“X-Mas” – If Jesus Were Never Born?

If Jesus Were Never Born

     Last week I watched the classic movie “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I lost count of how many times I’ve seen this movie.  If you have never seen it, you should!  It is timeless. My eyes still swell up with tears at it’s conclusion.

    The story is about a man named George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart.  Throughout the movie, George wanted to leave his hometown of Bedford Falls, travel the world, and be successful.  But life’s circumstances kept George from ever leaving Bedford Falls. He felt he was a failure, and wanted to commit suicide.  He wished he had never been born. His guardian angel, named Clarence, grants his wish.  

    Then George Bailey sees how different things would be if he were never born.  Bedford Falls, is now Pottersville (named after the wicked old miser Mr. Potter).  Everything is evil, sinister, and nightmarish.  George has no friends and no family since he never existed. 

   Aren’t you glad Jesus came to this earth and die for your sins?   What would this world be like if Jesus were never born.  No birth has had a greater impact on the course of this world than that of Jesus Christ. 

In John 15:22 Jesus posed the scenario: “IF I HAD NOT COME…” 

    Let’s consider for a few minutes, “an alternate universe”—A universe in which Jesus was never born.  What if Jesus were never born?

• The year would not be 2019. 
• The Pilgrim’s would have never sailed on the Mayflower to settle in America.  America would have a much different form of government if Jesus had not come. At least 50 of the 55 signers of the U.S. Constitution were Christians.  
• The Arawakan Indians would still be cannibals. 
• MUSIC would be missing of some of it’s most beautiful songs—Handel’s Messiah / “Hallelujah Chorus,” “Silent Night,” “Amazing Grace,” “The Old Rugged Cross.”  There would be no hymnbooks containing gospel songs that glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
• ART would be missing some of it’s greatest paintings—DaVinci’s Last Supper, paintings of the nativity scene, Solomon’s Head f Christ. 
• LITERATURE would be void of it’s most inspiring stories—Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’s Christmas Carol; Pilgrim’s Progress; Chronicles of Narnia.
• HUMANITARIAN organizations like the Red Cross, Easter Seals, Salvation Army, and World Vision would not be here. 
• EDUCATIONAL institutions like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Purdue, Notre Dame, Bob Jones University, Liberty University, would not exist.
• HEALTH CARE would be lacking some of it’s best hospitals. U.S. News & World Report ranks Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center among the nation’s best hospitals for cancer care.
• Had Jesus not come, there would be no New Testament.  We’d have a Book without an ending. The last words of our Bible would be—“…lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:6). 
• Hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ’s coming would be left unfulfilled. The Bible could not be trusted. 
• If Jesus had not come we would still be under the Old Testament Law (Gal. 3:10, 13; 4:4-5).  We’d be obligated to offer sin offerings continually according to Leviticus 4:27-31; 5:17-18; Numbers 9:13 (cf. Rom. 10:4-5).
• If Jesus had not been born we would be without a Savior. No John 3:16.
• We would still be in our sins (John 8:21). 
• The world would have been deprived of the greatest teacher ever known and the greatest example of love ever displayed.
• The serpent’s head would not be crushed—we would still be under the devil’s dominion.
• If Jesus had not come, death would not have been defeated and we’d have no GUARANTEE of a resurrection or a heavenly home.  
• If Jesus had not come there would be no local Christian churches. You would not be sitting here today.  I would not be standing behind this pulpit proclaiming the Gospel. 
• Not one Christmas card bearing glad tidings of hope, peace, and goodwill would arrive in your mailbox.
• There would be no Easter or Thanksgiving, and Sunday would just be another day of the week.

SUMMATION:  But praise God, Jesus was born! He did come! And because Christ came, we can have hope… the forgiveness of sins,…and our lives may be changed.  We still have Christ’s promise, “I AM COME that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

     Sergeant Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier during WW2. While bombing Japan his plane was shot down. He and his crew bailed out but were captured.  They were treated with great cruelty, so much so that DeShazer had but one desire, to have revenge on his torturers.  

    One day a Bible was brought into the prison As he read it, he trusted Christ and his life was changed. When the war was over DeShazer returned to Japan as a missionary.  In 1959, DeShazer moved to Nagoya, the city he had bombed, and established a Christian church.  The story of DeShazer’s life was printed as a tract (“I Was A Prisoner of Japan”).  

    One day a disheartened, broken and hopeless man received one of those tracts. He was later converted.  His name was Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.  He was the Japanese officer who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was the pilot who said, “Tora, Tora, Tora,” to begin the attack.  

     After he was saved he became a preacher of the gospel and on the 25th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor he went back to Pearl Harbor with a gift for the survivors, a Bible which had been inscribed with Luke 23:43 which says “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” 

     Mitsuo Fuchida later met Jacob DeShazer and they became close friends.  They even preached together in crusades in Japan.  Mitsuo Fuchida became a US citizen in 1960 and died in 1976 (age 73).  Jacob DeShazer died in Salem OR in 2008 at the age of 95!  What made the difference in these two men’s lives? Jesus!

      It is the Lord Jesus Christ that makes a difference in your life also.