Good Friday 2021 - The Cross, My Surety

Good Friday 2021 The Cross: My Surety 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15) Introduction Before children, my wife and I did some travelling together. On one such occasion we found ourselves on a famous little stretch in Italy called the Almafi Coast. We usually took public transportation from place to place, but on Almafi this meant a lot of waiting at bus stops. The alternative was to rent a vespa (a scooter), but there was a problem-the Almafi Coast is famous for its windy, narrow, white-knuckle drive along the cliff's edge with the roiling Mediterranean Sea below. Add the fact that people there are notorious for driving fast and with bravado and you can understand why we were sitting at bus stops all day. I admit it. I was afraid. And fear was causing us to miss out. Just as I would be getting up my nerve, some crazy scene would play out in front of us-like a tour bus careening around a narrow bend while some motorcycle squeezed impossibly through to pass a sportscar that was apparently going too slowly for his liking. And then all my courage would vanish again. But finally, something changed. We were sitting at a bus stop, longingly watching people drive by, when I noticed an elderly Italian man cruise by on a vespa, his dog sitting on his lap, tongue flapping in the wind, taunting us. This was quickly followed by an entire family stuffed on to one of these little things. A child was hunched down at the father's feet, and the wife sitting against the husband's back, holding tightly to a young child on her lap. "That's it," I thought. "If they can do it, we can do it!" I got over my crippling fear, we rented a vespa, and had the time of our lives. Well, I'm sure that many of you have your own stories of when fear has gripped you, paralyzed you, or maybe caused you to miss out on something good. Fear can be such a powerful and debilitating thing. And especially when it is our very lives that are at stake. What is so bad about the fear of death? Now, some might wonder what is so bad about a healthy fear of death. Afterall, it sounds like an excellent way to stay alive. Like the actor and director Woody Allen said, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." Maybe the fear of death is a good thing. Maybe it encourages some of us not to take unnecessary risks. We might adopt healthier lifestyles and diets on account of it. Maybe it fosters productivity by encouraging us to make the most of the time we have here on earth. The fear of death must be a good thing, right? Well, I'm not so sure. You see, death might be an enemy to battle against, but according to Hebrews 2:14-15, the fear of death is a tool of the Enemy, used to put us in bondage. It is a weapon that Satan uses to enslave us and keep us from fully obeying and trusting in God. Let me give you just two examples of how powerful the fear of death can be. The Promised Land First, consider the Israelites in the Old Testament. They had been enslaved in Egypt for some 400 years. And then God, through His servant Moses, rescued his people and promised to bring them to a new land. But after their successful escape into the wilderness, they soon found themselves with the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh's army behind. Listen to how Exodus 14 describes it: And behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." (Exodus 14:10-12) And then decades later as God's people are finally at the doorsteps of the land that He promised to give them, the fear of death paralyzed them once again: The whole congregation said to [Moses and Aaron], "Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" (Numbers 14:2-4) Do you see? The Israelites preferred slavery-slavery in Egypt-rather than face the dangers of entering the Promised Land. And it's a fitting picture for how the fear of death is indeed enslaving. The Cold War Let me give you one more example of how the fear of death has a powerful effect on us-this time from American History. I'm just going to read a short excerpt from an article I dug up: I remember going to bed one night when I was 11, seriously afraid that I would not be alive in the morning," remembers writer David Ropeik. The date was unmistakable. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962. For children growing up in the Cold War, mutually assured nuclear destruction literally haunted their dreams. For David Ropeik and many others, the Cuban Missile Crisis was that moment, the point of no return, a feeling of teetering on death. One of the biggest cultural oversights at the time, however, was the notion that children couldn't grasp the seriousness of the world stage. On the contrary, many of them grasped it all too well. According to [one documentary], teachers reported a change in their students' artwork, specifically an uptick in mushroom clouds. At home, children anxiously settled into their new fear-based realities. When searchlights panned her street, one girl hid under the bed for fear of a missile attack. In reality, a new supermarket had opened nearby. "I remember many times hearing noises that would make me say, 'Could that be..."?" remembered a film executive who was a high school senior during the Crisis. A common joke during these years was "What do you want to be if you grow up?" Fear of nuclear annihilation scarred children growing up in the Cold War, studies later showed | by Stephanie Buck | Timeline (Nuclear War and Child Psychology) The Cold War was a little before my time, but I wonder if anyone here remembers those duck-and-cover drills at school. The fear of death was ever-present. And not just for adults, but also for the children. And today is no different. We still face life-threatening dangers all around us. Instead of duck-and-cover we have mask-and-cover. We get news of a senseless shooting in a grocery store and think, "What if I had been there?" Or maybe you are like me, and you are so fearful at times regarding your health that you get nervous just going for a regular doctor's checkup, worrying that they will find something serious. And for some of you, the doctor has found something serious, and you have been confronted with your mortality more powerfully than anything I have ever experienced. The fear of death is awful. It is paralyzing. And as our passage in Hebrews says, It is Enslaving. Enter the Cross Enter the Cross! You see, this is Good Friday, and the Cross has something to say to Death: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55) There are so many beautiful effects of the Cross. And we have had a chance to reflect on a couple of them tonight. Well, here is one more for this evening: Because of Christ's death on the Cross, we no longer need to fear death: He [Jesus] himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15) Christ came in part to deliver us from a lifetime of slavery to the fear of death. He took the thing we were most afraid of (death), and by His own death and resurrection He stripped it of its power. A long time ago I heard an illustration that still sticks with me today. Pastor, if I heard it from you, I hope you don't mind me using it now. A father and a son were out taking a walk when a bee came and started hovering around the son menacingly. Now, the son was highly allergic to bee stings, so without another thought the father grabbed the bee out of the air and closed his hands around it. But then a moment later the father opened his hands again and let the bee hover menacingly around again. The son became fearful and said, "Daddy, why did you let the bee go? Now it will sting me!" And the father replied, "You have nothing to fear anymore. When I was holding the bee, I let it sting me. I know it still looks frightening, but now the stinger is gone, and it can't harm you anymore." Friends, death is here, harassing us, incessantly buzzing around our heads. But Christ took the stinger out of Death and stripped it of its power. And His children are guaranteed an eternal resurrection body along with an eternity to experience the inexhaustible riches of God. In other words, Death loses. Death has already lost. Closing Invitation You know, I think the other speakers tonight might identify with this, but it seems like I have been preaching to myself tonight as much as to you. God used my time in preparing this message to reveal just how much I let the fear of death rule my life. There's no shortage of things to be afraid of. Perils and pandemics always have been and always will be with us. The question tonight is, will we let that impotent enemy Death enslave us, or will we experience the freedom from fear that Christ's death and resurrection bought for us? As Pastor leads us in communion in a few moments, it will be an invitation for each of us to taste this freedom. There may be some here who have good reason to fear death because you have not said "Yes" to Jesus. What better night than Good Friday to accept the sacrifice that Christ made on your behalf, so that you can have assurance that you will live eternally with God. Others here, like me, have taken your eyes off the Cross and let the fear of death get a foothold in your life. If that's you, well then, what better night than Good Friday to fix your gaze on Christ's triumph over death and experience that freedom from fear in a fresh way tonight. May it be so. Amen.