Christ Crushes Our Fears!

Christ Came to Crush Our Fears

One of the most overlooked themes in Christmas is the fact that Jesus came to crush our fears. Of course, he came to save us from our sins and we celebrate that each and every single week, but one of the Implications of Jesus is coming is that he came to crush and to banish our fears.

Now as we look at the passages that we've looked at so far today people all over the nativity narratives are afraid. They meet with angels they meet with God and they are struck with fear and not just any kind of fear.

But specifically the fear of God. There's a terror that the holiness of God provokes inside sinful man. It's the kind of fear that caused Israel to fall flat on their faces. It's the kind of fear that caused Isaiah to beg God for mercy.

It's the kind of fear that caused Adam and Eve to run frantically away from God to hide in the garden in their shame. Humans and their sinful nature run hide and cower from a holy God. This happens when Christ appears in the Old Testament.

It happens when God appears through various manifestations in the Old Testament, whether it be through a burning bush Which we call a theophany whether it be through a windstorm whether it be through a shaking mountain.

Whenever God appears to his people they are crushed with fear and We're afraid because of our sin. At the at the bottom and at the root of the matter We are crushed by the holiness of God because of the sinfulness of our frame.

We love our sin and the most natural response for us who love our sin is to run and hide from God. Men are afraid also in the Bible of angels whenever angels show up. It's not just God when he shows up.

But whenever God sends his messengers, they are afraid. People are mostly afraid whenever they come direct directly in contact with someone who's been sent from heaven in this case an angel and the frequency of angelic visitations In the Christmas narrative is is Incredible out of all the Bible.

There's there's more angelic visitations to earth in the Christmas narrative Than in any other place in the entire scripture. It seems like it's happening all over the place and we shouldn't be surprised that the people who are entertaining these angels are afraid.

For instance to Zacharias the angel says do not be afraid. He starts off that way because he was. To Joseph the angel said. But when he had considered this behold an angel the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not be Afraid to take Mary as your wife.

But the child who has been conceived in hers of the Holy Spirit. To the shepherds the angels say do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people All throughout the Christmas narrative.

It's not something that we would expect is human beings in fear and Christmas being the antidote and the answer to our fears through Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful theme that I want us to explore today.

And I want us to do so in the passage that our brother Rob just read in Luke chapter 1 Through what the angels say to Mary. So let's open up our Bibles. We're in Luke 1. We're gonna be in 28 through 33.

We'll read this text together and we'll see how Jesus crushes our fears 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 she kept pondering what kind of salutation that 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 you will bear a son and you shall name him Jesus for 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 in his kingdom.

There will be no end. The angel begins with fear not and that is a that's not a trite Statement to a woman who's suffering real fear. The angels not looking past her. The angel is seeing the truth of what he's getting ready to tell her is.

Going to address her deepest fears is going to heal her deepest fears and it's going to make her the most confident woman that she's ever been. A Message that he's going to give her that's going to change the entire world.

It's gonna change the fabric of the earth from that point moving forward. This message is going to restore peace between God and man and it's going to crush our fears. This is why he can say to her fear not because she's the one who's found favor with God and That's our first point.

Favor Comes from Christ, Not Ourselves

The reason why the angel can say to her and to us fear not is Because he is the one Jesus Christ is the one who bestows favor on God's people. Now when it says that she has found favor with God that seems like something active.

That seems like she went out and she found the favor and then God Recognized the favor inside of her and God said, you know what because you have favor I'm gonna show you all of these wonderful blessings.

So you don't have to fear but that is not at all what it is saying. Mary found favor with God because God extended her borrowed favor from Christ and We know that just a few verses up in the narrative where it says Greetings favored one the Lord is with you that word favored one in that passage and I'm gonna nerd out with you just for a second on Greek is a passive verb and If you remember from your high school grammar a passive verb is not something that you do actively.

It's something that is done to you. God can say that you are favored because he's given her the favor. He's given her what it is that he's calling her. Isn't that a beautiful thing a Better way to translate this verse might be greetings to the one who has been given favor from God.

The Lord is with you. We know as Good Calvinist and as good reformed folk that we have no favor of our own. We know that the Bible says that there's no one righteous not even one. We see the in the example of John the Baptist the very best man that ever lived that he wasn't enough.

We see in Mary who may have been one of the best women that ever lived that she was not enough. Our favor comes from something external to ourselves because we are not enough in The same way that Mary found favor with God.

We must find favor with God and it must be a borrowed favor. It must be extended to us through Christ. The only way that God can find you and I to be favorable people is if he gives us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The only way he can find us Beautiful and acceptable in his sight the only way he can look at us and see that we have no spot no stain. No sin is if Jesus not only Dies for our sin and takes our sin away.

But if he gives us something if he gives us his righteousness. Many times in the Christian Church, you will hear That Jesus died to take away all of your sins. That's true. But that's only half of the message.

The other half is that he died to give you something he died to give you his righteousness. If he didn't give you his righteousness you and I would still be unacceptable to God. But God can look at Mary and God can look at you and God can look at anyone who is in Jesus and say that We have favor.

Because of what Christ has done. Namely giving us his righteousness. Now it doesn't stop there. This passage continues on and it says that we're not only given favor. Because of Jesus Christ were also brought into his conquest of the world.

Now you may be saying where do you see that in the text? Well, look at verse 31 it says and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. Now you're like, okay. I don't see anything about a conquest there.

But when you realize that Jesus is the Greek word, I'm gonna nerd out with you again. It's the Greek word. Yes, ooze, but it's a translation of the Hebrew word. Yes, you are. Which is Joshua you realize that Jesus has been given the name by God Joshua Joshua.

Why is he given that name? Joshua was the military general in the Old Testament. He's the one who who conquered the land of Israel or at least mostly. He's the one who led the conquest. He's the one who was this general who was going to lead the people into into taking the land.

Why would Jesus be given the name Joshua unless God did not anticipate that he was gonna have a true and better kingdom. That he was gonna be a true and better conqueror. That he was gonna be a military general who is gonna lead us to the nations.

With the power of the gospel to extend God's kingdom to the ends of the earth. Now when we're talking about this, I've tried to make this very clear in the past couple weeks. We're not called to picket signs and anger and malice.

We're not called to war. We're not called to swords and everything else. We're called to preach the gospel. That's the weapons of war that Christ has called us to as the true and better Joshua. We preach the gospel.

We gather on Sunday mornings and on Christmas Eve to celebrate what Christ has done. That's an act of war in today's society. We take communion. That's an act of war in a world that that hates the gospel.

We read the scriptures. We pray we participate in the sacraments. These are acts of war that will end up seeing the whole world one to Jesus Christ. It says that God's power is the gospel and the gospel is proclaimed people are transferred out of death to life and That will continue until every tribe tongue and nation has heard the gospel and the praise of Jesus Christ.

Redounds on the lips of all the peoples all the peoples. We are called as favored people to spread a favored message. We have been saved. We have been loved and we have been given favor not so that we can sit down and do nothing.

We have been given those things so that we can take this love and take the Salvation and take this favor to the ends of the earth and proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ. Until all the nations have heard.

That's a reason why we must not fear because this is Christ's mission and Christ cannot fail. How would we fear if we serve Jesus Christ, how could we be afraid if we're on his mission. We're on our mission.

We certainly have every reason to be afraid. But if we're on his mission, why would we ever fear? The second thing that we need to see is that his banner will be lifted high. The verse 32 says He will be great and he will be called son of the Most High God.

That word great does not just mean excellent in quality it means Multiplication in value. In the Old Testament when it called the waters the great waters. It meant that there was so much of them. That that they would turn over a ship that they would that they would break things.

The great waters are multiplied waters. Human beings are great on the earth when we multiply on the earth. Great also means the amplification of power. Great also means superior weight and importance all of which tell us who Jesus Intends to be on planet earth.

Jesus doesn't intend to be a no-name figure among a pluralistic version of a hundred million gods. Jesus intends to be king and he will be. Now for clarification Jesus has always been great. From the very beginning of this planet and into the halls of eternity Christ has always been great.

His greatness has redounded across the cosmos and across the heavenly realms. We don't need to make Jesus great. He already is but We live on an earth and a planet that is in rebellion against God. We live on a planet where sin has ran rampant all over the shores of this earth.

We live on a planet where Christ is profaned today. We live in a place where Christ and his glory do not spring forth off of the lips of every single person on this earth. And until that happens Christ has not yet been made great in the sense of his name has not been multiplied.

His fame has not been spread as far as it can be spread and that is our mission. To lift his banner high so long as he leaves us here on this earth. Jesus came to end Suffering. Jesus came to end all of those all the pain and all the misery and those things will happen in eternity but for right now our mission is to lift his name high to magnify his name and To proclaim his supremacy to all people.

Again, we must not have no fear or we must not have fear. I said that in a double negative. We must not have fear. Even in a country like ours that is failing the country like ours that's falling in the moral chaos.

His favor crushes our fears. His power is made perfect in our weaknesses. The angels in heaven. They know full well how wretched this work this earth is. They visited it a couple times. They know how sinful we are and yet all they can do is praise Christ because they know him better than we do.

They see him for more of who he is. When we begin to see Jesus for who he truly is and we begin to see his power at work. We won't be focused on the the misery and suffering that's that's in this world.

We'll be focused on the praise and the glory of Christ. When we see him like the angels do we will join the heavenly chorus and we won't stop praising both now and eternally. Third thing that we're gonna talk about.

Christ Is the God-Man with an Unending Kingdom

Why we don't have to be afraid is because we serve not just a man. We serve God the God man the beloved Son of God. Says in verse 32 He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord will give him the throne of his Father David.

He's not just a man. He's not limited in a human sense. His greatness Cannot be accounted for as another human being. You think about all of the great people that have ever lived. Alexander the Great.

You think about the Roman Caesars. You think about the most powerful men that have ever lived. And how? Limited their greatness actually was it lasted for a generation? It ended up in a dusty museum somewhere in a history book somewhere and it did not continue but not Jesus Christ.

His glory is limitless. His praise and his renown will be eternal. His kingdom will not end if you think about it. Rome was the most powerful nation on earth. It's gone. Every Empire bows before him eventually every knee will bow before him because his kingdom will not end.

Because he's man, but he's also God. He's man so that he can stand in our place and know how we truly feel and also and also Perfectly represent us on the cross but he's also God and he has the power to deliver us over into his kingdom and to lead us in his kingdom and if We serve that kind of a man.

What place has fear? It doesn't. It doesn't. The fourth thing I want us to see tonight Said he blesses us with an eternal kingdom. It says in verse 32 and 33 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. I Want to give you a few points on this one because I think this is so important his kingdom is sure that's the first thing that I want to tell you if God is the one who sent Jesus Christ and Christ is the one who died on the cross and the Holy Spirit is the one Who is in dwelled his people then his kingdom as is as sure as the rising Sun?

The reality of his kingdom is more certain than the fact that you're gonna wake up with oxygen to breathe in your lungs tomorrow his kingdom is Backed up by the promises of an infinitely Holy God and it is sure and it will not fail.

Why would we ever fear? Why would we ever fear? Why do we worry about Democrat or Republican? Why do we worry about left versus right? Why do we worry about vaccine or no vaccine or Kovat or this that all those things are important?

But they bow the knee to the supremacy of Jesus Christ. America will have to bow the knee to the supremacy of Jesus Christ if this country fails Christ doesn't fail. If this country ends Christ's kingdom doesn't end.

His kingdom will continue. That's the first thing I want us to see about his eternal kingdom. Is that it's sure here on earth. The second thing is that it's for all Israel. Now most of us in this room probably can't trace your lineage back to Israel.

So how is that good news for us? He's gonna reign over the kingdom of David. He's gonna reign over the kingdom of Jacob. How is that good news for you and I? Well, the Bible says that the church Is called the Israel of God.

The Bible says that the church and Especially individual believers are called children of Abraham Children of Abraham. The Bible says that we're the wild olive branch. That's true. It was grafted into Jesus Christ so that now we are a part of true Israel.

When we talk about Israel being the chosen people of God you and I if you're in Jesus. They're now part of the chosen people of God. This is good news to us that Jesus reigns over the kingdom of Jacob forever because we've been grafted in.

We're now members of that kingdom. So, why would we ever have fear. A 2 ,000 3 ,000 year old story that God has been working with his people culminates in his Electing you and saving you and indwelling you and grafting you and bringing you and all this he has done for you to bring you Into his kingdom.

What room is there for fear? The third thing I want us to see Is that this kingdom is forever. It begins here on earth. But it continues on forever into eternity where we stand with Jesus Christ where.

Where every nation is represented around the throne praising God. Where? Back pains and leg pains and frozen shoulders and everything else. Are no more. The curse is fully lifted. We serve a king Both now and forever which brings us full circle to how we began the night.

We began Christmas narrative with everyone being afraid and Then when you chant when you fast-forward to the book of Acts, there's no one that has fear anymore. Everyone is is preaching the gospel without fear whether they're beaten whether they're wounded whether they're broken whether they're arrested.

They're singing songs in prison. Christ himself crushes our fear. A Christian doesn't have to live with your fears anymore. You can give them over to Jesus. The gospel says that Jesus came and by his death burial and resurrection.

Everything that was between you and God that separated you has now been nailed to the cross of Christ. He became sin so that you could become the righteousness of God. Where is fear in that? By his unlimited power fears are crushed and you and I can have unceasing joy by his death.

We've been given favor by his great commission. We've been brought into the battle to share this good news with a fearful world that needs to hear the good news that you don't Have to fear in Christ through mission through local church planting discipleship evangelism.

His banner is going to be lifted high until every tribe tongue and nation has heard the gospel. His ascension into heaven proved his godhood. It's justifying sanctifying and glorifying. Salvation show us that we don't have to fear that God is in control and God is the one who is going to lead us into his everlasting kingdom.

One theme of Christmas that I've found so beautiful this year's Christ is both the banisher of fear and the greatest bastion of hope and It's my prayer That each and every single one of us tonight would rest in that Christ today Tomorrow and forever, let's pray Lord.

Thank you so much that One of the great implications of your gospel is is that we no longer have to be afraid. We really can live our life with courage. We really can live our life With conviction to serve you we really can look death in the face because to live is Christ and to die is gain.

We really can Serve you all the days of our life. We really can proclaim the gospel. We really can Because of your spirit in dwelling us we really can do what you've called us to do without fear because you crushed fear on the cross Lord I pray for all of us here who Who live in that Romans 7 kind of moment where we where we do the thing we don't want to do and we don't do the thing that we should do and Sometimes we lean into our fears.

Sometimes we worry that we're not gonna have enough money to pay the bills and we are afraid. Sometimes we are panicked over a job loss or our vaccine our vaccine exemption got Overturned and we're not gonna have a job at the beginning of the year or You know on and on and on we could list out so many different things that we're afraid of but Lord I Pray that we would see tonight that you're supreme over all those things.

And that in faith we can lay those things down at the foot of the cross and we can leave them there and we can Trust that you have them and we can live unafraid because of you. We're not promised that our life will be comfortable.

We're not promised that we'll get everything that we want. We're not promised material possessions. We are promised Christ and Christ you are good enough and You are worthy of our deepest devotion. Lord help us not to be afraid help us to have conviction and Help us to have joy so that we can praise you all our days in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen.