Sermon Tone Analysis

*"A Miraculous Birth"*

*Isaiah 7.14 / Matthew 1.18-23*

 

Having concluded our study in Philippians and moving forward into the Christmas season, I thought it would be helpful for us to look at a couple of biblical texts to prepare our hearts and minds for the birth of our Savior.

What I will look to do is use a couple of Old Testament prophecies from Isaiah and see how they help us to understand a bit more fully the significance of a very familiar story to most of us.

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 7.14.

And while you're turning there, it is worth mentioning some things regarding the way that we interpret Scripture, namely this portion this morning.

In the Journey class over the last several weeks, we have been discussing ways that help us to understand God's Word more effectively.

One of the things we talked about is the need to understand the different genres of the Bible and how we interpret them a bit differently.

In the same way that we look at a newspaper and understand that we look at different genres, we note that Scripture also is a collection of books that are interpreted accordingly.

When we look at newspaper headlines and front page stuff, we expect to be interpreting factual observations of people and events locally and around the world.

We turn to the opinon section and understand that we are not necessarily interpreting factual information, but likely a more subjective approach of things.

The same is true when we turn to classified, the comics, etc.

We automatically read things differently without thinking too much about it.

With Scripture, we need to remember that it is quite similar.

The Bible contains narrative, poetry, letters and prophecy.

We don't interpret the book of Psalms or Proverbs the same way that we would a letter from Paul.

As we have seen in our study in the letter to the Philippians, it is mostly straightforward and logical writing.

It is an argument that is strategically put together.

These types of writings are often easier for us to apply because we are also a Christian church that heeds the same warnings and commands in order to glorify God.

But when we turn to the Psalms, we often see more expressive or artistic ways of describing God and his ways.

The Proverbs are like bullet point bits of wisdom to help us meditate on what the wise person will look like.

But we don't interpret these as literally.

God is not a literal rock or shepherd or fortress.

They describe metaphorically and creatively such attributes of God.

All of this is to merely prepare ourselves to look briefly into an Old Testament prophetic book that, too, is to be interpreted with a couple of things in mind.

The prophets were mouthpieces of God that often called the nation of Israel and its kings to repentance.

And often when God gave the prophets visions and messages, he didn't necessarily give them precise time frames as to when prophecies would be fulfilled.

The best way that this was illustrtated to me was gazing upon mountain ranges.

(This should be an easy illustration for us, I think!)

When God gave the prophets these visions and pronouncements they were to record, it was as if gazing upon different mountain ranges.

What was unclear was the precise timings.

The prophets could not determine how much time would elapse between such prophecies.

Such is the case with familiar events in Daniel.

Some of the prophecies of judgment and such took place both in Israel's near future and some are yet to be fulfilled.

And the same is true in Isaiah.

Let's look at Isaiah 7.14.

The first point this morning is *Prophecy.*

The context of this passage is that Isaiah has been sent by God to King Ahaz, the king of Judah.

Isaiah is to provide a sign to Ahaz.

However, because of the unbelief of Ahaz, God himself will reveal the sign.

Now with prophecy, there can be both immediate and future fulfillments - like I mentioned.

This prophecy in its immediate context is very difficult to discern.

There is much speculation over what son is to be born in the immediate.

And no conclusive determination is persuasive.

This has led many to believe that this doesn't have any short term fulfillment - only the birth of the Messiah.

And this will be our purpose.

Our purposes are to determine how it is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ.

In fact, we will soon look to the Gospel of Matthew where he will actually indicate that this is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.

But before moving ahead, we should identify some important details from Isaiah's words here.

First, we should note that Isaiah's prophecy was likely between the eighth and seventh century B.C. Isaiah is predicting the coming Messiah hundreds of years before the event.

And here is the sign.

"The" virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

Hmmm... Now this is interesting!

Not you're everyday occurence.

A virgin will bear a son.

Check that... *"the" *virgin.

Seven or eight hundred years out, Isaiah is pointing out "the" virgin who will bear a son!

As you know, a virgin cannot bear a child.

I realize that this is earth-shattering news for you.

But Isaiah is prophesying a miraculous event.

The word deserves a bit of discussion.

Scholars have debated whether or not this truly refers to "virgin".

But there are several indications of this understanding.

The Hebrew word, halmah is never employed of a married woman.

Dr. Edward Young has indicated that the mother referred to here is both unmarried and good.

He adds that "no other word would have been suitable for fulfilling the requirements of the sign such as the context demanded.

None of the other words would have pointed to an unusual birth.

Only 'almah makes clear that the mother was unmarried."

And "when this fact is understood, it becomes apparent that in all history there is only one of whom this can be predicated, namely, Mary, the mother of the Lord."

And he will be called Immanuel - which means "God with us".

So we can understand that Isaiah is not announcing some contemporary birth.

Isaiah can see in this dim and unique vision that he looks forward hundreds of years to the birth of the One whose very presence brings God to His people!

John Calvin rightly notes that the name cannot be applied to anyone who is not God.

"NO one else in the Old Testament bears this name.

For these reasons, the prophecy must be interpreted only of that One to whom these conditions apply, namely, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Virgin and the Mighty God."

Fast forward several hundred years.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 1.18.

The second point is *Fulfillment.

*Let's read verses 18-25.

Matthew begins his gospel tracing the genealogy from Abraham to Joseph.

And then he launches into the birth of Jesus.

He even adds the nice preface.

"This is how it went down..."

Mary, the mother of Jesus was betrothed to Joseph.

To be "betrothed" finds its closest parallel to our engagement.

Only "betrothal" was much more firm and serious than engagement.

In fact, a betrothed woman could be punished as an adulteress.

The betrothal would last a year and the girl remained with her family until her bridegroom would come for her.

But this understanding of betrothal helps us understand the severity and intensity of the situation.

Matthew indicates that when Mary was "betrothed" (and not yet married) AND (very important for our discussion) before they came together (also known as sexual relations), she was found to be with child... from the Holy Spirit.

Got all that?

And just so we can get a better understanding of what is going on, let's turn to Deuteronomy 22.

And let's look at verses 23-24.

This comes within the context of laws concerning sexual immorality.

Notice that verse 23 indicates that if there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones.

This is referring to something consensual.

And the following verses refer to a man who seizes a woman against her will.

In which case, only he would endure the punishment.

The attitude was quite serious regarding such immorality.

Obviously, our world does not view things in the same perspective today.