"WHAT IF? A Christmas Message"

Carl Wells, PhD

Christmas at New Enoree • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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This sermon calls us to consider what the world would be life if Jesus had not come. If he had not come, there would be no conviction of sin.

Notes

Transcript

John 15:18–24 “18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Introduction

A little boy approached Santa in a department store with a long list of requests. He wanted

a bicycle and a sled,

a chemical set and a cowboy suit,

a set of trains and a baseball glove

and roller skates.

Santa look at him and said,“That’s a pretty long list, young man “I’ll have to check in my book and see if you were a good boy.” “No, no, Santa, that’s alright. You don’t have to check. I’ll just take the roller skates.”

We serve a mighty good God, a God who will send you what you need.”

In the person of Jesus Christ, God sent the world what it needed:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;

But because our greatest need was salvation, God sent us a Savior.

One who we might life more abundantly. Its Christmas time, and I enjoy the gift giving, the holiday gatherings, and the Christmas parties. But in the midst of the gifts, the gatherings, and the parties, I pray that we do not loose site of the real reason for the season.

One of the most commonplace critiques of Christmas is it has become too commercialized.

But I believe that greatest tragedy is not the commercialization of Christmas, but instead the trivialization of Christmas.

The birth of the baby Jesus, the son of God is a big deal. The purpose behind and the power of a virgin conceiving, bearing a son, and his name being Emanuel, meaning God is right here with us, gets lost.

When we worry more about what is under the tree and care less that Jesus was born to died on a tree, the true meaning of Christmas is lost.

When we obsessed more over what I am going to get and forget that Jesus came to give, to give his life for your sins and mine, the meaning of Christmas is lost.

ENCOUNTERING THE TEXT

But there is a wake up call in our text, this morning. Jesus asks a question of his disciple. It is question designed to make them think more deeply about the the power and the purpose of his coming to earth in human flesh. In verse 22, Jesus poses the hypothetical question, “What if I had not come?”

The Psalmist in Psalms 124:1 takes Jesus’ question and makes a declaration. He does not ask what if there was no God, he declares if it had not been for God who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive. Our help is in the name of the LORD who made the heavens and the earth.

What would this old world be like, if he had not come. Oh my God! What would our lives be like if our God had not

wrapped himself up flesh,

gave up the comforts of glory,

born on earth as a babe in the manager,

to died like criminal on cross to save our souls.

Songwriter by the name of Luther Barnes said this way:

How did I make it all these years? How did I make it this far? Through the valleys and over the hills I know it had to be God How did I make it through the storm? How did I make it through the rain?

If you want to know Just how I got here It's so easy to explain It was God's grace (God's grace) It was God's grace (God's grace) It was God's grace (God's grace) It was God's grace (God's grace)

Our text makes it clear. If there was no birth of Jesus, then there would be no coming of the Holy Spirit. IF there is no Holy spirit THEN what would keep us in the time of trouble.

What would comfort us in the times of grief and sorrow? Who would heal us in the time sickness?

I don’t know about you, but I am glad this morning that he came.

Glad that I can find peace when I am in his presence.

Glad that I can experience his unconditional love when I’m lonely.

Glad that I have the joy of the Lord which is my strength.

Glad that I can have hope when all is hopeless.

Glad that I can be forgiven of my sins and I can forgive those who have sin against me.

Are you glad about it this morning, church?

In the text, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what they will experience after he is gone. They had seen him be persecuted, now they were going to experience persecution for themselves. They have witnessed him being hated and mistreated, now they would be the recipients of the hatred and the mistreatment.

It reminds me of what happens when your children leave your home and they have to establish their own home. It is then , and only then, that they can understand some of the things that you taught them. I remember telling our children over and over again, turn off the lights. Don’t turn on the lights all over the house and leave them on all night long. Somebody has to pay the bill

It blew my mind when I visited our daughter in Louisiana, to hear her tell me, “Daddy, please turn of my lights.” Someone once said, “Personal experience is the best teacher. Jesus realizes it was about to get personal for his disciples.

CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS

In preparing them, he make a series of “IF/THEN” statements.

IF/THEN statements are designed to make you think and to get your attention. The Bible is filled with promises and commands.

A command is something that God requires man should do. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” That is a command. Commands are not option, they are mandatory.

But a promise is something that God will do. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” That’s a promise, something that God will do.

But there are also conditional promises. The conditional promise combines the command and a promise.

When an IF/THEN statement, shows up in the Bible, it is a conditional promise.

In other words, God doing is part, is contingent upon your first doing yours.

Year ago, I took a computer programming course. I learn that IF/THEN statements are commands that the computer programmer writes and they hidden behind the computer screen to guide and direct the computer that IF we do this, THEN the computer will do that; IF you and I do that, THEN the computer will do this. Old school parents often used IF/THEN statements. They would say something like, “Boy you got a hard head. I told you to be in the house at a reasonable hour. You stayed out late last night; I don’t care what time you crawled in her last night, IF you are not dressed in the car ready to go when I pull off for church THEN you hard head will make for a soft behind.”

The Word of God is filled with IF/THEN statements. IF/THEN statements force us to think to reason and make the right decision.

II Chronicles 7: 14; “IF My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; THEN will I hear from Heaven and heal their Land.” Mark 11: 25 & 26 “IF you do not forgive your brother on earth of his trespasses, THEN your father in heaven will not forgive you of yours.” I John 1:5 – 10 & 2: 1 – 6 IF we say that we have fellowship with Him while we are walking in darkness, (THEN) we lie and the truth is not in us.

BACKGROUND ON THE TEXT

In the text ,Jesus uses IF statements to make a point.

IF the world hates you, don’t be surprised they hated me first.

The world loves its own, so IF you belong to the world, THEN the world will love. So don’t be surprise if they hate you because you are not of the world.

IF the world persecutes you, THEN don’t be surprised because the World persecuted me, too.

IF I had not come, THEN they would not be guilty of their sins.

IF I had they had not seen the works that I have done, THEN they would have an excuse to stay in their sins.

This world cannot deny the works that God has done.

They couldn’t touch the work, so they attacked the worker.

They could not challenged the fact that Jesus healed the sick.

They could repudiate that Jesus raised the lame and gave sight to the blind.

So they persecuted Him instead

Jesus that when he was gone, his persecutors were going to target his disciples.

PERSECUTION

Don’t be deceived, there is still persecution in this world.

Persecution is defined as “hostility and ill-treatment, because of your race, your political views, or your religious beliefs.”

So no, we aren’t being fed to the lions like Daniel.

We are not being stoned like Stephen, but we are being persecuted.

Let’s talk about race.

IF you don’t believe we are still being persecuted because of race? THEN Ask 20 year old Dante Wright about it. He was stopped by Police in Minneapolis Minnesota because of a traffic violation in 2021 (NOT LONG AGO), but ended up being shot to death.

There is still persecution in the land.

IF you don’t believe me, THEN ask 28 years old Atatianna Jefferson about it. A neighbor called a non-emergency number and said her front door had been left open. Police walked around the house, shot through the window and killed her in front of her 8 year old nephew.

Persecution is still happening — Lets talk about politics and religion:

The conflict in the Middle East is not only persecution, it is the same conflict that was going on in the Bible. It is conflict over who gets what land and how it's controlled.

But you don’t have to go to the Middle East to find persecution.

There is still persecution and we see it everyday.

Being slandered and mocked for your faith is persecution. Being passed over for a promotion on your job because of you political or religious views is persecution. Being socially ostracized and called a Jesus freak is persecution.

The IRS targeting Christian non-profits organization is persecution. We call it discrimination, but it nothing but persecution. The world has been discriminating in the name of religion since the Bible days.

The attacks on churches across the country, most recently, in Maryland is nothing but persecution. A Catholic church in the Washington was one of three houses of worship victimized by vandalism, and one them set on fire. That’s persecution. Black churches in America are still being burned in this modern day and age, that’s persecution.

There is trouble in this world. But imagine how much worse it would be, if Jesus had not come. Imagine a world full of people who had no Jesus in them. The convicting power of the Holy at least means that some of us should know right from wrong.

CONVICTION

When Jesus ask the question, “What IF I had not come, THEN they would not be guilty of their sins.” He is talking about conviction. Conviction is when the Holy Spirit lets you know you have done something wrong. The beauty of conviction leads us to repentance. Repentance causes you to to run to God for grace and for forgiveness.

If you can do wrong, if you can treat people any kind of way and not ever feel some kind of way about it, then its a sure thing that you do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

If you have never felt compelled to say, I am sorry about something, if you have never asked for forgiven of somebody, you may not have any Holy Ghost in you. Nobody is right all the time.

THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT The conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit if like the check engine light on your car dashboard. When the check engine light comes in the dashboard, it is a warning, that something is wrong under the hood.

Am I right about it? When the light comes on, some people assume nothing wrong because the car is still running fine. It might run fine for while. When the light comes on,some people say, “I don’t have time to check on the light.” But when the car breaks down, you make time then to get it fix.

Some people say, “I don’t have the money to get it fixed, right now.” But when it breaks down, you will find the money some how. Oh, church. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you should do today.

If the Holy spirit tells you to call someone, pick up the phone and dial the number. If the Holy spirit brings someone to your mind, get on your knees and pray for them, and when you get through praying, pick up the phone and call them.

When was the last time the check engine light in your soul flashed. When was the last time the Holy Spirit convicted you for your sins. We live in a day when anything goes and everything is alright.

We live in a world that wants the THEN (promise), without obeying the IF (command). We live in a world that does not want to be saved FROM their sins; it wants to be saved and still live WITH its sin.

A theologian by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls it cheap grace. According to Bonhoeffer:

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

We are a generation that wants its cake and to eat it, too. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy spirit will bring it to remembrance, in your heart, and your mind when you have violated the Word of God, that you have done wrong, that you have sinned. The check engine light in your soul will remind you that perhaps you said something out of the way to somebody. It will convict you that maybe your words were too harsh even though your intentions were good.

Your conscience speaking to you, is different than the Holy Spirit convicting you. That was the difference in Peter and Judas.

Both of them sinned: Peter denied Jesus. Judas betrayed Jesus. Judas’ conscience got to him, and he committed suicide. The Holy Spirit talked to Peter; it convicted him, and asked for forgiveness and repented of his sins.

You remember David, sinned with Bathsheba. When Nathan got through talking to him, he was convicted of his sin That’s why in cried out in Psalm 51 “Created in me clean heart and renew in me the right spirit.”

When the Word of God gets inside of you, the Holy Spirit will convict you. When the Holy Spirit convicts, it is pointing out that your actions go against the Word.

You don’t blame anybody when you are convicted. You don’t make excuses when you are convicted. When you are convicted it likes the words of the old spiritual: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, O God, standing in the need of prayer.”

When I was young and got a whipping, I would start crying and say “Daddy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” But here is the thing: I wasn’t sorry because of what I had done; I was sorry because of what was happening. When you get to the point that your sins break your own heart, that’s conviction.

HOOP

What if he had not come?

I am so glad that my God sent his only begotten son to die for my sins.

If this world ever needed a savior, it sure needs one right now.

We need a God who can heal our my sickness.

We need a God who can fight our battles.

We need to God who convicts us of our sins.

But we also need a God who would die for our sins.

I believe it was Vickie Winans who sung the song:

We don't need another political uprising, we don't need another conqueror on the scene. What we need is a special word that will bond within our hearts and give us direction from above. CHORUS: We need a word from the Lord, a word from the Lord. Just one word from the Lord,

I am so glad that we serve a God who gives us what we need.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; I f our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; but our greatest need was salvation and forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

I am not worried about the commercialization of Christmas. I am worried about the Trivialization of Christmas.

So this Christmas I pray that when we

*Open the Christmas GIFTS it remind us of God’s greatest gift, His only Son. * And that the Christmas CANDLES remind us that “He is the Light of world.” * And that the Christmas TREES remind us of another tree upon which he died. * And that the Christmas CHEER remind us of Him who said, “Be of good cheer.” * And that the Christmas FEAST remind us of Him who is “the Bread of Life.” * And that the Christmas BELLS remind us of the glorious proclamation of His birth. * And that the Christmas CAROLS remind us of the angels sang, “Glory to God in the Highest!” * And that this SEASON remind us that Jesus is the reason.Jesus Christ our King!

I got some if’s for you:

If it had not been for the Lord on my side, where would I be?

I got some if’s for you:

If you know the Word, then you need to do the Word.

If the Word says be holy, then you need to be holy.

If the Word says forgive, then you need to forgive your brother.

If the Words says love, one another then you need to love you neighbor.

I got a if for you:

If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, I don’ know where I’d be.

God’s been good to me.

That why I praise him.

He woke me up this morning.

That’s why I praise.

He started me on my way, that’s why I praise.

Because, IF I don’t praise him, THEN the rocks are going to cry out in my stead.

IF I had ten thousand tongues, THEN, it still wouldn’t be enough to praise him.

IF I had ten thousand hands, THEN, it still would;be be enough to praise him

God’s been so good to me that IF he doesn’t do anything else, THEN he already done enough.

IF God be for me, THEN who can be against me.

IF you knock, THEN the door will open.

IF you seek, THEN you will find.

IF you ask, THEN it shall be done.

IF any man [be] in Christ, THEN [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And just in case you are being persecuted in your life. Remember....

“That IF God be for you, THEN who can be against you.

I don’t know about you, but I feel alright. I feel like praising God

Jesus said “And IF I be lifted up from the earth, THEN I will draw all men unto me.

And just in case some you don’t feel like praising God, that alright. Because IF we don’t praise Him, THEN the rocks will cry out. FOR all my brothers and sisters who feel like giving up, remember... And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap a harvest of blessing, IF we faint not.

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