Title: Freedom from Fear Text: II Corinthians 3:17-18; II ...

1

Title: Freedom from Fear
Text: II Corinthians 3:17-18; II Timothy 1:1-9
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, In January 1933, shortly before Hitler came to power,
preached a sermon at a vespers service on the evening of the second
Sunday after Epiphany. It was a time of great tension in Berlin, and of
widespread fear. The Hindenburg government was tottering, indeed was
about to go under, and with it Germany’s fragile first republic, created at
Weimar after World War I. There was fear of Communism—the “Red Tide
from the East”—and other extremist movements, and danger from open
fighting in the streets. In the midst of this storm, Bonhoeffer was no more
certain of the future than anyone else, but he was sure that followers of
Christ should know where to turn. “God stands above all . . . his Word
unstayed,” Bonhoeffer assured the congregation that, “The Bible, the
gospel, Christ, the church, the faith—all are one great battle cry against
fear in the lives of human beings. Fear is, somehow or other, the
arch-enemy itself. It crouches in people’s hearts. It hollows out their
insides, until their resistance and strength are spent and they suddenly
break down. Fear secretly gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind a
person to God and to others, and when in a time of need that person
reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual
sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing, while hell
rejoices.” There are several words in the scripture that are associated with
the Holy Spirit. Among those words, there are two particular words. One

2

is "power." There are over 200 references to the Holy Spirit, relating to
some kind of power. The other word is "freedom." “Wherever the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom.” In a strange sense, they are both one,
for freedom is the power to be and to do our high calling in Christ
Jesus. Sadly enough, if we choose the opposite two words, they
describe many of our lives as believers. They would be "impotence"
and "fear," or "fear" and "bondage." These describe two sides of the
same coin. If we are full of fear, then we are powerless to do and to be,
and we become Impaired. We are in bondage, because we do not have the
liberty that is necessary (And we become fearful). God has declared that
there are three things that will break the stranglehold of fear in our
lives - power, love and a self-controlled sound mind. As we allow
these elements to rule in our lives, we discover freedom from fear. If
we used the letter “E” to describe this passage, "energy" would
describe power. We would utilize the word "enjoyment" for love. The
word "equilibrium" stands for soundness of mind. If we put them all
together, we get the word "emancipation" in our freedom from fear.
This can only take place when one is "in Christ." How does this come
about? Paul answered this question in II Corinthians 3:17. He said, "The
Lord is the Spirit, and the Spirit which has been given to us is the Spirit of
the Lord, and where that Spirit dwells, there is freedom." The Holy Spirit is
the great emancipator of our lives. He brings emancipation to our lives,
because He brings power, love and self-control. This, in turn, produces

3

freedom from our fears. Let us take the letter "F" to describe three
home grown, garden variety of fears that many of us suffer. The Spirit
of the Lord, giving us love, power, self-control and soundness of mind,
delivers us from these three great fears. The first is the fear of faces
(Other people). There's no greater bondage in all the Christian life than
being afraid of other people's faces (What others are going to say about
us). This works in several directions. Sometimes it works like it did with
Simon Peter. When Peter was surrounded by friendly faces, he had
courage and determination. He could see himself as having boldness,
courage, power and loyalty to his Lord. Peter was like a lot of us. He
reflected the faces around him. He tended to agree with the face and
word he was with. When he was all by himself that night (In the courtyard,
when Jesus was being tried), that little maiden came up to Peter. She put
her face near his, and said, "You are one of Jesus’ disciples, I know you!"
Peter couldn't take the pressure. That little girl said to him, "You are a
Jesus man." Peter was afraid of faces and his reputation. He was in
terrible bondage and slavery to what people thought of him. He had to fight
this all of his life. Paul had to confront Peter on this weakness. Humans
want to be wanted. We all need to be needed. We all like to be liked. We
all want to see faces that smile in approval. God has made us that way for
a special purpose. He has made us that way so we can surrender this
basic human drive and desire to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can take
this desire and transform it into a drive for God's approval of our

4

lives. There is nothing that compares to the feeling of the smile of God
upon us. Younger people feel strong peer pressure. We need to fix in our
minds that all people do not like to us. No matter what we do, no matter
how hard we try, we are not going to get a hundred percent return. We
need to surrender the unrealistic expectations that "All people will like us."
It is wrong to be liked by everyone. Jesus said to his disciples, "That they
were not above Him (Their master), and the world hated Him. Therefore,
the world is going to hate to us (His disciples)." Jesus is saying that it is a
compliment not to be liked by some people. Think about it, do we have a
higher standard than Jesus had for his own life? This high expectation
leads us into sin and denial, just like it did for Peter. When Peter told the
whole group how faithful he would be to Jesus, the master asked him not to
make such a promise. Peter didn't hear what Jesus was saying, and
plunged forward in his "self-confidence." The heroes of the past have
found their integrity in the midst of great opposition. We can’t be in
bondage to faces and human approval, and be the kind of Christians
Jesus wants us to be. To do that, we become chameleons. These
creatures take on the color of their context. This one chameleon did fine
until he crawled on to a swatch of scotch plaid fabric. The poor chameleon
blew a gasket. Do we know of a bigger piece of scotch plaid than the
community in which we reside? The most effective way to immobilize
fearful people would be to place them in the midst of a faction-filled
environment. Think of all the different standards of right and wrong in our

5

community. Someone thinks it is right to do one thing, while others have
opposing views. It is all right to wear this but not that. It is OK to go to this,
but not that. In each case and category, there are those who feel just the
opposite. If we are oversensitive or fearful, we will be like that chameleon
on the scotch plaid. What is the cure for the fear of faces? Paul tells us
the cure in II Corinthians 3. Here is a whole section about faces. It
speaks of Moses’ face (His unveiled face). Then Paul tells us that the face
of God is unveiled, and revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Scripture
says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with
unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His
likeness, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord,
who is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The
secret here is fixing our faces upon the face of Jesus Christ, looking
to Him and desiring His approval. If we obey that inner instinct, we will
experience true freedom. We can be emancipated from all the other faces
that frighten us. In the last part of the book of John, it says that the disciples
were afraid. They were behind closed doors, for fear of the Jews. Then, in
the book of Acts, after they walked out of that upper room, following
Pentecost, they were delivered from the fear of faces. When the judge
and magistrate charged them for preaching the gospel (After they
threatened and intimidated them), they all replied, "We are sorry, but we
have to obey God and not people." We need to fix our faces on His
face. I like a certain passage in the Psalms that says, "I hold the Lord

6

ever before me, therefore, I shall not be moved." This is a wonderful
verse. I hold the face of the Lord ever before me, therefore I shall not be
moved. I shall not be affected by the approval or disapproval of the faces
around me. Do we need to be delivered from the fear of faces? We
need to fix our faces and eyes on that one and only face, the face in which
the nature and character of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
Another fear is the fear of failure. We are talking here about all kinds
of failures. One of the biggest myths about sanctification is at this
point. Some have the mistaken idea that somehow a religious experience
will computerize us so that we will automatically make all of the right
decisions and choices, and thus we will be fully protected from failure. We
get a crazy kind of notion of a flawless performance, as if we will always
make the right decisions, so that we will never fail or fall. This creates a
paradox for us. There comes a time in our Christian lives that we reach
the end of our struggling, striving and futile attempts with our own efforts.
We try to please God by a flawless performance, where we never make
mistakes, and our decisions are always right. Finally, when we reach the
end of our rope, and we surrender and give it up, then we begin to see the
secret behind it all. The veil drops from our eyes, and we begin to see
ourselves through the eyes of God. We see ourselves in a two-fold
paradoxical way. We have been thinking about failing at certain points,
but then, through the eyes of God, we see ourselves in our unworthiness,
apart from His grace. We finally see that our entire lives have totally

7

missed the mark. I was terrible at archery in junior high school. They
always picked me last for archery. I spent a lot of time digging arrows out of
the sod, because I couldn’t even hit the target. Paul said, "In my flesh (My
sinful human nature) dwells no good thing." God knows that we are made
of dust, and that our frame is frail, but he also sees us in Christ, and it
makes all the difference in the world. Through Christ, we are able to have
perfect success and victory. At this point, we surrender our futile attempts
to prove ourselves to God (Or defend ourselves). If we ever let that go, we
will discover that the strain has gone out of our Christian lives. Then, all of
that wasted energy we have been using up on these "performance" matters
becomes positive energy, which allows us to succeed for a change. That is
why the first verse in Romans 8 says, "There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk in the Spirit and
not the flesh." The greatest enemy (Or drainer) of the emotional energy
and spiritual life is our bondage to guilt and condemnation. It is a burden
when we try to maintain the myth that we are all successes. Thank God
that there is freedom to fail, or make wrong decisions. We can learn
by our mistakes, in a great trial and error process, until we mature
and become better at the business of life. When we first start walking in
the Spirit, this process does not come to us automatically. The old habit of
having to always be right and perfect is an ingrown habit and sticks with us.
The first wrong turn we make, the enemy of our souls comes to us, trying to
make us feel condemned. But immediately, the Spirit nudges us and says,

8

"There is no condemnation. We don't have to play that old game of self-
despising. We need to stop wasting our time, beating the tom toms of guilt.
We need to just claim fresh cleansing and move on." After a while, we can
learn how to live this way. We can learn how to be free from
condemnation. After a while, we can learn how to turn our failures and
guilt into praise. When we have learned how to do that, then we’ve
got it made. When we can concentrate more on what God has taught
us, rather than our human mistakes, then we can come out ahead.
We can even thank God on the heels of failure, saying, "Thank You for
showing me what I am like apart from your Spirit. I am glad I don't
have to prove myself anymore. Thank you for showing me what I am
like, in and by myself. Thank you for reminding me what You are like."
After some experience, all of this becomes a wonderful adventure in the
Holy Spirit. Oswald Chambers says, "There are two deceivers in the
Christian life, success and failure." They are both wrong, and Christ has
not called us to either one. He has only called us to faithfulness. He has
called us to obedience in the Spirit. There is deliverance through the Spirit
from the fear of failure. Wherever the Spirit is, there is the liberty to be who
God created us to be. We may want to ask ourselves what has caused
us to mature the most in our Christian lives. Through successes or
failures? Finally, there is freedom from the fear of the future. That is
what Timothy needed. This young lad was frightened. The future was
irritating him. He was discouraged, and Paul encouraged him to testify for

9

Christ. Paul said, "Be willing to take your share of the suffering in the work
of God's kingdom." In II Timothy 1:9, Paul reminds him that God has
called us with a holy calling. Virtue in this matter is not discovered in
our own works, but in the virtue of God's purpose. That is what can
deliver us from our fear of the future. God is working things out, not
according to our virtues, but in virtue of His own purpose. Then, we can be
delivered from our fear of the future. Why are we so anxious about the
future? Is it a fear of losing an intimate relationship? Is it the fear of losing
our jobs? Is it fear regarding our health? Is it our fear of something
financial? Paul was telling young Timothy that he was not called
because of something in him, but because of something in God. He
said, "Timothy, don't be afraid, because God is working out His
purpose through your life. God is giving you power, love and a self-
controlled mind, and all of this casts out fear." I love the man's prayer
which says, "O Lord, I'm glad that nothing will come up today or tomorrow
that You and I together cannot handle." It has been said that, “When a king
picks up a trifle, it is no longer a trifle.” When God, the Lord of history and
life, picks us up, and takes us into His hands, then we are significant. We
are in the purposes of God, and we do not need to be afraid. Our fear of
the future can be surrendered into His hands, because His hands are
working out His purposes through our lives. Which of these fears do we
need to be delivered from today? Fear of faces? Let us fix our eyes on
His face. The fear of failure? Remember, in His eyes we are total

10

failures, but "in Christ we can do all things. In Christ, there is no
condemnation." Do we fear the future? We are in His hands, and His
purposes will be worked out through our lives. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Sr. added a fifth stanza to the Star Spangled Banner" in 1861 which said,
"When our land is illumined with liberty's smile, If a foe from within strikes a
blow at her glory, Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile The flag of
the stars, and the page of her story! By the millions unchained, Who their
birthright have gained, We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, While the land of the
free is the home of the brave." IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF
THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.