Today’s sermon is going to focus on the question: “What If Jesus Had Never Been born? What if Jesus had never existed? What difference would that have made?
In keeping with our sermon series, we’re focusing on secular Christmas music, and this Sunday’s song is an old classic by Elvis Presley called “Blue Christmas.” Now, I’ve taken the liberty of rewriting some of the words – so, this is my version of the classic song – Blue Christmas.
“I'll have a blue Christmas without Him; I'll be so blue just living without Him. Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree - they won't be the same LORD, if you're not here with me.
So when people’s lives without Jesus come calling. That’s when those blue, blue snowflakes will start falling. Your life without Him can’t be right; It will bring darkness instead of light. And, you’ll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.”
C.S. Lewis made an interesting comment describing the world without Jesus: If Jesus had never come, life would be “always winter but never Christmas.”
Now, this morning, we’re going to start with the premise that when the wisemen came to the city seeking the newborn King, the people in Jerusalem didn’t think there was such a person. Yeah, they had heard that that there were some shepherds that CLAIMED to have seen the Messiah in a barn in Bethlehem. And these same shepherds claimed to have heard about this Jesus from angels that appeared to them in the sky. But NOBODY in Jerusalem seems to have believed it, otherwise – they’d have gone out and tried to find Him.
We’re told that "When Herod the king heard (that there was a new King that had been born), he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." (Matthew 2:3) They were troubled, but I don’t really know why because, as far as they were concerned, it was just… a story. There was NO messiah in Bethlehem. There was NO King that would be born in a stable. This guy… just didn’t exist.
Now, the question we’re going to ask this morning is this: WHAT IF THEY’D BEEN RIGHT? What if Messiah had not been born? What difference would that have made?
Now, bear in mind… we’re not just asking the question if there had been a MORTAL man named Jesus born in Bethlehem. No, we’re talking about the Biblical idea that GOD became a man and came down from heaven to dwell here among us, and to die on the cross and rise from the dead. Was THAT the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem?
John 1:14 declared “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus had been prophesied in Isaiah 9:6 with these words: “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.”
Now, if that were true - if God came down, became mortal, and died for us – well you’d expect Jesus to have a powerful impact on the world. Because, that’s what Acts 17:6 tells us the enemies of Christianity had said about Paul and Silas “These men … have turned the world upside down” (PAUSE)
So, did Jesus (God in the flesh) - did He turn the world upside down? Did He make such a marked impression in people’s lives that the world would never the same again?
Well, there was an Atheist named Tom Holland who wrote a book entitled: “Dominion” and he said that - while he was studying the ancient world – he began to realize that the ancient world was a very cruel place, and that their values were utterly foreign to him. The Spartans routinely murdered “imperfect” children. Infanticide among various nations was common. The bodies of slaves by practically every nation were treated as a source of physical pleasure by those with power. And practically everywhere - the poor and the weak had no rights. “How did we get from there to here?” He asked. How did we get from the evils of the ancient world to what we have now?
Holland’s conclusion was that it was Christianity that brought the change. Christianity revolutionized sex and marriage – Christianity confined sexuality within marriage (monogamous). It demanded that men control themselves and it prohibited all forms of rape. In cultures that dehumanized women, Christianity elevated them. He wrote: In short Christianity utterly transformed the world.
So, Jesus transformed people! He changed people, and He changed their view of WHO they were and HOW they should live their lives. And HOW they should face death.
Now, I’m sure that Tom Holland would say there are and there have been people who’ve SAID they were Christians - but behaved in evil ways. And yet, in spite of hypocrites and manipulative and selfish people, Jesus (through Christianity) changed the world.
Without Jesus life would “always be winter but never Christmas.” Life would be a very blue, blue Christmas.
ILLUS: For example - in 165 A.D, a plague struck the Roman Empire. For the next 15 years, nearly one-third of the entire population of the empire died. And then another plague, with similar results, struck a century later. In both plagues the mortality rate among Christians was much lower than among non-Christians. Why?
1st - most pagans feared death. Death was seen as a scary oblivion or a shadowy underworld, and the pagans were in no hurry to find out which one it was.
2nd – in the pagan world, mercy was regarded as a character defect. Pagan philosophers taught that “mercy was not governed by reason” and that humans needed to learn “to curb the impulse” to help the helpless.
As a result, Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, wrote (that during of one of those plagues) the non-Christians “deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out onto the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied.” One historian noted that “[W]hen their first symptoms appeared, victims often were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles.”
But, it was different among Christians, and there were 2 reasons for that. First, unlike pagans, the Christians believed that – when they died – they would be raised in a glorious resurrection. DEATH HELD NO FEAR FOR THEM!
I Corinthian 15:51-52 declared: Listen! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
I Thessalonians 4:16-17 told them: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, swill be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” You see the early Christians did not fear death. Jesus had promised them an eternity in heaven.
Second, Christians had learned about mercy from Jesus. Jesus healed the sick, the lame and the blind and ultimately He laid down His life as a sacrifice for their sins. And Jesus taught that in the last judgment, He would say to some people, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
They would respond, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”
And He would answer, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:34–40).
That’s what Jesus taught and so that’s how they lived.
Now, they didn’t have antibiotics and other effective medicines, but what they did have was what the sick needed: water, food and care. And because the Christians didn’t fear death … and because they considered mercy, to be a high moral virtue, they saved the lives of 1000s of people.
One historian noted that “It is entirely plausible that the nursing the Christians supplied (to fellow Christians as well as many non-Christians) would have reduced mortality by as much as two-thirds!”
(http://www.cornwallalliance.org/newsletter/issue/newsletter-december-11-2013/ quoting heavily from Historian Rodney Stark’s “The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion.”)
So it should come as no surprise that modern hospitals owe their origins to Christian compassion. The first hospital was built for the sick by a Christian community in Caesarea in 365 A.D.. In fact, you see the Faith-based names on various hospitals such as St. Vincent’s, St. Luke’s, Presbyterian, Mercy, and many others. Without the church, it’s likely there MIGHT NOT have been any hospitals. Because life without Jesus would be “always winter but never Christmas.” And people would live in a very blue, blue Christmas
ILLUS: Years ago, a famous atheist named Bradlaugh was feared by preachers because would always challenge them to debates about Christianity and he was VERY intimidating. But Bradlaugh made a mistake when he challenged an inner-city missionary named Hugh Price Hughes to a debate. Hughes readily accepted the challenge… but he made one condition.
Hugh Price Hughes said, ‘I propose that each of us bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from lives of sin and shame by the influences of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and women and I challenge you to do the same.’
But if you cannot bring 100, Mr. Bradlaugh, to match my 100, I will be satisfied if you will bring 50 such men and women who will stand and testify that they have been lifted up from lives of shame by the influence of your teachings. If you can’t bring 50, then bring 20 people who will say, as my 100 will, that they have a great joy in a life of self-respect as a result of your atheistic teachings. If you cannot bring 20, I will be satisfied if you bring 10.
“Nay, Mr. Bradlaugh, I challenge you to bring one, just one man or woman who will make such a testify to the uplifting of your atheistic teachings.”
But Bradlaugh couldn’t do that…and he quietly withdrew his challenge! Why? Because life without Jesus would “always be winter but never Christmas. Life without Jesus would be a very BLUE, BLUE Christmas
And I could go on and on about the impact that Christianity has had on literature and art on science; on the development of organizations like the YMCA and the Red Cross; and the creation of ministries like Nursing homes.
Christianity was also instrumental in the abolition of slavery. For centuries, slavery was practiced by cultures all across the world. But then, in England a man named John Newton (who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” influenced a man named Wilberforce in parliament to push for the banning of slavery. America also overthrew the practice because of the influence of the church.
CLOSE: So, I could bring up all kinds of examples of what Christianity has done to turn the world upside down. But the real question this morning is not: what has Christianity done that has impacted the world around us? The REAL QUESTION IS THIS: How would YOUR life have been different if Jesus had never been born?
You see… the early Christians didn’t turn the world upside down because they were skilled preachers; or because they had great praise team; or because they attended a nice church building. OH NO! They turned the world upside down because Jesus had turned their lives upside down. Without Jesus they had nothing to offer the world.
ILLUS: About 100 years ago someone published an unusual Christmas card. On the inside of the card was the story about a preacher who’d fallen asleep in his study on Christmas morning and he dreamed a shocking dream. He dreamed about walking through his house, and as he looked around, he saw no stockings hung on the chimney, no Christmas tree or wreathes of holly, and no Nativity with the child in the manger.
He walked outside and saw that the church building where he preached wasn’t there anymore. When he came back into the house and sat down in his library, he realized that every book about our Savior had disappeared.
Then the doorbell rang, and a man asked if he would visit a friend’s dying mother. When he entered their home, he saw his friend sitting and weeping and he said, “I have something here that will comfort you.” He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise in the book of John, but was shocked to see that it ended with the book of Malachi. There were no Gospels and no promises of salvation, no hope, and no resurrection. All he could do was bow his head and weep with his friend in bitter despair.
Two days later he stood beside her coffin and conducted her funeral service, but there was no message of comfort, no words of a glorious Resurrection, and no promise of a mansion awaiting her in heaven. There were only the words: “from dust to dust, and ashes to ashes”, and one long, sad, eternal goodbye. Finally, he realized THAT CHRIST HAD NOT COME, and he burst into tears, and wept bitterly because of the sadness of his dream.
The Christmas card was entitled: “If Christ had not come.” And in the preacher’s dream he saw that - without Jesus – life would “always be winter but never Christmas. Life would literally be… a blue, blue Christmas.
At the end of the card, we read that the preacher woke with a start, and he heard the choir from the church next door singing these words from his church nearby: (sing it with me)
“O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem! Come and behold Him, born the King of angels. O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
You can only turn the world upside down if Jesus has turned your life upside down first, because without Jesus… you and I have nothing to offer the world.
