HOLY FEAR
You
will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and
some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's
sake.
But not a hair of your head will perish.
By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Luke 21
These words of
Jesus have been preserved to us, because Jesus was not just speaking to those
disciples. He was speaking---is
speaking--- to us.
He makes clear
that as we near the end of this age there will be
increased turbulence and terror on every level.
Nature will be out of kilter.
Nations will be at war. Human
suffering will reach its peak.
How close we
are to the final crisis, only God knows.
But the outlook for us appears to be tough times ahead.
So the Lord says to us, as we face the
coming days: “By your endurance you will
gain your lives.”
To endure the
turbulence that lies ahead there is one essential which we all lack to some
degree: It’s called The fear of God.
Strange as it may
seam, the fear of God sets us free from all other fear, and
keeps us strong.
Peter and his
companions were dead tired. They’d been
out there fishing all night with nothing to show for it. This was how they made their living, and it
was another wasted night. They were
wrapping it up and getting ready to go home, have breakfast and go to bed.
But here comes
a crowd of people following Jesus along the shore. Peter is not pleased to see Jesus.
“Hey Peter, I
need to use your boat.”
What can he
say? Jesus sits in the boat and teaches
the people gathered on the shore, while Peter, tired, grumpy and half-asleep, steadies
the boat.
Now the
teaching is over. Jesus turns to Peter
and says, “Okay Peter, let’s go out there and do some fishing.”
“Master, we were
out there all night, and caught nothing. It’s no good out there. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.”
Peter’s net comes
up so full of fish it’s tearing apart. Does Peter shout, “Hallelujah! Look at them fish! Praise the Lord!”
No. Peter is terrified. He falls at Jesus’ knees and says, “Get away
from me Lord, I’m a sinful man.”
“Don’t be
afraid, from now on you’re going to be catching people.”
“Don’t be
afraid….”
Peter’s response
to that net full of fish was fear, a fear that changed his life.
In Psalm 25
there is a verse that explains exactly what was going on with Peter that
day.
It says….
The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And he will show them his Covenant.
The secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him. Fear him?
Are we supposed
to fear God?
There is a
debate going on among us these days about fearing God. There are those who say, “Why should we fear
God? God is love!”
And there are
others who are forever looking over their shoulder, scared to death that God is
gong to give them another whack.
And there are
those who think that, because they have the Holy Spirit, they can lay aside
their fear, relax and be a little lazy, a little glib, a little loose with the
tongue.
But why should we fear God, if God is love?
Yes, God is love.
His mercy is deeper than the sea.
But we never know that love---we
never know that love--- until we see what Peter saw that day.
Peter didn’t
just see a mess of fish flopping in his net.
He saw the holiness of God, and it scared him to death.
The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And he will show them his Covenant.
“The secret of
the Lord…” What secret?
Come to think
of it, why is God so secret? Why is God
always hidden from our sight?
It’s easy to
proclaim, “God is in this place!”
Is he?
Maybe we’re
just playing church. Maybe it’s all talk
and tradition. Maybe our so-called
“believe system” is just another crutch we lean on to get us through our weary
lives.
But
all that changes, once we see what Peter saw.
And we will see what Peter saw when the Lord opens our eyes---as he
opened Peter’s eyes.
Listen to Jesus
in Matthew 11.
No
one knows who the Son is, but the Father.
No one knows
who Jesus really is but God himself. No
one.
And
no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son
chooses to reveal him.
The Son is the
Revealer of God. He’s been revealing God
to the human race since the beginning of history. He’s doing it all the time, not just in our
churches, but everywhere!
But
we never see what Jesus reveals, until we have what Peter had that day:
holy fear.
Suppose that
during the service today a stranger comes quietly through that door, walks up
the aisle, and flops down in an empty pew.
He looks like a man who hasn’t had a bath in a month.
The stranger
leans over and begins to weep; he sobs and sobs!
While the
stranger is weeping, a few people here and there begin to tremble for no
reason. Some of them even weep. The rest of us shake our heads and say,
“What’s wrong with those people?”
What we don’t’
understand is that “those people” have been struck with holy fear. And now their eyes open. They no longer see a
man who hasn’t bathed in a month. They’re looking at an angel.
The stranger
gets up and quietly leaves the church. We
never see him again.
But those who saw that stranger for who he actually is, walk out of here with their hearts on fire.
The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And he will show them his Covenant.
“He will show
them his Covenant?” What covenant? The
Covenant God made with the whole weary human race at
It
began abut 4,000 years ago, when the God of the
universe, for reasons known only to him, comes to this sad little planet and
makes his home among the Jews, the most despised tribe on earth.
Over
the centuries God tussles with these Jews. He watches over them, protects them,
blesses them, Yet time and again they turn away and
reject him. God never gives up on
them. Always finds
a way to redeem them.
Then
at their Feast of the Passover in
As
the body of the strange Jewish Prophet, Jeshua, expires, the very universe
trembles as this Passover Lamb sucks all the evil, all the sin, all the
corruption, sadness, misery and death into himself and consumes it. It’s gone!
All of it!
So
that every soul who has ever lived or will ever live on this planet is given a
clean slate, a chance for a new start.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth (on
the cross) will draw all people to myself.”
John 12
It’s a Covenant
of forgiveness, a door to heaven for the whole human race.
But this Covenant
becomes effective in our lives only
when we have learned the fear of God.
We can go to
church for years and years, sing praises, listen to sermons, pray prayers---and
never actually connect with God…
Until we see what Peter saw.
Until we do what Peter did.
Until we learn the fear of God.
“How can you
say such things?” you protest. “Jesus
never preached fear. He only preached
love.”
A very popular
idea these days. But take a closer look.
Listen to
Jesus….
I
tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do.
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after
he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!
Are
not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before
God.
Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more
value than many sparrows.
Luke
12
In other words,
“Fear God, and you won’t have to be afraid of anything else.”
So what does it mean to fear God?
God is not a
tyrant, a monster, a bully. There are people who, every time something bad
happens to them, are convinced that God is picking on them.
“Why
is God picking on me? What have I done
to deserve all this trouble?”
God doesn’t
pick on anybody. He’s our Father who knows everything about us. How many hairs are on our heads, how many
breaths we have drawn since our birth, all our sins, all our sorrows, all our
shame. And, for all that, loves us with unspeakable love.
But---God is
holy. If we were to come before him in our
present state, we’d burn to a crisp.
God’s
name is holy.
You
take off your shoes in his presence.
“Get
away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man.”
“Don’t
be afraid. From now on you will be
catching people.”
“Don’t be
afraid.” Peter is delivered from all
fear except one: the fear of God.
Even after we
have come into his Kingdom, even after we’re “filled with the Spirit”, we never abandon
that holy fear.
Perhaps someone
is shaking their head and saying, “Maybe you fear God, but I don’t. I have no idea what you’re talking
about. Is there something wrong with me?”
Very few of us
were brought up in the fear of God. We
head that God is love all our lives.
But fear God? Not these days!
Well, Moses
didn’t fear God either, until the day he stumbled across that burning bush and
heard a voice telling him “Take off your shoes! You’re standing on holy ground!” 80 years old, and he didn’t know anything
about the fear of God until that day.
But now, the
same God who told Moses to take off his shoes, the same God who terrified Peter
on the
If we’re going
to live without fear through the coming storms, we need to learn to take off
our shoes when we’re on holy ground. We’re
going to learn to fear God. And God is
going to help us, just like he helped Moses and Joshua and Peter and Mary.
Many years ago a man named Jim showed up at
Why did he take
off his shoes? Because at that moment
Jim was moved by the fear of God. He
knew he was standing on holy ground.
In Jim’s case it
lasted about two weeks. Then he was back
to his old ways. But for all of us the
act of constantly humbling ourselves before a Holy God becomes the doorway to
life lived inside God’s Covenant, a life guided and protected by the hand of
God.
So if we lack that holy fear, we will do
ourselves a favor by asking God to help us find it.
Lord,
show us what it is to live with holy joy and holy fear at the same time.
Bring
us to the place where we see what Peter saw. Open our eyes to the terrifying
glory of your Kingdom!
It’s a prayer
that God never fails to answer.
For….
The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his Covenant.