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"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 Jerusalem and lay
down your life," he went.
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 Egypt by fear of famine and called
Sarah his sister for fear they might kill him if they knew she was his
wife, the call of God began to have the added command, "Fear not."
"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 Israel, to a nation
of rebels, who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed
against me to this very day.
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 then.
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."
John 15:18-21
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."
