The day Christ rose from the dead was by far the greatest day in history. Christianity was born that day and many miracles took place. Christ's resurrection and appearance, the empty tomb, the empty burial cloth, the appearance of angels, and all the other events that occurred in the next few days, are all remembered when we celebrate Easter.
But there is one miracle that took place in that time frame, which most of us do not think about, or are even aware of, and that is the conquest of fear. The apostles experienced fear many times during Jesus' ministry. Fear when they were tossed around in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, fear of the crowds around them, fear of the Romans, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin.
On the night Jesus was arrested, the apostles were in such great fear, they deserted Jesus and ran for their lives. Peter denied Jesus three times out of fear. You can imagine what uncontrollable fear that Jesus' followers went through for the next few days, after He was arrested and crucified. Here is the Man they have been following for over three years, watching Him perform miracle after miracle, healing people, raising the dead, controlling the weather, and now He is hanging dead on a cross, a bloody, unrecognizable man. A Man they believed to be the Son of God. Imagine the thoughts in their minds. If the soldiers can do that to the Son of God, what are they going to do with us?
A few days of this went on and then the resurrection took place. Christ rose, Christianity was born, and fear was conquered.
When the apostles and all followers of Christ realized what happened, and recalled Christ talking about rebuilding the Temple in three days, and the three days of Jonah. When they realized how many Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled during the arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, their fear just ebbed away, and turned into uncontrollable joy and boldness. In their minds rang the words "I am with you always." Probably never in history has such a complete turnaround taken place in a group of people – from uncontrollable fear, to uncontrollable joy and boldness.
Peter, James, John, and later, Paul, and all the disciples just preached wherever and whenever they desired. They had no fear of anybody. They were arrested, they were whipped, stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, but it did not stop them preaching the Gospel for one minute. They carried on this way for many years, because their fear was conquered by Christ.
Fear of something worldly is mentioned in the Bible over 300 times, and Christ has conquered your fear of worldly things. But there is another type of fear, a good fear, it’s called "Fear of the Lord." Fear of the Lord is mentioned 27 times in the Bible. It’s mentioned as: the "Beginning of wisdom", "to hate evil", as "a foundation of life", "leads to life" etc. Acts 9:31 states "Meanwhile, the church had peace....and grew in strength and numbers. The believers learned how to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit."
So what all this sums up to be: is to fear the Lord with all your heart and soul, obey His Commandments, study His ways, and you will have no need to fear any worldly problem that might arise.
By George Konig
April 25, 2004
www.georgekonig.org
See a list of all of our commentaries