Fear of Death, Hindering Revival
Introduction
This teaching is a response to a wonderful event last week when over a thousand believers gathered together in unity to hear powerful teaching, inspired praying, and join in rousing praise to the Lord. Yet, as one who sometimes feels like the faithful Micaiah before the unrighteous king, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” (1 Ki 22:16), I must utter what I see from the Lord, and not as man sees, but “look on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). Whilst there was a tremendous and authentic passionate upwelling in the Spirit/spirits of the massed assembly before Jesus, particularly among younger people, nevertheless I could discern a major underlying problem manifesting itself. This has long set a threshold against the work of “the eternal Spirit” (Heb 9:14 cf. Rom 12:1-2) in glorifying the offering of Jesus in the midst of his Church in Perth. The snare of “the fear of man” (Prov 29:25) always paralyses obedience to the kingdom vision of the Lord. To put the matter bluntly and concisely, fear of death hinders revival.
A Personal Testimony
In my late teens I was regularly distressed by skin problems and chest pains. Both specialists consulted authoritatively decreed, “Its psychosomatic!”. Without any suggested psychological counselling I became increasingly paranoid. Living in daily dread of people I couldn’t walk down a public street, I was daily depressed and in a bad way. Then at 21 I met Jesus and everything began to be moved at the foundation of my humanity (1 Cor 3:10). The Spirit was only at the beginning of his sanctifying work. Since then I have on two occasions realistically faced the prospect of premature death. A few months after coming to Christ I was swimming off Emu Bay Kangaroo Island (S. Australia) and was carried out to sea by a powerful rip. Weak and drowning I believed my life was over, I was swallowing much water and I’d been under twice, but paradoxically found myself praying with Jesus, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). Then someone swam out to rescue me. (Though I later suffered from extreme hypoxia.) I am very clear today that this was an experience of fear-and-deliverance (cf. 2 Cor 1:8-11) arranged by sovereign grace. Then about 15 years later I was snorkelling against the current off Ningaloo Reef on the way back to shore with my youngest son when I lost a flipper. What most concerned me then wasn’t the felt likelihood of perishing but that my impending drowning would be a tragedy for our household. Today I have little doubt that until my time comes to leave the body and be with Jesus (2 Cor 5:8) my obedience to God’s commands will not be seriously interrupted by fear. This is NOT the situation for the Church in Perth simply because we lack the revelation of all that is meant by “the glory of God in the cross of Christ” (Gal 6:14).
The Fear of the Cross
All personal issues are resolved in the dying of Jesus. Martin Luther, living daily under papal excommunication and the threat of being burnt alive, like his predecessor John Hus, had profound insights into Christ crucified. Meditating on the agonies of Gethsemane where Jesus was in mortal peril, ““My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt 26:38), the pioneering Reformer said of the impending crisis in Christ’s life, “no man feared like this man”. This has to be true, otherwise, Jesus, “in his loud cries and tears” in the Garden, could not “be heard because of his reverent submission” (Heb 5:7 cf. 2 Chron 7:14) nor made perfect through his suffering. Agonising as this was, the pains of Jesus were not yet “perfected in the fear of the Lord “ (2 Cor 7:1) by the climax of the cross. Hence the dreadful cry of dereliction, “And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:33-34). The Spirit which offered Jesus up on the cross (Heb 9:14) keeps increasing my revelation of this holy act. Recently the Lord told me that his time in the “outer darkness” (Matt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30) was an immersion into the Ichabod condition = “the glory has departed” (1 Sam 4:21) of lost humanity. For when Adam, as God’s first-born human son (Luke 3:38), rejected God’s Word, he stripped off the all-protective presence of “Holy Father” (John 17:11) and became cloaked with the devil’s own terrors of condemnation (John 8:44; 1 Tim 3:6 )
Wisdom Old and New
Jesus said, “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matt 13:52). In the old classic, Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill remarks, “He who fears God fears no man….When believers lacking births become burdened, and when soul-sterility sickens us, then we will pulsate with holy fear, and pray with holy fervor, and pro-duce with holy fertility…the price of revival is ever the same-travail.” More concisely, the same truth was penned by the father of English speaking revivals, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, ….whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” (John Wesley). Few pastors expound fear with authority because of their lack of personal revelation. Paul, with many such encounters, “exposed to death again and again” (2 Cor 11:23), sees death as an unrighteous tyrant, “Yet death reigned/ruled/exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Rom 5:14). My mother blurted out these ever-true words at my dad’s funeral from heart attack, “It’s not fair!”. Only Jesus has the power to dethrone him who has “the power of death…the devil” (Heb 2:14). Christ’s indwelling presence expels the fear of death through the “power of the new affection” (Thomas Chalmers). John testified boldly, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:17-18). Today we are subject to well-meaning brothers and sisters whose smiles and performances cannot move us into the brokenness that precipitates a long lasting move of the Spirit of God but reduce us to “happy clappies”!
Conclusion
With the glorified Son of God indwelling you, you can no more be subject to a “wrathful Father” than can Christ who rules over all (Acts 10:36). The testimony of scripture is clear: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world….By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he/Jesus is so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:4,17). The devil fears your exposure of his deceptions more (James 2:19) than you will ever need to fear Fallen humanity. Be encouraged, for the Spirit of the Lord is about to turn the tables in Perth. My generation faced likely nuclear annihilation, listen to “The Eve of Destruction” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfZVu0alU0I), but the Lord simultaneously raised up the Jesus Movement ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement). Today, young people are exposed to ideologies of global warming (https://www.thegwpf.org/climate-catastrophism-and-the-grip-of-culture/) that induce social anxieties warning that without urgent action the planet faces inevitable human-made catastrophes. In the mix of all this turmoil we will soon see a surge of youngsters moved by the Spirit to offer themselves as global missionaries and no fear of consequences shall stop them. This is what we long and pray for. The holy apostles send us these sober words, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!… “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20)