12-24-2019
Dr. E. Dale Locke, Rev. Trevor Johnston
Christmas Services: Fear Not
English PDF file for printing.
1. Read our theme verse for this series: Luke 2:10-11 “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’”
2. During the four weeks of Advent we looked at four times in the Christmas story when an angel told someone not to be afraid, and we saw how Jesus can help us deal with fear and anxiety in our life.
1) The first week we looked at the angel’s visit to Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s parents, who feared that they had somehow missed it in life – like their deepest dreams and desires would never come true. We saw in that story that God is working even when we don’t see it, and that it’s never too late for God to do something, so we should keep trusting in God’s good plans for our lives.
2) In the second week, we looked at the fear of not being enough through the story of the angel’s visit to Mary, Jesus’ mother while He lived as a human on earth. Mary helped us recognize that it’s actually God’s power in us that makes us enough.
3) In week three, we spoke about overcoming the fear of what people think of us and learned from Joseph to turn our focus on what God thinks of us instead. Because of this, Joseph had the courage to stay with Mary, despite what people would think of him.
4) This past weekend, was about the fear of bad news. The news in our world seems increasingly bad, but the angel’s message to the shepherds near Bethlehem of good news about Jesus’ birth can still give us peace in the midst of difficult circumstances.
Which person in the Christmas story do you relate to the most? Share one idea from this sermon series that has been helpful for you.
3. Read Hebrews 2:10-18:
“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.’ 13 And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
4. Most of us would agree that people’s greatest fear is the fear of death, especially that death might be the end. What do you notice in this passage that could help you deal with this common fear?
5. Aristotle said, “Death is the most terrible of all things, for it is the end.” And atheist Jennifer Hecht in her book, Doubt: A History, wrote: “In fact, the universe is nothing other than an accidental pile of stuff…jostling around with no rhythm or reason, and all of life on the earth is but a tiny utterly inconsequential speck of nothing in a corner of space existing in the blink of an eye, never to be judged, noticed, or remembered.…” Imagine if this were your worldview. How would that impact your daily life?
6. In contrast to that, Pastor and author Max Lucado said: “So what if all the philosophers and pundits are wrong? What if death is less of a curse, and more of a passageway, not so much a crisis to be avoided, but a corner to be turned. What if a cemetery is actually not the dominion of the Grim Reaper, but the domain of the Soul Keeper, who will someday announce, ‘O dwellers in the dust…awake and sing for joy!’” What do you think of what Max Lucado says here?
7. Think of an experience or season that you didn’t want to ever end. Why did you feel that way?
We don’t have to fear death, because Jesus was made like us.
8. Jesus’s birth was a decision to give up all the privileges of being God in heaven and be made just like us. In Philippians 2:5b-8, Paul writes: “…Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” What were some privileges that Jesus gave up in order to be human like us?
9. Jesus knows what it’s like to be poor, to be tired, to be mocked, to have his friends betray him, to have his family discredit him, to have his friends die, to have unanswered prayers, to be homeless, to be publicly rejected, to be rejected by the religious establishment, to be wrongly accused of a crime, to be physically violated, to be afraid of dying, and even to die. How does it help you to realize that Jesus experienced all these human challenges, just like us?
We don’t have to fear death, because Jesus has made a way.
10. Jesus’ death made it possible for our sins to be forgiven, so that no barrier stands between us and God. Jesus said in John 14:1-4: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” How does this fact change the way you handle fear, worry and anxiety in your life?