These are notes on the sermon, No More Fear of Death, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Many believers wrestle with this question: Why are things not working out when I’m doing my best to live right? They might be trying to glorify God in their workplaces and families, but are still not seeing answers to their prayers or breakthroughs.
This is the same question that troubled Job. The Bible calls Job a righteous man. He honored the system God had established and regularly offered burnt offerings for his children in case they had sinned. But even Job asked, Why do the righteous suffer?
Job’s dilemma reflects something deeper in all of us—a longing to understand suffering in light of righteousness. But toward the end of Job’s life, he realized that that’s not the question we should be asking. The real question is, “Are there any truly righteous people?”
Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). By our own behavior, not one of us stands righteous before God. If we measure ourselves by our own moral standards, or even by comparing ourselves to others, we may appear “good.” But God measures us by His own holiness. And by that measure, all have fallen short.
The only righteousness God accepts is the righteousness that comes by faith in our Lord Jesus. His finished work has washed us clean and given us right standing with God today. This is what makes us righteous and good, not by our works, merits, or obedience, but by our faith in His finished work.
Every day, we are to live in the light of the cross, conscious of what our Lord Jesus has done for us. In fact, the revelation of our Lord Jesus as the true Lamb of God was why John the Baptist was deemed the greatest of all prophets. And this Lamb—God’s own darling Son—took on flesh and blood. Not to save angels, but to save us.
The Lord didn’t have to, but He chose to come down as a man and endure suffering—all to redeem us. He came down to our level, bore our sin, and died our death, so that we might be made righteous.
And because of what He’s done, God no longer sees sin in us. Though we may still stumble and fall, and still have our fears, doubts, and moments of unbelief (Rom. 14:23), He sees every sin fully judged at the cross. Today, He sees us in Christ—holy, blameless, and completely accepted. We’ve been raised with Christ and are now seated with Him at the Father’s right hand (Col. 3:1).
And how can we know that this righteousness truly belongs to us? The resurrection is the proof.
You can be confident in this today that all your sins have been effectively put away and that you have been made righteous. This verse tells us that the Lord was not raised from the dead and seated at the Father’s right hand simply because He is the Son of God. He was raised because all of our sins have been effectively put away!
Jesus came as a man to die for us on the cross and to effect the new covenant in our lives. If even one sin had remained on us, He could not have risen. And His resurrection is the divine proof that His work at the cross was complete!
Every single one of your sins and failures—past, present, and future—has been fully paid for. This means you no longer have to wonder if you’re accepted, if you’re “clean enough,” or if you’ve done enough. The resurrection is the receipt of your righteousness. Because He lives, we can face every day knowing we are justified, accepted, and loved!
Jesus didn’t just save us from afar—He took on flesh and blood and stepped fully into our world. This is the heart of God: He draws near to His own. Time and again throughout Scripture, we see a God who comes down to be with His people, and when He does, there is always salvation and deliverance.
When the children of Israel were groaning under the burden of slavery in Egypt, God heard them (Exod. 3:7). Even if it was just their groaning, that alone moved His heart. In Exodus 3:8, He says,
Later, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed—a picture of His presence with us in our suffering. It’s as though He was saying to them, “You may burn, you may suffer, but you will never perish.”
That is your God. Even today, He comes down to where you are, and He will deliver you and lift you up into a good and large place. Your Abba Father is not distant or removed, but present in your darkest hour. Isaiah 63:9 tells us, “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.”
Beloved, He feels your pain. You are not alone. He is in the fire with you. And because He is with you, you can walk through the fire to the other side without fear.
Now let’s consider the question we started with: Why is it that sometimes, even when we’re doing our best to live right, we’re still not seeing the breakthroughs we’re believing for?
We get a clue from this story in the book of Joshua…
After the children of Israel entered the promised land, the first major obstacle they faced was the fortified city of Jericho. Naturally, the people expected a fight—after all, they were now warriors, ready to take possession of what God had promised them.
But before any battle began, Joshua saw a Man standing before him with a sword in His hand. Joshua asked, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” And the Man answered,
The Man was the preincarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus. He came not to take sides but to take command. Joshua immediately recognized that he was in the presence of the Lord and fell on his face in worship.
What happened next gives us a picture of how the Lord leads us today. The battle of Jericho was not won by military strategy. The people didn’t fight; they simply obeyed what God instructed them to do. They marched around the walls, they shouted, and the walls fell! Through this, we see that victory was not theirs to achieve; it was the Lord’s. Likewise, today, in the midst of our challenges, our Lord wants us to simply rest knowing that the battle belongs to Him. Our part is to entrust our situation to Him, keep our eyes on Him, and praise Him.
From here, we can see why many of us are not seeing our situations change: we’re trying to fix the problem ourselves. We may not even realize it, but we’re putting our strength into the situation, trying to save our marriages, manage our health, handle our kids, or figure out our finances through our own efforts.
We need to come to a place where we say, “Lord, I can’t. I really, truly can’t.” That’s not weakness, that’s faith. Because when you step aside, the Lord steps in. Just like He did at Jericho. Just like He did for Jehoshaphat, to whom it was declared, “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” Just like David, who stood before Goliath and proclaimed, “The battle is the Lord’s.”
So, beloved, let the Lord fight your battles for you today!
Sometimes, the battles we face aren’t just external; they’re internal, too. And at the root of many fears is a deeper one we may not even realize: the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14–15 tells us:
This verse reveals the truth that the fear of death holds people in bondage. While we might not consciously fear death, many of our daily anxieties trace back to it—fear of flying, fear of sickness, fear of receiving a bad report, fear of the unknown. These surface fears often stem from that same root. Our Lord Jesus came as one of us to destroy the devil, who had the power of death, and to set us free from the fear that enslaves us.
How did He do that? By washing us of our sins with His own blood and making us righteous with His own righteousness. And today, because we are already righteous in Christ, we no longer need to fear judgment. And because we no longer need to fear judgment, we no longer need to fear death, which is a result of judgment.
Now knowing that you have already been made free of the fear of death, how do we walk in this freedom? Revelation 12:11 tells us,
The “him” here refers to the enemy. And we overcome him by the blood of Jesus, our Lamb of God and unshakable defense and covering. In His blood is not just forgiveness but also victory, protection, healing, and deliverance.
Pastor Prince shared how he personally pleads the blood of Jesus over every flight he takes and over his home. And when his daughter was younger, their home then was plagued by bees. But after he prayed and pleaded a line of the Lord’s blood around the house, all the bees died where the line had been drawn. This is a powerful reminder of the divine protection we have through our Lord’s blood.
Pastor Prince also encouraged us to guard what we read and hear. The world is bound by so much fear, and we are constantly bombarded with bad news. If we keep feeding on bad news, it is no wonder that we will find ourselves enveloped in fear and worry!
So instead of filling our minds with bad news, let’s fill ourselves with God’s Word. As Psalm 34:4 declares, “I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
Beloved, has anything been causing you fear? Call upon the name of Jesus, and He will deliver you!
Our Lord Jesus isn’t far removed from our struggles. Though He’s seated in heaven, He still feels what we feel. Hebrews 4:15 (KJV) says,
The Lord doesn’t just sympathize with us—He empathizes. He enters into our pain and feels it with us. In Mark 7, before healing the deaf and mute man, Jesus sighed. That deep sigh was a groan—in Greek, stenazo—from His innermost being. It’s the root of the word “groans” used in Romans 8, where it says creation groans under the weight of brokenness. Jesus felt the man’s pain before healing him. And in that place of love and compassion, healing flowed.
Even now, our Lord is moved with compassion for us, His people. And He invites us to walk like He does, to extend the same love and tenderness to the others around us.
When someone you love is hurting, don’t rush to pile on the advice. Ask the Lord for the grace to empathize—to just sit with them and feel with them. We can all live this out in our marriages and parenting. When you talk to your children—whether teens or adult children—take time to find out where they’re at. Get involved in what interests them. When you get involved, there are moments when you can influence them for the Lord.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is to just be present and listen. When we take the time to feel with those we love, understanding flows. And we, too, grow as we learn to walk in their shoes. So, this week, ask the Lord for grace to empathize with the people around you!
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2025
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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