Don’t be afraid!

Luke 12: 27 – 40

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 18 Mar, 2007

ONE OF the most debilitating, destructive things in life is fear, yet even fear is one of God’s good gifts to us. Once again, it all depends what you do with it.

When I worked at Holroyd Council, a lot of staff movements took place via the corridors and stairwells. The worst was one on the ground floor, shut at both ends by solid doors.

I walk briskly, and I often opened the door only to find one of the women just about to open it from the other side. I guess they thought a werewolf had arrived, because they always shrieked as though they had seen one!

I’d often say, “Don’t panic! I don’t bite!”

Over and over, the Bible says the same.

When Gideon saw the Lord in angelic form, he was terrified; but the Lord told him, “Don’t be afraid!”

When the shepherds saw the angels when Jesus was born,. the angels said, “Don’t be afraid!”

And when Jesus’ disciples began to understand their mission and the risks it involved, Jesus told them not to be afraid.

You can’t talk a person out of feeling fear. You can’t change any feeling by an act of will.
But you can reassure a person. You can tell them that what they are seeing is different from how they judged it. And that, in itself, can be enough to change the situation. The original cause for alarm is over, the person sees things differently, and does not continue to be afraid.

So words alone don’t change a feeling, but they can powerfully divert a feeling.

GOOD AND BAD FEAR

I’ve said before that every feeling has positive and negative aspects. We worry so that we don’t forget important things. But we can also worry ourselves sick — literally! — over things we have no control over.

We feel angry when we are threatened, so that we will defend ourselves and others, but anger can be turned against people with destructive results.

And fear also has a place.

I said last week that fear is the primary emotion. We feel fear, and that causes us either to continue experiencing it as fear, so that we hide or run, or else it causes us to defend ourselves and fight.

I was showering once and somehow got soap under my feet. No matter where I moved my feet to, I felt them slipping from under me. I don’t like falling over in the bathroom, because we have a shower over the tub, not a separate shower, and a fall means going over the side of the tub and probably hitting the towel racks before landing on the tiles.

I felt very afraid. I was right to. I felt that burst of adrenaline. I saw myself, unconscious and bleeding on the floor, or with a broken arm or leg. Every muscle and nerve reacted!

There was only one answer, which was to grab the shower curtain. I was still holding the shower curtain when I went over the edge and landed on the floor. But nothing was broken, and bruising was minimal. But my heart was still beating wildly for about 5 minutes!

I love my fear response, because it saved me from a nasty outcome!

But there was a time in my life when I was surrounded by conflicts and stress on all sides, and I became afraid to go to the letter box or to answer the phone, because I didn’t know what would be coming next. I was glad of the advice to feel the fear and do it anyway, because I could not allow fear to dominate me.

But there were many times when I prayed as hard as an astronaut heading for space when I launched myself to go to the post office.

That was a destructive fear, and needed to be tackled.

I want us to think about fear today because I believe that fear is one of the major issues we Christians face today. If we don’t defeat it, we will be immobilised by it.

Satan loves us to be afraid.

I first became aware of the dominance of fear when I was a fairly young Christian.

Our church in those days had an opportunity to begin reaching out to areas where there was little Baptist ministry.

We had the resources, though only just. We talked it over, discussed the pros and cons, and were ready to go when the treasurer and secretary undermined the process. Instead of our church reaching out, they handed the project over to the District Association of churches, where it stalled for nearly 20 years.

I’m sure the issue was that they were afraid of the responsibility, and wanted someone else to do it.

Around that time, Australia was going “...all the way with LBJ” and supporting the Vietnam war with more and more troops.

Baptists didn’t particularly like the war. But the most common reason I heard for not getting into the opposition to the war was that that would identify us with the Communists, who were at the forefront of the campaign.

In other words, we were scared that people might think that Baptists are the same as Communists!

You hear the same thing with drugs these days. Many Christians oppose safe injecting places, not because they have evidence that they don’t work, nor because they can show that the impacts are worse than the positive outcomes, but  because it would send the wrong message.

What does this, “Send the wrong message” mean? Doesn’t it mean, “People will think we are in favour of drug–taking”? We are afraid of how people will view us.

Was Vietnam right or wrong? If it was right, we should have backed it; if it was wrong, we should have opposed it, though all hell should stand beside us. We are here to do right, not to look after ojur image.

Are current anti–drug laws and policies working? Is there a case for trying some other way? Then the same principle applies. We don’t think that drug–taking is a good idea, but it’s not our job to promote ourselves as drug–free. It is our job to show love in action.

Is there a mission for us to carry out? Are we here to look after ourselves, or to be in the mission we were called to?

Fear destroys lives when it is allowed to rule in our lives.

WHAT JESUS DID ABOUT FEAR

We need to look at Jesus and what he did about fear and how he wants us to live.

When he said,

Don’t let your hearts be troubled

he was speaking as much about fear as about worry. After all, what is worry, but fear prolonged?

Jesus stilled the storm on Galilee, and rebuked his disciples:

 ^{MT 8:26} He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

After he rebuked the disciples for their fear, then he rebuked the waves and the wind.

Another time, he reminded his disciples that a servant is not above his master, and they should expect intense persecution, but he also told them,

^{MT 10:26} “So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Those who persecute may think they are getting away with it, but, as Chaucer said,

Mordre wol out (murder will out).

And it applies to all kinds of evil. They might think they will get away with it, but the more they persecute, the more we should speak out and refuse to be silenced. We may feel afraid, but let us never be stifled by fear.

Again, when Jesus walked across the water to the disciples in their boat, they were terrified and thought they were seeing a phantom. But Jesus called to them, The Bible says:

^{MT 14:27} But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

And it was only when Peter became afraid and saw the wind and waves that he began to sink. until then, he walked by faith and did not go under.

Have you ever thought of what Jesus went through as he faced the cross? Imagine the fear, the sorrow, the absolute distress of those final hours.

I was thinking of the drug runners in Indonesia who are facing execution. Imagine how they must feel — the more so, knowing that they could have avoided it.

Some of us here have an idea of what it means to face death. No matter what stage of life you are at, there is grief at the idea of losing what you hoped for, They young fear loss of success and achievement. A little later, it’s the loss of marriage and family, or the loss of seeing your children grow up. There’s fear of leaving your loved ones behind to fend for themselves: have you provided well enough? WIll they be able to do it? And so it goes on.

Jesus had to face being cut off from his father. He said he was sorrowful unto death.

Three times he prayed.

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

But he still went ahead to the cross, to the agony of a death died not for his own sins but for yours and for mine.

If there is one man who perfectly modelled the idea of feeling the fear and doing it anyway, it was Jesus.

He didn’t want the pain. He didn’t want isolation, rejection, beatings. But he went all the way, and showed us that it can be done.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned he stood
Sealed my pardon with his blood,
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

FEAR AND US
So what are the issues for us? What makes us afraid?

Maybe there are things in your life that you know need to be dealt with.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, they urge members to make a fearless inventory of the people they have hurt, and to make amends where they can.

That’s a scary idea. We are afraid of being rejected; perhaps of legal repercussions; we are afraid of being revealed as less than perfect. Fear controls us, and we remain bound.

Maybe there is some calling, some ministry, that we have put off. It is too frightening to try, so we hang back.

Maybe there is a threat of our having to pay a higher price than we feel safe to pay, so fear binds us.

Maybe we have to confront some aspect of our own spirituality — our prayer life, our Bible reading, our witness, our involvement with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It can be frightening to admit we need to change; it can be frightening to step out and risk opposition from family or friends.

Or maybe you know you need to come to Jesus for the first time, to repent, to choose to trust. That’s scary, too.

We all face fear. But don’t forget that Jesus faced fear over and over during his life, and always emerged the victor, because he felt the fear but did what he had to do.

The writer to the Hebrews puts it very clearly in the 11th chapter:

 ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Shame itself is associated with fear, fear of the loss of our sense of self, fear of the loss of our sense of worth.

Jesus knew that shame was associated with the cross, but he embraced it and didn’t turn away from it.

CONCLUSIONS
So here are some final thoughts.

Our passage again:

 ^{LK 12:32} “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom...

Jesus shows us a different way of looking at our situation, so that we can choose not to dwell in fear.

We are Jesus’ little flock. He is our good shepherd, who looks after us. His Father and ours has given us the Kingdom. Ultimately, we need not be afraid, because he has it all in his hands.

³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

.But Jesus gives us a radical solution: lose the fear of loss by choosing to lose.

Do you remember the rich man who went away sorrowful, because he had great wealth?

He was controlled by fear of what he might lose. He could have been entirely free of fear if he had chosen to give away the thing he feared losing!

Jesus is really saying that the more we truly live a life of faith, a life of depending on his good provision, the less we will be controlled by fear.

^12:35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him

Finally, he tells us to put our focus on being ready for his return and not on what we might or might not lose.

Do you see what it all boils down to? If you are afraid, don’t deny it, but overcome it. Trust, trust and trust. Trust in God’s goodness; trust that he will care when you have nothing and trust that he will care for those who put him first.

Or another way of putting it: seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, and he will look after us, so there is no reason — absolutely no reason — to be overcome by fear.

Here’s Paul’s summary:

¹⁴ ...those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

We don’t need to be afraid: we are children of a loving God through faith in Christ — what can be better?   AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)