Christmas and the end of fear
FEAR AND CHRISTMAS
One of the most overlooked themes in the Christmas narrative is how the coming of Christ, His incarnation, will deal with the fears of God’s people. And let us just be clear, we are not talking about just any kind of fear, we are talking about the fear of God. The terror that His holiness provokes in sinful man. The kind of fear that caused Israel to fall on their faces and plead for their lives. The kind of fear that had Isaiah begging for mercy. The kind of fear that caused Adam and Eve to frantically run and hide lest they be exposed to the torrent of His wrath.
From the very beginning of fallen human history, from Gn 3 onward, human beings have been running, hiding, covering, cowering, and living in mortal fear of having an encounter with the living God. This fear occurs when Christ appears in the Old Testament. It happens when God appears in various manifestations (Theophany) like a burning bush, a windstorm, or from the summit of a shaking mountain. Human beings are simply terrified of a Holy God.
WE ARE AFRAID BECAUSE OF OUR SIN
Our sin renders us God’s enemies, and in the enmity our sin produced, the most natural response is for us to be afraid. This also happens when humans come into contact with His angels, who are periodically sent to earth, by God, to deliver important messages to sinful men.
When the angels come, the people are mostly afraid, showing that any sort of appearance from heaven is a terror to the unregenerate man.
FEAR IN THE CHRISTMAS NARRATIVE
And we see this happening with incredible frequency in the Christmas narrative. In fact, I do not know of a single occasion in Scripture that has more angelic visitations than what happens at or around the birth of Christ. The angels are all over the narrative delivering the most important messages from God ever given to man. And as such we should not be surprised that the people involved in the narratives are mortally afraid.
And we know they were afraid based on what angels said to them. For instance, to Zacharias the angel said:
“Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son” - Luke 1:13
To Joseph the angel said:
“But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” - Matthew 1:20
To the shepherd’s the angel said:
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people” - Luke 2:10
FEAR IN LUKE 1
Which brings us to the passage I want us to focus on this Christmas day in Luke chapter 1. In this passage, we not only see the typical human fear when a person encounters an angel of God in Scripture, but we will also see how the message that God gives to Mary is the antidote of fear, and has everlasting implications for our lives!
Luke 1:28-33 says:
“And coming in, (The angel) said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” - Luke 1:28-33
JESUS WILL BANISH OUR FEARS
Notice that the angel begins by saying: “Do not be afraid, Mary; which was not a trite thing to say to her at all. This angel has a message for Mary. A message that will change the world! A message that will change the fundamental makeup of heaven and earth for all generations moving forward. And one of the ways it would do that is by addressing the human propensity toward fear by restoring peace between man and God.
This is our first point. This message from the angel to Mary was meant to communicate that her fears would soon be over. Soon there would be no more reason to be afraid. The dividing wall would soon be broken. Because her Son would reconcile His people back to God.
This is why the angel could look at Mary and say: for you have found favor with God, which brings us to our second point.
JESUS BESTOWS GOD’S FAVOR
My prayer is that we know our theology here. We know that there is no one righteous. Not even one! We know that there is no one who seeks God. No one who could impress God with their life. And NO ONE that God would look at and deem acceptable by their own merit.
This is where we must understand that Mary does not gain favor from God because of who she is! She gains favor from God because of who He is! She is favored because God has extended borrowed righteousness to her. A righteousness that she does not possess. A righteousness that He Himself could approve of because it is the righteousness of His own Son.
How do we know this? Look just above verse 30 where it says that she has found favor with God (which admittedly seems like a work she did), and look at verse 28 which spills the beans about the who matter. It says in verse 28:
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.
In this statement, “favored” is in the passive tense, which means it is something she receives instead of something she earns. Perhaps, a better way to translate this verse would be like this:
“Greeting to the one who has been given favor! The Lord is with you!”
And its extremely important we understand this distinction because favor does not come from us being good. We can’t be good. We do not have what it takes.
Think about it like this, John the Baptist was the greatest man born of woman and he was not enough. Mary was an exemplary woman of faith and courage and she was not enough! Here you have two of the best representatives of their gender and they still needed a savior to give them favor. They could not find favor on their own!
Thus, if we have any hope of finding favor from God, it must come to us in the same way Mary found it! That is to say, it must be given to us. It must be a borrowed righteousness given to us from God, that Christ our mediator earned by His active and passive obedience on earth!
Through the righteousness of Christ, we find the only way to have favor with God! Only through Him, can we dare hope that God could or ever would dwell with us, which is why the angelic phrase: “Do not fear” is all the more important!
In Mary’s sin, she had every reason to tremble. In Christ, she had every reason to rejoice! The same is true for us.
Jesus did not come just come to take away our sins, as incredible as that is, He also came to give us something. He came to give us His perfect spotless record of obedience and righteousness, so that we would look beautiful to God! So that God could rightly look upon us and call us along with Mary His favored ones!
And this is the point, if God looks at us like that, what in the world could we ever fear? Quite literally, if you have found favor with God, on the basis of Jesus Christ, what in heaven and on earth could ever steal your joy? What could any longer make you afraid?
To paraphrase the apostle Paul: “I am convinced that there is nothing in heaven above, nor the earth below, that can separate us from the ongoing, satisfying, soul-thrilling love of God!”
But it is even more than that! He did not just come to give us favor in a fallen world. He did not come just to tell you how much He loves you while you are dodging spiritual bullets and flaming arrows in a world very much engulfed in a spiritual war! He came to give you favor in order to also bring you into His conquest!
JESUS BRIGNS THE CONQUEST
Look at verse 31
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus”
Now, this may not seem all that clear just yet, especially when I am saying that He was born to not only bring us favor, but to bring us into the spiritual battle, but when you consider that Jesus had His name specifically chosen by God, you begin to see a vital aspect of His coming.
You see, He was going to rescue His people out of bondage to sin. We know that because of Jesus’ name, which is a Greek way of saying a very popular Hebrew name, (Joshua), the military general from Israel’s history. When you see that, then you begin to realize that Jesus was born as a true and greater Joshua. He was born to be a better conqueror. And to lead a true and better conquest against a more menacing enemy in order to have a better victory.
God led the people in the Old Testament, to conquer a pagan land, to displace all of the pagan peoples, to settle in the land, and set up a Kingdom focused entirely on God, by the hand of a man named Joshua. That Kingdom was the place on earth where God would choose to dwell in the mist of His people. It would be a Kingdom that would showcase the blessings of God to the entire earth. And it was the closest picture of heaven the Old Testament peoples ever saw. But, it was not enough.
Everything that was a part of that old kingdom was just a shadow of an even better Kingdom that would come with the birth of God’s one and only Son! He would be the true Yeshua (Joshua)! The true and better general! The true rescuer and savior of His people. The one who brought God’s Kingdom to this earth and will lead God’s people into the battle until the nations and peoples belong under the banner of Christ.
But let us be clear here, the one who is leading us, is leading us with weapons of warfare, or with anger, hatred, or malice. This Lord and general of heaven’s armies leads us by the means of Grace!
Our true weapons are the Gospel, the Bible, prayer, the sacraments, and church gatherings. These things are the acts of war in a world that is still at war with God. And now, because of this child’s birth, we have been called to action!
We are not called to be dearly beloved sloths! We’re not highly favored so we can hide our light from the world. We have been saved! We have been loved! We have been given favor! Why? So that we can take this salvation, love, and favor back to the nations!
This brings us to our next point and the reason why we must not fear. We have been brought with favor into a conquest where we are on the winning side, so that our King’s banner will be lifted high!
HIS BANNER MUST BE LIFTED HIGH
Verse 32 says:
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High
The word great does not just mean excellent in quality. It means multiplication in value. It means amplification of powers. It means superior weight and importance. All which tell us how Jesus will be great!
Now, before continuing, let me issue a timely clarification. From one perspective, Jesus has always been great! In heaven with the Father and the Spirit for all eternity, Christ - the second member of the triune Godhead - has always and forever been great! And He has nothing at all to prove in regards to His greatness.
But, from the perspective of this planet, Christ must be made great! When the angel alerted Mary that her child would be great, the angel was speaking about His status her on earth! Again, all across the cosmos of physical space and time Christ has and always will be great! In heaven and all the heavenly realms, Christ has and always will be great! But on this earth, this little floating blue dot in rebellion to God, Christ has mostly been profaned! God has systematically been ignored! Sin has been allowed to run rampant! Satan has falsely and ludicrously staked his claim as the god of this world! And, Christ’s name does not yet spring forth from every God hating tongue in repentance and worship!
So in that sense, Jesus came to end that! When Jesus came to the earth He put an expiration date on that by taking on rebellion, building a Kingdom, and inviting us to spread that Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Eventually, just before Jesus returns, His name will be magnified in all the nations! His name will be multiplied throughout the peoples! His name will be supreme upon the lips of His followers! Again, His banner will be lifted high, which has practical application for our lives.
When we consider the greatness of Christ and the future greatness and glory of His Kingdom, we must again resolve ourselves to have no fear! Even in a country that is failing; even in a nation that is collapsing into moral ruin; we must remember that if we are the favored ones in Jesus Christ, we are on the winning side of History. Our God and His Son cannot fail! And the most reasonable thing we can do is join the heavenly chorus singing the songs of victory and triumph of our great King!
The angels know full well how chaotic the world still is. But they rejoice ceaselessly in heaven because they know Christ better than we do! They see His greatness more clearly than we do and as they see it everything else fades away! All they can do is praise, because they see Him as He truly is. That is my prayer for us!
And this really gets at the point of why fear is so preposterous for the Christian…
JESUS IS THE BELOVED GOD MAN
Verse 32 says in full:
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
Jesus will not be great in a limited human sense. His greatness will redound limitlessly because He is not just a man, He is God. Son of the Most High God! Which leads us to our final point for in this article.
HE BRINGS US INTO ETERNAL BLESSINGS
Verse 32 and 33 draw our passage to a close this way:
“The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
We have a few theological points to establish just in this short line.
FIRST, THE KINGDOM IS SURE!
God will bestow this Kingdom upon Christ, which means that the reality of the Kingdom is as sure as the rising sun. All of God’s Words always come true, so we can be assured that Christ has been given this Kingdom as surely as we trust there will be oxygen available for tomorrow’s breaths!
SECOND, THE KINGDOM IS FOR ALL ISRAEL
He will reign over the Kingdom of David and the house of Jacob, which means Jesus will reign over ALL Israel. This could sound confusing to the reader, since we most frequently talk about this as Jesus is reigning over the church. But when we remember that the New Testament calls the church, the Israel of God, children of Abraham, and the wild olive branch that’s been grafted in, we can see that every single Christian has become a true member of God’s Israel.
Like the Israel of old, we have become the chosen people. Though we are not Jews by birth or by genetics, we have become God’s true Israel through election and our salvation. We have been brought into the nation that Christ has determined to rule since before time began. That is the second thing.
THIRD, THE KINGDOM IS FOREVER
Finally, we must understand that this Kingdom Is a never ending eternal Kingdom It begins here on earth and will continue onward until our King returns. When He returns, this Kingdom will echo into the halls of eternity where we will be with our King forever!
This now brings us full circle to how we began!
JESUS BRINGS AN END TO FEAR
We began by observing that everyone in the Christmas narrative was afraid. Now we come to the conclusion that Christ will eliminate all our fears by the power of His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. We now see that His blood-bought favor crushes our current fears. And we see how everything promised to Mary is now ours in Christ.
OUR FEARS ARE BANISHED
By His awesome power He will banish the fears of His people
and will give us joy and peace that never ends!
BY HIS DEATH… WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN FAVOR
By His death, burial, and resurrection on the cross, He will give His people the kind of righteousness that will make us favorable to God!
BY HIS COMMISSION…WE’RE BROUGHT IN THE BATTLE
By His great commission, He will bring us into the battle to bring His Gospel to the nations and each and everyone of us has a part.
THROUGH GLOBAL MISSIONS HIS BANNER WILL BE LIFTED
Through missions, evangelism, discipleship, & church planting, Jesus’ banner will be lifted high! It will be lifted high in the nations! It will again be lifted high in our little neck of the woods called New England! And eventually His banner will be lifted high everywhere!
BY HIS ASCENSION - HE PROVED HE IS THE GOD / MAN
By His ascension to the throne of God, He proved that He is the God man! He has a name above all names! He has all authority to rule! And at His name everyone in heaven and on the earth and even under the earth will soon have to bow down and acknowledge His supremacy!
BY HIS JUSTIFYING, SANCTIFYING, AND GLORIFYING WORK
By His gift of justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying faith, to those whom God has chosen, Christ will bring us into an eternal Kingdom that is here now! That began 2000 years ago! And will continue on forever!
If you know this Christ today, then you have no reason to be afraid. He has met your every one of you needs! He has triumphed over every one of your foes. And He will hold you in His love, safe now, and safe forever. Rest in that!
One of the most beautiful themes of Christmas is that Christ is the banisher of fear and a bastion of hope! It is my prayer that you rest in this Christ tonight, tomorrow, and forever!
