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00:00 and so on. The son of David, the uh the line that we're interested in, okay, all the way down to Abraham and to Adam, the
00:07 son of God. Okay, so this is the genealogy of Jesus that goes through Joseph's line. Now, you might think to
00:15 yourself, but Joseph Joseph isn't really his father. So, how is he the son of David? Well, in those times and even
00:22 today, ancestry is traced through the father and not through the mother. Okay?
00:28 And so Joseph was actually legally speaking Mary's husband. And therefore, humanly speaking, Jesus was Joseph's
00:36 child legally because he was Mary's child and descended therefore from David.
00:43 Now, why is this important? Well, we have to go back to the Old Testament to realize that actually this
00:50 uh these words are very significant because they fulfill a lot of Old Testament promises. Okay? For example,
00:56 in 2 Samuel here, God is speaking to King David through the prophet Nathan.
01:03 And he says to David, "When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, that's after you are dead. I will raise
01:09 up your offspring to succeed you who will come from your own body and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who
01:16 will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." So this king, this son of
01:22 David is going to rule forever. Okay. I will be his father. He will be my son.
01:27 When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away
01:34 from Saul whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. And your
01:40 throne will be established forever. Of course, this uh this prophecy is a
01:45 prophecy about uh David's physical descendants who rule over Israel, but it
01:51 has a greater fulfillment because nobody in David's line actually ruled forever.
01:56 So, we are expecting somebody to come and rule one of David's offspring
02:01 forever. Another one very popular passage in Christmas time from Isaiah. To us a
02:08 child is born. To us a son is given. The government will be on his shoulders. He
02:14 will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the increase of his
02:21 government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and
02:26 over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and
02:33 forever. Okay, there are many of these kind of passages. Another one in Isaiah,
02:39 a chute will come up from the stump of Jesse. Jesse was David's father. So, it's talking about David's descendants.
02:45 From his roots, a branch will bear fruit. Basically, another prophecy. Jeremiah, the days are coming, declares
02:52 the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and
02:58 right in the land. And you find other passages in Ezekiel and so on which talk
03:03 about the same kind of thing. You see this son of David was prophesied in the
03:09 Old Testament. He will be king on David's throne. His kingdom will last forever. And the Jews were waiting
03:16 eagerly for centuries for this king to come. They thought he would come and restore the kingdom of Israel and uh and
03:23 rule over everyone. Okay? And they called this coming king of David, they called him the Messiah, which means the
03:30 anointed. This king would rule forever in justice,
03:36 in righteousness, in peace. That's what the Old Testament promises. And this son
03:41 of David is not just a son of David is he's also a son, the son of God. See, in
03:49 this psalm, he's talking about the Messiah. Talking about God and his anointed one, the Messiah in Hebrew.
03:54 Okay? And he says, God says to him, "You are my son. today I have become your
04:01 father. So this son of David is not going to just reign uh as a normal king. He's
04:08 actually someone more than that. He's a son of God. Okay? And he's going to reign not just over Israel but over all
04:16 the nations. Whoops. Here over all the nations of this world. The nations will
04:21 be in inheritance. The ends of the earth his possession. So all the hopes of the
04:26 Old Testament are focused in on this one individual. And now you can see why
04:32 Gabriel's announcement is so such huge news to ma Mary Mary and to us. Because
04:39 this child that is to be born is none other than this long awaited Messiah,
04:44 the promised son of David. He will be great. He will be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will
04:50 give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. These are all words that
04:56 reflect those Old Testament passages that we have read. He is the son of God.
05:02 He is the son of David. He will reign forever. His coming is the turning point
05:07 of history. And in this baby's birth, God is finally fulfilling his promise.
05:12 That is the significance of this birth of Jesus. Next thing, the virgin birth allows for
05:19 Jesus to be the preexistent son of God. Now, you see, the virgin birth doesn't
05:26 just allow Jesus to be a human being and the son of David because the Old Testament also foreshadowed that this
05:32 coming one is going to be God himself like the passage that we just read where
05:38 he says he's to be called mighty God. Okay? Or in Malachi. Now in uh this
05:45 passage, God is speaking. God says, "I'm going to send my messenger, which refers to John the Baptist, who will prepare
05:52 the way before me, me as in God, I'm coming." And then he says, "Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will
05:59 come to his temple." So this the Lord is distinct from God, the speaker, and yet
06:04 he is the Lord and he has a temple, which means he's also God. So he's God and he's also distinct from God. That
06:11 doesn't seem to make sense, isn't it? until you understand that God is trinity. God the father sends his son
06:20 who has always existed from eternity who has always been with the father. In
06:26 other words, the son of God didn't begin to exist when he was born by Mary. He
06:32 didn't just begin to exist in Mary's womb. He existed in all eternity before
06:37 that before becoming the baby Jesus. Now the uniqueness of this birth of
06:43 Jesus is not just that he was born from a virgin but the greater miracle is that he existed before he was born. He chose
06:50 to come as a human baby. And the theological word to describe this uh
06:55 process of the god's son becoming a human being is incarnation
07:00 which means becoming flesh. And the old testament talks about this. For example, in the book of Micah, this
07:08 prophecy says, "But you Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one
07:13 who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." So this ruler will be born in
07:20 Bethlehem's David's city. But he comes from way before that before that time.
07:26 He existed before he was born. And this is confirmed to us many times in the New
07:31 Testament. There's so many passages, okay? Some of the uh more uh I guess well-known ones are John's gospel. In
07:39 the beginning was the word and the word the son of God was with God. The word
07:44 was God. He was with God in the beginning. And then he in verse 14 he became flesh and made his dwelling among
07:51 us. Or in John chapter 17 Jesus is praying to God and Jesus says father
07:58 glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. See, Jesus was born only 30 years
08:06 before he said this. But he says he was there before the world began with the father.
08:11 And later on in Luke's gospel, Jesus points out like a riddle to the Jews who
08:17 are challenging him. He said to them, "How is it that they say the Christ is
08:22 the son of David? David himself declares in the book of Psalms, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I
08:29 make your enemies a foottool for my feet." David calls him Lord. How can then he be his son? You see, he's
08:37 referring to Psalm 110. In this psalm, David is talking about God, a conversation between God and Jesus. And
08:44 he recalls it by saying, "The Lord said to my Lord." Okay? And Jesus reasoning
08:51 is if David calls the Messiah my Lord, then surely he can't just be a
08:57 descendant of David, but he must also be the Lord of David. But how can somebody be both son of David and Lord of David?
09:06 You see, the Jews couldn't answer that riddle. They didn't know. But it only makes sense if you know that Jesus
09:13 existed prior to coming as David's descendant. And the only thing that
09:18 makes that possible is the virgin birth. Now, if there was no virgin birth,
09:26 Jesus would just have been any person like us. He had two ordinary human parents. Okay? He could be a really good
09:32 man, but all he would be is just a man. But Jesus is unique. He's different from
09:38 us. You see, he alone of all human beings in this world was conceived in a
09:43 virgin's womb. He alone was directly created by a supernatural act of God,
09:48 not just by a natural biological process. And the angel says, how did it happen?
09:55 The Holy Spirit will come upon Mary. The power of the most high will overshadow
10:00 her and the holy one to be born will be called son of God. See, the spirit is
10:06 the power of God. He comes over Mary. He overshadows her. He supernaturally
10:11 creates in her this new life outside of the reproductive process. And this child
10:17 is conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore he is holy. He will be called
10:22 the son of God. Therefore, this virgin birth confirms guarantees to us that
10:29 Jesus is both fully man and also fully God.
10:36 Next, the virgin birth enables Jesus to be sinless.
10:43 Don't know whether you've ever thought about that. You know, because of the virgin birth, Jesus, yes, he's fully man. He's fully God. But not only that,
10:49 he can be sinless as well. You see, all of us who are born of natural parents, we inherit sinfulness from them. Isn't
10:57 it? In in the book of Psalms in the Old Testament, it says, David says, "Surely I was sinful at birth. sinful from the
11:04 time my mother conceived me. You know at the time of conception this single cell
11:11 is already sinful without having done a single thing. You see because we inherit
11:16 sinfulness from our parents. Okay. In Romans it says that just as sin entered
11:22 the world through one man and death through sin referring to Adam. In this way death came to all men because all
11:30 sinned. So sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and it was transmitted. It infected all of us,
11:37 every single one of his descendants. But Jesus, however, did not have a human
11:43 uh father. He's not the son of Adam. He's not like the rest of us. He is the
11:49 son of God. And because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, therefore, he is
11:55 holy and sinless. And the that's what the uh the angel said.
12:00 So the virgin birth means that Jesus is also sinless. This is not just some
12:07 interesting theological point. You know, this is absolutely essential and crucial for our salvation. Because if Jesus was
12:14 not sinless, we cannot be saved. If he had a sinful nature like us, he would
12:19 also be under God's wrath. How can he save us? But because he is sinless, he can be our sacrifice for sin. And
12:26 because he is sinless, he can be the head of a new humanity. No longer those old people under sinful Adam, but those
12:33 under Jesus Christ, a new sinless humanity. And that's why this miracle of
12:39 the virgin birth is so absolutely necessary for our salvation.
12:44 You see, Jesus was born for a purpose. He wasn't just born to come into this
12:50 world and walk around and look at things. He was born for a purpose. In 1
12:55 John chapter 3 it says he appeared so that he might take away our sins. In him
13:01 there is no sin. Uh and the next uh in verse 8 it says the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy the devil's
13:09 work. Jesus came to take away sin to destroy the work of the devil. In Mark
13:14 10 Jesus said for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve
13:20 and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus knew that he was born to
13:26 die. And in Hebrews, it also says, since the children have flesh and blood, that is,
13:32 we are people of flesh and blood, human beings, he too shed in their humanity. He became a human being like us. Why? So
13:40 that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, the devil.
13:45 You see, Jesus took on human flesh in order that he could die for us as a
13:52 human being. You see, Jesus became man because we so desperately needed for somebody who was a man to die. But this
13:60 man has to be more than just a man. And that is who Jesus is. In this incarnation, God was locking himself
14:08 into death row so that we could be pardoned from our death penalty.
14:14 Perhaps we are so overfamiliar with this, we have lost the wonder of knowing that God came from heaven to die for us.
14:24 Now, just let it sink in the amaze, the amazement and the awe of it all. Let it
14:30 prompt you to worship our God. God loves you so much. He sent his only precious
14:37 son to unite himself to a human body forever so that this body could be
14:43 nailed to a Roman cross for you and for me. That's what it says here. God loved
14:50 the so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes
14:56 in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
15:01 Praise God. Praise God for his amazing love. Now, if you do not know God, the
15:06 only thing that you need to do is to believe in him and to receive his
15:11 precious gift. If you trust in Jesus as your savior and you make him lord of
15:17 your life, you will not perish but have eternal life. Now, friends, if that's
15:23 what you want to do today, please come up to the front later after the service and the uh pastors will be here and
15:28 people will be here to help you to do it. Jesus came as a sinless man to die for
15:35 our sin. The virgin birth also shows us that salvation is by God's grace alone. The
15:42 word grace means it's God's uh initiative that we do not deserve it. We
15:48 have not worked for it. We have not merited it. You see, salvation comes in uh by God's initiative alone. In our
15:55 passage today, did you see Mary praying very hard so that God will allow her to have a baby savior? No. Did you see
16:03 anyone pleading that God would fulfill his word in the Old Testament and send the Messiah into Mary's womb? No. It
16:10 just happened one day out of the blue. God sent Gabriel pop. There he was. You see, in the Bible, it says that when the
16:17 time had fully come, God sent his son born of a woman. You see, the time of
16:24 fulfillment had come and God activated his plan. He sent Gabriel and he sent
16:29 his son into the womb of Mary. It was by God's initiative, by God's will alone
16:34 that it happened. You see, in this virgin birth, it shows us clearly that
16:40 man doesn't approach God. But God comes to man without being asked. There is no
16:45 human cooperation here. God didn't ask Mary, "Can I have permission to use your womb so that uh I can send the savior?"
16:52 No, he didn't ask her for permission. He sent the savior to her womb and said, "You're going to have a child."
16:59 Salvation is always by God's grace alone. No, the virgin birth shows us that human beings simply can't bring
17:06 salvation for ourselves. We can't do it. The savior must come from outside us, from God. And for God to stoop down so
17:13 low and become a man is gracious enough, is generous enough. But for him to do so
17:18 in order to die, that is amazing. That is wonderful. The love that he has is
17:25 better than any story, any fairy tale that you have ever read. And all you need to do is to receive his gracious
17:31 gift by placing your faith in Jesus. Which brings us uh to the last thing
17:38 that I want to highlight from the virgin birth today. The virgin birth shows Mary as a model
17:44 for faith. So far, we've looked at what the virgin birth tells us about Jesus, which is of
17:51 course right because that is the primary focus here. But let's not neglect Mary.
17:56 Before we end, let's consider the character of Mary and learn from her example of faith.
18:02 See, often we Protestant Christians, we are uncomfortable about making too much of Mary because we are reacting against
18:08 the Roman Catholic exaggerated devotion to Mary. See, they believe uh this is a
18:15 painting of Mary by Raphael. I just thought I like it because of the little cute little cherubs at the bottom. But
18:21 anyway, um very famous one hanging in Dresden in Germany. Okay. Roman Catholic
18:26 view of Mary. Uh she's the mother of God. She's the queen
18:31 of heaven. She's mother of all Christians. She's co-redemptric, which redemptric is the feminine for redeemer.
18:39 Co- co-redeemer with Jesus. Mediatrix or mediator again. Okay. The advocate.
18:46 Immaculate conception refers to the fact that the Roman Catholics believe that Mary was sinless as well. She was born
18:53 sinless. So that's called the immaculate conception. Okay. Perpetual virginity refers to the fact that they believe
18:59 that Mary always remained a virgin uh before she conceived Jesus but even
19:04 during his birth and after his birth she remained a virgin don't know how. Okay. And um
19:11 assumption of Mary is refers to the fact that they believe that she did not die but she was taken up to heaven body and
19:17 soul. Okay. Now therefore they pray to Mary to deliver them from death to bring
19:23 them salvation to help them in all their cares and all their needs. And the Roman Catholic person is very much more I
19:29 think likely to pray to Mary when they're in trouble than to Jesus in it. They're very passely devoted to her.
19:36 Nowhere in the Bible will you find a teaching that Mary is sinless. In fact,
19:41 next week uh we're going to look at a passage uh called the Magnificate Mary's Song of Praise where she says, "I praise
19:48 God, my savior." Now, if God is a savior, why does she need a savior? Because she's sinful. Okay? Now, nowhere
19:55 in the Bible, it says that Mary remained a virgin for her whole life. In fact, we know from the New Testament, Jesus had
20:01 brothers and sisters after him who were born to Joseph and Mary. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that
20:08 Mary ascended to heaven bodily. The these are all later editions which have no basis in the Bible. But I want to
20:16 focus on this particular claim that Mary is the co-redemptric mediatric and the advocate.
20:22 Okay. Advocate meaning that she pleads on behalf of us before God or Jesus.
20:27 That is Jesus is a stern guy. We don't dare to pray to Jesus. So we go through Mary. Mary will speak to her son nicely
20:34 for us and tell tell him what to do. Okay. All right. So, this is expressed in one of the most famous Catholic
20:41 prayers, isn't it? The a Maria or in other words, Hail Mary in English. And
20:46 the prayer goes, "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the
20:53 fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death."
20:60 Now you might recognize that the first line actually comes from our passage today. Okay, slightly different. Okay,
21:07 the angel Gabriel said to Mary, "Hail," or that's an old fashioned way to say greetings. Okay, full of grace, the Lord
21:14 is with thee. Okay, and then the next line comes from uh the same chapter where Elizabeth greeted Mary by saying,
21:21 "Blessed art thou among women." Okay, blessed is the child that you're going to bear. And the third line, I don't
21:27 know where it comes from. I think it's an extrapolation. Okay. Now, the first
21:33 sentence, why I'm bringing this up is the first sentence is actually a bit of a mistransation from our passage today.
21:40 Okay. Now, in the original Greek, uh here G Gabriel's greeting to Mary. Okay,
21:46 you could say it's in Greek uh it means greetings favored one. But when they
21:51 translated it four centuries later into Latin which became the uh language of the Roman uh Roman Empire at that time
21:58 it's called the vulgate translation they translated it in Latin as har gratia pina which means hail one full of grace.
22:06 Now this and this are actually different okay because when you say favored one it
22:13 means you are somebody who has received grace from God. You are the recipient of God's grace. You are highly favored by
22:20 God. That's what the original means. But the the the Latin translation has you are full of grace. You have a lot of
22:26 grace. You have so much grace. You can actually give it to us too, right? You can dispense it. You're like a reservoir of grace for us. So that's where they
22:33 get the idea that Mary has so much grace. She can actually give it. She's not just the receiver of grace, which is
22:39 what it's meant to mean. She's the one giver of grace. Now, okay. So that's a
22:44 mistransation and that's reflected in the Hail Mary prayer. This is actually a distortion of what
22:50 the Bible is actually saying, isn't it? Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to pray to Mary but only to God. Mary is
22:57 not a co-redemptric. Only Jesus is the redeemer. Mary is not
23:02 a mediatrix. Only Jesus is the mediator. It says very clearly there is one God
23:07 and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
23:14 And yet as evangelical Christians, we must not discount Mary altogether
23:19 because the Bible calls her favored by God and blessed. In today's passage, we
23:25 read uh uh not just in today's passage but uh in another passage, "Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the child
23:31 you will bear." And Mary in next week's passage says, "Oh, from now on, all generations will call me blessed."
23:38 She's blessed not because she's sinless. She's blessed because God has shown her
23:44 grace by giving her a great privilege. The privilege of bearing his son in her
23:50 womb and being her mother, his mother, a gift that no other human being has received.
23:56 Now, I'm sure Mary was quite aware of the downside of having this privilege. Just imagine what people would say when
24:03 you told them, "But I was a virgin when he was conceived." Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah.
24:08 Right. Right. You know, whatever you say. Okay. In the conservative Jewish
24:13 society of Jesus' time, imagine the shame and the scandal would be immense,
24:19 isn't it? No doubt people would talk about her for miles around that small village. They would shake their heads
24:25 and wag their finger at her every time they saw her. Oh, is that girl?
24:30 You know, but Mary's response was simply, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me
24:39 as you have said. She was only a probably a young girl at that time, probably just a teenager, but she has
24:45 deep faith in God. No protest, no hesitation, just a humble, ready
24:51 submission to God's will. In contrast to Zechariah just before her, who did not
24:56 believe God's promise. He doubted. But Mary's response was simply to receive
25:02 God's grace, God's word at face value, no matter how it cost her. And that is faith. And that is a faith that we must
25:09 learn. See, God offers you his grace. God offers you the wonderful free gift
25:14 of his son. It's a free and precious gift. But is also costly to receive.
25:20 Receiving God's son demands our entire life. It demands our utmost devotion and
25:26 loyalty to him. Faith in him means simply accepting this gift of God's son.
25:32 But it also means submitting to his will in every aspect of our lives. Mary's
25:38 faith was a humble faith. There's no cocky tone here. There's no arrogance,
25:44 no pompousness. There's no what do I get out of this? Why should I put myself
25:50 through this? God, God, you owe me for this. No, there's only a childlike
25:56 humility before God. Just like in the Old Testament, the boy Samuel heard
26:01 God's voice and he said, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." In the same way, she said, "Lord, I'm your
26:08 servant. Do as you wish with me." God is looking for those who humble
26:14 themselves before him. In Isaiah, it says, "This is the one I esteem. He who
26:21 is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." When God speaks,
26:28 we tremble. No, you can't come before God if you want to dictate the terms. You can only
26:34 come on God's terms. You can't come before God unless you humble yourself
26:39 before him. It reminds me of a scene from Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones and
26:45 the Last Crusade. One of the instructions for him to get the Holy Grail was only the penitent man will
26:51 pass. So he got to this cave, I think. Okay, it was a long time since I watched the other Jo's. He got to this cave and
26:58 just in the nick of time he works out what this means. Only the penitant man will pass. Only the penitent man. And he
27:03 kneels down quickly and just then the the knife the rotating knife comes right over his head. He almost got his head
27:09 cut off. Isn't it? Do you remember that scene? Do you watch Indiana Jones? Okay. All right. See?
27:16 Okay. So indeed only the penitent man will come before God. Okay. Don't come
27:23 to God with a proud a self-seeking heart only for what you can get out of him.
27:28 Don't say, "Lord, I want I get to decide what I want to do. Okay, I don't mind coming to church on Sunday, but don't
27:34 make me go to live group and definitely don't make me uh do anything that will,
27:39 you know, like remove the things that important to me." No, don't do that. Come to God with a humble, with a
27:46 penitant and contrite spirit. Tremble at God's word like Mary. Let your attitude be the same as that of Mary. May it I am
27:55 your servant, Lord. May it be to me as you have said.
28:00 We love stories with good endings. And God's greatest story has the best ending
28:07 of all because Jesus son, Jesus, God's son, came in the virgin's womb to be
28:15 born. He died on the cross to save us. He was resurrected from the dead. One
28:21 day he will return to restore this world to a perfect sinless state. He will wipe
28:28 away every tear from our eyes and we will live with him forever and enjoy God
28:34 always. This story is the only story that actually deserves the words and
28:40 they lived happily ever after. Christmas is a time for us to reflect
28:46 on, to ponder, to treasure the great story of God's saving love for us. So
28:53 let's give thanks to God now for the wonderful Christmas gift of his son. Let's pray.
29:02 Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord,
29:10 late in time, behold him come, offspring of a virgin's womb,
29:18 veiled in flesh, the Godhead sea. Hail the incarnate deity,
29:25 pleased as man with man to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel.
29:32 Heavenly Father, forgive us that so often we take for granted that you sent your beloved son to come to seek and
29:39 save us who were lost. So often we are more emotionally stirred and moved by man-made makebelieve stories than by the
29:47 true story of your great salvation. This Christmas season, we want to praise
29:53 you. We want to worship you for your love. We want for your grace to us, for your wisdom and your glory displayed in
30:00 the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus. Thank you that from cradle to cross, Jesus did it all in love for us. Help us
30:08 to have true faith in you like Mary, not complaining, not demanding, but in
30:14 childlike faith, believing your word simply because it is your word and in
30:20 humility submitting to your call on our lives. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
30:38 We thank uh we thank uh Dr. Tan for this message.
30:43 I was about to read the second verse of our hymn of response. Christ by highest
30:49 and heaven adore Christ the everlasting Lord. I invite you to look at the second
30:55 verse when we sing this. The whole sermon is captured in this verse. Let's
31:01 rise. Hark the herald angels sing.
31:10 Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to
31:16 the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy bound. Lord and Sless rank.
31:26 Joyful all ye nations rise. Joyless
31:31 triumph of the sky. Host proclaim. Christ is born in
31:40 Bethlehem. Helings.
31:46 Glory to the newborn king.
