...from the desk of Rande Wayne Smith D.Min., Th.M., M.Div.

The Apostles’ Creed - 4

… CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY

John 1:14
The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion to His glory and our edification.  Amen.

I don’t know what the big deal is concerning the virgin birth? Somehow we’ve made belief in the virgin birth the litmus test for orthodoxy or evangelicalism. Do you belief in the virgin birth of Jesus? As if to suggest, if you believe in the natural birth of Jesus you’re some kind of heretic.

I remember years ago, when my home church was looking for a Pastor. The Committee invited a man to come for an interview. One of the ladies serving on the Pastoral Nominating Committee was Martha Lubold. Martha was an older lady, very prim and proper, and she certainly knew what she was about. After some polite small talk Martha looked the candidate in the eye, “Do you believe in the virgin birth?” Well, this poor fellow started giving this long round about view as to what the Scripture probably meant. After a couple of minutes Martha got up and left the room. She said that as far as she was concerned the interview was over and we might as well not waste each other’s time.

Let me tell you something … I believe in the natural birth of Jesus. The so-called “virgin birth” of Jesus was nothing unusual whatsoever; it was just like any other birth that has ever taken place.

But the virgin conception of Jesus … now that’s a different matter. That’s a strange, mysterious, Scriptural truth that all orthodox believers are called to accept. Jesus was born in the ordinary way … but boy; He was conceived in the uniquest of ways.

Can you believe that Jesus Christ, as the Apostles’ Creed proclaims, was conceived by The Holy Spirit, and yes, born of the Virgin Mary? Do you honestly believe that?

Let’s think this through, maybe the Gospel writers just wanted to tell a good story? Matthew writes, “This was how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. “His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.” That sounds good. That’ll sell some books. That’ll get people reading. Probably even get Matthew on Oprah. Community Church’s monthly book club might even select it.

Luke puts it this way, an angel comes to Mary and says, “You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!”

“Mary said to the angel, ‘I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?’

“The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.’”

Can you believe that stuff? Maybe you can’t. There are a lot of modern people, even calling themselves “Christians”, who believe that God just doesn’t operate outside the box. They believe that God has set up certain natural laws in which everything operates, including how babies are born … so they have a hard time swallowing a story like that.

On the other hand, if you believe that God does intervene in people’s lives, if you believe in healings, if you believe in total life turnarounds in a supernatural way, if you believe in a world where that kind of stuff can happen, then it’s not so far fetched to believe that God, by unique creation, could form a sperm cell and send it special delivery to a virgin girl in Israel … especially, if He had a very good reason to do so.

This morning I want us to think about why He did it. Why was Jesus conceived by The Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary? Why did He come that way?

You see, when the Gospel writers begin with things like angelic visitors, and announcements from Heaven, and Holy Spirit conceptions … when they begin the story of Jesus that way what they mean to signal is, if we want to think rightly about Jesus the man, we’ve got to begin with Jesus the God. There’s something Heavenly and divine about Him right from the start.

The Apostle John opens His Gospel this way, “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God.” That’s the starting point in understanding Jesus. It’s even before conception and birth. “In the beginning the Word already existed.”

Let me be technical as simply as I can. John uses a Greek word, “logos.” (Like Lego but the second letter is an “o” not an “e”.) “Logos” means “reason,” “rationality,” “logic”.

The Greeks believed that behind the physical world, as we know it, was a rational, logical, reasonable principle. It was an impersonal force. Their understanding would be like naturalism or sciencetism today that says, “yeah, we live in a well ordered universe, that has a logical rational behind it.” That’s the way the Greeks would understand this opening line in John’s Gospel.

But John’s not writing to Greeks, he’s writing to people who think from a Scriptural perspective. And when they read “logos,” translated Word, they think entirely different. Believers read, “In the beginning the ‘logos,’ ‘reason, rationality, logic,’ the Word already existed.” They understood that John was talking about the creative, redemptive, Word of God. It’s how God does stuff. He speaks and He makes a world. God just calls out and a universe comes into being. That’s the power of His Word.

And His Word not only creates, it saves. People who are in desperate straits, who need deliverance and rescue and salvation … God speaks a Word, and a way is made for them.

Sometimes God’s Word is just self-revealing. How many times in the Old Testament do we read of God speaking to prophets … “the word of the Lord came to ….” God reveals Himself. He says, “This is who I am, how I think, and this is what my will is.”

Now, to a person thinking about this from a Jewish perspective, they read, “In the beginning the Word already existed; (of course) the Word was with God, (yes, it was right on His lips) … and the Word was God.” He, (personal pronoun), was with God from the beginning. Wow! This is brand new territory … a Word that’s personal. Yes! That’s who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is the self-expression of God. God’s power and person are known through His Word. And His Word is not just a principle … it’s a Person, Jesus Christ. That’s who John’s writing about here.

If you want to think rightly about Jesus, the man, you’ve got to start with Jesus the God, the Word, who was with God, and was God, in the beginning.

Now that tells us 2 very important things about Jesus’ identity. first of all, Jesus is the Son of God. And by that we mean that Jesus is made of the same stuff that God is. He partakes of the same nature. That’s what sonship means in a Scriptural way.

There’s a man we read about in the New Testament named Joseph. Joseph was such an encourager that they gave him the nickname Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.” This Joseph is so encouraging; he’s the embodiment of encouragement, so we’ll just call him “son of encouragement … Barnabas.”

Jesus had a couple of hot-headed disciples named James and John. They were always raging about, flying off the handle over things. Jesus gave them the nickname, Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder.” They were thunderous guys. They were thunder personified.

When we say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we mean that Jesus is deity embodied. He’s God personified. And that helps us to think rightly about Him because the 2 primary heresies regarding Jesus are that (a) He’s not fully God, or (b) He’s not fully man. Those are the 2 basic heresies about Jesus, and the Word of God leaves no room for us to think that either one can possibly be correct.

There are those that believe that Jesus was really just a man, who was “adopted” later on as God’s chosen one. He was just a man, conceived and born in the normal way, and then at His baptism, God speaks and says “this is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased.” And at that moment God “adopted” Him as His own. Well, Scripture doesn’t leave us room to think that way. “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus existed before He ever came to this earth.

Nor can we think in the opposite direction that Jesus was fully God but He wasn’t really human. That’s a heresy that’s known as “Docetism”. It comes from a Greek word that means “to seem” or “appear to be.” Jesus just seemed to be a man. He appeared to be a man. He just poured Himself into a human body and walked around for awhile, but He wasn’t really human. No, Scripture denies that as well. This Son of God took on a human nature … He just didn’t live in a human body. Jesus is fully God and fully man.

We mean that when we say in the Creed, “We believe in Jesus Christ … conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” Conceived by The Holy Spirit – divine … born of the Virgin Mary – human.

Jesus is the sinless Son of God. Although He was human, carried in His mother’s womb, born of a person, He’s of a completely different order than the rest of us. He has a mixed parentage. He’s got a human parent, and He has a divine parent. The rest of us only have human parents. And that means that we inherit everything that’s human in this world, including sin nature. From the time that Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden, they passed on the nature of sin to their offspring. David is confessing sins before God. He prays, “I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.”

That’s what it means to be in Adam’s line. It means that you were born with a sin nature. You were conceived with it. But Jesus didn’t have a normal human father. He didn’t inherit Adam’s sin. His Heavenly Father, via The Holy Spirit, poured Him into human flesh. Heavenly Father … human mother …2 natures in one. Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God. He’s like us in every way, but for sin. It was The Holy Spirit who fashioned Him. And when The Holy Spirit fashions anything it is pronounced very good. Jesus is very good … pure to the core.

And yet, at the same time, He is one of us. That’s what John affirms. “The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.” I like the way the Message version of the Bible puts it. “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” God became flesh and blood and moved in next door. He’s knowable, meetable, personable … that’s who Jesus is. If you have a neighbor live beside you for 33 years, you’re going to get to know him.

Jesus moved into the neighborhood … so He could get to know us … so that He could save us and rescue us. He lived among us. He lived as us. That’s amazing.

That’s the beauty of the incarnation. Jesus moved into the neighborhood. He took the initiative because that’s what we needed. And not only did He make the first move … He had to make the first move, because we’re absolutely powerless to transform our own lives. Someone had to come from the outside and do it for us.

“Since the children (that’s us) … are people of flesh and blood, Jesus himself became like (us) and shared (our) human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death and in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death. … This means that he had to become like his people in every way, in order to be their faithful and merciful High Priest in his service to God, so that the people’s sins would be forgiven.”

“Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” That’s why Jesus came. Because we’ve been held captive by the fear of death, and situations of life that we can’t turn around ourselves … He came to offer His presence, His grace, His truth, His peace, His forgiveness. Jesus came to be with us. And I’m so glad that He did.

Do you know the difference between empathy and sympathy? When we empathize with a person we try to project ourselves into their situation. They’re struggling. They’re going through a hard time, a grief or a difficulty. We sensitize ourselves to them, and try to show them that we care.

Sympathy doesn’t work like empathy. Sympathy enters another’s shoes. In counseling I learned empathy. Because you see, true sympathy is impossible for us. The last thing you say when a person is struggling is, “I know exactly how you feel.” You don’t. The best we can do is to try to empathize, “I can only imagine what you’re going through … and I care.” That’s good on the human level.

But let me tell you, if you’re in desperate straits and feeling really alone, or suffering, empathy is good, but sympathy is great. Empathy itself is hard to come by. Sympathy apart from God is impossible.

I really like what we just read in the book of Hebrews about Jesus. He’s our High Priest mediator, and He is able to sympathize with us … because He has moved into our neighborhood. He’s came to live among us. And as one of us, He went through everything that we’ve gone through, save for sin. So God can do more than just imagine what you’re going through … He knows what you’re going through. He can pour Himself into your shoes, and be with you in your feelings.

“The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.”

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Old Testament the past few months. And as I was putting all this together, about God moving into our neighborhood, I was thinking about Moses, and all the Hebrew people, making their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. They constructed a tent, a tabernacle. It was the place where God would come and dwell with His people, as closely as He could. He was, after all, still a holy God, and they were sinful people. Moses became the mediator. He would go into the tent, the tabernacle, and Scripture tells us, “The LORD would speak with Moses face-to-face, just as someone speaks with a friend.”

Moses went in, and the people would stand some distance away and watch. Pretty soon Moses would come out, and his face actually radiated. His face would shine literally from being in God’s presence. In fact, the whole tabernacle glowed. It became known as the Shekinah, the resident glory. Because when God shows up there’s glory in that place.

Well, Jesus came and moved into the neighborhood, and we’ve seen His glory. It’s the glory of the One and only. It comes from the Father.

What did His glory consist of? Did Jesus go about with His face radiating or shining like Moses’? No. Was His body some kind of impressive thing? No. Scripture says that He just looked like the rest of us, (which I take to mean that He was hairy). He was somebody we can relate to. What did Jesus’ glory consist of? What does the glory of your home consist of?

I’ve been in some pretty impressive homes. Glorious places. Well manicured lawns, classy décor on the inside. That’s the glory of most people’s physical dwellings. That was the glory of the Old Testament tabernacle. What was Jesus’ glory? “We saw his glory … full of grace and truth.” Jesus came from the Father full of grace and truth. The glory of Jesus is those 2 qualities: graciousness and truthfulness. The glory of Jesus, the thing that really radiates from Him is grace.

Here’s a man who would go up and touch a leper, who nobody else would even get near, and He’d embrace him. Here’s a man who would take an adulteress, on the verge of being stoned to death, and would raise her up and forgive her sins. Here’s a man who was making His way to Jerusalem for the Passover, lots of people all around Him, and He took time for a blind beggar who was calling out from the side of the road to have mercy on him. That’s the glory of Jesus.

The truth He taught in the sermons He preached hit, and continues to hit, deep in people’s souls. Grace and truth … that was the glory of Jesus’ presence with His people … that’s what really shone. And we still need that today … God with us. And so, Jesus bears the name, Immanuel … God is with us. The perfect, sympathetic, High Priest, Mediator for our human condition.

We need a Mediator. There are certain things in life that can’t get done, except through a Mediator. Read an article earlier this summer in Sports Illustrated about Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of baseball; more leadoff home runs, more stolen bases. He was an amazing baseball machine, but, the article suggested that he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He kind of speaks like Yogi Berra used to. One time he was getting on the team bus and Tony Gwinn told him to sit up front, because “hey, you’ve got tenure.” Rickey looked at him, “tenure? Rickey got 20 years in the big leagues.” Another time he was trying to negotiate a contract with the owners, so he called them up. “Hey, this is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.” The owner says, “You know what, Rickey, if Rickey wants to play ball, Rickey is going to have to learn how the game is played. You need an agent. You need a go-between to come on behalf of Rickey.” We need mediators sometimes; it’s the only way things get done.

If you need grace and truth from God today, (and who of us doesn’t?), there’s only one way to get it. It’s through the Mediator, the sympathetic High Priest, the God/man, Jesus Christ. He’s the perfect representative of the holiness and the majesty and the perfection of God Himself. He’s the perfect representative of the weakness and frailty and dependency of humanity ourselves. Jesus Christ the one provision whereby we can get the grace and the truth that we need.

Here’s the great thing, Jesus has come and moved into our neighborhood. He’s near us. We can have everything that He offers.

He’s not far away. You don’t have to clean your “house” all up for Him to move in. He’s already here. So why not just invite Him in, and receive from Him what you, what all of us, so desperately need.

MARANA THA