LayGuy

Yesterday the topic at church was, “Why Did Jesus’ Mother Need To Be A Virgin?” This was week three of a nine week sermon series. Again a group of us went into the streets of our town to interview a bunch of people and below is the video.

And here is the sermon from last Sunday..

Catholics put “Mother Mary” on a pedestal even saying she is the “mother of God.” Technically speaking, she is the mother of the humanity of Jesus - His human nature. She’s got nothing to do with His divine side. That would be the Holy Spirit’s doing thank you very much. And this talk about still being a virgin kind of makes Catholic theology look kind of simple.

Any casual reading of the Bible would highlight the fact that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Now unless they were miraculously conceived as well, umm, sorry to my Catholic readers, but mother Mary is not a virgin anymore. One of the questions in the video was along the lines of, “what made Mary so special to be the one to birth Jesus?” I feel as if this question’s importance is sometimes brushed aside in our hurry to get to know her Son. The Catholics have got something right in regards to Mary…

“For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” Luke 1:48b

Mary was blessed for a number of reasons. First and foremost, she was a female and therefore fulfilled the declaration of war God imposed onto Satan…

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.” Gen 3:15

Here we have a rare occasion where offspring is promised to a woman instead of a man. In Hebrew culture, this is indeed, rare. Then there are multiple prophecies given that the Messiah will be born out of the line of King David. Mary just happened to be in King David’s blood line. And so was Joseph for that matter - but that’s a whole other story. And to nail the fact that Jesus’ birth was noticed by all, God declared that a virgin will give birth to Him…

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isa 7:14

Wow! What a sign! Trust God to contradict normality! I have a sneaking suspicion that God sort of WANTED us to KNOW when His Son was born. A woman in the bloodline of King David will give birth to a Son while she is still a virgin! C’mon how many other clues do yo need? And yet the conclusion Jesus’ contemporaries had of Him? That He was a bastard!

What ignorance! The people of my community have a similar ignorance. But that’s ok because they are a people distant from God and His Word. Unlike the Jews in Jesus’ time, they have no idea of the intricacies of Mary and her miraculous birth. The Jews should have known better. It’s up to us to let our community know better. If you are inclined, please pray for us that we are able to present the truth of scriptures in a way our community sees as real and relevant.

Tags: Sermon Series, Jesus, Mother Mary, Virgin, Miracle