​The Virgin is With Child

Read Luke 1:5 - 2:38, Matthew 2:18-24
 
Matthew 1:18 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.
 
WHEN people consider the Bible’s truth claims as the true Word of God, this verse is often quoted by unbelievers and doubters. The phrase while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant is considered completely impossible. Many in the church, including “preachers” deny this truth as they pretend to teach God’s Word.
   Perhaps our understanding of this truth will increase as we go back two verses to see another way Matthew emphasized the “impossible pregnancy” and birth: Matthew 1:16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. In the genealogies, Scripture tells us each son’s father. This was the way of the Jews to know who would inherit the father’s land and have responsibilities to carry forward the family line.
   But Matthew refers only to Joseph as Mary’s husband, not Jesus’ father. Then we read Matthew 1:20 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.” We know by Joseph’s response his attitude toward Mary changed from a desire to divorce to, instead, become her betrothed husband and care for her.
   Still, such language to a Jew was blasphemy. First, the Jews objected to a triune God. The concept of a son of God was adding to God. Also, a son birthed by a woman on earth would strike the Jews as the same kind of myth that poisoned the Greek and Roman cultures. How could I AM sexually interact with a woman through a “Holy Spirit”? Yes, the Spirit was very active in the Old Testament. But to make the Spirit to be holy – equal to God – would also add another god to the One God. To the Jews’ understanding, the pregnant virgin was both a physical and a theological “impossible”. To teach this was punishable with death!
   Matthew, of course, as a Jew, understood the repulsion, the criticisms and the unbelief that would oppose his gospel. Others were being persecuted and stoned for this belief. Still, Matthew was disciplined in the truth to obey Jesus' command to make disciples. His life is under Jesus’ authority – especially to the unbelieving Jews, who could kill him. Matthew allowed the power of God’s word to speak through God’s Spirit, who is the ultimate Teacher to overcome the Jews’ faith barriers.
   As people doubt God’s Word now, we have the same truth to teach in the Spirit’s power. Are we disciplined in Jesus’ authority to do so?