The Lord himself will give you a sign - Advent 4

Year A Fourth Sunday of Advent 22 December 2013
Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19 Romans 1: 1-7 Matthew 1: 18-25



Last week I had an awesome experience where my students, beginning with the very littlest began asking lots of questions about God. I don’t know that I answered them all adequately but I tried my best in the little time that we had while still remembering that we were in the midst of a singing lesson and needed to get back on the singing track.

I wish that I had more time to explain things more fully and tell the story that we are to hear at church this weekend. The first question was, “I thought Jesus was God’s son, so how come the song talks about Joseph being his father?”

This week’s readings center around the theme of prophecy fulfilled and that prophecy being that a virgin shall be with child.

Isaiah 7:14 “14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

The purpose of the sign was so that people would believe that God was active, involved and interested in his creation. Immanuel – God with us! God wants a relationship with us.


The Bible is full of miracles and each time there is a miracle it was to prove God’s reality and sovereignty. But each time there was a miracle there were a variety of responses. Many people who witnessed or heard about the miracle believed that something supernatural had happened and on a superficial level they believed in God, but pretty soon the majority turned away. They still acknowledged that something happened but they didn't want to give credit to God.

Why would this be?

If we experience a miracle and credit it to God it means that we need to respond.

Joan Osborne sang the song “One of Us”, with the pertinent lyrics “If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see If seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets”

To believe in the virgin being with child not only means that we believe God did a miracle, but it is to believe something about the character and person of Jesus – that he is truly the son of God. To believe that Jesus is the son of God means that all he did and said is true and deserves acceptance.

Our first reading is a prophecy which assures the people that God is with them. They had been unfaithful and their king was wicked and yet God gives them this message of hope.

From this website: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/virginbirth.html I found some interesting information about the supposed existence of virgin births that happen in nature. This really has nothing to do with our story because a miracle (by my definition at least) is something that does not occur in nature. Let me note here that I've come across a theologian who claimed that one day we will understand that Jesus’ miracles were nothing more than his superior knowledge of how the universe works and all the miracles will be explained away as a natural phenomenon. I believe the man was a heretic breeding doubt and disbelief. In the end it all comes down to one thing; Is God God? If God truly is then all things are possible.

Other cultures also have stories about a virgin birth. These occur among the Greek and Roman gods and Asian gods also. I find this interesting and think that God really does aim to make himself known to all people – it is an opening, just like when Saint Paul was in Athens and saw the altar to an unknown god. Paul went on to proclaim and make the unknown God known.

Some would say, “Does it matter if Mary was a virgin?” The Isaiah prophecy has caused some commentators to wonder if the word that is translated virgin should be “Virgin” or “young woman”.

We have historical evidence for the existence of Jesus that goes beyond Christian literature, and so on this and on the account of the stories of Jesus we can have reason for our faith. Yet we find clarity and expansion on this specific prophecy in the Gospels where the story of the virgin conception is told in detail.

This young virgin, Mary, lived in a time when those found guilty of adultery could be stoned to death. Being pregnant out of wedlock was a sure sign of adultery – although her one possible saving grace could be that she was engaged to Joseph and so people would assume that the child was his. Joseph knew that this was not his child.

This comment from the website Evidence for God, (http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/virginbirth.html#top) makes a lot of sense in regard to the Virgin conception:
“….Of course, the Bible describes the virgin birth as a miracle that resulted from the action of the Holy Spirit. We don't know exactly what was involved, but it would probably require at least some genetic source from the Holy Spirit.
Regardless of the method by which Jesus was conceived, it would have been very risky to document and claim that He was born of a virgin. In the Middle East there were "honour killings" for women who conceived out of wedlock, so to speak of a virgin birth was extremely dishonourable. In fact, the Bible alludes to some disparaging remarks made by the opponents of Jesus. In addition, if you look at the anti-Christian literature at the time, much of it focused on this aspect of Christianity. This makes one wonder why, if Christians were just making up a religion, they say something that would offend virtually everybody in the Middle East. It makes no sense to make up something offensive, unless it were true.”

In many ways, most of us are like Joseph. We are people of faith, but people who doubt also. We can’t help but see that some things are hard to believe and we are logically going to be skeptical about weird things like virgins being with child.

When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant he decided that he would divorce her quietly. I should explain that their version of being “engaged” was rather different to ours and there were certain expectations and traditions that went along with it.

Joseph was a man of faith, yet he did not recognize the hand of God and so God had to be more direct with him and sent an angel to tell him the truth about the child that Mary was to give birth to.

Matthew 1:20-23 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).”

We discover two things about Jesus from this passage. His name, Jesus, indicated his purpose - To save. The prophetic name, “Immanuel” which means “God with us” proclaims to us the truth of his nature – He is God. John 1 tells us that the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us”. This is Jesus. What will we believe?

The prophecy has been fulfilled and miracles witnessed. But God knew that even if someone was to come back from the dead there are some who will still not believe. In fact that is what Jesus did. He rose from the dead and is still alive today. What will it take for our belief?

Sometimes I think that we as Christians, who proclaim the truth of God and the evidence of God all around, are God’s way of giving people every possible opportunity to come to him and when they don’t they will not be able to say, “but Lord you didn't show me you were real”.

Remember that we might be the only Bible that some people read.

Two final things:
There are signs and witnesses of God all around – are we willing to see?
We are the signs and witnesses of God – are we willing to be?