p>2 Corinthians 5:17:
If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
This is the Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.
One thing that stands out to me about C. S. Lewis’ book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the way Narnia changed because of the coming of Aslan. Remember? Prior to his arrival Narnia was a cold place, a dark place, a place where it was always winter and never Christmas.
But after Aslan’s coming, Christmas returns, and shortly thereafter, Spring arrives, the snow and ice melts, rivers start to flow and everything begins to bloom again. Birds sing, skies are blue, the days lengthen and warm. The wicked queen is vanquished and the four children sit on the thrones of their castle at Cair Paravel.
Aslan’s coming changed so much about the world of Narnia. And in my mind this aspect of the story was intended to illustrate the difference Jesus’ coming has had on our world. I mean, think of it! Think of the difference the day Jesus was born, Christmas day, has made!!! Christ’s influence on the world is immeasurable.
In fact, no other individual life has had the impact on mankind that Jesus’ has had.
Napoleon once said, “I search in vain in history to find one similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Nations pass away, thrones crumble, but the Church remains.” And when it came to crumbling thrones Napoleon knew what he was talking about!
But another example is the throne of Caesar Augustus. He was the emperor of the Roman Empire on the day that Jesus was born. Augustus was the grand nephew of Julius Caesar and ruled from 34 B.C. to 14 A.D. and was a comparatively good ruler, as Roman rulers go. But the only reason I know that much about Augustus is because I looked it up. In fact, the main reason Augustus’ name is familiar to me is because, as Luke’s gospel tells us, it was his census that God used to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, fulfilling the prophecy of Micah given hundreds of years earlier. If not for this census recorded in the Scriptural account of Jesus’ birth, Augustus and his throne would just be a small, forgotten part of the chronicles of history.
But what about Jesus Christ? Well, 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. These Christians can be found in most of the nations on earth. So as Napoleon said, man-made empires and thrones crumble, but the church of Jesus Christ still stands!
In his popular prose Phillip Brooks referred to this, 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.”
You of course are aware that Jesus’ coming has changed our calendar. Everyone on this planet of ours dates everything B.C. (Before Christ) and A. D. for “Anno Domini” which means “the year of our Lord.” Someone has commented on this by saying that Jesus, “has turned aside the river of ages out of its course and lifted the centuries off their hinges.” And He has! Think of it, even the most sincere atheist acknowledges Christ whenever he or she dates a check.
Wallmart and other retailers can take Christ out of Christmas all they want but it won’t change the fact that Jesus’ birth has had an enormous, unprecedented impact on our world. For example, if Jesus were taken out of history, you would have to tear down all the churches and cathedrals around the world, some of mankind’s greatest architecture.
This morning’s service would be meaningless and a waste of time because if Jesus is not important, then that which is done in His Name is not either. 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.”
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, because, you see, Jesus Christ has given art its loftiest themes.
As 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 Forsythe is right. I mean, without the influence of Jesus Christ, art would depict only the finite. The attempt to capture the Infinite on canvas or in stone would never have been introduced.
Another thing: the most beautiful music that has ever been put on score, sung by a voice, or played by an instrument would be obliterated without Jesus. If that day had not dawned in Bethlehem there would be no Handel’s Messiah nor would we 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 our Lord.
And then, 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.
In her anthology of literature, author 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, because through such avenues as these, the deepest appreciation of the human heart can be more adequately expressed.”
Consider the impact that Jesus’ birth has had on humanitarian efforts to help the poor and the hungry. I mean, Jesus set the great example of helping the poor, of caring for the poverty-stricken and downtrodden. He bid His followers to go and do likewise. And they did, and still do!
Jesus’ life inspired “help” programs like the Red Cross and Easter Seals and The Salvation Army, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, not to mention our disaster relief program that I told you about last week.
Another thing: if Jesus had never been born it is hard to picture what modern medicine would be like, if it would exist at all. I say this because, by following the example of Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, Christians have fueled some of the greatest humanitarian advances in medicine. In fact, many historians attribute the creation of the hospital itself to Christianity because in the United States, the first hospitals were started by Believers.
And then, consider the effect that Jesus’ birth has had on education. The greatest universities world wide 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 set to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves. This is still true today. At this present time hundreds of millions of people still do not have a way to write their own language. Many of these tribal languages are being codified by Christians out in the field, like our own Machlan family who serve in the Philippines through Wycliffe Bible translators.
Along that same line, the possibility of mass producing the Bible is what motivated Gutenberg to invent the movable type printing press in the fifteenth century.
And William Holmes McGuffey, a Presbyterian minister, authored McGuffey’s Reader. For decades these provided the backbone of grammar school education in our country.
Consider Jesus’ impact on civil rights. Because of that Babe in Bethlehem, women are no longer property; to be bought and sold at will. And, 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.
We could go on and on and 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. No one would not want to live in a world where it was never Christmas. Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection has indeed make a difference.
But you know the most important difference that first Christmas day can make is the difference that day can make in an individual life, my life, your life.
Do you remember the words of 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.”
So, as the poet has said,
“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, If He is not born in thee, the soul is still forlorn.
The cross on Golgatha will never save thy soul, The cross in thine own heart alone can make thee whole.”
All that Christmas has meant down through the ages, and all the influence that the God-Man from that manger cradle has wrought, all that has been done through history adds up to the sum total of zero as far as you are concerned unless He is born in you today. You see, that was the purpose of Jesus’ coming, 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 it’s fullness, to take the sting out of your death and make it something to look forward to rather than fear. So, unless Jesus Christ becomes, through faith, a part and parcel of your individual existence, all the turning of history, leaves you on the wrong side of the stream.
With this in mind, today I’ve asked our own Shirley Liming to share a testimony as to the difference Jesus Christ has made in her own life.
Testimony-Shirley Liming
As we sing our hymn of invitation I would ask you to consider the difference Christ can make in your life. If you ask Him to, He will forgive you or yours sins and free you from guilt. He will fill your emptiness and make you a new creation. He will give your life purpose. He will give you the joy and the peace that we sing about every Christmas season.
He will be your constant Companion and Guide every moment of your life. He’ll even guide you through death, taking the fear out of it and making it nothing more than a shadow.
You see the message of Christmas is not just the retelling of an event some 2,000 years ago. It is the opportunity for that past event to become a present reality in your life and mine today.
So today don’t leave without letting the Christ of Christmas be born in you. Won’t you respond to His coming by giving Him your heart and life?
Come now as God leads.