SERIES: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS
(adapted from a series from Southeast Christian Church)
“IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE”
REVELATION 12:2-5
OPEN
We finish our Christmas series today based on classic Christmas films. One of the most classic of all is from 1946 called It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. In the movie, Stewart’s character George Bailey has dreamed since childhood of leaving his small hometown of Bedford Falls and seeing the world. But when his father dies, he’s forced to stick around to keep up the family business, Bailey Building and Loan, until his younger brother Harry can come back from college and take things over.
But things don’t go as planned. Harry finishes college and his career plans change course, and then Harry is soon called off to war where he becomes a war hero. George’s life becomes consumed with keeping this small business afloat. He marries his childhood sweetheart named Mary, and just as they’re leaving town on their exotic honeymoon, there comes a run on the bank, and it takes all of their travel money to keep the bank from going under.
Then, at midlife, George comes to the end of his rope. And to top it all off, his partner, his Uncle Billy, loses $8,000 on Christmas Eve, and George is threatened with scandal, disgrace, and even prison. That’s when George decides it would have been better if he had never been born. So, in a half-drunken stupor, he desperately prays to God.
God immediately answers his prayer by sending George’s guardian angel named Clarence Oddbody –Angel Second Class. Clarence is trying to earn his wings so, when George wishes that he had never been born, Clarence grants his wish. George gets to experience an enlightening evening, seeing what Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born. He finds out how incredibly different things would have turned out for, not only his loved ones, but the whole town, if he hadn’t been around.
Harry, his brother, would not have lived past childhood. Remember George saved him when he fell through the ice. And because Harry died as a child, then hundreds of soldiers would have died because Harry wouldn’t have been there to save them. Mr. Gower would have inadvertently poisoned a customer, spent twenty years in prison, and then come out of prison homeless. Mary would have died an old maid. Zuzu, his daughter, would never have been born. His Uncle Billy would have spent most of his life in an insane asylum. And Potter would have turned Bedford Falls into a den of gambling halls, girly shows and saloons. So, George realizes that his one life really did make a big difference.
The ripple effect of one person’s life is impossible to measure. After George sees how different things were, Clarence says to him: “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
That statement is so true about all of our lives. But no other life has impacted this world as much as that of Jesus Christ. What if Jesus had never been born? What kind of hole would be left? Would the world we live in be different?
What if this Friday wasn’t Christmas? Try to imagine that for a moment. What if the shepherds didn’t have their sleep interrupted by angels that night? And what if there was no star in the sky above Bethlehem? What if 2,000 years ago, that stable hadn’t served as a delivery room? Would the world be different? Would your life be different?
Almost of us are familiar with the events concerning Jesus’ birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke. Matthew’s account takes 31 verses and Luke’s account takes 74 verses. But this morning I want us to look together today at a passage that most folks don’t connect with Christmas.
Rev. 12:1-5 – “A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.”
In this passage, everything is not “calm and bright”. There was spiritual warfare the night that Jesus was born; a great war took place.
Most people assume that Revelation only talks about things in the future. However, much of the book describes, in mysterious, symbolic language, events that happened years before, and events current to the day John recorded them, and then of course, events that have not yet come to pass.
As the implications of Revelation 12 unfold in our minds, you get the distinct impression that if Satan had his way, Christmas would never have happened. John calls all of this “a sign”. He uses OT Symbols to convey his message
The woman in this vision represents the people of God, who were expecting the Messiah at any time. The dragon is identified as Satan in vs. 9. The dragon wants to eat the child of the woman. The rest of the chapter goes on to describe the battle that took place as Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels
and how Satan and his crew were cast out of heaven.
That’s not the Nativity story we grew up with. We’re used to the nice story of Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, angels, shepherds, and Wise men. But the nativity story should never sentimental, drab, or commercialized. The manger is where God invades the world and defeats evil. Eugene Peterson: “Our response to the Nativity cannot be reduced to shutting the door against a wintry world, drinking hot chocolate, and singing carols. Rather, we are ready to walk out the door with, as one Psalmist put it, high praises of God in our throats and two-edged swords in our hands (Psalm 149:6).”
Here’s the “what if...?” What if the dragon had won? What if the spiritual warfare had turned out differently? What if Jesus had never been born? Let’s look together at some of the ways Jesus has impacted our world and what would be different if Jesus had never come.
THE THINGS JESUS IMPACTED IN THIS WORLD BY HIS LIFE AND HIS TEACHINGS
I want us to consider seven different things that would not be the same or would never have existed if Jesus had never been born. The first thing that was impacted by the coming of Jesus is our calendar. We measure time by BC, meaning “before Christ,” and Anno Domini, meaning “the year of our Lord.”
Even an atheist has to acknowledge that every time they write a check or look at the calendar. Some folks have been trying to change this impact by referring to these designations as BCE – “before the common era” and CE – “the common era.” Yet, no matter what you call it, the difference is still marked by the birth of Christ.
The second thing that was impacted by the coming of Jesus is the treatment of women. There is still plenty room for improvement in this area, but Jesus gave the women in his life more importance than the rest of the world had ever seen.
In ancient cultures, women were the property of their husbands or their fathers. In some cultures, women were deemed to be incompetent and unable to function independently. Prior to the influence of Christian missionaries in India, the widow of a man who died was many times burned along with her husband – whether she was dead or not. Still today , in some cultures, female infants are routinely discarded – left to die, or killed outright.
Jesus did more to elevate the status of women than any other figure in history. There were many ways that God could have come into this world, but he chose to entrust a young woman named Mary, with the responsibility of giving birth and raising his only Son and the only hope for the world.
The third thing impacted by the coming of Jesus is the treatment of children. In the world that Jesus was born into, abortion was considered a normal and desirable part of everyday life. It was perfectly normal for an unwanted child just to be placed in the woods for wild animals to find or for some strange or perverted person to come along and retrieve.
In the world Jesus was born into, virtually all deformed babies were just simply abandoned. If you were a girl, your chances of living a good life were minimal at best. The Romans considered the child the property of the father. Up until around age eight, he could kill or sell the child and it was just considered a matter of wise
economics. As a result, in the world into which Jesus was born, more than half of the children didn’t live past age eight.
Several of the pagan religions sacrificed children to their false gods. But after Jesus came, children were given a new hope. Christians began to cherish life as sacred – even the life of the unborn. Christians saved countless numbers of abandoned babies and children. Orphanages and nurseries came about because of Christians who cared about abandoned children.
The third thing impacted by the coming of Jesus was slavery. While it’s unfortunately true that many Christians in history have owned slaves, it’s also true that slavery was ended in large parts by Christian activists.
Historians credit British evangelical, Wilbur Wilberforce, as the primary drive behind ending the International Slave Trade. Two-thirds of the members of the American Abolition Society were Christian ministers.
The fourth thing impacted by the coming of Jesus was the plight of the poor. Poverty has always been a part of life here on earth. But Christians, inspired by Jesus, have done more than any institution or group of people to alleviate poverty throughout history
There are countless Third World orphanages, inner-city missions and numerous food pantries that have all been inspired by Jesus. The Salvation Army, YMCA, Compassion International—are just a few of the hundreds of organizations that exist and have been started to alleviate poverty, to reach out to people in need in the name of Christ.
George Gallup said that some 19 billion dollars are spent every year in the name of Jesus to reach out to the poor. He also did some calculations and he figured that the dollar value of church volunteers helping the poor adds up to more than six billion dollars a year.
The fifth and final thing that we’re going to look at this morning that was impacted by the coming of Jesus was medical care. Christianity brought about the first hospitals for the common person. The original hospitals were largely hotels for the poor and needy.
In 325 AD, the early churches met at the Council of Nicea. The Council of Nicea is best known for being the place where the official doctrine of the Trinity – that God is one Being who exists in three Persons – was affirmed. But they also made a declaration that for every new church that was started, a new hospital was to be
started as well.
After the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, hospitals began popping up everywhere, and Christian people were caring for the sick. From Florence Nightingale to Dr. Louis Pasteur, the list of Christians who’ve made medical advancements is incredibly long. Still today, some of our finest hospitals and medical centers are Christian owned and operated institutions. Others have a distinct Christian heritage.
There are several other things we could consider that have been impacted because God came to earth in the flesh as Jesus Christ. Suffice it to say that this world would be completely different because of First Coming.
HOW JESUS IMPACTS US PERSONALLY
Mark Moore, a professor at Ozark Christian College, said, “Jesus would have existed even if he had never been born.” Think about that. Jesus didn’t need to be born in order to exist. John 1:1-2 makes that clear. John begins his Gospel by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Jesus always was…always is…and always will be. He didn’t need to be born in order to exist. He would still exist. But here’s the thing: you and I wouldn’t know him as Jesus.
We would still be seeking after God, but we wouldn’t know His Son Jesus. So, that’s the first thing I want you to see. If Jesus hadn’t been born, we would have never known Him as a friend. In John 15:15, Jesus says something unthinkable. He tells His disciples, “I no longer call you servants… Instead, I have called you friends…”
But if he hadn’t been born, we wouldn’t be able to call God our friend. Describing God as a friend would have been borderline blasphemy to the people in Jesus’ day. The only contact they could have with God was through the High Priest when he would go into the Holy of Holies once a year. But we can know Jesus as a friend.
We don’t come here to worship because we’re obligated by religion like the ancient Israelites were, under the Law. Instead, we come here because of a close relationship that we have with our Lord. If Jesus had never been born, we would still be trying to know God by going through rituals and trying to earn His favor. But all that’s changed. Because Jesus was born, we gather together, and we call God “friend.”
Also, if Jesus hadn’t been born, we would have never known God as Father. In the entire Old Testament, which, of course, was written over a period of thousands of years, God is referred to as a father only seven times. However, in the New Testament, God is referred to as a father more than 150 times. Jesus taught us to pray to Him that way, and as a result, it’s the most commonly used name for God in our prayers.
What changed? I’ll tell you…Jesus was born. Because He was born, we can know God as a father. Romans 8 and Galatians 4 teach us that when we come to Christ, we’re adopted by God. Romans 8 says that we can cry out to him, “Abba! Father!” Before Jesus was born, there’s no record of anyone calling God “Abba,” which when literally translated is as intimate as our word “Daddy.” Again, Jesus made all the difference.
Lastly and most importantly, if Jesus hadn’t been born, we would have never known Him as Savior. 1 John 4:14 says, “…the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” Max Lucado wrote: “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.”
Jesus was born to teach us how to live and to save us from our sins. It’s not much more complicated than that. If He had never been born, we would not be saved. We would not know the hope of spending eternity in heaven.
Melvin Newland tells about a preacher’s family that had started putting up a nativity scene in their front yard. All of them were carrying out the little statues to put in the nativity scene. Finally everything was in place - Mary & Joseph & the manger & the baby, & angels & shepherds & all the barnyard animals. Then little Scott came out carrying one of his favorite toys, the figure of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the dinosaurs. It was one of those plastic figures that you inflate, & in comparison to the other figures it was an enormous thing, towering over them all, & certainly not something to have in a nativity scene.
The Dad said, "I tried to tell him, ‘Scott, you have to take that back because it doesn’t belong there. Dinosaurs existed thousands of years before the baby Jesus, & it just doesn’t belong in a nativity scene.’" But little Scott insisted, so they finally put it there behind all the other figures - a fierce dinosaur hovering over the manger & everything else.
Then he said, "As we stood back & looked at it, we realized that maybe that dinosaur says more than we realized. For over each of us there is this menacing character that threatens to rob us of all our joy & peace & cheer." "But Christmas reminds us that the baby in the manger is stronger than all the dinosaurs in your life or mine. And God has given us the victory through the gift of His Son."
CLOSE
Did you know that the working title of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was originally “The Greatest Gift”? The greatest gift ever given was given by God. Jn. 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Just as George Bailey had to make a choice on that bridge in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, so too do you have a choice to make today. Will you decide to accept God’s greatest gift of all – His very own Son? When you accept God’s greatest gift, you, too can live a wonderful life.
You can have abundant life here on earth. In Jn. 10:10, Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. But He also came that we might have life eternal. Jn. 3:36 tells us, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” Will you unwrap God’s gift to you today?
