Peace, Not Fear
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 43 viewsNotes
Transcript
"When ... Allen Emery was in the wool business, he once spent an evening with a shepherd on the Texas prairie.
When businessman Allen Emery was in the wool business, he once spent an evening with a shepherd on the Texas prairie. During the night, the long wail of coyotes pierced the air. The shepherd’s dogs growled and peered into the darkness. The sheep, which had been sleeping, lumbered to their feet, alarmed, bleating pitifully. The shepherd tossed more logs onto the fire, and the flames shot up. In the glow, Allen looked out and saw thousands of little lights. He realized those were reflections of the fire in the eyes of the sheep.
“During the night, the long wail of coyotes pierced the air. The shepherd’s dogs growled and peered into the darkness. The sheep, which had been sleeping, lumbered to their feet, alarmed, bleating pitifully.
“The shepherd tossed more logs onto the fire, and the flames shot up. In the glow, Allen looked out and saw thousands of little lights. He realized those were reflections of the fire in the eyes of the sheep.
‘“In the midst of danger … the sheep were not looking out into the darkness but were keeping their eyes set in the direction of their safety, looking toward the shepherd.’ [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 297.]
Today, we find ourselves in the midst of danger. Indeed, some have told me that it was too dangerous to hold a worship service today, and we may well be forced to curtail our corporate activities in the near future.
But I want to challenge you today not to look toward the coyotes howling in the distance. I want to challenge you today to look toward the Shepherd.
Brothers and sisters, we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation in history. There have been epidemics and pandemics before, but never when the earth was so densely populated, never when travelers could cross such great distances in so short a time, never when information and misinformation could be spread so quickly.
Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 297.
And all of these modern advances have contributed to the fear that we see taking hold around the world as panic-buying empties supermarket shelves of hand sanitizer and toilet paper, as great swaths of the nation lock themselves down, as National Guard units deploy, as cities are quarantined, and as the world economy edges toward the cliff.
Much of the world is gripped by fear, and the ruler of this world is using that fear as a potent weapon.
But we have a stronger weapon. We have the sword of the Word of God.
We serve the Sun of Righteousness who has healing in his wings. We serve the risen Savior who has promised us eternal life if we believe in Him. We serve the Righteous Judge who will one day cast Satan into the eternal prison of Hell. We serve the Faithful and True, whose word will never fail. We serve the Wonderful Counselor who sent His Comforter to give us peace. We serve the Great High Priest who eternally makes petitions to His Father on our behalf. We serve the King of Kings, whose Father has put everything under His feet. We serve the Word, through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together.
Today, let’s spend some time practicing with that weapon. Today, let’s hear what God’s word has to say about fear.
Brothers, and sisters, fear not, for God is in control. Fear not, for Christ is risen. Fear not, for the Holy Spirit has given us a spirit of power and of love and of self-control.
Jesus spoke to the Apostle John in a vision we know as the Revelation:
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Jesus bore our sins on a cross at Calvary. He died to pay the debt we owe to His perfect and holy Father for our rebellion against Him. And because of His resurrection, we who follow Jesus Christ in faith that His sacrifice was sufficient to pay our debt know that we, too, shall be raised.
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
This morning, I want to focus on what God’s word says about fear.
and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!
“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?
“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?
Jesus bore our sins on a cross at Calvary. He died to pay the debt we owe to His perfect and holy Father for our rebellion against Him. And because of His resurrection, we who follow Jesus Christ in faith that His sacrifice was sufficient to pay our debt know that we, too, shall be raised.
Luke
He overcame sin in His death, and He overcame death in His resurrection. We who follow the Living One have no need to fear death, because we have been promised eternal life with Him and with His Father.
Knowing that, we can live courageously, as God called Joshua to do.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Even with the promise of eternal life, it would be hard to be fearless in the face of calamity if we did not have the Holy Spirit. But each of us who has followed Jesus Christ in faith has received the Spirit as a seal and a pledge.
The Spirit identifies us as God’s people, and the Spirit is God’s pledge that He has adopted us as sons and daughters.
But the Spirit also comforts us and prays for us when we don’t know how or what to pray. The Spirit is God’s very presence within us, and, just like Joshua, the Spirit should remind us that we now have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.
God has not promised us that we will not suffer or even die. But He has given us a Spirit of power: the power to face whatever comes, knowing that God is in control and that He will use whatever we face here for something more beautiful than we can imagine.
When we live in the power of the Spirit, fear will have no power over us, because we’ll be following our Good Shepherd, the One David wrote about in the 23rd Psalm.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
The CDC’s worst estimates are that 1.7 million people could die of the coronavirus before it has run its course. This truly looks like the valley of the shadow of death.
But our Good Shepherd is there to comfort us with His familiar voice, with His Word, with His promises, and even with His chastisements.
Our Good Shepherd is the gate for His sheep. He is the Shepherd who lay down His life for His sheep. He is the Shepherd who searches for the lost sheep. He is the Shepherd who prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He is the Shepherd who anoints our heads with oil.
We can be comforted in the knowledge that our Good Shepherd will lead us beside still waters and make us to lie down in green pastures. He will restore our souls.
In times like these, our souls are desperate for consolation, and the Psalmist reminds us where we can find it.
When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.
Even in the knowledge of such a great Good Shepherd, we still have anxieties, don’t we? Even though Jesus tells us, “It is I; do not be afraid,” we still worry.
But if we take His consolations, his promises, and His encouragements to heart, He will replace fear and anxiety with delight.
How many of you spent time on Facebook or reading the paper or watching the news this week?
I did some of each — too much, to be honest with you. And I can tell you that there was not much in any of those places that brought delight to my soul.
Sadly, even in the pastors’ Facebook groups that I’m part of, there was fear and divisiveness and an astonishing lack of grace.
If a pastor announced that he was canceling services today, seven others would pounce on him and accuse him of lacking faith. If another pastor announced that he was holding services, seven others would pounce on him and accuse him of endangering the lives of the flock he was charged to protect.
We see today that the world is utterly lacking in grace.
But the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ are unfailing. His mercies are new every morning.
Spend more time in His word this week, and spend less time with the words of the world. I guarantee you will be happier for that decision.
And, while you’re at it, spend more time in prayer. The world needs us to pray. And Paul tells us that prayer is good medicine.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Everybody’s anxious, and our 24/7 news cycle guarantees that they’ll be more anxious tomorrow than they were today.
Phil 4
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Everybody’s anxious, and our 24/7 news cycle guarantees that they’ll be more anxious tomorrow than they were today.
So how can you keep from anxiety?
Go to God in prayer. Tell Him why you’re worried, and ask Him to take the worry away.
I’m not talking about whistling through the graveyard. I’m not talking about putting your fingers in your ears, squeezing your eyes tight and pretending there’s no crisis. The fact is that this would not be a godly response to what’s happening right now.
What I’m talking about is going before the sovereign God who holds the future in His hands and praying for the victims of COVID-19; praying for the medical community that is facing long, hard, and depressing weeks ahead; praying for the leaders who will make the decisions that shape the days ahead; praying for the church to be bold in its call to be salt and light; and praying even that God would intervene and stop the spread of this deadly virus.
Take your fears before the Lord; leave them at the feet of our Savior. Give thanks for all your blessings; give thanks even for the suffering He allows us to endure, knowing that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
When David was seized by the Philistines in Gath, he had good reason to be afraid. Remember that he was well known at the time as the one who had slain Goliath, their great war hero.
David was also a war hero, but more than that, he was a prayer warrior, and his prayer in shows us how he dealt with his own fears.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
3
If you stopped at the supermarket this week, it would be easy to conclude that, right now, the world is putting its trust in toilet paper and cleaning products.
Now, I’m not suggesting that toilet paper and cleaning products do not have their place. What I’m saying is that the world is focused on toilet paper and cleaning products, because the world has no answer for its biggest problem — and its biggest problem is not the coronavirus.
God has not promised to deliver us from all suffering or pain. But He has promised to deliver us from evil.
The world has no answer for sin.
Sin has broken everything, and the coronavirus is simply one of its byproducts.
We were made in the image of God — made to represent Him throughout the earth. But our first parents chose instead to defy Him, and they passed the curse of sin to each of us.
And because we are sinners, each of us has sinned against God in our own way, confirming that the perfect and holy God was justified in condemning us to the wages of our unrighteousness.
Where there is sin, there is death, and as we now walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are reminded that sin still runs rampant on earth. And no matter what we try to do to fix the abounding brokenness that results from it, we just break it more.
The world has no solution to this problem. The world has no answer for sin.
But Jesus Christ does. Through His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus offers freedom from our bondage to sin. All we have to do is put our trust in God’s promise that He will cancel the sin-debt we owe if we follow His Son in faith.
And if we put our trust in this promise, then there is no more reason to fear anything in this sin-cursed world, because we are only here for a moment out of our eternity.
And even during that moment, remember that Jesus is called Emmanuel — God WITH us, a name that God uses to describe Himself and His promised Son throughout the book of Isaiah.
‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
Isa
Remember those sheep in the story that I told a few minutes ago?
When the coyotes started howling, the shepherd threw another log on the fire, and the man who was with him looked out and saw hundreds of eyes reflecting the light of the campfire.
The sheep were looking to their shepherd, not to the danger.
I am reminded of Peter when Jesus called him out of the boat to walk with Him on the Sea of Galilee.
Peter took a few steps on the surface of the water, but the storm that night had been strong, and I’m sure that the water was rough, and the wind was blowing, and — let’s be honest — Peter probably had a flash in which he realized what he was doing and he looked down to see if it was real.
He was frightened. He could hardly believe what was happening. And so he took His eyes off of Jesus, ad Peter dropped into the water. And then I imagine that he was TRULY afraid.
The best way to increase your fear is to focus on the wrong things.
The best way to increase your fear is to focus on the things that the world is focusing on right now, to focus on transmission rates and mortality rates and stock market changes and all the other things that all of the lost world is focused on right now.
I’m not suggesting that you should not be aware of what is going on. I think that even as he walked toward Jesus on the Sea of Galilee, Peter must have been AWARE of the waves and the wind around him.
It was only when he turned his focus from the Savior to the things of the world that he fell.
Be aware of what’s going on, but be FOCUSED on the fact that it was Jesus Christ, Himself, who was in control of the waves and the wind that night on the Sea of Galilee. And He continues to be in control.
Scripture tells us that Jesus is before all things and that in Him all things hold together. Our triune God is sovereign over it all. Rest in the fact that He had already numbered your days before you were ever born.
Rest in the fact that He already prepared the good works that He is calling you to do during this time of crisis. Rest in the fact that not even the gates of Hell will prevail over the church He has called to do those works.
Brothers and sisters, we have a unique opportunity before us. Two weeks ago, this opportunity did not exist. We, the church, can be salt and light in a way today that we could not be two weeks ago.
In this time of social distancing, we have the opportunity to show the power of community. In this time of discouragement, we have the opportunity “to give an answer to everyone who asks (us) to give the reason for the hope that (we) have” in Christ.
In this time of fear, we have an opportunity to cast out fear with perfect love. In this time of chaos, we have an opportunity to talk about the peace we have in Jesus Christ, who said:
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
We have an opportunity to demonstrate the peace and the love of Christ in a special way during the coming weeks.
I do not know exactly how this will look. I can tell you that one example of it will be honoring our commitment to host the CAPS Night Stay guests, starting on Wednesday.
We will be wise in our interactions; we will practice good hygiene and take extra care to make sure the building is cleaned each night and at the end of the program. But we will not turn our backs on those the Lord sends us.
Perhaps there are other ways, too, that we can show the love of Jesus Christ during this time of crisis. I hope so. I am praying that God shows us just how to do this. And I will be speaking with some of you in the coming days about some specific ideas.
We have been given a unique opportunity. The world is suddenly aware of the fleeting nature of life here on earth. We can show them the Savior who offers eternal life.
But we cannot do that if we allow ourselves to be caught up in the same fear that is strangling the world.
The world is subject to the ruler of this world, and as such, the world is also subject to his greatest weapon: fear.
But we who have followed Jesus Christ in faith serve a different ruler. We serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He who walked on the Sea of Galilee and said to His terrified disciples in the boat nearby: “It is I; do not be afraid.”
We serve the Sun of Righteousness who has healing in his wings.
We serve the risen Savior who has promised us eternal life if we believe in Him.
We serve the Righteous Judge who will one day cast Satan into the eternal prison of Hell.
We serve the Faithful and True, whose word will never fail.
We serve the Wonderful Counselor who sent His Comforter to give us peace.
We serve the Great High Priest who eternally makes petitions to His Father on our behalf.
We serve the King of Kings, whose Father has put everything under His feet.
We serve the Word, through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together.
Brothers, and sisters, fear not, for God is in control. Fear not, for Christ is risen. Fear not, for the Holy Spirit has given us a spirit of power and of love and of self-control.
I want to remind you all of something very important today, and if there is nothing else you remember tomorrow from this sermon, please remember this: Our God is sovereign.
So what does it mean when we say that our God is sovereign? And how does His sovereignty play out in the context of a world under threat by a deadly virus for which there is currently no known cure?
“Fear not, for I am with thee,” says the Lord.
The fact that our God is sovereign means that every single thing you face — every single thing I face or that the nation or the world faces — has passed first through His hands.
Since God is sovereign
God