Do Not Be Afraid

Introduction

Good morning. Feel open in your Old Testament to Genesis chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse 10. Genesis chapter 12 and verse 10. As you think about the 12th chapter of the first book in our Bibles, Genesis, you often think of Abraham’s great faith. The fact that he was willing to go when God said go, without even telling him where he was going. In fact, he told him, I don’t, I not only want you to go to a land I’m not going to tell you about, it’s a land I’m going to show you later. I want you to leave your father’s house. I want you to leave your kin behind. I want you to blindly go and trust that I, God know what’s best for you.

And if I do, I will bless you. I will make your name great. I will make of you a great nation. I will give that nation the promised land. And yes, even in Genesis chapter 12 and 22, the idea of in your seed all families of the earth shall be blessed. And we look at Abraham rightfully, and as the Hebrew writer does in chapter 11. We say Abraham is a hero of faith, for he went out to a land not knowing where he was going. And you look at Abraham’s leadership as it pertains to Sodom and Gomorrah, and even many of the moral and faith issues of the time. That we read about Abraham, he comes out as a beloved and devoted child of God. And so strikingly in Genesis chapter 12, when we read about this one particular instance when Abram wasn’t faithful, when he wasn’t trusting, and when he allowed a certain human emotion to overcome his good decision making, it stands up as a red flag to me, because if it can happen to Abraham, it can certainly happen to me too.

In Genesis chapter 12 and verse 10. Now there was a famine in the land. So Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarah, his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. And when Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh.

And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and he had a sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you tell me she was my sister? So that I took her for my wife. Now then here is your wife. Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. And so we see Abram makes a big mistake, and if you notice, what is his calculation for this?

It’s found in verse 12. Abram’s problem is, I see that I’m going to take Sarah, my beautiful bride, into Egypt, and she is going to be so desired, they’re going to take me out of the picture. Notice what he says in that verse they will kill me and let you live. And he continues on to say, Look, on my account, go along with this lie. And he was right. Insofar as Pharaoh did bless him because of Sarah’s beauty. He was given a great deal of physical possessions, but notice Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, right after he showed the utmost faith, the utmost trust in God, is paralyzed and sins because he was afraid. This is Abraham, our hero of faith. The one who went out to a land not knowing where he was going.

And he lied because he was afraid Pharaoh would have him killed. If that can happen to Abraham, it can happen to me. Jesus and God, consistently in Jesus’ life and as recorded in the entirety of Scriptures, tell mankind, do not be afraid. And fear comes in many ways. And when we think of biblical fear, we often think of a fear that’s closely synonymous with the idea of reverence, respect, an understanding of who God is and what he can do, and so I have a proper fear of the Lord that is exalted in Scripture. That’s not what Abraham had here. Do we see that in chapter 12? The fear Abraham had was of Pharaoh. They’re going to kill me, not of God. In fact, if he had any fear of God, he wouldn’t have lied.

But he did, because he was afraid.

1. Adam Hid Because He Was Afraid

That’s not true. But what can ungodly fear do to me, and what maybe are some of those things that we would be fearful of. I think in addition to Abraham, this great man of faith, we see at least three examples I want to look at quickly this morning. One of them, turn back to Genesis chapter 3, begins in the beginning. You have Adam and Eve, and as you’re turning to Genesis chapter 3, Adam has abandoned his post of leadership in the family. Eve is standing next to the one tree in the entire garden she can’t eat of. And so you see questionable decision after questionable decision, mixed with the temptation from the devil led to sin. As Eve is standing there looking at the fruit of the tree, the serpent’s talking to her, questioning God, telling her a lie that she would not surely die as God had said.

Although, just like Abraham’s lie, the serpent is perhaps telling a half truth there. And Eve ate. She gave to Adam and he ate. So they have sinned, they have violated their relationship with God. And when you read in verse 8, they hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? Notice what Adam says in verse 10. I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid. Because I was naked and I hid myself. Now the irony of Adam hiding isn’t simply that you can’t hide from God, it’s also that by saying he was naked and so needed to hide from God, notice in the next verse what God understands, that that means by necessity, if Adam and Eve knew they were naked, it meant they had sinned, eaten of that one tree.

2. Ungodly Fear Kept Them From God’s Great Riches

So Adam tries to hide from God because of fear. Abram lied because of fear. But it’s not just these individuals. It’s not some sort of just trying to save ourselves. Sometimes it’s a proactive fear. And look at Numbers chapter 13. If you look at Numbers chapter 13, the entirety almost of the Israelites, save essentially two faithful souls, have this ungodly fear. In Numbers chapter 13, the people of Abraham have formed. They have become a great nation, as God promised Abraham before his lie in Genesis chapter 12. They have come out of the land of Egypt through miracle after miracle after miracle in the ten plagues. They’ve been given the law of God. They have a covenant relationship with God. He has done tremendous mighty works. If you should trust anybody for any reason, the Israelites should have trusted in God’s power to make the impossible possible.

Because he had done it time and time again. And so when you read in Numbers chapter 13 and verse 31, they’re on the precipice of the land. They’re spying it out. And Caleb in verse 30 has already said, if we go and God is on our side, we will be victorious. But in verse 31, then the men who had gone up with them said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report out of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are of great height.

And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seemed to them.

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and all the people wept that night, and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt? Or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? We need a new leader. We can’t trust Moses and Aaron. We can’t trust this plan of God. This fear consumed them so much so that the Israelites have been marching towards the promised land. They have seen many miracles in the land of Egypt. They have seen what Moses has done for them. And right there, on the very edge of getting what God had always promised them, what he wanted most for them.

Ungodly fear kept them from God’s great riches. One final example.

3. For Fear of the Pharisees They Did Not Confess

In John 12, verse 42 and 43. Nevertheless, many even of the rulers or authorities believed in him. But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it. So they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Now think about this. In John chapter 12 and verse 42, there were people who saw Jesus, who saw his miracles, and like we said of the Israelites, they knew something is different about Jesus. His ways are better than ours. He is not just a man. He speaks and does miracles as with the authority of God. They believed in Jesus. But what stopped them? But for fear of the Pharisees. They did not confess it.

Now I want to step back for just a moment. We saw three stories real, really quick, in addition to Abram’s. You think about Abraham’s, his was self-preservation. I am lying because otherwise I will die. Still sinful. Adam has sinned along with Eve. They hear God coming, and he essentially owed himself on the sin if there was such a way to hide from God. And he says, he hid from the presence of God, the one person who could make all of this better because he was afraid. Now Adam illustrates a point that we have, which is that there are two responses to fear to run to God or in the opposite direction. And as Abraham is trying to hide, we know the result of the sin was being separated from God in the presence of the garden.

When we think about the Israelites, what type of fear was this? I think this one’s a little bit more relatable. Not necessarily just that they would die, although that’s a large part of their fear in Numbers 13 and 14. But that we just can’t do it. We’re not adequate. We are like lambs being led to the slaughter here. Joshua, Aaron, God, why are you sending us on this fool’s errand where we will all die? The physical of what they took in, of how great the sons of Anak were, the sons of the Nephilim were. They said, We’re like grasshoppers in their sight. We have no chance. Their fear was because they were blinded by the physical things. In John chapter 12, it wasn’t just fear of the Pharisees.

It was the love of what the Pharisees offered. It was a fear, essentially, of missing out on what this world offers. Notice verse 43. If you can think of anything this world offers aside from God, I suppose verse 43 is the best we can aim for. Because we love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. We had that choice to make. And they were afraid of missing out on that. They were afraid of any persecution that would be associated with angering the Pharisees. And by the way, let’s be very clear if you’re still open in John chapter 12 and verse 42. Who was it that is described as having belief and yet a fear of the Pharisees? The rulers.

The authorities. These weren’t the lowest ranking members of society who had this fear of those above them. These are people of decent social standing. See, there’s all kinds of fear. It doesn’t matter what it is. Maybe you think that you don’t want to be in the presence of God like Adam. You’ve done too many bad things, and you can’t dare face up to God. We see Adam was wrong. Maybe we think there’s some sort of physical danger in front of us, or some physical obstacle I cannot overcome, like the Israelites, or maybe even Abraham. We see that that doesn’t make a coward’s faith faithful and pleasing to God. And maybe it’s a real matter of faith. Maybe it’s the idea that, yeah, I believe in Jesus.

4. Fear Can Lead to Worry

I know what he stands for, I know what I need to do, but I won’t confess it publicly because I’m afraid of the reaction I will get. That, too is not pleasing to God. And so ungodly fear can do great things. It’s not surprising then that even Abraham, mighty, trustworthy, faithful Abraham, would have fear that would lead him to sin. And so the question is, what can the spirit do to us, first of all? If nothing else, maybe we don’t face these dramatic situations of being on the edge of taking over a country, and we see giants, and we have to overcome that faith, but it can lead to something Jesus tells us is very clearly sinful. And Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25, if you’re in our Proverbs class, we’ve noted this passage several times.

But in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25, notice the most disobeyed commandment of Jesus. He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious. Or some translations, do not worry about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body or what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. What can fear do to us? It might not rob my faith in an obvious way. It’s pretty easy to look at the Israelites and see that it wasn’t just the ten spies who said we have no chance. How many times in Numbers 14 did it say, all the congregation grumbled? All of the congregation was upset. All of the congregation of Israel called for new leadership.

It might be that I’m here standing before you or here sitting in this very assembly, afraid of something, not putting my trust in God, and it’s manifesting itself in what Jesus calls the sin of worldly anxiety or worry. The problem with this is not that there is never going to be a time of which we need to think carefully about what’s going to happen. Jesus takes constant time. If you read the gospel message to seclude himself, to pray, and even to anticipate the crucifixion, it was on Jesus’ mind. This worry, this anxiety Jesus is talking about isn’t about thinking of things to come, realizing there’s pain in the future. This worry is a faith problem, and we know that because if you look at verse 30, notice one parallel Jesus draws, and also one accusation.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith. You see, this ungodly fear, this worry that Jesus is saying can consume us is tied to the physical life. In Matthew 6 25, don’t be worried about what? Your life, your clothing, your food, worldly things that are passing away. What was Abraham afraid of? Losing his life. What were the Israelites afraid of? Their life and living. What were the rulers and authorities afraid of? The glory that comes from man, their social standing, their living. The worry Jesus is talking about is sinful because it elevates stuff, things in this life over God. Not surprisingly, the antidote is in verse 33.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, the very physical you’re not to be worried about, the physical things that should not overcome our faith, all these things shall be added to you. And in addition, in the meantime, Jesus gives us several reasons not to worry, my favorite of which is in verse 27. And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? Jesus says, by the way, not only is this anxiety and worldly worry sinful, it doesn’t do you any good at all. Fear can do this to us. Because what fear does, like with the Israelites, is takes the physical and it puts us a blinder right in front of our eyes and said, I can’t do anything until I fix this problem.

5. Fear Can Keep Us From What We Need Most

I can’t do any more for God, I can’t do any more for my family, I can’t do any more for my friends until I beat this obstacle. Or maybe we’re like Abraham or Adam and we try to find a way around the obstacle. That’s not showing faith in God either. We can’t avoid the problem when we have to deal with it head on. Fear can lead to worry. The other problem with worry, the other problem with fear is not only does it make matters worse, worrying makes things worse, not better. Fear can keep us from the very thing we need most at a time of fright. When God tells us repeatedly in the scriptures, do not be afraid. The reason is we should trust in God to overcome.

Not because I am great, but because God can have me overcome. And one of the one of God’s ways for overcoming fear, for overcoming the guilt that Adam would have suffered, or the struggles that associate themselves with sin that might make me afraid of facing my God, is confession. Notice the antidote for sin, one of them in James 5, of course, hearkening to the blood of Jesus. But notice one of the methods of forgiveness for Christians in James chapter 5. And if you look beginning in verse 13, James says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Now think about this for a moment. The New Testament tells us a way to have your sins forgiven is what? In verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray that you may be healed. One of the problems with fear is we know there’s something, at least in our estimation, is worth being frightened of. Abraham reckoned that losing his life was worth being afraid of. And by the way, it’s very easy in 2019 in America to look back at Abraham and say, don’t worry about losing your life.

What’s the big deal? It’s easy to look back at the Israelites and say, of course God was going to take care of them. But we’re not the ones facing immediate death. We’re not the soldiers looking at a grand army of people who make us feel like grasshoppers. But when we look at this verse, we recognize there is a scar that God allows us to be healed. But we have to confess our sins to one another. The problem with fear is, and when it comes to fear of others, is it keeps us from presenting ourselves honestly and openly. And James 5 16 requires that.

I understand that trust is always and forevermore in this life going to be a two-way street. But sometimes that two-way street requires somebody to walk down it first. And if you feel there’s not someone on the other side, look harder and walk faster. Because I promise you somebody is there for you. Because God promises us that this is his plan. How many times have we thought of needing help, needing prayers? Certainly, James 5 is fixated on the spiritual problem of sin. But even in a physical realm, as we think about my problems, my needs, my worldly struggles, am I willing to reach out? Or am I afraid of looking vulnerable? Am I afraid of looking foolish, silly, ignorant? God says we have to reach out to one another.

And by the way, the implication of verse 16 is not only that I confess my sins to someone else, but they not only hear me, but they then what? Pray with me. And a very important spiritual point in understanding James 5, does healing come because you prayed with another Christian? Not from the other Christian, but it does say that because it comes from God. Even on an individual basis, if you look at verse 15, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven if that man prays in faith, confessing sins to God. God removes our sins. How many times, though, when we are afraid and we have sinned, when we feel the scars of bad decision making, do we act like Adam? And at the time we need God most, we go and hide from him.

We have to be willing to embrace the fact that, yes, I have failed, but that God is the only one who can forgive and wipe away my failure. You see, just like with the worry of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, this spiritual concern in James chapter 5 is a concern for self-preservation, this life over the next. If we had no concern, no trifles, complete trust in everyone in this congregation, don’t you think we would confess our sins to each other all the time. I don’t say this in a flippant way, but do we really think that of our congregation, of even who are here this morning, no one has sinned this week or needs help? Nobody needs an extra prayer. Nobody could go arm in arm and need some encouragement physically or more importantly, spiritually.

And if that’s axiomatically the case, as I would guess that it is. And it’s not happening. What does that mean? One caveat before moving to the next point. James 5 does not mean only coming forward and sitting on one of these front two pews. It might mean that I have an arrangement with somebody that I am willing to be open with them in a private way or a semi private way.

6. Fear Can Keep Us From Pleasing God

James 5 requires at least two Christians. But more importantly, at least two Christians who trust in God. That is the problem with fear. It lacks trust in God. And when you think about Matthew chapter 25 in the parable of the talents, we learn fear can keep us from pleasing God. Not just finding the antidote, not just worrying about this life. It won’t make your life worse, although it will. It won’t simply keep you from reaching the help you need, although it will. Ungodly fear may actually keep us from serving God in a pleasing way. And if we miss that, we’ve missed all there is. And Matthew chapter 25, you think about the parable of the talents, and you have the man with three talents. Or excuse me, five talents.

He had three more than the man with two talents. And both the man with five talents and two talents, double what they were given. Double what they were blessed with. And the master is pleased with them. But notice in Matthew chapter 25, as we key in on this last servant. This servant who was given but one talent. In verse 24, he also who had received the one talent came forward and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man. Reaping where you do not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. Verse 30, and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The one talent man was different from the five and the two talent men. And he says his actions were governed, or excuse me, his inaction was governed because he was afraid. Did he have a reason to be afraid of this master? It sure seems so, because what was the result of his paralysis of analysis? Verse 30 says he was cast into the outer darkness.

His one talent was stripped from him. Physically, spiritually, the moral of the story is the same. Is there reason to be afraid of what God will do to us when we sin? Yes. The wages of sin is death. But we have to trust that God not only will judge those who are wicked, but that he will redeem those who faithfully are righteous. We’re not faithful, we’re not righteous on our own on an island. Not only do we need other people, we need God to lift us up out of our mess. Fear keeps us from running to and embracing God. Fear keeps us looking at the here and now instead of the hereafter. And perhaps it’s no surprise then that in Colossians chapter 3, we are to set our minds on things above, not on the earth.

Conclusion

And so as we consider how can we overcome fear, we have to acknowledge fear lacks trust in God. You may remember Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus is walking on the water to the apostles, and they are absolutely terrified. They said, It’s a ghost. It’s walking on water, it’s approaching them. But one disciple who we blame as the goat of the story. That’s Peter. He actually gets out of the boat. Before he gets out, he says, Jesus, if you call to me, I know I can come. And Jesus says, Come. And Peter gets out and begins to walk on the water, but then the text says the storms came. The winds came. And Peter took his eyes off Jesus. We have to acknowledge that the problem with fear isn’t that it’s a human emotion or a human problem.

It is. It’s that fear, like Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, has a faith problem. Peter, when he took his eyes off of Jesus, fell, because Jesus was the only thing keeping him afloat. And when we focus on this world and its riches and its glory and the fame and pomp and circumstance we think we can enjoy here and have taken our eyes off of Jesus, we are taking our eyes off of the only thing giving us hope in the first place. We have to acknowledge that Jesus and his Father are the only ones worth pursuing. And so as we think about Isaiah 43, as we conclude the lesson, I want to make three incredibly quick points in Isaiah chapter 43. Please turn there with me.

We have to always remember God’s message to Israel. As Isaiah is prophesying centuries after several of the stories we’ve examined this morning. In Isaiah 43, as the reading went this morning, one and two, but now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you. And skip down with me to verse 10. He tells the Israelites, You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He.

Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. We need to realize in our time of fear who God is. God is the one, verse 1 and 2, who made not just Israel, not just even Judah, if you were to separate them. God is the one who made us all. He made this world, he made those things that are good in this life, meant to be enjoyed in a particular way. But most importantly, he made me, and he deserves my everything. If I remember who God is, that he is the creator of everything, that I owe him everything, I will be remembering what God has done. That he has redeemed me as a Christian.

You think back to the moment your sins were forgiven. And say to yourself, thank you to God for redeeming me. Praise be to God, because he forgave me of my sin, allowed me to overcome fear, and to even overcome most importantly, that thing Abraham was afraid of at the very beginning of our lesson this morning death. Jesus defeated death so that we might live. God has done that. What have I to fear if God created everything? God created me, and he’s even redeemed me from the worst problems this life can throw at me, and that is being consumed by sin. Finally, we have to remember always, as Isaiah 43 and verse 5 says, fear not, for I am with you. Fear not, for I am with you.

Don’t be afraid because God knows your circumstances. Don’t be afraid because God has proven he will be there for you. Don’t be afraid. Because God has promised to be with you always. What a blessing to have a God who wants us to embrace the ideology of do not be afraid, for I am with you. Will you go to our God in prayer? Our dear God and most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, thank you for being our immovable God, one who desires that your people trust Him, and that provides great solace, rest, and are a shield to those who walk uprightly. Forgive us of when we fear and make poor choices as a result of our lack of faith. Forgive us of when we sin and when we choose the blessings of this life over true blessings that are found only in your Son.

Thank you for your Son, who proved who he was through many miraculous works, through his teaching, and through his great sacrifice and resurrection. Help us to partake in that resurrection, to remember it always, to know that with you we can be redeemed, and by you we are redeemed. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your word, and thank you for your son. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.