The Gospel of Luke: Jesus is for everyone – who are you afraid of?

Luke 12:1-12

Who are you afraid of? Who has power over you? Whoever or whatever you fear will control your life. Who controls your life? Is it God or it someone else?

1. Fear of Pharisees & hypocrisy – the Pharisees were the religious police of their day. Everyone had to follow their rules in order to be acceptable to God. Sinners were despised and not good enough. This is not the Gospel of Jesus, this is religion. The Pharisees had the power to stop you worshipping at the temple. The Pharisees are still present in some churches today. Jesus warned if the yeast of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. They put up barriers to finding God. Hypocrites hide their sins, but Jesus said all would be made known and brought into the light. God knows everything about us, but He still wants us to come to Him and confess our sins so that we can move on in cleanness.
2. God is not the enemy of be feared but trusted – when we confess our sins we become friends of God; He forgives us and our lives no longer need to be full of fear and dread. If you are a child of God:
   1. You are precious to God – your eternal future is secure. God will not forget you.
   2. Your name will be honoured in heaven – when we proclaim the name of Jesus we will be honoured in heaven. Why do we let fear of man stop us from telling others about Jesus?
   3. The Holy Spirit will teach you what to say – we fear that we won’t know what to say so we say nothing. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will teach us what to say. We need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to make a stand for Jesus.