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The Christmas Sign
Isaiah 7:14
Read Matthew 1:18 - 25
2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” and surely it’s nowhere more apparent than when we compare the Old Testament with the New Testament. Augustine's words “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed” concisely describes the unity of Scripture and its progressive revelation. And this is so applicable as we look at these prophecies leading up to Christ’s birth. Last year we looked at the prophecy of a great battle, last week the prophecy of a great star and today we come to the prophecy of a great sign.
The American talk show host Larry King was once asked who he would most want to interview if he could choose anyone from all of history. His answer was: “Jesus Christ.” The questioner then said, “And what would you like to ask Him?” King replied, “I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born as the answer to that question would define history for me.”
Today we come to our third great prophecy of Christmas – the prophecy of a great sign: “The virgin will be with child, and she will give birth to a son.” And yes, the answer to the question of the virgin birth really does define history for us as Jesus was born of a virgin, and that indeed changed everything!
The prophet Isaiah gave this prophecy which we are looking at seven hundred years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So, let’s first of all look at the background of the prophecy, then the content of the prophecy, and then finally the fulfilment of the prophecy in the birth of Jesus.
For the background of the prophecy, we need to look at two events separated in time – the prophecy of the seed of the woman back in Genesis and the attack on Judah during the time of King Ahaz in Isaiah.
We have already looked at the prophecy of the seed of the woman when we looked at the first great prophecy of Christmas – the prophecy of a great battle between Satan and Christ when God told Satan in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
When we studied this prophecy last year, we looked at the battle aspect of the prophecy. But now we can look back and see another aspect of this prophecy that we may have missed before, and only mentioned in passing last week. The prophecy emphasizes that the Messiah would be born of “the seed of the woman” rather than “the seed of the man.” This is significant because the line of descent was normally traced through the man rather than the woman.
Have you ever wondered why God didn’t tell Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the man, and between your offspring and his?” After all Adam was the one he first created and the one who had the authority to name all the animals and indeed the woman as well! The answer is because when the Messiah came, he would not be born from the seed of the man because “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and therefore sin would have continued so God promises that one who would be sinless will be born from the seed of the woman. And so, we can now see the first reference of the virgin birth tucked away in this first great prophecy of Christmas even though we may not have taken much notice of it before. Have you for a brief moment fully thought of the miraculous concept of this union. C H Spurgeon says, there is the finite and the infinite, there is the mortal and the immortal, one who is corrupted and one who is incorruptible, the manhood and the Godhead, time married to eternity, and the created linked with the creator.
This emphasis on the seed of the woman rather than the man continues in the New Testament references to the birth of Jesus as well. Matthew Chapter 1:16 gives Jesus’ ancestry listing the names of many fathers in his line. But after a long list of fathers, Matthew concludes the descendants by writing: “… and Jacob [was] the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”
Notice how Joseph is included in the family tree, not as the father of Jesus but as the husband of Mary. Joseph was only the adopted father of Jesus, whereas Jesus was born of Mary – from the seed of the woman, not of the man as promised.
We find the same thing in Jesus’ family in Luke 3:23, where we read “Jesus was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph….” Once again, Joseph is excluded as the physical father of Jesus simply because Jesus was born of the seed of the woman, not of the seed of the man.
And then we read in Galatians 4:4: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law….” Paul emphasizes in this verse that Jesus was born of a woman. Now, that’s not surprising as there’s nothing unusual about being born of a woman, as we have all been there and worn that tee shirt. But Jesus was born of a woman only, and that is truly a unique aspect of his birth.
So that’s the first part of the background of the prophecy – the earlier prophecy of the seed of the woman that God gave all the way back in the Garden of Eden.
The more immediate background to the prophecy however is found in the attack on Judah during the time of King Ahaz who reigned over Judah for twenty years from about 735 B.C. to 715 B.C. During this time, the kings of Aram and Ephraim joined forces against Judah and attacked the city of Jerusalem. We read in Isaiah 7:2: “Now the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied itself with Ephraim’; so, the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.”
Notice how King Ahaz and the people of Judah are addressed as “the house of David” here. This is a reminder that Ahaz stands in the line of the Messiah – the seed of the woman who is yet to come. And so, God sends the prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz to assure him that the attack against Judah will fail and the line of Judah leading to the Messiah will continue.
Isaiah tells Ahaz in verses 5-7: “[Aram and Ephraim] have plotted your ruin, saying, ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘It will not take place; it will not happen.”
And you know what? It didn’t happen!
The line of Judah continued, and later on in Matthew 1:9, we even find Ahaz listed right there in the genealogy leading up to Christ, just as God foretold. “… Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah….”
King Ahaz and the people of Judah were safe for now., but later on, the people of Judah would be exiled due to their lack of faith, but for now the attacks of their enemies would fail. So, this is the background to the prophecy – the earlier prophecy of the seed of the woman, and the attack on Judah during the time of King Ahaz.
Now we come to the actual content of the prophecy, which is a prophecy of a great sign. After assuring Ahaz that his enemies will fail, God tells Ahaz to ask him for a sign. But instead of accepting this offer with gratitude as he should have done, Ahaz refuses saying he does not want to put the Lord to the test and although Ahaz sounds spiritual here, he is actually just making excuses, as we later find out the real reason Ahaz refused was because he did not believe God, and he wanted to form an alliance with the nation of Assyria instead, which would in itself prove disastrous to the people of Judah.
This therefore leads us to our third great prophecy of Christmas, the prophecy of a great and miraculous sign. Judah was being attacked and there was danger that the line of David would be wiped out, but God promised a great sign that would take place when the promised seed of David finally appeared once and for all. Ahaz refused to ask God for a sign, so Isaiah tells him in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel.”
This is not just a sign, but it’s the sign! This is therefore our third great prophecy of Christmas, and you will notice it has three parts to it.
First, the virgin will be with child. This is the miraculous part of the sign. Now let me tell you of a mystery that will astound you! It’s impossible for a virgin to conceive and be with child. Every day is a school day! And that’s what makes this the sign. There’s nothing amazing about a non-virgin giving birth to a child. You can find that in any maternity ward in the country as it happens every minute of every day. But a virgin conceiving a child? Now that is a miraculous sign!
Secondly, Isaiah says she will give birth to a son. This moves the emphasis from the mother to the child. The sign is not just that a virgin will conceive, but that she will give birth to a specific individual, and that individual will be a son. He will be a male child. This reminds us once again of the prophecy of the seed of the woman where we are also told that the specific individual who will come and defeat the serpent is a man. God told Satan in Genesis 3:15: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
And then the third part of the sign is that they will call him “Emmanuel”, which means, “God with us.” This male child, born of a virgin, born of the seed of the woman, would signal God’s presence with us on earth. The promised seed of David would arrive just as God said, and the sign of his coming would be the virgin birth.
So, we have looked at the background of the prophecy, and we have looked at the content of the prophecy. Now we come to the fulfilment of the prophecy. And the fulfilment of the prophecy, of course, is found in the birth of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. And we find this fulfilment affirmed in several places.
First, we find it in the angel’s announcement to Mary. The angel tells Mary in Luke 1:31: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” When you compare the angel’s words here with the Isaiah’s prophecy back in Isaiah 7:14, you find that they are almost exactly the same. The only difference is the name of the child. Isaiah said, “They will call him Emmanuel,” whereas the angel tells Mary, “You are to give him the name Jesus.” Other than that, they follow the exact same pattern. Mary was a virgin, and yet she would be with child and give birth to a son. So, we find this fulfilment first in the angel’s announcement to Mary.
Secondly, we find it in the angel’s explanation to Joseph. After Mary became pregnant with Jesus, we read in Matthew 1:20: “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.’” Joseph was afraid that Mary had been with another man, but the angel assured him that what was conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit. Mary is indwelt by the triune Godhead! Not to make her holy but to give birth to the fully Holy yet fully human son called Jesus.
Then thirdly, we find it in the angel’s instructions to the shepherds. After Jesus was born, the angel appeared to the shepherds out in the fields and told them in “Luke 2: 11-12, Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Notice that the angel calls the birth of Christ “a sign.” The shepherds didn’t know Mary was a virgin. All they would see is a mother and a child. But the angel knew! The virgin was with child, and she gave birth to a baby boy – just as God promised. The great sign that was prophesied seven centuries earlier had now come to pass, and the proof of it was this newborn baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And we are told in Luke 2:20 “that the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them”.
So, we have looked at the background of the prophecy, we have looked at the content of the prophecy, and we have looked at the fulfilment of the prophecy. Finally, let us look briefly at five reasons at the significance of the prophecy and why the virgin birth is such a significant event in human history.
First of all, Jesus’ birth was a fulfilment of prophecy. We read in Matthew 1:22: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet….” Jesus’ birth did not take place in a historical vacuum. His birth was prophesied centuries in advance, and everything took place just as God had foretold. Jesus’ birth was a fulfilment of prophecy.
Secondly, Jesus’ birth was a miracle of God. That’s what the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:20: “… what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Some people say, “I don’t believe in the virgin birth. That’s impossible!” But surely that’s the point! A miracle is supposed to be impossible – to us. But as the angel told Mary in Luke 1:37: “Nothing is impossible with God.” A miracle is something only God can do. Jesus’ birth was a miracle of God.
A third reason the virgin birth is so significant is because Jesus was fully human and fully God. The little baby born in Bethlehem was fully human. He was born of a woman just like you and I were. And yet he was also fully God, for God was his Father and he was born of a virgin. Isaiah prophesied and Matthew confirmed: “… and they will call him Emmanuel” – which means, “God with us.” His name was Jesus, and yet he is also “Emmanuel,” for he is fully human and fully God – “God with us.”
A fourth reason the virgin birth is significant is because Jesus was born without sin. The angel told Mary in Luke 1: 35: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Conceived therefore by the Holy Spirit, the child himself would be born holy and without sin.
We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus lived a perfect life without sin and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin at the cross, so that we could be saved and receive God’s righteousness through him.
And then finally, the virgin birth is significant because Jesus was born to be our Saviour. We read in Matthew 1:21: “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.” The name Jesus means “God saves” or “God is salvation.” Jesus’ very name foretold the work that he would do on the cross in dying for our sins.
We read in 1 Timothy 2: 5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” This is why Jesus needed to be fully God and fully man. Only as God could he die for sins and Only as man could he die. Jesus “who saves,” is also Emmanuel, “God with us,” because only as Emmanuel could he also be Jesus, the Saviour of the world.
You know, Larry King was right. The virgin birth of Jesus defines history for us. Jesus was born of a virgin just as Isaiah prophesied.
· That means he is the promised seed of the woman as prophesied in Genesis 3.
· He is the promised seed of Abraham through whom all nations will be blessed Genesis 12:3.
· He is the promised ruler from the tribe of Judah in Genesis 49: 10.
· He is the promised king from the house of David, 2 Samuel 7;12-13.
· He is Emmanuel, God with us. Isaiah 7:14
He is God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary – fully God and fully man that he might die for our sins as the Saviour of the world.
Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the fulfilment of this third great prophecy of Christmas. God sent His son, and they called Him Jesus.
