Fear - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. If you have excessive irrational fear, what do they call it? Phobias.

Maybe some of you have those. Fear can cause us to miss out on opportunities. Fear interferes with relationships between husbands, wives, parents, children, friends. Fear keeps you up at night.

There's a lot of terrible things. But God says in His Word that what I want you to do is I want you to overcome your fear. That's why I said fear not. Instead of having fear, I want you to have courage. I want you to have confidence. I want you to have peace instead of fear. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Back in the year 1933, the United States was in what they called the Great Depression. It began in 1929 with the crash of the stock market. FDR had just been elected President of the United States. And he made a statement that literally lifted the spirits of millions and millions of Americans at that time. Roosevelt said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

And those words contributed to America lifting itself out of the Great Depression. So today we live in a different world, but a world of all kinds of reasons to be afraid. We have global warming. We have fires everywhere. We have hurricanes more often and bigger than normal.

We have COVID-19 and its new variant, whatever that happens to be. We have carjackings happening in our own city that a lot of people keep talking to me about, about how afraid it makes them. And so we have all these reasons to be afraid. So I'm here this morning to tell you this. Let me tell you, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Now, you might be thinking, well, you're not exactly FDR. No, I don't have any authority to say that because I'm not the one saying it. I'm paraphrasing the Bible. What does the Bible say about that to us? Do you realize that over 100 times in the word of God, over 100, the Bible tells us to fear not?

Wow. It's one of the favorite phrases Jesus Christ uses over and over again. Fear not. And yet we find ourselves paralyzed by it, many of us. I believe fear was a gift that God gave mankind.

He gave it to him after the fall. See, before the fall, there was nothing to be afraid of. But after the fall, fear becomes something that's important to us.

We live in a fallen world, a cursed world, surrounded by sinful people. A lot of terrible things happen, and we need to be able to use fear. But our problem is we get overrun by fear. If you have excessive irrational fear, what do they call it? Phobias. Maybe some of you have those. But some of them are so irrational, like this week I was looking at a list of phobias, and some people have a phobia, they're terrified of flowers. Like, I just wouldn't think that'd be. On the other hand, another phobia you can have is a fear of numbers. Maybe a particular number bothers you.

I don't know that. But the one I find to be the most difficult to have is you can have a phobia, you can have a fear of gravity. So where do you go?

I mean, what do you do? They're irrational, and fear can cause us to miss out on opportunities. Fear interferes with relationships between husbands, wives, parents, children, friends. Fear keeps you up at night.

There's a lot of terrible things. But God says in his word that what I want you to do is I want you to overcome your fear. That's why I said fear not. Instead of having fear, I want you to have courage. I want you to have confidence. I want you to have peace instead of fear. And that's what I want to talk about.

I want to start in a very likely place. I want to start in Mark 4, verse 35. Mark 4, verse 35. And what I want you to see is that Jesus Christ's relationship with his own disciples, so much of it hinges around one thing, fear. He's determined to try to get them to fear not.

And he's not very successful, as strange as it sounds. So here we find in Mark 4, verse 35, it says, That day when evening came, he said to them, hey, let's go over to the other side, Sea of Galilee. Now remember, many of his disciples are, you see, full-time fishermen, professionals. They're on that lake every day of their life. They understand the lake.

That's what they do. And so they just jump in a boat with him, and it says, And leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat, just as he was, and the other boats were with him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. This isn't a normal storm. They have terrible storms in the Sea of Galilee due to the demographics.

You have the mountain passes where the air comes down and sinks very fast, creates high wind. It's something that they are used to on a regular basis. It's a little bit unusual.

And so here is the response, though, that they give. It says, Jesus himself, he was in the stern, asleep on a cushion, and they woke him. Now this is kind of interesting. Either he was really tired or he's asleep on purpose to try to make his point, which is more likely. You see, it's one of those things, and they wake him up.

He's in the little front part of the boat underneath it, and he's sound asleep. But I want you to watch their response. They woke him, and they said this to him. Rabbi or teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Does that make sense to you? They believe Jesus Christ, Peter says, is the son of God. They believe he's the Messiah. They've heard him teach. They've seen him do miraculous things, and they ask the question, don't you care we're dying?

Don't you care? Why would they ask that kind of question? They're afraid. You see, that's why they're afraid.

They're very much afraid. In fact, that's a very big point of dealing with fear. Max Lucado has a great quote for this. Max writes that he said, fear gives us spiritual amnesia.

And boy, I've run into that my whole life trying to help people. Once you're afraid, you don't think about spiritual things at all. Fear just grips you, takes over your heart.

That's why God wants to do open-heart surgery, and that's what this series we're in, on your heart because if you have fear. And so they say, don't you care that we are perishing? And he got up, he rebuked the wind, ended sea, he said, hush, be still.

The wind died down, it became perfectly calm. Now watch Jesus' response. And he said to them, why are you afraid? You still have no faith. See, why are you afraid? He asked them that. See, what would you say if you're there?

Do you see the storm? But what Jesus would say is, you have no faith. And what's he mean?

You don't believe what I tell you. Didn't Jesus say we're going to go to the other side? Didn't he say that? We're going to the other side. What's that mean?

We're going to the other side, doesn't it? Unless he's a liar. You see, he said, you don't have any faith. That's what's wrong with you.

You don't show any faith at all. Jesus says they were very much afraid, and they said to one another, notice, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey? Now they're afraid of Jesus. And that's not a bad thing necessarily, because that's the point he wants to make. But now they're afraid of him.

It's calm, but how do you do that? You see, how does that work? Well, what you end up seeing then happening is that he's going to start all the way through these Gospels, look, a few of them today, and he's going to continue to try to teach them some things. So I want you to go with me to Matthew chapter 10 now. Matthew chapter 10 verse 16. The Mark passage teaches us that they are still filled with fear. Now Jesus is going to talk to his disciples, and it's going to spawn a little bit of fear. He starts out and he says, behold, one of his favorite words, edu, exclamation point. This is big. It's like listen, listen up, behold. He said, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Now for us, that's just a word picture. Oh, that's an interesting thing. Not for them. They live in the world of sheep and wolves. What happens when you put sheep in with a pack of wolves?

That's a death penalty. The wolves rip them to shreds. Jesus just told them that's going to be their life.

So what do you think? They get a little bit afraid. He says, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. He said, but you need to beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in the synagogues. You might even be brought before the governors and kings for my sake as testimony to them and to the Gentiles. Oh, by the way, you may not get torn apart, but they may bring you into the synagogue and scourge you.

You see, you might be turned over to the Romans and they'll torture you if he's the governor. I just want to let you know this is what's coming for you. See, how do you respond to that? He says to them, but when they hand you over, do not worry about what you are to say, for it was given to you in that hour that what you will say, for it is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of the Father who speaks for us. Now, it's interesting. What he's saying is, look, I'm going to send you out.

You need to have a message. And don't even worry about what you're going to say. Now, they're probably thinking, I wasn't even worried about what I was going to say. I'm still worried about the scourging and sheep and wolves. So, he goes down and notice in verse 22, he says, you will be hated because of my name, but it is the one who is endured to the end that will be delivered or saved, and whenever they persecute in one city, flee to the next.

So, what he's telling them is, this is the life I'm going to have for you. Now, that never changed. By the way, that's their history. Paul writes to Timothy, for us, anyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted. Now, that's a fact. That's part of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

That's why he says it's for my namesake. So, Jesus tells them these words, and he tells them in such a way that he's trying to warn them of what their life is going to be like, but he understands something about them. They don't like that.

They're afraid. Notice where he picks up in verse 24. He said, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a slave above his master. It's enough for a disciple that he become like his teacher and a slave like his master.

If they call the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of the household? You can expect to be persecuted because I'm persecuted. In John, he writes, the world will hate you because it first hated me.

These are just normal expectations for a Christian. You see, he tells them that. Well, they don't like that any more than we like it.

You see, but notice what he's trying to get at here. He says in 26, therefore, do not fear them. Wait, these people are going to discourage me. Yeah, don't fear them. These people are going to execute me.

Yeah, that's right. Don't fear them. You see how fear works in our hearts? How can I not be afraid?

They're going to take and discourage me. He said, do not fear them. There's nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. He said, I tell you in darkness, speak in the light and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim when the house tops.

Here's his first reason why you shouldn't be afraid. God's just. It'll all be just in the end.

Well, wait a minute. Are they still going to discourage me? Yes. You mean they can still kill me? Yes, but it's going to all be just in the end. God's going to make sure it's all just. Does that alleviate your fear?

You see, that becomes an interesting problem. Then he goes on and he says to them, well, watch. Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy the soul and the body in hell. Wow. Don't fear those who kill you.

If you want to have fear, you need to fear God because, and then think about it. He's trying to be practical here. How many in this room are going to die? Right?

The stats are impressive, aren't they? One out of one of us die. See, you're going to die. Now, you may not be scourged. You may not be killed. You might not be a sheep, but you're still going to die. He said, don't be afraid of that.

Everybody dies. Well, if you want to have fear, what you better have fear of is God. You see, you have to have fear of God.

Why? Because God, not only can I physically die, but I can spiritually, as Jesus says, spend eternity in hell. That's something to be fearful of.

So he gives you perspective. There's going to be justice, and if you want to fear anyone, fear God. I remember when I was in seminary, I was doing a paper on the fear of God. In fact, I wrote a master's thesis on establishing the fear of God in a congregation. I didn't do well then, and I haven't done well since. Okay? It's pretty hard to get people to do that. But I always thought, every time I ever heard and talked about it, I said, oh, when you fear God, it means you're just giving respect.

That's not true. Are there passages that use the word for respect for fear? Yes. There are.

But there are other passages. There's Hebrew words that say you fear God, and the word for fear is terror. I mean, terror of God. You see, it's like, wow, he's formidable.

You see, in that sense, Jesus said, yeah, if you're going to fear anyone, just fear God. But then he says, he goes another angle, he said, and are not two sparrows sold for a cent? What's the context for that? How much does it cost to have two sparrows, he said? About a penny in our culture. What's that tell you about a sparrow? They don't have much value, do they?

I mean, even if you wanted to have a family meal with them, you'd have to probably spend a dime in our culture because their sparrows don't mean anything. But what's what he says then? He said, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. What's he mean by that? God is intimately, intimately involved with his creation.

A sparrow doesn't fall anywhere in the world that God's not completely aware it was a sparrow that fell. Well, why is he telling me that? Notice where it goes. He says then first to you, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Wow, what's that mean? Do you have any idea, any idea how intimately God is involved in your life? He said, well, he knows every hair you have. Now, for those of you that are married, here's something to do at lunchtime, okay? Try to guess how many hairs are in the head of your spouse.

Well, wait, aren't you intimate with him? That's Jesus' point, not like God is. God says, I know how many hairs every person has. That's how valuable you are to me.

Sparrow is not worth anything. I know when anyone falls, I know this. You see, why is he trying to tell me that? To comfort me that God, Almighty God, is intimately involved with my life. He said every aspect of my life. So he says, do not fear.

You're more valuable than any sparrows. In other words, why would I be afraid when God, nothing is going to happen to Bill, happenstance? Anything that happens to Bill is going through a sovereign God. You see, so I can't, you see, I can't be worried about being afraid of something. God's, basically God's saying, look, Bill, I'm right here.

I'm intimately involved with you. Remember, Paul wrote about it. What could ever separate me from the love of Christ? He said, nothing.

Not life, not death, not angels, nothing can separate me. His point is, don't you understand your value to Almighty God? So he said, don't fear.

There's no reason for you to become afraid, he said. Wow, so he uses his words and what he does with his words is he's trying to give us confidence and courage and peace. Next thing, go with me now to Mark chapter 6. Now, this is interesting. He's going to use another angle to try to help the disciples deal with their fear.

This one's kind of fascinating. Verse 33, the people saw them going and recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them. That's Jesus and the disciples. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd. He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, his disciples came to him and they said, this place is desolate and it's already quite late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

There's a practical guy. Jesus is teaching, and by the way, he's teaching 5,000 men. So there's likely 12, 13,000 with women and children there. And they're saying, look at this crowd. Tell them to go and so they can find an evening meal for themselves. Now you've got to love Jesus' response. He said to them, you give them something to eat. Just thought, that's all he said, you feed them. Now you can just see the disciples looking at each other. Notice their response to him. They said, shall we go and spend 200 denarii on bread and give them something to eat? If we just gave them a piece of bread, it cost us 2 thirds of a year's wages.

Where do you think you can get money like that? He said, wow. He said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go look. And when they found out, they said, we have five loaves and two fishes.

Wow. And 12, 13,000 people. He commanded them to all sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. And he took five loaves, two fish, looking up to heaven. He blessed the food, broke the loaves, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before them. And he divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and all were satisfied. And they picked up 12 full baskets of broken pieces and also fish.

There were about 5,000 men who ate the loaves. Now that's a pretty phenomenal thing. Now he wants them to understand something. Who could do that? Only the Son of God could do that. And he's using them. Did he have to use them? No. Could he just created the food in front of the people and let them eat? Yes.

But he wants to use them. In fact, what I'm telling you is this. He did this feeding primarily not for the people, but for the disciples. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find a message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.