I Believe in Jesus, Conceived by the Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary

Introduction:

Open your Bibles with me to Matthew 1:18-25, as we continue our series on the Apostles’ Creed, that earliest of Christian confessions and foundational, orthodox statement of the church throughout the ages.  We have already stated our belief in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.  Last Sunday we asserted that we believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.  

Today we will affirm that we believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, as we look at the birth of the Savior as a miracle of the virgin conception through Mary.  This miracle is usually referred to as the virgin birth.  And, of course, Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, who remained a virgin until after Jesus was born.  But the birth itself was not the miracle.  Jesus was born in a very normal way, as are other babies.  The miracle was the way he was conceived supernaturally within Mary’s womb, without the involvement of a human father, and that Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus’ birth.  

Matthew, who writes to evangelize a largely Jewish readership, begins his gospel with a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, beginning with Abraham, “the father of the Jewish nation.”  When the genealogy comes to Joseph, it does not say Joseph was the father of Jesus, but rather that he was the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus (Matthew 1:16).  Verse 17 before our text states that Jesus’ earthly lineage is traceable from Abraham, to David, the greatest of the Jewish kings, and to Christ. Jesus was miraculously born of an earthly mother but without the need of an earthly father.

One New Testament scholar says that verses 18 through 25 are a “footnote” to explain how Joseph “begat”/gave birth to Jesus legally as a son of David (of the lineage of David), and how God “begat” Jesus as the Son of God (Krister Stendahl, quoted by Raymond Brown in The Birth of the Messiah).  But our text is far more than a footnote.  It features the importance of the virgin conception of the Savior.  As our text will make clear, we must accept that the genesis or conception of Jesus was miraculous, or else conclude that Jesus was born illegitimately, which some liberal scholars, who reject the biblical evidence, are prepared to conclude.

Luke’s Gospel gives us the account of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary, to announce to her that she had been chosen by God to give birth to the Messiah, and will do so miraculously through the Holy Spirit.   In Matthew’s account we note how the angel later announced to Joseph this amazing and to him, quite perplexing news.

Follow as I read this account in Luke 1:26-38, then our text, Matthew 1:18-25.