Fear Not
And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings…” Luke 2:10
We live in a generation beset with fear where security has assumed a greater value than freedom. We want secure stocks, secure airports, and secure streets. We seek out secure jobs, secure families, and homes so secure that no one can get in or out. The same bars that lock burglars out, entrap residents in the even of a fire. We are obsessed with safety, security, and fear.
It was an uneventful night when an angel invaded the darkness of complacency, security, and safety that defined the shepherds’ existence, Explosive light called them to attention. A voice they had never heard summoned them with these words, “Fear not!” Their restless contentment had for too longed masked their anxious resignation that things would always continue as they had been. They rested secure in the routine existence to which they believed they had been assigned until they were disturbed by a great light and an authoritative voice that called tem to revive their expectations and renew their hope.
Life would become delightfully dangerous and spontaneous again as they redefined peace and realigned their hopes with a promise they could neither control nor verify. They were being called to a new kind of life where they would sneer at fear and move out in faith to a place they could never find on their own. In a few moments, they would receive all of the evidence they needed to say, “Let us go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”
And so, they would move out with a new kind of urgent haste – unlike the haste of other days. This urgency would have no root in fear or distress. It would be the haste of child to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, the hurried pace of a soldier returning home from battle to his loved ones, the sprint of an athlete in the last lap of a race for Olympic gold. It would be the end of fear for the shepherds and for all who would embrace the promise given to them and to us that night: “Behold!”
Good Tidings
“… I bring you good tidings …” - from Luke 2:10
Christmas is about good news. It is the gospel message delivered by God’s messenger to all who will hear.
There was nothing frightening or negative about the message the angel brought to these shepherds Nor was there any indication that they received the word because of any particular merit or worthiness on their part. It came to them by grace and God knew that they would respond with spontaneous, childlike faith, and inquisitive wonder.
God knew that they would receive the message as good tidings.
How do we receive words from God? To be more specific: How do we receive the Word of God that comes to us with great regularity and is always available to our eyes, ears, and hearts? Have we grown cold, indifferent, and spiritually grumpy in our familiarity with the good news?
It is no mere concession to secularity that we should say, “Merry Christmas!” It is the ancient wisdom of the Word of God that says,”a merry heart doeth good like a medicine …” (Proverbs 17:22) God has diagnosed the essential disease of humankind and has sent forth His healing balm in the person of His only begotten Son.
The very presence of Jesus is good news. It is cause for celebration, merriment, and singing. It dispels fear and brings smiles to the faces of all that honestly and openly receive the news. It is good tidings in that it overshadows all the bad news of the day. It crucifies the curmudgeon inside each of us and wipes out our negativity. Even the Ebenezer Scrooges of the world have to confess that we live in the day that the Lord has made.
Receive God’s Word today as good tidings to your soul. Even if it brings correction, rebuke, and conviction, His good news is sent to bring you healing and grace.
Great Joy
“I bring you good tidings of great joy.” - from Luke 2:10
The literary giant, C.S. Lewis said that joy is the serious business of Heaven. There is no sadness, nor are there tears, or pain in Heaven. Every moment is an occasion for rejoicing and praise. Joy is, indeed, the serious business of Heaven.
The angel brought news, and it was goo, but it was good tidings with a specific end in sight: Great Joy!
To continue the theme from the previous portion of the verse, there is an appropriate emotional response to the message of Christmas. It is joy!
If we do not jump for joy at this news, we have somehow missed it. We cannot embrace the Word of God that came to the shepherds without an overwhelming experience of joy. If we refuse joy, we refuse grace; if we refuse grace, we refuse God. It is the harsh but simple truth of the matter. Joy is built into the equation and is as clear and compelling evidence of spiritual conversion as exists.
Christmas, though not biblically mandated on the calendar, is clearly a God ordained, ongoing response to the incarnation of Divinity into the realm of humanity. It is not a day; it is a frame of mind. It is not a season; it s an attitude of the heart. It is not an event; it is an emotional response to God with one’s whole being.
Joy to the world; the Lord is come!
Where do you get it? You receive it in the exercise there of. Confess joy and express joy and God’s joy will fill you. Like any act of faith, the sensation may tarry, but act in joy from the depths of your spirit and you will begin to experience its manifestation within. Fully engage yourself in the worship of Jesus Christ this season. Rejoice. We have some great news!
To All People
“ … I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.” from Luke 2:10
God’s joy is of universal application. There is much talk today about “inclusiveness.” We are told tat the church must use inclusive language and that inclusiveness means accepting certain behaviors as within the realm of “normality.” That is not what the gospel proclaims. The gospel declares that something outside of ourselves, outside of language and theology, outside of our political beliefs, outside of our self-worth and self-justification has invaded the world with good news.
The good news is that whoever you are, whatever you believe, whatever you have done, whatever your opinion of yourself may be, however you choose to identify yourself, you are the object of God’s love and grace. The news is that Jesus has come to and for you and that you are no different than anyone else in this regard.
The news is a call to respond in faith and obedience. It is a summons to come and worship, to bow down, to seek out the stable and the manger and the child and fall down before Him. It is a call to leave behind our false pride, self-sufficiency, and stubborn ways and follow the way of the cross.
Inclusiveness means, for the believer, a missionary calling. It means that this good news must be heard by every human being. It means that when we tell it, we are not condemning people, but affirming their value to God. When we tell it, we are not excluding them, but inviting them to the table of grace. When we tell it, we are not being obnoxious, but following the clear and gracious compulsion of love.
This kind of inclusiveness does not mean condoning sin, but seeing sin as a common condition that separates men and women from the God who passionately loves them and deeply desires their healing and restoration. There is no day on the calendar with any greater missionary relevance than Christmas. When God said, “for all people,” He meant it. Can we mean less? Let us reach out with joy to spread the good ness of joy to all people.
