2013-12-15: Christmas At The Movies – It’s A Wonderful Life

Sermon: It’s A Wonderful Life
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Ephesians 2:1-20
Duration: 32:56
Size: 15.0 MB

Christmas at the Movies

“Christmas at the Movies”
It’s A Wonderful Life
Ephesians 2:1-20

In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” George Bailey had a gift that he wasn’t sure he wanted. His gift was the gift of life.

George Bailey finally understood how wonderful his life had been because he was allowed to see how much would have been lost if he had never been born.

I. Here in Ephesians 2, Paul is writing to Christians who had been tempted to throw away their gift as well.

False Teachers had come to town telling the Ephesians that what God had done through Jesus Christ wasn’t enough.

His objective was to teach them what would have happened if Jesus had not been born.

II. What would it have been like if Jesus had never been born?

What if by faith they lived as best they could, according to the Law of Moses?

These were great and admirable people that we can look up to; and we wonder if we could ever be like them.

III. Now, that might have seemed practical for individuals who aren’t “bad” people.

The whole purpose of the Law was to drive home that even “nice” people sinned and needed a sacrifice to atone for their bad thoughts their bad words and their bad actions.

Paul was the worst of all sinners? Yes. And he knew it! And being a “nice guy” wasn’t going to change that.

IV. And so Paul pleads with these Ephesian Christians to remember what their lives were like before Jesus was “born” into their lives.

Christmas time is supposed to be a season of peace and goodwill. And with Jesus it can be.

But what happens is that (without Jesus) all some people see is tinsel and lights on a dead tree.

But the beauty of God’s gift of Jesus is that even into an empty life, God can give forgiveness and hope.