“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.”
Luke 1:24-25
Old Testament Reading – Psalm 2-1-12
New Testament Reading – Matthew 1:18-24
The Seed of the Savior
“The Sign of the Savior”
Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
After Adam and Eve sinned against Him, God could have destroyed them, for the wages of their rebellion against His divine authority was death—not only physical death, but eternal separation from God.
- Instead, God promised Eve that a Redeemer would come who would crush the devil’s head, deliver His people from judgment, and give them supernatural power over sin, Satan, and the fear of death.
- God told Eve that the Seed of her Savior was within her. At the appointed time, in the appointed place, and through the womb of an appointed woman, that Seed would be born as the Savior sent from God.
- Following that event in the Garden of Eden, the Seed of Eve began its long journey through 4,000 years of human history. Theologians have divided the progress of that Seed into four major stages:
- Stage 1: Humanity (Eve to Noah). Or more specifically, from Seth to Shem—God’s promise of a Redeemer belonged to humanity as a whole.
- Stage 2: A Nation (Shem to Abraham). From Noah’s son Shem, God narrowed the Seed line to a single nation, which He birthed through His calling of Abraham.
- Stage 3: A Tribe (Abraham to Judah). While Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had twelve sons who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, God chose the tribe of Judah to carry the Seed line of the Savior.
- Stage 4: A Royal Dynasty (Judah to David and Jesus). Within Judah, God selected Jesse of Bethlehem and his youngest son, King David, to establish a royal dynasty. Following David, the New Testament records two genealogies that converge on Jesus:
- Matthew 1 traces the legal royal line through David’s son Solomon down to Joseph, Jesus’s legal adoptive father.
- Luke 3 traces the biological bloodline through David’s son Nathan down to Mary, Jesus’s biological mother.
- The fulfillment of God’s promise to Eve was the immaculate conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb – i.e., the “Virgin Birth.”
- As the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4–5, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
- The core message of our eternal salvation is that the virgin birth of Jesus occurred at the exact moment God had planned.
- This explains the tremendous resistance to the “virgin birth”—the miraculous conception of Christ.
- If Jesus was truly born of a virgin, then He is God. And if He is God, His words carry absolute authority.
- If the Jesus we believe in was not the flesh-and-blood Seed of Eve, then the baby born to Mary was not the Son of God; we are lost in need of a Savior.
- However, if Jesus was the Seed of Eve, preserved through 76 generations, born in the exact town the prophets foretold, to the young maiden who said she had not been with a man, grew up to perform the specific miracles the prophets predicted, and gave His life for our sins just as He promised, we face a clear choice:
- We can either receive Him as our Savior and bow to Him as Lord, or reject our only hope for a meaningful life on earth and forfeit eternal life in heaven.
I. The Progression of the Promise – Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, and Isaiah 9:6–7
- In Genesis 3:15, God promised Eve that a Savior would come to redeem her and all of fallen humanity from their debt of sin.
- Because He would come through her “seed” He would be a human descendant of Eve, yet powerful enough to crush the power of evil.
- Centuries later, in Isaiah 7:14, the prophet explained that such a birth would be humanly impossible: “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”
- However, the question remained: How would this divine-human Savior be identified?
- In Isaiah 9:6–7, the prophet answered this question by describing the coming Child and His eternal kingdom:
- “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
- His four royal titles will be:
- Wonderful Counselor: He rules with flawless, divine wisdom rather than flawed human politics.
- Mighty God: He is not merely a human king; He possesses the omnipotent power of God to defeat evil and uphold His kingdom.
- Everlasting Father: In ancient Near Eastern culture, a good king was viewed as a protective “father” to his citizens; Jesus cares for and protects His people eternally.
- Prince of Peace: His reign brings true, lasting shalom—the complete absence of war, oppression, and spiritual brokenness.
- He will inherit the throne of David forever.
2. The Partial Fulfillment of the Promise – Matthew 1:18–24
- Mary is found with child by the Holy Spirit before she and Joseph come together; Joseph plans to divorce her quietly to spare her public disgrace.
- An angel instructs Joseph to take Mary as his wife and name the child Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.
- These events fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin will bear a Son called Immanuel (“God with us”).
- Joseph obeys the angel’s command, takes Mary as his wife, and names the newborn Jesus.
The Miracle of the Virgin Birth (v. 23)
- Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14, written 700 years before Christ’s birth.
- He used the Greek word parthenos (“virgin”), the root of the English word “parthenogenesis” (life beginning without a male seed), which is impossible.
- Since Jesus’s conception was biologically impossible by human means, it had to have been a supernatural act of God.
- Therefore, the “Sign of the Savior” was that a virgin would conceive and bear a son,
- Luke 1:24-25 – “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.”
- This is why the virgin birth is more important to the critics of Christianity than perhaps to Christians, for they understand the implications of it.
- If Jesus was not born from God, then He’s not God; all of His claims are bogus, all that has been written about Him is untrue, Christianity is a sham; we are still lost in our sins and looking for a Savior.
- If Jesus was God in human flesh, born through the womb of a virgin girl, from an egg fertilized by the Holy Spirit, who then proved His deity by His many miracles, and fulfilled His divine assignment by His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, what should be our attitude when we hear His name?
3. The Eternal Purpose of the Promise – Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
- “When the fullness of time came,” – that means in perfect timing at God’s prescribed moment, when it was precisely God’s time –
- “God sent forth His Son.” God didn’t make Him or create Him; He sent Him, which means He already existed. He sent forth His Son, to be born of a woman, and therefore fully man.
- “That He might redeem those who were under the law” – He was under the law, but He kept it perfectly. We’re under the law, and we violate it all the time. We have to be redeemed. Since He never broke the law, He could be the Redeemer.
- “That we might receive the adoption as sons.” Jesus had to be God to conquer sin and death and hell and Satan. It all goes back to the virgin birth, the foundation of His work as our Redeemer, and our response to this glorious truth must be more than our acceptance of the fact, but it must be our full and unconditional surrender unto Jesus as our Lord. -
