Growing Kids in Grace: Prophecy: Jesus will be born of a virgin

1. HOOK: Matching game: Animal & their young

E.g. What do dogs give birth to? Puppies.
What do cats give birth to? Kittens.
How about snakes? They lay eggs that hatch into baby snakes.

Just like we get puppies from dogs, what do we get from sinners? Yup, more sinners.
Last week we heard about how when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Because Adam sinned, his children, grandchildren, great, great, great, great children and everyone in this world are born as sinners. We know the result of sin is death.
But God promised that a descendant of the Eve will defeat the serpent. God wanted to change our family line so that we will not continue to be sinners but become righteous. Today we know He was talking about Eve’s great, great, great, great …. Great, grandson, Jesus.
One thing we cannot choose in life is who our parents are. But long before Jesus was born — a few hundred years before, in fact — God’s prophet, Isaiah, had already told the people what sort of person Jesus’ mother would be.

2. Lesson: We are part of a great family, thanks to Jesus!

Isaiah the prophet said, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”(Isa 7:14)
The mother of the Saviour of the world would be a virgin. (A virgin is someone who had never had any sexual relationship with another person.) This was special because virgins don’t get pregnant. You need both a father and a mother to become pregnant. But in Jesus’ case, there will only be a mother. God Himself will be the father, not a man.
Hundreds of years after Isaiah, there was a young teenage girl lady called Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph.

One day, God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. The angel greeted her as “favoured one”. Mary was troubled and wondered what he meant. Mary remembered that there were times in the past, God sent His angel to punish people for their sins. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary. God is pleased with you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of God. He will rule forever over his people and His kingdom will never end.”
“How can this happen?” Mary asked the angel. “I am a virgin.” Remember, virgins can’t get pregnant, so Mary was very surprised.
But the angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come to you and the power of God will cover you. The one is born will be called the Son of God. Nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

True enough, Mary later became pregnant by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to Jesus. The prophecy from Isaiah hundreds of years ago had been fulfilled!

If Joseph had been Jesus’ biological father, Jesus would have been a normal sinful person.
But God’s Holy Spirit made Mary pregnant so that God could become a man and live with us and die for us.
The great God of heaven and earth came down as a helpless little baby to live together with man. He became Immanuel: God with us!
Jesus was 100% God, yet 100% man. Jesus was also 100% holy and sinless. So when we believe in Jesus, we become “born again” into God’s family. We now no longer have Adam’s DNA. We have Jesus’ DNA.
Just like what we discussed earlier: Dogs give birth to puppies; sinners give birth to sinners. But if God is our Father, we are now God’s children. If Jesus is holy, then we are holy!

Mary was troubled and thought the angel had come to punish her. But the angel called her “favoured one.”
Jesus came and took all the punishment for our sins on the cross so that today, we can be God’s favoured and beloved children! Thank you Jesus!

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

Growing Kids in Grace