The Legacy Of Christ Series

I’m guessing most of you have seen the classic Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. In

the movie, Stewart plays George Bailey who has inherited the Bailey Building and Loan, and survives Black

Tuesday in October 1929. Later his absentminded uncle misplaces $8000 and George knows he will probably

go to jail. On a snowy night he heads out in desperation, uncertain about what to do, and he comes to the bridge

and considers committing suicide wishing he had never been born. Of course George is saved by Clarence

Oddbody who we later discover is an angel, and he grants George’s request. He shows George what the world

would have looked like had he never been born. Through the rest of the movie we discover that George’s life

has made a significant impact on his family, his friends, his community, and had he never been born, other

people’s lives would have been worse off. The movie helps us realize the impact one person can make on those

around us whether it is for good or for bad.

It got me to thinking about the Christmas story, and posing the question, what if Jesus was never born?

What if the first Christmas never happened? No virgin birth. No baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes lying

in a manger. No shepherds receiving angelic news of the Christ child, and therefore no trip to the stable in

Bethlehem. No wise men making a long journey from the East following a star in order to give gifts of gold,

frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus.

What kind of an impact has Jesus made on others over the last 2000 years? What are the legacies of Christ?

And what impact has Jesus made in our lives; is our life any different because Jesus was born?

Jesus has made an incredible impact on the world, it’s estimated there are between 1 and 2 billion Christians on

the planet, if Jesus hadn’t come we wouldn’t we be in this room tonight.

If I were a historian I could probably take you back through the last 2000 years to demonstrate the difference

Christ and his followers have made in the world.

I could talk about how world poverty has been stemmed because of non-profit organizations begun by

Christians such as Red Cross and Salvation Army. Or how the Christian faith has held off the moral decay of

nations. In America the first colleges were all begun by Christians.

These things are all the temporal benefits of the legacy of Christ. Let’s look at some of the other legacies He

left us:

If Jesus had never been born:

1. We wouldn’t know what God is really like

a. A fifth grade teacher in a Christian school asked her class to look at TV commercials and see if

they could use them in some way to communicate ideas about God. Here are some of the results:

Bob Higgins Page 1 12/23/2006

i. GOD is like a FORD ... He’s got a better idea.

ii. GOD is like COKE ... He’s the real thing.

iii. GOD is like HALLMARK CARDS ... He cares enough to send His very best.

iv. GOD is like TIDE ... He gets the stains out that others leave behind.

v. GOD is like GENERAL ELECTRIC ... He brings good things to life.

vi. GOD is like SEARS ... He has everything.

vii. GOD is like SCOTCH TAPE ... You can’t see him, but you know He’s there.

viii. GOD is like DELTA .... He’s ready when you are.

ix. GOD is like ALLSTATE ... You’re in good hands with Him.

x. GOD is like VO-5 HAIR SPRAY ... He holds through all kinds of weather.

xi. GOD is like DIAL SOAP ... Aren’t you glad you have Him.

1. Don’t you wish everybody did?

b. John 1:1, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. (14) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the

glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

c. These verses tells us one of the most amazing truths that has ever happened.

i. God came to our little world and became one of us. God came in the flesh as the Son of

God, who we know as Jesus.

ii. Billy Graham said, “If I want to know what God is like, I look at Jesus.”

1. Jesus made the invisible visible.

2. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15, NLT).”

d. J esus also cleared up faulty images that people have about God.

i. For example: In Jesus’ day non-Jews had messed up views of God.