Jesus Clearly Saw The Future, And Said, "Fear Not"

What Did Jesus Do?

“Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14.27


Fear of the unknown can trouble even the stoutest hearts. And few things are more unknowable than the future. “What if...” can start our minds to worrying and our hearts to fearing what could happen later today, what might happen tomorrow, what there's a chance of happening next month. Jesus, knowing both what the future held and how vulnerable his disciples' hearts were to fear of the unknown, looked at and clearly saw a frightening future and said, “Fear not.”

Some, armed with half knowledge, which is to say they are quite familiar with the heart's fear of the unknown but absolutely in the dark about the future, have found that it can be profitable to exploit fear. I am sure you've heard all about the “seer” in California who has filched millions from the fearful with his proclamations about the rapture and end of the world. In marked contrast, Jesus, who wanted his disciples to be unafraid, asked nothing of his followers, but rather offered them much.

First of all, Jesus offered the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to take his place as Teacher, and to serve as a memory aid to help his disciples recall all his words (John 14.26). To avoid any possibility of the unknown causing anxious worry to paralyze his followers, Jesus promised us that we would have the direct assistance of the Spirit who possesses all knowledge of past, present, and future.

Jesus also gave his followers his peace, the fullness of his shalom (John 14.27). Note that I said fullness. While the world may think of peace in terms of the absence of conflict and war, Christ's peace is the positive, confident, assured, certain hope of a heart and the mind filled with the knowledge and love of the Father, and of the Son.

What Jesus wanted his disciples to understand and celebrate was not that he would soon be leaving them, but that he was about to go to the Father, who was even greater than he (John 14.28). The future was not about parting, but about coming together, and being together forever (see John 14.2-3).

Having several times spoken with his disciples about his approaching death, and his resurrection (see John 12.32; also Luke 9.21-22, 43-45; 18.31-34), Jesus again spoke of what would soon occur so that, when it was fulfilled, his followers would believe (John 14.29). It amazes me how Harold Camping, whose “prophecies” have consistently proven false, can still have anyone who gives him any credence. Fear, which again Camping and his ilk play upon to his great profit, makes not only cowards, but apparently fools as well. Jesus would not have us be fearful or foolish, but faithful.

Finally, Jesus wanted those whom he loved to know for a certainty who was in control. For, though it might soon appear to the disciples as if the devil was exercising his power in the world and even over Jesus, the Son obeyed no authority but that of the Father alone, who was and is absolutely sovereign over all (John 14.30-31). Chapter 14 begins and ends with Jesus offering his followers hope and peace in the place of fear, through faith in the Father and the Son.

Christ's disciples have a responsibility to be, well, responsible. We are not to play upon people's anxieties and their fear of the unknown, but rather to share with them our hope and our peace in the sure and certain knowledge of the Father and the Son, knowledge which the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, conveys from the hearts of those who believe to the hearts of those being saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4