I pray that all will blessed by this humble offering. PLEASE READ: John 20:19-21
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
In Genesis 3, we read where Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:11-13), something they had been specifically instructed not to do (Genesis 2:16-17). Knowing that God is searching for them, they attempt to hide (Genesis 3:8). It is a scene perhaps reminiscent of many of our childhoods when we had done something that we were not supposed to do and we literally hid from our parents who came searching for us. Finally, God finds Adam and Eve, as we know that He will, after all, where can we go to hide from God (Psalm 139:7)? God asks them why they are hiding. Do you remember the response that Adam gave: “Because, I was afraid?” (Genesis 3:10). This reminds us that fear is so basic to who we are as human beings, it goes all the way back to the beginning of time.
There seems to be no limit to our fears. I recall in a Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown goes to Lucy for a nickels worth of psychiatric help. She proceeds to pinpoint his particular ‘fear’.
“Perhaps,” she says, “you have hypengyophobia, which is the fear of responsibility.”
Charlie Brown says, “No.”
“Well,” Lucy continues, “perhaps you have ailurophobia, which is the fear of cats.”
Again Charlie says, “No.”
Becoming agitated Lucy says, “Well, maybe you have climacophobia, which is the fear of climbing and/or falling upon stairs.”
Again Brown says, “No.”
Now, totally exasperated, Lucy says, “Well, maybe you have pantophobia, which is the fear of everything!”
Charlie Brown says, “Yes, that is the one!”
Sometimes we may feel like we are afraid of everything. We are often conditioned by many external factors to live in fear. Sometimes we find ourselves afraid of people, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid to try new and potentially exciting things, afraid to make any kind of commitment, afraid of life, or even afraid of death. Every person, yes even every Christian, must fight their own fears.
The Apostle Paul, the solid Christian warrior, had to deal with fear. Paul had fallen flat on his face during a mission trip in Athens. He did exactly what he intended not to do, and in his own eyes he had failed. He wrote of his arrival in Corinth: “For when we came into Macedonia we had not rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings; within were fears” (2 Corinthians 7:5).
Paul was full of fear, just like you and me–the fear of inadequacy, the fear of failing. But perhaps the most surprising fear of many is the fear of God. What I mean is if we’re honest, that fear we feel that God is not really on our side; that God will put us out on a limb and leave us; that God has in some way abandoned us to the world. This fear is not new.
One of the great fears of the ancient people was that God would fall asleep. Can you imagine such a thing? When the prophets of Baal could not get their gods to rain down fire on the top of Mt. Carmel, Elijah taunted them: “Maybe your god is asleep,” he said in 1 Kings 18:27. On the other hand, God’s people in the Old Testament took great comfort in the fact that “the God of Israel neither slumbered nor slept” (Psalm 121:4).
Over and over again the message of the Bible is “fear not.”
- When Abram took his family to the new land he feared that he was turning his back on everything he knew, his security for the unknown. God spoke to him: “Fear not Abram, I am your shield and your reward will be great” (see Genesis 15:1).
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- When the Israelites stood at the Red Sea and could see Pharaoh’s chariots coming on the horizon, fear fueled their cries that they would all be slaughtered. Some began to cry out in their fear, let’s return to Egypt, let’s go back (Exodus 14:1-12). Moses however, said to them: “Stand still, fear not, and see the salvation of the Lord…. The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:12-14).
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- When the angel of the Lord came to Mary and said that she would bear God’s Son, she trembled with fear. What would become of her? Where does she go from here? Yet the angel softly says, “Fear not Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30).
Fear not! Fear Not! Fear not! That is the cry of God for His people. Fear not! It is how we are called to live our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
While the rest of the world may be fearful, fretting, wanting to turn and run or even retreat, God says,
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not fear; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9)
Jesus said,
“Fear not; I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, let’s tell fear to “get behind me,” and enjoy the gift of this day God has given to us.
Shalom,
Pastor Jim
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