17th December 2025

17th December 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Galatians 4:4-5)


Message (Alan Burke)


There was a time in the past that men weren’t around for the birth of their children. More often than not they were out with their mates, sent to work or to do a message even go play a round of golf and only arrived back when they were sure it was all going to be over. I suspect many of us can testify to how it just wasn’t the done thing for the husband to be there. I witnessed and even helped many cows calving and it was a totally different experience funnily enough than being at my wife’s side when she gave brith to our three children although I almost missed one because I was sent for breakfast. Giving birth is painful and exhausting, there is nakedness of mother and child, this is part of the fallen condition for as part of the curse God said to Eve “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Gen 3:16). This came though after the promise of the one who would come to deal with sin and it’s consequences (Gen 3:15).
Today we focus on those words ‘born of a woman’, how in; “the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman”. In this we are confronted with how Jesus came and shared in our flesh and blood, pertaining of the same things (Heb 2:14). In the gospel of Matthew we are told of how this came about, the birth of the son of God. As God sent his son, the one who in the beginning, was with God and was God. The one whom through him all things were made; who without him nothing was made that has been made, the one in who was life (Jn 1:1–4). The preexisting, eternal son entered into that which he created. 


It was by the power of the Holy Spirit, who overshadowed Mary and she conceived a child. The only way that the gap between God and man could be bridged was through the incarnation. So vast is the gulf that exists because of sin God himself, as God the son took upon himself our nature. The creator took upon himself the limitations of the created.


Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary fulfilling the word of God of Isaiah by the work of the Holy Spirit. A miracle of God that Jesus Christ could be born with a true human nature and without sin, as the virgin birth is the means by which God became flesh. While he was conceived like no other that meant he did not take our sinful nature even though Mary was a sinner, his birth was like any other natural birth, it was painful and exhausting for Mary, there is nakedness of mother and child. 


In the incarnation we learn that Jesus didn't simply resemble man, he was man. And yet, he was conceived by God the Holy Spirit. His birth came directly from God himself. Because of this, he can be fully man and fully God. He can stand in solidarity with sinners, and yet he can be the sinless sin-bearer. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and conceived in the mind of God in eternity past.


He came to be the sinless sin bearer, He was the only one that could come and pay the price for our sin, the God Man, for no mere man could have carried the weight of the wrath of God. The eternal son of God became man. And in becoming a man he did not cease to be God. And his becoming man was not a charade. The true God became a true man without ceasing to be fully divine and fully human. The one through whom all things were made took on our flesh so that he could live and die in our place. Do not forget the wonder of that, Jesus Christ came and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place dying the death we deserve so that through him we might know the grace and mercy of God that none deserve.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q47 What is forbidden in the first commandment?
A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying, the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.