You can often tell what mattered most to a person by what they leave behind when they depart this world.

What Jesus left behind is more astonishing when you think of what he didn’t leave:

• No wife or child
• No house
• No clothes
• No money
• No business
• No writings (directly authored while he was on earth)
• No hymns
• No portrait
• No buildings
• No cross remnant
• No confirmed gravesite

So scant a corporeal trace did Jesus leave that some have claimed he was a myth. The only things he left behind were people who believed his gospel. Jesus left his Word (teaching) and his church (a few hundred people).

And these two legacies changed the course of history. They are, in fact, what history is all about.

Everything passes away: rulers, nations, professions, species, industries, families, possessions, political movements, houses, IRAs, 401Ks, heirlooms, photos, books, cars, schools, degrees, careers—every earthly thing we cherish.

Except for Jesus’ Word and his church.

Those were Jesus’ priorities and legacy. Are they yours? Are you investing in what will last? What will your legacy reveal mattered most to you? 

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).