Christmas - The End of our Fears
THE ANSWER TO OUR GREATEST FEARS IS THE ARRIVAL OF PERFECT LOVE
Christ was born to bring sinners into his joy. The birth of Christ holds out to us good tidings of great joy and peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased (Lk 2:14). But is he pleased with you or me? If he is, will he continue to be? What confidence do you and I have that having received the joy of Jesus, we can remain in the joy of Jesus? Even as a Christian, maybe you're afraid you really don't belong. Fearful that you'll be found out and exposed as a hypocrite. Afraid you won't be able to keep God pleased with you and persevere in the Christian life. Whatever fears you're facing, the Christmas season has traditionally held out the hope of better things to come. The classic songs of the season celebrate the coming of Christmas as the dawn of a new day where “all our troubles will be out of sight” and we can look ahead to a future “without any fear.” In Luke 1, Zechariah the priest sings a similar song. He agrees that the coming of Christmas means the end of our fears. But he disagrees on the root cause of our fears and the true remedy to live lives "without fear" (Lk 1:74). The song of Zechariah points us to the reality that Christmas is the answer to our greatest fears because it's the arrival of perfect love.