As a kid fear was a great experience. Especially if it involved SOMEBODY ELSE being afraid.
Christmas and Easter are great holidays, but when I was a kid, Halloween was the most fun. Dressing up like some ghost or monster and jumping out of the bushes to yell, “boo!” And to see your best friend nearly faint with fear – ohhh what fun!
Or to be an a camp and to tell ghost stories around a camp fire until all the newest kids at the camp were too frightened to go to sleep.
Of course, when you grow up you don’t stop being afraid of things. In fact, fears become more troubling – no longer any fun at all.
We are afraid of cancer.
We are afraid that something might happen to our children.
We are afraid of what will happen with terrorist attacks.
We are afraid of losing our jobs, or of making the boss mad.
We are afraid our spouse will divorce us and leave us – and some are afraid the spouse will stay and continue to abuse.
Even this season of Advent and Christmas is full of fear -- fear of not having enough money, fear of not meeting everyone’s expectations (what if I didn’t get them the right gift or what if they get me a better gift than I got them); we worry over meals, over who will be there and who will not. We just seem to fear everything.
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary sees an angel and the angel tells Mary, “Fear not.”
Which has always struck me as strange – because if an angel suddenly appears before me, I am going to be shocked, surprised, disconcerted and yes – afraid.
This morning, I want us to look at three times God sent an angelic messenger to earth with messages connected to the birth of His Son, the Lord Jesus. Every one of these angels brought big news – news that troubled the hearts of those who heard. And yet, as troubling as the news was, the news also conveyed a message of peace.
Each one of these angels spoke the phrase, “Fear not.”
Why are we not to be afraid?
I
First, We are Told, Fear Not -- But Believe (Luke 1:26-31,34-35)
In our New Testament Lesson, we read,
Luke 1:26-31
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
When our lives do not go as we have planned it is easy to fear that which is unknown. Often, God will allow things to happen in your life and in mine that seem to be hard to bear and hard to understand, yet the Lord sends them our way so that we might grow in Him and come to know Him in a better way. When these times arise, it is easy to question the Lord and His judgment.
Let’s look for a moment at Mary’s situation. If Mary were to be a part of God’s plan then she faced the possibility of having her engagement to Joseph broken; she knew that Joseph would have the legal right to have her executed when it becomes known that she was pregnant. Even if somehow Joseph would still marry her, she knew how people would talk; they would have a reputation for being sexually promiscuous. This was a less than ideal situation for a young Jewish girl to find herself in. God called on Mary to step out on faith in order to be a part of His divine daring plan. But being a part of the plan would cost Mary something. Yet Mary was willing to step out on faith because she knew God loved her.
And therein lies the difference between when God challenges us to step out on faith and the world ask us to take a risk.
In this world, sometimes the challenge to do something risky comes from those who don’t really love us nor do they have our best interest at heart. The challenge doesn’t even have to be spoken; it may just be the unspoken peer pressure to fit in with the crowd. We’ve all be in that position at one time or another.
God won’t challenge us to do something just for fun; He won’t pressure us to fit in with the crowd. God loves us and only wants what is best for our lives. God is not going to manipulate us and then laugh at us when we fall flat on our face.
Mary asked some legitimate questions; if she was going to become pregnant she would like to know how this was going to happen. However, Mary did not let her questions stop her. Mary said, “YES!” to the part of the plan that God had given her. When God challenges you to move out on faith and be a part of a God-given dream, it’s alright to ask some questions. It is okay to say, “God, that’s a great dream, but how are we supposed to get there?” God answered Mary, and He will give you an answer too. Now it’s important to understand that God didn’t give Mary all the details; Gabriel only gave Mary enough information so she could make a willing response to God’s plan.
God will give us just enough light for the path that is before us; as the Psalmist says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105 NLT).
We are Told, Fear Not Only Believe and..
II
Secondly, We Are Told To Fear Not Only Obey (Matt 1:18-25).
There is another passage where an angel visits a human and says, “Fear not.” It is when Joseph finds out about his wife’s pregnancy.
How often have we read the Christmas story without stopping to consider the emotions that Joseph had to deal with in order to submit to God in ways which are contrary to his every natural inclination?
The Bible does not tell us when Joseph learned of Mary’s pregnancy nor who told him. But when Joseph learned of the situation there appeared to be only two possible solutions
1. He could divorce Mary quietly and have her sent away until the baby was born. or
2. He could divorce her publicly, and thereby subject her to the ridicule and humiliation of the public. This option could even have resulted in Mary’s death according to the Old Testament law (Deut. 24.). But as he thought on these things he received a message from heaven. We read about it in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 1:
We read it in Matthew chapter 1:
Matt 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-- which means, "God with us."
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
(NIV)
While the Bible does not say much about him, we know this one thing: Joseph kept his ears tuned to heaven.
In spite of the cultural expectations and practices Joseph listened to the voice of God even when it took him through all the tough times ahead. I am sure that Joseph must have thought something like this: “I don’t understand all of what I have been told. I sure can’t explain it. I’m not even sure I’m all together happy about it, but if it’s God’s will then count me in!”
So for you today, “Do not fear God’s purposes. They may look bad in the beginning, but in the end, He will be glorified and you will be blessed.”
Paul tells us in Romans 8:28; “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Nowhere does God say that all things are good, but rather that “all things will work together for good” when we are following his purpose in our lives. Later in his letter to the church at Corinth Paul says, (2 Cor. 4:17) ”For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Whatever we are called upon to endure in this life for his sake will in the end be found to be worth it all.
III
There is a third time that angels visit people and tell them not to be afraid. It is when the angels visit the shepherds. And it is there that we learn to fear not, because we are important to God.
We read about this in Luke, chapter 2:
Luke 2:8-11
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
(NIV)
Why were these shepherds afraid? Well the truth is that ordinary people have always displayed fear when they were confronted with the reality of God, because coming face to face with the Almighty has a way of making one face up with who we really are. You may think that if God is even aware that you exist, He probably doesn’t have a very favorable opinion of you. A lot of people, deep down, secretly feel like that!
The appearance of the angels to the shepherds tells us, “No matter how insignificant you may think you are, God knows you and you are important to him.”
The Apostle Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:26-28, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. (27) But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; (28) and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen…”
Shepherds were just ordinary common people. They were not the social elite, they were just common working folks. Most likely these shepherds were tending sheep outside Bethlehem and these may have been sheep being prepared for temple sacrifice.
In verse fifteen we read, ‘So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."
This decision by the shepherds was a wonderful example of people acting in faith in the Word of God. They heard the message and they did something about it. They trusted what God had said and went and checked it out.
Verse sixteen says, “And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. (17) Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”
The shepherds did what we all must do, they came to Christ in faith. God had brought the shepherds to the stable as witnesses of the supernatural events which happened that evening and the shepherds did that marvelously.
Conclusion
Three times the angels came and three times there was a reaction based in fear.
However, when the fear had been dealt with and the Lord’s message was allowed to come through, the message was seen for what it really was, a promise of grace.
So it is this Christmas season. There may be those things around you that you fear, but if you can learn the lesson that Mary, Joseph and the shepherds learned, fear not but believe, fear not but obey, fear not because you are important to God.
Copyright 2005, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
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