Life of Christ #13 – Fear Not: Following Jesus Without Fear

It’s hard for any of us to be socially rejected. It’s even more difficult to be socially rejected based on being a son of the devil. It is even more difficult when you realize that’s going to happen all the time, and it is going to be so intense, so very intense. By the way, I want to tell you there are certain words used to persecute. There are, I’m going to repeat that, words of persecution. There are fair words. I want to list them for you. Have I already done this before? Heretic. Deceived. Deluded. A servant of the devil, or satanic. Not only heretic, but heresy, false prophet, deception, and then there are the lesser words: arrogant, not humble, and prideful. I think that’s about it; those are the words. Oh yes, thank you: cultish and sometimes hypocritical, which will often come in another place, but hypocrite will probably get in there too. Actually, being called a hypocrite is calm compared to being called the son of the devil; a hypocrite’s at least a Christian putting on, but there’s no hope for the Son of the devil (laughter). All of these point to clear deception.

I want to say this to everyone listening. I will implore you to vow that, as long as you live, you will never call another person a servant of the devil or say that something is of the devil. Now, if it is proclaimed to be satanic, that is a different matter, but aside from that, just don’t. If someone says he is of the devil, that’s a different matter, but if our own Father has been called, and His works have been called, of the devil, the very creator of heaven and earth, obviously a lot of men have misunderstood a lot of things about God. Brothers and sisters, don’t do it. Just don’t ever do it.

I think here is one of the calls to be sheep. The Father called the Son to be a sheep, knowing the Son would be devoured. In that context, I want you to hear Him say to His followers, “You’re not above me; you’ve got to be called this, and you’re going to be devoured.” I love this statement, but let’s hear it first from the Father to the Son. You are not greater than I am, Son; You are My servant; You are not My head. It is enough that You be like Me; it is enough that You serve Me, and as a Servant, be like Me and become like Me on this earth. You are My Son; You are not My Father. It is enough that You are My image, that You are likened to Me. The Father has said this to One who has been commissioned to go to the earth as a sheep to wolves; they’ve called Me this, My Son; they will call You even more so. It is enough that You have the privilege of being likened to Me. That’s reward enough, or simply enough to remember. Do not try to rise above Me. Do not try to get out from under these things. Do not try to be better. It is enough, Son, to be as Your Father.

Now, the Son has turned around and proclaimed that statement to those following Him. You cannot be greater than Me. You cannot expect this to happen to you less; don’t expect it to happen more. Here is your contentment: being My disciple is enough; it is enough that you be like Me. I have been devoured; I have been persecuted. You will be like Me. I am the Son of God; you will be like Me. I am the Master; you are My servant. You will become like Me by having been associated with Me; that’s all you need. Be content with that; be content with nothing else when it happens to you, and it will. Be content to know that the servant has the privilege to be like the master.

His final conclusion is that you’re going to get called this, and it’s going to be done to you twelve more than it was done to Me, the Lord Jesus. So the twelve are sitting there realizing that 12 times one is 12, and between the 12 of them, they’re going to get called this more than He. I really believe that because each of us, as a disciple, is a little weaker than our master. Does that make sense to you? There are exceptions: Ronald Reagan goes to Saudi Arabia, and he gets called the devil himself – well, no, the son of the devil. What if the secretary of state goes? I don’t know what they’d call him…the father of the devil. So it seems the disciples will catch it more than the master, and the master might catch it more than the Father, a little bit of the pecking order, perhaps.

Now, the most mind-boggling and difficult words in this whole passage for me to understand are the next words: “for this reason,” and I kept asking the Lord, for what reason? For this reason, fear not. I haven’t found a reason here to “fear not,” and I continue looking. What are you talking about, Lord? For what reason do I therefore fear not? I think the reason has already been given to me. For this reason, fear not. Now, the rest of this passage really tells me something. Tells me something about myself. It tells me something about the disciples, and maybe something about my Lord.

What happens to a man who serves another when he is persecuted? What happens to a man when he serves another and is persecuted for having served? I know the answer to that, because I’ve had the privilege of feeling it. Do you know what it is? It’s really simple. You start watering down what you say. I want to repeat that, brothers, because this is where it starts getting serious. I said to you, you may not know where he’s headed; this is where he’s headed.

This is as inevitable as it can be, and I wish I could gather all the Christian workers outside the religious system when they were young men and say to them, the first time somebody calls you the son of the devil, you’re going to find things out about yourself you never believed. One thing you’ll discover is that, in your inner relationship with whoever’s calling you that, you’ll start backtracking and watering down what you say. The next time you get up to speak in another situation, you’ll watch your words, because the last time you spoke that way, you got in trouble.

Brothers, if you can identify with that, I am encouraged. If you cannot, then at least remember this all the days of your life. The disciple will tend to water down his boldness. The Lord said, “For this reason you should fear them not.” Does this mean that my Lord Jesus Christ, the first few times He caught it, sensed fear and a desire to be a peacemaker over that which His Father sent Him to do? I don’t know the answer, and I doubt I will in this lifetime, but somebody in the Godhead had enough wisdom to pass that word on to us. I think the Lord did it the first time He was human, the first time this happened to Him. We all have this drive, this need to be accepted. I know young workers; we dream of getting up there and being bold. We don’t dream that somebody’s going to come up afterward and confront you.

Now, brothers, may I be personal with you for just a minute? I’ve never been able to express this well to young men. When a young brother says he’s been called to the Lord, he’s been asked to do something, and he comes back later and says, “That can’t be done because…” He sees me getting very frustrated, maybe even a little hot under the collar, and I tell him to go back and try again. I tell him, “Don’t ever give up so easily.” He doesn’t understand why. I try to tell him, sometimes I’ll pursue something for a month, a year, maybe two or three years before I get it resolved, but I never let go. I say to him, “Push…struggle with this thing. Think. Try to resolve it.” He doesn’t understand why. The reason is, if he gives up so quickly over a little thing, what on earth will he do when the whole roof caves in?

I don’t know if I’m communicating. I gave young brothers a really hard time over this, when I heard a brother say, ” Well, we called, and they said that wouldn’t work.” “Who did you call?” ” Well, I called that man who really knows an awful lot about the subject.” I said, “Did you meet him?” No. “Did you call four other people?” No. I know if I get on the phone, I can find ten other answers. We couldn’t get that car fixed without this or that because the man just really knew what he was doing. We’re going to have to junk it; you have to junk the car because of one phone call from somebody who’s never seen the car, but he’s giving you his opinion. I could go on for hours and hours. What will that brother do when he stands up to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and gets devoured? The answer is simple. He will start compromising his words and his work, reducing them to the lowest possible minimum. He’ll get it down to a non-controversial level, because it’s the only place he can live.

Am I off the subject? Maybe I am? Sorry. I don’t think we should be bragging about not being afraid, but God is running short of men who aren’t afraid. For this reason, fear not. When the pressure builds, fear not. Don’t back up. Don’t compromise. Don’t mince your words and don’t lower your standards to have the approval of people who call you the son of the devil or the prince of demons. Just stand there…and proclaim… Okay, now then, I’m going to get into this, and this is anybody’s interpretation, but here’s mine. What you are about to water down will be proclaimed. So don’t water it down, because it’s going to be said; somebody’s going to say it.