Fear Not!

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:8-11). 


The darkness of the Jewish hillside was reflective of the darkness that fills our world today. Spiritual darkness and spiritual deafness had covered the earth for centuries. But the long night was about to end. The glory of the Lord was about the light up the sky.

As the angel of the Lord appears, the glory of the Lord fills the darkness with a blinding light. And according to verse 9, the shepherds were terrified! In the original language of the New Testament, the word terrified literally means alarmed or agitated. Any one who has ever been frightened can identify with those terms. And the thing about being terrified? It is impossible to experience joy while you are terrified.

So the angel tells the shepherds, "Do not be afraid". For the shepherds to experience "good tidings of great joy", they first had to have their fears calmed.

The same is true for us today. If we are going to experience the joy of the Christmas story, we must cast our cares and fears on Him. Someone has said that the words "fear not" appear 365 times in the Bible, one for each day of the year. The message of Christmas is we do not have to be afraid, we can experience good tidings of great joy!