The Fear Guillotine

Focus Scripture

The New Revised Standard Version Salutation

2 To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanksgiving and Encouragement

3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Orientation: Smoke & Mirrors

Today marks the end of a four part series of lessons entitled Smoke & Mirrors: Mind Games that Blind Us. The premise behind this series is based in the ability of a magician or illusionist act is the art of misdirection. If a magician can draw the focus of our attention onto something momentarily. This provides a window to trick us or create open space through which they can trick our eyes or other senses into thinking something magical has happened. Many of these artists are so good that they can perform their tricks right in front of us and we still don’t see what is actually happening. Sometimes the things right in front of us are the hardest things to see. There are things, or mind games, we see and perform everyday yet we are blind and unable to recognize it until your focus is directed to it.

That is what we are doing in this series, we are drawing our attention to the mind games we play on ourselves and others. In the previous two sermons we have explored The Comparison Delusion; The Walk of Apathy; Lies, Labels & Other Card Tricks. Today we close this series with what I am calling “The Fear Guillotine”.

Place Guillotine Image Here

The guillotine is an apparatus that is widely know to us today because of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution under the Rulers King Louis XVI (16th) and Marie-Antionette. It was an instrument which was used by the French government as a form of capital punishment. It consisted of two upright wooden posts with a crossbeam that would slide up and down between them. Placed in groove on this crossbeam was a blade which would fall forcefully onto the neck of a victim below causing immediate death.

Transition to Smoke Loop

This instrument was named after a physician, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who out of compassion for those condemned to death, was instrumental in seeing a a law passed mandating that all not just criminals of noble birth would have access to the assurance a quick and merciful end of their life with this machine. What many do no know is that the original name of the machine was the ‘louison’ after it’s inventor but later it was dubbed the guillotine after the law. It is an instrument which still strikes fear in the hearts of those who see it and the image of death it represent today. It’s use began in 1789, but it wasn’t until September of 1981 that its use was outlawed. For those who were born in 2000 or later, 1981 was the year I entered High School. It was the year, the game Donkey Kong and the Mario Brothers were introduced, MTV was launched, Muhammad Ali had his last boxing match, the first American test-tube baby was born, as were Justin Timberlake and Beyonce’. It is a machine that is still a part of recent human history and its presence and imagery still stirs discomfort, anxiety and fear in most of us when we see it.

Magicians

Magicians will often include in their performances things that can cause us great tension and anxiety. They are tricks which seem to taunt or mock death. Penn & Teller have had two audience members pick out two bullets, mark them and then seem to have caught the bullets in their mouths. David Copperfield has placed himself on a table had a large saw come down upon him and yet he is miraculously restored to one piece. David Blane was buried alive for seven days with no food. Joe Labero was drawn backward into the huge rotating blades of a plane engine only to come out on the other side fine. Magicians play with our fear in the same way that comedians use humor. They use our natural inclination for fear or anticipation to generate tension, relief and laughter.

At the Movies

“Inside Out”

“Monsters, Inc.” - In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters but a child breaks through and then two monsters realize that the reality they have believed doesn’t match with what they think.

Common Fears

Blank Slide

Slide if Frightened Child w/o text

Most of us have to do battle with fear at some point in our life. As a child, I was afraid of the dark so I had a nightlight in my room. As an adult, I still have fears during the night which make me want to turn the lights on. I am afraid I will step on a scorpion or some other stinging insect that has found a way into my home. Maybe you are afraid of thunderstorms, dogs or maybe your parents are fighting a lot and you are worried they won’t stay together. These can be common fears when we are young.

When we get older, we often leave some of earlier fears behind but there are always other fears that take their place. As adults, we can be afraid that we might lose our job. We can worry that something terrible might happen to one of our children. When someone we love seriously ill we are often afraid that the medical treatments will be unsuccessful. The dread and worry that something will go wrong can make us feel terrible even sick. Unfortunately, as you sit here this morning, you may be dealing with issues of fear.

Slide if Frightened Child - Dread & Worry

Some people love the adrenaline rush that fear can produce especially when they know they are safe. This is why many people watch scary movies. Others watch scary movies just to get their minds off of their own problems. Then there are people like myself who have a low tolerance for fear and wouldn’t pay to see a scary movie. No matter if the emotion is provoked by a movie or by the circumstances of our life. We all will have to wrestle of do battle with feelings of fear.

In the Bible, Adam and Eve fear how God will react to their disobedience to God’s rules. Jacob stays up all night and prays because he had fled home to avoid the wrath of his brother. Coming home many years later, he is still afraid of his brother Esau and what might happen when they meet. The people of Israel and Joshua who are facing battle with enemies are told by Israel’s priest to not be “fainthearted or afraid”.

Timothy: The Timid

In our scripture today, we read a letter that has been sent to Timothy by the Apostle Paul. Timothy’s mother was a Jew but his biological father was Greek. Anyone born from an improper marriage or their descendents could not be admitted into the assembly of God’s people. When Paul meets Timothy he was a young boy and we also know he was not circumcised because he was excluded by the Jewish people worship with the Jewish people nor could he marry a Jew. Yet, he was well thought of by the people. Paul also indicates that Timothy had been taught and raised in the Jewish faith by his mother and grandmother. Timothy would have been thought of as a “mamzer” the product of an improper marriage. The Rabbi had refused to circumcise baby Timothy. He could not study Torah, go to synagogue, temple or even the gentile courts because he is a “mamzer”. He was probably taunted and teased by the other children because he was a “mamzer”. (RVL)

MUMZER and Deut. Slide here

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 23

“No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

Paul, who not only was believer in Jesus Christ was a student of Rabbi Gamaliel. Paul would have been famous for being Gamaliel’s disciple. Paul was a leading scholar of Jewish Harvard. He had full authority in the authority of the elder Rabbi Gamaliel to circumcise and fulfill the sacred rites of the Temple. He had found a very young “mumser” who didn’t have access to the holy texts, an outcast in his community cut off from the people of God and not allowed to be taught in the Jewish weekday school who knew God’s word well simply by hearing God’s word spoken orally from outside the wall somehow. Only the very cream of the Jewish schools ever had the opportunity to become a disciple of a Rabbi because you had to be chosen. Paul would have had the best of the best seeking to become one of his disciples but he saw something very special in Timothy. So special, that he circumcises Timothy in deference to the local Jews becomes a spiritual father to Timothy and begins prepared him for ministry. Timothy was probably about twelve years of age at the time.

As we read the opening of this letter to Timothy from Paul, Paul is sitting in a jail cell waiting to learn if he will live or die for his teachings. Timothy is probably about 30 years of age. People have inferred that his is timid and fearful. He is also prone to stomach problems. Paul has commissioned Timothy in his name to continue to preach and teach the gospel of Christ as a Jew with full authority in Paul’s name, Gamaliel’s name, but more importantly in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Jewish authorities have become so angry with Paul that they have tried to kill him but because is a Roman citizen. They cannot touch him because not even they are considered Roman citizens. So, he is sent to Rome where after years of imprisonment he will eventually be sentenced to death by decapitation by Emperor Nero for treason against the state. It is from this jail cell that Paul encourages Timothy saying:

"For God has not given us a," what? All of our churches must say it aloud. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

I tell you all this because I want you to feel the weight of Paul’s words and call on Timothy’s life as Timothy would have heard them. Do you get a sense of what must me going on in Timothy’s mind and heart? Can you get a sense of how physically ill he might have felt.

What Do I Fear?

Start transitioning through the Fear slides

Have you ever known fear like that of Timothy? If the Jewish people who had cast him out as a baby were willing to condemn a Rabbi like Paul and badger Emperor Nero to the point that he would condemn a Roman citizen for a bunch of insignificant Jews from the far province of Judea who refused to submit themselves to the worship of the Roman Emperor. What might they do to Timothy once he is dead?

Paul assures Timothy that even now, he has a clear conscience, remembers Timothy’s tears, his grandmother and mother and the sincere faith that dwelled and continues to dwell in him. He encourages TImothy to “fan the gift of God” and use the authority given to him through Paul’s commissioning of him because “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control. Don’t be timid! Don’t be afraid! Control your emotions don’t let them get the better of you. Share the good new of our Lord, share how I have suffered and share in this suffering for the sake of Christ Jesus because he abolished death and brought live and immortality to light through his teachings. Guard the good deposit, the great treasure that has been entrusted to you.....

Scripture slides “What If?”

English Standard Version Chapter 2

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

12  if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

13  if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

What Does Fear Reveal?

You are not alone if you are afraid to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of us have been afraid for many years, today people have become openly hostile against Christians. Some might say that fear is the opposite of faith. I don’t hear that coming from Paul’s words. Instead, I hear him saying “Timothy, don’t give in to the what-if’s running through your mind.”

What if they don’t believe me?

What if they won’t listen to me?

What is they say ‘the Lord didn’t appear to you?’

Take a moment and think, what are your “what if’s”? Write them down if you can. Now let me ask you this. Do you believe that Jesus came to set us free from our sins and shame and show us the way back home to our heavenly Parent back to our birthright as God’s children?

Your ‘what if’s’ that are holding your back. The “What If’s” like: What if I can’t pay my bills? What if I lose my job. Those fears that something will happen to your kids. Does’t mean that you lack faith but it does reveal what you value the most. It also reveals where you trust God the least.

This is a hard thing to hear but we have to be honest with each other and especially with ourselves if we are going to overcome our fears. We have to be honest about where we struggle. So, you need to give it a name and write it down. Fill in this sentence,

I am not trusting God with . Is it my children? Is it my health? Is it somebody you love? your parents? Is it the future? money? What is it? Think about it and write it down.

Smoke loop

You cannot defeat what you are not willing to identify or define. If you refuse to face an issue you will never overcome it. You will always be a prisoner to it. There is nothing to be ashamed of we all struggle. We have to be willing and able to look beyond the smoke and mirrors that blind us.

I have struggled with shyness all my life. It is so easy for me to go back home, encase myself in my home and just focus on my husband and children. One of my greatest fear is “what will people think”. The other is “what if my words injure rather than heal”. “What if I am misunderstood or hated for my thoughts and beliefs?” What is yours. Say it out loud! Tell someone sitting next to you!

Transformation rarely happened outside the context of people who are willing to know who you are and where you are struggling. We need other, friends who will carry us to Jesus when we are unable to do it on our own. When we are able to acknowledge our fear, it is the first step to overcoming it. I have faith that some of you are going to find a spirit of power, love and a spirit of a sound mind because you are going to relinquish your fear today.

We all have fears but the most common fear is the fear of death. Paul was not afraid of the “what if’s”. The Jewish authorities didn’t like his gospel so they tried to bring any charge they could against him. Nero didn’t like that as a citizen of Rome, Paul refused to worship Nero as a god. That was treason. He had been stoned, left for dead on numerous occasions. Yet, God had saw fit to let him rise once again and continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We

The moment you are able to stop placing more value in the ‘what if’s ‘ of this world. That is when you can not just say but actually know. Know that as a child of God, I am actually a citizen of heaven. This world is not my home. This world does not define who I am. It is God’s presence and power which defines me. I am only a temporary resident on Earth. The things of this world might hurt me but nothing in this world can change the fact that God has a purpose for my life and in the end. I will go back home to the One who pursues me, the One who offers me grace, the One true source of peace and joy. What do I have to fear?

God will empower us to overcome our fears if we are willing to acknowledge them. Choose to trust in God’s will for our life. Remember we are citizens of Heaven and seek God and the inheritance promised to God’s children.

Acknowledge our fear

Choose to Trust

Remember

Seek God