And you, son
of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and
thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions; be not afraid of their words,
nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or
refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel
2:6-7
Most of us who have
been following the Lord for any length of time can
look back on a day when we were a lot more
daring than we are now. In those early days when we first met Jesus in reality and power we trusted him
with a joyful abandon and we feared very few things. We weren't afraid to take some risks. We
spoke up even when we knew it would cost us the ridicule of our friends and the
scorn of our enemies. We sacrificed.
We did without. We gave away our money to
people's needs. We spent ourselves, we went without
sleep; and we never worried about whether we might become exhausted or go
bankrupt.
But with the
passing of time and perhaps with a few bad experiences, when some of the risky
things we did turned out to be foolish, we've become much more cautious .... We don't take those risks we once took. In fact, we've gone to the other extreme.
That childlike boldness is gone and now we're playing it much too
safe.
When Satan took our Lord up to the
pinnacle of the temple and said, "If you're the Son of God cast yourself
down for it is written, 'His angels shall bear you up in their hands lest you
dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered, "It is written,
'You shall not tempt the Lord your God,'"....he refused. But when the Father spoke to Jesus through the Spirit and
said, "Now it's time to go up to
What has happened
to many of us is that Satan has managed to trick us into jumping from a few
small pinnacles to prove our faith. And after breaking
our legs or scraping our knees or wounding our egos a few times we've become
quite timid. Now when the Lord calls us to move out
and start proclaiming his gospel, or to crawl out of our bunkers and start
following him to a cross, we hesitate. And he has to
come to us with a command we'll be hearing from him for the rest of our lives: "fear not...don't be afraid."
When God first
called Abraham he didn't have to say, "Fear not." He simply said, "Go from your country and your
kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you," and
Abraham went. But later, after Abraham got sidetracked
into
Fear
not Abram, I am your shield.
Joshua had
been a man of faith for a long time. He was the one
who encouraged the fainthearted to trust God when they came back from spying
out the land. But when it was time for Joshua to take
over the leadership from Moses he needed to hear that
command too.
Have I not
commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not
frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you
go.
Joshua 1:9
Ezekiel didn't mind
serving as a priest to the exiled Jews and Babylon, but when it came time for
God to send him forth among those people with the strong word of a prophet, he
too needed to be told, "Don’t be afraid! Put your fear aside!"
And he said
to me, "Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak with you." And when he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me,
and set me upon my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. And
he said to me, "Son of man, I send you to the people of
The people
also are impudent and stubborn; I send you to them
and you shall
say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.' And whether
they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they
will know
that there has been a prophet among them. And you, son
of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though
briers and thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions; be not afraid
of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or
refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house."
Ezekiel 2:1-7
"Be not afraid
... fear not." These are not merely words of
polite reassurance. This is a command. A command given to every prophet of God and every
disciple of Jesus
down to this moment. "Trust me and stop being
afraid. Get out there and speak what I'm giving you to
speak and do what I'm sending
you to do."
The fire of God
will fall upon our lives when we obey the Lord's command to fear not. How different the future will
look. How different the people around us will appear. What different lives we will live as believers when, in
obedience to our Lord's command, we put away fear. Jesus
says to us, "Fear not.... Let not your heart be
troubled neither let it be afraid."
When Jesus tells us
to "fear not," he is commanding us to put away our fear of change. Most of us young and old, are scared to death of change. Any change which might upset our warm comfortable routine. And this fear of change has paralyzed our wills and
blinded our eyes.
Did you ever
consider what it was that made Simon Peter so scared that day when Jesus told
him to launch out into the deep and let down his net for a catch? He did it out of respect...he really didn’t expect
anything. Then suddenly the net was so full it was
starting to break. Peter was scared because he knew
this was a sign of God. God was invading Peter's life! And Peter knew that when God invades your life things are
going to change. "Now what's going to happen? If this kind of thing continues, my life will never be the
same! Depart from me for I'm a sinful man, 0 Lord ....I can't handle it!"
"Don't
be afraid. From now on you will be catching men."
...and
when they had brought their boats to land they left
everything and followed him....
... a change that lasted the rest of their lives.
Do we really think
that all the major changes we'll ever have to live through in this world are
behind us? Not if we're going to keep following Jesus. There are big changes coming. Don't
be afraid of them ..."Henceforth you will be catching men."
When Jesus tells us
to "fear not," he is calling us to put away our fear of loss. "What if I lose everything I have on this adventure
with Jesus?" What if you do? If
you have the Kingdom you have everything. If you have
the whole world but don’t have the Kingdom you have nothing.
Fear not,
little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give
alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in
the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:32-34
So we have houses to live in, clothes to wear, food to
eat. Some of us have
cars to drive, money saved toward that new washing machine or a better
furnace... but these things aren't our life. God
deliver us all from being bound to these things. God
help us to put away the fear of losing them. If we
lose them we lose them.
When
Jesus tells us to "fear not," he is calling us to put away the fear
of rejection.
"If
the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that
I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If
they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will
keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on
my account, because they do not know him who sent me."
Who wants to be hated? Who
enjoys being persecuted? Who of us likes being shoved
out of the group, ignored by the people around us? But
when the fear of rejection causes us to hide the fact that our first love and
our first loyalty is to Jesus Christ we’re being destroyed by that fear. Better to be rejected and go on living and serving God as
outcasts then to spend our days hindered at every turn by the fear of being
rejected. To follow Jesus is to be a speckled bird in
this world .... and the other birds don't like
speckled birds. "Fear not," says the Lord,
"I’m a speckled bird too. Just keep walking with
me."
When
Jesus tells us to "fear not," he's calling us to put away the fear of
death.
Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who
loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it
for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me;...
John 12:21-26a
"So, if I go
down into the ground and die and bear much fruit, my servant does the same. If I go to a cross, my servant follows me."
Our goal in this
world as followers of Jesus is a redemptive death... a laying down of our lives with Jesus. Every day we're moving toward that death.
We're learning in a thousand ways how to lay down our lives in acts of
self-denial in the name of the Lord for people around us.
And you, son
of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and
thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions; be not afraid of their words,
nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or
refuse to hear;...
Ezekiel 2:6-7a
Now more than ever
the work of proclaiming and living the gospel of Jesus will involve change,
loss,
rejection,
and sooner or later death....
We've been afraid of these things. And so the Lord not only commands
us to take this gospel out and proclaim it, he also
commands us to put away our fear. And when we put away
our fear the fire falls.
Have I not
commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Be not frightened, neither be dismayed. For
the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.