Fear seems to constantly plague people but a minister shared that the Lord Jesus Christ understands this feeling because He also felt the same when He became a mortal man Himself to save the world.
"Jesus had more fear on his way to the cross than any human being has ever experienced... If you've ever been fearful of anything, Jesus understands it and He was more fearful than any person has ever been fearful," Pastor Jimmy Evans said during his sermon titled "Overcoming Fear" on April 10, reported by The Christian Post.
Dr. Evans, the senior pastor of Gateway Church, was a guest minister at Fellowship Church, headed by Pastor Ed Young, last Sunday.
The pastor went on to say that at the time in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest, Jesus felt immense fear which even made Him sweat blood, a medical condition which is known today as hematohidrosis.
He declared that Jesus has never experienced fear except for that instance in the Bible and he shared the reasons why.
First, His "identification as a fellow human."
Dr. Evans explained that if a person comes to Jesus and tells about his feelings, the LORD will respond that He completely understands him because He Himself became man. During His sojourn in the world as a human being, Jesus experienced being tempted "in every single way" that an ordinary person is tempted. Despite this, however, He never committed sin.
The pastor then encouraged the congregants that they have a "throne of grace" which they can go to every time they need God. He pointed out that man can only go to the LORD through grace and not by merit or holiness.
He also emphasized that people have a "good God" Who loves them in spite of their imperfections.
"God loves you. He adores you," he said, citing Psalm 103:8-14.
Further, he urged them to become bold in approaching the LORD when they are undergoing "something," as Hebrews 4:16 says, because God Himself wants them to come to His throne.
The second reason why Jesus was so fearful that moment is that He had "the full knowledge of every single detail of everything He was about to endure."
"No one has ever been tortured and no one has ever died the death that Jesus was about to die and He knew exactly every blow that he was gonna receive," the pastor stated.
He added that Christ even begged His Father thrice that He did not want to undergo through it. But God refused His request.
Nevertheless, despite the enormity of the suffering that He was about to go through, Jesus chose to surrender to the will of God.
Dr. Evans highlighted that God's refusal to Jesus is "very important" because His death on the cross is the only way for man to be saved.
"If there was any way to heaven, God the Father would not have sent Jesus down the cross," he added, as written in John 14:6.
Relative to this truth, the pastor criticized the belief on universalism, which he described as a "common heresy."
"There's only one way to heaven: it's through Jesus Christ," he stressed, before reading Acts 4:12.
Finally, the third reason why Jesus was so fearful is because of the "spirit of fear" - He was under "full-scale assault" by the devil.
The minister said that man was born fearless but the enemy controls people through fear and the thing that people fear the most is death.
He then told his audiences that as Christians, they never die. He explained that their bodies may die one day but when they close their eyes for the last time on earth, they will immediately open their eyes in heaven.
"When you take your last breath here, you take your first breath in heaven immediately after that," he stated.
Thus the beauty of resurrection that Jesus Christ has brought to the world.
He continued by saying that the devil uses fear to control people to keep them from doing the things that God wants them to do.
"Fear is a prophet spirit from hell sent to upset you and get you to do something based on that fear that God will not honor and will hurt you" the pastor cautioned.
"God never honors fear. God only honors faith. You will always regret every fear-based decision you'll ever make," he further warned.
"You'll never regret a faith-based decision. When you put your faith in God," Dr. Evans declared.
