5, “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, thought you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Then of course we read in Matthew 2, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “For this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”

And of course we all know that story very well especially after having celebrated it just a few weeks ago. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth but because of the census they had to go to the city of their lineage and register. Bethlehem was that city of David for them and so they loaded up and took off. Sometime during their stay there Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, thereby fulfilling this Old Testament promise. What is interesting about it that it was not Mary and Joseph that planned for it happen this way. They went to Bethlehem not for the purpose of fulfilling a prophecy but for the purpose of fulfilling a government responsibility. The Roman ruler made the fulfillment of this prophecy a reality. It is to say the least an interesting way for the King of the Universe to enter his universe. Not coming down in glory in the clouds, not in a royal palace, but in a small no account town, in humble surroundings with absolutely no fanfare except for that surrounding some peasant shepherds out in the fields.

The next prophecy actually takes back to the first one from Isaiah 7:14 where it says that he will be called Immanuel or God with us. There is more significance to that then first meets the eye. We look at it and we say well yeah God becoming one of us and living like us, yes he was God with us. But again there is more to it than just simply that. Remember why the Son of God came down in the first place. He came in response to the promise of Genesis 3:15. God and man had been united in the Garden, they were like this. That was the way that God had designed that relationship. But after the fall man and God were not only separated from one another, they were at war with one another. The purpose of Genesis 3:15 was the promise that one day man and God would be united again in a harmonious relationship. And that is exactly what this Jesus; the Son of God had come to do. Not only would be he be God with us for 33 years of his life here on earth, but his later death and resurrection would mean that God and us would forever be together again. Jesus is God with us even today.

There is also another major prophecy concerning Jesus birth. This is the one concerning the star out of Jacob. This actually comes from an oracle of Balaam who was commissioned by an enemy of Israel. Balak king of Moab wanted Balaam to pronounce curses upon the Israelite army, but instead Balaam finds himself time and again pronouncing blessings upon them. In Chapter 24 he prophecies this about Israel’s Savior, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.” The prophecy finds immediate fulfillment in King David but is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 2 we read, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod; Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Then we read a little later, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” The result, a baby shower for the Savior of the world. Talk about some expensive gifts! Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh wow! Everything that a new family could want and more. Gifts that literally would set them up for what was coming next. This was also where the gentiles come into the picture. They, we are part of the promise as well. These gifts are symbols of our gratefulness to God.

These gifts as I said would help them out as the next prophecy around his birth came true. That would be the flight into Egypt. In Hosea eleven we read, “”When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” This is first of all referring the Exodus of the children of Israel from the country of Egypt during the time of Moses, but Matthew looks upon that exodus as a picture pointing forward to the picture of Jesus’ coming from Egypt. We read in Matthew 2, “So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Egypt reminds of the slavery to sin that we were born into. Just as Israel was captive to slavery during their time in Egypt so were we captive to sin which pervaded us through and through. And just as Moses leads the children of Israel out of that slavery and eventually into the Promised Land. Jesus leads us out of slavery to sin and death through the blood he shed for us on the cross. He leads us out of death’s grip, makes us his and eventually when we die leads us into the promised land of Heaven. All of these things added together present us an amazing picture of the prophecy and its fulfillment in the birth of Jesus Christ. This was not just a happenstance event, it didn’t just happen out of the blue. It was planned from the beginning and talked about from the beginning and talked about through the years leading up to it. The promise of the coming Messiah filled the Old Testament world with anticipation, they couldn’t wait, it was on their minds constantly. Then one day they saw it all fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. God had kept his promises to his people. He truly had come to save us from our sins and make us his forever. God is not slow in keeping his promises but he does do it in his own time and way.

And that leads us to the last major prophecy concerning the events surrounding his birth. That is the prophecy concerning the murder of the innocents. In Jeremiah 31 the prophet says, “This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.” Then in Matthew 2 we read, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Now why would we include that in the prophecies about the birth? Well first of all because it is one of them, but also it points to some very important things. Most of the birth narrative is a very feel good story. It is shapes our view of the Christmas story that we celebrate and act out each year. But it was a narrative with a larger purpose than that. Yes everyone likes babies and the gifts of Christmas but the setting of this story is actually really messy. And I not just talking about being laid in a feeding trough for a bed either. No the reason that this child was born was very bloody. And here in the fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy we see just how bloody and brutal it is going to get.

Lots of blood flowed that night of the massacre of the little children. A scene we don’t really even want to think about really. But it would point forward to another miscarriage of justice some thirty years later when another innocent person would be killed to satisfy the hatefulness of another group of leaders. Except that the blood that flow down from the cross would leave more than loss and death, but would also cleanse us from our sin. Why both deaths, the death of the children and the dead of Christ would be horrible, in the death of Christ you and I would find life everlasting. We would be reunited with God in a relationship similar to what we read about in the garden before the fall. Christ’s death reconnects us with God the Father and guarantees us a place in the real Garden of Eden, Heaven.

The prophecies concerning Jesus birth were fulfilled in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. He is the one that was promised back in Genesis 3:15. He is the Savior of mankind, and more importantly the Savior of you. But his birth was just the beginning of the cosmic adventure. Jesus would now spend the next 33 years fulfilling even more Old Testament prophecies as he lived his life. We will look at those next week. Amen.