Perspectives on Fearlessness - Luke 23:1-12

Pastor asked me to prepare perspectives on fearlessness from Luke 23:1-12. I was actually excited once I got started. The below is what I prepared and presented at church today. I must say it was an honour to have been able to present in this way, and to know that persons benefitted from it. I certainly did.

When one thinks of “fearless”, one may conjure the image of one who can face any and many challenges or life-threatening situations with confidence and a “I dare you” attitude. One may think of a man in a lion’s den like Daniel, or even David fighting the lion and bear to protect His sheep. My thoughts on fearless is well beyond this. Here’s how.

When I started to think about fear and fearlessness, the Scripture that I was led to was 2 Tim 1:7: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. At first, I wondered if this was because I knew this verse so well having heard it so many times before. But as I reflected, I saw the connection.

Paul highlighted three characteristics which displace fear: Power, Love, Sound Mind.

Power: Being Jesus a man and yet a part of the Trinity means He had access to power unlimited.  John 13:3 tells us that the Father had put all things under Jesus' power.  When He was being accused and threatened with death by the Jewish leaders, He knew that the only power that could allow that to happen was that power which He had direct access to. In other words, he had no need to fear when He was power!

Love: Jesus was love personified. Though they mocked Him, ridiculed Him, tortured Him, accused Him of bearing false witness, He loved them and respected the earthly authority they had. Otherwise, He could have changed the scene of His capture, arrest and trial with the power given Him. Love is what ultimately kept Jesus on the path to Calvary. As 1 John 4:18 tells us, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. Love personified can therefore have no fear.

Sound mind. Jesus was smart. The Council of the Sanhedrin was doing all it could to ensure Jesus suffered and worse, be put to death. As much as death was already foretold, Jesus was wise in His responses, even in His silence. He understood from experience that anything He said can and would be used against Him in their court. What He said or didn’t say was not out of fear, but a sound mind, smarts, and self-discipline.

In exploring this from another perspective, one could say that fear is the opposite of faith. Faith and fear cannot coexist in the same space, just as light and darkness cannot dwell together. Hebrews 11 speaks about faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what is unseen. Someone who is sure about something is not timid, but has confidence. To have fear therefore is to be unsure of what we hope for or perhaps being sure of what we do not hope for. Jesus stood before Pilate, Herod and the crowd of Jews being absolutely sure of what was to come…the unseen was not a mystery and would certainly be history. Jesus was therefore demonstrating faith, leaving no room for fear. He was fearless.

In summary, I therefore suggest that Jesus was fearless in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual realms. In the physical, Jesus kept His power under control though being unfairly persecuted. In the mental realm, he used wisdom and self-control in how He responded to the accusers. Emotionally, His heart went out for the people He came to save, who rejected Him, mocked Him and ridiculed Him, all because of His perfect love for them. And spiritually, His faith as the Son of the Most High was sure that His death and resurrection would be history. In all this, Jesus had NO need to fear, and demonstrated FEARLESSNESS!