FEAR AND ANXIETY SERVE A PURPOSE
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We tend to be anxious about so many things - jobs, money, health, success, family, and the list goes on. Then we make matters worse by thinking, “Look how anxious I am. Being so anxious, I’m evidently not trusting God and shouldn’t expect to receive anything from Him.”
This certainly isn’t so. If our anxieties meant we weren’t trusting God, Joshua would have been left bereft of the Lord’s protection. However, experiencing anxiety and fear had not been the issue, but rather being led by anxieties rather than by the Lord. Therefore, the Lord instructed Joshua how to lean upon Him while struggling against his anxious temptations to run:
* “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:8-9)
Being courageous was not a matter of Joshua ridding himself of fear, but of standing his ground in the Word. Notice that the Lord didn’t instruct Joshua to not experience the feelings of anxiety. Instead, He instructed Joshua what to do in the midst of his fears.
The Children of Israel feared as they heard the Egyptian chariots approaching. The Lord didn’t instruct them not to feel that way but instead simply to observe the Lord’s salvation:
* And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." (Exodus 14:13-14)
Sometimes, we are so powerless that all we can do is to watch and wait. Years ago, my wife bribed me to get on the roller coaster with her. Even though I trusted in the Lord, I screamed in terror until we rolled to the end.
After a year of traveling, Joshua sent out 12 spies into the Promised Land. What they saw filled them with anxiety. However, 10 of them succumbed to their fears and reported back that the Canaanites were too powerful for them, and they created a rebellion. Joshua and Caleb might have also felt the same way, but they were willing to trust in the Word of the Lord. It was a matter of deciding for the Lord. Moses declared:
* “Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them." (Numbers 14:9)
It didn’t matter what they felt, but whether or not they would continue to trust in the Word of the Lord.
Jesus understood how anxiety can take our focus away from the Lord, and He provided the remedy:
* “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)
Jesus didn’t instruct them how not to experience anxiety, but instead what to do about it. We have to proactively put the Lord first in our lives, and He will deal with the source of our anxiety and provide for our needs.
In fact, anxiety can be a good thing. It can direct us towards our only Source of hope. Therefore, the Psalmist, wrote, “when I fear, I will trust in the Lord” (Psalm 56:3).
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE APOSTLES HAD FABRICATED THEIR GOSPEL ACCOUNTS?
Well, why would they have fabricated their accounts? To make them more marketable? If anything, they had made their Gospel accounts highly unmarketable. How?
• Turning Jesus into a God. The idea that a man could also be God was highly unacceptable.
• Making an utterly disgraced crucified man into God was doubly unacceptable.
• Making Gentiles co-heirs with Jews was absolutely anathema and was guaranteed to alienate the Jews.
• The consistent denigrating of Israel and her leadership was highly offensive and led to persecution.
• The teachings never appealed to Jewish pride as the teachings of the rabbis would do.
• The Gospels inevitably attacked the influential and elevated those who were scorned.
• Their teachings of Jesus were both difficult to understand and impossible to perform. They were inevitably humbling and wouldn’t produce a gratifying success experience.
These teachings and accounts of the life of Jesus were utterly unmarketable. Why then did the Apostles record them? Evidently, they were convinced that they were accurate and notarized them in their blood of martyrdom.
Besides, if the Apostles had been trying to market a new religion with themselves as its Patriarchs, they would have portrayed themselves positively. Instead, we are left with the impression that they were clueless. For one thing, the Jesus of the Gospels never complemented them. He only praised the faith of two people, both Gentiles. He never told His Apostles, “You are growing spiritually” or “Good job” or “I chose the very best when I chose you.” Instead, it was one correction followed by the next. He even prophesied that they all would abandon Him during His crucifixion, and they did.
In the Gospels, they even described themselves as ignorant racists who consistently failed to believe Jesus and to understand His teachings. These are certainly not the descriptions of salesmen who want to promote their product. Instead, they seem to be the writings of people who had become convinced that they were writing about a truth far greater than their dignity and welfare.
They give every indication that they were people who had met the risen Christ. Subsequently, we see that they were changed men who now understood the Gospel and had been changed by it. They had become so changed that it no longer mattered to them if they bared their failings before the world. They had become convinced of the Gospel of their Savior that they never recanted of what they had written, even at the point of martyrdom.
The evidence for this is so strong that even skeptical scholars acknowledged:
∑ “Even the atheist Ludemann conceded: ‘It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.’” (Lee Strobel)
∑ Paula Fredriksen, Jewish NT scholar, confessed: “The Disciples’ conviction that they had seen the risen Christ…is historical bedrock, facts known past doubting.”
The Gospels and the lives of the Apostles give us no indication whatsoever that the Apostles had been motivated to distort or fabricate what they had seen and heard.
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