Announcement of the birth of the Messiah

(A pre-Christmas discussion between five friends about incidents recorded in the Bible i.e in the Gospel of Mathew & Luke)

Roshan : Welcome to all for this discussion on the announcement of the birth of the Messiah as recorded in the Gospel of Luke & Mathew. All : Hi Roshan : If you have your Bible please turn the pages to the portion Luke 1:26-38. Rohit will read it aloud for us. Others please listen & follow carefully.

Rohit : Announcement of the birth of the Messiah Luke Chapter 1 Verses 26 to 38(NKJV)
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Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgins name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!
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But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
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Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man?
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And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.
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Then Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Roshan : Thank you Rohit. Turn the pages of your Bible to the portion Mathew 1:18-25. I am reading it aloud for you Mathew Chapter 1 Verses 18 to 25(NKJV) 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not

wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us. 24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Before we continue, let us pray Our Loving Heavenly Father, we pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding as we discuss about your word. Please speak to us. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen I think all of you would have understood the story that we read. Please spend a few minutes reading once again silently. Rohit :This incident recorded in Luke happened first then the incident in Mathew must have followed later. Luke records the incident from the point of view of Mary while Mathew records it from the point of view of Joseph. Pooja : This story reminds me of the fairy tales that I used to listen and read as a child. Fairy tales are not complete without angels. Preeti : I find the conception of a baby boy in a virgin unbelievable. It is a medical impossibility Rahim : During our discussion on Freedom from a Legion of Demons we discussed about the existence of evil spirits. If evil spirits exist then good spirits should also exist. Angels exist for doing good works.

Roshan : The Bible says what Angels are, They are spirits who serve God and are sent by him to help those who are to receive salvation. Rohit : We read of many amazing births in medical history. Test tube babies are becoming more common these days. We had heard of only twin babies upto 19th century but now we are hearing of many multiple births. Preeti : There are new developments as a result of stem cell research and cloning. You would have heard of Dolly, a sheep which was the result of the first successful cloning. Have any of you heard of parthenogenesis? Pooja : No Preeti : Actually parthenogenesis is a Greek word which means virgin birth. In biology, it refers to a form of reproduction in which the ovum develops into a new individual without fertilization. Natural parthenogenesis has been observed in many lower animals especially insects and also in some form of snakes, lizards, fish etc. Artificial parthenogenesis has since been achieved in almost all major groups of animals. Rohit : Has this artificial parthenogenesis been used in medical science on humans? Preeti : Yes, I have read in Wikepedia about some South Korean scientist who had unknowingly produced human embryos resulting from parthenogenesis. Rahim : Then why did you say that a virgin birth is a medical impossibility. Preeti : It is impossible to produce a male child from a female because the male has XY Chromosome while the female has XX chromosome. Without using the Y Chromosome of a male, it is impossible to produce a male child by parthenogenesis

Roshan : With God nothing is impossible. If God can create man from mud, he can also create an embryo with the required DNA and place it in the womb of the mother. Roshan : The Bible has lot of stories of people who had miraculous birth. We can read about Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah in Old Testament. We also read of Elizabeth and Zacharias in Luke 1. All these births were in old age but there was no precedent for a virgin birth. Let us discuss about the passage. It says that in the sixth month the angel Gabriel visited the house of Mary in Nazareth. The sixth month is actually not the calendar month but refers to the sixth month of Elizabeths pregnancy which we can infer from verse24 of Luke chapter 1. Pooja : It says Mary was betrothed to Joseph. What is betrothal? Rohit : Betrothal is a contract between two families about the promise of marriage in future between the bride and the groom of the respective families. In those days, Betrothal is confirmed marriage; a divorce is required for breaking the contract. However no physical contact is allowed prior to marriage. Roshan : Mary is afraid after seeing the angel and hearing his greeting. What did the angel say? Pooja : We can read what the angel said in verses 31 to 33. Angel told that she will conceive and bear a son and that she should name him Jesus. Subsequently I do not understand anything that he says. What does he mean by Son of the Highest, throne of David, house of Jacob etc. Roshan : By Son of the Highest it is meant Son of God. Because there is no one higher or greater than God. Rahim : During the discussion on the story of the compassionate father you had mentioned that we are Gods sons & daughters. That means that there is no difference between Jesus and us other than the fact that he is a prophet and that he is born of a virgin. Rohit : By Son of God I think it means he is God. He has the attributes and qualities of God. His nature is like God, the Father.

Roshan : The Bible actually says that God is Triune i.e though God is one he has three personalities, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is actually a mystery. We would not be able to understand it adequately through our finite minds. Preeti : I remember the story of a young boy David who killed a giant Goliath with just a sling and a stone. Is King David the same person? Rohit : You are right. Jacob refers to the ancestor of the nation Israel. His twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. Roshan : Angel tells that Jesus will become a king like David and that he will have a Kingdom that will never end. Pooja : Jesus did not become any king and he did not establish any kingdom while he was on earth. How is it applicable to Jesus? Roshan : Jesus said that he would be coming again to the world. When he comes again he will establish a kingdom on the earth and rule for a 1000 years. He will judge all the people who ever lived on the earth. Then a new heaven and earth will be created and he will rule for ever. We can read about this in the book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible. What does Mary say to the angel? Rohit : She asks the angel how she can bear a child when she does not know any man. That is when she has not had any sexual relation with any man Preeti : Why cant it be that the angel told about a child that she would bear after her marriage to Joseph? Roshan : You have to read the next verse to know why it cant be interpreted that way. The Angel says that Mary will conceive because the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the highest will overshadow her. A birth after marriage as a result of sexual relation would be natural and does not need any divine intervention.

Pooja : Mary believed the angel and submitted herself to God. She must have been very good and a worthy woman to have been given the responsibility of bearing Gods son. Rohit : Bible doesnt say anything about how special or good she was. In fact there may have been many women whom God would have found suitable but He needed only one womb. Mary was Gods sovereign choice. Mary says she is Gods maid servant, but many people have given her the exalted status of Queen of Heaven, Mother of God etc. which is not biblically correct. Roshan : If we use todays medical terms we can say that Mary is the surrogate mother of Jesus and not the biological mother. Lets now discuss about the second passage i.e the incident in the gospel of Mathew. What would have been Josephs reaction when he came to know of Marys pregnancy. Rahim : He might have been shocked. He would have never expected such a thing of his fiance, Mary. Pooja : I recently read an article about Indian actresses who became pregnant before marriage. The article said that Sridevi was the only actress who acknowledged that she was pregnant before marriage. In other cases it was found out because the delivery of the child happened before 9 months after marriage. Preeti : Mostly abortions are carried out discreetly so that no one will know. Premarital sex is the predominant cause of abortions in the western nations and is also increasing these days in our country. Rohit : What Joseph went through was normal. Nobody in history has ever heard of a woman becoming pregnant before marriage but the Bible says Joseph was a just man and wanted to divorce Mary privately. Roshan : He could even go for a court case and bring Marys pregnancy matter to public knowledge. But he decided not to put her through public shame because she would have told him about Gabriels message. While he was thinking about these things the angel appeared to Joseph. What did the angel tell him?

Preeti : The angel told him that Mary has conceived because of the Holy Spirit and that she would give birth to a son whom he shall name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. Rohit : Because Jesus saves people from their sins he is referred to as the Messiah or the Saviour. All these things happened as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. This verse is found in Isaiah 7:14. He had prophesied this about 700 years before the birth of the Messiah. Infact there are over 300 prophesies of Jesus in the Old Testament which were literally fulfilled in his life. The probability of any person trying to fulfill all these prophesies deliberately on his own is very negligible. Rahim : What does it mean to say that he will save his people from their sins. Roshan : You can read about creation and about how sin entered the world in the first book of the Bible called Genesis. Man disobeyed God by eating the fruit that he was forbidden. He had told them that they would die if they would eat that fruit. Ever since then every human being born into this world is born spiritually dead i.e with sins. The purpose of Jesus coming into the world was to die as a sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. For the sins of the world only a man can die as a substitute for fellow human beings. However there is no sinless human being as all are born as sinners. Hence God decided to incarnate as man and die for our sins. He came as Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus is God with us in human form. That is why he is called Immanuel. Rohit : Joseph was only the legal father. He did as he was told by God. Jesus is called son of David because David was the ancestral father of both Mary and Joseph. Roshan : Actually the first announcement of the birth of Messiah was made by God himself in the Garden of Eden. The Messiah was referred to as Seed of a Woman implying virgin birth. What have you learnt from these two passages? Rahim : I have learnt about the virgin birth of Jesus and why he came to this world. Though I do not agree with everything, I know why you believe what you believe.

Pooja : It is really wonderful to know that God himself incarnated as man to save us from our sins. Preeti : When I heard the verse Nothing is impossible with God. It really gave me hope. When I face some difficult situation I can go to God. Rohit : Joseph and Mary believed the words of God and obeyed it completely. They submitted themselves fully to God. What God speaks while reading the Bible, I will obey it completely even if it means that I will have to through some difficulty as a result of obeying God. Roshan : We should be the messengers sharing this good news that God became man to save our sins to all our friends. May I request Rohit to pray for all of us? Rohit : Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending Jesus to this world to save us from our sins. We pray that you would help our friends who are in difficulty. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen Roshan : May all of us experience Gods love reaching out to forgive our sins. May the Messiah take care of all you. Bye to all. See you soon.