New Year, No Fear Isaiah 61:10–62:3; Galatians 4:4–7; Luke 2:22–40 

Grace, mercy and peace to you as this year ends, and the new year soon begins, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is with us always.

Our sermon title is: New Year, No Fear, based on what the angel said to Mary, and to Joseph, and to the shepherds, and to many more: Fear Not.

A good way to end the year, is to leave our fears behind, and enter the new year with the courage and confidence that God will enter the new year with us, and walk beside us.

God, who created time and space, who lives beyond time and space, for our sake, entered into it, into time, into the universe, into our world, through His Son, born in Bethlehem, so that He might walk with us until we enter into that eternal existence beyond time and space, which we call Heaven.

Without God walking with us, we’d never make it there. But following Him, that’s where He’ll lead us, and bring us to.

Knowing that promised outcome for all who believe and follow Him, we have nothing to fear, nothing in the past to fear, nothing in the present, nor anything to fear in the future.

Our past sins, our grave mistakes, we need not fear that they may come back to haunt us, so to speak. Jesus has put them all to rest, put them all in their place, dropped them all to the bottom of the sea, as Micah says in chapter 7, verses 18 and 19: Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives transgression… and hurls all our iniquities into the depths of the sea… to lay there drowned and forgotten at the bottom of the ocean.

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, He left our sins buried there, and so let us not try to resurrect them in the new year. 

When we, after having confessed our sin and been absolved by God, allow guilt to overwhelm and burden us, then we’re living as if our sins were not atoned for, as if Jesus carried them out of the tomb with Him, and took them with Him into Heaven, to hold before Him, and before us, to remind us of our mistakes, and to count against us. 

But Jesus would never do that to His faithful children. He soundly defeated sin, death and the devil, and He buried our sins in His grave, so let us not live as if they are the great influence and power of our lives. 

Social media influencers are popular these days, some positive, some not. Let Jesus be our great and positive influencer, and the Holy Spirit our great and powerful helper.

When we embrace a lifestyle given over to sin and selfishness, and live in defiance of the God’s holy commandments of love, then we live as if sin has defeated the Son of God, rather than Him defeating sin and all the powers of evil, which He has absolutely, most certainly done.

If our intention for the new year is to rejoice in sin and greed, and disregard God and His grace, then we should rightly enter the new year with fear; no good will come of it, because God will not be with us.

What a tragic, despairing way that would be for us to begin the new year, knowing that God will not be with us because we have so arrogantly disregarded His Word, and His Gospel, and His holy, loving ways. 

But if we end the year and enter the next with faith in Christ… with a new and repentant heart… with a mind enlightened and opened by the Holy Spirit… then we can enter the year with no fear, because God will be with us in every circumstance, at every moment, defending us from all that would hurt and harm us this year, next year, and forever. 

In the calendar year, Christmas precedes New Year’s, and rightly so, because had not Christ been born for us, to save us, there would be no new year. 

As we’ve said before, had not God known that His Son would redeem the world, humanity would never have made it out of the Garden of Eden. After humanity’s fall into sin, that would have been the end of everything right then and there.

They say life goes on… life went on, and the world went on, and the universe went on, all because of Jesus, until Christmas would come, and the Savior would be born, and He would live and serve and die for us… and then Easter would come, and He would rise to give us life. 

How many new years have there been since Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden? More than we can know, God knows… and each one, each new year experienced and celebrated is because of God’s Son coming to us at Christmas in Bethlehem… we owe all our time to Him.

2024 may be the last new years we celebrate on earth, because this may be the year Jesus returns… or maybe sooner… He may return before 2023 ends, before this day ends… maybe before this sermon ends… 

And by that I don’t mean I plan on preaching until midnight. I may not even be awake by midnight… or, I may wake up in Heaven, and you may, too… Oh that we would be so blessed!

Anyway it is, there’s nothing for us to fear, not as this year ends… nor as the next year begins… and continues… and ends… and then the next.

2023 is the year someone very dear to me left me for a time, until I see her again. And how beautiful Jacquie will be, how beautiful she is now in Heaven’s glory… how beautiful are all our dear faithful departed loved ones.

We all have those years in our past, when someone dear to us passed away… and we all have that year when it will be us, leaving our loved ones behind, joining our faithful departed loved ones in eternal glory, and seeing our Beautiful God and Savior at last… and rejoicing.

2024 may be the year it happens, or maybe not… either way, we have absolutely nothing to fear… not with our trust and hope in Christ.

He has it all taken care of for us by His death and resurrection, so let us not fear the new year.

It doesn’t seem like the earth has had so great a year in 2023. 

In many ways it’s been same old, same old: wars continue to be waged… crime and violence refuse to wane… poverty and injustice still oppress humanity… families still break apart and relationships are in conflict… cancer and disease and injury still inflict harm on us… we still sin in our weakness, and make foolish choices.

But all is not lost… because God forgives and walks with His redeemed people. No matter how hard it gets, we always have a helper and comforter, so again, let us have no fear in the new year, let us have no fear to follow Christ, and be like Him!

The One who has poured many blessings upon us in 2023 intends to do the same for us in 2024, whether we walk with Him here on earth, or there in Heaven. 

God has no intention whatsoever of not blessing you with a multitude of blessings in this new year… so let us have no intention of not loving, serving, praising and thanking Him in this new year… 

… let us have no intention of walking away from Him, nor of walking away from our neighbor who needs our help.

2023 was a wonderfully blessed year… God did more things for us this past year than we can even know or imagine, and He will do the same next year.

Let us have no fear of the things that would hurt us in this new year, or the troubles and challenges that would come our way, because our mighty and gracious God is with us and for us.

Let us boldly walk with Him, proclaiming the saving faith we’ve been given, and praising our God and Savior with great joy, as do saints and angels in Heaven!

And as the peace of God that passes understanding has been with us in 2023, so it will be with us in 2024, guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who walks with us forever. Amen.