Are You Afraid of Lions?

1 Peter 5:8

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Are you afraid of lions? I think you should be. As far as I’ve read, they can run up to 50 miles an hour for a short period. Certainly they can be fierce when they’re defending their own family or if they are hungry. And so if you’re not afraid, there’s got to be one reason for that. And that would be that there’s some kind of barrier or protection between you and that lion. If you are in an area with a lion without any protection, you have great reason to fear.

The Bible also says there’s another person to fear, and it describes the devil also in as a way of a lion. It says In First Peter, chapter five,

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

The devil tries to devour us by spreading false information by lies to deceive us or to bring us to despair. To put a false trust in ourselves or in others. And in the end, to bring harm to us through evil. We know we shouldn’t be giving into those things, but we don’t have the power in ourselves to fight against it. We are defenseless. We need God’s help.

And thankfully, that’s why God sent his Son into this world so that he might do three things for us.

Jesus saved us.

He saves us.

And He will save us.

Jesus is also known as a lion. In Revelation, chapter five, verse five. He is described as the Lion of Judah. And how did this Lion of Judah save us? Well, we know that he took on a human nature. It was from the very tribe or people of Judah that he was from. Also, we know that God promised that all the people of the Earth would be blessed through him. Now, that blessing came as Jesus came into this world and lived a perfect life. He did not sin in any way, despite the daily attacks of that roaring lion, the devil. Instead, he allowed himself to be taken and put on a cross and gave up his innocent life to pay for the sins of the world. And the resurrection of Jesus from the dead shows that He has won the victory. The Lion of Judah has saved us.

Jesus continues to save us. He does that by bringing us his word. And as we hear that word, we know the truth. We understand that he is there for us to rescue us. Again, when we hear that word of truth of Jesus victory and we are baptized in his name, then we have faith and we have confidence that that forgiveness he won is ours. We also now have the Word of God as our defense. It stands as a barrier between us and all those terrible attacks of the devil.

Jesus also will save us. In that sense we understand that the day we die, whenever that is in the future, he is going to take our souls to heaven. We’re going to be separated from the devil and all that is evil in this world. But then on the last day, Jesus is going to raise all the dead, including our bodies, and our souls will be restored into our bodies after they’re made new. He knows those who are his, and he’s going to call us to be with him forever, even as he sends the devil and all that is evil away forever. And so as we then spend that time with Jesus, the very lamb of God, but also the lion of God who has won the victory for us, we know that we never have to fear again. Any lions or anything else for Jesus has provided all we need and will do so forever. Amen.