Christmas: A time to reflect on the effect Jesus made Kelly Durant
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
2. How many of you have seen a movie, “Back to the Future”? It was about a young man that went back into time and then goes back into the future and he saw how it would be if something were changed.
There is one part where something didn’t happen the way it was suppose to in the past, and if Marty McFly, the main character, didn’t get things the way they were supposed to happen while in the past, and in this case it was the getting together of his parents, then the world was going to become a different, horrible, hell of a place.
This scenario caused me, and should provoke us all, to reflect and ask our selves this question, what would the world be like today if it had not been for the birth of the Son of God on Christmas over 2,000 years ago? God made hundreds of things come together for Jesus birth at the right place and time.
3. Imagine a world with people who are living as Jesus commanded, as salt and light, who are following Jesus’ love and salvation, how would that world be? We could have the ‘kingdom of God’ on earth! Now, imagine a world without the leadership of God’s righteous people, without churches doing good, without missionaries bringing a better standard to the pagan idol worshippers, without the message of eternal life and the forgiveness for sins through Christ. The world would be a worse hell than what it already is!
Without Jesus the world would be a thousand times more full of evil, with more human sacrifices than our current infanticide ones; we would be overcome by violence and war as before the flood ‘as in the days of Noah’. There would gross darkness on the people, being devoid and ignorant. Starvation and misery would prevail more than what it does today. When the European missionaries went out to reach the world with Jesus travelling by ships, establishing colonies worldwide, it is recorded in the history books that they brought prosperity and peace.
Even in the 1700 and 1800s there was still cannibalism on many islands, along with idolatry, human sacrifice, and the slave trades. Where the people had never heard the gospel of Jesus, they lived in constant war with their neighbors. It has been the Christians who helped the world progress out of the dark ages and the ones who founded most all of the prestigious colleges of high learning world-wide. It was the Christians who developed the world scientifically, through Galileo, Pascal, and others. It was the Christians who fought to free those enslaved. The world cannot deny that Jesus gospel has brought more peace and development wherever it has been practiced. The problem it must be practiced to work!
4. Jesus was the best gift this world has ever received from God! But let’s look at what attributes were necessary in order for there to be the desired effect by God. First, there had to be a willingness to give on His part .God loved the world and gave us Jesus and He too gave of his own self. He renounced heaven, a place of pure perfection and love and peace in order to come here on earth to give Himself to live a life in frail human flesh. He knew His life was going to end torturous but victorious being a sacrifice on the cross, dying in a horrible manner to redeem whosoever would receive Him! Realize this, Jesus’ resurrection means that He can give anyone the gift of eternal life if we want to belong to Him! There is no gift that could be better, ever!
The first thing that Christmas should do is convict us to give, to give our lives in obedience to Jesus! He gave the example, he was born in a humble little manger, and came not to be rich and spoiled, nor powerful as the kings of earth are, but he came to serve and to give his life for the souls us all!
There are many people though that live by the contrary. They believe that Christmas is a time to receive and to get, not to give, forgetting the whole picture of Jesus’ life. We must give to be blessed!
5. I recall that as a child I got picky and demanding about what I wanted my mother to give me for Christmas and that was being spoiled and wrong but it happens often most with all kids. Since I had no father in the home, my mother always tried to make it up by giving me many many toys.
The toys were fun but only for a few days before the reality of life would return. All that I had received did not bring me a lasting happiness, only a temporary one. It was later in my life that I learned the joy of giving after I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want happiness…then give. It is more blessed to give than to receive! One more time, Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive! We need to teach ourselves and our children to give to others so we don’t just think about their selves at Christmas time.
6. Give your life in service to God, give your time, your money, your will, everything; and if you do, then you will be following the words and example of Jesus correctly and you will be celebrating what Christmas should really be all about!
The problem is that many people get so materialistic and worried about gifts and the Christmas party and the food that they forget who the party is for and how He wants those at His party to be. Imagine that, Jesus is being left out of His own party in many homes!
Another attribute is that we must announce the coming of Jesus, ahead of time. That is what the tradition of the ‘Advent’ is for. John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, recognized Jesus before He was born. The message prepared was that Jesus would bring us peace, hope, and salvation and for all the world. What did God have all the angels announce to the humble poor shepherds when Jesus was born. They all declared, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men (all humanity)”. If God’s angels praised Him, how much more we must praise Him and give glory to Him!
7. God showed His love and favor to all of us in all the world for all people and for all time. He gave us a new hope, a new life, a life of peace, an internal peace that gives us strength. He gave us good will, and God gave His example of healing goodness. Without Jesus we would not have learned how goodness was to be practiced. We would also not know that we could heave eternal life in heaven either.
The effect or reaction God wants by Jesus coming is that we honor Him as the angels did, knowing that the way we honor him is by sharing the story of His life obeying His words sharing salvation! We must give our lives as Jesus gave His. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This verse is a follow up to John 3:16 which should be the effect Jesus has on us. How has Jesus affected you? Has His effect made you do something to make the world a better place?
History proves that we as humans usually behave as brute beasts, full of jealousy for power, full of hate, adulteries, selfishness, and even murders, but when we pause to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we are giving ourselves and everyone in the world a chance to see hope and love: that there is an example of a pure life much better than what we ourselves could ever be. We accept Jesus at Christmas and accept that we must change our lives in order to be like Him! Those that have done this, those that have allowed Jesus to take effect in their heart, mind, and soul, they are the world changers!
Jesus caused prostitutes, drunken partiers, greedy tax collectors, and religious hypocrites to repent and live a holy life! What a powerful effect! For over 2,000 years now His story from start to finish combined with His God-breathed Words of teachings have changed millions of lives for the better! The effect is peace with God and freedom from the desire to sin! I know about this because I am one of those whose life turned around completely! What an effect Jesus made on me to leave behind sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and Hindu religions!
Please share Jesus, in your giving and receiving, share His story, and share your story of the effect Jesus has made on your life this Christmas!
