“Preaching on Christ - The Sovereign Servant”

 

TOPIC:‌“Christ - His Virgin Birth”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Matthew 1:23

 

‌‌“Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall

‌‌call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”

(Matthew 1:23).

 

‌There is nothing more exciting that Christians enjoy celebrating each year than the Christmas story. But the one aspect of this story that many people find difficult to believe is the virgin birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This aspect of the Christmas story is just too incredible for modern man to accept. And yet, one cannot study the life of Christ without being confronted by it. That Jesus was supernaturally born is not a fabricated fable, but a confirmed fact. It is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith and is vital and indispensable to a correct understanding of how God came to live among us.

 

‌In this message I want to deal with the time, the testimony and the teaching of Christ's virgin birth. Let's begin our quest.

 

I.

 

‌Think, to begin with, of the TIME of the virgin birth of Christ. Matthew writes a little further along these words: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king” (Matthew 2:1).

 

‌It may be asked, what was the date of the birth of Jesus? Let me answer that by stating the exact date of Christ's birth cannot be established with absolute certainty. It is almost impossible to know the exact month and precise day of His birth with any degree of accuracy. However, it does seem probable from the words of Matthew that Jesus was born about 4 B.C. We come to this conclusion by the fact that Herod was king when Jesus was born and history places his death at 4 B.C. Most scholars believe that Jesus was born at least forty days before Herod's death.

 

‌But though we do not know the precise day of this birth, we do know it happened at the proper time. The Apostle Paul puts it magnificently in these words: “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). Phillips renders it correctly: “But when the proper time came God sent forth his son.” The words “fullness of the time” correspond to the words of Paul in verse 2 of this same chapter: “the time appointed by the father.”

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