Matthew 1:18-25 NLT This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. (19) Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. (20) As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. (21) And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (22) All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through His prophet: (23) “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.'” (24) When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. (25) But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named Him Jesus.
Matthew 1:23 TPT Listen! A virgin will be pregnant, she will give birth to a Son, and he will be known as “Emmanuel,” which means in Hebrew, “God became one of us.”
- The Virgin Birth was absolutely essential to God’s plan.
- This was not only a supernatural miracle.
- The Virgin Birth boldly declares that Jesus is 100% God. As the Passion Translation states, “God became one of us!”
Matthew 1:18 NLT This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus was not conceived by a man. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
- God took the egg and womb and added His own seed by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the conception to take place.
- It had to be God’s seed because sin was in the seed of man.
- Jesus did not have a sin nature.
- The sin nature is what is passed on because of sinful man’s seed.
- Jesus’ Father was God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
- Some say that Jesus was a good man. Some say that He was a Prophet. Jesus was more than just a good man or even a prophet.
- He was not a messenger sent by God. He was God with a message.
- He also was the message of God sent to man.
- We are born into the earth of corruptible seed. But we are Born Again with the incorruptible seed of God.
1 Peter 1:23 TPT For through the eternal and living Word of God you have been born again. And this “seed” that he planted within you can never be destroyed but will live and grow inside of you forever.
- When I got Born Again, God became my Heavenly, spiritual Father.
- Jesus came in the flesh.
John 1:1 NET In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
John 1:14 NET Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.
1 John 4:2-3 NKJV By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, (3) and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
2 John 1:7 NKJV For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
- It is very important for us to believe in the Virgin Birth because it shows that Jesus is God. It is also very important for us to believe that Jesus came in the flesh.
- This is important because:
- If Jesus was not 100% man, then He did not die. If He was only 100% God, He could never die because God cannot die.
- If He did not die, then He did not pay for your sins.
- If He did not pay for your sins, you cannot be redeemed.
Hebrews 2:14 NLT (14) Because God’s children are human beings–made of flesh and blood–the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.
- We were held in bondage to the power of death and the reason He became a man was because only a man that was 100% God could break the power of death over us.
- We do not have to fear death because our Lord has already conquered death.
- This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus being fully God and fully man; fully God and fully human.
- Jesus is still Immanuel, God with us.
- This did not end with when Jesus ascended to Heaven. It still goes on today.
- The Holy Spirit of God has been sent to be God with us and God in us.
John 14:16 TPT (16-17) And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Savior, the Holy Spirit of Truth, who will be to you a friend just like me—and he will never leave you. The world won’t receive him because they can’t see him or know him. But you will know him intimately, because he will make his home in you and will live inside you.
Isaiah 9:6 NKJV (6) For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This verse describes to us Jesus: fully human and fully Divine.
God did not send someone else to redeem us; He came Himself to suffer and die for us. The Creator became creation so that He could redeem us!
Christmas is all about God coming in human form to redeem us so that God could be one of us, but it is also about us being with and in Him and He in us!