Fear Not!

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Revelation 1:17-18

Fear not! That is the message the Lord Jesus Christ is giving us in this passage. I know of two reasons not to fear today: one is superficial and the other is substantial. The superficial reason for us not to fear is because the tax day is tomorrow, not today! And, in fact, if you are a resident of Massachusetts, the tax day is Tuesday!

But we are interested in the substantial reason that is given in the first chapter of the last book of the Bible. The message from our Lord Jesus Christ to his church this Easter morning is “Fear not!” “Fear not death or demons,” Jesus is telling us. “Fear not the present or the future. Fear not the world. Fear not the devil. Fear not anything else in all of creation.” This is the message the apostle John received from the risen Christ on the Lord’s Day on the island of Patmos around 95 A.D. He was sent there as we are told in Revelation 1:9, “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

Why was John on the island of Patmos? From around A.D. 60 on, for two hundred and fifty years, Christianity was an illegal religion in the eyes of Rome. One emperor in particular, Caesar Domitian, desired to be called Dominus et Deus and to be worshiped as God. Throughout the province of Asia people showed great interest in such emperor worship.

But Christians refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God because to them Jesus Christ alone was Dominus et Deus, Lord and God. Thus, it is possible that Asian governors wanted to shut up the word of God and the testimony of Jesus by sending the apostle John from his center of work in Ephesus to the Roman penal colony of Patmos-a small, rocky island off the west coast of Asia Minor. That is why we find John on the island of Patmos on the Lord’s Day, as we read in Revelation 1:10. Probably he was alone, far from the people of his church. Yet he was not alone. The Lord appeared to him in a vision, probably, according to some scholars, on an Easter Sunday during the reign of Domitian, around 95 A.D., and spoke these comforting words to John: “Fear not!”

John and others in the church of Christ had several reasons to fear. As we said, great persecution by Rome was breaking out against the church. In Revelation 2:13 we are told about the death of a Christian named Antipas, a member of the church in Pergamum. The church of Smyrna was also about to enter persecution, according to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 2:10-11. The church of Philadelphia was told in Revelation 3:10 that an hour of trial was going to come upon the whole world in which many Christians would be killed for their faith. We read about such killing in Revelation 6, beginning with verse 9: “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained.”

The church of Jesus Christ faces persecution because the chief desire of the evil trinity of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet is to wipe the church from the face of the earth. Remember how Jesus warned his disciples while he was on earth, saying, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)? Paul said the same thing in Acts 14:22: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” The apostle Peter exhorted his flock, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Satan hates the preaching of the gospel. He hates worship of the triune God. He therefore desires to silence the Christians by intimidation and murder. But the Lord of the church encourages his people, saying, “Fear not! Be bold! Preach the word that liberates sinners from the clutches of Satan. Continue to speak the gospel, which alone is the power of God unto liberation.”

So the message of the entire book of Revelation is found in these two words: Fear not! In the Greek it is mê phobou, stop fearing. This is the revelation of God the Father given to Jesus Christ, who, in turn, gave it to the church through the apostle John. The entire book is designed to give comfort to God’s people. It is an apokalupsis, a revelation, an unveiling, a disclosure of God’s victory over all his enemies. Therefore, this book is to be read aloud and listened to in the church, and its moral instructions are to be kept. There is a blessing attached to the public reading and public hearing of this book because it is the source of God’s comfort to his church undergoing persecution. That is why we are told, “Fear not!” The Lord Jesus Christ will defeat all his enemies and ours.

Reasons to Fear Not

What, then, are the reasons for the church not to fear? The substantial reason, of course, is the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So in Revelation 1:5 we read, “Grace and peace to you from him who is and was and who is to come,” that is, God the Father, “from the seven spirits before his throne,” that is the Holy Spirit, “and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” The first reason we need not fear is that God’s grace is coming to us.

We need grace, which is God’s unmerited favor to us who merited hell and eternal damnation. Because of the grace we have received through Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. We are unafraid because God himself has received us.

Who is this Jesus Christ? We read that he is “the faithful witness,” or martyr-that is the word in the Greek. Refusing to be silenced, Jesus Christ gave witness to his Father, and therefore he was put to death. Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the Prophet, who did not shut up; his testimony is reliable. So Revelation 1:5 is a word of encouragement to us. Just as Jesus Christ was a faithful witness, so also we must be faithful witnesses, continuously testifying to God’s only way of salvation.

So John is telling us, “Fear not, because grace and peace is coming to you from the triune God, and particularly from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.” That is the first reason we need not fear.

Jesus Is Firstborn from the Dead

Second, we are told that Jesus Christ was firstborn from the dead (verse 5). This is speaking about the uniqueness of Christ’s resurrection. He was the first one in the history of the world to rise from the dead with a resurrection body. As the firstborn, he gives the foundation and pattern for the resurrection of all who are united to him in faith. That is why God tells us not to be afraid. Men may kill our bodies, but God is able to raise us up from the dead.

We are told several places in the New Testament that our resurrection is linked to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 we read, “But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” How do we belong to him? By repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. Believers in Christ need not fear death for they know they will be raised from the dead with Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 4:14 we read, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”

Jesus Is Ruler of the Kings of the Earth

The third reason we have for not fearing is that our Lord Jesus Christ is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Church, do you believe that biblical affirmation, that Jesus Christ is not only the head of the church, but also the Ruler of the kings of the earth? He is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe.

In Psalm 2:1-3 we read about what the kings of the earth are doing: “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.'”

Is God threatened by these kings? Not at all. In verse 6 we find his response: “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” You see, all the kings of the earth, all the Caesars and Pharaohs, all the emperors and presidents can gather together and make plans to oppose the Almighty Pantokrator God. But God has an answer to all that rebellion. He has installed his King, his Son, “on Zion,” God’s holy hill.

How did Jesus Christ become ruler of the kings of the earth? By obedience. Satan told Jesus that if he disobeyed God, Satan would make Jesus the ruler of the kings of the earth. But Jesus chose to obey God and say no to Satan. As a result, God made him ruler of the kings of the earth and the head of the church.

In Psalm 2:9 God addresses his Son: “You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” The kings of the earth will be ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ with an inflexible law, an iron scepter. Then God gives some counsel to these kings of the earth in verses 10-12: “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Jesus Christ is the head of the church, but he is also the ruler of the kings of the earth. No wonder this Sovereign Lord speaks to John, and through John, to his church, “Fear not!”

Christ Loves Us

The fourth reason we have to fear not is found at the end of Revelation 1:5, “to him who loves us.” Dr. Tregalles, a great New Testament critic, studied the text of Revelation and discovered that the reading “him who loved us” is not correct, but rather “him who loves us.” Why is that important? Because Christ’s love is present and active. He is always loving us, in other words. He loved us from all eternity, he loves us now, and he will love us tomorrow. Christ’s love is an eternal present; it is everlasting love.

In Ephesians 5:25 we are told that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. So Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Yes, Christ loves the church corporately, but he also loves us individually. In other words, he knows our pain, our agony, and our problems, and he loves us. In Jeremiah 29:11 we read about this great love of God for his people: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” We need not fear because we are loved by God!

Christ Freed Us from Our Sins

The fifth reason we need not fear is that Christ has freed us from our sins. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he said, “Lazarus, come forth!” and he came out of the tomb bound. Then Jesus instructed the onlookers to take the grave clothes off: “Loose him! Let him go!”

In the same way, Jesus has loosed us from the guilt of sin, the wrath of God, and the dominion of sin. He loosed us from the control of Satan, from the fear of the world, and from death and hell. He loosed us! “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” Jesus told us in John 8:36.

Christ Has Made Us Kings and Priests

The sixth reason is that Jesus has made us kings and priests to serve him. There are positive and negative aspects of salvation. Not only did Christ loose us from our guilt, but he also “made us a kingdom and priest to serve his God and Father.”

The idea of kingdom means that Jesus Christ rules us. We are his kingdom. As those who said “Iêsous Kurios,” “Jesus is Lord,” we are the ones who embrace the beneficent rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are those who said, “Lord Jesus, rule us. We are sick and tired of Satan’s rule. Thank you for liberating us from the clutches of Satan and the dominion of sin. O God, please rule us!” In Isaiah 52:7 we read, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.” What is the good news? “Your God reigns!”

But not only does Jesus Christ rule us, but he made us kings also. Additionally, we are told that he made us priests, which means we have intimate fellowship with God. Every believer in Jesus Christ is a priest and a saint.

I was in Rome recently witnessing to a woman who is a Roman Catholic. I told her I think there is some saint inflation today, meaning that this pope has made many people saints. But according to the Bible every believer in Jesus Christ is a saint. Additionally, every believer, both male and female, is a priest who can come before God through Jesus Christ to offer sacrifices of praise and worship. Paul tells us, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). So we are God’s kingdom, we are kings, and we are priests. No wonder the risen Lord tells us, “Fear not!”

Jesus Christ Is Coming Again

The seventh reason we need not fear is found in Revelation 1:7. John writes, “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.”

Jesus Christ is coming again. The Ruler of the kings of the earth is going to come to judge everyone who is opposed to him. This verse tells us he will be coming with clouds, which means that he is God, for the idea of clouds points to the presence of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming personally as the Son of Man. Daniel speaks about this in Daniel 7:13, saying, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.” Jesus himself told the Sanhedrin he was going to come again, saying, “Yes, it is as you say. . . . But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

What is the reason we must not fear? Jesus Christ is coming again. God gave this revelation to his Son, who gave it to John, who gave it to the church for her comfort and encouragement.

What are the characteristics of the second coming of Christ? First, Christ’s coming will be personal, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven.” After Jesus ascended into heaven, the angels told the disciples that Jesus would come back in the same say they saw him go up into heaven (Acts 1:11).

Second, the second coming of Christ will be public. In Revelation 1:7 we read that every eye shall see him. It will not occur in a corner, in other words.

Third, it will be purposeful. When Jesus comes again, he will be coming as the ultimate Prosecutor to judge every person who rebels against his Lordship. So we are told that those who pierced him “will mourn because of him” (Revelation 1:7). In Revelation 16:9, 11, and 21 we find a description of those upon whom God will pour out his judgment. Notice, despite the troubles and problems they are experiencing, these people are not repenting and believing in God; rather, they are cursing him.

When we read that all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, we are not reading about godly repentance. No, these people are mourning because they are experiencing the wrath of him who sits on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb. But we who are in the church are instructed to not be afraid and not to worry because our Lord and Savior is coming to deal with every rebel and save every one of his people.

Christ Is Eternal Lord

The eighth reason not to fear is found in verse 17: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.” What is the reason given here not to fear? It is that Jesus is the First and the Last, meaning that he is the eternal Lord.

We find this phrase also in Isaiah 48:12-13, “Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.”

Fear not! The Lord Jesus Christ is God, the First and the Last, the Creator and Consummator of all things. He is Deity, the Eternal One, the Lord of all history. When John says Jesus is the First and the Last, it means that he controls all things. Thus, we can have perfect confidence that all things will work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose, and nothing in all creation is able to separate us from the love of God. That should be reason enough for us not to fear!

Christ Was Raised from the Dead

In verse 18 Jesus gives us the most important reason not to fear: Christ was raised from the dead. How do we know this statement is true?

1. We have the self-testimony of Jesus. He says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” Jesus is reflecting on his first advent, especially his crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection on the third day. PGM While on earth he predicted that he would be arrested, tried, crucified, and raised up on the third day. At the time he was looking forward to those central redemptive events. But now, from heaven, Christ looks back upon these events and says, “I was dead,” which certainly is a reflection upon his incarnational life on earth. But then he adds, “But I am alive forever and ever.”
2. We have the testimony of the empty tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. The authorities knew the tomb was empty, but they could not produce the body of Jesus and put an end to the public preaching that Jesus was risen from the dead. Instead, they told the soldiers to lie and say that the disciples had stolen the body. If the tomb had not been empty, the disciples could not have preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem.
3. The first witnesses of the resurrection were women. If the disciples had fabricated the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they would not have made women to be the first witnesses of the resurrection because in ancient Judaism women could not testify in a court of law. They could not be witnesses, in other words. In fact, in those days, if you committed a crime that required a witness, and that witness was a woman, you could rejoice, knowing that since you could not be convicted by a woman’s testimony, you would be set free.Women were second-class citizens in ancient times. Just listen to what the Jewish textbooks spoke about women: “Sooner let the word of the Law be burned than delivered to women,” one rabbi wrote. Another said, “Happy is he whose children are male. But unhappy is he whose children are female.” This was the status of women in those times. Thus, if the resurrection account as we read in the New Testament was not true, but the creation of the disciples, women would not have been listed as witnesses, especially as the first witnesses.
4. The gospel accounts are not legends. Generally it takes more than two generations for legends to begin after an event, but the gospel accounts were written within a generation of the events recorded in them. Additionally, there were over five hundred people at one time who saw the risen Christ. How could something be merely a legend with so many eyewitnesses?
5. The disciples of Jesus Christ did not believe in a Messiah who would die. John 12:34 says the Messiah would live forever. This was the mindset of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Why, then, would they speak of a Messiah who would die on the cross unless it had really happened?
6. The disciples did not expect or believe in the resurrection of any individual within time. The disciples believed in the resurrection of the righteous at the end of time. Martha, the sister of Lazarus, expressed this eschatological hope in John 11:23-24. “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'”So the Jews, especially the Pharisees, believed in resurrection, but they did not believe that it was going to take place in history, and they did not believe that one individual could be raised up in time and history before anyone else. They believed there would be resurrection only at the end of time. This is why, when Jesus spoke about his own resurrection, his disciples did not understand what he was teaching them. When Jesus died on the cross, the disciples did not expect him to be raised from the dead. That is another reason the gospel accounts are accurate, for they certainly do not reflect the preconceptions of the disciples of Jesus Christ, but merely report the truth as it happened.
7. James believed in the resurrection of Christ. Another argument for the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that the brother of Jesus, James, believed in it. Remember James? Initially, he was an unbeliever, as we read in John 7:5. Eventually, though, he came to believe in Jesus Christ, became the leader of the Jerusalem church, and was killed as a Christian in A.D. 60. The skeptical New Testament critic Hans Grass says this: “The conversion of James is one of the surest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
8. Saul of Tarsus, chief prosecutor of Christians, believed in the resurrection. After Jesus’ was crucified, the brilliant Saul believed the lie that the disciples stole away the body of Jesus Christ. Authorized by the Sanhedrin, he went about from synagogue to synagogue, even to foreign cities, to drag out Christians and punish them for their faith in Christ. Yet after this brilliant man met Christ on the road to Damascus, he was convinced that Jesus was indeed risen, and became a martyr for this truth. The Sanhedrin was stunned when its official investigator and prosecutor became a believer in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
9. The resurrection is included in one of the first creeds of the church. In 1 Corinthians 15:1 Paul wrote, “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Then in verses 3 and 4 he wrote, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . . .” In other words, in 1 Corinthians 15 we find something that the early church formulated in the first five years as a creed. Paul himself received the tradition, “that Christ died for our sins.” Then he preached it, “that Christ died for our sins,” and so on. Paul speaks about Christ’s appearance to Peter, to the Twelve, to James, to all the apostles, to the five hundred, and finally to Saul of Tarsus himself.
10. The glorified Jesus Christ himself testifies to his resurrection. In Revelation 1:17-18 Jesus says, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” That is the substantial reason we must not fear. Jesus Christ, the Living One, has destroyed death by his death; thus, he will raise up from the dead everyone who believes in him. Yes, he loves us and he loosed us from the shackles of eternal death by his resurrection. He told us, “Because I live, you live also.”
11. Jesus holds the keys to death of Hades. “I hold the keys of death and Hades,” Jesus says in Revelation 1:18. He is the Lord of death and Hades. He is the Lord of hell and the Lord of heaven. Keys grant authority and right to the keyholder, giving access to the interior of something and its contents. Jesus Christ, therefore, has all authority to deliver his people from death to life, and he has authority to send people to death and hell. That is why he said the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ.

The Final Reason

What is the final reason we should not fear? It is that the Lord Jesus Christ is in our midst. There is a description of him given in Revelation 1, beginning with verse 12. Remember, this revelation is given for our comfort and consolation so that we will not fear. So in verse 12 John says, “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a son of man. . . .'”

The picture of Jesus walking about in the midst of the lampstands is comforting. Lampstands represent the church in its witness to the world. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus told his disciples, and “where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (Matthew 5:14, Matthew 18:20). He also told them, “Go and make disciples of all nations. . . I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). So here we have a picture of the Lord of the church walking about in the midst of his church, looking after the interests not only of the church as a body but also of every individual in that church. That is one reason he tells us, “Fear not.”

Notice the description John gives of this Jesus. John says he is “dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.” The idea is that here is a person of high dignity. Jesus is the our great high priest, in other words.

Then John notes that the head and hair of Jesus are white like wool. This is similar to the description of the Ancient of Days as found in Daniel 7:9. It means that this Jesus Christ is God, wisdom incarnate.

What about his eyes? In Revelation 1:14 we read, “his eyes were like blazing fire.” They are penetrating, searching, like flames of fire, in other words. Everything is naked; nothing is hidden from this One. I pray that we would not try to cover up anything from God, for he knows it all anyway, and he will deal with every sin and imperfection in our lives. In Revelation 19:11-12 we find the same description. There John writes, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire.” The Lord Jesus Christ is going to deal with every sin, every rebellion, every stubbornness, every resistance to him. But if we are children of God who love God, we can take comfort in this description of our all-seeing, all-powerful God.

In Revelation 1:15 John says, “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace.” That means they are going to be used to trample down every enemy in judgment. Also in verse 15 he writes, “His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” The voice of God is a not a whisper from behind anymore. He is going to speak and everyone is going to listen. There is no other noise that will drown out the voice of God Almighty.

In Revelation 1:16 John writes that “in his right hand he held seven stars,” and in Revelation 1:20 Jesus says, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches . . .” I accept the view that the seven stars are the seven angels of the churches to whom this letter is sent. They are the pastors of each church, in other words. But notice where these pastors are. They are not kept by the board, to be voted in or voted out; rather, they are held by the right hand of the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Being in the right hand means they are safe and secure.

If the pastors are kept in Christ’s right hand, who is also kept there? The church! You see, there are no pastors without churches. These pastors and their churches were related and connected. In John 10:28 Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Pastors, don’t worry. Be happy. Fear not. You and the true church are held by the right hand of him who is the Ruler of the kings of the earth.

Then John says that he fell down “as though dead” (Rev. 1:17). What did the right hand of Christ do? It touched and revived him, causing him to stand up again on his feet. Oh, the right hand of Jesus Christ is a saving hand for us! It is raised against all our enemies, but for us it is the right hand of salvation.

In Revelation 1:16 we read that “out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.” In other words, this Christ is able to put down all rebellion with his irresistible divine judgment. In Revelation 19:15 we find another description of this mouth: “Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.'” In verse 21 we read, “The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse. . . .” The two-edged sword is coming out and killing the enemies of God. This is a grotesque picture, which should cause you to tremble, if you are not a child of God. Jesus Christ will deal with all of his enemies! But if you are a child of God, if you are part of the true church of Jesus Christ, you will be taken care of.

In Revelation 1:16 we read, “His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” We find a similar description in Revelation 21:22-24. John writes, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the gory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is it lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.” We saw a glimpse of this glorious shining in the description of Jesus’ face on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Matthew writes that his face shone like the sun. Yes, there was a time men could spit on Jesus Christ and beat him and slap him-in the days of his humiliation, when his messiahship was not very evident. In those days few people recognized Jesus Christ as God. But when Christ comes again, everyone will recognize him, and his face will shine like the sun in all its brilliance.

Fear Not!

Why is Christ coming again? To judge and to save. This is the reason why we are told not to fear. So Jesus says to us, “Fear not, believer! Fear not, church!” This is the message from the Lord Jesus Christ to those who believe and trust in him today. But what about those who do not believe in Christ? To them Christ is saying, “Fear!” All who do not believe in Jesus Christ must fear him!

This is the revelation of God the Father, which he gave to his Son, who gave to John, who gave it to us. He wrote it down and sent it to seven churches, telling them and us, “I want you to read these things out loud, to hear this word of God, and keep these instructions God is giving you. These truths are for your comfort, and if you understand this, you will fear nothing.”

Yes, men may kill us. In fact, that is what Jesus said to the church of Smyrna: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” I pray that we will not fear because Christ is risen. He hold us in his right hand and he is coming again to save us and judge all his enemies. May God help us trust in him this day. Amen.