Why Was Christmas Designed?

Opening illustration: The early American Indians had a unique practice of training young braves. On the night of a boy’s thirteenth birthday, after learning hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was put to one final test. He was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of the family and tribe. But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken several miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of the thick woods, and he was terrified. Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. After what seemed like an eternity, dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of a path. Then to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long. Just like our heavenly Father who is there at every moment of our life. Especially in hard times when there is only one pair of footprints in the sand. He is always there to carry us through.

Christmas was designed to destroy fear. If this message doesn’t reach out to you today, it will stay as ‘Fire shut up in my bones!’ Let us look at four short passages of Christmas where God had used His Angel to reach out to these four people to tell them “Not to Fear.”

Introduction: Life can be difficult. Being a Christian in a non-Christian world poses all kinds of problems. The world does not know Jesus. The world does not love Him. The world does not understand why He came. You, on the other hand, do know Jesus. You do love Him. And, you do understand why He came. He came to save you from your sins and to give you new life. He came to bring you peace and joy in the Spirit. He came so you might have fellowship with God.

These things you already know. And you also know that though you are saved from sin and filled with the Spirit of God, life in this world still is not perfect. It is still difficult. As a Christian, what do you do when life is coming down on you hard, when there seems to be no way out, when your relationship with God is being affected? When you are worried or afraid? When you are in distress?

When you are born again, you start seeing things you can’t explain Goodness you can’t explain, Deliverance you can’t explain, Mercy you can’t explain, Provision you can’t explain and there are some funny family members in the kingdom you just can’t explain.

The devil is trying to make us afraid ~ the stock market falls from an egg to a tall chicken. Many telling the young folks in America that the good days of the country are behind them. It is fearful

Why should we NOT be afraid [fear not]?

1. God has heard and will do the impossible:

Zacharias ~ Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. [Luke 1: 13]

He calls him by his name; for holy men are known to angels in person, and by name; to whom they are ministering spirits, and for whose good they are concerned; and bid him not be afraid, as the angel also said to the women at Christ’s sepulcher, Matthew 28:5 for he saw by his countenance and gestures, that he was greatly surprised and terrified at the sight of him: which he had many years ago put up for a son; for it cannot be thought that he had been now praying for one, being in such an advanced age, and having for years past given up all hopes of one, and was even unbelieving, when he was told by the angel he should have one: prayer is sometimes immediately heard, and answered; and sometimes an answer is deferred a long time, to try the faith and patience of the saints, and to discover the more the wisdom, power, and goodness of God: or this may have regard to his present prayer, one branch of which might concern the coming of the Messiah, which was now expecting, and therefore is told, that his prayer was heard; since the angel that appeared to him, brought him the news of the conception and birth of his forerunner:

(i) Good things are gone and it is too late for me

You will have joy and gladness. You belong to a kingdom that is not built with hands. There were things you prayed about years and years ago and some of you may have already forgotten about it. But God doesn’t forget. Fear of it (baby) being too late.