[Note, this series started to follow the SermonCentral ‘Fear Not’ series, but this week I went in a different direction.]
Today we have the second talk in our series ‘Fear Not.’ Last week we started by thinking about healthy and unhealthy fears. [This talk was given by someone else.]
A healthy fear is a fear that’s helpful. There are things we SHOULD be afraid of! Fear of something that’s dangerous can save our life. Last week some of us shared some experiences that had made us afraid. Jo mentioned a time when she came across a man in a girl’s boarding house. Bruce mentioned a time when he had a gun pointed at his head. Really frightening experiences. It would be very healthy to have fear in those situations! The Bible tells us to fear God. That’s also a healthy fear!
But there are also unhealthy fears. An unhealthy fear doesn’t help us to do the right thing. On the contrary, it’s likely to make us do the wrong thing. Unhealthy fear is a massive issue for Christians. After we start to follow Jesus it isn’t long before we discover that the way Jesus is leading is fairly much the opposite direction to the way the rest of the world is going. That produces fear. Here are some examples:
• It isn’t cool to be a Christian, so we’re afraid to be known as one. What will our friends think if they know we’re a Christian? They might stop being our friends! Out of fear, we keep quiet.
• It’s tough being different at school. One day, our friends at school are being disrespectful of a teacher. We know it isn’t right. But out of fear, we join in.
• The world around us has sexual practices that we know God doesn’t allow. But we’re afraid to disagree, to say that they’re wrong. Instead, out of fear, we say these practices are OK!
• The Bible tells parents to discipline their children. But we’re afraid of upsetting them. So, we do nothing.
• God calls us into Christian service. His call is clear but we’re afraid. Afraid we’ll be poor. Afraid of what our friends or parents will think. And so, out of fear, we turn a deaf ear to God’s call.
In short, once we decide to follow Jesus, Jesus calls us onto a path which, if we’re going to follow it, will require us to overcome fears. The fears we’ll face are UNHEALTHY fears. That doesn’t mean that they are IRRATIONAL. They are aren’t irrational at all. We will have reason to be afraid. Our friends might indeed leave us if they discover we’re a Christian. It’s quite likely we’ll have a massive blow-up with our kids if we discipline them. It’s very possible that non-Christian parents will disapprove if we choose to go into Christian service. Fears like these AREN’T IRRATIONAL. But they ARE UNHEALTHY. They paralyse us, if we let them. They try to keep us from doing the right thing.
We can’t just wish fears like these away. We’re going to encounter them, and we’re going to have to overcome them. How can we do that?
The time when Jesus was crucified must have been terrifying for his disciples. But before Jesus was crucified, he gave his disciples some instructions to help them to get through this time. I very much doubt that we will be tested the way that Jesus’ disciples were tested, but the principles Jesus taught apply to any situation of fear. They are relevant to us too in the fears we face!
We find Jesus’ instructions in John 14:1-4.
Let’s recall the setting. Jesus and his disciples have come to Jerusalem. It’s relatively unfamiliar territory for them. Jesus and his disciples had visited Jerusalem, but probably not very often. It was an unfamiliar environment, but that probably didn’t trouble them too much. What would have troubled them was the knowledge that Jerusalem was hostile. The religious authorities there hated Jesus and wanted to kill him. Jesus’ disciples would have been distinctly on edge.
Jesus then tells his disciples, first, that he will leave them, second, that one of them will betray him, and third, that Simon Peter will deny him. Jesus’ disciples would now be more than on edge. They’d have been really alarmed.
Jesus and the disciples leave Jerusalem and go out to the Garden of Gethsemane. In the middle of the night a group of people carrying clubs and swords approach them. They arrest Jesus. The disciples’ alarm increases to real fear. Their fear overcomes them and they flee.
In the morning Jesus is tried. Peter is there. Fear overcomes him once again. He denies Jesus three times. Jesus is condemned and mocked. He is led out of Jerusalem and is executed in one of the cruellest ways in history. By three o’clock in the afternoon he is hanging on a cross, dead.
I imagine that the disciples are now about as afraid as it’s possible to be. They probably wonder when the authorities will come for THEM. Will THEY suffer the same fate as Jesus?
Jesus knows what’s coming, and he wants to help his disciples to get through it. He tells his disciples five things to do to keep fear from paralysing them.
A) Jesus starts his instruction by saying, ‘LET NOT your hearts be troubled.’ In other words, ‘Don’t fear!’ We may think this is a really unhelpful thing to say. We think: ‘I AM afraid! It doesn’t help me for you to say, “Don’t be afraid”!’
But Jesus’ instruction ‘LET NOT’ means that WE have to fight the fear. WE must not give fear a foothold. Jesus doesn’t elaborate on this. He doesn’t tell his disciples exactly how they can keep their hearts from being troubled.
However, we can think of things we can do. The first step in fighting fear should always be to go to Jesus. It’s no fun being afraid on your own. Once you go to Jesus, you’re not alone, and Jesus’ very presence calms fear. In the same way as going to Jesus helps, going to good friends should help. Of course, there are some ‘friends’ who will end up making you more afraid. Don’t go to them! At some point, however, even with the support of friends, we will have to face the thing we’re afraid of.
The NHS [for those who are not British, the National Health Service in the UK] has some advice on fighting fear. They say: “Face your fears. Avoiding fears only makes them scarier. Whatever your fear, if you face it, it should start to fade. If you panic one day getting into a lift, for example, IT'S BEST TO GET BACK INTO A LIFT THE NEXT DAY.” I had an experience of this. About ten years ago I was at a beach and saw a man drown. Sometime later I went back to the same beach and swam out as I had often done previously. But this time I got a panic attack. I was afraid I might drown. I got myself back together and swam back in. After that I was afraid to swim far from the shore. I thought I might get another panic attack and maybe drown. I could have just stayed close to the shore after that. But instead, I forced myself to swim far out from the shore. All was well and my confidence returned. I didn’t know the NHS advice at the time, but I think it illustrates it. I think it also illustrates what Jesus said: ‘LET NOT your hearts be troubled.’ WE mustn’t allow fear to infiltrate our hearts.
B) Jesus then says, ‘BELIEVE IN GOD; BELIEVE ALSO IN ME.’ In Psalm 62:11 David says, ‘One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God are strong, and that, O Lord, are loving’. The problems we’re facing may seem huge, but if God is for us, how huge can they be? But now Jesus places himself alongside God. He tells his disciples to believe in HIM as they believe in GOD. In many ways, it would have been easier for Jesus’ disciples to trust him than to trust God the Father. They had lived with Jesus for three years. They knew him. They’d experienced his love and his power and he’d never let them down. We can trust Jesus for the same reasons. He IS able to sustain us through trouble.
C) Next, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE ARE MANY ROOMS.’ We may think, ‘What’s that got to do with overcoming fear?’ Jesus is telling his disciples about the future. We might not like Jesus’ meaning here. Jesus doesn’t give any assurances for this life. When Jesus called his disciples he said simply, ‘Follow me’. He offered no salary, no pension rights, nothing. He didn’t tell his disciples how their lives would end. Most of them were martyred. Jesus doesn’t promise us that everything will go wonderfully well in this life. But he does promise something for the life to come – a dwelling in his father’s house.
Imagine that you’ve used all your money, £10,000, to open a small coffee shop. Initially things go well but now there’s been a downturn. You’ll probably have to close down, and you’ll lose the £10,000 you put into the business. However, your father owns a very large retail chain, worth millions, which you will inherit. In that situation you probably won’t be too concerned about the £10,000. You’re going to get something much more valuable. It’s the same for us. We can say to ourselves, ‘As far as this life is concerned, I’m not too fussed. I’d like to live for as long as possible. But if I don’t, I have an inheritance to look forward that is incomparably greater than what I have in this life.’
Most of us are afraid of death. But we need to get over our fear of death. We are going to lose very little compared to what we will gain. We HAVE to value what comes after death more than what we have in this life. Jesus told the church in Smyrna: ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.’
Could this ever apply to us? Maybe not in Britain or the United States. But it applies to people in many other countries. In 2014, when Islamic State was expanding across Iraq and Syria, I read an account by Canon Andrew White, nicknamed ‘the vicar of Baghdad.’ He wrote this, about a group of Iraqi Christian children. “Islamic State turned up and said to the children, you say the words that you will follow Mohammed. The children, all under 15, four of them, said no, we love Yesua (their word for Jesus), we have always loved Yesua, we have always followed Yesua. Yesua has always been with us. They said, ‘Say the words.’ They said, ‘No, we can’t.’ They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.”
These Iraqi children understood the principle that it is better to die than to deny Jesus. What they would lose if they died was nothing to what they would gain if they stayed faithful. It’s essential that we understand that principle, or one day fear of death may paralyse us.
D) Jesus then told the disciples, ‘AND IF I GO AND PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, I WILL COME AGAIN AND WILL TAKE YOU TO MYSELF, SO THAT WHERE I AM, THERE YOU MAY BE ALSO.’
When Jesus said, ‘I will come again and will take you to myself’ he probably means his Second Coming. Have you read Lord of the Rings or seen the film? There’s a scene where Gandalf leaves Helm’s Deep, which will soon come under attack. He says, ‘Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.’ The group that remains to defend Helm’s Deep knows that Gandalf is coming and that gives them hope. Because they have that hope they keep going.
But there’s another possible way to understand this. When I was preparing this talk, I heard a story which I rather liked. A famous minister called John Stott preached on this passage. He said that he’d gone to visit a member of his congregation, a lady who was well into her 80s. She couldn’t see very clearly and that made it difficult for her to cross the road. She told John Stott that people often helped her. But she said she preferred to cross at the traffic lights. “When I see the words in green, ‘cross now’, I walk over courageously … You know, when I’m dying, Christ will come to me and say, ‘cross now’, and I won’t be afraid.” This lady believed that Christ would come to fetch her when she was dying and that he would help her cross the road from this life into the life to come.
E) Finally, Jesus told his disciples that they knew the way. He said, ‘AND YOU KNOW THE WAY TO WHERE I AM GOING.’ If you’ve ever been walking in the mountains, you’ll know how alarming it is to lose the way. Once you find a familiar footpath you relax. Being uncertain about the way, or even uncertain as to whether you’re on the right route, can be a source of a lot of anxiety. But Jesus’ disciples aren’t buying this. They don’t think they know the way. Jesus answered with these wonderful words, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’. Jesus isn’t merely the guide on the way, he is the way. So, what have we to fear? If we remain in him, we’ll end up with him.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Boscombe, Bournemouth, UK, 5 Nov 2020.
