Sermon Central
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Life Without Grace Series
Contributed by Paul Decker on Dec 25, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Christmas Eve Meditation: We can experience grace because of Jesus.
WHAT IF JESUS HAD NEVER BEEN BORN?
LIFE WITHOUT GRACE
S: Jesus’ Importance in all of Life
C: The essentiality of the Incarnation
Th: What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?
Pr: WE CAN EXPERIENCE GRACE BECAUSE OF JESUS.
?: Who? Who can?
KW: Examples
TS: We will find five examples of those who have experienced the grace of new life in knowing Jesus.
Type: Propositional, clarification
The ____ example is a…
I. PROSTITUTE
II. MURDERER
III. SLAVE-TRADER
IV. SKEPTIC
V. RUTHLESS POLITICIAN
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Know the grace Jesus offers.
Version: ESV
RMBC 24 December 05 AM
INTRODUCTION:
We have been influenced this month by the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
It is the book by C. S. Lewis, that we are confronted with this question…
1. What if it was always winter and never Christmas?
ILL Narnia – no Christmas
Lucy describes what the White Witch has done to the land of Narnia to her siblings, saying:
“She has made an enchantment over the whole country so that it is always winter here and never Christmas.”
The picture that is drawn is that it is a dead and stagnant time. Nothing is growing. Creatures are crouching around fires. The outdoors is endured rather than enjoyed.
Have you ever wondered what this world might be like if the first Christmas had never happened?
It is interesting that we live in a day and age when people are trying to remove Jesus from this time of the year.
Christians are called small-minded and bigoted, in an effort to minimize the impact of their faith.
But you know…
People can try to take Jesus out of Christmas, but it doesn’t work.
People can pretend that Jesus was not an historical figure, but they must be illogical to do so.
And people try to erase the impact Christianity has made over the last 2000 years, but such an impact is not so easily forgotten, if we care to look.
You see…
Jesus has come to earth.
He has intervened onto the stage of humanity.
And because He has done so, He has made all the difference.
Listen to this…
2. BECAUSE OF JESUS, WE CAN EXPERIENCE GRACE (II Corinthians 5:17).
I have never met anyone that has not enjoyed experiencing grace.
We often define grace as unmerited favor.
Most of us, either tonight or tomorrow, will be receiving gifts.
This giving will be acts of grace.
For grace is receiving a gift, not because we deserve it, but because we are liked, appreciated or loved.
We receive a gift, not because of our merits, but purely on the merit of the one giving.
They give because they enjoy doing so.
This is exactly what Jesus has done for us.
He wants to give us the very thing that we long for…a new start…a new beginning.
It says in Scripture…
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This is why Jesus came.
Jesus came to make things new.
He came to make us new!
When left on our own, we mess things up.
We suffer broken relationships.
We get angry at the most ridiculous things.
We may even betray our friends.
But Jesus is willing, if we are willing to receive His gift, to make us new.
For He takes the liabilities of society and turns them into assets!
OUR STUDY:
Note these examples in history.
The first is a…
I. PROSTITUTE
For those of us who know our Bible well, we may recall naming her as “the woman caught in adultery.”
We do not know her name.
We do know that she was caught with a man (also unnamed), suggesting to us that she was plying her trade.
The Jewish leaders were delighted to find her doing so, so that they could put Jesus into a moral dilemma.
The law said she should die, and they expected Jesus to uphold the law.
They were ready to stone her.
But Jesus did not fall for the trap.
Instead, He challenged them.
He said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Since none of them could make that claim, one by one, they walked away.
And then Jesus uttered the most wonderful words of grace, “Go and sin no more.”
The second example is a…
II. MURDERER
Another story in the New Testament reveals that there was a man that was a persecutor of Christians.
In fact, since he was one of the Jewish leaders, he presided over the stoning of one of the early Christian leaders, named Stephen.
The story was done with his permission.
Later this person, in recalling his past, would call himself the chief of sinners.
