Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 1:18-21; Luke 1:26-33

Introduction:

Waiting… without Worry.

Waiting without Hurry.

Waiting without Fear

Waiting without fear is something Mary and Joseph had to hear as well.

Interesting:

FEAR: The first emotion experienced when faced with the news of the Coming King

DO NOT FEAR: 365x in the Bible: One for every day of the year??

Clear: Faith=Comfort

If that’s the case, why don’t we feel comforted more than we do??

So we’ll be unpacking the emotion of Fear this morning and how we are called to WAIT WITHOUT FEAR:

Outline:

Panic and Planning

Pendulum of Fear

Fear’s Fix

Panic and Planning

Mary’s Panic

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Story:

Gabriel comes to Mary:

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Wide-eyed, knocking knees, pale, I imagine her dropping a piece of potery and completely frozen:

“Greatly Troubled”

Verb: “To cause acute distress”

Prefix on it that emphasizes it: “To cause acute distress throughout!”

So she’s pretty shaken up! Panicky.

Horrified.

CAN YOU BLAME HER??

NO! Like, Mary stands in front of an extraterrestrial!

How would you feel?

Sort of like that moment in Back to the Future, where Marty McFly wakes up with headphones over her ears with Eddie Veder shredding on the guitar.

Marty looks up to see what he thinks is an alien who reveals his name as Darth Vadar from the Planet Volcan!

Now, fusing Vadar with Volcan may create anxiety twitches for some of you, but my point is Marty’s reaction, right!

FACE of Total fear!

So here she is before an Angel...

And what was the message?

“Do not be afraid, Mary...”

“Do not be afraid...”

Take that shock, awe, and horror and be comforted… Do not be afraid...

Joseph’s Planning

Joseph experiences something similar but different.

Rather than see an angel awake, an angel appears to Joseph in a vivid dream...

Imagine the Process…

“Heartbroken, Joseph looks back on their relationship… He can’t fathom Mary cheating on him?

That’s so not her.

“Was I engaged to stranger?”

So he considers his options.

She’s obviously lying to me that she’s never been with another man, but I love her.

She’s completely broken my heart, and man, it would be so easy to get back at her.

I can break our engagement loudly, make her pay for her adultery.

But that’s not who I am… That’s not an option… So what are my options.

I can’t think of anything other than just break off the engagement.

I want say a thing about Mary.

People will find out eventually what happened…

The bigger she gets, the bigger the problem will be for her if this other guy doesn’t step in…

So yeah.

Final decision.

It’s done.

My love for her won’t end, but my future with her needs to… I love God’s law too much to marry her.

I love Mary too much to go on with this relationship...

ESV: “But as he considered these things...” an Angel came…

Lit.

“He had made up his mind.”

Joseph is afraid and he choses the option to remove himself from her sin.

CAN YOU BLAME HIM!?? NO!

So an angel approaches Joseph in a dream:

The unnamed celestial being:

Angel=Messenger

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear...”

Do not have shrink away from this situation.

Do not flee.

The type of fear Joseph experienced is probably more like the anxiety we talked about last week: His whole life has been suddenly flipped upside down, but the Angel takes all these thoughts swirling through his mind and says:

v.20: “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, which that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Don’t fear marrying Mary

Take all that anxiety you’ve been experiencing and put it to rest:

Don’t fear God’s wrath you may be fearing by marrying Mary.

Don’t fear being viewed as a sinner yourself…

Don’t fear Mary’s Story.

She’s telling the truth.

Don’t fear the situation created for you, your son has come to save.

God designed this awkward position you have found yourself in!

And so within that conundrum, God sends an angel to invite him to not fear all that will come his way by marrying Mary.

The rejection.

Those questioning his integrity and character.

“Don’t fear marrying Mary” is a way to invite Joseph to fear man less and to fear God more.

Summary:

It’s interesting to me the different angels of fear:

Mary’s Moment of Trepidation

Freaked out, psychosomatic reaction to protect her life!

She’s questioning her safety...

Joseph’s Monsoon of Trouble

For Joseph, it was the fear of marrying Mary.

God placed him in an incredibly difficult situation.

Pendulum of Fear:

Pendulum=immediate panic to processing our troubles

Mary was instinctually shrinking back while Joseph decided to shrink back.

What they experienced was normal, but fear can run amuck beyond what’s normal…

Panic and processing can bleed into paranoia!