No More Fear
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And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
We all fear what we do not know. I am certain that all of you have experienced children who fear the dark. They create things in their minds to fill the spaces they cannot see, and those things often terrify them. But as soon as we turn the light on, those dark spaces are revealed for what they are. They see that there is ultimately no reason to fear, and they are relieved.
In the same way, when an angel appeared in the middle of the night to a group of shepherds they feared. And not for no reason, which we will get to, but the angel told them to fear not, I bring you the good news, or the gospel of great joy which will be for all people. The king is here. The Christ. The Lord. The one you have been expecting. Then a group of angels came and said Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those with whom he is pleased, or more literally peace among those whose will is for good.
This is an interesting phrase, because it means that for some there will be no peace.
Jesus speaks this truth in his earthly ministry.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
We don’t like to quote that at Christmas, but to some he will be divisive. To some he will not bring peace. There are many celebrating Christmas in this season, who will not know his gospel of joy, they will only know him as divisive. And they will celebrate this holiday and will have no peace. When the glory of God appears they will want to hide, just as Adam did in the garden, because the glory of God exposes sin for what it is. It exposes those dark corners of our life that we want to keep hidden. The glory of God exposes us for our good.
Throughout the Old Testament each time the glory of God encountered humans, it brought great fear to the people,
In Exodus 33:18-20
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
So they didn’t fear God’s glory for no reason, his dwelling glory or shekinah glory was known to kill men. His dwelling glory was known to expose and his presence was so holy and set apart that it would actually kill humans in their sinful state. Sin and holiness cannot coexist. Someone would have to come and literally save us from sin, so that we could experience the glory of God. So that we could approach his holiness with no fear.
And this was the ministry of Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. God knew, we could not encounter his glory apart from he himself, paying a price that we could never pay, to experience what we were created for. To behold the glory of God.
John the evangelist, the pastor, says it so beautifully in his gospel,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Through Moses came the law. Through Jesus came grace. We could never live up to the law apart from grace.
The Word of God was given to Moses and became the law. This happens in the book of Exodus, the ten commandments were written on stone and stored in the tabernacle. God’s glory was revealed in his word, on that stone, and man could not encounter that glory apart from a perfect sacrifice.
So when the angel tells the shepherds to not fear because good news is being revealed, because the gospel is being revealed in Jesus, he was telling them that this God whose glory you can not encounter, whom you fear because you do not fully know him, is being revealed to you and unveiled for you in Jesus the Christ.
See the tabernacle that housed the law, the word of God, was separated from man by a veil. We needed someone to remove the veil.
We fear what we do not know, and Jesus came to make God known.
In John 1:18, John the pastor says
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The Greek word that is translated as “has made him known,” is the Greek word exegeomai. It is where we get the term exegesis. I don’t mean to nerd out on you here, but just stick with me.
During this time there were many ideas about who God was circulating around. This is no different from our current day and age. Lots of people have lots of different ideas about God. But Jesus came that they would know the true God, not their ideas of him.
When it comes to preaching or teaching Scripture there are two ways that we can go about doing it. Eisegesis and Exegesis. Eisegesis is where you take Scripture and use it to support an idea that you have. Politicians and athletes do this all the time. They take verses out of context and support their agendas. Many in the church teach this way as well. Hey here is an idea I have and here is some Scripture I found to back it up. That is a dangerous way to play with the word of God.
But exegesis on the other hand is where you take God’s word and unpack the meaning of it contextually. This is how we teach at the Garden. We want to know what God is saying, not our idea of what God is saying. So we study the word in its original languages, we study the word in its original context, so that God might reveal what he has spoken.
And that is what John the evangelist is telling us in his gospel. That through Jesus God has been revealed in all his fullness. Jesus has exegeted God, or unpacked God so that we might truly know him, not our idea of him.
