Christmas 2011--If Jesus Had Never Been Born

“If Jesus Had Never Been Born”

Christmas 2011

Luke 2: 6-7

A minister once had a dream.

In his dream it was as if Christ had never come.

He drove to the church but there was no church.

He picked up his Bible and it stopped at Malachi.

In his dream he was at a freshly dug grave.

As many ministers do, he took some dirt and sprinkled it on the grave.

Ordinarily he would say, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

But in his dream all he could say was, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

That was the end of it—because if Jesus had not come there would be no resurrection.

The question I want to ask today is, “If Jesus had never come, if Bethlehem had never happened, how different would our world be?”

Pretend with me a moment.

Jesus Christ was never born.

There is no Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with the obvious. If there is no Jesus Christ….you aren’t here today.

I don’t know where you would be or what you would be doing…but it wouldn’t have anything to do with Christmas because there wouldn’t be a Christmas.

No Christmas lights or decorations.

No busy malls or the buying of gifts.

No Christmas tress…nothing…Nothing about Christmas…

Not just here in Fort Worth…but nowhere in the world…there would be nothing…absolutely nothing about Christmas….because Jesus Christ was not born.

Businesses would have to find some other way, some other annual event, to save them from making up for their losses the rest of the year.

You wouldn’t hear the greeting of “Merry Christmas!”

No Salvation Army would be posted outside department stores ringing bells, for there would be no Salvation Army.

But it gets worse….

If there is no Christmas then of course there is no “Good Friday” because Jesus never died on the cross for the sins of the world because he wasn’t born.

We would have no comforting message of complete and unconditional forgiveness of sins.

There is no message of peace and reconciliation…either with God or with ourselves.

And if there is no Christmas and thus no Good Friday then there can’t be an Easter either….

Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead on the third day because there is no Jesus Christ to be raised.

And this means there is no comforting message of eternal life through the resurrection from the dead…THERE IS JUST THE GRIM SPECTER OF APPROACHING DEATH...AND NO HOPE.

You live. You die. That’s it.

As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 15:14, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."

And of course, if Jesus Christ wasn’t born there would be no such thing as “the Christian church”.

TPC would not be here.

Maybe there would be homes or apartments on this land instead.

And again, you would not be here today; there would be no TPC for you to come to on Christmas.

There wouldn’t be one Christian church in the whole world!

If Jesus were taken out of history, you would have to tear down all the churches and cathedrals around the world, along with some of mankind's greatest architecture.

And what about all the blessings we take for granted in America?

Life, for instance, HOSPITALS?

Virtually all of our hospitals would not exist—No Harris Methodist, no Baylor All Saints, no Huguely, or John Peter Smith, none…because they were all built by Christians!

Christians built the first hospital in Europe in A.D. 369 through the inspiration of Christ’s words, “I was sick and you visited me…”

And, “Inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these my brethren, you did it for Me.”

They came complete with doctors, nurses, workshops and industrial schools.

From there the phenomenon of hospitals spread throughout the world.

And of course, there would be NO BIBLE—no Old Testament and no New Testament—for Jesus Christ is the message of the entire Bible…the Old Testament saying that the savior is coming and the New Testament saying that he has come.

Imagine no Christmas story of the shepherd’s watching their flocks by night.

No Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

No Paul or Peter---nothing.

If Jesus Christ had never been born we would not have the Prince of Verses: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3: 16, ESV).

Our world would be bleak indeed if Jesus had never been born!

Napoleon once said, "I search in vain in history to find one similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.”

No one in history can touch the impact of Jesus Christ!

Millions know of Him, and more millions actually know Him personally!

In fact, today there are more than 1.8 billion people who profess a belief in Jesus.

Phillip Brooks referred to Christ’s overwhelming impact when he said,

"All of the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life, the life of Jesus Christ."

Jesus' coming even changed our CALENDAR.

Everyone on this planet dates everything B.C. (Before Christ) and A. D. for "Anno Domini" which means "the year of our Lord."

Someone said of this fact that Jesus, "has turned aside the river of ages out of its course and lifted the centuries off their hinges."

Think of it, even the most sincere atheist acknowledges Christ whenever he or she dates a check.

Like it or not, we are enriched in every way by His appearance.

And what about ART?

If Jesus had never been born, the majority of the GREAT WORKS OF ART of the ages would be lost.

There would be no Last Supper by DaVinci, no Madonna, no Rembrandt—because Jesus Christ brought to art its loftiest themes.

Dr. David Tailor Forsythe said, "The idea that God spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all has inspired the highest flights that pictorial art has reached."

And if you love music, you owe a debt to the appearance of Jesus Christ.

The most BEAUTIFUL MUSIC that has ever been written, sung by a voice, or played by an instrument would be obliterated without Jesus.

If Jesus had not been born there would be no Handel's Messiah.

We would not have the music of Johann Sebastian Bach who dedicated every note he wrote to God's glory.

Many musical scholars believe that Bach changed the direction of Western Music for all time, but this would not have happened without the inspiration of Jesus.

And if, like me, you love to read and love literature, think of the POVERTY OF LITERATURE that would exist without the words of the New Testament, not to mention all the books and poems that have been inspired by the life of Jesus.

Cynthia Pearl Maus said:

"More poems have been written, more stories told, more pictures painted, and more songs sung about Christ than any other person in human history..."

And think a moment about the impact that Jesus' birth has had on HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS to help the poor and the hungry.

In His parable of the Good Samaritan, along with His teachings on caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, and visiting the imprisoned, Jesus inspired outreaches like:

The Red Cross—started in 1864 by a small group of Christ-minded men.

The YMCA and YWCA, both launched in the 1800’s by committed Christians.

The United Way was started in 1887 by followers of Christ.

The Salvation Army was launched in 1865 by the devout Christian William Booth.

Later came World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, and Compassion International—all launched by followers of Christ!

And if Jesus had never been born it is hard to imagine what MODERN MEDICINE would be like, if it would exist at all.

This is because, by following the example of THE Great Physician, Jesus Christ, Christians have discovered some of the greatest advances in medicine.

And consider the effect that Jesus' birth has had on EDUCATION.

The greatest universities worldwide were founded by Christians for Christian purposes: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and others.

You may not realize this, but most of the world's languages were first put to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves.

Along that same line, the desire to mass produce the Bible is what motivated Johann Gutenberg to invent the movable type printing press in the fifteenth century.

And what about Jesus' impact on CIVIL RIGHTS?

Because of Jesus, women are no longer property to be bought and sold at will as they were in the O.T. and are yet today under the influence of other religions like Islam.

Great Christians like William Wilberforce, Charles Finney and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated their lives to provide equality and equal rights to all people, regardless of the color of their skin—based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

We could go on listing Jesus' impact on science and government and economics and basic morality, because it is easy to prove the point that the day Christ was born was the most important day that has ever been or ever will be.

But the most important difference that first Christmas day can make is in an individual life—my life, your life.

How many millions alive just today can testify to having lived in shameful sin, desperate darkness, dire circumstances, and hopeless prospects who turned to Jesus Christ and found new life, fresh strength, deliverance from bondage, a bright future, forgiveness for the blackest sins, and a new lease on life!!

Think of the words the angels sang that first Christmas night:

They sang, "Unto you was born that day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord."

But none of that really matters unless Jesus is born in your own personal heart…

Someone once wrote,

"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, If He is not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.”

All that Christmas has meant down through the ages adds up to the SUM TOTAL OF ZERO as far as you are concerned unless He is born in you today.

The purpose of Jesus' coming was not just to make this world a better place, but to make your life better, to give you access to a relationship with God and abundant life in all its fullness.

So, unless, through faith, Jesus Christ becomes a part of your individual life, all the good He has done leaves you on the wrong side of the story.

PRAY:

Have you considered asking Christ into your heart?

Or re-committing your life to a closer walk with Him?

Why would you even leave today without making peace with Him?