Free From Fear

As we prepare for the preaching of the Word, please turn your Bible to Hebrews 2. When you have Hebrews 2, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Preaching today will be from verses 14 to 15, but there's a lot of important context here, so I will begin with verse 5.

Christ’s Superiority Over Angels and the World to Come

Hebrews 2, beginning in verse 5, for it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.

At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not to angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for your Word specifically here in this book of Hebrews addressing the fear of death.

God, I pray that you would make us people who are not fearful, that you would give us spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. God, we thank you for your Son, and we ask that you would open our eyes to see him more clearly today.

In Jesus' name, amen. We live in a world that is full of fear. Consider why it is that OCD and anxiety, things like this, are so prevalent. Why is it so prevalent? It is because people are fearful. The one who has OCD is fearful that they will forget something or something bad will happen if they don't go through their particular ritual that they are attached to.

The one who has anxiety, very obviously, is fearful of something. The world is full of fear, and people are slaves to this fear. They will give up all kinds of things to protect themselves from that which they are afraid of.

And most quintessentially, above all things, death, the fear of death. Now, if this is not obvious to you, just consider how much people sacrificed during the pandemic in order to avoid death. They gave up jobs, they gave up relationships with family, all kinds of things in order to avoid death.

People are slaves to this fear. You know, if there is to be an answer to fear, there must be an answer to death, and that answer to death has been provided in Jesus Christ. He has provided freedom from the fear of death by conquering death itself.

Because we are weak, because we are weak and subject to death, He became weak like us. Because we must face death, He conquered death through dying Himself. And all this sets us free from the slavery we have to fear, to the fear of death.

You know, I've seen depictions of the Garden of Eden, video depictions where, you know, a cartoonist might draw Adam walking around in the garden or something like that. And I always find it quite odd how Adam is depicted, because you see Adam exploring the world for the first time, and he reacts to the things the way that we might react to things.

He's kind of curious and timid and not sure if he wants to touch something because he doesn't know what it will do to him, or maybe a dog barks at him and it takes him a second to realize that the dog is his friend.

None of this is how Adam would have interacted with everything. Fear exists because death exists. Death exists because the fall exists. Fall exists because sin came into the world. Sin came through the temptation of Satan.

And Adam lived in a world without any of that. He had no reason to fear. You know, if you snap your fingers in front of someone's eyes, they'll wince. If you snap your fingers in front of a baby, they typically won't wince.

They have no idea that they should be concerned about something very close to their eyes. The same way Adam had no fear of anything. He wouldn't have interacted with the world timidly. He would have interacted boldly, not knowing any sense of fear.

You know, fear has come into the world because of sin, because of death. There must be an answer to such things. The world has provided all kinds of answers to this fear of death. First of all, many of the religions in the world have provided false ideas of an afterlife to make people feel more comfortable with death.

They speak of reincarnation or other fictions that have no basis in reality, no basis in the word of God, no basis in actual observation of anything. Or they offer some kind of false hope, and if you do enough good things, you'll be able to reach some kind of paradise.

Let me tell you, the sins that you have committed against God are so great. Even if you think they are small, they are so great. No one could ever be admitted by doing enough good things in order to make up for those things that you have done.

Now, many people also use charms, charms to ward off death. You know, we do door-to-door evangelism in this neighborhood, and there's a number of houses I've come across that have this little mirror on top.

I don't know what particular culture, I think it's a Chinese thing, but a mirror is supposed to ward off evil spirits. And when I was young, I watched a documentary about Bruce Lee, and the day before he died or the week before he died, something like that, the mirror fell off the house.

And everyone, you know, speculates whether or not the evil spirits got to him because of the mirror. And have you ever seen these little, they're typically glass, these little amulets that are a light blue and a dark blue and white and black, and it's an eye, it looks like light blue and dark blue.

You probably would, if I showed you a picture of this, you'd probably recognize what I'm talking about. This is called an azar. It's the evil eye, it wards off evil spirits. And I see these things everywhere.

I see these things even in Christian homes, you know, people purchasing these things, not realizing, either not realizing the meaning or realizing the meaning, not realizing how antithetical it is to the way God has called us to ward off evil, through prayer, the way God has called us to deal with our fears of death, through Jesus Christ, not through charms, not through false ideas, not through superstitions, but through Jesus Christ.

Now, our naturalistic, materialistic world, or the philosophy that exists, the atheistic, materialistic world that we typically live in here in Silicon Valley, it has provided its own answers. So, philosophically, many have said, well, there is no afterlife, and so that means, because there is no God, there is no meaning, and this should free us, this should make us most free, because death doesn't matter, because your life doesn't matter.

Isn't that wonderful good news? Far from it, far from it. That does not free anyone from anything. That makes you even further a slave to death, further a slave to a meaningless existence. Or, to deal with fear, the world might try to medicate it away or explain it away by saying that these fears are irrational.

No, many of your fears are quite rational. If your fear is of death, that is a rational fear and is one that needs to be dealt with, not through diagnosing it with some name that doesn't get to the heart of it, not with medication.

Now, I'm not saying that diagnoses and medications aren't appropriate at the right time. What I'm saying is that many people are trying to deal with the spiritual problem through physical means, and these are indeed spiritual problems.

It's very ironic that psychology has the name it is. Do you all know the etymology of that? Psychology, psuche, that is the soul. That is the Greek word for soul. And yet, modern psychology has nothing to do with the soul.

They reject the notion of the soul. There are many spiritual problems that must be dealt with spiritually. An answer is found in Jesus Christ. There is an answer. But this is all very ironic in context because we have just read the earlier part of Hebrews 2 that quotes Psalm 8.

It says, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection to his feet.

Now, this is used here in Hebrews 2 to speak particularly of Jesus Christ. However, in its original context in Psalm 8, the way it is to be read is a speaking of mankind in general. Mankind in general has been set above all creation so that it is to be under his dominion.

But because of sin, man does not have such dominion. Man is subject to death. Creation has mastery over man. And it is also ironic because one might think that, well, you know, a fear of death shouldn't make someone a slave.

Rather, it should drive someone to serve God wholeheartedly. If they're afraid of death, they should be serving God as much as possible in order to escape this death. That's not how it works because there is, apart from Jesus Christ, there is no hope.

Hopeless fear is not going to drive anyone to serve anyone but themselves. They are going to simply say, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. That's the best answer that people have apart from a real answer to death.

Flesh and Blood, Children, and the Incarnation

Now diving into this passage here, verse 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. Speaks here of the children sharing in flesh and blood.

What is flesh and blood? Well, maybe it's very obvious that flesh and blood refers to our human natures. However, it does not just refer to our human natures in general, but it particularly speaks of our weakness, the state that we have because sin has entered the world, because death has entered the world.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 15, 50, it says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. Now Christ has been resurrected. He has body, he has flesh, he has blood. We will be resurrected in flesh, we will have blood, and we will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

But it says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because that phrase flesh and blood, not just speaking of human nature, speaks particularly of fallen human nature, of human weakness.

We are not simply those who have a human nature, but we have a fallen human nature. It is a weak human nature. It is speaking of the same subject as suffering and death that the previous context has spoken of.

And it speaks of them as children. Why does it speak of God's people as children? Well, it's continuing the thought that existed in the previous verse. It said, this is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers.

In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. This is quoting Isaiah 8, speaking of God's people as children of Jesus Christ.

Now, we talked about this last time. I was in Hebrews. This might be odd, because usually you think of us as being children of the Father. God's people are children of the Father. But here, it speaks to them as children of the Son.

And it says the same thing in Isaiah 9. It says that he will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father. So why does it speak of us as children of Christ? Well, for multiple reasons.

The metaphor of children is being expanded here. And particularly, to speak of our fearful natures. Children are fearful people. If you were to drop a child into a city without an adult, what would they do?

They would not know what to do. They would be very helpless. They would be very afraid, not knowing anything. And this is how we are. We are, apart from having one with us who can help us, who can assist us, who can conquer death, apart from that one, we are people who are by nature fearful.

And we really are children. I don't think a lot of people spend much time thinking about this, because you see the range of ages that exist in this room and that exist in this world. And you might think, well, I'm 60 years old.

You know, I'm not a child, I'm an old man. We were designed, Adam was designed to live a lot longer than 70 years or even 100 years. Even before the flood, even after sin entered the world, prior to the flood, mankind lived to be hundreds of years old.

You realize the lifespan that we live is so very, very short. Even in a post-fall world, it is short compared to what people initially experienced. As you get older, you get more mature, you become more understanding of the world around you.

And so you know what things to be confident in. You have more reasons not to fear. But we are people who have lived such incredibly short lives. Even the oldest among us have lived such incredibly short lives.

We really are children compared to all the others that God has created. You know, God has made angels who have lived since the beginning of the world. He has made the earlier generations who have continued on, those believing ones with him in paradise right now, having experienced much more than we have.

We really are, we really are children. And also, it speaks of God's people as children because of their need, their need for a father. And who is the father in this context? In this context, the father that we need is Jesus Christ, who cares for his children.

Now, how does he care for his children? It says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. How did he partake of flesh and blood? He became flesh and blood.

As John 1, 14 says, he became flesh. The word became flesh. As Romans 8, 3 puts it, he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. So not only did he take on a human nature, but he took on a human nature that was weak and fallen.

Now, he is without sin, but he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And this is something that was absolutely necessary in order that we might be saved. How is it that we could be saved if we are subject to death unless someone else exists to pay that penalty?

Well, that's what happened. Christ pays that penalty. He must be subject to the same weakness in order to die on our behalf. And so he does. He takes on flesh and blood. He died on behalf of all those who trust in him.

And consider what that means for how he became flesh and blood, being born of the Virgin in the womb of Mary. It does not mean that he just had a human body. He had all of humanity. If he has to die not only for our sinful bodies, but also for our sinful souls, then in this case, he has both body and soul.

There's a doctrine early on in the church, a heresy known as Apollinarianism, that said that Jesus had a human body, but not a human soul. You know, that's kind of like a Hindu avatar. If you're familiar with how Hindu theology works, their gods inhabit avatars, right?

Bodies that don't have real souls, just the god dwelling in the body. Or if you've seen the movie Avatar, this is why it's called Avatar, is because you have the body of a Navi. I think that's the name of the characters.

And then, I think his name is Jake. You've got the main character who inhabits the body as the mind of this body. But that's not the case with Jesus. He has full body, full soul. He is truly man, in addition to being truly God.

And he has died on our behalf. This was necessary. And consider how this is phrased. When it speaks of the children sharing in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. You know, a child is comforted by the presence of an adult.

Child is comforted because not only does that mean the adult is present to help, but anything that the child has to face, the adult will have to face as well. And if the adult has to face it, then even out of the adult's own sense of self-preservation, the adult will protect the child, right?

And if Jesus Christ now has joined himself to humanity, it is necessary, not just out of his promises and compassion for us that sin be dealt with, that death be dealt with, but even for the sake of his own existence, his own continued existence as a man so that he might continue living on, that he defeat death.

You see, the incarnation is supposed to be a great comfort for us, not just because, yes, because death is answered in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but in him joining himself to mankind. That gives us this complete assurance that anything that mankind must face, he must face.

And therefore, anything that could conquer mankind, he will conquer. And let me tell you, though, even though this says that he partook of flesh and blood, this weakness is describing is not something permanent.

It is only something temporary. There's a great hope in this transition of tenses that is reflected in our English translation here from present tense to past tense. It's not quite like that in Greek, but it says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, right, our weakness is an ongoing thing.

We continue to be flesh and blood. We continue to be weak. Every generation that lives on this earth continues to be weak. He himself likewise partook of the same things. What this is suggesting here is that his weakness is a temporary weakness, and indeed it was.

When he was raised, he was raised in power. He was raised in power and glory, and he ascended on high to the right hand of the throne of God. He is no more beset by flesh and weakness. As I mentioned earlier, in 1 Corinthians 15, 50, it says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

If it cannot, Jesus is not mere flesh and blood, not in the sense of having human weakness, but he is almighty and powerful and invincible, and this gives hope for us because that is the resurrection that he has purchased for his own people.

If you do not have an answer to death, if you do not have an answer to sin, you will be destroyed. There will be a resurrection of the unrighteous, but it will not be a glorious resurrection. It will be a natural resurrection where your body is stitched together as much as necessary that you will be able to experience the physical torments that await.

However, however, there is hope. Do not despair because there is great hope. There is great hope in Jesus Christ. If you simply but trust in him, there is salvation from that so that you can enjoy all the things that he has purchased by him bearing the wrath of God in place of all those who trust in him, by bearing the wrath of God, purchasing this great resurrection for us.

Christ’s Victory Over the Devil, Accusation, and Death

It continues on here saying that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Now, what power does the devil have? Now, this is speaking of Satan. He's not a figure with pointy horns that you might have seen in cartoons.

He is a real angelic being. He is the one who tempted Adam and Eve, who is a great enemy of God's people. What power does he have? It says he has the power of death. What does that mean? It does not mean that he has the power to kill whomever he will.

He has never had blanket permission to simply kill whoever he will. You can read the book of Job and as it explains in the book of Job, he had to get permission to touch one hair on the head of Job. He does not have permission to harm anyone apart from God's expressed permission.

So what blanket abilities does he have? Well, he has the ability to tempt mankind. He was the great tempter who tempted Adam and Eve to disobeying God, bringing sin into the world. And he still prowls like a roaring lion today, tempting.

And he doesn't do this just personally. He does this through his many minions, through other angelic beings who have gone along with him in this sin. And he uses the things that exist in the world and our own sinful natures in order that we would be tempted.

Now he also has the power of accusation. Satan doesn't just tempt, but having tempted people into sin, them having sinned, he then accuses them. So he accuses man because he cannot destroy them, but he knows God's law and he knows that God will destroy those who go against him.

And so he accuses those who are God's people because even God's people have sin. Now, this accusation is most powerful, not because Satan is powerful, but because God himself is powerful and because his law is powerful.

So who can deal with such accusation? You know, this is why we are all so enslaved to the fear of death, because this power of accusation, this is why we're all beset with such guilt apart from the power of Christ.

It's because of this power of accusation. If you had some crime that you had committed that someone else knew about, and they had come to you and blackmailed you, and you knew that you would get the death penalty because of this thing, you would do all that you could to satisfy this blackmailer.

This is the role of Satan. He is the great blackmailer. He is the great accuser. And just like any other blackmailer, I assume, it doesn't matter how much you pay them. They will always want more. And it won't save you in the end.

So you cannot satisfy your guilt by going to self-help books, by any other means. You can only satisfy guilt by going to the one who can take guilt away, the only one who can pay down the penalty that you owe.

And that is this one who, it says, through death, destroyed the one who has the power of death. Jesus Christ has destroyed the power of death by dying in place of all those who must die. He has destroyed the power of death.

Now, we still, in this life, are flesh and blood. We have this corrupt body that must die. Yet, it will be raised again in life if we trust in Jesus Christ. And our souls, which go on eternally, will experience joy in the presence of our Savior.

Why? Because he has taken away the power of Satan's accusation. It says in Revelation 12, 10 that the accuser has been cast down. He no longer has power of accusation. It says that he has been brought to nothing.

It is not that he has been brought to nothing and that he no longer exists, or his essence has been destroyed, but his power has been brought to nothing because he no longer has power of accusation over God's people.

Those who are in Jesus Christ, those who have the sacrifice of Christ's blood, that accusation no longer can have any effect on them because they have had their guilt removed by him. You know, if you are struggling with guilt, this is the answer for your guilt.

Nothing else will take it away because it's not just others that you have sinned against. You have sinned against your great maker. You must satisfy him. And nothing that you have will satisfy him. You are too poor.

Even your own life is worth too little to pay what you owe him. That's what it says in the Psalms, that man cannot ransom the life of another man because his life is worth too little. Instead, God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol.

We need the power of God to ransom us. Christ, his life was worth enough. He was able to pay that penalty on the cross. And so, as it says in Romans 8, 34, what charge shall any bring against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. You know, to justify means to make right. One tries to justify themselves, they try to explain why they're in the right. God can truly justify. He can make someone in the right, even though they had been in the wrong.

How does he do this? By paying the penalty for their sins through his gracious gift of Jesus Christ. This is how that can happen. And what this means for us is several things. One, there's a spiritual battle going on, right?

Satan is real. He still prowls around like a roaring lion. Even if you are in Christ and able to resist his powers of accusation, he still tempts. There's a spiritual battle going on, and so we must fight it spiritually, and we must fight it through prayer.

If you are not a person of prayer, you must become a person of prayer. You must go to the Lord regularly. It is more important than any kind of physical defense you can give yourself. You put on your seatbelt as you drive, but how much more important is it to prepare yourself spiritually for the dangers that are ahead?

Secondly, because he has freed us from the one who has power of death, because he has freed us from this fear of death, it means that he has equipped us with everything we need in order to resist. This means that even in order to resist the tempter, he has given us his Holy Spirit.

A lot of people who are trapped in sin think there's just no way that they can get out of it, that they simply have to learn to deal with this cross they have to bear, this great sin that they're struggling with, that they will just have for the rest of their lives.

That is not the case. If you have trust in Jesus Christ, you have the power of his Spirit, he has enabled you to resist every temptation. He has made the way of escape. And it is also the case that if the accuser no more has power, there's no reason to hide because of a blackmailer.

There's no reason to hide your sin, but rather you can confess your sins to others, knowing that if God is for us, who can be against us? Who can make any charge against God's elect? This frees us to confess our sins to others.

You know, people go around with all kinds of guilt, just weighing them down day after day after day, and there is perfect freedom in Christ to get all of that off your chest, to be able to tell others of it, to be forgiven by the Lord, to not carry around this burden, day after day, weighing you down.

It is entirely unnecessary. It says here that Jesus Christ also delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. You know, what is this slavery that is spoken of here? Well, as I've explained, if you fear death, it controls everything else you do because you will do whatever it takes to avoid death.

You know, what would you do in order to not die? You would give every last penny you have in order to not die. If death is truly the worst thing that exists, if it is not the worst thing that exists, there's all kinds of other options.

But if death is the worst thing, you will do everything. If death will take you away, and then you will no more have any opportunity to change anything, that makes your whole life, in a sense, meaningless.

You know, what can you do if death is the end and then that's it? You know, even, a lot of people think that, you know, their life is meaningful because, you know, a lot of people with atheistic beliefs think that their life is meaningful because they will pass on things to the next generation even if they don't go on.

From a personal point of view, that's not true, right? Because you will cease to exist and you won't know anything. You know, adopting that worldview for a moment. But even if you have that worldview and you say that, well, I will pass on meaning to the next generation.

You know, entropy is a thing. The heat death of the universe is supposed to be a thing. If that's the case, ultimately, nothing has any meaning anyway. What hope is there in any of that? You know, the only hope we have, the only meaning we can have is if there is truly an eternity, if things continue on.

And once again, all of that is available in Jesus Christ. This fear that we have of death, that controls us, it does not need to. We can be made free. We can be made free in him. And it says he has delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

You know, he has set people free. If you do not fear death, if death is not the worst thing that could possibly happen to you, that gives you all kinds of options. You know, who would serve God as a missionary going out to a place where they could be martyred, where they could be killed if they thought that death was the worst thing?

You know, the reason why great men of God have been able to do great, incredible things is because they do not fear death because they know there is an answer to death because they know that there is a life beyond death, a life that is so much better than this life we have now.

You can be freed to live that life. You can be free not only to go out as a missionary, that's not something that God has called everyone to, but he does call some to it, and if he calls you to it, you should be able to go without fear.

You know, he's called you to share his word in other ways. We've read about not hiding your light under a bushel, not hiding your light under a basket. You are free to not fear any of the repercussions that might come through man in this life.

A lot of people are afraid of losing their jobs by being a little more open about their faith. There's no reason to fear such things. A lot of people are afraid of what might happen in their relationships if they speak the truth.

There's no reason to be afraid of such things. All these are far less issues than death, and death has an answer. It has been answered in him. Every last one of these things, there is no reason to be afraid.

Now, of course, you'll take precautions in your life around threats that you can mitigate, but for the things that God has called you to do, for the great things that he has called you in obedience to, there is no reason to fear the repercussions that may come because he has assured us that that worst thing that can happen to us is nothing.

Courage for Young People, the Elderly, and the Church

And so let me apply this to several groups of people, specifically young people in particular. You should be eager to go out and serve God in radical ways. Now, like I said, God does not call everyone to be a missionary, but whatever it is he's called you to, do not settle for mediocrity.

Pursue faithfully everything the Lord has called you to without fear of what the repercussions might be. Psalm 118 .6 says, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? What can man do to you?

Well, he could kill you, but if death, if there is a great life after death, then what danger is that? You know, for the elderly, I would say that you should encourage young people to do radical things, not rather giving them a spirit of fear, telling them all the things they need to be worried about, but rather encouraging them to be courageous in the things that God has called them to.

And also, I'd say for the elderly, as you reach your later years, as you begin facing death itself, that you ought to have an attitude that demonstrates to others what it looks like to have confidence and comfort in the Lord, not being afraid.

This is something where younger Christians are going to be fairly timid about death, and you have the opportunity to display to them what courage looks like. You know, I will never forget my last conversations with my grandmother before she passed away.

I forget if that was a year or two years ago, but she was just so assured of where she was going, and it was so much better than where she was. She was so joyful, she did not have a hint of fear about her, and it was something that just really, I just thought, this is the way Christians should die.

This is the way Christians should die, joyfully excited for what's coming before them, encouraging their families not to mourn as others mourn, not as people without hope, but people with a great hope.

And so, as you reach your later years, or even those of you who are younger, if you end up facing an early termination of your life, go with great courage, knowing what lies ahead of you, and steel yourself in this now.

You know, read this word now. Assure yourselves of these truths now, because when it comes time to face those things, you won't have time to dwell in them, to build up that confidence. You must begin building up that confidence now.

That's true for all the trials that exist in this life. You don't wait until the trial comes to get ready for it. You start getting ready for it now. Now, for, you know, there were many other, there are many other things that could be considered here.

During the, actually, I preached this passage before. You know, I have been going pretty regularly through Hebrews when I get the opportunity to preach in the morning, but a long time ago, I skipped way ahead and preached this passage.

And I don't know if you all remember when that was. It was the first weekend of the pandemic. You know, we had considered all the situation, and the strategy that they were communicating at the time was to keep the hospital numbers low.

And, you know, there were certain things that were open, liquor stores were still open, et cetera. And it did not seem right to cancel worship, given how small the numbers were that first weekend, and given the stated goals that the county had given, which were just to keep hospital numbers low.

And so we met, and we went through this passage. There are going to be all kinds of times when you are facing the fear of death, and God has called you to something where you have to be able to look death in the eye and know that death has no power.

You know, as John Donne said, "'Mighty, many have called you, but thou are not so.'". Death has no power. Death, thou shalt die. Death will be no more because Christ has conquered death through his shed blood on the cross, through his body broken for us.