TITLE: What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

• TEXT: John 1:14-18

• THEME: If Jesus had never been born, we would not know God, and we would have no victory over sin, evil, and death.

Intriguing Questions.

• What if the Moors had won in the great historic battle in Spain?

Intriguing Questions.

• What if the Moors had won in the great historic battle in Spain?

• What if the Dutch had kept New Amsterdam?

Intriguing Questions.

• What if the Moors had won in the great historic battle in Spain?

• What if the Dutch had kept New Amsterdam?

• What if Louis XVI had been a strong, firm king?

Intriguing Questions.

• What if the Moors had won in the great historic battle in Spain?

• What if the Dutch had kept New Amsterdam?

• What if Louis XVI had been a strong, firm king?

• What if Lee had won at Gettysburg?

Intriguing Questions.

• What if Booth had missed Lincoln?

Intriguing Questions.

• What if Booth had missed Lincoln?

• What if Napoleon had escaped to America?

C.S. Lewis Sci-Fi Trilogy

• “Out of the Silent Planet,” asks “What if Satan had not fallen?”

• “Perelandra” asks “What if Eve and not succumbed to temptation?”

• “That Hideous Strength” asks “What if science won out over religion?”

Christopher Hitchens

A person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "An antitheist, a term I’m trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there’s no evidence for such an assertion.”

Christopher Hitchens

He argues that the concept of God or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining

Christopher Hitchens

human civilization. He wrote at length on atheism and the nature of religion in his 2007 book, “God Is Not great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

What if Jesus had never been born?

I. We would have an incomplete understanding of

God (John 1:1,14, 18)

John 1:1

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14

• “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:18

• “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

I. We would have an incomplete understanding of

God (John 1:1,14, 18)• Jesus is God’s ultimate revelation

because He is Himself God.

What if Jesus had never been born?

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• "Son of David." That is Jesus' Jewish name. He came out of the tribe of Judah. Son of David speaks of his racial heritage.

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• "Son of God." Even a demon said, "He is the Son of God.". The centurion stood up and said, "Truly, this was the Son of God."

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• "Son of Man."

• Eighty times in the New Testament.

• "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

"The Son of Man, when he comes, will come with his mighty angels.“

• "The Son of Man, when he comes, will come with his mighty angels."

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• "Just like Jonah was buried three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, even so must the Son of Man be buried deep in the heart of the Earth; but he'll arise again." Son of Man.

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• "The foxes have a place to rest, but the Son of Man does not have a place to lay his head."

II. There would be no “God with Us.”

• Jesus brought us victory over all our limitations because He face the same struggles and persevered.

What if Jesus had never been born?

III. We would still be hopelessly lost in our sin.

• Isaiah 53 is a powerful chapter in the Old Testament. It's called, the "gospel in the Old Testament

III. We would still be hopelessly lost in our sin.

• Isaiah 53 is a powerful chapter in the Old Testament. It's called, the "gospel in the Old Testament

• Had Jesus not come there would have been no salvation from sin.

III. We would still be hopelessly lost in our sin.

• We would be destroyed by Satan: In 1 John 3:8, God's Word says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. The word for "destroy" is powerful. Jesus came "to break or to dissolve" the devil's works.

III. We would still be hopelessly lost in our sin.

• The word for "devil" is also interesting: Diabolos means, "One who shatters." Jesus came to break the one who shatters.

What if Jesus had never been born?

IV. We would have no hope of life after death. (I Cor. 15)

I Corinthians 15

The Apostle Paul said we'll all be changed: "We shall see him as he is. And we shall be like him. For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible. This mortal must put on immortality. And then shall be brought to pass this saying: 'Death is swallowed up in victory,'"

If Jesus had not died, evil would win in our world

instead of him.

"And the light came into the world, and we beheld his

glory, the glory as the only begotten of the father, full of

grace and truth. And the darkness could not overcome

the light!"