1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock
and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 2nd
Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 10:5, 21-33, and is entitled, “To Fear or Not to Fear, that is the
Question.” Dear brothers and sisters
in Christ.
2.
Did
you know that the number-one reason for sickness and disease in America today
is stress? That the number-one reason for prescribed medications is anxiety?
That stress and anxiety lead to more doctor's office visits than anything else?
Stress is literally killing us. Stress
& fear are everywhere. It’s the pattern of the world we live in. In Romans 12: 2, Paul writes, "Do not conform to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Being transformed and having renewed
minds means we think differently than the world thinks, especially as it
relates to the things that cause stress—worry, anxiety, and fear. All of these
are related.
3.
Fear is a negative emotion
caused by a real or perceived threat to our well-being. Anxiety is
being nervous about an event, person, or problem we can't control. Worry is
to dwell mentally on a difficulty or trouble with chronic concern. Worry can turn into anxiety. Anxiety can turn
into fear. They're all the same emotion, just at different levels. But in
Scripture, we're commanded not to fear, not to be anxious, and not to worry. "Do
not fear, for I am with you," the Lord said in Isaiah 41:10. In
fact, do not fear or fear not is the most
common command in the Bible. "Do not worry about your life,"
Jesus said in Matthew 6:25. "Do not be anxious about
anything," Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6. The root of all fear and anxiety and worry is
an orphan spirit—it means we don't know or trust that we have a Heavenly Father
who cares for us and provides for all of our needs of body and soul.
4.
In Matthew 10:5, 21–33
this is what is recorded for us, “5These
twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and
enter no town of the Samaritans, 21“Brother will deliver brother over to death,
and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them
put to death, 22and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one
who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town,
flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all
the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a
servant above his master. 25It is enough for the disciple to be like his
teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the
house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. 26“So have no fear of them, for nothing is
covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27What I
tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim
on the housetops. 28And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from
your Father. 30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear not,
therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32So everyone who
acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in
heaven, 33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father
who is in heaven.”
5.
You
can see easily enough why Jesus needed to tell his disciples not to be afraid,
at this point in his instructions to them. After all, he’s warned them that the
authorities will be after them. That
they will suffer physical and emotional violence. And, that people will start calling them the
sort of names they have already begun to call Jesus. Plenty to be afraid of
there! And yet Jesus says, Don’t be
afraid.
6.
Why
not? What reason does Jesus give? Because,
the enemies of Christ can persecute us only within limits that God establishes.
Since Jesus is in charge of our lives, we don’t need to be afraid of those who
oppose us on account of confessing Jesus as our Savior from sin, death, and the
power of the devil. So we may boldly proclaim the truth of God’s Holy Word and
His Son Jesus Christ. We can shout it from the housetops Our Lord will
recognize our faithful service to him and his kingdom, and on the Day of
Judgment he will acknowledge our works of service before all people. At the
same time, those who have rejected the saving gospel of Jesus in His cross and
resurrection from the dead will be publicly revealed as being without excuse
for their unbelief.
7.
Jesus
tells us that the enemies of the Gospel of Christ, even Satan, can do no more
than kill our bodies. So it’s foolish to
be concerned about escaping from our earthly persecutors and allowing them to
intimidate us. We rather want to be concerned about how we stand before our holy
God, for he’s the only one who can cast both soul and body into hell. He’s our
judge, not Satan, and he assures us that he has prepared a place for us in
heaven. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, promises us that no one will be able to pluck
us out of his hand.
8.
But
if we are to learn not to be afraid of our persecutors and those who can harm
our bodies, we must also learn that there is one who deserves fear, even though
this warning (verse 28) is then balanced again by a further ‘don’t be afraid’ in verse 31. Why would Jesus tell his followers not to be
afraid, then to be afraid, then not to be afraid again? To fear or not to fear, that is the question.
9.
Jesus
believed that Israel was faced in his day by enemies at two different levels.
There were the obvious ones: Rome, Herod, and their underlings. They were the
ones who had the power to kill the body. But there were other, darker enemies,
who had the power to kill the soul as well: enemies who were battling for that
soul even now, during Jesus’ ministry, and who were using the more obvious
enemies as a cover. The powers of Satan and hell that are greedy for the soul
of God’s people. The devil wants to lead us away from the good news of Jesus as
our Lord and Savior. He wants to keep us
away from God’s Word and Sacraments that keep us and sustain us in the
Christian faith. The devil wants us to
think that we’re spiritual orphans who don’t have a Heavenly Father who loves
and cares for us in all our needs of body and soul. Satan wants to leave us in the pit of despair
and worry and to forget about Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
10.
But
at the same time, to balance that fear, we have one of Jesus’ greatest promises
about the love of God, not only for every one of his creatures, but for every
hair on their heads. Jesus directs our
attention to some ordinary birds to assure us of God’s care. He reminds us that
God, who created the sparrows also watches over them, and not one of them falls
to the ground unless he allows it. In a
similar way, God watches over all his creatures. And, every human being is much
more precious in God’s sight than any animal, for people have immortal souls. Could
God possibly forget about all of you, who are his dear children through faith
in Christ? That’s unthinkable? God is so concerned about our welfare that he
even knows how many hairs each of us has on his head, and if one falls out, he
knows which one it was. Absolutely nothing is beyond his power to control. We’re
safe in his hands.
11.
We
must remember that God's love for us is stronger than our love for our own
children and other family members. Our Heavenly Father knows everything we're
facing, every circumstance in our lives.
In Matthew 10 Jesus reminds us that the way we overcome worry and
anxiety is by focusing on Him. We need
to keep our eye on Jesus our Lord and Savior or worry will rob us of our joy.
12.
We
overcome worry and fear by treating worry and anxiety as an enemy. We don't
indulge these emotions, but we get rid of them by focusing on God’s care for us
through His Son our Savior Jesus Christ. One way to do so is to turn every
anxious and worrisome thought into a prayer.
Are you anxious about something? Pray about it. In Paul's words, "present your requests to God"
(Philippians 4:6). Then, by faith,
believe and confess that God is our loving Father who cares for us and has sent
His Son Jesus to die for us on the cross in order to forgive us our sins and
give to us eternal life. God holds us in
His hands and is the answer to our every problem. With Him, we don't have to fear. Amen.
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