Characters Of Christmas: The Angels Series

Don’t be afraid when God calls you out of the ordinariness of your life. Don’t be afraid for God to choose to use you to do something great to impact the world. Don’t be afraid because where God calls, God provides—God provides grace. That’s what Gabriel told Mary. “You have found favor with God.” You have found favor…you’ve found grace. Mary became an instrument of grace. Mary couldn’t be an instrument of grace for others until she experienced God’s grace herself. The angel’s announcement was one of grace, and grace transforms fear into hope.

The second appearance of an angel appears in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 1. An unnamed angel appears to Joseph in a dream. Joseph has already gotten the news of Mary’s pregnancy, and he’s considering all the options. He has several, but I’m not going to talk about them here because I’m preaching about Joseph next week. As Joseph sleeps, the angel comes and says, “Do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary.” Don’t be afraid. I can imagine as Joseph pondered the situation that things just appeared hopeless, but the angel’s announcement was a reminder that there was no reason for hopelessness. The angel reminded Joseph that what was happening was simply a fulfillment of God’s Word as found in the prophet Isaiah: Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning God is with us). It was the angel’s way of saying, “You’re right where God wants you to be. You may not like it, but this is a God thing.” The angel shared a message of encouragement.

I am reminded that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation, there are only hopeless people. God can redeem any situation that life throws at us, and life can be pretty mean and unfair. Guess what? Life is not fair. Because of sin, there are some things in life that are unjust. That doesn’t mean we don’t work to correct the injustice of life, but some things are just beyond our control. When life seems to be out of control, we need encouragement. We need to hear that we’re not alone, that we’re not forgotten, that God cares.

One day two people were out distributing loaves of bread in a low-income housing complex. They came to an apartment where they heard arguing through the door, but they decided to knock anyway. A man opened the door and asked what they wanted. One of the visitors said, "We don't want anything. We just wondered if you know anyone who could use some loaves of bread?"

"Why are you doing that?" the man asked.

"Just to let people know that God loves them."

"What did you just say?" the man asked, rather anxiously.

"We're just handing out loaves of bread to let people know that God loves them."

The man stared and said, "I can't believe this. We just buried our three-week-old son yesterday, and now here you are at our door."

The visitors offered to pray with them, and the couple accepted their offer. As they were leaving, and the door was being closed, they heard the husband say to his wife, "See, honey? I told you God cares. We thought he wasn't paying attention to us, but he sent those people here to make sure we knew." (From a sermon by Michael Luke, The Demonstration Factor, 5/5/2011) The encouragement of God’s presence can transform our fear into hope.