My Dad's Last Sermon Part 1: Fear Not

On the last Sunday of last year, in a state of growing weakness, my Dad laid down the ministry role he had been taking for a number of years in his local fellowship.  He could not have known for sure that this would have been his last sermon but he would have strongly suspected it might be.

It will almost certainly be the only one of his sermons to find its way into the ocean of preached stuff on the web.  It is a Biblical and prophetic testimony to the way a Christian approaches a year in which he expects to suffer limitations in this world or possibly leave it altogether.  It has blessed me and others and I hope it blesses you.

 

 

We turn to perhaps one of the best known verses in the Bible, Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 10.  I could think of no other verse of Scripture more appropriate as we step out from an old year into a new year.

Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will help the, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

These word, ‘Fear not’, seem to be favourite words of the Lord which the prophet Isaiah uses. We find them at least three times in this chapter: here in verse 10, again in verse 13 and again in verse 14.

All of us tend to have a fear of the unknown.  We cannot really possibly know what the future will hold.  We cannot possibly know with our own human intellect what 2013 will be for us because we cannot see the way ahead that far.  Indeed, we don’t always know what a day will bring forth.  But the words here are spoken by a God who knows the whole future.  He knows not just the year ahead, he knows centuries ahead.  Indeed, he knows the whole of history because he is the Lord of all.  And therefore he is able to still our fears about the future.

In the context of this chapter these words have a special significance because it was a time of tension in the Middle East.  There’s constantly been tension in that part of the world, hasn’t there? There still is today.  And at this particular time that the prophet was prophesying he was prophesying at a period of great tension when the mighty empire of Medo-Persia was ravaging the nations and destroying kingdoms.  This was causing great fear and panic.  We notice in verse 5 the isles saw it and feared. They saw the advancing Persian armies and wondered what the outcome of it was going to be and so they were in great terror and fear.

 Well, the prophet stills the fears of the Lord’s people in our text.  He says, “The nations may be panicking, the nations may be afraid but for you, the Lord’s people, the word is – Fear not.”

The period that Isaiah was prophesying about was the reign of Cyrus, King of Persia.  He says in verse 2, “Who raised up the righteous man from the East”.  We might say, “Who was the righteous man from the East?”  Well, if were to read on to the beginning of chapter 45 we would see that that man is named and it is Cyrus the King of Persia.  That in itself is a most remarkable prophecy because Cyrus wasn’t born when Isaiah was prophesying, there was at least a century and a half to go before Cyrus appeared on the scene.  Yet inspired by the Holy Spirit he was able to predict the man who would come.  It shows that our God, he knows the whole future.  There’s nothing hid from Him.

The reason why he was able to give the people of Israel this assurance was that, although Cyrus was ruthless in his treatment of the nations (he destroyed that wicked nation Babylon and other nations beside), yet he showed great compassion toward the people of Israel.  If you were to turn over to the opening verses of the Book of Ezra you would find that this King Cyrus gave a decree that the people of Israel who had been held captive in Babylon would now be free to return to their own country and to rebuild the temple of God. The king that was striking fear into the heathen nations was going to bring liberty to the people of God. That was why God was able to say through Isaiah, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee”.

How thankful we are that we have a God who knows the future.  Everything is clear and plain to him and if we trust his word we know that we needn’t be afraid about the future.  The future is all in his hands.