CHRISTMAS SERMON 06 C
Little Johnnie desperately wanted a bright red wagon for Christmas.
His friends were writing letters to Santa Claus, but Johnnie decided to go one better. "Dear Jesus," he wrote. "If I get a red wagon for Christmas, I won't fight with my brother Hank for a year."
Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, Hank is such a brat, I could never, ever keep that promise. So Johnnie threw away the letter and started again. "Dear Jesus, if I get a red wagon for Christmas, I will eat all my vegetables for a year."
Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, that means spinach, broccoli and asparagus. Yuck! I could never ever keep that promise.
Suddenly Johnnie had an idea. He went downstairs to the living room. >From the mantel above the fireplace, he grabbed the family's statue of the Virgin Mary. Taking the statue to the kitchen he wrapped it in newspapers and stuffed it into a grocery bag. He took the bag upstairs to his room, opened the closet and placed the package in the farthest, darkest corner.
He then closed the closet door, took a new sheet of paper and wrote, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again..."
Marti Pieper of Charleston, South Carolina, said recently: “My 12-year-old son, Andrew, waited in the church hallway, costumed and ready for his role as the boy Jesus in our annual Christmas musical. Perhaps he felt just a hint of self-importance as he watched a much younger child tug at his father's sleeve, point in his direction, and ask, 'Who is that, Daddy?'
The father, however, continued toward the nursery area without answering his son's question. Turning back, the preschooler asked Andrew directly, 'Who are you?'
Andrew smiled a bit proudly and gave what seemed an obvious answer: 'I'm what Christmas is all about.'
'Oh!' the little boy replied, startled. 'I'm sorry, Santa!'"
Most all of you know that the reason for this celebration tonight is Jesus Christ, but tonight I want to ask the question, “What if Jesus had never been born?” What would the world be like had Jesus not come down from heaven, been conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and been born in human flesh on that first Christmas?
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is tiny in and of itself; but when fully grown it provides shade and a resting place for many birds. This parable certainly applies to the birth of Christ and Christianity.
Christianities roots were small and humble - an itinerant rabbi preached and did miracles for three and a half years around the countryside of occupied Israel. And from that humble beginning today there are more than 2 billion professing believers in Jesus found in all of the nations of the earth! There are tens of millions today who make it their life's aim to serve Him alone.
When Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a man, He filled humanity with a dignity and inherent value that had never been dreamed of before. Whatever Jesus touched or whatever He did transformed that aspect of human life.
When we look at the story of the birth of Jesus and look at the incidences in the life of Christ we might not realize it but those little incidences were to transform the history of humankind.
Many of you have watched the classic movie, and one of my favorites “It's a Wonderful Life.” In that movie Jimmy Stewart finds out how life would have been for those who knew him if he had not been born. He finds out that he had a great impact on people and on his town.
Tonight we want to look at what life would have been like had Jesus not been born and what life has been like since he was born.
Not all have been happy about Jesus Christ's coming into the world. Fredrich Nietzsche, the 19th century atheist philosopher who coined the phrase “God is dead,” likened Christianity to a poison that had infected the whole world. He said of Jesus, “he died too soon, and he himself would have revoked his doctrine had he reached greater maturity.”
In Mein Kampf, Hitler blamed the church for perpetuating the idea and laws of the Jews. Hitler wanted to completely “uproot Christianity once he had finished uprooting the Jews.” He and Nietzsche are representatives of many who had wished Christ had not been born.
I first want to look at the value of life before Jesus came.
In the ancient world child sacrifice was a common phenomenon. In the days of ancient Rome and Greece abortion was rampant; abandonment of children was common place. It was not unusual for sick babies or unwanted little ones to be taken out into the forest or mountainside to be consumed by wild animals or to starve, or to be picked up by strangers. If they lived past infancy the father could kill them at his whim.
But when Jesus came, He showed the value of life by being conceived in the Virgin's womb, and He humbled Himself to be found in fashion as a baby boy who would soon grow into a man. Since that time, Christians have cherished life as sacred, even the life of the unborn.
Abortion and infanticide all but disappeared in the Early Church. Eventually Christianity convinced the Roman Empire of the outrageous crime of infanticide. But Roman and Greek societies were bent on continuing the practice of abortion despite what the Church did to try to change that.
What about women?
Prior to Christian influence, a woman's life was also very cheap. In ancient cultures the wife was the property of her husband.
Aristotle said that a woman was somewhere between a free man and a slave. When we understand how valueless a slave was in ancient times, we get a glimpse of how bad a woman's fate was back then. Plato taught that if a man lived a cowardly life, he would be reincarnated as a woman. If a woman lived a cowardly life, she would be reincarnated as a bird.
In the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon told of a Hindu woman who said to a missionary: “Surely your Bible was written by a woman.” “Why?” he asked. “Because it says so many kind things for women. Our pundits never refer to us but in reproach,” she said.
In areas where the gospel of Christ has not penetrated, the value of women's lives is cheap.
What about slavery?
Half of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves. Three-fourths of the population of Athens was slaves. Over the centuries Christianity has abolished slavery. It didn't happen overnight, and certainly there were dedicated Christians who were slave owners, nevertheless the end of slavery in the free world has come primarily through the efforts of Christians.
William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln saw Christianity as incompatible with slavery. Even Robert E. Lee freed slaves given to him and believed the evil institution of slavery would have eventually withered away because of Christianity.
Christianity has helped to end cannibalism in many native tribes.
Remove Jesus Christ from the history of the world and the value of life would indeed be just as Jack London's character Wolf Lassen put it, “Life? Bah! It has no value. Of the cheap things, it is the cheapest.”
Let's look at the area of charity and compassion.
Scholar Dr. James Martineau exhaustively searched through historical documents and concluded that antiquity has left no trace of any organized relief effort. When Christ and the Bible became known, charity and benevolence flourish. Christianity brought in five significant innovations:
Orphanages, YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army, and many of the relief organizations have Christian roots. Even Santa Claus rose up from Christianity as symbolic of the spirit of giving that marks the coming of Christ.
From an atheistic perspective, there is no reason why a person should be concerned about the poor or anybody else for that matter. Where are the relief efforts of the great world religions? They pale in comparison to Christianity.
A world without Christ would be a cruel world, a world without little charity.
Let's look at Education.
Every school - public or private, religious or secular is a visible reminder of the religion of Jesus Christ. So is every college or university. Education used to be for the elite. Christianity gave rise to the concept of education for everyone. Some of the greatest universities world-wide were started by Christians for Christian purposes - Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia to name a few. While many of them are hostile to the Christian faith today, it was though the blood, sweat and tears of Christians that these and others were created. Almost all of the first 123 colleges and universities in the U.S. had Christian origins.
Many of the world's languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves.
John Calvin, who some view as the father of modern education, declared that the Bible makes it plain that the ultimate responsibility for education rests with parents - not with the state, not with the Church, but the control of education should be with the parent.
When Unitarian Horace Mann sought to remove Christian influence from the schools through state education; run, controlled and operated by the state, he began something which was built upon by humanist John Dewey who sought to deliver children from the Christian religion. He believed Christianity was the principle problem which needed to be solved by our public education system.
And yet, had Jesus never been born, we might not have a public education system, and man might yet remain in the darkness of sin and the darkness of ignorance. It is unlikely that there would be education for the common man.
What about the area of government?
A famous American said, “I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the Spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses…Whether we look at the charter of Virginia or New England, the same objective was present; a Christian land governed by Christian perspectives.” Who said it? Earl Warren - who eventually helped chisel away America's Christian heritage. From the pilgrims to the Puritans, to the Great Awakening, history tells us that America was a Christian nation.
Let's look at Civil Liberties.
Civil liberties and human freedom were contributed to greatly by Christianity. “The Bible is the book on which our Republic rests,” said Andrew Jackson, “When that book falls; I assure you that the liberties you enjoy will go with it.”
Free speech is the gift of Christianity. Christianity first set people free from the shackles of sin. Then, having experienced spiritual liberty, there was set in motion an inevitable quest for civil liberty as well.
The Founding Fathers gave us a system, built on Christian principles, where the atheist, the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian, the Buddhist, or anybody was free to build a house of worship, worship their god, stand on a street corner or housetop, and proclaim his or her views, publish books, and do anything without any kind of repercussion from government in a Christian nation.
In America, where we did not sever faith and freedom, we found the greatest liberty.
However, we are approaching in this country a situation somewhat similar to France of the 1780s - where sin becomes flagrant and the morals debased. Many people today are beginning to look at Christianity as an impediment to the continuation of their “freedom” to sin. But they have transformed liberty into license.
What about the area of science?
Christ has affected the area of science greatly. People often view science as the enemy of religion. Actually, many scholars agree that the scientific revolution that gained momentum in the seventeenth century was birthed for the most part by reformed Christianity.
Modern science did not develop with the Greeks; it didn't develop with the Hebrews, nor the Arabs, nor the Hindus or the Buddhists.
It was the Christian worldview that provided the right environment for modern science to emerge. First, the Christian faith is monotheistic. Belief in one God led people to expect a uniformity in nature with the underlying laws of nature remaining the same in time and space. A universe that was capricious and irregular could not be systematically studied.
Second, the Christian doctrine of creation by a rational God of order led scientists to expect a world that was both ordered and intelligible. Sixteenth-century scientists reasoned that the universe must be orderly and worthy of investigation because it was the work of an intelligent creator. Because of the basic teachings of Christianity, modern science was developed. Christianity taught that there was a rational God who is the source of all truth and that we live in a rational world. This idea gave rise to the possibility of scientific laws.
Francis Bacon, the man who had a lot to do with the development of the scientific method, said, “There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the Will of God; then the volume of His creation which express His powers.”
Christianity has given us such great scientists as Copernicus, Galileo, Blaise Pascal, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Lord Kelvin, James Simpson and many others.
Other areas have felt the touch of Jesus.
Private properties, free enterprise, the Protestant work ethic, capitalism, all have been influence heavily by Christianity.
Even welfare is a distortion of Christianity. We have more poor per capita than when we started welfare. The Church was the one through whom the needy were helped and those that were able were helped to get back to work.
We hear a lot about family values these days. Christianity really defined family values. At the base of those family values are the morals and ethics championed by Christianity.
Had Jesus not come, far more people would act like amoral pagans. Many of whom would act as if they had no control over their urges. We would see the need for a totalitarian government to keep order and peace.
What about the area of health?
Christianity has made significant contributions in the realm of health. First of all, applied Christian living is healthy. Second, Christianity has played an important role in the development of the institution of the hospital. Some say that Christianity was responsible for the development of hospital.
If Jesus had not come, medicine might not be as widespread nor would it ever have been as compassionate.
He touched the blind eyes and the deaf ears, and hospitals sprang into existence all over the world. They had virtually not existed before Christ came. He touched the leper, whom no one would come close to, and leprosariums came into existence all over the world.
Christianity gave rise to nursing care. St. Vincent de Paul and Florence Nightingale were among the many that were greatly influenced by Jesus Christ.
The Red Cross was started by a Christian.
Such greats in the field of medicine like Louis Pasteur and others mentioned earlier were absolute in their faith in Christ.
Thousands of medical missionaries have gone to remote areas to spread the gospel and physical healing.
Jesus affected the areas of morals and ethics.
Earlier I alluded to the way Christianity has affected the morality of society. Nothing in the annuls of history compares to what Christianity has done, and can still do, to civilize barbaric people.
While Christianity did not invent a view of morality, Jesus took the Hebrew base for morality and expanded it, and then sent it out into the whole world. Had Jesus never come we might live in an unbelievably low scale of morality.
When people became Christians in the early church, they had to go through a three-year period in which their livelihood and personal relations were examined while going through pre-baptismal instruction. No “easy believism” here. The results were a higher standard of morality for Christians of that time.
The Christian standard of morality is still higher than almost any other in the world. And although no one lives by it perfectly, still millions strive to live their lives to please Christ, and by His Spirit, they find their lives changing for the better.
Such barbaric people as the Vikings, the Goths, the Franks and the Saxons were all changed by Christianity. In our own day, the fierce headhunting Auca Indians were transformed by the love of Christ into a peaceful tribe.
Because we are abandoning Christian morals and ethics, we see our society as whole being affected in a number of ways.
The Humanist Manifesto says that human ethics are experiential; they are based on human experience. Thus, truth, ethics, and morals become relative and absolutes
Christianity says that God has established absolutes in the areas of morals and ethics which cannot be changed by human experience. Jesus himself affirmed God's moral and ethical standards throughout his ministry. Once one gets rid of God there is no way you can establish what people ought to do by some rational means. There is no way of determining what is right and wrong except by force.
Do you realize that if Jesus had not come it is unlikely that the Ten Commandments would be known beyond the Jews?
The effect of Jesus in the areas of art and music.
Jesus inspired many of the great artists and musicians such as Bach, Michelangelo, Raphael, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Handel, John Milton, C. S. Lewis, Dickens, Shakespeare, Bunyan, Vivaldi, and Mozart.
For those in the baby boomer generation you will recognize the names of Roger McGuinn, Barry McGuire, Bob Dylan and other well-known musicians who have been influenced by Jesus Christ.
Today's artists like Bono, Amy Grant, Third Day and others have been likewise influenced by Jesus Christ.
Many millions of lives have been changed by Jesus Christ. From Chuck Colson to Quinten Tarantino, from prostitutes to skeptics, from the Japanese captain who led the raid on Pearl Harbor to a gang member responsible for the murders of a number of people in New York. All have been radically changed by the living Jesus Christ.
“But,” you say, “What about all of the bad things done by the Church or by Christians?” That is about as fair as saying that Judas Iscariot was a representation of the twelve apostles.
Despite all of the good the Church has done, people continually throw up the Crusades, the Inquisition, Witch Hunts, and Hitler into our faces.
While many of these things were done in the name of Christ, they were not representative of Christ. In fact, we would have to challenge whether those carrying out many of the atrocities represented by these people were actually Christians.
No one would say that just because civil rights violations are going on in Communist China that all Chinese are guilty of this; or the indiscretions of Presidents Nixon and Clinton were indicative of all presidents.
As Jesus said, not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” is a Christians. Even as bad as the suffering caused in the name of Christ has been it is miniscule compared with the suffering and death caused by atheistic or non-Christian religious people.
More than a century ago, James Russell Lowell, the great ambassador to England, was once at a banquet where the Christian religion was being attacked by scoffers. He spoke up and said: “I challenge any skeptic to find a ten square mile spot on this planet where they can live their lives in peace and safety and decency, where womanhood is honored, where infancy and old age are revered, where they can educate their children, where the Gospel of Jesus Christ has not gone first to prepare the way. If they find such a place, then I would encourage them to emigrate thither and there proclaim their unbelief.”
So, as you can see, the world would be a much different place had Christ not been born. But glory to God he was born in a stable in Bethlehem in fulfillment of a number of specific prophecies.
Jesus was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompanied greatness. He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothes, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race.
All 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.