The Powerful Word!

[Below you'll find the text of the message prepared for both worship services of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, this morning. The live stream videos of both services are also here.]

Matthew 1:18-25

Few incidents in Scripture more forcefully convey the power of God’s Word than does today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 1:18-25. In it, Joseph, the Nazareth handyman God had chosen to be the earthly father of Jesus, God the Son, moves from fear to faith in facing the role God marked out for him.

Let’s be clear. God makes a big ask of Joseph. It is, from the standpoint of human beings, one that will upend the plans he’s made for his life and subject him to all kinds of trouble.

You know what happens: Joseph is betrothed to Mary and learns that Mary is pregnant. Joseph knows that he’s not the father and is devastated, certain that Mary has been unfaithful. 

In those days, a betrothed couple was considered legally married among God's people. They were also expected, by law, not to consummate their marriage until the betrothal period, usually lasting a year, ended. Sexual relations outside of marriages between husbands and wives were punishable by death by stoning. It had ceased being customary for betrothed women who were pregnant by relations with men other than their husbands to be executed. Instead, under provisions in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the violated husbands could write a bill of divorce to end the betrothal. 

When Joseph learns of Mary’s pregnancy, deeming the idea that her pregnancy has come by way of the Holy Spirit unbelievable, he has two bad options. Option one: he can go ahead with the marriage, in effect, creating the impression that he and Mary had violated the sixth commandment–”You shall not commit adultery.” But if he does this, he’ll be subject to condemnation, ex-communication from the synagogue, and a loss of reputation leading to loss of work in Nazareth or the surrounding area.

His second option is to divorce Mary. This is the option he decides on, hoping to do so “quietly.” This means basically that, to protect Mary, the bill of divorce he signs will make no mention of why he’s divorcing her. But everyone in Nazareth will assume that Joseph is the father of the child. Joseph will ruin his own reputation in order to shield Mary and her baby from a lifetime of harassment and shunning.

While still thinking about all of this, Joseph goes home and hits the sack. In a dream, an angel comes to Joseph and says: “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.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

Now, these words are so freighted, they must be unpacked. 

First, the angel addresses Joseph as a “son of David.” Joseph was a descendant of King David of Old Testament times. While the baby in Mary’s womb is God the Son in human flesh, He would have none of Joseph’s DNA. (Or Mary’s either, for that matter.) He was conceived, as we confess each Sunday, “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” But the Messiah or the Christ, God’s Anointed One, was prophesied to come from David’s family tree. So, a son–a descendant–of David needed to adopt this child as his own. God had chosen Joseph for that role.

Then the angel tells Joseph, “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.” “Don’t be afraid of the neighbors’ condemnation or possible poverty,” God is telling Joseph through the angel. “If you take Mary as your wife, you’ll be doing the will of God.” Following the God we meet in Jesus isn’t always easy, friends. To be a disciple of Jesus means we may be asked to do crazy stuff, like confessing our sins, forgiving our neighbors, loving the unlovable, and telling others about new life through Jesus. We’ll incur rejection from some. But when we turn to Jesus in daily repentance and faith, we needn’t fear what the world says about us or does to us. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” Jesus says elsewhere. “Rather, be afraid of the One [God] who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

After confirming that Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit, the angel tells Joseph, “you are to give [the child born of Mary] the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) The name Joseph is to give the son Mary bears is, in the Hebrews of the Old Testament, Yeshua, transliterated into English as Joshua. In the Greek, it’s Yesus, rendered in English as Jesus. It means, Yahweh, the Lord, our salvation. Jesus’ name describes His mission. Jesus is God come to save us! The angel emphasizes this when he tells Joseph that Jesus: “will save his people from their sins.”

You and I know, friends, that every person born into this world except Jesus, needs the forgiveness of sin. We are born in sin and there’s nothing we can do to erase its power to condemn us to everlasting separation from God. But Jesus, the Messiah, came into the world to take the condemnation for sin we deserve. He takes our condemnation, then gives His righteousness to all who turn to Him in repentance and faith. The Bible says that, “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

But there is even more to being saved than having our sins forgiven and having life with God right now, wonderful though those things are! Every person who believes in Jesus looks ahead to the day of Jesus’ second advent, His second coming. On that day, we’ll also be saved from the gravest consequence of sin, death itself. In a section of the Old Testament book of Isaiah that describes Jesus and what He will do, we read a prophecy written in the past tense: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) On the day of His return, Jesus will usher those who have believed in Him into eternity, where, Revelation says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”(Revelation 21:4) Jesus, the Messiah, has come to save us so that when we, like Him, are raised from the dead, will be saved to live for eternity, without suffering, grief, or death. Jesus, the apostle Paul says, “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:21) Jesus the Savior has come to save us eternally and totally!

The end of our gospel lesson brings us to one of the greatest Christmas miracles. It’s this: “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” (Matthew 1:24)

How did Joseph, who had gone to sleep intent on quietly divorcing Mary, end up taking Mary as his wife and the child in her womb as his earthly son, despite all the challenges it would bring to him? The same way we can leave our worship today knowing that our sins are forgiven, that God is with us always, that we can live in the freedom of the Gospel, that we can ignore the cynicism of the world and live with faith in God. By the power of God’s saving Word!

The angel’s words from God rang true to Joseph because, as a faithful man who knew God’s Word, he would have been aware of the child promised in Isaiah 7-9, from which today’s first lesson comes. That child was a sign sent by God pointing to another Child God promised to send, One born of a virgin from the house of David, One who would save the people He created from their sins. Of that Child, God said through Isaiah: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Joseph knew God’s Word when he heard it. And just as God’s Word came to him through an angel in a dream and so was given renewed faith, God comes to us in His Word to call you and me to repentance, faith, and new and everlasting life through the crucified and risen Jesus. By Jesus, the Word made flesh, and the Word about Him we encounter Scripture and the Sacraments, we can celebrate Christmas and each day in the certainty that we have been saved, now and for all eternity. We know that Immanuel, God with Us, always. That is the power of the Gospel Word about Jesus that transforms our fears to faith, our sins to righteousness, our despair to hope, our death to life! May you live in the power of Jesus, the Word made flesh, this Christmas and always! Amen

Faith or Fear?

[This message was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, earlier today.]

Matthew 1:18-25
I was ordained as a pastor, serving my first parish. Even before I was ordained, I had preached and led worship every Sunday of my year-long seminary internship and done these things at lots of churches all over Ohio. 

But now, Sunday mornings were agony. Each week, I woke up feeling sick to my stomach, feverish and faint. I had stabbing headaches. This went on for my first five years as a pastor. 

One morning as I prayed about all of this, the thought crossed my mind--a thought I’m sure came from God: I had stage fright and I had it because I was terrified that I would embarrass myself, that I would say the wrong thing, that people wouldn’t like my worship leadership or my preaching. I would fail in this calling, letting down God, my wife, my family, and the Church. On Sunday mornings, instead of seeing a group of fellow sinners in as much need of the gospel Word of forgiveness, new life, and godly power as I was, I saw them as potential judges ready to condemn me. And I thought such condemnation was completely warranted. I covered my fears up with bravado, but really, I was just waiting to be exposed for the fraud I assumed people would eventually see me as being. 

In the contest between fear and faith constantly exploding within me, I was letting fear get the upper hand. I put more trust in my fear than I put in Christ.

Faith versus fear. 

Have these two contestants ever jousted in your gut? 

You know a struggling friend could use your offer of prayer in Jesus’ name. But you’re afraid that she or he will be offended. So you say nothing. 

You know that a victim of injustice, whether at school or work or in society, could use the support of a Christian advocate. But your fear of what others might say if you spoke up keeps your mouth clamped shut. 

You know that a ministry of the church could use your help far more than it needs your “ideas” or criticism. But you’re afraid of not doing a good job, or of losing free time, or of being accountable to yet another person. So, you don’t get involved. 

You’ve hurt someone. You know that the faithful thing to do is to apologize. But you’re afraid of the humiliation that goes with acknowledging a wrong, a fault, a sin. So you let the wounds to your relationship fester. 

You feel inadequate as a parent or friend or professional and you’re sure that soon, everyone will know.

Each day, as baptized believers in Jesus, the contest of faith versus fear happens within us. 

Fear is the voice of our sinful nature that may tell us that protecting ourselves from pain and death or promoting our own interests are our highest callings. 

Or fear may insist that we’re not good enough. 

Faith happens when we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit drowning out the screams of our fears, telling us that Jesus Christ died and rose for imperfect people like you and me and that He has us in His loving grip now and forever. 

When the Word of God moves over us--over our imperfections and doubts and our fears--to create faith in Christ within us, there is nothing that this world or the devil can do to us that will allow us to be separated from God and His love. 

Faith assures us that, in the words of the apostle John, “...love [the love of Christ living in us] has no fear, because [Christ’s] perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” (1 John 4:18, New Living Translation]

Our gospel lesson for this morning, Matthew 1:18-25,  features a man in whom this contest between fear and faith is happening. 

The man is Joseph. Mary, the woman to whom he is pledged to be married, announces that she is pregnant, not through the usual means, but from God the Holy Spirit, and that the child she carries is the promised Messiah. 

Although there had not yet been a marriage ceremony and Mary and Joseph were forbidden from having marital relations until after that happened, by Jewish law they were viewed as husband and wife. Joseph naturally assumed that Mary had been unfaithful to him. But the appointed punishment for adultery was that violators were to be stoned to death. And even if that punishment weren’t meted out by the people of Nazareth where they lived, Joseph knew that if Mary’s sin were exposed, she would be forever disgraced. 

He resolved to divorce her quietly.

But then, in verse 20, an angel of God appears to Joseph in a dream. “Joseph son of David [he says], 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.”

“Do not be afraid, Joseph,” God was telling him. “The child Mary bears is the Savior of the world, Whose very name, Jesus, Yeshua, meaning Yahweh, God, saves, is coming to save you and everyone who repents and believes in Him from sin and death and separation from God.”

Why did the angel tell Joseph not to be afraid? 

What was Joseph afraid of? 

I can think of several possibilities. 

• Joseph may have been afraid of personal humiliation. What if Mary was just telling him a story and the angel was just a figment of his imagination. Joseph couldn’t know until God’s Word called him out of fear and to faith. 
• Joseph may have been afraid of exposing Mary to rejection and death. He’d made his decision to divorce Mary quietly. But even after the decision was made, Joseph considered--or agonized--over doing the right thing. 
• Joseph may have been afraid that by protecting Mary, he would be going against the will of God. Joseph may have feared that in treating Mary so compassionately, he was simply enabling her sin and displeasing God. 
• Joseph may have been afraid of what others would say about him. If he took Mary as his wife, people would always say--as they still say today--that he was the actual father of Jesus. They would refuse to believe that Jesus was the sinless Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. They would write Joseph off as one more sinful religious hypocrite. 

Maybe, by turns or simultaneously, Joseph feared all of these things. 

But the angel says, “Do not be afraid, Joseph!”

And that’s God’s message to you and me this morning: Do not be afraid!  

Do not be afraid of what might happen. Have faith in what has already happened: Jesus Christ has already died and risen for you, you have been baptized into His death and resurrection, and He has given you the gift of faith. 

Do not be afraid of the world, its violence, or the human race’s penchant for self-destruction. Jesus has conquered the world. 

Do not be afraid of having less than what you need. The Savior Who refused to test His Father by jumping from the pinnacle of the temple has taught you to pray confidently for your daily bread.

Do not be afraid to be kind to or to love others. Jesus says that you’re to see everyone around you as you see Christ Himself, as people to love as Christ loves you. 

Do not be afraid to say no to sin because in doing so, you will say yes to God’s grace and new life.

Matthew says that after Joseph was visited by the angel, Joseph did what God commanded him to do. He took Mary as his wife. When faith defeated fear in Joseph, Mary’s life was saved, of course. 

But so was the life of Jesus, the Savior Who assures us by His resurrection that, no matter what we may fear, we can have faith in the God Who, through the baby born in a manger--crucified, risen, and ascended to heaven--makes us His own for all eternity. 

That day God made me aware that I was afraid, I sensed Him telling me, "Get over yourself, Mark. Turn to Me. Christ has shown you my loving face. Don't be afraid. Believe!"

When you turn to Christ, He gives you a faith bigger than all your fears. And He gives you a life with Him that makes all our fears eternally irrelevant. 

If you remember nothing else of this message today, please remember this: Faith trumps fear. 

Turn to the God we know in Christ and He will conquer your fear. Amen 

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Christmas and What God Wants Most of All

Matthew 1:18-25
It’s not a new observation to say that the beginnings of things often explain a lot about their later development. How a thing is begun is that important.

Our Gospel lesson for today gives us Matthew the Evangelist’s account of the beginnings of Jesus' time on earth and of the new beginnings God can give everyone through Jesus Christ. Take a look at our lesson for today, Matthew 1:18-25.

Verse 18 says: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about...” A more literal translation from the Greek in which Matthew wrote would be, “This is how the genesis [or the beginnings] of Jesus Christ happened...”

The verse goes on: “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

The English phrase pledged to be married doesn’t do justice to the state of Mary’s relationship with Joseph. They were betrothed. Betrothal in those days was more than an engagement. During betrothal, the couple were considered married, although they were strictly forbidden from consummating their relationship until they publicly affirmed their commitment to one another before God and witnesses.

If one of them had intimacy with someone else during betrothal, that act was considered adultery. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy said that if a woman was guilty of adultery during this period, she should be stoned to death. By the first century AD, this law was rarely enforced. But even then, the woman divorced by her betrothed, however quietly it was done, didn’t have an easy lot in life, forever branded by her adultery.

Our lesson though conveys an unambiguous message: Despite, Joseph’s suspicions, Mary was a virgin. She and Joseph had not, we're told, come together. And, the child conceived within her was from the Holy Spirit.

Later in the passage, we’re told that Mary and Joseph didn’t have marital relations until after Jesus was born.

Today, as was the case when Jesus walked the earth, there are people who deny that Jesus could possibly have been born of a virgin. Even some church-goers deny the virgin birth. But it’s presumptuous to deny that the God Who created every particle of this universe is incapable of doing something that doesn’t comport to our usual experience. Jesus teaches that, “with God all things are possible.” [Matthew 19:26]

Still, some virgin birth deniers point out that other ancient religions told stories of their idols roaming the earth and having intimate relations with women, often resulting in the birth of notable persons, like the fictional Hercules. They say that the claim that Jesus was born of a virgin is similar.

But the witness of the New Testament about God the Father and about Jesus’ birth is very different from those mythical gods. During His ministry, Jesus said that “God is spirit” The God of the universe isn’t like the bawdy deities of mythology. He is Spirit, Who by His Word created matter, created human beings.

Just as the book of Genesis says that God’s Spirit moved over chaos and brought life into being, so now, as God prepares to gives us the chance for new life through Jesus Christ, His Spirit passes over a virgin’s womb and the Person the apostle Paul calls, “the second Adam,” is conceived.

If this is hard for us to accept, imagine the effect it had on Joseph! Verse 19: “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Hurt by a woman he believes has violated God’s will that sexual intimacy be confined to marriages between men and women, Joseph decides he won’t lash out. But he also won’t have a life with a woman he believes has been unfaithful to him. The verb translated as divorce here in the original Greek is apoluo, meaning literally, loosed from. Joseph was going to cut Mary loose. 



Verse 20: “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him 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 [Mary] 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 [in Isaiah 7:14]: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’--which means, ‘God with us.’"

Joseph knew God well enough and knew God’s Word well enough to know that the angel was telling the truth.

In a fallen world, it’s imperative that those who believe in Jesus know God’s Word! First Peter 5:8 warns believers: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

If we aren’t like Joseph, on intimate terms with God and His Word, we won’t recognize when God is acting in our lives. We won’t be able to resist temptations that when acted on, can drag us down to hell.

Like Joseph, we need to know the God we meet in Jesus Christ so well that even when things don’t make sense, we will keep following Him!

I hope that every member of Living Water will make it their business to know God through regular Bible reading and study, including such time with fellow disciples of Jesus!

Now, in these verses, Matthew mentions two names associated with the Child in Mary’s womb. Matthew does so because in Biblical times, names were very important. For example, the name of Jacob, that notable schemer in the Old Testament, means literally, he grabs the heel, a way of saying supplanter or usurper. If a name ever suited a person, that of Jacob, this man who connived to steal his brother's inheritance, did.

But even today, I'm convinced, the names we call people or circumstances have a way of sticking and meaning something. Ann and I have two versions of how we came to name our son, Philip Martin. As I recollect, the name began with me sitting in the library of the seminary where I was a student and thinking, Philip Melancthhon and Martin Luther, the names of the two eminent theologians of the Reformation and colleagues on the faculty of Wittenberg University in Germany. And because Martin was also Ann's maiden name, it seemed perfect.

Oddly enough, our son Philip always seemed like a natural born theologian. Even as a young boy, he would ask me the most probing faith questions that I found hard to field. And when he was in college, he was given two different nicknames: Phil the Lutheran and Phil the Philosopher. He has always seemed to be to have lived up to his given names.

This past June, when we went to Walburg for his installation as pastor of Saint Peter Lutheran Church, we were given a tour of the church building. The sanctuary had traditional stained glass windows, most of them showing Biblical scenes and events. All but two, that is, because in the front, to the left of the altar, were two windows: one showing Philip Melanchthon and the other showing Martin Luther.

Maybe the names we call each other do matter.

At the very least, God seems to think so. In our lesson, we're told of two names applied to the Messiah conceived in Mary's womb.

First: Jesus, the Savior’s given name. It means Yahweh, [God], is our salvation. Jesus’ given name says that God sent Jesus to save His people from sin.

“The wages of sin is death,” as we know. But Jesus came to take the wages we deserve--death, condemnation, separation from the God Who gives life. Then He rose from the dead so that all who believe in Him have the gift we don’t deserve: Never-ending life with God.

And Jesus came to save more than just God’s first people, the Jews. In the great commission, Jesus sends us to share the Good News of new life for all who repent and believe in Him with people of every nation. Jesus came to give all people the chance to believe in Him and be saved for eternity. That’s why Jesus commissions you and me, as His disciples, to be His ambassadors and to help others know and believe in Him!

That’s also why Living Water has adopted Matthew 28:19, which gives Jesus great commission as the only mission statement we need: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Jesus came to save all who turn from sin and trust in Him.

Second: Matthew also tells us about the name Immanuel.

It’s a nickname, really. Like many nicknames, it’s descriptive. As the text says, Immanuel (in all its varied English spellings) means God with us. Jesus is God with us today, now, in this world.

In those two names--Jesus and Immanuel--we find everything that makes Christmas worth celebrating! 

• Immanuel, God with us, assures us that no matter what happens to us in this life, God stands by us, strengthening us, encouraging us.
• Jesus, meaning Yahweh saves, is our salvation, assuring us that no matter how lost we may feel, no matter how guilty, when we trust in Him, we are saved from sin and death and separation from God. We have life with Him now and will have it in perfection in eternity. 

The hope of heaven that Jesus gives to His disciples imbues this life with joy even when we’re unhappy or guilty, assures us of peace even when things are crazy.

In Romans 8:1-2, the apostle Paul conveys this amazing promise: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

That, friends is the good news that came when God was virgin born of Mary and Joseph accepted the responsibility of acting as His father on earth. If we want Him, we are saved and accompanied always by Christ!

Welcome Jesus as Mary and Joseph did, ignoring the wagging tongues and the warped reason of a world that wants to sell God short and feed human ego.

Welcome Him into the center of your lives.

Let Him save you.

Let Him live with you every day.

Because of all the things the God of this universe wants, He wants you most of all! 

Let that truth soak into your heart and mind this Christmas and every day!

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

AUDIO: The Genesis of Hope

Here. Don't be daunted by how long the site says the sermon goes. It's actually less than half as long as that. It was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio on December 22. Hope you find it helpful.

The Genesis of Hope

[This message was prepared to share during worship with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 1:18-25
It’s not a new observation to say that the beginnings of things often explain a lot about their later development.

The fact that of the two Steves who started Apple, Steve Jobs, the marketer, was the dominant partner, explains you how a passion for creating new and expanding old markets nurtured a corporate culture in which technical people are still expected routinely to do things that can’t be done.

The fact that Living Water began with a commitment to reaching out in word and deed with the Good News of new life for all who believe in Jesus Christ, explains this congregation’s outreach culture.

Beginnings are important.

The ancient rabbis said that if you wanted to understand Biblical faith, you should master the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings.

In Jesus Christ, God has made a new beginning and God gives new beginnings to us every time we trust Christ with our sinful pasts, our each today, and our unknown futures!

That’s what Matthew conveys in chapter one of his Gospel, including the verses that make up today’s Gospel lesson.

Please turn to our Gospel lesson, Matthew 1:18-25 (page 675 in the pew Bibles). Verse 18 says: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about...” A more literal translation from the Greek in which Matthew wrote would be, “This is how the genesis of Jesus Christ happened...”

Matthew is signaling a fresh start for the human race. In Jesus, a new Genesis is possible for us all!



The verse goes on: “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

The phrase “pledged to be married” hardly does justice to the state of Mary’s relationship with Joseph. They were betrothed. Betrothal was more than an engagement. During betrothal, the couple were considered married, although they were strictly forbidden from consummating their relationship until they publicly affirmed their commitment to one another before God and witnesses. If one of them had intimacy with someone else during betrothal, the act was considered adultery. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy said that if a woman was guilty of adultery during this period, she should be stoned to death. By the first century AD, this law was rarely enforced.

But even then, the woman cut loose by her betrothed quietly didn’t have an easy lot in life, forever branded by her adultery.

Our lesson conveys an unambiguous message: Mary was a virgin.

She and Joseph had not come together, we're told.

And, the child conceived within her was from the Holy Spirit.

Later in the passage, we’re told that Mary and Joseph didn’t have marital relations until after Jesus was born.

Today, as has been the case since the first century, there are people who deny that Jesus could possibly have been born of a virgin.

It’s always seemed a bit presumptuous to me for human beings to claim that the God Who created every particle of this universe is incapable of doing something that doesn’t comport our usual experience. Jesus teaches that, “With God all things are possible.”

Still, some virgin birth deniers point out that other ancient religions told stories of their idol gods roaming the earth and having intimate relations with women, often resulting in the birth of a notable person. They say that the claim that Jesus was born of a virgin is similar.

But the witness of the New Testament about God the Father and about Jesus’ birth is very different from those mythical gods.

During His ministry, Jesus said that “God is spirit.” The God of the universe isn’t like the bawdy deities of mythology. He is Spirit, Who by His Word created matter, created human beings.

Just as the book of Genesis says that God’s Spirit moved over chaos and brought life into being, so now, as God prepares to gives us the chance for new life through Jesus Christ, His Spirit passes over a virgin’s womb and the Person the apostle Paul calls, “the second Adam,” is conceived.

If this is hard for us to accept--because it doesn’t fit with our everyday experiences, imagine the effect it had on Joseph!

Verse 19: “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Hurt, Joseph decides he won’t lash out. But he won’t have a life with a woman he believes has been unfaithful to him. The verb translated as divorce here in the original Greek is apoluo, meaning basically, that Joseph would cut Mary loose. 



Verse 20: “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him 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...’”

The Bible and centuries of believers affirm that God speaks to people in many ways. The God Who created the universe can use the universe in whatever way He wants to get our attention.

He spoke to Moses through a burning bush.

He spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice.

You know how God spoke to Balaam.

And sometimes, God gets the attention of His saints in dreams.

However we may sense God is speaking to us, the message and the messenger must conform to what God has revealed to us about Himself through His inspired Word, the Bible.

The Bible’s last book very sternly warns against adding or subtracting anything from the truths taught there, a statement that we can make about the whole of Scripture, because it’s God-breathed, a living Word.

The book of Hebrews says that, “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

In this light, one of the basic confessional statements of Lutherans, the Formula of Concord says that God’s Word in the Bible, “is and should remain the sole rule and norm of all doctrine, and...no human being’s [teachings] dare be put on a par with that...everything must be subjected to it.”


Joseph understood that the witness of the angel in his dream was true because the angel’s words conformed to the promises of Scripture!

Verses 21 to 23 continue the angel’s message to Joseph: “She [Mary] 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 [in Isaiah 7:14]: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’--which means, ‘God with us.’"

Joseph, a man who walked with God, knew God well enough and knew God’s Word well enough to know that the angel was telling the truth.

In a fallen world, it’s imperative that those who believe in Jesus know God’s Word! I hope that every member of Living Water will make it their business to know God through regular Bible reading and study!

Now, in Matthew’s explanations of the origins of our hope as believers in Christ, He mentions two names associated with the child in Mary’s womb.

First: Jesus, the Savior’s given name. It means Yahweh, [God], is our salvation. Jesus’ name says that God sent Jesus to save His people from sin.

“The wages of sin is death,” as we know. But Jesus came to take the wages we deserve, death, separation from the God Who gives life. Then He rose from the dead so that all who believe in Him have the gift we don’t deserve: Never-ending life with God.

And Jesus came to save more than just God’s first people, the Jews. In the great commission, Jesus sends us to share the Good News of new life for all who repent and believe in Him with people of every nation. Jesus came to give all people the chance to believe in Him and be saved for eternity.

Second: Matthew tells us about the name Immanuel. It’s a nickname, really. Like many nicknames, it’s descriptive. As the text says, Immanuel means God with us. Jesus is God in the flesh Who came into our world to save us from sin and death, to give us life in the world to come. Jesus is also God with us, in this world. 

To truly celebrate Christmas this year, may I suggest you remind yourself of those two names of our Lord?

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ origins and of the Names of Jesus, we find the origins of all the hope a person can ever want or have!

Immanuel, God with us, assures us that no matter what happens to us in this life, God stands by us, strengthening us, encouraging us.

And Jesus is not only with us, He lives in those who receive and believe in Him. 1 John 4:4 tells believers in Christ: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

Satan, temptations, fears, apprehensions, worries, sins, stress: God with us can give us the strength of character and the thrill of hope that will help us face every obstacle!

God is with us when the kids make us crazy, the in-laws are a pain, the marriage is troubled, we’re sick or depressed, the bills pile up, or the pressures mount.

If you want Him, Immanuel will never let you go!

And, I have found, He will even send His ambassadors--other believers in Christ--to extend His love, grace, mercy, and help when you need it! You just have to lay down any pretense of self-sufficiency and let Him carry you when you’re to weary to take the next step!

And by His Name, Jesus, God is our salvation, assures us that no matter how lost we may feel, no matter how guilty, when we trust in Him, we are saved from sin and death and separation from God.

The hope of heaven imbues this life with joy even when we’re unhappy or guilty, assures us of peace even when things are crazy.

Please turn to Romans 8:1-2 (page 787 in the pew Bibles). It says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

That, friends is the good news that came when God was virgin born of Mary and Joseph accepted the responsibility of acting as His father on earth.

If we want Him, we are saved and accompanied always by Christ!

Welcome Him as Mary and Joseph did, ignoring the wagging tongues and the warped reason of a world that wants to sell God short and feed human ego.

Welcome Jesus.

Let Him save you.

Let Him live with you every day.

Because of all the things the God of this universe wants, nobody and nothing is more important to Him than you!
 
Let that truth soak into your heart and mind this Christmas and every day!

Amen

Is It Essential for Christians to Accept Jesus' Virgin Birth?

Was Mary, the mother of Jesus, a virgin when the One Christians believe is God-in-human-flesh was conceived in her womb?

Christians have always confessed that Jesus was born of a virgin.

This has nothing to do with notions of sex being unclean or beneath human dignity. It's neither of those things. After all, God created sex. Sex is part of the creation which God declared to be "very good" before humanity's descent into sin (Genesis 1:31).

The conception of Jesus in a virgin's womb is an act of new creation that anticipates the new creation of which Jesus makes all who repent for sin and entrust their lives to Him become a part: "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The world has always objected that Jesus' virgin birth is impossible. My grandfather used to tell me when we weren't around the rest of the family that the Biblical teaching about Jesus' birth was a cover-up. "You know," he would say, "Joseph just got lonely out there in the desert. Things happened."

Cynics like my grandfather overlook that the creator of the universe specializes in the impossible.

Today, some of the virgin-birth skeptics reside in Christ's Church.

For example, the web site of my own denomination has a section called, "Dig Deeper," which has, since about 2009, been shorn of content. An "explanation" states:

The pages in this section have been removed while they undergo a comprehensive review to improve their usefulness as a resource for study and discussion with others.

But it's difficult not to suspect that this long period of review was precipitated by the outrage that some Lutherans felt when the official denominational web site equivocated on a basic teaching of Christian faith. Someone has restored the pages and in the section on the virgin birth, here's some of what we read:

When we confess in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus was "conceived by the power of the Holy Spirt and born of the virgin Mary ...," and in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is "the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father ..." we are not making a gynecological assertion. We are saying that God entered into Christ and, in him, is fully revealed to humankind. This is God’s graceful act of reconciliation with creation and humankind’s redemption.

What ELCA Lutherans believe in common is that Jesus was

• born "by the power of the Holy Spirit"
• declared God’s "beloved son"
• sent to the world to redeem God’s creation

and that born of a woman, he

• died at the hands of death’s powers

• overcame and defeated death

• reigns as Lord over all — together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever

By omitting any firm assertion of what has been deemed a central teaching about Jesus for two-thousand years, the web site apparently sought to make the scandalous message about Jesus being born of a virgin more acceptable to cynics whose numbers have increased since the days when my grandfather whispered his "truth" to me knowingly.

Whoever wrote this piece is not alone in my denominational family. And they're not being challenged by bishops charged with ensuring that the Gospel is proclaimed in purity either. For example, in 2006, one ELCA pastor wrote in the pages of The Lutheran, our denomination's official publication:

One way to understand virginity is to think of it as a spiritual possibility, rather than as a physical condition: there is a place in each of us that the pride, power and wealth of the empire cannot touch. It’s that place, call it soul as Mary did, or spirit or heart, that remains “virgin”—untouchable and pure. And it’s from this place that God speaks to us and calls us to new possibilities.

It’s this “virginity” that enables Mary to say, “Here I am” and so face off against all the powers that said she was nobody, the lowest of the low—a young, peasant woman, expendable and of no account. It’s from this “virginity’ that she dares sing the words of the hymn of praise we know and love as the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)

How's that for sleight of hand?

According to this view, Jesus was conceived in a "virgin" place in Mary like the virgin places that reside in each of us. This isn't Biblical thinking. It's Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson-style thinking. It ignores the reality that we are born in sin, utterly turned in on ourselves and selfish.

Mary's declaration of "let it be unto me" to the angel Gabriel's announcement that she would give birth to Jesus is not the statement of a good person with an innocent side to her nature. It was the declaration of faith of a person who, like Abraham before her and like centuries of believers in Jesus since, was a sinner empowered to believe the promise of God. That simple belief, not any virtue she may have possessed, not some virgin place in her soul, is what God counted as righteous. It's how we are counted right with God to this day.

If there is any virgin element to our souls, we wouldn't need a sinless Savior to bear our sins on the cross to make those who repent and believe in Christ one with God. Human beings conceived in the usual way are born in sin (Psalm 51:5). A Jesus born of human parents by the usual means, of parents who bear original sin, could not be the pure and sinless Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

For the sake of His mission of dying and rising for sinful humanity, a Jesus born into the human race had to be born of a virgin.

Beyond that, does anyone really believe that when Matthew and Luke wrote their narratives of Jesus' birth they thought that as they wrote the word virgin, they had in mind a place in Mary that was "untouchable and pure." It would have violated their understanding of human nature.

Indulge me a bit and take a few moments to read and consider the two passages in the Gospel that overtly assert Jesus' virgin birth.

Matthew 1:18-25

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.  

Some skeptics look at this passage and point to verse 23 as proof that Mary was not necessarily a virgin, one who had not engaged in sexual intercourse. The skeptics are right in pointing out that, in citing passages from Isaiah, Matthew doesn't quote from the original Hebrew Scripture, but from a Greek translation dating back to the second-century BC, the Septuagint. The Old Testament passages Matthew cites, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6, in the original Hebrew don't use the term usually used for virgin, but a more generic term that means young woman (which can also mean virgin).

If that's all that this passage told us about Mary's virginity, skeptics would have a good case. But, notice several other things:

1. Verse 18 says that Mary "was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit." This isn't definitive, of course, but it certainly strongly implies that the child is not necessarily conceived by the normal means.

2. Verse 19 tells us that Joseph knew that he Mary's fiance, at least was not the father of the child. Mary, from what both Matthew and Luke tell us, seems to assert that she has not had sexual relations. Anyone who has read the Bible from cover to cover knows that its authors are not inclined to sugarcoat the moral shortcomings of believers: Abraham and Sarah had such failures of belief that they resorted to having Abraham make love to Sarah's slave in order to conceive a child they thought God was tardy in sending; David murdered and committed adultery; Solomon faithlessly worshiped foreign deities; Moses whined to God about his responsibilities; Saul/Paul persecuted the Church. If Mary's pregnancy was the result of fornication, that is, sexual intimacy outside of marriage, the Bible would tell us. After all, the Bible is not a book of Christian heroes; it's a witness of God's actions to save sinful humanity from sin, death, and the devil.

3. Verse 25 seems to underscore Mary's sexual purity, saying that Joseph had "no marital relations" with Mary until after Jesus was born.

4. Finally, Matthew's use of the Septuagint's rendering of the Isaiah passages indicate that, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it was his understanding that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived in her womb.

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. 

The "sixth month" of verse 26 refers, of course, to Mary's kinswoman Elizabeth, who, thought to be barren, was now pregnant with John the Baptist. So, what does this passage say to those who are skeptic about Jesus' virgin birth?

1. In the original Greek in which Luke (and all the New Testament writers) wrote, verse 34 has a better translation than that of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) above. Let me give you the literal Greek first:

1:34   είπε [said] δε [And] Μαριάμ [Mary] προς [to]  τον [the]  άγγελον [angel], πως [How] έσται τούτο [will this be], επεί [since] άνδρα [a husband] ου γινώσκω ¹I know not [or, not I know].

A more literal translation of the passage then, might read:

But [or and] Mary said to the angel, "How will this be since do not know a husband?"

From Old Testament times to know another person was to know them intimately, sexually. Mary was mystified as to how she could possibly be pregnant since had not known anyone sexually. She understands that babies aren't usually born of virgins. Here, Mary asserts her virginity without using the term translated variously as maiden and virgin, the Greek term parthenos. 

2. In verse 35, the angel says that Mary will conceive when the Holy Spirit "overshadows" her. Episkiazo, the term translated as overshadow can also mean cover. When, earlier in Luke 1, the angel visits Zechariah to say that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son, there is no indication that the conception will happen in any other than the ordinary way: Zechariah will have sexual relations with his wife and God will cause the conception of John by that usual means. The child to be born of Mary though, will not, apparently, possess the genes of either Mary or Joseph. The Spirit will overshadow Mary and be conceived in her womb.

3.  In verse 38, Mary accepts the word of the angel on faith in God. She does this in spite of the scandal likely to attend her pregnancy. The angel offers the pregnancy of Elizabeth as proof that God can accomplish the impossible, even conceiving the Savior of the world in the womb of a virgin.

Is the teaching about Jesus birth of a virgin an essential element of Christian belief? 

Apparently so. When the early Church set out to express the basics of Christian faith in both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, it held that essential to faith in Jesus is acceptance that He was born of a virgin. The Church has held to this belief for 2000 years because it has believed it to be the revealed truth of God.

But its importance has nothing to do with the virtue of Mary. Jesus Christ could have chosen to enter our world and bring new life to those who repent and believe in Him by any means He chose. But if Jesus were to be born of a woman, it was essential for our salvation that while He must share our humanity, He must not share our common human inheritance of sin, our inborn alienation from God. (Hebrews 2:14-17, 4:15)

For us to receive salvation. Jesus had to be, in Paul's phrase, "the second Adam," the new human being, as sinless as Adam and Eve when God first created them, the only human being Who could take the death sentence we deserve and yet remain worthy of being raised from the dead so that sin, death, and the devil would be conquered for all who "loved [Jesus'] appearing," repented for sin, and believed in the only name given by which we can be saved, the Name of Jesus. (2 Corinthians 15, 2 Timothy 4:8, John 1:12-13, Acts 4:12).

Third Pass at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (December 23, 2007)

(General Comments, continued)

(11) Matthew 1:18-25: Matthew's Gospel opens (1:1-17) with a geneaology, tracing the fourteen generations from Abraham, patriarch of Biblical faith, to David, Israel's greatest king, and then from David to Jesus, who though not descended from human parents in the usual way, was placed under the custodial parentage of Joseph in the town of Nazareth.

After this, comes our Bible lesson.

(12) Only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke give accounts of Jesus' birth. Luke does so, largely, from the perspective of Jesus' earthly mother, Mary. Matthew, on the other hand, tells it from the vantage point of Joseph.

Verse-by-Verse Comments: Matthew 1:18-25 18Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
(1) The term "Messiah" comes from the Hebrew. It means simply, the Anointed. It was used of Israel's kings, because they were anointed with oil as a sign of their being set apart for their work and of God's expectation that they would rule justly, in accordance with His will.

Over time, the term came to be associated with a particular King. The Messiah was the subject of much Old Testament prophecy especially in Isaiah.

Christos, in English, Christ, is the Greek translation of Messiah.

Matthew makes clear at the outset of his narrative that he regards Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.

(2) Even while engaged--or betrothed, men and women in first century Judea who had entered this relationship were considered married, whether their union had been consummated and they had begun to live together or not. This is why Joseph would consider divorcing Mary.

In this era in which sex has become meaningless, it's difficult to imagine how scandalous it was for an unmarried woman to become pregnant. It indicated a cavalier contempt for God, Who reserved sexual intimacy for a couple who were married, a closeness reserved for their enjoyment, for celebrating their commitment to one another, and for creating children.

Naturally enough, Joseph, who knew that he hadn't had sexual intimacy with Mary, would have assumed that she had been unfaithful to him.

(3) The most important phrase in this passage is "from the Holy Spirit." The Spirit moved over the waters in Genesis 1 and life came about. The Spirit gives life. This makes sense because in the Hebrew of the Old Testament--ruach--and the Greek of the New Testament--pneuma, the word spirit means breath, wind, or air. In the second creation account in Genesis, God breathes His spirit into a clump of dust and gives life to the first human.

The Spirit brings life into being where it seemingly cannot exist. The Spirit did this in the womb of barren Sarah in the Old Testament. Now, Mattthew tells us, He did it again, causing an embryo to appear in the womb of a virgin.

19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
(1) Under Old Testament law, Joseph would have been within his rights to have divorced Mary. As punishment, she likely would have been taken just outside the village and stoned to death. Joseph couldn't do this to her, although he still felt violated. He would, he told himself, end their arranged marriage "quietly."

20But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
(1) Joseph's plan was commendable. But God had other ideas.

(2) Joseph dreams like his Old Testament namesake, the son of Jacob. This Joseph will receive several messages from God in dreams. The best book I've read on this subject of dreams is by the priest and Jungian psychologist, Morton Kelsey.

(3) Angel, which translates the Greek word, angelos, means messenger. The angels are messengers from God. The best book I've read on the subject of angels is by evangelist Billy Graham.

21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
(1) The name Jesus, Yeshua (Joshua) in Hebrew and Yesus in Greek, roughly means, Yahweh Saves. Yahweh, the Name by which God identified Himself to Moses, means I AM and carries the notion that God is the foundational being of the universe: I AM WHO I AM. Theologian Paul Tillich used this name for God to speak of God as our "ground of being."

(2) The Messiah comes into the world to save us from the consequences of our sins, which are succinctly summarized in Romans 6:23, along with what God does for us in Christ:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

22All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
(1) Although we're told that the child is to be named Jesus, the prophecy from Isaiah is cited by Matthew. It foretells the birth of a child to be called Emmanuel. But, given that Jesus is "God with us," I take this to be an apposition, a sort of descriptive nickname for Jesus.

(2) The prophecy from Isaiah was originally applied to a king's son born hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. The term, rendered as virgin here, is, in the Greek of the New Testament and of the standard Greek translation of the Old Testament, produced many years before the birth of Jesus, the Septuagint, is parthenos. It can be translated as virgin. But can also be rendered as young maiden.

24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
(1) Joseph did as directed by the angel, taking Mary as his wife.

(2) This passage, along with others which speak of the family that Joseph and Mary subsequently had together, disprove the notion that their other children were produced by the Holy Spirit. In short, Mary and Joseph were a normal married couple. They had sexual relations.

The point of the virgin birth is not that sex is somehow dirty. God created sex. It's a good thing and only dirtied when we use it in the wrong ways.

The point of the virgin birth, then, is that the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ was a creative act from God through which He entered our lives, accepted our punishment for sin, and through Christ's resurrection, made it possible for all who believe in Him, to live with God forever.

[For more on this passage, you may also want to look here and here.]