Dear friends, welcome back to our last lesson on “Coming to the Cross” in times of fear and anxiety.
It has been a joy to study through these scriptural lessons with you! We have trusted in God for our freedom from needless and distressing fears by learning to come and stand in faith on the crimson and holy ground of the cross, immersed in Jesus’ powerful shed blood. Here we see Jesus has courageously fought for us until death, protecting us, holding back our enemies, and walking ahead of us in triumph to secure our justification and eternal refuge resting in Him:
“Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne,
From death into life He went for His own;
All power in earth, all power above,
Is given to Him for the flock of His love.”
https://hymnary.org/text/fear_not_little_flock_from_the_cross_to_
I have been praying for you each day, that by seeing the depth of God’s powerful love, you have been drawn as I have:
Away from our false refuges of anxious self-protection and self-absorption to come to the cross where “under his wings, you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4).
Away from micromanaging our worried self-conversations, but rather coming to receive life in God-conversations based on His word and gospel promises (Romans 12:2), daily feeding on Jesus, “the living bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:51).
Away from relying on short-term behavioral distractions or indulging in worldly pleasures to manage our anxious struggles, but instead walking in the transforming truth of Jesus’ astounding gospel gift to believers of a new forgiven and holy heart indwelt by a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).
Away from the apprehensive hypervigilance of people and situations around us, but rather “Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect.” (Hebrews 12:2 NCV).
Away from clinging to the frightening roller coaster ride of waiting to find fleshly hope in our circumstances, but instead falling in love all over again with our Lord and Savior, our living hope, and considering the beautiful face of Jesus shining on you, being gracious to you, and giving you peace in the midst of struggles (Numbers 6:25-26).
“He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” 1 Peter 1:3-4
Seeing the gospel in scripture
Let’s listen in to some of the conversations of those who watched Jesus closely at the end of His earthly life. They saw His death at Calvary in so many ways with either disinterest, repulsion, ridicule, awe or with overwhelming sorrow. They stayed at the tomb in mourning or were those who ordered people to stay away from it. They gaped in worshipful amazement or unbelief upon seeing an empty grave. Every person present was undoubtedly affected by fear but the state of their softened or hardened hearts determined their responses to move towards or away from believing in this amazing Jesus.
I see myself in many of these reactions over my lifetime as a non-believer, as a brand-new believer, as a nominal Christian trapped in fearful sin struggles later on, and now as a believer who is being undeservedly transformed in her heart through the sanctifying gospel of Christ.
Would you also reflect on your reactions?
The gospel is not a generic, ‘one size fits all’ message. It speaks to each one of us personally, lovingly and specifically.
At the crucifixion site dreadfully called the Place of the Skull, we read in Matthew 27 that the chief priests, scribes, elders, the passers-by, and the two criminals being crucified beside Him tore Jesus’ claims to shreds as He died slowly in front of them:
“And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.” Matthew 27:39-44
In their eyes, death was not the answer they were looking for to show them that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Jesus coming down from the cross would be their fleshly solution to showcase His glory and the sort of Messiah they were looking for.
They believed that an appalling death accomplished nothing, death was no deliverance, death was the end of everything. Is this you, dear friend? Look higher, away from the seen things of our earthly lives (2 Corinthians 4:18). Jesus is performing a miracle for you before your eyes at Calvary!
Jesus kept His focus on surrendering to the will of His Father to rescue us with unsurpassed love. He stayed on the cross as His organs shut down one by one, as His blood poured from hundreds of body wounds, as His breathing became labored and His vision contracted to a pinpoint with lack of oxygen. What one single clear thing did Jesus see? Incredibly, the joy that lay ahead of Him in bringing His loved ones to sit with Him at His Own place of honor at His Father’s right hand (Hebrews 12:2). He covered us with even more mercy, not remembering the sins we have done and bequeathed us a heavenly inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:3-4). What love is this!
Nearby, there were others, mourning, praying, and loving in tears. Do you stand beside them?
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” John 19:25-27
And there was another, a rich, good, and righteous man named Joseph of Arimathea who stood apart from his fellow members of the council, in disagreeing with their sentence of death for Jesus. However, he was “looking for the kingdom of God” (Luke 23:51). He clearly wanted more from God beyond his morally good and dutiful actions and he felt guilty in his heart. Does this ring true for you, friend, as it did for me for so many years: “I want more of God, this feeling of fearful guilt is overpowering me, but I can’t get there by myself?”
The centurion was also there standing at the foot of the cross and saw how Jesus died, exclaiming with awe: “Surely this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39) and one of the crucified criminals cried out with repentance: “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” (Luke 23:41). Do you relate to the humble heart cries of these two men?
Losing courage and bewildered? Come and see the death of Jesus!
The answers for our desire to grow spiritually and to experience brave lives in Christ lie in believing that Jesus’ death was the beginning of our new lives!
Our old lives were crucified and we now consider our ‘old man’ of flesh, totally dead to sin, dead to worshipping the wisdom of the world, dead to guilt, and ‘stone cold’ dead to the oppressive slavery of fear, anxiety and worries!
Hear the pounding of the hammer at Calvary through Jesus outstretched arms and legs putting an end to our former guilt-ridden lives weighted down with fear and condemnation. Hear Jesus speaking to you: “It is finished” (John 19:30) once and for all. See the soldier’s spear that was plunged deep through the heart of Jesus.
Friend, delight in the wonderful and uplifting past tense found in these verses of our former lives and who we are now, with emphasis added. Jesus’ work has been completed and now we put faith that it has been done!:
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV
“You, who were spiritually dead because of your sins and your uncircumcision (i.e. the fact that you were outside the Law), God has now made to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross.” Colossians 2:12 Phillips
We are now set free and receive God’s everlasting gift of grace! By dying in our place, Jesus’ death paid the price (Matthew 20:28) to deliver us from the slavery to and power of sin (1 Peter 1:18-19), the guilt of our sin (Romans 3:24), and the curse of the law that bound us up in despair, never being able to reach its impossible standards (Galatians 3:13-14). Fear is overcome when we see slavery broken!
We receive God’s righteousness and warm favor now because Jesus removed His wrath from us. Fretful anxiety cannot exist in a sea of acceptance!
Jesus defeated the power of the evil one (Colossians 3:15) and now we resist the devil and he flees from us (James 4:7). By being “pierced through for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5-6), Christ removed Satan’s only weapon of accusing us of unforgiven sin. We now have the power to say no to mindsets of constant worry.
We have been reconciled to eternal fellowship with our Father (Romans 5:10-11). Because by His death, Jesus took our alienation and separation from God onto Himself. Fearfulness scurries away when we are held in sweet intimacy in Christ.
Question 1: What are your thoughts about this comment as you draw near to the end of this course? “For believers, Jesus’ death was the beginning of our new life! Our old lives were crucified and we now see ourselves totally dead to our sin, dead to worshipping the wisdom of the world, dead to guilt, and ‘stone cold’ dead to the oppressive slavery to fear, anxiety and worries.”
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Perplexed and uncertain? Come and see the stone has rolled away!
Joseph of Arimathea obtained permission to lift down the corpse of Jesus from the cross and hastily prepared the body with spices and a linen shroud before the start of the Sabbath day, placing the body in a new grave cut into the rock. The next morning Mary Magdalene and some of the women went to the tomb:
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.” Luke 24:1-4
They found the stone rolled back from the tomb, the body of Jesus was nowhere to be seen, and angels stood by and watched them! Mary Magdalene was singled out to be the first person to see inside Jesus’ empty tomb (John 20:1). It touches my heart deeply to see His compassionate grace revealing His glorious resurrection for the very first time to a woman who had been delivered of 7 demons and from a lifetime of fear and mental pain. Jesus had also revealed Himself as the Son of God before anyone else to a Samaritan woman at the well who had many husbands. Her heart of rejection and emptiness was healed and overpowered by a glorious love encounter with Jesus (John 4:1-42) as He does with us.
We can certainly relate to the women’s uncertainty and bewilderment when faced with a situation that made no sense, their anxious minds processing hundreds of possibilities with none of them ringing true.
We have also walked into inexplicable and frightening situations when our old selves deceived us into uncertainty about whether there are giants ahead about to devour us as in the case of the spies in Canaan (Numbers 13:32), or the glint of Goliath’s mighty sword blinding our way (1 Samuel 21:9) or becoming frozen in terror by the ferocious gleam in the eyes of lions in the den with Daniel (Daniel 6:16).
But when the women looked into the empty grave, there was not a dead body to be found! For us when we look into the grave of Jesus, we find our uncourageous old selves there crucified and buried! This is the truth we need to see and hold onto each day.
When we turn to Jesus, we are steadied by knowing He stands beside us with the same resurrecting power that exposed the darkness of our enemies in His Light and then slayed each fearful one at the cross. God led the Israelites into the Promised Land and the way has been opened for us to walk through. God defeated Goliath giving faith to a young shepherd and we can also look around and see a victorious battlefield in all directions. God shut the mouths of Daniel’s lions and God has drawn out the sting of all the powers that try to intimidate us.
“And then having drawn the sting of all the powers ranged against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act!” Colossians 2:12 Phillips
Frightened and overwhelmed? Come and hear that Jesus has died and risen as He promised!
“And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Luke 24:5-7
The angels astounded the women with the knowledge that Jesus was not there in the tomb but had risen from the dead. They challenged the women to not seek the living among the dead, not searching for Jesus in a place of lifelessness. What amazing truth this is to encourage us not to look for ways of overcoming our fears “among the dead” (Luke 24:5), not in our old buried selves, nor by our own wisdom or following a set of instructions or rules to try to lift our hearts. We now act according to our new natures with our feet upon the steady Rock of Jesus, empowered and joyful in Jesus.
Then they strengthened the women by asking them to recall the promise of Jesus that He would be crucified unto death and rise again on the third day. “Remember how he told you…” Luke 24:6. His resurrection showed us that He would do what He said He would do!
Question 2: Would you share a gospel promise that has strengthened your heart and describe how you applied it to your life?
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