FREEDOM FROM FEAR, PART 4: SUBMISSION AND INTIMIDATION

1 Peter 3:5-6, Matthew 10:26-28 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
29 September, 2002
All Rights Reserved

I. HUGH AND NICHOLAS LIGHT A CANDLE

The heavy oaken door to Hugh's cold, damp cell in the Bocardo prison creaked open on its iron hinges. The foul reek of the place would be lessened only slightly by his departure. It was an equal-opportunity stink--men of high position tossed in with common criminals who smelled bad even before their imprisonment. The sunlight blasted Hugh's eyes almost as hard as if he had been struck across the face. Hugh squinted up at the old tower of St. Michael's of Oxford and wondered if Thomas could see him through the slits in the stone.

It had been six months this time--from the freshness of spring, through the heat of summer, and into the relief of fall in the rude stone box. "No need to worry about winter," Hugh thought. His coarse woolen garment, cap, and stockings would suffice. Not a young man, Hugh had already spent eight years imprisoned in the Tower of London with its horrendous conditions--bad food which often made him sick, poor sanitation, and no protection from extremes of weather. Along with the other few literate inmates, he had passed the years writing and discussing the momentous matters which had caused their imprisonment. He had done the same this time in Bocardo, the common prison of Oxford.

Hugh, looking stooped and shriveled, shuffled down the packed dirt of Cornmarket Street as his jailers marched him northward. Ahead of him was another prisoner wearing a furred black gown who looked familiar from the back. The man suddenly looked behind him and exclaimed: "Oh, there you are!" Hugh answered his younger friend Nicholas,"Yes, and I'm following after you as fast as I can." They both knew where they were going.

The procession turned right at Broad Street and the men were led to a ditch strewn with garbage and filth. The venerable stones of Balliol College rose above them in gothic style. The spires, peaked roofs, and carved windows loomed impassively. Strong stakes had been planted in the ground and the two prisoners were led to these. As people gathered around a representative of the church gave a speech against Hugh and Nicholas, quoting the Apostle Paul as justification for what was about to happen.

Nicholas asked permission to speak. Two men ran over and clamped their hands over his mouth. One answered: "If you will revoke and recant your erroneous opinions, you will have the liberty to speak."

Nicholas' mouth was released and he asked, "Not otherwise?"

"No," said one of the men muzzling him.

"Then God's will be done!" Nicholas replied.

"And so it shall," thought Hugh. "I have long expected this." The prisoners, commanded to ready themselves, stripped off their outer clothes and gave them to friends in the crowd. The old man who had seemed so weak and bent suddenly stood before the crowd straight-backed and fearless.

Nicholas spoke next. "Heavenly Father, I thank you for my calling to speak your truth no matter what happens to me. Lord, I ask that you would have mercy on our nation and deliver her from all her enemies." A servant chained both men to the stakes, and as the end was being nailed in place Nicholas cried out: "Bang it in hard, man, so I don't come off!" A bag of gunpowder was placed around each man's neck. Kindling was piled up around them and then a load of heavier wood.

As preparations were made Hugh's mind raced through the beloved truths which had brought him to be chained to a stake in a ditch outside Balliol College: "No mediator but Christ," he mused. "Salvation by faith alone in the work of Christ...by grace alone, with no works of ours...none. Thus say the Holy Scriptures. Who can deny it? If believing this gospel is the cause of my condemnation, then so be it," he thought. "I cannot deny Christ to please the Queen."

Rough hands ignited the kindling wood under him and broke the reverie. Hugh remembered his brother in the faith. He turned to Nicholas and spoke in a voice rich with confidence: "Be of good cheer, Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as I trust, shall never be put out."* As the flames licked hungrily upward, Hugh heard Nicholas call out: "Lord, Lord, receive my spirit!"

Hugh rubbed his face with his hands, and made a motion as if he were washing his hands in the fire. He cried out: "O Father of heaven, receive my soul!" At that moment the bag of gunpowder around Bishop Hugh Latimer's neck exploded in his face. He was already gone before his friend cried out, "Lord have mercy on me!" He never saw Bishop Nicholas Ridley squirm in the flames, twist deliberately to ignite the gunpowder, and go to meet his Maker in a sulphurous blast. Their friend Thomas Cranmer, the former archbishop of Canterbury, would leave this world five months later in the same way, from the same spot, and for the same reason.

[* These are Latimer's exact words. This account of true events from 1555 is adapted from The New Foxe's Book of Martyrs.]

II. FEAR OF SUBMISSION

Fear draws the size of the box beyond which we will not follow God. Perhaps you have seen the dog control system which lays a transmitter wire in the ground around your home. A receiver with a shocking device is strapped around the dog's neck. Whenever he steps over the wire he receives a harmless but disturbing electrical shock. Eventually, the dog learns the shape and dimensions of his safe area. When that happens, the system does not even have to be turned on and the dog will stay inside the box. What invisible force keeps him inside? Fear. He remembers the zapping and adapts his lifestyle to prevent it from ever happening again. Think about what that means. An animal created by God to roam the wilds is successfully confined to a small yard by the power of fear.

Most churches and most Christians have developed a similar pattern of following God. As new Christians we roamed all over with Christ, doing all sorts of things. Then the bad experiences started to pile up, and we began to draw a set of boundaries beyond which we would not go. The sad thing is that Christ himself might say to us: "Go over there," and we would not. "Lord, you don't know what you're asking! We went over there in '52, or '94, and got zapped big time!" We would not say no to our Lord directly, but if we delay our obedience often enough, we can get used to the feeling of not doing what Christ has asked. Fear, though invisible, is powerful enough to shut down the kingdom ministry of any church.

This is true of us as individuals as well. Our personal walk with Christ is supposed to be a hike with Jesus across the whole world, but fear can cause us to limit it to strolls to the mailbox. On our side of the false barrier is freedom from imagined fears. (Can we really be free of any fear we don't face?) On the other side of the barrier is the power of Christ and the fulfillment of our destiny as servants of the King of kings. That's why Christ kept repeating: "Do not fear, do not fear, do not fear."

Submission to Christ is a key area of fear which limits our lives. The Apostle Peter revealed that God knows all about our problem. One specific case which reveals this issue has to do with wives submitting to husbands out of respect for God: "For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear" (1 Peter 3:5-6). God says to women: "Submit to the guy who leaves dirty socks around," women have a reasonable fear of that, and God knows all about it! We all have similar fears, though the subject might be different.

The Bible is full of commands, for example, to submit to church leaders (Heb. 13:6), to parents (Eph. 6:1), to government (1 Peter 2:13), and to employers (1 Peter 2:18). Take joining the church. A few people may have some principled theological reason why they won't apply for formal membership, but most just avoid it out of fear of coming under the elder board. Some fear joining the church because of the danger of being asked to serve on a committee. But why should your connection to the local body of Christ be defined by your fears rather than your faith?

Many people say that they fear entering into the divine institution of marriage because of pain they have seen others endure. I don't doubt that fear is real, but it sounds like an excuse for loose morals. In our society why would anyone bother buying the cow when the milk is free? Men have a well-known fear of commitment, but now many women have been taught that marriage will prevent their fulfillment as persons. So the blessings of marriage found through obedience to God go out the window because of fear and are replaced with casual sex, ever-shifting relationships, shacking up, children with no stable parents, selfishness, betrayal, and abortion. Why are we afraid of commitment but not those things?!?

It is because today's individualism prevents us from seeing that submission to the commands of God does not just affect us personally. We are thinking: "I don't want to give up control of my life to God, country, family, etcetera, because I'm afraid it will be hard for me." Our refusal to submit to God in these areas scars our children for life, destroys the souls of those whom we betray in order to feel free, leaves our country in the lurch in time of war, and shoots holes in the ministry of the local church. Rather than referring to individual submission, Greek word for "submit" has the idea of each of us taking our place in a God-arranged order which includes lots of other people. In the first century it was used for a soldier taking his place in the ranks of an army. In conquering the fear of submission to God and others it is very helpful to get our thoughts off of ourselves and see the other people who will be harmed if we choose to follow our fear rather than our faith.

The solution to our fears is to see our submission as primarily to God, not fallible humans. Sarah did not place her hope in Abraham, but God: "For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands." If we only stare at the humans and their failings, we will always be tempted to disobey these commands. God says: "Don't stare at them. Fix your eyes on Me." James wrote: "Submit therefore to God... ...Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you." (James 4:7a, 10). Then we will conquer our fear of submission to humans by submission to God.

The fear of humans is relatively easy to conquer but we have a larger problem of the fear of submitting to God himself. Have you been afraid to let yourself go totally into God's hands for fear that he would call you into vocational ministry? He might even want you to be a missionary! Responding to God's calling is the biggest submission of all, and it is not just for those called to the ministry. The question is: "Am I willing to do whatever he says?" Instead of asking: 'What will I lose by submitting?" we should ask: "What will I miss if I don't?"

God has promised to lead every one of us into the blessing which goes with following him out past the mailbox. Peter got spooked about God's provision and in answering him Jesus gave an almost unbelievable promise: "Peter began to say to Him, 'Behold, we have left everything and followed You.' Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life'" (Mark 10:28-30). Believe me, you can trust him to take care of you. Who is more worthy of your total trust: you or him? It's a no-brainer! Our lives are better off in his hands.

III. FEAR OF INTIMIDATION

The disciples of Jesus struggled with all sorts of fears regarding their own calling, one of which was intimidation by those who were trying to stop them. This was the essential conflict of the sixteenth century English martyrs Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. The essence of the gospel was at stake. At the time the church was under the control of government and the government did not believe in salvation through faith alone in Christ. They had added an immense burden of additional requirements to the faith, and the good bishops had a choice to make: sign-off on the outrageous false gospel that was being presented, or stand with the word of God and the gospel of salvation by grace through faith.

Every threat was brought against these men to cease teaching what we know to be the true gospel of Christ. They were threatened with their very lives. Jesus knew that this would happen repeatedly in the history of the church: "Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:26-28).

He begins by urging all ministers of the gospel not to fear. If God is for us, who can be against us? And how are we to be certain that God is for us? Jesus tells us to stick to our job description by proclaiming exactly what he tells us, no more and no less: "What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops." In another place God says: "Do not go beyond what it written." Once we add to or subtract from the truth of the gospel it is no longer the gospel and we remove ourselves from the protection of God.

And the cure for our fears is to fear the right thing. Don't fear the puny humans, but fear the Almighty God! This is how all our fears about ministry can be put to rest. I think this may be the reason why so few Western Christians share their faith and why the church in the West seems to be waning: we are indeed afraid to die for Christ. We are following our fears. Honestly, I'm just like you. If I don't fight my way out of the fear of intimidation every day, I don't share my faith. I wonder: What will the other person say or think? Will he speak harshly to me? Will our friendship be ruined? Of course, what kind of a friend does not tell his friend about a life and death matter?

Jesus paints a picture of ministry the way that it is done by those who are not afraid to die. Fearless Christians cannot be shut down by their intimidators. Ridley and Latimer actually asked--in front of the stakes and wood set for their burning-- for the opportunity to preach the very message which would result in their martyrdom! That's what fearing God instead of man looks like! Can we not today stand up to the mere social abuse we get for telling the truth?

Very few of us will be called by God to die for our faith. The real question for most of us is: While we yet live, will we be controlled by fear or faith? Will we live dangerously outside the invisible fence, or will we try to stay between the house and the mailbox? Do we want a limited earthly comfort for human fears, or do we want the fullness of truth and Spirit to flow through us to the glory of God? No one remembers the name of the clergyman who stood to explain why burning Latimer and Ridley was Biblical. But we remember the men of truth, and the Spirit-led words of faith: "Be of good cheer, Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as I trust, shall never be put out." Will we "play the man" and by God's grace light such a candle for our time, our nation, and the world? This is Christ's calling--outside the invisible fence of fear.