A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 37
“Forsaking Fear”
Luke 13:31-35
“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - . . . fear which paralyzes our efforts to convert a retreat into advance.” Those words were spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt in his first inaugural address, to a nation whose economy and morale had been sapped by a national financial depression. [www.douglass. speech.northwestern.edu/ roos_a76). Those words seem very appropriate to a nation that is still reeling from the sniper attacks in and around Washington D.C. Until the snipers were caught people living in Maryland and around the Washington area were afraid to even leave their homes. Many times in life we can become so consumed by fear that we are unable to even think straight. We make rash decisions or refuse to make decisions because of fear. We become so focused on what we perceive as our problems because have taken our eyes off of Christ. When we are faced with giving in to fear we need to be reminded of how our Lord met fear head on.
As Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem, someone had asked whether there would only be a few people saved. Jesus had responded with some very disturbing words about the narrowness of the way leading to the kingdom of heaven saying (13:24),“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Now, further along on his journey yet on the very same day, some Pharisees came to pay Jesus a visit. In verse thirty-one we are told, “On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."
People sometimes seek to frighten us to deter us from fulfilling God’s purpose in our life. But Jesus didn’t let the Pharisee’s warning deter him from following what he knew was God’s will for his life. How about you? Are you trusting the Lord and his purpose for your life, or are you running away in fear all tied up in knots?
Jesus demonstrated Four Crucial Truths Concerning Giving In To Fear.
1. Fear Will Be Victorious If We Allow Ourselves To Be Frightened Into Silence. (v. 31)
When the Pharisees appear with what seems to be some friendly advice “Leave this place and go somewhere else because Herod wants to kill you,” Jesus was not fooled. “He was the gentle Lamb of God but even a lamb is suspicious of wolves who feign concern for its safety.” [Hughes p. 104] Were some of the Pharisees really sympathetically trying to protect Jesus? Or were they in fact acting as Herod’s messengers? Or was this a part of a plot to lure Jesus into Judea where the Sanhedrin exerted more power than in Herod’s territory? Whatever their motivation may have been they hoped to frighten Jesus away with a threatening message. While their statement looks like one of concern it is more likely just expediency. If they can get Jesus to leave then it will eliminate Jesus’ call for repentance without anything more drastic having to be done.
The enemies of Christ are still trying to silence his followers. These efforts range from simply implying that Christianity is outdated and on the way out, to outright persecution in Third World Countries.
A classic example of this attempt to silence the church is that this coming Tuesday, November 5, many believers will stay at home rather than exercising their privilege to go to the polls and cast their vote. Some in our country would have us to believe that as Christians we must separate what we believe as followers of Christ, from who and what we vote for, that we really can’t expect morality and integrity from political leaders today. I have one word for that, hogwash. This country has yet to see what influence the church can have if we ever get to the point that we vote our conscience and not our pocketbook. Unfortunately many have been convinced that whether they vote or not is unimportant. They have in effect allowed themselves to be silenced.
2. Fear Will Be Diminished If We Realize That Our Lives Are In God’s Hands (v. 32)
Jesus responded to just that kind of challenge in verse thirty-two, “And He said to them, "Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ Jesus laughs and says, “You go and tell that old fox. I was casting out demons yesterday, I’ll be healing the sick today, and tomorrow. And the third day, I’ll finish my course.” Jesus knew that his time had not yet come to leave this world. His work was not yet completed. Until that time came, it was not within the power of his enemies to stop him.
Jesus reminds his disciples in Matthew 10:30, “Are not two sparrow sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from the Father’s will. (30) But the very hairs of your head are numbered. (31) Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear not, for I am your God. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes I will help you, I will uphold you with my right hand.”
When Jesus says in verse thirty-two, that on the “… third day I shall be perfected.’ The word “perfected” means completed and finished. His ministry as appointed by God is not yet finished and until it is he is invincible. No man can stop him not even Herod the king. The same is true of us today if we are living in the center of God’s will for our lives we are invincible until we have carried out God’s plan and purpose for our lives, what then is there to fear.
The “third day” is an obvious reference to Christ’s resurrection, which brings us to the third crucial truth.
3. Fear Will Be Banished If We Learn To Live Life From the Vantage Point Of Certain Victory (v. 33)
"Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.”
Today when “playing it safe” seems to be the name of the game, even the smallest threat or hint of danger may be enough to deter us. We conclude that “the Lord has closed the door” when in fact he may only have purposed for us to step out on faith.
Jesus speaking to the sisters of Lazarus upon his death said, (John 11:25), “ . . . I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus knew that his death would come only in the city of Jerusalem, yet he steadfast made his way to Jerusalem. If death itself holds no horror what can defeat us? The apostle Paul says some remarkable things concerning this in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:53) I want to read it to you from the New Living Translation, “For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. (54) When this happens – when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die – then at last the Scripture will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. (55) O Death where is your victory, O Death, where is your sting.”
When we see life from the broader perspective of eternity, we will see things differently.
4. The Most Fearful Thing of All Is to Make a Decision To Leave Jesus Out Of Our Lives. (vv. 34-35)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!
Anyone who has been around a farm “can tell stories of how hen’s frantically call to their chicks in order to shelter them under their wings when they sense approaching storms or dangers. Jesus knew the troubles that would soon come upon Jerusalem. Those troubles would reach from the rending of the veiling of the Temple at the time of the crucifixion to the rending of the temple itself by the armies of Titus in A.D. 70. He wanted to gather the people to himself that they might be saved. But He knew they would not respond to Him any more than their forefathers had responded to the prophets.” [The New Testament Study Bible: Luke. (The Complete Biblical Library: Springfield Missouri, 1986) p. 439]
Jesus says in verse thirty-four, “I wanted . . . but you were not willing.” Few scriptures throw the responsibility of the loss of heaven so distinctly on those who are lost” He says, “I would … but you would not!” The “would not” is emphatic. To reject Jesus is to reject the only way to heaven, for there is no other.
The final words of verse thirty-five are sad indeed, "See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’" When Jesus leaves the temple for the last time prior to the crucifixion it would truly be desolate. Sacrifice and observance of ritual continued in the temple for almost another 40 years (until it was destroyed in A.D. 70) but it would not be recognized nor accepted by God. But like the mighty man Samson, they were not aware that the Lord had departed from them (Judges 16:20).
This chapter ends with a heartbreaking expression of grief. Jesus must accept, though with sadness, the fact that there are those who will not accept Him. Jesus tells the Jews that only when they acknowledge him as the one sent from God will their desolation end. His agony over Jerusalem and its hardness of heart is the same agony that He now has for the hardness of heart that keeps individuals today from accepting Him as Savior.
There is coming a time when Jesus will return to this earth and every eye will see him and every knee will bow to him and every voice will proclaim him Lord indeed, but then it will be too late. He will be returning in judgment,
