Be Not Afraid Of Their Faces
Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-8; 17-19; John 5:19, 30; 7:16
When I reflect on the messages that the Spirit has given me over the last few weeks, I can’t help but wonder what is He preparing us for? We have been told that we are watchmen – meaning that we are supposed to be sounding the alarm to those who are living in sin, but yet are thinking that, because of God’s grace they are saved and going to heaven. As watchmen our jobs are to sound the alarm in hope of saving their soul. Then we were asked the question, “Do we believe God’s word as He does?” The question was raised to help us decide if we are truly willing to act on God’s word – to interpret it and speak it in truth just as it says. Then the Spirit told us to stop trying to obey what the Bible says and start doing what the Bible says. These were three messages that I had time to prepare for, but then the next message – the Spirit just dropped in my spirit on that Sunday morning. In that message the Spirit reminded us to rejoice always in the Lord because we understand our relationship with God because He has us. We do not need to “choose” to worry because everything that we will face in this life we will not face alone. God loves us and He is always with us and all we have to do is lean in and depend on Him. Then last week the Spirit told us how to play on God’s team. He told us that being on God’s team starts with our request and then our learning His playbook – the Bible. The theme that I have realized that runs through all of those messages is our need to be prepared. We need to understand God’s word because the time is now that we need to believe it, act on it and confidently share it with others. And that, New Light, leads into this message this morning titled, “Be Not Afraid of Their Faces.”
Have you ever looked at someone and immediately were afraid of them? Maybe you didn’t know them but something about the way they looked just caused you to experience a moment of fear or hesitation. Now imagine if you were standing before people that you know and see every day to deliver a message that they do not want to hear. Do you think they would be smiling at you? Do you think they would be excited to hear a message calling for them to change how they are living? Or, do you think the statement “If looks could kill” would apply to how they were looking at you? We sometimes change what we are about to say depending on how we believe others will receive it based on how they are looking at us. We anticipate how they will respond and become very uncomfortable, sometimes even to the point of being scared, so we soften and/or tweak our message in an attempt to elicit a more favorable response. This response on our part is a type of filtering that I will talk about later. This example is just one type of fear that we experience when we are gaging how we are going to deliver our message to the individual.
Another type of fear (which is also a form of filtering), that is more in line with the message this morning, pertains to respect versus actual fear. Let me give you an example. When I was working, we often had high level executives visit our meetings from the home office. When these individuals planned their visits, we were instructed as to how we should act, questions that were appropriate or not appropriate to ask and how we should “tone down” how we usually talked when it was just us. The request was not made out of fear per se, but out of respect for the visitors. In other words, we were told to be on our best behavior. So, when we had breaks in the meeting, the executives would walk up and talk to individuals in order to get to know them. It was interesting to watch how some of my team members became so nervous at being in the presence of the executive that they could barely speak a coherent sentence. Those individuals were in such awe of the executives that they were literally speechless. This is the example that I want you to remember as I go into this message about not being afraid of their faces. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter one.
God anointed Jeremiah as one of His prophets before he was born. Let’s read Jeremiah 1:4-5. It says, “(4) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: (5) ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5) God said that before Jeremiah was even formed in the womb, He knew (approved) him and before he was born God sanctified (which means to consecrate, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be separate, to set apart) and ordained (commissioned) him as a prophet. When God informed Jeremiah of his ministry, Jeremiah was believed to be between the age of a teenager but younger than twenty-five – which was considered a very young man as it related to maturity and the respect given to adults. For this reason Jeremiah did not think he could do the job. Let’s continue reading at verse six. “Then said I: ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.’” (Jeremiah 1:6) Jeremiah told God that he could not speak to kings and other leaders because of his age. Think about how a teenager would feel walking into the office of the President of the United States to deliver a message to him from God. Can you imagine how in awe he would be just walking into the Oval office? I can imagine this is what Jeremiah was thinking when God told him he would be a prophet to the nations.
God understood Jeremiah’s concerns and this is what He told Jeremiah, “(7) But the LORD said to me: ‘Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. (8) Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 1:7-8) God told Jeremiah not to dwell on his age, but that he would go wherever God sent him and speak to whomever God him to speak. And this is important; God told him that he was to speak whatever He told him to speak. Jeremiah knew the lifestyles of prophets based on those who had gone before him. He probably understood the hardships that awaited him because when you read the book of Jeremiah, you will see three recurring themes throughout the book: (1) Jeremiah gives the people of Judah the word of the Lord, (2) the people reject and rebel against the word of the Lord, and (3) the Lord releases judgment because of their rebellion. So when you think about Jeremiah’s job, he prophesied to people who continually refused to do what God was telling them to do.
But I want you to focus on what God told Jeremiah in verse eight. He said, “(8) Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the LORD.” The word “afraid” in the Hebrew in “yare.” It means, “to fear, to respect, to reverence, to be afraid, to be awesome, to be feared, to make afraid, to frighten.” In the context of Jeremiah 1:8, the Lord knew that Jeremiah would be delivering hard truths to secular and religious leaders in Judah. So, yare, in this context means “to respect, to reverence.” He was telling Jeremiah, “Don’t respect or reverence the person because of their position. You say exactly what I tell you to say!” If you remember my two examples from the beginning when people change the message and how they will deliver it based on how the person they are talking to is looking at them or because they are in the presence of someone very important, this is what God was telling Jeremiah not to do. God wanted Jeremiah to speak His word exactly as He gave it to him, regardless of the person’s position or how they respond to the message. He told Jeremiah, “Be not afraid of their faces….”
This is a message for all Christians. We are passing up opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to help someone because we are afraid of their face. We are afraid of how they will look at us. We are afraid to speak the truth to them because they “outrank” us financially or in community status. But I will tell you, the time is now that we must speak the Word without tweaking it to make it sound better and/or easier to accept. To be “afraid of their faces” means that the person is unwilling to stand solidly on God’s Word because of the backlash that is sure to follow. It means that the person will fear the look and responses of man before fearing God and we all know what Jesus had to say about that. He said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) The Christian who is “afraid of their faces,” – who is more in awe of the person that he/she is of God – will not stand with the truth of God’s Word in deference to that person. For this reason when we see someone living outside of God’s Word but proclaiming to be saved, we are reluctant, and sometimes even afraid to say anything to them.
But God didn’t just tell Jeremiah not to be afraid of their faces, He also told him why. He said, “….for I am with you to deliver you.” God told Jeremiah that He was with him to deliver him out of the hands of those who would do him harm because of the message he was delivering. God wanted Jeremiah to know that he would not be alone. At the end of the chapter God gives Jeremiah more encouragement when He told him, “(17) Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. (18) For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land – against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. (19) They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to deliver you.’” (Jeremiah 1:17-19) God told Jeremiah that the people would fight against him, but they would not prevail. Does this sound like what is happening today? When Jeremiah spoke for the Lord, the people hated the words he delivered, and they hated him. We need to get it settled in our hearts right now that many Christians and family members are not going to like our taking an uncompromising stand on God’s Word when they are not in agreement with it. Remember the messages that have gone forth over the past five weeks? You cannot take a stand on God’s word if you do not believe it as He does. Therefore, you also cannot be a watchman if you do not believe God’s word as He does because if you don’t believe it then you will see no reason to sound the alarm. You do not believe any judgment is coming. Likewise, to make this stance we have to stop trying and start doing. The preparation phase for our taking action has passed. And the message that the Spirit inserted on the day of about anxiety, when we stop being afraid of their faces and knowing that speaking the truth will cause some to be offended with us, we can rejoice in the Lord knowing that He has us. We do not need to be anxious about standing on His word! And as He told us last week, we are on His team and that requires us to know His playbook – the Bible. Everything we are hearing is pointing us to being effective witnesses for Him – both to those who do not know Him and to those who think they know Him, but in reality their lifestyles demonstrate that they do not.
“Be not afraid of their faces!” I want you to think about something I mentioned at the beginning - filters. Do you know what a filter is? A filter is a “device used for straining and/or removing something.” Filters are used in many devices – coffee makers, air conditioners, sun glasses, window tinting, etc. The primary goal of a filter is to remove something that is unwanted. Now, stay with me on this: acknowledging the faces of those we interact with acts as a filter of sort because another person’s face can cause us to change (filter) something we might have been planning to say. In other words, we might have planned the message to be delivered, but when we saw the person’s face, we tweaked (filtered) the message so that it could be more readily received. Think about it like this: when you were a child and you got in trouble, when your parent(s) asked you why you did what you did, did you not look at their faces to judge your response? Did you not stare at them to determine if your answer was working in your favor and then shift when you could see that you were digging a bigger hole for yourself? Faces act as a filter! We often change how we say something as we look at the responses of the people. God is telling us that we can no longer operate with this filter. “Be not afraid of their faces!” Turn the filter off and speak the Word!!! When it comes to God’s word we cannot allow faces to cause us to filter what God has said! God’s word speaks for itself – it does not need filtering to make it more acceptable.
I want you to see something before I close. Our giving our lives to Christ was to be no different than Jesus giving His life to Father God. Whenever Jesus was questioned by the Jews pertaining to the things He was doing and the knowledge He had, He ALWAYS pointed them to the fact that He was only doing what His Father had told Him to do. For example, in John 5:19 the Jews wanted to kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath but Jesus told them, “….Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” And then in verse 30 He said, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30) Then when the Jews questioned Jesus’ knowledge in the seventh chapter of John, Jesus told them, He said, “….My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” (John 7:16) Here is my point: when you see how Jesus was always being accused of something by the Jewish leaders, He always responded with truth. He never allowed their position in life to diminish that truth. Jesus NEVER looked at the faces of those attacking Him and changed what He was saying to them. No, in every situation He made it clear that there was nothing they could say or do to Him that would make Him change anything pertaining to Him fulfilling what His Father had ordained for Him to do! New Light, this is where we should be today.
If you recall after Jesus was crucified His disciples went into hiding because they were afraid. But after Jesus was resurrected and they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they began to speak the truth. They were no longer afraid of the Jewish leaders. They no longer denied their relationship with Christ or the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. They were threatened, beaten and cast into jail, but their testimony remained the same. These “timid” men no longer feared any face! Acts 4:20 records Peter and John telling the council after they were arrested for preaching Jesus’ death and resurrection, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20) And then when the Apostles were arrested for preaching Jesus in Acts chapter five, they confessed “……We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Jesus’ disciples transitioned from men who were timid and full of fear to men who were no longer afraid! They lived the statement “Be not afraid of their faces.”
New Light, we must start speaking the truth. All of us know someone who is living a life contrary to what the Bible says. I am not talking about the strangers we might see on the street or the co-workers we barely talk to. I am talking about people we know and love. I am talking about people who might have been baptized but nothing else has changed in their life. I am talking about people who think it is okay to lie, steal, fornicate, cheat and do all of the other things the world approves of as long as no one gets hurt by their choices. New Light, when we accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation, our choice gave Him the right to make all future choices for us. It gave Him the right to declare that His will is now our will. Some in the Church still believe that they can still choose how they will serve Him. They are holding on to a life that is no longer theirs and, because of that, Jesus is not increasing in their lives. We must stop being afraid of their faces and tell them the truth. New Light, be not afraid of their faces! Be not afraid of their faces on your job. Be not afraid of their faces in your church. Be not afraid of their faces at the dinner table. Be not afraid of their faces at the football game; the gym; or everywhere you hang with those closest to you. As you begin to walk in everything God has for you, turn off the filter and be not afraid of their faces!!!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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