Vol. 18, No. 6, Nov. - Dec. 1989
DELIVERANCE FROM FEAR
J. Alec Motyer
"He laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not;
I am the first and the last, and the Living one;
and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades." Revelation 1:17-18
THE first words which Jesus spoke after His resurrection were directed to bewildered women who were moving away from the tomb. Mary Magdalene had already gone running to fetch Peter and John, so she missed this little interview. Other groups of women seem to have scattered. But there was one group whom He met, and to them His first word was "Rejoice!" In the older versions this is properly translated, "All hail!" and in the newer ones, "Greetings!" but when we take the word to its literal sense it means "Rejoice!"
Mary Magdalene duly fetched Peter and John but, soon after they had gone back home, she remained by the tomb weeping, so preoccupied with bereavement that she did not even recognise the risen Lord when He asked her why she was weeping, but she knew Him when He called her by name. So the risen Lord takes away sorrow and tears.
There was a couple on their way to Emmaus late that afternoon. Their faces were downcast and no doubt their steps were slow, for sadness makes the feet drag. It was then that the Stranger came and matched His steps to their slow steps. By the time He left them their hearts were burning within them. The risen Lord comes and walks with us when the going is hard and transforms everything, making our steps swift and glad.
There was an evening gathering that same day. The doors were locked, for we imagine that they said to themselves, "If they were able to do that to Jesus with impunity, what will they do to us?" The lovely inverted English of the older versions records, "Then came Jesus". He said, "Peace be unto you". And in case they hadn't heard it the first time, He again said, "Peace be unto you!" The resurrection brings us joy, comfort, companionship and peace.
Here in Revelation we have words spoken by the Lord Jesus with all the majesty of His resurrection. He said, "Do not be afraid". The resurrection of Jesus is not a problem, it is a fact; and out of that fact springs a great reassurance -- fear is banished.
Look at His feet! They are like bronze as though glowing in a furnace. He is the Jesus who knows what it is to walk through the fiery furnace of life sufferings, and so it follows that He knows how to sympathise with us when we have to walk that way.
Listen to His voice! "His voice was like the sound of many waters". If you have ever been to Niagara you have been able to sense the immense and frightening power of that water. But as you walk farther away and listen to that sound, it is deep and compelling.
Look at His [108/109] face! It shines like the sun. Look at His hair; it portrays the spotless white of total purity. Look at His eyes; they are like a flame of fire. In one sense there is much to make us timorous and fearful. The unreconciled sinner may well feel dread at the prospect of meeting such a One. But to us the resurrection word is "Fear not!" When He speaks to His Church as represented by the golden lampstands, He asks us what we have to be afraid of. He gives perfect deliverance from all fear.
1. There is a sovereignty that takes away fear.
He gives us reasons why we are not to fear. He says, "I am the first and the last," which is another way of saying that He is the alpha and the omega. He is the "A" who begins things and He is the "Z" who brings things to their conclusion. When we think of all the letters which lie between the "A" of life's experiences and the "Z", of all the intermediate steps of life's pathway, we might well fear if we did not hear Him say that He is there and He is the Living one. He is not a passive spectator of what happens on earth; He is the first, initiating everything, the last bringing everything to its conclusion, and He is present at every intermediate stage. The sovereignty of the risen Lord rules over every experience of life and so takes away all our fear.
The alphabet has some awkward letters in it. If you don't believe me, try playing Scrabble. If you have a "Q" without a "U", it means that you end up with minus 10, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you have a "J" with no spare "O" to put beside it, you are in trouble. And as we move from "A" to "Z" in life's pathway, there are some stumbling places to face. There are things that stumble us in our minds; things that stumble us in our circumstances: things that stumble us in our families. There are some awkward corners in life. The One who is first and last assures us that He will be with us to put us through those experiences of "Q" and "J" and every other of life's problems.
