Faithless Fear

Christ IS Risen!

We’ve all heard of fearless faith. But have you considered faithless fear?

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Matthew 28:1–20 NASB95PARA

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.” Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Easter Morning

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Thomas C. Black

This morning is Easter Morning, today we celebrate the resurrection. We proclaim: Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed.

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Fame Evangelical Church

Also Read:

Christ Is Risen!

We’ve all heard of fearless faith. But have you considered faithless fear?

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This morning is Easter Morning, today we celebrate the resurrection. We proclaim: Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed.

But when you hear that story today focus for just a moment on , . Consider the soldiers. Despite having all the evidence for the Christ, they acted in stark unbelief.

This is mirrored very much in the sixth seal which we begin with this morning and will continue with for a few weeks as we proceed into Revelation chapter 7. But this morning open your Bibles to .

Revelation 6:12–17 NASB95PARA

I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The Fullness of Judgement

As John looks on now, Jesus breaks open the sixth seal. Keep in mind that what we are seeing along with the apostle is a vision - filled with imagery which carries meaning drawn out of the Old Testament. I’m told by a carpenter that in a very real sense the shape of a building is defined by its foundation. That is true here. The shape that the book of Revelation takes is defined by its foundation upon the Old Testament. I want you to see that what John is describing here is really the fullness of judgement.

There is something very significant about the number seven. Drawn the from the 7 days of creation and rest which are a complete or full week - the repeated idea of seven as a symbol of fullness. Take for one example which calls God’s word pure words As silver tried in a furnace… refined seven times. The idea there being silver that is completely purified. In this sense we should look at the imagery of this vision as the fullness of signs of God’s judgement and power being poured out on the earth as well as what appears to be the universal reaction of unbelief.

Very quickly moving through the text with a pen in hand you might notice that John records seven signs of judgement and lists the reaction of seven groups of people.

Seven Signs of judgment

It caught my eye on March 24 when Ben Shapiro tweeted out about a Tsunami warning asking essentially, “What is going on here?” https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1242654177680977925

1. Earthquake

1. Earthquake

2. Solar failure

3. Blood moon

4. Stars falling

5. The skies splitting

6. geological displacement

7. The fearful reactions of humanity.

Seven Peoples react

1. Kings

1. Kings

2. High Ranking Officials

Solar failureBlood moon

2. High Ranking Officials

3. Military Leaders

3. Military Leaders

Stars falling

4. The Rich

4. The Rich

Further down the thread filled with people foretelling the apocalypse one wag quoted: “If locust’s show up I’m converting back to Christianity” He was met with a picture of a locust plague in Africa. (https://twitter.com/GreyKnight8008/status/1242662105104265216)

The skies splitting

5. The Powerful

5. The Powerful

geological displacement

6. Slaves

6. Slaves

The fearful reactions of humanity.

7. Free men

7. Free men

The listing of events here is somewhat symbolic in the sense that it seems to be universal. But in another very real sense they are fulfillments of several promises from the Old Testament. As briefly as we can let’s look at what John says is coming in the sixth seal.

The listing of events here is somewhat symbolic in the sense that it seems to be universal. But in another very real sense they are fulfillments of several promises from the Old Testament. As briefly as we can let’s look at what John says is coming in the form of judgement.

The First Sign: The Earthquake.

There are several earthquakes in Revelation alone (; , ; ). Most importantly though, there are almost innumerable cross references in the Old Testament to these signs. Just a few examples: In David is singing about God’s victory for Him, but describes it in terms of an earthquake which symbolizes the presence of God.

In the earth quakes as God descends on Mt. Sinai.

In Isaiah we see similar references that seem to mesh with the several earthquakes in Revelation. In fact it seems that ; ; are texts that form the backdrop of this seal’s events depicting the destruction of the earth.

Isaiah 13:10–13 NASB95PARA

For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger.

Isaiah 24:1–6 NASB95PARA

Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

The Second Sign: Solar Failure

Perhaps because of dust kicked into the atmosphere from the earthquake, the sun will fail as well. The sun became as black as a dark cloth woven from hair. We don’t need to make wild guess like Hal Lindsay does in late great planet earth. He had no more clue that this was from a nuclear warhead than we have that it is because of aliens from Pluto mad that their planet is now called a sub-planet.

Instead we can look at scripture and recognize an allusion to another time when the sun went dark - at the time of the Exodus. The ninth plague was a darkness that was so pervasive you could not see your hand in front of your face.

Isaiah and Joel both foretell these same events.

Isaiah 13:9–12 NASB95PARA

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Joel 2:31–32 NASB95PARA

“The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

The Third Sign: the whole moon became like blood

The same passage in Joel details the moon turning to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord. Not terribly long ago you might remember all the foolishness of the four blood moons declarations with at least one fairly well known tv preacher making ample book sales with a nearly hysterical declaration that this was the sign of the end. But the end has not yet come. Sensational anachronism is a dangerous form of Bible interpretation - especially when Jesus clearly says nobody knows when the end is coming. We call a red moon a blood moons because of this passage - not the other way around. But one thing is about to be abundantly certain - these events will be so notable on their own that a real global panic will take place as we get to the end of the passage.

The Fourth Sign: Falling Stars

Verse 13 goes on to describe falling stars like a fig tree losing unripe fruit in a windstorm. I don’t know about figs, but when we had apple trees I can remember picking up wheelbarrow loads full of green apples after storms. That imagery notwithstanding, we can pretty well understand that the massive burning orbs in the sky are not what is being spoken of here. The word used here: ἀστέρες (asteres) (Greek) or stars doesn't have to mean burning balls of gas millions of miles away, it could just as easily mean a meteor shower. Essentially, shiny things in the sky start to fall. But apparently based on the reaction it is clearly a supernatural occurrence on a greater scale than ever.

The Fifth Sign: The Sky splits

Once again, ties the sky being rolled up like a scroll to the judgement of the nations by God. There is so little to say regarding this scene - except that it portrays, as many of these do what Jesus said in .

There are strange phenomena and people are afraid.

Sixth Sign: Geologic Displacement

Geologically speaking, mountains and islands are the same thing, one just happens to be mostly underwater. Nevertheless from our perspective as humans, nothing is as permanent as these. Yet here, as the sixth judgement of the sixth seal, They are moved. The result is the seventh sign of global fear.

Seventh Sign: Mass Fear

There are seven groups of people mentioned - indicating, as Revelation often does, the fullness of all of mankind. Everyone has the same reaction.

I think it is important that we recognize this as the seventh sign, not because it rounds out the number but because God says in his word that fear is a judgement from Him. If you remember as I mentioned few weeks ago, God’s warning judgments begins there with fear: “I will appoint over you a sudden terror...”.

We might be hopeful, even as I cannot help but be hopeful now that people are waking up to God because of the fear they are living in. Now, at long last it seems that people wake up. indicates that the point of all of this, the point of the fear is repentance.

Mirroring the texts of and they cry out for the rocks to cover them and hide them from God on his throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. At long last they know that the great day of their wrath has come, and who – they ask is able to stand?

Faithless Fear

And this is where the connection to the shaking guards passing out in comes in.

Those Roman soldiers had a front row experience to the resurrection. They saw what we can only imagine. They shook with FEAR so much that they passed out. But they didn’t repent. Instead they accepted money to tell a lie about what they had seen and experienced.

Evidence is helpful if you’re struggling to understand and working through a fledgling faith, but without life - the spiritually dead will remain spiritually dead.

Every time someone says, I’d believe if I could see Jesus, or I’d believe if I saw the resurrection myself. That may not be true. Think about these Roman Soldiers who observed the evidence of the resurrection but did not believe. Consider the Pharisees who paid them off to lie AFTER they had heard the story. And remember the sixth seal. Even when people actually know that God is beginning to render judgement - they may have fear, but fear is not faith.

These are those who exhibit what calls worldly sorrow. Essentially being sorry they got caught, but having no repentance.

But for those who would turn to Christ, and the next chapter is going to record them – there is a way which we celebrate this Easter Morning. Christ is risen, and because of that glorious truth we need not fear, though all the world around us be afraid; for Christ has conquered death, and he will, in due time, wipe away every tear, and remedy every pain of his people.

Amen.

Benediction:

Who can stand?

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. ().