Fear of the Gospel
What do you fear? One of my worst fears is spiders. In the movie “Arachnophobia” quite a few years back, I realized that true arachnophobia is really the fear of what other spiders will do to you if you kill one- maybe the spider’s brother is watching and will take revenge? I truly believe God created spiders for one reason- for me to kill them- but seriously, I hate ‘em so much, it bugs me. What do you really fear though? I asked everyone at the devotional on Friday night what their fears were, and their answers included; rejection, not measuring up with people, myself, what people think, spiders and of course, death.
Let’s biblically define fear first, and then look at 3 types of people and what they fear. Definition: Fear- Hebrew; eymah (ay-maw): fright, terrible terror, dread, horror. Greek; fobu (fob’-os): like phobia- to be put in fear, alarm, fright. In the Old Testament and New it’s the same idea- a horrible feeling that can overtake you. Not a movie kind of thing, but a real fear of what might happen to you. In the entire Bible there are 259 references to fear, over 150 refer to God himself. Why? Power and eternity are in his hands- fully. So, I had to ask- are we fearing the right things? A recent Time article addressed the issue of fear. Some of the fears listed: fear of riding motorcycles- about 3000 die annually, while 600 die falling out of bed; fear of avian flu- 0 deaths in America while 36,000 die annually of regular flu; fear of mad cow disease with hand full of deaths while the same hamburger has tremendous cholesterol that kills over 700,000 a year with heart disease- We fear so many of the wrong things. Is it possible- as FDR spoke in 1932 “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”? Is the only thing to fear, fear itself? At times- but let’s look at how the Bible views fear:
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.
Why is it the beginning of wisdom? It gets you to do right- to think before acting & sinning. This fear is also tied to following his precepts- giving good understanding. Look at chapter 112:
Psalm 112:1, 7-8 Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands-.
He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
Is your fear in the right place? Again, fear of the Lord is tied to his commandsè delight in them= no fear.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
So the issue becomes how we view God. Am I to be punished by God or accepted? Let’s get on to the 3 types of people and what they fear. Ask yourself, “Which one am I today?”
1. What the Religious Fear
Exposure- Luke 12:1-3 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
What if you simply were open with your life? You then have nothing to fear- if everyone knows the real you- there are no hidden sins to shame you. I appreciate Mark Garrido; you just know what the guy is all about. My wife and I got together with him and Keri last night and spoke about their relationship- they have no fear- they know each others’ past.
No glory for self and more exposure- John 3:19-21 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
Loss of status or reputation- John 12:42-43 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
What about you? Does this describe your fears? If so, remember- how much better to be a bit embarrassed now than to stand in front of God at judgment and be thrown into hell because of your fear?? It’s a fear of the gospel-
2. What the Irreligious Fear
Truth- John 18:37-39 Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
While finishing my degree in Communication at Fresno State University I wrote several papers on the pursuit of truth. I had many opportunities to share with my professors because of the focus I chose- TRUTH. They hated my papers and tried to convince everyone that there is no truth- only what you make it, what you feel is true. My arguments centered on the fact that men change what is true to suit their wants and desires. They argued that there cannot be truth because they wanted their homosexual lifestyles to be accepted. I argued from scriptures, that truth in “self” is perverted and ever changing, while real truth is unchanging. This stance cost me several good grades, yet at the end, I was respected because I would never back down. In this passage Pilate was so afraid of the truth- he hid from it. Jesus used truth to set men free. Unless we embrace truth, John 8:31-32 there is no hope! Amazingly Jesus was working to set men free, but they were afraid of the truth.
Majority- Matthew 7:13-14
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
In the 50′s and 60′s there were several studies done on students to find out how far people would go to be accepted by the majority. A large group of students were brought in and all but two were told to give the wrong answer to very simplistic math problems. The two that did not know about the experiment would answer along with the group 90% of the time, even though they knew the answers were wrong.
According to Jesus, the majority is wrong about “truth” and usually wrong about the things that really count. Where are you?
Loss of “rights” to sin- Romans 1:28-32 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Is this you? Irreligious- not concerned with the heart of God? Been living for self and engrossed in sin? There is a way out- The truth of the gospel. So often we get caught up in a fear of the gospel-
3. What Disciples Fear
God- Acts 5:3-11 In this passage, Ananias and Sapphira wanted to look good and lied about their financial situation. God himself struck them down and “great fear seized all who heard what had happened-” The early disciples saw very clearly that God was looking for a people of his own, not those who “look good”. Even in our small church, we have seen the hand of God expose the sin of those trying to hide it, and the consequences have been devastating. God will not be mocked. Phoenix Church, let us be humble and open.
Men- our biggest temptation-Isaiah 51:7-8
Hear me, you who know what is right,
you people who have my law in your hearts:
Do not fear the reproach of men
or be terrified by their insults.
Luke 12:4-5 I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Finally- the right fear. Just as in Psalm 111- Fear of God is the only one that is worth anything. Any other thing we fear is useless. Interestingly, this past week for me has been challenging. After much prayer and advice, Helen and I decided to switch our focus over the teens and campus! Amen! We are fired up. Then I went on campus. FEAR gripped me as 18 year olds totally intimidated me. I was shocked- I am a disciple, I am a church leader, an evangelist for crying out loud. But I was gripped with fear. For the first time in years I was driven to my knees just to share my faith. I had to cry out to God and could not figure out why I was so intimidated- Now read verse 8-I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. I never saw this point until this week: either acknowledge before the angels or disowned before the angels- Do I think Satan wanted me to boldly share what God has done for me? Did I really think I could just waltz on campus without opposition? There are over 60 thousand students from all over the U.S. and the world. I can imagine every nation in earth could quite possibly be represented on that campus. We could literally raise up leaders from all over the world; unless we give in to fear. I thought of how last semester didn’t go as we had envisioned. Then my 4th grader got sick for 3 days and our first Bible Talk was Thursday night. I had spent almost no time on campus and imagined no one coming and a sad night. But we had prayed- I went early and met Luke Speckman (our new Youth Minister)- we threw the football near the dorms and I was finally feeling bold. I invited a guy and he came to Bible Talk right on the spot! The 4 disciples had 4 people visiting- and some had never really read the Bible! God was truly working! Without stepping out on faith, I would have given in to fear of the gospel- So I prayed, Acts 4:29-31 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Today, we have to decide if we will fear the gospel or have fear of God. 3 types of people who fear: Religious-R, Irreligious-I, Disciples-D. We have to RID ourselves of fear and preach the word, following in the footsteps of Jesus himself not being religious or irreligious but truly be disciples who embrace the Gospel.
He stoops down to make me great,
Matt Sullivan
