Fearful?

What do you offer a man who is discouraged and hopeless?

What do you offer someone whose world is shattered?

What do you offer someone who has captured a glimpse into the future, and the fear of it is not startling, but terrifying in its deadliness?

What did Jesus offer the disciples?  On Thursday night of the week of Christ’s passion, their world was quickly being inverted.  On Sunday of that day they had walked into Jerusalem alongside Jesus who rode the donkey of victory — the Messiah coming to take His throne.  But the adulation of the crowd morphed into the hatred of the religious leadership and a week that began with promise suddenly was exhibiting signs of ominous actions.  And Jesus’ words on this night weren’t helping them think calmly and clearly.

Their first concern was that interaction with Judas.  What was He saying about a traitor?  “That obviously wasn’t Judas, but just where did Judas go?”

And then His words to Peter — could Peter really deny Jesus?  “Is he a traitor?  I’ve always wondered about him…”

“And if Jesus is being betrayed, where is He going?  And why can’t we go with Him?  Couldn’t we help Him?”

You get the picture.  They doubtless would soon be on the cusp of a full panic if Jesus didn’t intercede.  So what did He do?  What did He say to calm their fears?

With one sentence, He gave them both an evaluation of and an antidote to their condition:  “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (Jn. 14:1).

The evaluation He offered is that while their anxiety was very real — their insides were stirred up and as tumultuous as a churning washing machine — their anxiety was because of their hearts.  They had placed their affections and desires on something that they were not receiving, and they were becoming agitated and anxious about it.  But the problem was not their circumstances.  Their problem was internal, not external.

And so the solution — the antidote — was also internal and not external.  The antidote was to change their minds and to think in renewed ways by believing in Christ.  The resolution to their anxiety was to trust in the provision and promises of Christ.  Specifically, no matter what happened in their circumstances, they were to believe that there was a better place and a better time that was coming through the provision of Christ (and could not be taken away).

Notice all the promises that Jesus gave them:

• There are many dwelling places in the house of the Father — and He is the Father (v. 2a).
• He would not lie to them about the Father’s house or anything else; if there were not a house with the Father, Jesus would have told them (v. 2b).
• He was going to prepare a place in that house for them (v. 3a).
• He was going to return again, after preparing that place (v. 3b).
• He was going to return again, to receive them to Himself — to take them into His presence to enjoy His fellowship and to be with Him (vv. 3b-4).
• They knew the way to that place (v. 4).

The fear of the disciples was not caused by their tumultuous circumstances.  Their fear was the result of their unbelieving hearts.  They did not believe God or Christ or what He had told them.  Their story illustrates that all fear reveals unbelief in God.  When we fear we believe our circumstances our determinative and unchangeable and we don’t believe what God has revealed about Himself.

One antidote to fear is to meditate on God’s promises.  Are you disillusioned?  Are you discouraged?  Are you afraid for the future (and who isn’t these days)?  Is your heart in panic mode?  Then fix your mind on the truth of God and what He has promised to those who believe in Him.  Learn to trust in His goodness and His disposition of kindness to you, and then practice what Richard Baxter encouraged:

“It is but fitting that our hearts should be on God, when the heart of God is so much on us.  If the Lord of glory can stoop so low as to set His heart on sinful dust, methinks we should easily be persuaded to set our hearts on Christ and glory, and ascend to him in our daily affections, who so much condescends to us.”